He opened the door to see Stephanie leaning over the sink. As soon as she saw him,
she stood up and tried not to make it too obvious what she was doing.
"Are you okay?" Chris asked, Stephanie tried to stand casually, but it wasn't doing
much good.
"I'm fine,"she tried to reassure him, but he managed to see what was in the sink before
she could run the tap and wash it away.
"No, you're not, you've been coughing up blood, haven't you?" She looked at her feet,
trying to get out of answering his question, but he gently lifted her chin, and forced her
to look at him.
"Chris, I'm fine," she said weakly.
"Funny, I don't believe you. You don't look too good, maybe you should lie down."
"Chris, please, I'm fi....." she was cut off as Chris carefully placed his hand against her
side. She let out a soft cry of pain, and he looked at her.
"See, you're hurt, go lie down, I'll be in there in a minute," he watched her reluctantly
trudge back to her room, before using the bathroom and getting a medkit out of the cupboard.
~ gee, McMahon must of been expecting one of us to need this, ha, if only he knew ~
He walked quietly to Stephanie's room, and saw that she was lying on her bed, her eyes closed.
She abruptly sat up when he entered the room, causing her to wince in pain, and she
instinctivly wrapped her arms around her sides to try relieve the pain.
"How long have you been coughing up blood? I heard you the night we got here," He asked.
"Since the start of that week I was absent," she replied quietly, lying back down.
"It's your ribs that hurt, isn't it?" Chris said, Stephanie nodded. "Lie still and let me take
a look," She reluctantly agreed, and pulled her T-shirt up a little.
"Shit, what the hell......." Chris was speechless for once in his life. He gently ran his hand
over her ribs, and she flinched at the pain.
"How did this happen?" he asked in a quiet voice.
"I...it was....," Stephanie struggled to think of an excuse. She couldn't tell Chris Jericho what
had happened, he was her worst enemy, or he wouldn't believe her. She promptly shut up,
and realised he was giving her a concerned look.
"It was Hunter, wasn't it? He asked softly, helping her up. She nodded in defeat.
