The Dress - an Iain de Caestecker Fanfiction

Chapter 6: Head in the Clouds

Filming completed at the end of the next month, you were all going to get three months off and then the press tour started. After a night of celebration, thanks to Ming, you and Iain find yourselves standing in the airport, trying to say goodbye. His flight was an hour later than yours, and they were both at the same end of LAX, so he insisted on walking you to your gate.

"I'll call you when I land, what's the time difference between Boston and Glasgow?" He asks,

"Five or six hours, I think." You reply, "We'll also email, maybe you'd be able to text me?" he scrunches his nose slightly,

"The rates are insane. Skype, though, for sure, and facetime. And I know how much you love getting letters." He pulls back from the hundredth hug he's given you today, and looks you straight in the eyes, "we'll make this work. And we get to see each other in three months, yeah? The time'll fly."

"Three months." You nod, trying to convince yourself, and force a smile. You hear them call your section for boarding and turn toward the gate, but you freeze and turn back, pulling Iain to you one more time. You give him a goodbye kiss that was maybe a little less hopeful than you had intended. You are still a little unnerved about that comment Elizabeth made last month, but you can't bring yourself to talk to Iain about it, not until you at least figure out what it might mean for the two of you. And now you have a five and a half hour flight to think it over. You pull back and he wavers a little bit.

"Wow." He mutters, a goofy smile plastered on his face. He tucks some of your hair behind your ear, takes one more good look at you and picks up his bags. "I'll call you when I land." He says again, you nod and he's on his way, you board your flight without letting yourself look back again.

The entire flight you think about how serious your relationship is. You've been dating a month, which is still a bit early to say where it would go, but you are both adults who are getting to the point where casual dating isn't all that appealing. At least for some, and he seemed to be one of those interested in more. Iain is one of your best friends now, which is a great place for a relationship to start, but taking it beyond friendship, the two people can rarely go back if things get too serious. So your bottom line was, above all, you wanted maintain your friendship with Iain. You want to be closer than just a friend, but you don't want a husband. And you don't want children. After seeing your mother deal with the abusive deadbeat that was your father, and then watching your sister follow suit with her two ex-husbands, the last thing you were going to do was be a part of that cycle, so you decided a long time ago, soon after your father drank himself to death, that no matter how nice someone seemed, marriage was off the table. The question was, are the two of you too new to this relationship to bring this up now? Or would it be better to get it out of the way before things go too far?

Your connecting flight is delayed by five hours, you get stuck next to a baby on the second flight, causing a migraine. You finally land in Boston and catch a cab back to your apartment. Your home almost feels like an old memory after living in a hotel room for eight months, like you're stepping into a picture of one of your favorite places. It almost doesn't feel real. After the party last night, the goodbyes, the flights and your brain working on overthinking your situation in every way possible, you can't even bring yourself to unpack, so you just flop onto the couch, still wearing coat and shoes. Last time you looked at the clock it was around 10:30am. Somewhere in The back of your mind, you remember that Iain should be calling in an hour or so. You close your eyes for a second and relax, and when you open them, the clock reads 3pm. You jump up from the couch, instantly regretting it when your back and neck scream. You must remember not to sleep on this couch again. You fish your phone out of your coat pocket and find 12 texts, 4 missed calls, and a voicemail. A glance at the texts tells you they're all from Boston friends welcoming you home. A missed call from your best friend here in town, two from 800 numbers, and the last from Iain. You pull up your voicemail.

"Evening, love. Plane landed, I'm on my way home. I really thought I'd catch you. By my math it should be about 1 in the afternoon there, but oh well. I know how exhausting traveling can be, especially after workin' so much. If you could call me back soon, it'd be nice, just wanna know you made it home alright. Talk to you later love." 3pm now. You check the difference, should be 8pm there. If his flight experience was anything like yours you know he'll need the extra sleep. You decide to leave it until tomorrow. Emailing him instead that you made it back safely and promptly passed out on the couch. Insisting you didn't want to risk waking him or cutting into family time by calling.

When the email is sent, you tromp down the hallway to your room and don't even have the energy to get properly ready for bed, but your attempt at sleep proves restless and not until the sunset paints your walls pink, orange and yellow are you able to fall asleep.

You dream of Iain.