Title: The Catch Your Breath Series (04/??)
Rating: PG
Summary: Sometimes a relationship isn't just about two people.
Type of fic: Vignette series
Disclaimer: All recognisable entities are not mine.
Author's notes: Just a series of short first person POV vignettes that deal with my latest 'shipperdom. It can be a continuation of Untitled 58 and Untitled 59, or it can be read by itself. Think you guys can figure out who each person is? ;) It's not too hard, hopefully.

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A second chance/ Come to pass / Take a leap / If you dare / If you can / Catch your breath

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Part Four

'Still, this is Stephanie McMahon we're talking about. Just hope Edge knows what he's in for.'

I stop at the sound of my brother's name, linked to her.

'Hey, how'd you find out anyway?'

'Talked to Bradshaw last night. Told me he saw the two of them having a romantic dinner just before arriving at the SmackDown show together. Pretty serious from the sounds of things.'

I hear two sets of footsteps getting closer to where I stood. I turned and hurried away, stunned at what I had just found out. My brother, and…her?!

It couldn't be true. Could it? I tell myself that it's not true, that everyone is being misinformed. I stop again, astonished at my thoughts. I'm worried about him. We had not talked for more than a year, and here I am, worried about him.

I shake my head, smiling sadly. We may have had our differences that spilled out into the ring, but didn't all siblings have a disagreement every now and then? Yes, I had been jealous by his success, but I didn't hate him. He is family, and he will always by the older brother who constantly looked out for me.

And now I find myself worrying of what she would do to him. But I also have to remind him that maybe she truly has changed. It has been over three months since her return, and from I have seen and heard she has not reverted to the woman she was before she was forced out of the company. I guess all I can hope for is that she doesn't prove me wrong.

'There you are,' an irritated voice grunts out from behind me.

I turn, swallowing a sigh of exasperation. 'Sorry, Test. I got distracted.'

'Sure, man, but our match is coming up pretty soon,' he says, placated for now. 'Lance wants to go over a couple of things first.'

I nod. He turns and I follow him towards our locker room.

'Oh, by the way,' he starts in a too casual voice that makes me think he's been waiting for this moment. 'Did you hear about Stephanie's new man?'

There is a tone of resentful contempt in his words and I wonder if it's for his ex-fiancé, or for the 'new man'. I feel myself become almost instinctively defensive of my brother. I look at his back warily, noticing that he has straightened slightly and seems somewhat stiff. 'Yeah, I just heard about it actually.'

'All I want to say to that is that I hope your brother watches his back very carefully,' he tells me, and this time the bitterness is a lot more obvious. 'She's the biggest wolf bitch in sheep's clothing.'

Maybe it's because the knowledge that, no matter what, he will always be my big brother that I find myself detesting the man walking in front of me for his words. I fight back the urge to hit him hard and instead opt for not saying anything at all. Fortunately, we have reached the locker room and there is no more time to talk about any of it.

If my brother wanted a relationship with the youngest McMahon, then I will fully support and defend him…and her. Now, all I have to do is mend a very large broken fence.

end part four.