Again, Mark found himself tossing and turning through another sleepless night. Though he knew it was for the best, he cursed himself for telling Randy about his indiscretion with Jeff. He wanted to tell Randy; he didn't want anything looming over their relationship, but now he had no relationship. Although the younger man tried to hide it, Mark could see how hurt he was and how angry he was at the revelation. As always though, he kept his cool and went about the matter with grace. Mark finally sat up and looked at the clock on the bedside table. It read 4:43a.m.; he knew he it was useless to stay in bed and try to sleep because it wasn't going to happen. With a heavy sigh, he climbed out of the bed he once shared with Randy and took a shower.

Walking into the kitchen, he started the coffee machine and reached for the refrigerator door. He let out another sigh after seeing the few pictures of the other man on the door. He wanted to find Randy and make him sit down and talk to him, but in his desperation to keep him from walking out last night, he didn't even ask where he would be staying.

Around 6p.m. that evening, Mark tried calling him, but after a few rings, it went to voicemail. He left a message asking the Viper to call him back, so that he would at least know he was okay. He knew it would be a futile effort, but he just wanted to hear the younger man's voice. Mark couldn't remember the last time they went a day without hearing each other's voice. They always found time to talk, even if it was just for a few minutes at the end of the day.

On Monday afternoon, Mark said goodbye to his girls, who served as a nice distraction of the situation, but even still, he could not take his mind off of Randy. He hadn't heard from him at all and wondered if he was okay. "Of course he isn't okay," Mark scolded himself, on his way to the airport. He shook his head at what a fool he had been. He hurt the one man he was trying so hard not to hurt. With his mind on Randy, he hadn't even thought about what he would say to Jeff when he saw him again on Tuesday. Being reminded of that gave him a new anxiety to try to work through on his way back to work.

xXx

Arriving at the hotel, Mark checked into his room and dragged his tired body to the elevators. As he stepped into the elevator, he dug his cell phone out of his pocket and called Randy. He sighed when it rang and went to voicemail. "Randy, it's me. Please call me back. I'd really like to see you on Saturday at the show. Or before then." He hung up just as the doors opened to his floor. As he stared down the long hallway, he inwardly cringed when Matt Hardy walked out of his room. "Hey, Mark. Hold the elevator, will you?" Matt asked. Mark did so and greeted the eldest Hardy, "how's it going, Matt?" Matt nodded, "I'm good. Thanks. Listen, I never got a chance to thank you for checking on Jeff last week. I really appreciate it." "No problem at all." Mark said, hoping to just get away. "If you'll excuse me though, I'm a little tired from the plane ride." "Oh yeah, sorry. Just wanted to thank you. We both know what a handful Jeff can be." Mark faked a smirk as best as he could. "I'll see you tomorrow at the arena." Mark said, walking forward towards the end of the hall.

Before he could get to his room though he heard a familiar voice calling after him. He turned around and Jeff standing at the door of his room. The younger Hardy waved him over, flashing him a giant smile. "I want to show you something, Mark." Mark had hoped to save this talk for the following day as he really was tired from his flight, but relented. "Give me a minute," he said. Jeff flashed his smile again and walked back into his room, swinging the door jam over, so Mark could come right in.

A couple of minutes later, Mark knocked on the Hardy's door before slowly opening it. "Jeff?" he called out. Jeff bounced out of the closet and wrapped his arms around the Deadman's neck in a tight embrace. Mark returned the hug, it was a simple instinct he hadn't forgotten. "Jeff, we need to talk." Mark said. "I know, Marky. And we will, I promise. But I need to show you something first." Mark sighed. "What is it?" Jeff vanished into the bedroom and walked back out with a sketch pad in his hands. "This." he said. Mark opened the book to where Jeff had marked off. "They're amazing, Jeff." Mark looked at the next few drawings, admiring Jeff's talent. "Thank you. I drew them because of you." Mark looked up, confused. "I haven't been able to draw anything lately. At least nothing I liked." Jeff explained. "Last week, after you left, I grabbed my sketch book and just started drawing." Mark gave him a sad smile and returned to the drawings again. "I always told you, you were my inspiration. You never believed me, but you are, Mark."

Mark closed the book, "You're amazing, Jeff. You're talent has nothing to do with me." Jeff laughed before sitting down, bringing Mark down next to him. "Of course it does. You make me happy, Mark. You inspire me and make me want to be better." Mark could hear how genuine Jeff sounded and it killed him. "Then why were we never completely happy together; why weren't we better than we were?" Mark asked, squeezing the small hand that held his larger hand. Jeff leaned back against the sofa, propping his leg up on the coffee table in front of them. Mark turned to look at him, waiting for an answer. Jeff swallowed the lump in his throat, "I was in a bad place; you know that." Mark tried to hide the emotion he was suddenly feeling. "How can you say I make you happy and make you want to be better, when it's clear that I never did. I never made you happy enough, and I never made you be better. We wouldn't be in this position if I could have made you happier."

Jeff was taken back, he wasn't expecting Mark to act the way he was; to hear him so hurt. It broke his heart to hear Mark talk as if he was never enough for him. It had never dawned on him that he had made Mark feel that way.

"No, Marky…" Jeff said, sitting up and pulling Mark close to him. Mark was overwhelmed with the feelings he didn't even realize he was carrying and let the smaller man hug him. "I was happy. You gave me everything, you loved me more than I could have ever thought someone could, but I just…" he trailed off. "I was scared. You had a family that needed you and I just didn't know how to handle everything I was feeling. For ten years you loved me, and I didn't know how to love you back." Mark pulled away and wiped the tears that were forming in Jeff's eyes. "You made me so happy, Marky. I'm sorry I couldn't love you the same way you loved me, but I did love you." Jeff kissed the bigger man softly, but their hunger grew. It didn't last long though, as Mark pulled away again, letting his forehead rest against Jeff's as he tried to figure out what he wanted to do. "I do love you." Jeff said, shaking his thoughts away. Mark struggled for the words to say. He did love Jeff, but he wasn't sure of how he loved him. He wasn't sure of anything. "You don't have to say anything, Mark. It's okay." Jeff laughed. Mark just smiled at him, kissing his lips again.

Once the two were settled down a bit, leaning back on the sofa, looking through Jeff's sketch book again, Mark spoke up, his thoughts still heavy on his mind. "Randy left me after I told him." he said. "So then you did tell him?" Jeff asked, a frown settling into his face. "I wanted to talk to him about it, to figure things out, but he refused." Mark bitterly laughed at himself, "he couldn't even bring himself to be angry with me." Jeff wasn't sure what to say. "It probably took a lot for him to just walk away and not blow up." he said. Mark nodded, "I wish he would have done something, or said something." "It was probably best that he got out of there, Mark." Mark stared off into one of the drawings, "Jeff, I'm sorry, but there can't be anything between us until I talk to Randy. I'm just not comfortable doing this until I can talk to him." Jeff sat up, closing the sketch book again and tossing it to the coffee table before standing up. "Yeah, man. Talk to him and do what you gotta do." Mark stood up beside him, "I don't know what I'm going to do. I just need to talk to him." Jeff nodded again, "Matt should be getting back soon, so maybe you should go now." Mark looked at his watch, he'd been there for an hour. "I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?" he told Jeff. "Yeah, tomorrow. I'll see you at the show." "Jeff, what's wrong, why are you acting like this?" Mark asked, remembering how difficult it was to be around Jeff sometimes. "It's nothing, Mark. I guess I was just hoping things would be back to normal." Jeff said. "We're getting there, something close to normal at least. I just need to figure things out, Jeff." Mark explained before stepping out of the room.

xXx

"Well?" Mark heard someone say as he walked into his locker-room. "Chris, what in the hell are you doing here?" Chris ignored the question. "When were you going to tell me what happened between you and Randy?" Mark sighed. He had enough on his mind and didn't want to listen to Chris lecture him on what had happened. "I've had a few things on my mind; I didn't have time to explain to you everything that's happened." Mark took a seat across from his friend. "Well I'm here now, so let's hear it." he said. "Didn't Randy already tell you? Or do you need for me to tell you myself?" the older man said. "I need to hear it from you," Chris said, "so let's hear it now." Mark grabbed a water and took a drink before finally explaining his situation to Chris.

"Mark, you are not the type of guy to do something like that. What got into you, how could you do that to Randy… and to Jeff?" Mark hung his head in shame, he wasn't sure why he had done it and had no excuse for it. "You probably haven't talked to Randy, have you?" Mark shook his head, "no, I haven't. I've tried calling him, but he hasn't answered." "No, how could you blame him?" Chris answered. "Damn it, Chris. I'm not blaming him for anything. This is my fault, I know that. I'm trying to do the best I can to deal with it and cause the least amount of damage." Chris nodded, "and who exactly will suffer the brunt of the damage this time?" Mark opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. "I've already asked him, but I'm going to ask again that he sit down and talk to you. You are one of my closest friends, Mark. And so is Randy, and I don't want to see either of you guys go through this, but if it you really aren't sure what you want, then do yourselves both a favor and just be done with it now. For yours, Randy's and Jeff's sake." With that, Chris got up from the small table and left Mark alone to his thoughts.

Mark thought it best to not see Jeff again until after he talked to Randy, which was quite easy, as Mark noticed that anytime he entered a room or the hotel bar, while Jeff was there, Jeff found a reason to quickly leave. Mark found it odd that he'd act this way, when he was sure the younger man would be trying harder to get him to fall for him again. Mark wasn't able to dwell on that for too long though, Chris had called him and told him that Randy had agreed to talk with him at the supershow on Saturday.

xXx

Walking into the arena, Mark was tired and his head ached from the hours he spend thinking over what he could possibly say to Randy. All he wanted was to talk to him and find a way to make things better, but he had no idea how to do that. He wanted things to be better, but was at a loss of words he could say to make it happen.

Finally, he reached his locker-room and threw his bag onto the floor before pulling out his phone. He didn't know what he was going to say, but he couldn't wait to see and hear Randy again. He dialed and lifted the phone to his ear to wait. "Hey Mark," he heard. Mark had to take a seat, it had seemed like so long that he'd heard Randy say his name. "Hello?" Randy said. Mark gathered himself, "Randy," he was still unsure of what to say though. "Could you meet me up at the press box?" he finally asked. "Yeah, I'll be there in about ten minutes." Randy answered. "Thank you," Mark said before hanging up the call.

He made his way to their meeting place and took a seat, watching all the happenings down below at ringside. He waited anxiously before he finally heard the door open, he stood up and watched the tall man enter the room.

"Randy…" was all Mark could say, the look his boyfriend's face broke his heart. He stepped closer, wanting to reach out for the solemn young man, but stopped himself.

Chapter 25, there it was. What do you think? Personally, I wasn't thrilled with it. That's what happens when I spend more than a couple of hours on it. But it doesn't matter what I think... it matters what YOU think. I hope you liked it enough to REVIEW! =) And actually, if you hated it, I hope you'll still REVIEW!

Again, I'm looking for some honest and critical feedback. Thanks to all those who have reviewed and especially IsadoraAngst for helping me take a look at the story from a different point of view. Much appreciated.

On a side note, I've realized that this story has lost it's timeline. I really don't know when the heck this is all taking place. I'm so terrible at this. Haha. I'm going to call it about Dec. 2010. Yes... perhaps about the time the Slammy's took place and Shawn challenged Taker to a rematch at WM 26. Yeah... some time around then.

REVIEW! =)