Chris looked around his office and smiled. Oh yeah, a guy could get used to this… He smiled smugly and walked around towards the rear of the desk and sat down in the chair, leaning back. As he did so, the chair titled back and panicking, Chris grabbed the desk and brought himself and the chair back up.

"I see you're having a good time," Stephanie chuckled.

Chris gave her a sarcastic laugh and glanced at her as she was leaning against the door frame, dressed in a nice blouse, jeans and sneakers. With her long hair down and shining, she never looked so beautiful. "You have impeccable timing," he sneered.

Stephanie flashed him a smile and walked into the office, sitting on the couch. Glancing around, she nodded her approval. "Pretty cozy."

Chris smiled. "Well thanks." Stephanie giggled and shook her head. "You really like it?"

Stephanie nodded as she messed around with her palm pilot. "Yeah." Chris leaned back and placed his feet on the desk. Stephanie looked up at him. "You might not want to do that though."

"Why?"

Just as Chris asked, he leaned back ever so slightly, and the chair fell backwards. This is, he had no time to react, and fell with it. Stephanie rolled her eyes and went back to her business. "That's why."

----

Chris Irvine. That's all John had been hearing all week. Chris Jericho aka Irvine was back. What about him? He was the champ; he should've been the talk of the town. Not ' should've been the talk of the town. Not 'Y2J'. What kind of nickname was that anyways? John shook his head and sighed as he opened the locker door. Seeing that it was empty, he threw his stuff in a locker and jumped into the shower. Were the rumors about Stephanie and Chris true also? From seeing them together at last week's show, and her practically drooling over his appearance, John believed there was…or possible, still is. He had waited four years for her. Of course he had moved on with his life in few aspects, such as dating…but to him it was nothing special. He was the WWE champion and a recording artist as well as a rising movie star. John had it all, so what chick wouldn't dig him? Stephanie McMahon. She hadn't said one word to him. Nothing. Not, how are you? Great to see you again. My god, you are so hot. Or, you've done great for this company. Maybe I've been a little wrong about you in the past. He thought they had a connection back when he was on Smackdown. Then one day, she just left… Vince tried to cut it into a storyline, but even before when Stephanie wasn't on television live, she was at least backstage, yelling at someone. For months, it wasn't even that. It was at that time that John heard rumors. She was burned out; she quit; she was fired; she was getting married; she was very ill.

John got out of the shower and dried himself off quickly and changed. As he was putting on his sneakers, the door to the locker room opened and Randy stepped in. "Hey man."

"Hey."

Randy tossed his stuff in a locker as well and grabbed a towel from the shelf. He frowned as he noticed that John wasn't in his ring attire; just his shirt and jeans. "Going somewhere?"

John grabbed his wallet and phone. "I'm not scheduled till later on," he said. "I thought I'd just go walk around."

Randy nodded. "I see. Looking to bump into Steph, huh?"

John closed the locker. "What makes you say that?"

Randy grinned at him. "The cologne you're wearing."

John rolled his eyes. "You're an ass." Randy laughed as John closed the door behind him. He is so whipped…

-------

Stephanie twirled her pen in her hand and watched as the crew set up the ring. She leaned back and sighed, deeply bored, as she sat in the stands. She couldn't think straight and it was annoying her. "You look like you've been hit by a semi and you're dragging your bloody body around like a mindless zombie."

Stephanie looked up at Amy and rolled her eyes. "You need to stop watching that horror shit."

Amy laughed and sat down next to Stephanie. "But really…you do look bored. And a little out of it."

"I am," Stephanie admitted. "I should be happy to be back, you know?"

Her friend frowned. "You're not?" Stephanie shook her head. "Wait a minute," Amy said, holding up her hand. "You mean to tell me that Stephanie McMahon; the Stephanie McMahon is bored working in the WWE?"

Stephanie nodded sadly. "Yeah."

"Unbelievable."

Stephanie shrugged. "I think I just need time."

"I agree," Amy said nodding. "I mean, you just came back last week. You need your time to readjust."

"I hope so," Stephanie said.

Amy watched the men setting up and saw John walking down towards the ring with Randy trailing behind him. "Oh, look who it is."

Stephanie saw both men and frowned, looking at Amy. "I thought you and Adam were going out?"

Amy shrugged. "So?"

Stephanie pointed at the two wrestlers as they entered the ring. "So why did you say it like that?"

"Haven't you heard?" Amy asked. Stephanie looked at her blankly. "John's got the biggest crush on you."

This time, it was Stephanie that laughed. "Okay."

Amy frowned. "I'm serious!"

Stephanie rolled her eyes. "Sure."

"Steph!"

"Amy, I haven't seen him since Smackdown!" she protested. "There's no way he even remotely thinks about me. Besides…I'm his boss."

Amy rolled her eyes and stood up. "Okay, whatever. But just watch him. Then you'll see."

Stephanie shook her head and watched Amy walk down the aisle and back into the backstage area. Suddenly, an idea hit her, and Stephanie began writing quickly.

---------

John saw Stephanie the second he stepped onto the ramp. Even more, he knew that she was out there already because he tried looking all over the building for her. She wasn't sitting far away, bit she wasn't too close either. But still, John found himself nervous; as if she was watching his every move and the girls were talking about him. As he walked into the center of the ring, he looked out and saw Amy leaving Stephanie alone, and then she began to write several things down, getting distracted and forgetting that he was there. Or so he thought.

"You alright man?" Randy asked.

John nodded and took off his shirt, throwing it outside the ring. "Yeah," he said, still distracted and watching Stephanie. Randy followed his gaze and snickered. "What?" John said defensively.

Randy shook his head and began to pace around him. "Nothing."

John frowned and began to move every other step so he wasn't caught off guard. "That wasn't 'nothing'."

"Dude, why don't you just ask her out," he said to John. "She's still single."

"It's only been a week."

"A week and four years for you," Randy laughed.

John scowled and went after him, locking in a headlock and taking him down to his knees. "Take it back," he grunted as he applied pressure.

Randy grabbed John's arm trying to get him to loosen the pressure, but to no avail. "No," he choked out. Behind down even further, Randy used his back muscles and lifted John up, over his head, and hit the floor. John, too stunned to move, couldn't stop Randy as he pinned him to the ground, locking in an arm bar. "You are such a pussy, you know that?"

John grunted as he twisted his body and maneuvered out of the move. Both men rose to their feet and John came in with a punch. Randy, his eyes wide, saw it coming and ducked, taking John out from his legs and getting him on the floor again. "I'm not the one that sleeps with a different girl every week." John lifted his legs up and around Randy and trusted him forward. Randy, caught by surprise, hit his head on the ring poll. Holding his forehead, he released John slightly and he took advantage, rolling out from under Randy and pinning him. Acting on instinct, Randy kicked out and scrambled to his feet.

"Aw, man, am I bleeding?" Randy whined, wiping his forehead.

John laughed. "Who's the pussy now?"

Randy glared at John, and then lunged for him. Jumping in the air, grabbing John's neck in the process, he tried to perform his RKO, but John grabbed the small of his back and threw him forward so Randy landed painfully on his back. John wasted no time and grabbed his hair and pulled him up, thrusting him on his shoulders, setting up for the F-U. But Randy fought back and hit John hard in the middle of his back. John cried out from the impact and let go of Randy. He landed on his feet and wrapped his arms around John's waist and lifted him up over him, landing a perfect suplex. Both men lied on the mat, panting, out of breath and worn down.

As John was about to say something to Randy, he heard heels click against the floor. Both men turned and saw Stephanie glaring at them, although there was some amusement to their show in her eyes. "Are you two done?" Unable to speak, Randy nodded. "Good. Go shower up before I put you two to work."

John sat up as she walked away and up the ramp, heading towards the back. Turning around, she called out, "And you two better put on a good show tonight since you decided to waste all your energy!"

Randy chuckled as Stephanie disappeared. John smirked. If she wanted a good show…she was going to get it.

-----

"Where are we going to get that much spray paint?" Michael asked.

Paul shrugged. "I dunno. Wal-Mart?"

Michael pretended to laugh. "Funny."

Paul chuckled and shook his head. "I don't know."

"Well, at least we have a few months."

Paul nodded. "True, but I wouldn't mind doing that storyline now."

"Same here, bro."

"Ugh! For the last time, leave me alone!"

Paul and Michael glanced over to where Chris was coming from, being followed by Mickie James. "But I'm your biggest fan, Jericho!"

Paul chuckled, seeing Chris's face turn red, as if he was about to pull out his hair. Good thing he cut it. "For the last time…the name is Irvine!"

Paul and Michael started laughing and Chris glared at them. "Shut up!"

"Welcome back, Chris!" Michael said to him.

"Fuck you, Shawn," Chris muttered as he walked past them.

Both Michael and Paul high-fived each other as Mickie watched them, clueless.

------

John closed the locker and grabbed his belt as he turned to leave the room. Just as he was about to open it, Rob Van Dam stepped inside, and glared at him. John just stared at him back.

"Yo, dude, why don't you move outta my way?"

John backed up as Rob placed his two fingers in his broad chest and pushed him. John glared at him, but said nothing as Rob walked over to his locker. Instead, he just watched him, and then silently left.

As he walked down the hallway, he looked out for Stephanie. He didn't know too much about Rob, but he knew about professionalism. Once he spotted her, by the gorilla, he quickly walked up to her. Stephanie finished her conversation with the camera man as John walked up to her. "John, what are you doing here? You're not on for another hour."

"I know, I just wanted to discuss something with you."Stephanie raised an eyebrow, thinking of what Amy had told her early. He's not that bad looking… "Yeah. This, Rob Van Dam guy?" Stephanie nodded, immediately knowing where it was heading. "I got a bad vibe from him. I mean, what's his problem?"

Stephanie sighed and ran her hand through her hair, feeling a headache coming on. "Did he physically touch you?"

"Yeah."

"Did you knock him out?"

John shook his head. "No."

Stephanie sighed in relief. "Okay, good. Look, the bad thing about timing right now is that you're going to have to deal with him. You two are involved in a storyline that starts tonight."

"When did he come back to Raw?" John demanded.

"He's not on Raw," Stephanie replied. "He's on ECW. We're trying an inter-promotional thing right now."

John raised his eyebrows. "How so?"

Stephanie looked at him, dumbfounded. "Do you ever read the scripts? Or the internet."

"Your father made me shut down Myspace."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Because I don't have the time to surf the net," he said.

Stephanie rolled her eyes. "Oh my god, if you start that, 'I'm the Champion, holeyer than thou crap', I'm going to slap you."

John gave her a smirk. "Well…"Stephanie rolled her eyes again and walked away. John chuckled. "Wait." He grabbed her arm and smiled at her. "I was just trying to lighten the mood," he told her. Stephanie frowned but found that she couldn't turn away. His smile was just so…entrancing.

"Look," she relented. "There's not much I can do right now other then cut down the time. We all have to sacrifice something in our lives, personal and professional, at some point."

John frowned. "And what do I have to sacrifice? "Stephanie pointed to this title belt. John followed her gaze and shook his head. "Your kidding me!"

Stephanie shook her head slowly. "The Board of Directors wants to see something different. That means you losing the title."

"You couldn't find a way around it?"

"No, I tried. We did a poll on the website."

John's eyes widened. "The fans voted against me?"

Stephanie shrugged. "RVD is back and he's old school ECW. John…you'll have to go into uncharted territory. I've only ran ECW for a little while when I was younger. With that monster, Heyman, running it and RVD, the fan's favorite, you won't be cheered as much as you're used too." John shook his head, disappointed. "Ask Paul, John. You're not the only champ to go through this. You can ask Chris, Randy, Michael and Paul…they'll all tell you the same thing. Hell, even ask Adam."

"But…you can cut down the storyline?"

Stephanie nodded. "Yes. Now, if you'll excuse me…"

Stephanie turned around and headed towards her office, letting everything she said sink into John's head. As she walked away, she rolled her eyes. What a fucking baby… It's a belt…jeez