Scarlett's POV
So, this week, Sawyer is learning French. After I bought her that Russian dictionary last week, she decided that she needed to be more busy between filming and her math, science, and whatever that professor sent her. So now Sawyer has taken it upon herself to learn new languages. She seems to have already learnt Russian, and I would be surprised except for the fact that it's Sawyer, and everything seems to come to her naturally.
At this point, I'm pretty sure there is actually nothing Sawyer can't do, which is scary, really. Speaking of scary, she has her first proper stunt scene today. So far, she's not had to do anything too strenuous, just the odd fake punch here and there, but today, we are starting to film the final battle scene, and the writers thought it would be a great idea to throw Sawyer right into the heart of the fight.
She has been training all week with JJ and Ken, the stunt coordinators, and has loved every minute, which never fails to bring a smile to my face as she learns that other people aren't a danger to her. Sawyer has banned me from coming to her training sessions, saying I would stress too much and be a distraction, which is a hundred per cent true but doesn't make me worry any less. I don't even know anything about the scene we are filming today; the only thing my script said was to react in character. Which was vague and has definitely put me on edge.
"Mama," Sawyer pouted as she poked my cheek, leaning across the gap between our makeup chairs. "Mama, I'm talking to you, and you're not listening," she whined, making me turn to her, snapping out of my worried thoughts. "Sorry baby, I was worried about your stunts today; let me see your script so that I can see what we are filming. My script doesn't say anything useful," I pout, trying my best to mimic Sawyer's puppy dog eyes, making her erupt in a fit of giggles.
"I can't show you my script, Mama; Mr Kevin said this one is top secret; he even used the classified stamp from set on my script," she said excitedly as she waved the top secret item in front of me. "Fine, don't show me," I whined as she giggled, "but just promise me it's nothing dangerous; you know I hate seeing you hurt," I said seriously as I looked at her. She must be able to see the worry in my eyes because she jumps out of her seat and onto me. This is what I'm worried about. She's so fearless when it comes to things like this.
"They're ready for you both on set," Mark, my new assistant, called through the door as Sawyer ran to grab her script and Nat. She has her own adorable little routine before filming. She all but runs to set five minutes before we film, clutching her script and Nat; then she chats with whoever is in her scene as if she's warming up to the idea of interacting with people.
Then, finally, she walks over to her mark, slowly mumbling something I haven't been able to make out yet, but whatever it is must be important because she says it over and over till Joss calls "ACTION," and then she just slips straight into character, for such a young actress she is doing an extraordinary job. Hell, I mess up more than she does when we film together, which she seems to find hilarious.
Sawyer is drinking her water on set as I walk over to Joss, who is looking at me firmly. "Scarlett, I know you have only got half the script for this scene, which is fine. We want you to improve the second half for the first take, and if that doesn't work, we have a script for you. It's just super important that you trust everyone and stay in character," he said with a serious face, only adding to my worry.
"She will be safe the whole time, right?" I ask, resisting the urge to bite my nails, given how nervous I am. "I promise Scarlett, she's practised this scene a few times with JJ and Ken, and it's been fine. It's no different than when anyone else does a stunt," he said softly as he looked over to Sawyer. "We all love Sawyer, and no one is going to let anything happen to her." he smiled at me before waving over to Sawyer. "You ready superstar? If you want a stunt double, it's not too late. Just say," he said to her softly, and she just shook her head.
I watched worriedly as they put Sawyer in a harness. We were filming up on this big platform with a green screen, as we both fight Ultron robots, so we were both hooked up to harnesses just for safety while up on the platform. "You ok with this baby?" I ask her worriedly as she mumbles her little mantra, walking over to her spot where they hook her up to the wires. She stopped her mumbling and looked up at me. "Mama, stop stressing; it's going to be fun. Just stay in character, and we will only have to do this once," she said, smiling at me before blowing me a kiss.
"Now, Shh, I'm getting in character," she mumbles sassily before muttering again, making me smile at her little ritual. "Are you ready, Scarlett?" Joss called as I nodded whipping my nervousness from my head as I focused on the scene. "Sawyer?" he asked, looking at Sawyer, who just nodded as all the extras we are 'fighting' got in position, who will be made to look like robots through the power of special effects. "ACTION."
Nikita and Natasha had just joined the fight after escaping the cell, only to be met by a horde of Ultron bots on a bridge. Natasha was shooting at the bots left and right, alternating between her guns and widow bites before she turned slowly to check on Nikita, who had been standing behind her. Only to find she was no longer there. Instead, she had moved on to fighting her own set of robots, slicing and dicing with her sword as she went, suddenly flipping between the shots that the robots were firing at her.
A wave of worry hit me as I realised this was getting to the point of everything I had practised with the fight coordinators and that my script was about to cut off. I made sure to keep a natural face, fighting to stay in character so that we wouldn't be stuck filming the same scene all day and annoying Sawyer.
"You good, Nikita?" I asked, fighting off some robots who had advanced while I was watching her. "Like you care," the little Widow snarked back words coated in that familiar Russian accent. "Of course I care," Natasha mumbled, hitting a robot with a widow bite, only to spin around when she heard a muffled groan.
"Nikita?" She asked, worry lacing her words as she watched the small Widow grab her shoulder. "Look out!" the small child yelled before she came barreling towards Natasha, tackling the robot who was about to attack the older Widow. However, the force of the tackle was too much, and they both went flying over the platform's edge. "NIKITA!" Natasha screamed, pain coating her words thickly.
Oh my God, please tell me I didn't just watch my child fall off of this platform.
A small part of me knows she must be okay because no one has yelled cut. However, that thought is entirely overwhelmed by the fear and worry coursing through my body as I run over to the edge of the platform, looking down worriedly, acting way out of the picture as I just react.
Peering over the edge with a clear expression of dread, Natasha lets out a sigh of relief as she sees Nikita handing onto the bridge by a part of the road that had broken during the fight. "Holly shit, you're ok. Thank God. Don't you ever worry me like that again, you hear me? God, I thought you were dead. What the hell were you thinking?" Natasha starts yelling at the dangling child.
"Hi Nakita, glad you're alive. Let me help you up before you plummet to a painful death," Nikita grumbled sarcastically, imitating Nat before groaning in pain due to the weight of holding herself up on her injured shoulder. "No, seriously, Natasha, could you please either move so I can pull myself up or help me up? My shoulder is starting to burn," she said for the first time without hostility in her voice. "Of course, sorry," Natasha said before going to pull her back up.
I was just going to pull Sawyer up when her hands moved, and she slipped right out of my grasp. Actually, this time, it made my heart stop. I had just dropped Sawyer off this platform, shit. Luckily, the harness caught her, but that didn't stop my current heart palpitations. "CUT!" I heard Joss yell before he started giving orders to bring Sawyer down. I just stood on this stupid filming block, waiting for them to let me down, panicking as I watched Sawyer closely, trying to figure out if she was okay.
It felt like an eternity before I was on the ground, running straight over to Sawyer, who was standing with the set medic and Joss.
"Baby! Are you ok? Please tell me you're ok. I can't believe I dropped you; I'm so sorry, baby," I gush, pulling her into a tight hug and ignoring the medic who was trying to check her, just needing my baby in my arms for a moment before I fully spiralled into a panic.
"Mama, you dropped me," she whined into my neck, making me feel even worse about the whole thing. "You dropped me on camera," she said again before pulling back from the hug to look at me. God, I felt so bad; here I was all worried about how she would do in her stunt and I was the one who messed it up and dropped her.
I was broken out of my thoughts by a laugh. Looking forward, I saw Sawyer still on my lap, now full-on belly laughing at me. "You dropped me, Mama," she said around her laughter. It makes me smile at her; god, she's so precious. "I did, baby, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to," I gush.
Joss had let us break for lunch after reshooting the end of the scene. Sawyer was sitting at the table talking with the others while I got us both food. As I walked over to the table, I could see them all laughing at something Sawyer was saying, their laughter increasing when they saw me walk over. "Dropping your own child now, Scar?" Evans laughed, making me groan as I realised Sawyer must have told them what happened.
"I get it. BrainboxBrainbox is amazing at everything, and that's annoying, but that doesn't mean you should drop her from high places," Robert teased as I handed Sawyer her plate. "You telling everyone about what happened, baby?" I asked, smiling softly at her as I pushed her plate in front of her, blocking out my annoying cast members.
"Yeah, it was funny, Mama. You were so worried about something going wrong with my stunt, and you were all nervous, only for you to be the one to mess up and drop me," she says, giggling to herself at the memory before digging into her bagel. I can tell this story is going to come up a lot in the future.
"Am I allowed to tell Uncle Hunt? I promise not to give any movie spoilers. Just say we were filming a stunt, and you dropped me off a really tall filming block," she asked, pouting at me and making grabby hands for my phone. "Do you have to tell him? He's going to tease me about it forever if he knows," I whine, already knowing how smug he would be. "Yes. Either I tell him now or when we go back to New York," she said, grinning at me, making me laugh at her.
"You can ring him tonight, OK? He's at work right now," I offer, making her pout but nod nonetheless. Before I remember something, "Actually baby, Uncle Hunt doesn't even know you are filming, no one does, so you are going to have to wait until they announce you as part of the cast," I explain, watching as she pouts but doesn't argue.
"Sawyer, I am warning you I will take the sword off of you," I say sternly, watching as she ignores me and continues to fight against the dummy using her prop sword. "It's not just a sword; his name is Леонидас, and I'm practising," she replied without looking at me, continuing to fight the dummy.
"It's called what?" I ask, not understanding what she had just told me. "Леонидас," she said in a duh tone before realising she was speaking in Russian, so I had no clue what she was saying, something that she had started to do since learning new languages. "His name is Leonidas, after the famous Spartan warrior, to pay homage to the fact that Spartan warriors fought with xiphos swords. Since my character is brand new, I got to talk to Mr Stan while you were filming last week, and we worked on my character, and he let me name my sword," she explained, smiling to herself as she still continued to fight the dummy.
"Wait, you met Stan Lee and didn't tell me," I ask, not believing she had managed to keep this a secret. "Yeah, that day you filmed the party scene, right after he was done filming his cameo Mr Stan, Mr Kevin and I had a meeting about Nikita and where we all see the character going in the future. It was really fun; he signed my comic and everything," she boasted. "Why didn't you tell me that baby?" I asked, watching as the sweat ran down her forehead. "You were filming when it happened, and some of the stuff we discussed was a secret, and I forgot," she said, pausing to shrug slightly before continuing her attack on the dummy.
"Baby, come on, you need to stop." I tried to get her to stop, but she was still fighting the dummy, and I just couldn't understand why. "What's wrong, baby? Something is clearly bothering you; let's talk about it, huh?" I tried to talk her down gently, not wanting her to hurt herself overworking.
"Baby, please," I say, gently putting my hand on her shoulder, only to have to jump back as she spun around with the sword still in hand. "Sorry," she mumbled before walking over to the bench, downing her water and finally putting her sword down. "It's ok, princess, now tell me what's wrong," I ask, watching as her eyebrows furrow and she looks deep in thought. "Your phone rang while you were shooting, and I was ignoring it, but the person rang three times, so I thought it must be important, so I answered it," she says slowly.
I watch as distress fills her eyes, and she takes a deep breath before continuing, "It was, um, it was Miss Smith. My old social worker, um, apparently, um," she stuttered before a single tear rolled down her cheek. "It's ok, baby, take a deep breath, then start again," I say, pulling her off the bench and onto my lap.
"Miss Smith says Cooper is appealing his sentencing, and he might get let out. And um, the last thing that Cooper said to me was that, um, was that the minute he was free, he would, um, track me down and, um, finish me off, um, for good," she managed to croak out before breaking down into sobs.
As soon as she said that, my blood ran cold. No way in hell am I going to let that monster roam free. As soon as I calm Sawyer down, I am going to ring the best lawyers I can find in both the States and England, not to mention getting her a restraining order valid in both countries against him. I will die before I let that scumbag anywhere near her again.