Ok, boys and girls... there is some strong language in this chapter... 你 have been warned! (Also, fun fact: this story as a whole is now 65 pages long!)
On with the show...
~*~*~
Padding around the house barefoot, Hugh made a ghostly looking specter. His pale face floated up one hallway and down another, the image aided from the steam rising out of his coffee mug as he waited for it to cool. Not a single person would blame the man for wanting a real drink at this point, but Hugh had always avoided strong spirits, for a number of reasons. Tonight the 最佳, 返回页首 few went a little something like this: he had an early call and he didn’t want a hangover, and he was not a little scared about what he would do, think, 或者 say if he got a little too juiced.
Pausing in front of the spare bedroom that Lisa had slept in those few weeks ago, he hesitated a little, then went in and settled himself on the 长椅, 沙发 下一个 to the bookshelf. This was as good a place as any for a dark night of the soul. At least there was 阅读 material.
Sighing heavily, he dropped onto the cushions and stared into his cup for a few moments before taking a cautious sip and looking out the window. Something caught his eye.
“Lisa…” he muttered, putting down his coffee and going over to the window seat. The thing that had attracted his attention was the black cover of the book she’d been giving him such grief about since she’d found it. Sitting down and leaning against the cool glass of the window, he turned the book over in his hands and was surprised to see a scrap of paper sticking out slightly from the top. Opening to the page slowly, he saw Lisa’s unmistakable handwriting scrawled across the paper—a note, obviously meant for him to find after the night she’d spent there, although he hadn’t been the room since he showed it to her when her car died. Hugh’s mouth went dry, and he licked his lips as he read the words she had left for him.
Hugh—I just wanted to apologize again for getting myself stuck here when you’re trying to get your work done. And for interrupting 你 just now. I want to tell 你 something, and I want 你 to be able to take these words and hold on to them, and look back on them whenever 你 feel like you’re getting lost…
Hugh closed his eyes for a second. She thought he was lost? Was he lost?
You have to know, Hugh, how brilliant 你 are. You’re brilliant, and funny, and yes, you’re sexy even if 你 don’t think it—and 你 put all of those traits to such 不可思议的 good use, 你 must never ever allow yourself to think 你 don’t deserve the good fortune 你 have found. I want to 你 know these things, as your friend and as your co-worker—your happiness is important to me. Please hold on to this note for those days when 你 feel your English despair creeping up on your—or if 你 just need a laugh at my horrendous handwriting.
A smile started to pull at the corners of his mouth.
Just a few 更多 episodes and you’ll be able to take a well-deserved break, one that I know 你 need right now. In the meantime, just keep doing what you’re doing, and everything will turn out just fine in the end. I promise—Lisa xxoo
How had she known? Had she been snooping?
Of course she was snooping!
Hugh got up and took the paper over to the closet, opening the door. On the 最佳, 返回页首 shelf was a shoebox, filled with letters, notes from friends, a few reviews that had meant something to him… it was his Box of Confidence and he never opened it. Ever.
Unless he was adding something to it.
It was a suggestion from his therapist—an exercise that he’d actually had to produce proof of in order to finally be able to stop talking about it. Once it had been duly examined and 评论 upon he had brought it back, tossed it in the closet he used the least, and forgotten all about it. Now Lisa had found it, and… what? Contributed to it? A nice idea, if a little invasive.
Invasive? Hugh fell into the 长椅, 沙发 and buried his face in his hands as his brain started 表演 up again. Invasive, nothing! She was thinking about you, 你 were being a gloomy bore and she wanted 你 to snap out of it!
Then it occurred to him; had she been thinking that he had gotten the note immediately the 下一个 day? Was she hurt that he hadn’t mentioned it? Had it flown completely out of her mind and she wasn’t even thinking about it anymore? He moaned loud and long into his hands before leaning back and resting his head on the 长椅, 沙发 cushions.
Here’s what you’re going to do, his brain informed him. So listen up, chum. 你 are going to go onto the set tomorrow, get her off to the side, and apologize. Apologize like you’ve never apologized before, explain that 你 only got the note last night, and 你 appreciate it, and 你 would 爱情 to go back to the way things were before it got so complicated—
Um. Pardon me. Hugh’s eyes had drifted closed and he was slipping into a very surreal dream…
Pardon me? He was standing in an empty room, facing… himself. One Hugh was wearing a suit and tie, and was currently lecturing the other Hugh, who was leaning against the 墙 in motorcycle 夹克 and jeans and staring at the ceiling, not listening. That’s right. 你 are going to apologize.
Apologize for what? Motorcycle Hugh 说 sullenly. She started this. It’s not my fault she tried to—
Be a gentleman. Smooth things over, and let it go. What difference does it make? 你 don’t have any lasting stock in this relationship, so what does it matter?
No lasting stock? How about three 更多 years of working together? How about all the awards shows and 照片 shoots and interviews we’ll have to do?
How about you’re married?
How about shut up?
This is absurd. Formal Hugh tried to walk out of the room, but alas, no doors.
Care to settle this like men? Motorcycle Hugh tossed his 夹克 to the floor and rolled up his sleeves. Come on, do it, do it, 你 know 你 want to.
Hugh’s foot jerked, his eyes snapped open, and he practically levitated off the couch, springing to his feet.
“I’m losing my mind,” he muttered. “This is insane.”
The clock on the 墙 ticked cheerfully, informing him that he had less than three hours to sleep before he had to leave for the set again.
“The bloody hell with it!” He snapped at the empty air, storming out to get his wallet and keys. He would go early. Catch a nap in his trailer. Anything to get out of that room…
~*~*~
“Hugh, 你 read—damnation…” Lisa’s voice trailed off in wonder. “Hugh, for God’s sake, did 你 get any sleep last night?”
“Guess I better get back to makeup,” he muttered, starting out of his chair.
“Whoa, where are 你 going?” Greg came up to them. “We gotta get started. Wow, Hugh—makeup did an awesome job. 你 look like crap.”
Lisa snickered and hopped off her chair, heading for Cuddy’s office. Hugh followed slowly behind. After a bit of rearranging of Cuddy’s desk, Lisa leaned back in her chair and waited for the Greg to give them the green light to start.
Hugh pushed her door open, followed 由 Anne. “I need sleeping pills. I was gonna hit up Wilson but—” A sudden, massive yawn broke over him and he couldn’t go on. Lisa frowned and tilted her head a little, watching him.
“Over-playing it just a bit, Hugh?” Greg called from off-set.
“Didn’t get any sleep last night,” Hugh muttered, opening the door for Anne to allow them to start over.
Lisa drummed her fingers on the 台, 办公桌 and waited for Hugh to come in again.
“I need sleeping pills. I was gonna hit up Wilson, but he’s not answering his phone.”
“He must have left them in his pants. Which he wasn’t wearing when the police found him trying to walk home… oddly, from his own apartment.” Lisa fixed Hugh with an accusatory stare as he in turn looked guiltily at Anne, then took a few steps toward the desk.
“Pills.”
“Your patient’s doing fine. Thanks to your team.”
“It’s wasn’t, uh… eo… pneu… God, something like pneumonia…”
The crew was watching in silence. Greg leaned back in his chair behind his camera and exchanged looks with David and Katie.
“Eosinophilic pneumonitis.” Lisa 说 softly. Hugh nodded shortly and took a few steps back.
“Your patient’s doing fine, thanks to your team,” she said, and they went on.
“It wasn’t eosinophilic pneumonitis, was it?”
“Sarcoidosis,” 说 Lisa, scribbling on the prescription pad and tearing the 最佳, 返回页首 page off.
“Good.” Hugh walked over to take the page, but Lisa held it away from him.
“House, please talk to me.”
Hugh was staring at her, his eyes empty, his shoulders slumped. Lisa’s eyes softened, and she began to get out of her chair—
“I haven’t slept through the night—”
“That’s pretty obvious,” she 说 gently, and Greg stopped filming and came onto the set.
“I’m fine!” Hugh snapped angrily at her. He turned to Greg. “Why are we stopping? We’re behind schedule as it is—”
“We are going to do something else. Hugh, why don’t 你 grab a nap 或者 something, and then we can try it again.”
“I do not need to take a break. Eosinophilic pneumonitis, sarcoidosis, I haven’t slept since Kutner killed himself, I am ready to go.”
“You are going to take a break. We are all going to take a break!” David stood up and announced. “We’ll try this again in fifteen! Hugh—”
“I will be in the rehearsal room if anyone needs me,” he 说 shortly, taking long strides off the set and down the hallway to the rehearsal space. David and Katie immediately moved toward each other, bending their heads together and conferring about this latest obstacle. Lisa leaned back in her chair and breathed out hard, looking sympathetically at Anne, who had dropped into one of the armchairs. Suddenly it was just too much. Lisa abruptly stood up, the chair rolling backward and slamming into the set piece behind her, and make tracks down the same hallway, following her co-star. The fact that no one ever followed Hugh into a rehearsal room, the fact that barging into a rehearsal room when it was occupied was considered a Grade A Cardinal Sin of the First Order on a set, the fact that Hugh obviously wanted to be alone—all these things she pushed from her mind, at the same time as she pushed the door open, letting it slam behind her.
“Enough already!” She said, hands on her hips, glaring at Hugh. He rose from where he’d been sitting at the table, shock etched across his face. He took a deep, deliberate breath, but Lisa could see that he was shaken as he let it out.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve,” he said, trying to control himself.
“I’ve got a lot of nerve? What the hell was that?” Lisa stood, rooted to the spot, staring at Hugh in disbelief.
“What was what?” He asked, looking down at the table.
“What was—that atrocity of a scene 你 just perpetrated out there! And then 你 have the nerve to snap at other people when you’re the one—”
“Now just a bloody second, 你 can’t just—”
“Can’t what? Can’t hold 你 accountable for—”
Hugh planted his feet a few steps from her, mirroring her stance, his eyes blazing. “For not sleeping? Correct me if I’m wrong, but the whole scene was designed around the idea of sleep deprivation, and I—”
“Oh please, you’re not that Method,” Lisa spit. “You know as well as I do that there’s no excuse for what was going on in that scene—”
“That scene would have been just fine in another take 或者 two, if they hadn’t stopped us for no good reason at all—”
“No good reason? No good reason! Hugh, 你 weren’t even there! 你 were—”
“Easy enough to say when all 你 have to do is sit behind a desk, never have to get invested in any kind of ongoing—”
“You complete and total bastard.” Lisa took a step forward, and Hugh did not back down. “Let’s get one thing straight. It doesn’t matter if I have thirty 秒 或者 thirty 分钟 of screen time in an episode, it doesn’t matter if we have to do two takes 或者 two hundred, what matters is the integrity of the finished product, and the finished product—”
“The finished product has nothing to do with 你 and everything to do with me!” Hugh raised his voice over hers. “You’re never going to get blamed if things go wrong, it’s going to fall on my shoulders, on my head—”
“And I suppose that the writers, 或者 David 或者 Katie, none of them can be held responsible—”
“On paper. Fine. But try having all these people, all these dollars hinging on your face—”
“The utter tragedy of it all…” Lisa’s sarcasm was withering.
“And then to have to deal with 你 dropping this completely random… fucking… bombshell on me—”
“Wait, wait, this is my fault?”
“You bring up these concerns in the middle of shooting—”
“You are not going to—”
“To hold 你 responsible? Yeah—”
“You’re fucking accusing me of being the reason 你 can’t put two words together without—”
“You can’t have it both ways, Lisa!” Hugh glared at her, daring her to argue with him. Lisa looked at the floor, blinking back tears and trying to stop—but there it was, a tiny smile creeping up on her, and she couldn’t stop it…
“You’re fucking enjoying this,” Hugh accused. That wiped it right out.
“I’m enjoying—”
“You don’t want this to end, you’re just going to keep throwing grenades in my path every time I turn around, fixating on whatever your latest—”
“Why in the world would I—”
“Because 你 need something to do? Because 你 get bored, and—”
“I cannot believe—”
“Or maybe this is just amusing to you—”
“You have 迷失 your mind—”
“Oh really? 你 think I’ve 迷失 my mind.” Hugh broke off, turning half away from her, palming his forehead and feeling beads of sweat forming under the pads of his fingers. He looked at the carpet.
“Hugh…”
“You really think I’ve 迷失 my mind.”
“Yes.”
“You think I don’t know what I’m talking about.”
“Yes.”
“You think... that I am completely off base, with everything that I’ve 说 and done since I’ve been here this morning, and you’re having doubts that anything I do is going to be rational 或者 sane.”
“Pretty much.”
“Then I suppose that means you’ll stop me before I do something really stupid,” 说 Hugh, taking one step forward, grabbing Lisa’s biceps roughly, pushing her against the wall, and 接吻 her—hard. Lisa gasped against his lips, her mind racing almost as fast as her heart.
What the hell…?!?
But Hugh was still 接吻 her—passionately, forcefully 接吻 her, and Lisa told her brain once and for all to please wait outside, and your call will be answered in the order it was received.
All this took only the barest half a 秒 before Lisa realized that she had two hands of her own, and promptly used them to pull Hugh closer to her, bringing one arm under his and around to his back, sliding the other hand into his hair, guiding his head down just a little further, so she could reach—and then there was Hugh’s tongue, hovering just there, waiting for her to react—
A shuddering sigh crept out of him as Lisa moved her hand from the back of his head, moved until the crook of her elbow was at his neck and not one inch of their bodies was separated. Hugh’s hands roamed around her torso, one at her shoulders and one at her waist, and hugged her even closer, if that were possible, holding on for dear life as Lisa pulled away slightly only to take Hugh’s face in her hands, to bite down gently on his bottom lip, running her tongue along to soothe it, and then lower herself back to her feet, resting her forehead against the side of his face.
Chests heaving, palms sweating, the two of them remained in that position as they tried to reconcile the events of the past five minutes. Lisa licked her lips and let out a breath that tickled the skin under Hugh’s jaw.
“Ok,” she said, gently pushing him away and raising an eyebrow at him. “Ok. We got that out of our system. Can we please go to work now?”
Hugh gave her a crooked smile. “Back to normal?”
“Back to normal.”
“As 你 wish. After you, ma’am,” he said, sweeping his arm out to guide her to the door.
“Oh no, sir, after you.”
“But I insist, after you.”
“You’re too kind. After you.”
“It is unthinkable! After you.” Hugh finally gave her a push toward the door, and Lisa giggled as she opened it, took a step through it, then poked her head back in.
“By the way—when did 你 get your tonsils out?”
~*~*~
On with the show...
~*~*~
Padding around the house barefoot, Hugh made a ghostly looking specter. His pale face floated up one hallway and down another, the image aided from the steam rising out of his coffee mug as he waited for it to cool. Not a single person would blame the man for wanting a real drink at this point, but Hugh had always avoided strong spirits, for a number of reasons. Tonight the 最佳, 返回页首 few went a little something like this: he had an early call and he didn’t want a hangover, and he was not a little scared about what he would do, think, 或者 say if he got a little too juiced.
Pausing in front of the spare bedroom that Lisa had slept in those few weeks ago, he hesitated a little, then went in and settled himself on the 长椅, 沙发 下一个 to the bookshelf. This was as good a place as any for a dark night of the soul. At least there was 阅读 material.
Sighing heavily, he dropped onto the cushions and stared into his cup for a few moments before taking a cautious sip and looking out the window. Something caught his eye.
“Lisa…” he muttered, putting down his coffee and going over to the window seat. The thing that had attracted his attention was the black cover of the book she’d been giving him such grief about since she’d found it. Sitting down and leaning against the cool glass of the window, he turned the book over in his hands and was surprised to see a scrap of paper sticking out slightly from the top. Opening to the page slowly, he saw Lisa’s unmistakable handwriting scrawled across the paper—a note, obviously meant for him to find after the night she’d spent there, although he hadn’t been the room since he showed it to her when her car died. Hugh’s mouth went dry, and he licked his lips as he read the words she had left for him.
Hugh—I just wanted to apologize again for getting myself stuck here when you’re trying to get your work done. And for interrupting 你 just now. I want to tell 你 something, and I want 你 to be able to take these words and hold on to them, and look back on them whenever 你 feel like you’re getting lost…
Hugh closed his eyes for a second. She thought he was lost? Was he lost?
You have to know, Hugh, how brilliant 你 are. You’re brilliant, and funny, and yes, you’re sexy even if 你 don’t think it—and 你 put all of those traits to such 不可思议的 good use, 你 must never ever allow yourself to think 你 don’t deserve the good fortune 你 have found. I want to 你 know these things, as your friend and as your co-worker—your happiness is important to me. Please hold on to this note for those days when 你 feel your English despair creeping up on your—or if 你 just need a laugh at my horrendous handwriting.
A smile started to pull at the corners of his mouth.
Just a few 更多 episodes and you’ll be able to take a well-deserved break, one that I know 你 need right now. In the meantime, just keep doing what you’re doing, and everything will turn out just fine in the end. I promise—Lisa xxoo
How had she known? Had she been snooping?
Of course she was snooping!
Hugh got up and took the paper over to the closet, opening the door. On the 最佳, 返回页首 shelf was a shoebox, filled with letters, notes from friends, a few reviews that had meant something to him… it was his Box of Confidence and he never opened it. Ever.
Unless he was adding something to it.
It was a suggestion from his therapist—an exercise that he’d actually had to produce proof of in order to finally be able to stop talking about it. Once it had been duly examined and 评论 upon he had brought it back, tossed it in the closet he used the least, and forgotten all about it. Now Lisa had found it, and… what? Contributed to it? A nice idea, if a little invasive.
Invasive? Hugh fell into the 长椅, 沙发 and buried his face in his hands as his brain started 表演 up again. Invasive, nothing! She was thinking about you, 你 were being a gloomy bore and she wanted 你 to snap out of it!
Then it occurred to him; had she been thinking that he had gotten the note immediately the 下一个 day? Was she hurt that he hadn’t mentioned it? Had it flown completely out of her mind and she wasn’t even thinking about it anymore? He moaned loud and long into his hands before leaning back and resting his head on the 长椅, 沙发 cushions.
Here’s what you’re going to do, his brain informed him. So listen up, chum. 你 are going to go onto the set tomorrow, get her off to the side, and apologize. Apologize like you’ve never apologized before, explain that 你 only got the note last night, and 你 appreciate it, and 你 would 爱情 to go back to the way things were before it got so complicated—
Um. Pardon me. Hugh’s eyes had drifted closed and he was slipping into a very surreal dream…
Pardon me? He was standing in an empty room, facing… himself. One Hugh was wearing a suit and tie, and was currently lecturing the other Hugh, who was leaning against the 墙 in motorcycle 夹克 and jeans and staring at the ceiling, not listening. That’s right. 你 are going to apologize.
Apologize for what? Motorcycle Hugh 说 sullenly. She started this. It’s not my fault she tried to—
Be a gentleman. Smooth things over, and let it go. What difference does it make? 你 don’t have any lasting stock in this relationship, so what does it matter?
No lasting stock? How about three 更多 years of working together? How about all the awards shows and 照片 shoots and interviews we’ll have to do?
How about you’re married?
How about shut up?
This is absurd. Formal Hugh tried to walk out of the room, but alas, no doors.
Care to settle this like men? Motorcycle Hugh tossed his 夹克 to the floor and rolled up his sleeves. Come on, do it, do it, 你 know 你 want to.
Hugh’s foot jerked, his eyes snapped open, and he practically levitated off the couch, springing to his feet.
“I’m losing my mind,” he muttered. “This is insane.”
The clock on the 墙 ticked cheerfully, informing him that he had less than three hours to sleep before he had to leave for the set again.
“The bloody hell with it!” He snapped at the empty air, storming out to get his wallet and keys. He would go early. Catch a nap in his trailer. Anything to get out of that room…
~*~*~
“Hugh, 你 read—damnation…” Lisa’s voice trailed off in wonder. “Hugh, for God’s sake, did 你 get any sleep last night?”
“Guess I better get back to makeup,” he muttered, starting out of his chair.
“Whoa, where are 你 going?” Greg came up to them. “We gotta get started. Wow, Hugh—makeup did an awesome job. 你 look like crap.”
Lisa snickered and hopped off her chair, heading for Cuddy’s office. Hugh followed slowly behind. After a bit of rearranging of Cuddy’s desk, Lisa leaned back in her chair and waited for the Greg to give them the green light to start.
Hugh pushed her door open, followed 由 Anne. “I need sleeping pills. I was gonna hit up Wilson but—” A sudden, massive yawn broke over him and he couldn’t go on. Lisa frowned and tilted her head a little, watching him.
“Over-playing it just a bit, Hugh?” Greg called from off-set.
“Didn’t get any sleep last night,” Hugh muttered, opening the door for Anne to allow them to start over.
Lisa drummed her fingers on the 台, 办公桌 and waited for Hugh to come in again.
“I need sleeping pills. I was gonna hit up Wilson, but he’s not answering his phone.”
“He must have left them in his pants. Which he wasn’t wearing when the police found him trying to walk home… oddly, from his own apartment.” Lisa fixed Hugh with an accusatory stare as he in turn looked guiltily at Anne, then took a few steps toward the desk.
“Pills.”
“Your patient’s doing fine. Thanks to your team.”
“It’s wasn’t, uh… eo… pneu… God, something like pneumonia…”
The crew was watching in silence. Greg leaned back in his chair behind his camera and exchanged looks with David and Katie.
“Eosinophilic pneumonitis.” Lisa 说 softly. Hugh nodded shortly and took a few steps back.
“Your patient’s doing fine, thanks to your team,” she said, and they went on.
“It wasn’t eosinophilic pneumonitis, was it?”
“Sarcoidosis,” 说 Lisa, scribbling on the prescription pad and tearing the 最佳, 返回页首 page off.
“Good.” Hugh walked over to take the page, but Lisa held it away from him.
“House, please talk to me.”
Hugh was staring at her, his eyes empty, his shoulders slumped. Lisa’s eyes softened, and she began to get out of her chair—
“I haven’t slept through the night—”
“That’s pretty obvious,” she 说 gently, and Greg stopped filming and came onto the set.
“I’m fine!” Hugh snapped angrily at her. He turned to Greg. “Why are we stopping? We’re behind schedule as it is—”
“We are going to do something else. Hugh, why don’t 你 grab a nap 或者 something, and then we can try it again.”
“I do not need to take a break. Eosinophilic pneumonitis, sarcoidosis, I haven’t slept since Kutner killed himself, I am ready to go.”
“You are going to take a break. We are all going to take a break!” David stood up and announced. “We’ll try this again in fifteen! Hugh—”
“I will be in the rehearsal room if anyone needs me,” he 说 shortly, taking long strides off the set and down the hallway to the rehearsal space. David and Katie immediately moved toward each other, bending their heads together and conferring about this latest obstacle. Lisa leaned back in her chair and breathed out hard, looking sympathetically at Anne, who had dropped into one of the armchairs. Suddenly it was just too much. Lisa abruptly stood up, the chair rolling backward and slamming into the set piece behind her, and make tracks down the same hallway, following her co-star. The fact that no one ever followed Hugh into a rehearsal room, the fact that barging into a rehearsal room when it was occupied was considered a Grade A Cardinal Sin of the First Order on a set, the fact that Hugh obviously wanted to be alone—all these things she pushed from her mind, at the same time as she pushed the door open, letting it slam behind her.
“Enough already!” She said, hands on her hips, glaring at Hugh. He rose from where he’d been sitting at the table, shock etched across his face. He took a deep, deliberate breath, but Lisa could see that he was shaken as he let it out.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve,” he said, trying to control himself.
“I’ve got a lot of nerve? What the hell was that?” Lisa stood, rooted to the spot, staring at Hugh in disbelief.
“What was what?” He asked, looking down at the table.
“What was—that atrocity of a scene 你 just perpetrated out there! And then 你 have the nerve to snap at other people when you’re the one—”
“Now just a bloody second, 你 can’t just—”
“Can’t what? Can’t hold 你 accountable for—”
Hugh planted his feet a few steps from her, mirroring her stance, his eyes blazing. “For not sleeping? Correct me if I’m wrong, but the whole scene was designed around the idea of sleep deprivation, and I—”
“Oh please, you’re not that Method,” Lisa spit. “You know as well as I do that there’s no excuse for what was going on in that scene—”
“That scene would have been just fine in another take 或者 two, if they hadn’t stopped us for no good reason at all—”
“No good reason? No good reason! Hugh, 你 weren’t even there! 你 were—”
“Easy enough to say when all 你 have to do is sit behind a desk, never have to get invested in any kind of ongoing—”
“You complete and total bastard.” Lisa took a step forward, and Hugh did not back down. “Let’s get one thing straight. It doesn’t matter if I have thirty 秒 或者 thirty 分钟 of screen time in an episode, it doesn’t matter if we have to do two takes 或者 two hundred, what matters is the integrity of the finished product, and the finished product—”
“The finished product has nothing to do with 你 and everything to do with me!” Hugh raised his voice over hers. “You’re never going to get blamed if things go wrong, it’s going to fall on my shoulders, on my head—”
“And I suppose that the writers, 或者 David 或者 Katie, none of them can be held responsible—”
“On paper. Fine. But try having all these people, all these dollars hinging on your face—”
“The utter tragedy of it all…” Lisa’s sarcasm was withering.
“And then to have to deal with 你 dropping this completely random… fucking… bombshell on me—”
“Wait, wait, this is my fault?”
“You bring up these concerns in the middle of shooting—”
“You are not going to—”
“To hold 你 responsible? Yeah—”
“You’re fucking accusing me of being the reason 你 can’t put two words together without—”
“You can’t have it both ways, Lisa!” Hugh glared at her, daring her to argue with him. Lisa looked at the floor, blinking back tears and trying to stop—but there it was, a tiny smile creeping up on her, and she couldn’t stop it…
“You’re fucking enjoying this,” Hugh accused. That wiped it right out.
“I’m enjoying—”
“You don’t want this to end, you’re just going to keep throwing grenades in my path every time I turn around, fixating on whatever your latest—”
“Why in the world would I—”
“Because 你 need something to do? Because 你 get bored, and—”
“I cannot believe—”
“Or maybe this is just amusing to you—”
“You have 迷失 your mind—”
“Oh really? 你 think I’ve 迷失 my mind.” Hugh broke off, turning half away from her, palming his forehead and feeling beads of sweat forming under the pads of his fingers. He looked at the carpet.
“Hugh…”
“You really think I’ve 迷失 my mind.”
“Yes.”
“You think I don’t know what I’m talking about.”
“Yes.”
“You think... that I am completely off base, with everything that I’ve 说 and done since I’ve been here this morning, and you’re having doubts that anything I do is going to be rational 或者 sane.”
“Pretty much.”
“Then I suppose that means you’ll stop me before I do something really stupid,” 说 Hugh, taking one step forward, grabbing Lisa’s biceps roughly, pushing her against the wall, and 接吻 her—hard. Lisa gasped against his lips, her mind racing almost as fast as her heart.
What the hell…?!?
But Hugh was still 接吻 her—passionately, forcefully 接吻 her, and Lisa told her brain once and for all to please wait outside, and your call will be answered in the order it was received.
All this took only the barest half a 秒 before Lisa realized that she had two hands of her own, and promptly used them to pull Hugh closer to her, bringing one arm under his and around to his back, sliding the other hand into his hair, guiding his head down just a little further, so she could reach—and then there was Hugh’s tongue, hovering just there, waiting for her to react—
A shuddering sigh crept out of him as Lisa moved her hand from the back of his head, moved until the crook of her elbow was at his neck and not one inch of their bodies was separated. Hugh’s hands roamed around her torso, one at her shoulders and one at her waist, and hugged her even closer, if that were possible, holding on for dear life as Lisa pulled away slightly only to take Hugh’s face in her hands, to bite down gently on his bottom lip, running her tongue along to soothe it, and then lower herself back to her feet, resting her forehead against the side of his face.
Chests heaving, palms sweating, the two of them remained in that position as they tried to reconcile the events of the past five minutes. Lisa licked her lips and let out a breath that tickled the skin under Hugh’s jaw.
“Ok,” she said, gently pushing him away and raising an eyebrow at him. “Ok. We got that out of our system. Can we please go to work now?”
Hugh gave her a crooked smile. “Back to normal?”
“Back to normal.”
“As 你 wish. After you, ma’am,” he said, sweeping his arm out to guide her to the door.
“Oh no, sir, after you.”
“But I insist, after you.”
“You’re too kind. After you.”
“It is unthinkable! After you.” Hugh finally gave her a push toward the door, and Lisa giggled as she opened it, took a step through it, then poked her head back in.
“By the way—when did 你 get your tonsils out?”
~*~*~