A/N: Yes, I know it's almost been two years since I updated this story, and that I've started and finished stories in the time since I've last updated this, but I hate having stories unfinished. So here's the next chapter, and I'm hoping to update this in a more timely fashion next time, of course, that gives me a two year time frame, but I think it should be a lot sooner next time.
Hope you enjoy, and please review so I don't think that this is complete crap. ;)
Chris looked deeply into Stephanie's eyes. What in God's name had possessed her to kiss him like that? Not that he hadn't desired a kiss from her. He had been anticipating this day for years, but that didn't assuage his shock at the actual action of kissing.
"Wh-what do you mean?" he stuttered.
"That I've thought about being more with you," she said coyly, her mouth turning up into a half-smile.
"But you said we were just friends."
"Oh please Chris, don't tell me you actually believed that?" she laughed.
He thought back to when Hunter had first visited Stephanie in the hospital. He had told Chris that Stephanie had once had a thing for him. Was it possible that she still had a thing for him? That she was indeed as in love with him as he was with her. Maybe she wasn't AS in love with him as she was with her. Or maybe she wasn't in love with him, but she at least liked him a lot. He would take that.
"You don't want to be just friends?"
"Well, I mean, I like being friends with you, but you have to be crazy if you think I haven't wanted more out of our relationship at one time or another."
"Well, I mean, I don't know."
"Chris, you've thought about it haven't you?"
"More than you think," he told her.
"Oh really?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
Chris sat on the bed opposite her, "Stephanie, come on, think for a minute. Why did I visit you everyday in the hospital?"
"Because you were my friend," she shrugged.
Chris gave her a look like that was anything but the right answer. He knew that pretty soon everything was going to come out, how he loved her and everything. He still wasn't sure how she would take the news, but he knew it was all going to come spilling out very soon.
"You were anything but my friend."
She laughed, "Well, that's good I guess."
"You have the worst way of understating things Stephanie," Chris said with a smile, "But I just love that about you anyways."
"So everyday in the hospital, you were there because you…"
"Couldn't stand the thought that one day I could be without you, so I spent every second there hoping that you would wake up. It took you a while, but you finally did."
"Yeah, I'm sorry it took me so long."
"I don't think that the wait was exactly in your realm of control."
She smiled and reached her hand out to grab his. Her touch was so light since she was still so weak and had lost a lot of weight while she was in a coma. He ran his thumb over her knuckles and she just looked at him. She should've seen it sooner, looking now, she could tell as if it were the clearest thing she had ever seen.
"The day of your accident, I was going to tell you how much I loved you and adored you, and you had to go and get yourself almost killed and I thought that I'd never get to tell you."
"Tell me now," she told him softly.
Chris took a deep breath. This was the moment he had been waiting for, for six full months. He almost couldn't believe that it was here, because it was almost too good to be true. He bit his lip for a moment and tried to think of exactly what he wanted to say and what he needed to say. Stephanie waited anxiously. She had always felt that there was something more between Chris and her; she was just too afraid to admit it to herself.
"I love you, and I've loved you for a long time. I just thought that you didn't love me because you hated me and then when you and I became business partners, I thought that you were just using me again. But yeah, I love you."
"I love you too."
"You do?"
"How could I not? I mean, you sat by my bedside every day, waiting for me to wake up. You were probably there more than my mother and father. How could I not love a man willing to give up so much to a woman who might not ever wake up? You went above and beyond anything that I could've hoped for. You kept me in other people's minds Chris, that's what you did for me."
"People would've remembered you anyways."
"I don't know, people forget easily, you could've forgotten me pretty easily."
"I don't think that would've happened," he said, holding her hand a little bit tighter. "I…missed you. I missed hearing your voice. When I looked at you, it was like, you were this empty shell and you weren't really in there."
"I was there. I might not have seemed like I was, but I was there."
"I just hope you didn't hear any of my desperate pleas for you to wake up," he said jokingly.
"Was that what those were," she joked back, playing with his fingers. "You did more for me than anyone has ever done for me. I'm so used to not having anyone care for me, not the way that you did."
"It was my pleasure."
"But the thing is you didn't have to. I mean, after the first month, you could've left me, and I would've been none the wiser. Why did you stay with me for six months when there was no progress whatsoever?"
"I guess that when you love someone, you're willing to go to the extreme for them," he shrugged, not really knowing the answer to that. "It was like, if I didn't go see you, I felt like…like I had let you slip away somehow. That it was one less day that I would get to see you in case…in case you died."
"But I'm sure you would've found someone," she said, not really sure where she was trying to go with this conversation, but feeling the need to know why Chris had stuck around, even when sometimes there was no hope that she would even wake up again.
"Why go through the trouble finding someone, when you were always there," he said, causing her to giggle. "I don't know why Steph, I don't know why I had to see you, but I know that I had to, and that's just what happened."
"Thank you…I can't say it enough, but thank you…for everything," she told him, her eyes glassy with unshed tears. "I mean, there's so many times you could've just given up, but you didn't."
"Your family didn't either."
"But they're my family, they have to keep believing, you didn't. You kept coming back, even when there was so slim a chance that I would ever wake up."
"But you DID wake up," he told her. "And that's what counts…so are we dating or something?"
"I don't know," she laughed. "I mean, I'm kind of dependent on you."
"But not for long. I'm sure you'll be back on your feet and then you won't need me anymore."
"Aww, come on, I'm sure I can have you do my bidding. I've already got you wrapped around my finger, don't I?"
"Don't let that little secret get around ok? Because I don't need to hear from the guys how whipped I am."
"Ok, I guess I can keep it our little secret," she said, leaning in for another sweet kiss. Chris rested his hand lightly on her side, rubbing gently and sending tingling feelings towards Stephanie's core. "Don't get me all worked up Mr. Jericho, I might find sudden strength in my legs and ravage you."
"I'd welcome that Miss McMahon," Chris said, pulling away from her face. "Do you need anything?"
"No, I don't think I do, but how about you lie here with me and watch TV?"
"I would love to, but I have to run some errands. There's no food in this house, and I have to get your prescriptions and things. So you just stay here, and I have my cell phone with me if you need anything all right?"
"Fine," she sighed. "Leave the lady all by herself."
"You'll be fine," he said. "Just relax."
"Ok," she nodded. "Don't be long."
"I'll try not to be."
Chris left the room, letting Stephanie settle against the pillows and grab the remote to her television. He went about his errands, buying enough food for ten people, and getting Stephanie's prescriptions that she had to take, courtesy of the doctor. He tried to rush as fast as he could, because he wanted to spend every moment with Stephanie, and every moment away from her was just not that fun.
When he got back home, he went upstairs to ask Stephanie what she wanted to have for dinner, and found that she was asleep. Since she had had to sleep in that God awful hospital bed for months and months, Chris decided to let her sleep. He went back downstairs and started making dinner anyways. She might wake up and get hungry, so he made enough for her too.
He was simply stirring some pasta sauce in a pot when he felt two arms wrap around his waist and he stiffened, not knowing who that could be. It couldn't be Stephanie because Stephanie couldn't walk. He turned around, but his eyes widened as he saw that it WAS Stephanie and she was smiling up at him sleepily, obviously just having woken up. Chris's jaw slacked at his looked at her standing there.
"Stephanie, how the hell did you get down here!" Chris asked incredulously.
"I walked," she answered nonchalantly.
"But…but…you…how?"
"It was tough, let me tell you," she laughed. "It took me twenty minutes to get down here, but I managed. Hanging onto tables and banisters, and anything I could grab a hold of. I got bored upstairs, and I wanted to see what you were making cause it smells divine."
"But you…the doctors said you couldn't walk."
"I told you I took a few steps in therapy. Well, you can't keep Stephanie McMahon down," she smiled proudly. "If I want to walk, then I'll do as I damn well please."
Chris just shook his head, staring down at her. "It must hurt though."
"A little. I'm just stiff is all," she answered. "I guess you were too into the food to hear me stumbling around here."
"I guess I was a little preoccupied. Do you want me to help you to the table?" he asked.
"No, I'll just watch you cook," she answered, then pointed, "From the barstools."
"Do you need help?"
"Nope," she said, grinning mischievously.
She gripped onto the countertop and took a few clumsy steps. Her legs were weak and Chris could tell, but she seemed to ignore that, judging from the look on her face. She was acting as if this was nothing, and she could do anything she wanted, which was true. She made her way slowly to the barstools and using an amazing amount of strength she sat herself down.
"I may need help getting down though," she said, leaning her chin in her hand as she watched Chris. "Don't look so shocked Chris. It's not as easy as it looks."
"But you made it all the way downstairs."
"Yeah, so," she said noncommittally.
"Ok, well, dinner is almost ready."
She smiled and he went back to cooking, knowing her eyes were on him the whole time. He felt a little bit awkward, just having her staring at him like that. She pointed out things that he couldn't find and he set the table. Stephanie did in fact need help getting off the stool, but she made her way slowly to the table and sat herself down.
"I hope the foods not cold," she joked. He laughed and pushed her chair in, Stephanie smiling up at him in thanks.
The meal was delicious and the table talk light and joking. Chris was just happy to be here with her, and Stephanie was happy to be home, and eating a real meal, and not that crap they served at the hospital. It was just a nice time for the both of them. Almost like a date, if they really thought about it hard, but it was comfortable too, like they had been doing this forever.
They could both get used to this.
