Hee! I updated quick. I had to, while the ideas were running rampant. I hope you all enjoy this one - let me know. As always, absolutely loving the feedback!

Beneath the Façade: Part 2

Hunter stepped out the limo and breathed in the Louisiana air. Smackdown would be held at the arena in Lafayette. The plane ride had all but tortured him, as the anxiety over seeing Stephanie again became almost too much to bear. He knew she would be expecting him. Stephanie was a businesswoman through and through, and would most definitely check out her competition, Raw, from week to week. Therefore, she had to know that he was jumping ship. She had to know he was coming to see her before the taping of Smackdown.

He wandered through the lobby of the hotel that he knew Vince would book the Smackdown superstars at. Then, he wandered up to the room that she would be in. At every hotel, it was the same number: 924. He took a deep breath before raising his hand, rapping his knuckles against the door. Waited patiently. She was worth it. Waited some more. Knocked again. Nervously shuffled from one foot to the other. Knocked again. Called her name while banging on the door. Sighed and walked back to the elevators, headed for the lobby.

"I need to get in Stephanie McMahon's room." He stated curtly to the young man at the desk.

"Triple H!" The guy squealed. "Oh my God, you are my favorite wrestler! Aren't you and Stephanie divorced, though?"

"No, that's just for television." Hunter said. "She's not in her room right now and we're rooming together."

"No problem, I'll give you a key. Can I ask you one favor, though?"

"Sure."

"Can I have your autograph?" The young man said, handing over a paper and pen.

Hunter scribbled his signature on the paper quickly, anxious to get the damn key already. He smiled when he received it, thanked the guy, and went back to Stephanie's room.

As he stood there, he assured himself that this was the best thing to do. It seemed like he was consistently hurting or pissing her off because he felt it was the best thing to do. He chuckled at the irony before opening her door. He searched the room for clues to where she could be. Eventually, he stumbled across a piece of paper that read:

Stephanie,

I'll be there to get you at 9. The party is free before 11 and it takes an hour to get there. Be ready, or else, girl.

Stacy

Hunter crumbled the piece of paper in his hand. How dare she wander off to parties at all hours of the night! The audacity! He took a seat in the lounge chair in her master bedroom. He fully expected a damn explanation when she came back. It's – he checked his watch – 2:30 in the damn morning already.

About 30 minutes later, loud giggling could be heard. He straightened his posture in the chair.

Stephanie's hotel door opened, and he saw her figure walk into the room. "See ya later, Stace!" She called, down the hallway.

She walked straight past him, without knowing it, turning on the lamp that was by her bedside.

"How nice of you to come back." Hunter said sarcastically.

"Holy shit!" Stephanie yelped and turned around. "What the fuck?" She yelled as she saw Hunter.

Hunter laughed at her expression. She looked absolutely petrified.

Stephanie touched her forehead. "I drank too much…" she muttered, shaking her head as she shut her eyes tightly. "Yeah, that's it. I drank way too much. It's been so long since I had liquor. It was too much, too soon." She nodded, her eyes still closed. "No one is in my room. Certainly not Hunter." She took a deep breath and opened her eyes, completely expecting him to not be sitting there.

"Convinced yet?" He smirked.

"Oh, God." She groaned, flopping down onto her back on the bed. "W-what are you doing here?" She asked, leaning on one elbow. "How did you even get in here?"

"To answer your last question; the guy at the front desk gave me a key cause I'm his favorite wrestler."

Stephanie made a mental note to talk to this stupid hotel's manager about their security. Or whatever you call it. She nodded. "So why are you here?"

"Well, had you not been out partying, you would know the answer to that." Hunter quipped.

"I - oh my God, Hunter!" She groaned. "You divorced me! I can do whatever the hell I please, thank you very much."

"Whatever! Anyway, had you been here to watch Raw, you would know that I'm no longer a superstar of it."

Her eyes twinkled with mischief. "Ha! Bischoff fired you?" She questioned.

"Quite the contrary. I'm jumping ship."

She laughed loudly. "You can't do that, Hunter. You're signed to Raw and the last time I checked, you were the champion, too. Bischoff will sue you for all you're worth."

He smirked. "He can't. It's legal. He can't do a damn thing to me."

Stephanie's brow arched, clearly intrigued. "How?"

Hunter smiled. "I had him add a special stipulation to my contract."

"What was it?" She asked, sitting up fully.

"If I'm married to someone on Smackdown, I can leave Raw whenever I want, regardless of my status." He grinned. He was clearly proud of himself.

Stephanie blinked for a few moments as she let what Hunter had just said, soak in. Wasn't it bad enough that he broke her heart? Now she had to suffer with him being on her show, married to someone else?

"You must really hate me." She whispered.

Hunter was confused. "What? Why would you say that?"

Stephanie laughed cynically. "Y-you leave me at our wedding renewals, you get me kicked out of the WWE, you divorce me, then you sign with Raw." She paused, to wipe the tears from her cheeks." To top it off, you have a special clause that says you can leave at any time, if you're married. So, y-you go off and get married just so you can come to my show, and throw it in my fucking face!" She bit out.

Hunter laughed loudly, shaking his head.

"Go ahead. Laugh it up, you fucking jerk! Big laugh!"

Hunter continued to laugh.

"You're pathetic, Hunter." She sucked in a breath. "You're a miserable excuse for a human being. Here I am, trying to get my life back on track after you abandon me, and you marry someone else so you can torture me every week, and then come to my room in the middle of the night…the only night since you divorced me, that I actually had a good time. You're sick. How do you get off on this shit? You're going to burn in hell. I hope you know that."

Hunter laughed for a few more minutes. When he finally composed himself, he said, "You are so off base, Stephanie."

"What the hell are you talking about? Why else would you do this to me?" She asked incredulously. "You. Hate. Me."

"I didn't marry another girl." He said, seriously.

A realization hit her and she gasped. "Oh. My. God. You gave up on women after me? I can't believe this." She muttered, feeling a migraine coming on.

"No!" Hunter yelled, pulling on his hair. "Damn you. No more drinking after tonight, Stephanie. You don't even understand even after I give you clues. We're still married."

Now, it was her turn to laugh. "And you think I'm being stupid?" She questioned, standing up. "Newsflash, Hunter: people aren't still married after they sign divorce papers." She told him. "It's not fair that one document ends it all, but that's what you wanted, and you got it. We're over."

"I signed the paper, yes." Hunter admitted.

She thumped him in the head. "No shit, Sherlock. I was there."

"Bet you didn't bother to check the signature…" he trailed off mysteriously.

Stephanie's mouth was open as she tried to form words. "I-you-w-what does that have to do with anything?"

Hunter didn't bother to answer her. Instead, he got up and walked over to his suitcase.

"Yeah, you just made yourself right at home!" She observed. "Will you be needing anything else?" She asked with a roll of her eyes.

"Just this." He said, pulling out a small packet of papers.

She wasn't even sure she wanted to know, but she'd ask anyway. "What's that?"

"Our divorce papers. Look at the signature page."

She sighed, taking the papers from him, rifling through each page. "This is sad, Hunter. Just pathetic!" She said. "You need to just move on. It's your damn fault we're divorced in the first place." She mumbled, finally finding the page she was looking for.

"At a loss for words?" He asked after a few moments.

"Betyou Didnt Readme?" She questioned, as that was what was written, where Hunter's signature should have been.

"Yep."

"That's not your name." She said matter-of-factly.

"Nope."

Stephanie rubbed her forehead, confused. "Why is that not your name?"

"Who the hell would name their child that?" He asked her.

She rolled her eyes. "No, no. I mean why didn't you sign your real name?" She asked, sitting down on the bed again.

Hunter sighed. "Because then we would be divorced."

She nodded. "Exactly."

"Why would I want to be divorced?"

"I don't know!" She said, annoyed. "You asked for it."

He nodded. "I know."

"I asked you repeatedly if you were sure." She pointed at him.

He nodded again. "I know."

"I know you know!"

"Glad to hear it." Hunter cackled.

Stephanie let out an anguished whine. She was tired of his games already. "Cut the bullshit, Hunter. Why did you let me think we were divorced?"

Hunter shrugged. "Punishment."

"I don't understand."

He sighed. "That doesn't surprise me."

She rolled her eyes. "So help me understand."

"In your current state, you need more than just help." He laughed at her. "I need to flat out tell you."

"Whatever works. Just get it out already."

"I let you think we were divorced to hurt you."

"That's pretty obvious."

"Let me finish."

"Fine."

"You lied to me about being pregnant, Stephanie. I was very hurt by that. You knew I wanted to be a father so badly, and you lied to me about it. I just wanted to hurt you back. I never wanted to actually divorce you…just give you a taste of some hurt."

Stephanie shook her head slowly, tears already streaming down her face.

"Why are you crying?" Hunter asked, his tone concerned as he reached out to wipe her tears away. He thought she'd be happy…or at least accepting of what he'd done in retaliation.

"You…" She cried. "You are the biggest asshole on the face of this Earth. You let me think you wanted me out of your life!" She shouted.

Hunter felt anger course through his veins now. How could she not see that she deserved what he'd done? "You lied to me first! It was just payback!"

"No it wasn't." She shook her head slowly.

"How was it not?"

"I never lied to you." She said softly.

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"I really was pregnant!"

Hunter felt like the wind had been knocked out of him. That couldn't be. "I saw the tape!" He said, shaking his head. She was lying. Again. After all that happened, she was still lying to him.

Stephanie laughed spitefully. "Not everything is as it seems, Hunter."

"Explain, then."

"Not that I owe you shit, but my mother paid that doctor to do that commercial. She wanted her little revenge or whatever."

"Did she have to take such drastic measures?" Hunter asked as he threw his arms in the air, his voice much louder now.

Stephanie shrugged. "She said she never meant for us to break up; she just wanted to cause problems."

"That's great! That's just fucking great! Linda apologizes and suddenly the world is okay again? Do you realize what she's done to me – to us?"

"Don't place all the blame on her! Don't you dare," she said lowly. "She may have toyed with a couple of things but it was you that decided to believe it."

"How could I not? The proof was there, Steph!"

"Just like the proof that we were divorced was here?" She asked, throwing the divorce papers at him.

Hunter fell silent.

"That's what I thought. There's always something going on that's deeper than what you think, Hunter." She stated wisely. "You could have talked to me." She bowed her head. "You could have come to me – asked me why I faked a pregnancy. I could have told you that I didn't, and that someone was screwing with us." She said regretfully. "But, you didn't. You'd rather throw a fucking fit, throw me on the ground and walk away from me."

Hunter shook his head. He wasn't about to take the blame for all of this. "No, Stephanie. You could have come to me later, and told me the truth. Instead, you would rather side with my enemy, Chris Jericho, and try to screw me and my career over!"

"I was pregnant!" She yelled.

"So what?" He yelled back at her.

"I was an emotional, hormonal mess! My husband had just left me on national TV, believing that I'd faked a pregnancy. You didn't answer my calls that night. I tried to tell you the truth." She confessed. "I tried – I did my part." She said, her voice not as broken as before. "I thought…" She paused to steady her voice. "I thought that if you still loved me, and wanted us to work, that eventually you would contact me…or" she shrugged "something."

Suddenly, it dawned on Hunter. "You're not pregnant," he cut in abruptly, staring at her stomach. "What happened to our baby?" He asked, fearing her answer, as she cast her eyes downward. "Stephanie." He said softly, grabbing her hand. "Tell me you didn't kill our baby." He pleaded.

She shook her head and the tears fell from her face and to the floor. "I didn't."

"Then what happened?" He asked her, desperately.

Stephanie lifted her gaze to his. Her eyes were a mixture of anger and hurt. "You did."