"Stupid son of a…"

Stephanie was crashing all around her hotel room, throwing clothes around aimlessly. She was angry. She had been angry for an entire week and it looked like it wasn't going to be stopping any time soon. She grabbed a pair of Chris's pants and flung it at the wall haphazardly, not caring where they ended up. It wasn't like she could bend over and pick it up anyways. Bending over had become more and more difficult as each week passed and so she had just given it up altogether.

"I hate that…damn it…stupid…" she kept mumbling to herself, going over to her paperwork and idly rifling through it, as if looking for something, but whatever it was she was looking for wasn't found and she just dropped the papers all over the table.

"Steph, I'm back with what you…" Chris's voice petered out as he looked around their suite. There were clothes everywhere, and he meant everywhere. One of Stephanie's shirts was hanging over the lamp next to the couch and he was pretty sure he spotted a bra behind the television. "What the hell happened in here?"

"I was doing a little redecorating, what does it look like I'm doing?" Stephanie snapped.

"Um…I don't know, that's why I asked. It looks like our suitcases exploded…did our suitcases explode?"

"No, they didn't explode," Stephanie said snottily. "Did you get my frozen yogurt?"

"Yup, with the gummi bears like you asked," Chris said, thrusting it forward like it was a peace offering. He hoped it subdued his very irate wife because she looked like she was on a rampage, and he knew what it was like to be caught in the crossfire of that, and that was the last place he wanted to be.

"Thanks," she said curtly as she walked over and grabbed it from him, then took the spon he was also holding in his hand and dug in to her sweet treat. She sighed happily as the first bite hit her tongue. She had such a craving for some frozen yogurt. "This hits the spot, thank you."

"So um…if it doesn't get me killed, may I ask what you are doing?"

"I'm pissed, I'm so damn pissed off," Stephanie said, sitting down heavily in the nearest chair. "You know what happened while you were out?"

"Well, considering I was…out, no I don't know what happened. So why don't you enlighten me, and tell me what has my wife so upset?"

"My father told me that I am not needed tonight. I flew all the way up here from Tampa, and I know that it's not that far, but you'd think he'd tell his pregnant daughter not to come if she wasn't going to be needed at all," Stephanie said angrily. "I'm freaking 31 weeks pregnant and he doesn't have the decency to even tell me that I don't have to come tonight!"

Chris watched Stephanie, knowing that she had to get this out. She was constantly stressed out about her father and it was slowly breaking him. Chris hated seeing her like this. Sure, there was a time, a long time ago that he would've laughed to see her so bedraggled, but that was not now. Now, he just wanted his wife to be happy, and he wanted his son to be happy. Stephanie's pregnancy was supposed to be a good time, a nice time, a special time that they weren't going to have again. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I mean, he could've just given me paperwork to do and I would've been fine, but to call me and tell me that I'm not even needed, I mean, he knew I was here, and now he's turning me away. Why doesn't he just fire me and get it over with, I know that's what he would love to do," she said, her lip quivering.

"Steph, it'll be okay, I promise you that. You're going to stop traveling soon anyways, so maybe this is good, look at the silver lining."

"There is no silver lining here Chris," Stephanie said plainly, setting her frozen yogurt down on the table and pushing herself out of her chair. She walked into the bedroom and lay down on the bed, looking up at the ceiling. Chris followed her and leaned in the doorway as he looked at his wife lying on the bed. "He just decided what he wanted wasn't anything that had to do with me. He'd much rather go around humiliating people and acting like he doesn't have a care in the world. That's it."

"Stephy, I want to help you and I don't know how," Chris said, running his hands through his hair. "I just wish that I knew how to help you with this, you know that I want to help you right?"

"I know sweetie," she responded. "I don't know how you can help me."

"I want to though, I…you're having my baby and you should be happy, you shouldn't be upset and you shouldn't be throwing clothes around the room. You should be…I don't know, sitting in a rocking chair rubbing your stomach or something."

She looked over at him. "I don't think I'd be doing that even if my father cared about me."

"I think your father is going through a very late mid-life crisis. I mean, suddenly he has three grandchildren and maybe he can't deal with that," Chris tried to reason. "I mean, that is a big shift."

"Yeah, if it was that, don't you think he would be a little more sympathetic to my cause?" Stephanie asked. "He knows I'm pregnant, everyone knows I'm freaking pregnant, and everyone has been so nice to me, but my father, one of the ones who should care a little bit more than the rest, well he doesn't seem to give a rat's ass about it."

Chris was about to answer when he saw Stephanie starting to sob. It hurt his heart, seeing her like this. It really physically hurt him. He walked over slowly, climbing onto the bed and laying next to her. He leaned over so her was hovering over her slightly and brushed her hair back and around her ear. He did this a few times, just caressing her face slowly, over and over again. She looked up at him, her eyes clear from her tears, making them a bluer shade of grey.

"Tell me what I can do," he said quietly. "I don't want to see you like this."

"I don't know what TO do," she told him, and she bit her lip a little before more tears started to escape from her eyes. "I knew what to do when he was having an affair with Trish, and I knew what to do when he was seeing Sable, and I knew what to do during the Invasion, but here, now, carrying Sawyer, I don't know what to do."

Chris leaned down to kiss her, a soft kiss that just told her how much he loved her, and how much he would always love her. He didn't want things to be like this, not like this at all. His hand trailed down to her stomach and he rubbed it comfortingly. He felt the occasional kick from Sawyer whenever his hand moved over a specific spot and he eventually kept his hand there to feel his son kicking.

"How long has he been going?"

"Ever since I went on my tirade, I think he's trying to tell me to calm the hell down," Stephanie laughed through her tears. "He's probably all mad because I'm getting all mad and it's making him uncomfortable."

"Sawyer, Mommy's sorry, but you'll get used to it," Chris told her stomach. Stephanie let out a particularly loud sob and Chris went up and looked down at her worriedly. "Steph, what's wrong?"

"I'm so jealous of him!" Stephanie said loudly.

"Of who?"

"Of Sawyer, I'm so damn pathetic, I'm jealous of a nothing year old, he's not even born and I'm jealous of him," Stephanie said, covering her face and turning on her side away from Chris.

"You're jealous of him…because…"

"You're going to be a great dad, and Sawyer is going to get such a great dad, and I get…a horrible father, and I'm jealous of my own son," Stephanie said brokenly, hating that she was jealous of her unborn child. Chris scooted closer to her and wrapped his arm around her from behind, spooning her body and tangling their legs together. He leaned his head next to hers and pressed his cheek against the side of her head.

"Shh, you have me baby, shh."

He clasped Stephanie's hand in his and laced their fingers together. He rubbed her knuckles with his thumb for a few moments and then brought their hands down to her stomach and just kept them there. Chris would whisper soothing words into Stephanie's ear and he heard her breaths even out and her grip on his hand loosened and he realized she was asleep. He gently pulled away from her and got off the bed.

He had things he needed to take care of.

Edge watched as Lita walked out in her shirt. Now that he had come to see that he did care about Lita, he found some of her attire a bit racier than he would like. He looked at the shirt she was wearing right now and it left little to the imagination. He contemplated telling her, but they still hadn't exactly defined their relationship.

"That's what you're wearing?"

"Yeah," Lita said. "You picked this out Edge."

"Oh yeah…what was I thinking?"

"You liked it."

"Your whole chest is practically popping out."

"You never had a problem with that before."

"Ok, fine, go out there, I want you to look beautiful."

"Well thank you," Lita said. "So…um…you think Mick showed?"

"I hope so. I want to tell him just what I think of him," Edge said with…well an edge to his voice. "I mean, I have to act like a jerk to get that match, I have to act like the biggest asshole on the planet to get that match."

"You'll get it and you'll show him that you should've won that match. And you'll get your title shot again. And you'll be the champion again."

"Do you really think so?" Edge asked. "I only had it for like a couple of weeks. I mean, that's like nothing."

"Kane only had it for one day," she shrugged. "You'll get another chance."

She came over and straddled his lap and he was kind of glad she was wearing the blouse she was wearing right now. But she was his…girlfriend and he was allowed to look at everything she had to offer. But others weren't. When did he start to become overprotective? It was strange, this caring thing. Was this how Christian felt about Trish, or how Chris felt about Stephanie? Was he really starting to care about Lita? And what about love? Would he start to love her? What if he already did love her? Wouldn't he know though, if he did? Yeah, he would probably know if he loved her.

He let her kiss him, and he fell into it, erasing his minds of all the things that he had just been thinking. He and Lita were having fun and they would leave it at that. When the time came for them to really evaluate their relationship, well, he'd deal with it then, but right now, he was all for living in the moment and not for any other time.

Mickie James was living for the moment too. She was so happy that Ashley had injured herself. She had finally gotten that bitch out of her way and now she was free to be Trish's best friend. She knew that Trish was friends with Stephanie McMahon, but Stephanie McMahon was pregnant and there was no way that they could hang out or anything like that. So that left Mickie and there was no way that Trish could avoid her anymore.

She hadn't planned on Ashley getting hurt, but the timing for it had been so incredibly perfect. Mickie hated that blonde bitch, trying to steal Trish away from her. She was Trish's #1 fan, and she had to go to great lengths to prove it. She would continue to prove it and there would be no way for Trish to avoid her. She had made damn sure of that. Right now she was waiting for Trish to show up for the show. She was sitting by the door, anxiously awaiting her arrival.

She saw Trish walking through the door, and Mickie jumped out of the chair she had been sitting in and ran over to Trish's side. Trish was taken aback by Mickie's sudden appearance and she jumped slightly. Mickie just greeted this with a large and kind of frightening smile.

"Oh, hey Mickie."

"Did you hear about Ashley?" Mickie said immediately.

"Um yeah, I live with her boyfriend, I heard first-hand," Trish said.

"Yeah, so she's out of here for a couple months huh?" Mickie said.

"Yeah, that's what Kurt told me when I talked to him. It sucks," Trish said, continuing to walk to her locker room."

"Yeah, it does," Mickie said quite insincerely.

"I talked to her though, she seems to be doing okay."

"You talked to her?" Mickie asked. Mickie didn't even have Trish's phone number and Ashley had her phone number?

"Yeah," Trish answered, not thinking anything of it. She found her locker room. "If you'll excuse me Mickie, I've got some things to do."

"Oh of course," Mickie said, watching as Trish walked into her locker room. As soon as the door shut, Mickie scowled. She did NOT like the idea of Ashley having her phone number and her not having it. She was Trish's biggest fan, her biggest supporter and she should be the one to have Trish's phone number.

Shane felt uneasy being there and Stephanie not being there. He knew that his father had called Stephanie and told her not to come. That was mainly because Vince was having his "Kiss My Ass Club," thing tonight and Vince knew how much Stephanie was hating him right now and he didn't need her bugging him the entire night. Shane was feeling a little bad for that now.

Stephanie had flown all the way here and she was more than seven months pregnant. Shane hated to admit this, but Stephanie was actually a little bit right. He had never been his father's favorite, that had been Stephanie from the moment that she was born. She was Daddy's Little Girl and nobody ever let him forget it. After the whole thing with him marrying Marissa, he had just wanted his father not to hate him again, and when Stephanie had told Vince that he would have no contact with his grandson, Shane, being the opportunistic person that he was, had jumped on the chance to become his father's favorite.

Was it wrong of him to turn on his own sister? Yeah, it was, and he felt guilty for it. Even Marissa had told him that what he was doing was messed up, but Shane just wanted to bridge that gap with his father. He had NEVER been his father's favorite and just this once, he wanted to know what it was like. He wanted to know what it felt like to make his father proud. Little did he know that his father wasn't as proud of him as he was using him to make himself feel better.

Shane desperately wanted to call Stephanie, but she had been all but ignoring him as of late. He didn't blame her, but he missed his sister. Hadn't it been not that long ago that she had said it was them against the world? That's how it had been growing up, them against the world, and he would protect her from everything. Maybe her being away tonight would protect her.

"Are you prepared for tonight Shane?"

"Yeah Dad, whatever you need me to do," Shane told his father. Yeah, he was selling out, and he was sending his sister down the river without a paddle so to speak, but Shane had to look out for himself once in a while.

That was until the door burst open and Chris walked purposefully up to Vince and shoved the man…hard. Shane stood up immediately and Chris turned to him. "This isn't about you Shane, I suggest you leave."

"Chris, what the hell is going on?" Shane asked.

"You want to know what the hell is going on? I've got my pregnant wife crying in a hotel room is what's wrong," Chris said angrily. "I've got a selfish, egotistical father-in-law who makes my wife cry! That's what's wrong Shane, so I suggest you get the hell out of here."

"Chris, stop," Shane said.

"Or what? You gonna fire me?" Chris challenged, then scoffed. "You guys can't fire me. I took a leave of absence, I'm not on an active contract, oh and did I mention that I do technically own part of this company, I'm on even keel with the both of you, so you're going to hear me out."

"Stephanie agreed to not be here tonight," Vince said, straightening his collar.

Chris shook his head. "What is it with you Vince? Huh? Is there something wrong with you? I just don't get it."

"I think you should leave Chris, you're not being rational," Vince told him sternly.

"And having some guy kiss your ass is just all kinds of logical," Chris guffawed. "Wow, where have I been?"

"Chris, what I do in my ring is none of your business."

"Oh, but it IS my business now Vince," Chris said. "You see, five, six years ago, I could've cared less what you did, or who kissed your ass. But I care now. I married your daughter, and I knew what I was getting into. I knew the kind of family I was marrying into, and I thought I could deal with it…but I can't deal with this. My wife is giving birth in nine weeks. I will have a son in nine weeks. That's pretty amazing huh?"

"What has that got to do with this?"

"Stephanie should be happy and resting and not stressed out and you are stressing her out, and I'm sick and tired of it. I'm sick and tired of you and your head games. You don't want Stephanie to work the production so you give her piles of meaningless paperwork, you don't want her to be here tonight so you send her home. Have you ever even thought of your daughter's feelings?"

"I think about her feelings all the time," Vince protested. "I protected her!"

"When Vince? When have you ever protected Stephanie? When she was younger, you wanted her to seal the deal with people, using her as a pawn. You let her stay married to Hunter, you cheated on Linda in front of her, and you didn't care, you didn't notice anything. I don't know what it's gonna take to get it through your thick skull that Stephanie deserves better."

"Don't tell me how to treat my children."

"When one of your children is the woman I love, you better believe I'm going to get involved. And you Shane? I can't believe you would do this to your own sister."

"Now wait a minute Chris," Shane said, trying to come to his own defense.

"The both of you should be ashamed of yourselves," Chris said, shaking his head. "You're both adults, you both should know better. Especially you Shane, I expected better from you and so did Steph."

"Look, you don't know--"

"I don't…well I do know that my wife was sobbing earlier. I do know that she was throwing things around our suite. I know that she's cried herself to sleep on more than one occasion this week thinking about what you've done to her. I know that she blames herself for a lot of things she shouldn't be blaming herself for. That's all, that's all I know, not much huh? Oh wait, no, it's a hell of a lot when I think about it. And you know how that makes me feel, it makes me so damn mad I don't know what to do with myself."

"Well then calm the hell down," Vince told him.

Chris grabbed Vince by the collar and glared at him. "Don't you even tell me what to do right now Vince, so help me God I am ready to pound you into the ground. If you don't get your head out of your ass and realize what you're doing to Stephanie, you will lose her and you will lose her forever."

"Get your hands off of me," Vince said through gritted teeth.

"Or what? You don't have anything on me Vince and you know it," Chris said, shoving him away. "Consider that your warning. I will not have my wife crying her eyes out because of YOU. I will not let you hurt her anymore, I'm sick and tired of it."

Chris stormed out of the room, fearing that if he stayed in there any longer he would totally blow up and punch Vince. He was probably the only one who could get away with punching Vince right now. There wasn't anything Vince could do anyways. He wasn't contractually obligated to be someone here, and he was Vince's son-in-law. He walked down the hallway when he felt a hand on his arm. He turned and saw a concerned-looking Shane behind him.

"What the hell do you want?" Chris asked.

"She was crying?" Shane asked him.

Chris nodded. "Yeah, she was, what's it to you?"

Shane looked down remorsefully. "I didn't want her to cry. I really didn't want to upset her."

"And you taking your father's side wasn't going to hurt her. She was counting on you Shane and you let her down. Look, I'm not that mad at you, but your father can kiss my ass for all I care. I don't want him around Stephanie."

"He's her father."

"Some father he's been. You don't have to be around her, and I don't like seeing my wife upset. How would you feel if Marissa were in the same situation?"

"I get it," he said. "I didn't want it to be like this. I just…you don't understand Chris."

"Obviously not," Chris said. "Look, if you care anything about your sister, keep your father as far away from her as possible. I'm not just worried about her, but I'm worried about Sawyer too. If Stephanie gets too stressed, something could happen to our son, and that's the last thing I want."

"I don't want anything to happen to my nephew either."

"Good, then please, just help us out with this."

"I will," Shane said. "Um…make sure she's not watching later okay?"

"Why?"

"Just make sure."

"Sure."

Mickie was going to show Trish just how much she cared about her and how much she idolized her. Mickie thought Trish was the salt of the earth, the best thing to ever walk this hallowed ground. If Mickie could petition Trish for the Hall of Fame right now, she would absolutely start one and be the first signature. She just admired Trish so much and Trish's accomplishments were so great and numerous she wanted the world to share in her opinion.

Trish was uneasy with all the attention that Mickie was always giving her. At least while Ashley was here she didn't have to spend so much time with Mickie, but Ashley was going to be gone for a few months, maybe more, hopefully less. She and Ashley could both fend off Mickie, but she couldn't do it alone.

After her match, which she naturally won, she saw Mickie bowing down before her. Trish didn't know how she managed to do it, but she made even that look somehow vulgar. Trish kept telling her to stop, but Mickie was having none of that, just bowing over and over and over again. Trish was growing impatient and then Mickie threw her arms around her, burying her face into her pants. Trish pushed her away, disgusted. She didn't know if Mickie wanted her in that way, but Trish certainly did not want her in that way. She backed up the ramp, watching to make sure that Mickie didn't come after her. If Mickie came after her, she was going to run up the ramp and to her dressing room and lock the door and not come out until the show was over.

She saw Edge backstage and gestured towards the monitor. "Did you see that?"

"Yeah, she's…odd."

Trish shuddered. "I cannot stand her. Oh…hi Lita."

Lita stepped away from Edge, showing herself. "Trish."

"I'll be going now."

"Hey, you guys…are you ever going to get over whatever went down between you?" Edge asked.

"There's nothing to get over," Trish said calmly, eerie in her tone. "Nothing…I'll see you guys later…oh, Edge, if you could…um, tell Christian congratulations on the title. I'm really proud of him."

"I'm not exactly speaking to him right now," Edge told her.

"Did you have a fight?"

"Yeah…about you."

"Me?" Trish asked, surprised. "What about me?"

"He's a stupid jerk Trish," Edge said. "And this is coming from a real jerk. I just can't stand what he's doing to you, what he did to you. I guess it took me realizing what I had with Lita to see that you really, really don't deserve to be treated like this."

"Don't feel sorry for me Edge."

"I don't, I'm just pissed at my brother."

"He had his reasons…he had to have had his reasons," she said, as much as it pained her to say it. "I don't know what they are, but he had them. I'm just…I'm glad he's striving over there, even though I miss him."

"Trish, do you want his number?" Edge asked outright.

"No," she said immediately. "He chose to leave…I can't drag him back."

"But maybe you can just talk to him."

"Talking would be equally as hard knowing that I can't have him," Trish said and she looked down. "Hey Lita…word of advice?"

"What?"

"Keep onto this one," Trish said, patting Edge's chest. "Hold on tight."

Edge watched her walk away and he saw what a number his brother did on Trish. Even if he hated Lita and was just messing around with her for the sex, he would never leave her with a note and an empty house. Christian and Trish had been seeing each other for three years and he had just left her like that. He wondered what the hell had happened.

Mickie came backstage, immediately looking for Trish.

Chris headed back to the hotel and found that Stephanie was still asleep on the bed. He went over and kissed her forehead, wondering if she had woken up while he was one. He looked at the clock and saw that it was nearing eleven, and decided to just let her sleep. He took her shoes off and then proceeded to undress her and put her in her pajamas. She moaned and opened her eyes.

"Chris, what are you doing?" she asked sleepily.

"Just undressing you and putting your pajamas on."

"I can take care of that," she said, "Did you go somewhere? I felt you get off the bed."

"I had some things I needed to take care of is all," Chris said. "Nothing major."

"Oh…is the show still on?"

"Steph, I don't think we want to watch," he said, remembering Shane's warning.

"Why not?" she asked, grabbing the remote control. "I just want to see what's going on, that's not a crime."

"Come on," he said. "How about I give you a massage before you go to bed? That'll help your back."

"Chris, why won't you let me watch the show," she said, turning on the television. She flipped through the channels and finally found USA. She focused her eyes on the television and promptly screamed. "What the hell!"

She averted her eyes and Chris grabbed the remote and turned off the television. "Yeah, that was disturbing."

"I thought he would do that earlier in the show," she said, making gagging noises. "My father is a jerk. I cannot stand him."

"I took care of it baby."

"Took care of it?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah, don't worry any more about it. It's taken care of."

"How did you take care of…the business you had, the reason you left…Chris what did you do?"

"I just warned your father that he needed to stay away from you and I didn't like how he was stressing you out…Steph, it's like this. I'm worried about you and I'm worried about Sawyer. I don't want anything to happen to the either of you. I love you both more than myself, and that's a lot."

"It is, you really do love yourself."

"Yeah, I mean, when you look like me and you have as much all-around talent as I do, and you're charming like me…"

"Okay, we're getting off track here," Stephanie said.

"Oh yeah, well, I want to make the next nine weeks good for you because I don't want our son coming out angry at the world."

Stephanie laughed softly. "I agree, thank you for sticking up for me."

"Thank you for carrying my son."

"It's my pleasure," she told him as she leaned over to kiss him.

Trish was just getting back to her hotel room when her phone rang. She dropped her things and went to her bag, grabbing her phone and looking at the display. It said "Private Number," and she groaned until she realized that it could just be Kurt calling from Ashley's house, where'd he'd been staying with her for the time being.

"Kurt, is that you?"

"Um…no."

Trish would recognize that voice anywhere. "Christian…"

"Hey Trish."

She fought the urge to hang up. "What are you doing calling me?"

"I just…um…Edge called me."

"He said he wasn't going to."

"He did, he sent your congratulations along."

"Oh."

"Thanks. I never would've gotten as far as I did without you. You kept pushing me and believing in me. Trish, you're the reason that I'm who I am."

"Why are you telling me these things?" Trish said, tears in her eyes. "Why are you calling me now?"

"I just…I couldn't do this title thing without acknowledging the woman who was the driving force behind it."

"Christian, stop it," Trish said, her voice flat. "You left me. You left me like I was some whore. You might as well have just left money on the counter for me to complete the transaction. What makes you think that I believe any word you say right now?"

"Trish…it was for the best."

"Don't you tell me what was for the best," Trish said, her voice sharp. "You left with nothing. Nothing! I can't believe you did that to me! After I loved you."

"Loved?" he asked.

"Don't try to make me analyze my word choice. Look, you left, and that's it, that's all she wrote, I didn't ask you to call."

"I know, I just needed you to know."

"Well fine, I know then."

"Trish…"

"You blew it Chrissy, you blew it."

She hung up before he could answer.