A/N: Italics are flashbacks. Enjoy the chapter and thanks for the reviews. :)

Chris stood in Stephanie's doorway as she opened the door and saw his face. She rolled her eyes and was about to shut the door in her face when he held his hand up to stop her. She wanted him out of here, but another part of her was intrigued. After all, he had flown all the way to Vegas to see her, so she could at least hear him out. So she left her door open, letting him decide what he wanted to do.

"You're not throwing me out, I'm shocked," he said sarcastically.

"What's the point?" she asked, "You'd probably just camp yourself outside my hotel room until I finally let you in, so I decided to save us both the trouble."


"Well, I'm glad you think the way you think because I had my sleeping bag in my rental car," Chris joked.

"Ha," she said, not amused. "So tell me whatever it is you want to tell me, hit on me, do whatever you want to me, and then you can leave and I can enjoy my last weekend of freedom in peace."

"I think it's a little more complicated than that," Chris told her.

She folded her arms in front of her. "Look, it's over, you said it yourself. So why are you here bugging me?"

"You invited me."

"I didn't think you'd show up…shows how much I know right?" she said sarcastically.

"Did you really think I'd pass up the opportunity."

"I didn't figure you for the needy bastard, not after that chick you were talking to last week, what was her name? Ditzy McSlut?"

"You know, this is what I like about you," he told her, sitting down on the couch as he observed her across the room, sitting at the table. "I like that you can insult with the best of them. Makes me kind of sad that you have to hide who you really are behind this little Princess façade you've got going."


"What the hell are you yammering about Chris?"

"What am I yammering about? I'm talking about who you really are Stephanie. Don't you ever get tired of being this perfect little angel?" he asked. "Don't you get tired of being what Daddy and big brother want you to be? I mean, you're marrying this Test guy, and he's going to treat you the same way, as if you're fragile."

"So…I love him," she pointed out.

"Sure you do," Chris laughed. "Like I would love dandruff if it suddenly appeared in my gorgeous head of hair."

"If it's not already there," she mumbled. "But where do you get off Jericho? Where the hell do you get off telling me if I love someone or not? Last time I checked, you weren't me, and you weren't one of my best friends."

"Because you and I…we're more alike than you'd think Stephanie, I think that we could be good together, if you'd give me half a chance."


"Ha!" she guffawed. "I don't think so."

"So you're telling me that you want this life that's been planned out for you. You want your father and your brother to control you for the rest of your life. What about this whole Higher Power thing with your father, how did that make you feel?"

Stephanie quieted for a moment before speaking, her voice clear and dry. "Don't you bring that up, don't ever bring that up."

"Stephanie, I'm here because I can give you what you want."

"You have NO idea what I want!" she snapped, standing up again and going to the door, opening it. "Just get out Jericho. This conversation is over and you've embarrassed yourself enough. I don't know why you feel the need to follow me, but our little game is over, you lost, I won. So get the hell out of here before I call security."

Chris got up and went to the door, but he didn't exit. He just stood in front of Stephanie. "You want it all don't you Princess."

"Don't call me that," she demanded. "You have no goddamn right to call me that."

"Fine, Stephanie," he said derisively. "Look, I'm here because I want to make you a proposition."

"No," she told him. "Look, I already knew the answer."

"Just hear me out. It would be mutually beneficial."

"If you think that I'm going to have sex with you, you're severely mistaken."

"Nothing like that," Chris said, but then looked down at her low-cut top. "Although if you want to throw that offer out on the table, I will not hesitate to snatch it up, only if it's on the table though, I'm not into taking a girl against her will."

"It's most definitely NOT on the table."

"You want power don't you?"

"What?"

"Power, control, that's what you want. You don't want to be controlled, you want to be the one in control. I can give you that."

Stephanie tilted her head back a little. "Go on, I'm listening."

"Ahh, there's a good girl," he told her. "I knew that you were a lot more shrewd than anyone ever gave you credit for. If we help each other, I can assure you that you will be in control of the entire WWF."

"How the hell can you insure that?"

"Because you won't be under the controlling thumb of your father silly. That's all there is to it, we get you away from your father."

"Oh, and how are we going to do that?" she asked. Chris didn't make mention of the fact that she was now using "we" instead of singling either one of them out. That had to be a good sign.

"You marry me."

Stephanie had never laughed louder in her life, but this time, she was laughing loud and through her whole body. She clutched her stomach as she looked at Chris in disbelief. "Are you crazy? What kind of freaking plan is this? Marry you? I'd rather lock myself into someone's basement for the rest of my life rather than marry you."

"This is the only way Stephanie. Think about it, if we're married, then you're father cannot control you because he can't control me like he can control Test, and don't even tell me that he can't control Test."

"Andrew isn't controlled by him."

"And how willing was Andrew to go along with whatever your parents wanted for this wedding?" Stephanie remained silent which gave Chris all the answer he needed. "I think that answers that question."

"But still, married? And what would be in it for you? Again, is it sex, because I'm not giving that to you," she told him sternly.

"I didn't say I wanted sex Stephanie, what's it with you and sex, are you that desperate to get a taste of Y2J, if that's really the case, the bedroom seems to be right through there," he said, pointing to an open door.

"Then what do you want?"

"The belt, that's all. I want the belt. I was in WCW and they told me that I was too small to be the champion, and you know what, that was not to my liking. So I ended up here, and I want the title, and what better way to get to the title than get to the boss's daughter. That's what I want. We get married, you get power, I get the belt, and you can go off and sleep with whatever guy you want to, I don't really care, because I'm not going to be Mr. Faithful to you."

"So it'd all be a business arrangement then? A sham of a marriage?"

"I guess if you want to look at it like that. But I prefer to think of it as a mutually beneficial union of two people who want similar things," he said cheekily. "Isn't that just a much better way of putting it?"

"Why would I give up real love for fake love?"

"Because you are one-of-a-kind Stephanie, and something tells me that you would value power over love any day of the week. In fact, I'm banking on it. I say that we make this game us against everyone else. Let's see what we can do to make everyone else lose."

"Power huh?"

"Power," Chris echoed. "And all I want is the belt, that's it, not even your body, although if you were to throw that in, I'd have no protests."

"You're not getting my body Chris…but you can have my hand in marriage."

"Wait, so you're agreeing?" Chris had not expected this. Truth be told, he thought she would laugh in his face and forcefully throw her out of her hotel room. Chris had just wanted to play this up to her, make her think that he was serious, and joke around with her, and play their game to the finish. But she was actually agreeing to him, and this was a pleasant surprise.

"What? Have I shocked the great Chris Jericho? I thought that you would know by now that I'm not what I seem."

"I should've known, but you're in?" he asked again.

"I'm in…so come on, we've got work to do…"

"That was great!" Stephanie gushed as she and Chris hopped into their limo. They hadn't risked it right after the failed wedding and had high-tailed it backstage and out to the parking lot where their limo had been waiting anxiously for them. "Did you see my brother and Dad's faces after we kissed, priceless!"

"You should've seen their faces when you were walking up to me," Chris told her, feeling a rush of adrenaline coursing through his veins. "It was hilarious."

"That was so much fun," Stephanie said. "I never knew defying them would feel so good."

"I told you."

"Oh Chris, thank you," she said, throwing her arms around him. "I never would've had the courage to do that if it weren't for you. I never would've gotten out from under their control. Oh man, I feel so free."

"You know, you have all the freedom in the world with me," Chris told her honestly. "You are free to make your own choices and do whatever the hell you want to do."

"I know, thank you," she said, hugging him again and kissing him on the cheek. His skin felt warm where she had kissed him, and it inexplicably stayed warm long after her lips had gone away. "You've given me more than anyone has ever given me. Thank you for coming to my hotel room."

"Come on, let's get to our own hotel room, two beds of course, and you can change out of that wedding dress."

"Yeah, I do feel slightly overdressed," she joked, looking down.

"So you don't regret what happened with Test?" Chris asked her. Stephanie hadn't much mentioned Test in their discussions. She looked down at her hands, and he could see her taking a few deep breaths, as if trying to calm herself down.

"I don't know," she answered, her voice quieting and losing the enthusiasm it had had a few moments before. "I don't know what to think about Andrew right now."

"You know, once I get the belt, we can get this annulled and you can marry him. We both know that this is not a forever type thing. You can still see him even, if that's what you want. I'm not going to hold you back. This was just for your father and brother, not for Test too."

"If I wanted to be with him, I mean really, really be with him…I wouldn't even contemplate staying with you, but that's exactly what I'm doing. I'm staying married to you, and not even for love, because I don't love you—"

"And I don't love you," he interrupted and she nodded.

"Yeah, and if I loved Andrew, then I would do anything to be with him, and I'm not."

"Well, if that's what you feel."

"I wouldn't have married you if I loved Andrew enough, I'd be married to him right now," she said, assuring herself of her intentions. "Its fine, we just weren't meant to work out. It was kind of a whirlwind thing anyways. No big deal."

"I'm not going to restrict you from seeing anyone Steph."

"I know," she told him, smiling. "But for now, we have to keep up this charade. We have to act like the ultimate married couple. We have to play the part or nobody is going to believe us. Oh God, what are we going to say next week? Everyone is probably going to expect us to explain ourselves."

"We have a whole week to think about that," Chris pointed out. "Let's just enjoy how much fun tonight was and worry about the rest later. Did you pack all of your things from your apartment that you wanted?"

"Yeah, it should be arriving at your house tomorrow, that's what the movers said."

Stephanie was moving into Chris's house while they were staging being married. They knew they were going to have to work hard to pull this off. So the most logical thing to do was have Stephanie move in with Chris in Florida. She only had a small apartment in Greenwich, so she didn't have to pack up too much. She was going to move in with Andrew anyways, so now she was just moving a little farther away."

"My father is going to want to kill you," she pointed out.

"Yeah, I welcome it. Your brother too, he's been a gigantic pain in the ass since I started here, telling me that I couldn't even talk to you. Well I guess he's shocked now that we're brothers. Hey, maybe we should call them out to the ring next week, that way we can see them face-to-face."

"Oh, I like that," Stephanie said, smirking mischievously. "I really like the way you think Chris."

"I told you that we were alike."

"Yes, and I guess you were right, I just needed to be shown the way."

"And we'll rule over WWF soon enough."

She rubbed her hands together. "Oh, I can't wait. And then everyone is going to know that Stephanie McMahon is the most dominant figure in the WWF today."

"McMahon-Jericho," Chris corrected.

"Oh of course, McMahon-Jericho."

"I hope everyone is ready for us."

"Oh they won't be…but we'll make them see the light. The McMahon-Jericho marriage is going to rule all."

"Oh, before I forget," Chris said, reaching into his pocket.

Stephanie watched him carefully as he pulled something out of his pocket. She observed him as he took her hand and she looked up at him curiously. He slipped the cheap wedding ring they had bought together last week on her finger. She gave him a lop-sided smile as she wiggled her fingers around. Then he plopped something in her hand and she saw it was her ring for him. She laughed and picked it up. Then she slipped it on his finger.

They were really, truly married.