In These Arms

Chapter 13

Ian rubbed his eyes wearily and picked his iPhone up from the bedside table. It was 4:30am and he'd had no sleep. Lucy had slept soundly for about half an hour and then she began tossing and turning the day's events obviously playing on her mind, she'd finally settled down around 4am. He put his phone back down and closed his eyes when he heard Lucy whimpering, his eyes opened and he looked down towards her she was still asleep but she was obviously distressed. He moved his hand up to her back and gently ran his fingers up and down it trying to calm her but her whimpering grew louder. He started whispering "Ssshhh," hoping that that might work. He felt her hand grip his upper arm where it had been resting her eyes snapped open, and she looked up at him tears already forming in her eyes.

Ian wrapped his arms around her again and pulled her closer to him.

"I had a dream," she whimpered, "that he released the tape and my mom was so disappointed in me, she said I was an embarrassment and at Maggie's wedding everybody was talking about me and shaking their heads. It was horrible."

He tenderly kissed her forehead, and brushed some hair off her face, "You know that your mom loves you no matter what Luce, you could never be an embarrassment to her."

Lucy sniffed and nodded her head, "I know," she replied, "but it felt so real and the look on my mom's face...."she brought her hands up to her face and started crying again. Ian kissed the top of her head and whispered soothingly to her. He had no idea what he could do to help her other than reassure her that everything would be okay. But the truth was he didn't know that it would be, whilst he had no doubt that Lucy's family wouldn't treat her any differently or think bad of her if the tape was leaked, he was worried about what might happen to her job. He knew that the head of the network had assured Lucy her job was safe, but had people above him who might have a different view on the matter.

It was just before 6am when Lucy finally fell back to sleep; and Ian felt his own eyes drifting closed too. All too soon he heard her phone begin to vibrate on the bedside table next to him, he knew that he had a few seconds of silence before the song started so he picked it up quickly and switched the alarm off. He made a decision earlier that he would call Marlene and see if she could reschedule Lucy's morning scenes, there was no way he was going to let her go in this morning after the restless night she'd had. He slowly lifted her head from his chest and lowered it down onto the pillow, he waited for a few seconds to see if she stirred once he knew that she wasn't going to he got out of bed, picked his phone up from the bedside table and quietly left the room.

The first thing he did was feed Jack and fill his water bowl with fresh water; then he walked into his living room and called Marlene.

"Ian," Marlene said as she answered, "How's Lucy?"

"Not good," Ian replied, "she's barely slept, she's finally sleeping now and I was wondering if her morning scenes could be rescheduled? I know it's inconvenient..."

"It's not a problem really. Lucy's wellbeing is more important." Marlene said, "Let me just check her call sheet."

Ian stood and walked into the kitchen again, he could hear Marlene rustling papers on the other end of the phone. He started up the coffee maker and leaned against the counter.

"Okay," Marlene said, "I can shuffle her morning scenes with Cody and Shay, but I'm not going to be able to do anything about her afternoon scenes. We'd have far too much catching up to do if I moved them too."

"No," Ian replied, "that's perfect. I just want her to get some sleep. What time will she need to be in this afternoon?"

"3pm," Marlene said, "She has three scenes in total, so she shouldn't be here too late."