A Light In the Dark
Chapter 4

Vince was sitting in one of his favorite places: his office in an arena prior to Monday Night Raw. Granted, he liked arenas a lot more before things went to hell the previous year. Still, for some odd reason, the arenas still felt like home to him, and that's what Vince loved.

He heard from somewhere that if someone close to you passed away and you used to do certain things together, it would make you feel closer to that person if you continued doing whatever it was after they passed. Vince wouldn't dare to start play fights backstage, as that was something Shane usually initiated, but he felt like his son was always with him, especially at arenas. After all, he had been bringing Shane to arenas since he was around two years old... He was too much of a proud new father to not bring his kid around to show off to the guys.

A sudden knock on the door tore him away from his thoughts, and he was barely able to shout out a 'come in' before the door opened and Randy Orton slid into the room and shut the door behind him.

The two stared at one another somewhat awkwardly before Randy smiled sheepishly and waved. "Hi!"

Vince smiled back at him. "Hello, Randy."

"How goes it?"

Vince shrugged. "You know how it is... Same shit different day."

Randy nodded his head, then fell silent. He always felt awkward when it came to having to go to Vince's office to talk to him about something, but the feeling was intensified by the anniversary that had just passed. Randy noticed the general morale of the locker-room had changed ever since Shane died; everyone seemed somewhat down all the time, and that got worse when Paul was sent to prison and Shawn stopped coming around as much as he used to. On this night, however, the locker-room was like a ghost town. Nobody was around, and going by the conversations with the few people Randy stopped to speak to, nobody felt like even existing that day.

Some of the guys had even taken to wearing bands on their arms with the initials 'SM' on them in Shane's signature navy blue and white almost all the time. Randy thought it was a great idea when he saw John Cena had made his own (as he was the first person to start it, although Randy had mentioned it a few days before) and had the seamstresses work on hundreds of them; and he literally gave them out to anyone who asked for one. In one city alone, he gave out five hundred and seventy-two of them to the fans. Granted, he had help from some of the guys, but it was still a great feeling, nonetheless. Vince seemed overly joyed by it when he saw a bunch of the fans, backstage workers and wrestlers wearing the band on what would have been Shane's birthday.

He seemed honored when the guys kept wearing the band, despite the fact that the days were insignificant.

"Every day is significant when it comes to honoring Shane's memory." John had said, and it was left at that.

Randy was suddenly brought back to his current problem... The WWE was in San Antonio, and he had heard that Shawn was supposed to be coming to the arena. He wasn't exactly sure about how to bring it up with Vince, although he knew that everyone kept tabs on Shawn since what happened a year prior, but it had to be done...

"So... Um..," Randy paused to meet Vince's gaze, then sighed. "We're in San Antonio..."

"You know your geography. Impressive, Orton." Vince replied, sounding somewhat agitated, almost as if he knew where the conversation was going.

"Doesn't... Um... Doesn't Shawn live around here..?" Randy asked, slowly piecing together the right words.

"Yes." Vince growled.

"Um... Okay... Now, don't hurt me... But... I, uh... I heard Shawn was supposed to be coming to the arena tonight."

Vince sighed and nodded his head ever so slightly. "You know I would never intentionally hurt you, Randy... But, yes, I heard the same thing."

"Have you spoken to Shawn at all..?"

Vince sighed again, then ran a hand through his hair. "No, I haven't... Not in at least a month or so... You?"

"I went to see him the other day."

Vince raised an eyebrow. "Oh? How did that go?"

"It... Went. We spoke a little bit about how things were going in the business. He mentioned possibly coming back, but being very unsure of himself when it comes to being in arenas, ya know..? Although he did seem a little funny in general..."

"How do you mean?"

"Well... When I was talking, he would glance to the other side of him frequently, almost as if he was looking at something."

"That's odd." Vince commented.

"It is... Especially since there was nothing there."

Vince brought a hand to his chin in thought. "Are you sure..?"

"Positive."

Vince sighed. "Nothing has been the same..."

Randy immediately knew what Vince meant and sighed. "It's never going to be the same, Vince... We just have to learn how to... Move on."

Vince narrowed his eyes angrily. "Maybe I'd rather have my damn son back."

"And maybe I'd rather have three of my closest friends back. We can't always have what we want, Vince. I thought you understood that," Randy waited until Vince looked him in the eyes before he continued. "Look... Shane might be gone, Shawn might be mentally unstable and that asshole will be in jail for years on end... But you have Declan, Kenney, Aurora and Liam... You have people around you who love you, Vince. We're trying to help. I wanna help. You know I do... You just need to let us."

Vince rolled his eyes in agitation. "You know what, Randy-"

Randy was somewhat thankful for the knock on the door, and was even twice as thankful when it opened and John Cena slid into the room. "Uh... Hey, boss... Stephanie wanted me to tell you Shawn is here."

Vince and Randy locked eyes for a moment, then looked back at John. "Okay... Where is he?"

"With Stephanie, I think."

"...You mean to tell me you lost Shawn..?"

"Well he is fully capable of walking, ya know."

Randy was trying really hard to not facepalm while listening to the conversation. If he was anywhere else, he might have left the room and let the two men continue talking...

"Randy! Go find Shawn!"

Randy jumped at Vince's words, but nodded and slid out of the room anyway. He walked around the arena without direction. After all, it had been quite some time since Shawn was last at a WWE event, and even then, it was always obvious where Shawn would be... All you had to do was figure out where him and Paul liked hanging out in said arena. Plans for him to get back in the ring were halted after that one night in Montréal, and plans for him to be involved in the business as anything went to complete hell the night of Shane's tribute show.

Randy tried to tell Vince that attempting to involve Shawn in too much too soon would be a huge problem, but he didn't listen. It wasn't much of a shock to Randy when Shawn completely flipped out backstage that one night... It was a shock, however, when Shawn gave him a black eye.

Turning the corner towards the cafeteria, Randy pulled on the breaks, stopping short before he crashed into the man he was supposed to be looking for. He was able to avoid him, however, as Shawn had his back to Randy and was looking at the wall.

"Shawn?"

Shawn whirled around to face Randy. "Oh, it's you."

Randy scoffed, then raised a confused eyebrow. "Who else would it be?"

Shawn shrugged his shoulders. "Dunno. Anyone, I guess... Although, I do have to say, we'd rather it be you than someone else..."

"...'We?'"

"Ugh, you know what I mean. Me. I. Same shit."

"But... You said 'we'd.'"

"I know what I said. I didn't mean it."

Randy rubbed his forehead in thought. He considered what Shawn was used to when it came to being in the arena as opposed to how much things changed recently. Shawn was definitely used to speaking for both himself and Paul... However, there was the thing from when Randy was at Shawn's house several days prior...

"Shawn... Can I ask you a question?"

"I don't know. Can you?"

Randy had no choice but to smile. That sounded a hell of a lot like the old Shawn... But he had to continue and ruin the moment. "The other day when I was at your house... What were you looking at?"

Shawn raised a confused eyebrow. "What?"

"When I was at your house, you were looking to your left, almost as if you were looking at someone or something... What were you looking at?"

Shawn shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Randy sighed. "I think you do, and you're just either too confused about it or too embarrassed to admit it to me."

Shawn scoffed at Randy, then rolled his eyes. "Why in the blue hell would I be too confused or too embarrassed to admit anything to you, Orton?"

"You tell me."

"Judging by the way you're talking to me, I'd assume you already have something in mind. So... What is it, Orton? What is it you think I'm too ashamed to admit to?"

Randy sighed again, taking a long moment to stare at Shawn. "I think you..."