Hey. Been a minute.
Going back to work the following Monday was hard for Lena. Almost as hard as having to part with Kara on Sunday night. But Monday was a little easier because it was one day closer to Friday, when her weekend would begin again, and she could retreat with Kara once more into their romantic bliss.
The fact that her call time was five in the morning on Monday didn't help, though. She'd barely slept Sunday night, as per usual when she was away from Kara. And she'd neglected to look over her lines for Monday over the weekend, so she was up until past midnight studying them. She felt half-dead when Jess picked her up to bring her to set and didn't perk up until her fourth cup of coffee.
Tuesday was slightly better since she wasn't in the first scene and didn't have to be on set until noon. Then Wednesday she was only into the last three scenes of the day, and crew call wasn't until eleven anyway, so by the time she got to work it was already five in the evening.
It was always a little weird for her to get to set in the middle of the workday. Everyone else was already half-way through their day, hungry for lunch and counting down the hours until they could go home. As Jess pulled her into the base camp parking lot there was a passenger van coming to set, dropping off people to go to lunch.
She perked up instantly when she saw a familiar, big, beat up, white truck parked near the trailers. A few moments later she spotted the usual driver hunched over the back, and she bit her lip when Kara pulled out a case of water and hoisted it effortlessly onto her shoulder.
Jess parked the SUV right next to the truck as Kara was rounding the front of the vehicle. The blonde looked up and smiled, waving at the two of them with her free hand. Lena hopped out of the passenger side before Jess even had a chance to kill the engine.
"I wish I could show up halfway through the day, too," Kara commented immediately, and she smirked as she pushed her ball cap further up so she could wipe a trickle of sweat away. "I'm jealous."
"I would be, too," Jess said as she climbed out of the driver's seat and slammed the door shut. "The best part of being a personal assistant to cast is getting to come in later." The dark-haired woman beamed. "And off days, too. Like tomorrow."
Kara's face fell slightly, instantly looking to Lena. "You're on hold tomorrow?"
"Yeah," Lena said, her face going slightly red as she looked down at her shoes. She'd figured she would have an off day coming up. They'd gotten through most of her scenes at the beginning of the show, so going forward, she was going to have more off time than previously. Normally it was the time she looked forward to most during a show and was thankful for the break in the chaos work brought to her life. But this time she was dreading it. Because the less time she spent on set meant the less she saw of Kara. "It's my first day off during the week. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself."
Which was completely true. Her only off days all happened to coincide with Kara's since they'd both only been free during the weekend. That didn't leave her much time to just exist on her own.
"Well what do you normally do on your off days?" Jess asked innocently.
Lena and Kara locked eyes for a brief moment, the blonde's face going red as Lena quickly looked down to the worn pair of sneakers she'd slipped into before leaving the house. "Oh, you know, just watch Netflix and relax," Lena said nonchalantly, stuffing her hands in the pockets of her jeans to appear casual.
"So Netflix and chill?" Jess asked with a grin, giving Kara a sideways glance.
Lena's face drained of color while Kara's only burned brighter. "I suppose you could say that," Lena said coyly, still trying to play it off.
Kara cleared her throat. "I should go fill that cooler," she muttered, backing away from the star and assistant like a dog with her tail between her legs. "I feel awkward just standing here with a case of water on my shoulder."
Lena forced herself not to watch her walk away, but she noticed Jess watching Kara go, an amused smirk on her assistant's face.
Kara tried not to think about the comments Jess made for the rest of the day, but it was hard. Kara, by nature, was an over-thinker. Years of bullying made her wary of people, always looking for a hidden meaning behind their words and body language. And while she didn't think Jess hated her or was targeting her, she did have a feeling that Jess knew there was something going on between her and Lena.
Normally she wouldn't care if someone knew about who she was dating, but normally she wasn't dating a celebrity. She was in a much less perilous position than Lena should their relationship become public. But that didn't mean she wasn't worried about the ramifications of their relationship becoming public knowledge. Still, though, it wasn't even the threat of people knowing that worried her.
It was how Lena might react should their secret get out. While Lena was fine with Alex and Kelly knowing and keeping their secret, it was something entirely different to have people outside of their circle knowing. Jess knowing could mean the difference between Lena being fine or Lena deciding this was all too risky and pulling the plug.
That's what scared her the most. Not people knowing about them, but that people knowing could actively shove Lena back into the closet if it got out before she was ready. All Jess had to do was make one wrong comment, and Lena could freak out. And then she could lose her forever.
And she didn't want to lose her just yet. She wasn't delusional. She knew eventually Lena would come to her senses and realize that she could have someone more impressive, someone who got served on set instead of served others. But she wanted to keep pretending for just a little while longer that she could hold onto this happiness she'd found.
Every time she went to the crafty setup and saw Jess with Lena, she couldn't let go of the ball of nerves in her chest. She was careful not to look at Lena too long, not to speak too much to her. She couldn't fuel whatever idea Jess had of them, even if it was right.
It was mentally exhausting, on top of the physical exhaustion she felt throughout the day. They'd started with the sun directly overhead, beating down on them mercilessly while they worked. She didn't even get a break from the heat because the shop they were using as a set for the day didn't allow food or drink inside, so their setup was out and open to the elements. And even after the sun went down, the heat barely got better, the humidity refusing to let up.
To top it off, it was going to be a long day. Oliver had told her not long after lunch that they were going to need a second meal, and he'd pushed her to get KFC because he was craving fried chicken. So, to win favor with him, she'd actually gone to the store and placed the order. When she told him she'd ordered KFC the stoic man smiled at her for what felt like the first time since the show started.
As much as she hated doing second meal, she was glad she could at least make him happy. Tensions had been growing between her and the AD staff the past few weeks, and it was making her life harder than it needed to be. If fried chicken would get Oliver and Mike off her back for two fucking seconds, then she would feed them fried chicken until they puked. Whatever she needed to get through the day at that point.
When she got in the truck to go pick up the food, she wished she could just be on the way home already. She wanted a shower and a painkiller, stat. But with second meal there was at least another two hours to their day, so there was no chance in that happening any time soon.
By the time she got to KFC it was getting late. They were obviously trying to close, on top of serving the other customers and work on her ginormous order. The lady at the counter saw her, recognizing the blonde immediately.
"Hey, that huge order is here for pickup!" the lady called over her shoulder, and Kara could see the workers in the back scurrying to get the boxes together. "It'll be just a few more moments, ma'am," she said to Kara. "They just dropped the last batch into the fryer."
"No worries. Take your time," Kara told her.
Honestly, she was somewhat thankful. She was able to go over to one of the booths and sit, which she normally only got to do at lunch. The restaurant was air-conditioned as well, and so she was happy to be out of the heat for a little while.
But not even thirty seconds after she was sitting her phone started vibrating in her pocket. Her anxiety spiked when she saw Nia's name flashing across the screen.
"What's up?" she asked.
"We just wrapped," Nia told her, somewhat out of breath. It sounded like she was struggling with something.
"What the hell do you mean we just wrapped?" Kara asked, trying to keep her cool. "We had six setups to shoot when I left."
"They punted them to next week," Nia said. "Apparently, we're back here Tuesday, and they decided just to do them then. So they called wrap. No Abbey, no Martini. Nothing, just wrap."
"Shit," Kara muttered. "The chicken's not even ready yet."
"Oliver said to just cancel second meal," Nia informed her. "He said he wants to get people off the clock as soon as possible."
"I can't just cancel it," Kara said, panic starting to rise in her chest. "It's already paid for. They've made it. It's not like I can return it." She groaned, immediately standing from the booth. "This royally fucks us."
"What do you want me to do, boss?" Nia asked.
"Just start packing up. I'll be there soon."
By the time Kara got back to set the majority of the departments were well underway in wrapping out. All the blonde had to do was look around the trailer to know they were deep in the weeds. But that was to be expected when production wrapped two hours ahead of time with no warning. The other departments had it easier because they were closer to the process. Any decisions about shortening the day were communicated right away. Craft Services was once again forgotten, an afterthought.
It didn't help when the AD staff sent Eve to stand by their trailer and wait for their out sheet either, huffing and constantly checking her watch as she sat daintily on a cooler, watching them bust their asses.
"How much longer do you think it's going to be?" Eve asked at some point.
Kara wanted to walk over and shove her off the cooler she was sitting on top of. There was still equipment strewn out in front of the trailer as she and the girls scurried around trying to make sure they had everything from set. It was plain to see they were nowhere near close to finishing.
"I'm gonna say a while," Kara said with exasperation, gesturing to the sea of coolers she still had to muscle into the trailer. "We obviously have a way to go."
Eve clicked her tongue. "You guys are always the last department out," she said in a judgmental voice. "Why haven't you come up with a better system?"
Kara stopped what she was doing, turning to Eve with eyebrows raised. "Our system is that I ask your AD staff every night when we're wrapping so that we can be prepared for the wrap out and not be caught off-guard. My system gets messed up when production decides to cut the last shots, and your department doesn't communicate that with me." She put her hands on her hips and shrugged. "I was told to expect to be here until well past three a.m. I was told to buy a second meal. It's barely one, and I had to leave over seven hundred dollars' worth of chicken at the restaurant. I didn't hear anything about us wrapping early until it had already happened. How is this my fault?"
Even in the dark, Kara could see Eve's face going red. "You could have better equipment that makes loading up easier," the small blonde woman muttered, nervously twirling one of her curls around her index finger.
"This isn't my company." Kara said, almost laughing. "I'm just the one running the show. None of this," she pointed to the battered trailer, and then to scattered equipment around it, "is mine. I'm literally doing the best job I can with what I've got."
Eve had nothing to say to that, her lips turning to a thin, white line. Kara sighed as she turned away, glad the conversation seemed to be over. Honestly, if Eve wanted them out of there so badly, why did she have to start talking? All Eve did was slow down Kara, and the blonde had enough to do without fighting with some PA.
She went in the trailer to get away from the small, annoying woman and to finish securing everything for travel. By the time she came out again, Eve was no longer on the cooler. Instead she was standing a few yards away, talking on her phone. That helped Kara feel a little more at ease. It was hard enough doing her job knowing they were going to be the last department out, but it didn't help to have a member of the AD staff sitting there watching her, judging.
After a few minutes Nia turned up with the last of the trash cans that had been on set. She helped Kara to get a few coolers into the trailer, and by the time they came out again, Sam had turned up with the coffee cart.
"I fucking hate this thing," Sam said, giving the cart a tiny kick. "The wheels suck."
"I know," Kara said quickly. She hated pushing the damn thing, too. The wheels were small and thin, and it was hard to push on uneven surfaces. "Clark keeps saying he's going to buy better ones to put on it, but that would entail spending money on the thing." He'd been saying he would replace them since the first time Kara ever worked for him, and it had never happened, so she didn't expect it to anytime soon or… Ever.
"He needs a better coffee cart, period," Sam said, rolling her eyes.
"Everything needs to be on carts," Nia chimed in. "That way you can just push everything. Then you get a ramp and roll everything in. It could be so fucking easy."
"This setup is a joke," Sam said with a head shake. "And we look like jokes working with this. Why doesn't this Clark guy take pride in his shit? Like, he's not ashamed of any of this?"
Kara bit her lip and closed her eyes to fight back tears. She knew all of this, she did. But what was she supposed to do? Just walk away? She was in too deep. Even for all his faults, she still liked Clark. He was a friend. She'd been to his house, knew his wife, even babysat his kid. She knew part of the reason Clark didn't put money into his company was because he didn't have it. The upgrades they were talking about would cost thousands of dollars. And there were the things they hadn't seen, back when it had been just the two of them working.
There were good times. He joked around with her, made working fun. He was easy going, and if she made a mistake, he usually just laughed it off. He talked her down when she was having a bad day, and at the end of the day actually cared about her. That was more than she could say for most bosses.
"Guys, I can't tonight," Kara said in a tired voice, feeling defeated. "Can we just pack up?"
Sam and Nia regarded her for a moment, then exchanged a look. They simply nodded after that and went back to work. Not much was said from then on, and thankfully with the three of them set on leaving, it didn't take too long to finish packing up.
When Kara handed the out sheet to Eve, the small blonde woman didn't even smile as she took it. She said nothing to Kara, just turned and started to walk away.
"Crafty's finally out," Eve said into the walkie in an overly sarcastic voice.
"Thank god," Mike's voice said with a groan.
Kara bit her lip to stop herself from cursing. Then, in the calmest voice she could muster, she said, "We can hear you, so can we retain some professionalism, please?"
There was radio silence after that, and Kara watched as Eve walked to the AD trailer, not daring to look back. But she did straighten her back and speed up her pace after that.
"You were a lot nicer than I was about to be," Nia said, a hint of respect in her voice.
"You never know who's listening on channel one," Kara said, thinking specifically of J'onn. The last thing she wanted was to make herself look even worse in his eyes after she went off on Siobhan during the first week.
"You still managed to call them out, though," Sam said with a smirk. "That was masterful."
Kara simply shrugged. "I wasn't trying to be a conniving bitch, it just happens sometimes."
She did smile a little at the fact that she was able to handle that situation with more grace than usual while still standing up for herself and her team. Maybe she was learning after all.
Thursday Kara woke to the sound of thunder and rain splattering against her bedroom window. She gave a loud groan, immediately reaching for her phone to check the weather. To her dismay, it was supposed to rain for most of the afternoon and the early evening. So, Kara had being drenched to look forward to on top of another night shoot.
Stupidly, Kara had left her rain jacket in the front seat of the truck, so when she ran out to leave, she was already soaked before she even got in the vehicle. Then she had the displeasure of driving to set in a torrential downpour. She hated driving the truck with the trailer behind it enough when the sun was shining. Adding rain and wind to the mix made the entire thing terrifying. It didn't help that there were pockets of water on the sides of the road, and hydroplaning in this rig meant almost certain death. She didn't believe in a god of any sort, but she said a little prayer to whatever powers that might be just in case.
To make matters worse, they were filming out in the woods, nearly an hour out of the city. The location was a state park, and the moment she turned onto the gravel road, she began to get a bad feeling. The ground along the road looked soft, especially because of the rain. Clark had told her to be careful about parking the truck and trailer on soft ground because they could get stuck.
Thankfully, though, she was instructed to park in a gravel lot with the rest of base camp and working trucks. Unfortunately, though, set was a ways off, and that meant pushing equipment up the muddy dirt road.
It wasn't even five by the time their day got into motion, but the sky was dark with storm clouds, showering them on and off throughout their wrap-in. And even setting up their tent did little to keep the rain off the setup. They put sides to keep the rain out when it started coming at a slant, but drops still made it through cracks at the top. And as the rain landed on the top of the tent, water began to pool and make the canopy heavy. Drops of water slowly started seeping through the thin material, splatting on the table and getting the food wet.
And then, just as they were gaining momentum, the lightning started. On set when lightning struck, that meant everything had to shut down, and crew had to take cover. Then the clock would start, and they couldn't work again for thirty minutes. But if another bolt of lightning struck, they had to start all the clock all over again.
To wait it out, Kara climbed into the cab of the truck and started the engine so at least she could have the A/C going. She played music and games on her phone while she waited, groaning every time she heard someone on the walkie say that the clock was reset.
They hadn't even fired off their first shot yet, and they were already behind schedule. The day started off miserable because of the conditions and hike to set from the trailer, but to top it off, it was no doubt going to be a long day because of all the lightning delays. That meant they would probably need a second meal, and her department just didn't have the money to do that.
Even though she was allowed to spend whatever she wanted, it didn't mean she didn't have restraints. The production credit card she'd been given had a limit, and no matter how fast she turned in her paperwork and receipts, it didn't reset until noon on Friday. And since it was Thursday, that meant she had only a little over $300 left on the credit card. If she had cash it wouldn't be such a problem, but her cash was turned over so slowly she was lucky if she saw any within a week of her turning in those receipts. That was all on accounting, and she'd heard from other departments that they'd been having trouble getting their cash reimbursed as well. It was maddening. She was told she could spend money, but then not actually given more money to spend.
And losing over $700 on chicken the night before had screwed her way more than she realized at the time. That really hurt her, almost right to her soul. If the crew had gotten the chicken, fine, then it wouldn't have gone to waste. But to know she spent so much on something she didn't even bring back to set was profoundly upsetting. She knew it wasn't really her fault, and it wasn't even the AD staff's. These things just happened sometimes. Things always changed on a dime in film.
But she still didn't feel better about the fact that they had almost no food left, no money to buy it with, and were most likely going to need a huge meal by the end of the night. Not to mention the fact that they were an hour from the city and most restaurants she would have ordered the meal from. And it just had to be a night shoot. That made it even harder because most restaurants weren't even open around the time she was going to need the meal.
The day before had been bad enough, and Thursday was turning into a shit show quickly. The only thing that kept her from crying— that gave her a glimmer of hope— was knowing that Lena was back at work that day. The day before had been all bleak and no light. She didn't realize how much simply seeing Lena and being around her enriched her day, even if they hardly spoke on set. But when they passed each other briefly, locked eyes, and shared a small smile, those were the moments that helped make her day enjoyable. Those tiny flashes of warmth throughout the workday made her actually want to go to work. Wednesday she'd barely made it out of bed because she knew she wouldn't be seeing Lena that day.
Thursday when she woke up to rain, she'd been tempted to pull the covers over her head and go back to sleep until she remembered Lena would be back that day. It was the one thing she was looking forward to out in this muddy mess. Yet the lightning setting them back meant not only was her day going to be longer, but she had to wait more to see Lena.
She was tempted to sneak to her trailer while everyone was in cover so they could at least spend a little time together while they were down. But then when she looked around the parking lot, she noticed the SUV Jess usually drove wasn't in the parking lot. And after quickly checking the call sheet the blonde's heart fell a little because she saw that Lena wasn't in the first few scenes at all.
Then she felt stupid for being disappointed, because it was her own fault for not checking the call sheet for anything other than call time and location. If she'd bothered to look at the scenes for the day, she would have known Lena was coming later. She supposed she also could have texted Lena and asked her what her call time was.
But she felt weird doing that. They didn't text much to begin with, only a couple of messages here and there. Most of their communication was in person, in the privacy of Kara's home. Lena didn't strike her as much of a texting person, anyway. She didn't want to risk bothering Lena by being too needy or clingy. The last thing she wanted was for Lena to get sick of her for being overbearing.
Hours later once the lightning had subsided when they were up and rolling and Lena did finally arrive at set, Kara heart nearly started to beat out of her chest. She'd just finished up finalizing receipts and turned them into the AD trailer, and the moment she walked out into the light drizzle of rain that refused to dissipate, she saw Jess's SUV come to a stop in the gravel lot.
The blonde did her best to hide her enthusiasm, but she couldn't help the smile that made its way to her face when Lena climbed out of the car wearing red pajama pants, a loose black t-shirt, and zebra-striped rain boots. Jess instantly hopped out of the driver's seat, opening an umbrella and running around to Lena so they could both stand under it.
"Welcome back," Kara said as she approached them, crossing her arms over her chest. She was wearing a grey shirt and her usual cotton shorts, and her clothing was soaked completely through. She'd started the day in her rubber rain outfit, which kept the rain off, but made her hot. After an hour she was soaked with sweat instead of rain, so she took it off because if she was going to be wet either way, at least the rain cooled her off. "Enjoy your day off?" she asked, wiping some of the moisture away from her face.
"I did," Lena said with a nod as Jess began to lead her to the trailer.
"Do anything exciting?" Kara asked, following.
"I went for a run, if you can count that as exciting," Lena said, leaving out the part that it had been on a treadmill in the upscale gym in her building. "And I got some reading done."
"If you only read your lines then that doesn't count as reading," Jess said with a smirk, giving Lena a knowing wink.
Lena laughed. "No, I started reading a book by Jerry Spinelli."
"I love him!" Kara said, her eyes lighting up.
Lena bit her lip to hide a smile. She knew Kara loved him. She'd gathered that from the numerous books by the author she'd seen in the blonde's bookcase. "I liked Maniac Magee when I was younger, so I was excited to read something else by him."
"My favorite was always Star Girl," Kara said.
"Isn't that a superhero?" Jess chimed in.
"Yes, but that's not the same Star Girl I'm talking about," Kara said. "This one plays the ukulele, has a pet rat—"
"And falls in love with a boy named Leo," Lena finished for her, smiling. "Yes, I remember reading that one, too."
The pair stared at each other for a moment, each with a smile, until a clash of thunder brought them back to reality, and they saw Jess staring at them with interest and amusement. Kara instantly took a self-conscious step backwards, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.
"Well, it's nice to see you, Lena," Kara said lamely, her cheeks going red. "Set's not the same without you."
Lena felt herself warm at the compliment. "Thanks, Kara."
Kara excused herself after that, and Lena was careful not to watch her leave, but as the brunette got to the doorway of her trailer, she glanced over her shoulder. Her eyes instantly landed on the blonde crossing the parking lot, and she gave a wistful sigh. Then she looked down slightly and saw Jess staring at her with a somewhat knowing grin, and she turned back around and ducked through the door to her trailer.
In the mirror she could see her face was a brilliant shade of pink, and Jess caught her eye through the reflection in the glass. The actress instantly cast her eyes downward. Her assistant quietly shook out the umbrella before placing it by the door. Then the small woman went to sit on the couch, eyes still on Lena.
"Are you okay, Lena?" Jess asked quietly.
Lena almost smiled at the fact that Jess remembered to call her by her first name instead of Ms. Luthor. "I'm fine, Jess," she said, giving a small nod.
Jess frowned a little, a flash of disagreement crossing her features, but obviously thought better of it and swallowed it down. "You and Kara have a cute friendship," she commented instead, all the innocence in the world in her voice.
Lena instantly turned, eyes wide and trained on her assistant. "What makes you say that?"
"You two just have a good rapport," Jess said with a shrug. "You seem comfortable around each other."
"I mean, yeah, we're friends, I guess," the brunette said, pretending to examine her nails, as if the conversation was no big deal and didn't warrant her full attention. "But you and I are friends, too, Jess."
The smaller brunette woman narrowed her eyes at her boss for a second. "Good, I'm glad you think so. I consider you a friend, too. That's why I want you to know that if there's anything you want to talk about, anything that's bothering you, I'm willing to listen," Jess said, sincerity etched across her face.
Lena's breathing hitched, and she tried not to let on how shaken she was by the offer. "Thanks, Jess. But there's nothing to tell. I'm fine." She put on a wide, fake smile. "I'm rich, famous, and have a job most people only dream of. What could possibly be bothering me?"
Jess returned a small, kind smile. "If you say so," she said softly. "But if something were to start bothering you… Well, just know I'm here, okay?"
"Thanks, Jess," Lena said, her own fake smile not faltering. "But really. I'm fine."
Wear your fucking masks.