Boston, MA

'Will you please just call Danny; I don't know if I can stand watching you mope around all day.'

Sawyer swatted at her father gently, which made him laugh. He was mostly teasing, but there was more than a grain of truth in what he was saying. She was used to seeing Danny everyday, and taking a break from that was proving difficult.

Whatever pride had kept her from immediately accepting her father's suggestion went quickly, and soon she had left the room to find the phone (much to Jared's amusement). It was 7am LA time, the farm boy should be awake.

Her logic seemed accurate, as he answered after the first ring. 'Hm, eager to hear from me Mr. Kelly?'

'Sawyer?' he asked, a note of surprise in his voice, 'Didn't think I'd be hearing from you this early.'

'I figured I'd catch you before you left...you okay?'

'Yeah, yeah...little trouble with the studio, but I'll take care of it.'

Ah. That made sense. Clearly things were not running as smoothly as he had been letting on. 'Danny, you know you can tell me if anything's wrong.'

'You don't need to worry about it. You need to think of your Dad; nothing down here that I can't handle!' He was trying to put some of his trademark enthusiasm in, and was failing.

'I take it the studio is even less happy with me that we expected.'

'Listen, they may not be thrilled, but I swear to you that I'll handle it. You've gotta leave this one up to me if you want to focus on your Dad...Trust me?'

'You know I do.'

Los Angeles, CA

'Wait wait wait. So you're telling me you want to confront these clowns?'

'That's the plan!'

Danny and the gang sat gathered around a table at Pinky's Diner, and discussed Danny's plans for dealing with the backers. Cranston thought the word 'plan' was being used very generously.

Danny gave each of them an eager smile. 'Come on, they must know how much money Sawyer brings in for the studio. They aren't gonna get rid of her over one stupid delay. They know they've got us both scared, and I'm gonna show them I'm not afraid!'

Pudge beamed. 'So you really think they're gonna do it?'

'Why not? The amount of money they'd make off this picture'll outweigh any extra costs by at least ten to one! It's a no brainer.'

Woolie didn't seem to share Danny's confidence. 'And supposing they don't go for any of this? What do we do then?'

Danny went silent for a moment, draining his coffee to give himself a moment to think. 'I'll think about that when it happens.'

'I'm sorry, what?'

Before filming had even begun they had all been warned about Edward Muntz who, in the words of L.B. Mammoth, was 'the most miserable son-of-a-bitch I or anyone else is ever likely to meet'. In that moment that became all too clear to Danny.

'Well, sir...' he faltered briefly, and tried to regain any small piece of composure he started out with, 'I just think that it'll save you a lot of cash if you could just move production. I mean, if you scrap production altogether then you're just left with a whole lot of useless footage. You could just-'

Muntz put his hand up, silencing Danny. 'You think this is only about money? No, this is about teaching you good for nothing freeloaders a lesson. You animals think you can just take us for a ride? We're running a business here Mist-'

'You animals?' Danny sat forward, closing the distance between the two. 'And what exactly does species have to do with my girlfriend's father nearly dying?'

'Don't give me any of that crap. Typical of an animal, using a lame excuse to get out of doing a honest days work.'

In that moment Danny suddenly became aware of how everyone in the room seemed to have faded into the background. He pulled himself out of his chair, and began to gather his things.

'What do you think you're doing?! Sit down, boy!'

'With all due respect, you have no right to speak to me that way.'

'Like hell I don't! If you-'

'Mr. Muntz, you are willing to jeopardize both this movie and all of these people's money just to prove a point. I don't think we have anything left to talk about.'

Danny was prepared to leave, when he turned to look at the other people present. He paused for a moment to consider what he wanted to say, before addressing them.

'Listen, her career won't end because of this. You can get L.B. to let her go, but do you really believe that she won't be picked up again in a heartbeat?' Danny stepped forward, looking at each member imploringly.

'If she goes, me and every other animal actor in this place are gonna follow sooner or later. Don't let some racist old fool stop this film from happening. You're either gonna end up with a wonderful film or some useless footage.'

Danny stepped out of the room, before turning around one last time to look L.B. in the eyes.

'Think about it.'

Boston, MA

Sawyer sighed in frustration as she hauled a criminally large number of shopping bags along with her. Jared still had to get as much rest as he possibly could, which meant that he had been left behind to sleep while she went out to do whatever errands needed to be done. Far from her favourite way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

In truth, more of her frustration was coming from the fact that she hadn't been able to contact Danny for a couple of days. She had tried his apartment more times that she could keep track of, with no luck. All of their friends had played their cards pretty close to their chests, leaving Sawyer feeling endlessly frustrated.

Sawyer rooted for the keys in her pocket, frustration mounting. It wasn't like it was hard to just call someone and let them know what was going on. As if she didn't have enough to cope with, her boyfriend could at least-'

She paused as she reached her Father's gate. There sitting on his doorstep was the most beautiful, wonderful, frustrating man she had ever known. Her Danny.

He shot up when he saw her, removing his hat to play with it nervously. 'I looked in the window and saw that your Dad was asleep, I didn't want to-'

He never got a chance to finish that sentence, as Sawyer took off, and threw her arms around him while placing a hard kiss to his lips. Danny didn't complain, and returned the greeting with as much enthusiasm as he could muster.

Sawyer pressed a number of short, soft kisses to his lips before they broke apart in earnest. Danny smiled down at her, and felt his arm being grabbed. Sawyer led him in her front door by the arm, shooting him a soft smile which said that he brought this on himself.

'Dad, you awake? There's someone special I want you to meet...'