"Don't you even touch that!"

"Are you kidding me with this?" Stephanie asked as she looked at the box labeled "Blankets."

"I'm not kidding, don't touch it, I'll get it," Chris said impatiently.

"Chris, I'm not a porcelain doll," Stephanie told him angrily, hands on hips as she stared him down at the beginning of their driveway. "I think that I can carry a box of blankets, that doesn't seem like such an arduous task."

"You're not supposed to be lifting things, you could throw out your back and then you'll be stuck in bed for weeks and I'm not going to listen to you complain," he told her, walking up to her with a large box in his hands. "I'm telling you, that's what the movers are for, when they get here with the furniture, they will bring the stuff inside."

She dug her hands into her hips, "Chris, I don't get why you're being so overprotective, I can help too you know, just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean that I can't help. I can so help!"

"You can help by unpacking things or something while I bring things inside," he said as he set the box down and swiped his hand across his sweaty forehead. "Look, humor me okay? I don't ask you for much, but humor me with this. I just don't want my pregnant girlfriend carrying things."

"I don't want to just sit around like an idiot!" she protested.

Chris sighed and walked up to her from behind as she turned her back away from him. He kissed her neck and slung one hand over her shoulder and across her chest so it rested on her left arm. With his left arm he snuck it around her waist to rest it on her growing stomach. Touching her stomach and feeling the roundness of it always brought a smile to his face as he thought about the baby growing inside. His baby was growing in there, his baby was coming not too far off from now.

"Humor me, please?" he whispered teasing his lips against her neck. "Come on Steph, you know I love you and the baby, little no-name boy Irvine. I just want you to take it easy." He rubbed his hand gently over her swollen abdomen and noticed as she frowned. He pressed another kiss to her neck, hoping to calm her down enough so that she would take it easy.

"Fine, I'll humor you, but only because I love you."

"So you don't know how he took it?"

"No, I've been avoiding him for the past week or so," Stephanie told Trish as they sat for a cup of coffee. "I even did my stupid idea of having a go-between with me and Finny. I drop him off at my parent's house, Chris picks him up there and then we do that in reverse for when I have to pick him up."

"That's no way to live Steph," Trish told her.

"Look, I know, but I don't know what to say or do in this situation," Stephanie answered. "I mean, at some point, we've got to move on if we have any chance of finding other people. If I'm not supposed to be with Chris, then I firmly believe I'm supposed to be with someone else out there, and he's just waiting for me, and I have to take that plunge."

"So soon?"

"Yes, because if I don't do it while I have the nerve, then I'm never going to do it."

Trish quietly took another sip of her coffee, rolling her eyes to herself when she knew that Stephanie wasn't looking. It was such a typical McMahon thing to barrel forward into something. Shane with his plan to get Chris and Stephanie back together and Stephanie with her wanting to move on, didn't anyone take any time any more to grieve something? She wasn't sure if Stephanie was doing this to prove a point or to convince herself that what was right in front of her wasn't the right thing.

With that, Trish groaned inwardly. Now she was starting to think along the same wavelength as Shane and that was never a good idea. If things had been perfect between Chris and Stephanie, then obviously they would still be together and not broken up as they were now. They would've found a way to work out whatever happened between the two of them.

"Well, okay then," Trish said, at a loss for words. "If you think that you're ready to move on, then you're ready to move on. How do you think that Finn is going to take all of this?"

Stephanie bit her lip, "He sees me and Chris all the time, so I don't think it'd be too big an adjustment for him. I mean, he's a smart kid, and he's growing up, he can learn to understand that Chris and I aren't together anymore."

"Yeah, he is a smart kid, but he's also four and the only world he's ever known has had you and Chris together," Trish pointed out.

Stephanie groaned, "Look, Shane already gave me this talk, but things between Chris and I are over. We're over, that's it."

"Why though, Stephanie? That's what everyone is wondering, not even two months ago, you were fine, you were sending me pictures of Finn in preschool and everything and pictures from your birthday at the park and I had to hear about all the sweet things that Chris did for you, and all the sex you had that was so great and blah blah blah, if the sex was good, why'd you end it?"

Stephanie laughed, "Of course the sex was good, the sex was always good with Chris, I mean, those hands, my God, why do you think I ended up pregnant unexpectedly?" She shook her head and continued, "The bottom line is that Chris wanted to get married and I didn't."

"He asked again?" Trish said, knowing the number of times that Chris had asked in the past.

"Yeah, he asked again, and we fought again."

"Stephanie, I'm going to have to side with him on this one, I don't know why you won't just marry the man. You have everything that you could possibly want, why won't you just give him this one concession?"

"Because I have reasons that are my own and you don't need to know the reasons and nobody else does either," Stephanie said defensively.

"Okay, okay, geez Stephanie, don't blow a gasket over there. I get that you're upset, you don't need to get any more defensive about it. I know that you have reasons, I wouldn't expect you to upend your life if there wasn't a good reason."

"People just don't get it," she said softly. At least the people in her life didn't get it. She was sure that there were plenty of women out there like her. There had to be at least one woman out there who had gotten pregnant by her boyfriend and that boyfriend proposed only because she was pregnant. She knew there were and that comforted her a little bit. She was also happy that she hadn't been the one to say yes and enter a marriage based on force rather than choice.

Before she had gotten pregnant, she and Chris never faced choices, it was always just do whatever felt right. They were never serious about being together, just living for the moment and having fun. Maybe Finnegan had been God's little wake-up call to say that every relationship is serious and who were they kidding to think they could get away with just having fun with each other? The sex had been good and the dates had been fun, and they spent time apart so they each had their independence. In fact, it was those aspects that had appealed to them in the first place.

"We'd get it if you tell us," Trish answered, trying to be sympathetic.

"It's over now anyways, time to move on," Stephanie said, cheering herself up. "So do you know of any guys who wouldn't mind going out with a woman with a son?"

"Well, if you're really serious about getting back into dating--"

"I am, I can't keep living like I have a future with Chris because it's painfully obvious that there is no future for us," she said in one quick breath.

"Then my brother-in-law might be a good place to start. He's thirty-two, never been married, no kids. He's a really nice guy, you met him at the wedding last year, remember?"

"Um, I don't think so, Chris and I got pretty wasted that night since my parents were taking care of Finny and we were way into each other," Stephanie said, "I don't think I'd remember anyone if it was on that night."

"Oh yeah, you and Chris making out in the corner, I remember that," Trish laughed, "At least you two didn't make a spectacle of yourselves."

"Neither one of us can hold our liquor anymore. We pretty much stopped drinking when Finny was born so that night we were like gone after two drinks. But if he's your brother-in-law, then I'm sure you know him well enough to recommend him to me."

"Yeah, he's funny and nice, and he's good-looking too, so I think you might hit it off, if you are in fact ready to date, because if you aren't, then don't rush it. I mean, you really are just coming off a very serious relationship that lasted for a long time, and that involves a child."

"I'll be fine Trish, trust me, it's time to move on."

For Chris, nobody told him that the rest of his life would be so mundane. He wanted something catastrophic to happen just so that he could take his mind off of Stephanie and this entire dating thing. He didn't like the idea of it one single bit. He wanted to be with Stephanie and she was the only woman he had ever wanted to marry. For her to be the one suggesting that they go see other people was just enough to rip his heart out, but not enough to see it crushed.

After the gift she had given him, he thought there might be a brief hope. Against his better judgment, he had looked up how much the items had cost, and the two items of memorabilia she had picked up cost her over 400,000 dollars. Stephanie was known to go a little all-out, but this was definitely all-out. He loved his gift, but every time he looked at it, instead of reminding him of one of his favorite bands, if not his favorite band, it reminded him of Stephanie. She had been planning a day for him, and obviously planning a gift for him, and maybe that was enough. Maybe he should've just taken what he could've gotten and forgotten all about the marriage nonsense.

Maybe he still could do that. It wasn't worth it anymore, it wasn't a joke anymore. He had an apartment he hated for the sheer fact that it didn't have her in it. The furniture was fine and the space was nice, but it didn't have Stephanie in it. When he went to bed at night, she wasn't next to him and he couldn't talk about all his frustrations of the day and have her lay her head on his chest and listen as he rambled on. Nobody would listen to him ramble now, not even Finnegan, who would listen for a few moments before wandering off to find something better to do.

The gift had to mean something and maybe she was trying to counter-attack with this dating thing. He had hurt her by leaving so she was hurting him by saying she was going to date someone else. Yeah, that had to be it. If she would take him back, he'd take what he could get again and never bring up marriage. But he was going nuts without her. He could barely stand it anymore, something had to give.

"Daddy," Finnegan asked as he walked over from his coloring table.

"Yeah?"

"Were you sleeping?" Finnegan asked.

"No Finn, I was just thinking really hard."

"About what?" he asked curiously.

"Mommy," Chris answered, figuring that lying wouldn't do any good in this situation. "Come here for a second."

Finnegan climbed on the couch and sat next to Chris, emulating the position that he was in as Chris rested his arm on Finnegan's head playfully. "Daddy, your arm is heavy."

"Thanks," Chris said proudly. "Anyways, you love Mommy right?"

"I love Mommy!" Finnegan explained exuberantly.

"I love her too, she's great huh?"

"Yeah, she's great," Finnegan said, mimicking Chris's words. "She made me grilled cheese yesterday and then we had carrot sticks and Mommy was pretending she was a seal."

"Yeah, Mommy's silly huh?"

"Silly, yeah," Finnegan confirmed. "Do you love Mommy lots and lots, cause I love Mommy this much," Finn told him, holding his arms out. "And Mommy said that she loves me to the end of the…something, but it's a lot."

"Yeah, I love Mommy lots and lots," Chris said. "Do you think that maybe I should try to get back together with Mommy? I mean, I know that she's stubborn and she might not want to get back together with Daddy, but don't you think I should try?"

It was pathetic how he was trying to get a four-year old to convince him to get back together with his girlfriend. But then, it wasn't just any four-year old, it was his son, the product of said relationship with said girlfriend. If anyone should be able to convince him to get back together with her, his mere presence should've done the trick. He looked at his little boy, who was staring straight ahead.

"Yeah," Finnegan nodded resolutely.

"You think that I should then? You think that me and Mommy should be together?"

"Yeah," Finnegan told him, but he probably didn't know what he was talking about. Again, he was a four-year old.

"I should though, I mean, I've been with her for six years, and I've loved her for most of those years. It didn't take me that long to fall in love with her, two months tops because we had been friends beforehand, and the se—uh, never-mind about that. But I can live without getting married right, I mean, look at Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell and that other couple whose name escapes me, they aren't married, you know. They've just been together for like twenty years, wouldn't that be a common-law marriage though? I don't know, but still, they never got officially married, so me and Stephanie don't have to get officially married," Chris muttered to himself. "I can live with that, right? I mean, I can live without having that part of her."

"Daddy, you talk too much," Finnegan said as he hopped off the couch and went back to his coloring.

"So do you," Chris teased as he went back to his thinking. "Can I live without the marriage? What if she just doesn't want me though? It's a possibility, not one I'd like to explore, but that's definitely a possibility. Maybe she's been planning on leaving? But then why get me such an expensive and kick-ass gift if she was just going to leave me? Why pretend to be happy? No, that can't be it, she was happy, she said as much. I can't…I need to marry her, I want her to be Stephanie Irvine and that's final. Finn?"

"What?" Finn asked as he looked up.

"I want to marry your Mommy, I can't just be with her as boyfriend and girlfriend, and if she doesn't budge, I can't be with her."

"Can I have some crackers?" Finnegan asked, not even caring what Chris was saying.

"Finn, come on man, I'm having a crisis here!"

"Oh," he said, "I can get the crackers, okay?"

Chris closed his eyes and laughed, "I'm sorry kiddo, your mother is driving me nuts. I love her, you know, so much and she's driving me nuts. I don't know whether I'm coming or going, and she's sending me these mixed signals, I hope that you don't ever have girl troubles."

"Can we go see Mommy?" he asked.

"Yeah, let's go see Mommy, maybe I can break her down," Chris said, standing up.

"Like the Walls of Jericho," Finnegan said proudly.

"Yeah, maybe I should put Mommy in that so she'll come around. You want a piggyback ride?"

"Uh huh," Finnegan said as Chris knelt down to allow his son to climb onto his back. Chris hooked his arms under Finnegan's legs and they were out the door and galloping down the hallway. Finnegan laughed as Chris made a horse sound and went to Stephanie's office, knocking on the door.

"Come in!"

Chris opened the door and Stephanie looked up. Her eyes widened for a moment before calming down enough to smile in Finnegan's direction, but completely ignore Chris's presence. That stung a little bit, but Chris pushed it aside as he set Finnegan down. Stephanie threw up a finger, signaling that she needed a moment as she wrote something down on her paper. Then she looked up and beckoned Finnegan over. He ran over and hugged her.

"What brings you here?" she asked.

Finnegan shrugged and clung a little tighter to Stephanie. "I'm hungry Mommy."

"Well, didn't you and Daddy go get food?" Stephanie asked as Finnegan shook his head against her. "Don't you want to go get food with Daddy, I'm sure he'll let you get anything you want, totally against my wishes, but still…"

"I want to go with you," he mumbled.

"Okay, we can go," she nodded, "let me just finish up with this."

"Hey Steph?" Chris said, actually making his presence known. Stephanie wanted to ignore him, but the tone of his voice was too melodic for her to stop herself from looking up at him. She bit her lip and looked at him, and she knew he could read her, but at this point, she didn't care.

"Yeah?"

"Can we talk?"

"I don't have time tonight, you know that Chris," Stephanie said quickly. She didn't want to talk to Chris. She didn't need to talk to Chris. They had a system and it worked. They didn't need to talk to each other anymore and the both of them could move on. She couldn't keep putting her heart through the wringer while she was around him. She just couldn't go through that.

But she could move on, she knew that she could. She was a strong, independent woman, and she was still only thirty-one years old, which was nothing. She just needed to break free from Chris completely and then she could do it, she could find someone. And Chris wasn't that someone, so somebody else was. She had to believe there was someone perfect out there for her or she might just give up hope. Finnegan had been a fluke, not an indicator. If she and Chris had been more careful, there never would've been a Finnegan and she might've found her soul-mate, not that she resented Finnegan or anything, because she loved him with all her heart.

"Okay then, it doesn't have to be tonight," Chris told her. "I just need to talk to you soon, and we both know that we live close enough to see each other, and we work together, so there's time. How about tomorrow? We can go out for dinner and just talk because I need to talk to you. It's important."

Stephanie cleared her throat a little, like the words she wanted to say were getting stuck in her throat and they really were. She didn't want to have to say the next words because she knew they would probably sound weird on her tongue and Chris probably didn't want to hear them, but she knew that she had to say them anyways. She couldn't make a meeting (she refused to think of it as a date) with Chris the next night for a very specific reason. She tilted her head to the side a little and gazed at him.

"Tomorrow's not good for me," she said quietly.

"Why not? You don't have any meetings on Tuesdays ever, you do work during the day, but the nights are usually free unless in the past month your schedule has changed drastically, and I know you went out with Trish earlier and you'll probably meet for lunch tomorrow, but you never go to dinner with her and so that should mean you're free, so come on, I'm only asking--"

"Chris, I have a date tomorrow night," she put it bluntly. There was no sense in beating around the bush with this one. He would find out sooner or later, and at least this way it was from her mouth and not the exaggerated words of their colleagues.

In all of his thirty-seven years, Chris had never felt pain like this before, and that was saying something. At this very moment, he wished he was in that Hell in a Cell with Paul, or the Elimination Chamber, or every single TLC he had been in. He wished he was fracturing his arm attempting a Shooting Star Press. He wished he was bleeding from the head. Instead, he looked down and took a deep breath.

"Oh," was the only word that came out.

"Yeah, so as you can see, I'm busy," she told him quickly, because she recognized the look on his face. But he was just shocked, she was sure. Once he got over it, he'd go find someone a million times better and more adjusted than she was.

"Yeah, it would seem so," he said, finding his voice. "I've got a match later…so I better head on out of here, you uh…have," he cleared his throat to get the words out, "You have fun tomorrow, you know, good fun, clean…fun."

"Thanks," she told him, wishing that he would get the hell out of here, she needed him out of here.

Chris left the room shortly thereafter and leaned against the wall. He felt like he couldn't breathe, was this feeling in his chest, was that him losing all the air from his body? Or was that his heart constricting to the point of death. He put his hand on his heart and wondered if it was still beating. He felt the pounding against his hand and he wanted to throw up right there, but he couldn't move. He looked both ways to see if there was anyone around, but it was like he couldn't see. He was going to collapse and he needed to sit down, he needed to die is what he needed to do. He needed to just crawl into his bed and expire because this was the worst feeling he had ever felt in his life.

He stumbled his way to his locker room and sat down heavily. He had really lost her now, and that feeling caused his breath to stunt horribly. She would find someone else and she'd be happy and she was probably never happy with him. What could he have done differently? Where could he have changed his ways? Did he not love her enough, did he not show her he loved her? What did he do? He was being punished for someone unknown reason and as he sat there, numb to the world, he wondered if there was anything he could've done to keep her. He wanted nothing more than to keep her.

Stephanie lifted Finnegan up to her desk and sat him in front of her. She hugged him around the waist and just closed her eyes as Finnegan, bored out of his mind and hungry to boot, played with her hair. "Are you sad, Mommy?"

"Uh huh," she told him, still clinging to him.

"Do you want to say the poem to make you feel better?" Finnegan asked.

"No Finny, I don't think that'll cheer Mommy up."

"It cheers me up."

"I know," she told him. "But Mommy is just upset about Daddy. She didn't want to have to tell Daddy the truth because she knew it would hurt him, but in the long run, it is better that he knows and moves on."

"Okay," he said, twisting Stephanie's hair in his fingers.

"Daddy didn't know what he was missing Finny, he didn't know that he deserves better than me. The only reason he stayed with me was because of you," Stephanie said. "Daddy loves you so much that he loved me by extension."

"I love Daddy too," Finnegan told her, wondering why his parents were really sad and why they kept telling him things that he didn't understand. All he wanted was to get something to eat and he had to deal with his crazy parents. "You can go to him."

"No, I can't baby, he's not Mommy's anymore."

"Oh," Finnegan said, and he sounded so much like Chris right there Stephanie wanted to cry.

"He'll understand someday Finny, he'll understand."