Chris felt like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. He hadn't had a dream about Stephanie in two days. He hadn't had a daydream, or a vision, or anything regarding Stephanie in TWO whole days. It was almost like a miracle after he had gotten so used to having Stephanie invade many of his thoughts and dreams. Of course, he may have had help since Stephanie hadn't been around for the past four days. He didn't know where she was, but he didn't want to ask lest it get back to Trish.

He was curious though. Usually he would see her walking around, perennially working on something. He kind of missed that visage since she had mysteriously disappeared from the backstage area. He got up off the couch that he was sitting on and went to catering, hoping that food would take his mind off of Stephanie. He didn't want Stephanie to be on his mind in the first place, and he was sure she wouldn't have been if she hadn't been missing.

Christian and Lita were sitting at a table, eating and talking animatedly with each other. Chris grabbed a plate and made his way through the buffet line, loading up his plate before plopping himself down across from Lita and Christian. Lita looked over at him and raised an eyebrow at him, like he should've asked to sit down.

"What's up you guys?" Chris asked the two of them. They looked at each other, and had a conversation with their eyes, one that baffled Chris. He couldn't figure out why they were being so quiet, and the way that Lita was eyeing him was a bit disconcerting. He didn't like that look, it seemed almost sad, but what would he have to be sad about?

"We were just talking, eating," Lita said finally, which didn't convince Chris of anything.

"I get the feeling that wasn't what you were doing."

"We have food in front of us don't we?" Christian said, sounding slightly annoyed. Chris sat back a little bit, trying to gauge the two of them. Something seemed...off.

"Well, yeah, you do, but well...did you not want me sitting here?" Chris asked. He was getting this very unwelcome feeling from the two of them, and it confused him. He didn't think that he had said anything rather offensive to the two of them, had he? He had to wrack his brain to try and find something, anything that they could take the wrong way, but he couldn't find a single thing.

"No, it's fine," Lita said, smiling, and trying to be cordial. Or at least she looked like she was trying to be. Christian on the other hand, he looked very uncomfortable sitting there, and again Chris had to wonder why.

"Ok..."

"So where's Trish?" Christian asked, looking around.

"She's around here somewhere," Chris said, looking around himself, though he didn't expect to see Trish in the vicinity. Maybe he was looking for Stephanie, he didn't really know. Maybe unconsciously he was always looking for Stephanie, but he could never be sure, not until he saw her...if he saw her at all.

"Oh, why isn't she with you?" Christian asked.

"Because I don't need to be with her every single second of the day. She's perfectly capable of the whole walking around thing. I'm not her daddy who needs to watch her ever second."

"I have to go," Christian said, "I forgot I had a match and I need to make sure I'm warmed up. I can't eat all this stuff and still wrestle."

He got up before Chris could answer or really say anything. Christian had jogged out of the room, not fast, but enough to be kind of weird. But Chris's mind was elsewhere, specifically on the chicken in front of him, and what was the best way to eat it, nicely with his fork and knife, or to just tear at it with his teeth like an animal.

"He's just worried about you and Trish," Lita said, interrupting Chris's thoughts of chicken.

"Why would he be worried about us?" Chris said. It wasn't like his relationship with Trish was really any of Christian's business. Besides, his and Trish's relationship was fine. He wasn't dreaming about Stephanie, he hadn't seen Stephanie, and he was closer than ever with Trish. He was falling more and more for her, each second he liked her a little bit more. Was he ready to take the plunge and tell her that he loved her? Well, maybe it hadn't gotten that far yet, but he had never really committed to a woman, and he had to process this. But he was processing, and it couldn't be too long before he told Trish about his true feelings.

"Well, you and Trish got together the same time that Christian and I did, and I think that Christian thinks that if you two break up, then me and him aren't too far off," Lita said with a shrug, digging into the macaroni and cheese sitting in front of her. "It's like seeing first hand that things can go wrong, even as they seem so good."

"Things between Trish and I are great," Chris answered. "We've been getting along fine since--"

"The whole Stephanie fiasco," Lita finished for him, a sly smile on her face. "You know you have to wake up." Chris's eyes widened at her words. Where the hell did that come from? He asked her that a moment later. She just shrugged, and spoke again, "I just mean that you have to wake up and see that Christian is just being a friend."

"Oh," Chris said, somewhat disappointed that was what she meant, but for reasons that he could not explain, and didn't care to find an explanation at the current moment. "Well, that Stephanie thing wasn't my fault, I wasn't in my right mind."

"What even motivated you to say you loved Stephanie?" Lita asked, honestly confused.

"I don't know, I had a concussion, I thought I heard her voice or something and it was the first name that popped into my head," Chris lied. How could he explain to Lita that he thought he was married to Stephanie and they had kids, and he had told her he loved her because he honestly thought they were together and had kids and the whole nine yards. He was out of his mind.

"Well, I guess that makes sense," Lita said. "Too bad about Stephanie though, huh?"

"What do you mean?" Chris asked.

"She's at home, she had some sort of anxiety attack or something because she's been working so much. I heard that she was pretty bad off."

Chris was almost compelled to hop out of his seat at that. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, she's been ordered to actually go on vacation. Her father and mother insisted that she take some time off. It's bad I think, or I heard, I don't know. I thought you knew, people have been talking about it a lot. People keep saying she's crazy, but they're stupid," she said, rolling her eyes.

"I'm gonna go find Trish," Chris said, nodding quickly. "I'm going to go find Trish."

Chris got up and walked down the hallway, sort of looking for Trish, but then, he was mostly thinking about Stephanie. Stephanie wasn't here because she had an attack. He felt like it was his fault. If she hadn't been working so hard, and so...alone, then she probably wouldn't have been gone, and have people talking about her behind her back like she was in a mental institution. She was just overworked, and she probably hadn't eaten or anything.

He didn't find Trish, but Trish found him quite easily. She ran up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist from behind. He turned to face her, and she could sense a vibe off of him. She couldn't quite place it, but it wasn't happy. She searched his eyes and then leaned up to kiss him softly, a kiss which he returned, but he wasn't as into it as he usually was.

"What's on your mind?" Trish asked quietly, standing on her tippy-toes to kiss him again.

"Nothing that you want to hear about," he told her, knowing that would probably arise her suspicions, which it did.

"Of course I do. I love you, and I always want to hear what you are up to."

"I just heard about Stephanie is all," he said, not knowing whether the consequence of that statement would be received well, or otherwise. Trish stood back on her heels and dug her hands into the pockets of her jeans.

"I heard about that," Trish said, looking down. "I feel partially responsible."

Chris looked at her, wondering what she had to feel responsible about. Chris was the one that had dumped her as a friend. "It's not your fault Trish."

"Of course it is, I got jealous, and I practically forced you into not being friends with her, not even thinking about her feelings. It's not like she wanted you to tell her that you loved her. It just happened, and I'm partly responsible."

Trish looked so down-hearted and guilty that Chris felt his heart constricting, like the blood was taking forever to go through his body. His hurt was her hurt, and he tipped her chin up. "It's not your fault. It just happens."

"Go see her," Trish said. "Go see her and make sure that she's ok."

"I can't go right now, I have the show."

"You don't have a match scheduled, and you don't have anything else scheduled. I won't feel ok until you make sure that she's ok, because I feel so guilty right now."

"Are you sure?" Chris asked, wondering if this was a trap. Maybe Trish was trying to test his loyalty to her, and this was the way she was trying to do it. If that was the case, then he wouldn't be going to see Stephanie any time soon.

"Yes, just send my deepest apologies to her, seriously, I don't want her thinking I'm this bitch who was out to get her," Trish said, even as she winced at the thought that this could be her fault.

"For the last time, you had nothing to do with this. She was just working all the time, and it caught up to her is all," he said, kissing her. He went to grab his things, and headed for the airport. He would try to make the next flight to Connecticut, but it ended up being booked. He caught the next one though, only having to wait a couple of hours for it to come. Such was the problem with buying tickets at the very last moment.

The flight was long, by his standards at least. It was not leisurely, and he kept thinking about Stephanie being broken. He knew she wasn't a toy, but a person, but it didn't mean that she couldn't be broken. Stephanie was just like anybody else in the world, they were capable of being hurt, and sad, and every other emotion in the broad spectrum. He tapped his fingers against the armrest continuously, probably annoying the people near him, but well, they didn't say anything, and so he didn't care to stop.

He finally arrived, and the rental car people were more than nice to him, accommodating him quickly so he wasn't waiting forever like in those car rental commercial where they told you that they tried harder, and not just tried hard. He didn't exactly know the way to Stephanie's house, he knew the address, but he didn't know how to get there, and had to stop at two gas stations in order to find the place correctly.

The house was dark, as was custom since it was pretty late. The flight had not been short, and with his added detours, it was approaching the midnight hour. He got out of the car he had parked in her driveway and walked up to her house. He rang the doorbell and tapped his foot as he waited for her to answer. He wouldn't be surprised if she had been asleep, but if she was, he could just come back the next morning. She answered moments later, squinting her eyes to see in the dim light coming from the porch light.

"Chris?"

"Hey, thought I'd drop by."

"Does Trish know that you're here?" was the first thing that came out of her mouth.

Chris nodded and Stephanie let him enter her house. She looked beyond tired, though it could've just been the way the light was hitting her. There were dark circles under her eyes, but they were bright too, like she was trying valiantly to keep them open. Her hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail, tendrils of hair falling out all over the place, some tucked behind her ears, some framing her face. She was in a robe, and she seemed to sink into it, melt away, swim in it, it was so large on her. Had she always looked so haggard, so old when she was barely past her mid-twenties?

"So I guess you heard about me going psycho," Stephanie said as she led him into the kitchen and started the coffeepot. "Coffee?"

"How much coffee have YOU had?" Chris asked, taking her in again.

"None for the last couple of hours," she said with a tiny smile.

"Maybe it's better if you don't have any more," Chris told her.

"Ok," she said, relenting easily as she turned it off. "I'm guessing you don't want any?"

"No, I'm good."

"So?" Stephanie said, looking down, and then back up at him. "What are people saying about me?"

"Nobody is saying anything."

"You're a liar."

"Yeah, I am a liar. It's not that bad. But...what happened?"

"I guess it just all caught up to me," Stephanie said. "You know, I was working too hard, without a break. But why would I take a break? I had nothing I had to take a break for, so what was the point?"

"Well, you know, still, take a break, eat, sleep, function."

"Well, I know that now," she answered, scoffing. "I guess it took a nervous breakdown for me to realize that."

"Are you cold?" Chris asked, taking in the way that she was wrapping her arms around herself.

"Not really, just a little," she answered. "So you came to check up on me?"

"Something like that...I felt partially responsible," he told her. He wasn't sure if that was a smart idea, to just tell her like that, but he was running out of things to say to her.

"Don't be, nobody but myself is responsible. I need to learn not to work all the time. But if that's why you came here, your conscience is clear, and you don't have to stay. Thank you for dropping by though, I really appreciate it."

"Are you trying to get rid of me?"

"We both know what happened last time the two of us...I don't' want to get you in trouble with Trish again Chris..."

"I haven't dreamt about you at all for the past two days."

She smiled, genuinely this time, "That's great, I'm really happy for you."

She meant it too. He wanted her to mean it, or something like that. He might've thought that she would be disappointed, or sad, or something, but he was just beginning to blur the line between his dreams and reality. In reality, Stephanie wouldn't care whether or not she was being dreamed about. He was with Trish, and he cared about her, he almost loved her, and this was just the reaction that Stephanie was supposed to have.

"Are you happy for yourself?" Stephanie asked, catching him off guard with the question.

"What?" he asked, confused, the question seemingly coming out of nowhere.

"Are you happy that the dreams have stopped?"

Chris nodded quickly, "Of course I am, I never welcomed them in the first place. They were a distraction, and I'm glad they're gone."

"Then try smiling," Stephanie said, hitting his chin gently with her fist. "It'll help convince the people that you're talking to."

"You're not convinced that I'm happy."

"I'm convinced if you are."

"I am," he said, "I really am."

He should be, he thought, he should be happy. And yet the dreams had almost become a comfort to him. A steady thing that he could always count on. Trish, and all the people he dealt with, they had their own minds, and they responded to him according to their thoughts, and opinions, but in his own mind, he was the one who came up with all the answers, and all the questions. And it was a comforting thought, that silly, little world his brain thought up, knowing that he was the one in control. He needed control sometimes.

"Good...do you need a place to crash?"

"That'd be great," he said.

"Follow me."

He followed her right up the stairs and into a spare bedroom. It was quite girly, a flowered bedspread with flowered pillows, and a big quilt resting on the foot of the bed. Doilies adorned the dresser and the vanity table, and there were pictures of flowers on almost all the walls, save for the one with the sheer white curtains, also girlie.

"My mom decorated it, I'm very sorry," Stephanie said off his look.

"It's ok, it has a bed," he said, plopping down on it as if to show that he was ok with being in this girlie room.

"Ok, bathroom's down the hall, good night."

"Night Stephanie."

Chris lay there in bed, and maybe it was the setting, and maybe it was the fact he had seen Stephanie, but the dreams...they came back.

They were dancing. The room was empty and they were dancing. No furniture, no lighting, no nothing. There wasn't even any music, but they were dancing like a string quartet was fueling their feet across the bare floors. She was tucked against him, the beating of his heart the only rhythm she was following.

"They say you're supposed to carry your new wife across the threshold."

"They also say you're supposed to eat the top of your wedding cake on your first year anniversary, but there's no way that I'm going to eat stale wedding cake, that's disgusting," Chris said softly.

"What are we dancing to?"

"Nothing."

"Then why are we dancing?" she asked, making no attempt to stop the dancing, only asking to make sense of their actions.

"Because sometimes you just gotta dance," he said with a laugh.

"So this is one of those times?"

"Yeah, besides, who needs music?"

"I guess you're right. I can't believe we got married."

"I can't believe you didn't trip on that insanely long train that your dress had," he pointed out.

"I have impeccable balance," she giggled, repeating a line that she had said once. Was it a long time ago now? Yes, but it still run true in his brain.

"Let's just keep dancing forever," he said.

"We can't."

"Who says?"

"The laws of the Earth."

"Oh...those are good laws."

"They are."

"Dance with me forever Stephanie?"

"Until my feet hurt."

"So forever then?"