SOUNDTRACK: "Could You Be Loved" - Bob Marley

The sound of drills whirring filled the air as Kate measured a two-by-four and marked it with a pencil. Set production was in overdrive as the final two weeks before the musical loomed ahead of them. She was working on a platform that the live band would sit on and was glad it would only sit a foot off the ground; if it collapsed, no one would get hurt. Earlier in the day, she had taken her frustration out on the floor, hammering each nail individually to the boards. 

Shannon had been absent for awhile and she was actually getting angry at him. After she had stayed with him the first time, they'd become very close, texting almost every day. But since her hospital experience, he had hardly spoken to her. In the last two weeks, he had just shut down completely. His birthday was coming up and she wanted to do something and surprise him, but she couldn't do that if she didn't even know where the hell he was. Jared didn't seem too bothered by his brother's sudden disappearance, but every time she tried to talk to him about it, he'd change the subject or suddenly find something he needed to take care of. A nagging feeling told her that this was standard with Shannon, which was why no one seemed to care, even Connie. 

Kate looked up as the door to the Scene Assembly opened and Olivia huffed in. She nearly kicked over a bucket of nuts and bolts before another student rescued it. She stomped over to Kate's platform and sat on top of it, oblivious to the dangers it might provide. Kate looked up from her drill and raised her eyebrows. 

"Afternoon," she muttered, putting her drill down. "Can I help you?"

Olivia sighed. "Not unless you're willing to help me take Marisol Gonzaga out and beat her to fuck and back."

Kate was careful to position herself between Olivia and the power tool. "Dare I ask what happened?"

"The bitch will not shut up about getting accepted to Julliard," Olivia rolled her eyes. "She's not even that good."

"Why are you upset, though?" Kate dared to ask. "You're a Junior. You're having your auditions over the summer. Why let her get to you?"

"Because with my luck, I'll end up next to her in class at Julliard or something!" Olivia grumbled. She looked at Kate. "Did you hear from your uncle yet?" she asked. 

Kate was glad for the change of subject. If she had to hear about Olivia's audition plans for the hundredth time, she'd have driven a screw into her own head. 

"He finally texted me that he was home, but he didn't say anything else. I was planning to drop by after I finished here," Kate said. "Aren't you supposed to be in vocal rehearsals?" she asked. 

"They're only doing Roger and Mimi," she sighed. "Stupid Marisol can't figure out how to light a freaking candle," she added with a scoff. 

Kate chose not to respond and instead picked up her drill. "I've got like, ten more minutes here. Can you stay out of trouble that long?" she asked. 

Olivia sighed but didn't say anything and watched in silence as Kate finished her project. Occasionally, she'd look up from her phone to ogle one of the guys as they carried something heavy by her until Kate nudged her to get her to stop staring. When she was finished drilling the braces into place, she took the drill back to the storage closet and walked back over to Olivia. 

"I need a ride to my uncle's house. Can you drop me?" she asked, picking up her backpack and the spare bag she was using for her uniform. "I'll get him to take me home."

"Does he know you're coming?" Olivia asked, following Kate through the winding hallways of the Drama Production Wing. "I mean, like what if he's...busy?"

Kate sighed and shook her head. "Then I'll just have an intern get me. Jared's bound to notice my absence by dinner. He said something about vegan pasta before I left this morning."

Olivia shook her head. "I still don't understand how you're so...cool about living with an Academy Award winner."

Kate shrugged as she pushed through a door out onto the Quad. "He's just a guy to me. A guy who wanders around in a fifty-year-old bathrobe and mismatched socks. All he's missing is a cat and a cane and he'd fit right in at Shady Meadows up the street," she remarked, referencing the retirement home situated up the street from Winterlake and making Olivia laugh. 

The two girls walked to Olivia's car and got in, with Kate serving as the navigator. She gave Olivia turn-by-turn directions, uneasy with letting her have his address just yet. Their friendship was still relatively new. And why Olivia had remained true to her word, Kate felt like her friend needed a little more time around Jared to let the 'celebrity aura' rub off before she handed out addresses.

They drove up narrow, winding streets and eventually came to a stop in front of Shannon's black fenced-in property. Kate hopped out, going to the gate. She tried turning the handle to open it, but it was locked. Without the access code, she had to ring the buzzer. After several seconds of no answer, she rang it again. 

"Are you sure he's here?" Olivia called through the driver's window.

Kate sighed and dialed Shannon's number on her phone, holding it to her ear. It rang into voicemail and she redialed, waiting for it to ring again. By the third ring, there was a click on the gate's lock and she was able to turn the handle to get inside. She gave Olivia a wave over her shoulder before walking into the front yard and shutting the gate behind her. She went to the front door and knocked twice before Shannon opened it.

She took in his shirtless torso and disheveled appearance and rolled her eyes. He wasn't alone. "Busy?" she asked, moving to walk into the house. 

"What the hell, Kate?" he protested. 

Kate was in no mood to put on airs or act like nothing was wrong. "Why the hell did you disappear?" she asked, cutting right to the chase. 

Shannon sighed, knowing exactly what she was talking about. "Let me get a shirt," he muttered. 

"Your pants are on backwards, by the way," she called after him as he retreated to his bedroom.

A couple of minutes later, he reappeared, fully dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. He had even put a pair of glasses on and attempted to tidy his hair. He pointed to the lounge area and she followed him up the stairs before flopping into the large cream-colored bean bag he kept in the corner. He sat on the sofa and faced her. 

"How the hell did you get here? Did you walk from school?" he asked, wanting to find another subject.

She shook her head. "A friend drove me."

"Oh? You have friends now? That's impressive," he replied with a little snark in his voice. 

She kicked his shin, making him howl in pain. "No. You don't get to be a snarky dick to me! You just fucking disappeared! Right when I really needed you." She was doing a very poor job of containing her anger at him. "What the hell, Shannon?"

He sighed and rubbed his leg gingerly, wincing in pain. "I didn't disappear, Kate," he replied through clenched teeth. "I needed to go away."

"Why, though!" she demanded. 

"I was the only one with you in the hospital when they brought you in," he started. "I had to sit there and watch while they worked on you. For two hours, I watched you laying there unconscious."

"So? Jared stayed all fucking night!" 

"I had to leave to go back to rehab, okay?!" he said finally. His words threw Kate into a stunned silence. "Seeing you like that in the hospital made me...it affected me. I needed to get away for a while. I needed to clear my head and remind myself of my sobriety and all the work I've done to get to where I am." He paused for a moment. "So that's where I was. I was getting a refresher course in sobriety. Because I'm so fucking weak I can't even stay strong for my niece when she needs me."

Guilt and embarrassment ran through Kate like ice water. She knew about Shannon's history with drugs, but she didn't know how precariously he sat on the edge of it. That something so small as her overdose would send him over the edge made guilt billow in her stomach. Silence hung between them for several minutes.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. 

"It's not your fault," he replied. "It's just...It's a difficult position for me to be in." He shifted on the sofa. "I've had drug issues my entire adult life, Kate. I guess rehab is my safe place, in a way. Anytime I feel stressed out or I feel the need to use again, I go there. So far, it's worked."

"Why didn't anyone tell me that's where you were?" she asked. 

"I asked them not to," he responded. "I didn't want you to feel responsible for it. Because you aren't."

"I am, though," she said, tears pricking her eyes.

"No. Stop. You aren't. My sobriety is a life-long process. It's not something that I complete and get to move on from. It literally is a day-by-day thing," he told her. "Some days are harder than others. And sometimes I need a refresher course in everything. A reminder to let me know how much has gone in to getting to where I am. That's just my reality, Kate."

She sighed and looked away from him, unwilling to let him see her cry. Even though he said it wasn't her fault, it so clearly was. If she hadn't have stupidly overdosed to get Jared's attention, she wouldn't have forced Shannon to go through what he'd gone through. It only served as a reminder that her actions impacted more than just herself. 

Shannon looked at her and ran his hand through his hair. "Look. Why don't I take you home? I'm sure you've got homework or something to do."

Her eyes snapped to his face, but she nodded. "Help me out of this thing," she requested, holding her hand out. 

He hoisted her out of the bean bag and picked up her bags. "Come on," he said.

He drove her back to the Compound and she turned to him just as she shut the passenger door in his SUV. 

"Give my love to Anastasia," she said through the rolled-down window. 

He shook his head. "She's visiting her parents."

"Oh? New girl then? What's this one's name?" she asked with a smile. 

"None of your business. Get inside," he said, rolling the window up and turning around in the parking lot. 

Kate sighed and went inside, glad that things between the two of them had sorted themselves out.