The Dress - an Iain de Caestecker Fanfiction

Chapter 22: One Year Later

The next year flies by. You enjoyed a wonderful honeymoon in Venice, after which you and Iain moved in to your own place in Scotland, though you kept your small L.A. apartment for use during filming. And you're still keeping in touch with your family in Michigan, though you're generally too busy to visit.

The show is still going strong, and you and Chloe have been working on the choreography for your first big stunt since your accident a year and a half ago. So far you had used your stunt-double extensively, but this was just a fight scene, no flying through the air, no wire-work at all. Just punches and kicks and tossing each other over your shoulders. You could handle this.

You hear your alarm, shrilly breaking through your rest. You groan, slapping the snooze button and rolling over, snuggling closer to your husband. Even after a year, you smile a goofy smile at the thought of being his wife.

"Come on, love, we have to get up." He whispers into your hair, kissing the top of your head,

You grunt,

"No, we have to get up now or we'll be late for call." As he sits up, he pulls you with him, but you droop forward, trying to burrow back into the covers. He laughs and pulls you out of bed with him,

"5 am is ungodly." You whine, he helps you get dressed in your tired state, but as he pulls your night shirt over your head, he lets his hands linger on your shoulders, your sides, they play across your torso, and he plants a soft kiss on the side of your neck, "You are actually trying to help me get ready to go, right?" You giggle,

"You're awake, aren't you?" He whispers, wrapping his arms around you from behind,

"Maybe too much so. And you seem rather awake, yourself." You lean into him. Feeling how 'awake' he really is. His hands slides down your stomach to the waistband of your pajamas and you're seriously considering calling in sick when your phone pings, his following closely, and you each find a text saying your call time has been moved back to 8 am due to a set and prop issue and to enjoy the extra sleep.

You look sideways at Iain, but he's already back by your side, kissing you hungrily, laying you back on the bed, letting his hands roam even farther.
Extra sleep. Sure.
.
.
.
When the two of you do finally make it to set, you're definitely not more rested, but at least you aren't late. It doesn't take long for everyone to get going with the scenes, and your memory has improved so much over the last year that you're actually feeling better than new. But now comes the fight scene. You're more than a little nervous, regardless of how well you know the moves or how many times you rehearsed the scene. All it takes is one misstep.
Take one. Chloe slips and lands on her hip. She laughs.
Take two. Perfect, but they need another angle,
Take three. You and Chloe get twisted up and have to restart. You start to loosen up, feeling alright with how secure you feel.
Take eight. You're tired, Chloe's tired. It's lunchtime, so everyone is ready to take a break. You catch every step, dodge when you're supposed to, punch and miss when you're supposed to, Chloe grabs your arm, you're rolling over her back and hitting the floor, just like every other time. Except now there is a blinding pain shooting through your arm. You're not sure if you scream, but before you know it, several people are by your side.
"My arm! My arm! I can't move it!" You repeat, trying to breathe through the pain. You see stars and you can't think straight. An EMT steps in to check what happened,
"It's dislocated." He reports, calmly, "You're probably going to want to hold on to something, this is going to hurt, but you'll feel better when it's done, okay?" You think you nod your assent, Iain takes your hand and bracing himself for your death grip. He strokes your hair out of your face, the gesture surprisingly soothing. Then pain.
Starbursts of light explode behind your clenched eyelids as the EMT guides your arm back into its socket. You squeeze Iain's hand, trying to stay still, clenching your teeth, determined not to scream. Then it's over.
The medic folds your arm across your chest, giving you a temporary sling and helps you up, slowly, so they could take you to get an x-ray and quick check up, just to ensure nothing else had been injured.
"Hey, at least I'm conscious this time." You toss over your shoulder, so to speak, causing some chuckles from the folks staying behind.
"No more stunts for you, young lady." Clark jokes as you walk past him, you're leaning on Iain the pain still intense enough that you don't trust your legs to work properly, he keeps his arm wrapped around your waist helping you to the car. You really have to figure out how to be more careful.
After the drive to the hospital, the wait, and filling out forms, you have a headache and the pain in your shoulder, though dull, is becoming increasingly more prevalent.
"Good afternoon, Mrs. de Caestecker," your doctor steps into the waiting room to greet you. You stand to shake her hand but you waver just a bit as the blood rushes to your head, the doctor reaches for your good elbow to help steady you. She watches you for a moment, looking slightly concerned, "let's take you back and check out that shoulder." Iain is asked to wait as you are taken to an exam room, you smile at him, letting him know you're alright, and he reluctantly sits.
Iain waits for what seems like hours to him, not knowing what's going on, or how badly you're hurt. He takes a breath to calm himself. Of course you're fine. It's essentially a check up, nothing was broken, you didn't have a concussion, there was no seizure involved this time, but he kept having flash backs to the last time around. He shakes the thoughts from his head. Of course you're fine.
"Mr. de Caestecker?" A nurse calls as she walks in,
"Yeah." He says standing up, she gestures for him follow her.
You don't look at him when he enters the exam room, your arm is in a new, sturdier, sling and you're leaning your weight on your good arm, you're head hangs forward.
His heart skips a beat at the grim scene.
"I'm sorry for the wait Mr. de Caestecker, but I had to run a few extra tests." He looks at the doctor, blood draining from his face, what could possibly have happened now?
"When standing made her dizzy, I got curious about something. While dizziness can be caused by many harmless factors, one of which could be shock wearing off after an injury, I didn't want to take the risk and assume there wasn't another cause. As far as I can tell, the bones in her shoulder are completely sound, all the pain she has described in her arm is perfectly normal--"
"Wait, as far as you can tell? You didn't x-ray her shoulder?" He asks, somewhat angrily,
"No, we couldn't..." The doctor trails off, looking at you. You glance up at her, nod, and stare back down at your shoes. She looks unsure for a moment, before passing Iain a small slip of paper. He stares at it, confused, trying to make sense of it.
"What am I looking at?" He asks, afraid it's a tumor of some sort,
"A sonogram." You say, looking at him for the first time since he walked in, you can't contain your smile anymore and it slowly grows until you can't smile any bigger. You hold your breath.
He's still confused.
"You, my darling, are going to be a daddy." You whisper.
He doesn't react for the longest time, you start to wonder if maybe he isn't as excited as you thought he would be.
"You're... We're..." You nod, slowly.
Finally he yelps out a laugh and scoops you up, forgetting your shoulder,
"Iain! Iain! Arm!" He jumps back quickly, apologizing, he kisses your forehead, your cheeks, your nose, he puts his hand in your lower belly, as though he would already be able to feel something. He can't stop smiling and you could swear he's about to pass out from his excitement. The doctor and nurse just watch, amused. Ah, the enthusiasm of a new father.
The entire ride home he wants to talk about baby names, but you just can't do it, you're too busy just enjoying the experience. You don't think you've ever seen him so happy, even on your wedding day, though this is pretty close. You just sit and watch him from the passenger seat,
"What about Adelaide?" You shrug your good shoulder. Not too bad. "Shannon?" You wrinkle your nose, he laughs, "Okay... Leona?"
"Oh, I like that one. But you do know it may be a boy, right?" His smile gets even bigger,
"Brendan?" You smile, smoothing his hair back, he leans into your hand,
"I love you, Iain." He takes your hand, kissing the back, and looks you in the eyes,
"I love you too."

alS+