Shannon rolled onto his side in the bed that he was sleeping in alone and stared at the stained white wall next to him. He was supposed to be happy. Adam was supposed to have been his forever after, but instead he had turned out to be just another temporary distraction. They had all warned him that eventually Adam would run back to Jason and they had all turned out to be right. While he lay there cold and alone, Adam and Jason were at their home in Florida celebrating their reunion.

Somewhere behind him in the dingy bug infested hotel room the TV played for no other reason than to make him feel not so alone. It wasn't working though. Rolling over, intending to turn the stupid thing off so that he could go to sleep even though the sky outside was barely pink, Shannon saw the tail end of a commercial for some local wrestling promotion.

Usually he ignored such things because now that he was on WWE TV so regularly he couldn't safely go to such things as he used to be able to. However this commercial ended with the picture of something spectacular… something six foot eight inches tall, blue eyed and all muscles spectacular at that. Something that most people called Bryan Clark, Shannon though just called him Brybear.

It was amazing how one six foot eight inch body held so much pain and longing for one small five foot ten inch body. In the beginning he'd been a very active wet dream that Shannon stared at in the back hallways. When his dream decided to make himself Shannon's fantasy, the younger and much less experienced man had been star struck. Soon though he learned that his dream turned reality came with a very hefty price tag… namely Brian Adams.

BA was everything that Shannon hated about big older men. He was dumb. He was rough and he was mean. Shannon on the other hand was, while pretending to be stupid, actually quite intelligent. Shannon was also one of the gentlest sweetest people anyone could hope to meet. The combination of the two opposites with Bryan tangled in the middle had been a hopeless disaster.

The night Bryan approached Shannon had been a weak one for the young man. 3 Count appeared to be crumbling both on and off camera. Evan had left him to join Randy Savage and his trio of blonde bimbos while Shane found himself hopelessly caught in Raven's web, something that in Shannon's opinion he still hadn't recovered from.

For the first time since Jeff looked at him differently when he was 13 and asked, "how come I never noticed how pretty you are, Shanny," Shannon found him alone. Sitting alone at the bar staring at his bottle of beer, Shannon had been wondering, who was going to take care of him now, when Bryan sat down next to him. All it had taken was one soft smile and a few sympathetic words and Shannon had been hooked.

Shannon had been more loyal to Bryan than he'd ever been to anyone else even tolerating the undesirable advances from BA, all for Brybear. He ignored warnings from his friends, Bryan's friends, and the rest of the world, sure of Bryan's commitment to him. He's tried his best not to fight with BA, but the man acted as if Shannon was some brainless child, which the younger man couldn't stand.

It all came to head one terrible night though, when BA revealed the truth. Their entire relationship had been based on a lie and a dare. Bryan told Shannon that he'd been watching him for the longest time wishing that Evan would just disappear; before his defection to Randy's harem gave Bryan the opening he'd been waiting for. BA revealed that Bryan thought Shannon was just a dumb little kid. Bry had only approached him because he'd lost a bet and was trying to find out if Shannon was the hot piece of ass that Evan said that he was.

When Shannon's big green eyes filled with tears and turned to meet Bryan's blue ones the older man hung his head in shame. "Brybear?" Shannon asked heartbroken, but his big teddy bear had just turned and left. Shannon burst out crying and had run from the room to Shane's, where he found his friend tied to the bed and on the receiving end of Raven's whip. The insensitive older man had growled at him to join them or leave and after Shane made no move to contradict him, Shannon again turned and ran only this time he'd found himself with nowhere to run.

The next morning at the airport Shannon turned his back on Shane, when he'd tried to offer comfort a little too late. By the time Jeff had come home the next day, Shannon had moved himself into Jeff's bedroom and out of the apartment he had shared with Shane. When Jeff and Matt cornered Shane later asking what had changed their sweet Shanny into the bitter shell he'd become, Shane had only been able to tell them the truth then let them kick his ass. Carolina always took care of its own and Shane had broken that rule.

A knock on his door caught his attention and after opening it, Shannon was surprised to see Mark Calloway standing there. The older man had become not only a mentor, but also a father figure to the young wrestler and was one of the few veterans Shannon actually liked. Letting his friend in, Shannon turned the TV from Scooby Doo to Monster Garage knowing that it was one of Mark's favorite programs. He'd just settled down next to the older man on the bed when the commercial came on showing Bryan again and immediately Mark noticed the change in his young friend.

Mark learned the story of what had happened between Shannon and Bryan from BA and had wondered then if either of the other two big men had any living brain cells. "You know, Shann, I've known Bryan and BA a long time and two things I learned right away were that one, BA is a mean dumb son of a bitch and two, Bryan Clark can't lie to save his life let alone cause another human being pain."

If it was anyone else that had uttered those words, Shannon would have spit in their face then beat the crap out of them. But because it was Mark saying the words he didn't know he wanted to hear, Shannon was forced to think about what he was saying. "Are ya saying that BA lied ta me?" Shannon asked then frowned when Mark shook his head. "I am only telling you that Bryan didn't lie." Seeing Shannon's confusion grow, Mark lifted the smaller man into his arms then after kissing his cheek tried to explain.

"BA told me what he said to you and while technically it's the truth, I don't think that it's the whole story. Here's what I think happened. I think the bet was real, but I also think that Bryan had been watching you long before that and BA knew it. I know that BA loves fuckin' with people especially Bryan and I think that is why he made the bet with Bryan. I think that Bryan purposely lost it because he saw it as maybe his only chance at being near you. I think that once Bryan got a taste of how good you were to him, he couldn't give you up no matter what BA ordered him to do a million times. I think that BA told you what he did knowing that it wasn't the whole story and what would happen when you found out. I also think Bryan has been a shell of who he used to be without you."

Shannon sat quietly for almost 15 minutes, while Mark watched Jesse James transform a car into a moving church, thinking about everything Mark had told him. Then, when he thought that he had it all worked out, he asked, "You think Deadman or you know?" Mark smiled softly before answering. "Boy I never say I think unless I know."

Shannon thought about that then nodding, stood solemnly and said, "You know, Pops, if I had someone who liked driving a motorcycle really fast I could catch that show." Taker just chuckled and after shutting off the TV, got up holding out his hand. "Let's go baby boy."

Shannon watched from the back of the gymnasium where Bryan was performing anxiously awaiting the main event. When Bryan came out he'd squealed so loudly Mark had to hold onto the wall to keep from falling, he was laughing so hard. If by the end of the show Bryan didn't know they were there, then he was blind and deaf. He'd screamed so loudly that he'd attracted the attention of several people in the audience, who'd only been held back from autograph requests because of the look on Mark's face. Then when Bryan had been triple teamed, Mark had been forced to hold onto Shannon's arms because the smaller man insisted that their blows were a little too real.

The final bell had barely rung when Mark started dragging Shannon out to the back door of the building to await his Brybear. By the time Bryan emerged from the building however, Shannon was a massive ball of nerves. Fortunately for Shannon, Mark realized this and called for Bryan then motioned him over.

Physically there was little apparent change in Bryan that Shannon could see. There were a few more wrinkles around his eyes, which themselves looked much sadder than Shannon remembered. Not paying attention to Mark and Bryan's conversation, Shannon asked, "Where's BA?" not realizing Bryan had just answered that question for Mark.

Bryan smiled softly at Shannon bouncing nervously from one foot to the next before answering. "BA and I aren't together anymore. He's with Randy Savage now and I'm doing the solo thing." Shannon nodded happily as he ignored Mark, who was laughing at him again, then asked another question. "Mark says that you weren't lying when you told me that you'd been hoping that Evan would disappear so you could ask me out. Is that true?"

Bryan nodded carefully then hung his head. "I'd been watchin' you forever, you were one of the best things that I ever had and God I miss you so fuckin' much. Not bein' with you hurts so bad that sometimes I think I'll just die from the pain. I'd do anything, give anything to be able to have you back in my arms just one more time."

Slowly Shannon inched forward until he was standing directly in front of Bryan. Then with all sweet love that was in his heart, asked, "what if'n I want ya ta hold me a whole buncha times?" Shannon squealed as Bryan picked him up in a huge spinning hug and giggling promised himself to make sure Mark found out that the crush he had on Jeff wasn't one sided.

Later that night though long after Bryan had fallen asleep, his arms wrapped tightly around Shannon as he snored softly, the younger man stared again at that stained wall in his hotel room. His past raced through his mind. All the broken promises, all the abandonment, all the pain he'd suffered. BA might be gone for now, but…. Would it last? It hadn't with Adam and Jay. So why should Bryan and BA be any different?

The End… until the next installment

Read the Third Story in the series The Damnation of a Dream Fulfilled