Falling Gracefully (Sebastian Stan)

Chapter 3 - Man Down

The buzzing phone cut through the silence of the early morning.  Sebastian groaned and stopped the alarm going off of his phone. 4 AM. Kari is trying to kill me, thought Sebastian.  He sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing his face.  The phone lit up with an incoming call from his assistant.  "I'm up. I'm up.  Thanks Jeff."  He hung up and headed into the shower.

An hour later, Sebastian filled his travel mug with coffee.  Another ding caused him to look at his phone again.  A picture of Grace filled the screen.  She was dressed in an all-black long-sleeved dress with one silver sleeve, a sassy hand on her hip.  A message accompanied the photo.

J: She wanted to wear her Bucky dress as good luck for your first official day.

An audio message also came through.

Good Luck Uncle Seba.  Tell Uncle Anthony luck too and not to be mean!  Cut The Check!

"Good lord," Sebastian said to himself.  Why of all the things Mackie could have taught her, it has to be that.  He saved the audio for Anthony and headed out to the studio.

Stunt rehearsals were first up while everyone was fresh. Seb worked mostly with Erin since the truck scene would be mostly with her and two others.  Erin was bubbly and eager.  This was her first major production and was actively learning the ropes.  Sebastian liked trying to do his own stunts but as they walked through the scene, he knew that there were just some things he wouldn't be able to do.  But Don always kept him prepped and ready to go.

Next up was the table read.  Kari decided for the first read through, the cast could keep it casual.  For Mackie, that meant cracking jokes every chance he got, earning laughs from the rest of the crew.

After the reading, Sebastian did his physical and then moved to stunt costuming.  He had to get fitted for his new harness.  It was being built into his Winter Soldier jacket so it needed to look as seamless as possible.  As Michael and stunt coordinator Dave Macomber made sure the harness was put in correctly, John, Seb's stunt double, was also making sure his harness was also done correctly.

"Seb, tomorrow, we need to hook you up to the rig and make sure you are ok with the harness," Dave explained.

"No problem.  I'm excited."

Seb moved on to weapons training and hand to hand.  There were a lot of fight scenes in each episode. Dave and Sebastian walk through the guns and knives he would be using through out the shoot.  They map out the official training schedule.  Dave handed Sebastian his plastic knives and reminded him to keep up with the practicing.  "If you want to make it look real it has to be real," Dave said.

A couple of weeks into rehearsals, Sebastian found himself having a night off and relaxing, watching some TV when his phone rang.  He smiled when he checked the caller ID. "What the fuck you want Crawford?"

Fuck you, Stan! Think you're a hot shot now that you are a super hero? Chace Crawford taunted back.  As one of Sebastian's oldest friends, Chace knew how to push his buttons.

"Jealous Crawford?"

Absolutely. First you had to be in the best franchise in history, then you set up one of the most beautiful girls in the world with your other best friend and now you don't even call.

"Aww Crawford, you miss me? I'm touched."  Seb chuckled.  "How are you man? Still bitter about Savannah I see."

I'm not.  I know she's always belonged to Chris.  Just wish I had a chance.

"If it makes you feel better, she always asks about you," Seb says with a smirk.  "You must have made quite the impression during her wedding dress shopping in New York."