Sometimes in life there are people who never seemed to leave it…despite the fact that you want them gone and never to come back again. But they keep showing up, maybe by coincidence, maybe by design, maybe they are supposed to be there, but you don't want them to be. But your paths keep crossing, and your lives keep intermingling, and you are powerless to stop it, you just have to simply call it what it is…life.

And that person for Chris Jericho was unsurprisingly, Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Maybe it was his own fault. Maybe he shouldn't have ever gotten involved with Hunter, never provoked him. It would've saved him a lot of trouble, and he'd probably be holding onto a lot more blood, and have fewer scars. And then maybe he would be able to avoid Hunter, and not be bothered by any of his crap day in and day out.

He wasn't that lucky.

Maybe it had a lot to do with the fact that Chris was engaged to Stephanie. That probably was the gist of it, though it didn't explain Hunter's hatred for him before he got with Stephanie, ok, so maybe it did, since before he was with her, he loved to torment her. Hunter didn't like that very much, and that was probably why he saw fit to hate him.

And so began his problems tonight.

After Randy had so unceremoniously kicked Hunter's ass last week, he could feel Hunter's presence around, like he was just plotting his demise or something. Hunter probably was too. He was the kind of guy who knew what he was going to do long before he did it. Chris guessed that Hunter had been a Boy Scout when he was younger, because he subscribed religiously to the "be prepared" theory.

But there was this air about, and he could feel tonight could be volatile. Earlier, Randy had found out that he was banned from the arena for "safety reasons." It was probably Bischoff up to his old antics, doing favors for people that he found favorable, and Hunter was one of the people he favored. His lips were permanently stitched to Hunter's ass, and Chris shouldn't have expected anything less.

Stephanie had the night off, just because she had been working so hard, and her father thought she deserved a break. She was a little bit nervous about the show going off without a hitch without her. The McMahon theory was that if they weren't in charge, than things were sure to go downhill. Stephanie used SmackDown as her own person example of this theory. She was on the phone with Randy at the moment, while he shined his belt, and thought about Hunter.

"Randy, if you want to come, I can get you a pass and override Bischoff's orders, if that's what you want. I don't think you'll be able to stay long, because Bischoff is probably going to have security on you really quick, but still, you can come."

"Thanks Steph," Randy said, "I won't stay there long, just long enough to get a little bit of revenge for last week, and this week for kicking me out."

"Hunter had you kicked out I'm sure," she said, "I'll have a talk with him."

"You'll do no such thing," Chris interjected.

Stephanie waved him off, "I'll take care of it Randy, you just get here if you can, and we'll work out the details at a later date. You'll probably have a match for Taboo Tuesday announced as well, I'm sure it'll probably be against Flair or Batista."

"Either one is fine I'd love to get my hands around either one of their necks."

She laughed, "I'll see what I can do. Bye."

"Bye Steph."

With that she hung up the phone and looked over at Chris sitting next to her. He had a skeptical look on his face and she shrugged at him, signaling that she didn't know what he was looking at her like that for. He shook his head a little bit, mostly in disappointment, that much she could tell, but as for the reason, she had no clue.

"Stop looking at me like that," she told him.

"You said you weren't going to do any work tonight," he told her. "It's your night off, you should be partying, boozing up, stripping me of my clothes and taking advantage of me."

"I'm not going to strip you of your clothes. And I would never take advantage of you, I would always make sure that you consented to anything I wanted to do to you."

"You would never have to ask because I give you permission to do whatever you want to me," he said, raising his eyebrows in excitement.

"Oh, well in that case, get on your back and let's see what you're made of," she told him, sounding very serious. Serious enough that he didn't know whether or not to get on the couch or what. But when she started laughing, he scowled at her and ran a hand through his hair, though it lacked the lusciousness it used to.

"Don't tease. I won't put out tonight if you do."

"Aww damn," she said, lowering her voice so it sounded like a guy. "And here I was hoping to score tonight. I need to get laid."

"I hope that's not an impression of me," Chris pouted, crossing his arms over themselves and tucked his chin against his chest.

"No, my impression of you would be more like, 'I need to get laid right this second and I can't wait until tonight so just tear your clothes off and let's get to it,' that's you."

"Yeah, that's me, I'm so sure," he said back, sounding like a little kid. She leaned over to kiss him, but he pulled back at the last second, not wanting her kiss at all. She rolled her eyes and leaned in a little closer. He moved away again and she almost ended up kissing the couch cushions.

"So I get no kiss?"

"Sorry Stephy, seems like I CAN wait to score, unlike your stupid little impression of me."

She pulled back, "You're not honestly mad are you?"

"That's something you'll have to figure out by yourself now isn't it?" Chris said, standing up. "If you'll excuse me Miss McMahon, I have other people's company that I would rather be in than yours."

"Chris, come on, you're not really mad are you?" Stephanie said, kneeling on the couch to look at him. Chris went to the door and grabbed the knob before turning back to Stephanie briefly.

"Why should I tell you?" he answered snottily.

Stephanie got up and went over to him, hanging onto his arm. "Because you're my fiancé and I love you very much."

"Yeah, but I'm apparently only in it for the sex."

"I never said that!"

"You implied it though, I'll see you later."

"Chris…please don't be mad, I didn't mean to."

"Whatever Stephanie," Chris said, shaking her off and walking out the door. Stephanie looked at the closed door for a moment before cursing loudly. She grabbed the nearest thing in the room, a crystal trinket on a side table and hurled it to the wall. Her and her big mouth. She didn't realize such an innocent comment could make Chris so mad.

She needed a breath of fresh air, and instead of cleaning up the broken glass on the floor, she left it for some poor janitor to clean up. She stalked out of the room and down the hall, sparing nary a nice look for anyone, even people she considered more than an acquaintance.
She was mad at herself for saying something stupid, although unintentionally and she was upset at Chris for being such a baby about it.

"Stephanie, can I talk to you?"

Stephanie looked up to see Hunter. She didn't feel like seeing him right now, since it would probably only make her anger level rise, but he looked so almost…earnest in his request that she nodded, giving in to him. Hopefully he wasn't going to berate her for letting Randy beat him up, or try to get revenge on her by luring her into a false sense of security. She walked into his locker room and took a seat.

"Hunter, if this is going to end with me yelling at you, can you just warn me right now so that I can save myself a lot of trouble and just leave right now," Stephanie told him up front.

He sat next to her and licked his lips. "Actually, for once, no, I don't want it to involve you yelling or anything."

"Look, about last week-"

"I'm sorry," he quickly said, causing her head to snap up to look at him in amazement. He had just done something she never thought he would do, and that was apologize.

"For what?" she asked, just to make sure he wasn't going to say that he was sorry for her being with Chris, or something equally embarrassing to himself.

"For acting like I did. You don't deserve someone shoving your or trying to intimidate you or anything, and I'm sorry that I did, and I wanted to apologize for it…sincerely, and I'm being totally sincere her for once, so um, there, and don't expect that to happen again because I don't apologize to anyone, so you can forget about me repeating it. I only say things once."

"Well, I know that's not true," she joked, and he actually laughed.

"Ok, so I repeat myself when it counts then."

"That's better."

"And to apologize, I got you something."

Stephanie shook her head. "Hunter, I can't accept anything from you, no matter how nice and honest you are being. I just can't. We're broken up, we've been broken up for a long time, and I wouldn't go back."

"Stephanie, just let me give it to you, I promise you'll like it."

"I'm engaged Hunter," she told him.

"I was too scared to want you back," he said, his eyes turning to narrow slits as he thought about it. "I don't get afraid of a lot of things, but I was afraid of you. It sounds silly and it really is, but I was afraid to say something. You hated me."

"I did hate you, I still do for some reasons. You were never a good husband. You were barely tolerable most of the time. I was really only happy with you about a third of the time that we were married and that's really sad Hunter."

"But you were happy? At least a little?"

"Sometimes, yeah, I guess you could say I was happy."

"So I wasn't a complete failure?"

"Not complete," she told him. "We just weren't meant to be together, you know."

"We could've been great."

"There are no such things as could have's. If you could have, then you would have."

He turned around on her and pulled something out of his bag. He turned to her and presented her with a simple black box with a pretty pink ribbon tied on the top of it. She looked at him suspiciously and he thrust it out a little, gesturing for her to take it. She was hesitant though, for obvious reasons.

"I can't Hunter….Chris…"

"What? Does he control your every move now?" Hunter asked. "Because if he is, then he's got to be worse than me, right?"

"He doesn't control me. If he controlled me, do you think that I would be sitting here with you now? No, he would've banned me from seeing you a long time ago. Not that I shouldn't ban myself from seeing you, but I'm a very forgiving person," she said, then they both cracked up. "Ok, so I'm a glutton for punishment."

"Take the gift Steph, think of it as a belated birthday gift if you have to. I don't think you liked the flowers," he said, rubbing his cheek.

"I loved them until I found out you had sent them."

"Well, then you at least liked them for a second, take it, I swear, it doesn't bite."

Knowing that he wouldn't let up any time soon, and he wouldn't let her leave until he got to give it to her, she took the present, but stared at it. He pushed it towards her and she looked at it with trepidation. She tentatively pulled on the ribbon, loosening it easily and discarding it to the table to her right. She looked up at him before lifting the top off the box. She gasped and looked up at him, the tears springing in her eyes immediately.

"Oh Hunter…" she whispered, her voice trailing off as she stared at the gift. "You shouldn't have."

"You like it?" he asked hopefully.

"I can't believe that you remembered about this," she told him. "How did you remember?"

"I still remember some of the stuff that you told me, I'm not stupid Stephanie. I was walking with the boys one day around New Orleans and it caught my eye, and I remembered how you pointed out the brooch that your grandmother wore from some old pictures and it looked like it and yeah…so there you go."

"I can't believe that you remembered the brooch. I don't know where it ended up, but this looks exactly like it. She used to wear it on all our special occasions and I remember that she would let me wear it whenever it was my birthday and it made me feel like such a grown-up that I could wear such a pretty brooch. Hunter, oh my God," Stephanie said, and before realizing what she was doing, she threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly, which he returned eagerly, it being the first time she was willingly in his arms.

"You're welcome."

"This is so special, thank you," she said, a few tears escaping her eyes, which she surreptitiously wiped away, before pulling back to smile at him. "I may have doubted you in the past, but thank you so much for this, you have no idea what it means to me."

"I'm not a jerk all the time," he shrugged. "I just wanted to remind you of that."

Stephanie leaned in and kissed his cheek, her lips lingering a little too long on his skin, which Hunter seized the opportunity to. He kind of nudged his face towards hers and then touched his lips to hers, softly at first, not wanting to scare her. He kissed her fully on the lips and she was in such a daze over his gift, she didn't pull away, but she didn't kiss him back either. When she became clear of what had happened, she pulled away with a gasp.

"Oh God, you kissed me!" she said in exasperation.

"You didn't stop me," he pointed out.

"I was overwhelmed by your gift and you kissed me," she told him, which was exactly the truth. "You took advantage of me."

"Stephanie, I did not, you kissed my cheek first," he said, which was also the truth, unfortunately.

"Nothing happened!" she screeched, standing up. "Nothing happened, and I didn't want to kiss you, and you kissed me! You took advantage of the fact that I relished in your gift and you kissed me because of that!"

"Stephanie, I don't think that I did anything you didn't want me to do."

Stephanie shook her head furiously, rushing out the room, trying to catch back her lost breath. She didn't know what to do and she looked from side to side. She chose one way to go and went with it. She still had the brooch in her hand, probably not even realizing it as she spotted Chris down one of the hallways speaking to Benoit. She was about to turn the other way when he spotted her and waved her over. She made no move to go over, and he said his goodbyes to Benoit before walking over to Stephanie.

"Hey baby, I'm sorry about earlier, I know you were joking and I'm sorry I was acting like a jerk, I'm not mad at you or-hey, what's that?" he asked, looking down at her hand, where the box was. She was too stunned to do anything as he grabbed the box from her. He looked at it for a second and then looked up at her quizzically. "Where did you get this?"

"It was…a gift," she answered.

"Cool, from who?"

"Someone," she answered. That was a stupid thing to say because a vague answer is just a killer when someone is questioning you. Chris looked suspicious now and it was her own doing.

"Who someone?"

"Nobody, don't worry about it."

Chris studied her carefully. "Why is your lipstick smeared?"

She reached up to touch her lips, as if that could somehow hide the fact that it was smeared. She looked stricken, like a deer in headlights when Chris asked that. She didn't have an answer, a lie anyways. The truth would do no good to her right now. It wouldn't work, Chris would flip, he would kill Hunter, and then he'd kill her, and then he'd go to jail and she didn't want him to go to jail.

"I must've been in a hurry and just let myself forget to touch up," Stephanie said weakly, biting her lip and knowing that sounded even worse than her "someone" faux pas.

"Stephanie, were you," he gulped, "were you kissing someone?"

She didn't answer fast enough, but she didn't answer slow enough either. She took too long to answer, and he knew, he could tell in her eyes that she was lying, no matter what she was going to say. He started nodding in a continuous motion for no reason whatsoever, like he was a bobblehead doll that someone had just pushed. He didn't know what to say, if his voice worked that is.

"Steph?" he asked again, hoping for an answer this time, a real one.

"I didn't want it," she answered.

"You kissed someone."

"Someone kissed me and I didn't…stop it early enough," she said, "I didn't really want it so I just…Hunter, I didn't want it to happen."

"Did you just call me Hunter?" Chris said with disgust.

"No…Hunter…he was the one."

"NO!" he said, his breath starting to pick up pace. His face contorted into one of sheer horror. He stepped back away from her and took her in. She looked guilty. She looked fucking guilty, and he didn't know what to say.

"I didn't want it, he gave me this beautiful gift and I hugged him and then I kissed his cheek in thanks and thanks only, and he kissed me. I was too stunned to do anything, Chris, I'm sorry. It was the gift he gave me. It was a brooch that looked exactly like the one my grandma used to wear and he remembered, and that's no excuse, but I'm so sorry," she whispered.

Chris's eyes were filled with tears of anger and betrayal and he shook his head, trying to keep those tears from falling. He looked so hurt that her heart broke. He looked like the walls had come crumbling down around him and he was stuck looking at the ruins. She tried to reach for him, but he pulled back like he was being burned, and then turned on his heel and ran away from her. She didn't even get a chance to reach out to him, because he was so damn fast.

Chris ran back to his locker room, and he sat there, his head in his hands. His heart hurt, if that was possible. He didn't care if it was possible, because it was happening, his heart was literally hurting. Maybe it was the pounding that it was doing at the moment, but it was something. He was hurt, ok, hurt didn't even begin to describe it. There was hurt, and then there was this, and this? It sucked. This was the whole spiel about bumping paths with Hunter. They were bumping again.

He turned on the television, trying to see what was on tap for the night. He didn't have anything planned, and when the first thing he saw on his screen was Hunter, he knew that he had to have one objective that evening, and that was to get as much of Hunter as he could. Flair was spouting off shit about Randy, and Hunter was just standing there like the smug bastard that he was. When Hunter started talking about how Taboo Tuesday was a farce, he saw an opening and walked determinedly down to the gorilla and up to the ramp.

His hurt turned to anger as he saw the smug face on Hunter. It was like he knew that Stephanie had told him. Maybe he did know, maybe Stephanie had gone running into his arms when he had run away. Regardless of how he knew, he knew and Chris could tell. There was none of the usual anger that Hunter had for Chris over Stephanie, now it was just an arrogant air. But Chris had to play this cool. He had to play this like he didn't know that Hunter knew what was going on, he couldn't let Hunter get that one up on him. So he had to speak like he didn't know, and only about the show, but there would be an underlying reason for his words, and Hunter would know.

Now Chris could've been talking about Taboo Tuesday here, it made absolute sense. But why would Chris care? The fans didn't seem to pick up that, but why would he, Chris Jericho, who was not in the running for a match with Hunter, care what happened? Sure, it was partly because the people knew that he hated Hunter, and had for a long time, but when he said that Hunter was uncomfortable with the concept of Taboo Tuesday, he unequivocally meant that Hunter was uncomfortable with the engagement to Stephanie. Hunter was jealous, and it showed in all his actions, especially this last, cowardly one.

He continued speaking, hoping that Hunter caught the double meaning, though the fans probably didn't. But just in case, people were thinking he was off his rocker, he spoke about the actual show, which incidentally stemmed from an idea that he had. But Hunter was probably angry and jealous about that too. Now that he wasn't in Vince's pocket as his son-in-law, Hunter was probably mad with jealousy that he couldn't be the one to go directly to the boss and suggest things, or get credit for them. Just another thing in the long list of things Chris was good at, and things Hunter was not good at.

He did a little poll where he asked if Hunter was the best today. He was met with boos. And he hoped to God that Hunter got the freaking message that he wasn't wanted here, and that nobody liked him. Most of all Chris. There were arguments for Shawn Michaels hating him more, but honestly, him and Hunter had never been friends like Shawn and Hunter had been, and so this hatred, it had been brewing for years. It was always just below the surface. Chris was generally a nice guy, crass, egotistical, but beneath it all, he was a nice guy, but Hunter set something off in him that he didn't quite know how to explain other than a blinding anger that surpassed any other feeling of anger he had ever experienced in his life. But glad to know that the fans agreed.

Then he asked them if he was the greatest wrestler of all time. Again, the crowd booed, even louder than the last time. Hunter still looked at him with the resigned anger, and smugness. He wasn't going to let it affect him, at least not on the surface, and Chris was going to play the game the way Hunter wanted to play it. If he wanted to be cool about Stephanie, than so would Chris. It may kill him inside, it may make him see red, but he would play it cool or die trying.

Chris asked them if they thought that Hunter was a horse's ass, and this time he was met with thunderous cheers, as he expected. The fans and him were once again in agreement. Except they couldn't possibly know why Chris was so angry with Hunter, they couldn't presume to know. No, this hatred was too personal for the fan to comprehend.

Chris said his piece, walking closer to the ring so Hunter could see the whites of his eyes. Chris was undaunted by Hunter, and Hunter's constant threats of stealing away Stephanie. Chris had Stephanie, Chris loved her like Hunter could never love her, and if Hunter wanted to face-off in some silly fight for her, well, Hunter better be damn prepared for it to happen.

He might as well get a little bit of gloating in there as well as he mentioned whose idea the whole interactive thing had been. He was the best, Hunter was the worst, and Hunter was going to know it. Chris could play the game, he had played the game many times before, and even though it had seemed like he lost, time and time, and time again, without a single win, Chris won the battles that mattered. He won Stephanie, and he had won over the McMahon family and even though that wasn't his intention, if it made Hunter deathly jealous, so be it, he'd flaunt it like he was a peacock with bright feathers attached to his tail.

And this is where he called that stupid, big-nosed bastard out. He neglected to say Stephanie in who else would be watching, but right now, he was kind of pissed at her for not doing anything during the kiss, but he'd probably let her stew for a few days before forgiving her, if she wanted to be forgiven. But right now, he was too focused in on the way that Hunter was looking at him. Like he wanted to tear him limb from limb. Another thing him and Chris had in common because that was the thought running through Chris's mind as well.

Flair went and had to defend his sugar daddy, like the lackey that he was. He called out Chris, like Chris was just going to go in there and be double-teamed. Hunter was obviously preparing, getting undressed as Flair spoke. Chris wasn't going in unprepared and he went backstage to grab a chair. He caught sight of Stephanie standing there, looking at him intently. He sent her a glance, emotionless and impassive, but a glance nonetheless. Grabbing the chair, he walked back out and started to go down to the ring. In his blind anger, he forgot to account for Dave, and only noticed too late that he was going to get smacked in the back. He was thrown into the ring and triple-teamed until he saw Benoit hitting someone, and then to his surprise, Edge came to help.

When they were done with that, they went backstage and Chris looked at Edge questioningly, wondering if he had come to his senses. Edge hadn't forgotten though. "I'm not trying to get on your good side Jericho, that was for purely selfish reasons and nothing more. We're not friends, so don't go presuming that I did that for friendship."

"Whatever," Chris said, having bigger fish to fry. Stephanie walked over slowly to him, taking each step in quiet deliberation, wondering if she should even approach him when he was so irate.

"Bischoff just told me something about a match with you and Hunter later," Stephanie told him quietly.

"Great, I'd love to get my hands on that bastard."

"I'm really sorry Chris," she repeated from their earlier conversation.

"Whatever Stephanie, I'm not in the mood to talk to you right now."

"Chris, please don't be mad at me, I couldn't stand it. Look at me, I'm sullen, I'm moody, and I'm sad, and I need you to cheer me up."

"When I'M the one who's hurt?" Chris said, shaking his head. "Selfish to the end, aren't we Stephanie?"

"That's not fair," Stephanie countered. "It's not like I invited it or something!"

"But you did nothing to stop it, I guess you are those names that I used to call you," he said, just trying to make her as hurt as he was.

"That was uncalled for," she responded, "Completely and totally uncalled for!"

"Is it? When you go around kissing other men while you're engaged," he hissed, leaning his head in close to hers.

"I didn't want it!" she hissed back. "If you think I would want those slimy lips on mine, maybe you need to get some therapy because you're obviously delusional."

"Well, how am I supposed to know what you're doing? One minute you're hitting him with flowers, and the next your accepting gifts from him and gushing about them because it resembles something from your past."

"Something that my grandmother always wore," she pointed out angrily. "It reminded me of her!"

"So go let him remind you of your marriage, I'm thinking that you probably want that right now!"

"I DON'T WANT THAT!" Stephanie yelled, stomping her foot in tantrum. Some people turned to look at them, but then pretended they didn't see them since this was kind of embarrassing.

"I don't know what you want. But whatever you decide, leave me the hell out of it."

Chris walked off, Stephanie too angry at him to go and apologize. He was being way too mean now and she didn't want to deal with him when his temper, and hers for that matter, were in full force. They were liable to bite each other's heads off in a weird double murder. She would just let him work this out and come back to her. He always did come back to her.

"Trouble in paradise?" Edge asked with a smirk.

"Oh get a life," Stephanie spat, stomping off.

Chris locked himself in his locker room, refusing to see anyone until his match. He didn't want to hear it from anyone. He was going to decide how he dealt with this. He didn't want Trish's advice, or Christian's, or Randy's. His cell phone rang and he saw it was Kurt and answered it with a smile, thinking he could get away from the Stephanie subject for a little while.

"Kurt, hey, what's up man?"

"Why don't you just talk to Stephanie?"

"Damn it! Kurt, when did she get inside your brain?"

"She called me like twenty minutes ago, and she told me what happened, and dude, have you listened to her?"

"Is it wrong to be angry?" Chris asked.

"No, but not at the expense of hurting her."

"Hurting HER! Oh give me a break. She's the one who hurt me, or is that something you guys have forgotten to take into account. She kissed another guy. We're getting married in four months and she's off kissing her ex-husband! Not even some guy she just met and got drunk and then kissed. She kissed her ex-husband, a man she used to LOVE!"

"Ok, I get it. And you do have the right to be angry, but don't let it blind you to what really happened."

"I wasn't there, she could've been making out with him for all I know."

"Ok, now you give ME a break! Stephanie just randomly making out with Hunter after hating him for YEARS. And being with you for YEARS. Yeah, that's typical Stephanie behavior right there. She's just the type of girl who is going to go off and kiss her ex-husband on a whim."

"She ruined Hunter, now she's probably going to ruin me, and then she'll move on and get married to someone else, and then I'll be the one fighting with this guy for her. And so will Hunter, and then it'll be this weird love square or something, and I'll be the smarmy bastard like Hunter."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Yeah, and I've got long luscious locks of hair down to my waist. Give it up Chris. I'm speaking as the best man of your wedding, which is like the most important job of all. And if I don't get to be best man and deliver the kick-ass toast that I'm going to prepare, I'm going to torture you by making you watch all of my wrestling matches, and retell you the story of how I won the gold medal with a broken freaking neck."

"God, I'm going Kurt, I have a match."

"Talk to her!" Kurt yelled right before he was hung up on.

Chris went out to get ready for his match, and was neglected to be told of the fact that he was going to be in a lumberjack match. Christian told him quickly before they went out there that they were all choices to go for the Intercontinental Championship, which Chris groaned at. Could the night get any worse? Well, at least he would get to wreak a little havoc on Hunter before the night was over.

Chris went after Hunter as soon as Hunter was off the turnbuckle and wasted no time in trying to gain the upper-hand. He wanted to concentrate solely on beating Hunter, but he could feel lots of pairs of eyes staring at him, just waiting for him to fall out of that ring. It was hard to concentrate on Hunter, while simultaneously trying to concentrate on not getting the stuffing beat out of him by a bunch of different people. The first time he was thrown out, it was a melee, with a crowd of guys just trying to beat on him. And Chris was trying valiantly to beat them off, but it was hard trying to fend back the advancing beasts.

Chris focused more on beating up Hunter, making it perfectly clear that he would not be taking Stephanie from him any time soon. It felt good actually, to get his hands on Hunter. It had been a long time since they had fought one-on-one like this, though the two of them had had some epic fights, ranging from Last Man Standing to Hell in a Cell, two of the most brutal matches in the company today. Those times had felt good too, despite the losses, but this one was for his sanity. Hunter was driving him insane with his incessant pursuit of Stephanie, and he was trying to end it tonight.

The exchanges between the two of them during the match consisted of a lot of cursing and "Stephanie" came up more times than not. The guys on the outside of the ring could feel the hatred permeating off the two men, and anyone who was in the know, Christian especially, knew that Chris was taking this on a personal level, and not professionally at all. He tried to make it kind of easy on Chris, but he still had his job to do. Chris's one mistake in the match, was baseball-sliding Rhyno in the face. If not for that, he would've won the match. As it ended though, the gore had side-lined him once again, like the time Stephanie ordered one on him through the SmackDown set. This one, thankfully, hurt a million times left. But that didn't stop Evolution from ganging up on him after the match, with nobody coming to his defense.

But then Randy was there, and he aided his friend, and Chris slipped out of the ring, letting Randy take care of this, knowing the youngster didn't want his help. He went backstage, clutching his stomach, and again, there was Stephanie. He shrugged her off and went to sit down. Randy and Christian showed up next, Randy apologizing to Christian for getting carried away and giving him the RKO. Christian laughed it off and said that next time, Randy would get an Unprettier for his troubles. They waved goodbye to Stephanie and Chris before walking down the hallway, deep in conversation, now that Edge had left and Christian didn't have to put on his ruse.

"Can I still get a ride to the hotel with you?" Stephanie asked. "Or should I arrange my own transportation?" It was just the right amount of snarky, that he had to smirk about it.

"I'll drive you."

"Fine, and then I'll get my own room, wouldn't want to besmirch your image, since I'm such a hussy and a whore that I can't sully your good name."

"Shut up Stephanie," he told her, standing up and wincing.

"Fine, whatever, be mad, I don't care!" she yelled, starting to walk off. But then she turned around. "You know, if you're not careful Chris Jericho, you will lose me, and then what are you going to do huh? Huh?"

"Be out a lot of money?" he suggested. She wasn't pleased with his answer and scowled even further.

"Maybe I'll find lodging with Hunter, I'm sure he'll take me in."

"Go for it, nobody's stopping you."

"I cannot stand your face right now!" she yelled and walked away.

"Feeling's mutual Princess!"

A/N: This concludes the first part of Hugs and Kisses that was deleted. The story is far from over, and if you look at my profile, click on "Hugs and Kisses" for the rest of the story, which is still in progress and is updated every Monday, and for most PPV's. Thank you for reading this first part, and I hope you enjoyed it, and congratulations for making it through these 234 chapters. :)