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Randy hadn't wanted to see a medic, he'd said he knew exactly what was wrong with
him, and they were only going to repeat what they'd told him last night. He'd only agreed to see one when Shawn promised him
that he wouldn't let them keep Randy in overnight.
Shawn had no idea why he agreed except he was worried about the kid's health and
knew only Randy seeing a medic would set his mind to rest on that score, plus wrestling with a concussion was the kind of
stupid thing he would have done at that age.
Amazingly the medic had agreed to release Randy into Shawn's care, possibly
because the man had experience and knew there were no worse patients in the world than wrestlers. Randy must have been grateful
for the effort Shawn was taking because he didn't utter one word of complaint about being checked on every fifteen minutes,
just to make sure he was still awake and alive. Shawn had expected that, Randy was a good kid at heart, under all the cockiness
he'd got from associating with Evolution.
What Shawn hadn't expected was the knock at the door. He couldn't think of
anyone who might want to see him tonight, and he hadn't ordered room service. Thinking that the few people it could be would
most likely want to hurt him, Shawn cautiously opened the door. What on Earth was Flair doing here?
"Go away.
Don't you think you've done enough damage already?"
Ric ignored him. "How is he?" Like it was any of Flair's business. It had stopped having anything to do with him
when he'd turned on Randy with the other two vultures.
"Ric, is that you?" Shawn would have thought the voice was distinctive
enough, but Randy couldn't see from the bed, and maybe he was just making sure. All this distracted Shawn, allowing Ric to
barge past him. He moved with such force that Shawn wasn't sure if he could have stopped him even if he hadn't have been surprised.
"Don't
you ever do that again!" Ric had gone from pale to bright red even faster than even he usually managed it.
"I'm fine, you're fussing over nothing."
"Fine my ass! Fine doesn't involve you passing out in the ring."
Shawn was about to tell Ric where to get off, it wasn't like shouting at the
kid would help his head any, except Randy seemed a lot happier with Ric there, despite the shouting. Shawn had never seen
two people so caught up in each other to the exclusion of anyone else in the room, except Kevin and Scott... the penny dropped.
That would explain a lot, including Ric's near terrified expression when he was in the doorway.
"I didn't pass out;
I just didn't feel up to sitting up."
"As though there's a difference. I would have expected this kind of dumb behaviour from him," Ric pointed a thumb
at Shawn, "not you. Where are your brains?" Randy tried to interrupt him, but stopping Ric when he was at full
steam ahead was impossible. "I'll tell you where they are, they're scrambled in your stupid fat skull because you couldn't
see that wrestling with a concussion is the dumbest thing you could do. Have you seen what those things do to people? Do you
want to be on the shelf with Nowinski? Wait, no I forgot, you think you're the unbreakable Randy Orton! Well guess what, you're
not! Ask Shawn, he thought he was invulnerable and look what that got him - a broken back. And you might not get so lucky."
It hadn't felt lucky to Shawn at the time but he got what Ric meant so he wasn't
going to interupt. Maybe getting shouted at might teach Randy not to be quite so stubborn in future and take a seat on the
bench when he needed to.
While Ric spoke, Randy's whole posture and expression changed, like he was finally taking
this seriously and that Ric meant what he said. It was a gift of Ric's really, Shawn knew that most people had learnt to fade
out Ric when he was off on one for no good reason, but when he had something important to say, when it mattered, Ric's voice
seemed to change, and you listened intently like Randy was now.
"Promise me you won't do anything this stupid again."
They were face to face, looking directly into each other's eyes. Shawn felt like this was a good time to remove himself elsewhere,
like say the bathroom. Yeah, he could go to the bathroom and count tiles. He had his watch with him, he'd be back out in fifteen
minutes to check on Randy plus he was still close enough that if it turned out that Ric was here to beat Randy up some more
he could hear him and run out and stop him. Shawn left hearing Randy say, in this quiet, little tone, with a kind of sincerity
you didn't normally heard from Randy, "I promise."
Shawn waited for the hands on his watch to tick over the fifteen
and hoped that he wasn't about to interrupt anything. He tried to think positively, Randy had a concussion and Ric was trying
to get him to take it seriously, so what was the worst he could interrupt?
He popped his head round the door quickly
first, just to make sure. It was okay, Ric had gone in the meantime, and Randy was flicking through the TV channels.
"Hey."
That was about as unthreatening and uninquisitive a greeting as Shawn could come up with.
"Hey." Randy turned his attention to Shawn. "This is where I have to explain, isn't it?" Shawn tried to sound as
non-committal as possible and shrugged his shoulders. He didn't really see how it was any of his business. "That's why I couldn't
let them send me to a hospital and keep me in over night. I figured they'd be able to keep him out and you probably wouldn't.
No offense intended of course, but they have security guys with guns and things. About half way through the match I figured
that I'd made one hel- sorry man, heck of a mistake going out there, what with feeling woozy and all that. Once I'd got myself
together afterwards I realised how worried he'd be, he wouldn't trust the medical reports, he never does, and he wouldn't
get any rest 'til he knew I was okay." From his experience with Kev and Scott, and with the way his wife was, he knew all
of that was true. "Unfortunately, I can't just call him to tell him."
"You mean they don't..."
Randy shook his head, "Nope. And I guess they wouldn't like it much if they did know."
"Oh."
"Yeah, it makes for fun times." The stress on fun showed that it really wasn't.
"You really know how put yourself
into some really difficult positions, don't you?"
"What can I say, it comes with the good looks." Randy was back to full confidence then.
"'Wish I could come up with some useful advice but I haven't got any."
"I'm just grateful you don't mind looking after me. I know it's a pain in the neck and I really am grateful."
"Don't worry. You can count as my good deed of the day."
"I mean it, really. Thanks."
"You're welcome." Poor kid, this was the least that Shawn could do.
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