Distribution: My site (http://uk.geocities.com/selphieki... cheap plugs rule!) and Smoochy Dreamers. Anywhere else ask.
Disclaimer: I don't own either but the things I'd do to them if I did...
Characters: duh.. Stephanie McMahon, Chris Jericho
Wow, I wrote a good summary for once! This kinda pounced on me so if you don't like it *shrugs* It's the first non-sex Steph/Jerky fic I've wrote and is in no way related to the other four. Hopefully the changes in time are pretty evident throughout.
Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley looked around the spatial but empty hotel suite she was staying in and felt a pang of misery echo throughout her entire body. She was alone. She was always alone. Even when she had her husband by her side she was alone. Hunter didn't know her, he never had and what hurt Stephanie the most was the knowledge that Hunter didn't want to know her. He didn't care enough about his own wife to even attempt to understand her. Nobody cared enough to try and understand her motivations. The way she dressed, the way she acted it was just a way of trying to gain her father's attention. If he chastised her for the way she was it would meant he cared about her right? The surgery was merely an attempt to re-ignite the sexual fire that had long since extinguished between Hunter and herself.
Shame neither Vince or Hunter cared enough to notice.
It hadn't always been like this. She hadn't always been this depressed and alone. Stephanie smiled slightly as she thought of a time when she had felt loved. She hadn't smiled properly in months, it felt alien to her and she almost felt happy when the smile gave way to the more familiar tears as the happy memories turned into memories of loss and of one stupid action. One stupid action that had cost her everything that mattered, her happiness, a friend, a lover, someone who understood the real Stephanie. Someone who loved her flaws and never made her feel alone.
She played with the gold band on her finger as her tears flowed more freely. She didn't want to remember what had happened the day she met him but she couldn't help herself. It was torture for her to recall this but she felt that she deserved the punishment for ripping out the heart of the man who had loved her unconditionally. A man she herself had loved. A man she still loved with her entire soul.
*~*~*~
"Stephanie? There's someone that I want you to meet."
Stephanie stopped her brisk walk down one of the never ending corridors in the WWF's headquarters Titan Towers and spun around at the sound of JR's voice, smiling at both JR and the stranger standing next to him.
"Chris, this is Stephanie McMahon. Stephanie meet our newest signing Chris Jericho."
Chris smiled at her warmly extending his arm to shake her hand. "Nice to meet you Miss. McMahon."
"Please call me Stephanie." Stephanie returned the smile. "I'm so glad you decided to join us."
"So am I. I think I'm going to like it in the WWF."
The way he smiled at her made Stephanie blush, the colour evidently rising to her cheeks. As JR and Chris continued talking Stephanie found herself just staring at the Canadian. His whole face lit up when he smiled, his deep blue eyes sparkling as he occasionally glanced at her. She didn't know why but she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something special about Chris. It was calling her, making her want to learn absolutely everything about the handsome man standing before her.
"Is that okay Stephanie? You don't mind showing him around?"
"Huh? No, not at all JR. You go and do whatever it is you need to..." Stephanie said, snapping out of her daydream.
Stephanie was the perfect little tour guide showing Chris all the offices, the tape library, the gym and other features, Chris walking by her side the whole time. Their conversation to begin with was stilted as they discussed both of their wrestling careers but it soon started to flow into more personal areas. Stephanie was surprised that the conversation had so naturally evolved into the kind of speech two old friends would speak but it felt right. As Chris told her about what had happened with his now ex-girlfriend Stephanie felt as if she had known him for years.
"What about you and Test?" Chris asked as they entered Shane's empty office.
"That's nothing. Andrew and I just enjoy each other's company, we're making it seem like more to annoy my brother."
"Oh." Chris said, a crooked smile breaking out on his face. "I thought it was something serious."
"Not at all." Stephanie said giggling slightly at the grin that had formed on Chris' face.
"What are you laughing at?"
"You. Should I stop?"
"No. You have a beautiful laugh Stephanie." Chris said the jovial tone disappearing to be replaced by a more serious voice.
"Thanks." Stephanie said simply, blushing again.
"No you do. It matches the rest of you."
Stephanie stared into Chris' eyes as he gingerly pushed a stray strand of dark brown hair behind her ear, his fingertips lightly stroking the smooth skin of her cheek. She pushed her face into his hand urging him to touch her stronger, the feel of him against her skin doing more to Stephanie than she thought such a simple action could. His fingers deviated from her chin, his fingertips brushing over her lips and he jumped slightly as she opened her mouth. He moved his hand underneath her chin and raised her head a little the two of them nearly the same height even though Stephanie was wearing flat shoes.
Her breath caught in her throat as he pressed his mouth to hers the silkiness of his lips feeling so right next to her own. The heat radiated from his body as Stephanie closed her eyes lost in the sensations such an innocent kiss was provoking. She groaned inwardly when he pulled away opening her eyes slowly.
"I shouldn't have done that, we've only known each other for a hour."
"Sssh. It feels right so why stop?" Stephanie said placing a finger over his lips in an attempt at shutting him up.
He smiled around her finger gently kissing the pad his arms snaking around her waist pulling her closely to him. She removed her finger and put her arms around him as he rested his forehead against hers. This time it was Stephanie who instigated the kiss her fingers playing with the long blond hair he had pulled back at the base of his neck.
*~*~*~
Stephanie sat up on her bed as she played back that first kiss over and over again. She remembered it as if it was yesterday and she could feel the same emotions building inside her. He had taken her breath away the first time she had seen him as he had done every other time in the past two years or so. The very first time he'd kissed her she'd fell in love with him and had just found herself falling deeper and deeper.
She started crying again as she remembered how happy they had been in the short time they'd been together. They had kept their relationship a secret from everybody apart from Test who was content playing the on-screen role of her boyfriend. Test. That's another friend she'd lost because of her marriage. Stephanie looked down at her wedding ring again and pulled it off her finger, throwing it across the bed to the empty side next to her. It wasn't that long ago that Chris would have been sleeping soundly on that empty side. She'd spent countless hours just watching him sleep proud that she was able to call him hers.
*~*~*~
The small beam of moonlight that was finding it's way through the gap in-between the curtains fell onto Chris' face, illuminating his sleeping form. Stephanie placed her hand on his bare chest, the relaxed rhythm of his heart thudding against her hand. He always looked so beautiful when he was asleep she thought, so innocent and angelic. It had been a whirlwind two months since they had first met and part of Stephanie still could not believe that such a beautiful man, both inside and out, was lying in her bed.
"I love you Chris." Stephanie whispered softly.
"I'm not asleep you know." Chris said grinning broadly before opening his eyes.
Stephanie playfully slapped his chest. "Bastard! You could have told me!"
"I just did." He said, pouting slightly as he rubbed the non-existent mark she had left.
He rolled onto his back and Stephanie cuddled up to him resting her head on his chest and draping her arm across his waist. Chris softly kissed the top of her head as he wrapped his arms around her holding her tight to him.
"Did you mean what you said Steph?"
"Yeah. You are a bastard." Stephanie said as she burst out laughing.
"Very funny. You know what I mean, do you really love me?"
Stephanie lifted her head and looked him in the eye before answering. "Yes, I did mean it. I do love you Chris."
"I love you too Steph."
*~*~*~
Stephanie stared at herself in the full length mirror disgusted at what she had become. This wasn't her. It had never had been her. She rummaged around in her bag and quickly found what she was looking for. As she scrubbed away at the thick make-up that covered her face she started to see a familiar person staring back at her in the mirror. This was her, not the heavily made up barbie doll she had become.
She pulled her hair out of the clips that were holding it up and grabbed her hair brush from the counter next to her, roughly brushing it through. She brushed so hard it hurt but she didn't care. She wanted all signs of what she had become to disappear and she felt some satisfaction as she brushed the hair spray and crimped curls from her hair seeing it slowly turn back into the straight and sleek style that she had always favoured before her days with Hunter. She toyed with a piece, wrapping it around her finger as Chris used to do whenever he had made love to her.
*~*~*~
Stephanie lay on her back her breathing heavy and her body sweaty as the afterglow of her climax slowly subsided. Chris leaned down on top of her kissing her innocently as his fingers ran through her slightly damp and tousled straight hair. He gently kissed the tip of her nose before cuddling up behind her in the classic spoons position.
"Are you sure you don't mind?" Stephanie asked as her breathing slowly returned to a normal rate.
"How many more times are you going to ask? I was fine with it when you first told me and I'm fine with it now."
"But how can you be? I'm marrying another man next week. I leave for my hen party tomorrow."
"I know you do." Chris said kissing Stephanie's shoulder. "But I believe as well as you do that DX and especially Triple H aren't going to let the marriage happen. And I doubt that either you or Test will go through with it anyway."
"We won't do but I'm still going to be in a wedding dress on international television attempting to marry someone who isn't you. I don't think I could see you attempt to marry another woman."
"I trust you. And I trust Test. I'll be watching backstage probably getting ideas when I see how gorgeous you will look in the wedding dress."
Stephanie chuckled slightly. "Ideas? What kind of ideas?"
"Marital ideas. Look Steph, when Raw is over and done with it's my bed you'll be in, not Test's. That's all that matters to me."
*~*~*~
She laughed ironically as she remembered Chris saying that to her. That was their last night together before she screwed everything up. Stephanie undressed letting the skimpy clothes fall in a heap on the floor not caring how creased they became. She resisted the urge to throw them and the rest of her wardrobe out of the window and instead found the baggiest jumper and pair of trousers she could feeling content as they covered every inch of her skin. In years gone by she'd loved just lying around the house in a comfy pair of sweats and a jumper watching movies as she ate everything bad for her. She couldn't do that anymore because Hunter wouldn't allow her to wear anything but the tight and revealing clothes she hated.
As she looked at herself in the mirror again she felt as if she was looking at an old friend that she hadn't seen in years. For once she actually was pleased with how she looked and she recognised herself. She may have been able to expel all physical and outward traces of Hunter but could she erase him from inside of her? He hadn't just changed her physically he had changed her mentally. She had acted in disgusting ways towards the people she loved the most.
*~*~*~
"Stephanie. Can we talk?"
"There's nothing to talk about Chris. I suggest you leave before my husband finds out you're here."
"Don't you think I deserve an explanation? Ever since you and Triple H got married you've ignored my calls and after what you did last night..."
"I did what I had to do."
"You turned on your own father! You turned on me." Chris said, his gaze falling to the floor. "I just want to know what I did wrong."
Stephanie heard the raw emotion in his voice and felt terrible for treating him this way. She longed to reach out and touch him, to make it better but she couldn't. She was married to Hunter now. "You couldn't give me what I wanted."
"What did you want?" Chris said his voice becoming angrier as his movements became more animated. "Did you want me to dress you up as my own personal slut? Did you want me to turn you into someone you aren't? Well I'm sorry that I couldn't do that. I thought you just wanted someone to love you and to treat you right."
"Hunter loves me." Stephanie said quietly.
"He loves nothing but himself and the WWF title. He'd screw over his own mother to get what he wants."
"You don't know him like I do." Stephanie answered. She couldn't take this argument anymore, she was a few seconds away from falling right back into Chris' arms. But it was true, he couldn't give her what she wanted. She wanted power and fame, something Hunter had promised her and his words had been so charming, so persuasive that she found herself believing him.
"How long has this been going on? Were you cheating on me?"
"Yes. Yes I was." She said. It was a lie but it was the only way she could see of making him go away and leaving her alone. She hated lying to him and as the tears welled in his beautiful eyes she had to swallow back the lump that formed in her own throat.
"I love you and you treat me like this? I hope you and Hunter are very happy together, as far as I'm concerned Stephanie you don't exist anymore."
Chris turned and left the room, the venom in his voice leaving Stephanie slightly shaken as she started crying.
*~*~*~
Even after nearly two years Chris still believed that Stephanie had cheated on him with Hunter, it was probably the basis of all his slut jokes. Only she knew the real implications behind the names he called her. He wasn't simply attention seeking or trying to wind her up he meant every word because he believed them to be true. Stephanie didn't for a second expect Chris to forgive her for what she had done to him but she had to apologise to him. She had to apologise to everybody she had hurt if she was finally going to wipe herself clean of Hunter and Chris seemed a good start.
She took one last look at herself in the mirror before picking up her hotel suite key card and making her way to Chris' hotel room. She knew which one it was, she always found out which room he was staying in because it was a comforting thought for her to know how close he was as she cried herself to sleep night after night.
She knocked on his door quietly nearly leaving when it took him awhile to open the door. But she stayed and immediately wished she hadn't when he opened the door and looked at her as if he disbelieved his own eyes. She'd obviously just woken him up, his hair was tousled and his eyes still sleepy. He looked as beautiful to Stephanie as he always had.
"What do you want?" He asked snappily yawning after he'd finished.
"I'm sorry, for everything I did to you. I never cheated on you, I just needed you to know that." Stephanie said before turning and leaving.
"Stephanie?" Chris called. "I like your hair straight. It suits you."
Stephanie smiled to herself as she walked back to her hotel room, happy that the healing process had started at last.
THE END
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