Miller's Crossing Ch. 01

This is a Fantasy about Wentworth Miller. None of this is true. It's all just straight out of my vivid imagination. This doesn't get too erotic for awhile. Bear with me, through it though and you won't be disappointed.

*

He stands with the others watching the car as it takes off incredibly fast. Hitting the brakes the car seems to spin out of control. The driver recovers and hits the gas yet again, to show off for the waiting crowd. Thinking out loud he says, "Damn! He's good." A man to his right looks over to him and asks, "What was that?"

"I said he's good." He reiterates.

"Oh," the guy grins, "one of the best."

The driver gets summoned back in by radio, and someone steps out onto the tarmac. Instead of slowing down to come closer to the crowd, the car seems to keep up the speed with which it was doing its tricks. The man on the tarmac talks into the radio and motions for the driver to park it along side him. The tires scream as everyone in the crowd seems to draw and hold a breath. The driver comes to a screeching halt not a foot from the man with the radio that had stepped out to indicate where the car should stop. Applause breaks out as two men step up to help the driver out of the open window of the car. The crowd that was milling around started to break up and go their separate ways.

The driver took off the helmet and a heap of brunette curls went flying as the driver shook out her hair. Shocked that the stuntman was really a stuntwoman, he let his jaw drop. She slid out of the driving suit revealing a very fit, somewhat tall figure.

"Someone's got to do something about the heat in that thing." She was conversing with the man that radioed her in. "Spielberg's people had a new thermal suit that didn't make me sweat nearly as much," she told him.

"Well, this isn't a Spielberg film honey," he says with a grunt. He grabs the suit and helmet from her and hands it off to a gofer.

She responds, "Well, I suppose I could make a call and see if I can work something out with them."

At this point, the Assistant Director James Hallowell walks up to her and tells her what a good job she just did. Without pausing he turns to introduce her to the leading man of the film. "This is Wentworth Miller. He's the one we'll be doing the skyjump scenes with."

She reaches out her hand to shake his. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Miller."

"I think you had better call me Wentworth. From the schematics I've seen of this stunt, you and I are going to get very close and personal." His shy smile falters a second as he gets his first look into her unusual eyes.

"My name's Heidi," she says sliding an accusatory look over to James. He shrugs and suggests they get back to the set to see if it's ready for the next stunt.

"Are you going to let go?" Heidi asks quietly.

Realizing he's still holding her hand and looking into her eyes, he sheepishly lets go of her hand. Before he can apologize she turns to start a conversation with someone else. He's left feeling odd about the encounter. The only coherent thought in his head is "Wow."

Meanwhile, she is trying to cover up her reaction to him by avoiding him. "Dayuuummm," was her initial thought. Strong hands, beautiful green eyes, and a voice to make any girl melt. It was making her feel a bit gooey inside. A feeling she hadn't felt in a long time. Staying out of his way would be a really good idea, she thought to herself, at least, as much as it will be possible. Feelings like this led to entanglements that had no place in this business. This attitude had led to getting the respect she had for being very business-like and professional, which, in turn, got her better paying jobs. In this business you had to have the respect of the people you worked with or you didn't work for very long. Hollyweird at it's finest, she thought.

Moving their way onto the set, lots of people were milling around when the leading actress decided to make an appearance. Driving her little sports car directly onto the set, she parks it not far from where the director is sitting in front of his monitors. With a flourish of her auburn locks she gets out of her car and saunters over to the director's seat.

"I thought that you didn't want to do this scene, Amber," the director states.

"My agent doesn't think I can do it, Gene. I'm here to prove him wrong." Amber responds in her well-known high-pitched voice.

"It's going to take some time getting the rigging set up for you. We had it fit for your stunt double." Seeing the determined look on her face he gives in. He calls for a gofer to take Amber to the rigging area where the men there re-fit it for her. Heidi, Wentworth and a couple of other stunt men and crew quietly discuss this turn of events.

Jeremy, Heidi's assistant, elbows his way through the small crowd.

"Get a hold of Spielberg's people and see who he used for costume design on that last pic of his. See if you can get me the number." Heidi asks him.

"Of course," he replies. Heidi misses the note of sarcasm in his voice. It isn't lost on all the surrounding people. Wentworth surreptitiously eyes Jeremy. He seems rather out of place among the crew. His punk rocker hair-do that seemed like an awful lot of work, dark eyeliner and black clothing made him stick out. Everyone around him looked like regular working men. None of them put much thought into their appearance because they were the behind-the-scenes crew. Jeremy just seemed out of place.

Heidi turned to a crew member, "I thought she was afraid of heights," speaking about Amber. Wentworth interjects, "I think she's trying to prove something." He flicks a raised eyebrow to her.

"Yeah," she says softly, "but who is she trying to prove it to? Everyone knows she's never done this sort of thing before. She faints at the slightest provocation." Some of the crew around her nodded their agreement.

The director interrupts by telling Wentworth to go to wardrobe, seeing that Amber was set up and on her way there as well.. It didn't take long to get her fitted because Heidi was chosen for her similarity in body frame to the actress.

The scene is supposed to be the two actors hanging onto each other as they plummet out of a plane with one parachute. Wentworth wears the chute and holds tightly onto the actress. For safety sake, the close-ups are shot with the actress in a harness with really thin but strong straps. These would be erased in post-production. Initially, Amber was going to do the close-ups because they were only a few feet in the air. But today's schedule was for the long camera shots where the actors would be really high up. Each actor was rigged up to individual ropes in case there was a problem with grasping onto each other. As they were being raised up into the air, Amber's face was getting whiter and she was visibly shaking. The crew stopped them halfway up so the director could ask her whether she wanted to continue. She said she did, so reluctantly he raised them up the entire 250 feet off the ground. When she got to the top, Amber started screaming that she wanted down. They had to bring both actors down simultaneously. By the time they reached the ground, Amber was squeezing her eyes shut and holding on for dear life. A few hidden smirks were seen throughout the crew, but for the most part everyone kept their reactions to themselves. Heidi walked up to help Amber out of the rigging. When Amber finally opened her eyes she caught Heidi and said, "I don't know how you do it, but today I'm grateful that it'll be you up there and not me. I tried, but perhaps my agent is right." Amber was clearly embarrassed about the whole incident.

"There are lots of people that are afraid of heights, Amber. Don't be upset about this. This is why they pay me to do it." Heidi said, trying to be supportive. It was difficult when all she was thinking was how Amber was being a fool.

Getting Amber back to her car so someone could chauffeur her off set, and getting Heidi re-fitted in the rigging took awhile. Wentworth was showing an abundant amount of patience, Heidi thought. After getting into costume, they were raised to the top of the rigging where the cameras finally started rolling.

The first few takes were made, when back up at the top of the stunt, Heidi felt something rip. As they both watched one of the cords quickly snake its way past them, they looked into each others eyes and yelled for the crew. Before anyone could react, her entire rigging started to unravel. As she slid down, Heidi grabbed hold of Wentworth and slid down his body ending up with one arm around his waistline. He grabbed at her, only catching her left arm. Thinking quickly, Wentworth said, "See if you can step up on my foot!" Heidi does so and yells, "Put out your left hand!" He does so, grabbing hold of her other arm as she swings it up to reach his. She grabs his rigging and works herself up to where he can grab her around the waist and she can clasp her hands behind his neck. Looking at each other they both try to catch their breath. "Thank you," she says gasping for air. "You saved my life." He says, "Just hold onto me. Don't let go."

"You don't actually think I'm going to let you go anytime soon do you?" She asks recovering her breath.

He shakes his head, "No, nor am I."

Finally the crew lowers them down at an excruciatingly slow pace. Afraid that if they go too fast one or the both of them may lose their grip. To incite a bit of calm Wentworth asks a question that's been burning in his mind. "What color are your eyes exactly?"

With a weak smile at his attempt, Heidi answers, "One is half brown and half blue the other is blue. The blue parts change from blue to green to gray or hazel, depending on my mood or what I'm wearing."

"So what's your mood when they're bright blue?" he asks.

"Upset or angry, usually," she answered.

"I guess that makes sense at the moment. Are you angry?"

She gives him a steely look and replies, "I have a bad feeling that someone sabotaged that line. I'll have to look at it once we get on the ground."

"It's the same line they used on Amber," he adds, trying to be helpful.

"I know," she answers with a look of determination on her face.

They are still no more than half way down, and Heidi relaxes a bit from Wentworth's attempt at bringing calm to them both. Since it's a long way down there would be no harm in trying to cooperate. "What do your friends call you, Worth?"

"No, actually, they call me Went usually."

"Really? I would think that Worth would be the more aesthetically pleasing of the two adverbs that make up your name."

At this Wentworth raised his eyebrows. "I, uh, was an English teacher for awhile." She said awkwardly, then smiled. "I, personally prefer Worth. I think that's what I'll call you. That is, if it's alright with you," she added with a sly grin.

"I suppose it would be alright," he said grinning back.

For a long second, she couldn't take her eyes from his. Eventually, looking down she saw how much they had progressed. She didn't see his look of apprehension at what they just shared.

"Almost there," she reassured him.

"That's too bad," he mumbled. When she looked at him quizzically, he shook his head.

The ropes jolted as they reached the ground, making him grab her tighter. Her head came up and her eyes locked onto his. Another stirring of emotion passed between them. Neither would acknowledge it, but neither could deny it to themselves either. They swiftly recovered as people swarmed about getting them both unharnessed.

Heidi looked around once undone, and picked up the end of the rope. It had clearly been severed most of the way through. She looked up at Wentworth, and at his questioning glance, showed him the cut through rope. He looked around to see if anyone noticed Heidi picking up the rope and looked back at her when he saw no one had. With a short, curt shake of his head, he indicated that she should put the rope down and not pursue it. She didn't understand why he was signifying that she should drop it, but she put the rope down in acquiescence. Silently moving away from it as people gathered around to see if she was okay after what happened with the harness.

The director's assistant started maneuvering people away from the harnesses. The director and a prop man bent down to study the ropes and harness more closely. Without saying a word, they both moved off unobtrusively, taking the harness with them. This movement didn't escape Wentworth's or Heidi's attention. Catching each other again in a glance that spoke volumes, he mouthed the words, "my trailer." She gave him a puzzled look then nodded. She moved away noticing that he was staying where he was still answering questions and receiving pats on the shoulder for behaving so heroically.

Heidi looked around to see if anyone were watching or following her. Seeing no one she cautiously entered his trailer. It wasn't impeccably clean. It had more of a 'lived-in' look about it. It wasn't very large but she used what space he did have to pace like a newly captured lioness in a cage. She never did like doing things that someone asked her to. Blindly acquiescing to Wentworth's signal felt odd, but somehow like the right thing to do. She fumed while she paced. She thought about the severed line and about agreeing to not say anything about the line. Finally, the door opened and Wentworth climbed up into the trailer, closing the door behind him.

"I ought to hit you!" Heidi said in a raised voice. "What makes you think that not saying anything about the line is a good idea?" Her voice was hitting a pitch she rarely heard in herself.

"Calm down," he tried to reassure her. "Sit down and let me explain."

"Please," he continued when she didn't make a move to sit.

She was so angry she was shaking, and he softly touched her shoulder to guage her reaction. When she didn't respond he led her to a seat. She automatically sat down and he took a seat beside her. He brushed a stray hair off of her face, revealing an anxious look. Sighing, he shifted away from her.

"We don't know if that sabotage was meant for you or for Amber," he started. Before you get upset about the line being cut we need to see if we can figure out if it was meant for you. Let me talk to Gene and see what he thinks. I don't know if they'll include the police on this yet. You know that will mean a delay in the movie. Meanwhile, just try and stay unobtrusive, and I'll keep you informed on what I find out."

"So I'm supposed to let you just take this thing over when it hardly even involved you?" She still sounded slightly hysterical.

"Hardly involved? The fact that feeling your slip scared the shit out of me, and I held onto you because I wouldn't be able to live with myself had anything happened to you. Does that make me 'hardly involved'?!" His voice was low but very intense and started to show anxiety as well. He turned to her again and reached a hand around her shoulders to pull her closer. Putting his forehead to hers, he continued, "It may not have happened to me, but I'm in this as deep as you are." He caressed her hair back and they sat for a few minutes in silence.

She sat up and said, "So I'm supposed to sit quietly while you figure this out?"

"If you start asking questions people are just going to clam up. They'll think you are blaming them. Even if they aren't guilty no one is going to answer your questions. Don't you agree?"

"Unfortunately, you are probably right," she shook her head even as she agreed. "One thing I can't stand is feeling helpless," she continued through clenched teeth. "I know you're frustrated sweetheart," he said reassuringly. "We'll figure this out together. I don't plan on leaving you out. I wouldn't do that to you."

"Good," she paused. "Because I won't let you," she looked up at him with a small smile. "I will be hounding you every minute of every day looking for clues as to whether it was my life in danger or if I took a fall that Amber was supposed to. Either way, I won't stop until I find out the why and who of this all."

"That suits me fine. As long as we keep things low-key, we should be fine. It will all change if they decide to include the police, but we'll have to see what they do about that."

Just then Heidi's pager went off. The screen showed the code for her to get back on the set. As they stood, someone knocked on the trailer door and yelled that Wentworth was needed on set, as well.

Everyone was yet again milling around the harnesses, but this time in anticipation not anxiety. Gene, the director, was waiting around until everyone was back. "It seems that one of the cords for the harness wasn't in the best of shape. From here on out we will take even extra precaution to check and double check those harnesses." Gene walks over to Heidi to pat her on the shoulder in apology. "Since this was just an accident," he continues, "and no one actually got hurt, we're not going to involve the police."

Heidi just kept her eyes down, but she was furious. All she really wanted to do was take Gene's hand and shove it off her shoulder. At that moment, she felt another warm hand touch her opposite elbow. Looking back, over her shoulder she saw Wentworth give her a reassuring look. She didn't feel reassured, but gave him a small smile back anyway. The rest of the day was mostly spent finding and trying out new rigging. At one point, late in the evening, Jeremy, Heidi's assistant, showed up on set and seemed surprised at seeing Heidi. "You look......well." he said. She thought that was a rather strange thing to say, but only gave him a look. One of the men informed Jeremy of what happened that day with the rigging. Jeremy seemed overly concerned once he learned that Heidi's life may have been in danger. Trying to stroke her and soothe her until she pushed him away.

"Quit being so melodramatic, Jay." She said as she walked away.

Wentworth watched the entire exchange and quietly followed Heidi. "How about a late dinner?" he asked once he caught up to her. She turned to him, stepped in, and whispered, "Have you figured anything out?" His reply was simply, "I guess you'll have to have dinner with me to find that out." That wasn't what she wanted to hear. "Don't play games with me Miller," she threatened, "Don't be coy with me and do NOT play games with me."

"Relax Heidi," he answered, not intimidated, "we have to be smart about this and think it through. That takes planning. Have dinner with me and I'm sure we can put our heads together to think of something."