"So you guys aren't too mad at me
are you?" Shane asked, as the long black limousine made it's way to the
Smackdown arena in New York City.
Stephanie looked up from the WWF
magazine she was reading and gave Shane a look, the truth was she wasn't
really that mad at Shane. In the beginning she had been extremely upset,
Shane had set her up and she didn't like being kept out of the light on
things... but then afterall it was Shane's secretive match-making plan
that got her and Andrew under that mistletoe which led to the kiss... and
just thinking of that kiss between her and Andrew made her happy, and she
couldn't be mad at the man who got her and Andrew back together.
Stephanie smiled to herself, as she
remembered Christmas night, right after the mistletoe kiss; Stephanie had
told Andrew that she didn't want to spend one Christmas without Andrew
by her side, and that had re-started their relationship. Christmas had
been great, but what surprised Stephanie the most was when Vince and Linda
danced, that one moment had proven to Stephanie that anything was possible.
"No not too mad, how about you Andrew?"
Stephanie asked, turning to Andrew who was sitting down next to her.
Andrew smirked, shaking his head.
At first he had been a little upset because Shane had set him and Stephanie
up, but then Andrew's anger for Shane had died down once he realized that
him and Stephanie re-starting their relationship wouldn't have been possible
if it wasn't for Shane's match-making.
"Nah, you're lucky me and your sis
don't hold a grudge." Andrew said, turning on the small television, an
array of images from a Big Show/Rikishi match flew across the screen.
Shane sighed relieved. "Well like
I said, you guys should be thanking me..."
Stephanie shook her head. "Don't
go that far Shane... you stuck your nose where it didn't belong, you lied
to me and Andrew, and you put us in a very uncomfortable situation... there
is no reason for us to be thanking, just thankfully we knew when to take
advantage of the situation." Stephanie grinned.
Andrew grinned, not tearing his eyes
away from the screen, he scrunched up his nose when Big Show received a
stinky face from Rikishi. "I don't like Big Show or anything, but the stinky
face isn't even a sanctioned move!" Andrew replied, rolling his eyes.
Stephanie laughed. "Now you sound
like Kurt. Hey believe me, I know that the stinky face isn't an actual
move, it's just something that embarrasses you."
Shane shook his head. "It's awful."
Andrew grinned, turning off the television,
he turned to Stephanie and Shane and smiled. "So what was up with Vince
and Linda at Christmas?"
Shane threw his hands up in the air,
shrugging. "Oh man, hell if I know! They were dancing, my parents whom
hate each other, were dancing."
Stephanie smiled. "I think it's sweet."
"You would." Shane said, rolling
his eyes.
"What?" Stephanie asked innocently.
"Haven't you ever heard of that some loves die hard? That some loves are
never forgotten?" Stephanie looked at Shane.
"I can attest to that." Andrew said,
draping his arm around Stephanie's neck.
Shane scrunched up his nose. "Okay
don't do that in front of me okay? I'm the older brother, I don't like
seeing my sister and her boyfriend doing their mushy love moments, it's
disgusting."
Stephanie and Andrew grinned. "Payback
Shane." Stephanie and Andrew said in unison.
Shane fake groaned loudly, glaring
at Stephanie Andrew, pretending to be annoyed. But truthfully, he was feeling
pretty damn good; Stephanie and Andrew were together, his mom and dad were
actually getting along, WCW was moving along nicely, and soon his and Matt's
plan of revenge on Hunter would be in action. Things were going good, and
once they got to the arena Shane and Matt would fill Andrew in on the plan,
and Hunter would learn not to attack women, especially Stephanie and in
the past Lita.
"You two are sickening." Shane said,
smirking.
Stephanie shook her head, grinning
at Shane. "Just because Marissa isn't here doesn't mean you can ruin our
fun, plus you know you are secretly patting yourself on the back for getting
me and Andrew back together."
Shane nodded. "It was all me, if
it wasn't for me, you and Andrew would be mad at each other for no reason
and avoiding each other like the plague."
Andrew rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't
go that far."
Shane crossed his arms across his
chest, a smug look on his face. "So if I hadn't invited you to Christmas,
you think you would have been able to go to my house and give my sister
the locket that said that you loved her? And if you have never been able
to give that gift to Stephanie, you two would have never made up."
Stephanie bit down on her bottom
lip lightly. "I hate to say this, but he's right."
Shane laughed. "Oh that has to hurt
Andrew." Shane grinned.
[ Smackdown Arena - Madison Square
Garden, New York ]
"I'm going to find Lita, so I'll
hook up with you two later?" Stephanie asked Shane and Andrew as they walked
into the building of the Smackdown arena.
Shane nodded. "Sure Steph, plus me
and Andrew need to have a talk."
Andrew stared at Shane oddly but
then turned to Stephanie. "Be careful, I don't know if Hunter is back or
not, and I don't want you running into him."
"I'll be careful," Stephanie said,
kissing Andrew on the lips quickly. "You two have fun with your manly talk,
you know the whole macho thing." Stephanie grinned and walked off.
----
Andrew watched Stephanie walk off,
he kept his eyes on the back of her body until she was completely out of
his view. Truth be told Andrew didn't trust Stephanie to be walking around
the halls of the WWF by herself, things were still too risky; Hunter should
be back by now, and if she just happened to bump into him when none of
her friends were around, who knows what could happen? Andrew already almost
had Stephanie get hurt real badly by Hunter, he didn't want it to happen
again.
"She'll be alright." Shane said,
he looked up and smiled when he saw Matt walking over to them. "Look me
and Matt need to talk to you, and believe me you will want to be a part
of this conversation." Shane replied.
Andrew looked up and stared back
and forth between Shane and Matt who had confident looks on their faces.
"Okay this doesn't sound good... what's up?"
Matt pushed his hair back. "Okay,
we're sick of Hunter pushing people around, for one a few months back he
had hurt Lita real bad and then right before Christmas he attacked Stephanie,
we need to take Hunter down."
Shane nodded. "We can't keep letting
Hunter get away with hurting the people we love."
Andrew nodded, crossing his arms
across his chest. "But how do you presume we go along taking down Helmsley?
Let's remember this is the intercontinental champion, last time someone
tried to take him down he almost broke Kane's arm."
Matt nodded. "See that is where part
A of our plan comes into action. Kane won that intercontinental championship
belt fair and square at Judgment Day in that chain match, but then Hunter
and Steve cheated Kane out of it, which makes Kane an ally to us, and Mark
too... Mark wants revenge on Helmsley. We don't need to worry about Steve,
Steve is with Vince, doing the hugging thing."
Shane scrunched up his nose. "Let's
not bring that up. Well anyways, Hunter doesn't deserve that belt, so the
first part of our plan is to make sure he loses the belt."
"How do we do that? No one can beat
him." Andrew said, sounding skeptical.
Matt shook his head. "Kane can beat
him, Kane has done it before, he just keeps getting cheated out of the
belt. But see with Mark and us in Kane's corner, there is no way Kane can
lose."
"But afterwards?" Andrew asked.
"Then plan B will come into action,
he loses the belt, he's down in the dumps, and we continue to stab the
knife in deeper." Shane replied.
"And how do we do that?" Andrew asked,
as him, Shane and Matt started walking.
"In all time Andrew, but one thing
is clear... we can NOT tell Lita or Stephanie about this." Shane replied,
with a serious look in his eyes.
"We don't want to endanger them."
Matt said, adding to Shane's earlier comment.
Andrew nodded slowly, he didn't like
the idea of lying to Stephanie, but if keeping her out of the light on
this plan would keep her safe, then he would have to lie. Andrew's main
priority right now was to keep Stephanie safe, now that he had gotten her
back, there was no way he could let her get hurt again. "Okay."
----
Stephanie turned around the corner,
the corners of her mouth twitching in a smile, today was going so good,
things were finally going great, and to top things off she had her first
real girlfriend, her and Lita before Christmas had done some real bonding.
"Oh!" Stephanie squeaked out when
her body plowed into another body, a male body, big and rough. "Sorry."
Stephanie muttered pushing herself up, she hadn't looked the person in
the eyes yet, she was too busy dusting off her clothes.
"Well hey Stephanie." Hunter said,
grinning evilly at Stephanie, as he watched her dust herself off.
Stephanie stopped messing with her
pants when she easily recognized the voice as Hunter's; Stephanie looked
up and swallowed when she found herself eye to eye with Hunter, which was
not where she wanted to be. Stephanie backed up but Hunter followed her,
Stephanie looked around, trying to find someone she knew that would help
her, but everyone was still probably on their way back to the arena from
Christmas. "Hunter..." Stephanie said softly, putting her hands up.
"I just got done talking to Regal,
he has me fighting Big Show tonight in a no-holds-barred match, obviously
he thinks I should get punished for my behavior towards you on the last
Smackdown." Hunter growled out.
"I-I had no idea." Stephanie stuttered.
"Sure you didn't, don't lie to me,
I bet you ran to daddy and demanded that I get my ass kicked." Hunter snapped.
"I didn't, but you should of thought
of the consequences of your actions, before you decided to attack me on
Smackdown, you can't get away with everything you know." Stephanie said,
gathering a little courage.
Hunter smirked. "Oh, now you're suddenly
miss self righteous? What your shit doesn't stink anymore?"
"Not as bad as yours!" Stephanie
said, raising her voice.
Hunter crossed his arms across his
chest, an amused grin on his face. "Well excuse me, I forgot who I was
talking to... you're miss McMahon, daddy's little girl, the billion dollar
princess..."
"And a human being!" Stephanie cut
Hunter off. "I'm not scared of you, I'm not just going to stand you disrespecting
me and the rest of the people in this federation, you're not the most important
person in the WWF you know, and if I wanted you gone, I could have that
done."
Hunter pushed Stephanie against the
wall forcefully. "Don't threaten me."
"Or what?" Stephanie asked, trying
to escape out of Hunter's stare and his forceful hand, which was on her
shoulder, pushing her back into the wall.
"Or what?" Hunter echoed, he grabbed
Stephanie's arm roughly. "Who do you think you are? Do you see Andrew or
big brother Shane around huh? They can't protect you, if they don't know
where you are! Where's Benoit and your buddies The Hardy Boyz? They're
nowhere around, so don't start demanding things of me, because they won't
be able to help you when I decide that I have had enough of your shit."
Stephanie tried to escape Hunter's
hurtful grasp, but it was too strong. "Let me go!"
Hunter shook his head. "No, what
are you going to do about it?"
"Let her go Helmsley." Chyna's voice
demanded.
Hunter turned away from Stephanie
but kept his grasp on her, he chuckled when he saw Chyna. "Oh wow, wonder
woman come to save the day? Leave us alone, this is between me and Stephanie."
Chyna looked over at Stephanie who
was almost to tears from the pain of Hunter's grasp. "Not anymore."
Before Hunter could say a word, Chyna
kicked him in the gut making him release his grasp on Stephanie; Chyna
threw him across the wall and proceeded to deliver kicks to his lower abdomen.
Once Hunter looked like he was passed out from the pain of the hits and
kicks from Chyna, she turned to Stephanie.
"Are you okay?" Chyna asked, for
once all her anger at Stephanie gone. Because right now all she could see
was a scared young woman that needed help; Sure Chyna had hated Stephanie
before, but Chyna had also seen the way Hunter was treating Stephanie as
of late, ever since the split, and it reminded her of what happened between
her and Eddie, and she swore to herself that she would never let a woman
go through something like that alone, even if the woman was Stephanie McMahon.
Stephanie opened her mouth, but she
gasped when she saw Hunter push himself up. "Chyna!" Stephanie screamed,
giving Chyna a warning.
Chyna went to turn around but she
was kicked in the back and then she was pushed, Chyna landed against Stephanie,
Chyna groaned as they both fell to the ground.
"You two little---" Hunter started
to say but before he could finish he was picked up from the behind and
given a back breaker by someone he couldn't recognize yet.
"Didn't your mother ever tell you
to treat women with respect?" Chris Jericho asked grinning, as he performed
the walls of Jericho on Hunter.
Chyna pushed herself up, she helped
Stephanie up and then a smile came across Chyna's face when she was it
was Chris Jericho who had came to her and Stephanie's rescue. "Are you
okay?" Chyna asked Stephanie again.
Stephanie nodded, holding her head;
She smirked when she saw the look on Chyna's face when Chyna realized it
was Jericho who had come to their rescue. "Fitting huh?" Stephanie whispered
to Chyna, indicating to Jericho.
Chyna looked at Stephanie and smiled.
"Yeah the fleeting hero..." Chyna said sarcastically. "Are you sure you're
okay? You really look flushed, did he hurt you?"
Stephanie looked at Chyna shaking
her head. "No not physically, maybe emotional, but he's great at doing
that."
Chyna nodded. "I've been there."
"Yes, you have." Stephanie said,
finally realizing who she was really talking to. "I'm sorry." Stephanie
said quietly.
Chyna stared seriously at Stephanie.
"You know what? I think you really mean that."
"I do." Stephanie said seriously,
staring into Chyna's eyes. "I mean it with all my heart. Look you have
no reason to believe me, to believe that I have changed... because me and
Hunter, we hurt you bad. But I'm done with being the bitch, I seriously
want nothing to do with him anymore, I was going to see Lita, when I bumped
into him."
Chyna nodded. "I saw. I was walking
in, I saw him push you into the wall and then grab you, I believe you Stephanie.
I shouldn't, considering what you have done to me in the past, but I believe
you."
"That means a lot to me, you know?"
Stephanie smiled.
"Well leopards can change their spots."
Chyna said simply.
Stephanie nodded. "So what about
him?" Stephanie pointed to Jericho who had just got down throwing Hunter
into a wall.
Chyna stared at Jericho, her eyes
sparkling for a second as she watched Jericho beat Hunter up. "What about
him?"
"What's the verdict? You still love
him or not?" Stephanie asked, smiling.
"The first one." Chyna said, she
wiped the smile off of her face as Jericho walked over to them.
"Are you girls okay?" Jericho asked,
rubbing hands against his pants.
"Fine." Stephanie and Chyna said
in unison.
[ The Hardy Boyz locker-room ]
"I can't believe this bullshit!"
Andrew's voice boomed, his eyebrows were knitted in anger, his face red.
Andrew had just gotten the call from
Jericho that Stephanie and Chyna had been attacked by Hunter, and to say
the least Andrew was pissed. He had the feeling that Hunter would do something
like this, but when he had gotten the call from Jericho, he had been surprised
that the attacks were happening so soon.
"If it wasn't for Chyna and Jericho,
Stephanie could have been hurt! Hunter's at it again, and now he has added
Chyna to his list of people to attack! We got to bring this plan into action
now!" Andrew screamed.
Matt nodded. "We will. Tonight Kane
fights Hunter for his belt, which will be the first part of our plan to
bring Hunter down."
Jeff nodded as well. "We just got
to keep calm, right Shane?"
Shane kicked a table, sending it
flying across the locker-room. "Stay calm? Stay calm!? I'm sorry that seems
a little impossible when the man is attacking my sister and her friends,
or whatever Chyna is to Stephanie! The asshole is treading on some seriously
thin ice here, and I will NOT be calm!"
Jeff shook his head. "Look we are
SO close to bringing Hunter down with a bang, we just got to keep calm,
and make sure the girls don't know about our plans."
Matt nodded. "Exactly. There is NO
way we can let Lita, Stephanie or recently now Chyna find out what the
plans are for tonight."
Lita shut the locker-room door to
Matt and Jeff's locker-room quietly, so they wouldn't know that she along
with Chyna and Stephanie were listening to their conversation. Lita tip-toed
off, motioning for Chyna and Stephanie to follow her.
"I can't believe they didn't tell
us!" Stephanie said, once they were far away from the the locker-room.
Lita shook her head. "Typical of
them, they don't think we can handle ourselves, they think their jobs as
the men is to keep us safe, to put a security blanket around us and make
sure we don't get hurt."
Chyna rolled her eyes. "Men. They
think that us little women can't protect ourselves." Chyna said in disgust.
Stephanie sighed. "They underestimate
us."
Lita suddenly grinned. "Steph is
right."
"I am?" Stephanie asked confused.
Lita nodded. "She is! They underestimate
us, so they would never see us coming! We can form our own plan to take
Hunter down, which would probably be more thought out and more sneaky then
theirs."
Chyna smiled, nodding. "But Kane
is already supposed to fight Hunter tonight."
Stephanie coughed. "Unless someone
stops him, that someone could be me, I could talk to Kane."
Lita stared at Stephanie uncertain.
"But wouldn't that be awkward? Considering the whole Undertaker kidnapping
you and trying to marry you thing in 1999?"
Chyna nodded. "Yeah Stephanie, if
anyone should talk to them, it should be me or Lita."
Stephanie shook her head. "No, they
won't do what you ask them, but if I go to them, they might actually listen
to me."
Lita shrugged. "I still don't think
so, Kane and The Undertaker don't exactly respect you."
Stephanie nodded. "But, I have guilt
hanging over their heads. Mark seems to be a changed man ever since he
formed a team with his brother, if I bring up the whole kidnapping thing,
he'll at least hear me out, that is the least he could do for me."
Chyna smiled. "She's right."
Lita slapped Stephanie on the back.
"Do it girl. I'll go talk to some more people, maybe Molly Holly and Spike
will help us out."
Chyna nodded. "I'll talk to Jericho."
Stephanie and Lita grinned. "Jericho
huh?" Stephanie and Lita said in unison.
"Oh shut up." Chyna said walking
off.
Stephanie smiled. "Okay here I go,
about to face an old ghost."
Lita hugged Stephanie. "Good luck."
