For Stephanie, there wasn't a whole lot that felt better than being in the ring.

Although this time was a little strange, she had never gone out there to announce that she was pregnant. Not that she really was pregnant, which would've been a disaster. Yes, at this point in her life, where she was on top of the world, both professionally and personally, a baby would be a disaster, but as a catalyst for a storyline that would headline WrestleMania, well, it didn't get much better.

She was sobbing, because when you make a confession after your "husband" has just bitched you out, sobbing is almost a formality. Check it off the list and then go for the jugular. The fans weren't expecting it, she knew it, and they sure as hell wouldn't expect where this was all going to end up, and that was half the fun of it. As she scrunched her face up into a grimace of sorts, and through her blurred eyes saw Hunter leaving the ring, she knew now was the moment, now was the exact moment that she was going to start the storyline that would be bigger than any other she had ever been a part of.

Stephanie was definitely one for hyperbole.

"Hunter, it's because I'm…I'm…pregnant!" she shouted for the world to hear, and hear her they did as the crowd quieted down into a mere murmur, stunned by the twist that had developed before their eyes. Hunter played it off quite well from where she was standing. He had stopped, half turned and she continued, "Hunter, I didn't want to do this in front of everybody, I couldn't help it, Hunter. That's why I've been so moody, that's why I've been so argumentative with you…I…"

And here is where Hunter turned and acted the role of the stunned recipient of the news. He was a little more receptive to the storyline now, but having her naked for most of the weekend helped in that. She believed in this storyline and if she had to go for a record for staying in bed to get Hunter to believe in it too, then that's what she had to do. She just thanked the Lord she had charm to spare.

She continued her little speech amid the crowd's chants of "bullshit." Well, you couldn't win them all, and she had the reputation of being a slut, and for the first time realized, she was going to live up to that expectation. She wanted to laugh at that, but instead, collected herself, "Hunter, it doesn't matter anybody else thinks, but I know how bad you want to be a dad, and you know how badly I want to be a mom, and we are finally going to be a family, that's why we need to renew our wedding vows, that's why, so we can be a family all together. Hunter, don't do it for you, don't do it for me, do it our baby."

Stephanie had never wanted to cackle more, and she loved getting into her character, crimped hair, tight clothing and all. She pressed her hand against her abdomen as Hunter turned fully to her, stunned and shocked. As the crowd chanted, "It's not yours," Hunter bore down on her and then lifted her up into the air. They made out in the middle of the ring for a little while before going backstage.

Stephanie was pumped up on adrenaline and jumped around on her feet a bit as Hunter trailed behind her, a little more subdued. "Did you see that out there, Hunter? Did you feel it? Did you?"

"Feel what exactly?" he asked, looking around as if looking for something to pop out at them. She grasped both his hands in hers and held them tightly.

"The crowd, everything, us, how it came off, I think it came off so well, I mean, with me being all boo-hoo about you not wanting to renew our vows and then completely turning that around when I said I was pregnant, we played it to perfection. I swear, they never saw it coming."

"Yeah, it was really something," he said dully and she frowned as she looked at him.

"I thought you were okay with this now," she told him, lowering her voice so that nobody would hear the potential fight brewing. Much of her and Hunter's love life was already out there and at some point, she did want a little privacy.

"I am okay with it, I'm just tired or something," Hunter said, but he was really thinking about the implications that this pregnancy angle was going to produce. If everything went according to plan (and he had to admit, he kind of didn't want it to go according to plan), then Chris would be the potential father of this baby, if there was a baby at all.

"Are you sure?" she asked, taking her right hand and running it over his face, "Are you getting sick or something?"

"No, not sick, just tired," he shrugged, pulling her into his body. "Do you want to go back to the hotel now and just hang out, or lie around, do something together?"

"Not right this second," she told him, hugging him too. "Do you think it went well out there? And tell me the truth, tell me if I sucked and I wasn't believable, I can handle it."

"You were great as usual," he said, kissing the top of her head. Stephanie sighed and let this new feeling of contentment pass through her. Couple that with the adrenaline and she was floating on cloud nine at the moment. It didn't get much better than this, a good man by her side and a good storyline to be acted out.

Stephanie was unaware that, just over her shoulder, Hunter had spotted Chris walking over towards them. Stephanie felt Hunter's grip on her tighten a little bit and she just hugged him tighter in response. Hunter stared down Chris, who rolled his eyes to himself. Hunter had issued that warning to Chris previously and if Chris knew what was good for him, he would heed Hunter's warning. Hunter had been with Stephanie over a year now and he'd be damned if he was going to lose her, or everything that went along with her.

"Okay Hunter, baby, can't breathe," Stephanie giggled as she tried to pull away. She eventually did so, though Hunter let her go reluctantly. She gazed up at him, "What's up with you tonight? Do you want me so bad you can't even stop touching me?"

What the hell, let her believe that, he thought before answering, "Yeah, seeing you out there, and what you're wearing, I can't get enough of you."

She laughed and teasingly stepped on her tiptoes to brush her lips against his mouth. He pulled her in for a deeper kiss, but she pulled away at the last moment, winking at him before turning around, intending to go grab their things and head to the hotel for a little more discreet fun in their hotel room. Instead, she saw Chris and rushed over to him, much to Hunter's chagrin as he watched his girlfriend go over to the man he despised most in this world.

"Hey Chris, did you see us out there?" Stephanie asked, sounding for all the world a young girl who was looking for approval from everyone and anyone. But in a way, that's what Stephanie was, she was younger than both Chris and Hunter, and in some ways, she still was young and naïve and she certainly had no clue the kind of asshole she was dating.

"Yeah, I saw, you guys did a great job," he answered easily, nodding to Hunter over her shoulder. "Nice job out there, Trip."

"Yeah, thanks," Hunter mumbled, "Steph, can we get out of here?"

"Hold on, I'm talking to the last piece to this puzzle," she said, pretty much ignoring the tone in his voice. If only Stephanie knew that Hunter had warned Chris about this storyline, she probably wouldn't be as receptive to her boyfriend right now.

But Chris wasn't going to be the one to spill those beans. No, Chris knew when to keep his mouth shut and he wasn't the kind of guy who was going to butt into someone else's relationship. So he kept his mouth shut even though Stephanie should know what kind of scum she was dating. The kind of scum who probably didn't even trust his own girlfriend. Stephanie had a good head on her shoulders, but when it came to her taste in boyfriends, it was sketchy at best.

"Stephanie, I'm going to go get our things so we can leave as soon as you're done here," Hunter told her.

"Yeah, sure, okay," Stephanie nodded. She turned her back to him, and in doing so didn't catch the dirty look that Hunter sent in Chris's direction. There was a lot of malice in that look, and Hunter silently let Chris know that he had both eyes on him.

"So…"

"I'm sorry about Hunter," Stephanie sighed. Chris briefly wondered if she knew about the warning. "He's just really tired."

"Is that what he's saying?" Chris asked.

"Why, do you think he's lying?" Stephanie challenged. Chris shrugged lazily and Stephanie shook her head. "I don't know, but I'm just on such a high right now. It's finally happening, are you excited, this was your brainchild."

"Yeah, I'm excited," he answered, and she grinned at him, a grin he found himself returning a second later.

"Good, good, I wouldn't want you to be completely not into this storyline, I don't need to be the only one behind it, besides my dad of course, and your wife, since Hunter told me that you said she didn't have a problem with it," Stephanie responded. "So I guess it really is just Hunter who's being the ass."

"Well, if the shoe fits," Chris said.

Stephanie laughed and hit in him the arm, "Oh come on, you know that's my boyfriend. He just worries about me is all. He's just…he likes to protect me, be the big, strong protector, that's all. I'm sure you play the same role for your wife when the opportunity arises."

If Stephanie wanted to believe that Hunter was protecting her that would be her error. She generally liked to believe in the good in people. Stephanie was a lot different from the image she projected, and that's why people backstage liked her. She did see the good in people and she tried her hardest at what she did. But if she saw Hunter as her protector, she was severely wrong. Hunter loved her yes, but protected her, no, that wasn't a title that he held.

"Yeah, I get what you're saying," he said, not commenting on anything else that she said, and not wanting to stick his foot out there and make her angry.

"Well, it'll be okay, you know. Our part of the story is going to come up fast and furious though. I don't know how you feel about…um…wow, how do I put this?" Stephanie paused and twirled a piece of crimped hair around her finger. "In the interest of professionalism…we should probably…practice, wow, that word sounds so bad and inappropriate for this conversation. I just think that…okay, let me put it this way, do you remember our other two kisses?"

"I seem to have a recollection of them, yes," he chuckled, like how could he forget them really?

"Yeah, and do you remember how we…set them up so that they were timed out well and everything. Like with the first one, how you and I practiced how you would hold me and then drop me, to get the maximum effect?"

"Yes, I remember that," he nodded along with her rambling.

"Yeah, well, good. Because I was thinking, and this is totally in your court, totally, but I was thinking that maybe we should have a meeting in which we try to come up with ways in which we look like a couple," she finished, finally, and feeling a slight blush creep up onto her cheek. It wasn't the practicing with Chris that made her blush, but just the fact that she had to ask him if they needed to practice being a couple. There were some things in the business that came naturally, her dumping coffee on Lillian the other week didn't need practice, or her giving her father a present on Christmas, that didn't need practicing, but when you had two people with no experience being together, they do say that practice makes perfect.

"Do you think we need to?"

"Well, we could probably think of couple-like things to do, holding hands, hugging, kissing, you know, those kinds of things," she said, starting to feel a little uncomfortable. The adrenaline was starting to ebb and in its place came the awkwardness she had been feeling around Chris recently. The idea of him touching her and her touching him, it was enough to make any girl nervous.

Stephanie was not blind and she wasn't going to pretend to be. She knew that Chris was a good-looking guy; they banked on those good looks more often than not. Did she find him attractive? Yes, she did, she wasn't going to lie. Did she want anything romantic to happen between them backstage? Absolutely not, but she wasn't going to deny the fact that Chris was a good-looking man with whom, for all the world to see, she was going to mimic having an affair with.

"I'm game for a brainstorming session," he responded.

"Brainstorming, that's good, I like that word a lot better than practicing," she told him. "But I want to be realistic. I don't want to look like two people thrown together for a storyline, you know what I mean."

"I know," he told her. "And I agree, I want to play it like it's meant to be played. I want to look like we're having an affair."

"Then I'm not stupid in wanting to…brainstorm?"

"No, but I'd run it by Hunter if I were you," Chris said.

Stephanie rolled her eyes, "He's not my babysitter."

Chris recalled himself saying the same thing, or at least something of the same thing to Hunter during their "meeting." Regardless, Stephanie brought out her cell phone, and Chris almost wanted to tell her that Hunter wasn't going to answer. He'd put money down on the fact that he wouldn't answer.

"What are you doing?"

"Telling Hunter there's a change of plans. If you're not busy we can get it over with so by the time we really get hot and heavy in our storyline, things aren't going to be so awkward. I don't want to go to kiss you in front of everyone and have our noses bump or have to figure out where to put my hands," she giggled, giving him a look that made him laugh despite himself.

"I'm not busy," he told her.

"Great," she said, dialing Hunter's number. She waited for a moment and then growled under her breath. "God, that man infuriates me sometimes. He never answers his damn phone. It's like he does this on purpose. Oh well, let's go."

"Your stuff?" Chris asked.

"Oh, Hunter will get it, let's go." Stephanie started walking down the hallway, leaving Chris behind her. He stared at her back for a second and shrugged before following her.

He could always claim it was her idea.