"Are you ready for this?" Linda asked Stephanie with tears in her eyes. Steph looked incredible. She smiled at her mother. "As ready as I'll ever be."

Linda hesitated. Shane and Marissa had asked her not to give 'The Speech' she'd given them before their wedding, but that had been more.. romantic. ~What the hell made Stephanie agree to get married in the ring?~

"You know, honey you don't have to got rhough with this is you don't want to. I maen, marriage is a fairly big step."

"I know." Steph nodded.

"If you have any doubts at all, just say the word."

"Sure thing Mom." Stephanie looked at her reflection with a grin. "You sound like your trying to talk me out of this."

"Honey, I like Andrew, I really do. He's a wonderful guy and I think he'll make someone a terrific husband one day."

"Someone who isn't me."

"He's not right for you." Stated Linda bluntly. "I'd be a lot happier to see someone else waiting for you at the altar."

"Like *who* Mother?" Stephanie was slightly bitter. Linda sighed. "Just not him."

Stephanie was about to answer when a Gerald Brisco stuck his head in the door. "Ten minutes."

~~~~

"Are you ok Teg?" Lydia slipped past the other girls to where her friend was standing in front of the mirror. Integra shrugged. "Not really."

"Stage fright?" For Lydia the world was a stage, whereas Integra preferred a small audience. Integra nodded. "How can you be so calm about this?"

"Easily. The girls are gonna be looking at our men. The guys are only gonna be concentrating on two things and neither of them are our faces." Lydia pointed out calmly. "Just walk out there, think of all the gals who would kill to be on Edge's arm and smile. If you’re this nervous, then I'd hate to think how Stephanie feels."

"That's one of the reason's I'm so freaked out." confessed Integra after checking to make sure nobody was listening. Lydia raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"She's too calm about this! Remember how much she panicked about accepting Test's date? She's not worried about how Chris feels at all!"

"Breath!" Lydia thought her friend was going to hyperventilate. "OK, first things first - we've discussed this before remember? It doesn't matter if they get together or not, those two are soul mates etcetera, etcetera, etcetera."

"Yeah I know." Integra hesitated. "Something doesn't feel right. Something's gonna go down tonight that is gonna mess up a lot of people and screw up their lives."

Lydia regarded her with respect. "Gut instinct?"

"Yeah... sounds crazy right?" Integra laughed nervously. Lydia shook her head. "I feel exactly the same way."

"Five minutes!" Shane called, sticking his head around the door. "Lookin good ladies."

Lydia grinned mischievously Integra. "Shane-O! Come here!"

"What's up Lyd?" Shane made his way over to where Integra and Lydia were standing, the latter with her back to the mirror. "Hey Shane.. is it just me or does my ass look great in this dress?"

Shane was distracted by something else. "Um, Lydia... when did you get the tattoo?"

"Last week." She looked over her shoulder at the tattoo on her shoulder. It was a dagger and scroll with the names 'Lucilla' and 'Jason' on it. "What do you think?"

"I think we need to get make up in here NOW!" Shane replied. Lydia shrugged and winked at Integra as someone started dabbing concealer over the tattoo. "I guess he doesn't like it."

~~~

For Stephanie the majority of the ceremony passed in a blur. It wasn't the wedding she'd always dreamt of, but since Andrew wasn't the man she'd dreamt of marrying, it didn't seem to matter.

"If anyone present has any reason why these two should not be joined in holy matrimony, let him speak now or forever hold his peace."

Stephanie closed her eyes. Part of her was expecting Chris to come storming down the ramp and whisk her away. He didn't and she wasn't sure if she was relieved or devastated.

"Then by the power vested in me -"

"One, two, is this on?"

Uh-oh. Test looked in confusion at Stephanie and mouthed 'What's going on?' Helpless, she shrugged. She'd rejected Hunter's proposition.. or proposal, vowing him that she would find another way to make it up to him. He'd seemed to accept it with resignation and hadn't mentioned 'marriage' again. Afterwards, Stephanie had woken Lydia, Integra & Vanessa and the four of them had gotten rolling drunk. They'd had a blast, especially Vanessa, who'd been flirting with the bartender. Co incidentally, he'd been the same one from her bachelorette party...

Stephanie made the connection seconds before it appeared on the Titantron... oh shit.

~~~~~

Chris watched the monitor in horror. This was terrible. It had been bad enough knowing she was going to marry Test, who was basically a nice guy, but not the right guy for his Lioness. At least he'd known that Test would treat her right and take care of her. Helmsley was just... ~I'm going to kill him. Why the hell would he pull a stunt like that? Sure, he's feuding with Vince and god knows there's been a few times I'd like to have been able to knock Vince's teeth out... but why drag Steph into this? It's not right.~

A movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and he turned around in time to see Chyna rushing out of the room with her hands over her face. His first instinct was to follow her and make sure she was ok, but if she felt anything like he did, then Chris knew that Chyna wanted to be left alone.

Because he felt like doing exactly the same thing.