A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews, hope you enjoy the chapter, review if you want to, they are appreciated. :)


"Was it so difficult to do?"

"Yes, it was," Trish said, "You weren't there, you don't know what went on so you shouldn't judge me unless you know what I did. I tried everything, but he didn't bite. I don't know what his problem is, I'm hot, no guy just turns me away!"

"Well I don't see you with him right now and I haven't heard that you've been with him so I'd say that there are some guys who turn you away," Shane said angrily, pacing the room as Trish glared at him. "I ask you to do one thing, one goddamn thing and you can't even do that right! What are you, stupid or something?"

"I'm not stupid!" Trish told him. "I'm probably smarter than you are because if you were smart, you wouldn't have let Stephanie take over the company in the first place."

"Shut up!" Shane growled at her. He wasn't about to have some stupid diva telling him he was stupid. He could have her fired…well, he could have had her fired if she'd done her job right. Was everyone around her so incompetent that they couldn't do what he asked? Sometimes if you wanted to do something, you needed to do it himself, but it wasn't that easy this time, there were two people.

"No, I will not shut up. You will stand there and listen to me because you can't fire me because you're not in charge," Trish folded her arms. "You're here calling me stupid like I can't do anything right, but if you had done something right, you would be in charge right now."

"I could still get you fired somehow?"

"How, making nice with sissy," Trish mocked him. I'd like to see you try that now after everything that you've told me has happened. She practically ran you out of the business, how was that by they way? If I were you, I'd probably feel a little humiliated."

"She didn't do this by herself," Shane spat. "There's no way she thought of this herself. She's not that smart to think of this and execute it all herself. She had help from that asshole, Jericho. He's the root of all my problems, which is why I thought you could be the one to get him away from her. Maybe I just need to find another diva who can take care of this."

"I can do this!" Trish told him. "I'm Trish Stratus, have you looked at me? Of course I can do this."

"Doesn't seem like you can given the fact that you haven't. You told me that it would be so easy for you to get him, but I don't see him anywhere near here," Shane gestured around.

"I will, don't worry, by the time this night is over he'll be putty in my hands!" Trish said, storming out of the room. She hated Shane, but if he could get her where she wanted to be, she would just have to deal with him. She didn't take too kindly to people questioning her attractiveness. She knew she was gorgeous and so she'd had one setback in regards to Chris, that didn't mean anything.

"So, since everyone thinks we're not getting along backstage, I thought maybe we should pretend like we're great onscreen and then backstage we act all standoffish so that people onscreen think we're doing okay because we are and then people backstage think things are even worse than they are," Stephanie said, "is that stupid?"

Chris laughed at his wife and pulled her into his arms, "I love your ideas. I think they're always the best ideas in the world."

"I just figure that it would make people confused, it would make my brother confused since he's trying to break us up. I mean, what with that whole Trish thing, like he's not behind that. He's probably coaching her as we speak."

"He's pretty transparent," Chris nodded.

"Yes, so…my other kind of plan was that you make it seem like he's actually getting the upper-hand in all of this," Stephanie said, biting her lip because she wasn't sure Chris would go for this idea.

"What do you mean?" he asked, his eyes narrowing as he tried to understand her point. He knew she wanted to drop the bomb on his brother, but he wasn't sure how far she was willing to go when it came to the plan. He didn't want to kiss someone else, he didn't want to be with anyone else, even if he was pretending.

"Well, you know how Trish said that she wanted to get 'wrestling' lessons from you?"

"I'm pretty sure she meant sex when she mentioned wrestling lessons," Chris told her, "I don't want to go through with that because I'm quite happy with what I have, if that's all the same to you."

"Know, I know, I figure you can just…give her wrestling lessons."

"You want me to teach her how to wrestle?" Chris asked. Now he really wasn't sure where she was going with this. He couldn't see how teaching Trish how to wrestle could possibly benefit anyone at this point. It wasn't like Trish was going to go out to the ring and start wrestling against the men.

"Yes, I want you to teach her, but that's it, just teach her and then I can walk in and be so angry and it'll make Shane think he's winning…or I won't even walk in and then Trish will think she has the upper-hand on me and then she'll act smug and then maybe you do it again and then you get caught and I put her in a handicap match against Ivory and Jacqueline and then we'll see if she wants to mess with me," Stephanie said, her eyes brimming with mischief.

"But I if I'm helping her learn to wrestle…"

"Just show her stupid stuff, like a headlock or a hold, maybe something a little bit suggestive so she thinks that you're trying to flirt with her," Stephanie nodded, "which you won't be."

"I wouldn't want to, but don't you think this is, I don't know, I guess shouldn't…well, no, I mean, I guess it could work," Chris said as he thought about it more. "I guess I just don't like the thought of flirting with Trish…or teaching her to wrestle…or being in the same airspace as her."

Stephanie giggled a little bit, her eyes dancing in a way that made her beautiful. "I know, but we have to make sacrifices, right? And I think you'll like the first plan I was talking about and that might make up for the other part with Trish."

"What was the first part of the plan?"

Chris found himself sitting on a rather comfy loveseat on the ramp in front of the Titantron. The crowd had obviously been curious about what the seat meant before the show was starting, but he and Stephanie were greeted with a bevy of cheers as they walked out onto the ramp together. Stephanie positively beamed over the reception. She was so used to getting booed because of her family and her association with them that getting cheered always felt really special, like it could be taken away from her at any moment.

The crowd loved Chris, probably because he had bucked any kind of control and married her, but they liked having him in charge and they liked having him as champion. Even though he wasn't going to be competing tonight, they still seemed to love him just sitting there. She'd announced that they wanted to assess the show as if they were fans, which at the end of the day, they really were and the crowd ate it up. Chris sat down in chair and pulled Stephanie into her lap, kissing her lightly as she smiled into the kiss.

"Do you think Shane is having a fit right now?" she whispered into her ear.

"He should just be grateful that you let him come back," Chris told her and she nodded a little as she gave a smug look to the camera, especially for her brother.

"What the hell does she think she's doing!" Shane snarled as he threw a water bottle against the wall. "I can't believe that bitch of a sister. She thinks she can go around and…"

"You okay, boss?" Pete Gas asked him.

"Do I look okay to you?" Shane asked. "I thought she and Chris were having problems…wait, wait, wait, they must be trying to pull one over on me. God, that's it. They think that by going out there and looking all lovey-dovey that they're fooling people into thinking that they're just great. But you see how they are around here—"

"Yeah, they're always fighting and stuff," Joey Abs nodded.

"Don't interrupt me when I'm talking," Shane told him. "They must think I'm stupid or something. This isn't going to fool me, not one bit."

Stephanie leaned her head against Chris's as they sat watching a match between Mark Henry and D'Lo Brown. "I love you," she whispered to him, which made him smile. "I love being out here with you, just watching the show that we're building. This is ours and we're doing this and I don't know, I feel so accomplished."

"You are accomplished. I knew you had it in you to be the best," Chris told her, leaning in to kiss her again.

The match ended and their private discussions ended when Test started walking down to the ring. He glared at the two of them as he walked past and they knew that meant trouble. Andrew was obviously still not over the events that transpired involving him, Chris, and Stephanie and he was out for vengeance. It helped that Shane had offered him a pretty nice incentive to break Chris Jericho. He was the one who was supposed to marry Stephanie and not that douchebag who'd swept the rug right out from under him.

"Well, look at the happy couple, sitting there like they own the joint."

"I do own the joint," Stephanie said into her microphone. "So I think you should watch your tone to me."

"You know, I don't think I got enough for getting screwed out of marrying Stephanie," Andrew said.

"You never wanted me in the first place!" Stephanie told him.

"Please, I wanted to marry you, didn't I? What the hell do you think that means!" Andrew told her. "That I wanted nothing from you. But now I want something better than a two-timing whore like you, I want the belt and I want it now!"

"Fine!" Chris said, "Fine, I'll give you a match, tonight, you, me, the title, but if you lose, then you won't get another title shot for the rest of your damn career! How do you like that?"

"Let's do it then, the clock is ticking down on you," Andrew threw down the microphone and stalked back up the ramp, calling out insults to Chris as he passed them.

"I guess I better get ready for my match," Chris said to the crowd. He and Stephanie got up and started walking towards the back.

"Follow my lead," Stephanie whispered to him while they were in the dark hallway that led to the gorilla. They passed through the curtain and Stephanie shoved her hand away. "How could you not defend me out there when he was calling me a whore!"

"What? I'm sorry, I had a match that he was trying to get from me, I can't do everything!" Chris said, knowing what she was doing now. "You're not a defenseless, little girl."

"I'm your wife, you should defend me all the time! I swear!" And with that, she stalked off. Shane was nearby, watching this all unfold as he had sent Andrew out there in the first place. After the arresting incident, Andrew had been too quiet. The man should have been more obstinate and Shane had made sure to tell him just what he could get out of this now that it seemed Stephanie was on the outs with Chris. If Shane had his way, his sister would be reuniting with Stephanie very soon. If everything in the match worked perfectly, which was sure it would.

Shane thought his plan was perfect.

It wasn't.