Notes: This is the seventh instalment of the Cloud Nine Series, following after "A Long Fall", "Just One of the Guys", "False Communication", "Making it Right", "The Burning Question", and "More Than a Friend".

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Chapter Seven: Poetry in Motion

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Jeff grinned and sighed happily as he and Stephanie entered the room. Matt and Lita were happily ensconced in one of the empty locker rooms down the hall and he had seen more than enough to convince him to leave them alone. In fact, he was rather worried about how much he was going to have to put up with walking in on them in the near future. It seemed that, in the ten minutes since they had taken their heads out of the sand, they were intent on making up for lost time and there was a lot of that to make up for. Maybe he could stay with Torrie for the rest of the week.

He sat down next to his girlfriend, running a hand through his hair, and settling back against the settee. Hearing raised voices he glanced warily at Stephanie McMahon and Chris, who were now in the corner arguing, before turning his gaze to Torrie. She was looking at him contemplatively.

"What?"

"Am I worth it?"

He frowned, reaching out to grasp her arm. "Worth it?"

"Worth waiting for? Worth all…this? I mean, Matt and Lita had each other for a long time and never did anything about it because they were so scared. You don't seem to be scared of anything, but I make you wait and hide and I just want to know if it's worth it."

"Every single second," he said, making sure to emphasise every word. "I wouldn't change this for anything."

"But the plan-"

"Might not be an issue for much longer," he said, smiling at her confusion.

"Jeff, what did you do?"

"Why does everyone always ask that question with that tone?" he asked, affronted.

"Because we all know you too well," Chris said, as he and Stephanie approached their end of the room.

"Funny."

"I usually am."

"And so modest about it, too," Steph added, rolling her eyes.

"Jeff," Torrie asked, again, "what did you do?"

"I just…had a word with someone, that's all." At the continued questioning in her gaze, he sighed and continued. "When the Alliance lose-" He glanced at Stephanie and she smiled.

"Which they will," the brunette said softly.

Jeff smirked and continued. "When they lose, what happens, Tor?"

"I no longer have the opportunity to get fired, instead I'll forever be in the services of Shane McMahon," she said icily. "And thank you so much for reminding me just how screwed I am if I can't get this plan to work."

"Woah, sweetie, calm down, that's not what happens at all."

"Really, then perhaps, Jeffrey Nero Hardy, you could explain to me what does."

"Or perhaps I can," Stephanie said and Jeff grinned at his girlfriend.

"What is going on here?" Torrie demanded. To say that she had been curious when her boyfriend and the Billion Dollar Princess had disappeared ten minutes earlier was an understatement.

"Jeff came with me to collect a few of my things," Stephanie said and Chris glared at the younger man, a low growl rising in his throat. It was fairly obvious that their disagreement had been about her disappearance. Steph, however, merely rolled her eyes. "Down boy."

"Very funny."

"I usually am," she retorted, throwing his own words back at him. "While I was there, I…well, I was able to take a few things that weren't mine as well." She walked to the other side of the room, picking up the bag she had returned with, and fished around inside it, coming out with a handful of papers.

"It'll still be pretty hard to get out of if the Alliance manages to cheat and win, but it's the original."

Torrie's eyes widened as she took the papers Steph was holding out to her. "My contract?"

Steph nodded. "But like Jeff said, it won't be necessary to get out of anything if the Alliance lose, because this is a contract to the company, not to my brother. When the WWF wins, your contract belongs to my father, not my brother." Stephanie shrugged. "Daddy's not exactly the nicest man in the world, but he's a lot better than Shane," she finished softly.

"And he's already agreed to alter your contract to let you be a WWF Diva, same contract that Lita has," Jeff said with a smile and Torrie turned to look at him, still in shock. "I spoke to him this afternoon and when Steph said she could get your contract when we went to get her stuff, I figured it couldn' hurt either. It was supposed to be a surprise for later, but I thought you needed to hear it."

"I-I did. I mean, I do. I…I really don't know what to say," she whispered. "Thank you, Stephanie."

"After what you did earlier, I figured it was the least I could do. I'm sure if you talked to my father, he might even be able to find you a way out earlier," the brunette replied. "I hope it helps."

"Thank you," Torrie repeated. "I'm glad you're here."

"Yeah, me too." Stephanie smiled nervously. "Everything's just happening so fast."

"And we need to keep the ball rolling," Lita said from the doorway, tugging the t-shirt she was wearing into place – she had changed as soon as she was backstage, but Matt had had his hands on her since then. "It's time to head to the curtain for your match, Chris."

Chris nodded and looked at Stephanie, a question obvious in his eyes. The youngest McMahon smiled and nodded. She looked very different than Jeff ever remembered seeing her, dressed simply in a pair of fitted jeans and Lita's "Girl's Rock!" t-shirt. He wondered if anyone really knew her.

"Let's go," she said, looking down in surprise when Chris took her hand. He led her to the door, studiously avoiding all their gazes, and disappeared. A moment later, he returned, still refusing to make eye contact, picked up his title belt, and returned to the laughing women in the hallway.

"Something tells me things are about to get even more interesting around here," Matt said, smirking as he entered the room and Jeff raised his eyebrows.

"So long as, by 'interesting', you don't mean I'm likely to walk in on my brother and my best friend doing naughty things to each other at every turn, then I think I can handle it."

Matt smirked at him. "Then learn to knock."

"It was a locker room and it sounded like she was in pain," Jeff ground out, his face turning pink. He scrunched his eyes shut and let out an affected shudder. "And thank you so much for making me relive that recent trauma again. I think the image is burned into my retinas."

Matt rolled his eyes and Torrie giggled, settling herself against Jeff. "Turn up the TV?" she asked the older Hardy brother and Matt nodded, doing so, before sitting on the ground in front of them.

"Everything'll be fine," Jeff said, noting that she was beginning to fidget as JR and The King began to talk about the upcoming match.

"You don't know that."

"Sure I do," he said, holding her tighter, "I saw it in the stars." He winked at her.

"You're one sweet talker, Jeff Hardy," she whispered and he grinned.

"Thank you, for the compliment and for leaving out the full name this time." He pulled her closer and kissed her briefly. "You're definitely worth it, Torrie."

"So are you."

He kissed her again before turning to look at the monitor, wondering what else could possibly happen to top off the night. He knew that letting Stephanie McMahon into all their secrets could end up backfiring, but, from what Torrie and the others had said, no one was that good an actor. He had spent only a little time with her himself that night, but she was definitely afraid of the Alliance, that much he was certain of. There was clearly more to the youngest McMahon than any of them had previously suspected and if they could help her out of her troubles then, as far as he was concerned, they had an obligation to do so.

He only hoped that it didn't come back to bite them on the ass.

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End of Chapter Seven

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Once again, a long hiatus from this one, I know, and I'm sorry. It's really hard to get back into the ones that are from this far back when I'm having issues remembering the storyline.