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Shawn carried her all the way to the back, and once they were past the curtain and gorilla position, he tried setting her back on her feet.
Lilian winced as a jolt of pain shot up her left ankle. She had to reach out for the Heartbreak Kid's arm to steady herself.
"Hurts that bad, huh?" the man asked. "Damn Hunter!"
The blonde glanced down at her injured bodypart, noticing that it was already beginning to swell. She raised her head to meet Shawn's kind blue eyes.
"Thank you for coming to my aid, Shawn."
He held up his free hand while the other held her so that she could retain her balance.
"No need for thanks," he protested. "You were a lady in distress, and I had to help you." He looked her over, then raised his eyes back to meet hers. The pretty ring announcer surely had to be in plenty of pain. Her ankle was already swollen, and he knew the darkened bruise would appear later. He gestured to her with a tilt of his head.
"Come on," the man said, "let's get you to the trainer's room."
*
"Man, this is gonna be great!" Christian clapped a hand to Chris' shoulder as he gloated, clearly unable to contain himself.
Jericho gave him an odd look. While he wasn't thrilled about Trish and Lita recently humiliating them, he wasn't exactly looking forward to facing them at Armageddon. He shook his head.
"Christian, I really don't like this. I don't know how you can be so happy about it. Look at you," he went on, making a face, "you're almost giddy!"
"You bet your ass I am!" the short-haired blond man agreed. His expression grew serious. "Lita humiliated me, Chris - badly... and I don't just mean last week on RAW, with the roses and the punching." His blue eyes glittered dangerously. "We were literally about to seal the deal. I was seconds away from winning the bet - and she fucking rejected me!"
Jericho stared at him for a beat. He wasn't sure he liked the look in his friend's eyes. He seemed a little... manic.
"Wasn't that Edge's fault?"
Christian set his jaw angrily, frowning. That was true. His brother had somehow, as though by magic, shown up at the most inopportune time. He loathed him for coming in like some hero and interfering! He didn't bother giving Chris an answer and instead opted to get himself back into a good mood.
"Do we have an awesome General Manager, or what?" He raised both arms in front of his chest, fists clenched, and he brought them down in a happy 'yes!' gesture. "Who else would have given us such a great match?"
Both blond men turned their heads toward someone at the sound of a sigh. Rob Van Dam was standing just a small distance from them in the hallway. He shook his head and neared them.
"What are you looking at, jerky?" Jericho demanded.
"Two idiots," Van Dam replied. "No - make that two cowardly idiots." He gave each man a look of disgust. "You guys are really pathetic. So, you're going to be fighting women now?" he muttered.
"Get lost, Van Dam," Christian spat. "We're trying to have a private conversation. This doesn't concern you!"
Rob glared at the Canadian, his arms crossing over his chest. He stepped a little closer and squarely met the other man's eyes as he spoke.
"Actually, yeah, it does concern me... Trish and Lita are both friends of mine. And if you two slimy worms think for one second that you're gonna get away with what you've done to them," he said, narrowing his eyes, "you got another thing coming."
"Oh, yeah?" Christian challenged. He stepped a bit closer to Van Dam, not appearing threatened at all as Chris came to stand right behind him. "Well, there's only one of you and two of us. If you're really looking for trouble, we can provide it for you."
They stood toe-to-toe for a beat until a new voice suddenly chimed in.
"Correction, it's two of us." Edge stepped out from a corridor and came over to join Rob, standing directly by his side. He glared at his much shorter brother, smirking as he spoke again. "You never were all that good at math, huh, Christian?"
Jericho dropped his jaw for just the tiniest fraction of a second. He was truly surprised and hadn't expected to see Edge at all. Of course, he knew the tall blond man had shown up at that hotel room on that fateful night to prevent Christian from consummating his 'relationship' with Lita... But now, it seemed as though the Canadian was a part of the RAW roster.
Christian said nothing, instead opting to purse his lips together in silence. He glowered at his brother, then at Van Dam again before nudging Chris and turning to leave.