Behind the Scenes – Chapter 2
Enjoy and don't forget to drop a review and let me know what you think! I do NOT own Once Upon a Time, its characters, the script used in this story, and this is all for fun!
Jen and Colin walked until the found themselves alone, or mostly alone, in the trailer lot off set. Neither had said a word that entire walk, not because they didn't know what to say, but because they were lost in their own thoughts, reliving what had just happened in those "caves".
Suddenly, Colin came to a stop, almost jerking Jen backwards as she wasn't paying attention, lost in her own world.
"Jen…" he began, then took a deep breath, "It's over…" Colin's head dropped to the ground, his eyes staring at her shoes.
"What?" Jen looked at him, concern washing over her face, "What is?"
"My marriage….hell, my life…." Colin glanced at her and back to the ground.
"Why, Col, what happened?" Jen turned to face fully towards him, never letting go of his hand.
"She slept with another guy, some guy she met through a fundraising event she was doing…" Colin could feel the tears well up in his eyes, but what he hadn't realized is how quickly they were spilling over and down his face.
Jen released his hand, only after she pulled him to her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him closely. One hand came to rest on the back of his head, stroking his hair as she had done so many times before as Emma Swan.
His voice whispered into her ear, "I don't even know what to do…" She could feel his body shake. She knew he was trying to hold back the sadness that wanted to pour out of him. She leaned back and grabbed his face with one hand.
"I'm so, so sorry, Col. What can I do?"
But before he could answer, they heard their director's voice cut through the silence that enveloped them, "Jen, Colin, we need you back on set, we just want you to look over something for us!"
Colin took his hand and wiped his eyes, letting out one last huff of air before managing to pull himself together.
Jen grabbed his hand and asked him once more, "What can I do, Col?"
He squeezed her hand, "Stay with me tonight. I just need the company…" He looked at her, eyes reddened by the sadness overflowing, with a glint of hope that she would say yes. Who was he kidding, of course she would, she's always been there for him.
"Of course," she responded. "Let's go finish this and we'll meet back at your trailer, ok?"
The two embraced in a much-needed hug once more and then, hand in hand again, walked back to set to see what the director and crew had been wanting from them.
Jen checked her watch. 5:37a.m. Colin had been released around 20 minutes ago. They needed Jen to stay behind, to discuss her thoughts on the scene and to clue her in to the next scenes they would be filming.
"…I think that about wraps it up. Thank you everyone for your countless hours of work around here, thank you Jen for hanging out later than necessary, and everyone go get some rest." The director wrapped up his speech of information.
Jen had to prevent herself from running off set to find Colin. She went straight to his trailer and knocked lightly on the door. She heard a muffled, 'Come in', from the other side and pulled on the latch. Opening the door, she found Colin spread out on the couch. He had changed into navy and white plaid lounge pants and a navy V neck shirt, showing off just enough chest hair to make Jen's heart flutter once more. It wasn't just the hook she appreciated with his costume.
"There you are" came a slur of words from a seemingly drunk Colin.
"Oh, Colin…" Jen's voice broke a bit, but she tried to regain her composure as Colin stood to hug her, only he stumbled some and Jen grabbed him by his arms, steadying him.
Colin laughed and pulled her in to a hug. Jen could smell the alcohol on his breath. She hugged him tighter, sensing just how much pain he was in.
"Fancy a drink?" he asked her, pulling from her embrace to grab the bottle of liquor off the counter nearby.
Jen contemplated the idea of drowning her sorrows right along side her best friend, but unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for now, she shook her head, "No, that's ok. Why don't we sit back down and talk."
"Who needs to talk when this right here…" he held the bottle up, "solves all the problems?"
Jen took the bottle and moved them both to the couch. She grabbed both of his hands in hers and looked at him. She took him in for all he was, all his vulnerability open to her. She couldn't help but frown, saddened by the fact that his wife, of all people, would betray him, in such a way that he felt the only way to feel better was to drink away his sorrows. This wasn't like him and Jen hated seeing him this way.
Colin laid himself back on the couch and pulled Jen to his chest, stroking her hair the way he's done so many times before as her charactered love interest, only this time, it felt more real. This time, it wasn't scripted.
Jen laid against his chest, listening to the pounding of his heart, pace quickened by the alcohol coursing through his veins at that moment. She felt his deeper breaths as her head rose and relaxed with each one. She was comfortable here with him. But she also felt guilty. He was hurting and she was focusing on herself, about how this moment made her feel. She shook away the thoughts and turned her head up to him, "About earlier…" her voice trailed off, waiting for him to respond.
Colin shook his head, looking at her, "No…not now…I can't…" she saw the tears start to swell in his eyes again. She wiped one stray tear away as it fell from his cheek and laid her head back down. Colin wrapped his arm around her and within moments, they both gave way to sleep.
A sudden loud knock on Colin's trailer awoke the pair later that day. Jen's eyes opened first, and it took her a second to remember where she was. Another loud knock.
She turned her head, everything from the previous hours rushing back to the forefront of her memory. She sat up slowly, grabbing Colin's hand and trying to move it off of her. His grip tightened around her hand, "What's going on?" he said sleepily, his breath still emitting a strong odor of alcohol.
Jen used her other hand to lightly pat his chest, "It's time to get up, we've got work to do."
"What do you mean?" Colin half opened one eye and looked at her, "They killed me off, left me for dead, I'm stuck going nowhere" he joked half-heartedly.
"Very funny!" she punched his shoulder, "Up and at 'em, get in the shower," she pointed in the direction of his trailer bathroom.
Another knock on the door. This time, a voice called out, "Colin!" Colin's heart skipped a beat. It couldn't be, really?
Helen's voice rang out again from the other side of the door, "Colin, I know you're in there. Please, let's talk!"
Jen looked at Colin, at the door, then back to him. She instinctively wanted to run, to avoid any and all drama that was about to unfold, but she had nowhere to go. She stood and pulled Colin by the hand to a standing position. "Go get in the shower, I'll talk to her."
Colin grabbed Jen's arm, "Are you sure? I don't know what she's going to do. That bloody woman is acting mad right now."
"I've got this!" she reassured him and pushed him in the direction of the bathroom. He disappeared behind the door, leaving it slightly cracked, and got into the shower, letting the hot water wash over him, sobering him up.
Meanwhile, Jen straightened out her clothes, tucker her hair behind her ears, and moved slowly over to the door. She unlocked the lock and pulled the latch, opening the door slightly. She wasn't prepared for Helen to grab hold and yank it open, sending her body forward towards her. She was able to catch her balance before she knocked into Helen and saved them from both tumbling back down the stairs.
"Jennifer?" Helen's voice sounded less angry and more confused, "What are you doing in there? Where's Colin?"
"We finished filming early this morning and I was too tired to make it back to my trailer. Colin let me crash on the couch here…" Not a whole lie, she thought to herself, not exactly the truth either. She'd probably hurt me if she knew that.
"Ok, so where is he?" she asked again.
"He just got in the shower. We have more filming to do soon."
"I need to talk to him," her voice quieted some.
"I don't think that's such a good idea…" Jen looked away from her, starting to feel awkward.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know you had a say in what I do with MY husband," Helen's voice suddenly seethed with anger.
Jen threw her hands up in surrender, "I'm not trying to tell anyone what to do, I just think if you give him some time, he'll be more willing to talk to you."
Helen gritted her teeth, trying to maintain her poise as she didn't want to make the situation worse for herself, or Colin. "Fine," she clamored, "can you tell him I stopped by and would really like to talk to him?"
Jen shook her head in response and closed the door as Helen stepped down the stairs and started away from the trailer.
She spun around to see Colin standing in the bathroom doorway, only covered with a towel. "Thanks, love" he looked at her, "I can't handle her right now."
Jen's eyes darted from his, to the towel, to the floor, and back. "Oh…yeah…uh, no problem. Listen, I should probably get back to my trailer and get showered. Gotta be in make-up by…" she checked her watch, "…crap, I was supposed to be there twenty minutes ago!"
"Just shower here," Colin gestured towards the shower behind him, "I've got a t-shirt and pajama pants you can borrow before you have to change into your Emma Swan outfit anyways."
Jen thought for a moment, about how she'd be naked in her best friend's trailer with him only a few feet away. She almost said no, but after checking her watch one more time, she decided it had to be done. "Thanks," she said moving towards him, brushing past him to get into the bathroom. She closed the door behind her, leaving it cracked just as he had. To let the moisture out! She tried to convince herself.
She slowly stripped out of her Emma Swan outfit from the earlier hours of that day. She hadn't been back to the costume trailer to change before going to find Colin. She laid the clothes neatly on the sink counter so she could return them in great condition later. Lastly, she removed her bra and panties, a nice black set she had purchased for herself as a confidence booster. She laid them on top of the clothes and got into the shower. It was still damp from Colin showering and the air was filled with the smell of his body wash and shampoo. Mmm, she thought to herself, This is something I could definitely get used to. Before she got too lost in her thoughts, she started the water and began washing her hair. The water ran down over her ears, preventing her from hearing Colin knock gently on the door, signaling that he was bringing in the clothes for her to change into. He himself had thrown on some boxer briefs and pajamas pants, still shirtless.
He looked at the shower curtain, notating his beautiful best friend's silhouette behind it. He couldn't see anything specifically, at least nothing more than the shadows as she had her arms raised to rinse the soap from her hair. He stood there, in awe of how radiant she was, not fully taking in her beauty before this moment. It was like as soon as he had decided that it was time to call it quits with his soon to be ex-wife, a whole new world opened up right in front of him. He turned, looked back at her one more time, and then closed the bathroom door to a crack and went back to the couch, waiting for her to be done.
Jen rinsed the soap from her hair and grabbed Colin's body wash from the small shelf in the corner of the shower. She tipped it over and poured some into her hand, a blue goo forming a half dollar size amount. She swiped some with her finger tips and moved it to her arm. She repeated the same motion with her other hand and arm. She moved on to soaping the rest of her body, all the way down to her feet. After rinsing off completely, she smelled her skin. Mmm, she thought again, the familiar aroma encasing every last bit of her nose. She switched the water off, rung out as much water from her hair as she could, and stepped out of the shower. She saw that Colin had hung his damp towel back up and placed the clothes on the other side of the sink counter for her. She internally blushed at the thought of him being in the same place as her while she was fully unclothed, but quickly brushed it away and grabbed the towel, wrapping her hair in it. She grabbed the other towel from the towel rack and dried off her body. She changed quickly and let her hair tumble down from the towel.
Exiting the bathroom, she saw a shirtless Colin sitting on the couch watching what he knew to be as football, what Jen knew to be as soccer.
"Ohhhh!" he threw his hands up as one of the players scored a goal. He hadn't heard Jen exit the bathroom, or at least she thought he hadn't.
"Ready to go?" he said without even turning around.
"Yeah," she smiled back at him as he turned around and offered her a smile.
"Let me grab a shirt and we can go."
All too soon, they had left his trailer and made their way towards costume and make-up to get ready for the next set of scenes they were filming. They didn't have any more scenes together for this episode, which made them both a little down, but they both brushed that feeling aside and went their separate ways to get the ball rolling.