"Chris won it!" cheered Lydia, jumping off the couch. Christain scowled at her. "That's all very nice, but my pillow vanished, which means my head had to move which means my headache isn't going away."

"You're trying to guilt trip Lyd?" Edge asked with a chuckle. Christain grinned. "I am."

"Jerk." Lydia looked down at him and sighed. "And it's working."

"Oh god, he's doing an interview." Integra turned up the volume on the TV as Lydia sat back on the couch with Christain's head on her lap. She lightly traced a line over his forehead. "That better baby?"

"Hmm-mmm." He replied as they turned their attention to Chris. "... draped around the shoulder and soon to be around the sexy gorgeous waist of Y2J."

"Lydia?" Edge sounded suspicious. Laughing she shook her head. "I had nothing to do with it. I got the sack as script writer remember?"

"... held by a tremendous technical wrestler and one sassy individual in myself... whoa, uh, oh."

"Oh this'll be good." murmured Christain as the camera cut to Chyna. "I was the better wrestler last month, you were the better wrestler tonight. Congratulations."

Chris watched in disbelief as Chyna and Miss Kitty walked off. Ever since the wedding fiasco, she'd become quiet and shy around Chris. Lydia thought the Ninth Wonder had a crush, but he knew it was because of the way Chyna had opened up to him that morning. She liked to keep a moat around her and for some reason she'd lowered the drawbridge for Chris.

He chased after her, following her to the gorilla position, where Vanessa was talking to the New Age Outlaws. Standing back a little, he watched as she wished them luck and Billy hugged her tightly in thanks. ~Well at least someone from DX misses her.~

Chris waited till Chyna had gone and the match had started before approaching Vanessa. "Hey."

"Hi Chris how are you?" She greeted him warmly. Despite her strong and obvious loyalty to Test, the security guard liked Chris. She just wished she could be certain that his past with Stephanie hadn't had any effect on Test & Stephanie's relationship. Chris smiled back. "I'm good. No sign of Test around tonight."

"No, he wasn't sure he'd be able to handle the stress of tonight’s match." Vanessa said with a sigh. "What do you think?"

"I never thought I'd say this, but go Vince!" replied Chris dryly. He nodded at her official WWF badge. "So how the hell did you become a security guard anyways?"

"It was to prove a point. Test was just starting a security guard course because of his lack of success in the indies. He really was going nowhere fast. Anyway he made some crack about women be able to handle the course, my back got up and the next day I went and signed up for the course. And here I am."

"So do you like the job?"

"Yeah, it's great. I see everything which is fantastic, but can gossip about nothing, not even to Lyd or Teg." sighed Vanessa. Chris snorted. "Yeah I can understand why. Lydia can't keep a gossipy secret to save her life."

"Integra's a lot better, but I can't take the chance that she'll let something slip to Edge or Lydia." She explained, securing her ponytail. Chris grinned mischievously. "So what do you know?"

"I'm in a position to know about a lot of things." Vanessa said, almost as a warning. "Chris... I can't say anything and I don't know anything for sure, but you might want to get out of here before the end of the last match. And I think it would be a good idea to take Chyna with you."

Chris stared at her in disbelief. "What are you suggesting?"

"Just that you may see something you're not going to like," she said gently. "And if I get another 4 am call that you've been trashing hotel rooms, then you're going to suffer. And that is a promise."

~~~~

Stephanie nervously watched her father and… husband fighting it out. This was so surreal. She winced as Vince fell off the scaffolding and glared angrily at Hunter as he grabbed the mike and stood in front of her. "Baby... tell me how it fells baby huh? Tell me how you're feeling inside, watching your daddy get his ass kicked in front of the world and in front of you. It's gotta be killing ya huh?"

"I hate you!" She yelled hoarsely. How on Earth had she ever-considered staying married to this man? Right then she hated everything about him.

In the back, a large crowd had gathered around the monitors and were watching curiously. Someone patted Mick Foley on the back. "That was a good idea, taking down those weapons."

"Thanks." He replied tensely. A loud cheer erupted as Vince backed Hunter into a corner and raised the SledgeHammer and was drowned out by a gasp as Stephanie grabbed Vince's shoulder. Chris's jaw dropped as she raised the SledgeHammer above her head and he looked away, feeling sick. Chyna grabbed his hand and squeezed tightly. "She wouldn't."

"She won't." Chris reassured her, breathing a mental sigh of relief when Steph turned away. His relief was short lived as Helmsley grabbed the SledgeHammer off her and moved as though he was going to hit her.

Stephanie repressed a scream as Vince leapt in front of her, taking the full force of the hit and going down. With a smirk, Hunter made the pin.

One.

Two.

Three.

"Holy Jesus." Chyna's horrified gasp was lost as the backstage area erupted in anger. Someone had to do something about this and everyone had his or her own ideas on what should be done. All Chris wanted to do was kill Helmsley and then Vince for failing to look after Stephanie properly. They fell silent again as Stephanie knelt beside Vince.

She looked at her father, thinking. This was her father. How could she stand by a man who did this to her family? But how could she stand by someone who had given up his grand daughter for adoption with his daughter's knowledge? Someone who had paid doctors to lie about Christina's death? How could someone put another person through that kind of hell?

Hearing the roar of the crowd, Stephanie spun around and looked up at Hunter, holding the SledgeHammer. He'd offered to help her get Christina back. It was more than likely he was up to something, but Steph felt his offer was genuine. It was decision time.

She stood up slowly, knowing by the look on Hunter's face that he thought she was rejecting his offer. She swallowed nervously, then slowly broke into a smile.

She was getting her daughter back!

~~~

Hunter had to stop by his locker room and pick up his bags. Roaddogg was waiting for them when they got there. "Welcome to DX Steph. As expected, everyone is out for blood Helmsley. X-Pac's had to bail, last seen being chased by an angry mob. He'll meet us back at the hotel."

"But you guys knew nothing about it!" protested Stephanie. "Not even Hunter knew until about 10 minutes ago."

"They don't know that Steph." Hunter reminded her gently. He and Jesse exchanged a worried look that Stephanie saw and didn't understand.

"What's going on?" She asked slowly, wondering if it had all been some elaborate set up. Jesse sighed as Hunter vanished to get changed. "There's a few people who'd like to have a" - he used his fingers as quotation marks - "little chat with you."

Oh shit. Integra. Lydia. Vanessa. Oh no. She looked at Jesse in horror. "Have you seen them?"

"Vanessa's gone straight to Test." Jesse reported. "Good thing he's not at the arena tonight, or we'd all be in serious danger. Not too sure about Integra... she hasn't spoken, but she looks fairly distressed. As for Lydia..." he hesitated. Stephanie sighed. "Tell me."

"She's out for your blood. X-Pac was telling me that not even Foley was willing to try calming her down."

Oh no. Other than Christain, Edge & Integra and occasionally Chris or Vanessa, Mick Foley was the only one who could work Lydia out of a temper. Of course, it was doubtful that anyone had seen Lydia in this kind of temper for a long time.

"Where the hell is Billy?" asked Hunter, coming back into the room in street clothes and carrying his bag. Jesse shrugged. "Probably with his new woman."

"Oh for fucks sake... was he here when the match ended?"

"Yeah, he was actually." Jesse sounded slightly surprised. Hunter shook his head and muttered something that Stephanie couldn't quite hear. From the smirk on Jesse's face she decided she didn't want to know. Hunter grinned at her. "Ready to go Mrs Helmsley?"

"McMahon-Helmsley." she corrected. "And yes I am."

"Then let's go." He gently took her hand in his. "Coming Jess?"

The three of them got to the car park without running into anyone. With a quick look around, Hunter told them he was going to go for the car. "Jess, stay with Steph. If anyone shows up, she's your responsibility. Got it?"

"Got it." He nodded. However, Hunter had taken no more than three steps when his cell rang. "Uh huh... yup... fuck... Damnit... could you? Thanks man. See ya." He hung up and swore again. "That was X-Pac, a contact called him, there's a lynch mob around the car. He's arranged for a car to pick us up, but it has to go round the front. I'll head round there, Jess, you stay with Steph."

"You can't go alone!" blurted Stephanie. "What if something happens?"

"I'm a big boy Stephanie." He exchanged an amused glance with Jesse. She rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah yeah. I'll be fine. The only person who's likely to physically hurt me is Lyd and I can outrun her if I have to."

"So this is married life huh?" teased Jesse. Hunter hit him lightly on the arm. "Let's go huh? The sooner we get out of here the better."

"Hurry!" hissed Stephanie as they jogged off. She heard Jesse snort and Hunter mutter "Shut up." under his breath. Her strained hearing picked up what sounded like a footstep on the cement behind her. Steph spun around, realising that she really did not want to face any of her friends right now.

Nothing. Sighing with relief, Steph turned back, only to find herself face to face with Lydia. "Think you can outrun me huh princess? It's been a few years since we last raced and I'm a lot fitter now than I was back then. Out run me? Just try it."

"You wouldn't hurt me." Stephanie said with false bravado. Lydia smiled, eyes glittering. "Would you like to bet on that?"

"Lyd, settle down. It's not what it looks like." Steph told her, trying to sound calm. Lydia quirked an eyebrow. "Oh really?"

"They won't let you do this. Integra, Edge, Christain... they're not gonna let you get away with it. You can get away with some extremely weird stuff at times, but this is just beyond sane!" Steph stepped backwards as Lydia's hand shot out and grabbed the collar of Stephanie's jacket. She gasped in fear as Lydia laughed. "One little problem princess... they're not here."

"No, but I am." The voice echoed in the cold night air. "Lydia, let her go. You'll be making a big mistake. I know you want some answers, believe me, we all do. But wait a couple of days to calm down or save it till you get back from Canada. Just don't do anything that's gonna come back and hit you and Christain in the ass."

Stephanie slowly turned her head, unable to believe what she was hearing - and who it was coming from. For a moment she thought she was hallucinating, then saw Integra with him, arms crossed. Lydia threw an angry glance at them. "I don't believe this!"

"Come on Lyd." Integra walked forwards and put a hand on her shoulder. She looked at Stephanie and although her face was blank, there was no mistaking the look of sadness and disgust in her eyes. She shook her head at Stephanie. "Christain's worried about you."

Lydia glared at Stephanie and let go of her, allowing Integra to guide her away. Stephanie tried to calm herself down as the last person other than her family and former fiancee walked towards her, looking worried.

"Are you ok?" Chris Jericho asked. Steph closed her eyes and nodded. "A little shaken up. She was ready to kill me."

"Good thing we got here when we did." He said softly. Steph couldn't stand the look in his eyes. "Chris, I -"

"Shhh..." he placed a finger to her lips. "You have your reasons. And I hate saying it, but I'm sure they're good reasons. Just remember one very important thing."

Stephanie knew that he was baiting her and couldn't resist asking "What?"

A small smile crossed his face, then much to Stephanie's surprise; he put his hands on her waist and kissed her. It wasn't like the gentle, loving kisses that she remembered; this was a lot harder, almost brutal. Almost reacting on instinct Steph tangled her fingers in his hair and kissed him back hungrily.

Breathing heavily he wrenched himself away and shook his head. "That no man on Earth knows you as well as I do or can have the same effect."

She stared at him in shock and anger, but before she got the chance to say anything - or slap him - a car pulled up. Hunter leaned out the window. "What the hell are you doing Jericho?"

"Just saving your wife from an extremely angry former friend." Chris replied with a smirk. He lowered his voice so that only Steph could hear him. "You can marry whoever the hell you want, but deep down you will always be my Lioness. You'll always belong to me. Don't ever forget it."

"Steph! Get in the car Damnit!" shouted Jesse as Chris walked off and she stood staring after him. After a few seconds, she climbed into the car. Hunter looked at her in concern. "What happened?"

"Close encounter with Lydia." Stephanie said briefly. "She was incredibly angry - I've never seen her so worked up before. Jericho and Integra came along, saved me, Teg and Lyd left, Jericho stayed with me to make sure nothing else happened."

"I see." Hunter sounded a little suspicious. "And did it?"

"No." lied Stephanie, turning and looking out the window. "He just congratulated me and said that he hopes I enjoy married life."