It had been a long day, and everything that could go wrong had. They had broken for lunch, and Lily was trying to convince herself to eat something so that the situation didn't get worse when she got the shakes from low blood sugar.

After last night at Finn's house, her nerves had returned full force, and she was on edge to the point that her head hurt, she missed most of her lines, and she had broken a piece of furniture on set by falling on it. She was leaning against a wall at the back of the building and to one side of the outdoor set. She had cut her arm and knee when she had tripped over a pot and landed on a wooden swing, pulling the entire thing from is fastening on the staged porch, and she was too embarrassed to find the set medic and get treatment for it.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep, ragged breath in an attempt to find her equilibrium. It appeared as if she was back to square one, the laughingstock of the set. Finn's sister had brought back a lot of memories and made her feel young and helpless like she had as a teenager. She hated it, but she felt powerless to stop it.

The tears started, and she was powerless to stop them, so she let them come as quiet sobs made her shoulders shake. Her father and mother and hated it when she had cried, and they had always yelled louder and longer for her to stop, so she had learned to do it alone and silently.

It struck her the night before, as she had laid in bed in the dark, watching the time pass while sleep evaded her, that she and Finn weren't all that different. They were both scared and lonely, but there were differences. Finn's loneliness was self-inflicted for whatever reason, and hers was due to circumstances that she was powerless to stop. He was lonely by choice, but loneliness was never a choice that Lily would make.

She stopped crying and sniffed as she heard raised voices. Reaching into her skirt pocket, she pulled out her sunglasses and put them on to hide her red and puffy eyes. She dreaded to think about how her makeup might look. Thankfully the frames were large and covered most of her face.

Slowly, edging herself around the building, she looked across the set and saw Finn with his sister, her voice had risen, but his was staying low and calm. Lily scanned the area and noted that there was no one around. However, her eyes were caught by a sudden movement from a parked car in front of the area where Bethany and Finn were arguing.

Waiting and watching, she saw a phone pop up and then pop back down, someone was taking photos of the argument, which was odd because the set had tough security. Bethany was getting more and more agitated, and Lily realized that neither one of them realized that there was a person taking video or photographing them.

Thinking quickly, she moved in a wide circle, lining herself up so that the man was in her path before taking a deep breath and charging into the situation before she could change her mind.

"Finn!" she called, expressing excitement as if she was happy to see him. Without looking around and keeping her eyes trained on Finn, who looked startled for a moment and then resigned, which she guessed she deserved after the way she had acted on their kind of date. She rushed towards him, pretending not to pay attention to the path she took as she cut between the two cars, bumping into the crouched man who lost his balance and fell. His phone shot out of his hand as he tried to catch himself, and Lily stomped hard on it as she passed.

"Oh, no!" Lily said with surprise as she turned to look at the fallen man. She turned to help him up, stepping on the phone again. She cringed and looked down at her foot. "I think I broke your phone!" she picked it up and held it in her hand. "Here let me help you up! I'm so sorry; I'm very accident prone, it's the joke of the set. Of course, I'll buy you a new one!" she insisted as she looked at the phone.

"Finn!" she called turning around and sending the phone flying causing it to land in a conveniently placed bucket of nasty cleaning water that they had been using earlier to wash the cars.

The man behind her reached out and grabbed her by the shoulder. "You did that on purpose!" he spat.

"Why would I?" she asked innocently, pretending to be confused.

"There were photos on that phone!" he hissed as his hand tightened on her shoulder. He wasn't a large man, but he was strong.

"I'm sure there were, don't you back everything up to the cloud or something?" she asked.

He looked at her like she had lost her mind.

"You really should; it's the only way to protect your data. My phone syncs with my tablet, so all of my photos are saved in two places," she said helpfully, but he seemed unimpressed. "Here, let me get it for you, maybe you can dry it out, they say rice works wonders." Lily tried to step away from him, but he wouldn't release her. He looked as if he wanted to hit her. "Please let me go; you're hurting me."

"Enough, Simpson!" Finn said from across the space that separated them. "I advise you to leave and don't return."

The man named Simpson turned and looked at Finn, but when he didn't release Lily's shoulder, Finn stepped forward, his stance wide. Something in his look must have gotten through to Simpson because he released her shoulder an turned on his heel and left.

Lily looked from Bethany to Finn, gave them a tentative smile and then followed Simpson as she headed back to her dressing room. Once she was there, she closed the door behind her and fell into the chair, in front of her dressing table. Throwing off her sunglasses, she rested her head on her arms and closed her eyes.

She would give anything not to have to go back out there later, but the show must go on no matter what. Wasn't that the first rule of show business? She sat up and looked at herself in the mirror. "Enough now, Lily, get it together!" She sniffed and nodded at her reflection in agreement with the words. She forced a smile until it felt natural then mopped up her face.

A song that Cassie liked to sing popped into Lily's head. It was called Smile and was written by Charlie Chaplin, and she started to sing it softly as she reached for her purse. She had learned a long time ago that feeling sorry for herself wasn't productive or useful. She knew she had a small first aid kit in there somewhere. She had added it after her first week on the job when she kept falling.

Continuing to sing lyrics that told her life was still worthwhile if she just smiled, she cleaned her knee and then stood and removed her jacket, revealing a thin sleeveless silk shirt. Her elbow didn't look too bad, and she cleaned it as she kept singing and then started to hum when she ran out of words.

She didn't notice that her door had opened or that Finn had entered it and closed the door softly behind him, watching her.

"Why do you always sing such sad songs?" he asked.

Lily jumped and turned to look at him, her eyes wide. "You're doing the super creepy hiding in the shadows thing again," she said and then focused her attention back on her elbow.

"You didn't answer my question, Lily," he pressed.

"I've had a long and frustrating morning Finn, so I'm not really into the whole figuring each other out thing today, can we maybe pick it up again tomorrow?" She started to pack up her first aid kit, doing her best to ignore his strong presence in the small room.

"I only wanted to say thanks for what you did back there with the reporter," he walked towards her and placed his hands on her shoulders, meeting her eyes in the mirror. His touch and the warmth that it brought made her want to cry more. There had been days as a child when she had wanted to be hugged and told it would be alright, and now here he was offering a small connection finally, and it only made her want to cry.

"Is that who he was?" she asked, placing her purse on the dressing table in front of her, then dropping her hands into her lap. She didn't want to look at him, so she focused her attention on a string that was coming unraveled on her skirt.

"Yes, I don't know how either he or Bethany got on set, but I'll find out," he assured her.

"I don't doubt that you will," she agreed.

There was a long silence between them, and Lily could feel his attention on her bent head.

"Thanks again, Lily," he said, placing a kiss on the top of her head and she closed her eyes, fighting back the tears at his action. It was a tenderness that no one had ever shown her before.

"Sure," she choked, praying he would leave so she could cry again.

He must have heard her prayers because after a moment she heard the door close softly behind her, and when she opened her eyes, he was gone.