I glanced at the delicate diamond watch that my father had given me the previous Christmas for what seemed like the millionth time that evening. Vince was a great guy, a true gentleman...but his parties always sucked.

The majority of the people that were there had passed the half century mark years ago and the rest of them were hot on thier heels. Shane, Steph, Chris, a few other superstars and their dates and myself were the only people under 35 in the room. I felt a light touch on my arm and turned to see Shane smiling tightly at me. Uh oh. I knew that look...it usually meant that we were about to see or hear a McMahon family rumble.

"Okay, so what is it this time?" I asked, taking his now outstretched arm and heading in the direction of the bar. As we sat down I ordered my fifth margarita of the evening. I ignored the raised eyebrow that Shane shot at me as I ordered my drink. He didn't have one Randy Orton lurking in the shadows of his mind, now did he? Shane ordered himself a gin and tonic, turning to lean against the bar.

"Dad wants me to go to Japan."

I shrugged. "So? It's not like you've never been before." I took a sip of the drink as the bartender sat it in front of me. The brief pause that Shane gave before answering me kinda gave away that it wasn't the same thing as usual.

"For the next six months."

Slowly I sat the glass down on the counter. I turned to look at him, not quite believing what he'd said. "Six months?" My thoughts were going a thousand miles an hour. He couldn't go away for six months! Who would listen to me piss and moan about Randy? He nodded and took a long drink from the glass the waiter had placed at his elbow.

"I'd leave next week." His eyes took on a glassy stare as he looked off into space. I reached out to place a hand gingerly on his sleeve.

"Are you okay?" He looked at me then, with such sad eyes it almost broke my heart.

"Yeah. I guess it's just..." He ran a hand agitatedly through his dark hair. He looked around wildly, as if the room were suddenly too crowded for him. "Look...let's get outta here, okay?" I nodded and we rose, quickly making our way to the cloak room to retrieve my wrap for the evening. We were heading out the door, Shane talking quietly, trying to fill me in all that was happening when I heard that unmistakeable voice behind me.

"Flair."

I turned to see Randy standing there, a drop-dead gorgeous blonde bombshell on his arm. What there actually was of her dress was a bright pink, almost painful to look at in it's intensity. Randy had that old familiar smirk on his face, but something different behind his eyes. If I wasn't mistaken it looked an awful lot like jealousy. He reached up to pick an imaginary piece of lint from the arm of his impeccable tuxedo. And damn, could that man fill out a tuxedo.

"Off already? Is the party that boring, or are you just in a hurry to get home to...other activities?"

I felt Shane tense beside me and gently lay my hand on the arm that was clenched by his side. Turning to Randy I said calmly, "The buffett is to your left and our fathers are to the right. Enjoy yourself, Randy" and with that Shane sneered at him and took off for the elevators, me close at his heels.

"Really, Molls, I just can NOT imagine what you see in him!" Shane grumbled as we stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the parking garage. I leaned back against the coolness of the stainless steel walls and sighed heavily. The evening had been going fairly calmly and then Randy just HAD to go and show up. Little fucker, I thought as I opened my eyes to see Shane staring moodily at the floor. Biting back the sigh that was making its way to my mouth, I reached out and lightly touched Shane's arm.

"C'mon, Shane... it can't be that bad."

The look he gave me right then was enough to make me doubt that statement. He looked like he did the summer we found out that it really wasn't a good idea to feed your pet bird alka seltzer for an upset stomach.

Shane leaned against the wall of the elevator next to me. "Dad's got this bright idea to buy one of the Japanese wreslting operations. He thinks it'd be a good idea to expand our product to other countries." I nodded, encouraging him to continue. "The problem is that the one he's looking at insists that some things remain unchanged within their company. So dad's agreed to a sort of trial run... with me being the one to go and 'learn the ropes' so to speak." He sighed heavily again, letting his head drop back to rest on the wall. "Six months, Molls. Six months in Japan with no one to talk to, hang out with...just...no one."

God, I hated seeing him like this. As much as I like to bitch and groan about him, Shane is the closest thing I've ever had to a brother and knowing that he'd be all alone in a strange country for six months was almost more than I could handle. Naturally I couldn't tell HIM that, but once again, my mouth ran away before my head could catch up with it.

"I'll go with you."