I apologize for the long wait. Happy reading.

The next morning, Saturday

"Okay man. You know that we have to do something right?"

Randy was dragged from his thoughts as John sat down across from him. "About what?" He asked confused by the intense look on his friend's face. His stomach clenched, knowing that the subject was going to be something he really didn't want to hear.

"About Dave." John stared at the younger man, exasperated.

"Would you give it up already.. I don't think we have too many options right now." He answered, shrugging. He attempted to turn the volume up on the TV.

"Don't you want to know what's wrong with him?" John asked as he got up to pace. He couldn't believe his friend was being so blasé about this.

"What good would it do for us to know? We're not doctors, we can't change what's happening to him." Randy rubbed his hands down his face, hating the feeling of panic that coursed through his body.

"What about emotional support? Isn't that what families do?" The other man persisted, pausing to slap a hand against the wall.

"Dave knows we're here and that he's got all the support he could ever want. But right now he doesn't want it. We have to ask ourselves if maybe we're causing him more stress by pressing him on this."

John stopped his pacing to stare at his friend in shock. "Who the hell are you?"

Randy shrugged self consciously.

"Aren't you the same guy that Dave busted a couple years ago for not confiding in his family that he was sick? Wasn't his main reason for being mad the amount of worry you caused everyone?" John persisted, his eyes lighting up as he hit upon a strategy.

Randy smiled slightly as he acknowledged John's point. "Okay, what do you want to do?" He asked giving in.

"We've talked to just about everyone who has any kind of power over Dave right?" He waited until Randy had nodded. "Not everyone." He announced triumphantly.

His friend stared at him in confusion for a minute before realization dawned. He groaned. "Just for the record, I think this is a very bad idea."

"But you are in?" John pressed.

Randy sighed. "Yeah."

"Good morning."

Mandy opened her eyes slowly, smiling as she stretched newly relaxed muscles. Turning her head she spotted a somber Shawn sitting in the bedside chair. "Good morning." She replied as she slowly sat up.

"How are you feeling?" He asked in a deep voice, watching her with intense but concerned eyes.

Seeing how worried he appeared she reached over and grabbed his hand. "I feel loved and cherished and protected." She started to climb out of bed and was stopped when he leaned over, pushing her back down.

"We need to talk."

She grimaced at the stern look on his face. "I thought we did last night."

He was already shaking his head. "We didn't even scratch the surface and you know it." He leaned forward. "Why didn't you tell me how scared you were?" He demanded.

"I was too embarrassed…" She started.

He waved her words away. "You could have made something up. Just to let me know that you didn't want to be alone." He sighed. "Something, I don't know."

"I wasn't that scared." She tried to defend herself. Her voice trailed off as he silently held up the gun he had retrieved from under the bed. She froze as images from the night before flashed through her head. "Okay," She admitted. " I was pretty scared."

His lips twitched at the look on her face. "How close did you come to shooting me?"

She held up her hands in front of her. "I wouldn't have actually pulled the trigger."

"Honey, I saw the look on your face. Your finger was twitching." Shawn's eyes narrowed as he looked at her. "What did you do to your hands?" He demanded as he drew the extremities to him.

She looked startled, having forgotten about the injuries. "Oh I broke the mirror in the bathroom." she admitted, her breath catching as he gently kissed each scratch.

"You need to be more careful." He admonished softly. "So are you planning to spend the day in bed with me?"

She grinned as she sat back up in the bed. "Does this mean that we're done talking about this?"

His lips twitched again. "Well now that depends. Are you willing to admit that you were wrong to keep this whole mess from me and that you would have been better off if you had confided everything to me sooner?"

Mandy laughed outright as she rolled her eyes. "At the chance of inflating your ego even more than it already is, yes I should have told you." She climbed out of bed and leaned over to kiss him gently on the lips. "Thank you."

­

"Hey babe." John said into the phone as he paced around the room.

"Don't call me that." Journey grumbled on the other end of the line. "Why do you insist on calling me that when you know how it irritates me?"

"Damn girl, I didn't know you were having your monthly thing." He responded sarcastically.

"Are you saying I'm being bitchy?" She asked in a controlled voice.

"If the shoe fits." John replied flippantly. He sighed when she hung up the phone without responding. Hitting the redial button he waited impatiently while the phone rang.

"Listen I'm sorry." He said when she finally answered. "I'm just really stressed out right now."

Journey remained silent, not willing to forgive him so easily.

"We're going to talk to Vince about Dave, see if he can do something or tell us something." He continued.

She chewed on her lip as she thought about it. "Why are you doing this?" She asked finally.

He resisted the urge to slam his fist into the wall. "Why do you think? I'm concerned and want to help him. What's with you and Randy? He's the closest thing either of you have to a father and you're acting like you don't want to know." He was yelling by the time he finished.

"Why are you doing this?" She asked again, her voice no more than a whisper.

He was silent for several minutes, breathing heavily into the phone as he tried to gain control. "I just feel so helpless. I can't do anything about the issues between you an Ari. I need to focus on something. And maybe if I help Dave I can gain some of the ground I've lost with you."

"You know Ari and I wouldn't have problems if you would back me up every once in a while. Every time I tell her to do something she runs to you and you undermine my authority." She answered tiredly.

"How am I suppose to know when you tell her something?" he asked exasperated.

"You could ask her, or better yet you could ask me." She replied.

He sighed. "I just don't understand why she's acting like this."

"She has no respect for me. I'm just your live in lover." Journey replied somewhat bitterly.

"You're more than that, how can you think otherwise?" He demanded somewhat desperately.

"You tell me."

"So how'd the big date go last night?" Mandy asked as she entered her brother's kitchen.

"It got interrupted." He answered frowning into his coffee.

She began laughing. "That is one pitiful face."

Mark frowned up at her "And why are you in such a good mood?" He narrowed his eyes as he looked her over. "I take it Shawn came home last night."

She narrowed her own eyes. "Just because you didn't get any last night doesn't mean the rest of us didn't." She laughed as he growled low in his throat. "Anyway I need to mend some fences. Is Laney upstairs?" She didn't wait for his answer before she headed up the stairs.

"Laney?" She called, knocking on the door. "Can I come in and talk?"

"Sure." The teenager replied. "Are you feeling better?" She asked.

"What do you mean?" The older girl asked cautiously as she sat down at the desk.

"You were different the other day." Laney replied slowly, sitting on the bedside so that she faced her aunt. "I know that I can be an obnoxious brat sometimes but usually you're very patient."

Mandy laughed as she shook her head. "Sometimes I swear you are two different people. But you're right. I wasn't acting like myself. I had received some bad news and wasn't sure how to tell Shawn." She was silent for a couple minutes. "And I was scared." She added quietly.

"Did you get it all worked out? I mean there is still going to be a wedding right?" The younger girl asked quietly. "It's not ruined completely?"

Mandy smiled. "Yes there is still going to be a wedding. Which means we have to go shopping. We still need to find your dress and between the two of us it's going to take the full week and half we have left."

Laney's eyes brightened. "Yeah, shopping! What are we waiting for?" She jumped off the bed, reaching for her shoes.

Her aunt held up her hand. "Just a minute. There's something else I need to talk to you about."

Laney sighed but sat back down, barely resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "What'd I do now?"

"Shawn came home late last night. He said he saw something interesting as he was driving toward the house."

Laney looked at her expectantly, not yet understanding.

""Where'd you go last night?" Her aunt prodded gently.

"Daddy kicked me out because of his date so I went to Leslie's." She answered warily, an inkling of alarm going off in the back of her head.

"So that wasn't you at the party drinking what appeared to be a beer and kissing a boy?" Mandy pressed.

"Oh." Laney whispered as her eyes got wide.

"Yeah oh. Care to explain?" Mandy asked gently.

"I didn't know about the party until I got to Leslie's. Someone handed me the beer and I hardly drank any of it. I don't even really remembered how I got it. And oh my gosh that was Jared I was kissing." She answered in a rush.

Mandy laughed at the expression on her face. "I take it Jared is cute?"

The younger girl got a sappy look on her face as she nodded drunkenly.

She shook her head, still laughing. "Oh Laney honey, what am I going to do with you?"

"You aren't going to tell daddy are you?" She asked turning on her puppy dog eyes. "He would kill me if he knew I was kissing a boy.

"I should." Mandy frowned thoughtfully. "But I didn't actually see you doing it, and it's second hand information. But I'm not speaking for Shawn." She continued quickly when the younger girl squealed and threw her arms around her aunt. "And no more drinking you understand?" She hesitated for a minute. "Laney are you sexually active?"

"Aunt Mandy that was my first real kiss." The teenager stated in exasperation.

"Okay, but sometimes kisses can lead to a lot more really fast." Mandy tried to be delicate. "I just want you to be protected."

"You want me to go on the pill?" Laney asked in astonishment.

"I just think it might be a good idea." Mandy cautioned.

"Daddy would freak." Laney was already shaking her head.

"There are some things fathers do not need to know."

A little later

"Daddy, we're going shopping." Laney called out as she ran down the stairs.

Mark got up to join them in the hall. "What time do you think you're going to be back?" He asked.

She shrugged as she looked up at Mandy. "I don't know. We have a lot we have to get done."

"Oh." He said trying to hide his disappointment. "I was figuring I could give you a driving lesson later."

The teenager shrugged. "I was planning to spend the night at Shawn's so we could get more done on the wedding plans." She told him as she grabbed her coat out of the closet.

"I thought you were all fired up about being able to drive." He pointed out.

She rolled her eyes. "Maybe Mandy will let me drive to the mall." She called as she sailed out the door.

Mandy looked apologetically at her brother. "I didn't know you wanted to spend time with her the afternoon."

He shrugged, not meeting her eyes. "I just felt kind of bad about kicking her out last night."

She put a hand on his shoulder. "They grow up too fast."

He silently agreed as he watched them drive off."

Randy dragged his feet as he approached the group in the hall. He could understand John's reasoning for being here and shared some of his concerns. But the other man didn't understand that Dave was keeping his secret because he knew how his 'children' felt. Randy could admit to himself that when he thought too much about what could be wrong he became really scared. He couldn't lose another member of his family.

"Randy" John called down the hall as he spotted his friend. "Come on, I brought reinforcements."

"I can see that." Randy replied as he eyed he three other men. Shelton and Greg Helms had been kind of like second cousins in their family group and so he understood their presence. Glancing over he frowned at the third man. Carlito was in no way part of their group and could not be trusted to keep this a secret. Turning he glared at John. "Let's get this over with."

John grinned slightly before turning and knocking on the door.

"Come in." Vince's deep voice called out.

Randy shook his head as he followed the group into the small office, keeping to the back wall. He didn't know if he wanted to be associated with this.

"What can I do for you gentlemen?" The CEO asked.

John glanced at the other man before starting. "We are concerned about a fellow wrestler's health and are not sure how to proceed."

Vince sat back in his chair, a blank expression on his face. "I assume you're talking about Dave."

John nodded slowly. "He doesn't look good, but he won't tell us anything. Have you talked to him?"

"I've kept up to date on his rehab. I know that it's going to be longer than we orginally thought before he can come back." The older man answered carefully.

"What does that mean?" Greg asked, a confused expression on his face.

"It means that while I understand that you are concerned, you won't get answers from me." He answered firmly.

"I believe I've already told him that." Paul said as he stepped into the doorway. He aimed a look at John, shaking his head when the younger man turned around to glare at him.

This is bullshit." He exploded at he glanced between the two men. Seeing the stone like expressions on their faces he turned and stormed out of the office, his two cohorts filing out after. Randy slowly followed, his gaze never leaving Paul's face.

Once the door closed behind them Paul dropped heavily into a chair facing the desk. "Randy's taking this hard."

"He doesn't know it but John is just making this harder for him. It's unusual for him to be so single minded about this." Vince added his input.

Paul sighed. "Steph thinks him and Journey are having problems. Maybe he's avoiding that issue by attacking this one." He was silent for a couple minutes. "I'll call Mark, see if he could talk to him."

Vince blew out his breath. "So do you know any more than they did?"

Paul shook his had slowly.