A/N: Just a small warning, there are adult themes in this chapter, nothing graphic at all, just themes, so it's just a small warning if you're underage. Hope you enjoy though. :)

Stephanie slipped her keycard into her door and opened it slowly. She was starting to tremble with nervousness. But she wanted this, she knew she wanted this. She wanted Chris. She was going to let him leave her, she knew that it wasn't a good idea to stay with him when he would be off in far off lands and she would be just getting out of high school and finding herself in college. But Chris was the first man she had ever loved, and she wanted to carry that with her forever.

Chris looked up as the door opened, a part of him expecting to see her father right behind her, ordering him out of her room. Then he went back to staring at the ground, his head in his hands, running through his hair nervously. She stood for a moment, watching him, but then walked over quietly, kneeling down in between his legs and resting her forehead on his shoulder.

"Hi," she said quietly.

"So?"

"My dad said to lock my door, which I did," she told him with a soft giggle.

Chris pulled away and looked at her, kneeling in front of him. Her long, straight brown hair was hanging down over her shoulders, framing her face. She was pretty, he knew that much, had known that from his first meeting with her. He had never intended to let himself fall for the girl, had seen her as something of a younger sibling when he first met her, but she had changed from that sixteen-year-old to the seventeen-year-old that kneeled before him. But the thought still rang through his mind that she was seventeen, still a teenager while he was twenty-three.

"Stephanie, I'm not sure about this," he said, his voice cracking to show his nervousness. It wasn't the actual act of having sex with her that was the problem, Chris had already been with a couple of women prior to Stephanie, but it was the fact that she wasn't experienced, and she was just a kid, well, not so much a kid, but still.

"What's not to be sure about?" Stephanie asked innocently.

"You're seventeen for one."

"Would you get off of that?" Stephanie demanded. "I know how old I am. Chris, I want this…I don't want to go through my life regretting that I didn't do this."

"Stephanie, how about regretting it if you do?" Chris asked her.

"When did you lose your virginity?" she asked him point blank. He raised an eyebrow at her boldness.

"When I was nineteen."

"That's only two years older than I am now," she pointed out. "In the long run, who cares? I mean, you're leaving, I don't expect you to stay celibate for the rest of your life, just like I wouldn't expect you to think the same of me. But Chris, you are the first guy I've ever loved, do you get how big that is? I want to give this to you, I want to do this with you because I want you to know that this is what it means to me. This is what loving you means to me. I love you, Chris."

"You're the first girl I've ever loved," he said, closing his eyes, "which is precisely why I don't want to do this with you."

"You're telling me that you don't want me even the slightest bit," she inquired, coming forward a little bit to rub his knees. "You don't want me?"

"It's not that Stephanie, I just, I've known far too many people who had sex when they were young who regretted the entire thing."

"But those people weren't with people they loved."

"How do you know this is love Stephanie? You've never been in love…"

"Neither have you, you just said it," Stephanie pointed out. "So why did you sleep with however many people before me?"

"I don't know, because I wanted to," Chris shrugged. "It's easy when you're a wrestler and there's women hanging around."

"So ring rats?" Stephanie asked.

"Not the first," Chris told her, "the first was my high school girlfriend, the second was a ring rat, I'll admit that, it was a fling if anything and there were no feelings involved. With my girlfriend, it was just a matter of the fact that it was time, which is very well what this could be. We're running out of time and you think this is the only way that you can…"

"Shut up!" she said, her voice rising. "I'm tired of you thinking that I'm doing this out of desperation or something. Fine, if you don't want to do this with me, then don't do it with me, I don't really care. Go, goodbye, have a nice life."

"Stephy, I don't want us to end like this," he told her gently.

"Well too bad," she pouted, folding her arms in front of her. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of sleep to catch up on because I've got to go home tomorrow."

"Stephanie, don't do this…"

She ignored him and walked into the bedroom area. He sighed and watched as she went to her suitcase and pulled out her pajamas. He leaned in the doorway and watched her for a moment as she laid out her stuff on the bed, going over to him and promptly slapping him across the face. Chris was shocked and grabbed his cheek where he could feel the heat from her hand. He took a step back and she frowned at him.

"Get out of here," she said, her voice low and dangerous, a tone he had never heard before, but one that really reminded him of her father. "You want this to end, fine, goodbye."

"I don't want it to end like this Steph," Chris pleaded. He took her face in his hands and kissed her, none too gently either. He wasn't giving in, but he needed to taste her lips one more time, just once more. He didn't know how she had gotten under his skin so much, this girl who hadn't yet graduate high school, who still called her father "Daddy." Yet, she was just…there was something about her that drew him in.

"Don't leave me tonight, Chris, please," she said, her voice soft as her eyes filled with unshed tears.

Chris led her to the bed, and he laid down on the bed, leaving her standing up, watching him. She looked down a little bit at her clothing, which was just a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with a flannel shirt over it. She slipped off the flannel shirt and let it fall to the floor in a heap at her feet. She glanced back up at him with a shy smile.

"I didn't bring like any lingerie or anything," she said, "nothing sexy or you know, revealing or anything."

"Come here you," Chris told her with a smile. Stephanie climbed onto the bed, laying next to him. He turned to hover over her and then he leaned down, covering her mouth with his own. Stephanie moaned silently while Chris let his hands wander over her body. They were under her t-shirt now and his hands were so warm on her skin. Chris pulled away for a moment. "Are you positive?"

"Positive," she nodded.

He nodded too and then gently went to lift her shirt off of her body. She helped him out and then she took his shirt off of him. They had only gone so far as some heavy touching with each other, but Chris had never pressured her to do anything of this nature. He unbuttoned her jeans and slipped them off of her body. She sighed as she was almost unclothed. She wanted this, she knew she did.

The next morning dawned early, and Stephanie felt the itchiness of the hotel's sheets on her body. She opened her eyes a little, not wanting to face another day. But today wasn't a day like any other that she had ever woken up to. No, this day was completely different. It was the day after her first time. She felt a giddy kind of excitement fill her chest and she knew that no matter what happened today, she was going to glow. She felt a soft kiss on her shoulder and Chris snuggled up behind her.

"Morning, beautiful."

She scrunched up her nose, "Are you just saying that because you had sex with me last night?"

"Yup," he joked.

"Okay, so we had sex last night," she said bluntly. "And they say that honesty is the best policy, so how was I? I know I'm not going to compare to the ring rat, because it's a ring rat, but I have to at least be better than your first, I mean, I have to be better than that."

"I think you were better than both," he whispered to her. "You were right, it is better when you're in love with the person."

She turned in his arms and kissed him lightly. "What time is it?"

"9:30."

"What! Oh my God, you have to leave, you have to get out," Stephanie said frantically. "My dad wants to leave at 10:30 and he's going to come here to make sure that I'm up, and he'll find you. Then he'll kill you, oh God, you have to get out of here now, you have to leave!"

Stephanie tried to disentangle herself from the sheets of the bed, but was failing spectacularly. She looked at Chris with wide eyes, trying to pull him up and out of bed so he could get out of here before he got caught. Chris tugged her arm and pulled her back down so she was lying next to him again. Her eyebrows knitted together as she regarded the calm look on his face, wondering if he was going to throw her under the bus or something.

"Steph, I'm sorry, but I don't take a girl's virginity and then just leave them," Chris told her. "That's not the way I work."

"But my dad," she said, panicky, and eyes darting around the room like her father was going to pop in right that second.

"I've got it covered, don't worry," he said, kissing her softly. "If this is our last morning together, I'm going to spend every second I can with you. So don't worry about your dad, I've got it covered."

"Chris…"

"Steph, trust me," he said, brushing her hair out of her face. "So this is you with bed head?" She blushed and laid her head down on the pillow, burying herself into it and grabbing the sheet and pulling it up to her chin. "Oh, so now you're modest?"

"Chris," she said, pulling the sheet over her head.

Chris went under the sheet as well, looking at her in the eye as they lay there. She looked up at him in wonder, not knowing how she had ever been so lucky as to have this man with her. He brushed some hair out of her face as they lay there in their own little cocoon, where the world couldn't touch them or tear them apart. She smiled at him and leaned forward to give him a small kiss. She had never felt like this before and she was scared she never would again, but she was smart enough to understand she was young and there was a whole world out there for her.

"I love you," he whispered.

"I love you too," she said back in the same volume. "I don't want you to leave."

"I don't want to leave," he confirmed. "But Steph, we both know it's good this way. You're going to go out and do amazing things, and what if I stayed? I'd do something stupid like propose to you, and you'd be married at nineteen and pregnant by twenty and your whole life would be a wash."

"I don't think that would happen," she giggled.

"I know, but I'm trying to make this easier, help me out here," Chris joked. "What I'm saying is, I love you, but you know, there's a lot of things out there that we both have to experience, and we'll do those things, but still have this to remember."

"Yeah," she nodded. "I get what you're saying. I just hate that it's now when this is happening. I don't expect you to never find another woman, or even get married or what not Chris. I don't expect you to love me forever like you do right now. I know this."

"You're way smarter than anyone gives you credit for, you know."

She gave him a lopsided smile, "Thanks Chris, not for like…this, but like for everything, really. Do you think we'll ever get another shot? I mean, you know, like lightning striking twice?"

"I don't know," he told her honestly. "You could meet someone, I could meet someone. It's all up in the air Steph, and we don't know where the pieces are going to land."

"Can we stay here forever?" she asked, and she sounded so young and so vulnerable that he pulled her into his chest and held her there, feeling her body pressing against his. She listened to his heartbeat. As long as they were in this bed, the world couldn't touch them.

"I wish we could."