Regrets and Irony

This is a weird one. There are multiple ways to take this beyond the ending, which I'll explain at the end of the story.

TITLE: Regrets and Irony (1/1?) *R*
AUTHOR: Juliet3:16
EMAIL: Sweetvalley99@aol.com, FYouWWF@aol.com, Juliet_316_2000@yahoo.com
RATING: R for mention of suicide.
CONTENT: ADULT LANGUAGE, mentions of suicide
CATEGORY: ADULT, DRAMA, ANGST, and POSSIBLE VIGNETTE.
SPOILERS: Through the 3/24/02 RAW where Stephanie was expelled from the WWF.
SUMMARY: Somebody muses over somebody's last, final act on a dark, stormy, night.
DISCLAIMER: Vince owns everything but the story idea.
DISTRIBUTION: Fanfiction.net, everyone else please ask.

Regrets and Irony.

It was raining and he didn't care.

It could've come down in a monsoon and he wouldn't have paid any more attention to the road that he already was on this stormy night, which was not very much at all. His thoughts were all focused on the woman who he'd once loved more than anything and put him through hell the last two months of her life, before her last act that had shocked them all.

He couldn't believe she had done it.

He drove on. Faster than what was acceptable in the weather that was currently raging outside his vehicle. All Hunter Hearst Helmsley was minding was his estranged wife and her actions following his pinning her in that three way three nights prior that banished her from wrestling forever.

He'd never meant for it to happen that way. All he'd wanted to do was to teach her a lesson. To pay her back for all the hell she'd caused him beginning with the lie she'd told him about being pregnant. Maybe he'd eventually have relented like Austin had done with her old man and allowed her to come back. Now she would never come back.

He still loved her. Despite all the pain and agony and what Stephanie had put him through deep down he still loved her, still cared about her. Perhaps that's what made Stephanie's final act so hard to swallow. What made Vince's cruel announcement on SMACKDOWN of what Stephanie had done so unreal.

He'd never wanted her to die.

It'd been a knee jerk reaction to make that stipulation. Pin her and she was gone. It seemed so easy. He'd wanted her gone. He hadn't recognized the consequences of what he was asking from her if she lost. He regretted the hell out of it now.

I should've never have made that deal with you Steph, Hunter thought as he drove further along the dark road. He, of all people knew how wrestling was Stephanie's life. He shared that same passion. It was what had originally brought them together and perhaps in the end, that was what tore them apart. His focusing so much on winning the Undisputed Championship at WrestleMania at all cost that he distanced himself from everything else. Including his wife. Perhaps that was what had drove Stephanie to tell her lie. It didn't matter anymore.

Stephanie was dead. By her own hand.

He looked at the Championship Belts that he'd newly won at WrestleMania in the passenger seat. He wondered if they had been worth it. Were they really worth his wife committing suicide in her bedroom, their bedroom? No, he didn't they where.

I love you Steph, he thought, why did you have to kill yourself.

So focused on his thoughts and regrets he was that he never saw the semi coming down the road. He never saw the truck slam into him head - on. He'd known nothing more when the impact occurred so he never had a chance to try to swerve away from the guardrail. Never felt the impact of his car going off the cliff and landing in flames in the rainy, stormy night.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley, in one quick moment, had joined his Princess in Hell.

Okay, there are four options I can go with this. One is to leave them both dead in which case there most likely not be a sequel or continuation to this story. Two is to bring Hunter back but not Stephanie, option three is to bring Stephanie back without Hunter, and the Fourth is to bring both of them back from the dead.

I'll be doing a poll on both KarenFic and McMahonHelmsleyFic to see what option people want to see.

Feedback is most appreciated on this one.