One of the events mentioned in this chapter was inspired by Hyrde's excellent one-shot Fall for You. Check it out for the for the full story on how Seth helped Dean escape from the closet he was locked in.

"What the hell is going on?" Roman asked, staring out the door Seth had just stormed out of. "You and Seth having private conversations now that I'm not invited to? You planning on leaving me too?"

"It's not like you would really notice if I did," Dean muttered under his breath.

"What's that? I don't think I heard you clearly," Roman said with an edge in his voice.

Dean rose to his feet and looked Roman in the eyes. "I said," Dean replied over-enunciating each word, "that you wouldn't notice if I did. You're always too busy to hang out anyway. But, to answer your question, no it wasn't like that. I was just exploring the building-"

"As one does," Roman cut in.

"So, I'm curious. Sue me, smartass. You wanna hear this story or not?" Dean bit back.

"Please, continue," Roman replied in an overly formal voice as he walked around the table and joined Dean on the other side.

"So I was exploring the building," Dean repeated, "and when I looked in here I happened to find Seth."

"So then you two just decided to sit down together and have a nice heart-to-heart discussion, even though for the last couple of months you haven't been able to be in the same room together without fighting?" Roman questioned skeptically.

"Well. . ." Dean hesitated feeling oddly protective of Seth.

"Well?" Roman shot back, growing impatient.

"He was crying, okay? Seth was crying, and I was curious. I told you already. I'm a curious guy!"

"So Seth was crying. And then what? You decided to comfort him?" Roman asked sarcastically, wondering if he was ever going to get the whole story.

"No. I mean, I just wanted to know why he was upset," Dean answered shrugging his shoulders helplessly.

"And why was he upset?" Roman prompted.

Dean paused, thinking about how to best answer Roman's question, then randomly asked, "Roman, did you ever, you know, thank Seth for all the stuff he used to do for us? You know, making all our reservations, washing our gear, that kind of stuff?"

"Dean, I don't see how this is really related."

"'Cause I didn't. The more I think about it, the more I think I was pretty much a dick to Seth most of the time."

"Look, Dean," Roman said firmly, "Seth has clearly been messing with your head. It's what he does. He's a master manipulator. He's probably trying to play some kind of mind game with you. You gotta snap out of it. He betrayed us."

"Yeah, I know that. I was there. Remember?" Dean snapped. "But what I'm getting at is that maybe we share some of the blame."

"He betrayed us!" Roman yelled. "He left us and never looked back!"

"He looked back," Dean said quietly.

"What are you talking about?" Roman asked clearly losing patience with the conversation.

"There's something I never told you. . ." Dean trailed off looking at the floor.

"Well, what is it?' Roman demanded.

"You remember when the Authority locked me in a closet?"

"Yeah."

"Well, Seth got me out."

"Wait, what? You said there was a back door."

"Yeah, there was, but I didn't actually notice it. I was kinda, uhh, freaking out. Seth opened the back door. He remembered that I don't like being trapped." Dean shuddered slightly at the memory.

"Why would he do that?" Roman questioned.

"I don't know." Dean shrugged.

"Why did you never tell me this before?"

"I don't know. We weren't really talking a lot. You were doing your thing. I was doing mine. I mean, that's what we do now, right? Without Seth, we both kind of went our separate ways. And besides, you don't like talking about Seth. It makes you mad."

"Yeah, I guess," Roman shrugged noncommittally. "We are talking about the guy who stabbed us in the back. He curb stomped your head through a cinder block for God's sake!"

"That's another thing. . ." Dean looked sheepish.

"What are you talking about now?'

"The cinder block was gimmicked."

"What?"

"It was gimmicked. It wasn't a real cinder block. He wasn't really trying to end my career."

"And of course you didn't feel the need to share this information. Did you ask him why?"

"What was I supposed to say to him, Roman?" Dean mocked. "Thank you for only pretending to do permanent damage to my skull? I was pissed off and confused. I didn't know what to say."

Roman sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Maybe we should go back to the beginning," Roman suggested. "What did you find out from Seth tonight?"

"That he's miserable."

"Yeah, well, he deserves to be miserable."

"He thinks so too."

"You're not gonna make me feel sorry for him," Roman replied angrily. "He made his bed. He can lie in it."

"That's exactly what he said."

"Really? Weird." Roman paused as if trying to decide if he really wanted to ask the question that had been plaguing him for months. He let out a deep breath and finally asked in a quiet voice, "So, why did he do it?"

Dean sighed quietly and looked up at the ceiling, then plopped down into one of the chairs that surrounded the long table. He slowly rolled the chair back and forth as he tried to find the words to answer his friend's question. "He felt. . . insecure," Dean began slowly. "You know what people were saying on the web back then. That he was the weak link and stuff."

"So he dumped us to prove that he's not the weak link? I just got booed by a whole arena full of people last night. You think I'm gonna feel sorry for him because he was being picked on by a few people online?"

"Just let me finish, will ya?" Dean demanded. "I wasn't done. He felt insecure. He also felt under-appreciated. It wasn't just a few people online who were picking on him. We picked on him constantly, too."

"That's just how we were with each other!" Roman defended. "We all picked on each other."

"Yeah, that's what I always thought, too," Dean agreed. "But really think about it, Rome. Seth didn't really pick back much, did he? I mean, he always took it like a good sport, but he didn't dish it out much. He was mostly too busy looking after the two of us: making sure I iced my shoulder, making sure you knew what time it was back home so you wouldn't accidentally call home at a bad time, that kind of thing. I think he knew your daughter's schedule better than you did! So here he was taking care of us all the time, and we didn't even notice that he was really struggling."

"It's not like we're supposed to be mind-readers, Dean. He should've talked to us if he was having such a rough time."

"Do you really think that would've helped, though? I mean really? 'Cause I don't. I think if he had come to us, we would've given him a hard time. It's not like he kept it a complete secret. I remember him making a few comments here and there. And you know what we did, wonderful brothers that we are? We decided to joke about him being the Marty Jannetty of the Shield where he could hear us."

"But, he didn't hear us," Roman pointed out.

"Oh, he heard us alright. He just chose not to comment. But that was the last straw for him. When Triple H approached him a few days later he basically said 'Screw these assholes. I'll show them who the Marty Jannetty of the Shield is. And they can do their own damn laundry from now on.' And that was that."

Roman sat silently for a few seconds letting this new information sink in. Then he said, "I still don't get it, Dean. What's the problem then? He's showing us, alright. He had a spectacular match last night at the Rumble. He's fighting the face of the company John Cena himself all the time on Raw. He's Mr. Money In The Bank. What more does he want?"

"Oh come on, Roman! How long did we all travel together? Don't you know our little brother at all? He is his own worst critic. In his mind, if he's not on his way to becoming WWE World Heavyweight Champion, then he's a failure. And now he's convinced that he can't beat Brock. So, well, you do the math."

Roman sat down next to Dean and covered his face with his hands. "Ugh, Dean, I'm too tired for this. Can't we just go back to blaming everything on Seth? Life is easier that way."

"Look, Roman, I know it is hard for you to understand. You have a beautiful wife and daughter. A huge family filled with aunts and uncles and sisters and brothers and cousins. Me? I had you and Seth. And then Seth left. And Seth may have been a shitty brother, but honestly? So were you. At least Seth made it perfectly, painfully clear that he was done with me. You? You just started acting like we were mere acquaintances one day without bothering to inform me of our change of relationship status. So you can do whatever the hell you want. But me? I'm gonna find Seth."

And with that, Dean stood and walked out the door.