A/N: This chapter is dedicated to Carolina. Happy Birthday, I hope the chapter lives up to the expectation. :P
"Mommy, why do I have to be at the doctor's, I don't feel sick."
Stephanie looked to Chris for an answer to this, but he didn't have a reason to tell her, and neither did Stephanie. She looked away for a moment and then looked back down at her daughter, "Well, it's not really a doctor's visit, they just need to get a sample of your spit."
"Eww, Mommy," Ferris giggled, "why do they need to do that?"
"They just need to run a test, and it won't even hurt or anything like a shot. They just need to get some spit and then take it and you'll be done with and we can take you back to school," Stephanie explained, hoping that would suffice for the girl who hated to miss class for any reason.
"Okay, if you say so," Ferris said, looking to Chris. "Chris, are you going to come in with me when they have to get my spit?"
"No, I think I'll wait out here," he said, knowing that he'd go in when she was in there so he could get his sample done too. He didn't want to tip off Ferris to what was going on and neither did Stephanie. The results were going to be enough to deal with, they didn't want to get into it beforehand. If Chris was indeed Ferris's father, they were going to have to tell her. There was just no way they could keep that a secret.
Maybe that's where the fear really lied. Having to tell everyone what had happened was going to be trying, but it would be most trying with Ferris and with Hunter. Stephanie didn't anticipate telling the news to Hunter because he would flip his lid most assuredly. She wouldn't blame him this one time, since it would be a devastating blow. She wasn't stupid, she knew that Hunter felt like he was being pushed out of the picture, but to be actually pushed out of the picture for real, it was going to make him so angry.
"Ferris Helmsley?"
"That's us," Stephanie said as she stood up with Ferris. The nurse gave a kind smile as she led the two back to some room behind the mysterious door. Chris sat there afterwards and leaned his head against the wall, laughing at this rather surreal situation.
Brad had set it up so that the office where they were getting the test done was closed down for them. It gave him an air of anonymity and privacy. He didn't want this out before he got the results. He didn't need to have this splashed on every magazine for all the world to see. He especially didn't want Ferris to get wind of it before things were settled. He did not want that little girl to find out a thing about this.
"Sir?"
Chris looked up at the nurse. "Oh, um, yeah?"
"We're ready for you," she told him and he stood up.
He took a moment to compose himself, knowing that his entire future was riding on this. If he went in there and succumbed to it, it might be better, but he was still confused. His whole life right now was upside-down and nothing made sense. He was accepting the chaos if he walked through those doors. But he had to know the truth and that was the driving force. The truth was what he needed at this very moment, and the rest…the rest could come later.
So he walked through those doors and into the chaos.
Two days, that was all it took. Rush delivery of the results, and then it was there, the moment. The moment that had the potential to change everything had arrived; it had snuck up on them. Chris had been staying in the house, but he had been conveniently put up in a guest room. He played up for the girls that nothing was wrong, but had yet to even touch Stephanie. They talked, civilly, but things were definitely strained on both sides. Stephanie kept thinking about his mystery woman, and Chris was solely thinking about the fact that he could've reproduced with no knowledge of the event.
And two days was all it took for the chaos to come to a stop and the repercussions to begin.
Two days and there was an envelope sitting on the counter. It didn't look ominous or frightening, but how frightening can a manila envelope be? No, it was the contents of said envelope that were scary and foreboding. Stephanie and Chris stared at it. Thankfully it was the middle of the day and Ferris and Keagan were at school and nowhere near Chris and Stephanie who were staring quite intently at it to the point where if a hole started to burn through it, they wouldn't be surprised.
"Should we open it?" Chris asked.
"We should."
"Do you want to?" Chris asked. "You can open it."
"Maybe you should," she told him. "I mean, you can if you want, I'm not like forcing you to do anything that you didn't want to do, but I thought maybe you'd want to since it will change your life more than it will change mine."
"We shouldn't do it here, too many…well, I just, maybe we should go out to lunch or something? I mean, public place, less chance for…well, freaking out and fainting," Chris said, trying to make a lame attempt at a joke that just wasn't working. It wasn't going to relieve the incredible amount of tension building up in the room.
"Okay, if that's what you want to do, I'm game for that," Stephanie nodded. "I mean, we can eat, and do it, or do it and eat, and look and discuss and it would be good, I guess, for us to get it all out there."
Chris picked up the offending envelope and Stephanie stared at it in his hand. That envelope contained something so huge and yet it seemed so small. She grabbed her purse and they were off for a tense car trip to a nearby restaurant that was quiet enough so they could talk, but busy enough that they would get lost in the crowd. It was a good thing too, because they didn't want people staring at them any more than necessary.
They decided to look at the results before they ate, because if they waited and ate, the potential for vomiting might get higher. So it sat, again, in the middle of their table and Chris looked to Stephanie, who was biting her lip. The room seemed to quiet around them, but they didn't know if it was their own ears drowning out the afflicting sound, or it was just that the room got quiet. They figured it was the former and they'd be correct. The hubbub around them was still there, but they tuned it out in the face of the outcome.
"You want to do the honors?" Chris asked. Stephanie looked up at him and saw a kind of fear in his eyes, but beyond that, she thought she saw hope. That gave her the strength to do this. If Chris was the least bit hopeful, she needed to do this for him.
She picked up and opened it, the paper ripping loudly to them. Chris's hands were shaking, and he gripped the table in front of him to steady himself. Stephanie looked at him and gave him a shaky smile. She pulled out the paper inside and read it over, her eyes darting back and forth, back and forth like a fish swimming in a bowl. She looked up and bit her lip. Chris's eyes were widening, begging her to tell him.
"She's yours."
Chris had a daughter.
And then just like that, things were different.
Just in that one second, that single moment, things had changed. Chris became "Dad," and life became complicated. How complicated they would have yet to find out, but it would be complicated. There were people to tell, there was press to throw off their backs, there were exes to tell, but most importantly, there was a little girl, sitting in a classroom not ten miles away that didn't know her life had changed forever. There was a little girl who had lost one father and gained another.
Chris reached his hand out shakily to get the papers from Stephanie. She handed them over willingly and he took them, licking his lips a little as he read down. Yes, it said it right there, in black typed ink, he was, without a doubt, Ferris Helmsley's father…or…well, what was her name now? Chris had no idea, and that was just another thing to add to the long list. But there were other things that were coming to his mind now. Things to be done, said, whatever, but the list was growing longer.
He had to be her dad, he just had to be, there was no way that he wasn't going to be her father. Now that he knew, he had to make up for lost time. Sure, that's a cliché, and it would never happen because you're only given so much time to do anything anyways, but that didn't matter. He was going to somehow make it up to her. He loved her already, that wasn't the problem. The problem was he didn't know her for many years, and it tore at his heart to think he had a child out there that he didn't know about. But he was going to be her dad, and she was going to be his daughter.
"Yeah, so she's yours," Stephanie said, hoping that he would say something to her, anything to her.
"Yeah, she's mine," he said, still shell-shocked. "This is…I have no words."
"I'm sorry," she said immediately.
"What?" he asked, looking up at her.
"This is my fault," she lamented. "This is all my fault. I should've told you that we slept together. I should've told you, I should've remember, and I should've told you about Ferris. This is completely, it's all on me. All of it."
"Stephanie, no it's not," he said, running his hand through his hair. He sighed and looked up at him. "It's not your fault at all."
"But I should've told you!"
"Stephanie, I was there too and I couldn't remember, that's my fault. I shouldn't have gotten so drunk I didn't remember sleeping with you. You didn't remember, that's not your fault, your memory is not your fault. This is both of our faults, it just is. It's too bad that I lost the time, but don't beat yourself up about it."
"How can you be so nice to me when I've been so horrible to you?"
"You haven't been. Stephanie, we can't stop and think about the past. What good is that going to do? It's not going to do any good. We just need to stop this right now, okay, look, we're parents…holy shit, I'm a parent."
Stephanie couldn't help herself, she laughed and Chris's head shot up to look at her critically, "I'm sorry, just the way you said that was funny."
He laughed too, "This is so surreal, you don't expect to find that you have an almost eight-year old daughter with your girlfriend who you've been with for less than a year. That's just a tiny bit strange."
"It is strange," she conceded. "We have to tell her, you know."
"I know, and it's not going to be easy. She might be confused. And then with Keagan, she's going to be confused too. I mean, is she going to start thinking she's my daughter too…she's not my daughter, right?"
"No, no chance of that being the case," she said, "Though it might be easier if she was…still though, Chris, I'm sorry that I let things get this bad, but I really do want you to be a part of Ferris's life. She's lucky to have you, I know you'll do right by her."
"Hunter is going to kill me and you, you know that right?"
"Oh, I know, but there's nothing he can do, she's your daughter, and that's it," Stephanie said, sounding sad and pathetic. "I just don't…this whole situation is confusing. I'm sorry, here I am, crying and stuff and you just found out you were a father."
"Hey, she's your daughter too," Chris pointed out.
"Yeah, so I guess…well, I guess we can work out a schedule or something since we're…uh, not together anymore," Stephanie said, broaching the subject carefully. Now that Ferris's paternity wasn't called into question, they had other things to think about, and being apart, and breaking up was part of that. "Since you…broke up with me. I do hope that you stay close by…and I hope that your girlfriend doesn't mind that you have a daughter."
"My…girlfriend?" Chris asked, narrowing his eyes a little bit at what she was saying.
"Yeah, your…uh, girlfriend, lady friend, I'm not sure exactly what to call her. I mean…I saw the magazine, Chris, so you don't have to hide anymore. I mean, I know you've been tiptoeing around the subject since you came back, but you can stop now because I know."
"I've been tiptoeing around the subject?" he echoed in confusion.
"Yes, I saw it in the magazine, I saw that you had a new girlfriend, you don't have to lie."
"What magazine?"
"I don't really remember, there was a picture of you with a woman, eating on the beach. I saw it, and it was then that I knew that you had really broken up with me. I'm dealing with it slowly, but I just need to know if you'll stay by here so you can see her."
Chris thought back to lunch on the beach and realized that Stephanie had seen a picture of him and Denise having lunch. He cursed the paparazzi for a second, just assuming that whoever he was with was his girlfriend. No, it was just one of his best friend's wives. He looked to Stephanie, who was putting up a brave front for her. He studied her for a moment and didn't like what he was doing to her, making her think that she wasn't important, that she was just some other notch on his bedpost.
"I do have a girlfriend," he told her somberly.
She nodded, getting the real confirmation that it was over. "Oh…okay. I accept that. I get that you would want to be away from me. Thank you for telling me though, and I know that it wasn't your fault your picture was taken. Just…um, with Ferris…"
"Yeah, well…"
"Does your girlfriend like kids?" Stephanie asked, trying to sound like it didn't matter, but her heart was breaking on the inside.
"She loves them."
"Good, good, I wouldn't want her to...I'm sorry, Chris, I can't sit here and pretend it doesn't hurt, I'm sorry," Stephanie said. "I need to go, I just…I need to go, we'll work out custody at some other time okay?"
She stood up to go because she just couldn't stay here to look across from him and he wouldn't be hers. Before she could turn his hand was on her arm and she turned to ask him to let her go, and Chris spoke, "I have a girlfriend, her name is Stephanie McMahon…"
Her eyes lit up as she stared at him, "What?"
"The girl in the magazine, that I had lunch with at the beach was Denise, Christian's wife."
"Oh…"
"Yeah, you're my girlfriend, Steph, and despite all of this, we'll work through it. The only thing that matters is that I love you, and I love the life we're building here. Ferris is just…she's something I'll have to get used to, but it doesn't make me love her or you any less. Stay okay, because the only girlfriend I want is you."
She sat down and smiled at him. "Are you kidding with me? Cause if you are--"
Chris leaned across the table to kiss her, "Does that seem like I'm kidding."
"Well, give me another and we'll see…"