"Chris, it's Stephanie... we need to talk, preferably before Raw. It's important.. well to me anyway you probably don't give a damn.. but Christ Chris, I can't do this without your input ok? Call me... or Lyd and let her know ok?"

Chris listened to message in shock. Rewinding the tape, he listened again, just to make sure he heard it right the first time. He had, but what he hadn't noticed the raw emotion in her voice. Despite himself, he found he wanted to see her, find out what was wrong. Damned protective instincts.

Before he realised what he was doing, he had picked up the phone and called Lydia. "Tell her if she wants to talk before Raw, then she knows where to find me."

The next night saw Stephanie standing outside Chris's hotel room uncertainly. ~What am I doing?~ she asked herself. ~I don't need his permission to get married if I want to.~ Making that decision, she turned and began walking away.

"Going somewhere Princess?" a dry voice stopped Steph in her tracks. She turned around to see Chris leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed and a sarcastic grin on his face. The old nickname grated on Stephanie's already frayed nerves and she snapped "Don't call me that... Lionheart."

"Now that's a name I haven't heard in a while." His mood lightened instantly. Stephanie was a mazed at how quickly his mood had changed. "Chris... we need to talk."

"Yeah, I guess we do." He ushered her into his hotel room. It was modest, but nice enough. On the table was a vase filled with yellow roses and one red one. ~I wonder who's been sending him roses.~ Stephanie wondered jealously. Chris saw the glance at the flowers and instantly knew what she was thinking. A mischievous grin crossed his face. "Just a little token of affection from one of my favourite females."

"Oh really?" Stephanie ground out through gritted teeth. Chris nodded. "Oh yeah. Read the card."

Hand shaking with anger and jealousy, Stephanie slowly read the card.

Stephanie laughed out of relief. Trust Lydia. Chris grinned and settled into an armchair. "You wanted to talk about something?"

"Yeah." She sat opposite him and fiddled with her necklace nervously. "You saw Smackdown right?"

"Yeah." His guts twisted. Steph nodded. "Before I make my decision, there's a few things I think you should know."

"Why?"

Stephanie understood instantly. The question wasn't 'Why do I need to know?' or 'Why does your answer depend on what you're about to tell me?' it was 'Why now?' The old connection was still there and that shook them both.

"Because... I don't know." She answered quietly. "That day... when you told me to go and stay with the others... I didn't. I stayed at home, I don't know why. I just knew something bad was gonna happen, but I felt safer at home. When I saw Vince standing in our kitchen, I felt like I'd been struck by lightning."

"It must have been a shock. After all, it had been, what, nearly a year?" Chris remarked. Steph nodded. "It was. We argued... He wanted me to go back, I didn't want to leave." She looked at Chris intensely. "I really mean that. I did NOT want to leave."

"I believe you." he replied and realised he meant it.

"We argued for a while, I kept trying to stall him until someone arrived."

"You knew I would send someone to check up on you." He commented thoughtfully. Stephanie nodded again. "Yes. But Vince got sick of it and gave me an ultimatum... I did what I thought was best, please believe me."

She hesitated again and Chris understood immediately. Stephanie had gone home with Vince, rather than stay with him and have Vince use his connections to destroy their lives. It wasn't necessarily the decision he would have wanted her to make, but at least now he knew. And that brought him a small amount of peace.

"I know you did. And in the long term - the very long term - you did do the right thing. But I still hurt as much as I did three years ago when I came home and found you gone. I moved out the next week - it just hurt too much being there. I moved in with Edge, Christain and their girls. Those four were the only thing that kept me from falling apart completely."

"I threw myself into wrestling, remained emotionally dead for a while, had a few short relationships-" he glanced at her quickly - "They meant nothing, and I managed to have a fairly peaceful existence. Till June 21st."

They sat there in a slightly uncomfortable silence for a minute. Stephanie sighed. "There's more... one thing of minor importance, and something extremely important."

"Shoot."

"The whole higher power thing was to get at me. He didn't give a damn about Austin or the belt, it was because I ran away from my aunt's place. To remind me exactly who he was and what he could do." Stephanie's voice was low. Chris reached out to stroke her hair, then changed his mind at the last second. "That's really shitty. I'm so sorry."

"Yeah well it's what happens when you cross Vince McMahon." She replied bitterly. Chris sighed. "That really sucks. What's the minor thing?"

"That was the minor thing." She replied in a low voice. Chris's stomach knotted up as she kept talking. "I was fairly sick for a while when I got back to Greenwich. I was completely drained physically and emotionally void for a few weeks."

She hesitated and decided not tell him about the rumours of her being pregnant when she'd first been exiled from her family home. "Eventually Mom took me to the doctors, she was worried it might have been serious. They did some blood tests... when they came back... they showed that... I was... I was... "

She closed her eyes and took a deep shuddering breath. Chris's guts twisted again. "Take your time Steph. If it's not important, then don't worry about it. If it is, then don't rush it."

She burst into tears at his words. "I don't deserve someone like you in my life."

"You know, you've said that before." Chris said with a wistful smile. Stephanie buried her head in her hands. "I really don't know how to tell you this - when Vince forced me to leave, I was three weeks pregnant."

"What?" Chris thought he'd heard wrong. He looked at Stephanie in shock. "Did you say... it sounded like you just said... can you repeat that please?"

"Pregnant Chris." Stephanie replied sadly. A huge grin crossed his face. "A baby? Oh my god, you're kidding right?"

Stephanie shook her head. "Oh wow... a baby... our baby! I'm a Daddy! This is great!"

He stopped and looked at Stephanie, who had started crying heavily. "Steph... what's wrong?"

"Just after delivery... I lost consciousness... there was a hole in her lung... they did everything they could but..." She started crying, almost hysterically. Chris looked at her for a long moment and understood. Despite an overwhelming sense of grief and loneliness, his main concern was for Stephanie. Without thinking about it, he sat next to her on and wrapped his arms around her. She leaned into him, still crying.

After a while, her sobs subsided. Steph wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry... I thought I'd dealt with it, but obviously not. I just... I needed to tell you. I wanted to contact you while I was pregnant, but I thought I'd be the last person you wanted to hear from."

Chris stroked her hair. "I would've cheerfully killed all four of my housemates in that six months to hear from you. I just needed to know that everything was okay, because I knew, deep down that it wasn't."

"I named her Christina Rose... Vince wanted me to put 'Unknown' for the father on the birth certificate and I wouldn't.,. he was so mad at me for that." Stephanie said somewhat vacantly. Chris swallowed, not wanting to ask the next question, but he had to know. "Who else knows about this?"

"Outside the family - nobody." She interpreted the real question. "Andrew doesn't know. I.,. I don't plan on telling him." She fiddled with her necklace again and murmured "I don't care what the world can't see, it's just between you and me."

Chris understood. It wasn't that he didn't want his past with Stephanie known, if he had his way he'd be announcing it on the TitanTron. But it was nobody else's business, especially not that pretty-haired, beefed up chipmunk his soul mate was marrying. Or considering marrying. Hmm...

"Have you made a decision about what happened on Smackdown?" Even thinking the word 'proposal' made him feel ill. Stephanie shook her head. "I don't know... I like him; he's a nice guy. But..."

"He is a nice guy." Chris replied, feeling the bile rise up in his throat as he said it. Stephanie stood up and walked over to the window, staring out at the view. "I just... I need to know... Is there... could we ever...?"

"No." Chris replied, staring at the floor and feeling a cold chill invade his very core. "I love you Stephanie, I always will. I'm just not in love with you any more."