______________________________________________________
Shane McMahon thanked his driver, giving the man a cordial squeeze on the shoulder before shaking his hand. Afterward, he exited the limo and pulled his suitcase out with him, making his way into the hotel.
It had been a long and tiring day. The meeting in Stamford had gone well. The Board of Directors had of course requested Stephanie's presence as well, but his sister had been much too busy overseeing the company with its talent. She was more the WWE's 'at-the-helm' person while he was much more behind the scenes. The truth was, he was perfectly happy to appear on TV only once in a blue moon.
Shane sighed as he made his way to the room he and Torrie would be staying in. All he wanted was to kick back and relax with his girlfriend - maybe make love for awhile if he wasn't too tired - and then turn in for the night.
"Torrie?" He entered the room slowly, toting his bag inside with him. It was pitch dark in here, and he wondered if the blonde had already gone to sleep.
Blindly, the dark-haired man felt his way around until he reached what he realized to be the bathroom. He felt the light switch and flipped it on, then turned to glance around the main room. Due to the lavatory light, he was able to just see the bed, but he was unable to detect whether or not Torrie was in it.
"Torrie?" he asked, his voice slightly louder than before. Knowing his girlfriend was a very light sleeper, he took this as her not being there.
Shane moved over to the nightstand and turned on the lamp, brightening up the area. The queen-sized bed was still made up, which told him she'd never been in it all night. And, according to his watch, it was a little after one by now.
Panic gripped him. Torrie should be here at this late hour... *Where* was she? And then, he noticed the piece of paper on the pillow on the right side of the bed, which was the one farther from where he stood.
Snatching the note up in a hurry, he read it quickly and silently. His heart slowed to its normal pace as he realized Torrie was fine and that she was next door, in Stephanie and Kurt's hotel room.
Dropping the note and forgetting about his exhaustion, Shane left the room. He rushed to the next one, where he knew his sister and her boyfriend were staying.
"Torrie!" He ignored Kurt as the Olympian opened the door to find him and instead briskly made his way forward to gather the tall platinum blonde in his arms. "Thank God..."
The diva clung to her boyfriend tightly, but Shane was dismayed to discover that Torrie was shaking ever so slightly.
"Baby, what's wrong?" He pulled back to gaze into her blue eyes and glanced around the room, noting for the first time that everyone else seemed to be present as well.
"I saw P-Paul Levesque..." the tall blonde replied, her eyes filling with tears. "And... and... awhile later... Nora is missing...!"
Shane's brown eyes widened.
"What?" He glanced around the room at everyone else again, this time noting that the brunette indeed was not among his group of friends. And Jay was standing all the way across the room, his back to him as he gazed out the window down at the dark outside. Dear God...
"Steph..." He gestured to his younger sister, who pushed herself off of the arm of the chair upon which Kurt was sitting.
Shane took hold of her arm and led her a few feet away.
"Please tell me you don't think-"
Stephanie's expression was grave and scared as she nodded at her sibling.
"I'm afraid so, Shane," she whispered. "We think Paul has Nora..."