PART 32

"I can't believe you had the balls to show up here."

Dave Batista cringed at the cold, unforgiving words of Adam Copeland. The look alone the Canadian wore on his infuriated face was enough to make him want to run. You can't back down, Dave, he told himself silently as he watched a few more pairs of harsh eyes settling in on him. The not-so-quiet volume of Adam's comment had drawn the attention of more than a few. You have to own up to what you did.

"Please, Adam, I'm just.. I came here so that I could explain," he said, placing his hands in the air with a very placating gesture.

"Explain?" Adam questioned, a short, rueful laugh accompanying it. "There's nothing to explain, Dave. We know what you did."

Over the past few hours, Trish's doctors had revealed more and more about her assault. The patterns of the bruises and contusions on her body led them to believe that - while only one person had actually raped Trish - there had to have been more than one attacker involved. Once they had made that news known to the WWE employees waiting in the lobby, it took only a matter of seconds for them to conclude that Evolution was behind all of it. Needless to say, Dave was one of the last people they wanted, not to mention expected, to see.

"You don't know how guilty I feel. Please, I just want an opportunity to explain why I did it. All I'm asking for is five minutes to talk to you all. I think I deserve the chance to..."

"You don't deserve shit," Adam cut him off bitterly.

He glared at the larger man in disgust, and it was all he could do not to try and strangle him with his bare hands. As far as he was concerned, there was no reason. Nothing could justify what had been done to Trish.

Dave sighed... he knew he should have waited longer before showing up at the hospital, but he just couldn't. The overwhelming guilt had consumed each and every one of his thoughts, and he knew he would not be able to rest until he at least got the story off of his chest to those that needed to hear it. He glanced over at some of the others in the room, his gut twisting as he noted the somber, sad looks on all of their faces. Dawn Marie and Stephanie both appeared to be fighting tears, and even a few of the guys looked to be nearing that point.

He tore his gaze away from them, blinking back the moisture he could feel forming in his own eyes. He never wanted to hurt Trish, he never wanted to cause such tremendous amounts of worry and grief on such wonderful people, people he truly cared about. And, God, poor Trish... he could only imagine how the blonde woman was feeling at the moment... if she was feeling anything at all.

"H-how is she?" he asked tentatively.

Adam gave him a funny look, and then turned his head away. Dave took a half step closer to him, worrying that the blonde man may have begun to cry, and the next thing he knew, Adam swung at him, the Canadian's balled up fist making direct contact with his cheek. Dave groaned in pain as his hand flew to his face. Adam had swung at him with every last ounce of strength he had left in his body, and to say that it hurt was a severe understatement.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?! You can't just show up pretending to be concerned now! Where was your concern while you were there? Where was your concern when you were beating on a defenseless woman?!" he challenged, shaking his fist a bit to get rid of the sting.

"Adam, calm down, you're getting too loud," Jay spoke from his seat.

He wanted to get up so that he could attempt to restrain his best friend, but he wasn't about to be punched as well. He remained, just as the others had, in his seat, completely still.

"No!" Adam cried defensively, not even bothering to glance back in Jay's direction. "Was it worth it for you, Dave? The money, the fame, the high profile career, is it worth hurting innocent people?"

"No!" Dave cried back, just as defensively. "You don't understand, I had no choice. I had to do it."

Adam shook his head again. If anyone thought a man with the size and power Batista held could be pushed around, they were full of shit. He stared at Dave for a bit, and before he knew it, he found himself lunging at him again, this time throwing his entire body towards him. However, this time, both Chris and Jay had grabbed a hold of Adam and yanked him away as he made contact with Dave. The force was still strong enough to knock him off balance and send him to the floor.

Instead of getting to his feet, Dave remained on the floor, watching as the two blonde men carried a screaming Adam out of the room. Stephanie and Dawn were not far behind, Dawn trailing right behind the men in an infuriated huff. Stephanie paused on her way out the door, turning to face him.

"Maybe it'd be best if you left," she suggested quietly, before turning her back to him and following the others.

Taking a deep, shaky breath, Dave shook his head, trying to knock away some of the cobwebs caused be Adam's brutal punch. He remained in that spot for a few moments, wanting to at least collect himself physically before rising from the floor. Finally, he picked himself up off the floor, moving over to one of the armchairs and taking a seat.

He buried his face in his hands, sighing deeply. He just couldn't believe that he had actually done some of this. He was partially responsible for all the damage that had already been caused. And judging by the display Adam put on a few minutes ago, the worst still seemed yet to come. And the worst part of it all, the part that was torturing him more than anything, was that he deserved anything and everything he was going to get.

He couldn't even bear to think of what his family would think - or even worse, what Trish would think. She trusted him, considered him to be one of her friends, and he betrayed that trust in the worst way possible.

"I can't believe you did this, Dave."

The sound of the voice startled Batista, and he lifted his gaze from his hands. His eyes widened and the already torn pieces of his heart fell apart as he realized who was sitting directly across from him, and had apparently been there the whole time. He hadn't seen him through all the commotion that had ensued. Aside from Trish herself, he was the one person Dave dreaded seeing the most.

"Randy..."