《Actions Speak Louder Than Fortune Cookies》32 - Panic (Sebastian's POV)

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It was around midnight and Sebastian had just walked through the door with his luggage. He had spent the last week filming in hot ass Georgia, and with all of the airplane delays, layovers, and cancellations he was physically and mentally exhausted.

He was normally the type to unpack right away when he got home but he couldn't muster up the energy to do it at that moment. As soon as he shut his front door he pushed the luggage to the side and collapsed heavily, onto the couch, landing on his back. He had planned to sit for five minutes and then unpack but as quickly as he had laid down, he had fallen asleep.

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Sebastian's phone began to ring, stirring him awake from his brief sleep. He looked blearily at the screen seeing it was 1:40 am. But he became even more confused in his sleepy state when he saw it was Alexa's name that was shining brightly on his screen below the time.

"M'ello?" Sebastian answered as he rubbed his face with his other hand.

"Hey, its Lex. I...I need your help. Please. I-It's Rylee."

His blood ran cold at her tone of voice. She sounded concerned. Afraid. Confused.

"What happened? Is she okay?" He asked, now very much awake, blood pumping. He sat up on the couch running a hand through his messy hair.

"I think she's having a panic attack. She asked me to call you. I didn't know what to do." Alexa said rapidly, concern still wrapping her voice. Panic attack? He didn't realize she was plagued by those. He had experienced them in the past and knew how she must feel right now. His heart ached for her as he could now hear what he guessed was Rylee in the background of the call, gasping for air, through hiccups and tears.

"Can you put me on speaker? I'll try to talk to her.." he patted his pants pockets and let out a silent curse when he couldn't find his keys where he thought he had left them last. He stood up and began digging through the couch cushions looking for the now lost item. If they hadn't fallen out when he collapsed on the couch, he hadn't the slightest idea where they'd be. Shit. Where are they?

Alexa must have immediately put it on speaker because he could now hear Rylee's ragged breathing and gasps much more clearly. He had never heard her like this before...so distraught and distant.

"Rylee...Ry... can you hear me?" He straightened up and began pacing in his living room momentarily forgetting the keys, trying not to picture how overcome Rylee must be right now.

He didn't get a steady response, only more wheezing and hiccups filled the phone line.

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"Ry, its Sebastian. Come on, sweetheart. Take some deep breaths for me. Listen to mine." He said as he began exaggeratedly breathing in and out into the phone for her to mimic as he walked back and forth. It ripped his heart out knowing he wasn't by her side during this moment. He wanted to hold her...help her swim back up from whatever murky hell she was drowning in.

There was hesitation on the other end of the line for a moment, then he heard her speak for the first time and his heart sunk even further. She sounded torn to shreds.

"R-right. Br-" hicc "-eathe."

"But it's," she gasped for air briefly, "so hard."

"Why is it so-" she tried inhaling deeply again, "hard?"

"I know, it's hard Ry, but try for me," Sebastian's heart crumbled listening to her struggle to get out her feelings. He wondered if she had even meant to say that aloud. He tried his best to keep his voice steady, it wouldn't benefit her to hear him worry. He began the search for his keys yet again, looking around the front door where he had ditched his luggage. He was about to say fuck it and just run out the door at this point.

He could hear Rylee physically trying to slow her breathing. There were still many hiccups and gasps happening on her end of the line, but he could tell she was really trying her best to ground herself.

"That's better. Keep breathing just like that, Ry. You're doing so good," Sebastian continued, dragging out long, deep breaths, in and out with her, hoping she would copy him.

When he overturned his suitcase haphazardly, to his great relief, his keys flopped onto the ground jingling as they clashed on the wood floor. It was also another great wave of relief that at the same time he could hear Rylee take in a real, actual full breath for the first time since their call started. He immediately grabbed the keys, threw on his shoes, and ran out of his first floor apartment. He quickly jogged through the lobby, waving sheepishly to the doorman, Shawn he had just seen only an hour or so earlier. He continued his jog to his car, getting in quickly.

As he started the car he finally thought to ask Alexa where the two girls were.

"Brighton Beach Terminal." Alexa stated briefly into the phone.

Sebastian nodded to himself and felt dumb, of course that's where they were. He knew they normally worked late on Fridays at Ruby's, usually until 3 or 4 am. But at this point it was only ten til 2, much too early for their shift to be over. He wondered to himself about what may have happened for the night to be ending up like this.

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A few minutes passed consisting of them sitting together on speaker, breathing together, with him occasionally quietly assuring her of how well she was doing, as he silently cursed the New York traffic that somehow still existed so late at night.

"There you go. You're doing great, Ry." He sighed to himself as Rylee had seemed to finally be relaxing a bit more, though her breaths still weren't quite steady.

"Lex, I'm ten minutes away." Sebastian spoke through the phone, speaking to Alexa in more of a hushed tone.

He was surprised to hear Rylee say "How are y-you always able to s-stay so c-calm and c-cool when it feels like my world is c-crumbling?"

As heartbreaking as her sentence was, he tried to lighten the mood by replying, "I'm always cool." Trying to hide his smirk, but ultimately failing. He could almost hear her eye roll through the phone. They sat in silence for a few moments together as he continued his drive to Brighton.

"Sebastian?" Rylee questioned quietly through the small remaining hiccups and tears she had left.

"Yeah, Ry?" He asked gently back.

"Can you just keep talking?" He was surprised to receive this question. He almost thought it was a joke for a flickering moment, yet he still asked, "About what?"

"Anything," she almost seemed to beg.

Sebastian smiled into the phone at her request and began scouring his mind for something to talk about. He decided to tell her about the trip he took down to Georgia, since it was fresh in his mind. Shooting happened in an area with very little cellphone service, so he hadn't really gotten to talk to Rylee about the trip the whole time he was gone.

He talked about how he got stuck sitting with Mackie the whole flight and how he was his usual Mackie self the whole trip. He talked about the sweltering heat and how he knew New York was still not right now, but not that hot.

There was also a moment when Daniel Bruhl ripped his pants straight down the ass in the middle of a scene, and Mackie tried to incorporate it into the scene by improvising the next five minutes, which Russo let him do for some reason.

He also made sure to dramatically talk about all the flight delays, layovers, and cancellations he had to deal with and all the characters he saw roaming the airport.

He was relieved to hear that there was no more wheezing or sniffles from the other end of the line by the end of his story telling and rants.

Like clockwork, his storytelling had ended and he found an open parking space close to the Brighton Beach subway terminal entrance. He parked and left his car, entering the subway station to find them. He stopped talking into his phone for a moment as he continued his quick jog, looking around briefly for onlookers. Seeing none at that moment, he hopped over the turnstile of the terminal and made his way down the stairs to the subway platform, now hanging up the phone.

Once he got to the last few stairs he could see two pairs of legs huddled around the nearby corner. He turned to them and saw that it was indeed Rylee and Alexa sitting crisscross together on the ground, relaxing and leaning on one another, Alexa gently rubbing small circles with her thumb onto one of Rylee's hands.

"Ry...?" He said as he closed the short distance between him and the girls.

There was a long beat of silence as Rylee sucked in a normal, easy breath.

"Hmm?" She sighed, eyes fluttering open.

"There's my girl." Sebastian said, now crouching in front of her, smiling softly.

He pushed loose strands of Rylee's hair behind her ear, then gently put his hand on her cheek. God, she looked like she had been through hell and back, he thought to himself.

"How ya feelin'?" Sebastian asked, his heavy New York accent flowing through. He rubbed his thumb lovingly along her jaw.

"Mmm. Much better now," she whispered. He felt a small spark in his chest when she easily leaned into his palm.

Sebastian stood up from his crouched position to give a quick hug to the now standing Alexa. "Thank you for coming." She whispered to him briefly during their exchange.

"Of course. Do you know what happened?" He whispered back before they parted. What could have happened to cause this emotional of an end to their Friday night?

Alexa shook her head and shrugged, looking extremely forlorn and sad. All he could do was nod sadly in return.

He crouched back down, looking at a very exhausted looking Rylee and smiled a sad smile. He offered his hand out to her. "Are you able to walk to the car? I'm right down the block. "

To his relief, she nodded and grabbed his hand, letting him pull her up from the ground. She was still a bit wobbly on her feet so he made sure to gently wrap his arm around her waist as they all turned to walk up the stairs and out of the subway platform on to street toward his car.

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