The Truth

Stephanie sat in her hotel suite, kicking absently at the carpeted floor. She was in another city in another state, and at the moment she wouldn't have been able to come up with the name of her location had someone asked her. She was too preoccupied and she had been for the last full week, ever since the night she and Chris had gotten stuck at the top of the Ferris Wheel. She had been wondering what he had been about to say to her before the Ferris Wheel had suddenly started moving again. For some reason, it was worrying her sick, consuming her mind as she wondered what confession he had been on the verge of making.

She wanted to go find him and force him to tell her what he'd been about to say, but for some reason she decided not to. She just couldn't approach him and ask him what he'd been about to say, because she had no clue how she'd go about approaching him and accomplishing that task. Her dad wasn't making things any easier for her, because he hadn't paired her and Chris up for anything else since the whole Ferris Wheel incident. She wanted to call her dad and demand to know why the hell he wasn't forcing her to do any crazy things with Chris like he usually did, but she couldn't do it, because then she would sound desperate.

"Basically, I'm stuck," she said grumpily, and she kicked at the carpet once again.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. She looked over at the clock and her brows furrowed as she stood up. It's past eleven at night. Who the hell could that be? she wondered, heading for the door.

Chris.

"God, what if it's him?" she asked herself. "I must look like a mess!" She hurried over to the mirror and made sure she looked ok, then headed for the door once again. Once there, she smoothed her hands over her short skirt, then opened the door. "Why, I thought you'd never..." Her voice trailed off when she realized she wasn't talking to Chris after all. "Who the hell are you, and why are you at my door so late?"

The thin man in front of her shifted nervously on his feet. "I work here at the hotel, and one of your...friends...requested that I bring you these." He produced a simple bell and a sign from behind his back, then handed them to her.

"Who the hell sent this?" she asked curiously.

The man looked to his left uncomfortably and gulped, then nodded and pulled out a card and began reading. "Hey there, Princess! Guess who? I figured you could use this bell and this sign since, you know, you're a lady of the night. The bell should let you know when you have another customer waiting in line, and the sign... Well, you can hang that on your door when your bed is occupied, if you know what I mean. Take a look at the sign." The man paused and looked warily at Stephanie, then looked pointedly at the sign in her hand. "He wants you to look at the sign."

Frowning, Stephanie studied the sign. It resembled the signs that were usually hung in some stores, signifying whether they were open or closed. On one side, it read, "Welcome! My legs are OPEN!" On the other side, it read, "Sorry! As unbelievable as it sounds, my legs are CLOSED!" She looked at the man in front of her and opened her mouth to speak, but he started to read from the card again.

"No need to say thanks, Stephy-baby. After all, you are my most favorite...filthy, dirty, disgusting, brutal, skanky bottom-feeding trash-bag ho," the man finished in a rushed voice. He gulped as he looked at Stephanie and braced himself to get yelled at. "God, I'm going to lose my job over this," he muttered to himself.

"What the hell... Who wrote that?" Stephanie sputtered, blushing furiously, although she already had an idea of who had done it. It made her a bit angry, yes, but it also made her want to smile because at least he was thinking of her... She noticed the man standing there staring blankly at her, and she frowned at him. "Is there a signature on there?" she asked. He nodded wordlessly. "Well? What's it signed?"

"It says-" the man began, but he was interrupted as Chris Jericho appeared from the left of the door with one hand behind his back.

"I'll take it from here, Junior. Run along now, and I'll make sure you keep your job," Chris said, grabbing the card out of the man's hand. The man smiled gratefully before practically running away, and Chris turned to look at Stephanie. "Curious about the way I signed the card, are you?" he asked with a smirk.

Stephanie nearly melted from his gaze, but she made her expression hard. "Actually, no," she lied, holding her chin up. "I just wanted to know what kind of assclown would send me some crap like this, but now I know."

"I'm offended that you didn't realize who it was when you heard the first few lines of the card," he said, his smirk fading away. "But then again, I guess you don't really know that much about me."

"I'm afraid I know too much about you," she countered, rolling her eyes at him. "But not the things I need to know, like what you were trying to tell me the other night on the Ferris Wheel."

He looked down for a minute, then back at her. "Here," he said, pulling out a single red rose from behind his back. He held it out, along with the card the man had been reading from. "And take this, too."

"What's wrong with you?" she asked, accepting the rose and the card, then looking curiously at him. "And what were you trying to tell me that night?" It seemed as if his entire attitude had changed when she mentioned what he'd been about to say on the Ferris Wheel, and she wanted to know why.

"It's all in the signature," he said simply, beginning to walk away, no longer in his playful mood.

This change in his attitude worried her because it was so very uncharacteristic of him, and she could only stand there in silence and watch him go. When he disappeared into the elevator, she went into her room, shut and locked the door, and walked over to the couch. Once she sat down, she read the card, and when she got to the signature, her perfectly arched eyebrows nearly flew off her face.

"Wow," she whispered to herself. "He signed it...like...wow."

She had to see him.

She got up and grabbed her card key, and she was out the door in a flash. She got outside of her room and was on her way to the elevator when she realized there was one thing she didn't know, and if she didn't know this one little detail, she'd never find him...

She didn't know where his room was.

"Of all the bad luck!" she muttered, jogging (or doing something that remotely resembled jogging, since she was wearing high heels) to the elevator. She waited impatiently for the elevator, and soon she was on her way down to the lobby so she could find out where his hotel room was.

When Stephanie reached the lobby, she stepped out of the elevator and hurried over to the front desk. "Hey, you," she said breathlessly to the man standing behind the desk. "I need you to tell me what room someone's staying in."

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I can't give out that type of information," the man said apologetically.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Do you know who I am?" she asked testily.

"Nope, I can't say that I do," he said, shaking his head. "Why? Am I supposed to know who you are?"

"I am Stephanie McMahon!" she exclaimed, hoping that he would recognize her name. "I'm The Billion Dollar Princess, the future owner of the WWE, and I demand that you tell me what room Chris Jericho is staying in!"

"No, see, I'm not losing my job over this," he said, still shaking his head. "You could be one of a million crazed Jerichoholics out there who just want to get a piece of Y2J..."

"So let me get this straight. You know who Chris Jericho is, but you have no clue who the hell I am?" she asked.

"That would be correct," he said, nodding at her.

"I've been in storylines with him, and you don't recognize me? My dad owns the WWE, and you don't know who the hell I am?" He shook his head. "What's your supervisor's name?" she asked angrily. She was pissed now. Was he just giving her a hard time, or did he seriously not know who she was?

"I don't think there's any need for you to involve his supervisor," came a familiar voice from behind her.

She turned around and was face to face with Chris for the second time in one night. Her anger at the unhelpful worker disappeared immediately, and before she even realized what she was doing, she put her arms around him and hugged him tight, never wanting to let go. "Chris," she whispered, running her fingers through his hair. "I can't believe you-"

"Not here, Princess," he interrupted, hugging her back and quickly letting her go. "Anyone could see us here. Let's go up to my room...or yours."

"Which is closer?" she asked as they headed for the elevator.

"Mine," he said, and he stopped walking to look over his shoulder at the guy who was still standing behind the desk. "Thanks, Jeremy. I owe you."

"No prob," the guy said, winking at him.

"Jeremy? You know that guy?" Stephanie asked, surprised.

"Jeremy and I are good friends. We go way back," Chris explained as he and Stephanie walked over and stepped into the elevator. The doors closed and he looked at her. "I knew you'd probably come looking for me down there, so I asked him to pretend that he didn't know who you were."

"You and your games," she said with a sigh, leaning in the corner and gazing at him.

He leaned against the wall and looked back at her, and then he smirked. "You just couldn't stay away from this sexy beast, could you?"

"Guess not," she admitted quietly as the elevator stopped. She was surprised when they stepped out together and he reached for her hand, but she placed her hand in his nonetheless and smiled at the sudden warmth she felt. They walked hand-in-hand down the hallway in silence, stopping in front of his room door. He opened the door and let her go inside first, then looked around and followed her in and shut the door.

"So I guess you read how I signed the card," he said, sitting his card key down on a small table and walking over to the couch. He looked up at her as she walked over and stood in front of him.

"Yeah," she said softly, sitting down next to him. She touched his arm. "You signed it 'Love, Chris'."

"I did, didn't I?" he asked, smiling a little at her, then looking away.

"So that's what you were going to tell me on the Ferris Wheel that night?" she asked, awed. She'd already figured that he was probably going to say that, but she had wanted to be sure, and now she was sure. He nodded in response to her question, and she let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "You don't know how long I've waited for you to tell me that," she whispered, leaning against him.

"I've told you before, haven't I? Back when we did that whole endorsement thing for Twizted Dezignz," he reminded her, putting an arm around her. "Remember that night in Bedrock?"

"Of course I remember that night, but then we decided that we didn't really mean it because it complicated things between us," she pointed out. "So when we decided that we didn't mean it, I just assumed that you really...didn't mean it."

"I said it, yeah, but that doesn't mean that I didn't actually mean it," he said, making her look at him before he went on. "Because I did mean it...I do mean it. I love you, Steph... I really do," he said sincerely, and his voice shook a little.

"I love you, too," she whispered, gazing into his eyes as she touched his face. "And I don't know when it happened, but it happened, and I can't help it."

"I can't either, but I wouldn't change it for anything," he whispered back, right before he leaned down to kiss her softly. A minute later, he pulled back and smirked at her. "Now I want you to get out."

"What?" she asked incredulously, searching his face for some hint that he was joking, but she found none. "You're serious?"

"Totally," he said, standing up and pulling her to her feet. He smiled at the look on her face before scooping her up into his arms. "I mean it. I want you to get out...of these clothes."

She relaxed and smiled at him, then threw her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly. "I'm glad that's what you meant, because I'm not leaving this room tonight..."

"Good, because I'm not letting you," he informed her. "Tonight, you're all mine..."

They looked at each other for a minute, and then they both laughed and he carried her into the bedroom, kicking the door shut behind them...

A/N: Just had an idea and decided to update. Hope it was interesting enough for you guys...