Welllllll, what was supposed to be the beginning of this chapter, ended up being moved to the beginning of the previous chapter. Consequently, this chapter was a few hundred words shorter than it was supposed to be. To compensate, I added some stuff at the end which will transition us into the next chapter! Enjoy! :-D


Monday, May 20, 2002 (con't)

Hunter ran until he reached the entrance of the woods. His hazel eyes scanned the ground, looking for any indication of which way Austin had taken Stephanie. He wasn't as familiar with these woods as he should've been, considering the predicament he and Stephanie were in as well as the fact that he'd picked this place. But, he did know that the woods only stretched on for a mile or so. He was in good shape – he was prepared to run through the entire damn thing if he had to. He tried to reassure himself that Stephanie was okay; that he was on the right track. That Stephanie had been through this very path not long ago. It was the only thing that was fueling him mentally right now. He came to a slow jog, holding his hands in front of his face as something shiny reflected into his eyes. He walked over to the twinkling object and hope flashed through his senses. It was one of the earrings Stephanie was wearing today. Pocketing the small silver hoop, another flash of hope went through him when he saw the second earring about ten feet in front of him. Stephanie was close. She had to be; he had been tearing through the woods for a few minutes already. It took him less than eight to run a mile.

Nearly an hour had passed since Stephanie had started digging. The hole wasn't even knee-deep yet. She was no longer crying, she was sweating. Between repeatedly pitching soil a few feet away and her baby kicking her, she was exhausted. Despite her best efforts to dig at a leisurely pace, she was going much faster than she personally wanted to. The reason was because after maybe ten minutes of digging slowly, Austin had started yelling at her to stop slacking. Right before he fired a warning shot into the air. Stephanie shook her head at the memory. If there was any doubt in her mind about how serious he was, it had vanished at that very moment. Just the simple fact that he actually had bullets in the gun was enough for her.

Stephanie took her eyes from her task for a moment, casting her gaze on the silhouette of Austin. He was standing a good ten feet away from her area. Probably didn't want to get hit with a pile of dirt. If he was standing close enough, she would do just that. She couldn't see his face because the sun was behind him, but she wondered if he was watching her. After all, she'd been digging for such a long time. She didn't know how deep he planned for her to dig but somehow she figured that knee-deep fell short of what he had in mind. He was probably daydreaming by now - bored that even though she was clearly moving faster, she was taking forever to get this done. She was nearly 6 months pregnant and Austin was armed. Surely he couldn't have imagined that she would be much of a threat. That's where you're wrong, she thought angrily.

The arena was only fifteen or twenty minutes away. Hunter should have been here by now. Either he wasn't coming for her or something was holding him up. Or he simply had no idea where to look for her. Either way, she was quickly running out of time. She had no idea how much deeper Austin wanted this hole to be. Nor did she want to find out. She wasn't going to wait until she accidentally accomplished the goal. He would shoot her and kill her baby and shove her into the hole she'd dug. He'd leave her out here to die slow, painfully and alone. I already know what happens if I don't do something, so I might as well take a chance. I'm doing this for you, she thought, touching her stomach briefly, smiling when her baby kicked her hand. She continued to dig in silence, plotting her attack on the man above her.

A couple minutes later she called out, "Hey Austin!"

"What?" He asked rudely.

"You have to take a look at this."

"What?"

"I don't know what the hell it is," she told him irritably. "I think you better take a look at it and decide if you want me to keep digging here."

Austin snorted and made his way over to where Stephanie was.

Stephanie muttered, "Come on you S.O.B." as she watched his form advance towards her. As soon as he was hovering directly over the hole, she threw the dirt that was currently in the shovel, into Austin's face.

He groaned loudly and spat, "You bitch," at her as he doubled over, rubbing at his eyes.

Her eyes narrowed as she swung the shovel at his bald head. He inadvertently dropped his gun into the hole as his hands went to his head, while he backed away from the hole. Stephanie flinched when the gun went off, but was thankful the bullet simply drove through one of the walls of her would-be gravesite.

Stephanie steadied herself, planting her hands into the dirt as she prepared to lift herself to ground level so she could beat Austin some more. Her blue eyes went wide in shock as she heard a loud crack, followed by seeing a broken-in-half baseball bat go flying in another direction. Austin arched his back and yelled in pain, before falling to his knees, groaning loudly.

"Throw me the shovel," Hunter's voice called out to her right before she saw his handsome face appear in her line of vision.

Stephanie tightened her grip on the shovel, before pitching it over to her husband. It landed pretty close to where he was and he picked it up from the ground.

Adrenaline and rage coursed through his veins as he swung the shovel at Austin. Each yell of pain he gave, only seemed to make Hunter angrier. Angry that the bastard was still conscious – and in some ways- alive. The shovel connected with Austin's head, spine, arms and abdomen several times before the bastard lost consciousness. Austin was lying flat on his back, his arms above his head. Hunter took another swing at Austin's mid-section, just for good measure. When Austin didn't move or make a sound, Hunter was satisfied. He turned and ran over to his wife, who was still standing in the hole looking shell-shocked.

Hunter bent down and extended his hands down to her. "Are you okay?" He asked her as he pulled her up to where he was, frantically looking her over, but finding nothing other than bruises on her arms.

Stephanie shook her head no, promptly buried her head into his chest and started crying hysterically. Her hands clung to the middle of his back like she was afraid she'd float away if she were to let go. Maybe she would.

His questions came out rapidly. "Are you hurt? Is it the baby?" Nothing appeared to be wrong with her other than the bruises. But, he'd heard the gunshot. Maybe in his quick scan, he'd missed something.

She didn't respond verbally. She just shook her head no again and continued to cry.

Hunter sighed heavily and wrapped his arms around her, placing his chin on top of her head. "It's okay, you're safe now," he told her softly, running a hand through her hair.

"I just – I can't believe you're here," she said shakily after a few minutes. She pulled back to look into Hunter's eyes. "I thought I was going to die; I didn't think you'd come back for me in time. Or maybe even not at all."

"I'll always come back for you," he told her, placing a lingering kiss to her lips.

Stephanie was silent for a moment as if she was in deep contemplation. "I'm a sweaty, dirty, fat mess. How could you want to kiss me?"

He laughed at her. It was a desperate, relieved laugh. "You're not fat; you're pregnant. I don't care about sweaty or dirty. You're alive and not injured. You've never been more beautiful to me."

Their tender moment was interrupted when they heard a low, gurgling kind of noise come from Austin's direction. They looked over to see that he was still out of it and hadn't moved an inch.

Hunter and Stephanie returned their attention to each other and remained wrapped in their as they waited for the authorities to arrive.

I have to tell him about the baby and Jericho tonight, Stephanie decided. Today had shown her how short time could be. Then again, the last week in general had shown her that. One moment was all it took for your life to be flipped upside down. It didn't escape her notice that she really could have died today. She'd have gone down fighting, of course. But, the fact of the matter was that Austin had several inches, more strength and over one hundred pounds on her. To top it off, he also had a gun. Even if he was smaller, that was a game-changer.

She'd fought him because she'd had no other choice. She knew what would happen if she just did as he said. So, she had to take the chance. It turned out to be unnecessary since Hunter arrived to help her. But, that wasn't the point. The point was that she'd been in mortal danger. And it had made her realize a few things. Namely the fact that if Austin really had taken her out, Hunter probably never would have known the baby was really his. He never would have known that she didn't really cheat on him. He'd still grieve for her. But, he'd be hurt over what happened to her as well as what she'd done to him.

Now, she and the baby were safe and sound. Hunter deserved the truth from her. He deserved to be in on every aspect of her pregnancy. Not as an onlooker but as an active participant. Because she'd stayed with him for a month, he already had been very active previously. But this would be different. He'd actually be happy to be around.

Already, they'd both caused each other so much pain over the situation. All she was doing was prolonging it. At first, it might be difficult to take in that this whole Jericho fiasco had been one big waste of time. It would take a little bit for him to really process and be okay with that.

But, he loved her. He'd told her so and he had proven it in so many ways recently. She didn't know if her revelation would change that. She hoped not. Even if it did, she still had to do this. And she had to do it tonight.

Hunter held Stephanie close to him and breathed her in. Under the scents that the wooded area had created, he could still pick hers out. He committed the smell to memory because he very well could have lost her forever today. Between them, the baby kicked. He grinned, amused at the fact that the little one had kicked both him and its mother in the stomach simultaneously.

He still wanted more information on the paternity issue. But, he didn't want to stress Stephanie out. It was possible she didn't even realize that the initial doctor must have made a mistake. From the tape that played during their wedding renewals, he knew that the man wasn't above taking money to provide false information.

And after her car accident, Stephanie had initially been sedated. The doctor had told him so. Then, Hunter had talked to Shane and gone down to the police station. So there was no way she could have orchestrated for the doctor to make up how far along she was.

Because she had heard him admit that he still loved her, he knew that she'd been somewhat conscious, though. But even people in comas were rumored to be able to hear people talking to them. So, that didn't mean much. It meant more than she'd kicked Chris Jericho out of her life. Being that he had taken Stephanie in and provided for her, there had to be a good reason why she did that.

Not actually being her child's father seemed as good a reason as any.

He knew he'd get the truth eventually. For the sake of his sanity he just hoped it was sooner rather than later.