Disclaimer: I do not own the people or the characters in this story. The characters belong to the WWE and the people own themselves.

A/N: Yes, yes, another one, I know. Anyways, this is probably only going to be a 2-parter, I'm almost positive that'll be the case. Anyways, I got this idea from one of Chris's Twitter posts where he said he was in the pretape room. Just kind of based it off that. I hope that you enjoy it and let me know what you think, reviews are awesome and much appreciated, be brutal if you want, thanks. :)

Chris climbed the steps of the production truck. He had a lot of things to focus on for tonight. He had yet to meet with Rey to discuss their match and if they planned on having the match of the night (Chris had called this the night before when a bunch of them went out for drinks) they were going to need to meet up and talk about their match. He wanted to plan it out somewhat, just to know what was going on. But first things first, they had asked him to come to the production truck to dub over some lines he'd said from his promos about Rey for some video. He'd wondered if this could wait, but apparently it was urgent so he was needed immediately.

He walked inside and saw one other person sitting there. He sat down and watched them as they were working on something with The Miz. Chris watched for a moment, scoffing at the level of ineptitude demonstrated by the young up-and-comer, if Chris could even call him that. He could envision Miz crashing and burning like so many before him. Chris didn't see "it" when he watched Miz's promos, but that was just him.

"Hey, man, are you almost ready for me, I've got things to do," Chris said, trying not to sound impatient, but he knew that's how he was coming across. But he had to face it, he was pretty ticked off with sitting here when he could be doing something actually productive like warming up for his match.

"Yeah, sorry," the guy said. "We just need to finish this."

"What is this even for? Is it a pre-match thing?" Chris wondered.

"Actually no, it's like a retrospective thing for your feud with him, I think it'll probably air on SmackDown or just as a general promo," the guy, okay, Chris would call him by his name, Andy, said.

"So you couldn't wait until I wasn't busy?"

"Orders," Andy shrugged.

"Fine," Chris sighed as Andy went back to his work. Chris, bored, decided to take to his Twitter account to express his now active dislike for The Miz, since his stupid and boring promos were now keeping him from his job. Andy started to get up and Chris looked up from his phone and over at him, "Hey, where are you going?"

"I've got to go drop this off," Andy said and then added, "I was called by my boss, I won't be long, I don't think."

"You don't think?" Chris said.

"Sorry," he said before leaving.

Andy was just down the steps when Stephanie came over to him, "You haven't seen Chris Irvine, have you?"

"Yeah, he's in there," Andy said, jerking his thumb towards the production truck.

"Thanks," Stephanie called over her shoulder as she almost ran up the steps and threw open the door.

"That was quick," Chris said absently, then looked over his shoulder at Stephanie. "Oh, it's just you."

"Yeah, nice to see you too," Stephanie rolled her eyes. "I've been looking everywhere for you, do you know that?"

"If I had known that, I probably would've stayed in one spot so you could actually find me," Chris said. "But since I didn't, I just stayed where I was."

"Funny," Stephanie said, though there was nothing very funny about what Chris had said. "There's been a last minute change to the show involving you."

"Last minute change, well that's a surprise."

"Shut up," Stephanie told him, sitting down next to him. "We at first thought about putting Edge in the title match, but it just seems...well, stupid to give that away right now, so we came up with a tag match. Well, putting Edge into the Tag Team Championship match, but in order for that to happen, he needs a partner."

"E&C?" Chris asked, wondering what this had to do with him.

"Well, a variation of that, yes," she said, grinning over at him and in the 10 years he had known Stephanie, nothing good ever came from that grin. There were many nights when she'd give him that grin and he'd end up doing something crazy or trying to drink someone under the table. Nobody knew just how well Stephanie McMahon could hold her liquor.

"I don't like that grin, get that grin away from me," he said, reaching out to push her shoulder. The chair she was on had wheels and he actually pushed her father away. She scowled at him and scooted back over, her flats scraping against the carpeted surface.

"Chris, it's good stuff, I promise."

"You know, this is like the second time you've had me working two matches on one show, but do I get a bonus for this, no, no I don't," he told her. He had gleaned onto the fact that Stephanie was trying to tell him he was going to be in the tag team match tonight.

"But you get belts out of it," she told him, hoping to entice him.

"Okay so I'm winning the tag belt then?"

"Yeah," she said, "it'll be a little pick-me-up after losing the IC title, right?"

Chris chuckled. "Look, you know I do what's asked of me, you don't have to go into the whole spiel. Of course, seriously, two matches in one night."

"Randy and Paul have to do three matches," Stephanie said. "They're not complaining."

"Paul's not complaining, I think it's time we alert the press because this has to be the first time he's never complained about anything," Chris said sarcastically, knowing it would get a rise out of Stephanie like it always did. He couldn't help it if he hated her husband. He still couldn't figure out why Stephanie would choose to give herself over to that man for the rest of eternity. Chris figured hell would be a welcome change from marriage to Paul.

"Shut up," Stephanie said. "He wasn't complaining at all. He's even losing tonight."

"I saw, I'm surprised he didn't make you make him champion again."

"He earns those," she defended.

"Oh of course, of course," Chris said, fiddling with his phone.

"Why must you always make fun of him?" Stephanie asked. "I know you two have had bad blood, I know this, but you know I'm married to the guy and yet you are constantly poking fun at him. Do you remember this is the guy I love here?"

"Love?" Chris scoffed. "That guy wouldn't know love if it hit him with Susie the sledgehammer right in that face of his. And I always make fun of him because the guy has had it out for me since the second I walked into this place. Whereas you were trying to be my friend the entire time. That's probably where his stupid jealousy thing comes from."

"I'm not discussing this with you anymore. We're never going to agree on him."

"No, we're not, not until you see the truth of the matter, not until you see that he's just using you and has been since forever. How do you not see it, Stephanie! How do you not see what he's doing to you!"

"He's not doing anything to me! When will you see that he's not a horrible person?" she snapped at him.

"Whatever," Chris said, ending this argument because it always ended the same way. "Think of him what you want."

"I will," she told him, staring straight ahead. "Look, I know he's not the best of guys all the time, I know this."

"He's using you," Chris said dully.

"You don't know that."

"And if I did? If I had concrete evidence that he was. If I had videotape of him saying that he was using you, audio evidence, all of that, would you believe me then? Because believe me, I could get it right now if you wanted it," Chris told her.

"Don't say things like that," she told him, leaning back in her chair.

"He's probably cheating on you."

"Now you're just making up lies."

"Sure I am."

They stopped talking for a few moments. Stephanie was fiddling with some of the knobs on the equipment in front of her. Chris had gone back to looking at his phone, messing around with the buttons on it, checking his text messages, going over his contacts list. Neither one spoke a word and didn't even look at each other. Paul was always a point of contention with them. Chris disliked the guy, maybe even hated him. He couldn't reconcile being Stephanie's friend and his dislike of Paul, which often set off these arguments. Oftentimes, he thought it would just be easier to stop being friends with Stephanie, but she was just too fun and too nice for him to drop as a friend.

"What are you doing in here anyways?" she finally asked, breaking the silence.

"They wanted me to dub some stuff," he explained.

"So where is everyone?"

"Andy was supposed to be back soon, but I think he got lost or something."

"Here, I'll just do it for him," Stephanie said, grabbing a nearby clipboard and flipping through it until she got where she needed to be. "Okay, here's what we need you to say."

"Only you would know how this stuff works," Chris told her.

"I make it a point to know everything around here," she replied. "You know I've gotten trained in pretty much all the aspects of production. Okay, so do you want to go ahead and put those headphones on?"

"Yeah, sure," he said, putting the headphones on and pulling the microphone in front of him towards his mouth. Stephanie put a finger to her lips and started pushing some buttons and then she signaled him to say the first line. He did so and Stephanie stopped recording and played it back. He could hear it in his headset and it sounded fine.

Stephanie pulled off her headphones and then started pushing more buttons. "That was fine. I think she probably just wanted you to overdub these lines because they didn't want the crowd noise in the background. Okay, before we start the next one, I think I want to try that one with a little more echo to it, just to see the effect, can you get the button right there?"

Chris reached out, but his hand stopped, not knowing which one she meant. Stephanie saw his hesitation and just started to reach over to press it when Chris realized which one it was by the label on it and he reached for it as well. Their hands converged and both hit the button at the same time. Their hands lingered for a moment, but then they pulled back like they were being scalded and both put their hands in their laps, Chris becoming fascinated with his phone once again and Stephanie flipping through the production clipboard for something she didn't know yet.

Touching was a no-no with them, a big one. Every time they touched, something happened. Yes, it was stupid to think that every time they touched something happened, but it seemed that way. There had been moments of impropriety that were never spoken of after they happened. They liked their lives and when they had those small moments of...whatever it was, they always felt like they were being pulled into some alternate reality. So touching was a no-no. They'd made sure of that. They were supposed to have a storyline wherein Stephanie was going to be with Chris and turn heel, but the second the two had heard about it, the protests rose to the heavens and nobody could figure out why two very good friends would be so very against an idea where they would have the chance to work their magic together.

"Sorry," Chris mumbled.

"My fault, I didn't tell you what button it was," Stephanie mumbled back, rubbing her hand now, like it stung, like Chris's skin were made of thorns and they had scratched their way under her skin.

"I should get--" They said at the same time, both standing up and Stephanie turning to her left while Chris turned to her right and they bumped right into each other, Chris getting up so fast that he started to knock Stephanie back. As she fell, she tried to grasp something and the nearest thing being Chris, she grabbed at his shirt, getting fistfuls of cotton as Chris started to topple over her.

She gasped as her butt hit the chair and then squealed in shock as Chris's form was growing in her vision. Suddenly he was right there in front of her and his hands were on either side of her. He managed to land his hands on the arms of the chair so he didn't crush her entirely, but he was still hovering very close over her. She looked up and all she could see was Chris's face right by hers. She was breathing heavily from the shock and it seemed he was doing the same. She tried not to look in his eyes, but they were right there. His head was a little to the right of her own and if she turned she could see his profile. If she turned she could kiss him in the corner of the mouth. If she turned, he might turn as well and capture her lips in a kiss. They'd turned before too many times, too many times to count so she couldn't turn, she shouldn't turn.

She turned.

She pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. His head turned to hers, like he'd been resisting the urge before not to turn his head and kiss her. Why did they always give in though? Why had this scene been repeated every time? She didn't care as the questions flew out of her head and his lips were flush against hers. She moved her arms up and pulled him closer, so he was almost covering her fully. It was an uncomfortable position for him, she knew, but he wasn't complaining so she wouldn't either.

Eventually they had to pull apart and Stephanie bit her lip, slightly swollen from him nipping at it. "That shouldn't have happened."

"No, it shouldn't have," he said, but he sounded less than sorry that it had.

"We...need to...the recordings...get that done so you can go, um, you should probably talk to Edge," she told him. "Maybe to get the match in order."

"Yeah, I should do that," he told her, but he still hadn't moved and his mouth was calling her again. She loved when his soft lips were smashed against hers and the heat from his body encircled her own, wrapping it up and tucking her body against his. They'd never fully let themselves devolve, but they'd come so close so many times before. Every time would get a little worse and she knew, if this happened again, they might just let themselves fall.

He turned and he was going to pull away, but he kissed her again and he couldn't help it because his subconscious knew she wanted it. He started to stand up, his lower back aching from the position he was in. She stood up with him, her leg between his legs and she was pressing her thigh into him. Chris groaned against her mouth, even the slightest contact from her seemed to elicit this extreme reaction. She loved the power she had over him at the moment and pressed herself harder against him and she received another groan as a reward.

She started to lean him back and his hands splayed across the equipment and his ass pressed a button it probably shouldn't have, but neither one noticed as Chris's right hand was busy running up and under her shirt. The button that Chris had so erroneously pressed (he'd actually pressed a few, one of them being a universal mute button, which turned off all the microphones) was the button that led to a video feed of the production truck to broadcast on every closed circuit television set up around the arena.

As Chris and Stephanie were making out, televisions all over the arena were flicking to a grainy black and white image of two people making out backstage. The only fortunate thing was that the sound was off and they couldn't be heard, but people were stopping and looking at what was going on. Some were snickering, trying to figure out just who the two people were since the angle they were being filmed at mostly gave them Chris's back. People were starting to take bets on who it was and cursing whenever that person walked up to see what was going on.

Chris rolled over a little more and the sound came back on as he muttered, "Stephanie..."

Near the gorilla, everyone's head turned sharply as they looked at Paul, who had been standing near the back, laughing and snickering along with everyone else. Then their heads turned back to the monitor in front of them now knowing that the person making out with Stephanie McMahon right now was not her husband. The whispers were even louder and nobody wanted to look at Paul's reaction to this turn of events.

The person with Stephanie was moving their head, turning to kiss down her neck, his face turned to the camera and people gasped as they saw Chris Irvine kissing Stephanie's neck. It was then Stephanie looked up as her mouth was unoccupied and saw all the screens in the production truck were focused on her. She pushed Chris away quickly and he turned to look at her, but her eyes were focused on something behind her. He turned and saw his own body as it was right there. Stephanie's mouth was dry, but she managed to utter one thing.

"Oh my God."