Shannon snuck into Josephine's office the moment he reached the arena. He saw the elderly woman sitting at the desk and Cara was nowhere to be seen.

"Shannon? What do you need, darling?" Josephine asked.

"Jo is Cara here?" he asked; she shook her head. "Tell me what the hell happened to Cara before she came to WWE. She had the nightmare from hell at my house last week and she damn near had a panic attack when I managed to get her out of it. What the hell did she go through?" he demanded. Josephine's face fell and she pointed to the couch.

"Sit down. This is something not easily explained." Josephine ran her hands through her graying blonde hair. "Cara has those nightmares because of what happened when she was a child. There all recurring flashbacks of all the abuses she endured.

"Her mother died when she was just a little thing. I mean barely out of the hospital and her mother died of a nasty disorder or something like that. Cara grew up with just her father; poor man was torn apart by his wife's death. He turned to drugs and alcohol to solve it. He ended up becoming a major drug dealer. He used Cara as his delivery system; he sent her with the drugs and collected the money. Have you noticed that Cara has a very innocent face? Like she can't do wrong? She was always that way."

"What did he do to her?" he asked, his knuckles white as he gripped his knees.

"Cara never wanted to do it; she tried to refuse at first but he beat all objections out of her. She used to get beaten whenever she refused or whenever the police caught her wandering around in the late hours of the night. Then it escalated to where she stopped refusing. Then the police got a bunch of complaints about screams from the house and about him wandering around high or drunk in the neighborhood. The police investigated him a lot. They knew he was one of the biggest dealers in the city; they just didn't have evidence. They would pull Cara out of school to interrogate her. She didn't say anything out of fear; he would beat her because he thought she had sold him out.

"When the police got enough for a search warrant, that's when the worst beating came. She ran away that night and confessed everything. Unfortunately, when he discovered she was gone, he skipped town. The police are working to find him but he hasn't turned up."

"How bad was it? I mean: how bad were her injuries?" he asked; his chest was constricted from hearing all of it.

"Bad bruises, broken ribs, a shattered ankle and a sprained wrist; the ugliest part of it was the scars. You may not know it but she wears covering clothes all the time because she has a lot of scars. I've seen some of them. She was such a poor thing when she came here. Scared little thing and she was terrified of everyone. She just barely started getting used to all the stage staff. I mean she jumps when you guys carry around bats or pipes. It was horrible when we did a pay-per-view. She saw Paul Levesque carrying that sledge hammer and I thought she was going to faint right there or have a seizure. It was Wrestlemania 21, and Lord she was terrified. Paul carried around that sledge and she was absolutely petrified. He was standing around and joking with Dave and Ric; she froze, petrified. It took the four of us fifteen minutes to figure out that the sledgehammer was scaring her senseless. She was a fingertip away from going into a seizure. If you could have seen her eyes, it would have scared you insane. I mean you could see the flashbacks in her face; it was terrifying to see someone that scared of something so simple." Shannon was shaking with absolute terror in his face. How could Cara survive that? "Dave and Ric worked crazily to snap her out of it but she didn't move. I can't describe how scary it was to watch her in that paralysis. They all had to give up for Dave and Paul's match but she didn't move for at least an hour after the show."

"How could he hurt her? How could he hurt someone so beautifully innocent to that point?" Shannon growled and slammed his fists into his knees.

"Shannon, don't mention this to Cara. I've worked with her everyday to try and help her. She is terrified and she wants to tell you but she's scared of it. You can't force her into this. Let her tell you when the moment's right."

"Is there more to it? How did the police get to interrogate her at her school?" Shannon asked. It was the one part of the story he didn't get. Josephine looked extremely uncomfortable at the question.

"Cara had attempted to commit suicide at least three times before she turned eighteen. The police stopped her all three times. She tried to jump off a bridge the last time. The other two times she tried to hang herself and poison herself with carbon monoxide." Josephine was near tears to describe how low Cara had fallen.

"God, how did she survive that hell?" Shannon ran his hands through his hair. He was terrified she would try again; he couldn't live with that on his mind. If Cara managed to kill herself, he would always blame himself for not stopping her.

"Shannon," Josephine shook. "Don't tell her you know. Just please; help her get over her fear. She needs to feel safe." He looked up at her.

"I swear I will do everything to help her."

"She is strong; she'll bury it to hide it. Protect her, Shannon, because she needs you. She needs to know what it's like to be loved. It can't come from me; I'm like her mother. She needs to know what it's like to be loved by a man. You're the first person she opened up to in months." Josephine wrung her hands together. "Please, don't give up on her."

"I'll do everything to make her know what it's like to be loved. I want her to be safe. I can't live without her, Jo." He stared at her like it didn't make sense to him. She stared back at him with wide eyes.

"You love her, don't you?" she asked in a whisper. Shannon flushed at the question; he was unsure yet if it was love.

"I don't know yet, Jo. I just know I want her in my life. She's something to live for; I come in here every week and I am practically skipping in here to see her. I want to know that I have someone who needs me." Shannon ran his hands through his black and blonde hair.

"You don't have to admit it now. But when the time is right, she'll need to hear that." Jo stood up and patted his shoulder. "Now, get on out of here before Cara shows up. And remember, keep that mouth of yours shut. She'll push you away if you know before she's ready for you to." Shannon smirked and hurried out.

Cara climbed out of her car and shivered. It was weird to go into the arena and feel eager to see someone. She wanted to see Shannon and apologize for freaking out. He was undoubtedly annoyed that he had to stay with her all night. She hurried to Josephine's office and dropped her purse on Josephine's desk.

"Is Shannon in yet?" she asked. Josephine stood up.

"Wait, Cara. I heard you had another nightmare and it sounded worse than any others."

"Josephine, please don't bring it up." Cara was scared again. She hated discussing her nightmares.

"Please, Cara. You need to discuss this with me. You can't bottle this up and hide it because you don't want to discuss it." Josephine demanded.

"It's not that I don't want to discuss it, it's that I need to apologize to Shannon. He was taking care of me while I was suffering and I didn't even do anything for it." Cara pleaded. Josephine nodded.

"Alright, but come back as soon as you're done." She sighed. Cara nodded and hurried out. She hurried to the men's locker room, but was timid to knock. Cara managed to build some gumption and knock on the door. Jamie Noble answered and she resisted a cringe.

"Get Shannon Moore out here now. He has an important meeting with the stage managers." She demanded. He sneered and called back into the locker room. Shannon stepped into the hall and was surprised to see Cara.

"Cara, are you ok?" he asked.

"Umm, Shannon, I wanted to apologize about last week at your house. You shouldn't have had to deal with my problems," she almost continued but Shannon placed his finger over her lips.

"Cara, you needed help. Don't worry; if you need help, I will be there. Besides, with the way you were screaming, I was scared for you." Shannon pushed back her loose hair.

"God, this can't keep happening," she cried. Her eyes were tearing up. "Please, I'm sorry; I should leave."

"No, Cara. You're in need of help. If you have nightmares, I want to be there to bring you out of them. You shouldn't suffer through those. It sounded horrible last week like you were being beaten senseless." Shannon wrapped his arms around her, just like when she had fallen asleep in his bed.

"I won't burden you with my problems. I can't live with you taking care of me like this." She tried to push away from him.

"Stop it, Cara. You need somebody to help you. Just let me help you. I want to help you; now that I know you have these nightmares, I want to help you be free. I can't live and know that you are suffering." He hugged her tightly.

"Shannon, no; you can't help me." She clutched his arms. "I'm beyond help."

"Cara!" he shook her shoulders. "You may think I can't help you but I will sure as hell try. And nobody is beyond help." He hugged her tightly to his chest. Cara relaxed in his arms, resting against his chest.

"I know I can't be helped. But, please, don't give up on me," she whispered. He rubbed her back and kissed her hair.

"I promise I won't give up on you. I guarantee that I will try everything to help you through this." He whispered into her ear. She shivered, not from fear, but from the pure sincerity in his voice that warmed her heart.

"Thank you." She replied softly. His hands ran through her hair and rubbed her back soothingly. She shivered again, with anxiety in her body. She felt him stroke her waist lightly. "Shannon," she whispered.

"Shannon! We got a match up next. Move it." Jimmy Wang Yang ran past them in the hall. Cara pulled back and gave him a tiny smile.

"You should go. I'll see you later." She waved goodbye to them and walked back to the stage offices. Shannon watched her walk away with a smile on his face.

"You like her, don't you?" Jimmy teased.

"Aw, shut up. Cara is sweet. She just needs help sometimes." He pushed his friend and they walked to the gorilla position.

Cara reentered the stage office and sat across from her boss. Josephine leaned forward across the desk, taking Cara's small hand.

"Tell me what you saw," she ordered. Cara took a deep breath.

"It was my father, when I was really young. I had messed up something and he kept hitting me over and over. I begged for him to stop. He wanted me to do something else and I didn't want to do it. I was terrified. I think it was the time he broke my arm. I was so scared." Cara replayed the events of her dream.

"No more, Cara. Thank you for telling me. But I'm concerned with these nightmares." Josephine patted her hand. "It was more than a year and then you had one. Two weeks later, you had another. This is scaring me; I hate to suggest this but I'm afraid that Shannon is bringing them up."

"No, Josephine. He's not; I swear he's not. He's done nothing but be a gentleman to me and I've never felt safer with him."

"That's what I mean, Cara. You feel safe, something that you haven't felt before. I'm starting to think that the safety Shannon makes you feel is causing your memories to arise more in your sleep. I think it might be because before you could think about it while you were awake and it tormented you less in your dreams. But, when you feel safe, those memories arise more when you're asleep."

"It can't be him." Cara defended him.

"I know it's hard to believe but please think about what in the past few weeks may have triggered your nightmares." Cara stood up and hugged herself.

"I have. I'm scared, Josephine." She admitted. "I just think that these new nightmares are a sign that it's going to get so much worse for me."

"Just be careful and be safe." She replied. Cara nodded and sat on the corner of the desk.


Yay! I kept my promise!! There's a shiny review button with your name on it!

EW;)