A/N: Thanks for the reviews, glad you're still enjoying the story, hope you like the chapter! :)


Now we had a problem on our hands. I mean, I still loved her, but it wasn't like I could be with her, you know. I wanted to be with her, but I had Ash and I just couldn't do it. I couldn't pull that trigger. I kept looking at him, looking at my son and thinking about how I couldn't let this baby down. I didn't want to let him down. I remembered how much it hurt that my parents had gotten divorced and I'd been nearly in my 20's when that happened. Ash was barely six months and I was thinking about leaving his mother.

"Don't you think it would have been more fair to have had just gotten with Stephanie anyways? I mean, now you have all these obstacles in front of you and it's infinitely harder, don't you think?" Adam asked.

"It's easier to look back now and find your mistakes," Chris told him, "than to realize what they are when they're happening. When they're happening, you don't think about it. You just think, I have to do this, I have to do that, I have obligations, except when you look back at is, you're just like, well, couldn't you have just done this and changed that and everything would've been fine."

"Except you just don't realize it."

"Yeah, plus, if I'd done that, I wouldn't have had Cheyenne or Sierra and I wouldn't trade them for the world and who knows, I might not have any of my other girls," Chris said. "It may not be for the best that Stephanie and I have waited so long, but there's a time for everything."

"So did you two fall back into each other's arms then, after that night when she came to you? If you realized you two were still in love with each other…"

Neither one of us said anything that night. I knew it, she knew it, we could see it in each other's eyes, but it was just that, things we could see, not things we could say. She was a newlywed and I was a new father and it seemed our lives were just as these huge impasses. Obstacles always seem bigger the closer you get to them. Maybe if we had taken a step back, it would have been easier to get around them. I always think about that. I mean, it would have been easy enough, I get divorced, she gets divorced, we decide to be together, but when you're actually staring it in the face, it's harder.

So we didn't say anything, but our relationship definitely changed. It was just…easier, I guess. The tension of the past several months seemed to dissipate and I was able to talk to her without feeling like my heart was being put in a vice. I don't know why it was easier though, I guess maybe it was because I knew we were still on the same plane of thought. Knowing that she hadn't forgotten about us…it was kind of a relief. I know that sounds selfish, that it was easier to be without her if I knew it was hard for her to be without me, but I'm selfish, what can I say?

"So when did you two actually star…you know…again?" Adam asked. "I mean, you have three daughters so at some point, you had to get back into bed with her."

"You just want to hear all the dirty details about the two of us, don't you?" Chris joked.

"Hey, I'm sorry, but if I can hear the dirty details you know I'm going to want them," Adam joked back. "It's just, this part of the story is pretty boring. So you two were apart and you stayed apart like good, little children. Where's the sex, the violence, the drama?"

"The violence?"

"I don't know, I'm just throwing it out there that the story should get better, maybe I should call Stephanie and ask her about what she thought about all this?" Adam said.

"Hey, if you want to, go for it," Chris shrugged. "She's probably still awake, the baby sometimes keeps her up at night. It's pretty active, that new one, it's going to give us trouble, I can tell already."

"You would actually let me talk to her?" Adam's eyes widened.

"It would get you off my back for a while," Chris told him. He looked up and around the bus, everyone around them was sleeping, in various positions of comfortability. He did a quick double check because the last thing he wanted was for people to hear about him and Stephanie before he and Stephanie were ready for them to hear it. It was going to come out eventually, but he didn't need it coming out here, on a bus in the middle of Mexico.

"I'm not on your back, I'm just curious about this epic love story, that's all, that's not being on your back at all," Adam told him with a nod. "You sure you don't mind."

"Hey, whatever floats your boat about our 'epic' romance," Chris said.

Adam pulled out his phone and dialed Stephanie's number (everyone in the company had Stephanie's number, some on speed dial because they liked to complain). "Adam, what's going on?" she answered.

"Hey, Steph," Adam said in a low voice. "Chris got tired of talking to me, he thinks I'm trying to get all the dirty details so I thought I'd call you and you could tell me part of the story."

"Why are you so intrigued?" Stephanie laughed.

"Well, for one, I'm bored as hell," Adam said. "I'm not tired, nobody is awake but Chris and I need something to keep me occupied before I go completely insane and request to ride, strapped down, on top of the bus."

Stephanie laughed, "Is there a for two?"

"For two, of course I want to know how it happened that Paul is going to get the rug pulled out from underneath him. This is like the best thing to ever happen to the company since Vince took it over."

"I don't know about that," Stephanie told him. "I mean, it's not that big a deal."

"You're kidding, right? You are joking with me right now, aren't you, because there is no way you can think this isn't a good thing. Your husband is the worst thing, he's a jerk, Stephanie, I'm surprised you don't see it."

"Of course I see it, I'm going to divorce him, aren't I? I have three children with another man," Stephanie said.

"So come on, your side of the story for a while."

"Fine, if it'll get you to shut up and leave Chris alone for a bit, where is he at in the story?"

"It was after you were married and he had Ash, you went to him when your grandfather died."

"Oh okay, you want to know how we got back together then?"

"It would help," he said charmingly as Chris rolled his eyes next to him. Chris turned his head away from Adam and stared out into the darkness surrounding the bus, letting his mind wander to years past when he'd been dropped off in the middle of nowhere after a saucy encounter.

Well, Paul was just a bad decision on my part. It was easier being with him than being with nobody though. I think it was because I constantly saw Chris and his wife and Ash. I'm not saying Chris brought them every week, but it was like every week he did bring them, I was always there and had to endure it. Planning the wedding was a distraction, a needed distraction, but that's all it was. Paul was convenient, he's always been…convenient, but never the person I wanted. I wanted Chris, I knew he was the one for me, but it was wrong. What we were doing was wrong.

Still, it felt right and you can't help what feels right sometimes, no matter how hard you try. It wasn't some big, monumental moment that brought us together again. It wasn't some beautiful starry night where we both looked up and some cheesy music hit us and we kissed it was nothing like that at all. It was never like that with us. What we had was cold, hard reality, that's all. We're dreamers, but not in that sense.

It was near the end of 2004, I'd just celebrated one year with Paul, but things weren't going all that well. I mean, he was a good guy, I guess, but he wasn't my guy. You just have to have this spark and it wasn't there. He certainly liked the perks that came with being with me and I was just too tired of him to care what he did with that. I was head of creative by this point, doing the storylines and just…one night, Chris came in to discuss them with me and I smiled at him in this way he said just startled him with how warm it was. I still don't know what smile he was referring to, but he says he sees it every so often so I guess it exists.

We didn't do anything that night, but then the next night, I was walking to my rental and Chris was walking to his, he was in front of me and I caught up to him. Paul wasn't with me, he had decided to go out for drinks that evening and I didn't stop him because I never did. I tried to care, but I just couldn't find the energy in me to care. I'm not saying I think Paul is necessarily bad, I've never thought that though I know the popular opinion is that he's the scum of the earth. I just…didn't feel for him.

So I ran up to Chris and tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around so quickly that he hit me with his duffel bag and I fell down. He was so shocked he'd done that he just stood there while I sat on the ground laughing. I thought it was hilarious, but Chris felt horrible about it and he reached down to help me up and so I grabbed his hand and pulled him down with me. He wasn't expecting is so he landed hard on his knee and I remembered he hissed in pain. Now I was the one who felt bad and we sat there on the ground and I was trying not to laugh and he was trying not to laugh and then we just…stopped.

"Are you okay?" I asked him, "I really thought you wouldn't fall like that."

"I'm okay," he told me, rubbing his knee a little.

"I just thought some payback was in order."

"No, I'm okay, believe me," he said, "I mean, I'm a wrestler, falling on my knee isn't going to kill me."

"God, what if I'd made you tear something though, I think my father would kill me," I told him, making a face.

"Well, I'm still in one piece."

"Let me make it up to you, have you eaten?"

"Yeah, I ate in catering."

"Then have you had dessert?" I wondered.

"No, I haven't."

"Come on, there has to be some kind of Denny's or diner place, I'll treat you to something sweet," I told him and he agreed because what else did he have to do that evening? At this point, we were well aware that our feelings hadn't altered in our time apart, but it was easier not to say anything and pretend like we were just friends. Just friends is such a bullshit phrase though because if you have had something with someone as intimate as we did, just friends doesn't really cut it.

I'm not even sure how it happened, but as soon as we were in the car, we were all over each other. I don't know if it was just being in that close proximity with each other, but suddenly, we were just making out in the car, where anyone could see. It was lucky that we were some of the last to arrive and that the car wasn't parked under some streetlights and that it was fairly dark. I'm not proud of how we've gone about this, but sometimes you just end up doing things that you can't control and I couldn't control myself around Chris any longer and I think he felt the same way with me. I knew we had to make a choice, but I didn't want to make that choice right then and neither did he. We just wanted to live in the moment so we did, we did everything without thought or consequence, but it was going to catch up to us.

Pretty soon, we were going to get caught.