'Steph?'

The pale woman sitting on the hospital bed looked up at him. Her eyes were lifeless. 'Hi, Shane.'

Shane smiled encouragingly at her. 'How are you feeling?'

'The same.' Her voice was emotionless.

'Well, I have some news that I hope will cheer you up!' he told her, keeping his voice jovial. Actually, he wasn't too sure how his news would be met, but he was assuming that Stephanie knew nothing of their mother's involvement in the shattering of the wedding.

'Yeah?'

'Mom's here to see you.'

No movement or reaction from Stephanie. 'Oh. Okay.'

Shane was worried, but he hid it behind his smile. 'Maria just went to pick her up from the airport. She's going to be here in about fifteen minutes.'

'Okay.' Stephanie turned back to staring out the large window, but then turned back to him again. 'I like Maria, Shane,' she said quietly. 'You're lucky to have found her.'

He nodded, feeling slightly uncomfortable. As much as he loved Maria, he felt somewhat guilty that his marriage was going so perfectly while hers had just broken into tiny pieces. Not to mention Maria was pregnant with their first child…and Stephanie had just lost hers. A pregnancy that he was still coming to terms with. He had been about to become an uncle...

Shane pushed all those thoughts aside for the moment, and he smiled. 'Thank you, Steph.'

Stephanie smiled a ghost of a smile, but her eyes remained blank. She went back to staring out the window.

He watched her worriedly. He had been shocked at what his sister had done, and he could only imagine the pain Hunter had gone through after seeing the tape and talking to Linda. However, Shane would never condone what his soon-to-be ex-brother-in-law had done to his little sister. He and Stephanie had their differences, but she was always there for him whenever he was in any trouble, and vice versa.

He wasn't looking forward to telling his sister about her miscarriage. He didn't want to be the one to tell her, but there was no one else. For some reason he didn't want his mother to be the one to break the news to Stephanie. It just didn't feel right, not when he hadn't quite forgiven Linda for her role in what had occurred during RAW. There were too many questions about Linda's involvement. It was such a strange feeling suspecting his mother of not so good intentions.

Shane shook his head to clear it once more, his mind returning to the issue at hand. Stephanie's miscarriage. Deep down he knew that prolonging the news would only make it worse when she eventually found out…but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

Not just yet.

*

Shane watched the reunion between mother and daughter warily. Linda held Stephanie closely, murmuring words of sympathy and encouragement. Stephanie stared straight ahead, one hand loosely around her mother's waist.

'Shane?'

He turned and faced his wife, smiling as he wrapped his arms around Maria. 'Hey. You have no idea how happy I am to see you back.'

She smiled at him, but the look of anxiety in her eyes didn't disappear. 'I think we need to talk about something.'

'Sure.'

Maria glanced towards the bed. 'Outside.'

Shane hesitated, not wanting to leave Stephanie alone with Linda. But he nodded. He followed her to the hallway. 'What's going on?'

'I didn't tell Linda about the miscarriage,' Maria told him. 'All I told her was that Steph had collapsed after the show went off air, and that someone anonymous took her to hospital.'

He frowned at her. 'I thought we agreed that you would be the one to tell her? And why didn't you say it was Jericho?'

Maria bit her lower lip in that adorable way he loved so much. 'Honey, you know I think that Linda is a great woman, but…' She sighed heavily. 'I don't know, Shane. There's just something about the tape and the phone call to Hunter that seems -'

'Suspicious,' Shane finished for her.

She nodded. 'Very. On the way over here I asked her about the tape, and she suddenly seemed defensive. I got the feeling she was hiding something.'

As much as Shane loved his mother, he nodded understandingly at his wife. There was no reason Maria would lie to him or would try to make up stories. There was something suspicious about what had happened on RAW. The tape arriving that day, Linda's phone call just minutes before Hunter was due to renew his vows. Linda had claimed that she had been trying to call Hunter all night, but Shane knew that if his mother really wanted to talk to someone it would have been done so within a minute. That was the power that came with being a McMahon.

'Something is going on,' Shane confirmed. 'Definitely something.'

Maria closed the distance between them and hugged him tightly. 'God, poor Steph. Can you imagine what must be going through her mind at the moment. First, she loses her husband, and now her baby.'

Shane took a deep breath. 'Uh, I haven't told her yet.'

She looked at him with a small frown. 'Why not?'

'I just couldn't, not yet.' He shook his head. 'I don't think she's ready for the news.'

'But you will, right?'

'I will. Soon.'

Author's note: Yes, I know that Shane's wife's name is Marissa. 'Maria' is for her - *points and waves to Scattia*