Sequel (Advent Calendar 2016)

THE 12TH OF DECEMBER

The 12th of December

...

Kristen's lying on the couch, a cup of cold Christmas tea on the table next to her. She clenches her eyes shut and breathes out a ragged breath. When she hears the knock on the door, she quickly sits up, removes her hand from her stomach and adjusts her shirt.

"Come in," she shouts as loud as she can with her weak voice, and hopes he can hear her.

"Hey Kris," Rob says as he enters her trailer and walks over to the couch where she's sitting.

"Hi," she whispers weakly, grabbing her script on the table.

"So which scene should we go through?" Rob asks.

Kristen closes her eyes as Rob looks at the pages. "Uh, you choose."

Rob frowns; she usually knows exactly which scenes to rehearse and what the goal is for every scene.

"Uhm, scene 12?"

"Sure," she whispers, finding the right page.

Rob starts with his line, and waits for Kristen to say hers. She starts saying it, but then her voice fades out in the middle of the sentence. He looks up at her, not sure if she's acting. When he sees the look on her face, he continues with his line. Kristen says hers, sounding a little less... pained this time.

When they get further into a scene and Rob has just read something from the script, he waits for Kristen to say the next line, but is met with silence. Confused, he looks up at her.

She's breathing deeply, her eyes tightly shut.

"You good?" Rob asks her.

Taking a deep breath, she opens her eyes, and nods. "I'm fine," she tells him, the smallest smile on her lips, before she says her line. He tries to get eye contact with her, needing to look in her eyes and see that he shouldn't be worried. He can't.

They continue going over the lines for some time, but Kristen keeps shutting her eyes and pausing. When she clenches her eyes tightly shut as she winces, Rob is seriously concerned.

"Are you okay?" He asks her.

A tear runs down her cheek as she wraps her arms around her middle and shakes her head, barely getting out the word "cramps".

Rob doesn't wait a beat before he puts his script aside and pulls her into his arms. Carefully lifting her shirt, he slowly places his warm hands on her stomach. She sighs.

For a second, all he can think about is how perfect, how right it feels to have her in his arms.

Rob can see her jaw clenching and feel her arms tense as another wave of pain rushes over her, but he can tell she's trying to hold it in.

"Kristen, let go," he tells her, and she whimpers in pain and lets the tears fall.

He puts a hand on her back and gets her to stand so she can go lie down on her bed.

Rob lies down on the bed with her, spooning her so he can have his hands on her tummy.

"Do you want me to get you some ice cream? A heating pad? Ginger tea?" He whispers in her ear, adjusting his hands.

"No," she mumbles. "Stay."

He smiles into her hair and resists placing a kiss on the back of her head. Feeling her fumbling with the top of her jeans, he furrows his brow. He then hears the click of her fly being unbuttoned, and her small hands take his much bigger ones and move them to her lower stomach. She sighs again.