Lita sighed to herself as she exited her hotel room, running a hand through her hair. She had spent the entire week rethinking her decision to quit Team Xtreme, but she knew there was no other way. Tonight she would tell Jeff that it simply would not work. She hoped that Jeff would take it well, but inwardly she knew that Jeff would never understand her dilemma with Matt, and it frustrated her. The match had gone great last week, the crowd had loved them back together, as she knew they would. She felt guilty to tear apart Team Xtreme. 'Who am I kidding?' she asked herself suddenly as she waited near the elevators for one to come. 'They can still go out together, and just go as the Hardy Boyz. The crowd will still love them. Face it, they don't need me.'

The redhead sighed as an elevator reached her floor, and froze at the occupant inside—Randy Orton. Rolling her eyes at her luck, she stepped inside, as far away as she possibly could from the pompous member of Evolution. "Somebody's looking fine today," he commented, his eyes rolling over her body.

"You know, women find men who continually talk about themselves pig-headed and stupid," Lita informed him, watching the numbers tick by.

He stepped in front of her, a lopsided smirk on his face. "I wasn't talking about me," he told her, and she narrowed her eyes.

"Too bad, because I still think you're pig-headed," she retorted, moving to step past him, but he grabbed her arm. She stared at her forearm for a second, and then looked up at him, warning in her eyes.

"C'mon, Lita, stop playing hard to get. I know the way you look at me," he said. Lita resisted the urge to slap the smirk off of his face. She let out a sigh of relief as the elevator reached the lobby. Her eyes met Randy's.

"Nice talking to you, but I've got to go," she said, and pulled away, but his grip remained tight.

"You're not going anywhere," he announced.

"On the contrary, I am," she retorted, and slammed her heeled boot onto his foot, and pulled away from him, making her way through the hotel doors, leaving a very angry Randy Orton behind.

"I'm sorry, Jeff. I just can't handle this," Lita averted her eyes from the hurt look on Jeff's face.

"Lita, why? Everything went awesomely last week!" he sighed, trying to get the redhead to make eye contact with him. "Maybe... Maybe you just need time to adjust."

"I can't do it, all right?" Lita nearly shouted, and immediately felt guilty for her raised tone. Jeff didn't deserve this, and she was merely taking out her own stress on him. "I'm sorry Jeff. Every time that I went to tag him, I couldn't. When I do, I keep remembering when he wasn't there for the tag; when he cost me the match. Jeff, Matt broke my trust, and he's never going to get it back."

"Because you don't let him have the chance!" Jeff retorted.

Lita closed her eyes, refusing to listen to his words. "I'm sorry," she repeated for what seemed like the thousandth time.

"I need Team Xtreme, Lita," Jeff said, his voice quiet.

"You need the Hardy Boyz," Lita whispered. "I'm still going to be here for you, but I just can't work with you as long as you're with Matt," there was no sign of forgiveness in Jeff's eyes, only disappointment. "I'm so sorry..." she turned and went for the door.

"I'm sorry too, Lita," Jeff said, and she turned. The look of pain on his face burned into her mind, and she opened the door, quickly fleeing the locker room. Lita fast-walked away, wanting to get as far away from that locker room as possible. She was halfway to the cafeteria in the arena when Randy Orton's voice stopped her.

"Hello, Lita."

She turned on her heel, glaring at him. "Leave me alone!" she snapped. "In case you didn't get the message earlier, I'm not interested," he grabbed her arm and pushed her against a wall before she could walk away. Lita felt the brick wall press against her back, and gritted her teeth. "Go to hell Randy, and do us all a favor."

He traced her jaw line with a finger, and Lita knew better than to respond. She simply glared at him. If looks could kill, she thought to herself silently. The redhead suddenly took a step forward, but Randy grabbed the insides of her elbows and pushed her back against the wall. A moment later, his lips came crashing down on hers.

The sound of Lita's palm connecting against Randy's cheek echoed through the hall. Randy grasped his cheek in pain, glaring at her in anger now. Her face creased with disgust, Lita wiped her lips with her shirt sleeve.

She was going to need a lot of mouthwash tonight.

"You bitch," he hissed. The redhead had no time to react as he pulled his arm back. His fist connected just below her eye with force. Her head snapped backward into the brick wall, and she slowly sunk to the floor, covering her burning cheek with one hand. Randy leaned forward, and Lita curled further into a ball as his hand wrapped around her hair.

There was a flash of color, and suddenly Randy Orton was gone. Lita leaned her head up against the wall, wincing at the pain throbbing through it. There was a crashing noise to her left, but Lita's vision was still covered in spots of blackness. When it cleared, Chris Jericho was kneeling in front of her; albeit, a very pissed off Chris Jericho.

"Lita, are you okay?" he asked, and she nodded slightly. "If I see that son of a bitch, I'm going to kick—"

"Chris," she interrupted, and he paused, looking back down at her.

He smiled sheepishly, but the worried look was back on his face an instant later. "You sure you're alright?" he asked as he helped her to her feet.

"I'm fine," she lied, biting down on her tongue to stop the hiss of pain forming. "I just need some ice and drugs," she told him. Expecting him to start walking to the medics, she was surprised when he simply stood there, looking at her as if debating to tell her something. "What?" she asked bluntly.

"Lita...I've been thinking...I think that you would be better off in Team Xtreme," he told her softly. "That way, we could watch you better."

"How do you know I left?" she asked. "And what do you mean by we?" she questioned, confused.

"I talked to Jeff just a minute ago. He told me that you decided to quit and he invited Edge and I into Team Xtreme—we both accepted, by the way."

"I...I don't know what to say..."

"Say you'll come back," Chris pressed. "With Edge and me there, you won't have to see much of Matt. We can make it so that you'll barely ever have to talk to him. Eventually you two will work things out. Maybe not today, not this month, not this year, but you will. I know you want to be in Team Xtreme, and this is a way you can be without Matt Hardy interfering." Everything that Chris said rang true. Lita sighed heavily. "I know you might need some time to think about this..."

"I don't," she answered readily.

He looked pleadingly at her. "At least take some time to consider it before you say no, Lita."

"I don't need time to consider it," she inhaled deeply, "because I'm saying yes."