A/N: Thanks for the reviews and everything, guys, much appreciated, hope you enjoy and reviews are love, so please leave one! :)

"Oh my God, I can't believe I have to watch myself on TV!"

Chris laughed as he sat at the counter in his and Stephanie's kitchen, eating his lunch. He swallowed the bite of sandwich he had in his mouth. "Stephanie, you do realize you've been on TV, right?"

"I know," Stephanie told him with a note of exasperation, "but I've never been pregnant while doing it before, you know. I mean, it's just like…I don't know how it's going to look, or what people are going to think, and I knew it was going to air, I just thought…"

"You just thought that it would be later?"

"I guess," Stephanie leaned against the counter, her elbow leaning next to Chris's plate. "I mean, I just thought that it would air when all of this was over, you know, the kid thing."

"Well, when this pregnancy is over, we're going to get kids out of it," Chris laughed as Stephanie punched him in the arm, "ouch, you guys, your mom is abusing me!"

"I am not," she looked down to her stomach. "They're kicking, well, at least one of them is, I don't know whose limb belongs to whom, but one or both of them is making themselves known. They're probably mad at you too."

"Steph, they have enough episodes, and your dad thinks it's a good time to see what the public thinks about the two of us."

"And if they hate us, this all goes away?" Stephanie asked.

"I would think so. If the public doesn't have a demand for us, there's no way your dad would keep this going," Chris shrugged. "You know, it wouldn't be terrible if that happened. I mean, sure, it's kind of cool to have them filming us, and it's kind of exciting to know that people might want to see us, but sometimes…"

"Sometimes what?" Stephanie asked curiously. She was glad Chris was opening up to her, or at least might open up to her. She wanted to be able to speak with Chris about anything and everything, and sometimes she felt like she couldn't. If he opened up the door to her, she knew she could open up right back to him. She knew they weren't in a relationship, but they did have a relationship, and like any relationship, she wanted to foster it and watch it get stronger.

"Sometimes I just feel like I can't be myself with them around, like I have to be this weird version of myself. I guess I feel like I have to be Chris Jericho and not necessarily Chris Irvine," Chris explained to her.

He knew the show was supposed to be reality, and it was, it was their life, but then in other ways, it wasn't. Sometimes they had to film something a couple times and he had to say what he'd just said, and that felt inorganic. Plus, he had to be careful of what he said. He wasn't a bad guy, but sometimes he swore a lot, and he had to watch out for that. He didn't want to offend anyone with anything he said, so he was constantly conscious of every move he made. It was really no way to live.

Stephanie placed her hand on top of Chris's right one and gave it a small squeeze. "I know what you mean. I mean, I just keep thinking people are going to hate me more than they already do. Then I think, oh God, people are going to judge me on my life, and it's nerve-wracking. I almost don't want to watch it tonight."

"It's probably best we stay off the internet afterwards," Chris laughed, "I don't think we're going to want to see what they say about us."

"I've learned a long time ago not to go on there," Stephanie sighed. "I think I had a lot of self-esteem issues right after my debut. I had the bad habit of looking online to see what people thought about me, and that was just a bad idea altogether."

"I didn't know you did that," Chris told her, "I mean, I didn't really know you back then, not like I do now—"

"Well, I think that's obvious," Stephanie gestured towards her expanding midsection and Chris laughed and made a "duh" face. "They did, I mean, people were pretty harsh. The internet was still relatively new, and I guess I just thought everyone would love me, and then I go on, and it was a wakeup call."

"What kinds of things were they saying?"

"Mostly stuff about how I got to where I was because of my dad, how I was probably a ditz or something, just relying on my father's money," Stephanie shook her head, "other stuff about the way I looked. I mean, you know I got the breast implants because of the low self-esteem and everything that happened."

"Yeah," he said, "for the record, I'm glad you got them reduced. I mean, I think you're gorgeous."

Stephanie blushed a little bit, "Thanks. I just learned that I don't need people to tell me how to think about myself. It's harmful, and it's actually pointless. I hated it, so I just decided not to look anymore. I know who I am, I don't need some internet nobody telling me who I am."

"That's the spirit," Chris said. "I'm also kind of glad we're not having a party like your dad suggested."

"Oh my God," Stephanie covered her face. "I cannot believe he wanted to have a red carpet viewing party for the show. How embarrassing would that have been? It's bad enough we're getting filmed all the time, I don't need to have to go to a party and watch everyone watching me."

"Me neither," Chris shook his head. "At least we get the short break from the cameras. That's something at least."

"A relief," Stephanie said, walking over to the counter and grabbing a bag of chips, opening them up and snacking on them a little. "They're hungry, I must please my new overlords. I can't believe I still have three months to go with these two. I'm huge already, it's crazy!"

"You're beautiful, and I'm going to tell you you're beautiful for the rest of your life."

Chris was suddenly struck by that term. Saying that would imply he'd be around Stephanie for the rest of her life. It wasn't so much a new revelation, they were having children together after all, but it was the way that he figured he'd be a significant part of her life forever. Sure, they were best friends, but…wait, why was he thinking about this? They were best friends, even if people thought they were more, they knew what they were. They were friends, and friends stayed in each other's lives, especially when they were having twins together.

"Thank you, but I don't think I'm going to be a 90 year old beauty, just a hunch," Stephanie said, a few crumbs falling onto her stomach as she brushed them away. "Hey, you two, seriously, calm down in there, I know you love potato chips, but you guys don't need to fight over them."

"Hey, you want to grab some food for our big premiere?" Chris asked. "I can make you dinner."

"Chris, you don't need to do that, we can just get takeout."

"No, I insist, I want you and my kids to be as healthy as possible," he said, grabbing his empty plate and putting it in the dishwasher before going over to her and patting her stomach. "Not sure I want my kids to always be fighting over potato chips."

"Okay," Stephanie nodded, smiling at him, but her smile turned down a moment later, "Chris, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, you know you can."

"Is everything okay with you? I mean recently. It's just been like, I don't know, like ever since you went on that date, you've been holding something back. I mean, I told you if you wanted to date that I didn't have a problem with it, and I still don't. I mean, if I could get out there, not that I necessarily would, but I mean, I've lost my train of thought here. I'm just saying that if that's what was bothering you, you don't have to feel badly on my account."

"That's not what it was," he shook his head.

She gave a small shrug and a worried look. "Then what is it? I just feel like you've been pulling away from me, and I couldn't figure it out. I know I'm not…I know I'm not the most appealing thing right now, but if you need something physical, I'm here."

"That's the saddest proposition I've ever gotten," Chris said, kissing her temple.

"I'm not exactly the slut everyone thinks I am."

"I never thought you were," he told her, "it was just, everyone always questions our relationship, and I was just confused about it, that's all. I was confused because I thought we were one thing, but everyone keeps saying we're something different, and it just threw me for a loop. When I was on my date, I kept worrying about you. Your back was aching, and I just didn't want you to feel uncomfortable. Then my date, she was asking me about myself, and the inevitable, 'Do you have any kids?' question came up, and I had to explain what was going on, and she was less than understanding, and I wanted to be with you anyways, and she just said something that resonated with me."

"What was that?" she asked curiously. She was happy Chris was telling her all of this. She'd figured something more happened on that date, but she'd never worked up the courage to ask him exactly what.

"She said that if we were having kids together, and I wanted to be with you because you were hurt, why weren't we together, or something to that affect, I don't remember the exact words. And I don't know, everyone keeps saying it…"

"Chris," Stephanie gave a short laugh. "We define our relationship, not anyone else. If, in the future, or tomorrow, or right now, we decide we want to be together, it has to be because we want to be together. I don't care what anyone else thinks, and I don't want you to either."

"I don't want to, it's just the world is kind of overwhelming, and now our lives are going to be out there for everyone to see, for everyone to scrutinize and talk about, and it's a little frightening because…we don't know what they're going to think."

"Didn't we both agree that we weren't going to care?" she reminded him.

"I lied, I'm going to care a little," he joked and she came over to him and wrapped her arms around him as best she could. She ended up having to stand to his side a little bit, wrapping her arms around his middle as he awkwardly hugged her around the neck.

"I care a little too," Stephanie said, "but at the end of the day, you know I'm right. Whatever happens between us, it's going to be because the both of us want it to happen. I love you, Chris, am I in love with you? I don't know, maybe, maybe not, I haven't given it much thought."

"No? It seems like that's all I've been doing lately," Chris confessed.

Every night he lay in bed wondering if he was doing the right thing. It was too late to renege on the children thing because that was going to happen whether he liked it or not, but he kept thinking about the logistics of it all. Would his kids be teased because their parents weren't together, had never been together? Would people look at them strangely if they knew the story, which people were going to know? There was the potential for a lot of people to watch this show, and that was a lot of judging out there. Could he handle that? The scrutiny from their family and friends was hard enough, but the world at large? How could he possibly shoulder that weight?

"Then just stop."

"What if we're being blind?"

"Don't you think we would know if there was something between us?" Stephanie asked, leaning her chin on his shoulder. "I mean, don't you think one of us would have gleaned onto the idea of being in love?"

"We've been pretty focused on the babies," he told her.

"Yes, we have because they're our children," she giggled, "but they're not here yet so we do have time to ourselves. Look, stop overanalyzing everything, it's only going to make you feel worse and worse, and then I'll have to pick up the pieces, and I'm pregnant with twins, bending over is not something I can do nowadays."

"Steph?"

"Yeah?"

"I want to take you out."

"Excuse me?" she laughed. "For what?"

"To dinner, I want to take you out to dinner."

"Chris, I thought we just had a whole discussion about how we weren't going to let everyone rule our lives."

"We're not, I want to see for myself, I think I need to," Chris said, kissing her forehead. "Maybe we're just thinking too narrowly. Maybe we should try it out, see if it works, I mean, we're still best friends, why not try?"

"Okay then, I'm in."