chapter 17 [ Smackdown arena ]

Shane walked into the Smackdown arena, out of his usual business clothes, he was wearing a "Shane-O-Mac" jersey and black pants, his purple tainted sunglasses were resting on the bridge of his nose comfortably. Shane looked down at his watch, and sighed, he was late for meeting Stephanie and Andrew for lunch, he was supposed to pick them up 10 minutes ago.

Shane had invited to take Andrew and Stephanie out to lunch to celbrate Andrew's win over Hunter at RAW, Shane had unfortunately not been there, but he had seen the tape the following day and Andrew had dominated the match, with just a little help from Stephanie. Shane smirked, as he remembered watching Stephanie slide into the ring and slapping Hunter as hard as she could and then sliding out of the ring before the referee counting it as a disqualifaction, Hunter had been too busy trying to reach Stephanie that he was taken surprise when Andrew had grabbed him from the behind and pinned him for the 3 count.

Shane smiled, Andrew had gotten a little revenge that night on RAW, Hunter had gotten exactly what he deserved. Hunter wasn't playing fair, Hunter was sending his damn lackeys after them instead of fighting them on his own, Hunter only fought when he knew he could get the advantage, and when he usually did fight he was always trying to hurt Stephane, yeah Hunter deserved everything he got on RAW and more.

"Hey Shane-O-Mac!"

Shane turned around when he heard a person call him, but before he could reply he was thrown against the wall hard; Shane slid down to the wall trying to catch his breath but before he could, he was picked back up and slammed against the wall again but even harder this time. Once Shane fell down to the floor he kicked DDP in the face, gaining some time to get his strength back. Shane pushed himself up and speared DDP, throwing DDP to the ground as hard as he could.

"Bastard." Shane muttered, walking off, actually limping off.

DDP pushed himself up, holding his ribs, he took in a deep breath and ran after Shane, and gave him the 'diamond cutter'. DDP smiled as he saw Shane fall to the ground, DDP leaned over Shane's body. "You aren't so bad are you now mister WCW chairman?"

"Shane!" Stephanie said loudly, as she ran over to her brother's motionless body. "Stop it now!" Stephanie screamed, looking up at DDP, not daring to move away from Shane's body.

DDP stared at Stephanie with a smirk on his face, she had guts. "The princess of the WWF dare to challenege me? Ooh, I like challenges. You don't really think you would win right? I mean your dear older brother is passed out, although it would be nice to see his face when he realizes I gave his precious little sister the diamond cutter."

Stephanie looked up at DDP, her eyes now holding a look of fear in them, but still she stayed by Shane's side, a part of her told her to leave, but then the rest of her wouldn't dare leave Shane in this situation. "You better leave."

DDP grinned. "I love fiesty woman, you and Sara just make my day. You realize that you have no chance, if I attacked you, what are you going to do? Run to daddy? Please, heard you two were enemies. I could attack you and get away with it, or maybe I could video tape you, that could prove---"

Andrew came up behind Stephanie and gave DDP a big boot to the face before he could finish his sentence; Andrew looked down at Stephanie and shook his head, helping Shane up, who was slowly coming to. "You could have gotten yourself hurt, you know."

Stephanie wrapped her arms around Shane's middle, holding him up. "Then I'm glad, you Andrew Martin, my white knight in shining armor came to save me. Shane are you okay?"

Shane groaned, and held onto Stephanie. "DDP is going to pay, oh god he is going to pay."

[ Kurt's locker-room ]

Kurt sat in his locker-room with Edge, Christian, Rhyno and Justin Credible. Kurt was rubbing his head, while his eyes were lowered to the ground.

"I don't see why he's here." Rhyno grumbled pointing to Justin.

Kurt snapped his eyes up. "Stop it Rhyno, he's here because I want him to be, go gore someone."

Kurt was in a horrible mood, he had been attacked by X-Pac on the way to his locker-room which is why in 10 minutes he was going to be fighting X-Pac in a match tonight. Kurt rubbed his head some more, he already had a concussion, he shouldn't even be fighting, but he wasn't going to let X-Pac get away with attack him that way.

"Ahem..." Steve coughed, while knocking at the door.

Kurt looked up and smiled when he smiled when he saw Steve at the door. "Steve." Kurt got up and walked over to Steve and guided him in the locker-room, ignoring the looks on everybody's faces. "You're out of the hospital."

Steve nodded. "And I heard you're fighting X-Pac tonight."

Kurt nodded. "He attacked me on the way to my locker-room today, so I challenged him to a match, actually I should be going for my match right now."

Steve smirked. "Well luck," Steve looked over at Edge who was glaring at him. "Although I have a feeling you won't need it. I'll walk you." Steve leaned over and hugged Kurt, and then the two left the locker-room talking about something.

Edge turned to Christian with a shocked look on his face. "What the hell was that ... that hugging thing?"

Christian looked at Edge and shrugged. "You got me bro, maybe it was a good luck hug, you know hey good luck, let's hug!"

Steve rubbed his hands together as him and Kurt walked down the hall. "Hey you know I was thinking..."

Kurt looked at Steve. "Yeah, about?"

"The Dudley Boys being tag team champions. What makes them worthy enough to have that? So they put people through tables, big deal, I mean we deserve those belts more them." Steve said, stopping.

Kurt stared at Steve. "Are you suggesting we go for tag team gold?"

Steve nodded. "Hey your music is on, good luck, but like I said you won't need it, we'll talk about the tag team belts later." Steve pushed Kurt.

[ Abagail Johnson and Inc. - Main Office ]

Stephanie looked down at her shoes, her white tennis shoes, as she awaited Abagail Johnson, the lawyer that had dealed with her and Hunter's divorce, to call them in. Actually besides that, she had to wait for Hunter to show up, which was not something she wanted to do, but Abagail said that both her and Hunter had to be present during the finalization of the divorce, and if they both did not show up, it wouldn't be final.

"Calm down." Shane said, putting his arm around Stephanie's neck, in an attempt to calm down his little sister. He could see how nervous she was by just looking at her, her body language was screaming : "GET ME OUT OF HERE" and Shane wished he could make this situation easier on Stephanie, but pretty soon this whole thing would be over with.

"I can't." Stephanie said, letting her head relax onto Shane's shoulder. "I'm so nervous, tense, etc. First you nearly get a broken neck by DDP and now I have to go into that office and stand or sit by Hunter and wait for our marriage to be over."

Shane frowned at the mention of DDP's name, Shane brought his free hand up and rubbed his head. DDP was going to pay, Shane had put a match together for him and DDP, a street fight match, he was going to crush DDP. Shane shook his head, right now wasn't about DDP, this was about Stephanie. "You want this divorce to happen right?"

Stephanie nodded quickly. "Of course I do Shane! You think I want this continue? Because I don't, I have wanted this marriage to be over months ago! I don't want Hunter in my life anymore, I want him to be gone, but I know that a stack of papers aren't going to make him leave my life, but at least I can't get out of this family, detach his name from mine, take a little bit of my life he stole away from me."

Shane smiled. "It's going to be over Steph. In a matter of minutes you are going to be in that room, signing those papers that will prove that you are no longer going to be obligated to Hunter because you two are married, so relax."

"Yeah Stephanie, relax." Hunter said, smirking as he walked up with Trish in tow. "Sorry I'm late, had a little personal business to do."

Trish smirked, glaring at Stephanie. "Yeah, sorry it took so long."

Shane rolled his eyes. "It's okay, we understand, you two were two were too busy playing tonsil hockey with one another to show up on time, but hey it's okay, because Stephanie isn't going to have to deal with this bullshit soon. You think bringing Trish is going to physhe Steph out Hunter? It's not, the only thing it did, was make her more disgusted with you then she was in the first place, go ahead and throw your infedility at her, she doesn't care."

Stephanie nodded, not saying a word just looking at Hunter made her scared.

Hunter smirked. "Me and your sister have done way more then me and Trish just did on the way here."

Shane growled. "I'm going to kill you..."

Stephanie held onto Shane's arm, to keep him in place, she could see by the look on his face Shane was ready to kill Hunter, and usually Stephanie wouldn't care, but she didn't want to do anything to ruin the finalization of the divorce. "Pay no attention to him Shane, he's trying to get you to do something, so that will give the lawyer one little reason to prolong the finalization of the divorce."

Shane still tried to reach Hunter, not listening to Stephanie's words. Shane's eyes were narrowed, and his eyebrows were knitted in anger. "He doesn't even deserve to breath human air."

Stephanie pulled Shane back. "You're better then him Shane! Better then this!"

Shane sighed and nodded. "You're right."

"Are you ready, Stephanie, Hunter?" Abagail Johnson asked, staring at the four young adults that were standing outside of her office, she noted that the two men looked like they were about to duke it out.

Hunter rolled his eyes and turned to Trish. "Go back to the arena, I got this business to do."

Trish pouted. "But Hunter..."

Hunter growled. "Go Trish! Damn it, just leave..."

Trish slapped Hunter, before walking off.

Shane smirked, linking his arm with Stephanie's as they walked into the office, he leaded them over to two chairs and they sat down. Shane whispered into Stephanie's ear, trying to tell her to calm down. Stephanie nodded and smiled at Abagail, trying not to look at Hunter as he sat down next to her.

Hunter sat down, and stared at Stephanie, who was obviously avoiding eye contact with him. Hunter glanced over to Shane who glaring at him. "So what do we have to do to get this over with?"

Abagail nodded, and pulled out some papers. "First Stephanie, sign here, here, here, and here." Abagail pointed to the places where Stephanie should sign.

Stephanie leaned over the desk and started signing, Stephanie kept her eyes on the paper, but she could feel Hunter staring at her, no leering at her. "There." Stephanie said putting the pen down and relaxing back into the chair, she smiled when Shane gave her hand a squeeze of support.

"And now your turn Hunter." Abagail said, pushing the papers in front of Hunter, she grabbed the pen and handed it to him, giving him a stern and serious look. Abagail didn't usually get emotionally attached to her clients but Abagail couldn't help but get attached when she heard the story about Stephanie and Hunter, it was so awful, how Hunter continued to bring pain onto Stephanie when all Stephanie was trying to do was live her own life.

Hunter smirked at Abagail and looked down at the papers. "What if I don't want to sign?"

Shane glared at Hunter. "Just sign the damn papers Hunter! Stop pulling this bullshit!"

Hunter laughed. "Fine fine." Hunter signed the papers, and threw the pen across the desk.

Abagail shook her head and turned to Stephanie. "Okay it's all done Stephanie, you three may go."

Stephanie nodded and got up and walked outside of the office while Shane stayed back talking to Abagail.

"Stephanie." Hunter ran up to Stephanie, right outside the office.

Stephanie turned to face Hunter, she put her hand up. "Stay away from me Hunter."

Hunter sighed. "We could have worked it out you know? We weren't that bad of a team, at one time we both had a vision, the same vision, we wanted to re-shape the WWF, make it into our own dream. I just don't know where we went wrong Stephanie, we were the perfect couple."

Stephanie shook her head. "No we weren't Hunter, there was no love in the marriage."

"There was." Hunter said quickly.

"No there wasn't." Stephanie said, trying to push past Hunter.

Hunter grabbed Stephanie's wrist hard and pushed her against the wall. "How dare you say that?! I loved you, still do in fact and you just think that stops because you says it does? I don't think so, I don't care what those damn papers say, you're my wife!"

Stephanie winced. "Let go of me Hunter, go find Trish."

Hunter shook his head. "I don't give a shit about her. Why Andrew over me?"

"Because I love him, I love him with all my heart, with everything inside of me, and because he loves me back, he doesn't force his love on me. He lets me think on my own, and he doesn't make me do stuff I don't want to do, he loves me! I hate you Hunter! Everything about you I hate!" Stephanie said, fearlessly.

Hunter growled. "Shut up, don't you dare say another word, stop provoking me Steph, I don't want to hurt you, I didn't want you to go through that table, but you provoked me! I didn't want any of it to happen to you, but you kept provoking me, you don't understand."

Stephanie tried to push Hunter off of her. "Let me go asshole!"

Hunter narrowed his eyes. "You're provoking me Steph."

Stephanie struggled against Hunter, finally kneeing him in his groin. "Let me go!"

Hunter hunched over once the contact of Stephanie's knee hit him in his groin area, Hunter groaned, but tightened his grip on Stephanie. "You bitch." Hunter straighted his body up and slapped Stephanie across the face, HARD.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Shane pushed Hunter away from Stephanie violently, as violent as he could.

Shane kneeled down next to Stephanie. "Sis?" Shane lifted Stephanie chin, making her look at him, Shane removed Stephanie's hand from her face and glared when he saw the blood forming from her lip.

"You bastard!" Shane pushed himself up. "You better go, before I kill you."

Hunter shook his head, walking off. "She provoked me, you better learn how to control your sister more." Hunter screamed over his shoulder as he walked out of the building.

"Oh my god." Abagail said, as she walked over to Stephanie. "We should get some ice for this." Abagail stared down at Stephanie who was leaning against the wall, her knees up to her chest, her hand pratically glued to her face, the exact place where Hunter hit her. "We should call the police."

Shane walked back over to Stephanie, he kneeled down next to her, frowning sadly. "Stephanie?" Shane put his hand on Stephanie's shoulder. "Please Steph, talk to me."

Stephanie whimped. "He hit me." Stephanie said, not removing her hand.

Shane pulled Stephanie's body close to him. "Sshh I know Steph, he'll pay for that, he'll learn to never put his hands on you ever again."

Stephanie wrapped her arms around Shane's neck. "You were in there, I couldn't find you."

Shane sighed sadly. "I am SO sorry Stephanie, I'll never leave you alone again. And if it the last thing I do, Hunter will never, ever, EVER, lay one finger on you, he will never touch you again Stephanie, I swear."

Stephanie sniffled. "Can we keep this between me and you, just for now?"

Shane nodded. "Okay, just me and you. Come on Stephanie, stand up with me." Shane pulled Stephanie up slowly, still holding on to her.

Abagail looked at Shane. "You should really call the police, he had no right touching your sister like that, and if he can just hit her with no remorse, god knows what else he can do, how far his abuse will go on her. Maybe next time you won't hear her, maybe you won't be able to save her, he's crazy. I've seen people like him, you think that slap is all he is going to do to her? If you don't take care of this situation now, he might violate her even more."

Shane rubbed Stephanie's back. "He won't touch her again."

Abagail shook her head. "You don't know that."

Shane nodded. "Yes I do, I'll be with her all the time. I won't make the same mistake twice, I won't leave her alone with him ever again, he won't get near her."

Abagail sighed. "He's unpredictable, his insanity isn't in tact. I've seen men like him, he knows he's losing her and he's trying to take her down with him, he won't stop, he'll never stop. He'll continue the pain, maybe start following her around, waiting for one second you and her friends aren't around, and that one second is all it takes for him to take his move."

Shane shook his head. "I got this under control." Shane sighed and walked off with Stephanie still holding onto him.