The Forgotten Lycan Legacy

When Meghan awoke and was told of the night's adventures she regretted having to miss

out on the party in a way that made Will apprehensive, but then he thought that with any luck he

would not see Benjamin again.

For the shoot in Canada, rather than take everyone back to hotels each night, the producers

opted for a small town of caravans and motorhomes with catered meals. Every day most of the

population of this small town would disappear into the surrounding forest leaving Will and assorted

hangers-on, mostly the female partners of the cast and crew to their own devices.

Will had to politely decline some of the activities these other hangers-on got up to in order

to get his own work done, but went on a few walks of exploration and got involved in games of

Monopoly. Although he had breakfast with Meghan, when everyone arrived back from the day's

shooting she was often so surrounded by men that Will did not try to join her for dinner. Instead, he

ignored men flirting with Meghan, as he now always did to the star's amusement in favour of

activities with new friends among the cast, crew and partners of the trailer-park city.

One day, when the star was chatting with the various men paying court to her she looked

over to see Will in some sort of game with those other . One man would approach three girls and

say something, and the girls would then each hold up a card with a number on it.

"What were you doing with the others at dinner?" she asked Will when they got back to

their own luxury caravan.

"I organised a game of pick-up. The guys had to approach a panel of three girls and hand

them a line as if he was trying to pick them up at a bar. They'd then give him a score – one to ten

for each girl. A way to pass the time."

"I see," said Meghan. "Wait, I saw you approach them too – what was your pick up line,

Will Moreland?"

"I said, 'excuse me, ladies, can you settle a discussion I'm having with some friends. In the

Harry Potter series should Hermione have ended up with Ron, or should she have married Harry?'"

"Hmmm – have you ever actually used that line?"

"Picking up girls in bars is not my style, but I figure that even if the girls aren't interested or

waiting for boyfriends or whatever, they might at least reply. A lot of girls say Hermione should

have connected with Harry. Anyway, it got me a twenty two out of thirty."

"Did anyone get better?"

"That co-star of yours Michael Mellon, big, pretty and famous. He went in there and said

'hey' and they all gave him ten out of ten. There I am working my butt off to think of something

interesting to say, and he rocks up and says 'hey' and he gets a better score."

"Yeah," said Meghan, laughing, "who cares what they say provided they look good – even if

Hermione should have married Harry."

While he was in Canada, Will was called by what might generously be called his own agent

– an offsider of Stella Bullingham. Meghan's agent was now doing well enough to afford an office

suite and hire apprentices, one of whom negotiated the pay for Will's stint as an assistant director

with the producers of Volley as something 'easy' for her to do. Now this apprentice agent, Sage,

asked Will if had any of the video files from the film.

"I haven't got any of the files myself. Why? What do you need them for?"

"There's been a huge problem, the director Mr Amato deleted them all just before he was

murdered…"

"What? Murdered? Personally, I'm not surprised but when was this? Do the police know

who did it?"

"Body discovered this morning. The word on the gossip sites is that he was shot by his

girlfriend's husband," said Sage.

Will laughed. "Okay," he said after a moment. "It's not right to laugh over someone's death

and I'm sorry for his family and all that, but I detested the man. And now the producers can't find

the video files of this film they've got so many millions invested in?"

"Amato deleted all the files and all the backups saying that the project was an artistic

crime," said Sage.

"For once I agree with the man," said Will. "The film is trash but it's the sort of trash that

makes people pay for theatre tickets, so I also see the producers' point of view. Why don't they try

the site office in Australia? I seem to recall they had a policy of backing up everything."

That comment resulted in Will spending some more time on the phone – at least the remote

site had cell phone coverage - tracking down the site office manager in Australia, with whom he had

some dealings, and then telling a relieved executive at the producer's office that a copy of the video

files for Volley still existed. As Hans was next in chain of directorial command, Will suggested that

they give the job of editing and post-production to him, and thought no more about it. He did not

see himself as an assistant director, but as a writer, preferably of trashy military SF, although he was

increasingly being diverted from that path.

They finally left Canada and arrived back at Meghan-HQ after many weeks away. The

housekeeper's cat looked up from its usual position, laid out on a pool-side table, gave a plaintive

"miaow" and went back to sleep.

"A rousing reception," said Will.

The return to Meghan-HQ also raised the delicate question of whether Will should continue

to rent his shared cockroach-central apartment or just stay with Meghan. Was that going too far, too

soon?"

"It's no business of mine if you have a room somewhere else, Mr Moreland," said Meghan

when Will mentioned this.

"Will I be allowed to put clothes in your wardrobe?" said Will. "There doesn't seem to be a

lot of space."

In fact Meghan's walk-in closet was bursting with clothes shoes and accessories.

"I can't help where you put your clothes," said Meghan, apparently determined to be

difficult about this matter.

"What about my toothbrush? Is it allowed in the holder in your en-suite?"

"Now you're bothering me about toothbrushes. An international star does not consider other

people's toothbrushes."

"She does if it's a man's toothbrush in her en-suite."

"Your toothbrushes are your concern, Mr Moreland."

"Okay, let's try it this way, suppose that it was there. Would you ask me to take it away or

would you throw it into the trash?"

"It depends on the toothbrush," said Meghan. "If it's still in good condition why would I

throw it away? Anyway, I just said it's your concern where your toothbrush happens to be."

"Then I can stop paying rent elsewhere and move in?"

Mia, who was close by, thought that Will needed some help. As she was sitting where Will

could see her but the star could not, Mia nodded and gave the thumbs up. When Meghan noticed

Will glancing over her shoulder and looked around, Mia abruptly busied herself with her laptop.

"Then moving here is seen as a cost saving on your part?" said Meghan settling back in her

chair and crossing her arms.

"I can always pay rent here. I don't want you to think of me as a freeloader."

"Renting here is expensive."

"That's true," said Will.

"You were lecturing me a while back about the rate of return on assets. This is an expensive

piece of real estate. Rents also have to be set accordingly."

"That's also true, but if my expenses increase then I'd have to ask for a raise to cover the

cost."

"Hmmm!"

"In fact, why don't you increase my pay enough to cover the rent and then deduct that

amount before it gets to my account. I live here and get paid the same?"

Mia stifled a laugh; Meghan tried not to smile. Will said goodbye to his roomies, much to

Pandora's regret that she had been unable to snag Will for one of her single girlfriends and moved

his belongings to Meghan's house. By buying a large shoe rack to organise the star's shoes he

found a little space in her closet to put a small chest of draws. Hanging space was more difficult but

Meghan eventually condescended to shift some clothes around to free up space, with the overflow

going to a wardrobe in one of the spare bedrooms along with Will's books. Prowling through this

collection when Will was not there, Meghan found a naval uniform which she thought for a moment

must be a film costume. Then she saw a scuba diving air tank and gear and recollected Will was in

the navy reserve, attended weekly parades when he could and was talking about going on course for

deep diving, whatever that was.

Life went on. Hans called to say that a few segments of Volley had not survived Amato's

purge and that, in any case, the film was not complete.

"Please tell me that Lauren's pool shot survived," said Will.

"First thing I checked and yes, it's good," said Hans. "Now we just need a film to go with

that scene."

After some discussion, they put together a pitch to the film's producers to finish the film

relatively cheaply using a back lot in LA and, as Will put it, "CGIing the shit out of it" to fit with

the beach and interior scenes shot on a different continent. That meant Will was back to being an

assistant director, but this time returning to Meghan's house each day. From there he moved on to

the main shoot for Party Town Terror, which had now grown to something like the size required for

a film, with makeup and costume people, people paid to worry about continuity in the shots and

sound quality and others who moved props and background screens. There was even a director of

photography who, like Hamilton on Volley, looked like an aging surfer who had wandered onto the

set.

Then there were the principals, including Danni, with sunglasses-wearing bodyguard in tow,

who wanted to know if Clarise was still angry with Will for not doing what she wanted.

"There have been developments since then," said Will.

"I heard that you're now not just staff who happens to use the pool," she said.

"Well, no, Clarise seems to have suffered a lapse of judgment."

"I'm sure she doesn't see it as a lapse," said Danni, "but I like that you're not boasting – is

she in town?"

"For now, but she'll be doing scenes for another spy thriller in Miami soon. I'll join her after

this. How is your friend Mr Scranton doing? I see he's still providing bodyguards."

She rolled her eyes. "Don't ask. He wants control of everything and it's annoying."

Will and Meghan attended the premiere performance of New York Mystery in New York,

Los Angeles and London although Will did not feature in any of the publicity shots or red carpet

walks, despite efforts by Meghan to get him into the limelight. The production process for the film

might have been painful, if not fraught, but the film was successful enough for the premiers to get

some publicity.

To Will's surprise, Meghan agreed to attend a barbecue at Buck and Wilma's place, which

included Hap as well as Will's former roommates Leo and Pan. Even more surprising, as far as Will

was concerned, was that she got on well with this Comic Con type crowd who were over-awed at

having a famous star in their midst. She bonded with Wilma, in particular, by sharing stories about

Will. Later Wilma took Will to the garage office of Buckland Publishing to show him sketches she

had done of children flying around in spaceships that were actually cardboard cartons.

"I figure they are playing at being spacemen and spacewomen with the cartons as their

spaceships. I was thinking of turning these into a kid's picture book but I need a story – words to go

with the drawings."

"Hmmm!" said Will. "You're looking for a few hundred words tops that can be read as a

bedtime story, right?"

"Yeah, bedtime," said Wilma.

"Okay, I'll think. How hard can it be?"

"What about you and Clarise Chalmers?" she said. "You're living at her place now? How is

that going?"

"Seems to be okay."

"You going to buy another ring?"

"After what happened with Vi I'm a cautious man. I'd want to be sure of my ground before I

do anything like that."

"That's good Will," said Wilma. "Check first, then buy rings."