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The shower in Jody’s production trailer is a tiny cubicle that Colt has to duck down inside to get fully under the shower head. It never quite tips past a lukewarm temperature, and the water pressure is near non-existent. Still, it’s the best shower he’s ever had.
Over the course of his two decades in the stunt business he’s gotten used to getting his hands dirty. At some point in every stunt man’s career, you have to become accustomed to just being perpetually dusty, or muddy, or any other adjective really that can be used to describe one’s physical state. But after going at full speed for three days straight, even Colt has reached his limit. It’s a relief to feel clean even though the water from the shower reignites each of his freshly accrued scrapes, bruises, and pains.
After the adrenaline and panic from Colt sneaking up on Jody in her trailer (bad idea), followed by Gail’s impromptu visit sparking the plan of how to get Tom to confess (great idea), Jody finally had a moment to breathe. And in that moment she looked Colt up and down. The first words out of her mouth were, “Oh my God, you’re filthy!”
Selfless as always, she abandoned any further discussions of the plan to instead help rid Colt of the alien costume and corral him into the shower.
Now he rinses the crusted blood and grimy river water from his hair, breathing deep lungfuls of Jody’s cucumber melon scented shampoo. It’s her favorite scent, he knows, the same scent he couldn’t get enough of when they were wrapped around each other in bed after late nights on set. Before his not-accident ruined everything. Safe to say that when he went MIA, he stuck strictly to woody pine scented body care products. He rinses out the shampoo, watches the soap suds swirl down the drain and thinks if he were as good a writer as Jody he might have some cool metaphor or symbolism to attach to it all.
Instead, he just switches off the water when he’s done and towels himself dry with the fuzzy purple towel Jody slung over the curtain for him. He wraps the towel around his waist and puts most of his weight on his right leg as he exits the cubicle. Jody sits on the couch leaning over a first aid kit on the small coffee table when he comes out. She stares at his bare chest for several moments, lips parted slightly even though no words leave her. Once upon a time he might have not even worn the towel at all after showering in her trailer. They’ve seen plenty of each other before. But even though they’re back to kissing (hell yeah), Colt isn’t sure they have reached that level of comfort again yet.
When Jody comes back to herself she picks up a set of clothes and walks them over to him. “I nabbed these from Nigel’s trailer. They might be a bit big on you, but it’ll have to do in the short term.”
Their fingers brush as he takes the clothes from her.
“Thanks,” he tells her.
“Leave the trousers off for now—” At his raised eyebrows, she sputters and blushes in that adorable way of hers but pushes on, “—I have to treat your puncture wound. Did you run it under the water for five minutes?”
“That I did.” Colt salutes her and steps back into the shower cubicle to change. He’s tall, but Nigel still has several inches on him and is broader in the shoulders, so the t-shirt billows slightly around his frame. But the briefs fit well, and he throws the sweatpants over his arm for later as he steps back out into the trailer.
Colt sits on the couch next to Jody and props his left leg up with a hiss. Jody winces empathetically as she dawns latex gloves and applies neosporin to the wound.
“I’m sorry I stabbed you,” she apologizes. She’s already apologized for it multiple times, but the guilt never leaves her voice. Colt can’t help the buzzing feeling in his chest.
“It’s okay. I probably shouldn’t have come up behind you and covered your mouth if I didn’t want to get fucked up.”
Jody snorts loud and unfiltered at his brute honesty. She sobers up as she wraps the wound in gauze and seals it with medical tape. “Growing up with brothers will teach you a lot of survival skills. That includes nursing people back to health.”
When she leans in, his eyes immediately fall to her lips. His lids flutter shut when she reaches out and he thinks she might be pulling him into another kiss, but she actually is just applying more neosporin onto the bridge of his nose. Her touch is butterfly soft as she grazes more ointment over his scraped cheek. He can feel her breath on his face even when she pulls her hand back. When he opens his eyes their faces are inches away from each other.
What should he say here? That he’s thankful she didn’t throw him to the wolves as soon as he stepped on set? That she’s beautiful even when she is stressed beyond belief? That he’s sorry he ever left her and for letting his pride get in the way of them?
It doesn’t matter because just like that the moment suspended between them is cut short. Time speeds up again and Jody leans back, blinking as if to shake herself from some romantic stupor. Colt tries not to let his disappointment show too much.
Jody removes her gloves and packs up the first aid kit. “I’m a director not a doctor, so you’ll need to be examined more later. But as of right now you’re a dead man, so you can’t exactly just wander into a hospital.”
Colt gives her a thumbs up and immediately drops it at her responding side eye. He helps right the coffee table to put the miniature set model back in the center. The tiny toy car sticks straight up out of the styrofoam, and he stares at it contemplatively.
“So. What’s step one of this plan?” He asks.
“Gail mentioned she was looking for Dan. How is he a part of this?”
Right, Dan. If they went through this much to get rid of Colt, they aren’t just going to stop there. Gail is going to do anything and everything to make sure no loose ends are left behind.
“He was with me when we found out what happened to Henry. She probably is planning on killing him too.”
He remembers what Ryder told him back on the docks about bringing someone else up there to take some hits. Dan. Jody.
Something ugly rises in his chest at the memory, and a frown crosses his face as he says, “If I know Dan at all, he’s somewhere on set laying low.”
Jody nods along to his words. She looks at Colt determinedly, and is there any mood that she doesn’t look good in? Colt would have to say otherwise.
“Well there we go,” she says. “Step one: find Dan and tell him you’re alive.”