Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and/or real people in this story. The characters belong to the WWE and the real people own themselves. Pretty tame story otherwise so no real cautions!

A/N: So this story is based on a picture from the Hall of Fame of Ash and Aurora meeting each other (which is ridiculously cute) and I felt so inspired to write, I started this. It was going to be a one shot, but it just didn't lend itself to a one shot so it's going to be a two-shot, no more than a three shot (I swear!).

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the story and reviews are always welcome and appreciated and if you want to be brutal, go right ahead. :)

There's something bittersweet when he first sees them.

They both look so beautiful, mother and daughter, like some pretty portrait. She looks more and more like her mother everyday. She's so much bigger since the last time he really got to see her, but she's growing up to look so much like Stephanie it's almost jarring. There's almost nobody else in her, it looks like. Aurora is the spitting image of Stephanie and she looks so sweet sitting there, her head leaned against Stephanie's side. He almost forgets he's with his own wife because Stephanie sparkling.

He finally glances back to his wife, doesn't scowl like he feels like doing, but it's with a wistful expression that he looks at her. Does she know? Could she possibly know? No, he never told her the reason why he left, but it's sitting there, in that long dress, a demure wrap slung around her waist. No, Jessica thought he'd left her for Barbie, who was probably looking skanky around here somewhere, but it was never for Barbie. Barbie is not the type of woman you leave your wife for, she's the type of woman you sleep with then fling to the side.

Stephanie is the type of woman you leave your wife for.

"See, Ash, there's some kids here," Jessica whispered to Ash. Ash had been the one who wanted to come. His mother wanted to stay at home, but Ash had apparently begged and pleaded for days to come to the Hall of Fame and WrestleMania. Jessica had finally assented, leaving the twins home with her mother while she took Ash down here. It had been a pleasant surprise to see Ash…and he'd leave it at that.

"This is pretty damn awesome," James Durbin muttered behind him and Chris laughed, glancing over his shoulder and nodding. The Hall of Fame was always something else entirely. There was so much wrestling history in the room it was always humbling. He'd missed last year's Hall of Fame, but every one he'd attended was really special.

"I know," Chris told him and both understood the brevity of the occasion.

"Who is that?" Ash tugged at the hem of his jacket when they were about to pass Stephanie and Aurora.

"That's Stephanie McMahon, you know her, the girl I've worked with a lot, and that's her daughter, Aurora, she's five, almost six," Chris explained. "Her birthday is right after the twins' birthday."

"Oh," Ash said, nodding.

Chris had intended to walk by, nod politely and then get the hell away from the life he'd almost had. So close, he'd been so close he could almost taste it, but she always held back. It wasn't good for the business to have scandal she'd told him. She couldn't afford it and her father was so in love with her relationship with Paul that everything seemed impossible to Stephanie. He'd been crushed, devastated, so devastated he'd run right into the cold, bony arms of Barbie Blank. Desperation will drive you to do slutty things.

"Chris, hey!" Stephanie stood up, flagging him down and he was surprised because clearly she could see Jessica was here and it almost hurt him that she didn't seem to care.

Wasn't there a time when this woman had loved him or claimed to love him? Now she didn't even seem to care that he was with someone he'd left for her? Was she going to add insult to injury? If he was honest, she was a big part of his return. She'd asked him and he relented like he always did, like he always would. He'd even signed and extension because he couldn't say no to her and she played him, she always played his feelings against him.

She'd probably never intended to consider being with him. He'd probably blindly left his entire life and she'd looked at him with pity because he'd misinterpreted everything. Where he saw love, she just saw an affair, nothing that really had any emotional attachment. Sure, he was just guessing, he'd never asked her, never inquired about it, but sometimes, he felt so low, so hidden under his layers of bravado that these thoughts gnawed away at him.

He often wondered what he could possibly do to win her over. He wanted her in every way, in all ways, and she just never was on the same page. Why did Paul have everything Chris wanted? Chris had had Stephanie's body for a time, but he doubted he ever really had her heart. These thoughts rushed through his mind whenever he saw her. She always gave him this look and for the most part, he believed it to be pity. She pitied him his weakness of her.

He wanted to walk by, but Jessica was already stopping. The poor fool; she never even so much as believed Stephanie was a threat when, in reality, Stephanie had been a threat since the day he met her. "Chris, stop," Jessica placed her hand on his arm. Chris pretended not to notice Jessica scanning the crowd for any sign of Barbie. She really should have been focusing all her hatred for the woman who was walking over.

"Hey, did you not hear me?" Stephanie said as she came over. She pressed her hand to Chris's arm and he wanted to shrug it off, but even through the layers of clothes, her touch still sent shivers to his spine. It was gone a moment later.

"Yeah, sorry, it's loud in here," Chris said, his voice terse.

She seemed to notice as she cleared her throat. "Hey, Jessica, long time, no see."

"I know, it's been a while," Jessica said politely, nodding her head, "You look really pretty, let me just tell you. I love your dress."

Chris could tell that Jessica was just being overly polite and probably didn't mean a word of it. She was slick like that, kind of like a snake. She'd been doing things like that for years, saying one thing to a person's face, then turning around to him and telling him what she really thought.

"You too, that dress suits you." Chris smirked because he knows Stephanie's tone. He knows about Jessica's indiscretions because Chris told her all about them. He wants to kiss Stephanie for his tone, inappropriate as that may be, but only Stephanie could figuratively cut someone down to size with her sharp words.

"Thanks," Jessica said brightly, not picking up on the tone.

"Wow, so you're Ash," Stephanie beamed at the little boy and Chris knew that she was thinking about when he'd made the ultimate proposal to her. He'd asked her once, twice, three times to leave her husband and be with him, but the fourth, oh, the fourth…

"I need to talk to you," he said with complete resolve.

"Okay," Stephanie steeled herself, braced herself really as she pushed her chair forward a little so her stomach pressed against her desk.

Chris closed the door behind him and locked it to give them privacy. He turned back to her before he started pacing across the room. Stephanie watched him fidget with his fingers, cracking his knuckles. She wanted to open her mouth to say something, but something told her this was not the time for jokes. Chris had been on her for weeks and he was getting tired of it, she knew, so she could tell whatever it is he had to say was going to be big.

He glanced at her amid his pacing, then stopped, turned to face her and nodded his head a little to himself before talking. "I picture us. I sit around and I picture us."

"Where?"

"No, not where," he answered. "In time, just…in time, in space. I picture us." His eyes are already red and though she knows he has allergies, she knew this wasn't because of that. "I have been crazy about you since pretty much the day we started our storyline, hell, maybe since the day I met you, who knows when it crept up on me, but it did and you know how I feel, Steph."

She sighed, "I do."

"I picture us and I picture Ash running around with his sisters and Aurora is there and Murphy is there and I know Aurora isn't mine, but I love her like she is and Ash and the girls would love her and Murphy so much. And we can be a family, together, you know, of course, damn it, families are together…well, for the most part, I'm rambling, but…I picture it. I see it in my head. A house, you know, a house and gates, lots of them, and a huge backyard for them to run around in and a playground, maybe, they're all really young."

"That sounds…nice," she nodded. He turned away and turned back to her, his eyes so clearly filled with tears.

"I thought I believed in soulmates and fate and all that good mumbo jumbo, but I don't anymore," he told her, "because I thought I had that with my wife, but then I met you and it was so much stronger so I don't know how I could have had such an error in judgment. So that must mean there is no fate because fate would have let me have you so long before this."

"Chris, please don't cry." If he cried, she knew she was going to cry.

"I feel so…what does he have, Steph? I mean, what is it about him that makes him better than me?"

"Chris…"

"I need you…does he? Does he need you like this?"

"It isn't right," she finally mustered up the strength to tell him. "Tearing up two families because we couldn't keep our hands away from each other isn't right. I can't…I can't…"

"No wonder I picture us, it's the only way I'll ever have you," he laughed as a tear escapes its prison. He wiped it quickly away. "Ash and the twins would have loved you, for the record. They would have adored you. I'm going to go…"

"Chris, let me explain."

"No, you know, I've heard you try to explain for weeks now and I kept hoping that your explanations would turn into…I don't know what I was thinking actually. It's okay…I'll be okay, and you will be okay too, and it's probably better we didn't drag any of our kids into this."

"Chris…"

"Just…did you love me? At any point enough to even consider…no, you know what, no, no, no, don't answer that. Let me keep a little hope," he nodded and left before she could even think of a response to that.

"Hi," Ash said to her, giving her a shy smile. He wasn't as outgoing as Chris upon meeting new people (he was still young), but once you got to know him, he was a loud, boisterous kid.

"I've seen you sometimes while you've been growing up, but I haven't seen you in so long and you are so big now," Stephanie told him. "Oh, I'm sorry." She turned to her daughter. "Aurora, come here a minute, sweetheart."

Aurora came over, a crooked smile on her face as she stood next to Stephanie. She, too, was a little shy. Chris looked at her and he couldn't help but smile. She was just too much like Stephanie for him not to smile and think of how great a mother Stephanie was. He'd seen it firsthand and he was so proud of her for that.

"Hey, Aurora, you look beautiful tonight," Chris told the little girl, a little girl he would have loved like a daughter.

"Thank you," she bit her lip in the same way that Stephanie did.

"Aurora, I want you to meet someone," Stephanie told her daughter, smoothing her hair down her back. "This is Ash Irvine, he's Chris's son. He's…eight, right?"

"Uh huh," Ash nodded.

"He's eight and I think you two would be very good friends," Stephanie told them. Stephanie turned to the adults. "There are so few kids actually here that Aurora can play with."

"Oh, I understand, Jessica said. "Hey, maybe you guys could watch WrestleMania together."

"Okay," Ash nodded.

"Hi," Aurora said, sticking her hand, while feeling a little apprehensive because her mommy and Ash's parents were staring at her and she wasn't too little to notice that she was apparently being put on a big screen so everyone could watch. It made her slightly uncomfortable.

"Hi," Ash said, shaking her hand back as his mother cooed behind him.

Chris was in hell. This was hell and he was being tortured. Here he was between the life he had and the life he could have had and they were shaking hands right in front of him. He stuck his hands in his pockets because they were clenched so tight his nails were probably about to draw blood. Jessica was even smiling about it, clueless and he dared to look over at Stephanie, to see what maybe she felt…if she felt at all. She was still smiling at the two of them, looking between them both. Was she thinking the same thing he was?

"You can watch WrestleMania with me," Aurora said. "That would be okay."

"Okay," Ash told her, looking at Chris.

"That sounds like fun," Jessica said. "I think you guys will have fun together."

"Me too," Aurora said, biting her lip again, which was something she probably did a lot.

"We should probably get to our seats," Chris said because this was becoming painful.

"Of course," Stephanie looked at him and she smiled and it was strained this time. "The show's about to start anyways and we should get to our seats."

"Yeah, us too," Chris nodded. Things were getting uncomfortable. The tension was getting thicker and if they weren't careful, Jessica was definitely going to pick up on it. "Come on, you guys, our seats are over here. Bye, Steph, bye, Aurora, it was really nice seeing you."

"Bye," she waved cutely as Stephanie smiled at them again. Chris led his group over to their seats, with Jessica next to him and Ash on the other side of her. Ash leaned over and tapped Chris on the knee. Chris leaned over his wife to get to his son.

"What is it, kiddo?"

"Daddy, I think Stephanie's pretty," Ash told him shyly. Chris took a deep breath and whispered quietly, so quietly only Ash could hear.

"I do too, kid, I do too."