Chris dreaded walking into the judge's private offices. His lawyer was by his side, and he was moments away from seeing Jessica. He knew that she would probably be an emotional wreck, but he needed to get this taken care of so he could truly be with Stephanie. She had been wavering for the past couple of weeks between wanting to be with him and feeling guilty. That had prompted him to get in contact with his lawyer and speed up the divorce proceedings. He needed Stephanie to be okay with this, and to want a life with him in the public eye.

Right now they were living in a dream, a bubble of sorts. Everything was so internalized and they couldn't let it get out that they were together, but he wanted to shout it from the rooftops that he was in love with this woman. She was just so amazing and so sophisticated which belied her rather young age. He smiled to himself as he thought about her. She was still back in Connecticut, insisting that he make this trip alone because she didn't even want to be in the same city as Jessica, the guilt would surely rise to dangerous levels.

He walked into the judge's chambers, and saw Jessica and her lawyer already sitting there. He and his lawyer took a seat across from them. He nodded to Jessica, but she was having none of it and turned away. He felt a little bad about that, but it didn't linger. He knew who he was doing this for, and he wasn't going to waver because Jessica looked upset. She had definitely been crying, and she was wearing her glasses, probably because her contacts were irritating her because of the crying. But, it would all be worth it to him, when he could tell Stephanie that he was a free man.

He decided to at least be civil to her and spoke, "Hello Jessica."

"What?" she asked harshly.

"I was just saying hello, I wasn't aware that wasn't allowed," Chris told her, trying so hard to bite back his sarcasm.

"Well, I'm sorry if I'm not exactly receptive since you want to divorce me," Jessica said snidely. "I don't think that brings the best side out of me."

Chris adjusted his ponytail, not wanting to get caught up in this. Jessica was angry with him, and she was allowed so he bit his tongue on this day. He knew that by the end of the day, things would pretty much be settled between the two of them and he could move on with his life. He just needed to survive to the end of the day and then everything would end up alright, he would be on a flight back to Connecticut and he wouldn't have to think about Jessica again, or ever really.

The judge walked in and greeted both sides before sitting down. He looked between the two of them and read the divorce proceedings that Chris had filed. The dissolution of marriage, they made it sound so business-like, Chris thought to himself as he tried to avoid the glare of Jessica, who was trying to bore a hole right through his head with her dagger-like eyes. The judge went on to list off their shared assets as the lawyers read off what they felt each side should be owed.

"My client would like half of all assets," Jessica's lawyer said. "We feel that is sufficient enough, and also my client will be seeking alimony payments due the discrepancy between incomes. My client makes significantly less than her husband and to continue living a lifestyle to which she is accustomed, we feel alimony is the best bet."

"Well," the judge said. "You have been married for a little over a year, and I usually don't award alimony in any marriage that is under three years, so I'll have to take into consideration the incomes of both parties. Christopher, you have claimed irreconcilable differences on the proceedings, are there any incidents involving Jessica that you feel should entitle you not to pay alimony."

Chris wished he could just come right out and say that Jessica was being a bitch about the whole thing, but that was hardly what the judge wanted to hear. "No your honor, I think that we just drifted apart."

"Or you drifted apart," Jessica muttered.

"Jessica, are they any incidents of indiscretion that you would like to report in seeking alimony or dissolution of marriage?"

Jessica glared at him and then shook her head, "Actually your honor, I have no idea why he would want to divorce me, but there it is, right? I just loved him and tried to do what was best for him, but obviously that wasn't enough."

"Jessica," he sighed. "I've apologized to you, but I can't say anything else, I'm sorry, but I just don't want to be with you anymore."

"For no reason whatsoever!" she said, and her lawyer put her hand on her shoulder and whispered something to her. It seemed to calm her down and Chris looked down at the table and didn't say anything. She was making this way harder than it had to be."

"Well, I think that the division of shared assets acquired over the course of the marriage is fair, but in light of behavior, I'm going to hold off on the alimony payments," the judge said to the two of them. "I'll have a final decision on that once I go over the documents. Once I have that information, I think we can sign the papers and then seal this case off."

"Thank you," Chris said as Jessica said nothing. The judge the left this short session and Chris turned to his lawyer and thanked him, shaking his hand as they got up to leave. He was just outside the courthouse when Jessica strode beside him.

"You would love it if you didn't have to pay me," she said angrily. "That would be perfect for you, you'd get all the money, I'd get nothing."

"You have a job, Jessica," Chris said. "And I never protested to them, it's up to the judge. I already let you have the house, so what more do you want? I don't think I'm being unfair here."

"I want my husband!" she exclaimed. "I want you, I don't want our marriage to end. They say that the first year is the hardest one of all. We just made it through our first year, barely, it'll get better and easier now."

"I don't know why you don't get it, Jess, I'm just not in love with you anymore, I feel like there's someone better out there, and it's my duty to go out and find her," he lied, knowing full well there was someone out there who was better for him. He knew that Stephanie was the one for him, and he knew just as surely that Jessica was the one who wasn't.

"But what we have is good, we are so good together, Chris," she pleaded, grabbing onto the sleeve of his suit. "I know we can be again, whatever it was that I did, I can fix it."

"It wasn't you, trust me, it wasn't' you," he told her. "I just changed. I guess with me going to the WWF, it was bound to happen. I'm a new person now, and I believe in different things, and I just don't think that we're compatible anymore. Why can't you understand that?"

"Because it just doesn't make sense to me. Is it someone at work? Is there someone at work who's making you do this? Is your boss making you do this? Because you're so good-looking, he wants you single so that he'll get more female viewers, because we don't need someone like that in our lives, you can quit and we can be normal, or we can hide our relationship. I'm willing to do that for you, I swear."

"My boss would never ask anything so stupid," Chris told her. "It is what it is, Jess, I just don't love you anymore, and I'm sorry to say this because I know that it will hurt your feelings, but I need you to understand this, and I am sorry for it, but I don't think that I ever really loved you. I just…I'm starting to rethink everything that we've been through."

"But why!"

He was on the verge of bursting out with how much he had fallen in love with Stephanie, but he couldn't betray Stephanie like that. He would never reveal how their relationship began because he never wanted Stephanie to feel guilty. He knew that she was wrestling with a lot of things right now, a lot of feelings, and he would never put her in a situation where she could be embarrassed.

"look, I'm not entirely sure how it happened, I just know that it did, I'm sorry, but I have to go, I have a flight to catch."

"We could get counseling," she told him, not letting up. She just wasn't willing to give up on her marriage. It meant something to her, and she wanted to hang onto it.

"No," he said firmly. "Jess, you're a great person, but we just aren't right for each other. You nag me, I annoy you, don't think that I didn't notice the little things that always seemed to come up between us. It started to build and build and then…it just erupted, and I need out before you truly hate me, or I truly hate you."

It was with those words that he left her on the steps of the courthouse. He felt good though, knowing that it was essentially over. He could move on now and he could move on with Stephanie. He just needed the final signatures, and then it would totally be over. He needed that, and then a few weeks from now, he and Stephanie would be free to do whatever they wanted. He could be with her and marry her, and then eventually have a life with her, a life that he felt he deserved.

When he got back to her house, he opened the door and looked around. It was dark downstairs and he started to get a little bit worried. He knew that Stephanie was apprehensive about her being the reason that he was getting a divorce in the first place, but to not be here to greet him, that screamed that something was wrong. He worried that Stephanie might not ever get over this. That was a thought he liked to push out of his brain and forget forever.

Stephanie had morals and that's what made this so hard for her. Like she had said a few weeks ago, they lived by rules, and those rules were supposed to be lived by. He loosened his tie and took off his jacket as he threw them on a chair. "Steph…Stephanie…"

"I'm in here, Chris," Stephanie called out and he followed the sound of her voice.

She was upstairs, it turned out, in her bedroom, a pizza and some beer spread out on her bed as she had a pile of DVD's on the bedside table. Chris smiled as he untucked his shirt and stepped out of his pants and left his boxers on. He flopped onto the bed beside Stephanie and she looked over at him shyly before leaning over to kiss him softly.

"How did it go?"

"It was okay, she was being a bitch about it, but overall, nothing went totally wrong, I'm giving her the house and her car, and the judge is going to decide if I have to pay her alimony. I don't know if I will though, Jessica kind of had an outburst and since we were barely married a year, they could rule that I don't have to."

Stephanie nodded to herself and stared straight forward, "Oh."

"Yeah, I mean, it was short, not much to discuss, we didn't really have that long a time to accumulate a lot of things."

"Because of me."

"No, Steph, don't do this to yourself, not tonight," Chris said, rubbing her back. "I refuse to have you playing the pity party, I'm not going to let you do it."

"I'm sorry, I'm trying, you know that right, I'm trying."

He leaned his head against hers, and kissed her temple. "I know that you're trying and I appreciate it, but I want you to know that this is not your fault, and it never will be. It's nobody's fault that we fell for each other. That's just the truth."

"I know, and I'm learning that, I'll get over it, I promise," she told him, and he had no choice but to believe her words. He smiled at her, though she was facing such a way that she couldn't see. "I love you, Chris."

"That's like the best thing I could've heard today," he told her. "That makes today totally worth it. So what do we have here?"

"I thought you might need a little pick-me-up from today so I got pizza, beer, and some of your favorite movies," she told him. Then she added timidly, "At least I think that they're your favorites, I never really asked, but whenever we go to get a movie, you kind of looked at them with a smile, so I hope that they are."

He grabbed them and looked through them, "You're right, these are some of my favorites…so you've been watching me then?"

Stephanie shrugged, "I just…I observed, I don't want to seem like a stalker or something, I was just watching you and it wasn't a big deal…"

"I love that you want to know more about me," he said, kissing her again. "You know, Jessica never did that, I think she took that for granted that just because we were together we'd like everything the same. I appreciate that you did this."

It made Stephanie feel a little bit better to know that things weren't that great when he was with Jessica, it made her feel like she was helping him along and not like, the slut who slept with him, though she still thought that too. Chris took her into his arms, and she knew that she liked this, and she liked that he wanted to be with her so much. She had never had that, and she needed it, and she needed Chris.

She just needed to get over the guilt.