Chapter 12

"You seem happy today," Hunter said, observing his wife. "What have you been up to?"

"You want the truth?" Stephanie asked. She was sitting on the couch while he got ready for his match against Kane. It was time for the new storyline to make its way to TV, and she was surprised to find that she was looking forward to him going out there. Maybe she was just looking forward to getting the chance to hang out with Chris again...

"Oh, but of course," he said, sitting down to lace up his boots. He glanced over at her. "Who's making you smile?"

"Chris," she said simply.

"Jericho?" he asked, raising his eyebrows when she nodded. "How's he making you smile? You two barely even know each other."

"We're getting to know each other," she countered. "We figured, since you and Trish are going to be spending a lot of time together because of this new storyline, that we should get to know each other better." She smiled at him. "Don't you think that's a good idea?"

"Hey, if it makes you happy, I'm cool with it," he said, shrugging as he stood up. He walked over to her and pulled her to her feet and into his arms. "You know I'm all about making you happy, Steph."

"How sweet," she said absently, leaning against him. She didn't get many hugs from him. Hugs, kisses, and other physical contact with him had been rare in the past six months, and she wondered why he suddenly felt the need to hug her. She wasn't going to complain, though. He was her husband, and despite his betrayal with Trish, she still loved him so much... Maybe too much, if she was honest with herself.

"No, you're the sweet one, Steph," he said, pulling away. He looked over at the clock on the wall. "Oh, I'm going to have to leave in a few minutes. My match is coming up."

"Yeah, I know, your match against Kane," she said, biting her lip lightly. "Are you going to be ok?"

"I'll be great out there. I'm always great out there," he said cockily. He looked at her, and a serious expression appeared on his face. "Are you going to be ok?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" she asked, sitting back down. "I'm not going to be out there with you. I won't be in harm's way at all."

"I know, but Trish will be out there," he said in a gentle voice. "Are you sure you'll be ok watching me and her out there...together? You know, after what happened?"

"Believe it or not, I'll be fine," she answered him, looking away. "Chris and I are going to watch it together."

"Oh really?" he asked, raising his eyebrows again. "You and Jericho?"

"Yeah, and why are you calling him Jericho? He does have a first name, you know," she snapped.

"Sorry, don't get all mad about it. I've always called him that," he said, putting his hands up. "I didn't know that it offended you."

"It doesn't," she said softly, her attitude changing immediately. "Why would it?"

"I don't know," he said, shrugging. "You're hot and cold today, Steph, sort of moody. Are you really ok?"

"I told you, I'm fine," she insisted. "Quit bugging me about it."

"If you say so," he said, giving her an odd look.

"I do," she said, returning his look. She held his gaze steadily, and she wouldn't have looked away had it not been for someone knocking on the door. She jumped up from the couch and brushed past him, swinging the door open a few seconds later. "Hey, Chris," she said, beaming when she saw Chris leaning in the doorway.

"Hey there, Princess," Chris said, smiling at her. He looked over her shoulder and saw Hunter standing there. "Oh yeah, Trish is waiting for you. You might want to get a move on, if you don't want her to be bitching at you."

"Yeah, you're right, Jericho," Hunter said. Stephanie glared at him, and he quickly corrected himself. "I meant, you're right, Chris." He looked at Chris and Stephanie, then walked out the door, bumping into Chris's shoulder on the way out.

"The tension in here was so thick I could cut it with a knife," Chris said, looking at Stephanie. "What's going on?"

"I don't know. I'm feeling kind of out of it, know what I mean?" Stephanie asked.

"Are you sick?" he asked, concerned. He put a hand up to her forehead. "Hmmm. You don't seem to have a fever, but when I look at you, you look pretty hot."

"I'm always hot," she joked, reaching out to touch him. "Don't you think so?"

"Yep. You're quite the hottie," he agreed, moving his hand from her forehead to her cheek. "It's nice to see you smiling."

"It's nice to be smiling," she said, placing her hand over the hand he had up to her face. "Um, so do you want to go somewhere and watch this match?"

"Sure," he said, hastily removing his hand from her face. "Where to?"

"Does my office sound ok?" she asked, looking at him.

"Sounds perfect to me," he said. "Let's go..."

Trish stood waiting near the gorilla for Hunter. "I'll give him five more minutes, and then I'm going to get pissed at him," she said to herself.

"You don't even have to be out there yet," Kane said from behind her. "You don't have to come out until near the end of our match."

"I know that already," she snapped. "But I need to talk to Hunter before, to work out some last minute...stuff."

"Sure, that's what you want him for," he said sarcastically, shaking his head.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" she demanded.

"That you're not as careful as you'd like to think that you are," he said mysteriously. "Now, I don't like to talk during the last two minutes before my matches. It's my good luck ritual, so if you'll kindly...talk to yourself or something..."

"Whatever," she said, rolling her eyes. She saw Hunter walking in their direction and she hurried over to meet him. "What took you so long?" she asked.

"What are you talking about? I'm not late," Hunter pointed out.

"You know I like to be early for my matches," she reminded him.

"This is my match," he said. "And plus, I got a little caught up talking to Steph and Chris."

"Chris? My Chris?" He nodded and she frowned. "He's with your wife?"

"Well, yeah," he said with a shrug. "Why?"

"He was acting weird today," she said, remembering the way he'd acted when he'd come back to his locker room after his "talk" with Stephanie. "I think something's up with him."

"You know, come to think of it, Steph was acting kind of funny, too," he said, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "She was in a really good mood, and when I called him Jericho, she practically bit my head off for it. It's like one minute she was really happy and the next second she was in this really foul mood..."

"Hey, you two lovebirds," Kane called. "I'm going out. You're up next, Hunter." He smiled at the looks on their faces, then disappeared through the curtains as his music went off.

"What the hell did he mean by that?" Hunter asked, mouth agape. "Lovebirds?"

"He... I think he knows something about us," Trish said quietly. "Before you came up, he said that we weren't being as careful as we thought we were..."

"I wonder how much he knows?"

"I wonder how much he'd tell?"

They looked at each other, and then his music went off and he stepped through the curtains without another word...

A/N: I know this chapter is kind of short, but I really didn't know what else to write in this chapter... Oh, and if you haven't been reading my story "The Princess and The Duke" you should totally check it out. The title might be a little misleading to some of you, and it's sort of a Chris/Steph/Rich triangle... I just uploaded Chapter 6 and parts of it are kinda...steamy...between a very married Chris and a very single Steph... It has to be my favorite chapter of them all!