The First Flight ❀ COLIFER

Chapter 39 ❀ 2 am call

I sat bolt upright when the most obnoxious ringtone suddenly boomed through the room, and I didn't even realize it was my own ringtone until I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and saw Colin's name on the screen. That's when I remembered that he was the one who set it as my ringtone on our last day on set, so I would know immediately that it was him.

I pushed the sheets back and looked over my shoulder at Alex, who was moving but didn't open his eyes, before I snuck out the room and closed the door behind me.

"Colin?" I asked as I picked up, still a little fuzzy but concerned that he was calling me at this hour.

"Hey, Jen!"

He was almost screaming; I squinted and pulled the phone away from my ear as I darted down the stairs. Either he was drunk or insanely happy, but there was absolutely no reasonable excuse why he was calling me at this hour.

"What's wrong?" I asked. "Why on earth are you calling me at two in the morning?"

"Nothing's wrong, in fact— wait, is it really that late?"

I rolled my eyes and yawned as I sat down on the couch. There was no reason left to be concerned, so my body was just screaming to go back to sleep. "Yes, it's really that late. Look, I'm sure this can wait until tom—"

"Wait."

I raised a brow. There was no way he actually had a valid reason to wake me up in the middle of the night, but I was curious either way— and I was already awake now.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking about the time difference," he said. "But I wanted you to hear the news from me."

I grabbed a pillow from the corner of the couch and started playing with some loose strings. It was quiet for a second, but then I grinned.

"What's the news, O'Donoghue?"

He chuckled before he cleared his throat. "She's here," he said breathlessly.

"She's here? Who's here?" I sat up straight, because I already had an idea what he was talking about.

"Millie. She's healthy and she's absolutely perfect."

"Oh my god!" I clapped my hand over my mouth, wide awake instantly. "Colin, that's amazing! Congratulations! How is Helen doing? Did everything go smoothly?"

"Yes, she's resting now. We got to the hospital around four o'clock, and five hours later she was here. I took Millie into the hallway because she was a little fussy, so we're just hanging out together. You kind of forget how tiny they are when they are a newborn."

I was still covering my mouth with my hand. When we talked about baby names four weeks ago I had no idea he was serious about it, but they actually called her Millie.

Millie O'Donoghue.

It was perfect.

And it almost made me want to break down into tears.

"So you called your poor parents at... what, seven o'clock in the morning?" I got up from the couch and went to the kitchen to make myself some coffee. I knew that wasn't the smartest idea, but I was flying to LA tomorrow anyway.

"Well, actually... I wanted to wait with that because Helen is going to call her parents in the morning."

"So you haven't told them yet?"

"Nope. But I just had to tell someone."

Okay, I didn't know how to feel about that. I was pretty sure he was supposed to be with his wife and kid right now. He shouldn't be on the phone with me in the middle of the night, not when his wife just gave birth.

But I couldn't hang up on him. I migrated to the couch with the cup of coffee and grabbed a blanket, and before I knew it we were talking for two hours and I was on my third cup of coffee. In the meantime, Colin had put Millie back in her bassinet and he was apparently sitting in the hallway.

And eventually we got to the subject I was dreading: work.

"Do you have ANY empty spots in your schedule for next year?" he asked mockingly.

"I do, actually," I said. I was lying on the floor now, wrapped up in the blanket, and I was spinning the empty cup in my hands.

"What, like two days?"

"Hm. Maybe five."

We both laughed, and I felt a knot in my stomach because I knew I had to tell him. This was our last season on the show, our last few months of working together, and that convention in Brazil was supposed to be a way to say goodbye to everything.

And I wasn't going to be there for it.

"Jen?"

"Hm?"

"Are you dozing off? I'm sorry, I should probably let you get some sl—"

"No, it's not that." I buried my face in the carpet and covered my head with the blanket, so my voice sounded muffled when I answered. "It's just... that convention, in Brazil?"

"The last convention?"

"Yeah." I could hear that he was being cautious, because he could sense that something was up. "Well... I'm not going to be able to go there with you guys. I— I have this thing."

"A thing?"

"Yeah. Well, actually, Alex had a thing, but I decided to do it. It's a play."

"Are you doing another play? Jen, that's wonderful!"

I didn't know why, but the enthusiasm in his voice made me want to curl up into a ball and never get up again. I knew he was just being supportive, and he would never want to show his disappointment.

"Yes, but I wanted to be there to say goodbye. I knew you guys were all going to Vancouver to stay with Josh and Ginny for a while, and it's killing me that I won't be there."

He didn't say anything for a few seconds. The rest of the world was reduced to this spot under the blanket, where it was just me and him. Just knowing that he was there, on the other end of the phone, was enough for me.

When he spoke again, his voice sounded a little raspy. "Of course we're going to miss you. But I care about you, and if you feel like it's the right thing to do, you should just go out there and do it. Don't let the rest of the world stop you from doing what makes you happy."

I just lay still with my phone right next to my face on the carpet, and his words echoed in my head. 

I care about you.

"But hey, that's still months from now. We'll all have plenty of time to say goodbye. We still have the rest of the season to shoot before that."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," I said as I touched my lips with my fingers. I closed my eyes, for a second wishing I was in Vancouver.

We both didn't say anything for a minute or so, but I didn't mind the silence. I could hear him breathing, and it calmed me down enough for my eyelids to get heavy.

"Colin?" I said eventually with a lazy smile on my face.

"What?"

"I'm going to fall asleep on the phone if we don't end this call."

I heard him grinning. "Okay, I'll let you get some sleep. I have to go too."

But neither of us said goodbye. I propped myself up on my elbows, tapped on the screen of my phone and squinted when it lit up. And then I heard his voice again.

"Jen?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you okay?"

I kept staring at the screen as if I was in the room with him, even though I knew that was just stupid. 

"Yeah, I'm okay. Are you okay?"

"I'm okay."

One corner of my mouth went up in a grin. "Okay."

"Okay."