"So where is she?" Randy asked, "I know that women are supposed to take forever to get changed, but this is ridiculous. I mean the stylist left almost an hour ago."

"She'll be out when she's ready." Hunter warned him. "You three can head off if you want. We did hire two limos for tonight, remember?"

Ric held up a camera. "We still want pictures of you two."

At once Lita's bedroom door opened slightly and she extended her hand through the gap, one finger pointing up in the air.

Hunter and Batista chuckled at her gesture, while Ric just shook his head.

"I'm almost done." Lita shouted, though she didn't really need to.

"I still can't believe that you refused to spend the day at a salon to get ready." Randy called out.

"I had my hair done." She shouted back, "In the comfort of my hotel room, now shut up so that I can finish getting dressed!"

In her room Lita stared at her reflection in the mirror. A face she hadn't seen for a long time stared back at her, make up carefully applied, hair styled with precision, each strand swept up into the elegant, yet modern style she'd chosen. The lines of her dress were long and clean, the long, sweeping skirt falling gracefully to the floor, while the unique blue of the dress brought out lilac highlights in her eyes.

"Lita, come on!" Randy whined from the other side of the door.

She picked up her purse, and opened the door as Randy moved to pound on it.

The four men were rendered speechless as they stared at her.

"Does that mean you see something you like?" Lita asked them, a smile on her face.

"You look... uh." Hunter began.

"Yeah, he's right," Ric began, "You look..."

Lita laughed. "Good thing I can still translate salivating boy talk. You guys sound like you fell back into the ninth grade."

"The car is downstairs." Hunter told her, "Do you need to do anything else?"

"Help me with this?" She asked, handing him a necklace. "Stacy and Trish took me to get acrylic nails." As if to help them understand what she was talking about she fanned her fingers, displaying her new French manicured acrylic nails.

Hunter took the necklace and moved around behind her, draping the chain around her neck and fumbling slightly with the clasp. "You look beautiful." She turned to face him and tilted her face up to kiss him, her lips soft and warm on his. As she pulled away Hunter slid one arm around her waist and kissed her again.

"Guys, just stand still so Ric can take a couple of pictures so that we can all go." Randy whined.

"I already took a couple." Ric smiled, glad so see both Hunter and Lita so relaxed and happy around one another, almost as though their relationship was an extension of their familiarity with one another.

"So who's going to be winning the Best Dressed Award tonight." Batista teased Lita, snapping Ric out of his silent reverie.

Lita just smiled and rolled her eyes. "I still can't believe I have to present with Matt."

"You'll be fine." Ric assured her. "If anything goes wrong, or he starts being an ass, we'll be sitting pretty much right in front of you. We'll knock him on his ass."

"I'm not worried about that." She lied unconvincingly. "Let's go."

Hunter slipped his arm around her waist, still amazed at how easily they fit together, her hand in his, their bodies as they lay together in bed, his bulky arms around her small waist.

"This is 'the Coach', reporting to you from the red carpet of the annual WWE Awards Evening. The night promises to be full of surprises, so stick around." Jonathan said, speaking directly to the camera he was facing. "We'll be bringing you interviews with many of our superstars, in fact, Evolution, the most decorated stable in the WWE at the moment have just arrived."

Ric, Batista and Randy got out of their limo, greeting the crowd, even moving over for photographs, and autographs, while Coach walked over to them.

"Ric, guys how does it feel to be here tonight?"

"Good." Ric answered. "It's great, the WWE awards are a great thing, I enjoy them every year."

Having gained the three superstars attention Coach asked the question he was sure everyone was thinking. "Now I notice that Triple H and Lita aren't here. Any clue on where they are?"

Randy looked out over the road and saw their limo pulling up. Without speaking he just pointed to where Hunter had just gotten out of the car, and was reaching in to help someone else out.

The woman was an absolute vision, dressed in a long blue dress, hair clustered up against the back of her head, and she smiled allowing Hunter to help her out of the car, then held his hand, a comfortable closeness between them as they walked towards the other members of Evolution.

"Are you okay?" Hunter asked Lita, the flashbulbs of cameras almost blinding as they stepped out of the limousine and began to walk up the red carpet.

"I think I'd like to borrow your shades." She answered, gesturing to the sunglasses that adorned his face, the final accessory to his well-cut black tux. "But then again I don't think they'd match this dress."

He smiled at her and she squeezed his hand as they met the others, and to Lita's disdain, Jonathan Coachman.

"Hunter, who is this?" Coach asked, "She is an absolute vision."

"I'll remember that." Lita told him, her voice edged with sarcasm.

"Holy shit, it's Lita."

"You can't say that on air with this network." Lita told him sweetly.

"Girl I would take you home to my mama in that dress." Jonathan told her, his jaw almost hitting the ground.

Lita leaned in close to him, still holding Hunter's hand, "No offense to your mom, but I wouldn't go home with you... ever."

"Baby you are da bomb." He babbled.

"Tick, tick, boom." She retorted, "Call me baby again and we'll have serious words."

"All right, all right, I was just playing with you." He told her, then turned to Hunter. "Now I can see that you two are looking pretty cozy there. Is there anything going on that the Coach should know about?"

Lita didn't bother to answer, her attention on the fans. She let go of Hunter's hand, removing a marker from her purse, and hooked the tiny bag over her arm, walking over to sign some autographs and accept several bunches of flowers that were passed to her.

"Champ?" Jonathan asked again.

"What was the question?" Hunter asked blankly, still looking after Lita, watching her carefully in case she needed her stable mates at all, though she seemed fine, happily posing for photographs and even signing a few body parts, security guards close by, and ever watchful of the growing crowd.

"Are you and Lita seeing each other?"

"No comment."

Lita smiled as she walked back over to them to stand beside Hunter, his arm automatically finding her waist. "I'll give you no damn comment." She told him with a smile, passing several bouquets of flowers to Batista. Then she reached up to slide both arms around his neck and kissed him on the mouth, her movements gentle and passionate as they broke off, Hunter repositioning his arm around her waist.

"Way to dispel any rumors." Coach remarked.

"Come on you two." Ric prompted Hunter and Lita, "We should head indoors."

"One more question." Jonathan called after the group, halting them in their footsteps. "Lita how do you feel about presenting an award with your ex-boyfriend, Matt Hardy?"

"Privilaged." Lita answered, "Matt is a great wrestler, and for a long time before he was my boyfriend, he was one of my best friends, so I feel privilaged to present with him tonight."

"Then why did you try to get out of it?"

"I wasn't sure if I'd be able to attend tonight." She answered calmly, refusing to give him the answers that he wanted, then turned on her heel and followed Batista and Randy indoors, with Hunter still by her side, and Ric bringing up the rear.

"That was the biggest load of bullshit I have ever heard." Hunter told her as they entered the room, which was noisy and already packed with superstars and divas.

"Never tell the press what they want to hear." She advised him. "They'll twist it around so that whatever you say looks bad. I just told a version of the truth and put it in a manner which he's not going to be able to twist too far from what I said."

Ric smiled and shook his head, handing Lita back some of the flowers that fans had given her outside.

"Lita!" A voice exclaimed, "Long time, no see."

At once Lita let go of Hunter's hand and reached out to hug Stephanie McMahon. "How have you been?"

"Fired, you?" Steph answered.

"Fired too, but not for long thank God. What have you been doing with yourself?"
"Vacation. Long awaited, desparately needed, and well earned."

"I'll say." Lita agreed. "Are you coming back at all?"

"In the next few weeks. I'll be reinstated to keep Paul in line on SMACKDOWN!"

"Sounds like you've been keeping busy then." Hunter finally entered the conversation between his new girlfriend and former wife.

"You too." Stephanie told him. "That kiss on the red carpet wasn't just for show and you both know it, so if you two aren't together already, get together, you look cute."

"Thanks Steph." Lita laughed, shaking her head. "How did you know about that?"

"Oh everyone's talking about it, well that, how much of a dolt Jonathan Coachman is, and how you're taking presenting with Matt tonight." Steph shrugged her shoulders. "And also about how gorgeous you look tonight. Torrie and Sable are both absolutely livid. As usual they showed up wearing next to nothing. They're in the back with their usual groupies draped all over them, including my father." Stephanie rolled her eyes with displeasure.

Impulsively Lita reached out to hug Stephanie again, at the same time whispering in her ear, "I'm packing it."

"You'll be fine. Matt'll be too busy looking at what he's missed out on to even concentrate on presenting."

"Here tonight to present the awards for Best New Talents are Matt Hardy, and Lita." Vince McMahon introduced the pair. "In their beginnings with the WWE, both Matt and Lita recieved these awards themselves."

The pair walked out from opposite sides of the stage, Lita pausing to wink at her stable mates as she walked to the podium.

"Thank you Vince." Lita began, coming to a stop beside Matt. "It's been a long time since Matt and I won these awards, and almost as long since the last time I presented at these awards, how about you Matt?" She smiled, and waited for him to respond.

"About as long as you." He admitted, a little surpised by her happy-go-lucky, carefree attitude.

"Anyway," Lita began, chattering away to show that there was little or no discomfort between them. "Which award should we present first, the guys or the ladies?"

"Go with the girls." Matt told her, fumbling in pockets of his tux for the envelopes. "Ladies first and all."

"The nominees for best new female talent are, wow." Lita remarked. "It's a short list this year. Gail Kim, Miss Jackie and Shaniqua."

Wordlessly, she passed the envelope to Matt. "And the winner of Best New Female Talent, 2003 is... Gail Kim."

Both began to applaude with the rest of the audience, while Matt covered the microphone with one hand. "You don't seem happy about that."

"She kicked my ass, a couple of times, doubleteaming." Lita said softly, then moved to kiss Gail on the cheek in congratulations while Matt moved to hand the Asian diva her trophy.

"The nominees for Best New Male Talent are," Matt began, "Garrison Cade, Maven, Mark Jindrak, Shannon Moore, and Randy Orton."

Lita stood looking up at the screen beside them which showed clips of all the nominees. "Sorry guys, I was just watching, there's a lot of talent up there." She gestured up at the screen, taking the envelope from Matt's hands, while a chuckle went through the audience. "Oh shit," She said as she ripped the envelope, "I ripped it, oh wait hang on, it's okay, I can still read it." Everyone in the audience began to laugh, while Lita shook her head. "Okay everyone, we don't all have to point out my stupidity." Lita told them. "The winner of Best New Male Talent for 2003 is... Randy Orton." She read from the envelope, then looked up watching as Randy got out of his seat and walked up to the stage, the sounds of Evolution's entrance music pounding through the room.

Again, Lita kissed him, greeting the young athlete warmly, "Congratulations baby boy." She said quietly in his ear as she pulled away.

The four athletes stood there for several moments while the crowd applauded some more, then Gail and Randy walked off stage together, while Matt 'escourted' Lita backstage.