"The Mixtape in Your Heart" (3/?)
Title: The Mixtape in Your Heart (3/?)
Pairing: Robert Downey Jr./Jude Law
Genre: Romance/drama
Rating: Hard R-ish (for right now)
Warning: Language, mush, with a side of slight angst, real-person slash, some vaguely adult/mature situations
Disclaimer: Everybody owns themselves! I'm pretty sure if they knew I was writing this, they'd have to sue me, so yeah - I'll happily claim nothing and stay un-sued!
Summary: In the midst of pre-prod prep, it seems like everybody's missing somebody. Except for Jude, who's still missing someone, anyway. Oh, and we also get to meet "Sasha".
A/N: The timeline on this story is going to be hella confusing, not gonna lie. It's going to be all over the place - the past, the present, the future, and the future in a completely different Jude/Robert sort of AU of the movie, but hopefully it won't cause too much whiplash!
The rehearsal space was big and ugly and Rose confided in them that it would, ultimately - with the help of the production design elves and a few indiscriminate splashes of paint - be transformed into Jamie's flat. When Rose gave them the brief and uneventful tour, it was barely recognizable as Jamie's disaster-area of a home studio: a large, empty space torn down to its brick wall skin and the wooden bones of its studs, with nothing more than a couple of large sheets of plywood propped up between saw horses to make a half-assed meeting table in the center of the space. The only other thing about the place that made it stand out was the large skylight that had been installed in the vaulted ceiling, spilling sunshine on the dirty hardwood floor - perfect for an artist's loft, because of all the wonderful natural light.
The chairs were uncomfortable, cold metal, the folding sort that chaperones would set up for a school dance. There was a room barely big enough to count as a closet - Rose explained they'd already gotten permits to knock out a portion of one of the walls and expand the space for Jamie's bathroom. Then she took them up the stairs to show them a tiny, shadowed loft space - just big enough for a bed and not much else - with a small window that cast a surprising amount of interesting-looking light through its textured, candy-colored glass. There, she told them, was where Jamie's bedroom would be.
Robert stood, hands on hips, nodding as he listened, and he stretched his leg, the sole of his sneaker gliding back and forth over the puddle of light on the floor.
"If there's one thing I can tell you - one directive I can throw at you from on high," Rose said when they finally sat down together around the 'table', a wry quirk of her lips contradicting the arrogance of the statement, "it's this: learn the script. Learn it backwards and forwards, upside down - in a foreign language, if you want. Whatever it takes to make it easier for you to retain, you can do it. Just so long as you know it."
"I memorized all my dialogue for a screen test once by making up one long mnemonic device using the first letter of each word. That count?" Robert asked. He was leaning his elbows on the plywood, chin almost even with the wood surface as he scribbled in the margin of his script. Jude peeked surreptitiously over his shoulder as Rose spoke, watching as Robert jotted down what turned out to be chicken-scratchy musical notes. Jude wasn't sure if they were for a song Robert was already working on, or if Robert was simply bored - or if he was composing a song on his copy of the script because he was bored.
Hearing Robert's words, Rose blinked. Jude turned to look at him and stared. They both did.
"Jesus," Jude murmured under his breath, eyes wide.
Robert looked at him askance, shoulder lifting in a shrug. "What? I had three months to prepare for it 'cause nobody else would hire me. I had lotsa time on my hands."
"Well, that... works!" Rose granted him, still looking pole-axed. When she'd recovered a bit, she looked over at Jude. "Seems obvious, like I shouldn't have to tell an actor to memorize his lines - especially you two - but it'll be a huge help. I wanna capture experiences and reactions from you two that are as genuine as possible, as often as possible. Give me a strong, believable reaction that's not perfectly on-script and I'll take that over a flawless line-reading that gives me nothing that informs on these characters."
"So do we have a by-your-leave to run lines together or do you want us to hold off on that until we've got it locked?" Robert murmured, still distractedly scribbling piano notations. He was clearly paying attention and following the flow of the conversation, but his ability to divide his attention between two entirely different activities never failed to mystify and amaze Jude.
"I was tempted to split you guys up and put you up in separate hotels for the duration of the shoot," Rose said dryly. At those words, Robert and Jude looked up at her, matching expressions of comical panic on their faces. She held up both hands, having a good belly-laugh at their reactions. "But hey, if you guys think you can swing this without us going to those extremes, then even better. You're playing complete strangers who discover they have an attraction for each other. We want to downplay as much of your natural chemistry with each other as we can - at the start, in any case. If you start off like... well, like this - like you are now - then there's nowhere to go and we have no reason to make the movie. Get the idea?"
Jude took that in, shifting a bit in his seat, and glanced sidelong at Robert.
"Why, Ms. Troche, whatever could you be implying?" Robert asked, his hand settling on his chest. He pursed his lips and looked prim and affronted and.. well, very gay, for lack of a better phrase.
Rose's eyes rolled in fond exasperation as she smirked, shaking her head. Jude couldn't help but grin. The chances that Robert could use his... Robertly wiles to win this particular lady over were slim to none. She was a lesbian, after all.
"So when are the rest of the cast coming?" Jude asked, picking up a pen and tapping it on his own copy of the script. He felt it was strangely disrespectful to go about marking up Rose's script right in front of her - even though he'd already done a good job of abusing it. He didn't want to push his luck.
"We're expecting Kate in the morning. She's getting a flight from LA, early," Rose said, nodding. "Pretty much everybody else is local, but Kate had a premiere to go to, so that's why she's not here already."
"Who's she playing?" Robert asked, looking up from his script to aim a curious look at Rose.
"She's our Sasha," she said, pulling a large binder over to her. Jamming her fingers in at about three inches from the front, she opened the binder up on the casting section of the whole mess. Flipping through a few sleeves of pictures, she found the right one and slid a head-shot out, setting it out in front of the two of them. "She's from Philly originally, but she lived in NYC for a while, so she knows her way around. Great kid. Really sharp."
Jude and Robert both leaned close, shoulders bumping as they studied the picture, a smile immediately twisting Jude's lips. "Oh, she's lovely!" He said brightly, reaching out to pull the photo closer. "Her eyes are stunning."
"Don't mind me. I call her 'kid'," Rose said with a sheepish grin. "She's 33, now. She was 24 when we met, so she'll always be a kid, to me."
"She's exactly like I pictured Sasha in my head. Y'know, when I read the script?" Robert said with a smile as he looked up at Rose. "Philly stock, huh? Nice. So she's coming tomorrow? Can we go get her?" Robert lifted his pen, thumb clicky-clicky-clicking away at the mechanism that pushed the ballpoint out of the pen, eyebrow arching as he aimed a curious look at her. He wagged his thumb back and forth a bit to indicate himself and Jude.
Jude had picked up the head-shot, eyes skimming over the credits printed on the back of the picture. "Oh, look here - she worked with McConaughey," he said, tilting the picture so Robert could see the credits. "DeNiro, too. Bloody hell."
"Sure, you can pick her up, if you want," Rose said, that ever-present smirk never dimming as she looked at them. She let out a huff of laughter. "Though, fair warning, if she sees you guys waiting for her, she'll probably shit a brick. We were gonna send Andi over to pick her up from the airport."
"Well, now that you've said that, we have to go meet her," Robert said with a devilish grin. Sitting up, he scooted his chair closer and cli-clicked his pen again. "We've got costume fittings tomorrow, too, right? With Shelby? What time is that?"
"One," Rose replied, once she'd worked her way back a couple more inches into the binder, eyes skimming over the schedule for that week. "Kate's flight should get in just in time for you guys to make it over to Shelby's studio. You can carpool!" She shut the binder with a resounding slam - though that was a result of the weight of the thing rather than any applied force on her part. "Andi's got Kate's hotel stuff together already and her gate information. She can email you guys what she has."
"Have Andi email it to me - I've got my Blackberry," Jude said, holding up his phone.
"Okay," she said, nodding as she scribbled a reminder for herself. "I wanted to get the fringe stuff out of the way, first. That way, as soon as we're done with rehearsals, we can just jump right in. The first read-through with everybody's scheduled for Wednesday. Sound good?"
"Yep," Robert said, jotting down some notes of his own on the back page of his script. "So - time for recess, Madame Troche?"
"Yeah, yeah, go on, you two," Rose replied with a chuckle and a wave of her hand as she sat back in her seat. "Eat, drink, be merry - for tomorrow we start busting our collective ass."
Jude chuckled as he stood, barely biting back a groan as he felt the ache in his backside and legs as he stood up from the chair. He stretched his back to loosen the muscles and then leaned over, handing Kate's head-shot back to Rose. "Thanks," he said, smiling. "See you Wednesday."
"Yep, bright and early!" Rose agreed.
Robert was opening his mouth to grant his own farewells, when his Blackberry rang, jittering across the plywood table as it vibrated, blaring a ringtone that sounded suspiciously like a track from the Iron Man 2 score. Swiping the phone off of the table, he looked at the caller ID and his smile took on that bashful-boy aspect it usually did when he mentioned - or even thought about - Susan. Jude couldn't stop his grin as he stuffed his own phone in his pocket.
"Hey, sugarhoneybabylove," Robert sing-songed as he picked up his sunglasses and slid them on. He grabbed his script and tucked it under his arm, threading his arm through the strap of his bag as it rested on the table and then linking arms with Jude as the two of them headed for the door. "How's my girl? Oh yeah? Nice! Yeah, we're just leaving. Oh, wait - hang on." He stopped mid-step, giving Jude's arm a gentle tug as he twisted about. "Night, Rose!"
Rose didn't turn or speak - simply raised her arm over her head, giving an exaggerated wave in the air. Jude chuckled.
"Yeah, Rose says hi - and bye, too," Robert said, smirking as he turned back around and started for the door again, dragging Jude out into the hallway. "So, what are you up to, babe? Huh? If he what? Sorry, love, the reception in here is for shit. Fuck. Hang on. We're going downstairs right now. Give us a sec."
The two of them hurried down the couple flights of stairs. Jude broke away, taking a couple of long steps to get ahead of Robert and open the door for him. "Okay. You there? Suzie?" Robert said, bringing his phone to his ear. He flashed a bright smile at Jude as he went through, reaching up to playfully pinch his cheek as he passed. "Oh, good. Okay, what, baby?" As they stepped out onto the sidewalk in front of the building, they found themselves neck-deep in city noise and Robert had to cover his right ear with his palm so he could concentrate on what his wife was saying.
Jude took a couple of steps to one side of the entrance, leaning against the wall as he pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his backpack. He held them up, silently offering the pack to Robert, but he shook his head in wordless refusal, winking at him in gratitude for the offer. Jude shook out a cigarette for himself and lit it, slouching against the bricks and making himself comfortable as Robert paced back and forth.
"Aww, man, are you serious? Fuck," Robert groaned, his free hand flopping down at his side. Sucking in a breath through gritted teeth, he stopped in his tracks and reached up, free hand scratching at his hair. "And you're sure? That long? Goddamnit. We'll be all the way done with rehearsals, by then, and into the first part of shooting!"
Drawing his cigarette from between his lips, Jude made a soft 'psst' noise to get Robert's attention, holding up his hands in the internationally recognized sign language for 'wtf?' when he looked his way.
"Hang on - ba - baby, hang on a sec," Robert said, lowering the phone once he got the okay and holding it against his chest. "Suzie said she's not gonna be here until August."
"What the - ?! Why?" Jude asked, frowning. "June's barely even started, yet! What's happened?"
"They decided to fire the writers midway into the second week and they're scrapping the entire thing! Whole entire script, gone! So now they're scrambling to find writers to replace the old ones," Robert muttered, rolling his eyes. "And so she's gotta stick around until they figure out what the fuck they're gonna do." He lifted the phone to his ear again as he crossed over to Jude, snatching the cigarette from his fingers and taking a deep drag. "Yes, I'm smoking," he grumbled to Susan even as he exhaled an arrow of smoke from his pursed lips. "I know. I just - this really sucks, babe. I wanted you to be here for when we - gah. I know. I know it's not your fault. I'm not blaming you. I'm blaming that... incomprehensible, incompetent fuckwit of a director you've managed to get yourself stuck with." Another quick puff and he was handing the cigarette back to Jude with a sheepish quirk of his lips.
"Don't worry, Susan, I'll look after him for you until you get here," Jude raised his voice a bit, loud enough so that Susan would be able to hear him over the city's din. He was rewarded with what sounded like laughter on the other end of the phone and Robert grinned, reaching out to bat at his shoulder with the back of his free hand before settling next to him, back resting against the bricks.
"Yeah, that was Judesie," he said, still grinning. "Of course." His smile started to flag a bit and he nodded, biting his lip. "Mkay. Well, call me before you go to bed. And in the morning. And if you hear anything from that schmuck of a director if he figures out whether or not he can hit his ass with both hands and some helpful suggestions. Okay. Okay - love you, too. Kay. Bye." Sighing, he lowered the phone and hit 'end', stuffing it into one of the pockets of his jeans. "This sucks."
"Sorry," Jude said softly, holding out his cigarette.
Robert took one look at it and snorted. "You're a bad influence," he muttered, eyes twinkling with amusement.
He took the cigarette, anyway.
---
"Ohhh, god," Robert moaned as he lolled on his back on the bed, "I love that part. C'mon, read that to me."
Once Robert had smoked his way through the rest of Jude's cigarette and half of another one, the two of them had decided to grab a bite to eat. They stopped off at a sushi restaurant (one of Jude's favorites) and then headed back to Jude's hotel room so they could put their heads together, going over the script and making notes.
"It is beautiful, isn't it? Rose has a way with words," Jude agreed, smiling as he leaned against the bed's intricately carved headboard, long legs stretched out along the bed and crossed at the ankles.
"You're being such a tease right now and you don't even know it," he grumbled, throwing a pouty face at Jude. As he spoke, he reached out, one hand feeling feebly across the duvet, as if straining to reach Jude's pant leg. "Look, I know what it sounds like in my head from reading the script, but you can't expect me to wait all the time it'll take for you to go and do all that voice-over stuff. Lay it on me. C'mon, please? Pretty please?"
"Oh, all right," he said, doing his best to look put-upon, although the indulgent smile was keeping the expression from being entirely convincing. He cleared his throat, flipped back through towards the start of the script and leaned his head back against the headboard, script held out in front of him. "Whenever there's a disaster or some sort of tragedy, we all feel it," he read softly. A brief glance up afforded him with a view of Robert, sprawled out width-wise on the bed, script laying on his chest, hands folded together atop it. His eyes were closed, a basking smile on his face. "Deep down, we can all feel that pain. I think it's built into us as a species. It's why some of us start crying, sometimes... without ever really knowing why. It's why others of us are plagued with bad dreams about people we'll never meet, even if our lives are - by most people's standards - happy and fulfilled."
Licking his lips, Jude paused, turned the page. "They're the things we don't have answers for - maybe because the thought of being just one drop in an ocean that's seven million drops strong starts feeling as scary as it sounds. But it's not scary - not really. We try to shut it out with work, with drink, with sex, but it's undeniable: we all fit together, are all connect to each other, like links in a bicycle chain. So when we help each other, we go forward, just like we were meant to. But the more hurt we cause each other... the more sadness we bring, the further we backpedal. The more joy we impart, the greater level of compassion we share with our fellow human animals... the more we start to feel like we're actually getting someplace."
Jude fell silent and lowered the script, eyes settling on Robert laying on the bed just a foot or so away. As he watched, Robert's eyelids slowly opened and he stared up at the ceiling, smile broadening.
"Damn," he whispered, shaking his head a little. "That's good stuff." He rolled himself onto his side to face Jude, propping himself up with his elbow. He dropped his copy of the script on the bed and reached out, hand settling on Jude's shin, patting it. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Jude murmured, ducking his head a bit as he felt his cheeks start to warm from the attention.
"This is all coming from Jamie, right?" Robert said, shifting over a little and twisting about so he was on his back again, head coming to rest on Jude's leg, using it as a pillow as he stared up at the ceiling. "This guy - he's got this life and it's all about this - just this kinda stuff. He gets to sit back and watch the way everyone else does it and decides that's not for him. He goes his own way and everybody thinks he's such a weirdo, but this is a guy who's … he's really wise, you know?" He turned his head, brow arched as he looked over at Jude.
"Yeah, I see what you mean," he agreed, trying to ignore the pleasant warmth and weight of Robert's head against him and how it made his heart slowly but surely start thudding against his ribs. "He sounds so much older than he seems. Surprised you didn't get my part, instead."
"Why do you say that?" Robert asked, genuinely wondering.
"I dunno... you've always seemed so..." he began as he sat up, doing his best to keep his legs still so that he wouldn't jostle Robert's head.
"Old?" He quipped, smirking. "Wrinkly?" He held up his hand, index finger extended, as if the perfect phrase had come to him. "Past it!"
"No!" Jude chuckled, reaching out to swat at his shoulder. Robert drew his shoulder up towards his ear, laughing as he playfully tried to bat Jude's hand away. "But... at the same time, sort of yes? I think?"
"… care to elucidate, my dear Mr. Law?" Robert invited with a slow, lazy grin as he relaxed again.
Jude hunkered down a bit further, elbow coming to rest on his knee as he rubbed thoughtfully at his bottom lip. "I remember watching you in … oh, god, what was it? It was that one - what was that one with Cybill Shepard? The guy died and came back as you later on?"
"Oh, Jesus, what is this, a pop quiz? Oh, fuck, lemme think. Was it - somethingsomething... uhhh, Chances Are! That was it."
"Yes, that was the one! Chances Are. Exactly," Jude grinned as he pointed at Robert. "When Guy called me to see if I'd be interested in meeting up with you two at Claridges to talk about Sherlock, I distinctly remember going back and watching that -"
"Ohh, god, no - Jude, you didn't!" Robert groaned, both hands coming up to cover his face.
"No, I did! I truly did and Robert... Robert," he said, reaching out to take hold of his wrists, gently drawing his hands away from his face. Even as he did so, he could see that Robert had his eyes squinched closed. "I thought you were lovely!"
"Oh, no... no! God, you just had to mention the tadpole days, didn't you? Meanie," Robert grumbled as Jude laughed and released his hands. He let his hands flop down onto his chest, draped across each other at the wrist, making him look oddly like a corpse at a mausoleum.
"You were brilliant," Jude insisted, hand settling on Robert's shoulder. His friend seemed to settle down a bit, then, finally opening his eyes to face the music, as it were. "But... I don't know. Watching you, sitting at the piano, when you were playing their song... and... and then Cybill comes in and watches you and then you looked up at her. All I could think was, Christ, he's so young, but he's got it, hasn't he? He's really got it. You had all the - the presence of someone twice your age. It was remarkable."
"Thank you," he said softly, eyes darting downward and away from Jude's face.
"You've always seemed like either the youngest old man or the oldest boy I've ever met - most of the time, it's both at the same time," Jude said with a chuckle.
"Yeah, well, you've always seemed wise beyond your years, to me, so... I guess it balances out," Robert murmured, a faint smile curling up the corners of his mouth.
"Have I?" Jude asked, blinking in surprise. "Sienna - she thought I was boring, so - you may have stumbled on something there."
"She said that?" Robert asked, eyes lifting to look at him, brows knitting together. "She said that about you?"
"Yeah," he admitted and it was his turn to look away. "She said I acted like an old man because all I wanted to do was stay at home and be with her when all she wanted to do was go out to all the glamorous parties."
"Well..." Robert began, mulling that information over and, judging by his expression, his train of thought was going no place pleasant. "She's a kid. She has a kid's taste. Maybe after she's been around for a little while longer, maybe she'll actually... y'know, develop grown-up tastes."
"Oh, right! Well, thanks very much for that!" Jude blurted, laughing.
"No, no, no - you're not understanding me. What I'm saying is that you're a taste... for more civilized palates, Jude," he said, reaching up, fingers curling around his forearm - possibly to forestall any swatting. "I've always thought so."
"Well, do you think I'm boring?" He asked, one eyebrow arching as he stared down at Robert.
"I think... you're a loving and devoted father of four mind-bogglingly cherubic children, a soft-hearted ex-husband and a hard-working actor with reliably good, solid instincts," Robert replied, his hand slipping down along Jude's forearm, palm settling against Jude's, fingers curling around the back of his hand, gently clasping it. "And you're just generally a … a funny, sweet-natured, darling human being who I'm lucky enough to call my very good friend."
"Who you're still... attracted to?" Jude asked, voice sounding impossibly hoarse. He could hardly believe his own ears, much less those bloody traitorous lips of his that had let those words slip out. Still - there was nothing he could do but hold his breath and stare at Robert.
Robert's gaze slid away from his for just a moment and Jude felt something in his chest splinter and grow cold with fear. But then, just as slowly, Robert looked up at him again, that painfully familiar, certain expression appearing on his face again. "Hopelessly," he whispered. He reached up with his free hand and lightly ran the pad of his index finger over Jude's upper lip. "Without Watson's mustache, you look so young. Just a lad."
"You're only seven years older than me, you know," Jude said with a soft chuckle.
"Pfff," he snorted. "You're seven years younger. A whole seven years, Jude. Might as well be a lifetime."
"Starting to count in dog years, are you?" Jude teased, giving Robert's hand a squeeze, coaxing a quiet chuckle from him.
Jude had thought about it, off and on - just how entirely different the flow of each their lives had been. While he had gotten endless amounts of grief from the press throughout his career for everything from one-night stands the paparazzi had caught wind of to the horrifying scandal of him not doing up a button on the fly of his jeans, Robert, by contrast, had always lived a rougher life, even for an actor.
He'd been in and out of jail for almost two years, all told, for the repeated parole violations related to his (also repeated) drug-possession infractions. Jude remembered seeing a magazine with a cover story interview with Robert in Corcoran at the grocery store at the time and he'd immediately grabbed it. The article had been surprisingly, meticulously detailed and pulled no punches, even though it had been featured in a thick fashion magazine. It was no fluff piece, by any stretch of the imagination. Jude had read it while he was in line, on the drive back to the house - lost himself in it for days.
It had been meant as a cautionary tale, if anything - especially for someone like Jude, who was in the same line of work - but, for the most part, he found his heart going out to the man. He'd never met him a day in his life, at that point, but he knew addiction was a powerful, dangerous beast to try to keep leashed. The judge on Robert's case had thrown the book at him and then the entire bookcase for good measure. Robert had been 35 when he was sentenced to three years in state prison for felony possession. Jude had been 28 and had finally had his first bona fide Hollywood hit (thanks to the brilliant Anthony Minghella), with The Talented Mr. Ripley. He might as well have been a movie star on Pluto, for as dissimilar as their lives had been, back then.
For most of the people in their line of work, prison was a faraway, fleeting thing that happened to other people. If you got arrested, at the most, you'd stay in a cell for a night and then be released the next morning. In the era of Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, however, it was becoming almost de rigeur to spend a night in jail - like a select bed-and-breakfast that just so happened to be a six-by-six holding cell.
Reading the article, it had been very easy for Jude to imagine the landscape of the place: blasted out, dry and stifling. Hopeless. Thinking about Robert, stranded out in the midst of all that, had been difficult. It was even more difficult now, trying to reconcile that man with the one laying next to him with his head in his lap.
Even so, you could see the way the experience had etched something into him, leaving behind something that hadn't been there before. Jude had never been entirely sure what that was and had always been hesitant to ask. It was something that they never talked about - something Robert only ever spoke about with journalists and television hosts who wanted to get his take on the latest drug-related scandal for some wayward starlet or some such.
-
When Robert had roped him into joining him in presenting at the Oscars, Jude had been keen to see what sort of speech Robert would whip up for them (Robert didn't trust the show's writers - not that he could blame him for that). But when Robert had handed him the bit, scribbled out on a couple of index cards in Robert's messy handwriting, and he got a load of the acerbic banter, he'd blanched. Could feel the very moment every last spare drop of blood drained from his face as he read his bits of the brief script, in fact.
"Y-you actually want me to say this? To you? In front of people?" He stammered. "Robert, are you sure?" He broke off, swallowing around the knot of panic in his throat, holding up his hand. "No, no, allow me to rephrase: Robert, are you MAD?! You can't ask me to say this. Not after that mess with Ricky Gervais. Bloody hell, the man's this far away from never working again because of the jokes he made about you at the Golden Globes! Everyone in the entire world adores you, what do you think will happen to me if I -"
It was around that time, mid-rant, that Robert gracefully, graciously and ever-so-smoothly clapped a hand over his mouth to silence him, his other hand catching hold of Jude's elbow, gently keeping him in place.
"Jude," he began quietly. "Not to dismiss your otherwise perfectly valid concerns out of hand or make you sound like a 1950s housewife who's just seen a mouse scurrying across her kitchen floor or anything, but … you're being hysterical." Jude snorted, the sound muffled against Robert's palm. "The reaction Ricky got at the Globes is exactly why I want you to help me with this. People took my snark afterwards as me being... I don't know, all et up with something over it, even though I wasn't. You know me. You know I wasn't bothered by that. You know he ran it by me beforehand and I said I was fine with it. Right?"
Jude nodded, then, Robert's hand not budging an inch where it was pressed against his lips.
"Right. So. By doing this, I'll be taking the heat off of Ricky -" He said, only to blurt 'ah-ah!' at Jude as he reached up, intending to move Robert's hand so he could voice his objections. "I know I'm taking it off of Ricky and putting it on to you, but don't you get it? It only looks that way. Which is why - Jude, hold up! -" he swiftly moved his hand from Jude's elbow to the back of his neck, gently gripping there, fingers pressing a bit more firmly as he went to reach again. As Jude glared daggers at him, folding his arms over his chest, Robert finished laying out his plan and rationale quickly and calmly. "Jude... which is why … on the red carpet, you tell them all about how nice it was, to get to stand on stage with me again and bask in my magnanimous glory and then let it slip how great the speech was. You know, the one I wrote the majority of myself."
Thusly explicated, Robert removed his hand and Jude promptly swatted at his shoulder. Only to have his mouth fall open a moment later as he recoiled half a step, all the pieces connecting in his mind.
"Oh ye of little faith," Robert murmured to him solemnly. Jude would have felt chastened by the words, if only Robert's eyes hadn't been alight with amusement while he spoke them. "Always wanted to use that line. Just once."
"Bloody hell, you're good," Jude said at last with a broad, only slightly exasperated smile.
"I know," he said, grinning as he held up the index cards in front of him, even teeth catching hold of the top edges and biting down for just a moment before letting go. "Says so right here." Pulling the index cards from his mouth, he stuffed them into the pocket of his coat, hands reaching for Jude's shoulders and holding on. "This will be one of your finest performances, Jude. You get to show them all how wonderfully funny I know you can be and we pull Ricky's goolies out of the fire." He shrugged, his smile incandescent. As if everything would always be just that simple. Just leave it to Downey, he'd sort it all out. "Twofer."
It had taken all of the willpower and composure Jude had in him not to just kiss that cheeky smile right off Robert's face, but he'd managed it. Somehow.
-
Thankfully, it seemed more and more that people took those troubled years for granted, forgetting them like they'd forgotten so much else. Rather than seeing Robert's name and thinking 'junkie actor who was so stoned he fell asleep in some stranger's house and didn't even realize it', nowadays, they saw his name and thought 'Iron Man', 'Sgt. Lincoln Osiris' (he was the only actor Jude could think of who could pull off such a potentially incendiary part like that and wind up with even more fans because of it), or 'Sherlock Holmes'. All thanks to sheer force of will and hard work. Jude had heard rumors that Robert had even sacrificed his salary on Gothika to pay for the insurance he would need in order to work on the film - quite literally putting his money where his mouth was.
The gambit had paid off and it was just one of the first few colossal steps he'd had to scale in order to finally be where he should have been all along. Back to square one and then some. Though, Jude had a sneaking suspicion that everyone was just as eager to let the past go as Robert was, because he was undeniably gifted and seeing him go arse over teakettle from such a height had been heartbreaking for anyone who'd ever seen him in even a single film. Hollywood had celebrated and so had the movie-goers: they were grateful to have Robert back, happy to embrace him again once he seemed to finally be out of the endless tunnel and out of harm's way.
"What's got you thinking so hard, with that crazy-intense look on your face all of the sudden?" Robert asked, letting out a slightly concerned chuckle. He reached up, hand cupping his cheek. "Huh?"
Jude's lips shaped into a small smile and, drawing in a deep breath, he sighed. "Just... thinking about faces... and how amazing yours is," he said, leaning over to pat Robert's chest with his free hand. Thumpthump.
"I know, I know, I look gorgeous," he said, rolling his eyes grandly. Chuckling, he shifted his head on Jude's leg a little. "No, I'm really being serious, here. Are you okay?"
"I'm brilliant," Jude said, his smile coming at his beckoning a bit more easily this time. As he drew his left hand back from patting Robert's chest, he curled his fingers in, doing all he could to resist the urge to run the pads of his fingers over the fine lines at the corner of Robert's eye. "You?"
"I'm … livin' the dream," Robert managed, squinting up at him and shaking his head, still obviously confused as to what was up with him. "Thanks for asking."
"Sorry," he said, letting out a ragged chuckle. He reached up, scrubbed his hand over his face and up into his hair, already mussed thanks to the last couple of days of traveling and meetings. "Am I not making any sense? I'm not, am I? I fear the jet lag has finally caught up with me."
"Ohh. Shit, I'm sorry," Robert sighed, eyes squeezing shut as he sat up, following the momentum forward and peering at the digital clock on the nightstand. "Fuck me. It's nearly midnight. I should go and let you get some sleep. Rose'll kill me if we're late tomorrow." He stood, fingers still tangled with Jude's as he did so, and arched his back, as if trying to stretch out some of the tired. Leaning over, he brushed a quick kiss to Jude's cheek. "Get a good night's sleep, okay?"
"I will," Jude promised, smiling as he turned his head, lips just grazing Robert's cheek as he was straightening up.
"God, it's so good to have you here, man," he said, smiling warmly as he finally released Jude's hand. He retrieved his script from where it had slid off the bed and landed on the floor, grabbed his own room key from the night stand and gave Jude an abbreviated salute as he made his way to the door.
-
"Hey, you there? Or are you just letting the - hey, you!" Her voice was surprisingly husky and yet as she spoke, her words took on a sweetened aspect when the person she'd been trying to reach actually picked up. "Yeah, I'm here. I'm cool. Yeah, we just got in. At least they didn't lose my stuff, this time."
Ignoring the signage, she made her way towards the exit, the fingers of her right hand loosely curled around the handle of her small rolling suitcase. She'd come through this airport more times than she cared to remember, so she didn't pay the signs any mind as she proceeded through the terminal. She chomped on her gum with a particular forcefulness; she was desperate for a cigarette. Her head was ducked low, a gray beanie tugged down over her dark hair, a pair of aviators hiding her eyes. She was dressed simply in some layered t-shirts and a soft gray hooded sweatshirt, jeans with ragged holes in the knees and black Converse sneakers.
"Yeah, Rose has somebody coming to get me soon, I think. Hope I have time for a smoke, first," she grumbled, pausing and lowering the phone from her ear to rub at her nose for a moment. When she brought the phone back up again and nestled it against her ear, she chuckled. "Are they behaving?" She carefully tilted her head, letting out a sigh of relief as she felt her neck pop. "Well, tell 'em I'll be back soon. In the meantime, give them lots of hugs and kisses for me."
Her purposeful steps began to slow as she saw the metal detectors - she was nearly out. "Okay, baby, I gotta go. I'm at the x-rays, so I gotta sign off. Yeah," her lips drew back into a soft smile. "I miss you, already, too. But at least we won't have to wait too long before you can... yeah."
As she merged with other departing passengers, Kate looked up, eyes already scanning the crowd of waiting family and friends beyond, trying to spot the little plump redhead that Rose had described to her. After a moment, she fell still, mouth hanging open mid-chomp as she squinted through her shades. "Holy shit," she muttered under her breath. There was a concerned murmur at her ear. "Oh! Huh? What? No, no. No, I'm okay. I'm fine. No, I swear - I just... think I found my ride." She set her suitcase up on its feet, freeing up her hand so that she could slip off her sunglasses. No - she hadn't put her contacts in backwards. She really was seeing what she thought she'd seen. "Um. Okay, look, I - I'm gonna go, baby. I'll call you later, okay? Yeah, I promise. Okay, I love you, too. Bye."
Pressing the red 'end call' button on her Blackberry, Kate placed the thing into a bucket along with her sunglasses and the contents of her pockets and hauled her bag up onto the x-ray conveyor. She went through and then hurriedly grabbed her possessions, carting them along with her as she made her way over to a pair of very familiar-looking people.
One of them was short, one of them was two or three inches taller. The taller one was holding a sign that read 'KATE' in big letters, the letters decorated with curlicues, waves and geometric shapes drawn on with markers of a dozen different shades. The taller man was wearing a limo driver's cap, seated at a jaunty angle atop his sandy brown curls - he was looking down at his own shirt, brushing something off of the front. The shorter man was wearing what looked to be the limo driver's uniform jacket - obviously not his, since it was about ten sizes too big - and he was holding on to one tiny corner of the sign with one hand, while he fiddled with the Blackberry he cradled in the other.
"Um," Kate began, clearing her throat a little when she was a couple of feet away. "Hi?"
Jude looked up at the hesitant greeting, a bright smile flashing to life on his face, recognizing her from her head-shot the day before. "Hi!" Glancing over, he gave his friend a nudge with his elbow. "Oi. You, there. You were supposed to be look-out. Why weren't you looking out?"
"Huh?" Robert lifted his own head, looking around like a startled bird. His eyes landed on Kate and he started a little, a lopsided grin showing itself. "Hey! You're here! You're Kate, right? I'm Robert and this is Jude."
"Yeah, uhh - I know who you guys are," she said, letting out a husky chuckle as pulled her luggage along, moving closer to the two of them. "Hi. Yeah, I'm - I'm Kate."
"Nice to meet you, sweetheart," Robert said with a winning smile as he let go of his corner of the sign and stuck out his hand to Kate, shaking with her.
"Hello," Jude said, smiling as he took his turn shaking her hand. "We thought we'd come and pick you up. We've got fittings at Shelby's in..." he paused, grabbing hold of Robert's hand, lifting and turning it at the wrist to peek at his watch, "two hours - and thought you might like a lift."
"I'd love one. Thanks," Kate's own shy smile was still a bit shock-y at the edges, but it amped up her otherwise unassuming, almost broody attractiveness to dazzling beauty in the space of a second. She pulled out her sunglasses and slipped them on, readying herself to follow them out to the parking lot.
"Jude said we had to come to your rescue," Robert said as he circled around and grabbed hold of her suitcase, crooking his other arm at the elbow and holding it out to her. Blinking a little, she chuckled and looped her arm in his and then Jude linked his arm with her other one, the two of them flanking her in effortless welcome.
"I didn't say that," Jude said, leaning forward a bit to scowl at him. "I just thought that... well, you're playing Jamie's best friend. I thought it might be nice if we sort of got to know each other a bit before this whole thing gets going, right? Be good for the characters."
"Uhh, yeah - yeah! Absolutely," Kate said, nodding. The three of them, as a unit, moved towards the exit, Robert tugging Kate's suitcase along with him. "Would it be okay if I had a cigarette? I don't wanna hold you guys up or anything, but I just - I've been on planes and stuck in airports all day and I'm kinda dyin', here."
"Oh, you can smoke in the car. It's cool," Robert assured her as the doors swished open.
"Yeah? Sweet!"
"I know this great place we can go, too, if you're hungry. You like cheeseburgers?" Robert cast a suspicious sidelong look at her, as if their working relationship hinged on her answer.
"Fuck yeah, man," she said with a grin. "I'm down. I'm starving!"
And, by the way - yes, Kate's 100% real, too! She worked with Rose on The L Word. She's a wonderful actress and is absolutely breathtaking. I was wracking my brains, trying to figure out who was going to 'play' Sasha in my mind and then I smacked myself when I thought of Kate. Perfect! (And, don't worry, the boys are still the focus of this story - I was just rather pleased with myself when I figured out who was going to play Sasha. Yes, I am that much of a nerd. Don't mind me ^.^)
Here are a couple of pics for reference. :D
And a little clip (kinda old, but you get the idea):
Also one more serious, brief sidenote: The passage Jude reads from the Backpedaling script was strongly inspired by the unfortunate disaster that befell Japan this week, as you might have been able to guess. My heart and thoughts are with them. Please do consider donating, if you've got a buck or two to spare: RedCross.org.
Track: "Looking for a Protestation"
Artist: Costanza
from: zero killed
link: hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?xig8y6714zoru65
Timing: Rose takes Jude and Robert on a tour of the rehearsal space/Jamie's apartment.
Track: "Sledgehammer MK 1"
Artist: John Debney
from: Iron Man 2 soundtrack
link: hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?wtrewta5adhbwsw
Timing: Robert's ringtone!
Track: "Vanilla Twilight"
Artist: Owl City
from: Ocean Eyes
link: hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?ggs5jbeetbzz45a
Timing: Robert gets some crappy news during his call with Suzie Q.
Track: "All I Need"
Artist: Radiohead
from: In Rainbows
link: hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?kgr23dohh08grbi
Timing: Jude reads Jamie's opening monologue from the Backpedaling script for Robert.
Track: "My Funny Valentine"
Artist: Matt Damon
from: The Talented Mr. Ripley soundtrack
link: hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?fnapsk7iu9qr27t
Timing: Jude ruminates on Robert's interesting face and even more interesting history.
Track: "Never the Same"
Artist: Uh Huh Her
from: Nocturnes (coming out soon!)
link: hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?p3dfxxjgpn3ngap
Timing: Kate makes her way through the airport and chats with someone on the phone and also meets two weirdos who offer her a ride.
Pairing: Robert Downey Jr./Jude Law
Genre: Romance/drama
Rating: Hard R-ish (for right now)
Warning: Language, mush, with a side of slight angst, real-person slash, some vaguely adult/mature situations
Disclaimer: Everybody owns themselves! I'm pretty sure if they knew I was writing this, they'd have to sue me, so yeah - I'll happily claim nothing and stay un-sued!
Summary: In the midst of pre-prod prep, it seems like everybody's missing somebody. Except for Jude, who's still missing someone, anyway. Oh, and we also get to meet "Sasha".
A/N: The timeline on this story is going to be hella confusing, not gonna lie. It's going to be all over the place - the past, the present, the future, and the future in a completely different Jude/Robert sort of AU of the movie, but hopefully it won't cause too much whiplash!
The rehearsal space was big and ugly and Rose confided in them that it would, ultimately - with the help of the production design elves and a few indiscriminate splashes of paint - be transformed into Jamie's flat. When Rose gave them the brief and uneventful tour, it was barely recognizable as Jamie's disaster-area of a home studio: a large, empty space torn down to its brick wall skin and the wooden bones of its studs, with nothing more than a couple of large sheets of plywood propped up between saw horses to make a half-assed meeting table in the center of the space. The only other thing about the place that made it stand out was the large skylight that had been installed in the vaulted ceiling, spilling sunshine on the dirty hardwood floor - perfect for an artist's loft, because of all the wonderful natural light.
The chairs were uncomfortable, cold metal, the folding sort that chaperones would set up for a school dance. There was a room barely big enough to count as a closet - Rose explained they'd already gotten permits to knock out a portion of one of the walls and expand the space for Jamie's bathroom. Then she took them up the stairs to show them a tiny, shadowed loft space - just big enough for a bed and not much else - with a small window that cast a surprising amount of interesting-looking light through its textured, candy-colored glass. There, she told them, was where Jamie's bedroom would be.
Robert stood, hands on hips, nodding as he listened, and he stretched his leg, the sole of his sneaker gliding back and forth over the puddle of light on the floor.
"If there's one thing I can tell you - one directive I can throw at you from on high," Rose said when they finally sat down together around the 'table', a wry quirk of her lips contradicting the arrogance of the statement, "it's this: learn the script. Learn it backwards and forwards, upside down - in a foreign language, if you want. Whatever it takes to make it easier for you to retain, you can do it. Just so long as you know it."
"I memorized all my dialogue for a screen test once by making up one long mnemonic device using the first letter of each word. That count?" Robert asked. He was leaning his elbows on the plywood, chin almost even with the wood surface as he scribbled in the margin of his script. Jude peeked surreptitiously over his shoulder as Rose spoke, watching as Robert jotted down what turned out to be chicken-scratchy musical notes. Jude wasn't sure if they were for a song Robert was already working on, or if Robert was simply bored - or if he was composing a song on his copy of the script because he was bored.
Hearing Robert's words, Rose blinked. Jude turned to look at him and stared. They both did.
"Jesus," Jude murmured under his breath, eyes wide.
Robert looked at him askance, shoulder lifting in a shrug. "What? I had three months to prepare for it 'cause nobody else would hire me. I had lotsa time on my hands."
"Well, that... works!" Rose granted him, still looking pole-axed. When she'd recovered a bit, she looked over at Jude. "Seems obvious, like I shouldn't have to tell an actor to memorize his lines - especially you two - but it'll be a huge help. I wanna capture experiences and reactions from you two that are as genuine as possible, as often as possible. Give me a strong, believable reaction that's not perfectly on-script and I'll take that over a flawless line-reading that gives me nothing that informs on these characters."
"So do we have a by-your-leave to run lines together or do you want us to hold off on that until we've got it locked?" Robert murmured, still distractedly scribbling piano notations. He was clearly paying attention and following the flow of the conversation, but his ability to divide his attention between two entirely different activities never failed to mystify and amaze Jude.
"I was tempted to split you guys up and put you up in separate hotels for the duration of the shoot," Rose said dryly. At those words, Robert and Jude looked up at her, matching expressions of comical panic on their faces. She held up both hands, having a good belly-laugh at their reactions. "But hey, if you guys think you can swing this without us going to those extremes, then even better. You're playing complete strangers who discover they have an attraction for each other. We want to downplay as much of your natural chemistry with each other as we can - at the start, in any case. If you start off like... well, like this - like you are now - then there's nowhere to go and we have no reason to make the movie. Get the idea?"
Jude took that in, shifting a bit in his seat, and glanced sidelong at Robert.
"Why, Ms. Troche, whatever could you be implying?" Robert asked, his hand settling on his chest. He pursed his lips and looked prim and affronted and.. well, very gay, for lack of a better phrase.
Rose's eyes rolled in fond exasperation as she smirked, shaking her head. Jude couldn't help but grin. The chances that Robert could use his... Robertly wiles to win this particular lady over were slim to none. She was a lesbian, after all.
"So when are the rest of the cast coming?" Jude asked, picking up a pen and tapping it on his own copy of the script. He felt it was strangely disrespectful to go about marking up Rose's script right in front of her - even though he'd already done a good job of abusing it. He didn't want to push his luck.
"We're expecting Kate in the morning. She's getting a flight from LA, early," Rose said, nodding. "Pretty much everybody else is local, but Kate had a premiere to go to, so that's why she's not here already."
"Who's she playing?" Robert asked, looking up from his script to aim a curious look at Rose.
"She's our Sasha," she said, pulling a large binder over to her. Jamming her fingers in at about three inches from the front, she opened the binder up on the casting section of the whole mess. Flipping through a few sleeves of pictures, she found the right one and slid a head-shot out, setting it out in front of the two of them. "She's from Philly originally, but she lived in NYC for a while, so she knows her way around. Great kid. Really sharp."
Jude and Robert both leaned close, shoulders bumping as they studied the picture, a smile immediately twisting Jude's lips. "Oh, she's lovely!" He said brightly, reaching out to pull the photo closer. "Her eyes are stunning."
"Don't mind me. I call her 'kid'," Rose said with a sheepish grin. "She's 33, now. She was 24 when we met, so she'll always be a kid, to me."
"She's exactly like I pictured Sasha in my head. Y'know, when I read the script?" Robert said with a smile as he looked up at Rose. "Philly stock, huh? Nice. So she's coming tomorrow? Can we go get her?" Robert lifted his pen, thumb clicky-clicky-clicking away at the mechanism that pushed the ballpoint out of the pen, eyebrow arching as he aimed a curious look at her. He wagged his thumb back and forth a bit to indicate himself and Jude.
Jude had picked up the head-shot, eyes skimming over the credits printed on the back of the picture. "Oh, look here - she worked with McConaughey," he said, tilting the picture so Robert could see the credits. "DeNiro, too. Bloody hell."
"Sure, you can pick her up, if you want," Rose said, that ever-present smirk never dimming as she looked at them. She let out a huff of laughter. "Though, fair warning, if she sees you guys waiting for her, she'll probably shit a brick. We were gonna send Andi over to pick her up from the airport."
"Well, now that you've said that, we have to go meet her," Robert said with a devilish grin. Sitting up, he scooted his chair closer and cli-clicked his pen again. "We've got costume fittings tomorrow, too, right? With Shelby? What time is that?"
"One," Rose replied, once she'd worked her way back a couple more inches into the binder, eyes skimming over the schedule for that week. "Kate's flight should get in just in time for you guys to make it over to Shelby's studio. You can carpool!" She shut the binder with a resounding slam - though that was a result of the weight of the thing rather than any applied force on her part. "Andi's got Kate's hotel stuff together already and her gate information. She can email you guys what she has."
"Have Andi email it to me - I've got my Blackberry," Jude said, holding up his phone.
"Okay," she said, nodding as she scribbled a reminder for herself. "I wanted to get the fringe stuff out of the way, first. That way, as soon as we're done with rehearsals, we can just jump right in. The first read-through with everybody's scheduled for Wednesday. Sound good?"
"Yep," Robert said, jotting down some notes of his own on the back page of his script. "So - time for recess, Madame Troche?"
"Yeah, yeah, go on, you two," Rose replied with a chuckle and a wave of her hand as she sat back in her seat. "Eat, drink, be merry - for tomorrow we start busting our collective ass."
Jude chuckled as he stood, barely biting back a groan as he felt the ache in his backside and legs as he stood up from the chair. He stretched his back to loosen the muscles and then leaned over, handing Kate's head-shot back to Rose. "Thanks," he said, smiling. "See you Wednesday."
"Yep, bright and early!" Rose agreed.
Robert was opening his mouth to grant his own farewells, when his Blackberry rang, jittering across the plywood table as it vibrated, blaring a ringtone that sounded suspiciously like a track from the Iron Man 2 score. Swiping the phone off of the table, he looked at the caller ID and his smile took on that bashful-boy aspect it usually did when he mentioned - or even thought about - Susan. Jude couldn't stop his grin as he stuffed his own phone in his pocket.
"Hey, sugarhoneybabylove," Robert sing-songed as he picked up his sunglasses and slid them on. He grabbed his script and tucked it under his arm, threading his arm through the strap of his bag as it rested on the table and then linking arms with Jude as the two of them headed for the door. "How's my girl? Oh yeah? Nice! Yeah, we're just leaving. Oh, wait - hang on." He stopped mid-step, giving Jude's arm a gentle tug as he twisted about. "Night, Rose!"
Rose didn't turn or speak - simply raised her arm over her head, giving an exaggerated wave in the air. Jude chuckled.
"Yeah, Rose says hi - and bye, too," Robert said, smirking as he turned back around and started for the door again, dragging Jude out into the hallway. "So, what are you up to, babe? Huh? If he what? Sorry, love, the reception in here is for shit. Fuck. Hang on. We're going downstairs right now. Give us a sec."
The two of them hurried down the couple flights of stairs. Jude broke away, taking a couple of long steps to get ahead of Robert and open the door for him. "Okay. You there? Suzie?" Robert said, bringing his phone to his ear. He flashed a bright smile at Jude as he went through, reaching up to playfully pinch his cheek as he passed. "Oh, good. Okay, what, baby?" As they stepped out onto the sidewalk in front of the building, they found themselves neck-deep in city noise and Robert had to cover his right ear with his palm so he could concentrate on what his wife was saying.
Jude took a couple of steps to one side of the entrance, leaning against the wall as he pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his backpack. He held them up, silently offering the pack to Robert, but he shook his head in wordless refusal, winking at him in gratitude for the offer. Jude shook out a cigarette for himself and lit it, slouching against the bricks and making himself comfortable as Robert paced back and forth.
"Aww, man, are you serious? Fuck," Robert groaned, his free hand flopping down at his side. Sucking in a breath through gritted teeth, he stopped in his tracks and reached up, free hand scratching at his hair. "And you're sure? That long? Goddamnit. We'll be all the way done with rehearsals, by then, and into the first part of shooting!"
Drawing his cigarette from between his lips, Jude made a soft 'psst' noise to get Robert's attention, holding up his hands in the internationally recognized sign language for 'wtf?' when he looked his way.
"Hang on - ba - baby, hang on a sec," Robert said, lowering the phone once he got the okay and holding it against his chest. "Suzie said she's not gonna be here until August."
"What the - ?! Why?" Jude asked, frowning. "June's barely even started, yet! What's happened?"
"They decided to fire the writers midway into the second week and they're scrapping the entire thing! Whole entire script, gone! So now they're scrambling to find writers to replace the old ones," Robert muttered, rolling his eyes. "And so she's gotta stick around until they figure out what the fuck they're gonna do." He lifted the phone to his ear again as he crossed over to Jude, snatching the cigarette from his fingers and taking a deep drag. "Yes, I'm smoking," he grumbled to Susan even as he exhaled an arrow of smoke from his pursed lips. "I know. I just - this really sucks, babe. I wanted you to be here for when we - gah. I know. I know it's not your fault. I'm not blaming you. I'm blaming that... incomprehensible, incompetent fuckwit of a director you've managed to get yourself stuck with." Another quick puff and he was handing the cigarette back to Jude with a sheepish quirk of his lips.
"Don't worry, Susan, I'll look after him for you until you get here," Jude raised his voice a bit, loud enough so that Susan would be able to hear him over the city's din. He was rewarded with what sounded like laughter on the other end of the phone and Robert grinned, reaching out to bat at his shoulder with the back of his free hand before settling next to him, back resting against the bricks.
"Yeah, that was Judesie," he said, still grinning. "Of course." His smile started to flag a bit and he nodded, biting his lip. "Mkay. Well, call me before you go to bed. And in the morning. And if you hear anything from that schmuck of a director if he figures out whether or not he can hit his ass with both hands and some helpful suggestions. Okay. Okay - love you, too. Kay. Bye." Sighing, he lowered the phone and hit 'end', stuffing it into one of the pockets of his jeans. "This sucks."
"Sorry," Jude said softly, holding out his cigarette.
Robert took one look at it and snorted. "You're a bad influence," he muttered, eyes twinkling with amusement.
He took the cigarette, anyway.
---
"Ohhh, god," Robert moaned as he lolled on his back on the bed, "I love that part. C'mon, read that to me."
Once Robert had smoked his way through the rest of Jude's cigarette and half of another one, the two of them had decided to grab a bite to eat. They stopped off at a sushi restaurant (one of Jude's favorites) and then headed back to Jude's hotel room so they could put their heads together, going over the script and making notes.
"It is beautiful, isn't it? Rose has a way with words," Jude agreed, smiling as he leaned against the bed's intricately carved headboard, long legs stretched out along the bed and crossed at the ankles.
"You're being such a tease right now and you don't even know it," he grumbled, throwing a pouty face at Jude. As he spoke, he reached out, one hand feeling feebly across the duvet, as if straining to reach Jude's pant leg. "Look, I know what it sounds like in my head from reading the script, but you can't expect me to wait all the time it'll take for you to go and do all that voice-over stuff. Lay it on me. C'mon, please? Pretty please?"
"Oh, all right," he said, doing his best to look put-upon, although the indulgent smile was keeping the expression from being entirely convincing. He cleared his throat, flipped back through towards the start of the script and leaned his head back against the headboard, script held out in front of him. "Whenever there's a disaster or some sort of tragedy, we all feel it," he read softly. A brief glance up afforded him with a view of Robert, sprawled out width-wise on the bed, script laying on his chest, hands folded together atop it. His eyes were closed, a basking smile on his face. "Deep down, we can all feel that pain. I think it's built into us as a species. It's why some of us start crying, sometimes... without ever really knowing why. It's why others of us are plagued with bad dreams about people we'll never meet, even if our lives are - by most people's standards - happy and fulfilled."
Licking his lips, Jude paused, turned the page. "They're the things we don't have answers for - maybe because the thought of being just one drop in an ocean that's seven million drops strong starts feeling as scary as it sounds. But it's not scary - not really. We try to shut it out with work, with drink, with sex, but it's undeniable: we all fit together, are all connect to each other, like links in a bicycle chain. So when we help each other, we go forward, just like we were meant to. But the more hurt we cause each other... the more sadness we bring, the further we backpedal. The more joy we impart, the greater level of compassion we share with our fellow human animals... the more we start to feel like we're actually getting someplace."
Jude fell silent and lowered the script, eyes settling on Robert laying on the bed just a foot or so away. As he watched, Robert's eyelids slowly opened and he stared up at the ceiling, smile broadening.
"Damn," he whispered, shaking his head a little. "That's good stuff." He rolled himself onto his side to face Jude, propping himself up with his elbow. He dropped his copy of the script on the bed and reached out, hand settling on Jude's shin, patting it. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Jude murmured, ducking his head a bit as he felt his cheeks start to warm from the attention.
"This is all coming from Jamie, right?" Robert said, shifting over a little and twisting about so he was on his back again, head coming to rest on Jude's leg, using it as a pillow as he stared up at the ceiling. "This guy - he's got this life and it's all about this - just this kinda stuff. He gets to sit back and watch the way everyone else does it and decides that's not for him. He goes his own way and everybody thinks he's such a weirdo, but this is a guy who's … he's really wise, you know?" He turned his head, brow arched as he looked over at Jude.
"Yeah, I see what you mean," he agreed, trying to ignore the pleasant warmth and weight of Robert's head against him and how it made his heart slowly but surely start thudding against his ribs. "He sounds so much older than he seems. Surprised you didn't get my part, instead."
"Why do you say that?" Robert asked, genuinely wondering.
"I dunno... you've always seemed so..." he began as he sat up, doing his best to keep his legs still so that he wouldn't jostle Robert's head.
"Old?" He quipped, smirking. "Wrinkly?" He held up his hand, index finger extended, as if the perfect phrase had come to him. "Past it!"
"No!" Jude chuckled, reaching out to swat at his shoulder. Robert drew his shoulder up towards his ear, laughing as he playfully tried to bat Jude's hand away. "But... at the same time, sort of yes? I think?"
"… care to elucidate, my dear Mr. Law?" Robert invited with a slow, lazy grin as he relaxed again.
Jude hunkered down a bit further, elbow coming to rest on his knee as he rubbed thoughtfully at his bottom lip. "I remember watching you in … oh, god, what was it? It was that one - what was that one with Cybill Shepard? The guy died and came back as you later on?"
"Oh, Jesus, what is this, a pop quiz? Oh, fuck, lemme think. Was it - somethingsomething... uhhh, Chances Are! That was it."
"Yes, that was the one! Chances Are. Exactly," Jude grinned as he pointed at Robert. "When Guy called me to see if I'd be interested in meeting up with you two at Claridges to talk about Sherlock, I distinctly remember going back and watching that -"
"Ohh, god, no - Jude, you didn't!" Robert groaned, both hands coming up to cover his face.
"No, I did! I truly did and Robert... Robert," he said, reaching out to take hold of his wrists, gently drawing his hands away from his face. Even as he did so, he could see that Robert had his eyes squinched closed. "I thought you were lovely!"
"Oh, no... no! God, you just had to mention the tadpole days, didn't you? Meanie," Robert grumbled as Jude laughed and released his hands. He let his hands flop down onto his chest, draped across each other at the wrist, making him look oddly like a corpse at a mausoleum.
"You were brilliant," Jude insisted, hand settling on Robert's shoulder. His friend seemed to settle down a bit, then, finally opening his eyes to face the music, as it were. "But... I don't know. Watching you, sitting at the piano, when you were playing their song... and... and then Cybill comes in and watches you and then you looked up at her. All I could think was, Christ, he's so young, but he's got it, hasn't he? He's really got it. You had all the - the presence of someone twice your age. It was remarkable."
"Thank you," he said softly, eyes darting downward and away from Jude's face.
"You've always seemed like either the youngest old man or the oldest boy I've ever met - most of the time, it's both at the same time," Jude said with a chuckle.
"Yeah, well, you've always seemed wise beyond your years, to me, so... I guess it balances out," Robert murmured, a faint smile curling up the corners of his mouth.
"Have I?" Jude asked, blinking in surprise. "Sienna - she thought I was boring, so - you may have stumbled on something there."
"She said that?" Robert asked, eyes lifting to look at him, brows knitting together. "She said that about you?"
"Yeah," he admitted and it was his turn to look away. "She said I acted like an old man because all I wanted to do was stay at home and be with her when all she wanted to do was go out to all the glamorous parties."
"Well..." Robert began, mulling that information over and, judging by his expression, his train of thought was going no place pleasant. "She's a kid. She has a kid's taste. Maybe after she's been around for a little while longer, maybe she'll actually... y'know, develop grown-up tastes."
"Oh, right! Well, thanks very much for that!" Jude blurted, laughing.
"No, no, no - you're not understanding me. What I'm saying is that you're a taste... for more civilized palates, Jude," he said, reaching up, fingers curling around his forearm - possibly to forestall any swatting. "I've always thought so."
"Well, do you think I'm boring?" He asked, one eyebrow arching as he stared down at Robert.
"I think... you're a loving and devoted father of four mind-bogglingly cherubic children, a soft-hearted ex-husband and a hard-working actor with reliably good, solid instincts," Robert replied, his hand slipping down along Jude's forearm, palm settling against Jude's, fingers curling around the back of his hand, gently clasping it. "And you're just generally a … a funny, sweet-natured, darling human being who I'm lucky enough to call my very good friend."
"Who you're still... attracted to?" Jude asked, voice sounding impossibly hoarse. He could hardly believe his own ears, much less those bloody traitorous lips of his that had let those words slip out. Still - there was nothing he could do but hold his breath and stare at Robert.
Robert's gaze slid away from his for just a moment and Jude felt something in his chest splinter and grow cold with fear. But then, just as slowly, Robert looked up at him again, that painfully familiar, certain expression appearing on his face again. "Hopelessly," he whispered. He reached up with his free hand and lightly ran the pad of his index finger over Jude's upper lip. "Without Watson's mustache, you look so young. Just a lad."
"You're only seven years older than me, you know," Jude said with a soft chuckle.
"Pfff," he snorted. "You're seven years younger. A whole seven years, Jude. Might as well be a lifetime."
"Starting to count in dog years, are you?" Jude teased, giving Robert's hand a squeeze, coaxing a quiet chuckle from him.
Jude had thought about it, off and on - just how entirely different the flow of each their lives had been. While he had gotten endless amounts of grief from the press throughout his career for everything from one-night stands the paparazzi had caught wind of to the horrifying scandal of him not doing up a button on the fly of his jeans, Robert, by contrast, had always lived a rougher life, even for an actor.
He'd been in and out of jail for almost two years, all told, for the repeated parole violations related to his (also repeated) drug-possession infractions. Jude remembered seeing a magazine with a cover story interview with Robert in Corcoran at the grocery store at the time and he'd immediately grabbed it. The article had been surprisingly, meticulously detailed and pulled no punches, even though it had been featured in a thick fashion magazine. It was no fluff piece, by any stretch of the imagination. Jude had read it while he was in line, on the drive back to the house - lost himself in it for days.
It had been meant as a cautionary tale, if anything - especially for someone like Jude, who was in the same line of work - but, for the most part, he found his heart going out to the man. He'd never met him a day in his life, at that point, but he knew addiction was a powerful, dangerous beast to try to keep leashed. The judge on Robert's case had thrown the book at him and then the entire bookcase for good measure. Robert had been 35 when he was sentenced to three years in state prison for felony possession. Jude had been 28 and had finally had his first bona fide Hollywood hit (thanks to the brilliant Anthony Minghella), with The Talented Mr. Ripley. He might as well have been a movie star on Pluto, for as dissimilar as their lives had been, back then.
For most of the people in their line of work, prison was a faraway, fleeting thing that happened to other people. If you got arrested, at the most, you'd stay in a cell for a night and then be released the next morning. In the era of Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, however, it was becoming almost de rigeur to spend a night in jail - like a select bed-and-breakfast that just so happened to be a six-by-six holding cell.
Reading the article, it had been very easy for Jude to imagine the landscape of the place: blasted out, dry and stifling. Hopeless. Thinking about Robert, stranded out in the midst of all that, had been difficult. It was even more difficult now, trying to reconcile that man with the one laying next to him with his head in his lap.
Even so, you could see the way the experience had etched something into him, leaving behind something that hadn't been there before. Jude had never been entirely sure what that was and had always been hesitant to ask. It was something that they never talked about - something Robert only ever spoke about with journalists and television hosts who wanted to get his take on the latest drug-related scandal for some wayward starlet or some such.
-
When Robert had roped him into joining him in presenting at the Oscars, Jude had been keen to see what sort of speech Robert would whip up for them (Robert didn't trust the show's writers - not that he could blame him for that). But when Robert had handed him the bit, scribbled out on a couple of index cards in Robert's messy handwriting, and he got a load of the acerbic banter, he'd blanched. Could feel the very moment every last spare drop of blood drained from his face as he read his bits of the brief script, in fact.
"Y-you actually want me to say this? To you? In front of people?" He stammered. "Robert, are you sure?" He broke off, swallowing around the knot of panic in his throat, holding up his hand. "No, no, allow me to rephrase: Robert, are you MAD?! You can't ask me to say this. Not after that mess with Ricky Gervais. Bloody hell, the man's this far away from never working again because of the jokes he made about you at the Golden Globes! Everyone in the entire world adores you, what do you think will happen to me if I -"
It was around that time, mid-rant, that Robert gracefully, graciously and ever-so-smoothly clapped a hand over his mouth to silence him, his other hand catching hold of Jude's elbow, gently keeping him in place.
"Jude," he began quietly. "Not to dismiss your otherwise perfectly valid concerns out of hand or make you sound like a 1950s housewife who's just seen a mouse scurrying across her kitchen floor or anything, but … you're being hysterical." Jude snorted, the sound muffled against Robert's palm. "The reaction Ricky got at the Globes is exactly why I want you to help me with this. People took my snark afterwards as me being... I don't know, all et up with something over it, even though I wasn't. You know me. You know I wasn't bothered by that. You know he ran it by me beforehand and I said I was fine with it. Right?"
Jude nodded, then, Robert's hand not budging an inch where it was pressed against his lips.
"Right. So. By doing this, I'll be taking the heat off of Ricky -" He said, only to blurt 'ah-ah!' at Jude as he reached up, intending to move Robert's hand so he could voice his objections. "I know I'm taking it off of Ricky and putting it on to you, but don't you get it? It only looks that way. Which is why - Jude, hold up! -" he swiftly moved his hand from Jude's elbow to the back of his neck, gently gripping there, fingers pressing a bit more firmly as he went to reach again. As Jude glared daggers at him, folding his arms over his chest, Robert finished laying out his plan and rationale quickly and calmly. "Jude... which is why … on the red carpet, you tell them all about how nice it was, to get to stand on stage with me again and bask in my magnanimous glory and then let it slip how great the speech was. You know, the one I wrote the majority of myself."
Thusly explicated, Robert removed his hand and Jude promptly swatted at his shoulder. Only to have his mouth fall open a moment later as he recoiled half a step, all the pieces connecting in his mind.
"Oh ye of little faith," Robert murmured to him solemnly. Jude would have felt chastened by the words, if only Robert's eyes hadn't been alight with amusement while he spoke them. "Always wanted to use that line. Just once."
"Bloody hell, you're good," Jude said at last with a broad, only slightly exasperated smile.
"I know," he said, grinning as he held up the index cards in front of him, even teeth catching hold of the top edges and biting down for just a moment before letting go. "Says so right here." Pulling the index cards from his mouth, he stuffed them into the pocket of his coat, hands reaching for Jude's shoulders and holding on. "This will be one of your finest performances, Jude. You get to show them all how wonderfully funny I know you can be and we pull Ricky's goolies out of the fire." He shrugged, his smile incandescent. As if everything would always be just that simple. Just leave it to Downey, he'd sort it all out. "Twofer."
It had taken all of the willpower and composure Jude had in him not to just kiss that cheeky smile right off Robert's face, but he'd managed it. Somehow.
-
Thankfully, it seemed more and more that people took those troubled years for granted, forgetting them like they'd forgotten so much else. Rather than seeing Robert's name and thinking 'junkie actor who was so stoned he fell asleep in some stranger's house and didn't even realize it', nowadays, they saw his name and thought 'Iron Man', 'Sgt. Lincoln Osiris' (he was the only actor Jude could think of who could pull off such a potentially incendiary part like that and wind up with even more fans because of it), or 'Sherlock Holmes'. All thanks to sheer force of will and hard work. Jude had heard rumors that Robert had even sacrificed his salary on Gothika to pay for the insurance he would need in order to work on the film - quite literally putting his money where his mouth was.
The gambit had paid off and it was just one of the first few colossal steps he'd had to scale in order to finally be where he should have been all along. Back to square one and then some. Though, Jude had a sneaking suspicion that everyone was just as eager to let the past go as Robert was, because he was undeniably gifted and seeing him go arse over teakettle from such a height had been heartbreaking for anyone who'd ever seen him in even a single film. Hollywood had celebrated and so had the movie-goers: they were grateful to have Robert back, happy to embrace him again once he seemed to finally be out of the endless tunnel and out of harm's way.
"What's got you thinking so hard, with that crazy-intense look on your face all of the sudden?" Robert asked, letting out a slightly concerned chuckle. He reached up, hand cupping his cheek. "Huh?"
Jude's lips shaped into a small smile and, drawing in a deep breath, he sighed. "Just... thinking about faces... and how amazing yours is," he said, leaning over to pat Robert's chest with his free hand. Thumpthump.
"I know, I know, I look gorgeous," he said, rolling his eyes grandly. Chuckling, he shifted his head on Jude's leg a little. "No, I'm really being serious, here. Are you okay?"
"I'm brilliant," Jude said, his smile coming at his beckoning a bit more easily this time. As he drew his left hand back from patting Robert's chest, he curled his fingers in, doing all he could to resist the urge to run the pads of his fingers over the fine lines at the corner of Robert's eye. "You?"
"I'm … livin' the dream," Robert managed, squinting up at him and shaking his head, still obviously confused as to what was up with him. "Thanks for asking."
"Sorry," he said, letting out a ragged chuckle. He reached up, scrubbed his hand over his face and up into his hair, already mussed thanks to the last couple of days of traveling and meetings. "Am I not making any sense? I'm not, am I? I fear the jet lag has finally caught up with me."
"Ohh. Shit, I'm sorry," Robert sighed, eyes squeezing shut as he sat up, following the momentum forward and peering at the digital clock on the nightstand. "Fuck me. It's nearly midnight. I should go and let you get some sleep. Rose'll kill me if we're late tomorrow." He stood, fingers still tangled with Jude's as he did so, and arched his back, as if trying to stretch out some of the tired. Leaning over, he brushed a quick kiss to Jude's cheek. "Get a good night's sleep, okay?"
"I will," Jude promised, smiling as he turned his head, lips just grazing Robert's cheek as he was straightening up.
"God, it's so good to have you here, man," he said, smiling warmly as he finally released Jude's hand. He retrieved his script from where it had slid off the bed and landed on the floor, grabbed his own room key from the night stand and gave Jude an abbreviated salute as he made his way to the door.
-
"Hey, you there? Or are you just letting the - hey, you!" Her voice was surprisingly husky and yet as she spoke, her words took on a sweetened aspect when the person she'd been trying to reach actually picked up. "Yeah, I'm here. I'm cool. Yeah, we just got in. At least they didn't lose my stuff, this time."
Ignoring the signage, she made her way towards the exit, the fingers of her right hand loosely curled around the handle of her small rolling suitcase. She'd come through this airport more times than she cared to remember, so she didn't pay the signs any mind as she proceeded through the terminal. She chomped on her gum with a particular forcefulness; she was desperate for a cigarette. Her head was ducked low, a gray beanie tugged down over her dark hair, a pair of aviators hiding her eyes. She was dressed simply in some layered t-shirts and a soft gray hooded sweatshirt, jeans with ragged holes in the knees and black Converse sneakers.
"Yeah, Rose has somebody coming to get me soon, I think. Hope I have time for a smoke, first," she grumbled, pausing and lowering the phone from her ear to rub at her nose for a moment. When she brought the phone back up again and nestled it against her ear, she chuckled. "Are they behaving?" She carefully tilted her head, letting out a sigh of relief as she felt her neck pop. "Well, tell 'em I'll be back soon. In the meantime, give them lots of hugs and kisses for me."
Her purposeful steps began to slow as she saw the metal detectors - she was nearly out. "Okay, baby, I gotta go. I'm at the x-rays, so I gotta sign off. Yeah," her lips drew back into a soft smile. "I miss you, already, too. But at least we won't have to wait too long before you can... yeah."
As she merged with other departing passengers, Kate looked up, eyes already scanning the crowd of waiting family and friends beyond, trying to spot the little plump redhead that Rose had described to her. After a moment, she fell still, mouth hanging open mid-chomp as she squinted through her shades. "Holy shit," she muttered under her breath. There was a concerned murmur at her ear. "Oh! Huh? What? No, no. No, I'm okay. I'm fine. No, I swear - I just... think I found my ride." She set her suitcase up on its feet, freeing up her hand so that she could slip off her sunglasses. No - she hadn't put her contacts in backwards. She really was seeing what she thought she'd seen. "Um. Okay, look, I - I'm gonna go, baby. I'll call you later, okay? Yeah, I promise. Okay, I love you, too. Bye."
Pressing the red 'end call' button on her Blackberry, Kate placed the thing into a bucket along with her sunglasses and the contents of her pockets and hauled her bag up onto the x-ray conveyor. She went through and then hurriedly grabbed her possessions, carting them along with her as she made her way over to a pair of very familiar-looking people.
One of them was short, one of them was two or three inches taller. The taller one was holding a sign that read 'KATE' in big letters, the letters decorated with curlicues, waves and geometric shapes drawn on with markers of a dozen different shades. The taller man was wearing a limo driver's cap, seated at a jaunty angle atop his sandy brown curls - he was looking down at his own shirt, brushing something off of the front. The shorter man was wearing what looked to be the limo driver's uniform jacket - obviously not his, since it was about ten sizes too big - and he was holding on to one tiny corner of the sign with one hand, while he fiddled with the Blackberry he cradled in the other.
"Um," Kate began, clearing her throat a little when she was a couple of feet away. "Hi?"
Jude looked up at the hesitant greeting, a bright smile flashing to life on his face, recognizing her from her head-shot the day before. "Hi!" Glancing over, he gave his friend a nudge with his elbow. "Oi. You, there. You were supposed to be look-out. Why weren't you looking out?"
"Huh?" Robert lifted his own head, looking around like a startled bird. His eyes landed on Kate and he started a little, a lopsided grin showing itself. "Hey! You're here! You're Kate, right? I'm Robert and this is Jude."
"Yeah, uhh - I know who you guys are," she said, letting out a husky chuckle as pulled her luggage along, moving closer to the two of them. "Hi. Yeah, I'm - I'm Kate."
"Nice to meet you, sweetheart," Robert said with a winning smile as he let go of his corner of the sign and stuck out his hand to Kate, shaking with her.
"Hello," Jude said, smiling as he took his turn shaking her hand. "We thought we'd come and pick you up. We've got fittings at Shelby's in..." he paused, grabbing hold of Robert's hand, lifting and turning it at the wrist to peek at his watch, "two hours - and thought you might like a lift."
"I'd love one. Thanks," Kate's own shy smile was still a bit shock-y at the edges, but it amped up her otherwise unassuming, almost broody attractiveness to dazzling beauty in the space of a second. She pulled out her sunglasses and slipped them on, readying herself to follow them out to the parking lot.
"Jude said we had to come to your rescue," Robert said as he circled around and grabbed hold of her suitcase, crooking his other arm at the elbow and holding it out to her. Blinking a little, she chuckled and looped her arm in his and then Jude linked his arm with her other one, the two of them flanking her in effortless welcome.
"I didn't say that," Jude said, leaning forward a bit to scowl at him. "I just thought that... well, you're playing Jamie's best friend. I thought it might be nice if we sort of got to know each other a bit before this whole thing gets going, right? Be good for the characters."
"Uhh, yeah - yeah! Absolutely," Kate said, nodding. The three of them, as a unit, moved towards the exit, Robert tugging Kate's suitcase along with him. "Would it be okay if I had a cigarette? I don't wanna hold you guys up or anything, but I just - I've been on planes and stuck in airports all day and I'm kinda dyin', here."
"Oh, you can smoke in the car. It's cool," Robert assured her as the doors swished open.
"Yeah? Sweet!"
"I know this great place we can go, too, if you're hungry. You like cheeseburgers?" Robert cast a suspicious sidelong look at her, as if their working relationship hinged on her answer.
"Fuck yeah, man," she said with a grin. "I'm down. I'm starving!"
And, by the way - yes, Kate's 100% real, too! She worked with Rose on The L Word. She's a wonderful actress and is absolutely breathtaking. I was wracking my brains, trying to figure out who was going to 'play' Sasha in my mind and then I smacked myself when I thought of Kate. Perfect! (And, don't worry, the boys are still the focus of this story - I was just rather pleased with myself when I figured out who was going to play Sasha. Yes, I am that much of a nerd. Don't mind me ^.^)
Here are a couple of pics for reference. :D
And a little clip (kinda old, but you get the idea):
Click to viewAlso one more serious, brief sidenote: The passage Jude reads from the Backpedaling script was strongly inspired by the unfortunate disaster that befell Japan this week, as you might have been able to guess. My heart and thoughts are with them. Please do consider donating, if you've got a buck or two to spare: RedCross.org.
Track: "Looking for a Protestation"
Artist: Costanza
from: zero killed
link: hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?xig8y6714zoru65
Timing: Rose takes Jude and Robert on a tour of the rehearsal space/Jamie's apartment.
Track: "Sledgehammer MK 1"
Artist: John Debney
from: Iron Man 2 soundtrack
link: hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?wtrewta5adhbwsw
Timing: Robert's ringtone!
Track: "Vanilla Twilight"
Artist: Owl City
from: Ocean Eyes
link: hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?ggs5jbeetbzz45a
Timing: Robert gets some crappy news during his call with Suzie Q.
Track: "All I Need"
Artist: Radiohead
from: In Rainbows
link: hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?kgr23dohh08grbi
Timing: Jude reads Jamie's opening monologue from the Backpedaling script for Robert.
Track: "My Funny Valentine"
Artist: Matt Damon
from: The Talented Mr. Ripley soundtrack
link: hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?fnapsk7iu9qr27t
Timing: Jude ruminates on Robert's interesting face and even more interesting history.
Track: "Never the Same"
Artist: Uh Huh Her
from: Nocturnes (coming out soon!)
link: hxxp://www.mediafire.com/?p3dfxxjgpn3ngap
Timing: Kate makes her way through the airport and chats with someone on the phone and also meets two weirdos who offer her a ride.