Milkshake Hearts: The Oneshots

Two Months in London (Part 1)

"Hey babe, how was work?" Shayne asks, when he hears Courtney stepping in through the front door while he faces the other way in the kitchen. He'd had a rare day off, but he knows she's busy at the moment with a show she's been working on about to wrap.

"Okay, got an interesting offer... how was your day?" she answers him, a little vaguely, and Shayne twists around to watch as she messily dumps the few things she'd been carrying onto the living room sofa and wanders over to lean against the kitchen bench, glancing over at him as she does.

"I finished that book finally, so that was nice," he answers, with a shrug, setting aside the knife he'd been holding – he was prepping for dinner, but it could wait a little while – and moving closer, as he continues, "what do you mean, interesting offer?"

"There's this project that they'd like me to work on, it's a two-month sort of deal but it's technically above my pay grade because I'd be lead directing it, so it'd be a fairly significant pay boost. And it's a kind of cool like, historical miniseries comedy," she explains, her voice almost reserved. It confuses Shayne, but he smiles and reaches for her hands casually to take them in his own.

"That sounds really cool, Court, d'you think you'll take it?" he pushes, trying to sound enthusiastic, but her face twists in almost displeasure.

"It would be really cool, and honestly I'm not sure it's an offer so much as it is a requirement, but..." she pauses, taking a deep breath, "it's a location one – I'd need to go to the UK for two months."

"That's really big that they're trusting you to lead on a big location shoot, Court," he answers, gently, pushing back his own immediate reaction. He watches as she gives him a wry smile.

"Actual reaction please, honey. Yeah, it's... it'd be great for me career-wise, but... it is two months in another country," she tells him, a little pointedly, although her thumbs rub circles into his palm as she does. Shayne shrugs lightly.

"It's... yeah, I'm not going to say I like the idea of you being away for 2 months. I haven't spent that long away from you literally since I met you when we auditioned for Smosh and I know it'd absolutely fucking suck, but... I also know we'd be okay, and I'd love for you to be able to do something so cool," he tells her, honestly, watching carefully as Courtney nods and bites her lip.

"It's really going to suck. I don't know how full-on it'd be, whether I could get home once or twice amongst it or something but..." she sighs, dropping his hands only to shuffle closer and press herself into his chest, silently requesting a hug he is more than happy to provide, "it's a kind of insane opportunity and I don't think I can say no, even if it was a little more... optional than it sounds. It's too good to pass up. But... I'm gonna fucking miss you, Shania."

"I'll miss you too," he replies, quietly, head bowing to lean against the top of her shoulder as he hugs her close, "I'm so proud of you, you're doing amazing and you deserve this so much. I'd much prefer if it was based in the US, but... we'll do whatever we can to make it work. We can still talk all the time and stuff."

They fall into silence for a few moments, wrapped in a hug leaning against their kitchen bench. As much as Shayne's head is swimming with nerves about the prospect of spending a full two months without her, at the same time, he quietly accepts it. It was almost bound to happen eventually, for one of them, and he's never going to be one to hold back her career: he isn't lying, he's so goddamn proud of his wife and how much she's killing it.

It's Courtney that reluctantly steps out of the hug a few minutes later, moving back to the living room to carefully tidy the things she'd dumped onto the sofa and move them into their rightful places as Shayne moves back to continue preparing their dinner.