"Well, well, well, if it isn't the sluttiest bitch in all the land."

"What do you want, Hunter?" Stephanie asked as she saw him leaning on the wall next to her office. "I have a lot of work to do."

"What? I can't come and see my most favorite girl in the entire world."

Her face turned to stone, "Cut the crap, Hunter, we both know that you can't stand my guts for whatever reason."

"Whatever reason? Oh, I don't know, putting me in unfair matches, maybe that has something to do with it. Everyone thinks that you're some great boss, that you and your husband," he spat out, "are the best bosses ever, but I see through you and your stupid, little act."

"What act would that be?" she wondered.

"That you're this innocent, little girl or whatever shit it isn't that you're trying to pull. That you only have the good of the company in your sights. I don't even believe you're really with Chris Jericho. You expect me to believe that you fell in love with this guy and decided to marry him over what, a few days? Please, this is just business, so what's he getting out of it?"

"I love him," Stephanie said, looking Hunter straight in the eye.

"You probably spend most of your time on your back and I don't think it's with Chris, you probably sell yourself on every street corner."

"Man, you are really burned because I wanted to put you in a handicap match, aren't you?" Stephanie joked, which didn't amuse Hunter in the slightest. He glared at her rather, giving her the dirtiest look he could muster at the moment.

"I'm just calling you like I see you."

"I don't think that you know me at all," Stephanie said. "I think that you insult me because you want me. Is that it, Hunter? Do you just want to get your hands on my body? All these little insults, is that the reason why?"

"Like hell I'd touch you."

"It's so nice that you want me, Hunter, but I'm a married woman now."

"Yeah, who left her fiancé at the altar for another man," he scoffed.

"So?" she asked. "I wasn't happy and I'm happy with Chris. He'll be glad to know that you're so jealous of him though. I know that this bitterness towards me is only because you want me so much, and I really, really am flattered."

"You're a slut," he said plainly.

"Well, you're an overgrown Neanderthal, your point being…besides, the only man that I sleep with is my husband, the man that I'm married to, and the current WWF champion," Stephanie said. "Is that what bugs you? That Chris is better than you are? Well, that's too bad. Sorry, Hunter, maybe next time."

Stephanie pushed past him and went into her office as Chris wandered upon him after seeing that he was speaking with his wife. "Trips, hanging out around my wife are you?"

"You mean that bitch."

"Nah, the only bitch around here I see is the whiny one right in front of me," Chris said. "You're pathetic, man."

He too went into Stephanie's office and saw her just sitting down to her desk and the stack of papers in front of her. She looked up at him and smiled. He came over and gave her a peck on the lips before he leaned with his butt against the desk, facing her. She went over some of the contracts for the upcoming Pay-Per-View and they were happy to just be quiet for a few minutes.

"Hunter didn't give you any trouble, did he?" Chris asked.

"Nothing I couldn't handle," she responded. "It was just the usual stuff, you know, I'm a slut, I'm a bitch, I'm always on my back because I'm such a whore. How I don't know how to run the company, that stuff."

"What a bunch of bull," said Chris, shaking his head as he looked down on her. "The farthest thing you are is a slut."

"I don't care what he says, let him say it, he's just really bitter," Stephanie shrugged. She didn't know why Hunter had decided to target her in particular, but Hunter was all about bucking authority. Now that her father had run off, the next logical choice was Stephanie herself. "He wants the title and he doesn't have the title so he's going to act like a spoiled, little boy. I know how it goes."

"He's not getting his hands on that baby," Chris said, jerking a thumb towards the title belt which was sitting on top of the couch in Stephanie's office. Chris wasn't the type of guy to wear that thing everywhere. Everyone knew that he was the champion, he didn't need to broadcast it all over the place.

"Well, he can't get the title if he doesn't have a title match to begin with, even though I know I'm going to have to give in," Stephanie said. "Just how it goes, you know, I can't hold him down forever."

"I know, I'll just have to kick his ass then," he smiled, leaning down to kiss Stephanie. She leaned her head up to get at him more.

She pulled away after a few moments and then said, "Hunter even had the audacity to say that I didn't love you, that just because we got married on a whim that we don't love each other."

"Well, we didn't when we got married," he pointed out.

"Yeah, but I love you now, and that counts for everything," she told him, intertwining their hands together, their matching wedding bands brilliant in the fluorescent light. "He's probably just jealous that he's not as brilliant as you to come up to me and want to get married."

"You're crazy," he said, going in for more lip action. She smiled against his lips, her giddiness transferring to him and they were both trying to kiss the other, but the grins on their faces were preventing their lips from meeting correctly. She giggled and pulled away, her hands on his cheeks, trying to steady him as she tilted her head and kissed him deeper.

They both heard the door open and Chris looked over his shoulder as Stephanie peeked around Chris to see who it was. Chris groaned quietly as he saw his great nemesis at the door. He was starting to believe that Kurt had some secret camera that was constantly trained on Stephanie and whenever he saw the two of them he had to come barging in. Stephanie looked up at Chris with an apologetic look, but he had already turned away.

She sighed and hated the angry and almost hurt look on Chris's face. She turned to Kurt, "Kurt, what is it?"

"Sorry, I didn't want to interrupt…"

"Yeah right, Chris grumbled under his breath.

"Just tell me what it is and then you can leave."

"Well, I was just wondering what I had planned for the evening."

"You can pick up a schedule, Kurt, and you know that we have the company meeting in oh," Stephanie looked at her watch, "an hour and we go over everything at that point. You couldn't wait another hour?"

"Sorry, I'm just getting used to everything."

"Yeah, okay," she said, and now she was starting to just get a little annoyed by Kurt. It mostly had to do with the look on Chris's face. She didn't like seeing that look on his face and she wanted to erase it right now. "Actually, now that you're here, Kurt, there's something that I would like to discuss with you."

"Yeah?" he said brightly, stepping forward a bit more. Chris got off the desk and Stephanie thought he was going to leave so she placed a hand on his thigh and shook her head slightly. Getting her meaning (one of those things that reeked of the familiarity that was growing between them) he leaned back against the wall, putting his right foot up against it as he folded his arms in front of him. He chewed on his gum angrily, the smacking distracting for Stephanie.

"Have a seat," Stephanie said charmingly and Chris sucked at his teeth a little bit. Kurt smiled back at her, that stupid shit-eating grin on his face. Chris looked down a moment as Kurt took a seat. "So, I wanted to discuss something that I wanted to do with your character."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes, I feel like…right now you need something."

"I do?" he said, raising his eyebrow. He smirked at her, wondering if she was going to say anything close to what he wanted to hear. He licked his lips and Chris almost threw himself across the table at the other man, wanting to throttle him.

"I want to give you a manager."

"What?"

"A manager," Stephanie said brightly. "We've got this new diva coming in, her name is Trish Stratus and I think that she would be perfect for you. Absolutely perfect."

"Wait, I don't need a manager."

"Sure you do, someone to come ringside with you and someone to cheer you on, it'll be great," she said. "I really think that her being by your side will be something that the fans want to see, I know I want to see it, Chris?"

"That'd be great," Chris said smugly as he made eye contact with Kurt. He narrowed his eyes a little bit as he watched Kurt's reaction. Kurt's jaw was set tight and he was staring a hole right into Chris. Stephanie looked over at her husband, but didn't say anything right then.

"See, he agrees, I think it'd be a good career move. She's coming next week to see around here and see how it is backstage, so I think that you can show her around since I'm going to make her your manager. Show her a good time, make her want to come to work here, because you do like working here, right, Kurt?"

"Uh, yeah," he said, staring at her chest.

"I thought so, you're such a dear," Stephanie said with false coyness. She batted her eyelashes a little bit and Kurt was putty in her hands. "That's all I needed."

"You know what, Steph, what if you came out to my matches? I think that if I had the president of the company coming out with my matches, I thin the fans would really support me," Kurt said, surprising both Stephanie and Chris was his proposition. "If I want to get on top, I think I need you by my side."

"What? Excuse me?" Chris said, his voice disbelieving. "No way, no goddamn way are you going to have my wife be your manager."

"Why not? She has her own brain, I think that she should be able to decide for herself who she goes out with and who she doesn't," Kurt countered.

"Because she's my wife! If she's going to go out with anyone, it's going to be me, not you, not some random guy who has no attachments to her whatsoever!"

"I still think that she can decide."

"She's my wife, what don't you get about that, Angle?" Chris asked. "What part of the whole, Stephanie McMahon-Jericho thing do you not understand? Did you not see it when we announced that we were married, do you not see the wedding bands on our fingers, do you not see us together all the time? What part of that doesn't smack together to you?"

"Chris, honey, calm down," Stephanie said, laying a hand on his arm.

"No, I'm not going to, look, Stephanie gave you a manager, and I'm sure she's great, so go with it, some guys are just shoved out there, she's trying to help you and you're practically throwing it back in her face!"

"I'm not throwing it back in her face, I just think that Stephanie would be better."

"I'm outta here," Chris said, shoving past Stephanie, who tried to reach out to him but was too late. Chris stormed out of the room, needing to catch his breath. The anger and hatred that he felt for Kurt threatened to choke him. It was like the air was being sucked out of the room slowly and he needed to get out or suffocate. He rubbed his forehead before wandering off. He didn't want to blow up in front of Stephanie any more and scare her or something.

Stephanie glared at Kurt, "Kurt, I'm not going to be your manager, that's it, okay, you're getting Trish."

"But I don't want Trish, I don't even know who she is."

"I don't care, she's your new manager and that's it."

"But--"

"No buts! I'm sorry, Kurt, but I can't be your manager. I have a lot of work to do and I have Chris to worry about too. I go out to his matches and that's about all I can really handle right now. I'm really sorry, but that's just the way that it has to be. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go find my husband."

Stephanie left without another word. Kurt scowled as she left. That hadn't gone how he planned it at all. He thought Stephanie was a bright, beautiful, intelligent woman, and she happened to be the most powerful woman in all of wrestling. Kurt wasn't usually one to try and sleep his way to the top, but when you had someone as innocently sexy as Stephanie McMahon, who you might've been flew right out the window. He smirked as he looked over at the WWF title belt, something he wanted to be holding onto very, very soon.

Hopefully with Stephanie on his arm as well.

Stephanie wandered the hallways and finally went outdoors where she saw Chris sitting down on the edge of a walkway, his feet dangling as he had his arms draped across the lowest metal bar that prevented people from falling. She wandered over and sat next to him, emulating his position. They didn't speak for a few moments, but she did reach out and grab his hand to hold it in her own.

"I told him in no uncertain terms that I was not going to be his manager, not now, not ever."

"Good," was Chris's short reply.

"I know that he…might have bad intentions with me…"

"Might?"

"Okay, he does have them, but I'm committed to you, Chris, I'm commited to this relationship."

"Are you?"

"What?"

"How committed are you?"

"What the hell kind of question is that?"

"Nothing, never-mind."

"No, what is it?"

"I just…you left Andrew on a dime…why not me?"

"I didn't love Andrew, I didn't, I love you, I've given you everything of me, Chris, everything," she said, scooting as close to him as she could get. "I love you, Chris, you know that, you know me now, you do. You're…you're my best friend, I'd never betray you like that."

He turned to look at her. "I love you too."

"So you believe me then?"

"I believe you."