Pause

Rewatch

"So you coming?"

"Yeah." As soon as Sam said those words, he could feel everyone shift even though he couldn't bear to look left.

At the beginning of the scene, everyone was acting. Taliesin and Travis sipping their drinks to avoid any awkwardness as Liam and Marisha exchanged worried glances while he and Laura went back and forth. Matt's face was impassive for the longest time until he realized that Sam was serious. Liam started to really cry and the Laura started to yell; and then Taliesin started to yell, a real Tal yell that made Sam's heart break just enough that he started to have second thoughts, and Marisha started to cry. Travis was pissed, he could see it in the brace of his elbows on the table.

"Grab your things," Matt nodded.

He's watching it all back of course, the next afternoon at home in his basement while his wife and family are out of the country on another crazy shoot for his wife's blossoming career. They've already been gone a few months, but the house still felt as empty as it did before. It isn't anything unusual, but he still misses them.

The emptiness of the house is nothing to the emptiness in his chest. The looks on the screen in front of him break him more than he wants it to and more than he's ever going to admit. Laura's shocked, furious, open-mouthed stare which Marisha mirrored in her look to Matt, but with less fury than she actually felt later. Taliesin had drained his whole glass of scotch in one gulp while Travis physically looked away from him, unable to halt the anger in his hands as he gripped the pencil. But it was Liam's heart visibly breaking on screen, the scrunch of his face blossoming into real tears.

PAUSE

Sam has to stop before it goes any further. He'd made them cry. All of them. And not as their characters, but as Taliesin and Marisha and Liam and Laura and Travis. Matt knew that he was thinking about making big change for Scanlan, of course, but he could still sense Matt's confusion and hurt when the words came out. And then they had been mad. All of five of them. Laura and Sam had fought before because they were two explosive personalities that clashed when it came to certain things. Taliesin and Sam had more angry conversations instead of the yelling and mad gesturing that was completely Laura. Sam could count on one hand the amount of times that Travis and Matt had been mad at him, but needed two hands with Marisha. He did indeed know how to push buttons.

But Liam...

Fast-forward through the shit storm he thinks to himself, taking a huge swig from his wine glass. He hits the point where they went through the sun tree and smiles. Of course, Laura fucking Bailey...Laura Bailey with harp music...would be the one to figure it out first. He smiles to himself as she looked suspiciously at Sam during Matt's description.

"You there!"

PAUSE

The non-Scanlan voice sounds weird in his ears as he pauses it to memorize their reactions. It was rare that he catches them off guard, so when he did, he revels in it. Incredulous shock from Laura; joyous shock from Marisha, directed at a smug Matt who sipped his glass; wide-eyed subdued joy from Travis and Liam; calculating pride from Tal, even though he knew it would just seem like a Percy stare to the audience at home. Liam and Taliesin recovered the quickest as Laura turned back to Travis who was now staring at him for the first time with a smirk.

For a moment, everything was back to normal. Marisha beamed, her wide sunshine smile as Laura crossed into anger and threw a tissue at him and cursed at him. Tal laughed, loudly and without thinking as Liam assisted Laura's toss. Travis morphed from unsure to laughing wildly and back to staring at him with his usual joy. They start making things difficult for him. Laura glares again and starts demanding money as Travis tries to get things back on course. But their laughing and smiling again, and they're looking at him with those looks of adoration in their eyes.