"Come here," his voice is gentle again.
She gives in, placing her small hand in his. Lifting the cloth, he sees her blood spill out from her palm. He inhales sharply through his teeth and presses the rag back down. They sit there like that for abo...
The film is entering its autumn season, three-fourths of the scenes already recorded. The aura on the set is a mixture of somberness and fulfillment. More of their days are dotted with behind-the-scenes interviews, trying to get a jump on the promotions for a project that would be going up against bigger names and budgets upon its release. The remaining cast and crew still held their tongues just a bit when Keanu would enter their proximity, and he still tended to prefer isolation in his trailer in between takes in lieu of camaraderie with his colleagues. The only exception to this rule is her.
Rap, tap-tap, rap, tap.
Sandra tries to stay patient as one minute follows another, but her patience is thin. She raises her fist to knock again when the door slowly opens, revealing Keanu in worn jeans and a t-shirt, his face expressionless.
There were whispers amongst some of the crew that he wasn't quite ready to resume the more challenging scenes, but she knows him. She knows that filming Harry's death served as an exorcism of sorts. She also knows that he still needs her support just the same. She is more connected to him than any other co-star she's ever had. Well, besides Nathan, of course.
Nathan.
Where the hell has he been?
Nathan didn't know Jude the way she did. They'd only met at the premiere a year ago. They were cordial, but Nathan wasn't Jude's biggest fan.
"He's so into himself, thinks his thoughts are deeper than everyone else's, thinks he's so superior, here to save the world and scoff at those of us that just wanna have a little fun in life."
She didn't argue with him, didn't try to explain that he was none of those things, that he was one of the most purely good souls she'd ever met at the time.
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The feeling was...not mutual, because there were very few people that Jude would outwardly show dislike towards, but Jude acted as though he had some sort of insight about Nathan that no one else was privy to, something Sandra could never quite put a finger to and, if being honest, she would admit she didn't put much effort into it. She compartmentalized her relationship with Nathan separately from her friendship with Jude, which wasn't hard given the two had very little in common, so they rarely had to "play nice" at the same events.
Regardless, Sandra was surprised when Nathan didn't try to get back from Montana to support her in the aftermath of Jude's death. It wasn't like she hadn't been clear this was exactly what she needed. He called. At least he called, she tried to remind herself, but the call was cut short as soon as she started to sniffle softly into the phone, her voice halting and shaking as she tried to speak. She'd never cried in front of him before. She hardly cried about anything, so when she did, he'd grown so uncomfortable, he couldn't get off the phone quickly enough.
"But, I don't understand..." She'd replied when he told her he couldn't take even one day off to come offer some companionship when the news broke. He had a lot of work to do on the script, he explained. He was still building rapport with his co-stars and felt the trip would take him out of his element and he'd have to start from scratch on return.
