Chapter One
Revelations

Hunter sat at his table in catering listening to the guys buzz around him. His name was on all their lips and yet he could have cared less. There was only one person whose lips he wanted his name on (his name, his lips, his body, and any other thing the smaller blonde would want) and yet he was probably the one man there that could care less. "Hunter," he heard Stephanie's voice whine and sighing looked up to see her standing over him waving a stack of papers. "Sign these today." Dropping the papers in his lap Stephanie walked out smiling and Hunter sighed. He didn't have to look around to see everyone looking at him. The buzz had stopped. Looking down at his untouched plate Hunter stood and pushing back from the table he had been sitting at alone, he headed to the door. On the way there a hand caught his arm. Looking down he saw Ric looking at him pretending concern, but Hunter recognized that gleam in his eye. It was the same look a wild animal has before he eats his dead. "Everything ok Champ?" Hunter pulled his arm free eyeing the old man expressionlessly. With a simple no he left the room looking for a dark corner to hide in.

Divorce, the thing that he always swore that he would never do, of course he never imagined that he would be married either. He had never contemplated having a relationship with a woman let alone letting it get far enough for marriage. And yet here he was sitting on a crate reading through divorce documents. Everything was pretty cut and dried so he didn't know why he was bothering. There were no children. All their major possessions had been purchased before they got married. The house was already his. The apartment in New Your City was already hers. The Hummer was his. The flashy sports car that he couldn't even fit in comfortably was hers. He had anything he wanted to keep in his house already. He had never put anything in the apartment that he wasn't willing to lose, as if he had known that it would come to this someday.

He knew the rumors. By now everyone knew that they were divorcing. Steph was playing the roll to the hilt. His career had taken a sudden and dramatic nose dive starting with the disbanding of Evolution leaving him to wrestle the likes of Stevie Richards and other jobbers on Heat… as if he hadn't done enough of that after the Kliq Incident. The difference was this time he had no one to blame, no grudge to carry, no hatred for someone else to feed off of. The situation was entirely his making. "Paul?" He heard a Texan drawl call hesitantly and looking up saw Shawn standing a ways down the hallway he had hid in watching him. "I know you came to hide, but…" Hunter shook his head and waved Shawn over quietly knowing that he wouldn't just take no for an answer. "I just wanted to check on you," Shawn said quietly approaching him. "I know we haven't been getting along lately, but…" Shawn shrugged and Hunter studied him as he approached.

Reaching the hiding place Shawn stood uncertainly until Hunter waived him to sit on a crate. Pulling himself up Shawn scooted back to rest his back against the wall as he studied his one time friend. "Are you ok man?" Hunter heard the question and sighed wondering what to say. Do you give the bullshit answer he'd been giving his parents and everyone else or do you tell the truth. "I don't know anymore," he heard himself say and figured he had decided to go with the truth. If there was anyone in the building that he could trust with it, Shawn was the man. They had never hated each other as much as their onscreen characters did. They had just sort of fell into indifference towards each other one day and hadn't cared enough to change it.

"I'm sorry Shawn," Hunter heard himself say again and watched the older man's eyebrow arch. He didn't blame him. Hunter was as surprised Shawn was. It wasn't that he didn't mean them. He did and had wanted to say them for a long time, but had never wanted to put himself in a position of weakness so he never had. Now though he supposed he was living in a position of weakness and didn't really have much left to loose. Besides he could use Shawn's friendship again right then.

"You didn't do anything alone Paul," Shawn finally responded sighing. "And you had a lot more justification than I did. We didn't have much of an equal friendship back then." Paul shrugged not caring anymore who was right and who was wrong. "What happened Paul? Did she find someone else? I mean I never imagined you two splitting."

Hunter laughed humorlessly. "Yeah thought we would feed off each other forever huh? Yeah I guess at one time I did too. Then I got tired of it." Shawn cocked his head to one side. "What do you mean Pauly?" Hunter smiled weakly at the use of Shawn's old pet name for him. "Stephanie didn't leave me Shawn. I moved out. I talked to Vince. I filed divorce. I left her." Hunter looked at the expression on Shawn's face dropped jaw and all and couldn't help but laugh. It started out as chuckle but then grew into a full blown belly laugh until Paul was laying on his side on the crate he was sitting on holding his sides as he laughed, while tears fell down his cheeks. Then of course the tears of joy turned into real tears and he found himself sobbing as he curled into a ball.

Slowly he became aware of Shawn's hand rubbing his back and his soft voice in his ear and gradually he began to calm down until all that was left were the hiccups. "I'm proud of ya, Pauly." He heard Shawn say and sniffling sat up again watching Shawn pull himself up to sit next to him. "What the fuck for? I've killed my career. I'll be wrestling fucking Stevie Richards for the rest of my goddamn career." Shawn sighed and shook his head. "You are such a fucking snob Paul. That's one reason you fit into your character so well when you first debuted. You didn't fuckin' have to act."

Paul turned his head and scowled at Shawn. "It's Stevie Fuckin Richards, Psycho Stevie as Raven used to call him. What is there to be a snob about?" Shawn shook his head again. "Stevie Richards is a helluva good wrestler jackass if you took the time to pay attention to him instead of just looking down that big assed nose at him. He has talent and charisma. Of course you may have to get past that whole "you-got-his-best-friend-fired" thing." Paul scowled deeper. "He was a junkie and a looser." Shawn ran a hand over his face looking for patience. "He was fucking RAVEN for God's sake. Yeah he had a problem at the time, but Jesus Christ so does half the roster. I mean you sure as fuck coddled Billy long enough and he STILL hasn't been fired. Raven was a goldmine that you just petered away because he wouldn't kiss your ass and suck your cock. Or have you NOT noticed what he's done for the Jerrett's. I mean let's face it without Raven they wouldn't sitting quite as pretty as they are now."

"I did what I had to do," Paul insisted and Shawn slapped him up side the back of the head. "Yeah for yourself," Shawn drawled. "Look Pauly you wanna survive this you're gonna have to do a helluva lotta ass kissing. You're gonna need someone on your side other than me. Ain't nobody gonna be surprised that you and I made up, and they ain't gonna give you a second chance cause I did. You ain't the shit anymore man. You burned more bridges than you built and you're gonna need one of them to forgive you before you're gonna get any of the rest of em to. You're gonna have to get over yourself Pauly. Your career isn't resting in Stephanie's hands. It's resting in yours. If you go out there every fucking night and wrestle the match of your career no matter if it's against Stevie or some goddamn local boy you do it. You bring the fuckin crowd into the match. You get them chanting your name. Stephanie may want to hold you down baby, but if the fans want you she's gonna have to do something sooner or later. You umm didn't piss off Shane did you?"

Paul snorted thinking of his ex-brother-in-law. "No, in fact Shane was the one that encouraged me to do it. He said that if I didn't do it now I might as well not ever do it." Shawn nodded. "Good cause you may need him on your side. Why did you do it Pauly?" Paul sighed running a hand through his blond locks. "Shane and I were talkin' about our marriages and our… preferences. Marissa isn't like Steph. She doesn't care what Shane does in fact she prefers that he keeps someone on the side because then she doesn't have to fulfill her "wifely obligations" any more than necessary. Plus she can see her girlfriend whenever she wants. Unlike Steph who runs off with her bitches all she wants but would castrate me if she found out I was with a man. I can fuck any woman I want, but heaven help me if she catches me with a guy. I just couldn't take it anymore. I didn't want to be with her. My heart and head and everything else has never wanted anyone, but who I was with… before all this. I can't live a lie anymore. I want to touch him and smell him and hold him and kiss him and just be with him. Not that I think my divorce is gonna change that. I know he and Adam are more or less inseparable."

Shawn stared at Hunter as if he'd lost his mind. "And you think that's a good thing? Jesus Paul do you fuckin pay attention to anything but yourself?" Hunter scowled again gritting his teeth. "You know I am fuckin getting tired of this…" Shawn cut into his tirade. "PAUL! He's dating ADAM!" Hunter blinked staring at Shawn trying to figure out what he was getting at. Throwing his hands in the air Shawn hopped down and Hunter followed stopping him before he could walk off. "What are you tryin to say?" Shawn spun around looking at Hunter and growled. "HE'S WITH ADAM! Jesus you'd think you were smoking with Sean and I all those years. You DO remember what Adam's like don't you? I mean fuck you're the one that pulled him off Jay!"

Hunter's eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched. "I thought he had gotten help with that." Shawn shrugged. "I haven't heard any rumors after Jay 'til now. But my guess is that with the similarities between him and Jay…" Shawn sighed. "Some of us have been hopin you would notice man. It's getting really bad and he won't listen to anyone. He's probably with the makeup lady now… he has to spend a couple hours in her chair before each show to hide all the marks…" Shawn trialed off as Hunter shoved past him on a run to the makeup room. Silently he prayed that Hunter had seen the light and could save his former lover then headed off to find Jay and Randy and fill them in on the news.

Read Chapter 2 of 5 of KliqzAngel's It's Been Awhile