In Five Years

Chapter 5

Courtney's manager at least has the decency to sound genuinely apologetic when she calls her at 10am the next morning – Monday – just as Shayne and Courtney are getting ready to go and pick up the cats from Kari's place, and probably go via Shayne's so he can get some clothes. Which he probably should've known to do when he first drove to hers, because of course he wasn't leaving, but anyway.

"Hey Courtney, I know you said you wanted a few days but..." Lisa trails off, hesitantly, Courtney sighing lightly and pulling the phone away from her ear, switching it to speakerphone as she sets it down on the breakfast bar between them. They really needed to not get into this habit of staying up late and sleeping in until mid-morning – it was neither of their usual style, they just struggled to stop talking and enjoying each other's company until they passed out.

"What do I have to do?" she asks, trying not to sound too terse. It's not actually Lisa's fault, usually.

"You'll have to do the talk show circuit about the nomination, and I tried to push for late in the week but they want you over in New York to film tomorrow from early so you really need to fly out today," she explains, Courtney humming in reluctant acceptance.

"Yeah, okay, I guess... yeah. I can't really say no to that, can I, later in the week will be actor and actress nominees," she shakes her head, "I- probably should've told you, you're on speaker phone and Shayne is beside me because it is easier than repeating it after I hang up – Shayne, any chance you're free enough to last-minute fly to New York for a couple days?"

"Yeah, I'm free," he answers, nodding lightly.

"Okay – can you book two tickets, Lisa?" Courtney turns her attention back to the phone.

"Yeah, can do. And hi Shayne – guess I'll meet you at the airport later? Probably about 2pm, but I'll get Matt to text you when he'll be there," Lisa confirms, before suddenly jumping onto another train of thought, "oh! Right, you two have caused quite a stir in some parts of the internet, but I'm guessing you would've known what you were doing there."

"Oops," Shayne deadpans, as Courtney laughs.

"I forgot we did that. Yeah, whatever, I'm guessing Fallon or whoever will ask about it and I can drop a quiet confirm or whatever," she brushes it off, Lisa acknowledging before she hangs up and leaves them be.

"Well... cats get a little longer with their Aunt Kari?" Shayne comments after the phone goes silent, Courtney nodding silently as she opens her texts to Kari to confirm she can actually keep them a little longer. She's usually fine with it.

"Yeah, I guess so – sorry for the random trip and sorry for dragging you along, you don't have to come if you don't want to, I just kind of don't want to leave your side right now," she tells him.

"Oh, no, don't apologise – I don't want to leave your side either, and work happens, I'm glad I at least get to tag along with you. But might need to go via my place so I can pack more than this single outfit," he muses, Courtney nodding in response as she finishes sending her text to Kari (who almost immediately replies and says she is absolutely fine with keep the cats a little longer).

"Let's still go soon, go to yours, you can pack some things – for New York, maybe for here too if you want to – and we'll go from there?"

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Shayne had never done the celebrity-style brisk move through an airport before (although he'd done some staff-accompanying brisk moves through airports when his Dad still worked for Southwest). Lisa meets them where Matt drops them off, at a semi-private section of the terminal up one end, and she greets Shayne with a smile and tells him it's nice to meet him finally, with enough emphasis on the "finally" to make Courtney grumble and roll her eyes. Courtney takes Shayne's hand in hers as she grumbles, gently tugging him to follow Lisa into the building – he figures someone else must get their bags for them.