A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing. I'm kind of in love with this story so I hope you are too and I hope you enjoy the chapter, let me know what you think! :)

"What is so great about me?"

"This feels like a trick question," Chris said slowly, looking up from the book he'd been reading on his couch. Stephanie was sitting on the other end, a notebook in her lap, in which she had been writing down ideas for their storyline. Every once in a while she would hand it over to him for his inspection and he would smile and hand it back to her, not really saying anything because she was just brainstorming.

"It's not a trick question," she told him.

"It feels like it though, like if I say something that you don't like, you're going to get mad at me," Chris looked at her suspiciously, but with a twinge of playfulness as well. She stuck her middle finger up at him and he nodded sagely. "Yes, just as I thought, a trap."

"It's not a trap," Stephanie shook her head, "I just don't get men…or wrestlers, or just the guys we work with. I don't get why I'm so appealing. Leave aside my name for a minute, why would a guy want me?"

"I can probably name several reasons," he told her.

"I just don't understand," she said before he could continue what he was saying. "I don't get why a guy thinks that he can date me for my name. What does he think I am, an idiot?"

"Who are we talking about here? Paul? Kurt? Or both?"

"Every guy in the entire damn company who has ever thought they would get to the top easier if they decided they wanted to get in my pants."

Chris's eyebrows knit together as he looked at her. "Can we take this back a minute, please? How often has this happened to you? You just started within the company. You've barely been here longer than I have."

"It's been going on since I was a teenager," Stephanie explained to him, which made Chris's face turn even dourer. She could tell he didn't like the thought so she reached down and rubbed around his ankle. "It's not that big a deal."

"Who was it?"

"It's not a big deal anymore, Chris," Stephanie told him. "The guys who did it are no longer with the company so it really doesn't matter who they are. Let's just leave it at the fact that it's been going on for a while now."

"I want to know who I have to kill," Chris told her and there was no joking in his voice. The thought of some creepy, old man hitting on a teenager unsettled him to begin with, but when that teenager was the woman he loved, it took it to a place beyond unsettled. His mind conjured up images of a young, helpless Stephanie trying to fend off the advances of disgusting wrestlers who put their skeevy hands all over her.

"Chris, I told my dad all about it, he fired anyone who tried it with me and never hired them back so all the guys are gone, they've been taken care of," she assured him. "I just don't get why they think I have so much power I'm just going to demand they go to the top."

"I would never think that of you," he told her then realized how weird that sounded and amended his statement, "what I mean to say is that I wouldn't want to be with you just for what you could do for me and it would be really awkward for me to go up to you and start asking you to get me to the top."

"You don't need me," she waved him off, "you were well on your way to a title before you ever even met me."

"I met you before I started with the company," he reminded her.

"If WCW had even given you half a chance, you would have been the champion, period, end of story. The fact that they didn't is the travesty," she told him, which made him feel oddly good. "I mean, we could all see how great you were over there."

"You didn't even watch me over there," Chris laughed. "You told me you didn't watch WCW."

"I caught it every now and then, sometimes," he continued to stare at me, "okay, so my brother and my father saw how great you were over there, but they told me about it. I knew they thought you were really great."

"But you thought?"

"I don't know, I guess I was happy for them that they were going to persuade another guy over," Stephanie shrugged. "I mean, you know how intense this 'war' is going. Any advantage we can get over them is a good thing, don't you think?"

"You guys will win this war," Chris told her in all seriousness. "There's just no way you won't with the way you guys run the company in comparison to how Bischoff and the stooges run the company over there."

"Thanks," she smiled at him, patting him on the leg. "I don't need to have seen you to be able to tell you would have been great with the belt. I know how you wrestle now and I see it clear as day and it couldn't have been too different over there."

"It makes me feel good when you say things like that," he confessed because she was his girlfriend and he wanted her to know how happy she made him all of the time. She beamed at his words and he bit his lip to keep from beaming right back at her and starting some sort of weird standoff.

"Does it?"

"Yeah, just knowing I have someone who understands what I do and who knows how good I am at it, you don't know how good that feels. Besides Jessica, you're the only serious girlfriend I've ever had, and I like when you make me feel worthwhile."

"You seriously should have sown some wild oats."

"Oh, I did, believe me, just nothing serious to where I could lounge on a couch with my Stephen King novel and just sit silently," he referred to what they were doing before Stephanie's question. "As for what you were asking me, far beyond whatever your name brings to the table, you're just this personality."

"I'm a personality?"

"Yes, you are, you're just this crazy, wonderful, beautiful person…who has sex with a guy she's only known for twenty minutes, how is that not desirable."

"Oh, you're going to get it!" Stephanie tossed her notebook down and launched herself at Chris, laying small blows onto him as he laughed and tried to dodge her.

"See what I mean," he said in between laughs, "launching yourself right at me because you can't even keep your desire down."

Stephanie just fell into his chest, laughing.

It was not all fun and games when they had to go back to work on Monday. Stephanie had told Chris to lay off on whatever he was planning because she was hoping she could make one final plea to Paul about what was going on. Chris wasn't convinced that Paul would take to anything she said, but he was always willing to give his girlfriend the benefit of the doubt so he'd called Jessica to hold off on the plan he'd made up.

"Are you going to talk to him now or during the show or after or what?" Chris asked as they set down their things for the evening.

"No, I was going to get my hair done first, then I was going to eat, then I was thinking about talking to him, is that okay with you?" Stephanie asked and she hadn't meant it to be sarcastic, but she realized how she sounded. "I just mean, that was the plan."

"Sounds like an okay thing," he said, but she could tell he wasn't jazzed about her going to talk to Paul at all. Chris wasn't a jealous man, he'd spent too much time being clueless to be truly jealous, but he just didn't like the thought of her going by herself.

"You sure you don't want me to come?"

"He's not going to try anything," Stephanie told him. "Paul is a lot of things, but scary isn't one of them. "Besides, all I'm going to do is make sure he knows exactly where we stand. Maybe if I make it clear to him that I'm with you and want to be with you, he'll really back off and then we'd just have to tackle the asshole that is Kurt Angle."

"I trust you," Chris said, "I trust that you know what you're doing."

She came over and hugged him, "Thank you for not being all crazy, weirdo boyfriend about this. I know our relationship has been strange, but you make me so happy, I hope you know that. You are just…I don't even know."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I know, I'm the best boyfriend ever," he hugged her back then pressed a kiss to her neck. "You better get to Jan now or else you'll be waiting forever. And Lord knows it's going to take a while to get that horrible hairdo that your character wears."

"Shut it," she told him, pressing a finger to his lips before replacing them with her lips. She left the room and left him to his own devices as she went to get her hair done. She was lucky there weren't many people around so she didn't have to wait. When Jan was done, she went to catering, grabbing a plate while looking around to see who she could eat with. She spotted Adam and Jay and decided they were as good as it was going to get. She and her tray made their way over to them and they spotted her when she was a few feet away.

"Steph, come on over," Adam said, standing up and pulling out a chair for her. She looked at him gratefully before sitting down and pulling her napkin into her lap. "How goes it?"

"I'm fine," Stephanie told them as she took her first bite of food.

"Hey, so what's happening with that whole Paul thing? Is he still bothering you?"

"I'm actually going to talk to him after I eat," Stephanie said, "I'm just going to try and tell him I'm not interested and hope he'll understand."

"Do you really think he will?" Adam asked.

"I really hope so," Stephanie said, "because he doesn't stand a chance otherwise."

Jay laughed, "I can't imagine he'd take that too well."

"Well, he's going to have to," Stephanie joked.

She had an amiable lunch with the two men before she excused herself to go find Paul's locker room. When she located it, she knocked on the door and waited for him to answer. When he did, his face lit up and she wished she could believe he was a good guy who was just misguided about his feelings, but she knew he was plotting and planning. She just hoped after they talked, he would back the hell off.

"Steph, hey, I didn't expect to see you so soon. Did you come to discuss what we're doing for the show?"

"Actually, no, I wanted to talk to you about something else," Stephanie said, "I just wanted to talk to you about us, in general us."

"Really?" he fought a smirk, but she caught it and she could only imagine what he must be thinking at that moment. If it was anything in the realm of her actually leaving the best relationship she'd ever had for him, he was sorely mistaken. She would have felt bad for it if he hadn't called Jessica. "Why don't you come in?"

Stephanie stepped into the room and stood by the door. Paul took a seat on the couch and he gestured for her to sit next to him. She nodded politely then sat down next to him. Before she could say anything, he reached out and cupped her cheek. "Paul, please—"

"It's okay, I knew you felt it too," he told her, scooting himself forward.

Stephanie scooted away before pulling his hand away from her face. "No, Paul, you misunderstand me. I wanted to make it very clear that I know you like me or you think you like me. Either way, this thing isn't going to happen. I'm very happy with Chris and I wanted us to be friends, that's it, but if that isn't even an option, so be it, we will be colleagues and nothing more."

"But…"

"Those are your options. I am with Chris, I am in love with Chris. There's nothing between us," Stephanie knew she was being somewhat harsh, but she had to be in order for him to see what was going on. "We're married in the storyline only. I'm sorry if you think there was more, but there isn't and that's the end of it." Stephanie stood up to walk to the door, hoping that would be the end of it.

Instead, Paul grabbed her, turned her around, and kissed her.

Stephanie pulled away instantly and looked at him in disgust. "Stephanie, I just want you to realize."

The only thing he would realize was the feel of her hand against his cheek.