The warmth of a hand on his arm snapped Hunter out of the trance he'd been in ever since he'd made the call. The rain had continued to come and his hair was wet and straggly, dirty blonde strands clinging to the sides of his face. His clothes were moistened enough to stick close to his skin and he hadn't even noticed that his arms were covered in goosebumps. Dawn was breaking overhead but there was little warmth to the cold and cloudy morning.

"How's about we get you inside man, you're freezing and you're wet through."

Hunter looked up slowly, glad to hear a friendly voice and see a familiar face. His bloodshot eyes and puffy features were a shock to the man he'd made the call to, a clear indication to him that all was not well.

Adam squatted down, taking both of his friend's cold hands in his own, the warmth of his touch making Hunters fingers physically ache.

"Lets go and get some coffee and you can tell me all about it. If you stay out here much longer you'll catch your........."

Stopping short of finishing such an inappropriate sentence Adam shook his head in disbelief at himself.

"Fuck, Hunt, I wasn't thinking. C'mon, its my round and maybe putting something in my mouth with stop me using it and making a bigger idiot of myself."

Slowly rising to his feet Hunter was glad of the support Adam provided at his elbow. He was guided steadily back towards the entrance and a dilemma that he couldn't help but want to run from.

"So, where's the cafe?" Adam was chirpy enough and for a moment Hunter allowed a smile to crease across his lips, he'd called the right person. Someone who was going to drag him along when all he wanted to do was sit and break down. Hunter pointed down the corridor and they began a slow stroll together. "Down this way, but don't get your hopes up, I've had better from a burnt out 7-11."

"If it gets you warmed up I don't care how it tastes. I'm glad you called me. How long have you been sat out there alone? Vince told us to leave you be and he'd let us know what was happening but if I'd known, well, I would have ignored the crazy old bastard and come straight down here. Nobody back at the hotel has had a wink of sleep. You know how much everyone loves you guys, how much I love you both."

Adam spoke with a kindly, concerned tone that comforted Hunter, this man had been a friend for as long as they'd worked together and he knew he could trust him with anything. Hunter pushed open the cafeteria door and they filed in, scanning the now busy room for somewhere to sit. Adam put his arm around Hunter's sodden shoulders and squeezed him, trying to communicate just how much he cared. Gesturing towards a free table Adam let him go.

"Now park your ass Hunt, I'm buying and you're drinking. No arguments, just do it."

Hunter closed his mouth, his protest stifled before it had the chance to begin. In response he merely saluted, bringing a goofy grin to Adam's lips and small creases at the corners of his blue eyes. Once Adam had turned to order the drinks Hunter slumped down onto the hard plastic chair and furtively looked around to see if there were any familiar faces from when he'd stormed out of there earlier on. Luckily enough he didn't recognise anyone and was able to wait for his drink feeling a little more calm about his outburst.

Adam returned with a tray bearing 4 large cups of steaming black coffee and an assortment of chocolate bars. Correctly Adam had assumed that Hunter hadn't had anything much to eat or drink since arriving at the hospital last night. He took two of the cups off the tray and pushed them in Hunter's direction, both men reaching for the necessary additions to make their drinks more palatable. As Adam stirred his drink he waited for Hunter to start speaking. He'd concluded on the drive down that people didn't make phone calls like that when there was nothing wrong.

In truth Hunter felt a little embarrassed by the raw emotion he'd shown in that phone call. He sort of half hoped that Adam would have already driven on to the next show and be too far away or maybe too drunk to drive. Seeing him sat across the table sporting a look of concern meant that the note of desperation in his voice had been noticeable and had driven Adam to come here for him.

Hunter couldn't help but be surprised by how much support Adam was showing considering Shawn was the reason their relationship had come to an end. Maybe this whole situation was payback for the way he'd treated Adam; maybe fate wasn't as ridiculous a notion as he'd once thought.

If Adam hadn't answered or not been able to come then his next pick was Steph. Hunter had no idea why he'd never been able to let go of his ex-lovers and always bent over backwards to stay friends. He wasn't afraid of animosity and arguments but never really trusted anyone not to stab him in the back and preferred to keep his enemies on side wherever possible. He thought he could trust Shawn and had done with his secrets, his thoughts, his fragile emotions but now even that was looking like a bad move.

Adam broke the deadlock first. "So, are you going to tell me what's going on because there's go to be something wrong for you to have called me of all people to come down here."

He spoke as softly as his curiosity would allow, knowing that Hunter easily went on the defensive if he thought he was being pressurised or attacked. All the time they'd been together he'd pressed him for answers about how he felt and where they were going and generally got stonewall silence for his trouble if he went about it the wrong way.

Dropping the damp envelope onto the middle of the tray Hunter rubbed his fingers over it for a moment as if he was trying to erase the images inside. He picked it up and held it out for Adam to take it, waiting until it was out of his hand and then taking a long gulp of the sweet coffee.

"Addy, there's nothing I can say that's going to explain better than what's in that envelope. You open it up and tell me what you think is wrong."

Looking up Adam met the stare he'd felt he was getting. He saw the tears well in the eyes that peered back at him mirroring the upset in his own but for vastly different reasons. Hearing himself called Addy by that familiar voice and in such a soft tone after all this time had struck a chord that he thought had long since gone silent. Slowly his eyelids fell and the tears pricked at his eyes. He remembered the last time he'd been called that by Hunter; it was the day he picked the last of his stuff up when he moved out to be with Shawn. Shaking his head to clear the memories as quickly as he could Adam opened the envelope, hoping that Hunter thought his tears were out of sadness for Shawn rather than what they'd had and lost between them.

Hunter concentrated on holding himself together, a nausea in the pit of his stomach that he was showing the photos to someone else who might reach the same conclusions he had. That would mean that he wasn't being paranoid and was justified in feeling so damned churned up inside. Adam flicked through them, passing the first few without comment as Hunter had done himself. Then he got to the first clear image of one of the men.

"Jericho?"

"Yeah, I reckon."

Hunter noted a raised eyebrow as the next image was carefully reviewed and then watched as Adam's eyes nearly popped out, his jaw dropping for a split second. Their eyes connected again but Hunter soon looked down into the bottom of his almost empty cup.

"Jericho. And Shawn? Nah.... What the fuck does Jericho think he's playing at?"

"The last time I looked Addy it took two to tango."

"Shawn, well, he'd never cheat. You can see it in his eyes that you're everything to him. Surely you see that too. Hunter, he truly wouldn't and especially not with Jericho."

"Just look at the others, then tell me again, ok." The sigh that followed Hunter's words signalled that he wasn't quite as convinced.

After several tense and silent minutes Adam dropped the pictures onto the table, his brow furrowed in the struggle to make sense of what he'd seen.

"Who gave you these?"

"Big – I mean, Paul did. He came here earlier. Said he had something for me and that's what it turned out to be."

Hunter's cheeks started to flush red with the rage inside him, still wishing that he had done more damage to Paul

"What, he brought these here? Are you being serious? He half kills Shawn then turns up here with these. Fuck, man. He's got some serious issues if he thinks anybody would appreciate that, least of all you."

"Well thanks for pointing the fairly obvious out there Addy, but I was kinda hoping for some practical advice about what I should do about all this." Hunter's voice was gentler now. He didn't like asking anyone for help or admitting that he couldn't cope with something on his own. That pride had gotten in the way a lot over the course of his life but he realised that now he hadn't got time for it to interfere.

Adam bowed his head. "Hunt, much as I'd love to I can't give you the answer for this one. These photos..." He gathered them up and flicked them between his finger and thumb. "...to me they're probably just friends having lunch together and heading home for a few drinks or something. Jericho has only got his arm round him because its one of the only guys on the roster who's short enough for him to be able to reach."

The attempt at humour failed abysmally. The laugh he'd hoped for didn't come.

"But if it was just lunch, why didn't he tell me?"

Adam had no answer for that one.

A/N: A slower chapter but I still think it was an ok one :) Thanks for sticking with me this far, all reads and reviews appreciated!!