A/N: Hey, thanks for the reviews, and I'll try and see if I can fit more matches and stuff in. In the meawhile, I started a new story, "Twilight on a Broken Star," so if you're a fan, definitely go check that out as I really like it. Anyways, leave a review. :)

Chris ducked out of the way of the impending clothesline, lithely bouncing off the ropes and going for a dropkick on his opponent. For once, this wasn't going to be a total squash. He knew that Vince was using him as a virtual punching bag for the higher-ups. He understood Vince's decision, knowing that he had much less experience than the veterans in the company, but sometimes it still got frustrating. He knew that he could put on a good match. He didn't want to brag, but the short time that he had spent in the indies had shown him that he was at least a cut above a lot of people in the business right now.

He was in a match against a guy named Jack Flash. Yes, that was the guy's actual name. Chris had put a painstaking effort into choosing his wrestling name. He had at first wanted to be known as Jack Action, which was lame, he knew, well, no, he didn't know, Lance had to tell him it was lame for him to figure it out. So he had settled upon Chris Jericho, and he liked it, it was fierce in a way that he thought the fans might remember him. Jack Flash on the other hand, well, that was even lamer than Jack Action.

The guy he was facing was pretty good, a novice, even more so than he was, but he thought they were putting on a pretty decent show right now. Chris stomped into him and then picked him up, telling him that he was going to do a DDT on him. The guy nodded and Chris executed the move to perfection. He liked wrestling when there weren't any cameras because it just meant that there wasn't a set time limit. One thing that Chris loved about this business was the ability to entertain people. It was all he wanted to do.

As he took an enziguri, he fell to the ground and waited for the guy to try and go for a moonsault. He moved out of the way at the last second, letting the guy fall to the ground in seemingly unbearable pain. He pulled him into his submission move, basically a Boston Crab and waited for the guy to tap. He made a valiant effort to get to the ropes, but just at the last second, Chris pulled him back towards the center of the ring, giving him no other choice but to tap out.

Chris raised his arms in victory before the cheering crowd. He climbed out of the ring and slapped hands with the people in the front row, stopping to sign a program for a little kid. He smiled and waved to the crowd before going backstage and immediately getting handed a towel and a bottle of water. He wiped the sweat off of his face and took a long swig of water as he continued to catch his breath. He stood there for a second taking a few deep breaths to calm himself.

"Hey, good match, man," his competitor said as he came backstage and got the same treatment. "I think we put on a show."

"Yeah, it was good, I think that the fans enjoyed it," Chris said as he shook the guy's hand. "I hope we can work together some other time."

"For sure," he said before walking off to take his shower and get cleaned up. Chris stayed around for a few minutes, wondering if Stephanie was going to come around and say hello. She had somehow finagled her way into coming this weekend and Chris was looking forward to seeing her. He hadn't seen her in a few weeks since she couldn't get away from school. He was proud that she was such a diligent student. He knew that Stephanie was going to go places.

"Nice job, Jericho."

Chris turned and smiled widely at the compliment from none other than the Heartbreak Kid. "Thanks Shawn, that means a lot."

"I see a lot of potential in you, just don't tell anyone I told you that," he said, and Chris was always surprised at how nice Shawn was to him. A lot of the more seasoned veterans saw him as a stepping stone, someone they could squash and then move on to the bigger feuds. It was frustrating, but at least some people saw the potential in him.

"Don't worry, I'll keep it to myself."

"Good," Shawn laughed, and he probably liked Chris because they weren't that far apart in age and Shawn, though really good, hadn't yet broken in completely. He was popular for sure, but he knew that there were heights he had yet to reach. "See you later, man."

"Yeah, later."

One of the only other people to see the potential in Chris came bounding up to him a few minutes later as he was innocently walking down the hallway to the locker room. She gave him that wide grin that he was starting to love very much, and man was she a sight for sore eyes. Chris had tried the long distance thing once before and it hadn't worked out, but somehow, with Stephanie, it didn't seem so bad. He wanted to kiss her, but since they were in the middle of the hallway, he could just give her a light hug, a friendly hug if you will.

"Eww, you're sweaty," she said, pulling away from him. "You're going to make me smell."

"Spoiled brat," he said affectionately.

"Not nice, Chris, that's so bogus of you," she pouted and he wanted to kiss that pout right off her lips, but he couldn't so he just bit his own lip instead.

"I missed you," he said quietly so only she would hear, gently pulling her into a deserted and dark hallway. "It's been entirely too long since I've seen you."

"We talk all the time though."

"Talking to you is not the same as seeing you in person," he said, rubbing her arm. "How've you been?"

"Chris, you know how I've been," she said flirtatiously.

"I want to know how you're doing today," he explained.

"I'm good, now that I've seen you," she said with that grin again. "I missed you too, I might have spent most of the last three weeks writing your name over and over again in my notebook."

"Did you happen to try out your signature if your last name were to suddenly change to Irvine?" he joked.

"No, what do you think I am, 12?" she scoffed. "I was so not doing that, I'm not like a total and complete geekburger."

"You're just too cute for your own good," he said. "So what are you doing tonight? Do you think that you could get away from your parents? I'd love to take you out tonight, especially because I have someone with me this week."

"I could get away. My mom seems really okay with me hanging out with you despite the age difference. I guess she just sees what we already know, that we are like the most perfect couple in the entire universe."

"Those are some lofty standards to live up to," Chris said, shaking his head. "But if you can get away, that'd be totally bitchin' because I definitely want to take you out to dinner. I feel like I haven't gotten to be the over-protective boyfriend that I can be."

She giggled, "I'll ask her."

"Good."

"So who's the person that's with you?"

"Lance," Chris said. "I'd really like you to meet him. I mean, you're my girlfriend, he's my best friend, I think it's only appropriate that you two meet and hopefully get along. If you could just, be serious, completely and utterly boring and serious for one night, you two would hit it off so well."

She shoved him a little, "I have the best personality in the world."

"I know," he said, pulling her into a headlock so as to detract from their obvious flirting lest anyone walk by and start to think that they were suspicious in any way. "I just want him to like you, you know."

"The age thing right?"

"I know that he didn't necessarily care if I was dating someone who couldn't go out drinking with us, but I don't think he thought you'd be quite so under that line."

"I don't like drinking anyways," she said, wrinkling her nose. "But I would definitely love to meet him, if you really want me to."

"I really want you to."

"Then I will," she said, running her hands over his shoulders. "Maybe you should go take your shower now so you don't stink for later. I don't want Lance thinking that I make you spend so much time with me that you can't even bathe."

"Well, if it came to that, I wouldn't bathe for you," he winked.

"You're kooky," she said to him. "I'm going to go ask my mom for permission to go out with you."

"You go do that," he said, and then glanced both ways really quickly before he went ahead and gave her a small peck on the lips. "I'm really glad you're here."

She blushed at that, but turned away before he could see that she was blushing. She hated when she looked like a little kid around Chris, it was very damaging to her ego. She was constantly trying to act older than she was. She knew she was mature, but she hated being this age. It was fine before she met Chris, but now that he was a part of her life, she was constantly wishing that she were born earlier. She wanted to be straightforward and able to call Chris her boyfriend. She waned to walk down the hallway with him and not have to pretend like he was just this big-brother type guy, but the guy she was quickly falling for.

She went to her father's office and opened the door. Her father was out regulating everyone backstage while her mother sat backstage looking over some things for work. Stephanie sat down next to her mother, who turned to her and smiled nicely. "Mom, can I ask you something?"

"Of course you can, sweetheart," Linda said, putting the paperwork down so she could put her full attention on her daughter.

"Can I go out to dinner with Chris tonight?" she asked sweetly.

"Oh," Linda said, then nodded, "You can, go ahead and have fun."

"Great, thanks, Mom," Stephanie said brightly.

Linda felt now was as good a time as any to talk to Stephanie about Chris and some other things as well, "You really like him, don't you?"

"Huh?" Stephanie asked incredulously. If her mother knew that she was dating Chris, she was going to be mortified. If her father knew, Chris was going to be dead, plain and simple, dead, deader than a doornail.

"I know you have a crush on him, and I'd wager that's a very big one."

"Oh uh," Stephanie said, relieved that her mother only thought it was an unreciprocated crush. "Yeah, I have a crush on him." There she went with the blushing again.

"Yes, I could tell," Linda said. "Honey, I know it's natural to like someone who works here because you see them all the time, and Chris is a very nice boy, but you have to be prepared in case he's seeing someone else."

"I would be fine with that," Stephanie said, knowing full well that wasn't the case because Chris was with her. She didn't like the thought of Chris with someone else, but he couldn't even stop from calling her and pretty much telling her about every female interaction he had when she wasn't around. She wasn't worried that he'd cheat on her.

"Would you? I just don't want you to get your hopes up with this and then find out that he's dating someone. I know that crushes can be a very serious thing. I know that you think that you have all these feelings and to see someone you want to be with actually being with someone else, it's not a very fun time."

"I would, Mom, I really would," she said. "I know that Chris is…I just know what I am in relation to him." She didn't really like lying to her mother, so she skirted around it as much as she could without actually revealing what her secret was. "He saw me as a little sister."

Linda didn't pick up on the use of the past tense and just nodded. "I just don't want you to get your heart broken, honey. You deserve better than that."

"Thanks, Mom, but really, things between Chris and I, they aren't going to get weird. I just…I really like to spend time with him. He's fun to be around."

"I bet," she said. "He's a very handsome, young man. A little bit too old for you though. He's your brother's age."

Stephanie hated age. She just didn't. She hated that everything she was just equated to a number. To other people, everything between her and Chris would be relegated to a number, and that was so frustrating. She was so much more than just seventeen. She knew that people would think that she wasn't capable of adult feelings, but she was very aware of what she felt about certain things. Age does not determine the way that you are around people, or the way that you are, period.

"Yeah, I know," she said. "I just wanted to go have dinner with him and his best friend. Chris invited me because he hasn't seen me in a while, and I guess he wanted me around."

"I think he likes having an ally," Linda said, once again not picking up on anything her daughter was saying.

"So do I," she said. "I'm going to tell him that I can go. Is there any time I should be back in my room by?"

"Ideally, one would be good, but I'll give you some leeway, be sure to tell either me or your father that you're back."

"I will, Mom, thanks," Stephanie said, giving her mother a hug. She practically ran from the room and to the locker room that she knew Chris was sharing with a few different guys. She tried to look nonchalant next to it, but ended up going and sitting on a crate. She felt someone sit next to her and she smiled because she knew that presence. It was quickly becoming one of her favorite presences.

"So?"

"So I can go."