Saving Grace. {completed}

Chapter 1

"I told you I would do that stunt, and now there is a man dead because of me!" Jason thumped his hand on the desk.

Guy stood up from the desk, when his friend was angry even he was a little afraid of him at times, "I told you that was impossible no insurance company would touch it with a barge pole, it wasn't your fault, he knew the risks."

Jason passed the office, like a caged animal, he was angry, ashamed and devasted, there was dark gloom in the room even though the sun beat through the window of the high rise Hollywood office.

"Did he have a family?" Jason stopped in his tracks and turned sharply to face his director.

"Yes, but they know the risks too, you don't go into being a stunt double not knowing," Guy moved towards his friend and was about to place a comforting hand on Jason's shoulder, Jason shrugged it off, he didn't want comfort, he needed to feel the pain and anger that he was.

"I'll pay for the funeral and anything else that the family needs, I was supposed to do that stunt, I've done my own before." Jason threw himself on to the leather sofa with the agility of a tiger, sleek, muscular and controlled.

"You don't need to do that the company will and he was insured." Guy, walked over to the drink stand and poured two large whisky's, he held out one to Jason, who took it and downed it without flinching, even though it burned his throat.

"I don't but I will, did he have kids?"

"Don't torture yourself, it wasn't your fault, it was an accident, no one could have prevented it." Guy sipped at his drink his eyes on Jason as if waiting for him to make a sudden move.

"Well someone should have prevented it, it's not fucking right, for Christ sake, how could this happen?"

"I'm still waiting on the official report, you know how these things go, anyway, the filming has stopped and I'm not sure when we will be running again..." Guy paused, as he thought briefly, "Why don't you go home, take a break, go on holiday, relax while you got the time."

"Go on holiday!" Jason stood, he thought that he might explode with grief and anger, how could he go on holiday when he knew someone was dead because of him?

"Ok, ok... but just listen for one minute... Jason, as a friend, just listen... you need time to process this and it could get messy with the press and if you won't think of yourself think of his family, they won't want brooding pictures of you splashed across the papers."

Jason stood still as he thought, this wasn't about him or his feelings it was about the poor sod that bought his one way ticket off the earth.

His shoulders slumped as if the grief took over and the anger left him exhausted. "Where would I go?"

"Look, it won't be a flash place or hotel, I got a small house, call it a retreat if you like I bought it years ago, before I even came to Hollywood, it's in a quiet town in the UK, not actually a million miles from where you grew up, but far enough away if you don't want to visit, think of it as a nostalgic trip home to the UK, regroup with yourself."

"What about Caron, I can't just up and go and leave her to deal with all this?"

"I think you'll find Caron can take care of herself, she's a model isn't she, last I heard she was flying of to Milan anyway."

This was true, it slightly worried Jason, that Guy knew more about his girlfriend's movements than he did. Maybe time out wouldn't be so bad, it had been a long time just moving from one location to another, filming one scene after another, "just exactly where is this place?"

Guy smiled, he was getting through to his friend, "Brentwood, Essex, it's a 3 bed house, on a close, neighbours, are great, well they were when I last went there."