Chapter 11: A New Plan
"You know, baby, we can't stay in bed forever," Chris said, one arm wrapped firmly around Stephanie. Stephanie, whose head had been resting on Chris's chest, lifted her head up and looked up into his eyes, her own eyes dark.
"Being with you forever sounds good, though," she replied. She kissed him lightly on his chest, then moved up his body and attached her lips to the spot he liked on his neck.
"Forever does sound good to me, as long as it's with you," he whispered to her, closing his eyes. "But baby, it seems like we've been in bed ever since I proposed to you the other night..."
"Don't you like celebrating our engagement?" she murmured against his neck, her tongue darting out to taste his skin.
"Don't get me wrong, I love it," he admitted, pulling away and forcing her to look into his eyes. "I love celebrating our engagement. I love worshipping your gorgeous body, feeling you writhe beneath me as I-"
"If you're planning on getting me out of this bed any time in the next week, stop with the detailed descriptions," she interrupted him. She leaned a little closer, a smile forming on her lips. "But if you're trying to get me all worked up, then continue."
He smiled back at her, bringing his hand up to gently caress her face. "Ok, I'll put it this way... As much as I enjoy it when we're making love, we have other priorities as well. Revenge on the bastard and the skank, that's top priority, right, baby?"
"You know, if you wanted to turn me off, you could've done it without mentioning those two," she said, a look of disgust appearing on her flawless face at the thought of Trish and her father. She sat up, pulling the covers up to cover herself from the chest down, but he caught the edge of the covers in his hand before she could do it.
"No, don't cover those up," he said, looking at her rather large surgically enhanced breasts and licking his lips slowly. "I have plans for those..."
"What about that whole talk you just gave me about other priorities?" she asked as she saw the lustful gleam in his startling blue eyes.
"I just changed my mind," he said with a shrug. "We'll get to the other stuff in a few hours..."
"Hours?" she repeated, a little smirk appearing on her face.
"Hours," he confirmed, leaning closer to her and eyeing her chest. "This might take a while..."
A Few Hours Later
"Ok, baby, so where do we start?" Chris asked, sitting down on a bar stool. He and Stephanie had stayed in bed for hours, just as he had predicted. Now, a short nap and an exciting shower later, the two were sitting across from each other at the island in the center of the kitchen, getting ready to plan what Chris believed to be some very deserving punishment for Vince and Trish.
"We're going to brainstorm first," Stephanie answered, adjusting her glasses and picking up a pen. "Got any ideas yet?"
"No, not really," he said, watching her hand as she started doodling their names on the paper that they were supposed to be using for brainstorming. "Although, I wouldn't mind if we, you know, made them just disappear off the face of the earth. We could just...kill them off and rid ourselves of the problem forever. We'd be doing the rest of the world a favor."
"Chrissy, we're not going to be murderers," she said, shaking her head in disapproval. "Besides, he's my dad, and despite all the crap he's put you and me through, some small part of my heart still loves him."
"And I truly love that part of you," he said, reaching over to take her smaller hand in his larger one. "You're so forgiving, despite what certain...people...have done to you. I think you're one of the most forgiving people I know, and I can't help but love you that much more for it."
"Don't make me get all teary-eyed," she said with a laugh. "How can I come up with some kickass revenge when your words are making me melt?"
"You multitask. You're good at that," he replied, squeezing her hand reassuringly. "And... I just love you, Stephy. I just felt like I needed to say it again, like I can't say it enough."
"I love you, too," she whispered softly. She stared over into his eyes for a few moments, wondering how she would ever be able to survive if he'd really broken up with her. He was her joy... Without him, she felt like she would cease to exist. She couldn't be without him, and she loved him so much that it scared her. She tore her eyes away from his and gently pulled her hand away. She picked up her pen and began scribbling furiously on her paper.
"Looks like you got an idea," he commented, watching her write.
"My love for you inspired me," she said cheekily, writing a bit more, then pausing to look up at him. "You just made me realize the only way we could possibly hurt my father."
"And how is that?" he wondered curiously.
"We have to hit him where it hurts, damage his pride, belittle him," she said, beginning to scribble again. "You and I, Chris... We have the distinct advantage of being on the inside, so to speak. You're his right hand man all of a sudden, just because he thinks you broke my heart, and I'm his little princess, so he'd never suspect us to do anything like what I have planned."
"What exactly is your plan, baby?" he asked.
"We're going to destroy the company from the inside," she said shortly.
"That's going to hurt a lot of innocent people," he pointed out. "We need to zero in on the two that made our lives hell, starting with the blonde skank and then moving on to your dad."
"Ok, so... We start with Trash," she said, writing something on her paper. She tapped her pen thoughtfully against her chin, then looked at him. "I just had the most amazing idea, Chris."
"What is it, and do I really want to know?" he asked, taking notice of the wicked gleam in her eyes.
"Didn't Trish and Christian date for a while?" she asked him, still tapping her pen lightly against her chin. "Like, weren't they a serious couple for a while, all hot and heavy?"
"Yeah, and she screwed him over," he answered with a scowl. "She cheated on him with a number of random guys, and it really broke him up... I mean, he was ready to propose to her and everything, and then she pulled that shiesty ass move on him..."
"She's the queen of everything shiesty," she muttered, rolling her eyes. "Sounds like Christian would like some revenge on Trish, too... Sounds like he deserves some, actually."
"Yeah, he does," he replied. "So what do you have in mind?"
"I say we invite Christian over first, then come up with something so great, it'll turn Trish's entire world upside down. I already have an idea, but we'll see... So what do you say?" She rubbed her hands together in anticipation of adding a third person to their scheming and grinned deviously at him.
He got up from his stool and walked around to her. Turning her around on the bar stool, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her lightly on the nose. "I say... I think you're an evil genius... Let's do it."
Thirty Minutes Later
Chris opened the front door to his house and was face to face with one of his best friends, Christian. He could barely recognize him, though. He looked... Well, he didn't look like he did when he was on TNA programming as the champion. For lack of better words, he looked wiped out. Tired. Depressed. Angry. And Chris could see all of this just by looking into his friend's eyes.
Chris could identify with those feelings. He could remember the pain he'd felt after breaking up with Stephanie per her father's request, and he could recognize that same pain in Christian.
Christian stood there quietly, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. Finally, after enduring what he deemed to be almost unbearable scrutiny from Chris, he licked his lips and spoke. "Yo, man, you going to make me stay out here or are you going to invite me in?"
"Baby, where are your manners?" Stephanie whispered into Chris's ear as she walked up behind him. She moved to stand next to him and smiled at Christian. "Christian, come on in. I haven't seen you in so long!"
"Hey, Steph," Christian said, a genuine smile coming across his lips as he looked at her. He stepped inside the house and followed her into the kitchen while Chris locked the front door. "Yeah, I haven't seen much of you, either, ever since I 'jumped ship' and went over to TNA..."
"And now I want you to jump back aboard my ship," Stephanie said, getting straight to the point as she sat down on the bar stool across from Christian that she had been occupying earlier. Chris, who had taken a seat next to her, looked at her with wide eyes, as did Christian, but she kept her gaze firmly on Christian. "What do you say?"
"No offense to you, Stephanie, but I'm happy in TNA," Christian said, after getting over the initial shock of her proposal. "I mean, your dad is an asshole, and there's just no way I would go back over to WWE. There's no reason for-"
"Trish slept with Chris," Stephanie interrupted, speaking quietly and keeping her eyes on Christian's. "My dad got Chris drunk, Trish pretended to be me, and then she screwed my man...and my dad got it on tape."
"What? When did this happen?" Christian demanded, glaring at Chris. "And why the hell didn't you tell me?"
"I only just found out a few days ago myself," Stephanie put in. "It's not Chris's fault, though."
"Vince told me not to tell anyone," Chris said, to answer Christian's question. "I wanted to tell Stephy and I wanted to tell you, but there were so many consequences..." His voice trailed off, and he shook his head, his eyes fixed on a random spot on the wall. "My biggest mistake was ever trusting Vince."
"Just like my biggest mistake was ever falling in love with Trish," Christian said quietly. "She's still hurting me and we're not even together anymore..." He paused for a minute, then looked at Stephanie. "What do you need me to do?"
"Yeah, baby, what do you need him to do? Because I'm still very much in the dark about this whole plan of yours," Chris put in, sticking his lower lip out and pouting. "And I'm supposed to be the first to know."
"Well, baby, you know how Daddy doesn't want us to be together?" Stephanie began, looking at Chris, who nodded. "Well, I was thinking, suppose I start hanging out with Christian backstage at shows? Like, we become inseparable, like we're the best of friends..."
"What about me?" Chris demanded.
"Baby, correct me if I'm wrong, but you're supposed to hate me now, right? And my dad knows that you're 'hurting' over out whole breakup," Stephanie explained. "So me hanging out with Christian will make you hurt even more, because it'll seem like I'm over our breakup. You'll hurt so much to the point where you really do start to hate me. Get where I'm going?"
"No, because I could never really hate you," Chris replied immediately, leaning over to kiss her softly. "I love you so much that it hurts to even think about pretending to hate you again."
"I get where you're going, Steph," Christian cut in, interrupting their intimate moment. He couldn't bear to watch those two kissing, not after what he'd just learned about Trish. He'd think about that later, though. "From what you've told me, Vince wants to keep you and Chris apart, right?"
"Right," Stephanie confirmed, glad that at least one of them understood the beginnings of the plan she'd devised. "So Daddy wants Chris and me apart because he knows that without Chris, I'm week and vulnerable, and I come to him for support. I'm totally dependent on Daddy without Chris, and that's what Daddy wants... But, if he sees me getting close to you and becoming more rebellious than I've ever been in the past with Chris, he'll start to think twice about what he did. If he sees that Chris is actually beginning to hate me, and that I'm over Chris, he'll try to push the two of us together again. Plus, the fact that you're in TNA but you're backstage with me will just eat away at him until he goes nuts, because you'll be with me and there's no way he can kick you out..."
"I think I'm beginning to understand now," Chris said. "You and Christian will appear to get closer while you and I begin to go back to our old ways of despising each other. Vince will see this and begin to push us back together, and then what? We tell him we're engaged?"
"Engaged?" Christian exclaimed. "You mean, you two are going to get married?"
"Well, yeah, I guess I should've told you that. Chris proposed to me earlier this week, and I accepted," Stephanie said, gazing adoringly at Chris, who gazed right back at her.
"What else could you have said? You love me too much to say no," Chris said cockily, kissing her on the cheek.
"You're right. I can never say no to you, not in the bedroom," she replied in a whisper, but Christian still heard.
"So, guys? How's this whole plan supposed to affect Trish?" Christian spoke in a low tone, but they both heard him and recognized the sadness in his tone.
"It's going to make her incredibly jealous," Stephanie said gleefully. "I mean, Chris won't want her and I'll have you, Christian... Maybe this'll make her realize what kind of man she gave away when she left you..."
"Maybe she'll want you back," Chris suggested.
"I won't take her back, though. I'll just hurt her the way that she hurt me," Christian replied, looking away. "So when does this plan start?"
"Got anything planned for tomorrow?" Stephanie asked. "Any big TNA events?"
"Nope, none at all," Christian answered, looking over at her.
"Then come to the show with me tomorrow... Chris and I will be arriving separately since we just broke up and all...or so everyone thinks," Stephanie said, getting up from her bar stool. "You can be the one to comfort me in these...trying times."
"Ok," Christian replied, biting his lip. "I'll be here tomorrow... We'll get this thing rolling."
"Great. I'm going to go upstairs and give you two some time to talk," Stephanie said to Chris. She kissed him lightly, then headed out of the kitchen, stopping to pause in the doorway and look back. "Oh yeah, and Christian? Thanks."
Chris watched Stephanie disappear from the room, then turned to Christian, feeling awkward. "Look, I don't know where to begin, but it was never supposed to happen," he began.
"But it happened," Christian pointed out.
"Vince got me so drunk that I didn't know what I was doing. Do you think I would've done something like that to Stephy? To you? No, I didn't want to, because I don't betray the people that I love," Chris said, standing up. "So you can forgive me now or don't forgive me at all."
"It's hard to picture the woman I love sleeping with my best friend, but I know it wasn't your fault," Christian said, standing up and walking around to Chris. "Besides, I'm not even with her anymore... So yeah, let's just forget about it." He held out his hand, which Chris readily shook. "I'm going to get going, though, because I have to get ready for tomorrow. Stephanie and I will be getting a hell of a lot of strange looks backstage tomorrow..."
"That's for sure." Chris walked Christian to the door and they said goodbye to each other, and then he closed the door and headed upstairs to find Stephanie...
Meanwhile, Christian walked over to his car and got in, then sat there and looked off into space, thinking. So Chris and Trish had slept together. Chris had said he was drunk, and Christian believed him, but it still pissed him off to think of the two of them together... His best friend and the woman he still loved, despite what she'd done to him, to his heart...
Chris and Trish both deserve a little payback, Christian thought to himself as he started the car and pulled off. And I know just how I'm going to repay them both...using Stephanie...
A/N: Wow, it's been a long time! This chapter was...well, it's here, that's all I can say. I started it over three times and then yesterday I got inspired, so here's what I came up with! Hope it wasn't TOO boring for you...and don't forget to review! Thanks!