Clementine was out on the deck, sketching the beach and ocean. She'd done something interesting, so that it had a lot of depth, even just in pencil.

John came out on the deck, admiring the sunset, admiring Clem, the way her straight back curved to her waist, then flared out to her hips.

She was completely absorbed in her task and unaware that he was behind her. She leaned forward a little to blend some strokes, blowing on the sketch after to clear away any errant dust.

John snaked an arm around her waist, pulling himself close to fit snugly behind her.

Clem smiled, tilting her head and leaning back into him. She set her pencil down and put her hands on top of his arm where it wrapped around her.

John kissed her neck, looking down to where the swell of her breasts disappeared into her shirt.

"You're so beautiful, my Clem. I'm so lucky."

Clementine's smile deepened. "I feel the same way, John, exactly the same." She turned around in his arms. "I wish you didn't have to go in tonight."

"I know, I do too," he responded, raking his fingers through his hair. "The end is in sight, though, only a couple weeks left of shooting.

"Hey, here's a thought," he said, leaning back a little so he could see her clearly. "Why don't you come with me? The way we're shooting tonight, I know I'll have a lot of down time, as will your sister. This might be a good time to try talking to her?"

"You think?" Clem sounded unsure, as she always did when talking about Hyacinth these days. "I don't think she wants to see me yet."

"She doesn't know what she wants," John countered. "She might change her mind when she sees you."

Clem took a deep breath. "Okay. Okay, I'll come with you. Do I have time to clean up? When are you leaving?"

"About twenty minutes?" John checked the time on his phone. "Will that suit you?"

"Perfect."

They were out the door at the appointed time, driving off into the warm, Los Angeles dusk.

"So what are you filming tonight?" Clementine asked as they wound their way down the PCH.

"The convo we have in the backyard, on the patio? About whether or not I should go away to school?"

"So is it a location, or are you in the studio somewhere?"

"It's a location, somewhere in the Hollywood Hills. We only have the spot for two nights, so I think we're going to be there pretty late. You okay with that?"

"I'm a total night owl, you know that," Clem assured him. "Plus I took a nap this afternoon, and had time to finish my paper besides. I'm all set for an all nighter."

If Hyacinth was happy to see her sister, she hid it well. Her glance passed coolly over John and Clem when they appeared on the set, and she didn't acknowledge them at all.

Clementine sighed inwardly and kept looking at Hy, hoping for some recognition of her presence on the set.

"Clem?" Pam, the assistant director called.

"Yeah?" Clementine and John turned toward the sound of her voice. Why would the assistant director want to talk to her?

"Listen, the extra who's supposed to play the pizza delivery person just bailed, and it's kind of late to call in for a new actor—how would you feel about doing it?"

"Doing what? Playing the pizza delivery person?" Clem repeated. "Is this a joke?"

Pam shook her head. "It's after nine o'clock, we'd have to get someone to call someone, it'd be a huge bother. Or you can just do it, it's just one line, with Johnny. What do you say?"

John nodded at her encouragingly. "Come on, Clemmy, it will be fun."

"But what about, um, my clothes?"

"You can be in your street clothes, all you need is the pizza guy's hat, which we have. Go see Callie for your lines, we're going to shoot you first."

Clementine looked at John, alarmed. "What did I just agree to?"

"You're going to be an extra in the movie," John said happily. "Brilliant."

Hyacinth was noticeably absent during Clementine's filming.

She had to come around the corner of the house with a pizza box, set it on the table and tell John, "Pizza delivery."

Then John stood up and handed her a tip, murmuring "Thanks."

Clem turned and left, going back around the corner.

They filmed it five times, with Clem going around the table the other way, holding the box in her other hand, and then from the reverse angle, which meant changing the lights.

The whole thing took about an hour.

"Haha, I'm an extra in a movie," Clem chortled to John when they were finished.

"We're in a movie together," John amended, putting an arm around her. "Brilliant, like I said."

Then Hyacinth was called to the set, and she took her place at the table where she'd eat pizza with John and talk. They had multiple pizzas ready to go, for continuity's sake.

Clem watched them film for a few hours, marveling at everyone's patience at the snail's pace of shooting a movie.

They broke around one in the morning for dinner, and Clem tried heading over to where Hy sat with her assistant to talk to her. The night had grown chilly, and Hy was wearing an oversized hoodie against the cold. She looked pale and wan under her make up, Clementine noticed.

Hy saw her coming and quickly rose, walking over to speak to the director.

Clementine bit her lips together and turned back to where John was watching her.

He made a face of commiseration, tilting his head and shrugging.

"You want me to try?" he asked, hugging her as she returned to where he stood.

Clementine shook her head. "It's okay, she obviously still doesn't want to talk to me. I guess I should be glad she's okay seeing us together, right? I mean, she could've had a cow and walked off the set or whatever." She tucked her head into the hollow of John's neck and collarbone.

John put his arms around her and saw Hyacinth watching them, eyes slightly narrowed. She blinked and turned away when she saw John looking at her.

Clem returned to John's chair when they were called back on set, putting on John's hoodie for warmth. She snuggled into hit, reveling in the scent of John that permeated the fabric.

Finally, around six AM, just as the sun was coming up, they were finished. Clem had nodded off in the chair, so she felt relatively refreshed as they headed for John's car. "You want me to drive?" she asked.

John shook his head. "No, I'm good," he assured her. I just want a hot shower and bed."

The pulled out into the sparse, early morning traffic, and almost immediately John noticed a car following them.

"Bollocks," he muttered. "You've got to be fucking kidding me! It's six in the fucking morning!"

Clem turned around to look at the car. "How did he even know where we were?" she marveled. "Did he park all night and wait for us?"

"Someone in the crew probably tipped him off that you were on the set with me," John explained, shaking his head as he looked in the rear-view mirror.

"I'm sorry, John, I guess I shouldn't have come," Clem apologized.

"No! No, Clem, you don't apologize because some reprobate wants a photograph of us doing god knows what." He twisted his head to look. "Dammit, I'm exhausted, I just want to go home."

Clementine put her hand on his arm. "Calm down, John, please."

John slanted his eyes to her concerned face. "So sorry, darling." He shook his head again. "There's not even enough traffic to lose him, I'm not sure what to do."

"Couldn't we just, you know, go home? Your house has a gate, it's private property and everything, it's not like they can follow us up the driveway, right?"

"But then he'll know where I live," John explained. "I've managed to keep it pretty private until now, and I'd to keep it that way if possible." John merged onto the freeway, and the other car, a black jeep, merged right behind them.

John got off the freeway at the next exit and circled back toward the house where they'd been filming, not sure what he should do. He sped up, knowing it was unreasonable to expect the pap to simply give up and leave.

They were heading down a slight hill, and John kept the speed up, hoping against hope that the pap would get tired of following them and just leave them alone. The tires squealed in protest as he took some curves too fast.

The rising sun was shining right in their faces, making it difficult to see, and John simply didn't see the curve in the road.

Next to him, Clementine gave a shout, reaching out a useless hand to the dashboard, jamming her right foot down in a reflex action.

John put out his right arm to hold Clementine back, but they were simply going too fast to do anything useful.

John's car went off the road, heading straight for a gnarled oak tree that was growing on the shoulder. John tried to swerve, but the tree rose up to meet them and he hit it head on. Both airbags deployed, absorbing most of the impact, but Clem still felt her body and neck whipped forward painfully.

The jeep, which had been following them pretty closely, nearly went off the road as well, but narrowly avoided it, missing grazing the back of John's car by mere inches. It slowed down, then sped off into the morning.