Part 20

"The night I came back, Hunter was acting...weird. I knew he was upset about Shawn having to retire. Since you two were still together then, it made sense that he was going to miss you being on the road with him all the time. As the night went on it seemed more like he was angry with Shawn for deciding to stay home instead of traveling with him. I tried to tell him that it would have been hell for Shawn to be around all the time when he couldn't get in the ring, but that didn't seem to matter to him. He said Shawn wasn't just leaving the business, he was leaving him."

"He was completely irrational for almost two weeks. I know he went to see Shawn that weekend and I'm assuming that they got things straightened out between them. When he came back he seemed almost like our Hunter. He suggested that we start rooming together. He said that Shawn wouldn't mind since it was going to be me and not some ring rat or one of the other guys on the roster. Since we are who we are, I figured he was probably right. It had been awhile since I had been around any of you guys on a regular basis so we kind of binged on the sex thing for awhile." Sean turned his head and looked at Shawn. Shawn smiled slightly at him, acknowledging that he had been completely aware of what had been going on back then and that he didn't have a problem with it. Sean smiled back and then turned to look Scott again.

"For about four months, everything seemed okay. We got along and Hunter came back to the room every night. I'm not sure what happened to change him then, but his temper seemed to be getting more out of control. Hunter unleashed his wrath on anyone with even the slightest provocation. He didn't always come back to the room at night and I don't know where he was staying. When I asked him about it, he went off on me and told me to mind my own damn business. I thought about calling one of you guys, but during the next argument that we had, the following night, he told me that Shawn knew what was going on with him. He said that he didn't want Scott or Kevin to get involved in what was going on and he'd appreciate it if I kept my mouth shut. So because he asked, I kept my mouth shut. Looking back on it now, I wish I hadn't."

"You probably shouldn't have. I have no clue what was going on with Hunter," Shawn said with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "If he was spending his nights somewhere else, he never told me about it. Not that it matters at all now, but I'm guessing he wasn't spending those nights all by himself. Go ahead Sean. What else?"

"Around November, Shawn came back as commissioner. Hunter had asked me the week before his return if we could start getting separate rooms. I knew he'd want to spend what time he could with Shawn, so it wasn't a huge deal, but it kind of hurt that he just tossed me off to the side because Shawn was going to be around. Once Shawn was back, Hunter seemed to calm down for awhile. Although I noticed he was really possessive of Shawn...I don't know that Shawn even noticed it." Sean again looked to Shawn and when he noticed the slight frown on Shawn's face he decided he should explain a bit.

"Hunter caught Adam checking Shawn out in the locker room one night and after Shawn left the room, Hunter slammed him up against the lockers and told him to stay away from Shawn or his career would be in the sewer slicker than... you get the picture. I know he's not the only one that Hunter had a talk with either. Hell, there were times he glared at me if I looked at Shawn sideways. I chalked it up to insecurity where Shawn was concerned, though it didn't really make sense."

Chris raised his eye a bit at that part of the story. He hadn't known about Hunter's warning to Adam, but it made sense. Adam had pretty much avoided Shawn like the plague unless they were with a group of people. He was kind of surprised though that Adam had never mentioned it to him. Chris shrugged it off, making a note to ask Adam about it later and turned his attention back to Sean's story.

"We all know what a basket-case Hunter was when Shawn had his surgery so I'll just skip all that except to say it didn't get much better until Shawn came back to TV. Not too much after that they had him joining the corporate ministry...that's when the changes became more noticeable. I was starting my feud with Glen and we became friends, onscreen and off. Hunter was less than pleased about that. He said I shouldn't be making friends with people that were going to hurt my career. I didn't know what he was going on about, but to save fights I didn't let on to Hunter how often Glen and I were hanging out. I even made up excuses so that we could get together sometimes. Not that he would have really noticed...Shawn was still around off and on and he seemed to be making friends with the other members of the new ministry. I guess they were good enough to be friends with because they could help his career."

Chris couldn't help but smirk though he hid it behind the fall of Sean's hair. That sounded exactly like the Hunter he knew. Unless you were going to boost his career or put out for him, Hunter didn't seem to have time for you. He didn't expect any of the others believed it yet though. Maybe by the time Sean was done, they would.

"Things went pretty smoothly up until the night the "King of the World" here," Sean patted his hand slightly on top of Chris' and looked over his shoulder with a smirk, "made his debut. I'm pretty sure that's the night everything started going to hell in a hand-basket."

Chris couldn't help but stiffen a bit at that. His debut? How the hell did he figure into things at that point? He couldn't even remember anything significant happening that night, other than meeting a whole bunch of co-workers. Now that he thought back on it, he hadn't met Hunter or Shawn that night. Chris looked over at Shawn, confusion plain on his face. Shawn looked pretty confused himself and he shrugged slightly in answer to Chris' silent question. Chris looked back at Sean and raised his brow? "What does my debut have to do with any of this?"

"That's easy. That's the night a big green-eyed monster bit Hunter right on the ass. Shawn was watching your debut in the locker room. He seemed a bit...fixated on the screen." Sean looked over at Shawn with a huge smirk on his face.

Shawn blushed and pouted a bit. "Hey, even though Hunter and I were still together then, it didn't mean I was dead. I am a guy after all. I'm going to look when there's pretty scenery."

"Pretty scenery?" Chris, sounding a bit out-raged, was now sporting his own blush and glaring at Shawn.

Sean snickered as he looked back at the two of them over his shoulder. At least they'd given him a moment to catch his breath and he had needed just a small break before telling the rest. This was where things were going to start getting really ugly and he wasn't looking forward to telling them about what all had happened. He was pretty sure Chris knew most of it, but there were at least a few surprises in store for the Ayatollah.

"Anyway...Shawn was staring at the screen," Sean turned and stuck his tongue out at Shawn. "Hunter tried to get his attention, several times in fact. When Hunter realized what had Shawn mesmerized he got seriously ticked off. Shawn, seriously, if looks could kill...you would have been toast on the spot with the look he was drilling into your back. Hunter made a few nasty remarks under his breath, which you obviously missed out on, and then stomped out of the locker room, which you also missed. We were all invited to the welcoming party after the show. Do you remember what you did that night Shawn?" Shawn shook his head no briefly. Though he knew he hadn't gone to the party, he couldn't recall why.

"Hunter came to you after your last spot and told you he had an awful headache. He wanted to go back to the hotel and nice, sweet lover that you were, you went with him." Shawn shook his head as he realized the implication Sean was making. Hunter hadn't had a headache, he just hadn't wanted Shawn anywhere near Chris.

"The next week was when you actually met Chris. Just long enough to say hello and flash that pretty boy smile of yours. Hunter and I were both standing right there, and as far as I could tell there was nothing wrong with it, but damn was Hunter livid about it. He bitched about it for half an hour while you were off talking to Vince that night. You had stared too long. You'd smiled too brightly. He knew you were interested in the little blond bitch. Sorry Chris. Just repeating what he said. Of course he didn't confront you about it, Shawn. He just whined and bitched about it while you were gone and then tried to act all happy when you came back. If it hadn't been so pathetic, it almost would have been amusing."

"So why didn't you tell me about any of this stuff at the time Sean?" Shawn was honestly confused about why Sean wouldn't have told him. It wasn't like Shawn hadn't had to deal with a bit of jealousy from Hunter before.

"It wasn't my place man. I wasn't going to get involved in your relationship. That was just begging for trouble. Especially with Hunter as pissed off as he was. If I had said anything to you, Hunter would have taken my head off. So I kept it to myself. The next week, Hunter became the new champ for the first time. We were all proud of him and even though you weren't on TV that night you were backstage. We took him out and partied that night and damn did we get drunk. It was almost like old times, until Chris and his friends walked into the same bar. They were clear across the room from us. I don't know that they even knew we were there, but whenever you weren't looking at Hunter, he was glaring at them. At the time I thought it was pretty damn hilarious. Of course that was before what happened after Smackdown that week..." Sean tilted his head, looking in Shawn's direction.

"I'm not sure any of us know what all happened that night, but I know Hunter caught you watching Chris' match that night with Jesse and the part after with Finkel. I also know he was mad enough to spit nails, though he hid it well enough when you turned around and saw him standing there. That was the night you two split up for good, though I'm not sure any of us know all the details."

Read Chapter Twenty One of Undelivered