Randy's heavy footsteps sounded throughout the empty hall as he made his way towards Hunter's makeshift office. It was time to shoot some backstage segments for later in the show. He swallowed the nervous lump in his throat and pushed the dangerous thoughts swirling around in his head as far away as he could manage. It had been almost two weeks since his little escapade in the shower. Since then it had only grown worse. Every night he lay there thinking about her. He simply couldn't get her out of his mind. His big hand lifted to rap on the door and he pushed inside, his chest immediately growing tight upon seeing who was inside.

"Randy! Come on in."

Stephanie. She was alone. His eyes darted nervously, flitting around the room looking for her husband but he was nowhere to be found. It was just the two of them.

"Although I wouldn't get too comfortable. I'm sorry I couldn't find you to tell you earlier but something came up in HQ and Paul's on the phone trying to avert a disaster from happening," Stephanie let out a frustrated sigh. Her husband worked so hard that sometimes it stopped him from working. Go figure that one out. "I don't know how long he's going to be and we obviously can't shoot without him so…"

Her sentence trailed off and it was only then that Randy realised she had stopped talking. He hadn't heard a single word she said just now, his mind too busy trying to check her out and not get caught. She was wearing a smart black dress and he more than welcomed the change from the usual pant suits. Her legs were distracting the hell out of him. He wanted nothing more than to just reach out and run his fingers over her skin.

"Randy?"

"Uhhh, yeah?" He chastised himself for letting his head wander. She was looking at him strangely. Very strangely.

"Is everything okay?"

Randy cleared his throat and plastered a smile on his face. "Of course! Sorry I was just…daydreaming. What were you saying?"

"That's fine," Stephanie chuckled. "I wish I had the time to daydream today. What a mess. And that's just what I was telling you. We have a problem in Stamford and Paul is dealing with it on the phone so we can't shoot until he's done. I couldn't get somebody to tell you on time so you've basically wasted a trip. Sorry!"

He got to see her. And they were alone. This was far from a wasted trip. Randy's stomach knotted as she shrugged her shoulders and smiled cutely at him. The slight movement caused the lightest scent of her perfume to drift up his nose and he had to fight with himself not to touch her. He wanted to touch her with everything he had and it was killing him right now. "It wasn't a wasted trip, Steph. It gives us a chance to catch up. Ummm…how are you? How are the….girls?" He sounded like such a fucking loser but he needed her to stay, he needed to be around her for as long as possible. If that meant talking about her kids then so be it.

Stephanie's eyes lit up at the mention of her children. She sat down on the padded leather sofa and motioned for him to do the same. A little break for some mindless chatter was exactly what she needed right now. God knows things were only going to get hectic later tonight. Live TV was never easy. "They're great! Everybody's great, Randy, thanks for asking. Aurora is really taking off with her ballet and gymnastics and we think Murphy's going to follow in her footsteps. Vaughn's just Vaughn," she giggled warmly over her youngest. "She's still too young to be doing anything and mostly just follows her sisters around. And how about you, how is your daughter?"

"She's great. Growing like a weed. She's getting big, it's hard to keep up," he half joked. "I miss her a lot." Being on the road was tough. Things may have fallen apart with his ex-wife but he still loved his daughter to pieces. He missed her every day. It was an endless panging in his gut. As his eyes rose from the floor and locked with Stephanie's, he realised he might have an even deeper endless panging in his gut. Her blue eyes were gentle as she gave him her undivided attention. Stephanie was always like that. Whenever she talked to you she truly listened. Her gaze was attentive but right now it was making him feel a mixture of uncomfortable and aroused. He shifted awkwardly, opening his legs slightly so his pants didn't feel so tight.

"We're so lucky. I'm thankful every day that we have the resources to travel and be able to fly home the same day if we need to," Stephanie sympathised. She was speaking from her own personal experience but also that of her husband's too. She knew how much it meant to both him and their children that he was able to fly home whenever he wanted. She honestly didn't know how they'd cope if he couldn't. "I don't know how Paul would survive if he couldn't take the jet to be home if they get sick or if they need him for school or if he just wants to see them and can fit it in his schedule."

Randy's heart sank at the mention of the other man's name. Paul was as real as it got. He wasn't some work of fiction or some guy he'd never have to see again. Paul was his boss, his friend. That's why he could never act on his feelings. That's why he couldn't reach across, cup her cheek and kiss her until he couldn't breathe anymore. He wanted it more than anything in the world and the longer he sat there, the closer he got to doing it. He simply couldn't suppress this any longer. He needed to touch her. But he was stuck in this eternal purgatory, chasing a woman he could never have. It would ruin his career not to mention ruin a near decade long friendship he had truly come to cherish.

"Randy are you sure you're okay? You're acting a little…off, today?" Stephanie questioned. He had a faraway look on his face although if she wasn't mistaken, his eyes definitely seemed to soften whenever he looked at her and this wasn't the first time she had noticed it either. A few weeks ago she had caught him staring at her, his eyes practically smouldering as they looked her over. Now he was doing it again right to her face. She didn't even want to contemplate what that meant.

"Yeah…..yeah, it's just…" Fuck it. He had to do something. He simply couldn't take it anymore. His hand was just about to rest on her knee as he scooted closer to her on the couch when the door flung open almost causing him to jump out of his skin.

"Fucking idiots! I swear I've never wanted to fire somebody more in my life. Jesus Christ," Paul fumed as he practically stalked into the room, his hand rubbing the back of his neck.

Stephanie kept one eye on her furious husband and the other on the man sitting next to her on the couch, the man whose face had all of a sudden turned a nice shade of white. She wasn't sure what the hell he had been about to say and more than that, she wasn't sure she wanted to hear it. Her suspicious eyes gave Randy the once over, making sure to look at him long enough to let him know she was wary of him before she got to her feet and ignored him, her attention falling fully on her irate husband. "Paul calm down. We need to shoot the pre-tapes but it can wait until later if you…"

"I'm sorry," Paul blew out a heavy puff of air and gave her a lingering kiss, enjoying the feel of her thumb running circles around the back of his hand. He spied Randy sitting on the couch staring at the floor like it was the most interesting thing in the world and frowned. "Alright, Randy?"

"Yeah, man." He got to his feet and forced himself to look Paul in the eye. "You seem kinda busy here though…maybe I should come back and we can do this later?"

"No, no. It's fine just….give me a minute and we can start. Actually I'll go cool off while I grab the camera guys again, yeah?" Paul directed the end of his statement to his wife and upon her nod of approval quickly stepped out of the room.

Randy inhaled deeply. He was alone with her again.

"Randy?" Stephanie called his name, waiting for him to look at her but she wasn't prepared for the expression on his face when he finally did. His eyes were both dark yet warm and it sent an anxious shiver down her spine. She wasn't stupid or naïve to her own beauty. She knew men found her attractive. It was something that had followed her all her life. She had also suspected that Randy may have always had something of a school boy crush on her going right back to the Evolution days. But the way he was looking at her right now was anything but harmless. And he was anything but a boy. She swallowed nervously, automatically taking a step away from him. Away from what? She didn't know. She just had the distinct feeling that whatever the hell was going on right now wasn't a good thing. What scared her even more was the fact that she was intrigued. "Randy….."

"Shhhh," he whispered, his hand reaching up to allow his thumb to caress her lower lip. Her eyes slid shut and he felt an overwhelming surge of adrenaline shoot through his body. He had touched her and she hadn't pushed him away. What did it mean? Her blue eyes slowly opened, staring into his but they gave nothing away. Her expression was unreadable. He didn't know what to do. He knew what he wanted to do. But what he wanted to do and what he should do weren't exactly the same thing.

Before he had a chance to act, the decision was taken from him as Paul returned with a handful of camera guys who immediately started setting up for the shoot. Everything around him began to buzz with activity but he barely felt it. The only thing he could feel, the only thing he could see, was her. And it was like a bullet to the chest when she turned from him like nothing had happened and started directing one of the sound techs.

"You know your lines, Randy or do you need a script to have a quick run over them?"

Paul's deep voice cut through the confusion clouding his head and Randy smiled absently, the smile not quite fully reaching his eyes. "I'm….I think I'm good." He needed to focus and Stephanie was acting like he wasn't even in the room. "We can just shoot again if I fuck up, right?"

Paul grinned at the younger man and slapped him on the back. "Sure! But if anybody's going to fuck up today it'll be me. My head's just about ready to explode so I'll go ahead and apologize to everybody in case this takes longer than usual."

Paul and Randy took up position for the shot, a few of the camera men let out a loose chuckle at their boss's words and Stephanie stood off camera silently surveying the scene. She had no fucking idea what the hell had been happening when it had just been her and Randy in here alone and what's more, she had no fucking clue how she felt about it. She should be outraged. She should be telling her husband right now. She should have slapped the taste out of his mouth. But why? All he had done was hold her cheek and stroke her lip. So help her she was desperate to know what had possessed him to do that, to touch her the way he had when her husband could have walked in at any second. It had only happened a few short minutes ago and was already driving her insane. She glanced across the room and for the first time in a long time her gaze didn't settle upon her husband right away. Instead it fell upon the man next to him as she wrecked her brain trying to figure out what the hell was going on.