A/N: Thanks for all the great reviews everyone, glad that I didn't make anyone dislike Chris and Steph. Anyways, this is the conclusion and while I'm not happy with it and may revise it, I don't know, or add more maybe, I'm just not sure, I wanted to put this one in the complete pile. I hope that it satisfies everyone and if it doesn't, sorry. So enjoy, hopefully, and if you want to review, I'd be appreciative, even if you think it sucks. :)
They started dating four months after the divorce was finalized.
It was entirely his fault to boot. It was like pouring salt in the wound except this wound was entirely self-inflicted. His own paranoia and worry had overtaken his common sense and he'd lost her, it was as simple as that. He knew books and poems and songs had been written about the heartache, losing someone, not feeling whole again, but it was never that complicated. Stupid people say that true love never comes easy, but it does. It did, for him, the true love part was the easiest part of it and he had screwed it up and it was so simple and he had been so stupid.
"Guess what? Guess what?" Stephanie said as she burst into his dressing room. He'd just been pulling on his kneepad and she came bounding in. Well, as bounding as she could be being pregnant as she was.
"What?"
"Guess how you are going to spend your summer?" she told him, her eyes lighting up. They were for him, those eyes, they were for him. So many times he had to see those same eyes light up in the same way except they were directed at someone else. He didn't have to force this smile on his face because this was a real one.
"How am I going to spend my summer?" He secretly wished she could travel with him, that she would tell him she was going to be here week in and week out for him, with no mention of Chris Irvine in there whatsoever. He was becoming a desperate man. He felt like all his happiness was tied with the likes of another man and what role that man played in his life.
"Well, you are going to be starring in two, count them two, movies," Stephanie said, grinning at him. He just kind of sat there and she looked at him in confusion. "Okay, this is where you think it's great and how cool it is that you're going to be starring in a couple movies and the movie premieres and all that good stuff. So feel free to react starting…now."
"What about wrestling?" he asked. "I kind of have a job here."
"Yes, and you can kind of get out of it," Stephanie said, "because you kind of have connections, but only slight ones of course. I'm kidding, anyways, we're going to write in an injury storyline, which will also give you time to heal up and then you are off to film some movies."
She sat down next to him, nudging him in the shoulder. "Where am I going to be filming?"
"New Orleans," she told him, "and I believe Toronto."
"Are you coming?" he asked her.
"No, I won't be, I'll be at home, you know, being pregnant," she told him, pointing at her stomach. "Are you not excited? I was talking with my dad and we thought you would be excited. I know you've wanted to do more film stuff since you were in Blade and so I thought that you would be excited for this, especially after losing out on that Thor role, which I still think you would've been great at."
He gave a slight smile for that. "So you'll be at home…alone?"
"I'll have the girls with me," she told him. "Don't worry, my mom will check in on me while you're away and Shane can even check in on me and while the company is close by I'm sure I'll get some big, tough wrestlers to check in on me if you wish. Hell, I know Chris will, he's always in New York doing something."
And therein lay the problem. He tried to put it out of his mind, but something felt like she was intentionally pushing him away. He knew he should tell her these concerns, but she could lie, she was good at lying, an expert really. He had this bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. If he was off filming, on a tight schedule, anyone could come see her, anyone could see her and nobody would know. Chris was always in New York, convenient story. The man could be there all the time if he desired and he would know exactly when he could come and go. Paul couldn't just pop back home when he wanted, not on a movie set. He had to live by the director's rules.
"I'm not sure I want to do this."
"Are you kidding me?" she asked. "Paul, you've been wanting this forever, you even lobbied to make more movies, what is wrong with this set-up?"
"I don't want to be away from you, you know, the pregnancy."
"Is that all?" she asked. "You'll probably be back by the time the kid is born anyways."
"But this whole checking in thing…what if you need something in the middle of the night?"
"I don't know, I'll go get it?" she told him, rolling his eyes a little. "I can have my mom stay with me if you want, if you're so concerned."
"Well," he said.
The door opened and it was Chris. "Oh, hey, guys, I just heard about the movie, Paul, nice one, Steph, do you think I could talk to you for a little while?"
"Of course," she said and there were those eyes again. "Paul, can we talk later?"
He believed they really needed to talk later. "Yeah, sure," he nodded.
"Thanks," she said, kissing his cheek before standing up and going over to Chris, who smiled widely as she approached. They went just outside the door and he watched it as it closed and he felt compelled to go listen to their conversation, if they were indeed having it in the hallway. Maybe they would sneak back to Chris's locker room to "talk." And there he went jumping to conclusions. Stephanie had never given him any concrete reason to suspect her of infidelity, but it was all the little moments, those tiny moments that she probably thought he didn't see that made him so suspicious. They added up until he just couldn't ignore them any longer.
"So what is it?" He could hear her through the door, muffled, but he could still hear her. He felt bad for a moment, but the thought of them together made him push his ear closer to the door to try and hear them more clearly.
"Well, my agent called me and-"
"You're not leaving again, are you?" she asked, the apprehension in her voice sailing right through the door. "Do not make me go through all that trouble I went through when I had to get you back the first time."
Paul could hear Chris laughing and it bubbled in his stomach. He never did find out what Stephanie had done to get Chris back. He'd been angry though, not necessarily at the man's return, but that he'd so readily come back at Stephanie's insistence and that they'd thought of this whole savior storyline. It had been Stephanie's idea and somehow felt like a slight to him that she thought Chris a savior in any sense of the word. The tongue lashing she'd given him at his childish antics hadn't been worth it, he decided long afterwards.
"Steph, no, you don't have to worry, I'm not going anywhere," Chris told her and he could almost see Stephanie's hand on her stomach, calming herself down.
"Okay, so what did your agent want? Is it about your contract, I know it's coming up at the end of this year and if you want more-"
"Again, Steph, no, would you just let me finish my sentence, you never let me finish anything," he told her and Paul didn't want to infer any flirtatiousness in the sentence, but he just couldn't help but hear it, whether it was there or not.
"You're right, go ahead, finish your sentence, I will stand here and listen."
"Thank you," he told her. "Anyways, this production company is looking for a host for a summer game show. It'd be six episodes, all filmed over three days. They put me on the short list for hosts. They really seem to want me so they want to do a try out so I was hoping I could get out of some house shows to go to LA to do that, plus, if I do get the gig, I'm probably going to need a few days off, nothing TV-related, just some house shows."
"Wow, what kind of game show, like Price is Right or something?" she asked.
He laughed, "No, I don't think so, I'm not entirely sure on the concept yet, I figure I'll find out when I do the audition, but I'm going to need time and well, you're a lot less scary than your dad."
"Aww, really?" she said, then laughed. "Of course you can. I'm proud of you for getting this."
"I haven't gotten it yet," he reminded her.
"You will, I have total faith in you," she said, "and at least someone is excited about something around here."
"What do you mean by that?"
Paul heard Stephanie sigh. "It's Paul. I told him about these movies, you know, you heard about it, you just said so. He doesn't seem excited. I don't know what his problem is. Sometimes…"
"I know," Chris said and Paul cursed him out for not allowing Stephanie to finish her sentence. He needed her to finish her sentence.
"Yeah, you do," she said. "You always do."
"Come here," he said and Paul could hear no more.
When she came to their hotel room later that night after a meeting with her father, he was ready and waiting for her. He sat on the bed as she came into the room. "Hey, Paul, I'm exhausted, I think I'm going to hit the sheets early tonight. I think it's the pregnancy making me so tired."
"Are you sleeping with him?"
Stephanie's head flew up and she looked at him. "Excuse me? What…what are you talking about? Who are you talking about?"
"You know damn well who I'm talking about," he said, trying to keep his voice still because he feared if he let it all out it would start to shake. He felt like he was starting to shake.
"No, I don't, I…I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Don't play dumb with me!" he shouted and she shrank back a little bit.
"I'm sorry, I can't play dumb when I don't know what you're talking about!" she shot back at him. He would never touch her, he knew it, she knew it, so she stood up to him as only she could. He was so blinded, the thoughts and pictures and images that he didn't even know were real or not assailed him and drove him crazy. He was certifiably crazy now, his emotions all out of whack and all he could picture was losing her and losing her to him and losing everything. He didn't want to lose everything, but he was, he felt it all slipping.
"You and Chris! I know about you two!"
"What?" she shouted at him, shaking her head and narrowing her eyes before she folded her arms over his stomach. "Tell me something, Paul," and she said his name so derisively that he could hardly stand it. "What exactly do you know?"
"I know that you two are sleeping together!"
They'd never slept together. He knew that now, months and months later. It'd been eight months since that conversation. She'd been so angry with him, so hurt in his distrust she'd left him anyways. She'd told him she couldn't get over the fact he didn't trust her. She'd tried. They'd tried for a few weeks after, but it wasn't the same. She looked at him in disgust and he looked at her in shame and then they just stopped talking. He'd found her crying one night and he'd tried to comfort her and she told him to get the hell away from him. He'd screwed it all up. It was his fault.
All his daughters were his, yes, all. He hadn't been there when she went into labor. He'd been at the hospital, but she'd refused to see him. He'd accused her that night, the night he made everything wrong in his world, of having children with Chris, that she'd been lying to him all this time. She wasn't. They were his, from Aurora right on down to Carsyn, their four month old daughter. They shared custody though she had physical custody of them since he traveled so much. He wished they could raise their daughters together, but she'd been hurt.
He'd heard from others that Chris had been there for her, been a friend to her and nothing more. Unbeknownst to anyone, Chris and his wife had already been in the process of a divorce. So Chris had the time to comfort Stephanie. He'd heard the whispers about him, that people couldn't believe he would accuse Stephanie so harshly and how ironic it was that his worst fear was now coming true. And it did come true. Except it came true because he'd pushed them together. If he'd never accused her, they would still be together and she would not be with Chris right now. She wouldn't be happy and he wouldn't have to see them holding hands when she came to visit or when she came to let him see the girls.
He heard that Chris's kids and his kids were getting along wonderfully and it hurt him that this was even the situation, but he'd done it to himself and so he had to take his punishment. He'd learned his lesson in the harshest way and this was now his life. His punishment was to see the two of them together. He'd believed and he'd been wrong.
Now all he could do was watch.
The End
