The Actor (Benedict Cumberbatch fan fiction) [Completed]

Africa

I woke up at around 9am, Benedict was sound asleep. I got out of bed, and got in the shower - despite the good things of the day before, I had to leave to Africa for the documentary. I'd leave the last episode of Sherlock to be directed by a friend of mine, I hate it when schedules cross - but that's work.

I got out of the shower, put on my clothes and saw Benedict still sleeping like a baby on his comfortable bead. So I made my way to the living room in search of my phone, just to check if someone had called me. I went downstairs and was surprised by the door opening.

A woman walked in like if it were her home. She left a bag at a side, closed the door, got her sunglasses off and looked at me.

"Who are you?", she snapped first. I walked to the sofa to pick my things up.

"Um, hi...", I said awkwardly, trying not to make too much eye contact with her, "Who are you?", she walked in, closer to me.

"I am Benedict's girlfriend, of course", she said with a smile, so I smiled back.

"Nice to meet you. I'm the director for Sherlock, the TV show"

"You've been helping Ben with his lines?"

"Yes, as usual", what a lie. I finished gathering my things, "Well, I have to go", and that's when we both heard Benedict come downstairs. The girl ran up to him and kissed him, he was very surprised and pushed her away

"What are you doing here?", he asked her, puzzled.

"I have to leave", I said before she answered. I smiled awkwardly at them both and walked as fast as I could out of the place. I cursed under my breath a few times as I got a cab. My phone would buzz every ten minutes, and that was either Benedict calling or messaging me - so I shut the mobile off.

My bag was waiting for me, as I had packed a few days in advance, and left to the airport. I walked around the place waiting for my flight, I got breakfast and tea instead of coffee, for a change. I met up with the crew a few hours later when I got to Ethiopia, it was a seven hour flight, so I got there late at night.

I hit bed as soon as I could and rested my ass off, because the next day we had to survive a long 6 hour car ride to where the tribe resides. We all packed snacks to eat through the ride, and we saw many animals on the way. I got some nice, candid photographs of them.

"So, how did it go at the concert the other night?", my friend, Mary, asked. I smiled by the thought of it all, until I remembered what had happened in the morning.

"Heck, I don't even know", I said, unsure of how to feel. Everything had gone by too fast and I didn't have gotten the time to stop and think about it. 

"What?" , she laughed. Mary is a good friend, who loves independent work, but also works for the NatGeo. We've been friends for years, and she obviously knew everything that was going on in my life.

"It went great, it was wonderful. Until his girlfriend appeared the next morning in his house, out of nowhere", she opened her eyes wide.

"The hell?", I nodded in agreement.

"Right? I don't know... I really like him, and he likes me too. But I am no one's plan b", I shook my head softly trying to believe that his girlfriend was a lie. That was supposed to be his ex, the one he told me about. For how long had they been together? Did they really break up? I was disappointed, mad and sad - all at once. I thought Benedict was different.

The tribe welcomed us with a dancing ritual accompanied by percussion from their hand-made drums and things. They all sang along and jumped around, we also had to jump with them, so I filmed that with a small point-and-shoot.

After the welcoming ceremony, their leader, Taku, led us all to the center of the village where a big tree resided and gave us some shade to bare with the hot weather. They offered us food, and we all ate in silence as a way of saying thank you. It was antelope and it was good.

We were supposed to stay with the tribe for a month, making sure we filmed their daily activities, unusual events and their medicine treatments.

The day for us started at 4:15am, to get ready for the day. At 5:00am, the elders would wake up and meditate for thirty minutes or so before heading to the old big tree and sing songs to their gods - and this would wake everyone up to have breakfast around 6:15 (if there was any, which was barely any day).

The men would go hunting or practice their hunting skills on the village, while the women took care of the kids and harvested whatever they could due to the dryness of the land. The elders would teach the little ones the old songs, so they would sing it to their children in a few years time.

When it was time to see the tribe in action with the medicinal ritual, it was a one of a kind experience. A man got wounded by an antelope, and he had a bad opening in his right leg. An elderly woman and her daughters gathered some specific plants, mashed them in together, and rubbed it in the man's wound as he screamed from the pain. They later proceeded to get lion's blood (which they kept on a secret, sacred place), and rubbed it on the edges of the wound as the women sang a song. The man was able to walk perfectly as soon as they were over with the ritual. The crew and I were so impressed, we couldn't believe our eyes.

"Emily, you've got mail", Mary told me one afternoon.

"Mail? How do we even get mail? This is so far away from civilization", she shrugged and handed me the envelope.

"A man just delivered it. Who is it from?", I looked at the envelope with happiness and sadness, not knowing what to expect.

"Benedict", I said coldly.

"Oh! Open it then! Read it!", I laughed at her excitement. And then she understood I needed a moment on my own, so she left.

I sat there for a few minutes with the letter on my hand, wondering how he managed to get the envelope delivered to me, somewhere in Africa, far away from everything. We didn't even have phone signal over there, probably one line, but that had to be used for an emergency.

I opened the envelope and got the letter out. His handwriting was pretty, there were no visible mistakes, the paper was clean and I actually liked the fact that he took his time to write it. It had been three weeks since I left London.