Quiet Backstage: A Series of Lippa Oneshots

Fractured

"Hey, Lovelies." Pippa hobbled into the dressing room. It wasn't easy to walk with the black boot the doctor's put on her foot.

"Oh my gosh, Pippa!" Jasmine came up and wrapped her arms around Pippa. Renee joined in as well, completing the Schuyler Sisters group hug. "What'd they say about it?"

"It's fractured in two different places." She frowned slightly.

"Does Lin know?" Renee asked. Pippa's eyes began to water as she shook her head. "Sweetie, you have to tell him." Pippa shook her head once more.

"Well, there's no way you're doing that whole show on a broken foot." Jasmine told Pippa. It was the truth.

"Well, there's no way I'm not doing the show! Lin has worked seven, eight years for this, and I'm not going to ruin it for him! This is Broadway, I'm not messing it up for Lin and the cast." Pippa fell back onto the loveseat in the dressing room and sighed. She put her head in her hands. "What am I going to do?"

"You're going to tell Lin and take however long the doctor said off." Jasmine told her.

"I'm not taking six weeks off, what if the show only runs four?!"

"Pippa, that's an absurd thing to even say." Renee said. "Now, why don't you go to your room, relax for a bit, take a breath, you'll be okay."

"Okay." Pippa stood with the help of Renee and Jasmine, and she made her way back to her own dressing room. She tried her very hardest to be stealthy enough to not pass any other cast members. She couldn't have been more than a foot from her room when a voice filled her ears.

"Stop in the name of love!" Pippa's breath stilled.

"So close." She mumbled as she turned around to face none other than Jonathan Groff.

"What happened to you?" Groff walked closer to where Pippa was. "Where did this boot come from?" Right, he wasn't there when it happened. "Did you break it?"

"You are a man of many questions, aren't you?" She did everything to avoid this. Groff playfully smirked. "But yes, fine, I fractured it."

His hand slowly went and covered his mouth for moment. "Phillipa!" He exclaimed, a little too loudy; sound travels in a theater.

"Keep your voice down!" Pippa shushed him.

"Sorry." His voice dropped to a whisper. "Have you told Lin?"

"Nope." Pippa enunciated the p sound and looked down.

"You're crazy!" Groff replied.

"I'm getting to it." Pippa mumbled.

"Getting to it isn't soon enough." Groff grabbed her hand. "C'mon, I'll go with you."

"No, I'll do it by myself at dinner." Groff nodded.

"Alright." He started turning back around.

"Groff!" Pippa called once more. "Please don't tell Lin."

"I can't make you any promises."

"Groff!" Pippa whined like a small child.

"I don't necessarily trust you in this circumstance, so no!"

"Groffsauce, please..." She figured she could sweettalk him out of this.

"Don't pull that card on me. Just promise me that you are going to tell Lin."

"I promise."

~~~~~

What is it that they say about promises are made to be broken?

Well, that's what happened. Pippa sat in her room, eating her meal from the comically large order that the cast called in from the Chinese restaurant up the road. Everyone else was out in the greenroom or in the hallway, actually talking. Pippa's mind was just racing too quickly to do any talking.

"Knock knock." Pippa jumped at the voice she heard, she knew exactly who it was.

"Give me a minute." Pippa called, simultaneously ripping the boot off of her foot and stashing it away in a corner across the room. She scrambled as best she could on her foot back to where she was sitting. After a second of making herself look like she wasn't hiding anything, she yelled, "Come in!"

"Hey." Lin opened the door with a smile.

"Hey!" Pippa exclaimed through bites of her food, trying to ignore the pain searing through her foot. "Excited for tonight? You're on Broadway, now, Love!"

"I know, I know, it's...it's crazy." Lin shook his head. It took a moment to process it all. "But listen, Pippa, what brings me in here is that I've been hearing some...murmurs throughout the cast. And is there any reason you're eating in here alone?" Lin laid his hand on top of her knee.

"A bit too nervous to be social, y'know?" Pippa dryly chuckled.

"I get that, but any other reason?" His eyes studied her's.

Pippa bit her tounge. She had to lie. She just had to. "Nope."

"Phillipa." Lin stated. "Please don't lie to me."

"I'm not lying. Why would you even hold that to me?"

Lin frowned. "Pip, you always end your sentences with questions when you lie." He rubbed his thumb in swirly patterns on her knee. "Talk to me about this foot of yours."

"What is there to talk about?"

"What is there that you're not talking about? Because our good friend, Groffsauce, may have let something slide." Lin grabbed her free hand. "What's going on?"

"Nothing is wrong with it."

"If it's fine, then show me the Helpless choreography." Lin knew what he was doing, he knew that choreo had a lot of footwork in it, he knew what he was setting her up to do.

"Fine." Pippa shrugged and stood up. She moved to an open place in the center of the room, Lin joining her in place of her first partner in the scene. Lin and Pippa hummed the music as they danced, and when they got to the turns and the switching of partners, Pippa just gasped. It hurt too badly to even try to hide it.

"Pippa!" Lin exclaimed and caught Pippa by her waist as she almost fell over. "Sit down. You cannot do this show tonight."

"Please." Pippa begged. "Please, I'll ice it now and put BioFreeze on it before we take the stage, please."

"Phillipa, I can't let you--"

"Please, Lin."

Lin sighed. He knew she shouldn't do this, but it was Pippa, and she knew her limits. "Alright. But on one condition."

"What is it?"

"You sit out the next two shows."

"Lin!" Pippa gasped.

"Pippa, either you do that, or you don't do your first. Broadway show." Lin shook his head. "I'm sorry, Lovely, but that's how it has to be."

"Fine. Okay. Fair."

"Thank you." Lin kissed her cheek. "I'd say break a leg tonight, but that doesn't seem too fitting." He chuckled.

"Then I'll tell it to you. Break a leg, Lin."