It was a tough job, turning a script into a movie. It wasn't all fun and games, more a long, arduous, and mostly painfully tedious process. At least, it was in the beginning. Denise thought after her time at UCLA and three years with Chris, she'd be prepared and she'd understand; she was wrong. She knew there'd be a lot of meetings before she could get to anything remotely interesting, but she'd underestimated how many.

Work began in January, immediately after she signed with Sony Pictures. Though she was preoccupied with Sebastian and Luca's wedding planning, she managed four solid weeks of work that helped move the production process in the right direction. In that four weeks, Denise and Emilia completed the initial script breakdown so a schedule and a budget for the project could be estimated. But that was pretty much all that was done as she was quickly swept into a whirlpool of personal events like her best friends' wedding and the birth of her son. Denise had to thank Chris for how understanding Emilia was being because if she wasn't his wife, she probably would've lost the opportunity a long time ago. She was a twenty-two year old graduate with no experience and zero credibility in their field of work, for them to invest in her the way they were- it was all in good faith and a great deal of kindness. Or so she thought. Truth was, Emilia saw the same capabilities Chris saw in her. Even with the setbacks her personal life had placed on the project, Emilia knew the end was going to justify the means.

Denise was also doing everything she could to make up for the lost time, pulling long days and even longer nights. Whatever they wanted from her, whatever time they needed her to give to the project- she did without hesitation. She was hard working and dedicated which was why they didn't feel the pinch when she had to ask for all that time off; they knew she'd come back with a hundred and ten percent. It would've been easy to take advantage of her work ethic, to push her to speed up the process that had been pushed back a couple of times. She wouldn't have complained if they did, but they didn't. Emilia was big on family and she wanted Denise to have time for hers, making sure she sent the girl home in time for dinner every night. "The best part about our job is that we can work from home, Denise," she'd say when Denise would argue with her.

15th of June was when she returned to work, and it was now 15th of September. Three months had passed and she was still yet to start filming. She'd sorted: how she was going to market her film; a money strategy consisting of equity funding, crowd funding, and tax incentives; prospective investors; favors and freebies which came easily due to the connections she'd gained since meeting Chris; and a lawyer to help with contracts and releases. Denise was now up to re-finalizing her script with the help of Lena Hill- a more experienced screen writer- while Emilia scouted for directors, so scenes could be numbered and the script broke down once again. Denise needed a final schedule and a final budget before she could work out the cast and crew, see which actors and actresses she could afford to hire and how many crew members she'd have to cut. She had a fairly tight budget considering she was new to the business, so if the job wasn't something crucial or something she and her current team could do yourselves- that money was put aside for something else. For example, a scout locator; Denise was going to do that herself.

Denise didn't realize how much of the production process consisted of numbers. Math wasn't her strong suit which was why she was glad she had Chris. The production team Emilia and Sony Pictures provided her with did most of the work when it came to the more corporate stuff, but she occasionally had to chime in. It was reassuring to have Chris to come home to with her work, to sit and talk and ask for advice. He was like a fountain of knowledge that she happily drank from; all the information he had stored in his brain and notes he'd taken about film making from his past experiences aided her.

Denise secretly wished Chris didn't decline his offer to be the director because she could've really used his presence on the project. But she was also glad he wasn't the director because it felt good doing something on her own, away from his name. She may have been turning to him for advice, but it was advice as her husband. It would've been different if he was a co-worker, she wasn't sure if she was ready for that yet. She knew herself and she knew with her lack of experience, she would've turned to him for everything and it would've become his film. Chris knew that too, hence why he would've declined the offer even if Jack wasn't in the picture. Denise needed to experience it on her own, especially because it was her first film. She needed to feel the exhilaration of being the one everyone turned to, at least until the director stepped in. Word on the street was Emilia was trying to find Denise a director who had a fair amount of experience, but was new enough to allow her to comment without their ego getting in the way. Three weeks and she was still having trouble.

Denise sat in the conference room with Lena, going through her script scene by scene. They were trying to figure out possible locations and their costs. Majority were free, some were favors, but a minority were still needed to be paid for. It was mostly estimation until she could get a meeting with those in charge and negotiate, but until she had a director- it had to wait.

A knock on the door pulled Lena's attention from her laptop, but Denise's remained glued to the pieces of paper in front of her. A wide smile stretched across Lena's face when she saw Chris carrying Jack. Lena was a fan of Chris'- because who wasn't- and she'd been dying to meet Jack in person after the photograph of him went viral. When she first found out she was working with Denise Hogan, she thought she'd get to see Chris and Jack on a regular basis because they'd visit often. She'd been very wrong as this was actually the first time in three months. It would've been longer, but they were in the neighborhood and it was lunch time and Denise had texted "I haven't had time for lunch" when Chris asked what she was having. Her boys couldn't let their girl go hungry so they decided to drop in with an oven roasted chicken sub from Subway.

"Oh my God." It wasn't until Lena started squealing that Denise looked up. Denise smiled when she saw Chris wave at her and Lena with Jack's little hand. "He is so much cuter in person!" Lena wheeled her chair back and scrambled to her feet, rushing over to Chris and Jack. "Is it alright if I hold him?"

"Lena, right?" Chris quizzed and smiled when Lena nodded. "Sure you can. He's not overly fussy today, so you should be fine." Chris carefully passed Jack to Lena, making sure she had him before he stepped back. She bounced Jack while pacing the front of the room, allowing Chris to walk over to Denise. "Look at you, too busy for food," he teased her and she giggled. "You're lucky Jack and I decided to start a father son food delivery service."

"Very lucky." Denise nodded in agreement as he placed the plastic bag from Subway in front of her. She smiled when she searched the bag, finding a sub, an apple Snapple, and a M&M cookie. "Thank you, baby." She looked up at met his lips for a quick peck. "What have the two of you been doing all day?" She pulled her drink out, popping it open as Chris sat down in Lena's chair.

"We went grocery shopping, then we stopped by the park to go see the ducks. We didn't feed them bread, don't worry." He told her before she could ask. Denise had read somewhere that bread was actually bad for ducks, so she stopped and made sure those around her did too. "We brought them grapes, that site you found said grapes were a good snack alternative."

"Yeah, but you have to cut them in half. Did you cut them in half?"

"Nope, figured it was easier if Jack and I ate half then throw the other half in."

"I know you're being sarcastic, but I can also picture the two of you doing that so..."

"Yes, honey. We cut them in half," Chris laughed and Denise bit into her sandwich, suppressing her urge to laugh along with him. "How's things going here?" He quizzed, reaching for her yellow legal pad. He scanned her notes, morphing his lips into an upside down 'U' as he nodded. "How's the search for the director going?"

"Slow," Denise murmured with her mouth full. Chris chuckled and reached forward, brushing away the sauce on the corner of her mouth then wiping his thumb on the napkin. "Which director is going to want to work with an inexperienced screenwriter with plans to help commander the project? I told Emilia I'd be fine giving up the reins if I have to, but she said that wasn't the deal so- she's giving it a few more weeks before we resort to a complete handover."

"Have you discussed directing the film yourself?"

Denise snorted, choking on her sandwich. "You're kidding, right?" She asked after taking a sip of her Snapple. He shook his head in response, resting his elbow on the table and his chin in his hand. "I don't know if you realize this, Chris, but I am a recent graduate with no experience. This job I got because of you. I'm barely keeping my head above water as the screen writer, so you're insane if you think I'm going to take on directing as well." Chris didn't make an effort to interrupt, he just listened with a smile as his brilliant wife doubted her capabilities. "You think way too highly of me, Evans. Way too highly." She took a took another bite of her sandwich as Chris continued to smile at her. "I'm not doing it, Chris, so stop looking at me like that.

"I'm not looking at you in any particular way," he shook his head with the same smile and she watched him with narrowed eyes. "And I'm not going to waste my time countering what you just said either. You've already played the option out, I can see it in your eyes." She rolled said eyes, lowering her gaze. He was right, she'd thought it before; every story, every script she'd ever written- she'd thought about directing herself. "If Emilia asked you, you'd say yes without even blinking. You're just saying 'no' now because you're afraid and-" he chuckled. "Well, I'll save that speech of encouragement for when you do end up taking the job."

"I am not directing."

"How much are you willing to bet?"

"I'm not betting with you," she laughed.

"Because you know you'll lose?" He smirked.

"No, because it's a ridiculous bet," she retorted.

"Then you have nothing to be afraid of," he held out his hand. "If I win, I get to buy you a beret that you have to wear for the entire project. If you win, you get to say 'I told you so' and well- that is a prize in itself for you, isn't it?" She scoffed then laughed when he did. "But you have to be fair about it, you can't just decline the job to win 'cause there'll be a penalty for that." She rolled her eyes again, not because he'd believe she'd do that but because he knew her too well. "Well?" He raised a brow, beckoning for her hand with his outstretched one.

"You're on."