Disclaimer: I only own Alicia, a fictional character.

AN: Sorry it took so long for an update; I was having a lot of trouble figuring out this chapter. I hope it turned out okay. Please review and let me know what you think. Thanks! (=

Two weeks had passed since Alicia found the pictures on Jeff's phone, and she decided to overlook them and move on with her life. Jeff and Alicia were doing great, and she couldn't imagine starting a fight with him over a few innocent pictures. She convinced herself that the pictures meant nothing and that Jeff had either forgotten to delete them or didn't know how to do it, so she would just try to forget they even existed.

Everyone was in Raleigh for that weeks show, and Jeff had convinced Alicia to stay with him in Cameron, which was only about an hour away from the arena. Jeff was extra happy that week; there was nothing more gratifying than working in front of a hometown crowd, and nothing could bring down the excitement that Jeff was feeling.

The group pulled onto the Hardy's property early in the morning, and Matt and Jeff couldn't have been happier to be home. It had been a long two weeks, and they were looking forward to relaxing for a few days. Jeff gave her the tour of his house, dropped off her bags in the bedroom, and then brought her over to Matt's to hang out for a little while. The group had dinner plans with their father later in the day, but first Jeff had an autograph signing, so Alicia decided to take the opportunity to spend some extra time with Matt.

"So are you nervous?" Matt asked, as Alicia plopped down on the couch where Matt was watching the Spider Man movie.

"Nervous about what?"

"Meeting my dad; he's very critical you know."

Alicia's eyes widened at his statement. She hadn't really thought about what it would be like to meet Gil; Jeff assured her many times that he would love her, but suddenly she felt extremely nervous about the introduction.

"Are you serious? How do I win him over?" She asked, obviously terrified. Matt chuckled as he watched her panic for a few moments, but it wasn't until she began to furiously chew on her fingernail that he spoke again.

"Relax, I was just kidding. He's gonna love you."

Alicia picked up a pillow that was adorning the couch and hit him hard in the face with it, laughing as she did so. It was typical of Matt to take something that she wouldn't think twice about and turn it into something that she suddenly panicked over. Matt took the pillow off of his face and pouted at Alicia.

"I'm sorry, I was just kidding."

She giggled as she pulled him into a hug.

"It's okay Matty, but if you ever mess with me like that again I'll have to kill you."

Matt shook his head at her remark as he pulled away, smirking at her before turning his attention back to the TV.

"So when are we having another legendary Hardy party?" Alicia questioned, trying to break the silence; she wasn't a big fan of the movie he was watching, so she wanted to keep talking to dull the boredom.

"Jeff didn't tell you? Christmas, of course! Two weeks, baby!" Matt exclaimed; he couldn't have hid his excitement if he tried.

Alicia chuckled at his enthusiasm. She couldn't wait for the party; she had only been to one Hardy party so far, and it was definitely a night to remember, she couldn't imagine what kind of antics would occur at the next one. She giggled to herself as she remembered how nervous she was when Kelly invited her to the party; it had been her first time meeting Matt and Jeff, although she knew exactly who they were at the time, and Jeff had taken an immediate liking to her. Who would have thought that a few months later they would be in a full blown relationship?

"What's so funny?" Matt asked, as he pulled his attention from the TV once more.

"I was just thinking about all of the crazy things that happened at the last party I came to here; I cant believe that was only a few months ago, I feel like I've know you guys forever."

Matt nodded in agreement, and the two sat in silence watching the last few minutes of the movie. As the credits rolled down the TV screen, he stretched his arms high over his head, yawning loudly in the process.

"So, I was thinking maybe we'll go down to my ring and work on some moves." He said, reaching his right arm across his body to stretch it out, and then doing the same with the left.

"Really? Well unfortunately I don't have anything to practice in and I sure as hell am not doing it in my jeans, so I think you're out of a practice dummy."

"Don't be silly; I'll get you something." He said, as he jumped up and ran to his room before she could even respond. She sat for a moment by herself as Matt grabbed some clothes for her to work out in, and smiled as she noticed a picture sitting on the mantle. She got up from the couch and walked over to it, picking it up and smiling at what she saw. It was a picture of a very young Matt and Jeff in baseball uniforms holding up a trophy with Gil standing behind his boys smiling. She studied the picture for a moment, taking her eyes off of it only when she heard a voice in her ear that caused her to jump.

"That's one of my favorite pictures." He spoke in his typical southern drawl, but it was softer that usual and she knew he was being sincere.

"I've never seen Jeff smile so big." She said, as her eyes found their way back to the childhood picture of her boyfriend; he looked so happy in it that just glancing at it brought a smile to her face.

"Yeah, we just finished the season and they always had this big ceremony at the end. They'd call out each kid's name and have him run the field and get his trophy; it didn't matter if you came in first place or last place, everyone got the same trophy so no one felt bad."

Alicia grinned at his story; hearing him speak so fondly of his childhood made her realize she couldn't wait to have boys of her own and watch them play sports and grow up.

"Well anyway, you ready to go work out a bit?"

"Yeah, I guess; where are my clothes?"

Matt handed her an old pair of basketball shorts and a wife-beater. She looked at them suspiciously for a moment before making her way to the bathroom to change. When she came out, Matt couldn't help but chuckle.

"You look great, Lee!" He laughed as she shot him a dirty look. The wife-beater was long and baggy, the shorts were down past her knees and the drawstring was pulled as tight as it could go to fit her slim body. She rolled her eyes as Matt continued to laugh, then flipped her hair over, and gathered it into a messy bun on top of her head.

"Just for that, I'm gonna take you out." She threatened playfully, as Matt scooped her up in his arms and ran down the stairs with her to his new wrestling ring. Alicia screamed for him to let her down, but it wasn't until they reached the ring that he dropped her into the center.

The two wrestled for hours, perfecting moves and trying to create new ones in the process; Alicia couldn't believe how childish Matt was, and she loved seeing that side of him. He was crazy and fun and completely obnoxious; it was a side of him that she didn't see very often unless he was around the core group, and she was happy he felt comfortable enough to bring it out around her.

"Hey, what'd I tell you about putting my girlfriend in positions like that?" Jeff said, as he walked into the room to see that Matt pinning Alicia to the mat. The two laughed as Matt rolled off of her and Alicia made her way to the ropes to give Jeff a Kiss.

"How was the signing?"

"It went well; a lot of people showed up, and the fans were psyched as usual."

"Good, I'm glad."

"I see you two had fun." Jeff said, as his eyes roamed over Alicia's sweaty body. He couldn't believe how gorgeous she was; even in too-big clothes and covered in sweat; she was a beauty queen.

"Yeah, we decided to get in some practice time; she kicked my ass for the record." Matt said, patting Alicia on the back as the two stood up to make their way out of the ring.

"Well, we better get home and get you showered before we head over to dad's for dinner."

Alicia smiled, hugging Matt and thanking him for the practice before following Jeff upstairs and making their way back to the house.

"Do you have any idea how hot you look right now?" Jeff asked, grinning as they drove down the back road that connected Matt's house to his house.

Alicia rolled her eyes as he spoke; there was no way she looked good, she was covered in sweat from head to toe, she was wearing clothes that were made for someone twice her size, and her hair was all over the place.

"I'm being serious." He said, as he pulled up to the house. Alicia got out of the car and quickly heard Jeff's voice in her ear as they walked up to the door of the house.

"All I could think about was getting you out of those clothes and into a hot shower with me."

She smiled as she turned to kiss him, but was caught off guard as he picked her up and carried her up the stairs and straight into the bedroom.

"This isn't the bathroom." She giggled as she looked around the room.

"I figured the shower could wait a few minutes."

"Oh yeah? And why is that?" She asked sarcastically, as she pulled him in for a kiss before being placed on the bed. Jeff began to climb on top of her when she abruptly stopped him.

"What is this!?" She exclaimed, as she pulled a lacy purple bra and a matching thong out from underneath her.

Jeff's mouth dropped in awe as he stared at the lingerie that didn't belong to his girlfriend but somehow found its way into his girlfriend's hands.

She shoved him off of her and stood up, suddenly disgusted by the bed, and made her way to the door.

"You have five seconds to come up with a reason for me finding another woman's lingerie in my boyfriend's bed." She said semi-calmly, trying not to lose her cool; there had to be a reasonable explanation for this, right? Alicia's head raced with thoughts as she watched Jeff pace the room frantically.

"Baby, this isn't what it looks like." He said; his heart was racing at the speed of light. His hands shook as he searched for the words to explain what happened, but found himself at a loss for conversation.

"Then what is it, Jeff? Because it looks to me like I just found a bra and thong set in your bed, the bed I'm supposed to be sleeping in!" She took a deep breath as she realized she was losing her cool; this wasn't the place to do that, she was an hour away from any of her friends and wouldn't have anyway to get to the arena if things with Jeff went the wrong way. Her heart was begging her to go ballistic on him, but her mind was telling her not to lose control; she needed to be on okay terms with him.

Jeff sat on the bed with his head in his hands for a few minutes trying to think of someway to explain what just happened. He knew he would lose either way; if he told the truth she'd be mad about it, and if he lied she'd probably find out and be mad anyway.

"Well? I think I deserve some kind of explanation. Who was she? Was it just a one night stand or has this been going on for awhile?"

Jeff raised his head so that his eyes could finally meet Alicia's and she couldn't help but feel sickened by his gaze. She didn't know what happened or who it happened with, but suddenly she felt dirty. She hadn't had sex with Jeff since they got back together, but she still had been kissing him and touching him; she felt her stomach turn as visions of another woman doing God only knows what with Jeff filled her mind.

"Lee, nothing happened."

"That's original, Jeff. Don't you think I know what happened? It's pretty obvious; next time you want to screw around make sure she takes her stuff home with her!"

"Come on Lee, you were here this morning; don't you think you would have seen this stuff on the bed if I cheated on you? It wasn't there when we were here before, so when would I have had time to do that?"

"Just because I didn't see it earlier doesn't mean it wasn't there." Alicia answered stubbornly, her hands crossed in front of her chest.

"It wasn't. Look, I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want you to overreact, but its obviously too late for that; after she moved out, Kate left some stuff here and she called me earlier to see if an old pair of her jeans were here. I told her I wasn't home, so she asked if she could come by and look. She still has keys, so I figured it was no big deal; I didn't think she was going to do anything like this. She must not have known you would be staying here with me and probably just left it there by accident."

Alicia's mouth fell open in surprise as she registered everything that he just said; so not only does he still have pictures of her on his cell phone, but she still keeps things at his house, has keys to the house, and leaves her lingerie on his bed? There was something definitely wrong with the picture, and Alicia wasn't sure she could handle the enormous amount of baggage that Jeff was lugging around.

"Are you kidding? Look I don't want to tell you how to run your life, but I can't stay here with you if she's going to just randomly drop by unannounced, let herself in and leave her underwear on your bed; that's just not something I'm okay with."

"I'm sorry Lee; look she's really a nice person and she wants to meet you. She asked me if we could go for dinner together while we're in town."

Alicia's eyes nearly popped out of her head at his statement; there was no way in hell that she was going to dinner with his psychopathic ex-girlfriend. She left her underwear on his bed; didn't he see that she was clearly letting her know that she was not over him? Besides, how awkward would it be to sit at dinner with Jeff and his ex-girlfriend? That was definitely not something Alicia was eager to find out. She shook her head as the thoughts of the three of them at dinner filled her mind.

"Absolutely not; there is no way I am going anywhere near her. Don't you see what she's doing, Jeff? She's obviously trying to mark her territory."

Jeff shook his head at Alicia's words; it wasn't like that with Kate. They were broken up and seeing new people. The feelings they once had for each other were gone and all that remained was friendship.

"Look I'll call her and tell her not to come by this week, but can you just consider meeting her for dinner? I'm sure you'll love her once you get to know her."

"No, I can't do this Jeff; the thought of staying here in the bed you shared with her makes me sick. I have to go back to Raleigh; I'm gonna call someone to pick me up."

With that, she made her way out of the room and down the stairs before he could say anything to stop her. She felt her cheeks become wet as tears began streaming down her face. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and dialed the only person she knew would be there for her anytime she needed it.

"Hey darlin' how are you?"

"Mark, can you come pick me up in Cameron? I really need to get out of here."

"Sure darlin' I'm on my way, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I just need to get out of here."

"Okay, I'm leaving now."

Alicia gave him the address and thanked him for being so helpful. She ended the phone call and wiped the tears away from her face with the sleeve of her sweatshirt; she knew she didn't want to end things with Jeff, but she couldn't stand to be around him at the moment. She just needed to get back to Raleigh and think about everything that happened for the next few days. Alicia put the phone back into her pocket and made her way upstairs to get her things. As she entered the bedroom, she found Jeff sitting on the bed unsure what to do with himself.

"Please don't go."

"I can't stay here Jeff; tell your dad I'm sorry but something came up and I needed to get back to Raleigh early. I'll meet him some other time."

"What can I do to make you change your mind? How do I make you see that I'm sorry and this won't happen again?"

"There's nothing you can do, Jeff. I need time to think about this and you need time to decide what you really want."

"I know what I want, Lee. I want you, that's all I've ever wanted."

"Well, right now I'm not sure that's possible."

With that, Alicia grabbed her bag and left the room, she made her way out of the house and onto the large front porch to wait for her ride. She wasn't sure where things with her and Jeff were going to go from here, but she knew she couldn't be around him at that time; he needed to figure out what kind of relationship he wanted with her and what kind of relationship he wanted with Kate. A boundary needed to be drawn; she wasn't going to tell him what to do with his life, but if he wanted to keep her in it he would have to figure that out on his own and he would have to do that very soon.