"You're in love with Dean," Roman repeated a sentence that he found hard to believe. He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and, with many questions in his eyes, looked at Renee who, in that rare moment, seemed to be calmer and better at handling her emotions than Roman. "How did that happen?" he was curious to know.

"Gradually, I believe," she responded half-jokingly.

Realizing the two of them were surrounded by so many people and there was certainly an important and private conversation ahead of them, Roman wondered if they shouldn't go somewhere quiet after all. "Are you sure you want to risk that somebody accidentally overhears what we're talking about?"

"You know, I actually don't mind staying here. I think that nobody is interested in our conversation and moreover, we can always stop talking and –" she kept explaining but was rudely interrupted by Roman.

"You're in love with Dean?" He raised his voice and at that point Renee worried that somebody might hear them; it wouldn't be too difficult considering that Roman was almost shouting. Surprisingly, Renee stayed calm.

"Why are you freaking out?" she asked Roman who seemed pretty upset, what was not a typical feature of his personality.

"I'm not freaking out," he tried to persuade her, but the way he pronounced those words was not very convincing. "I just don't understand what the hell's going on," he continued. "You're in love with Dean," he kept repeating. Renee highly appreciated his change of tone. There was a change in his attitude as well. He smiled at a thought of the possible couple. Then he looked away; he subconsciously searched for Dean but failed to spot him. When he looked back at Renee, the smiled was gone, it was replaced with concern. "Oh," he exclaimed as soon as he realized that Renee and Dean's relationship was not perfect at the moment and it certainly didn't please Renee. "Oh!" Another realization came right afterwards. Until then he seemed to forget about the biggest obstacle, the fact that Dean was in a relationship. "So I guess he doesn't know," Roman assumed.

"Of course not. And there's no need for him to find out," she added, making it clear she insisted that Roman do no tell him.

"So," he returned to the original topic of the conversation, "why are you mad at him? I mean, is there any particular reason?"

"There is. I wouldn't be mad at him just because I love him and he doesn't love me back or because he has a girlfriend and I'm jealous of her," she felt she needed to state.

"I've never said that," Roman opposed.

"I know."

"So what happened?" he asked when she didn't seem she would start explaining without a little push on his part.

"I'm tired of it. I can't take it anymore," she admitted, and suddenly she lost her self-control. She's been trying hard to hold on and get over it, get over Dean, but with him around, permanently reminding her what she was doing wrong, treating her like a little child, giving her orders and acting like all her decisions were wrong, it was incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to move on. He helped her see that she didn't want to be with such person, though. She did not want to be around him and she avoided him because she couldn't stand if he were to give her another lecture. Simply said, she was tired of Dean's shit. She had just enough.

"Is it because of something Dean said? It's always something he says or does," he continued without waiting for Renee to answer his question. "He can't keep his mouth shut. So what was it this time?"

"In order for you to understand, you need to know that Seth knows everything."

"Wait, does he already know you love Dean?" he wanted to be sure.

Renee nodded and added a short explanation, "He sort of found out himself some time ago. I was not happy about it at first but then I realized it was a good thing. I was able to talk to him about it and he was really helpful."

"Was?" Roman noticed the past tense and believed she had a reason to use it.

"Well, apparently I'm not allowed to contact him anymore," she said angrily yet pretending she was amused by it.

"Why would that be?" Roman laughed at the absurdity.

"Because Dean said so," she explained, using sarcastic voice to emphasize how irritating it was.

"That's bullshit." He chose not to believe it, simply because it made no sense.

"There's another thing you need to know. Then it can be more possible for you to understand. Dean believes that I'm in love with Seth," she told Roman, and suddenly it all sounded like a plot from a soap opera.

"And how did that happen?" he wondered.

"I didn't tell him otherwise. Anyway . . ." She decided to conclude it and make it sound more like a real problem. "Here's what's going on. Dean thinks I love Seth but since he's in a relationship he believes that it's too dangerous for us to hang out; that's why he advised me to step aside and avoid him, to avoid temptation or something."

"But you don't love Seth," Roman was trying to keep track.

"Exactly. But since Dean doesn't know the truth, he finds it to be an issue that I keep hanging out with Seth and apparently it is enough to give him right to interfere."

"Oh, I see. He thinks he's doing the right thing but first, it's none of his business, and second, since he knows nothing about it, he's doing more harm than good."

Renee sadly nodded and after standing for a long time, she finally sat down on a chair. Roman followed her; he grabbed a chair and moved it next to Renee, and then he sat down on it. Renee picked up the cup of coffee that she had put on the table nearby so long ago that now it was cold. When she took a sip and found out it didn't taste good anymore, she put it down again and then she looked at Roman hoping that he would come up with a simple solution or advice to her problem. When he didn't say anything, she sighed sadly.

"I wish I could just have a week without seeing Dean. But no, that's not how it works," she ironized. "I need to be around him all the time, I need to make interviews with him, I need to watch him do his job so that I can do mine. Dammit!" she exclaimed. "All I'm asking for is a permission to get him out of my mind," she revealed her concern. "Reality sucks. And now I can't even talk to Seth about it. And Dean's just happily walking around, with his ego, perfect career, new girlfriend, making decisions for me, acting like a God and turning my life into a misery. You know what? Maybe I should quit. That would solve my problems, wouldn't it? I could finally get more than a minute without my mind set on him. I like it here and I like working in wrestling industry but what wouldn't I do to make Dean happy. He wins. I can go back to Canada and interview hockey players or something."

"Stop!" Roman had to silence her. "Just stop! You're not going anywhere. You're staying right here. Dean has no right to act this way. I'm sure he doesn't even know what he's doing and he certainly has no idea how much you suffer because of him. Yes, he can be a pain in the ass sometimes and quite often he believes that he's the one to serve justice even outside the ring, no matter if it's his business or not, but I know he wouldn't be happy if you left. In fact, if he heard you want to leave, he would be the first to stop you. He cares a lot about you, I guarantee that. He cares about Seth too, I suppose that's why he tries to protect him from you, but he sometimes goes too far in what he considers a good deed on his part. He needs to be told what he's done. You know what? You stay here and I'm gonna talk to him right now," Roman took the initiative.

"No." Renee tried to stop him, but her effort was useless. Also, she didn't really want to prevent him from talking to Dean; it was better to have somebody to do it than to keep suffering because of Dean's lack of true-fact knowledge.

"It'll be alright, babygirl," Roman assured Renee, and headed toward the rest of The Shield.