As April turned into May, the passage of time was hard on everyone. Sarah and Claudio were still learning the ropes of their long-distance relationship. Claudio spent very little time at his actual residence in Florida. When he had a couple of days off, he spent them in Arizona with Sarah. She worked long hours at the hospital and he hit the gym. When she got home he had whatever meal was appropriate waiting. They would curl up together in bed and hold each other until sleep came. These times were few and far between so they were cherished. It was during one of these cross-country flights that Claudio and Nick had the chance to have a heart-to-heart. Nick asked…begged…Claudio for any word on Shannon. Claudio patted his hand and shook his head. "I'm sorry. Shannon asked that we not tell you anything. You have to understand, I've seen you but she hasn't. From her point of view, you walked away. You disappeared on her without a word. Then you went back to your dream job in trunks that proclaimed 'Over It' and she drew a conclusion that you were sending her a message." Nick's head dropped back against the headrest. "You never reached out or considered things from her side. She's not a normal woman. That was evident from the second she agreed to go with you and April to see the neuropsychologist. There wasn't anything in it for her and she was just back from vacation. The woman wanted to get home, but she took care of you. And when you needed her, she took you in. You, a relative stranger, into her home. She thought the two of you were building something; that this was significant."
"It was; It is. Dammit." Nick looked at the ceiling of the plane. "I thought I had time. I thought I could get this straight and come back for her. I didn't realize there was a time limit."
"We never do." Claudio agreed. "The safest thing to do is assume that there is. Act quickly. Otherwise you can assume that it will be too late, no matter what they say."
The end of May signaled a long haul for the WWE superstars. It was one of the two times of the year that the WWE went for an extended tour of Europe, much to the excitement of most of the European fans. For one, she was simply lying in wait.
As soon as the tickets for both shows in Germany and the VIP Meet and Greet and gone on sale, she bought them. When her friend flaked, she began planning what she would say if she saw HIM. Here she sat, at a table, in a room, expected to go up and shake his hand and take a picture with him. There is no way in heaven or hell that anyone can make me get near Dolph Ziggler. I swear if he gets close enough to me, I'll…Sam was so angry she couldn't even finish her own thought. When she was told that it was her turn, she shook her head and politely told the runner "No, thank you" before glaring at Dolph. She had already gotten her picture taken with AJ Lee, which was very cool. There should be one more wrestler that would be coming and then she would take a little walk to calm down. That man just pisses me off so much. How the hell can one man be so callus? Before long, Dolph's time was up. He looked at Sam quizzically before leaving the stage area. Dean Ambrose arrived. Fans were called up in a different order this time, and Sam's table was last. In fact, Sam was the very last person to be called to have her picture taken with Dean Ambrose.
"Dean." he said, extending his hand.
"Sam." she introduced, shaking his.
They faced the camera for a picture. He held on to her after the flash. "What's the story with you and the Zig-man?" Sam turned to look at Dean carefully. "You blew him off very coldly and blatantly."
Now that the room was cleared of all the other fans, AJ returned. "Coldly? Coldly? She was downright rude. Who the hell do you think you are?"
Sam caught a glimpse of Dolph Ziggler just off to the side of the stage. That was all she needed to let loose. "Who do I think I am? Who do I think I am?" She pulled away from Dean's grip. "Let me tell you who I am. I am best friends with an absolute gem of a woman. A woman, who without regard for herself, will drop everything and run to help anyone including some myopic asshole that can't see past that curly mop of hair. He not only hurt my best friend, he devastated her. I don't want to shake his hand. I don't want his picture. I don't want to breathe the same air he does. All I want from him is to get my best friend, my sister back." Sam spun on her heel and headed for Nick. "So, Dolph Ziggler. Can you get her back? Can you convince her to come back to safety? Or that isn't important to you?"
AJ tried to interrupt and speak on his behalf but Nick held up his hand. He spoke softly to Sam. "No one will tell me where she is. If you tell me, I promise…"
Sam snorted derisively. "Don't make promises you can't keep."
"Please, Sam." he begged.
The fire and passion he witnessed struck a cord in Jon Good, the man who portrayed Dean Ambrose. Holy shit, that woman is attractive. That defensive streak she has over her friend is pretty damn hot!Does she realize how incredibly...nope, she's tied up in knots over her friend and I'm so...If anyone was that possessive over me...F*ck! He put his hands on Sam's shoulders. "Let him have a chance." he whispered. His whisper did something to Sam's insides. She tried to look back over her shoulder. "It's their hell. Let them sort it out."
"Funny you should phrase it that way." Sam muttered. Looking the crestfallen man in the eye she said, "Shannon is a privately contracted linguistic code-breaker." After pausing for a moment she explained, "Shannon is brilliant. Languages and puzzles are her thing. Men confound and confuse her. She had such high hopes…" Sam shook her head and continued with the explanation of Shannon's career choice and location. "Shannon is not in the military but she is contracted by the military. She could choose to work for a lot more money in the private sector, but she feels she is saving lives by doing what she is doing. What she has explained to us is that she uses her knowledge of languages, problem solving, and puzzles to break codes."
"Ookkaayy." AJ drew out as Nick nodded slowly.
"Military. She decided not to work state-side. She wanted to be quote on location – HA for a while. Do you know what that means, Nick? On location? What the hell has been going on lately? Shannon, with her skills, is either in Baghdad, or in the Ukraine with their civil war issues, or she is in Nigeria."
"Why Nigeria?" Dean asked.
"Because last month there was a bomb that went off that killed 71 people during rush hour. How many privately contracted linguistic code-breakers do you think there are that can speak the languages that might be necessary to find those responsible and who are willing to go into Abuja, Nigeria?" She grabbed Nick's shoulders and shook him hard. "Do you understand what you've done? Do you see now? You broke her heart. The one thing that makes life worth living."
"It's not his fault if she is suicidal." AJ argued.
"She's not suicidal!" Sam yelled. "Now she is back to being…robotic. Stagnant. Blech. She is so damn good at that job, it was all she did. That and talk to us online. That vacation, the one she was returning from when you two met, that was her first vacation in five years. She takes a couple of days here or there but never goes away and we got her to." Sam began to pace. "All Shannon did was sit in that damn office and work. She'd go to the field if she needed to, but most of her work was in the office and with computers. She could hear and replay tracks, breaking things down as she needed to. Now…"
"Now I need to find her and fix this." Nick agreed.
Shannon was facing her own crisis. She had traveled from the Ukraine to Nigeria to try and sort through the bombardment of claims of credibility for the bombing. There were also a massive amount of threats for more bombs. She was being pressured to identify those that were viable and those that were bogus. How am I supposed to know? I am a linguistic code-breaker, not a psychoanalyst. I don't know what these whack-jobs are thinking. On top of that, each day more and more information was being funneled her way about the unrest in the Ukraine. The higher-ups in the military wanted proof that the Russians were behind the issues and thought Shannon could provide it. I am a civilian, private contractor. Don't they have military people for this stuff? Really? I am one person.
Shannon lay in her cot and stared at the cracked ceiling. Someone, give me a sign. What am I supposed to do? I am overwhelmed and confused. I just wish there was someone I could talk to. Someone I could trust and depend on.
Her e-mail pinged. "New Message from Nick Nemeth"
