"What did you tell him?!" Seth finally confronted Renee to ask her whether she had something to do with Dean's strange behavior. For a whole week Dean treated Seth as a poor guy who everybody gossips about and he himself knows nothing about it. Now it started to make sense. Yes, Renee was the person to blame for that. And Seth freaked out when he realized Dean believed that Seth was the one Renee had a crush on. That explained why Dean seemed like wanting to tell Seth something but never did.
"Well, I did not tell him that. He just came to a conclusion and I did not correct him," she defended herself. "I mean, what was I supposed to say? Uhm, I'm sorry to interrupt you, Dean," she dramatized to make a point, "but you're wrong. I don't love Seth, I am actually in love with you?" Renee hoped that Seth would realize how ridiculous that would be.
"I guess not," he replied. "But do you really think that this is gonna solve the problem?"
No, I really don't," she admitted. "Right now, I don't see any solution. I am desperate, so if you have any idea, just tell me. I apologize for getting you involved in this, but I was really desperate. And I freaked out at the thought of him knowing the truth." She paused, then tried her luck. "Does it really bother you that much?" She hoped to get a negative answer, but when Seth stayed quiet, she continued, however, she switched to a defensive mode. "If you mind, I can try to do something about it, I can tell him it's . . ." She tried to come up with a name but failed.
"No," he stopped her, and rested his hand on her shoulder. "It's alright. I know that it's been hard on you. Just next time, if you gave me a heads up, it would nice," he spoke friendly to her.
"Yeah, I should have. I know. I guess I forgot about the whole situation," she tried to explain her actions, or a lack of them.
"You mean you forced it out of your mind," he corrected her. "That's ok."
"I wish I knew what to do," she was thinking out loud. "The only thing I know is that telling him would be a bad idea."
"At this point, I have to agree with that. I know I told you before you need to tell him, but now he's in a relationship and you don't want to confuse him, do you?"
Renee lingered on the word 'confuse' for a while. It could only confuse him if he felt something for her too. She wished she could read his mind and see what he really thought about her. If she told him, would he hesitate what to do? Would he be like "No, thanks," and go back to his new girlfriend, or would he, even for a second, consider breaking up with her in order to get together with Renee? Renee tried to convince herself that it was better not to know. Those what if questions never work, anyway.
"You know that I don't," she told Seth, who had to wait for her answer. "I just wish we could forget about the whole thing."
"Well, I doubt that it will be that easy. Now that Dean knows, I mean, he thinks he knows the truth, he's not gonna let it go just like that. I bet he already told Roman, and I believe that it's just a matter of time until he tells me as well."
"Why would he do that?" Renee wondered.
"First he wants to be a good friend and, unlike you," he emphasized, "he wants to give me a heads up, and second," he continued, "he's not that good at keeping secrets. It would not surprise me if half of the locker room knew by next Monday."
"No!" she exclaimed in unhidden horror. She would panic if that happened. "That cannot happen. Tell me it won't," she tried to find a support in Seth who was, unfortunately for Renee, only half joking. "If people find out, I am screwed. God, I've never thought of that scenario. Why the hell did I tell him?" She wished she could go one week back and prevent herself from telling Dean.
"Don't worry," Seth tried to calm her down, "I'll do something about it. I can talk to him, or," he changed his mind when he realized that he was not supposed to know about the situation, "I'll tell Roman to talk to him."
"Yeah, let's involve more people. That'll solve the problem," she said ironically.
"Renee, breathe," he suggested. "Nobody knows, and nobody's gonna find out."
Seth held her worried head and pressed her against his chest. He snuggled her in his arms while sitting on the couch in the common room. He knew that was the one place nobody visited so it was an ideal spot for a private conversation. What he did not realize was that he shared this secret sanctuary with two other people, the ones who could ruin the peace that Renee finally found. It took Seth a while to calm Renee down, but he seemed to have succeeded when he placed her legs up on the sofa and her upper body down on his thighs covered in the Shield gear.
There was not much time left before the start of Raw and they were all already dressed up, Renee had her hair done, but none of that mattered. For Seth, the highest priority was to tranquilize Renee so that she would be emotionally ready for her interviews as well as her encounters with Dean. Seth smiled when he noticed that Renee seemed to have fallen asleep, and did not mean to wake her up immediately. Instead, he carefully lifted her head while standing up, and placed it back on the couch without ruining the happy moment for her. She was still asleep when he approached the door and decided to leave her there for at least a couple of minutes. He would come back later to let her know it was time to get ready for Raw, but until then, she could use the serenity of the Shield's haven.
But as soon as Seth closed the door behind him, he spotted Roman and Dean walking his way.
"Oh, shit," he exclaimed quietly so that they would not hear him.
"Seth, you want to revise the dialogues?" Dean suggested.
"Yeah. . . . Yeah, sure," he planned to sound smooth, but it was harder than it seemed. He kept thinking about them walking inside and finding Renee lying on the couch.
"Shall we go inside?" Roman asked, and pointed at the room that Seth wanted to avoid.
"Actually, I need to get my vest from the locker room," he said, and he wasn't even lying as he luckily left it in the bag which was located in one of the lockers. "So why don't you come with me there and we can revise it on the way?" he continued. He was glad they did not question him or find his behavior suspicious.
"Ok, sounds good," Roman replied, and all three of them started walking away from the room that brought too much stress into Seth's life in the past few minutes.
When he thought it was finally over and he succeeded in taking Roman and Dean's attention away from the room, Dean suddenly stopped walking and turned the other way. "I'll catch you two in a minute, I just need to check if my phone's not in there. I can't seem to find it," he mumbled, and it was too late for Seth to stop him. When he realized what was going on, any kind of action on his side would be considered suspicious. So he just gave up and continued walking toward the locker room together with Roman, leaving Dean to the surprise that was awaiting him.
Dean opened the door and was about to slam close it when he saw Renee lying on the sofa, sleeping. Her face was gentle and peaceful, her eyes were closed so that he could stare at her without her knowing about it, her hands were placed under her head, knees bent so that she could fit her whole body on the short piece of furniture. Her blonde hair was covering half of her face, but it could not cover up her beauty.
It took Dean a minute or two to realize the world did not stop turning in the moment he saw her, and he finally closed the door. One quick sight of Renee was enough for him to forget why he entered the room in the first place. He was able to focus on her only. He slowly moved closer to her until he could not make any more steps without hitting the couch. Then he sat down on the floor next to her, Indian style, and followed his instinct to stroke her cheek. He caressed her hair while looking at her lovely lips. He placed his finger on them and licked his lips fighting with some unknown desire.
When he realized something strange was going on, he sobered up from the dream-like moment and returned to reality. The unknown scared him. That urge he couldn't explain. He immediately took his hand away from her and moved his whole body backwards a little to give himself space to breathe. There was still difficulty with swallowing whilst staring at her. But he couldn't look away for another couple of seconds. When he finally did, he stood up and, leaving everything untouched and the way it was before he entered, he simply walked away.