With a few loose ends to tie up at the offices that would ultimately allow her to work from wherever she wanted to and a couple of meetings already booked after she dropped Paul off at the airport Stephanie had gone to the offices. Arriving earlier than a lot of people suited her as she wasn't in a sociable mood so this way she didn't have to be social.

After speaking with her husband Linda went to speak with her daughter's Secretary, she wanted to get her alone at a point where there was no chance of them being interrupted or her daughter having an excuse that she needed to do something else. Approaching her she smiled, "Good morning. So what sort of schedule does my daughter have today please?"

The Secretary looked the schedule up on the computer, "She has a meeting at ten and then one at four but in-between that she is free. Would you like me to pencil you in some time with her?"

Laughing softly Linda shook her head, "No thanks, it will be a sad state of affairs if I actually had to schedule time with my daughter. I will come back later with some lunch for us both and speak with her then, just don't tell her of my plans please."

Shrugging her shoulders the Secretary had so much work to do that by the time she next saw Stephanie she probably would have forgotten anyway, "No problem."

Walking off Linda had her own work to deal with so went to get on with that.

It had only been an hour or so since she had left Paul at the airport but right now she was really missing him as being in the same building as her Dad and there being the chance she could run in to him or he could walk in the door at any minute really made her edgy. Despite knowing he was on the plane and wouldn't get her text she had to send one anyway:

I miss you and can't wait to talk to you later. I hope your flight was safe xxxxxxxxxx

Sending the text she went back to her work knowing she had a meeting soon, at least that would make her feel more at ease.

Linda had sent her Secretary out to get some lunch whilst she continued with her work interested to see how her daughter was going to respond when she went to see her later.

When 12:30 arrived she abandoned her work and picked up the bags of food that her Secretary had placed in the room before she walked to her daughter's office pausing briefly just by the Secretary's desk, "Hold all calls and all visitors for the next half an hour at least." Without knocking she then breezed straight into the office and shut the door behind her, "lunch is here and you will stop and you will eat."

Lifting her head she just stared at her Mom, she had done nothing wrong directly but she hadn't exactly been fighting for Stephanie so to be faced with this was just odd, "And if I don't."

Placing the bag of food directly in front of her daughter she did understand the hostility but it was misplaced, "Steph please don't be like this with me. I don't agree with what your Father did but after being married to him for all of the years I have been married to him I know he is stubborn and I have to play things just right." She wasn't going to tell her that she was trying to get him to change his mind because she wasn't here to discuss him.

Sighing softly Stephanie grabbed the bag of food and went and took a seat on the couch, "Okay fine, I am stopped and will be eating. I suppose you are joining me?"

Nodding her head Linda took a seat on the couch also, "I am. I just want to make sure you're okay after last night really, you left in a rush and were quite upset."

"I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?"

Linda gave her daughter a pointed look, "Stephanie I am your Mother, I know you better than you know yourself and we both know you're not 'fine' as you claim to be."

Sighing heavily she abandoned her sandwich briefly and opened her bottle of water taking a sip of it, "Okay fine, I'm not fine at all. As much as I enjoyed getting my feelings off my chest to Dad last night his reaction to it all still stings, my knee still hurts from my collision with the barricade on Monday, I am stuck at home all by myself all weekend because I have been told to rest it and then when I do go back on the road I know I will deal with the same bullshit that I dealt with last week. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to be too afraid to practise your segments for the shows for too long because you're afraid people will get the wrong idea and it will start World War 3 again?"

She actually had no idea how hard things were for her daughter at work, "You and Paul are seriously that afraid of being in the same room alone for too long without people jumping to conclusions?"

Nodding her head she didn't understand why it was such a surprise, "Yes. Then on top of that there are the people who are placing bets on all areas of our life and career, work is sooo much fun." She punctuated her statement with a roll of her eyes.

Linda genuinely didn't know what to say to her, "Well if you would like to you and I can do something this weekend? We don't have to talk about work or Paul or anything like that, maybe we could go on a spa weekend just you, me and maybe we could invite Marissa too?"

The thought of not having to sit home and dwell on the fact that she was away from Paul would be nice, "Okay sure, if you can arrange it in such short notice then it would be nice."

There conversation was interrupted by Stephanie's phone beeping so she got up to see who it was from.

As soon as the plane had safely landed and he was allowed to turn his phone on Paul did so and wasn't entirely surprised to see a text from Stephanie so quickly replied before he grabbed his bags and got a move on to the arena:

If u miss me that much I could text u a picture of my ugly mug :-P Love u baby girl, I hope you're having a good day, try not to bite anybody's head off xxxxx

As soon as he had sent the text he went to collect the rest of his luggage.

Walking over to her desk she picked her phone up and read Paul's text instantly smiling and grateful that her back was to her Mom. Deciding to reply quickly and then get back to her lunch she said:

Your mug isn't ugly but I'll always take a picture of you. I'm being a good girl although if I were bad you could punish me on Monday ;') xxxxxx

Returning to her seat she picked up her sandwich and returned to eating it.

Feeling the difference in her daughter's mood since she read the text she decided to challenge her on what she found out earlier, "So I dropped by your house first thing this morning to make sure you were okay and your neighbour happened to speak to me and she said you had already left with a muscley guy with long blonde hair, it's funny though, that's not all she told me. Your neighbour said that this same muscley blonde guy would visit a lot and would sometimes arrive late in the evening and would leave early the very next morning. Why did you never tell me how much Paul was around? Why didn't you tell me Paul was here this week to pick up his stuff?"

Sighing softly she shrugged, "It's not really relevant is it that Paul would come out of his way just to spend a few hours with me? I mean what's the point of telling you how important it was for Paul and I to spend time together? Nobody believes us that we were really close anyway so it wouldn't change anything would it?"

Looking at her daughter she noticed she was at her most relaxed when she spoke about Paul, "So I'm going to go out on a limb and say you love him and you want things to change so you can get back together with him?"

Unable to stop herself she looked at her Mom like she was stupid, "Why did you think I was so mad at Dad? If I didn't love Paul and want to spend my life with him then I really wouldn't be this upset that we split up would I?"

"Would you prefer to have a break in the storyline with Paul to make things easier?"

Shaking her head she would raise hell if they tried that, "Definitely not. If we had a break in the storyline then the wrestlers would win, I refuse to let them win."

Placing her hand over her daughter's she squeezed it gently, "Well just know that I will support you in whatever you choose to do and if you need to talk then I am here for you. Please don't feel like you are doing this alone just because your Dad is acting the way he is."

"Thank you Mom, I do love you and I am sorry for the way I have behaved but it has been hard."

Moving closer to her daughter she pulled her closer for a hug, "It's okay, I would prefer it if you talked to me rather than behaved like you did but now we've talked it out and I know why you have been behaving like you have then I can forgive you for it but please try to be nicer to everybody else."

Grumbling she didn't like that idea but she would have to do it if she wanted some peace and quiet, "I'll try, I promise."

Smiling softly that is all Linda could ask of her right now, "Thank you. I'd better finish my lunch and go and ring Marissa to see if she wants to join us for a spa weekend."

The two of them silently went back to their lunch whilst Stephanie plotted how she could talk to Paul on Saturday if she spent the weekend at a spa with her Mom and sister-in-law.