Bacon and egg sandwiches and coffee had been made for everyone by Linda and they had all taken seats around the large wooden table in the dining room. Paul eagerly attacked his sandwich as he heard Stephanie and Vince both begin to speak at the same time. They both stopped at the same time to avoid talking over each other and then with a laugh Stephanie decided to go first herself, "Please let me go first dad."

Vince smiled, "Okay, you first," before starting into his own sandwich. After eating the first mouthful of her sandwich Stephanie began, "Okay mom, dad. I've done a lot of thinking since we found out that I'm pregnant and I've realised that I need to grow up and stop acting like a kid. I'm with Paul and I'm going to have a child. I have responsibilities now and my stupid attitude has to go. I want to make things right with you guys and I want to come back to work for as long as I'm able. We're going to need all of the money we can get as we obviously need to buy a house. I want to apologise for the upset that I've caused in these last few weeks. I shouldn't have walked out like I did and I'm sorry." Silence descended on the room apart from the ticking of a clock as everyone took in this impassioned speech. Paul felt very proud of his girlfriend, Linda bit her bottom lip and Vince continued to smile as he chewed on his food. "Don't all speak at once."

After a moment Vince was the one to speak, "We may have had arguments Stephanie but you were certainly not the only one in the wrong. I'm very proud of you for what you just said and I need to apologise too. I already apologised to you outside Paul but again to both of you, I'm sorry."

Paul nodded but opted to remain silent. Stephanie was still nervous despite what she had already heard in the hallway earlier, "So you're happy for us? You're okay with us being together?" She still needed final and absolute confirmation. Linda spoke for the first time, "Of course we are sweetheart. In fact we've talked about it and we have an offer to make, right Vince?"

After finishing another bite of his sandwich Vince confirmed, "Right. When Shane and Marissa moved into their first house we helped them out with the money for it. We don't want you paying interest to some mortgage company. Find somewhere that you like and we'll buy it for you."

Paul could not believe what he was hearing and he held up a hand to stop Vince and cut him off even though his mouth was full of sandwich, "I can't let you guys do that. We can't take that kind of money from you, right Steph?"

"I think dad means to effectively loan us the money not to give it to us, right dad?" Stephanie asked with a smile.

"That's right. You can pay it back to us when you can afford it and it saves you paying any interest or worrying about things with the baby. We're not taking no for an answer either. As I said we did this for Shane and Marissa and now we're going to do it for you." Paul was stunned by this generosity as it was the last thing he had expected prior to making this visit. He had thought that getting fired or assaulted would be more likely than this. It was a cleverly thought out offer as Stephanie's parents must have known that they would both outright refuse to take the money for a house but now that they had been told that it would be repaid how could they refuse? Why would they refuse? He tried to think of a way to put his gratitude into words but failed, "I don't know what to say Vince, Linda. I really don't. Thank you." Stephanie added, "Yes, thank you both so much."

"That's all you need to say," Linda assured them. After draining her coffee cup she asked, "Would anyone like more coffee?" Nobody wanted any so Linda collected up the now empty plates and cups and with a smile, "I'll leave you to it, there's lots of housework to be done."

As his wife walked out of the room Vince looked at Stephanie, "You're serious about returning to work?" He was hoping that she was but things could not simply return to the way they had been before she walked out. A storyline reason for Stephanie's absence had needed to be put together quickly and therefore now Stephanie McMahon and Triple H's on screen marriage and relationship were over. If she returned to work it would not be as Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley and she would not be able to work with Paul. Vince hoped that this was not about to lead to an argument as Stephanie confirmed eagerly, "Yeah I'm serious. We're going to need the money and besides I love my job and I miss it like crazy. I know I obviously can't do anything in the ring but I can still manage Paul and do talking segments in the ring."

This did indeed seem to be heading down the path that Vince had imagined so he tried to explain the situation as delicately as possible, "I'm glad that you want to come back and I don't have a problem with it in terms of your pregnancy but you two can't work together. We ended that angle when you quit so we'll have to come up with something else for you. I've already been thinking about this since you said you were coming home as I hoped that you would agree to come back to work and I have an idea for you."

"Oh dad," Stephanie whined, "You can get us back together somehow. Just have it that we fixed the marriage or something." Sensing that this might end up in an argument Paul intervened, "Your dad is right Steph, after some of the things they've had me say about you on screen it would look stupid if we got back together this quickly. Maybe we can do a storyline that gets us back together in the future but for right now let's listen to your dad's idea, okay? What's the idea Vince?"

Vince had expected that if anything Paul would take Stephanie's side in this so he was pleasantly surprised by what he had just heard. He hoped Stephanie would stick by what she had said earlier about growing up and did not start being stubborn again. She seemed to have taken Paul's advice and she looked to be listening as he put his idea across, "We already had those few segments before you quit where you were uh... protecting I guess you could call it, Kurt Angle's undefeated streak. We can have you return to manage Kurt. It will be good because we're going to put the European and Intercontinental titles on him soon."

Paul could not help himself being the first one to respond, "Both titles? Really?"

"Yeah, until Wrestlemania. So what about it Steph?" Successfully fighting a brief urge to continue whining and attempting to get her own way to continue to work with Paul Stephanie attempted to view the idea of working with Kurt from a professional perspective. She had to admit that the basics of the idea made sense. There had been a hint of chemistry written between the two characters in the previous angle before she had quit and if Kurt was getting a push as big as her dad had just said then having a manager with him made sense. She would rather work with Paul but they would still be at the arena together so she reasoned that it was not a huge deal to actually perform with someone else. In any case she was sure that her dad would could write them back together soon. "I guess you haven't mentioned this to Kurt yet?"

"No," Vince admitted. "I'll do that tomorrow but he'll like the idea. Why wouldn't he?"

Stephanie smiled, "Okay. Okay I like it. You're okay with this right Paul?"

"Of course. It's a good idea and it will be great for you to be back on TV."

Vince smiled too, "Great so we're all agreed? I'll get this written and we can have you back a week from tomorrow."

"We're all agreed. Dad I want to call Shane and tell him that I'm home and ask him to come over with Marissa."

"Good idea but ask them to come this evening. You've just volunteered your mom to cook dinner for everyone."

That was exactly what happened. Linda already had a large joint of beef cooking and it was big enough to feed the whole family for dinner. Stephanie made the call to her brother and apologised for ignoring his calls for so long. After being assured that it was all forgotten as long as she was okay Stephanie told Shane that she was back home and that Paul was with her and that everyone would like it very much if he and Marissa could come over for dinner. The other bigger piece of news was obviously left to be delivered face to face. Stephanie knew that Shane would be delighted, he adored his little sister and she was sure that he liked Paul. She chastised herself for assuming that Shane had ratted to her dad when he had seen her kissing Paul in the hotel lobby that night. She knew deep down that Shane would not do something like that to her.

Later that afternoon Linda had made a start on the rest of the food that would be served with the beef and asked Vince for a hand as it was a rush to get everything ready before Shane and Marissa showed up. This left Paul and Stephanie alone in the expansive living room relaxing on a black leather couch with Stephanie resting her head on his shoulder. Yet again Paul had a hand on his girlfriend's stomach without realising it. Stephanie had noticed that he kept doing it but she did not say anything. She found it adorable but she was afraid that if she commented on it he might stop doing it. She was slightly nervous to bring up her next question in case there was a disagreement but it had to be talked about sooner or later, "Paul, where are we going to look for our house?" Her mind was immediately put at ease. This man truly was amazing, in fact he was perfect in every respect. His simple response was, "It'll have to be near here won't it? You need to be near the office for your day job and we'll need one of our families to help us with this one," as he said it he squeezed Stephanie's stomach very gently with his fingers and the gesture and the words he had spoken melted her heart and she had to try hard to prevent tears filling her eyes again, "But you'll be away from your family."

Paul shrugged slightly, "I'm away from them now. It's not ideal but this is what we have to do. As long as I have you I have more than enough to keep me happy. And then when the baby comes... Hey, when can we find out if we have a boy or a girl? I don't know anything about this stuff."

Stephanie smiled, "That's not for some time yet. I think it's about twenty weeks when you can learn the sex."

"Twenty weeks?" Paul sounded disappointed almost as if he wanted to know tomorrow. "How many are you now do you think?"

"Maybe four or five. Don't worry there's plenty to look forward to."

Paul beamed, "I already am. I'm going to enjoy every minute of it. We both are."

"I'm seriously doubting I'll enjoy every minute but I do know what you mean." At that moment the doorbell rang, Shane and Marissa had arrived. "Time to give out the good news again."