Something Better

by Gail R Delaney

  "What happened?"

  Benton huffed and shook his head. "We had him strapped in the chair, and had already done several shots and angle retakes. Ellen was mid-scene, crossing the stage to her mark and she tripped on a cable. She fell forward and her elbow went right into David's face. He couldn't do a damn thing to stop it."

  Andi felt sick, the image playing out in her mind with vivid clarity. She pressed her hands against her stomach, the hunger of minutes before now replaced with a tight knot. "Did she break his nose?"

  Benton shook his head. "No. It just bled. A lot. And hurt like hell. Damn it, Andi, it's a good thing you weren't here. He was yelling and bleeding, and we couldn't get the damn straps off him." He set his hands at his waist and looked down, huffing a sharp breath.

  She laid a hand on Benton's arm, rubbing it in a meager attempt at making him feel better for something he obviously had no control over, but felt badly about all the same. Even offering Benton her support, her attention was on David lying still on the cot. It took Benton's voice a few seconds to break through her focus, and she blinked turning to him.

  "--managed to get him to sleep. He was..." Benton chuckled. "I don't even know how to explain what he was."

  "What?" she asked, trying again to catch up on the conversation.

  "The medics said it wasn't broken, so they didn't want to give him more than Tylenol, but I guess one of the guys thought they'd 'help him out' and gave him a Demerol they 'had from before', so they said. He just swallowed what was handed to him, probably didn't even realize it wasn't a medic giving it to him. They confessed to it when he started acting... off." Benton grinned. "He was a very happy guy, and he just kept asking for one thing."

  "What?"

  "You."

  Andi stared at Benton, wide-eyed. She blinked several times and her cheeks flashed with heat, the capacity to deny or even act surprised completely lost to her. He didn't push, just kept smiling as he looked into the room.

  "Anyway, it took awhile but he fell asleep a bit ago. They said he might sleep for awhile, and when he wakes up he can go home."

  "Why didn't you take him to the hospital?"

  "He didn't want to go. When he was calm enough to understand what the medics said -- that it wasn't broken -- he said no. Said he didn't want to dump blood in the shark tank, or something like that. He was getting... weird... by that point."

  "He didn't want the paparazzi to find out," Andi offered.

  Benton huffed, the seriousness returning to his face. "We're going to have to revamp the filming schedule. He may not have broken it, but he's going to look like hell for a week or so. Probably too much to cover with make-up even for the torture stuff."

  "What does this mean for the wrap up?"

  "I don't think we'll be that far off the mark for the final cut. We're just shuffling around, and he gets a vacation."

  Andi nodded, taking a step back into the room. Since the creation of this movie was a dream-come-true, and every author she'd ever known would have given their eye teeth for the chance to see their novels on the big screen, she knew she probably should feel some sort of panic or concern for the final outcome. But, right then, she really didn't care. It would happen, Benton would see to it.

  David was more important.

  "Hey, you mind if I go get a coffee or something?" Benton asked behind her. "You okay here with him?"

  "Go ahead," she said absently.

  "You want anything?"

  "Um, yeah." She glanced back at him briefly. "Whatever is left. Muffin. Sandwich. I haven't eaten yet."

  He nodded and left down the hall, his heavier boots echoing in the small space. As soon as he passed the young man at the desk, Andi slipped into the room and closed the door behind her. She moved to the head of the bed and sat in another one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs provided in the room so she was level with David's head. From beneath the edge of the ice pack, she saw the traces of dried blood on his cheeks and mottled swelling below his eye.

  "Oh, you poor thing," she said softly and gingerly touched the hair that brushed his forehead. It was stiff and disheveled and she frowned. How was she supposed to tell what was from make-up and what was real?

  His body jerked slightly and he moaned, and she winced because she knew she'd wakened him. He turned his head toward her and groaned again, this time louder and clearly in discomfort. David raised his hand to catch the ice pack as it slid off his face, and Andi reached at the same time. His fingers covered hers and with her hand held by his, he lowered the ice pack and blinked slowly.

  Dark shadow had already formed beneath his eyes and his face was swollen from the outer edge of each eye across the bridge of his nose. Flaking blood still sprinkled his upper lip and cheek, and his eyelids looked heavy as he focused on her.

  "Hey..." He drew the word out, sounding like his own tongue didn't want to cooperate and he had a stuffy nose. His eyelids blinked slowly. "Hey, sweetheart."

  Andi smiled and touched his hair, a warm glow spreading through her chest at his half-sleeping endearment. He probably wouldn't even remember later. "Hey, yourself." He tried to roll toward her but she pushed her palm to his chest. "No. Just lay there."

  "I missed you," he said with all seriousness, frowning.

  "You just saw me yesterday."

  His hand curled over hers, the ice pack forgotten as it fell to the floor, and he settled back onto the pillow facing her. "Do you like being called Andi?" he asked, his words slightly slurred. "Because Andrea is a f-f-f-erry pretty name."

  "Let's not worry about my name right now, David. Okay? You need to rest for a little bit."

  "I broke my face," he said with a chuckle and a grin, pointing at his face.

  She grinned wider, doing her best to suppress the chuckle that threatened to escape her chest. Andi pressed her lips together and swallowed before attempting to talk. "You didn't break it, but I think it's going to hurt for awhile."

  "You're beautiful."

  She couldn't keep up with his jumps, and wondered if his brain were on high speed while his mouth was in slow motion. "Thank you."

  "No, I mean it," he said adamantly, nodding his head. She knew it had to hurt, but perhaps he had enough painkiller in him that he didn't care. "You're beautiful, Andi. Reallyreally beautiful."

  He tried to sit up, but she pushed on his chest again. "I know you mean it. Thank you."

  He smiled wide and dropped back onto the pillow again. "Okay."

  The door opened and Benton stepped back inside, a coffee in each hand with a sandwich balanced on the top of one and a muffin balanced on the other.

  "Benton!" David shouted enthusiastically, curling up off the bed. "Aaaaaouwww," he groaned and fell back again, squeezing his eyes shut. "Andi's here, Benton."

  Benton arched his eyebrows, handing the coffee and muffin to Andi. "Awake, I see."

  "My fault," she admitted softly, taking a sip of the coffee.

  "Isn't she beautiful, Benton?" David snagged her hand as she set the muffin aside, bringing it to his lips. He kissed the back of her hand and set it on his chest, closing his eyes with a smile. "And sexy. Ten kinds of sexy..."

  His voice trailed off, and Andi hoped he might slip back into sleep before anything else came out of his unhindered lips. She glanced at Benton, who just watched her with curious eyes. Andi smiled small and shrugged. "Loopy. I think that's a good word for it."

  Benton hummed an unconvinced "Um hum," and took up his original seat.

  "Andi..." David's voice was almost gone now, lost to sleep.

  She leaned closer and touched his cheek with the back of her fingers, then caught Benton watching her and rested her hand on David's shoulder instead. "Get some more sleep, David."

  "I like kissing you."

  He drew in a long, deep breath and slipped back into sleep. Andi didn't look at Benton, just eased back into her chair and finished unwrapping the muffin. After a few minutes, Benton cleared his throat and set his coffee cup down on the floor
by his feet.

  "Interesting..."

  "Not a word," she said sharply, not looking up.

  *****

  David had woken with enough hangover headaches to know that this was not a hangover headache.

  His face hurt. Not just hurt. It throbbed in rhythm with his heartbeat. His eyes felt like hard marbles that had been dropped into his eye sockets, and his head was a bowling ball. Everything felt heavy, yet disconnected.

  He tried to blink his eyes open, and realized something cold and heavy sat on his face. With a painful flash of memory that shot a spike through the back of his eyes, he remembered.

  He'd been strapped to that damn chair, and they'd run the same scene what felt like a dozen times to change angles and line delivery. He was ready to eat, and fought the urge to give Andi a call. He knew he would see her the next night, and had her number to confirm her address and when he'd pick her up, but he wanted to talk to her. And they had to do the scene 'one more time'.

  Ellen Rothschild -- playing the part of the psychotic alien enemy who took a sadistic pleasure in torturing 'Jason' -- crossed the set toward him, delivering her lines with a perfect mix of sexy-sick and evil. Then she'd stumbled, and he'd instinctively tried to raise his arms and catch hers, but the damn wrist straps held him in place.

  Then the pain. Black and red blinding pain.

  From there, things were fuzzy and the details he did remember, he hoped he would eventually forget, especially the pain and the drowning effect of being trapped in the damn chair.

  "No, our plans haven't changed, honey."

  The soft voice he recognized immediately as Andi's pushed through the throbbing pain, and David pulled the ice pack from his eyes. As he looked around the small room where he was lying, he remembered more details. Of the medic giving him something for the pain, and then someone else handing him more, and of drifting into sleep... and waking with Andi sitting beside him.

  "A friend of mine got hurt today and I'm staying here until I know he's okay."

  David blinked and tried to focus on her form standing just through the door into the hallway. The room was dark, with a small light over a sink in the corner the only source of light. It illuminated her silhouette, accentuating every curve as she stood sideways. She wore another one of her simple sundresses that tapered around her curves and hung beautifully over her hips, always ending just shy of her knees. This one was a dark color, from he couldn't be sure exactly, with a small white design and the straps met behind her head leaving her shoulders and upper back exposed. But focusing on her too long made his head pound worse. He groaned and let his head fall back on the pillow.

  Beneath the shade of his hand over his eyes, he saw her look at him, her features pulled tight with concern. When their gazes met, she smiled and raised her hand in a small wave. Something pleasant stirred in his gut, temporarily negating the pounding behind his eyes.

  "Do you remember when Kevin accidently hit you in the face with the basketball?" She paused, nodding. "Well, it was something like that." She smiled. "I'll be home in time to pick you up. We won't be late. I promise."

  Andi came back into the room, closing the door until only a sliver of light shined through the space, giving her enough light to cross to the bed. Andi laid her free hand on his shoulder and smiled down at him, still talking into the phone.

  "Okay, honey. I love you." She smiled. "Okay, I'll tell him."

  She folded the phone closed and set it down on something he couldn't quite see, and didn't want to move enough to try. Gentle fingers brushed over his forehead, and a fuzzy memory of that same touch filtered through the drug haze. Whatever it was they gave him had messed with his head. He wanted to find out to make sure no one ever gave it to him again.

  "Hey." Her voice was softer than when she'd been on the phone. She smiled softly. "I wondered when you were going to really wake up."

  David stared up at her, blinking slowly. Fragments fell together a little more, and he remembered asking for her. That was some time after the painkillers kicked in. Then he remembered seeing her, and the bloom of color in her cheeks when he told her she was beautiful.

  "If I'd known how much my head would hurt, I wouldn't have."

  She took the ice pack from where he'd set it on his chest, tossing it into a nearby chair. "They say you can take some ibuprofen, but probably not any more of the Demerol. Your nose isn't broken, but you're going to be sore for a couple days."

  He watched her lips while she talked, but something still wasn't firing right because it was like watching an old movie where the soundtrack was off just half a second. Sound and action didn't line up right.

  "Jake said, and I quote 'Oh, man! Sucks to be him!'" She pulled a face and lowered her voice, imitating a kid. It took David's brain a second to register and remember that Jake was her son. "Oh, and he hopes you feel better soon, because his face hurt for three days when he got hit in the nose."

  "Great."

  She smiled again, her fingertips smoothing along his forehead and temple. He felt himself slipping into sleep again and forced his eyes open. "What time is it?"

  "Um..." She looked around the room, and not seeing a clock, picked up her cell phone again. "Almost three."

  David groaned and rolled forward slowly until he could sit with his legs on either side of the narrow cot. "We lost nearly the whole day."

  Her hand skimmed along the back of his shoulders, just touching the back of his neck. He knew it was meant as a touch of comfort, but it still made his nerves tingle. "Don't worry about that. Benton is rearranging the shooting schedule for the next few days until you can come back."

  "Is it that bad?"

  She arched a single eyebrow and did a terrible job at disguising her the truth in her expression. David laughed and tried to smile, but the throbbing that took up most of his face killed his chuckle, turning it into another groan.

  "Oh, don't laugh," Andi said with a slight laugh in her own voice. "Come on. I'll take you home."

  He started to argue that he could get himself home, but as soon as he tried to stand, he knew better. The room tilted just enough to have him reaching for the wall, and silently accepting Andi's support when she moved to his side. He wrapped his arm across her shoulders, closing his eyes against the tilting floor. Okay, so he probably couldn't get himself home.

  She helped him to her SUV, but they couldn't avoid being stopped along the way by several crewmembers wanting to wish him well. The sun hurt his head, and he wished for his sunglasses. Just as they reached her vehicle, Benton's voice carried across the lot, calling their names.

  Andi gave Benton a cursory look over her shoulder, but didn't pause as she opened the passenger door. Her hands touched his side and his back as she helped him inside. David didn't know what was worse, the way the pounding shifted when he moved different ways or the lethargic, lead-weights-on-his-limbs feeling he couldn't seem to shake.

  Benton jogged up to them, stopping when he reached the open car door. David rested his head on the back of the seat, closing his eyes. When Andi's hand touched his thigh, he wrapped his fingers around hers and held her there.

  "I was just heading back over to see if you were awake," Benton said, slightly out of breath from the short run.

  "Kinda wish I weren't," David mumbled.

  "Ellen wanted me to tell you she's sorry. She's pretty damn embarrassed by the whole thing. Frankly, I think she's afraid you'll sue or something."

  David shook his head. "Tell her I'm fine. It was an accident."

  "Okay." Benton patted David's shoulder. "Take it easy. Don't worry about us here." He took his hand away, and David heard the scratch of his shoe soles as he turned away. "Oh, watch it leaving. Word has already gotten around. The paparazzi smell blood... literally."

  David groaned and felt the slight tensing of Andi's hand beneath his.

  "I'll slouch, and her windows are tinted. They'll think I'm still inside."

  Her hand relaxed and she slipped it free to
step away. The door closed and he managed to slide his seatbelt across his chest before she got in. He felt like he'd run a marathon, and yawned... until his facial muscled pulled and he groaned.

  They made it off the lot with barely a glance from the dozen or so photographers camped outside the gate. David slouched down a little and kept his face turned away, but no one gave the SUV a second look. Andi released a slow breath when they cleared the crowd.

  The actual drive to his house was more blur than clarity as the remaining grip of the painkiller pulled him back into sleep as they sat on the 101. He vaguely caught Andi mumbling something about the absurdity of traffic this time of the day as he rested his eyes behind his sunglasses, but his brain couldn't engage enough to let him be involved in any kind of conversation yet.

  If it weren't for the blood on his shirt, the throbbing in his face, and the muddled state of his brain, he might actually be thrilled at the idea of having Andrea Parker in his home.

  Her laughter pulled him from his meandering thoughts and he opened a single eye. She shook her head and glanced at him, focusing on the road again.

  "I think Demerol must be some kind of truth serum for you."

  David chuckled and groaned simultaneously and shifted in the deep seat of her SUV so he could see her. "Did I say something funny?"

  "When? Now or earlier?" She smiled, and he focused on the dimple in her left cheek and the way the frames of her glasses actually accentuated her cheekbones. He meant to answer, but the words didn't make it to his mouth. Great. When I don't want to talk, I do... and when I want to, I can't get things to line up. "Just now you said something about throbbing and being alone with me."

  "Well, I can see how that might be... misinterpreted."

  She laughed, and he smiled at the sound of it even though it hurt. He hoped the ibuprofen he took before they left the lot would kick in quick, because it was damn hard not to smile with Andi around.

  "What else did I say? Earlier..." He shifted again and cleared his throat. "I think I remember asking for you. Did they call you or something?"

  "No," she said, keeping her eyes on the car in front of them as she shook her head. "I actually went to the set to make sure no one had futzed with the script again. Someone told me you were hurt..."