They start to kiss even harder and Paul reaches up to take her shirt off but Steph stops him. She knows his mind is jumbled because he had so much to drink and being the good girl that she is, she didn't want to take advantage of him when he was like this. He looked at her, with a confused stare, but she just shook her head and looked sadly and pitifully up at him. After a few moments, they were both still on the elevator floor, him still on top of her. Now he was fully aware that the girl underneath him was Steph, and not Joan, but he went to kiss her again. This time she wriggled out from beneath him and pressed the emergency button on the elevator. Within minutes a rescue team was trying to tow the elevator up. Paul knows he did something wrong but he just cant put his finger on it. He's standing in an elevator with Stephanie but he doesn't know what he did. " Steph, what happened?" he quietly asks. There was a long pause before she honestly but regretfully said, "Nothing" and with that, the elevator got quiet and the two got out.

Monday 11/29/99 (Test and Stephanie's Wedding Night) It had now been about 2 months since the kiss. Nothing really exciting had happened in those two months. Neither had told anybody about what happened in the elevator. Paul didn't because he wasn't really sure if it did happen or not and Stephanie because she was too ashamed and didn't want Jay to break up with her, she loved him too much.

Now Stephanie is in her dressing room, wearing her wedding dress and waiting to go out to the ring to get 'married'. Without knocking Andrew comes in and tells Stephanie that she has 10 minutes until she needs to be ready. She thanks him and says that she'll right there. She finishes her makeup, takes one look over in the mirror to make sure she was perfect and walks out of her locker room door.

Paul is in the DX locker room with his buddies watching the television screen. Steph and him hadn't spoken ever since what had happened. The only time that they had even had to interact was when they made the Las Vegas wedding tape and that was like a month ago. He had even stopped coming to the arena early and going to production meetings to avoid her. He guessed that he must've really started acting different because even Jonie was asking him if something was wrong. Interrupting his thoughts was a knock at the door. It was Vince McMahon. " Paul, you have 5 minutes, then you need to come to the ramp, k?" " Alright Vince, be there in a minute." Another reason that Paul hadn't told anyone about what he thought happened that night was because if Vince ever found out, he would kill him. Also, Paul is really looking forward to this angle with Steph, and he doesn't wanna blow it. That's for sure.

Now in the ring Stephanie and Andrew are standing there looking into each other's eyes waiting for the minister to say that one, agonizing line.

" Is there anybody who has good reason that these two should not be married?" And right on cue, 'My Time' blares on the sound system and out walks Triple H holding a microphone in his hand with a smug look on his face. As scripted he shows the tape of him and Stephanie getting married in a Las Vegas drive-thru wedding chapel. The new Mrs. Helmsley starts to shed tears in the ring while an irate Test is staring down HHH. And to add salt to the wound Hunter adds, " Now, Vince, as a member as the immediate family, I know that you can only have one question on your mind.Dad. And that is. not did we, but how many times did we consummate the marriage?" Unbeknownst to anyone, the McMahon- Helmsley Regime had just been born. (Thank you to the Holiday edition of Raw Magazine for that excerpt. )

Now everyone is backstage telling Stephanie how wonderful she was out there, how she cried just at the right time, and how her facial expressions were perfect. No one was paying attention to Andrew or Paul, telling them that they did a great job, now were they?
Stephanie desperately wanted to get away from all of these people. Newscasters were taking pictures of her and demanding to question her about what had just happened in the ring. She glances around the hallway and spots the nearest locker room door, opens it and goes in. she doesn't even care that its Paul's locker room. She just needed to get away from the mob that was starting to form outside of his dressing room. " Sorry, Paul, I just cant take them anymore." She explains, with her back on the door. " Its fine." He says, going up to her, " Go, sit down" he tells her pointing to the leather love seat on the other side of the room. At first she is surprised by his generosity, but she eventually realizes that he is concerned and goes and takes a seat. Once she is seated, Paul unlocks the door and sticks his head out. He says something but Stephanie can't tell make out what it is. Whatever he said made the reporters go though. She was grateful for that.

" You can go now." Paul tells Steph.

" You're right." She smiles at him " And um thank you"

" You're welcome."

" Well, bye"

" Bye Bye" he adds with a wink.

She opens the door and walks out of the Los Angeles dressing room. Now Stephanie is on her was to find her boyfriend.

Only minutes after Stephanie had left Paul's room, Jonie comes in.

" Hey baby, what you been up to?" she asks, turning him so he's facing her and wrapping her arms around his waist.

" Well, not much, I got married and I got a girl friend, but hey I got that everyday, you?" he says jokingly as he starts a trail of kisses up and down her neck. She never replies as they go into another passionate session of lovemaking (ew ew ew).

Stephanie has now found Jay and they are headed back to the hotel. They are waiting for their limo to come when Shane runs up to them.

Out of breath, Shane says, " Steph. Dad. wants. you in. his office.now"

" Shane, i'm not going to see dad right now, I just wanna spend the night with Jay for once. And besides, he's had all day to talk to me. Just tell him to call me tomorrow okay?"

Shane rolls his eyes and says, " Okay" and leaves to go find Mr. McMahon and transfer the information to him.



All right now i'm gonna skip ahead to July 27th, 2000. It's Paul's 31st birthday and Jonie just had to throw him a party. She invited everybody, his friends, his family, and everyone in the WWF. Well everyone that is, except Miss Stephanie McMahon. Oh, how she despised that woman. Within the past few months Paul and Stephanie had grown extremely close and Paul and her had sort of drifted away from each other. At least twice a week Stephanie and Paul were talking to each other on the phone for hours upon hours. She didn't know what had happened one minute Paul and Steph hate each other and the next minute they are like best friends or something. Paul kept ditching her for Steph or not going with his friends because Stephanie was gonna call. It was just getting fucking annoying. And that exactly why Joan didn't invite Stephanie to the celebration.



RING RING

Paul picks up the phone.

P: Hello?

S: Hi Paul, what you up to?

P: Nothing really, just was waiting for the party to start

S: Party? What Party?

P: My birthday party that Joan said she invited everyone to.

S: Well I never heard anything about a party for you, if I did I would have come

P: Hey it hasn't started yet, why don't you come, I would really love it if you did.

S: Well, okay, if you insist

P: I insist

S: Okay then, I'll be there. It's in New Hampshire, right?

P: Yea, that's right

S: Well your lucky, I'm in Massachusetts, so I'll be there in about an hour. Ok?

P: See you then

S: Bye

P: Bye kiddo

Paul hangs up the phone and walks out to the patio where Jonie is sitting talking to Debra Williams, Steve Austin's wife.

" Hey Hun, who was that on the phone?" Jonie asks once she realizes that Paul is standing behind her.

" Oh, it was Steph, she's coming to the party."

" Oh"

" Why didn't you invite her? You knew I wanted her here. I remember telling you."

" I don't know, it just slipped my mind I guess"

" Alright" Paul says, not convinced. He was going to pursue the conversation but bit his tongue because he figured that that was private business and she probably didn't want to discuss it in front of her friends. So instead, he just walks out to his Hummer and blares the music as loud as it will go.

Stephanie is on her way to Nashua, New Hampshire to go to Paul's party. She didn't even know about the party until this morning when she called. She couldn't believe that Jonie hadn't invited her. She knew that her and Paul were like best friends. But knowing Jonie and her jealously she probably thinks that Stephanie is too much competition for her.

RING RING

S: Hello?

Long Pause

S: Hello? Is anybody there?

Joan: Don't you dare go to MY boyfriends' birthday party, he's MINE not YOURS, you got that?

S: I'm going to go to wherever the hell I want to when I want to do it. And nobody and I mean nobody can stop me. Also, why can't you get it through your thick head that I have a boyfriend and I don't want Paul! We are best friends, and even though I hate you, I know he loves you, so why don't you TRY to make your relationship work or he just might find somebody else!

CLICK

That little speech that Steph gave got Joan thinking. She's not trying hard enough to make her and Paul's relationship work. If she ever wants to get married to him she is going to have to work for it. And she's going to try EXTRA hard to make them work! ***