Milkshake Hearts: The Oneshots

Two Months in London (Part Three)

Shayne can't exactly say he misses her or his heart hurts any less after spending most of the weekend with other people, but he's... slightly further from a complete breakdown, at least. He'd bawled his eyes out to Damien about how stupid he felt for bawling his eyes out, for a while, but he'd settled into calmly eating dinner with him and watching a new anime they were both intrigued by afterwards.

His Sunday with his Dad had been less overtly emotional, as they small-talked and moved through the motions of putting together the chicken coop his mother had requested (she'd decided she wanted to keep chickens and stop buying eggs). His Dad had made one small exception, though, not long after they'd had lunch with his Mum, as Shayne holds a sheet of chicken wire taught so he can staple-gun it to the frame.

"I always struggled with being posted away from your Mum more than she did – she had you kids still, but I was alone," he'd commented, out of the blue.

"The being alone is what sucks," Shayne had agreed, quietly, before they both went back to the build and focussed no more on why, exactly, Shayne was there.

He slept a little better over the weekend. He owed it to some combination of exhaustion and the calm, affectionate call he'd shared with Courtney on Saturday night after he got home from Damien's – and, on Sunday, an unseasonably ferocious storm that drowned out any hint of anxiety with rumbling thunder and pelting rain. He wakes early on Monday morning, but it's the kind of early that allows him to roll straight out of bed to get ready for the gym, moving quietly through the routine he had hoped he'd maintain the whole two months of her absence.

Shayne gets to work a comfortable five minutes before he needs to be there, slowly walking from the parking garage across to the studio they shoot in, knowing he has plenty of time for wardrobe before they actually start. His mind quickly twists into confusion, though, as the usually-quiet studio entrance comes into view, a crowd of people milling around it.

"Shayne! Buddy, I'm sorry we couldn't get the message out early enough before you headed in," the director starts, grabbing his attention as he approaches. It makes Shayne immediately panic - have they been shut down? What's going on?

"What's up?" He makes his reply much calmer, with some effort, eyebrow raising in surprise when the director laughs lightly.

"We got fucking flooded out by that storm last night - roof collapsed, sets all screwed up. Guess it's a good thing we got ahead already, but we're going to be off all week while production fixes up the sets and moves them to a different studio," he explains, with a tinge of humour in his tone. It makes a million things appear in Shayne's mind at once - it is kind of funny for a storm to disrupt an LA studio shoot, but it's also annoying the Director's stupid early push will be validated - but the loudest by far is the week off. A whole week.

"Like, fully off all week? Like don't need to come in?" he confirms, a little rushed.

"Yeah, man, week off," the director nods lightly.

"Are you one hundred percent sure?" he pushes, his tone turning desperate. He feels a hand on his shoulder, turning to see one of the casting managers to his side.

"Absolutely sure, Shayne, head over to London. Just probably best you're back for next Monday morning, but we'll email later in the week to confirm," she tells him, her tone a little gentle. He's worked with her a few times, and she's got an eye across a lot of the industry - he doesn't remember telling her, but it doesn't surprise him that she knows Courtney is in London.

Shayne mumbles a thank you, in response, before immediately turning to rush back to his car. His heart races in his chest, his stomach flipping in anxiety as he pushes the speed limit as much as he's comfortable to get back to their house. He doesn't want to get his hopes up too quickly. He knows he doesn't need a visa, but will he even be able to get a flight last minute? He's pretty sure he'll be too late for the 5pm flight out that evening that Courtney had taken - and it'd get in mid-morning anyway, he'd have to hang around somewhere all day until she was off work-