Rollie entered the old converted brewery, exhausted. He just got back from a two week business trip to Ireland. It was now eleven o'clock PM. He wasn't supposed to be back for another week, but the movie deal fell through.
Throwing his keys onto a nearby table, and dropping his bags onto the floor, Rollie walked over to the couch. He hadn't had Bluey turn the lights on, and cursed himself silently for not doing so when he hit his foot against a metal storage box.
Shrugging his suit jacket off, the Aussie flopped down onto the couch, and landed on a pair of legs. Shocked, Rollie jumped up from the couch.
"Bluey, lights!" Two shocked voices exclaimed in unison.
Once the lights turned on and his eyes focused, Rollie saw Angie, now in a sitting position on the couch, looking up at him.
"Oh, Angie. I didn't know you were there. You nearly gave me a bloody heart attack." Rollie told her, sitting back down onto couch.
"I'm sorry. I thought you weren't going to be back till next week and....." Angie started, not directly looking at him.
"Hey, it's fine. No big deal. The movie deal fell through. That's why I'm home early. Turns out the main actress in the movie talked the director into giving the job to her brother instead," Rollie told the young woman. Looking over at her, he noticed the puffiness and redness around her eyes. It looked like she had been crying. "Angie, have you been crying?"
"No, no." She replied, quickly, getting up from the couch. "I should go. It's late."
"Ang, wait. Something's wrong. What is it?" Rollie questioned, gently taking hold one of Angie's arms.
"Nothing's wrong." Angie insisted, gazing at the floor.
"Okay, if nothings wrong, tell me that looking me in the eyes." Rollie challenged.
Looking at Rollie, she knew he wasn't going to let this go. It wasn't like he wasn't going to find out what was going on anyway.
Rollie then pulled the woman into his arms, after she started sobbing. While trying to console the young woman, he led her over to the couch.
"Angie, please. Tell me what's wrong." Rollie pleaded, once Angie settled down a bit.
"I'm....... I'm pregnant." She told her best friend and only family she had, with her head laying against Rollie's chest.
Rollie's eyes opened wide in shock.
"You're pregnant?" Rollie questioned not sure if he had heard her right.
"Yeah." She confirmed, trying to keep from crying again.
Rollie didn't know what to say. He just sat there, holding Angie in his arms, shocked, as she started to cry again.
"You tell Brice yet?" Rollie asked gently, after Angie stopped crying, referring to Angie's boyfriend, Brice Hunting. Angie and Brice had met while shooting a movie Brice was the lead actor in. They'd been going out for about two months now.
"No." Angie replied, quietly. "I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet. He's still up north working on that horror film, "Sandy, Sandy". Brice won't be back for about two more weeks."
"Oh. When are you going to tell him?" Rollie asked, stroking her blond hair. The Aussie was sure this was something Angie wasn't going to wait for two weeks tell Brice about.
"I was thinking about going up there tomorrow. Since we didn't have anything planned, but..."
"We still don't have anything planned." Rollie assured her quickly.
"Okay." Angie mumbled quietly. She had a question she wanted to ask Rollie she just didn't know how to ask it. "Um.... Rollie?"
"Yeah, Ange?" Rollie responded quietly, noticing her hesitation.
"Rollie, would you come with me tomorrow?" Angie asked slowly, then quickly added, "You don't have to if you don't want to or have something else planned."
"Angie, if you want me to come with you, I will." Rollie told her, leaning down to give her a small kiss on the top of her head. "So, when you want to leave?"
"I was thinking around noon." Angie asked, happy the tall man agreed to coming with her.
"Sounds fine to me, sweetie." Rollie replied gently pushing the woman off of him so he could get up from the couch.
Angie watched him silently move up the stairs, then come back down a couple minutes later with a pillow and blanket.
"Here." Rollie told Angie handing her the blanket and pillow had was carrying in his arms. "Get some rest."
"Rollie, I should go home...." Angie started but was cut off as he gently pushed her down against the pillow and continued to cover her up with the blanket.
"Ange, it's late. I'm too tired to drive you to your apartment. And you're not going alone. You can sleep on the couch for the night." Rollie told her gently, but sternly at the same time.
"Yeah, okay." Angie replied not feeling like arguing with the determined Aussie.
"Good. Now you get some rest." Rollie told the young woman, giving her hand a squeeze before starting up the stairs to his bed.
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Part Two
Rollie woke up to the sound of someone running past his bed into the bathroom. Rolling out of bed, he saw it was seven after eight in the morning. After pulling on a pair of jeans and a tee shirt Rollie started over to the closed bathroom door.
"Ang, you okay?" Rollie asked knocking lightly on the door, once the woman in the bathroom stopped coughing.
"I'm fine." Angie replied, stepping out of the bathroom.
"You sure?" Rollie asked concerned looking down at the smaller figure.
"Yes, I'm sure. Just a little nauseous. I'll be fine." Angie assured him
"Okay. Well, since we're both up now, why don't we start getting to go tell Brice the good news, huh?" Rollie asked, smiling slightly.
"Sounds good." Angie replied, moving towards the stairs.
By eleven Rollie and Angie were heading out the door. They still had to drop by Angie's apartment before they started on there four hour trip upstate.
While Angie was still inside getting her coat and locking up, Rollie went out and put his two small bags into the back of the red pick-up-truck. Rollie looked up to see Mira and Francis pulling to a stop a few feet from him in their unmarked police car.
"Hey, Rollie." Francis called out, as he started towards the taller man.
"Hi Francis, Mira." Rollie returned greetings, putting the cover back over the back of his truck.
"Rollie." Mira called out following Francis.
"What's that?" Rollie asked Mira, referring to the small cardboard box she was carrying.
"Some stuff we need you're help with." Mira replied.
"Nope. Not today. Angie and I have plans. We're just about to leave for a couple days. Won't be back till tomorrow or the day after." Rollie told the two detectives shaking his head.
"Rollie, it's okay." Angie said stepping up next to him. "We can go when you're done. Or tomorrow."
"It won't take long, Rollie. Just a couple hours." Francis assured the Aussie. "We only need a few sounds and sites identified."
"Ang, you sure? I don't have to help Mira and Francis if you want to leave now? And you can always go without me?" Rollie asked his younger assistant turning away from the two detectives, who were starting to feel like they were intruding on something.
"No. I want you to go with me. I don't feel like doing this alone. And I'm in no real hurry to leave. Go ahead and help them." Angie told Rollie, with the mix of nervousness and nausea.
Rollie looked down at Angie still uncertain. After she nodded her head and smiled at him, signaling that she was sure, Rollie turned back to his two detective friends.
"All right. Let's go in and see what we have." Rollie said, ushering everyone into the workshop.
After spending about three hours looking and listening at the box of tapes Frank and Mira brought over, Rollie found a location. They soon said there good-byes and thanks to the Aussie. Rollie then went to the lounge to wake Angie from her already second nap that day.
Deciding they we're still both up for the trip, they locked up the shop and went to Angie's apartment. After taking her cat to a neighbor's down the hall to watch while Angie and Rollie were away, and Angie packed a small bag they we're on there way up north.
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Part Three
The long drive to upstate New York, wasn't that bad for the most part. It rained, lightly, for about an hour during the trip. Angie slept for most of the time, in the passenger side seat, covered with a blanket Rollie had in the back of the truck. After about three hours of driving and making about two quick pit stops, Rollie pulled up to a small diner. Angie and Rollie spent an hour in the diner, resting and getting some supper.
About an hour or so, from when they got back on the road, the set of "Sandy, Sandy", the movie Brice was working on, came into sight. It was getting pretty dark out, it being forty-five minutes after eight o'clock PM, but there were porch light turned on outside most of the trailers.
After stopping to ask one of the few various people roaming around the set, which trailer belonged to Brice Hunting, Rollie came to a stop in front of one of the three larger trailers.
"I'll just wait out here." Rollie said, once he and the younger woman got out of the truck.
"Okay." Angie replied, nervously walking to the door of the trailer. She saw a dim light on in the trailer so she knew Brice must've been in there and up.
After knocking on the door once and getting no reply, Angie slowly opened the door and entered the trailer.
"Brice?" Angie called out quietly, asked she walked to the back of the trailer.
Angie came to a abrupt stop with the sight that was in front of her.
Brice and some brown long haired woman, were rolling around, undressed, on the trailer bed. Clothes were thrown all over a floor.
"Oh, my God! Brice!" Angie shouted, startling the two people in the bed, who were now pulled apart and grabbing for the sheet wildly and looking up at Angie.
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Part Four
Rollie was leaning against his red pick-up-truck looking up at the just-appearing stars, when he heard Angie's shout from the trailer. Rollie couldn't hear what was being said though. Just heard her shouting. The Aussie, then started walking slowly closer to the trailer, but didn't enter it.
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Angie stood shocked as Brice jumped out of the bed, after pulling on a pair of jeans.
"Who's is this woman, Brice?" The woman in the bed asked looking between Brice and Angie.
Angie looked over at Brice, waiting for his answer.
"My ex-girlfriend." He responded, stunning Angie.
"Ex-girlfriend!?!" Angie shouted back, not knowing what to think about this whole mess. Her mind was a jumbled mess. She couldn't think straight.
"Janie, why don't you go back to you're trailer. I'll have this straightened out in just a minute." Brice told the woman in the bed, pulling her out of the bed and heading her towards the door.
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Rollie was still standing a few feet away from the door, when a woman he never saw before come out of the trailer, still pulling on clothes. As the woman pushed past him, Rollie was getting a full picture of what was going on. And he hoped he wasn't right.
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"Ex-girlfriend?! Brice, you want to explain a few things to me?" Angie shouted at Brice once the other woman left.
"Angie, I was going to tell you when I got back home, in a couple weeks." Brice told the almost close to hysterical woman, pulling on a shirt.
"Tell me what exactly!?" Angie asked near tears.
"That it's over between use. Just didn't work out, babe." Brice told her, giving her that cocky smile of his.
Angie winced at the pet name he used for her, as it reminded her of the real reason she was there.
"I wasn't expecting you to show up here. Unexpected and all." Brice told her.
"Yeah. Well, I have some news for you, that I didn't think should wait till you got back home." Angie snapped back, feeling betrayed, sad, angry, and hurt. After what she just saw, Angie didn't really want to tell Brice what she came to tell him, but she knew he had a right to know.
"Oh, and what's that?" Brice asked, stepping closer to her.
"I'm pregnant." Angie replied.
"HAH! You're just making that up, because I dumped you!" Brice shouted, moving closer to the woman, slightly laughing.
"Believe me, after what I saw here tonight I wish I was just making this up! But believe me, I'm not! I'm a 100% percent pregnant, Brice." Angie replied, to the man.
"Well, you just better be making it up! You're not going to ruin my career this way!" Brice shouted, angrily. "You know what?! I bet if you are really pregnant the baby isn't even mine! Probably that Tyler's!
Angie couldn't believe what Brice had just said. What he just accused her and Rollie of doing. Brice was the one who was cheating on her and then he turned the tables on her and accused her of it.
Angie was brought out of her thoughts, when the trailer door opened quickly, and Rollie stepped in.
"Well, well. We were just talking about you, Tyler." Brice said, looking up at the other man, but still stayed put, snorting.
"Angie, are you okay? I heard yelling." Rollie asked his assistant, concerned, ignoring the other man's remark.
"I'm fine. I just want to leave." Angie told her best friend, starting to move closer to him and away from Brice, when she was stopped, by her ex-boyfriend. He had grabbed her right arm, and was grasping it tightly.
"Let go of her!" Rollie shouted loudly, stepping closer to Brice.
Brice looked up angrily at Rollie, then back to Angie.
"We're over with." Brice told Angie, letting go of her arm and storming out of the trailer.
When they we're alone, Rollie turned to face Angie. "You okay?"
"I just want to go." Angie told the Aussie, breaking down into a sobbing fit of tears.
Rollie pulled the smaller woman into his arms and held her for a few minutes till she calmed down a bit and they walked out to the truck.
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Part Five
Rollie was thinking about driving straight home that night, but looking at Angie he knew they should probably stop for the night. After they got out on the road she settled down and stopped crying but she still looked a mess. She hadn't said a word to him. Just sat quietly looking out at the dark scenery.
About forty-five minutes away from the movie set, they entered a small town and Rollie pulled the truck into the parking lot of a small motel. While he went into the office to get them a couple rooms, Angie stayed in the car.
Ten minutes later, Rollie came back to the truck, only able to get one room. At least they had two beds, Rollie thought. But he wasn't all that sure if he or Angie would be getting any sleep.
He then parked the truck in a parking space, directly out front of the room they were given for the night. Rollie quickly got out of the truck and went around to Angie's side, opening the door for her. They moved quietly to the motel room, and stood silent while Rollie unlocked the door. Letting Angie in, Rollie went back out to the truck to get there very few bags.
When the Aussie came back into the room he found Angie sitting at the end of the bed furthest from the door, head in her hands.
Quickly sitting the bags on the floor, and shutting the door behind him, Rollie sat down next to Angie.
"You want to talk about what happened at the set, with Brice?" Rollie asked slowly, as he tightly held the woman in his arms.
"I caught Brice cheating on me." Angie responded, her head leaning against Rollie chest.
"You tell him that you're pregnant?" Rollie asked, stroking her hair and back.
"Yeah."
"And?" Rollie questioned quietly.
"And he exploded. At first he didn't even believe I was pregnant. Thought it was some way for me to get back for his cheating on me and breaking up with me. Then he changed his mind and said he believed that I'm pregnant. But doesn't believe that the baby is his." Angie told the man.
Rollie pulled away from the woman, so he could look he in the eyes, confused.
"If he doesn't think he's the father, then who does he think is?" Rollie asked out loud. It was meant more as a silent question to himself than what it turned out to be.
"You. He thinks you're the father." She told him, slightly embarrassed about telling Rollie what Brice had accused of Rollie and her doing.
Bloody hell. Rollie got the impression from Brice Hunting at the very beginning that he was a complete jerk. And now what he just did confirmed it for the Aussie. First he cheats on Angie, then he accuses Angie of cheating on him.
Rollie brought Angie closer to him, holding her quietly while she started crying.
About forty-five minutes later, Angie had fallen asleep, in Rollie's arms. The Aussie carefully, and quietly, picked her up in his arms, got up and moved to the top of the bed they had been sitting on. Rollie leaned over to gently place the young woman onto the bed, but she had placed a fairly tight grasp on him during her sleep, and wouldn't let go. So, he just placed her gently down in the middle of the bed, and laid down next to her, while she still clung to him. He then pulled a blanket, that was folded at the end of the bed, up over Angie and himself, and then turned off the lamp light.
Rollie laid there in the dark, listening to the sound of the woman breathing steadily. At first he wasn't sure if he'd get any sleep after the events of the day and past few hours, but he was proven wrong about ten minutes later, when darkness overtook him.
What seemed like minutes later, but was actually at least eight hours later, Rollie was awoken by someone pushing on his chest and jumping off the bed. Catching his breath, Rollie saw Angie running into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.
After he heard things settle down in the bathroom, Rollie got up from the bed, and moved across the small motel room.
"Angie, you okay?" Rollie asked, slowly opening the door, and saw Angie sitting on the floor, leaning against the tub side. Her arms were wrapped around her knees, and her head was resting on her arms.
"Yeah." Angie replied quietly, as she slowly looked up, and saw Rollie grab a wash clothe from the rack and wet it.
"Here." Rollie told the young woman, as he sat down next to her on the floor, handing her a freshly wet wash clothe.
"Thanks." Angie replied placing the cool item on her forehead, leaning against her boss, as he put his arms around her shoulders.
After a few minutes of silence, Rollie asked, "Have you decided what you want to do yet? About the baby, I mean."
"Yeah. I want to keep it, Rol." Angie answered quietly.
"Okay. Just remember, I'll be here for you through all of this. No matter what happens, I'll be here for you." Rollie reassured Angie, taking one of her hands into one of his larger ones.
"Thanks, Rollie. That means a lot to me." Angie told her best friend, wrapping her arms around his neck, to give him a hug.
