Part 19

"What did he do Sean?" The bite in Kevin's voice, though obviously not meant to be directed at Sean, made the smaller man flinch. Pulling his legs up into the chair, Sean wrapped his arms around his knees, closed his eyes and shook his head before laying it down on the top of his knees. Sean was closing himself off from the rest of them in an attempt to avoid releasing even more painful information to the rest of them.

Chris felt Shawn's hand clamp down on his own until it was almost painful. Chris knew the thought of Hunter hurting anyone for the sake of getting closer to him would be upsetting for Shawn. The fact that it had happened to men that Shawn considered closer to him than brothers had to be extremely painful for his lover to accept. If everything that Chris knew about came out, it was going to be devastating for Shawn to know that indirectly he was responsible for so much pain, but it needed to come out. Not only did Shawn, Kevin, and Scott need to know what Hunter was actually capable of, but Chris had a feeling that Sean needed to let it all out before it festered into something that could destroy his relationship with the other three men. Chris lifted Shawn's hand to his mouth and placed a comforting kiss against it. Shawn, having finally realized exactly how tightly he was holding onto Chris, loosened his grip allowing Chris to give it a reassuring squeeze.

As Chris' eyes turned back to Sean, he knew what he had to do. It probably wasn't going to be a popular decision and at least one person in the room would more than likely curse him for interfering, but he couldn't leave Sean sitting in that chair curled in on himself. Shawn was in no condition to comfort his friend while waiting for another ax to fall, Kevin was way too angry to do any good, and Scott seemed to be trying to deal with his own betrayal by Hunter. In addition, Chris knew he was more aware of what Sean was going to have to tell them than any of the others in the room. While it pissed him off royally that Hunter had gotten away with these things unnoticed, it would affect the others on a deeper level.

Chris squeezed Shawn's hand gently. Standing up, he crossed the room to the chair Sean was sitting in and kneeled down in front of it before placing one hand on Sean's arm. The brunet lifted his head and opened his eyes, looking down at Chris. Chris sucked in a deep breath at the emotions swirling in the wide brown eyes...anger, hurt, and desperation. If Sean was hurting this much just by thinking about the things Hunter had done, was it really best for him to talk about them right now or would that break him?

"Sean, you don't have to do this right now." Chris had purposely kept his voice gentle so as not to startle Sean. Sean's eyes widened in surprise. Obviously he hadn't been expecting Chris to say that.

"What? Of course he's going to do this now." It was clear that Kevin was tired of being kept in the dark, but his words still made Chris madder than hell.

"Shut up, Kevin." Chris used the same quiet tone he'd used with Sean. He knew immediately that he'd taken the wrong tact. Kevin wouldn't just let that fly, but Chris wasn't going to back down.

"Excuse me? Why don't you just keep your mouth shut Chris? This doesn't really concern you."

Chris stood up and looked at Kevin. He hoped he wouldn't upset Shawn, but Chris absolutely refused to let Kevin talk to him that way. "It doesn't concern me? Why? Just because I'm not part of your fabulous Clique? Does it concern you Kev? Because if it really concerned you, I'd think you would be a little less fucking oblivious to what's going on around you. I'll bet I know more about what's bothering Sean than anyone else in this room. That's pretty sad when you think about it. You guys are supposed to be his best friends...closer than brothers, or at least that's what you're always spouting off to anyone that will listen. Yet someone who isn't part of your precious little circle knows more about what's going on with all of you than any of you do. Maybe if you weren't so damn wrapped up in kissing Hunter's ass, you would have seen what's been going on right in front of your damn face for the last three or four years."

"Why do you think if Sean's had problems with Hunter that he hasn't come to you? I'll tell you why... because you would have defended Hunter. That's what you guys do right? Defend each other's actions no matter how wrong they might be? Why do you think I never said a word to any of you about what I knew he had done to Scott? Because anyone that came to you carrying tales about your precious golden boy would have gotten the hell beat out of them and a warning to keep their mouth shut. You defend him blindly, right or wrong. When you're really close to someone that can be a great thing, but not when that loyalty makes you blind to them stabbing you in the back. Hell, you defended him earlier when it came to what Shawn was trying to tell you. Even just now with what I told you about Scott, you still were trying to find some way to deny he was responsible. Why should Sean open himself up and tear himself apart just to give you another chance to try to explain away the things that Hunter has done?"

"I wouldn't..." Kevin's voice was at a much lower decibel this time. He looked quite uncomfortable about having to face the fact that he had been automatically trying to defend everything Hunter had done.

"Wouldn't you?" Chris' question cut off Kevin's attempt to deny what they both knew would have happened.

"Chris, stop please." Sean's quiet plea drew Chris' attention back to the brunet. Chris turned and looked down at Sean who was still huddled up in the chair. Sean was looking up at him with a sad expression. "I want...no, I need to tell them. It's way past time they knew everything, but I'm not sure I can do it all by myself. Can you...will you help me?"

Chris couldn't help but be affected by the pleading look in Sean's eyes. "Of course I will." He held one hand out to Sean and smiled when the other man grasped it with his own hand. He tugged lightly and said, "come on." Sean unfolded himself from the chair and let Chris lead him over to the couch. Chris sat beside Shawn and then pulled Sean down to sit between his legs on the cushion. Reaching down Chris grabbed one of Shawn's hands and then wrapped both arms around Sean. "Whenever you're ready Sean."

Chris watched as Kevin finally sat down next to Scott once again. Sean finally looked up and focused on Scott. "There's so much you guys don't know. I guess I'll start with the night I came back to the fed. That was the night after what was supposed to be Shawn's last match...back on March 30th, 1998..."

Read Chapter Twenty of Undelivered