Milkshake Hearts

Chapter 97: Worrying

A/N: Some insight into my writing process: I pre-outline everything in this fic. I outlined this little section of plot when I was in hospital a few months back due to some of my own health issues. I then wrote this at a time when those issues were causing me a lot of difficulty. Because of that, it got rather long and wordy. This chapter is intentionally much longer than usual to keep the similar subject matter together, because it just made more sense for flow reasons. Also, nothing I say in this should be taken as anything like medical advice – I borrowed the ideas from a friend who does get migraines like this, but my own health problems are quite different and I am not a medical professional in any sense.

Anyway, on to the fic!

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Shayne messes around with the kitchen portions of the awkward first dates shoot, a little – it's the first time he's got to just fuck around and do something stupid, in this case, making out with a mango, for far too long – but a while in, he suddenly has an urge that tells him they need to finish the shoot. They do just that, then, and he banters back and forth with Kevin as they wander back towards the main office space. The rest of the cast seem to be entering from the larger sets in the opposite direction, the EBE shoot evidently also finished, and the office fills with loud chatter as they do.

As is often the case, Shayne's eyes shift around the office in search of Courtney, expecting to see her at her desk – only, her chair is empty. He figures she's just popped out for a moment, though, and he moves to sit at his own desk and begrudgingly look at emails for a while before they finish for the day, chatting aimlessly with the people around him as they all do the same.

"Hey, where's Court?" he asks, casually, when her desk is still empty five minutes later, glancing back over at her desk as he does. He notices her phone sitting on the desk, and it confuses him – she always has her phone in hand.

"Oh, she wandered out of here just when we were coming in, maybe editing room or something?" Jackie answers him, Shayne nodding, accepting the answer, although in his mind something just feels... off. He tries to turn back to scrolling through his emails, but he can't focus, the thread of worry growing continually larger in his mind. He huffs in frustration with himself – why the hell is he being like this? She'll just be off talking to someone else. It's fine, he's never got like this before...

"What's up, buddy?" Damien grabs his attention, voice low, when Shayne again glances at Courtney's empty desk with a furrowed brow. He shifts his eyes up to meet Damien's, sitting over the other side of where Courtney should be.

"I dunno, man..." Shayne sighs, almost whispering and shifting his chair over towards Courtney's, "normally I'd think nothing of her being wherever at work but I just... my brain's being weird, I was off shooting this stupid mini sketch and I suddenly felt like I had to get back in here immediately, and then now I'm just... worrying so hard. She's probably just off chatting to Tommy or whatever but something just feels off. And she left her phone behind, which is not normal."

"Then let's go look for her," Damien whispers, before adding, louder, "hey, Shayne, we gotta talk to Tommy about that Damien and Shayne show idea – let's go now?"

Shayne gives him a grateful nod, standing up from his own desk and subtly grabbing Courtney's phone to put in his pocket as he follows Damien off in the direction of the editing room. He figures if she's hiding somewhere having a panic attack, which is his current worry, she would appreciate being able to fiddle with her phone as she comes out of it.

"Hey, Tommy!" Damien greets him, brightly, doing the same to Bridget and Kevin, also working away in the dark editors' room. There is no one else in the room, but Damien starts up a conversation with Tommy about nothing in particular anyway.