After spending her Saturday off hiding out in her apartment – or, as she would say, simply getting everything ready for the trip – because she was a little nervous about spending almost an entire day on a plane with Hunt, Danielle was surprised to learn that he had already flown out to the location the day before. She wasn't quite sure how she felt about that. Of course, the flight could have been uncomfortable, but they would have had quite a bit of time together, and she did want that, too. Now her – very long – flight would only be one thing: mind-numbingly boring.

Thomas hadn't planned on running away. And he tried to convince himself that wasn't what he was doing, in any case. He should be checking out the filming locations before any of the cast and crew arrived, anyway, he rationalised. So he absolutely didn't have to feel like he was running away from a potentially unpleasant conversation – or worse, an even more unpleasant lack thereof – with Danielle when he caught a flight Saturday afternoon. She'd probably be grateful for it, judging by the way she had behaved the day before.

Still, he did feel the tiniest twinge of guilt, which he attempted to drown out by putting on a few of his favourite Cam North films during the flight. It didn't quite work, but at least his mind was somewhat occupied, and they helped make the rather long journey feel the tiniest bit shorter.

When Sunday finally did come around, it turned out the flight wouldn't be quite as boring for Danielle as she thought it would be – though she wasn't quite sure if that was a good thing. Chris, who was originally supposed to be flown out a few days later due to some sort of scheduling conflict, was going to be on the plane, after all. When the car came to pick her up, he was already sitting in the backseat, smiling widely at her.

"Surprise!" he said cheerily, but Danielle did not match his energy when she greeted him.

She loved Chris to death – as a friend – but she knew he would be pestering her about Hunt for the entire flight. He had definitely noticed that something strange had happened the day she went home early, and he was far too curious of a person to simply let it go.

"My other project fell through, and with Hunt already in Scotland, there was a plane ticket that would have gone to waste had I waited until Tuesday to come," Chris explained once Danielle had entered the car.

It was as she had feared – he was taking Hunt's spot, which meant he would be sitting next to her for basically the rest of the day. She tried to stay positive, though. "Nice. I thought I'd be bored out of my mind, but now that I have you…"

"Oh, you definitely won't be," Chris said with a mischievous gleam in his eye.

He didn't get right into it, though. For the remainder of the car ride, he mostly spoke about some new projects he was hoping to work on after this film, and asked about Danielle's plans for when the film was done. She had little to say about that as she didn't know how everything with Montmartre would play out and hadn't accepted any invitations to castings and such yet. If something were to go wrong, she didn't want the added embarrassment of being dropped by someone else.

It didn't take long until they were at the airport, at least by L.A.'s standard. Checking in was a bit stressful, as per usual, but with the VIP treatment they got – courtesy of Viktor Montmartre – they were on the plane in no time.

Chris's onslaught of questions began right as the plane lifted off the ground – as if he had timed it to be so. He was a bit dramatic, sometimes, and today seemed to be no exception.

"Okay, now I need to know – what the fuck happened with Hunt on Thursday?" was the first one.

Danielle sighed. "Honestly, it was just all too much with Montmartre on set. Threw us both off our game so we decided it was best I just go home."

"Mhm, makes sense," he replied, clearly not believing a word she said. "Because that totally explains why he told us all to go home a little while later."

That took her by surprise. Hunt had sent everyone else home that day, too? Well, now it made sense how he was so drunk by the time she had got to his place. Still, it surprised her to hear. She knew how he had felt when he saw her leave with Viktor, and he'd done the most despicable thing in trying to ruin her life, but she had never known him to let his personal feelings interfere with work. Then again, he thought she was trying to ruin his life, too.

Of course, she didn't voice any of her thoughts to Chris. Instead, she simply shrugged and said, "I guess he felt he was too distracted by Montmartre, too."

He didn't believe that, either, but didn't say as much. "I guess. But something was weird with you on Friday, too. So there must have been something else going on. Come on, you can tell me."

"It's really nothing," Danielle replied, but Chris gave her his signature puppy dog look. She rolled her eyes. He was a friend and had always kept her secrets. A little bit of truth wouldn't hurt. Especially since she could probably use some advice. "Fine. We had a talk and it was… good. At first."

He leaned forward now, listening intently. "But…?"

"But then we talked about our… well, our relationship." She swallowed. How much was she comfortable sharing with him? "And we decided to try being friends."

Chris tilted his head to one side in confusion. Then realisation flashed across his face and he covered his mouth with one hand. "Oh my God, you do have a crush on him!"

"Shh!" Danielle shushed him and looked around. Nobody seemed to care much for their conversation, though.

"Sorry," he said, quieter. "It's true, though, isn't it?"

He had teased her about this multiple times, but it had always been more of a joke. Or so Danielle had thought, she wasn't sure. Because Chris seemed suspiciously excited about this news.

"No," she said, though hesitantly. Then she sighed. "I'm honestly just… confused. We had a moment… or two… and now I just don't know how I feel." She shrugged. "It doesn't matter, anyway. He wants to be friends, so friends we shall we be."

Chris raised an eyebrow. "Well, if that's what he says… I'm sure that's exactly what he means."

Danielle wasn't sure there wasn't a hint of sarcasm in that statement, but she didn't want to think about it much more. "Well, I'm going to take a nap now. Didn't get much sleep last night."

To her surprise, Chris didn't push the conversation further but let it end. Apparently, he got just what he wanted out of it. And Danielle had said much more than she had planned.