Damaged Goods

Ch 5 Everyone has two faces

Disclaimer- own nothing and no one you recognize. . .yet . . .dun dun dun

"Carrie!" Kane caught up with a familiar group.

"No dice big guy" Janet shook her head. Kane grumbled and started to walk off.

"Should we tell her you're looking for her?" Lizzie did her best to be accommodating.

"y..." His answer lingered while he pondered whether it was wise to search out Carrie. 'I'm going to have to get used to her not being around. I don't want her. I don't need her.' "No" He resumed his pace down the hall.

"Righto" Sidney gave an over exaggerated thumbs to the man walking straight through a sea of human traffic. "Not much of a talker" Sidney noted in a flat tone.

"You're no Carrie" Lizzie shrugged.

"Count your blessings" Janet snickered

"He talks with her?" Sidney's eyebrow rose in an unconvinced manner.

"not sure. But it's quality not quantity. And I'd like to think they got words to say to one another, maybe they haven't said em yet, but those words even Janet would be jealous of-"

"Don't-"

"Just accept it, they've got something going for them" Lizzie soaked in the optimistic ideas.

"Whatever" Janet rolled her eyes

Carrie's nerves had been on edge all night, her breathing rapid, her muscles jittery. 'You're just nervous, first night fright' She tried to convince herself. But she knew that wasn't it, at least not entirely, she was a bit apprehensive about her first televised match. But something else was gnawing at her subconscious, a feeling she couldn't shake, something was going to happen, and she for one, was worried. She honestly wanted nothing more then to scope out the arena for Kane and be absorbed in his strong arms , she never felt as safe and content as she did with him. 'he'd think you're terribly silly' Carrie smirked to herself. 'Running from nothing. I'm turning quite batty.' She felt herself calm, but only for a split second. "Carrie!" Janet held nothing back when tackling her friend into the nearest wall.

"Janet! Cheese and crackers woman, you scared me straight out my skin" Carrie choked the words out.

"Sorry" Janet backed off.

"hey Carrie, Kane's looking for you" Lizzie frowned at the rattled look in Carrie's eyes.

"Did he seem . . .worried. . .troubled?" It was obvious her friends were as calm as kittens so she knew they hadn't caught her bad feeling bug. 'Maybe Kane sensed it too, maybe I'm not crazy. . .not entirely crazy' Carrie was overcome with dread and paranoia.

"No. But you do. Is everything ok?" Sidney asked, already fully aware that something was far less then ok.

"I . . . I feel like something is going to happen. Something bad. You guys are alright? Is Kane fine? Nothing has happened tonight?" Carrie's mind raced with situations in which the people she cared about could come into harms way.

"Everyone's fine" Lizzie shook her head.

"I know what this is. Stage fright. You've got your brain working overtime-" 'That makes sense' Carrie nodded thoughtfully. "You'll be fine. If it's alright with all the higher ups I'll go with you to ringside" he offered. Carrie was already feeling relieved without needing a wingman, she wouldn't need Sidney, but she wasn't sure she'd protest against him tagging along.

"Maybe Kane will go along with you" Lizzie stated with her usual cheerfulness. 'I'll go out on my own' Carrie concluded with new confidence. 'Though I wonder what he'd say if I asked him?' Carrie snickered imagining his response.

"Or him" Janet pointed down the hall, Carrie's smile sprinted off her face. "oooh Carrie's got a not so secret admirer" She teased as the man down the hall read Carrie up and down while they spoke.

"Funny" Carrie laughed to hid her intimidated demeanor.

"Who's that" Lizzie voiced her curiosity.

"Kane" The name seem tainted in reference to the figure that loomed ahead of them.

"I've seen Kane. Every inch of the man, not to shabby I must say but back to the point. That ain't him" Janet scoffed with a smug know it all grin on her face.

"The other Kane" Carrie didn't take her eyes off the mysterious man, she couldn't tell if he had blinked since she had noticed his presence.

"There's more then one?" Sidney sneered unhappily, one Kane was more then enough for his liking.

"In a way" Carrie's voice trailed off.

"You're not making any sense" Sidney scrunched his face in confusion. Though her legs felt like jelly, and the heat emitting from the glare behind the mask was boring holes into her, she walked cautiously yet confidently in his direction.

"Don't flirt to hard, Kane will get jealous. . .of himself" Janet laughed as she watched Carrie near her target. "Sidney, buy me food." She pushed him forward.

"Yes mistress" Sidney sneered.

Carrie put on her best strong facade to mask her trembling worries. This was the man that made Kane anxious, in a way it was Kane, he was scared of himself. 'We all got demons to fear' She mulled over the deep thought for a moment. 'It's just Kane. Pain is nothing. I perceive no threat' She walked herself through a clam mind set as they came face to face. "You know I think-" She started but was unable to make herself finish. He had grabbed her wrist and pulled her to his chest, she could hear his irregular heartbeat. Looking down with angry eyes, he smirked at her discomfort. He lifted her up and like a rag doll she was slung over his shoulder.

"What?" Kane turned to see Carrie's friends, but for the second time, Carrie was conspicuously absent. 'Is she avoiding me?' he felt a pull at his emotions. He couldn't deny it to himself any longer he wanted Carrie, he was finding himself willing to let her in his walled up heart, if he could still recognize it. He longed to hold her, it had been too long since he last felt her warmth. Without her there was nothing to fend off the choking emptiness that plagued him, he had known no other feeling before she came along other then loneliness and envy.

"Is Carrie with you?" Lizzie questioned innocently. Kane looked to his left, then his right, when Carrie didn't pop out at him he turned back to the threesome.

"I think I may be catching Carrie's bad vibe" Lizzie frowned with ever growing concern, she hadn't felt entirely right leaving Carrie with that daunting character, and was beginning to regret it.

"Hmm?" Kane's pulse skipped a beat if Carrie was in trouble he foresaw himself pulling the arena apart piece by piece to find her.

"Maybe that g-" Janet started before a sigh of relief and an adjustment of stature took place. Kane was accommodating the girl who had come up behind him and had rested her head lightly on his shoulder. He lifted her, behind his back, by the waist till her arms fell over his shoulders, her legs wrapped around his waist and her chin perched atop his head. He wanted her as close as he could get. 'I wasn't expecting that. But I'm not complaining' She got comfortable.

"Carrie! See you women worry too much" Sidney let out a reassured breath.

"What smells like burnt hair" Janet lobed her gaze upwards knowing where the answer was coming form, preparing herself for the story.

"See I was juggling cards-"

"Flaming cards" Sidney added.

"Yes. Too calm me down, you know-"

"You are one deliciously weird chick" Janet rolled her eyes.

"Sorry. Anyway I hadn't really been paying to much attention on where I was going and a door comes flying open at me, one fell right into my hair. Singed it good before I could get it out. Is it real noticeable?" Carrie asked feeling slightly embarrassed. She was surprised to feel Kane's large hand comb through her wavy hair. She relished in his touch blind sighted by Kane's new found outwardness. 'I don't repulse him as much as I thought.' But as soon as the sentiment trailed off she felt him tense beneath her. "What?" She asked quietly, wondering what she had done to make him flinch.

"Did you burn your arm too?" He pulled her arm in front of his face from her wrist to her elbow the flesh was covered with an ace bandage, holding it lightly as so not to see pain in her face he turned all sides to his view. He could see spots where blood had seeped through. 'that's no burn. She hasn't had her match yet. What the hell happened?' his jaw tightened finding himself upset with no outlet to release it.

"N. . .no" She admitted cautiously. Retreating from her oh so comfortable spot on Kane's back. She reclaimed her arm pulling it to her chest in reflex. Kane turned to her she seemed meek and reclusive, something had stirred her and he wanted to set it right.

"What happened" Sidney required more facts.

"broke a window with it" She put her forearm up in example. "How much do windows cost now a days. I probably need to replace that thing" Carrie allowed herself to ramble for a moment.

"Any particular reason?" Sidney pried.

"or on some loopy whim with crackpot reasoning?" Janet scoffed, she knew Carrie's antics were bizarre but something about Carrie's temperament made side against that theory.

"No" Carrie shook her head, staring at her shoes wanting in that moment to be anywhere but entrapped by understandably nosy friends. Her plan to keep very hush hush about the whole thing was going up in smoke.

"Well in case you've forgotten Carrie. You have your first and maybe only match tonight. I can't wrap my mind around how you've let yourself get injured already" Sidney took her arm from it's nesting spot against her heart, inspecting it in disapproval.

"Well Sidney. I had to get out of that storage closet somehow, or I would've risked missing my match all together. Not me i couldn't live with myself letting an opportunity like that pass i worked hard to gain the skill to stand my own. So desperate times call for desperate measures" Carrie stated nonchalantly hoping to appease their inquisitive nature.

"Why were you in a-"

"Wait stop the presses." Janet's mind, before the other's, had put two and two together. "That guy locked you in a closet? What'd he'd do to you in there?" You could see the light bulbs go off in the minds of Lizzie and Sidney as frowns slicked across their faces.

"What guy?" Kane snarled, possessive over what wasn't nearly his.

"The-"

"Janet!" Carrie warned, that was as far as she would let it go. She wouldn't play into that man's hand. She wouldn't let him spook Kane, wouldn't let him hurt Kane. Her arm was a small causality.

"What did he do?" Sidney persisted adamantly.

"Who?" Kane's voice was confused and bitter. 'What is Carrie. . .Who is Carrie hiding from me? Is she planning something, something like what Lita did?' he questioned her motives in not trusting him, not noticing the hypocrisy of the notion.

"Nothing I was trapped in there and he did nothing. Except talk, for someone shouldn't talk, he wouldn't stop. I couldn't get him to stop. I had to get away" Carrie's voice broke into a quiver as her mind tossed back at her face the horrible things that horrid man had drilled into her. Kane teetered on his toes considering how to console her her, forgetting his mistrust. Moving uncertainly he pulled her gently to his chest, stroking her head as he held her. She looked up at him grinning playfully, feeling safe and cared for. "Kane" She barley murmured. In a rushed motion before reconsidering he pressed his lips against hers. 'She's beautiful, I need Carrie to be mine I can't think straight. . .but I know I can't go back to the way I was' He felt her lean into the kiss, her arms wrapping around his waist encasing him with a feeling of want and encouragement.

"Ahem" Sidney cleared his throat. Kane, being previously lost in Carrie's essence, came back to reality and backed away a few steps his face returning to it's emotionless front, he would not allow it to be found out how vulnerable she made him, he couldn't let that happen.

"Oh good job Sid. You ruined one of the few good moments in Carrie's miserable life" Janet scoffed. Carrie stood there dazed, still not used to Kane's new found boldness, but enjoying it all the same. She was left with a lingering affection mixed with confusion. 'Don't fool yourself Carrie, a week from now he wont even remember your name' She wanted to keep her feet firmly on the ground so as not to fall on her ass in the future. Falling in love, if that word still held any value, was a dangerous escapade that she wasn't sure she wanted to take another swing at just yet. She wished Kane would make it easy and say she was worth keeping, erasing her doubt, but that was an unrealistic hope. 'He kissed me. Does that mean he cares or how much I would give up to him without a fight' her mind and heart battled one another 'All of me, all he'd care to have of me' She answered the query she brought upon herself. She sighed a hearty sigh mulling over all her thoughts. She was falling for the man in front of her, no doubt and past experience could cloud that.

"I..." She wanted to profess her need for Kane as well as how happy that he had made her by reciprocated contact with her. But in front of her friends, it was neither the time nor place for that. "I've got to go get ready" She took a deep breath. "Wish me luck" She smiled giving Kane a peck on the cheek.

"Luck" He smirked the feeling of her lips lingered on his face as she skipped off.

"Kane and Carrie sitting in a tree K I S S I N G, first comes love then comes-"

"Who locked her in the closet?" Kane put and end to Janet's taunt.

"From what I gathered. . .you" Sidney stated blankly.

Quite assured nothing could ruin her night, Carrie made her way to the curtain with confidence. Mid stride she was pushed against a wall 'Jezze these walls are sturdy' She remarked to herself that being at least the third time she was strewn into a wall. Large hands held her in place his mammoth frame blocking everything else from view. "I didn't tell him. He's not coming" She snapped defiantly, she could feel the grip on her wrists tighten.

"Delaying the inevitable" his muffled voice mad her cringe, seeming hollow and vindictive.

"You. . .You don't do him justice. Hiding behind behind someone else's mask I-" he had let her go, repulsed by her touch, enraged by her comment. She couldn't make her legs move, she couldn't escape.

"we're, two in the same. No matter who denies it. He is still all the things that you hate about me. Remember that the next time you're swapping spit with him. Or is that what you like, that he's a heartless monster. Tell me, Carrie" his breathing was heavy, almost labored. "Does it make you excited, to know he will tare you to pieces, like the nothing you are?" his face was as close as Kane had been, but no tender moment was exchanged.

"Maybe, I'm a monster myself. . .no heart" her voice was almost a cry as she was brutally honest with both him and herself. "or maybe I just like to 'swap spit'" And with that statement she leaned in closer, lingering for a second then spat in his leather bound face before regaining the reeling in her legs and storming off. 'Damn, first impressions Carrie first impressions' She kept her mind off the snarky words that dripped from the imposter's lips.

"introducing first, from Salem Oregon, Carrie Preston."

"Not a moment to spare! Wait Kane?" Carrie panicked not knowing which face of Kane she was going to see.

A/N- Thanks for the encouraging reviews. This chapter isn't very good I apologize it's a transition to a new set of problems. . .i hope if not it's just a lame chapter. Anyway ill try and update soon

Sarah