A/N: FINGERS CROSSED THIS CHAPTER ACTUALLY POSTS. Let me know if you guys have issues with this one (and maybe those who were having problems seeing chapter 29 will be able to see it now.)

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Chapter 30

I left the bouquet of lilies in Sophia's trailer the next morning. I figured she'd be more receptive to the flowers if I just left them there than if I shoved them in her face while muttering an apology, which was what would have probably gone down had I stood by her trailer and waited for her to get here. It was locked but I managed to convince an intern to find the keys and let me in.

It would have been a nicer gesture if my dumbass had thought of adding an apologetic note with my name on it before locking the door to her trailer again. By the time I thought of it, it was too late. The intern and his key were long gone. She might not even realize they were from me.

I didn't see much of Sophia in the morning. She was off at a nearby high school shooting some scenes on her own and shooting some with Savannah. It was probably for the best. People on set were still being shitty to her and very obviously talking about us behind our backs.

I was mostly worried about the comments Savannah was probably making about her and maybe even to her face. They'd never been quiet about their dislike of each other and I was worried Savannah would use this opportunity to try to tear Sophia down.

Not that it was that easy to tear Sophia down. She was one strong motherfucker. Was that a rude way to refer to the girl you liked? That was probably rude. At least it was just in my head and she didn't hear me say it.

Lunch came and went and I still had yet to run into Sophia. Considering we were shooting a scene together after lunch, she couldn't exactly avoid me for much longer. At least it wasn't the scene where we had to make out in bed.

I texted Tori on my way over to the set. Did you find him? Please tell me Bubba didn't eat him.

I'd decided to take it a step further and get Sophia something a little more memorable than her favorite flowers. I'd even gone so far as to give Tori the keys to my house and trust her with the kitten I'd gotten for Sophia. All I could do now was hope she liked the surprise.

Tori's reply was immediate. I found him safe and sound hiding under your bed. He's in her trailer now. I left him with some water, catnip and a squeaky toy so idk he should be fine. Are you sure I can't keep him instead???

I rolled my eyes. Don't touch that cat Tori

I shut my phone off when I reached the set without waiting for another reply, standing slightly off the set at first while the cameramen got some shots of Sophia sitting in a small prison cell with nothing but a bench inside. She was dressed in what looked like leggings and a black Nike jacket, as if she were about to go jogging. I chuckled at the irony. Sophia didn't jog. The only time she might speed-walk is if there was food to get to.

When I was given my cue, I walked in and stood in front of the cell, slightly to the side. "Rage," I said, my weird-ass nickname for her once again surfacing.

She'd moved from her sitting position and was now curled up into a ball with her eyes closed. She responded with a mumbled, "Will."

"I can't believe him," I said, my eyes glued to the little nugget-looking figure that was Sophia/Emma. Sunlight was being directed into the cell so that it hit her face.

Her eyes fluttered open, squinting in the sunlight. She blinked several times until her eyes finally focused on me. It was the first time she'd really looked at me in days. I was pretty sure I was having a heart attack. Was it possible to have a heart attack at 21? Because I was pretty sure I was in the middle of one.

Okay. Be cool. Be cool.

"Will," she said, scrambling up into a sitting position and rubbing her eye. She didn't look like a raccoon afterwards, so I guess they hadn't put much makeup on her. I couldn't really tell the difference most of the time, honestly, unless there was glitter or some shit on her face. She always looked nice to me.

"Cut," Nora yelled. "Christian, you're supposed to still be kind of upset at her. Don't look so giddy. Let's try it again."

I could feel heat creeping onto my face. Way to fucking call me out on something I couldn't control, Nora. It wasn't my fault I was excited to finally be interacting with Sophia again, even if it was just acting. "Alright, sorry."

We restarted the scene and I managed to keep Will's emotions on my face for a while, putting my own on the backburner. Our situations, while both complicated, were wildly different.

We were silent for a few moments, neither of us really knowing where to start. She cast her gaze downwards again before resting her elbows on her knees and hiding her face in her hands. And then came the waterworks. It kind of made me a little teary, too, to be honest. I didn't like seeing people cry, much less her.

"God, I'm so stupid," she cried. She ran a hand through her disheveled hair and shook her head.

"You're not stupid," I said, cautiously taking a few steps closer until I was right in front of the cell.

"No, I am. I shouldn't have left. I shouldn't have left Taylor. Or you. Instead of fixing things, I just made them worse. I should've left things alone."

My reply came hesitantly, my expression one of pain. Emotional pain, that is. Physical pain I could handle. "But you weren't happy here. How could you have been? We kidnapped you and took you from everything you knew. You wanted to go home. I get it. You wanted out."

"That's the thing," she said, staring into my eyes again. Don't forget your line. Keep it cool. "I don't even know if that's true anymore. I think I was just scared. So scared of being happy with you that I ran. Don't you see? I fear the unknown. I run away from people. And now look at me. If I'd stayed, I wouldn't be sitting in a freaking jail cell right now."

"It shouldn't be like this," I said, miraculously remembering my next line. "This isn't what I want, Rage. I don't want you to be held here against your will. This shouldn't be a consequence for not wanting this. It shouldn't be a consequence at all." I shook my head. "God, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I know I was mad at you before, but I swear I didn't have anything to do with this. I told him to leave you alone. I tried to stop him. I never wanted this to happen."

"I know, Squilliam. I know."

My lips curled upwards at her nickname. "Still the same old Rage, I see."

"I know you guys don't really keep track of time over here, but it's been a little over a week, not a little over a year."

And this was why the role of Emma was basically made for Sophia. They were both smartasses.

I rolled my eyes. "Shut up." After a brief pause, I added, "I mean it, though. I'm sorry. For everything. It's my fault you're in here. I followed my dad's lead in all of this. I didn't have to. He didn't hold a gun to my head. I didn't have to do any of this. I shouldn't have – and yet..."

"What?" she asked.

I put my right hand on one of the bars of the cell, following the blocking outlined in my script, and leaned against the cell. I hesitated to speak again, but when I did, I said, "I try to tell myself I was wrong to ever get involved in this because I know it's wrong, and I know it'll only end badly for me. I'm the bad guy here. But I can't say I regret it. If I hadn't done any of this, I wouldn't have met you. And that would be a damn shame."

She looked like she wanted to say something, but no words came out. When a word did come out, it was just the beginning of a sentence.

"What?" I asked.

She shook her head. "No. Nothing."

"No, seriously, what?"

"It's nothing," she insisted, glancing back at me and then glancing away.

I completely blanked on my next line when she looked at me and must have started spacing out because the next thing I knew, Nora was speaking and Sophia was smacking me in the arm.

"Ow. What?" I asked.

"You spaced out. Get it together," she snapped.

I kind of flinched at the tone her voice had taken now that it was her speaking to me and not our characters speaking. "Sorry," I muttered.

"Do you need a break?" Nora asked me, looking knowingly between Sophia and me. It didn't take the most observant person to notice the lingering tension between us. "We can take a quick break if you guys need one."

"No," I said. "Let's just keep going."

We started at the point right before I'd spaced out and went past that to the part where Emma finally confesses her feelings for Will.

"I don't want to pick the Versace dress," she blurted out. This was code for the rich guy. I, the poor guy – and yes, I saw the irony in this – was the cat onesie in this metaphor.

I just blinked at her. "What?"

"I don't want the dress or the stupid diamond necklace. I want you. I— I'm falling for you, and I'm terrified."

All I could do was stare at her in shock and stutter in response. "You're – what?" Part of me couldn't help but wish I was hearing these things coming from her mouth off of the set. But it wasn't real. It was just a movie.

"I can't stop thinking about you," she went on, oblivious to my inner hopes and dreams. I was glad. She would've squashed them in a second if she'd known about them. "Will, I'm crazy about you. I don't want to be with someone who's boring and uncomfortable. I want to be with you."

I want to be with you too. But I also really want some chicken wings right about now... "You're choosing the cat onesie?" I asked.

"I'm choosing the cat onesie," she said with a laugh.

Fast forward a few lines and she'd gone from confessing her love for me to convincing me to let her out of the cell. It didn't take much convincing. It was hard to say no to someone that fucking cute.

I stuck the key into the cell's lock after we'd said our lines and done another take leading up to that point. I heard a click as it unlocked – I guess she was actually locked in there – and swung the door open. The moment I did, she leapt forward and threw herself into my arms. I couldn't help but feel like that was exactly where she belonged. If only I could convince her of that.

Following the blocking, I didn't respond at first. When I did, I held on tight, enjoying the moment while it lasted. It was hard to separate the movie from reality when my character had just gotten his girl and mine still hated me.

"Thank you," she whispered, leaning her head against my chest. I was sure she could hear my heart beating erratically. Maybe I really was having a heart attack. Oh well.

I kissed the top of her head and stroked her messy hair. "You don't have to thank me."

She looked up at me and leaned back, about to move away from me. The scene was over, but before I could even process what I was doing, my face started moving closer to hers. I could see the surprise and honestly, the downright panic in her eyes, but I don't think I could've stopped myself even if I'd wanted to. I closed my eyes, praying that I wouldn't get kicked for doing this but going through with it anyway because damn it, I was dying to kiss her again.

I softly pressed my lips against hers and right on cue, smack. Of course it wasn't going to be that easy to get a real kiss out of her.

But I didn't let that stop me. I did it again without even a moment of hesitation. And I got smacked again. But I still didn't let that discourage me. I tried it again, and this time, my persistence – and pain tolerance – paid off because she didn't smack me. She didn't push me away. She didn't protest. She kissed me back. She closed her eyes and moved her lips against mine.

She pulled away not long after and wiped her lips off with her hand, a wide-eyed expression on her face.

"I like that, actually," Nora called out, finally snapping me out of whatever Sophia-induced trance I'd been in. I couldn't help the – most likely goofy – smile that crossed my face. "That wasn't in the script but it was good improv. We'll just edit out the slaps later."

The sound of overlapping voices filled the set, probably thanks to my impromptu kiss. I was more focused on Sophia, who was still looking at me with a mixture of emotions on her face. I had no idea what she was feeling or if any of those emotions were a good thing.

"I need a quick break," she said to Nora, finally looking away from me. She pretty much ran to her trailer, and like I said, she wasn't a runner, so that just showed how badly she once again wanted to get away from me.

"I'm gonna take a break, too," I said, already moving in the direction of Sophia's trailer.

The door was open when I got there. I climbed up the few steps and peered inside. Sophia was standing inside holding the kitten I'd bought her.

Let me tell you, buying that cat was the sketchiest thing I'd ever done because finding a male, orange munchkin kitty with less than a day's notice was nearly impossible, and I was pretty sure I'd come across some kind of cat black market in my attempt to find Sophia's perfect pet. But she'd been very specific when she'd told me about her dream cat, and that was exactly what I was going to get her, legality be damned.

"So are you a boy or a girl?" she asked the kitty. My lips twitched upwards at the fact that she was already talking directly to the cat like he could respond. "If you're a girl, I'm sorry I've been calling you a dude."

"He's a boy," I interrupted, leaning against the doorframe.

She immediately turned around at the sound of my voice. "Oh."

I stood up straight and considered stepping inside but decided against it. "Garfield's a boy, after all, and it wouldn't make sense if your Garfield was a girl."

She looked at me with a shocked expression once again. Whether it was at the cat itself or because she realized I'd remembered what she'd said to me about her dream cat, I didn't know.

"I take it you also sent the flowers?" she finally asked.

"Yeah, that was me," I said, rubbing my neck and trying not to look as nervous as I felt.

"How'd you know I like lilies?" she asked.

"I asked Tori. She was pretty helpful once she stopped yelling at me and throwing things at my head." I paused when Sophia didn't say anything. "Listen, Soph. I—"

"We should go," she interrupted. "They're waiting for us to come back."

I tried to find the right words to get her to stay, or to talk to me about this fucked up situation at least. I settled on, "You did that scene with me. That must mean something. And the kiss. You didn't have to go along with it, but you did. You kissed me back."

"No, I smacked you."

Okay, true. "But then you went along with it."

"No, then I smacked you again."

Always the smartass. "But then you went along with it after that. That has to mean something."

She shook her head at me, and for once, staring into those stunning eyes kind of broke my heart. When had I turned into such a fucking softie? "No. It doesn't mean anything. Thank you for the flowers and thank you so much for Garfield. Really. He's probably the best present I've ever gotten. But the fact that I managed to do that scene, and the fact that I went along with the kiss... well, none of that means anything. It's called acting, Christian."

With that, she picked up the kitten and left me standing there.