A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, everyone, 100 of them, I'm so happy you like this story! Things are really progressing now and I'm glad you've been enjoying the story as much as you all have and it's been really fun to write as well. So I really hope you enjoy this chapter and I'd really love to know your thoughts so if you want to review, please feel free to do so. Enjoy! :)
"Are you sure we have to do this now?"
"Chris, we've only got a little bit of time where we can corner him and talk to him about this," Stephanie said. "Look, I've made some huge life decisions tonight. I'm leaving my husband…for you…for me, I want to be with you."
"Is that the only reason you're leaving him?" Chris asked her. It was a lot to put on his shoulders if the only reason she was leaving her husband was to be with him. He always figured Stephanie had such high expectations of everyone and he wasn't sure he could live up to whatever high expectations she'd probably already put on him.
"Well no," she said, shaking her head a little, but very aware that they had very little time to start getting to her dad's office. "I mean, I don't know, if I'm so attracted to you and have been for so long, there must be something wrong with my marriage, don't you think?"
"No, it could just mean you're attracted to me."
"It's more than that," Stephanie said. "It's more than that because when I'm with you, everything feels like it changes. I've never had that with Paul, no matter how hard I've tried. It's like, when you're saving up your money to buy something big, but you don't know and you keep saying that you'll know what you want when you see it. I think, I think I've been using Paul to wait around for what I really wanted and I know it's you now."
"Wow," he said. That was really all the resolve he needed. If she was so sure, then he should feel the same way. When she put it like that, it was almost like his own situation. He loved Jessica in his own way for sure, but he felt like he'd been biding his time and all ahead of him he could just see an expanse of days with Stephanie. He liked looking forward to something that big.
"Are you ready, we've really got to go, there's a whole orchestrated plan here that we're holding up," she told him, tugging on his hand.
He kissed her quickly. "I'm ready."
"It's about time."
She gripped his hand tighter, as if he would disappear if she let go. She didn't think he would, but she wasn't taking any chances on that front. They burst through the curtains, startling some of the people who'd been milling about. Everyone's eyes widened as the couple of the evening emerged as if from behind some red velvet curtain, bursting forth for their big premiere. Stephanie kept her eyes forward and Chris kept his eyes locked on their hands as she strode purposefully towards her father's office and Chris trailed after her.
He wasn't sure if she could hear, but he could hear the buzz beginning backstage. It had started with the people who had seen them enter from the curtain and it seemed to follow them, like a bunch of wasps, trailing after them with their sharp sting. He could only hear snippets as Stephanie kept them moving forward. He was glad she was in charge because he might give in and listen and then blow up at them all for trying to make sense of something they wouldn't understand, something he was still struggling to understand. The night had been such a whirlwind and every moment he felt like he was trying to catch his breath. But he imagined that's what real life-changing events did to a person. It was like when he'd had his first child, his Ash and his breath had been so taken away from the magnitude of the situation. That's what this felt like, one of those moments where he knew everything was going to change, but for the better.
"Eyes forward, Irvine," Stephanie hissed. They were almost to her father's office when she turned around abruptly, seeing everyone watching them, everything at a standstill. "Excuse me," she said loudly, "I'm pretty damn sure the Pay-Per-View is not over. So if you value your jobs, you will all get back to work immediately and mind your own damn business before I decide to start handing out pink slips like Halloween candy!"
Everyone scattered quickly and Chris muttered, "Damn," under his breath.
"My love life is not front page news," she told him firmly as she pushed her way into her father's office. "Assholes, stupid gossips."
He smiled at Stephanie as she said that. He loved the passion she had for everything. He could imagine there not being one dull moment with her in his life. She was vibrant, like the brightest colors splashed across a canvas. They went inside her father's office and he was sitting in his chair, head in hands, looking so relieved that Chris could practically feel the waves of it coming off him and he didn't even know what was really going on. Stephanie had had a plan with Shane, that's about all he knew of the situation. The details had eluded him, but whatever the two McMahons had concocted had certainly worked. Stephanie dropped his hand and stepped forward.
"Daddy, what's wrong?" she said in a small voice, one that he would soon learn she only used when she wanted information out of her father.
"I just…there was a huge misunderstanding over something and I'm very relieved that it did not come to fruition," he told her, sitting up and smiling at her, almost not noticing Chris, almost. His eyebrows knitted together as he saw Chris there and Chris was glad that Stephanie had dropped his hand.
"What kind of misunderstanding?" Chris had to hand it to her; she was doing an excellent job acting like she didn't know what was up.
"Nothing you need to worry about, what are you doing here, both of you?"
"Chris, sit," she said and he obeyed like a puppy dog. He figured he would let her take the reins with this one. He hoped in their relationship she would let him have the upper-hand once in a while, but he was starting to think that he was going to be whipped for this girl. Surprisingly, he didn't have a problem with this.
Stephanie sat next to him. "Dad, there are some things we needed to discuss with you and time is of the essence so it's almost perfect that you are here since after the show might be too late."
"Chris, are you leaving because we just gave you the belts and you'd be leaving us awfully high and dry," Vince said, placing his hands on the desk in front of him, any misunderstandings quickly put in the past in the face of new problems. "Your contract isn't officially up yet either, so this would really be a breach of contract unless you have some kind of family emergency."
"No, there's no emergency," Chris said, feeling a little croaked so he cleared his throat. "This is more of a…personal wrestling matter, I guess."
"Personal wrestling matter? Are you injured, did you get injured earlier in your match against Rey, I don't really see how you could have been injured in your tag team match all things considered. Hell, I'm surprised you'd be injured at all."
"No, I'm fine."
"Dad, some things happened tonight and things are going to get back to you and before they do and before they get skewed and all the words get turned into exaggeration, we wanted to come to you with them, to tell you the truth, to tell you what happened before you hear it from someone else."
Vince looked between the two of them. This seemed suspicious. "What would have happened that everything got skewed? I'm not understanding."
Stephanie sighed. "Dad, I've been attracted to Chris for a very long time. I never really did anything about it because I'm married and I thought that I was happy and Chris is married and everything and we played by the rules."
"I was attracted to Stephanie too," Chris said quickly so as not to make Vince think that his feelings for his daughter were ungenuine. "I didn't do anything for the same reasons. I didn't want to ruin her reputation or anything like that."
"Okay," Vince said, the picture starting to become clearer, but he wanted to hear what they had to say before he would say anything. There was obviously more to the story than they were saying right now, which was only the beginning.
"Well, I guess, tonight, it just broke between the two of us," Stephanie said, glancing over at Chris and he gave her a reassuring and warm smile. "I think it's been a long time coming. I think I've felt this way since our first storyline, I don't think the tension between us was feigned."
"I've thought she was beautiful since the day I met her," Chris told her and it was really the first time he'd said that and the way she looked at him just then did more to convince Vince this was really going on than anything they had actually said.
Stephanie continued. "We kissed, neither one of us kissed the other first, it was a mutual thing. We just couldn't hold back our feelings any longer. It just…it wasn't possible for us. Unfortunately, we were in the production truck because Chris was recording some promo stuff and we accidentally hit the button for the closed-circuit television."
"We were broadcast over the entire arena," Chris said. "We were just kissing, there was nothing else that went on."
"But everyone saw that was near the monitors and so everyone knows that we were kissing and the rumors have already been spreading all evening, you just haven't heard them because you've been working and we really needed to see you first before it got back to you. We weren't having sex in the truck, we were just kissing. We're not having an affair, this is the first incident. We knew that someone, most likely Paul, would come find you and try to tell you and it was important to us that you heard it from us first."
Vince leaned back in his seat. "This is a lot to take in. I kind of feel bombarded with information right now. But I have to ask, what is going to happen now?"
"I want to be with Chris," she told him resolutely. "I want to divorce Paul and be with Chris."
Vince looked to Chris and he nodded. "I want to be with Stephanie."
"Are you sure?" Vince said. "If this is the first time, you know, it's a big decision for the both of you. You can't go into something like this lightly. Stephanie, you have the girls and Chris, I know you have kids too, are you sure about this? Don't you think you should take more than one night thinking this over?"
"I know what I want," Chris said. "I like to think Stephanie does as well.
"I do," Stephanie said.
"Okay, well, you're both adults, I can't tell you what to do, but can I ask you to do something?" he said, looking between the both of them.
"It depends on what it is," Stephanie said and she was wondering if this was a tactic to get her to change her mind and stay with Paul. Her father liked Paul and probably didn't want them to get divorced. Paul was the epitome of wrestler to her father. He was built and tall and wrestling was pretty much the only thing he ever thought of. There wasn't much more in his life than wrestling. There were the girls, but Paul was not a hands-on father. It was not to say that he didn't love his children, he did, but he wasn't good with them. He was not gentle, he was intense and it just didn't make for a very fun father, but he did try. Other than that, it was wrestling, wrestling, wrestling, and then more wrestling.
"I want you to take tonight, both of you, just take the night and think about it, really think about if this is what you want. Right now, it can still stay an isolated incident, a momentary lapse, but if you make this into something more, then it affects more lives, it will affect your spouses and your children. Take tonight, think and then tomorrow, or the day after, when things are settled and everything has died down, then you two can talk and if it's what you want…well, it's what you want."
"You're not…mad?" Stephanie asked.
"I'm disappointed it was broadcast all over television, but it's your lives and if it's what you want, it's what I want for you."
"But you love Paul."
"I like Paul, yes, I even love him as my son-in-law, but he's not my son, but you are my daughter, so I love you more. I want you to do what's right for you."
"I think what he's saying is fair," Chris told her softly. "We could just take the night…"
"I don't want to go back with Paul," she said quickly, shaking her head. "I don't want to be anywhere near him."
"We'll get you your own room," Chris told her. "I won't even bug you or anything tonight. I think it would be good to think things through and we can talk tomorrow, set a time and then talk."
"You think so," she said, leaning in closer to him. "Are you going to change your mind?"
He leaned in so only she could hear and winked at her so her father couldn't see, "No, are you?"
"No," she told him, biting her lip a little.
"Then let's do it," he told her.
"Okay," she nodded. She pulled back and looked at her father. "Thanks, Dad, we're going to take your advice and think it over tonight."
"Good, I'm glad," he told them. "As long as you're happy, I will support you."
Except the answer was already pretty clear.