"You know I don't like surprises Paul," Stephanie McMahon whined, "Just tell me. A husband shouldn't keep things from his wife."

Her husband Paul Levesque smiled back, "No. Your dad will tell you when we get in there."

"I'll remember you for this," Stephanie's threat was accompanied by a smile.

Paul figured she would not be smiling in a few minutes. He had told Vince that it was bad idea to tell Stephanie what he was going to tell her today. Paul knew how she was going to react.

"I told you Steph, there's news you will like and news that you won't." They walked down the hallway on the top floor of WWE headquarters towards Vince McMahon's office, "What news could my dad possibly have that I'm not going to like?"

Paul said nothing in response to that. He would rather not even be in the meeting but he knew things might be worse if he wasn't.

Stephanie walked into Vince's office without knocking on the door and Paul followed. "Hi dad," She greeted cheerfully.

"Hello Steph, Paul. Have a seat, there's coffee on the table if you want it."

They sat in the chairs placed in front of his desk. "I don't want coffee dad, I've been hyped all morning waiting for this. You know how I hate surprises."

Vince laughed, "Well then let's begin. Firstly as you have been nagging me constantly for the last couple of months about taking things a bit easier and giving you more responsibility I have come to the conclusion that you may be right."

Stephanie interrupted, "I won't let you down..."

"Steph be quiet please. You can speak in a moment. As you know when your mom left WWE a few years ago her title of CEO was transferred to me. I am now going to transfer it to you. I will remain as Chairman but you will be the new CEO."

Stephanie began to get up to go and hug her dad, "Daddy I don't know..."

Vince held up a hand to stop her, "I know you're excited but can we please get through this? There's more to discuss and then we can talk afterwards." He guessed that probably wasn't going to happen.

"Okay sorry dad, please carry on. I won't interrupt again"

"Right, as I was saying you will now be CEO of WWE. You will now have a place on the board of directors and you will get a salary increase from your current seven hundred thousand up to a million dollars a year. Your salary of three hundred thousand as on screen talent will remain unchanged. I will no longer be travelling twice a week for Raw and Smackdown. I may attend some pay-per-view events but only as and when I decide. I will be in charge of things here at HQ and you will be in charge of everything related to the live events. You will obviously still have the heads of production and creative and all of those guys under you as I have had but now the overall responsibility is yours Stephanie, if you accept it."

Stephanie beamed, "If I accept it? Dad it's an honour. Thank you so much for this, you will not regret it. We'll get back on top again and we'll crush TNA!"

Paul smiled at his wife, glad to see her so happy, "Congratulations honey, you deserve it." It was a shame the happiness was going to be so brief.

"Thank you. Thank you both."

Vince shifted nervously in his chair, "We also have a second matter to discuss."

Stephanie had completely forgotten that she had been told that she would not like the second half of the meeting and she was still smiling, "Sure dad, what is it?"

Vince took in a deep breath and let it out. He had been dreading this moment all day. "I have decided that you will have a second in command. You will teach this person every aspect of the production side of the business as you work and make sure they are ready to step into your shoes if you are unable to attend a show for any reason. Basically you'll be a mentor."

Stephanie nodded and the smile still remained, "Sure, I can do that. No problem. Who will I be working with?" Paul's grimace as he braced himself went unnoticed.

"You'll be working with Nikki Bella."

Silence descended on the office and the smile faded from Stephanie's face, "Sorry, what?"

"You heard me Stephanie."

Stephanie laughed, hoping this was a joke of some kind that she was not getting, "Good one dad, you got me. There's no conceivable reason that Nikki would need to do my job. Ever. So you're not going to fool me with that."

"I'm not fooling you or ribbing you or whatever else you want to call it."

Stephanie's eyes narrowed a little, "Wait, you're actually serious? For what possible reason?"

Vince shifted nervously again in his chair, "Firstly I think that if you actually give Nikki a chance and mentor her properly she may have an aptitude for this kind of work and secondly I wanted someone to keep a close eye on you after your uh... health issues who could report to me personally and in confidence."

Stephanie shook her head as if that would make this information easier to process, "Dad I don't know what you're thinking here, why can't Paul 'keep a close eye on me' or whatever you said?"

"Paul has been assigned other duties, he won't be travelling as often as you are. He will appear most weeks on Raw but he won't be on Smackdown unless it's for exceptional reasons. We talked about it yesterday and we agreed it's not fair on the girls for both parents to be away two nights each week, plus Shane has hinted a few times that it's a struggle for Marissa with six kids two nights a week and we know you won't get a nanny."

Stephanie had only just taken in something from the previous part of the conversation, "Wait a minute. What do you mean 'report to me personally and in confidence'? What the hell does that mean?"

Paul closed his eyes.

"Stephanie me and Nikki are in uh... a relationship."

Paul saw his wife's mouth drop open slightly and her eyes glazed over. He had seen that look before. Silently he counted down, meltdown in three, two, one.