Chapter II: Abstinence? Are You Crazy?

Therese had indeed called Stephanie within the next couple of days but the VP was in between conference calls and they had talked only a few minutes. Now the brunette sat in her home office, exhausted from a long day. This week she and Shawn were staying in her Stamford home but, next week, they'd be heading to San Antonio. Neither wanted to give up their homes, so now they had a summer and a winter home even though they spent time in each whenever they wanted. She had one last phone call to make and dialed Aaron Pendleton's office to make sure they had received her overnight package. They informed her that they had indeed as Shawn entered the office.

"I thought you were done for the day," he said, wrapping his arms around the chair and her as she replaced the receiver.

"I am now, baby," she replied, feeling a bit guilty that she hadn't told him about the letter. If it was nothing as Therese suggested, there was no point in worrying him. If there was… Well, she wouldn't think about that right now. "Oh, wait," she exclaimed as a message popped up on her computer stating that she had an e-mail from Therese. "I have to read this. I hope it's what I think it is!"

Stephanie clicked on the link to open the message and she was greeted with the sleeping face of the blonde's newest baby. "That's Lily?" Shawn asked in surprise, looking over his wife's shoulder. "God, she's growing like a weed."

"I know. She's only three months old but I think she takes after her father in that department." There were several more pictures and the couple scrolled through them. Dinah was adorable holding her baby sister but it was the family photo that brought an ache to Stephanie's heart. The photographer has positioned the family so that Kevin was holding Dinah while Therese sat in close with Lily at her breast. Ruby the beagle was situated in between the adults.

A lot had happened for the two women in five years. The incident that brought them together had ignited the media. Ratings skyrocketed for WWE and business poured in Aaron Pendleton's firm. He had begged Therese to stay but she and Kevin immediately moved to Atlanta, just in time to get Evan registered for school there. Therese began training security agents at the Atlanta facility, completely out of the line of any fire, much to Evan's relief. Within the year, she and Kevin had been married. Dinah followed shortly and Lily four years later. Evan was now two months away from his high school graduation with a full scholarship waiting for him to play basketball at the University of Tennessee—thanks to Kevin.

Stephanie and Shawn had dated for three years before he proposed and now they had been married for nine months. Stephanie had suffered the ignominy of being kicked off of television after the attack by the stalker but the contract had only been in regards to the televised events. She started in the office, investigating her father's unethical practices, began buttering up board members, and talked her way into the position of Executive Vice President of Television Production. Deciding on-screen television wasn't for her afterall, such a position allowed her to control most of what went on and still stay in the office by delegation. She stayed off RAW and SmackDown! except for the occasional interference of having to set some particular general managers straight or having to act as interim GM.

The last time she had served temporarily as a GM had made her reconsider having children. Triple H was suspended for suspending several wrestlers for no good reason other than that they had made fun of him. He was injured—again—and somehow made his way through a bet into the position. RAW was coming through Atlanta and Shawn and Stephanie were staying with Kevin and a very pregnant Therese. When time came for the three of them to leave for the arena, Therese, fully dressed, waddled into the living room and out the door to the car. Kevin demanded to know where she thought she was going and the blonde told him that she was going with them because she was tired of lying in bed all day. "Have you not watched wrestling? What idiot wrestler brings his pregnant wife to the arena?" he forcefully asked.

"Apparently you because I'm going with you," she replied, barely situating the seatbelt around her. Kevin threw up his hands and stalked back into the house to get his things, muttering to Shawn about how difficult she was being and couldn't wait until it was all over. Fortunately for Kevin, his wife hadn't heard him.

Stephanie attempted to persuade Therese to stay home. Yet, she regretted at first trying to stop her after arriving at the arena and seeing the woman glow as she greeted friends and animatedly talked of Dinah and the one of its way, the due date being in two weeks. Therese had really needed this. However, she hadn't needed what came at the end of the show.

The onset of labor could have been the overexertion of spending so many hours at the arena or it could have been seeing Kevin get the hell beat out of him by a particular suspended GM that everyone thought was absent. Kevin had been threatening to take the position since he wasn't wrestling anymore. His job had been Shawn's 'bodyguard' and general troublemaker, which Stephanie allowed because it drew ratings. Whatever it was, Therese was being rushed to the hospital behind the ambulance that carried her husband. Stephanie had not been able to be there for her first delivery and she was excited to be there for the second…except it didn't turn out as well as it should have.

Lily was hung in limbo between the womb and the birth canal and the doctors thought they would have to shove her wholly back in and perform a Caesarean section but then she made it through. Therese was a different story as the doctors thought they couldn't stop the bleeding. Kevin, extremely groggy from the painkillers, was torn between being with his newborn daughter and his wife but Stephanie could see the bigger picture. She sent him to be with his wife while Shawn and Stephanie were the first family to hold the little girl as they prayed for Therese's life. When she pulled through, Kevin, forehead stitched, ribs taped, and two fingers in a splint, shakily presented her with the baby and almost collapsed beside his girls in tears and exhaustion.

Stephanie had slipped out of the room, exhausted herself from the emotions of the night. After that ordeal, she didn't want any children. What if the same happened to her and she didn't make it? She and Shawn had held off on having children because she had wanted to focus on her career, but, lately, he had been insinuating that he wanted babies of their own. He would just have to get over it and, after that, she continued to tell him the same thing.

Now, despite the memory, Stephanie felt a longing that she knew could only be filled by one thing. Shawn sensed her inaudible sigh and leaned in to kiss her temple. "What's wrong, princess?"

She gestured at the computer screen. "They're just so…so, I don't know, cute, adorable…it's enough to make you go into sugar shock."

"Do you want a dog too, doll?" he asked with a straight face.

"See, that's it. You just don't get it," she replied in a huff.

"Steph, wait. I know what you mean. I was only kidding." The anger in her face subsided as he continued to talk. "You wanna family like that. That's what the sigh was for." She looked down and slowly nodded. "Why didn't you say so? I thought you wanted to keep focusing on your career for a while."

"I wanna do both but I don't know how."

"You could quit traveling and just work at the office," Shawn explained, sitting down on the desktop beside her. "We'll live here until she's old enough to travel and then we'll spend some time in San Antonio."

"She?"

"I just assumed that you'd want a girl after spending so much time with Kevin's girls."

"Maybe I wanna be different and have a boy," Stephanie said with a devilish grin.

"I know a boy you can have," he replied seductively and leaned in to kiss her.

"Wait," she suddenly said, putting a hand on his chest to stop him. "This is a major decision. What if we're not ready?"

"Can anybody ever really be ready to have kids?"

"I guess not…but let's not be rash about this," she quickly added, her hand not moving from his chest.

"Honey, if you don't want a baby, we won't have one."

She turned back to the computer and scrolled through the pictures again, stopping on the sleeping infant. "Let's do it," she suddenly said, looking up at Shawn with pleading eyes.

"I had ever intention of doing that—" he replied with a teasing smile.

"No, I mean, let's make a baby," she interrupted him, the letter from a couple of days ago completely from her mind. Shawn wasted no time and scooped her up, carrying her through the hallway and up the stairs to their bedroom.

When Stephanie wasn't pregnant in two months, she immediately made an appointment with her doctor. When she explained the problem in the office, the physician tried to send her straight home. If she wasn't pregnant within the next six months, then she could come back again and they would run tests. Stephanie was visibly upset and the woman explained that it could take some time coming off her birth control pills. She gave her some tips that usually helped other women and then sent her home.

The brunette slouched into her house and flopped down on the couch, unaware that Shawn was home also. "Steph?" he called, coming into the living room with an apron of Michelangelo's "David" on it, minus the legs, arms, and head. They had found it in Rome, Italy, and couldn't resist. Stephanie turned and stared up into the naked private parts of David and she couldn't help but giggle.

"Did your check-up go alright?"

Damn! she thought, remembering that she had put the appointment on her calendar that was open to Shawn at all times in case he needed her. At least he thought it was only a check-up. "Yeah. Everything's still a 'go' for us."

"Supper'll be done in an hour. You wanna help me finish it up?" he asked, gesturing with a spatula in one hand.

"Yeah," she sighed. "Let me go change out of this suit."

While preparing the rest of the meal, Stephanie made small talk and Shawn realized things hadn't gone quite as well as she had claimed. When her husband presented her with dessert, he set the plate just within her grasp. When she reached for it, he pulled it back. "Only if you answer me one question," he said.

Eyeing the homemade lemon meringue, she licked her lips and replied, "What?"

"What happened today that's got you so down?"

"We're still not pregnant," she said with a sigh and downcast eyes.

"I know, princess, but we'll get there. It's gonna take some time," he responded, pushing the piece of pie in her direction, well aware that she was in need of pity food.

She immediately shoved a piece in her mouth. "But Dinah was born like nine months to the day of Kevin's and Therese's wedding," she muttered through cool whip.

"I have it on good faith that she had been off her birth control for several months."

"You mean they were trying before then?"

"No, they were just being a little old fashioned. They wanted their wedding night to be really special and decided abstinence for some time would do the trick."

"She never told me this…wait, you're not suggesting we quit making love for a while?"

"Of course not," he replied with an appalled look on his face. "I was trying to say something to help."

"Hmmpph," she said through another piece of pie.

"Finish your dessert and let's go sit in the hot tub for a while," he replied, wiggling his eyebrows. "It'll make you feel better."

TBC…