Hey everyone! Wow it's been ages since I updated! Sorry about that by the way, but I've been really busy with revision and exams and it's took me ages to write this chapter!

I should warn you that this chapter is long, but hopefully you'll like it!

Let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

~ CHAPTER SEVEN ~

PROMISES AND PROTECTION

The next morning Cherry woke up suddenly, immediately feeling scared and vulnerable as she felt a pair of arms wrapped around her. She thought it was Deuce and was convinced that she was immediately going to get punished for waking up before him, in such a startled fashion that she was trembling. Just as Cherry let the fear overtake her at an unprecedented rate, she heard a soft voice that did not sound at all like Deuce's say,

"Cherry, are you all right?"

Cherry immediately recognised that the voice belonged to Shannon and her fear eased considerably as the memories of her talk with Shannon the night before, came flooding back. Cherry sighed in relief as she adjusted her position so that she was facing Shannon, who smiled warmly at her, and squeezed her tightly, as Cherry wrapped her arms around him too.

"Are you all right?" he repeated tenderly, as he looked into Cherry's eyes with a genuinely concerned expression on his face.

"I'm fine," said Cherry smiling "why?"

"It's just I felt you jump when you woke up and you're trembling!" said Shannon "are you sure you're all right?"

"I…I…" began Cherry, as she trembled even more.

"What is it sweetheart?" asked Shannon gently, as he genuinely wanted to find out what was wrong and help Cherry.

"Don't hate me!" whispered Cherry nervously.

"Never!" whispered Shannon smiling.

"Well I woke up and I was just scared because I thought I was in Deuce's room, and that I was going to get punished!" said Cherry's truthfully, as she trembled even more violently than before "please don't hate me!"

"Cherry," said Shannon in a reassuring voice "I'm not going to hate you because of that! It's understandable that you thought I was Deuce, because you probably didn't remember our talk last night until you heard me speak, so it was a natural reaction! Don't worry about it!"

"Really?" asked Cherry, as her trembling calmed down a little bit.

"I promise!" replied Shannon, smiling happily.

"Thank you!" whispered Cherry smiling, as Shannon hugged her close to his chest.

"Cherry, you do know I'm going to protect you now don't you?" asked Shannon "no matter what you say!"

"Shannon, you don't have to!" said Cherry "I don't want to cause you any trouble!"

"OK Cherry two things," said Shannon, running a hand through her hair, "first of all, protecting you isn't going to be any trouble. Secondly, I do have to protect you, and I want to protect you too, because what Deuce has been doing to you is wrong, and I want to make it stop!"

"How?" asked Cherry.

"You need to break up with him honey!" said Shannon.

"I can't!" whispered Cherry.

"Why not?" asked Shannon gently.

"Because he's too clever, and that won't stop him anyway!" said Cherry in an almost hysterical voice "I know that when I try to break up with him he'll talk me round, promising never to do it again, and then I'll go back to him and he'll do it again and again. I can't escape Shannon! I want to but I can't, he won't let me!"

"Hey, shh, shh," whispered Shannon soothingly, as he wiped a stray tear away from Cherry's cheek "it'll be fine, he won't be able to talk you round this time, he's done too much to you, and if you want, I'll be there when you do break up with him!"

"Really?" asked Cherry out of disbelief as she realised Shannon was serious, no one had ever done anything that sweet for her before "oh thank you Shannon, I don't know what I would do without you!"

"Just promise me you'll do it soon!" said Shannon "I can't bear to see you treated this way!"

"I'll have to get myself mentally ready for it, but I will do it soon!" said Cherry "but at the moment, I'm going to have to act like everything's normal, so he doesn't realise that you know what's happening!"

"That's the part I hate the most!" said Shannon in a voice close to tears "the thought that he's still going to be hurting you!"

"I'll still come and see you though, because you're going to be the one that gets me through this until I break up with him!" said Cherry, who sounded incredibly scared.

"Make sure you do!" said Shannon firmly "I'm going to be a nervous wreck, so if I see you and know you're OK, then that might help to ease the pain a little bit!"

Cherry and Shannon lay in a comfortable silence for a couple of minutes before Cherry said in a small voice,

"I'm scared!"

"I know honey," said Shannon, in what he hoped sounded like a strong voice "I'm scared too, the thought of leaving you with that monster terrifies me, and I wish I could just keep you with me, but like you said, Deuce will suspect something if we're together all the time. But I can promise you this, I'll do everything I can to protect you, even if it's just letting you stay here every night, even if it's just hugging you or even if it's just lying so I can get you away from him I'll do it!"

"Shannon, I can't do this!" said Cherry in a panicked voice "I can't pretend like everything between me and Deuce is normal when I know you know! He's going to suspect something I just know it and then I'll be in big trouble, and then you'll be in trouble and then everything will go wrong, and then he'll hurt us, and then…"

"Cherry!" interrupted Shannon in a firm but soothing voice "don't think about that! Everything is going to be fine I promise. You've perfected a veneer that the rest of the world sees and they know nothing about you and Deuce, so just put that veneer back on, like before you met me, and Deuce won't suspect a thing!"

"If my veneer was so good that no one could see through it then why did you?" asked Cherry.

"Because I cared enough to look!" said Shannon simply "I could tell from the moment I met you that you were hiding something, so I decided to try and explore that, and I'm glad I did because I can help you!"

"I'm glad you did too!" said Cherry, smiling "do you really think I can do it?"

"I know you can do it Cherry!" said Shannon "because you know that when you've held that veneer up all day, you can come to me and let that veneer slip, and cry and just be yourself, like you want to! And that'll get through the day, I know it will!"

"Yeah, you're right!" whispered Cherry "I'm still terrified though!"

"I know honey, but I'll be there to make those fears go away!" said Shannon truthfully.

"Thank you!" said Cherry sincerely.

"It's no problem," said Shannon smiling "I'll also be there to make your tears go away, to lie for you, to give you a hug, to protect you, to talk to you, to sit with you for hours, to heal your injuries, to cheer you on when you wrestle, and if you needed me to, I'll be there to die for you too! I make these promises to you with all my heart and I'll always do my best to uphold them, honestly, any time of day or night that you need I'll be there!"

"Shannon, that's the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me!" said Cherry, in a genuinely shocked voice.

"Well I'm glad I said it then!" said Shannon grinning.

Cherry smiled before saying,

"Oh my, look at the time, I'm going to be in trouble with Deuce!"

"No you won't be!" said Shannon, although he didn't believe those words himself.

"Yes I will, if I'm not there when he wakes up he'll hit me!" whispered Cherry.

"Cherry it's only eight o'clock!" said Shannon "we woke up really early!"

"You don't understand!" said Cherry "Deuce wakes up at half six on the dot every single morning!"

"OK then," said Shannon, suddenly realising the magnitude of the situation "I'll take you back to his room!"

"I'm sorry!" said Cherry "I don't want to go back, I have to! If he finds me with you he'll be so unbelievably angry I'll probably get killed or something!"

"I know, it just breaks my heart to know you're going to be at his mercy!" said Shannon, in a tearful voice.

"I know it hurts you and that's what I'm most sorry for," said Cherry, as tears started to fall down her cheeks "I just…I just wish it didn't have to be this way!"

"Me too!" said Shannon.

A couple of minutes of comfortable silence followed before there was a sharp knock on the door, which made Cherry jump, and then Deuce's voice yelled angrily,

"Open up Moore now, before I knock this door down!"

The look of fear in Cherry's eyes must have alarmed Shannon tremendously as he embraced her in his arms for a second before mouthing quickly,

"Get under the bed, he won't find you there! Be as quiet as possible and I'll try and get rid of him!"

"Thank you!" breathed Cherry as she crawled under the bed, and let the sheet fall in front of her, so she was hidden.

"Moore, you'd better open this door in the next ten seconds or I swear I'm going to break it down!" bellowed Deuce viciously.

"All right, all right I'm coming!" called Shannon, in what he hoped was a voice that made him sound tired "don't you dare break my door down!"

Shannon opened his dressing room door and came face to face with a livid looking Deuce, who was breathing heavily and had fire in his eyes. Before Shannon could say anything, Deuce pushed past him, shoving him hard against the wall.

"Where is she?" growled Deuce.

"Who?" asked Shannon.

"My girlfriend!" shouted Deuce.

"Why would I know where she is?" asked Shannon.

"Because I've seen the way you look at her!" growled Deuce "I wouldn't be surprised if you've made a move on her already, so where is she?"

"I don't know!" said Shannon angrily "don't ask me! I don't see her, she's with you twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, so I never see her, so how would I know where she is? And how could I possibly make a move on her?"

"You're lying to me!" breathed Deuce in a dangerous voice "you're protecting her, I know you are, she's in here!"

With that, Deuce stormed around Shannon's room, looking for Cherry, much to Shannon's horror and annoyance. He looked behind the curtains, in the wardrobe, as well as in the bathroom, but much to Shannon's relief he didn't find Cherry.

"She's in here somewhere!" snarled Deuce.

"You've looked everywhere and haven't found her, so wouldn't that prove that she's not here?" asked Shannon in an annoyed voice "and now you know that, you can get out of my room!"

"I know you had something to do with her disappearance!" said Deuce angrily "Cherry doesn't just disappear, she knows I don't like it when she does!"

"Mmmhmm," said Shannon, who had to use all of his self restraint to not hit Deuce at that point "well just so you know, the other day Cherry was in the gym, and I happened to be in there too, she was on the exercise bikes I was on the weights and Vince came in to see her, and I heard him saying that he wanted to have a big meeting with her today about a new storyline for her or something. Vince said it would last from six to six, so that's probably why you can't find her! Now if that's all you want, I suggest you get out before I flatten you!"

Deuce growled dangerously, but left anyway. However Shannon still was not sure whether Deuce had gone or not, so he crept across the room and looked through the peephole in the door, to see Deuce still stood outside the door, looking livid.

Shannon opened the door to face Deuce. Shannon was not intimidated by Deuce in the slightest so he said confidently,

"You have no business being here anymore Deuce so I suggest you leave now before I call security on you!"

"Ooh I'm so scared!" mocked Deuce.

"Just go!" said Shannon as calmly as he could "you've done enough today, you've woken me up and put me in a bad mood, so go!"

Deuce stared at Shannon for a few seconds, but Shannon stared right back not intimidated at all. Eventually, Deuce backed down and walked away from Shannon's room. Shannon waited a couple of seconds just to make sure that Deuce really was going away, but once he was sure he closed the door to his room, and knelt down on the floor next to the bed and he lifted the sheet to find Cherry.

Cherry now had tears falling thick and fast from her eyes and down her cheeks. Shannon realised that Deuce being in the room had obviously terrified her, and this at the time, had been the only way she could deal with the fear that she felt.

"Oh Cherry," said Shannon tenderly "it's all right, it's over now, he's gone!"

Shannon then helped Cherry to get out from under the bed and then he lifted her into his arms, and clambered onto the bed. As Shannon held Cherry in his arms he managed to lay them both against the pillows and wrap the duvet around them both, while he still hugged her close to him.

"Shh Cherry," he whispered, as he ran his hand up and down her back trying desperately to soothe her "it's over, you're all right, he's gone!"

"I w-was s-s-so s-scared Shannon," sobbed Cherry "I…I thought h-he w-was g-going t-t-to f-find m-m-me!"

"Well he didn't," whispered Shannon "and if he had and he hurt you I would have killed him!"

"Thank y-you f-for l-lying f-f-for m-me!" cried Cherry.

"No problem!" said Shannon "I know I haven't got you completely out of trouble, but hopefully it's helped to calm him down a bit, so he won't hurt you so much!"

"I'm not sure that'll be the case, but we can hope!" said Cherry, as her tears subsided.

"Exactly!" said Shannon "but Cherry, I want you to promise me something!"

"What?" asked Cherry.

"I want you to promise you'll come and see me tonight, just so I know you're all right!" said Shannon, desperately seeking reassurance.

"I will!" assured Cherry "I promise!"

"Good!" said Shannon, sighing with relief "and if you can't physically get to me for any reason, just try and get outside the room and ring me and I'll come and get you!"

"Thank you!" said Cherry.

"I just want to make sure you're safe!" said Shannon truthfully "and I will do anything to ensure that you are!"

"Wow, that's a first!" said Cherry "you're the first person to care about my safety, and to want to help me! Nobody else has ever cared as much as you do!"

"Well then, they're idiots aren't they?" said Shannon.

"Yeah," said Cherry "you know what Shannon, I'm really glad I met you! Without you, I never would have been able to get through this or find the courage that I have found so that I can break up with Deuce!"

"You would have eventually Cherry!" said Shannon "I know it because you are a strong person, I know you are, Deuce just took that strength away!"

"I wouldn't, trust me!" said Cherry "he can talk me round so easily, so he would have just kept doing that and I would have kept going back to him letting him carry on doing what he was doing until he killed me! But then I met you and I don't know what it was about you but something made me open up to you, and made me realise that I deserved better. You gave me so much courage Shannon and made me realise that my life was worth living!"

"Wow Cherry, that's…that's amazing!" whispered Shannon.

"That's how I feel!" said Cherry truthfully.

"Well for the record Cherry, I'm really glad I met you too!" said Shannon, in a genuinely happy voice "before I met you, no one else in the WWE liked me at all, they all thought I was a freak, so they avoided me unless they had a match with me, but now I have you. You're my best friend and you give me so much strength. Before I met you I had no reason to live, no reason to get up in the morning, but now I do, so thank you Cherry! Your friendship means more to me than you'll ever know!"

"Wow Shannon, that was…beautiful!" whispered Cherry.

"Well sometimes the truth is beautiful, especially when you have beauty to inspire you!" said Shannon wistfully.

"That's so poetic!" sighed Cherry "I wish I had the poetic talent you do!"

"I bet you do!" said Shannon smiling "I bet that's a hidden talent of yours!"

"No it's not, it really isn't!" said Cherry "but then again, I've never really tried to write poems so I don't really know for sure!"

"OK then," said Shannon "well I think you should try. Next time Deuce abuses you or hurts you, try writing a poem about your feelings. That might seem a bit weird, but sometimes it helps to write your feelings down, you don't need to show anyone, I'm just saying, try it, it may help you!"

"I'll remember that!" said Cherry "it might come in handy!"

Shannon smiled and a couple of minutes of comfortable silence followed between the two friends before Shannon said,

"So what do you want to do today Cherry? We have the whole day together so what do you want to do?"

"Can we watch a film and eat ice cream again?" asked Cherry innocently.

"Course we can!" said Shannon, smiling "I'll order double chocolate chip ice cream, popcorn, candyfloss, coke, chocolate bars, cookies and muffins!"

"Yay!" said Cherry in an excited voice "don't forget the bendy straws Shannon!"

"How could I?" sighed Shannon "I know you love them!"

Cherry giggled while Shannon rang room service and ordered everything that he and Cherry wanted. Then he walked over to the numerous shelves of DVDs in his room and said,

"What do you want to watch then Cherry?"
"I don't know, you have so many DVDs, it's difficult to choose!"

"Tell me about it!" laughed Shannon "well do you have any idea which type of film you want to watch?"

"Comedy I think," said Cherry "or horror, or action, or romance!"

"That doesn't narrow it down at all then!" said Shannon smiling.

"I know, I'm sorry Shannon!" said Cherry, suddenly nervous as she remembered how Deuce had almost given her a concussion once when she could not decide which film she wanted to watch "what about Transformers?"

"Sounds great to me!" said Shannon, taking the DVD off the shelf, and putting it in the player, deciding to wait until the food came to press play.

Shannon turned around after putting the DVD in the player, only to find Cherry watching him with a terrified expression on his face. Shannon walked slowly over to Cherry, and sat down in the bed next to her. He tried to wrap his arm around her, but she flinched away from him before he could get anywhere near her,

"What's wrong Cherry, honey?" asked Shannon gently.

"Don't hurt me Shannon, please don't hurt me!" said Cherry in a genuinely very scared voice.

"Cherry," said Shannon tenderly "I'm not going to hurt you, I would never ever hurt you, I promise. Why do you think I'm going to hurt you?"

"Because I couldn't choose the DVD that I wanted to watch!" said Cherry in a small, terrified voice "please don't hurt me Shannon I'm sorry!"

"Cherry, I'm not going to hurt you, I promise!" said Shannon truthfully "I would never ever hurt you, I care about you too much! What made you think I was going to hurt you? Has Deuce hurt you before because of this? Is that why?"

"Yes!" whispered Cherry in an ashamed voice, as she looked down.

"Oh Cherry, you poor thing!" said Shannon sympathetically "well I can promise you that I'm not going to hurt you, OK? Please believe me, because this is the truth! Please let me make the pain from what Deuce did to you better, all I want to do is give you a hug, and I know you like hugs!"

"Yeah I do!" said Cherry, managing a weak smile "I'm sorry Shannon!"

"It's all right!" said Shannon "it's understandable that you were scared if Deuce has attacked you before because you couldn't choose a DVD, but for the record, your indecisive nature is one of the things I find most endearing about you! Can I have a hug now? Now I said I was going to give you one, I want a hug, I swear I'm suffering from hug withdrawal symptoms, look I'm shaking! So can I have a hug to cure me?"

"Of course you can!" said Cherry, who was now giggling hysterically as Shannon pretended to tremble violently from lack of hugs.

Shannon grinned and moved quickly over to Cherry and embraced her in a tight, protective hug, while she did the same to him. The hug lasted about a minute before Shannon began to tickle Cherry relentlessly, causing her giggling to develop into full-blown hysterical laughter. Cherry was now full of joy and capitalised on this to start tickling Shannon back with equal force, and for the next few minutes the two friends were lost in their little world of laughter before they were interrupted by a women's voice outside the door call,

"Room service!"

"Looks like I can't tickle you anymore Cherry!" said Shannon grinning mischievously "oh well we'll finish this one day!"

After climbing off the bed and putting on his dressing gown, Shannon went to the door, making sure he checked through the peephole that it actually was room service. When he was sure, Shannon opened the door and took all the snacks off the women, before closing the door and taking them back over to Cherry.

Shannon clambered into the bed next to Cherry, and pressed play on the remote before both of the friends tucked into the numerous amounts of snacks.

During the film, Shannon and Cherry laughed at the exact same places and when Cherry got scared or upset, Shannon would put his arm around her and hug her, and all of her fears and tears would disappear almost instantly. Between the two of them Shannon and Cherry ate all of the snacks, and through this day together were simply able to relax on their day off and forget all of their cares in the world.

After the film, Shannon and Cherry still had a couple more hours together before Shannon unfortunately had to take Cherry back to Deuce. To pass this time, they just talked about everything from life, to love, to wrestling, everything that made these two friends themselves was discussed.

By the time they had finished talking it was four o'clock and Cherry said,

"I need to go and get dressed Shannon, or Deuce won't believe that I went to that meeting!"

"OK Cherry honey, how long will you be?" asked Shannon.

"Can you come with me?" asked Cherry, in a shy voice "like just to sit in my room while I get dressed in the bathroom? It would make me so much more confident knowing that you were there!"

"Sure thing!" said Shannon "if that's what you want! Just let me get dressed first!"

Cherry nodded and with that as confirmation, both of the friends climbed out of the bed, put on their dressing gowns. Cherry sat on Shannon's bed while Shannon went into the bathroom to change into his clothes. He came back out in ten minutes and he was wearing loose fitting faded blue jeans and a black shirt with Celtic symbols on it. His hair had been brushed so that it felt just past his neck as usual and he also sported various sweatbands and a necklace with dog tags attached to it. Cherry thought he looked very handsome and she instantly felt safe with him when he embraced her in his arms for no apparent reason and she could smell his aftershave. She knew that she would soon be able to escape Deuce.

"Right you stay there for a sec," said Shannon "I'll go and check if it's safe for us to go to your room. I'm sure it is, it's just to check if Deuce is there, because I know you don't want to meet him do you?"

"All right then," said Cherry "thanks Shannon!"

Shannon smiled, then looked through the peephole and to his relief, he saw that the corridor was clear. He beckoned to Cherry, who walked over to him, then Shannon put his arm around her and they both walked out of Shannon's room and into Cherry's within a matter of seconds.

"OK Shannon, I won't be long," said Cherry, grabbing some clothes out of her suitcase "make yourself at home!"

"Yes ma'am!" said Shannon, grinning as he winked at Cherry, and gave her a mock salute.

Cherry beamed and giggled, as Shannon blew her kisses from his current position of lying sprawled out on her bed. Cherry didn't know why Shannon was doing this, but if she was honest with herself, she loved the positive attention he gave her. It made her feel special.

Lost in her thoughts Cherry walked into the bathroom, got dressed, made herself up, and did her hair. Perhaps unconsciously, she seemed to take more time than usual to do so, maybe because she hoped Shannon would notice.

About half an hour later, Cherry walked out of the bathroom to find Shannon still lying on her bed. Cherry crept towards him, only to find that he was fast asleep. Cherry smiled to herself, Shannon looked so cute when he was sleeping, that Cherry almost wanted to curl up next to him and go to sleep herself. However, when she glanced at her watch, she saw that it was about twenty to five, so unfortunately she knew this was not possible.

Instead Cherry simply ran her hand through Shannon's hair, ruffling it slightly. She smiled, but all of a sudden that smile was replaced with a look of utter horror as Shannon woke up, his eyes wide and his expression terrified.

As soon as Shannon saw Cherry his expression softened, and he instantly relaxed, but it was too late, Cherry had recoiled away from him in fear, thinking she had made him angry.

"Cherry," said Shannon softly "it's all right, you just startled me, that's all!"

That did not soothe Cherry, who was now sat in a corner, hugging her knees, shaking relentlessly.

"I'm sorry Shannon!" she cried "P-Please d-don't h-hurt m-me!"

"Cherry…" began Shannon, who was lost for words.

"P-Please Shannon, I…I d-didn't m-mean it," said Cherry, who had now dissolved into full blown sobs "I d-didn't m-mean t-to w-wake y-you up!"

"Cherry…" said Shannon gently "it's ok, you just startled me, I'm not going to hurt you!"

"It's a-all r-right I k-know I h-have t-t-to h-hurt m-myself th-then!" said Cherry in a voice that broke Shannon's heart and made him panic all at the same time.

Then suddenly Cherry started to bang her fists against the walls with extreme force. Shannon panicked, but he quickly sprung into action, climbing off the bed and walking over to Cherry. Shannon knelt down next to her and said, in a voice that was close to tears,

"Cherry, stop it, you don't need to do this! This is not the answer!"

"B-But Shannon I m-made y-you angry s-so th-this is th-the o-only w-way t-to d-deal w-with it!" sobbed Cherry, as she continued to hit punch the wall.

"Cherry, stop!" pleaded Shannon, as tears fell from his eyes, he had never seen Cherry like this, and it was tearing him apart "please!"

When Cherry didn't stop, Shannon did the only thing that seemed to make sense at the time, he grabbed her arms and held them, to stop her hurting herself again. At first Cherry struggled against Shannon's grip, letting her natural defensive instincts take over. Shannon let her fight against him for a few seconds, she may have been strong, but he could easily hold her steady, then he said,

"Cherry, honey, listen to me! It's all right, you didn't make me angry, I would never ever be angry at you, and you just startled me!"

"I'm s-s-sorry!" sobbed Cherry "I d-didn't m-mean t-to, p-please d-d-don't h-hurt m-me!"

"I'm not going to hurt you Cherry I promise!" said Shannon, who was now trying so hard not to cry "you didn't do anything wrong!"

"Y-You're n-not g-going t-t-to d-do w-what h-he d-d-did th-then?" asked Cherry, desperately seeking reassurance.

"No, of course not!" whispered Shannon, as a tear fell from his eyes "I never would!"

"Th-thank y-you!" whispered Cherry, whose crying had become less hysterical, but was still very present "w-when I d-did th-that t-to h-him, h-he h-hit me s-so h-hard and h-he n-nearly b-broke m-my n-neck!"

"Cherry honey that's…" began Shannon, before wiping the tears away from his eyes "that's awful!"

"I'm s-sorry Shannon, I d-didn't m-mean it!" sobbed Cherry.

"Cherry listen," said Shannon patiently "all you did was startle me, all right? I understand why you were scared, but why did you start hurting yourself darling?"

"If D-Deuce c-couldn't b-be b-bothered t-to h-hurt m-me, h-he used t-t-to m-make m-me d-do it m-myself, s-so it c-comes n-naturally!" cried Cherry in shame.

"Well no matter what Deuce has told you, it's not the answer!" said Shannon, gently.

"I k-know!" said Cherry, who although she was crying a lot, seemed to Shannon to be holding back even more tears.

"It's all right Cherry," said Shannon "you can cry you know!"

"B-But w-what a-about g-getting b-back t-to Deuce?" asked Cherry.

"Well if I had my way you wouldn't be going back to him," said Shannon "but I'll tell you when we need to go, all right?"

This reassurance seemed to break Cherry's hold she had on her emotions and she started sobbing in such a hysterical fashion that her trembling actually worried Shannon, but he simply put his arms around her and held her close to his chest.

After a few minutes, Shannon transferred his hold on Cherry so that he was able to lift her into his arms. As he stood up he felt her tense in his arms, as if she was scared, so he simply whispered,

"Shh, it's all right, it's only me!"

This calmed Cherry down, but she was still sobbing, so Shannon carried her over to the bed and sat her down inside his lap, and held her tightly.

"Shh, Cherry, it's OK," he said "I'm here, you're safe now!"

Cherry cried for about half an hour, and during this time, all Shannon did was hold her tightly, and stroke her hair, letting her know that she was all right, and that he was always going to be there for her.

Cherry gradually stopped crying, but it was true to say that she was very shaken by the whole experience, and for that matter so was Shannon. However, Shannon still found the strength from somewhere in his heart and soul to support Cherry during this difficult time.

"Are you feeling any better now Cherry?" asked Shannon.

"I…I think so!" said Cherry quietly, although she did hesitate slightly.

"You sure?" said Shannon, holding Cherry closer to his chest.

"Yeah!" said Cherry in a more confident voice, as she wrapped her arms around Shannon "thank you and I'm sorry!"

"It's no problem!" said Shannon smiling "and you have nothing to be sorry about, so don't apologise!"

Cherry smiled and leant against Shannon's chest, immediately feeling safe in his arms and feeling happy that he was there for her.

"Oh by the way I have something to tell you!" she said, after a couple of minutes.

"What is it?" asked Shannon.

"Well you know what you said to Deuce about me having a meeting with Vince?" asked Cherry.

"Yeah?" said Shannon "what about it?"

"Well I actually did have a meeting with him the other day while Deuce was in training," said Cherry "he doesn't know yet, but this meeting was about a new storyline for me!"

"Oh wow!" said Shannon, smiling "so what's the storyline about?"

"That's what I needed to take to you about," said Cherry "Vince said that I was going to be put into a storyline with you and Deuce!"

"Really?" asked Shannon "that's great!"

"Yeah," said Cherry "well apparently the storyline is that I am Deuce's valet, and he keeps losing matches because I won't help him, so one day he hits me after he loses a match to you, and you confront him about it and take me away from him. Then you take it upon yourself to protect me, and Deuce keeps trying to get to me to hurt me, but you won't let him, and you keep protecting me, leading to a series of matches of which you and Deuce each win some. Then there's a final match in the series which you win and I become your valet!"

"Wow that sounds fantastic!" said Shannon "what do you think?"

"Yeah it does sound awesome but I'm not looking forward to having to work with Deuce after I've split up with him!" said Cherry "but Vince also said we could have basically free reign with this and if you wanted to intervene before you're supposed to then you can, because he said he knows you and Deuce don't like each other and that Deuce has a temper so if there can be genuine animosity then it'll make the storyline more believable!"

"That's good then," said Shannon, smiling "if we have free reign it means I can help you all the time when he hurts you!"

"Hey I'd never thought of it like that!" said Cherry "that's brilliant then!"

"Tell me about it!" said Shannon "Deuce can't stop us spending time together now!"

"Yeah I know!" said Cherry smiling "I haven't told him yet though, he's going to be angry!"

"Well there's nothing he can do!" said Shannon "Vince has said that this storyline will happen, so it will happen no matter what Deuce says!"

Cherry nodded and smiled before hugging Shannon even harder than before.

"Hey what's all this for?" asked Shannon "not that I'm complaining!"

"Just to say thank you to you, and because I'm happy that I have you in a storyline with me and you're going to look after me!" said Cherry, smiling.

"Well you're a great person Cherry and my best friend so of course I'm going to look after you!" said Shannon, holding her tightly "now unfortunately it's six o'clock, which is when your meeting is supposed to finish so you should probably get back to Deuce, although I don't want you to!"

"Yeah you're right," sighed Cherry regretfully, as she pulled away from Shannon "I don't want to go back to him either!"

"I know, but you can come and see me later," said Shannon "promise me you will!"

"I promise!" said Cherry.

"Good!" said Shannon, as he stood up before helping Cherry up.

"I'm so scared!" said Cherry unhappily.

"I know!" said Shannon, taking her hand and squeezing it "I'm scared too!"

Shannon walked with Cherry all the way along the corridors. Both friends walked at the slowest pace that they dared too, as they did not want this time to end. Shannon had his arm around Cherry's shoulders and was holding her hand, and Cherry had her arm around Shannon's waist, and they walked the whole way like this.

When they got to Deuce's room, Shannon and Cherry stopped and embraced each other tightly, fear and uncertainty taking over them both.

"I will definitely see you later?" breathed Shannon.

"Of course!" whispered Cherry "Deuce is going to be angry so I'm going to need you!"

"All right then!" murmured Shannon "well just try to be strong tonight, and you'll get through it, OK?"

"I hope so!" whispered Cherry, hugging Shannon again "I'll see you later!"

"Yeah see you later!" breathed Shannon, as he cuddled Cherry, and rocked her from side her side before spinning her around.

Cherry smiled warmly as Shannon started to walk away. Before Shannon turned a corner, he looked back to see Cherry entering Deuce's room, and he felt the nervous feeling in his stomach increase tremendously.

So that's chapter 7, what did you think? Let me know!

I'll update soon so I'll see you then!