Quiet Backstage: A Series of Lippa Oneshots

Pinkie Promise

Pippa knew Lin was an ambitious one going into all of this. She knew all he wanted was his show on Broadway, and he would sacrifice almost anything and everything to get it there. Lately, she’s noticed Lin looking more tired, and not giving his all in rehearsals like he usually did.

“You ready?” Pippa approached Lin, who was leaning against the wall in the wings. They were preparing to rehearse the scene, Helpless.

“Of course.” He smiled, but still his eyes and body language showed his exhaustion.

Halfway through the scene, Lin began to feel dizzy and soon, the room started becoming spotty. In a split second, Lin dropped. He had passed out. Jonathan quickly jumped onto the stage from his place in the seats, and cast members started flooding the wings. “Groff, go call Vanessa, I'll stay here.”

“Got it!” He called and ran to his phone. Soon, a theater medic jumped on stage next to Phillipa.

“Hi.” The medic, who Pippa soon learned was named Mark, started. He started asking her pretty basic questions, ones she could answer with ease, but she froze up at two certain ones. “Has he been eating and sleeping regularly?” The medic studied Pippa’s facial expressions, and how her eyes shot down to Lin’s shut ones. “Phillipa?”

“I mean…” She started. “He did look really exhausted this morning...and he did skip lunch yesterday, and--" Her sentence was cut short by Jonathan running back onto the stage from the wings.

“Pip, I couldn't reach her, y’know she went on that business trip, right? She could still be on her flight. I don't know when her flight left.” He ran his hand up the back of his neck. Pippa nodded and looked back down at Lin.

“Listen,” Mark began. “He looks like he's going to be okay. He’s just exhausted and dehydrated, but he's okay.”

Pippa sighed a sigh of relief. “Good. No, that's great. Thank you so much.”

“Of course.” Mark smiled and made sure they were okay with him leaving before he did. Pippa knew she would just have to get on Lin about this. She'd have to get on him about sleeping and eating better. He always told the cast to take care of themselves, but this whole time, he’d been slipping up on following his own advice.

Lin woke up a mere few minutes later, to see Pippa sitting next to him. Actually, the first thing he saw was the bright stage lights above him. “What happened? Is Seb okay? Is Vanessa okay?” Lin sat straight up.

“Hi. Yeah, Sebby’s okay. And Vanessa is too. She’s on her flight now. She was going to Minnesota on business, remember?” Pippa smiled. She found it adorable how that was the first thing he thought of.

“Pippa?” Lin asked, dazed.

“Yep, it's Pippa.”

“What happened? Are you okay?” A look of panic flashed across his face.

“Yes, Lin. I'm okay, Groff is okay, Lac is okay, the whole cast is okay, but you, My Love, you were being stubborn, that's what happened.”

“Me? Stubborn? Never!” He laughed gently.

“Yes. Lin-Manuel, you’re the one who worked himself to exhaustion, and fainted, so, yes, stubborn.” Lin looked down. “You're always telling us to take care, and you not practicing what you preach worries me. What if this happened when nobody was around? You have to start taking better care of yourself. What you always tell us about sleeping, eating, and drinking water, you need to start doing that.” Pippa smiled a genuine smile.

“I promise, Pip. I promise I'll start taking better care.” Lin said and held up his left pinkie. “I pinkie promise.” The two locked pinkies.

“Thank you.”