Wade Barrett was carrying Star over his shoulder, both of them laughing.

"Put me down!" Star tried to wriggle free.

"Never!" Wade chuckled. Star started tickling him. "Star!"

"Wade!" Star shot back, finally getting free of his grasp. He hugged her tightly. It was moments like this where he could almost forget about Ruby and the Imprint. It was like nothing had ever changed between them.

"You are so cute when you're mad, you know that?" He kissed her nose.

"You're just ugly. Plus you need a haircut." Star reached up and ruffled the hair that had grown wild and unruly again – the way she liked it.

"You love it." Wade joked.

"I love YOU." Star corrected, giving her hero a kiss.

"Ahem."

Wade and Star looked up. Ruby was standing there with her clipboard, looking impatient.

"You two are with us tonight. I've decided that from now on Team Smackdown travels together." She said.

"Um, we already have our own group, the Corre. We travel with them." Star narrowed her eyes at the older woman, who glared back.

"Star..." Wade warned softly. Star shot him a filthy look.

"You travel with us. Teddys orders." Ruby said, with a tone of finality that made it impossible to argue with her.

Star growled. Wade put an arm around her.

"Star, stop it. You're just being difficult now." He said.

"Why are you on HER side?" Star snapped. "You're supposed to be on mine!"

Wade gulped. He couldn't answer. Not without breaking Stars heart. How could he tell her that he was attracted to the auburn-haired woman who was making Stars life difficult? How could he tell her that he liked spending time with the older woman?

Star was his world. She was his little girl. He loved her above anyone else, but BEING with her was a whole different ball game. Sure, there was a small attraction to her, but without the Imprint to push that attraction to the forefront, he was beginning to see that while he loved her, he had never actually wanted her in that particular way. His love for her was a brotherly affection, a protective love that had nothing to do with romance, as strong as it was.

"Let's just get to the car, shall we?" Wade pushed her along to the small people-mover that Ruby had hired for the purpose. Again, he wished like crazy that the Imprint had never been sealed. Then this wouldn't be happening.

"And I wanted to hear about Justins date with Beth." Star pouted.

"I'm sure you'll hear all about it once this is over." Wade assured her. "Besides, how bad could travelling with Team Smackdown be?"

Famous last words.

"Why do I have to sit in the middle?!" Star whined as she was crushed by Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton.

"We don't like it either." Randy snapped. "I don't know why KANE needs all of that space in the back seat."

"Because I'm the biggest guy here!" Was the sharp retort.

"I wanna sit with Wade!" Star looked pleadingly up at the front seat, where Wade was riding shotgun while Ruby drove.

"You will sit according to my seating plan and that's final." Ruby said.

Star fumed. Wade reached into the back seat to take her hand.

"Can you not while I'm trying to drive?" Ruby scowled at him.

"What, I'm not allowed to comfort my girlfriend?!" Wade glared at her, making Star feel a little bit better.

The trip was long and uncomfortable at best. Three times Ruby had to pull over and stop an argument, and twice they had to pull over because of bathroom breaks. By the end of it, Star was crying, Wade was furious, Kane was smug, Daniel was belligerent, Randy was seething and Ruby was about ready to kill the lot of them.

"Next time, I travel with Star." Wade growled at her as they unloaded their luggage.

"Whatever." Ruby glared back.

"C'mon Star, let's go find the Corre." Wade turned to Star, and took her hand.

"Not so fast. Team Smackdown also rooms together." Ruby said bluntly.

"Star NO!" Wade grabbed Star, who had flicked on X-Ray Eyes and was about to lay Ruby out. Star shot him a hurt look, before shoving him away and running off.

"STAR!" Wade tried, but she was gone. "Good one stupid!" He rounded on Ruby.

"Hey, I'M not the one behaving like a child." Ruby fired.

"You're behaving like a ruthless dictator. What did Star ever do to you?!"

"Can we go inside now?" Daniel poked his head up.

"Get out of my sight!" Ruby threw a set of keys at him. Randy, Kane and Daniel quickly scattered. She turned to Wade.

"My problem with her is that she is twenty-four years old and yet still acts like a toddler when she doesn't get her own way!" She snarled.

"Do you KNOW what she's been through?!" Wade snapped. "The first fifteen years of her life she was trapped by a paedophile and routinely starved and abused!"

"That's no excuse for anything! She's been with you what, nine years now? Surely she'd be over it by now!" Ruby fought back.

"OVER IT?" Wade cried.

"She has no place being the Divas Champion. She has no place in WWE, or as an adult. ESPECIALLY not in an adult relationship. I can't believe how irresponsible you are, starting a physical relationship with her like that!" Ruby wouldn't back down. Wade winced. "I don't know what you see in her, other than those stupid eyes."

"She fought." Wade felt himself choke up in rage. "She fought that monster every day. She never let him break her." A burning sensation began to rise in Wades chest again. C'mon Imprint! Break the seal! "She was so young but so strong. She knew she was dying. She knew that she wanted to either die free or die fighting. She was never going to give up."

Ruby blinked.

No, no! Wade groaned internally as the burning subsided again. Why won't the stupid seal break?!

"She's my friend. My BEST friend. I love her more than life itself." He said stiffly. "And I'm going to go and find her."

"No, you're not. I'm going to get the police to do that. You're going inside with your team mates and staying there." Ruby told him.

"Get stuffed." Was the curt reply. Wade made to go after his precious Star, but Ruby blocked him.

"INSIDE." She growled. Wade tried to get around her again, and again she blocked him, one hand on his chest. He pushed it away angrily, and moved past her. She grabbed him and pulled him back.

Their lips met. Her hand made its way up his arm to rest on his cheek as the kiss deepened.

WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING?!

Wade pulled away in horror. He gasped, choked, and then bolted away into the night, absolutely disgusted with himself.

–

I am a terrible, rotten, pathetic, miserable, disgusting, foul, loathsome, nasty, wretched, HORRIBLE human being and I should just throw myself off a bridge and be done with it!

Wade Barrett was filthy on himself. How could he have kissed Ruby? How could he have done that to his beloved Star?

Part of him wanted to find Star and hold her tightly and everything would be okay again. The other part of him never wanted to see her again, to never hurt her again. He'd quickly squashed the part of him that had enjoyed the kiss, refusing to even acknowledge it.

I should just go away and die. A slow, painful, agonising death. That's what I deserve. Poor Star.

He was out of breath, having run as far and as fast as he could. Now he was lost in a park somewhere in the city, and it was getting cold.

He reached into his heart, searching desperately for the Imprint, trying as hard as he could to remember the vow he had made that had activated the Imprint in the first place.

"I promise you this...no, that wasn't it...do whatever you want to me, just leave her...no, that isn't it either!" He muttered to himself. "Far out!"

Words that used to come so naturally to him he now couldn't remember. He thought desperately back to all of the times that the Silver Eyes had activated, when those words were all he lived by.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the park, Star was sat by a pond, crying.

I hate her! I hate her so much! And I hate him too! Him and that stupid Imprint that made him think that he loved me.

She huddled against the cold, both within and without. Her heart hurt more than ever before, it felt like it was ripping itself apart.

Then the memories started. Memories of the cold. Memories of being trapped in a cold shipping container, not daring to huddle against the other girls for warmth because they'd just hurt her. She had been so small that she had been easy to push around. Memories of cold hands slipping into places that should have been private. Cold hands violating her. Being unable to fight back, lest Sasuke be called in to discipline her.

The beatings with a cold, hard belt. With a cold, hard pipe. Ice cold water being poured on her while she barely escaped drowning.

Don't think about those things! They're dead now. They can't hurt you any more. She stubbornly tried to tell herself.

They can't. But Wade can.

She thought she had cried as much as humanly possible, but it turned out that there were in fact more tears to be shed.

Memories of making love to Wade, now seen through a new light, looked just as bleak as abuse from Ronald Lyncness had. The thought of his hands on her now felt just as vile as those old, cold hands that used to hurt her.

Stop it! Stop it now! Wade is no where NEAR as bad as Lyncness was. Stop thinking like this!

She wanted to go home, but then she realised she didn't know where home was. Back at the hotel with the Unholy Trio? The Barrett Manor? The apartment back in London? Radaxian village with the rest of the Misneaches?

A cold, hard reality set in for Star. She was alone. There was no one in this world that she could turn to, except herself. Even that was a shaky prospect, for Star couldn't take care of anyone, let alone herself.

She hated Wade with all of her heart for the pain that he was putting her through.

But she needed him. Because she had no one else, and she couldn't take care of herself. The realisation put a stop to her tears and made her throw up instead. Steam rose from the bile as it landed on the cold pavement, before it began to freeze in the heavy cold.

"Star!" She thought she heard a voice. His voice. "STAR!"

It was him. His arms felt heavy as they wrapped tightly around her. "I'm so sorry. I'm so desperately sorry. I'm so, so, so sorry!"

He was crying.

Everything was wrong. Wade never cried. He got angry instead, and he took it out on people. Star felt completely displaced. She didn't know this new Wade.

And with only a few days to go until they faced CM Punk and his Nexus at Survivor Series, this was a HUGE problem.

You know that meme with the picture of a dog in a house on fire and the dog is going "This is fine"? Because that is exactly how this chapter feels right now! Things are just going further and further downhill, and who knows if the damage can ever be repaired? I always knew that the story was going to go down this path, but I really hate writing it and I bet you guys don't particularly like reading it!

As always, lots of love to you all and I hope all is well in your world!