Sebastian Stan Short Stories

Sebastian Stan [10]

"Pregnancy Hormones"

Requested by XXWOLFXX73

*

It was hot. It was humid. The chair was uncomfortable. The sun was blinding through the windows. And I was seven months pregnant to top it off, so I also needed to go to the bathroom but couldn't get up and risk disturbing the scene being filmed in front of me.

Like Sebastian, I was an actor. Also like Sebastian, I had worked on project after project with little to no breaks in between. Until, that is, my baby bump got too big. When clever angles, sneaky wardrobes, and creatively placed props couldn't hide my growing belly anymore the series I had been acting in wrote my character out with little room for a return, and I started traveling with Seb while he wrapped up his last few obligations before my due date arrived. Planes and hotel rooms hadn't been friendly to my swollen ankles or aching back, but being able to spend more than a long weekend with Seb made the travel worth it.

"Cut!" the director called out. I released the breath I'd been holding and heaved myself out of the chair I'd claimed. The set, the interior of a diner, became a crowded hive of activity in a split second. Cameramen inspected their equipment. Sound techs lowered the boom mics. Hair and make-up swarmed Seb and Nicole to do touch-ups. The rest of the crew and extras went through the motions of resetting everything back to start. The constant moving and sheer number of people present made it nearly impossible for me to waddle to the on-set bathroom.

Which was, of course, occupied.

"Hey, pregnant lady really needs to pee out here," I said, knocking gently on the door. I was more than willing to use the pregnancy card when my unborn child was tap-dancing on my bladder.

"Yeah, yeah. Just a minute," the person inside replied. So I waited a minute. Rubbing circles on my belly and feeling the baby push against my hand. Seb and I had decided to wait until I delivered to find out whether the baby was a boy or girl, but my money was on a boy.

"Hey, minute's up, pal," I said after counting sixty slow seconds. I glanced out at the main room of the diner. A cameraman was glaring at his camera and discussing something with the director with a frustrated look on his face.

Past the cameras and microphones, I could see Seb and Nicole. They had both stood up from their respective sides of the diner booth, and they were standing close to one another. That didn't bother me; it was crowded. What did bother me was the way Nicole kept laying her hand on his arm and trailing it down from his shoulder to his wrist. Smiling and laughing like the best of friends, the way Seb and I used to smile and laugh before I was constantly too tired from growing a whole new person.

Damn these pregnancy hormones, I thought to myself.

I knew Nicole and Sebastian, and I knew them well enough to know they weren't flirting with each other and never would. And yet, there I stood: practically seething with jealousy and ready to break down the bathroom door if whoever was inside didn't hurry up.

~

I left the set a few minutes after finishing up in the bathroom. I sent Seb a text, telling him that I was tired and going back to the hotel for nap, instead of interrupting him. True to my word, I did go back to our shared hotel room, stripped down and redressed in one of Seb's t-shirts, and promptly took a nap.

And I happily slept until Seb unlocked the hotel room door and quietly sunk onto the bed a few minutes later. When I opened my eyes his head was even with my partially exposed belly, and he was laying a hand over my bellybutton.

"Did she finally slow down enough to let you take a nap?" he asked. "I know you always say she's most active after lunch."

"He did slow down actually," I replied, putting extra emphasis on the pronoun. Sebastian and I were not on the same page when it came to what we thought the baby would be.