Trish sat there with her chin in her hands. She was going to have to give her speech in a minute or two, but she honestly didn't want to. She could tell that John was still upset over what had happened earlier. He had definitely been better, but he was still hurting and she could see that plainly written all over his face. Whenever she would touch him, he seemed to shrink back from her touch, and it bothered her that this was so. She didn't want him to think that she wasn't there with him completely, even though maybe she wasn't. She wanted him to trust her. She would talk to Christian, she knew that.

"Trish, you want to go," Chris whispered to her, and she looked at him hazily.

"What?" she asked.

"Speech, your turn, then I can go," Chris said impatiently.

"Oh…OH," she said, clinking her glass and standing up. She had prepared a few words, nothing special, but now she didn't really feel like saying them. Her own life was in such an uproar she didn't know if she had it within her to be happy for another couple.

She looked to Hunter and Ashley, who were sitting at the head table looking insanely happy. Ashley had somehow migrated to Hunter's lap and she was sitting atop her perch, looking out over everyone. Hunter was whispering something to her and she ducked her head to listen, her blonde hair falling around him as she smiled and turned to kiss him softly. They looked so happy to be there, and Ashley had been so surprised. She was jealous that they were ecstatic and together and that things had worked out for them. They deserved all their happiness, and she wanted to tell them.

Then she looked down to where Chris and Stephanie were sitting. Chris had his arm wrapped loosely around Stephanie's waist, his hand gently going up and down on her stomach. Stephanie had just found out about a month ago that she was pregnant with their second child. She was entering her third month and just starting to get a little bit of a belly. She and Chris were excited to have another child, but they would never show it in a conventional way. She remembered when Chris and Steph had announced their new baby to their group of friends, including her; it involved Chris saying she was knocked up and that whoever had done the knocking was a demi-god.

After their three years of marriage, they were still the same. Even after Stephanie had had Devin, they were still the same. She envied that. She envied every relationship she saw because they seemed to be more stable than anything she was in, currently or in the past. She wanted that stability and she knew she would never have it until she gave herself in fully to either Christian or John. And at this point, she didn't know what to do. So instead, she raised her glass and clinked on it with her knife.

"Okay everyone," she said with a smile, a forced one, but nonetheless a smile. "We've all been waiting weeks for this party…some more than others…Steph…"

"Shut up," Stephanie said loudly, but jokingly.

"Sorry Steph, it's true, but anyways. I've wanted to congratulate you guys properly, and now I'm doing so," Trish said. "If you had told me a while ago that Ashley Massaro and Hunter Hearst Helmsley would be perfect for each other, I'd have asked you what you were smoking, seriously. You two are nothing alike, and yet, you two are perfect together. Ash, you're the only girl in the world who could make anyone see the softer side of Hunter…we just always thought there wasn't one, but you found it. You guys are perfect for each other, and you're going to continue to be perfect for each other as you barrel into marriage and all the adventures that lie ahead of you, congratulations you guys."

Everyone cheered and drank from their glasses as Trish sat down. That had gone better than she had expected. John sent her a little smile, the first one she had gotten in a while. She sent him a tentative smile back, hoping that he wasn't mad at her anymore. He took her hand in his and gave a kiss to her palm and she gazed at him, enraptured by the sight in front of him. He totally just had her in that moment, and it was moments like this that convinced her that John might be the one in the end.

"Okay, okay, my turn," Chris said, interrupting Trish's thoughts. "I met my wife a long…oh wait, wrong speech. Never-mind. Anyways, Hunter's my best friend, I know, I know, sounds weird, sounds crazy since I'm so handsome and he's so ugly, but whatever, we're friends. I never thought anyone would put up with the guy, I mean, seriously, have you met him? He's antagonistic, he's bossy, he's a lot of bad adjectives. Like earlier, my son wanted to talk to me, and what happens? Hunter snatched the phone right out from under me, I mean, this is the guy you want to marry Ashley?"

"Dude, don't talk her out of it!" Hunter shouted.

"Oh sorry, I was saving that speech for right before she walks down the altar, Steph was going to recite it to Ashley for me, and everything. This is the engagement speech. Okay, I can do that one too. Well, when I first went out on a double date with Hunter and Ashley, it was…surreal, for the first time since I've ever gone on a date with Hunter…wait, that really sounds wrong dude. Okay, I've been on double dates with Hunter and his own date, and he would always end up more interested in me and Steph than his date, which didn't bode well for me when I wanted to score with my wife. It's not fun when you have a 260 pound man trying to get his way into your hotel room so he won't be alone at night. It's a wonder that I have any kids because I had to baby-sit Hunter for so long. Luckily for me and my sex life, Hunter did find someone by the name of Ashley. Ashley rocks and Hunter knows it, and I thank Ashley everyday for taking him the hell off my hands so I could nail my wife. So thank you Ashley, you saved my sex life, oh and congratulations to you and Hunter, may you never have some single friend latch onto you."

"You're an asshole!" Hunter yelled at him.

"I know, but I'm still the best man," Chris called back as he took a sip of his champagne and sat back down. The music started to play up right then, signaling that the party was really starting now that the dinner was over. Stephanie took one last sip of her apple cider before Chris was nuzzling his nose against her.

"Are you drunk?"

"Nope," Chris told her and he wasn't. "I feel bad that you can't drink so I'm not going to let myself get drunk. Besides, this way I can assure myself I don't end up in someone else's bed, like some hot woman."

"Didn't you end up crashing on Edge's bed last time you got drunk?" Stephanie asked. "Wow, that's a real hot woman right there."

"I hate your stinking guts, minus the baby inside of you, I like that part," he said impishly then nodded his head. "You want to dance?"

"I most certainly do," Stephanie said, letting him pull her up as she sent a smile to Trish, who sat there, looking almost desolate in a way. She looked to John who was sitting kind of hunched over, still drinking his drink and staring around the room. Trish sighed and ran her hand through her hair as she leaned her chin on his shoulder.

"Not having a good time?"

"I've been to better parties," he told her shortly. "This ain't really my style."

"I know," she said. "We can go if you want, I said my speech. We can just go upstairs, maybe watch a movie or just lay down and go to sleep. Whatever you want."

"No, that's not what I want to do," he told her shortly and she sighed again.

"Okay, if that's not what you want to do," she told him. She looked around the room. Most everyone was dancing now, or talking, or generally having fun. Edge and Lita were almost dirty dancing right on the floor and she wanted to go tell her friend to get a room. But that was Lita and Edge, they were always pushing the limits of good taste.

Trish could see Maria and Carlito dancing too, a little more appropriately, which was a given seeing as how they weren't even together, just friends. Then she saw Ashley and Hunter, slow dancing to a fast song, lost in their own little world, their foreheads touching as they had some silent conversation. They looked so adorable she wanted to take a picture of them right now and give it to them so they could preserve the moment.

"Is there anything you want to do?" Trish asked him.

"No, there's nothing that I want to do," he said.

"Can we dance?" she asked, wanting and needing to do something.

"You want to?"

"I'd like that, yeah."

He shrugged and got out of his seat, offering her his hand. She took it and smiled, letting her help her up. She stood and followed him out to the dance floor, where a new song was starting up, decidedly slower than the one before. She saw most of the couples on the dance floor take that small step towards each other and she wrapped her own arms around John's strong neck. He pulled her closer and she fell willingly against his solid body, which was warm and inviting. She liked being pressed against him as she closed her eyes and let herself float away with the music.

She felt John's fingers running softly through her hair and she knew she could stay like this forever. She wanted to stay like this forever because she felt like she was floating above everything. Her problems flew out the window and flew through the stars, far away from her. Her heart ached a little less and her pain lessened slowly, but surely. She didn't hurt when she was like this, the words became almost visions, real things and she liked that feeling.

The moment ended when the song ended and she looked up at John as it did. He was staring down at her, and she wondered if he had been staring down at her the entire time. She leaned up to kiss him, to just feel him. But when she touched her lips to his, he pulled back hesitantly, and she frowned, realizing he didn't want the contact. She sighed and pulled away, letting him wander off; she needed a breath of fresh air anyways. She looked around and saw that there were doors leading off to a balcony and decided that was the best plan of escape.

She walked outside and into the cool, fresh night air. She took a deep breath and looked up at the stars. "Trish?"

Trish turned to her side and saw Chris and Steph sitting out there, Stephanie in Chris's lap. "Oh hey guys, was I interrupting something?"

"No, I just got a wave of nausea," Stephanie said. "It got a little hot in there, couple that with morning sickness, and you've got yourself one sick woman."

"That's too bad," she said, sitting on the chair next to them. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah, I am, no thanks to the ass over here who said it would be cool if I puked over the balcony and see if I hit anything."

"I thought it'd be funny," Chris said. "So what brings you out here Trish?"

"John's mad at me, and I have to talk to Christian, it's like a grab bag of fun for me."

"I'm sorry you're going through this," Chris told her. "I wish that I could like, make it easier for you, I would do it if I could you know."

"I know, and I appreciate that," Trish replied. "But it's my burden to carry. I just need answers, I need the answers and he has them, but then I'm afraid of what those answers are. I need to speak to him though."

"Well, it seems that wishes do come true," Stephanie said as she looked up.

Trish turned and literally gasped as Christian was right there. Her heart pounded and her eyes widened in surprise. She tried to maintain some sense of composure, but she was having a difficult time. She didn't notice she was shaking, but she did notice that Stephanie's hand shot out to take hers and gave it a comforting squeeze. Christian looked down at her, a mixture of emotions, none of them decipherable. She sat there, staring and he stood there, staring back.

"Hi," Christian said finally.

Trish let out a breath she didn't know she was holding in, but she hoped she hadn't suffocated and now she was in a dream, "Hi."

"I was wondering if you would…um…want to dance?" he asked her, ending his question quietly as if his words had died out with the breath from his lungs.

"Yes," she said, almost too eager and she pulled away from Stephanie as she stood and let Christian take her hand. She didn't know if she was floating or walking, but somehow she made it back into the ballroom as the tables seemed to part for her to the dance floor. They reached it in record time and then she was in his arms again, they were dancing. It was incredibly awkward and incredibly stilted, and she couldn't even look him in the eyes, but it didn't matter. What mattered was Christian was there, they were dancing. All eyes could've been on them (they were), but she wouldn't have noticed. This was everything she had thought she wanted, or maybe nothing that she wanted.

She was floating again, she realized, that feeling was back and she couldn't escape it. She didn't fall against Christian's body, or listen to his heartbeat or know that he was looking down at her. And yet, she was still above the stars and above everything, and she was floating, her feet never touching the ground. Then she felt him lean down to her and his breath was so warm, like a summer breeze on her skin, but it still sent goosebumps all up and down her arms. Was he going to kiss her? Take her right there?

"We need to talk."