A/N: Thanks everyone for the reviews! I'm glad you're loving the story because I really like it too (which is good since I'm the one who has to finish it). Anyways, I do feel like this story is starting to wind down and I know you're like, "But what, there's only 12 chapters, usually these stories go on forever!" but yes, I feel like this one is coming to a close soon so I hope you enjoy the rest of the ride and if you want to leave a review I won't be mad at you, in fact, I'll be very, very happy! Enjoy. :)


"Oh my God, Barbie, it's beautiful!"

"Thanks, I really like it."

"Wow, he must really like you," Eve gushed. Stephanie had just turned the corner to walk into this conversation. She could only guess who the person they were talking about was. She sighed and looked over at Barbie, who was showing Eve something. It looked like a necklace. Stephanie bit her lip and pressed her hand to her décolletage where her own necklace rested. This one was given to her by her parents when she was sixteen. She wore it so often that it the finish had started to fade. She hadn't received jewelry in a long time and everything Paul had given to her she'd returned to him to do what he wanted.

"Well, duh," Barbie said with a giggle. Stephanie was about to turn around when Barbie looked off to the side and saw Stephanie. Her face lit up while Stephanie's lit down and before Stephanie could make her quick escape Barbie was bouncing over and when Stephanie said bouncing, she meant bouncing. No wonder Chris wanted that. Why would he want someone his own age or around his age when he could have the perky-breasted, bouncy blonde with the killer looks. Yes, Stephanie was bitter, but she'd been caught out and the last place she wanted to be was here with Barbie.

Where before she'd tried to play it nice in her thoughts for the blonde, she could no longer pretend that she liked her; it was impossible. She was just not capable of sustaining that feeling for very long. She should be able to, though, after the impassioned words Chris had said about her the other night. She should have changed her opinion right then and then, been the bigger person and tried to like Barbie for who she was, but she wasn't that strong or that nice. She was bitter and jaded from a divorce and the one man she'd wanted since her husband was taken by something barely out of high school. If this were the porn industry, Barbie would be in those barely legal pornos.

"Hi," Stephanie said, her voice strained.

"Hey, Steph, it's so nice to see you," Barbie said and she was genuine and it sickened Stephanie. Of course the girl would be genuine, she had Chris Irvine, what did she ever have to be bitter or upset about?

"Yeah, you too." At least Stephanie was managing to keep it together right now. Maybe it was for Chris. Maybe it was because she knew that Chris cared about this woman and she cared about Chris so she would have to treat his girlfriend nicely.

"I was just showing Eve what Chris got me for my birthday," Barbie grinned, holding up her necklace. "It's a blue topaz."

Stephanie looked down at the necklace. It was cute. The topaz was in a teardrop shape on a silver or platinum chain, she couldn't tell. Barbie let it fall against her chest again and Chris was smart enough to get it short enough to where it didn't get completely lost in Barbie's cleavage. Chris had good taste in jewelry. It was subtle and classic, not at all garish. She'd kind of expected him to like garishness (it would explain the entire dating Barbie thing), but it was nice to see he wasn't like that at all.

"It's really pretty."

"Thanks, I love it," she said, looking down at it again. "He took me out to dinner last night and gave it to me. He was bummed that I couldn't go home to see my family so he took me out to dinner for my birthday, just us. It was fun, we called my parents while we were there."

Leave it to Chris to do something sweet for her on the road. She was finding that Chris did that a lot. One night, Murphy had been especially cranky and apparently was in hate with Stephanie. She suspected that Murphy had just wanted Paul. Chris had taken her and walked around in the dark in the middle of nowhere with Murphy until she fell asleep. It had been the middle of the night too. She'd tried walking Murphy around herself and Chris had heard the crying from his bus and he'd stepped outside and offered to take her from the weary Stephanie. She must have looked a mess because about ten minutes before Chris had shown up, she'd started crying out of frustration as well.

But then Chris was like her knight in shining armor, coming in and saving the day. She hadn't meant to spy on them, hadn't intended to listen, but she could hear Chris talking to Murphy as he walked around. Words of comfort and telling her how beautiful she was and she couldn't help but feel jealous. Murphy had been so quick to sleep so maybe she just needed stronger arms to hold her. Chris had gently handed the little girl back over to Stephanie and smiled at her as she thanked him profusely in a hushed voice. He'd told her it was no problem, that he was glad he was there and then disappeared to go get some much-needed rest. She'd stood there with Murphy for a few minutes, just in awe of that man. It was those little things that made her ache.

"That sounds like fun."

"It really was," Barbie said and if Stephanie wasn't mistaken, it sounded dreamy, like they'd had some hot, steamy night together and Barbie was recalling all the details of Chris's delicious body. His new tights left so little to the imagination.

"I'm glad for you."

"Thanks," she said. "I'm going to go find him and thank him again!"

"You do that," Stephanie said with a sigh. At least she'd get to see Chris tonight when they were on the road again. It was almost like they were in their own world, like the rest of the company ceased to exist. She almost wanted to declare it a family, but she wasn't so delusional that she actually believed that it was despite the fact they traveled together, ate together, hung out together. She knew that she gave Chris respite from dealing with three small children and that he did the same for her. They kept each other sane, but they were not a family. They were just friends traveling together because of business.

Their night was like any other. They took care of the things at the show and they retired to one bus until they pulled over, either for the night or for a pit stop and then they would go to bed or they'd put the kids to bed and they would hang out together and talk. She liked those nights the best, where they would just talk about everything under the sun except their loves lives. It was like those were off-limits and she was grateful for the small break from having to hear anything about Barbie. Sometimes they did talk about their exes and how the divorces had been, but otherwise, it was just about life and themselves in general. She'd learned that Chris tried his first real wrestling move when he was 12 with one of his best friends and he'd landed on his head but was too afraid to tell his mother so he said he'd fallen out of a tree to cover it up. She told him about the time she'd tried to run away when she was eight because her parents had tried to make her eat spinach. Just silly things like that, but she was starting to feel like she knew Chris better than she had ever known Paul in the whole of their marriage.

Stephanie was lying in bed reading a book when the knock came to the door. They'd been parked for the night for about a half hour. She looked at the clock and it read 4:03. She hadn't been tired tonight and that's why she was still up at such a late hour. She'd probably be paying for it in the morning. Murphy was still a pretty early riser, but the girls had gone to bed relatively late so maybe they'd waked up late. Sometimes, after the show she had so much adrenaline kicking around her system that she found it hard to sleep and so she just…didn't. She walked to the door, knowing who it was before she answered it. He was smiling and she could only see him illuminated by the moonlight so his smile seemed to glow in the moonlight.

"Hey," he whispered. "I saw the light on in the back of your bus and thought you might be up."

"You were looking?"

"I just happened to see, come out here," he said, making a grab for her hand.

"Chris, it's late, why aren't you asleep?"

"Couldn't, not when the sky looks like it does."

"It's just the sky," she reasoned.

"Oh no, you're a city girl, you don't really know what the sky is like? Don't you ever look up?" he asked her. "I mean, you know, ever really look up and just watch the stars?"

"No," she said. "I don't have time for that."

"That's stupid," he said. "Since you were up and there isn't possibly anything you could be doing right now that it in any way fun, come out here and watch the sky with me. I want you to. I even set up some chairs."

She looked past him and indeed there were two lawn chairs a short ways away, just sitting there. She looked around the space. "Chris, it's really late, it's probably not safe, you know there could be weirdoes lurking around pit stops."

"I'll protect you, I promise," he told her, tugging at her hand. She hadn't even noticed him slip his own into hers. She stared down at it, the way his hand gripped hers, his fingers curling around her own, the way they fit together so nicely. "There isn't even anyone here except truck drivers who are probably asleep."

"I guess you're right," she sighed, knowing she'd go anywhere with him as long as their hands were clasped like they were. She slipped on the shoes she kept by the door and grabbed a jacket off the hook by the door and let go of Chris's hand to put it on. She walked down the steps and outside. Chris sat in one chair and pulled the other chair closer to him. She sat down and noticed how close they were. Chris leaned back in his chair and looked up at the sky. She just stared at him.

He looked over at her and laughed, "Stephanie, look up!"

"Okay, okay," she said, looking up at the sky. He was right. It was so big and so vast. It was nothing like it was at home. "It's beautiful."

"I told you," he said. "I love looking at the sky like this. I used to do it when I was at home. I'm not going to go cliché and say I thought about how I was going to be a famous wrestler or rock star or anything. I think it's just space that fascinated me. I mean, think about it, we can see all these places in space and we can never go there. There are stars I'll never see, planets I'll never stand on, aliens who will never know how cool I am. It makes you feel small, but still, special because we get to see all these things, even if we can never touch them."

"That's really nice," she told him, still staring up. "I like that sentiment, that even though we're still small, we still matter."

"Of course we matter. Everyone, in their own way matters to someone."

"Like you matter to Barbie?"

"I guess, yeah," he said. "But like you matter to Murphy and Aurora…you matter to them, you're their mommy, you know. I matter to my kids. We all matter. We're all part of this universe and no matter how big or how small, we were part of it."

"Do you think that people in the old days, like medieval times and stuff. Do you think they thought about this stuff? I mean, they thought the world revolved around them, that the universe was them and everything else?"

"There had to be the dreamers, Galileo, all those other guys, they looked up and liked what they saw."

"It's beautiful, I don't blame them. Too bad the sun will rise soon and spread its color across the sky."

"That's beautiful too," he told her. "You know, I've really had fun with you, Stephanie, on this road trip. I don't know, I mean, we were friends before, but I think I can call you one of my best friends now and I like that. I like the way that fits on you."

"Thanks," she said, entering the friend zone, the point of no return. She looked over at him and he was staring at her intently. She went back to staring at the sky so she didn't blush. "You're one of my best friends too."

"You know what bugs me though? Like really, really bugs me?" She expected him to say something Barbie-related, breaking the silent agreement they'd had of not bringing her up. She only thought this because it was the same tone he'd used when he was speaking of Barbie before and how nobody understood her.

"I don't know," she told him.

"That you don't know how gorgeous you are."

Stephanie spun her head towards him and stared at him. "What are you talking about?"

"I hate how you think you're high maintenance and how you think that no guy is ever going to want you again, like you're damaged goods or something," he said and God, it was the same tone he'd used for Barbie. She didn't even know what to say, didn't know if she should break into his rant. "Do you even know how many guys would want you?"

"Chris…" She was at a loss for words.

"You are so beautiful," he told her. "Inside and out. Everything about you is beautiful. You are…one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen in my life…"

She was speechless. Words were no longer a part of her repertoire. She just sat there, sat there looking at him like he was crazy and she was sane or maybe it was the other way around, she was crazy and he was sane. Maybe she'd fallen asleep. Yes, maybe she was asleep right now in her own bed and well, it was very late, maybe she'd dozed off while looking at the stars because surely this wasn't real. Surely he couldn't be saying these things.

And surely he wasn't leaning forward.

He brushed some of her hair away from her face, the strands that had come loose from her ponytail and then his chair was almost impossibly close and his face even closer. He was leaning in and she was sitting there, wondering if she was dreaming. Then his lips brushed hers, tentatively and then a little more brave, they pressed into hers and her eyes widened before they closed instinctively and she could feel how soft his lips felt pressing into her own. God, they were even better than she thought. The only other times they'd been pressed to her lips, they'd been so forceful, but this was almost hesitant. Why would he be so hesitant? Oh God, he knew he shouldn't be doing this.

She pulled away and started muttering, "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God."

Chris looked at her and backed away a little. "I'm so sorry! I'm..I'm so sorry."

"No, no, I am, God, I'm…" She got up and she bolted for her trailer, leaving him there.

She slammed the door closed behind her and rushed into her room. The one thing she'd wanted and once again Barbie was in the way. She wasn't going to be that person, the one who stole a man. She couldn't be, that wasn't her. She wasn't going to do that to someone, not even Barbie, that insipid twit, no, not even her.

Looks like she'd be crying herself to sleep tonight.