LOL! I decided to post this asap since it was mostly already done...before you guys have a heart attack over there. Initially this chapter was going to be short and have a cliffhanger about halfway in. But, I decided that was mean. LOL. I've got nothing typed up for the epilogue so give me a bit to work on that. Hope you all enjoy!

Hunter had blamed himself for being paranoid about his wife having an affair. But, judging from what just occurred, his fears had been absolutely correct. Here he was, thinking he'd been screwing up their marriage all by himself for over a year, but it turns out that he'd had some help in that department. Suddenly, it made perfect sense that Kurt Angle was taking her out to dinner...he'd had her before.

So, he'd kept secrets from Stephanie. He'd told some half-truths and omitted some things entirely. But, he'd never done something as horrible as being unfaithful to her. He hadn't betrayed her and their marriage vows entirely. Even if what he had mislead her on was somewhat of a betrayal in and of itself.

He chuckled bitterly. "So this is why he was taking you to dinner that day, huh?"

Stephanie swallowed nervously. It wasn't hard to guess what conclusions her husband had jumped to. She had to play this cool, though. Kurt Angle had definitely been keeping track of her whereabouts and she didn't want Hunter to know that. Right now, they simply needed to focus on their relationship. She couldn't have him flying off the handle and beating the hell out of Kurt while their relationship was still so wrecked. "No," she replied indifferently. "He just happened to be at Corporate that day. We ran into each other in the parking lot and he made the offer."

"Don't patronize me, Stephanie," he told her sternly. "The dinner...or almost-dinner is the least of my concerns with you and him."

"Hunter, just calm down. Ok? It isn't what you think."

He shook his head, to try to force out the anger. He wasn't going to explode. Not yet, anyway. She had listened to his story. She'd damn well tell hers and he would listen just as eagerly. Mostly, because he wanted, so badly to believe that she hadn't stepped out on him. Their problems were numerous and bad enough without adding infidelity to it. All his life, he had gone around not trusting people. Throughout his marriage he had never quite fully trusted Stephanie. If she validated that by admitting to having an affair...he didn't know how he would handle it. The world possibly wouldn't come crashing down, because he'd always prepared himself for people to screw him over. But, given that he had just poured out his heart and his back story to her, that made the potential treachery even worse. "Then please explain. Right now."

Stephanie took a deep breath to try to prepare herself to tell him this. He would have to keep an open mind otherwise what she said would fly right over his head. There was a reason she hadn't explained herself back then. Lying had definitely been the way to go, since she wanted to keep her marriage and hadn't actually done anything wrong. This was going to be her second confession anyway...that she had lied that one time. "At Summerslam...in 2000, when you and Kurt were fighting and I got knocked out."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "You mean when you disappeared for an entire day?" He asked. "When you claimed you were at the hospital with Shane," he added sarcastically.

"Yeah. That." Jesus, she had to get this out as quickly as possible. Dragging it out was leaving Hunter too much time to get angry and jump to conclusions. She could see him struggling to not lose his temper already. "Kurt and I did not have sex," she clarified. "But we were in the same room that night."

Hunter's eyebrows raised. "And what were you doing? Playing chess?"

"I was doped up and knocked out from pain medication that night and most of the next day. And I didn't have my bag, so I couldn't call from my cell phone, when I was finally lucid enough. I knew you'd be at the arena and not paying attention to your phone anyway. So, I just went to our room and waited for you until you came back from Raw."

"Why didn't you tell me this before?"

Rudely, Stephanie let out a snort along with her laugh. "Sorry."

"This isn't funny at all Stephanie. You blatantly lied to me," he said through his teeth. "You want me to trust you, but you lied."

"It is funny," she disagreed. "It is very funny that you're asking me why I didn't tell you sooner, when 3 minutes ago, you admitted to having doubted my faithfulness when it came to Kurt. You wouldn't have listened to me back then. Hell, the only reason you're listening to me now is because you feel so bad about the mess we're in."

Hunter nodded. She had him there. And she was telling the truth now, that's what mattered. It was over and in the past on his and Stephanie's end. But Kurt was still on his shit list and if he knew what was best for him, he had better stay the hell away from his wife. They fell into an easy silence for a few moments, before Hunter spoke again. "You know what burns me up the most"

Reluctantly, Stephanie shook her head, hoping he didn't have any more input on the Kurt revelation. "No...what?"

"Even though my birth parents didn't give a shit about me...once I was in the WWE I kind of hoped they'd come find me."

Her eyes widened. That was the last things she had expected him to say. "Why?"

He lifted his shoulders in a shrug. "Validation or something. I wanted them to pop up looking for a handout, so I could tell them to shove it." A small smile appeared, but he got a contemplative look in his eyes. "That never happened. Isn't that crazy? I'm rich and famous and they still don't want me."

A sigh escaped her lips. The trust issues were easy to categorize. She didn't know what the hell to call this one. Maybe an issue of abandonment or feeling worthless? She pondered, while she chose her next words. "Hunter, they were addicts. They may have passed on already. And if they're still living, they've probably never even heard of the WWE."

"Maybe you're right..."

"Either way, it doesn't matter. I love you," she reached out and grabbed his hand, placing it on top of her stomach. As if on cue, their baby kicked and she grinned. "And so does our baby."

He took her free hand in his and toyed with her wedding ring. "Thanks for that." He leaned over and pressed a kiss to her cheek. "You brought up the next topic of conversation, too."

"Yeah? What's that?"

"Our relationship. I know I've hurt you...a lot, over this last year especially. I want to fix it, if you'll let me."

Stephanie sighed and dropped her gaze to their joined hands. While she understood how her husband ended up being mistrustful and angry, they couldn't just turn back the hands of time. The pain and devastation he'd caused her didn't just magically disappear because she knew his history now. "Please don't be mad at me," she began, her gaze still averted.

Taking a deep breath, Hunter moved his hand from her stomach and used his index finger to lift her chin and make her look at him. The sadness that he saw there, gave him his answer. Clearly, she loved him. That much was obvious and she had already admitted to it. But, sometimes love just wasn't enough. Sometimes apologies came too late. He ran his thumb over the dent in her chin, smiling when she closed her eyes at the touch. With a sigh, he got up from the loveseat.

Stephanie's eyes flew open and she looked at him, confused. "What are you doing?"

"Leaving. I don't want to make this any harder on you than it has to be. I understand that I've hurt you too much for you to forgive me," he admitted sadly.

In silence, she watched him grab his coat and slowly head for the front door. When he got to it, he put his hand on the doorknob and turned back around to face her. "I love you," he told her. Stephanie simply blinked in response and continued to stare silently while he unlocked and then walked out of the door, shutting it behind himself.

Outside, Hunter still stood in the porch. He needed a moment to digest everything that had just happened. He was glad Stephanie wasn't exactly angry with him for withholding information. But, that filled him with overwhelming sadness, too. He had kept these things from her, fearing that she wouldn't want to be with him anymore, if she knew. But, she'd reacted well and it killed him. It was devastating, because obviously if he had told her sooner, they could have avoided a lot of problems. Telling her now did nothing. It couldn't make it so that Stephanie hadn't gone through her pregnancy alone for three months or change the fact that he'd absolutely broken her heart.

But, they were still going to be parents together. He would make sure to stay in touch so that they could decide how best to raise their child.

He turned back around when he heard the door behind him open. Stephanie stood there, with her arms crossed over her chest while she tapped her foot irritably.

She shook her head and pressed her lips into a tight line before speaking. "Are you kidding me?" she asked incredulously. "We're really going to have to work on your whole 'think the worst where Stephanie is concerned' thing."

His cheeks reddened in embarrassment. He laughed nervously and said, "Well you looked so sad and you have to admit, your introductory sentence sounded pretty bad."

With a nod, she agreed. "Yeah...sorry, gotta get used to having an impressionable man," she shook her head in amusement. "I was sad because I wish this could be instant...you know, putting this behind us. But it's not. It's going to take time and lots of work. So, I have some conditions." She reached out and grabbed his hand, pulling him back inside the house.

When they were back inside, Hunter kept her hand in his and used his free hand to shut and lock the door.

"You can have anything, you want," he blurted out sincerely, with a goofy grin. He was just happy he was getting his wife back, even if things weren't instantaneously made right. If she asked for the sun and the moon, he would damn well find a creative way to give them to her.

"I think we should live separately for a bit. While we...date," she suggested.

Thoroughly entertained, he lifted an eyebrow. "Little late for dating, don't you think?" He gestured towards her stomach and winked.

She chuckled. "We both learned a lot of vital information about each other tonight. And this is after being married for almost two and a half years and you knocking me up. Something is wrong with that picture."

"Our relationship began sort of suddenly."

After rolling her eyes, she told him, "Ha. Ha."

He held up his hands in his defense. "All right, all right...so...dating?" He queried.

"Yep. Dinners, movies, beach trips, picnics. Date-like things."

"But, don't we already do that stuff?"

She nodded. "We do, but we always focused on the present and totally ignored discussing what life was like before we met. So we're going to shift our focus...past, present and future."

Hunter rubbed at his beard, considering. "I could get behind that idea...if your visions of the future include me."

Stephanie poked him in the stomach. "Suck up," she teased.

"Of course. Got a lot of making up to you, to do." He placed his free hand on her waist and stepped closer to her.

She cleared her throat and ignored the urges that were beginning to surface. This was the closest he had been to her in three months. "Before you get any ideas...there will be no sex for a while. We can't use that to distract us from our problems. When we both feel we've got it sorted, then we can be together...living together again."

"Next stipulation," he urged. He knew that her ideas were good and would ultimately help them in the long run. But, he'd already been without her for 3 months. Having their relationship on ice, so to speak, wasn't high on his list of ideas to facilitate the health of their marriage.

"Therapy," she said bluntly.

"Excuse me?" Maybe he hadn't heard her right. They had their problems, but neither of them was crazy. They'd admitted their problems and their pasts to each other. Damn it, they had a plan for fixing everything. In his opinion, outside help was both unwanted and unnecessary.

Stephanie held up a hand, silently asking him to hear her out. "We've both got issues from our past, from our childhood, Hunter."

"But, we already talked about it," was his attempt to protest.

"I know. But, talking about it that one time isn't going to suddenly make either of us okay with it. It's not going to do much with the harmful personality traits it's caused either," she reasoned.

He released her hand and stepped back, shaking his head in defiance. "I don't want or need a shrink, Steph," he told her point blank.

"You, alone, might not, but we do," she gestured to him, her and her belly. "If this family is going to survive without fighting, lying and distrusting each other all the time, we need this."

"But-"

"You said I could have whatever I wanted," she reminded him.

Hunter muttered unintelligibly under his breath. Leave it to Stephanie to find the one thing he would have a problem giving her. Shrinks were for crazy people. And for spoiled rich people to drone on about how boring life was, without the struggles that plagued the less fortunate. They weren't for people like him or like Stephanie, who simply battled through their problems without assistance.

Speculatively, he eyed his wife. Her eyes were pleading with him to agree to this. She had been specific with the categorization of her requests. This was a condition. A stipulation. An ultimatum. They had screwed their relationship up so badly, that she wasn't willing to try unless they had professional help at it. Really, he couldn't blame her. And maybe since they had already come to terms with their issues on their own, therapy wouldn't be so bad. They should be able to move through it fairly quickly. Certainly, we'll be done with our sessions by November, he thought.

Reluctantly, he caved. He still wasn't too keen on the idea but if it helped their marriage he would do it. "You got it, but I want to negotiate a condition of my own."

Her brow arched curiously. This should be good. "And that would be?"

"Marry me," he told her. "Marry me, again, on our anniversary."

Stephanie's smile practically lit up the entire room. "Can I kiss you?" she asked. "Or is that too much contact?"

He smirked and tapped her on the nose. "Remember what I said: anything you want."

As they fell into each other's arms, their problems seemed to diminish. When they were out of air, they pulled apart and stared at each other for a few moments. Stephanie tried desperately to pretend that she hadn't secretly craved this moment...his touch, for months. The no-sex rule was her idea and here she was about to fail miserably at it after 5 minutes. He reached out and trailed a finger along her jaw."Thank you," he told her.

"For what?"

"Everything."

Streets of Connecticut

On the short drive back to the house they used to share in Greenwich, he couldn't wipe the smile off of his face. He decided not to dwell on the negative – on the fact that they were living apart for the time being. Stephanie was hardly a twenty minute drive away and he was positive that very soon, they would share one roof again. Until then, he would just have to make the short commute to take her on dates and visit her. He was also considered to be "on call" to tag along for her late night craving excursions.

There was no doubt, that he had wasted Stephanie's love for him several times. It was then, that he was hit with an epiphany. Love wasn't a boomerang; it didn't just automatically come back to you when you threw it away. Most of the time you had to go out and get it back for yourself.

And he had some of his wife's love back already. And dating, living apart, abstinence and therapy be damned, he was determined to get all of it back.