I was going to post these two together, but I decided to make some last minute changes on this one, and I ended up with some extra free time, so here goes.
"Seriously, are you OK?"
Jon turned his head to see Stephanie looking at him with concern all over her face. He had been reaching for the door, but the thought of the guys coming back here was too much for him. He felt like a weapon in a petty squall, and it was breaking his heart.
"I don't know," he finally said weakly.
"What happened to your face?" She repeated.
Jon put his touched his hand to his cheek. It was still hurting pretty badly, and knew there had to be a pretty large bruise. He suddenly had flashbacks to when he was a kid and he his mother stood in front of him with the same shattered look. Her hair would be a mess. Bruises would adorn her face. He swore he would never end up like her. But here he was.
"I'll go get a trainer," she said.
"No!" That got Jon's attention fast enough. He was embarrassed enough as it was.
"What happened to you? Jon, your face looks terrible. I can't just pretend I'm not seeing this on you."
"I don't suppose I could convince you I walked into a door?" he offered weakly. Her worried face deepened. She carefully reached out and touched his face. The tears he held back at bay fell and he and leaned into her arms.
"Come on, let's get you some ice for your that," she said gently. "Then we need to talk about this."
"Alright, let me get my stuff. I don't want to deal with them right now." Jon said as he reached for his locker room door. Stephanie was taken aback when she heard this. Colby and Joe wouldn't have hurt him, would they? She was determined to find out what was going on.
Back in the hallway, the four stood in varying degrees of shock, too lost in their own thoughts to speak. Joe closed his eyes and tried to come to grips with what just happened. Colby looked down at his hand and cursed himself for being so reckless. April felt a tear fall from her eye and roll down her cheek. Phil stared on at Colby with a look of growing disgust. In time, he found his voice.
"What have you done?" he said softly.
Colby didn't seem to hear him. He stared down at his hand still as if it were the culprit, and the rest of his body and his mind was not part of the equation.
"What the hell have you done?" Phil's voice rose dangerously high. "You stupid shit! He was already upset, and you go and slap him? You fucking ruined everything!"
"Are you serious," Colby couldn't believe what he was hearing. "This coming from the guy that called him a used slut to his fucking face?"
"That's all that he ever was to you guys," Phil seethed. "He was just a little pawn in your game."
"You have no idea what you are talking about-"
"Admit it, Joe! Admit that he was just a means to an end for you. Maybe you came to like him, but that doesn't change the fact he was an easy lay with low self-esteem you could use."
"And you were any different?"
"I never would have put him through what you did. He came to me telling me how you threatened to leave him if he helped me out. What kind of sick shit is that?"
"Guys!"
They snapped their heads toward April who was glaring at all of them.
"Are you listening to yourselves?" she asked. "Jon was just in the middle of a horrible fight, and got slapped in the face by someone who claims to care about him the most. Accident or not," she added as Colby went to defend himself. "that has to be emotionally crippling. Need I remind you that you still work together in the ring?" Both Shield members cringed. "Yeah, you should be worried right now."
"Excuse me," Paul showed up in a doorway looking pissed. He pointed at Colby and Joe. "You two in my office. Now."
They followed behind Paul, both not knowing what to think. They had a bad feeling they knew exactly what had happened. Colby smashed Jon's face, he had to have some sort of mark. Walking into a small office, their fears were confirmed. Jon sat in a chair on the far end of the room with an ice pack over his left cheek. He refused to look at the other men, and Colby felt physically ill. He had done that. He was the reason his best friend and lover was afraid of them. He looked down in shame and fought back tears of his own.
Joe went to comfort Jon, but he tensed and shot him an angry look. Stephanie stood up and got between the two men.
"I think you two have done enough damage for one day," she said coldly.
"It was an accident," Colby said, his voice cracking. "Jon, you have got to believe me, I would never hurt you like that. I," He paused and composed himself. He had to keep it together. "I failed you in the worst way possible. When he call you that word, I just couldn't stand for it."
"Why?" Jon asked casually. "That's all I ever have been. I made sure that Phil didn't cause too much trouble when Dave started getting ready for his return. I stayed with you and made it clear I wouldn't join any other guy, even if it helped my career. I willingly slept with both of you. I am the definition of a used piece." He laughed bitterly.
"You're wrong," Joe insisted. He tried again to get closer to Jon, but Paul got in the way as well, barring him off. Damn it, I'm not even the one that hit him!"
"You were the one that didn't do a fucking thing to stop it!" Jon got up and backed up. He was almost as twitchy as he was when he was in the ring as he paced back and forth. "You just stood there and watched him snap! What is wrong with you guys?" He gave another bitter laugh and gestured at them. "You both say you love me, but you act like you're dogs marking their territory. That was a nice touch with answering the phone while Phil was trying to call me. Yes, I know all about that," he sneered at their guilt ridden faces. As pissed as Colby was when he initially heard about it, he was laughing at how much it pissed Phil off. "I heard everything. How I was the insurance policy that kept us together. Well, good news, baby boy." Joe looked up. "You are probably going to get your wish."
"What are you talking about?" Joe asked slowly.
"Haven't you heard?" Jon asked. "The crowd loves you. No amount of backstage politics was ever going to stop you from breaking out. You are going to be bigger than Dwayne ever was. You didn't need me for shit."
"I did need you," Joe made one last attempt to reach the distressed man, but Colby pulled him back this time. "I admit the reason we hooked up was wrong. I did want us together so we could get stronger together. That includes you. But there has always been something about you I always admired. You're so different from other people I know. You find humor in things I can't. You keep me and Colby from fighting all the time."
"You keep us going when we can't find it in us to do it," Colby added. "You are our rock. You make us better people. I'm sorry it took the most petty shit in the world for me to realize I need you, but you have to believe that you are more than just a business partner. You are the other half of me."
"And the other half of me," Joe added and the two men stood side by side refusing to move.
"I'm not sure I believe you," Jon said, regret deep in his voice. "I wish I could, but you took it too fucking far. If you cared about me, nothing anyone said would have hurt us. It shouldn't have scared you the way it did." He wiped fresh tears from his eyes. "I guess Phil hadn't been much better, had he?" He looked up at Paul and Stephanie. "I can work with them as long as I need to. Fighting against you in the ring sounds fun as hell."
Paul smiled sympathetically. "Yeah, it'll be great. Dave probably won't even hang around that long. You know how he is. The fans won't get behind him, he'll get pissed, and it's back to Hollywood. But are you sure you can still work with these guys?" He pointed to Colby and Joe. Jon nodded silently. "I'm pulling you guys from your match so you can take it easy. We'll find someone else to face 3MB."
"Colby," Stephanie said. He looked up with a small look of fear in his eyes. "Jon is choosing not to take any action against you for your assault. However, we can't overlook what happened as it did happen at an event. You are being fined $5,000.00."
He nodded. "I understand."
"If it happens again, you will be suspended indefinitely. We do not tolerate this kind of behavior from our athletes."
"I can assure you, nothing like this will ever happen again," Colby said as he looked over at Jon. The other man wouldn't look back at him. Colby couldn't blame him
"I called the hotel," Jon said as he left the room. I'm staying in a different room. You don't need to know where." His lovers both nodded silently. I'll take a cab back and move my stuff." He hugged Stephanie and Paul before walking out of the room. A silence followed his departure. Joe stared at the floor hating himself for what he allowed this to come to. He hated what he had become as a person.
"Can I ask you guys something?" Paul said quietly. They both looked at him. "Why would you do all of this? Really? After all the shit he had been through, why would you want to add one more thing to make him feel a little more worthless?"
"We saw something slipping away, and we panicked," Colby said simply. Joe nodded in agreement.
"Well, good luck to the both of you, because you're going to need it. The way I see it, you may be able to save your friendships, but after that..."
"We'll do what we can," Joe sighed in a resigned tone. I just hope we haven't fucked it up too much."
Jon made it back to the hotel. He welcomed the fans asking for autographs and posed for a picture, just so he had the temporary distraction. A good part of being a hardcore style wrestler is that no one questioned why he had a bruise on his face.
When he had reached his room and settled in for the night, he didn't have a damn thing. He had forced himself to not drink, because he knew if he started, it wouldn't end well. His phone was blowing up with texts, mostly from Phil and April, but also from other members of the roster who had heard that something was up, making sure he was OK. He ended up just putting his phone on silent and making sure his alarm was on to wake him up in the morning. He couldn't deal with anyone now, so he hooked it up to the charger and didn't plan to look at it for the rest of the night.
He laid on the bed and buried his face in his pillow. That's when he finally let himself break down. His body shook as he sobbed quietly into the soft material. The physical pain had nothing on the pain in his heart. He thought he could ignore what they had done to him and how they had lied all the times they had. But today only proved how little they cared about him. He wasn't a lover. He was a trophy that they could brandish at each other to show that one side was more powerful than the other.
The worst part of it was that he would have given anything to have one of them holding him at that moment. He just wanted someone to tell him that it was going to be alright. He cried harder at the thought. How in the fuck did he let himself get to this point? After what seemed like an eternity, the tears stopped, and he fell asleep exhausted. Little did he know, four people in two other rooms fell asleep the same way he did.