"Pride and Prejudice"
An Edge/Ashley fanfic

Thanks to Christal-R, Farra Sti, The Rated R Superstar, Ahhhhhh, csimiamigirl73, Inday and xAttitudex for reviewing last chapter, you're awesome!
The song quoted in the chapter is "Only One" by Yellowcard.
R&R and enjoy!


Chapter 20: Only One

Ashley slammed the car's door and quickly marched toward the hotel; she was so angry… how dare him thinking something like that about her? He didn't know anything, ANYTHING. And that stupid little bitch? How on earth had she come up with something like that?

The punk princess groaned and stomped her foot on the floor out of frustration as the sliding doors of the elevator closed and she found herself alone once again. She glanced at her reflection in the mirror and in that very moment she understood that she was more disappointed than pissed off. She was hurt by the fact that he had chosen to believe the first thing Kelly Kelly had told him instead of trusting her, asking her. She felt so stupid now thinking again of this night, of how she had hoped to make him jealous, to make him want her… she must have been out of her mind to accept Michelle's plan, to put Jeff in this situation, to believe that something good could have started between them… But evidently Jeff was right, he could only bring her more trouble… and she was so tired of having her heart broken. So tired of being so easily judged because of her style, of the way she was.

But even the realization of this didn't make her feel any better and the self proclaimed dirty diva eventually broke down, not caring of the tears streaking her cheeks as she stepped out of the elevator to reach her room.

---

Adam speechlessly gazed at the petite figure walking away from him, once again. Once again something had gone wrong between them… and once again he felt like it was entirely his fault.

How could have he been so stupid to believe Kelly without even a single doubt? And, even worse, how could have he been so stupid to candidly confess her so? It was probably like digging his own grave, he couldn't blame her for her reaction… This time he had pushed the limit and there was nothing he could do to take her back. The roses he bought her after their first fight (A/N chapter 6) wouldn't have been enough this time to fix this. But after all what remained to be fixed? She was gone and actually she was taken. Jeff was the better man evidently, he had got the girl, there was no match.

And if in that moment the Rated R superstar wasn't numb for the pain of the truth of having lost her before even start something, he could have even find it ironical that it was him now the one envying one of the Hardy brothers. Maybe it was karma.

He slightly shook his head and sighed; the previous hours seemed so far away now… trying to take her back by making her jealous with another girl… yeah, great plan. Too bad that she was too busy with her punk boyfriend to probably even mind him. He must have been a fool to believe even for a moment that she could choose him. That he could be the one for her. He was, once again, an asshole and he had said it before and now was saying it again: She was out of his league.

"Damn it!" He yelled stomping his hands on the wheel out of frustration and closing his eyes, he rested his head on his hands for a moment. And in the silence of his car he was distracted by a song playing on the radio that she had left on before storming away.

...Made my mistakes, let you down

And I can't, I can't hold on for too long

Ran my whole life in the ground

And I can't, I can't get up when you're gone

And something's breaking up

I feel like giving up

I won't walk out until you know;

Here I go, scream my lungs out and try to get to you

You are my only one

I let go, but there's just no one who gets me like you do

You are my only, my only one…

And he suddenly opened his eyes and lifted up his head… there was no way he could let go, no without first telling her all he had in his heart. Yes, he was (or better he had been) a jerk; yes, she was happily the younger Hardy's girlfriend… but now he didn't care… even if he didn't stand a chance anymore with the punk diva, he just wanted her to know how much she meant for him.

And so the Rated R superstar rushed away of his car, running toward the hotel.

---

"Ashley?"

The dirty diva startled hearing her name as she struggled to find the card key in her bag just in front of her door and turned wiping the tears away with the sleeve of her jacket. "Jeff what hare you doing here?" She asked half surprised, half confused.

"It was getting late and you hadn't ringed me yet to let me know that you were safely arrived… so I thought I would come and check by myself. But… are you okay?" He explained and then asked raising an eyebrow as, advancing toward her, he noticed tears and mascara pouring down on her cheeks.

"Oh thanks, you shouldn't have…" She managed to say lowering her gaze and continuing the search for the key.

"Ash…"

"It's alright Jeff, don't worry…" She tried to reassure him with a tone that actually couldn't even reassure herself.

"No, it's not." He replied gently lifting up her chin and making her look at him, "You know I'm your friend, you can talk to me… but tell me what happened to you cause you're scaring me…"

She lightly smiled at the friendly concern of the rainbow-haired warrior, "Nothing, really… it's just that I'm as usual an idiot… I truly believed that, that…" But she couldn't bring herself to finish cause she broke down again just this time in the younger Hardy's arms.

"Hey hey, it's okay don't worry…" He softly said caressing her head.

"It's just that… we were in his car and he…" She tried to say between the sobs.

"He who, Ash?" He asked confused "Edge?"

She just nodded, her face pressed against his chest, not realizing that he could have misunderstood or jumped to a wrong conclusion… as he actually did.

"What did he do to you?" Jeff asked alarmed, still holding her. But the dirty diva hadn't time to answer and properly explain what she meant cause the sight of a well known someone caught her eye.

After persuading the desk employee to finally tell him on which floor and which number her room was, he had rushed through the scales and now abruptly stopped when he busted them in the middle of the corridor.

"Sorry to interrupt this lovely scene," he sarcastically announced his presence "but I need to talk with her."

Jeff slowly turned his head and glared at the Rated R superstar. "And you even dare showing up."

"I'm not talking with you, I want to speak with her." He replied obviously annoyed… by jealousy.

"Well she doesn't want to speak with you so you can go now before I change my mind and decide to have a little 'talk' with you."

"She's a grown woman if you haven't noticed, she can speak for herself. But you Hardys seem to have a thing for controlling the others, haven't you?" He scoffed.

"Leave my brother out of this." The intercontinental champion said between his teeth, trying to control himself from beating the hell out of the man he thought had hurt the girl he loved like a sister.

Ashley remained silent, too shocked by the evidently full-of-tension situation and overwhelmed by her emotions to stop them in that very moment before things got worse.

"What do you say punkie?" Edge tried to lightly smile to make her understand that he needed to talk with her.

"You even speak to her… you make me sick in my stomach." Jeff angrily said, "What kind of man lays his hands on a girl?"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Jeff no…" The punk princess finally got that he had misunderstood her earlier words but it was too late cause he had already launched himself on the Canadian superstar.

"What the hell! You're crazy Hardy!" Adam yelled ducking a blow as Jeff attacked him.

"You son of a bitch!" The other snapped back.

"Guys, stop!" Ashley yelled following their movements back and forth as they wrestled each other on the floor, against the walls, with punches, with kicks… "Stop it, please!" She pleaded as Adam had just punched Jeff right in the face making his mouth bleed.

"You'd better watch over your boyfriend, punkie, before he gets knocked out." The Rated R superstar announced preparing to hit again.

"He's not my boyfriend, damn it, stop!" She finally yelled out of desperation, her eyes full of tears again.

And obviously, without even knowing it, she had hit the right spot cause Adam immediately stopped at the revelation, looking puzzled at the dirty diva… and allowing Jeff to return the punch.

"Jeff, it's not like it seams… I wasn't saying it… I didn't mean what you may have thought…" She rushed to say holding the rainbow-haired warrior by his arm.

"He didn't hurt you?" He asked concerned.

"Just verbally." She finally explained with a last sigh, as both man glared at each other between heavily breaths. "I'm sorry, I thought… I was just going to tell you anything when…"

"Yeah, don't worry." The younger Hardy sighed, gently caressing her hair.

"And what the hell are you doing here if you're not her boyfriend?" Adam almost muttered clenching his ribs as he was still sat on the floor.

Jeff turned to look at the punk princess with a soft chuckle, "Guess it's time for a little explanation, huh?"

She just nodded as he kissed her forehead.

"Call me if you need anything, alright?" And with a last glare at his 'opponent' the Charismatic Enigma walked away.

"Thanks for everything Jeff…" She sincerely said before looking for a moment at the Rated R superstar and finally opening her door… without closing it after her.

He took it as a good sign and slowly standing up followed the diva inside where she had just heavily sat on her bed.

"So he's not your boyfriend…" He pointed out closing the door.

"No, he's not." She confirmed avoiding to look at him.

"Then why-"

"What did you want to say this time? That maybe I could have been also pregnant of Paul and Brian?" She interrupted him.

He sighed and advanced a little, "I wanted to apologize. I don't know what I was thinking… I shouldn't have believed a word of it… and for sure I shouldn't have thought the rest."

She slowly nodded staring at the floor, "You're apologized, now you can go."

"There's another thing actually…"

"I'm not going to apologize for Jeff's behavior. Yes, he misunderstood but you totally deserved that beating, trust me." She angrily said.

"But he was right then thinking that you were crying for me?" He softly asked.

"You gotta go." She announced standing up and marching to open the door when he gently grabbed her arm.

"Why were you crying for me? Why did you pretend that he was your boyfriend?" He repeated in a low voice.

"…I already told you, you don't deserve an explanation…" She said as her voice almost broke when they meet their gazes.

And then, totally out of blue, the Rated R superstar sweetly kissed her lips.

"Why did you do that?" She almost whispered.

"I wanted to." He softly said caressing her cheek.

"Stop lying." She said breaking free and sitting again on the edge of her bed.

"I'm not lying. I'm not the one who pretended to have a boyfriend." He pointed out.

"Then what do you want me for? Just for sex? You could have Kelly or whoever you want." She folded her arms.

"Geez that's not what I want from you! Why can't you understand?" He exclaimed in frustration.

"Understand what?" she snapped back, "Cause last time I checked you didn't even call me after we kissed!"

"You walked away!" He defended himself.

"…Cause I was scared of my feelings." She finally admitted after a moment of silence, tired of the whole situation, of the misunderstandings, of the lies, of her heart beating like crazy after that little kiss… "I tried to call you every single day but I couldn't bring myself to. Then next time I saw you, you were planning to go out with Kelly so don't you accuse me."

He waited a moment after her explanation, somehow relieved by her words but somehow still scared of hoping for the best… "I didn't come after you cause I thought you were regretting it and I didn't want to hear a 'no' from you…"

"I bet Kelly said 'yes'." She commented making him roll his eyes.

"I was just looking at you laughing with your midgets when she told me that lie about you and a second later she asked me out. I think it was just the confirmation that the kiss didn't mean anything to you… and I guess I just wanted to prove you that you were wrong." He confessed.

She slowly nodded, looking again at him who was standing in front of her. "Jeff's just a friend. It was all just part of some sort of plan to make you feel like I could go on perfectly without you."

"And can you?" He whispered.

"…I don't know."

"I want you Ashley… not like you may think, I need you in my life." He softly said getting closer and kneeling down in front of her so that he could look directly into her light blue eyes, "I know I'm a jerk, I know I've been a jerk to you, I know I've hurt you just a hour ago… but I truly feel like I can't go on without you. Not now that I know how it feels to have you by my side, to laugh with you, to see your beautiful smile, to hear you sing along with songs that nobody on earth knows except you…" –she lightly smiled for a moment- "Those two days spent with you were the best I had in a long, long time… and I know what everyone seems to think about me, but I have a heart too Ash, and since we met it's just beating for you. I know you could make me happy… I wouldn't ask anything else in the world."

"Why are you telling me this?" She whispered almost scared of his answer and in the same time touched by his words.

"Because I love you." He simply stated as if it was the simple thing in the world, the truth that he had always knew and never revealed.

She remained silent, lost in his eyes as hers were once again full of tears.

"What are you thinking?" He asked after a few moments, afraid of a 'no'.

"Of what all the others would say about this…" She lightly smiled.

"Then let's prove 'em wrong, won't we?"

"…Yes, we will." She finally smiled.

"Is that a…"

"I love you too." She shrugged in an 'I can't help it' way as he finally chuckled too.

"Geez punkie were you trying to kill me or what?" He said amused as she giggled and pulled him on the bed with her, finally passionately kissing her boyfriend.