Don't let the world bring you down
Not everyone here is that fucked up and cold
Remember why you came and while you're alive
Experience the warmth before you grow cold...}

While Trish was in the shower, Amy stepped out and went over to Jeff's locker room down the hall.

Although the last thing the redhead wanted to be was nosy, she felt a need to talk to her best friend about the events from a little earlier.

"Jeff?" she called, knocking lightly on the door.  Since he was always very quick in the shower, Lita figured he had to be out and back in his locker room.

Jeff Hardy looked up upon hearing his name, and after a moment's hesitation, he made his way to the door and opened it.

"Hey, Li..."

"Jeff, what's going on?  Are you okay?" the redheaded diva asked with concern.  She followed him across the room to sit down on the sofa situated against one wall.

"Yeah, sure.  I'm fine," the young man replied, running a hand through his short, shaggy ink-blue hair.

"Well, you didn't seem fine when you just ran away like that."

"Oh...Well, sorry about that.  I didn't mean to be rude," Jeff replied.

"Never mind that," Lita said, putting up one hand.  "Why did you do what you did?"

Jeff met her hazel eyes squarely, his green ones growing hard as he recalled what had happened out there in the ring.

"I just thought enough was enough, you know?  I've had it with people picking on others - especially men who think it's fun to gang up on a woman.  So, I decided to even up the odds."

The redhead stared at him wordlessly for a beat, her arms crossing under her breasts.  "That's not what I mean," she said.  "I meant the other thing - after?"

The young man's brows quirked upward.  "Oh...Well, I had my reasons for that, too."

Lita studied her best friend's face for another moment.  He'd removed all the bodypaint, including on his face, so he was a bit easier to read at the moment, However, Jeff Hardy was never an easy read, so she had to verbalize again.

"And what reason or reasons would those be?"

The colorful-haired man raised his gaze, meeting the diva's eyes, his face somewhat sad as he spoke.

"Simple...because I have been in love with Trish Stratus for the past year and a half..."

*

Trish finished packing the rest of her belongings as soon as she returned to her locker room.  She wondered where Lita was, as the redhead was nowhere in sight.  But then she figured that, somehow, the high-flying diva must have visited her best friend.

Jeff... The man who had run out to save her earlier that night - the man who had kissed her afterward...

Trish recalled it all, and she bit her lip gently.  The colorful-headed young man had been so very gentle - so tender.  He'd helped her to stand and had pressed his forehead to hers in an affectionate way.  And when his lips had met hers, the kiss he'd planted on her had been soft and sweet - not quite chaste exactly, but tender...loving, even.  He hadn't slipped her any tongue, but that was what made it even more endearing...

"Knock, knock..."

The little blonde, startled, jumped nearly three feet into the air at the sound of the voice, of the accompanying rapping on the door.  She spun around, one hand against her chest as she willed her heart to resume its normal pace.

"Oh, God!  Edge, you scared me half to death!"

"Sorry...didn't mean to startle you," the tall blond man said as he stood in the open doorway of the locker room.  "I just stopped by to see how you were after what happened earlier...You okay?"

"Yeah...yeah, I'm fine," Trish replied as she eyed her friend.  She wondered why she hadn't noticed the door being open when she'd returned from her shower - and why she hadn't closed it when she had.  It wasn't like Lita to not close the locker room door - whether or not she was in the room.  And the petite blonde knew why she hadn't been aware of such a thing - her mind had been totally consumed by thoughts of Jeff...

"That was pretty brutal," Edge said, referring to the way Victoria and Richards had ganged up on her.  "Good thing Jeff came to the rescue."

Trish gazed into the man's green eyes for a beat, then shifted her own eyes elsewhere upon his last sentence.

"I was about to run out to help you myself," her fellow Canadian admitted, "but when I saw him run out there, I knew you'd be okay..."

"That's what Lita said..." the blonde diva breathed, her mind still mostly on the gallant young man who'd rescued her.

Edge arched an eyebrow at that, his own eyes softening as he thought about the fiery redheaded diva.  That did sound like something she would do... She was just the type of person who would run out to the ring to give a friend a hand - even if that friend was being attacked by a man... She was so admirable, so tough, yet so sweet.  And Edge liked her more than he'd ever admitted.

"Where is Lita?" he suddenly asked.  He loved being around the redhead.  She was a great friend, so fun to be with - hell, he loved just looking at her.

"I'm not sure," Trish said.  "She's probably with Jeff."  That reminded her again to go find the young man as soon as possible.

She had to tell him how she felt about what he'd done for her - and about how she still felt...