Her face when she finally looked up at him was all Gillian, though.

“How’s your kid?” Behind them he could hear the crew shuffling, pretending that moments like these didn’t cost money and time.

“He’s been asking for me.” Her voice sounded hoarse; she’d been sick, too, and with all the pressure and stress here on set, so far from her home and her children, he couldn’t blame her. 

“Guys…” Someone from the crew touched David’s shoulder. They needed to get back to work and he nodded.

His eyes found Gillian’s and she was still her. She might have looked like Scully to anyone else, but he could tell that she didn’t feel her today. She wanted to be anywhere but here. Wanted to be anyone but that character. 

“You think we can try again?” David asked her in a low voice. If anyone could get her back it was him. They all knew it. They gave her a moment to call home where her sick son was when nothing else worked.

She’d giggled through a dramatic scene, kept forgetting her lines, and her face remained stoic. David wasn’t going to tell her to use that pain and channel it. He would have done that years ago. He did do it then. He shook his head to clear the memory, but instead it became a colorful vision, a short movie someone had kept for old times sake, to point out his past mistakes and make him suffer. The way he made Gillian suffer.

Piper had been tiny, then. Maybe she’d been a year, maybe two years old. David had loved the child and had loved having her around. But it had been late. So very late and he just wanted to get to his trailer, call his girlfriend, sleep. Piper had been sick all day and Gillian had been off her game. She had constantly excused herself and now she couldn’t get it right, not once, and David had felt the blazing anger deep in his stomach. When the nanny had carried Piper away after the poor girl had been sick, almost splattering Gillian’s clothes in the process, Gillian had tried to find it. Find her Scully. In the distance Piper had screamed and when Gillian had lifted her head, David not seen it. Had not seen Scully.

“Get it together for fuck’s sake,” he had told her in a low voice, “She’s crying cause you keep screwing this up. You could have been with her hours ago.”

The change had been in her eyes and finally David yelled that they were ready. They had shot the scene faster than anything else that day.“Fuck you.” She had whispered to him right at the end. They hadn’t talked for a week after.

This time, now, is different. Her son isn’t here and if he were, David would not hesitate to send Gillian to be with him. If anyone knew what it felt like to not be able to help your sick child, then it was him.

“Do you think you can keep going?” David asked her and she nodded at him but he didn’t believe it.“Because if you’re not, I’ll tell them. We’ll take a break and you book a flight home. We’ll shoot when you’re back. When you know he’s all right.”

“It doesn’t work like that, David. You know that.”

“I don’t care. If that’s what you need we’ll make it work. I’ll talk to Chris.”“It’s not an option.”

“It is,” more crew members shuffled in the back. Everyone was getting impatient. “I’ll make you another offer.” Instead of an answer, her hand went to his shirt where she picked off an invisible piece of lint. "We’re doing this now and finish it. As quickly as possible. Just go through the motions. Then you fly home and when you come back you bring your boys, both of them, and we’ll stroll through New York. Remember you told me how much they loved the city? We’ll go to that Lego store and they get to pick whatever they want – well, one piece for each of them. But whatever they want. What do you say?“

"You mean it.” It was not a question. He nodded and waited.“Let’s roll, people.” Gillian yelled, her voice still hoarse, but full of power now. He watched her do the scene, flawlessly, and as he watched her walk off as part of the scene it was him who couldn’t keep himself, David, out of the scene. His heart did not break for Scully, but for Gillian.

Before she left for London, he reminded her of his promise. Not long after, he made good of it. Strolling through the city with her and her two boys, healthy and happy. 

THE END.