TITLE: Secrets and Lies 2

AUTHOR: Kelly Rowe

DISCLAIMER: The WWF/WWE and all characters belong to the almighty Vince McMahon and the WWE.

RATING: PG-13.

SUMMARY: Stephanie and Hunter are having problems.

SPOILERS: Raw 01.14.02.

DISTRIBUTION: You want you can have it; just tell me where you put it.

Stephanie was putting on the final touches of her makeup for the evening's show when her cell phone rang, scaring the life out of her. "Hello?" she said answering it, all the time wondering who could be calling her so close to show time. The only person whoever did that was Shane.

"Steph… please don't hang up," Kurt Angle begged on the other end of the line.

Stephanie wanted to hang up, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. As much as she had tried to convince herself that she didn't, she did still have feelings for him, strong feelings… even though he was a total lying rat bastard. "What do you want?" she asked both hoping for and dreading the next words to come out of his lying mouth.

"Please forgive me Steph," Kurt said, "I'd agreed to Vince's scheme long before…"

Stephanie cut him off, "That's no excuse. You could've pulled out of the deal, Kurt. I think Edge was right, you tried to put yourself in a win-win situation."

Kurt sighed, "I couldn't do that. I gave Vince my word."

"And what was it that you gave me?" she questioned harshly.

Ignoring her question, he tried again, "I love you, Steph."

Stephanie just couldn't take it anymore, she was going to cry and ruin her makeup and make Hunter suspicious if she kept listening to him. So she simply hung up, this time she gave no denial of her feelings towards him, no replies of I love Hunter… she just hung up.

Hunter chose that moment to exit the bathroom. "Who was on the phone?" he asked her as he started to get dressed for the evening.

"It was just Shane again," Stephanie bluffed.

"I suppose he was trying to involve you in another hair-brained scheme?" Hunter questioned.

"Like always. That brother of mine just won't give up," Stephanie answered. She looked at Hunter and was shocked that instead of her husband she pictured Kurt standing there. Angry with herself for her childish delusion, she took it out on Hunter. "Would you just hurry up already? We're gonna be late," she yelled.

Hunter looked up at her with hurt and confusion in his eyes, "I just need a couple more minutes."

"Well, when you *finally* finish I'll be waiting in the limo," she replied storming out of the hotel room.

Hunter just stared at the door for a few moments and wondered what he'd done to deserve this, then he spotted her cell phone and thought that maybe Shane had said something to upset her. Determined to know what was up he used the redial feature and waited to talk to Shane, but instead he got a surprise… not a pleasant one either.

"Kurt Angle," a voice said.

Hunter stayed silent from the shock, even if he'd been able to find his voice he wasn't sure he'd know what to say.

"Steph… is that you."

Hunter hung up and sat on the bed. He had so many thoughts running through his head, he didn't know what to think. Why had Stephanie lied to him about the call? Why was that jerk Kurt Angle calling her? All he did know was that he had to get to the bottom of this before he went insane, but first he had to get through tonight and not get distracted.

THE END