A/N: Thanks for the reviews, hope you enjoy the chapter! :)

Stephanie fell dramatically against the chair, her hand flush against her forehead. Shane rolled his eyes at his sister's dramatic reaction, but he shouldn't have expected anything less from her really. This was how she always was. There was a time, not too long ago, where he would have rolled his eyes in annoyance rather than amusement. His opinions had changed though and he was able to find the comedy in his sister's actions. After the incident with his parents, Emma had called up Chris and Stephanie and asked if they'd want to meet up for dinner and that's why they were enjoying a nice meal without the pressure of his parents.

"I can't believe you did that, Ems," Chris told her, "I think I need to get you a championship belt just for standing up to Vince and Linda. We can hijack the show and give it to you, I think that would sufficiently make them keel over like this one over here."

"I'm just flabbergasted, yes, I said flabbergasted, that you would do that, at my parent's house no less! I wish I had set up those spy cameras I thought of when I was five years old. I could have signed this up for a Pay-Per-View, I'm sure people would be willing to pay to hear my parents get chewed out."

"It wasn't my finest moment," Emma said, shaking her head. "I really thought I could at least keep my cool through the evening, but that proved to be a lie."

"Then your lies are my savior, my lady," Stephanie said, getting up and kneeling in front of Emma. "I am now in your eternal debt."

"Oh come off it," Emma laughed. "At some point, you would have done the same thing. It was just easier for me to do it because I'm not marrying into the family right now like you are, Chris."

"Yet," Stephanie winked at her brother, who blushed deeply. She laughed and pointed at Shane's face, making Chris and Emma turn to him, which only made him blush deeper. He loved Emma, that wasn't up for debate, but marriage was still not on the table. You may be able to take the snob out of Shane McMahon, but the traditional behavior might take a little bit longer. "And you! I can't believe you told them off too."

"I couldn't let them speak to her the way they did," Shane said, his voice quieter in his humbleness. "It just wasn't right, none of it was right. I can't believe it took me this long to see what they were really like. They only treated Emma like this for several minutes, they've been treating you like this, Stephanie, for years."

Stephanie shrugged, "I've come up with ways to deal with it, believe me."

"Don't sell yourself short either," Emma said, reaching out to rub Shane's leg. "You have no idea how brave you are for standing up to them like you did. It would've been easier just to stay under their thumb, but you didn't do that and I'm proud of you for it. It doesn't matter how long it took you to see things, but that you saw things at all."

"That's true," Chris added. "But really, don't you think it's better now? I mean, the wrestlers aren't deathly afraid of you anymore. I can't tell you how many guys were encased in stone after you looked at them before. I had to invest in a chisel just to get them out."

"I bought it for him for his birthday, don't think that he actually invested in anything," Stephanie said. "But I'm proud of you, Shane, you finally grew a pair. I guess you just needed your girlfriend to show you what balls of steel looked like."

"Eww, gross," Emma said, "I just wasn't going to tolerate it, that's all. I don't have a connection with them so whatever they think of me is inconsequential, I'm not dating them, I'm dating Shane. They were pissing me off, they have been pissing me off with the way they've been treating you guys."

"I'm surprised they haven't called yet," Stephanie looked over at the phone. "I would have thought they would be on the phone, calling me, asking what I've done to their little boy and then defying the laws of physics by reaching through the phone to strangle me."

"They're not Beetlejuice," Chris added. "Although if they were Beetlejuice, they could probably be sent to that weird office limbo place and then the wait there is really long and then we wouldn't have to worry about them for a really long time."

"It would certainly lessen the complications," Stephanie reasoned.

"I just still hate they aren't coming to your wedding. How is that any way to treat their only daughter? It makes me so angry on your behalf," Emma shook her head, "I wish you two would get mad over it so I'm not the only crazy person around here."

"I don't…I wish they would come," Stephanie said, "but I can't change the way things are, it's a miracle I got my brother to change at all. I thought that was a lost cause!"

"Hey," Shane said, "don't talk about me as if I'm not right here. Plus, my robot hearing means I have about a mile radius with regards to hearing."

"Look at my man, all joking and getting an emotion chip," Emma said, leaning over and kissing her boyfriend. "He's adorable, don't you think?"

"Oh Shane, you are so adorable," Chris said in a high-pitched voice, "why, you are just the most handsome, kindly gentleman I think I ever did meet!"

"Stop," Emma said, kissing Shane's cheek again. "He was very brave going up against his parents like that."

"You're a regular Lancelot," Chris told him, then chuckled at his own joke. "I'm sorry, I'm just trying to picture you in full armor, shield, you know, a helmet falling into your face. Maybe a lance because you're…Lance-a-lot, cause you lance a lot, hey, do you think that's where the name came from?"

"Yes, because Merlin, Merl's in, get it," Stephanie said and she and Chris started laughing, making Emma and Shane look at each other like Chris and Stephanie were crazy, which they were, a little…or a lot rather.

"Or Arthur, because he's Art, hur," Chris added.

"Or Guinevere because her Guine is vere…y funny," Stephanie said to Chris and they started cracking up again.

"Do you ever want to just back away slowly from the two of them?" Shane asked Emma, who laughed a little bit.

"No, but sometimes I want to get a really big net and just put it over them so we can take them to the insane asylum, I think it's where they really belong, you know, the whole deal, straitjackets, padded cell."

"Maybe they have a honeymoon suite so they could share," Shane joked and Emma giggled and pressed her lips to his. She loved it when Shane joked around because it just made him more…human somehow. She loved that he was coming out his shell. He really was a very dear man, with a good heart and a kind soul. She was glad everyone else was getting the chance to see what she'd seen within five minutes of meeting him. She grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze, a loving squeeze at that. "I wonder, though, what my parents are doing right now."

Vince and Linda were sitting at the table eating a silent dinner that had been meant for four. They hadn't said a word to each other since Shane and Emma had left. Once Shane was out of the room, Linda had walked out as well, leaving Vince by himself. He hadn't seen her since they sat down to eat, but now they were sitting here and neither one was speaking. He didn't know what she was feeling, but he was feeling a little shell-shocked as he thought back to the earlier proceedings.

Shane just watched as Emma stormed out of the room. His eyes were wide and he turned back to his parents, not saying anything. His mother had words in abundance though, "Shane Brandon McMahon, I cannot believe you would bring someone like that into our home. Have you no shame?"

"Excuse me?" Shane asked, his voice low and nearly dangerous.

"You heard your mother," Vince said, his voice firm and strong.

"She was just saying what she thought," Shane said and his voice sounded slightly distant like he was thinking about something while having a conversation with them. His mind was completely elsewhere.

"There's only one thing to do, you are going to break up with her immediately," Linda ordered him. "I can't believe you would date someone related to that…that scum your sister is daring to marry. You know she's only marrying him as some sort of scheme to get back at us."

"Why do you always presume to know things?" Shane asked.

"What? Your sister has been like this since she was a child. She's always trying to find the most outrageous way to defy us. What could be a better way to do that to marry a man so far beneath her, beneath us?" Linda told him.

"I don't know how many times I have to tell you that she's not getting married as some act of rebellion towards the two of you," Shane said, "and you know what, you were extremely rude to my girlfriend."

"We were extremely rude. That girl came into our house and told us off. We invited her here-"

"To assess her and find out all the problems you had with her!" Shane stood up. "She wanted to prove that she could be good for me, but you were always intent on finding any fault that you could. That's what you always do! You always find the faults instead of looking for the good things! You have got to stop this!"

"Shane, she came in here and acted like a fool," Vince said.

"No, she didn't, you did. Mom, you acted like she was nothing the moment she walked in here and Dad, you were undressing her with your eyes, which is disgusting and disrespectful towards her. I love her," Shane said, surprised he'd said that, but then, feeling a little at peace with it as well. "And I love Stephanie and Chris too! Just for the record."

"Oh God, what has happened to you?" Vince scoffed.

"I got a brain," Shane said, "and until the two of you grow the hell up, stay the hell away from me, my girlfriend, my sister, and her fiancé, just stay the hell away from all of us. But let me warn you, if you keep up like this, you're going to die alone and lonely, with only each other to talk to. Think about that one."

"What are we going to do, Vince?" Linda finally spoke.

"I don't know, the insubordination of our children is appalling," Vince said.

"I suppose we could go to Stephanie's wedding," Linda said, but it was said with such disgust that Vince needn't ask her if she thought that was actually a good idea.

"She wouldn't have us now."

"It's not like we'd want to, but it would at least look like we're putting in some kind of effort, don't you think? Our children are slipping away from us, Vince…that is if Stephanie was ever really ours to begin with."

"She never was," Vince gave a mirthless laugh. "That girl has never really been ours. Not since the day she was born. She was always off somewhere else, some other world. We never could reach her. She's always been so much her own person."

"Yes, we've tried so hard to rein her in because she was so embarrassing sometimes," Linda said, recalling times when Stephanie was a child when she would not stay behaved for anything. She was never the kind of child who would take bribes of candy or toys.

"We've done our best, Linda," Vince told her, looking up at her and in her eyes. "We've done the best we could."

"Have we, Vince, have we?"