Greetings from the land of unmemorized monologues and possibly sprained ankles. The show went well I suppose up until yesterday when I took some nasty falls down the stairs on my ankle. So I'm about to go to the hospital and we shall see how this pans out I guess...
"May?" Her head pulls from the script to look at the young security guard standing a mere few feet away from her. Her blonde hair is swept back into a tight ponytail, her body tense and alert. "You have a visitor."
She nods quickly dismissing the guard with a short wave. "Thank you Bobbi." She pulls herself from the chair making her way towards the entrance. She finds the man standing in front of, talking to Phil. Automatically her spine straightens as his eyes meet hers.
"Melinda…" Her name slips easily from Andrew's lips causing her heart to shatter all over again at the softness of his tone. Her muscles tense, her guard up all over again.
"Why is he here?" Her tone is clipped, her eyes peering at the two men in front of her.
"I invited him." Phil states with a smile.
"You what?"
"We need him. There's tension all over with the new actors and I figured who would be a better person to help with-"
"And you didn't even think of asking me?" She cuts him off a frown now etched into her features.
"Melinda could we continue this conversation in private?" Despite her best judgement she nods with a tense jaw. He guides her away with a gentle hand pressing into her lower back. Her jaw is set as he pulls her into his trailer.
"Melinda look-"
"You know what? I don't care. He was back long before I was. Let's just focus on the next scene. Stark is still fuming after our little publicity stunt and being late. I wouldn't be surprised if he decides to keep us late today. I think it's best if we straighten things out and." She stops as she notices a goofy smile is spreading across his face. "What?"
"It's like you never left."
She resists the smile tugging at her lips. "But I did."
"And if what kept you from coming back was Andrew…"
"It wasn't. We're all professionals here."
"Melinda there are hundreds of therapists in Los Angeles dying to get a hold of good money. I can replace him. You? Not so much." A smile tugs at her lips and she has to dig her ankles into the carpet to make sure she doesn't gravitate towards him. It wasn't real. She has to remind herself of that whenever he smiles at her like that. It was a publicity stunt. No more. Silence falls on the two of them and it's becoming difficult to resist his smile. Her eyes scan his body as a small smile tugs at her own lips.
"Hey, no tie?"
"Still practicing." He states holding up his synthetic hand. A shiver crawls up her spine remembering the accident that had lead to the loss of his hand. A scene had gone horribly wrong. His car had become stuck after what was supposed to be a calming drive. Nature had other ideas, however, when a deer jumped in front of the road. He had steered harshly causing his car to veer off road. It had collided head first with a rock crushing his hand in the process. Lucky for Phil he had Mack and Fitz in the car because his hand had become trapped. With the engine on fire the older of the two actors had acted quickly taking an axe from the trunk and chopping his arm shortly before the elbow. How the axe had ended up there was beyond her comprehension but she was too thankful that he was alive to question it. Guilt creeps into her gut at the thought that she had left him not shortly after.
A knock pulls her away as if cold water had been dumped on her head. She jumps turning away from him. A blush creeps at her skin as she realizes how close she had come to him.
"Andrew would like to have a word with you." Bobbi states with a frown. She nods making her way back to where her ex-husband had stood.
"Melinda…" He breathes with a smile.
"Why are you here?"
"I'm sorry I should have let you know." He states sadly taking a step towards her.
"Yes you should have."
"I've been thinking a lot about what you said back in Hawaii. And since the release of you and Phil kissing it's been hurting me so much that I just left you like that."
Sun was kissing her skin as she surfaces from the water. It was so quiet, just the two of them swimming beneath the stars. Even in the darkness Andrew's smile seems luminescent. For the first time in the longest time her heart seemed to leap in her chest. She knew that feeling. It only seemed to grow as her gathered her in his arms.
"Andrew… I still love you." She whispers. He lets out a laugh capturing her lips with his.
At the time it didn't even dawn on her that he hadn't said it back. At least not until the next morning when she found a small note with the words "I'm sorry" scribbled in the place where he should have been.
"Melinda I hope I'm not too late. I still love you." He gathers her into his arms except the same feeling doesn't return to her. Back in Hawaii she felt safe, she felt loved. Now all she feels is emptiness.
"Leave." Her voice is cold and detached. She wants nothing more than to melt into his arms, then again the other half of her wants to beat him into the ground. She settles for the middle pushing herself out of his arms.
He doesn't put up a fight. He doesn't even say goodbye. Neither does she.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The whiskey burns it's way down her chest as she tips the bottle back. Nearly a quarter of it is already gone but she's not even buzzed yet. Silently she curses her heavy drinking. It would take at least half the bottle to erase the conversation from her mind. She wasn't even sure if she had enough time to get that far into the bottle. Her knuckles are red from beating on the punching bag in the corner of her trailer. Phil had gotten it for her as a joke for her birthday two years ago. He even taped a picture of Stark's face on the thing. Funny thing is besides the bottles she's so cleverly hidden, it's the one thing that makes things easier. She wanted to beat the thing until her knuckles bled but she opted to stop when her fingers began to tingle.
She nearly groans at the sound of the knock on her door. It had been nearly six hours since she's trapped herself in here. She was surprised someone hadn't found her sooner. Her phone had been buzzing for over an hour. Most likely twitter. She hardly had the patience for the website anymore. She pulls herself to her feet and yanks open the door.
A disheveled looking Phil stands at her door. His shirt untucked, his eyes rimmed with red. She need no words before she was rushing to check her phone. Nearly twenty missed calls, two from Andrew, six from Daisy, twelve from Phil. Her twitter had indeed been blown up with messages. Her eyes scan the messages finding only small bits of information followed with a highlighted blue hastag "#PrayForAndrew".
"There was a crash after he left. They identified it as Andrew…"
"Rumor has it MelindaMay drove him away…" Her heart pangs as she reads over Ward's latest tweet. How he knew that she didn't know but it didn't lessen the pain any. Her breathing quickens as she desperately chokes back the tears.
"Mel…" She barely registers the call of her name before she collapses, a pitiful sob ripping from her throat.
