From The Streets - Chapter 22

Sophie had no idea the consequences of that day.  She couldn’t have.  Valerie Bellson was just that damned good, apparently.  She went on with her date with Destiny, oblivious that Destiny was about to live up to her name.  That night, they had a lovely dinner after the pre-dinner impromptu press conference, where they answered questions about why they were at what the tabloid claimed was a drug dealer.

Luckily for  Sophie, the same Doctor she had met earlier in the day just happened to be eating dinner there, and spoke up in her defense directly, in addition to giving a statement for the press for Amanda to have printed.

It was a watershed moment for the pair.  The tabloids had been harassing them constantly, treating them, and other minors like Megan and Juliette, like adults, dragging their names through the mud, and something had to give.  

The judge agreed because in one day, he turned around with an injunction against the tabloid news outlets, barring at least the UK outlets from printing further stories about any minor without their permission and their legal guardians’ permission.

Things largely stayed the same in the States unfortunately, as American tabloids were more easily able to argue first amendment rights, at least in public spaces, but Sophie would take what victories she could get.  And as for Krystal, Dawnee and Amanda were true to their word, giving her the scare of her life.

Dawn took Krystal on a whirlwind tour of the mean streets of Galway and showed her exactly what awaited her if she continued down her path, like a more twisted Ghost of Christmas Future.  There were worse fates than death, and Dawn showed her most of them.

But there was a twist for Krystal, too.  Some big name agency had acquired her contract now that she had gotten herself clean again.  WP Entertainment was more than happy to welcome her back, and with a part in an up and coming Amazon Prime cyberpunk drama.

As for Destiny’s father, the last anyone saw of him, he was facing extradition to the United states on federal charges, at least after he served his time in a UK prison.

“Gah.” Sophie yawned from the couch, “It’s so good to be back home. I love Ireland, but my home is with everyone here.”   They had just gotten back from the second court appearance, some two or three weeks past the original incident with Destiny’s dad.  The injunction on the tabloids was fresh in everyone’s minds, but it was behind them.

“I have to admit,” Nicole said as she sat down, “LA’s a lot more like home to me than it used to be.”

“Oh hey,” Sophie said, “Isn’t David’s wife supposed to be coming home soon too?”

“Yeah,” Nicole said, “She got her discharge papers yesterday.  Just in time to see the new house.  David hasn’t told her anything yet.  I mean she helped plan her dream home with him, but he didn’t tell her it’s actually being built,” she laughed.

“Ugggh my dogs are barking,” Destiny whined as she came through the door.  “Why did I agree to do a mini photo shoot the day we were due home?  If I never wear heels again it’ll be too soon.”

“At least it was just an hour,” Sophie giggled and kissed her.

“Oh mom texted me while I was shooting, the house is theirs.” Destiny said.  “I knew the owners wouldn’t refuse a cash offer.”

“Have you thought about what you want to study in college yet?” Jane teased Destiny as she walked by.

“Yeah, I have actually,” Destiny said.  “I want to study medicine.”

“I’m going for computer art.” Sophie said. “3d modeling and stuff sounds soo cool.”

“Then you could animate your own life story movie,” Nicole teased.

“Na I’m thinking about doing one of yours.” Sophie said teasing back.

“Hey yeah,” Destiny said, “How’s that book coming anyway?”

“Slow.” Nicole laughed.  “I’ve got a couple of chapters about my early life, trying to build up why I went into the Army, but it’s so dry I might just skip to enlisting and how I got into Delta Force.  How’s your recovery going, Soapy?” Nicole asked, changing the subject.

“Good actually.” Sophie said, “It actually looks like it should now, the swellings gone.  We start stunt training next week if Doctor Wilson clears me.”

“That's good.” Nicole said, “They might not have to teach you much about combat though, that Krav Maga you learned over time will come in handy big time.”

“It’s mostly the big falls and action scenes I’m worried about,” Sophie nodded.  “But it’s going to be worth it to see Angela diving off a 5th story roof.”

Angela groaned from the next room, loudly enough for them to hear.  “Don’t remind me,” she said.  “And I have to do it in a skirt for the final shot.”

“Yeah,” Destiny giggled, “But you’ll be wearing a bodysuit underneath.”

“That’s true,” Angela said.  “Okay,” she bellowed, “Printer’s set up!  Somebody print something!”

Sophie grinned and sent something to the printer, ‘Something.’ was all it said.  She had become pretty adept at technology in the past month, thanks to Angela and Destiny, and Casidhe and Ellen.

“Har har har,” Angela giggled as she came into the living room and flopped down.

“You just said to send something to the printer you didn’t say what.” Sophie giggled.

“I know that was my fault.” Angela giggled.  “I freaking love that printer though.  It’s got options to print to either stock paper or photo paper so Aunt Kate can print right from her camera, no more having to run down to the agency all the time.”

“I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner,” Katelyn spoke up as she stepped out of Amanda’s office.  “I didn’t even know we had these cat6 ports all over the house.”

“Okay,” Destiny said, “I hate to be the one to say it, but we’ve got a script to learn, assuming Krissy doesn’t change it again between now and shooting.”

“She will,” Sophie and Angela said in unison.

“I know,” Destiny groaned.  “Nicole, feel like reading Mary’s lines for us?”

“Sure, why not,” Nicole laughed.

“Let’s start with Act 1 Scene 3, Trinity’s first interaction with the Angels,” Angela said.  “And after lunch we can hit the boardwalk.”

~oOo~

“Juliette?” Angela said as they entered the studios training area.  It looked like a massive gymnasium, with blue gym mats everywhere, except for near the climbing wall, where a massive airbag had been set up at the base.  “You here for training too?”

Juliette, dressed in a cute purple unitard with a loose tee shirt over it, grinned.  “Well, sort of,” she said.  Megan came out of the back in a tiger striped unitard.  “Learning to pratfall takes trust in your instructor.”

“So,” Megan said, “We volunteered to be your instructors.  We’ve taken enough spills on the show. It's a miracle we don’t have permanent wood grain etched into our butts.”

“Like that episode where you fell from the Crow’s nest,” Angela shivered.  “I close my eyes every time.”

“We’ll work you up to that,” Juliette giggled.  “I know you’ve got a fear of falling, so we’re going to start you off small.”

Megan nodded, “We want you to get comfortable enough you can fall from a smaller distance with your eyes open.”  She motioned to a spot on a thick gym mat.  “Sit.”

“Okay,” Angela said.

“This is to gauge your comfort level,” Juliette said, using a hand to push Angela back with a bit of force.  That didn’t seem to bother her, so they had her get on her knees, and Megan pushed her over.  Finally, they had Destiny, Sophie, and Megan standing behind her as she stood, and Juliette shoved her back.  She squealed and shut her eyes.

“Bingo,” Juliette grinned. “We found the fright distance, now we can work on it.  You guys ever jumped on a trampoline before?”

“Nope.” Sophie shook her head.

“A small one for a photo shoot,” Destiny said.  “Angela was afraid of falling off, so I did that one for her.”

Angela blushed, nodding.  “Like seriously I’m that bad.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Megan said.  “Everyone’s afraid of something.  That’s why we’re here, to help you conquer that fear.  This is a big trampoline, fully padded with no exposed springs.  You’re completely safe.  If you fall you’ll just bounce right back on your feet.”

It wasn’t exactly a trampoline, but it was the same concept.  They led the girls around a corner to where an adult-sized bouncy castle had been set up.  A woman with her blonde hair in a ponytail, wearing a “Trainer” tee shirt, was using it to skip rope and bouncing pretty high at it.  She laughed as she came down, hit the edge, and slid right off onto her feet.  “Just testing the inertial forces,” she teased.

They spent the better part of the next hour and a half just bouncing off the bottom and sides of the inflatable structure.  It wasn’t just for Angela’s benefit, either.  Not only was it helping Sophie and Destiny adjust to moving quickly and changing directions, but it was also acting as a massive de-stresser.  By the time they had finished, Angela was falling from 3 and 4 foot bounces with ease, and they had all forgotten about the climbing wall.

“Okay, I think you guys are ready for the big jump,” Juliette grinned.  “But again we’ll start you slow at a 5 foot drop.”  She turned to Angela.  “Think fast!” and pushed her.  Angela let out a startled squeal, but not from falling.  Megan was right there to catch her, and she kept her eyes open.

“I did it!” she squealed and bounced as she got back up again.

“Yes you did.” Megan said, and the other two joined one at a time.  “I think  they’re ready for the next one.”  She didn’t tell them it was a full two story drop this time.

“I think so too,” Juliette said, raising the platform using the hydraulic controls until they were just about two stories up.  “Okay now this one’s different.  You want to step off like you’re going to step down a flight of stairs, and cross your arms like this,” she showed them, and then gave a live demonstration by stepping off the platform and falling into the airbag below.

“Okay,” Angela said as she stepped up, waiting for them to reset the airbag.  “I can do this.  It’s just like the five foot drop.  I can do this...  I can...”  She stepped off.  She screamed.  She landed in the middle of the air bag, a giggling mess.  “Holy crap that was amazing I can’t believe I did that did you guys see that?!” she said, a mile a  minute, as she rolled off the bag and into Megan, Juliette, Destiny and Sophie’s waiting arms.

“Keep this up,” Juliette grinned, “You’ll be going skydiving before long.”

“Oh hell no,” Angela laughed.

“Well,” Megan said, “We’re going to keep pushing you at the two story level for today.  Tomorrow we’ll go higher, and Gina will start working with you on your choreography and stunts.  Let’s take five and get some water.”

“Wait,” Destiny said, “That was a two story jump?  We fell two stories?”

“Yup,” Sophie said with a giggle.  “Fun huh?”

“Yes!” Destiny giggled.

“I can’t believe the words are coming out of my mouth,” Angela laughed as she grabbed her water bottle, “But yeah.  This is really exciting.  Aunt Maev would die if she knew,” she giggled.

“Mom is crazy weird like that.” Destiny giggled.  “I can’t believe,” she said in her best impression of Maev, “They pay people ta fling themselves off buildings for entertainment.  It’s bloody madness.”

Juliette giggled.  “Don’t let her watch Lost Girls.  She’d have a heart attack every time one of us flies.”

“That’s not CGI,” Megan laughed at that.  “We’re really being hoisted on a 50 foot crane.”

“We’ll be doing some harness work as well.” Sophie nodded. “Not 50 foot crane stuff but yeah.”

“Oh that’s true,” Megan said.  “Destiny’s got that crazy scene where she goes all ninja, and Sophie, I think they have you running straight up the side of a wall?”

“Yup.” Sophie nodded.

“And I get to do the Jessica Jones style of flying,” Angela giggled.  “Or as Woody called it, falling with style.”

“Oh that’ll be fun,” Juliette giggled.

“We have firearms training tomorrow as well.” Sophie nodded. “Even if we won’t be using live guns, they want us to know how to handle them.”

“Yeah,” the blonde haired woman said as she joined them, “There’s nothing more painful than watching a movie with someone who doesn’t know how to hold a handgun when the character’s supposed to be an expert.”

“That or an AK47 or any rifle for that matter.” Juliette nodded. “You’ll have to learn about recoil and stuff too. The guns are prop guns, but they actually fire what they call soft rounds and sound just like a real gun.”

“Just remember the laws of physics,” the woman said, grinning.  “An object at rest tends to stay at rest, and an object in motion tends to stay in motion.  Every action has an equal, but opposite reaction.  So you won’t get kicked back like an old mule, but hold it wrong and it will hurt.”

“Yep,” Angela giggled.  “My daddy tried to teach me about guns.  I gave up after his hunting rifle bruised me up.  But I was like eight at the time.  He never really got another chance to show me.”

Destiny hugged Angela at that.  Angela smiled and hugged her back.

“It’s okay,” she said.  “I know I haven’t talked about my parents in awhile, but I know they would be so damn proud of what we’ve accomplished.”

“Aye they would,” Destiny giggled.

~oOo~

Weapons practice the next day went better than expected, and even the high impact training with harnesses seemed to go well.  The girls were all learning fast, not just Sophie, or at least, they were willing to keep trying until they got it right.  They never complained, and frankly, it confused their trainers, except for Megan and Juliette.

After a particularly gruelling training session, the girls all needed to unwind, and so they went to visit an ice cream shop Evie had told them about called Little Damage, which apparently was famous for its goth ice cream.  They were sweaty and still in their gym clothes when they arrived at the ice cream shop, no makeup, hair held up with sweat bands: in short a PR disaster waiting to happen.

And then Megan and Juliette showed up just the same, and then Rebecca, Casidhe, Ellen, and Sierra.  Suddenly the place looked like an after-workout celebrity hot spot.

“Did you guys do this?” Angela laughed.

Juliette shook her head.  “We’re innocent.  We followed you guys,” she teased.

Rebecca laughed.  “I was out jogging with Sierra when she told me about this place.”

“We’ve been coming here for a couple of weeks,” Casidhe giggled.  “Evie told us about it.”

“Oh hey guys,” Evie waved from her table with a few other teenage girls sitting around with her.  “Guys this is my cousin Sophie I was telling you about, and her girlfriend Destiny, and their friends.”

“Wowee,” the brown haired girl Evie introduced as Alyssa said, a little overwhelmed.

“Don’t mind her,” the lone goth at the table, Marcy, teased her friend.  “She just has posters of Megan and Juliette and the pixies all over her bedroom.”

“Marcyyyy,” Alyssa whined.  Megan giggled.

“It’s okay.  We get that a lot.”

“I don’t want you thinking I’m just some vapid fangirl though,” Alyssa laughed.  “Well I mean I am, but it’s because we met once before, back when you were doing the Disney World promotion stuff.  I still have the polymer dew drop Silvermist gave me.”

“Holy cow,” Juliette laughed.  “You managed to preserve one for two years?”  Alyssa nodded sheepishly.  “That’s impressive.  They’re biodegradable so they don’t stick around the park for long.  I didn’t know you could save them.”

“If you freeze them they last a long time.” Alyssa said.  “I heard you can use varnish too, but that stuff smells awful.  I’d rather just freeze it.”

“That's just really crazy.” Megan laughed. “I can’t get over it.  Sil is going to die when I tell her.”

“I bet she cries,” Juliette giggled.

“Probably, she loves her fans.” Megan nodded.

“Speaking of crazy,” Marcy grinned at Alyssa.

“Marcy if you tell them, I’ll tell everyone at school what your bedroom really looks like,” Alyssa warned.

“Then I’ll repaint it,” Marcy said.  “The school’s doing a production based on Lost Girls and Alyssa plays Red.”

“Seriously?” Juliette giggled.  “That’s awesome.  Meg, we’re a legit play now.”

“That’s amazing,” Megan said as she hit the bottom of her black ice cream.  She looked at the empty cup thoughtfully.  “Hey I know this stuff is made with activated charcoal so it’s not really harmful, but is it safe to get seconds?”

Marcy nodded.  “Totally.  The only danger is getting sweet sick.”

“Hey, get me some more too,” Juliette said.  Sophie had been listening quietly to the conversation, looking thoughtfully at Alyssa.

“What?” Alyssa giggled.

“Sorry,” Sophie laughed.  “I was just thinking how cool it is that people can make connections like that, like Silvermist and Meg and Jules, and now you’re in a school play.”

“Yeah, but it’s no big deal,” Alyssa shrugged.  “I mean it’s not like I’m a real actress.”

“You wanna be?” Angela asked.  Alyssa shrugged.

“Well yeah.  But it takes time, training, and a whole lot of luck.”

“Then it’s your lucky day,” Juliette said.

Sophie nodded, handing Alyssa a card, “Come by the studio later.  We’re casting extras for an Amazon Prime series, but who knows, if the director likes you she could find you something bigger.”

“There are no small parts,” Marcy said, grinning at Alyssa.

“Sorry,” Sierra said as she and Rebecca finally joined them, Rebecca snuggling closer to Evie.  “What’d we miss?  I had a um... wardrobe malfunction.  Thank God Rebecca carries an emergency sewing kit.”

“Oh really?” Evie teased.  “Should I be jealous?”

Rebecca laughed.  “Not that kind of malfunction.  She had a tear in the butt of her jeans where the pocket popped a seam.  I sewed it back good as new.”

“Oh yeah duh.” Sophie sighed, “Alyssa right? Make sure you tell them that either I or Destiny sent you.”

“You just missed Alyssa getting a casting call for the Amazon thing,” Evie giggled.

“Awesome!” Sierra said.

“Sierra’s working on the theme song for the project,” Rebecca grinned.  Sierra actually blushed at that.

“It’s not the theme song,” she giggled out.  “It’s just a song for one of the dramatic scenes, an acoustic ballad I’m tentatively calling ‘Paradise Lost’.  I figured acoustic would be a cool split to really emphasize the characters’ humanity,” she said, trying not to give away too much of the show’s plot.

Sophie cringed at hearing the familiar snap of a camera shutter.  She looked over to see a girl their age approaching the table.  She had a literal streak of hot pink in her front bangs framing her face, while the rest was a more muted light blue.

“Sorry.” The girl said, “I work as a temp for WP Entertainment, they told me to come take a picture.” she put down WP Entertainment business card on the table.

“Ugh, really?” Sophie whined.  “I’m all sweaty and gross.”

“O naturale,” Marcy giggled.  “Hey can I get a copy of that for the school yearbook?” she asked.  “I’ll make sure you get photo cred.”

“You’ll have to make arrangements with Amanda at that number.” The girl said, “The company has a new policy about handing out images.  But since it’s for a school thing she’ll probably let you have it free.  She’s awesome like that.”

Marcy picked up the card, scribbling the number down on her hand.  “Amanda...  Price...  Got it.”  She laid the card back down on the table again.  “I’ll bug her later since my phone’s in my locker.”

“We can’t even give out photos even if our girls or guys say it’s okay anymore.” The girl shrugged. “Some big whopper over in the UK.”

“Don’t worry,” Destiny said, “We’ll make sure Amanda knows you’re friends with Evie.”

“Thanks,” Marcy said.  “I’m working on a full spread right now.  They gave me the center article, so I’m doing a student life in LA thing, and a shot of four actresses, four pop stars, and us regular people all hanging out eating ice cream is about the best I can come up with for life in LA,” she laughed.

“Hey!” Casidhe laughed, “We’re not pop stars yet.”

“Okay, two pop stars and two rising stars,” Marcy grinned.  “Just because literally everyone in my circle of friends has your single on Spotify at least once a day,” she teased.

~oOo~

“In Dublin’s fair city, where the grass is green and girls are so pretty...” someone with a soft and lyrical voice was singing in the bathroom, at the studio as Sophie and Destiny walked in to relieve themselves.  They were mostly just at the studio as a formality since their roles were set in stone, to offer their thoughts on casting. “Take me home, oh won’t you please me home.”  She stopped when she realized there was someone else in the bathroom.

“Sorry,” Alyssa said sheepishly from inside one of the stalls.  “Had that song stuck in my head since yesterday.”

“It’s fine.” Sophie giggled. “Dublin isn’t that great of a city, there’s much better cities in Ireland.” Sophie teased.

“Oh hi Sophie,” Alyssa giggled.  “I’ve never been.  Actually I’ve never been outside Los Angeles County.  Well...  Maybe to San Francisco on a day trip.”

“Remind me sometime to take you when Destiny and I go back.” Sophie said. “She’s an honorary resident of DaShane, near Giant’s Causeway.”

“Oh I couldn’t,” Alyssa said as she came out of the stall to wash her hands.  “It’s like uber expensive to fly international.  I’m lucky I got to go to Disney World on a cheerleading thing.”

“I’ll cover it think of it as a vacation after filming.” Sophie giggled.

“That’s if I even get cast for anything,” Alyssa laughed.  “And if Mom approves.  I’d have to miss some school...”

“I was just talking to Krissy.” Sophie giggled. “She’s going to have you try the role of my handler in the uprising.”

“That um, that sounds like more than a bit part,” Alyssa said cautiously, leaning against the sink as Sophie came back out of the stall to wash her hands.

“Yeah I told you, you might get a bigger part.” Sophie giggled. “She liked your read, but wants you for the other part if you’re up for it.”

“I mean I can try.  What’s the handler’s role?” Alyssa asked.  “They only gave me a blue script with some super basic lines.  It’s like 8 pages.”

“Delila.” Sophie stated.

“I mean what does she do?” Alyssa giggled.  “Everyone’s super hush hush about the project so all I know is androids are a thing.  What does Delilah do?”

“She’s got a few action sequences, but nothing like what we do.” Sophie said. “Oh and she’s very caring about the others in the uprising.”

“Nothing too squicky,” Destiny giggled.  “Want a spoiler?”

“Sure, if I’m going to be her,” Alyssa giggled.

Destiny grinned.  “She gets shot, but she doesn’t die.  Mary Ann, the Angels’ creator, saves her and joins the uprising.”

“God this sounds amazing,” Alyssa giggled.  “Okay I’ll go talk to Kristen about the part.”

“Thanks Destiny.” Sophie said as she got out of the stall to wash her hands.  “Hey Alyssa, go n-éirí an t-ádh leat!”

“Huh?” Alyssa said.

Destiny giggled.  “Roughly translated, it means break a leg I think.”

“Oh!  Thanks!” Alyssa giggled.

“American and English sayings are hard to translate into Irish.” Sophie giggled. “Glad you're willing to learn though.” she gave Destiny a kiss.

“I want to scare the shit out of my aunts and uncles the next time there’s a big family reunion back home,” Destiny giggled.

“They speak Gaelic?” Sophie asked.

“A few of the older ones do, especially the first gen.  I have a ton of first gen Irish American family.”

“Cool, I can’t wait to go to one.” Sophie said, “We got a sidhe reunion coming up did you get the email?”

“Oh yeah.  We should be finished shooting by then, or close to it.  There’s a huge McGrievy clans meet the week after, so I’m trying to talk Mom into going and dragging the fam with us.”

“Cool.” Sophie said, “Then you can introduce me to your McGrievy family.” Sophie winked.

“Can you imagine,” Destiny giggled as they left the bathroom, “40 Irish like my brothers, all crammed onto one plane?”

“What a nightmare.” Sophie laughed. “Your oldest brother should play Rugby.”

“Yeah he should,” Destiny burst out laughing.  “He played American football before we moved.  I hope he gets his spot back on the team because he’s actually really good.”

“Me too.” Sophie said. “Despite being shits, your brothers are cool.”

“Yeah, they’re alright,” Destiny said, and then waved as they caught up with Angela and Jessica.

“Top o’ the mornin’ to ya,” Jessica said, and then paused.  “God damit,” she sighed.  “I still sound like I’m just making fun.  Accents are hard.”

“Aye, we only say that as a joke.” Sophie laughed.

~oOo~

Sophie was walking off her fall, she almost twisted her ankle, and was hurting like no tomorrow.  The stunt coordinator Katrina, a woman in her late 20s with a frizzy red ponytail bouncing behind her as she ran, came up to Sophie to check on her.  

“Hey, you alright?” she asked.  Sophie was swearing hardcore in Irish but stopped and turned to the girl.

“Yeah, just barely got the matt, if I had missed it it woulda been worse.” Sophie sighed.

“I told that idiot to use the bigger bag,” she sighed.  “C’mon, let’s get you some ice.  Krissy, I’m calling lunch!” she shouted across the studio.  They were filming some studio lot shots in the LA area before they had to pack it up and head for Seattle for the on location shooting.

“That’s fine, is Sophie okay?” Krissy called back.

“I’m fine, I think my feet are going to be black and blue tomorrow though.” Sophie laughed.  “But I can walk on it, so it’s not broken.”

A couple of paramedics came jogging over as Sophie sat in her canvas chair and started to take off her boot.  “I’m going to go fire someone,” Katrina said angrily as one of the paramedics examined Sophie’s ankle.

“This is going to be tender for a couple of days,” he said as he began to wrap her ankle with a thick bandage, and then propped her foot up on a convenient ice chest, placing an ice pack over top of the bandage.

“Thank you,” Sophie said, pulling off her other boot so she could prop up her feet.  She was wearing a short skirt, but there wasn’t anything underneath to worry about exposing, due to the body suit she was wearing underneath.

“What happened?” Destiny said as she and Angela came running.  “We heard Kat screaming at someone.”

“It’s nothing,” Sophie sighed.  “They used the wrong air bag for my jump and I hurt my ankle,” she said.  “Really, I’ll be fine.  Just sore as fook. I can still move on it.  Somebody mind getting my phone?”

“Sure babe,” Destiny said, disappearing for a moment, while Angela grabbed Sophie a tuna melt from the lunch buffet table.

“Ooh Angela, my hero,” Sophie giggled  “Thanks Des,” she said, taking her phone.  ‘Getting ahead of any rumors, yes I took a bad fall on set, no my ankle isn't broken.  Just sore!’ she tweeted out

“Getting on step ahead of the loudmouth brigade?” Destiny giggled.

“Aye,” Sophie said as she put her phone aside to eat, “I’ve learned from you two,” she teased as Krissy approached.

“Sophie I am so sorry,” she said.

“It’s fine,” Sophie shook her head.  “No harm no foul.  Not much harm anyway.”

“No, this is inexcusable,” Krissy said.  “You could’ve broken your leg.  I’ve already reported this incident to the lawyers.  I know you’re not hurt, but it’s stupid mistakes, preventable mistakes like this that can sink a studio’s reputation, or God forbid, get someone killed.  We’re going to halt filming for the day while legal decides how to proceed.”

“I don't want to sue anyone, or anything or have anyone lose their job.” Sophie sighed. She saw the man that was getting chewed out, “I mean it’s not his fault 100%, it’s mine too, I was supposed to inspect the bag before I made the jump. Says so in the stuntman insurance thing we had to get, we’re supposed to also inspect the equipment before we make the stunt.”

“Maybe so,” Krissy said, “But Kat gave explicit instructions which bag to use.  For a five story jump, that’s the big one.  There’s going to be an investigation, but I don’t think anyone’s going to lose their jobs.  It’s just SOP to investigate these things thoroughly.”

“I just gave him a write up.” Kat said. “Moved him to soft stunts for a few days. Nobody's going to get fired Sophie. But you are right, it’s not all his fault, nor yours either, someone mispackaged the bags too.”

“Basically,” Krissy said, “It’s a clusterfuck.”

Kat nodded, “Big time, I think we might have to look into the delivery company.”

“I guess it’s just as well,” Krissy said.  “I’ve been thinking of moving production ahead, and doing the rest on location in Seattle for a more organic feel.  I mean this is just the pilot,” she laughed.  “We’ve got five more after this. And if Amazon digs it, we might have a real series on our hand.”

“Speaking of, I think the Amazon people are here.” Someone called out.

“Fuck me running,” Krissy sighed.  The girls had never heard her drop an f-bomb before.  “Okay, someone grab me some fish and chips.  I’ll eat it when I’m finished begging the execs for mercy.”

“Go n-éirí an t-ádh leat,” Destiny called after her.

“I’d rather not resort to violence,” Krissy laughed.