A/N: Thank you all so much for the reviews. I hope I'm doing Trish and Christian justice with this story, if I'm not feel free to let me know. I hope that you enjoy the chapter and reviews are much loved and appreciated. :)

“So how long have you wanted to be a wrestler?”

“I don't know, a while I guess,” Jay said, and he didn't know why he was a little uncomfortable with the brunette next to him, but he did. She had these eyes that he couldn't quite explain. They were blue some moments and then they were gray, but the most unnerving part was that they looked like they could see right through you, like she could see straight through into your soul, and that was bothering him.

“A while you guess?” she asked incredulously. “You know there are guys here that have wanted to be wrestlers for a really long time, and you seem...I don't know, undecided on the entire thing.”

He was right, she could see right through people, “No, I want this, trust me, I really want this, I've given up a lot to be here.”

“You have?” she inquired curiously.

“Yeah, I mean, you know, college and all of that.”

“You really should go to college,” Stephanie told him. She glanced over to Chris who was working with a small group of guys in the ring, grappling and what not. They had broken up into groups, and Jay's group had just gone and was now waiting their turn again, which wouldn't be for a while yet. “Chris was the same way that you were when I met him. He thought that this would sustain him forever, and while I definitely think it can, I wanted him to have something to fall back on. He's only going part-time, you know, a few classes, but it really helps towards the degree that he should get.”

“So it's not a matter of not believing in him and his ability then?” he asked.

“Absolutely not, I met Chris at a show that he was doing and he immediately caught my eye,” she said, smiling a small smile. “I want this for him, more than anything, but what happens when or if he wants to retire, or if he gets injured? I don't want him to be sitting there, with nothing to fall back on. There are a lot of older wrestlers who didn't take that advice and it's not pretty.”

“But you still support him, it must be nice for him,” he said, thinking to Trish, who didn't seem to want to support him in this. He wished that he had someone like Stephanie, who would support him and encourage him. “So if you met him at a show, then you must like wrestling then, you're a fan?”

Stephanie didn't tell people who she was, she just didn't, not until she trusted them. Chris didn't even know her last name until after their second date. She was wary of wrestlers, she had been since she had turned into a teenager and one of her father's creepy employees had hit on her. She knew that there were some of them who were perverts and disgusting, so she didn't like people knowing who she was. Chris hadn't really cared who she was, and it was only until recently that her family had even accepted him.

As for others, Chris's friends and what not, they still didn't know who she really was. She was just Stephanie, and she liked it that way. She nodded her head as she winced when one of the students was a little too rough with a move and Chris groaned as his back hit the mat. “Yeah, I'm a huge fan, I grew up loving it.”

“You don't see too many girls with that stance.”

“You don't see too many girls like me,” she winked at him. “So what do you have to fall back on?”

“A high school education,” he chuckled nervously.

“How old are you?”

“Twenty.”

“Oh yeah, still plenty of time, Chris is twenty-three so you know, it's never too late, and you're like, what barely out of high school anyways, I'm twenty-one, I'll be getting my degree next year. Chris is already really excited, he's going to take me to Japan, granted he has shows booked for that time, he wants me to come along with him.”

“Wow.”

“Have something to fall back on Jay, it'll do you wonders,” she told him seriously. “You seem like a nice guy.”

“I like to think I am,” he joked with her.

“So what's your story?”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“I mean, like, you, who are you? Is it wrong to want to get to know you? Chris seems to like you, and he's a very good judge of character, so...while we're here...”

“I'm twenty, I've lived in Toronto my entire life, I've never been to the United States, and well...yeah...”

It wasn't that he didn't want to mention Trish and Sofia, it was just...complicated. At the moment, he didn't know where he stood with Trish, and he'd rather not reveal to this complete stranger that he was married and had a two-year-old daughter. One, it was none of her business, and two, he was just a smidgen embarrassed about it. He had been a teenage father, but the consequence of his stupidity came in the form of a beautiful, little girl.

He never regretted Sofia, because she lit up his day like the sun, but he was embarrassed that he had been one of “those guys,” the guys who don't take precautions, the ones who end up knocking up their girlfriends and feeling totally out of place in the delivery room. The kind that get the looks from strangers who know, they just know what you've done. He hated that look and if he could just keep that look at bay for right now, he'd be happy.

“Wow, exciting life you've had,” Stephanie laughed a little.

“So, what the hell is your story?”

“Grew up in Connecticut, went to school, met Chris, and here I am,” she said succinctly.

“Sounds like your life is just as exciting.”

Her smile faltered just the littlest bit. “So do you have anyone supporting you? It's important. I know that Chris loves that he had someone to rant to. I think that's really important to wrestlers, having someone to rant to when times get tough.”

“I'll get by,” he said as his group was called up. “That's me, nice talking to you, Stephanie.”

“You too, Jay, and good luck, Chris is tough,” she said proudly as he climbed up into the ring.

Stephanie was right as he got into the ring with Chris. They were only doing basic moves, but Chris wasn't joking around. But none of the trainers did; they all obviously took their job very seriously and from the way they moved it was obvious that they wanted to relay that to their students. Chris and Jay locked up, and Jay went to try to get a chokehold on Chris, but Chris countered and swept his leg so he fell face first to the mat. Jay groaned a little, but Chris already had him turned over and was pulling him up to chop him to the chest, and it stung way more than Jay had been anticipating.

Before the mock match could escalate anymore, one of the trainers called out that that was a day, and Jay was surprised that it was already afternoon. The entire day had been a blur. Chris was speaking to the group, but Jay had tuned him out. He shook his head to listen in, “job today, guys, you all did pretty well, we'll see you all tomorrow.”

Chris hopped out of the ring like it was nothing and Jay envied him as he rubbed his chest, which was still red from those chops that Chris had given him. It felt like his chest was on fire. He gingerly got out of the ring and went over to get his stuff. He was just putting his towel in his bag when someone slapped him on the shoulder. He looked up and saw Adam.

“Hey, some of the guys are going to go get some food and celebrate making it through day one, you in?”

“I don't know,” Jay said. It was the middle of the afternoon, which meant that Sofia was up, and he kind of wanted to visit her, but it was important to make connections, so he figured that food wouldn't hurt. He was hungry after all.

“Come on, you have to, a lot of us are going, even some of the trainers, it'll be fun, there's a diner right around the corner.”

“Okay, sure,” Jay said.

“Awesome,” Adam said as Jay grabbed and zipped up his bag, slinging it over his shoulder.

“So how brutal was that, man?”

“Pretty brutal,” Jay said.

“Dude, Alan, that one trainer, he seems like he could beat the shit out of a whale if he wanted to, I've never seen a bigger neck on a dude before,” Adam said. “Thank God he's not coming with us. He probably has some trees to pull out of the ground or something.

Jay laughed, “Yeah, he was pretty huge, but dude, my chest still stings from those chops that Chris gave me.”

“Oh man, yeah, he did the same thing to me, if his hurt, what do Flair's feel like?”

“Ric Flair?”

“Yeah, I heard that he's rough,” Adam said. “Can you imagine getting to wrestle someone like Ric Flair?”

“No, I can't, actually,” Jay said, “that'd be pretty awesome though.”

“Hell yeah it would,” Adam said. “I'm going to get there someday, world champion, baby, that'll be me.”

“Yeah, sure,” Jay said.

“What, you think I can't? How much you want to bet?”

“Bet?”

“Yeah, I'll make you a little wager right now, if I get the world championship belt, in any of the major promotions, you owe me dinner, and if I never do, I'll take you out, it'll be a while from now, maybe, but come on, take it.”

“Fine, sure,” Jay said, shaking his hand.

“You're going to regret that because I'm going to buy the most expensive dinner I can think of,” Adam joked, “because betting on myself is a sure thing.”

“If you have a girlfriend, I feel sorry for her.”

“Me? Girlfriend? No way!” Adam said vehemently. “Dude, don't you know anything about wrestling? We have groupies, man! And from what I've heard, hot ones, ones that will do your every whim! I mean, if you get the non-disgusting ones.”

“Ring rats, you mean, I know about them.”

“Not the rats, the groupies, the rats are heinous,” Adam shuddered. “But the groupies are the ones that kind of stick around for awhile, you know, for the good stuff.”

Jay saw Chris and Stephanie up ahead talking with some guys, “Do you think that's what Stephanie was? I heard that she and Chris met at a show, do you think she's a groupie?”

“Fuck no,” Adam scoffed, “She doesn't go to a cheap school, and she can fly to Toronto whenever she wants to see her boyfriend, something tells me that she's not some groupie looking to score a wrestler for the money.”

“Yeah, so...you're looking for a groupie?”

“Hell yeah, but I'd drop her before I made the big bucks,” Adam laughed, then clapped him on the shoulder. “Tell me you're unattached because I am looking for a partner-in-crime, because ladies travel in packs, man.”

“Uh...I don't know,” he said.

“You don't know if you're unattached?” Adam asked, a little confused.

“No, I just don't know if this whole groupie/ring rat thing is a good idea, I mean, who knows what you can catch from them,” Jay grimaced. “I think...I don't know, maybe I wouldn't want to do that.”

“Don't be a prude.”

If only Adam knew that he was anything but a prude and already had a kid. Suddenly, seeing Sofia was getting more and more appealing. Sure, making friends would be good, but she was his little girl, and she would put a bigger smile on his face than Adam asking him to be his wing-man would. But they were already throwing their things into their cars before walking over to this diner.

“Hey Jay, man, sorry if those chops were a little brutal, I'd been looking for some ring action all day,” Chris said from up ahead, throwing his statement over his shoulder as he had his arm wrapped around Stephanie. “That's what I get for not booking any matches for a few weeks.”

“Don't worry about it,” Jay said as he and Adam caught up to them. “I figure that's only the tip of the iceberg.”

“Yeah, it is,” Chris said, pulling his sleeve up and showing them a scar that Jay hadn't noticed. “Had to have surgery about a year ago.”

“Whoa!” Adam said, “what the hell did you do to him, Stephanie?”

Stephanie just rolled her eyes, as Chris answered, “Shooting Star Press went bad, fractured it, got a metal plate installed. As for this one,” he said, gesturing to Stephanie, “she freaked the fuck out and almost broke up with me because she thought it was stupid of me to even try that move.”

“Because it was stupid, you...ugh, I'm not even getting into it,” Stephanie pouted as Chris kissed her cheek playfully.

“Is that the worst thing that's ever happened to you?” Jay asked.

“Yeah, I've been fortunate. I mean, there's the soreness, but I can deal with that,” Chris shrugged. “That's just part of the business.”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” Jay said as they walked inside the eating establishment.

Twenty wannabe wrestlers, a few trainers, and Stephanie were a loud bunch as they grabbed a bite to eat. Jay tried to keep up with the conversation, but he found himself more and more distracted. Don't get him wrong, he really liked all the guys around him, but he had other things to think about. That's why he was grateful when they finished eating and paying, and were getting into their cars. Jay got into his beat-up old family sedan and drove the twenty minutes it took to Trish's parent's house.

It loomed large in front of him. He glanced to the driveway and thanked the man upstairs that both of her parent's cars were not in the driveway. Maybe they weren't even there and he wouldn't have to endure the stares that he always got from them. He knew those stares too, they were the stares of disgust towards him for stealing their daughter's bright future. Trish had been a straight-A student and on the pep squad. She was going to be a doctor, and he had derailed that. There weren't many jobs you could do with just a high school education, straight-A's or not. She had been offered scholarships, but with Sofia, she couldn't very well take them, she had decided stubbornly at the time. Now he wished she had taken them so she wouldn't be where she was at right now.

He rang the doorbell and shifted his weight as he waited for someone to answer the door. It ended up being her younger sister, Melissa, “Hey Jay, what's up?”

“Hey Lissy, is Trish around?”

“She's in the back with Sophie,” she said opening the door to him.

“Are your parents here?”

“No, they're out, some fancy dinner thing they had to go to, they had to go to my dad's office first though, so, not here,” she said, “you're lucky, I guess.”

“I guess I am,” he said. “So out back?”

“Yup, you know where it is,” she said as she went back upstairs.

Jay headed through the house and out to the backyard where Trish and Sofia were sitting on the grass blowing bubbles together. He smiled as Trish blew some bubbles and Sofia poked at them with her small finger, giggling as they popped upon touch. Trish handed Sofia the wand and she clumsily tried to blow some bubbles, but she kept blowing raspberries and couldn't quite get it. Jay went to the sliding door and Sofia spotted him.

“Hi, Daddy!” she said brightly.

Trish's head turned sharply at Sofia's greeting and saw that Jay really was there, “Jay...”

“Hey,” he nodded in greeting. “I hope I wasn't interrupting anything important.”

“Bubble-blowing!” Sofia declared, but then dropped the wand altogether and raced for Jay. He caught her in his arms and lifted her easily into the air, throwing her a little as she squealed and reached her arms for him. She snuggled happily into his shirt and sighed, “Daddy...”

“Hey there, Sophie Bear,” he said, kissing the top of her head.

“Hey Jay,” Trish said politely as she came over to stand in front of him. “Done with training?”

“Yeah, for today.”

“How did it go?”

“It was good, I met a lot of nice people there, I liked it,” he admitted.

“Interesting, well, I'll give you some time with Sophie,” Trish said, making a move to walk past him.

“Trish?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you ever...I mean, do you think that we...I don't know, I just...do you you think that things can get back to normal with us? Trish, it's not as bad as you think. Chris, one of the trainers, he's only been wrestling for three years, and he's getting really great offers already.”

“Three years, Jay?” she sighed. “In three years, Sophie is going to be in school, real school, not preschool or anything. You'll be traveling doing whatever, I don't want to be the wife waiting for you at home while you're out there doing God knows what. Three years is a long time, Jay, a really long time to wait for a steady income that we really need if we want our daughter to want for nothing.”

“Oh...”

“I'll be inside, what do you want for dinner, Bunny?”

“No know,” Sofia shrugged.

“We'll figure something out, Mommy will ask Auntie Christy and Auntie Lissy.”

“Okay!” Sofia exclaimed as she looked up at her daddy, “Daddy, play?”

“Yeah, sure Sophie Bear, I'll play with you.”

They went back to the bubbles as Sofia made a grab for the now slightly dirty bubble wand. She handed it over to Jay and he took it, wiping it off on his shirt as he blew some bubbles for Sofia. She went back to popping them happily, and he laughed at the symbolism of the moment. He had had many dreams for him and Trish. He'd actually lay there at night and think about them. Of course, a lot of them had him as a rock star and she'd be a super model or something, but still, they were dreams. Dreams that were shattered like the bubbles before him, dreams that were shattered because she got pregnant. So what if he was trying to find a new dream, they'd spent so long trying to make it work, but now he had a different plan, and he was trying, he was trying so hard to make it work.

But like the bubbles, maybe they were all popping right in front of him.