Chapter Text
Angela didn’t mean to drop at work. In fact, she actively avoids doing so at all costs. Just because everyone knows she’s a little doesn’t mean she wants to broadcast it for all to see. It’s too much, too vulnerable, too easy to lose herself. But today, her body didn’t seem to give her much of a choice.
After the pit challenge video in the morning, she was full of energy and high spirits. Everyone in the shoot was running off the adrenaline of the games they played and everyone was chatting amicably about how it went. As she turned away from Shayne to go grab her water bottle, Angela stopped in her tracks. What was happening to her? Why did she feel like this all of a sudden? Her mind was racing and then all at once, went completely blank.
Her vision blurred slightly and her fingers went to her mouth instinctively. She shifted her gaze around to see if anyone noticed and was grateful to see everyone’s attention elsewhere. What was she going to do?
Find Mama, of course.
Angela grabbed her things and wandered out of the studio towards the cubicles of desks to find her mama. She looked all over, not seeing her anywhere. Tears began to blur her vision as she stood alone in the hallway, feeling suddenly so tired, but as soon as someone noticed her teary look, she turned and ran towards the nearest bathroom and locked herself in.
~*~
In the kitchen, Amanda was preparing a sandwich for herself and thinking in her head whether she should go ahead and make one for Angela too. She knows she should be wrapping up the pit challenge video and she saw the rest if the cast already filtered out of the studio, but no sign of her girl. As she contemplates that thought, she decides to set aside her lunch and track her down.
As she left the kitchen, she asked around the cast and crew milling about until someone mentioned seeing her run off to the bathroom. Worry began to creep into her mind at the thought of Angela being sick again and she headed towards the bathroom and knocked on the door.
“Ang? You ok in there? I was coming to see if you wanted a sandwich for lunch,” she tried to keep her voice light but concern seeped in whether she meant for it to or not. The only answer she got was the door opening a crack for her to slip in and close it behind her.
Another bad sign.
When she turned around after closing and locking the door behind her, she came face to face with a teary eyed Angela, whose fingers were firmly planted in her mouth. Oh. Oh.
Without missing a beat, Amanda grabbed her baby and brought her into a soothing hug, rocking them both from side to side. This action caused Angela to finally drop completely and she wailed into her mama's arms.
“Oh my baby, did something happen? The shoot sounded like it went well, why are you so sad, my love,” she couldn’t quite grasp what had happened.
They had both been in good spirits this morning and Angela had been talking about the pit challenge shoot all week, she had been so excited.
“I-it was good I had fun! But but I don’t know- I don’t-” she cut herself off with a hiccuping sob, working herself up again thinking about why she didn’t know why she dropped.
Amanda seemed to understand that it had been involuntary and just shushed her baby, rocking her until she calmed down. Once the sobs turned to quiet sniffles, she grabbed some toilet paper and cleaned Angela’s face. Now they stood in the bathroom together, both unsure of what to do.
They both had more videos to film after lunch, so Angela either needed to age up in the next hour or they would have to go home and miss them. Amanda decided to text around and see if she could borrow one of the few offices that allowed for a little more privacy.
Finally, someone replied to her and said she could use one of the offices without a window wall, so she grabbed her baby’s hand and led her as quickly and discreetly as she could to the office. Once inside, she turned the overhead lights off and turned on the small lamp on the desk. She led Angela to the tiny couch and sat down, pulling her to lay on top of her.
They laid together for a while, Amanda soothing her girl with long strokes of her hand on her back. She gave her as much time as she could but when they had about 20 minutes left, she sat them both up and brushed Angela’s hair away from her eyes.
“Ok, love, it’s time we eat lunch so we’re ready for our afternoon shoots. We have one together and then I have one more on my own, do you think you can age up now?”
Angela wiggled in her lap, unhappy that she barely got any time with her mama but when she looked up at her concerned face, she knew she should at least try.
After a few minutes of trying to get out of headspace, she became frustrated and she smacked her hands to her eyes in frustration, a deep growl slipping from her lips. Amanda’s hands reached out to pull her hands away from her face and set them in her lap firmly.
“Hey, hey, take a deep breath. We don’t hit ourselves, that’s not ok,” she could see her frustration at not being able to drop her headspace and realized this was a deeper problem than she first thought. She’d never seen Angela like this before. Time to change plans.
“Ok baby, let’s go have lunch and mama will make a plan for this afternoon. Maybe someone can take your spot for the next shoot.” As soon as she said that, Angela whipped her head up and glared at her.
“No! I can do it, I can be big! I wanna be in the video.” Tears were already filling up in her eyes again and Amanda shushed her quickly, getting them both up from the couch and to the door.
“Let's worry about that after we eat, ok?”
Amanda led her back to the kitchen and made her a sandwich of her own to munch on while she grabbed the one previously made for herself. They scarfed them down, now having ran out of time to really enjoy the meal together, but Angela was no closer to aging up.
She seemed to finally realize this fact and gave in as Amanda talked to Spencer for the next shoot to find a replacement for Angela, the girl in question's face heating up in embarrassment at all the concerned looks she was getting. Spencer eased the tension as he patted her shoulder while walking past to go find a replacement.
Once someone was tracked down to fill in, Amanda brought Angela to the studio with her and got her settled off to the side with a blanket and her phone. She talked with the camera operators to make sure they were aware that Angela was not part of the video and needed her privacy respected and finally they were rolling.
Watching the shoot was so boring for Angela and she quickly lost interest in playing the games on her phone. She knew mama told her to stay put, but she couldn’t help it, she wanted to explore. She crept over to the other side of the games set and found some figurines on the shelves to mess around with for a while, the activity keeping her from noticing how long she’d been away.
Amanda glanced over at Angela every so often but halfway through, she became so involved in the game they were playing that she didn’t notice her little one had snuck away until they wrapped up. As soon as she came to the little chair, now empty except the blanket, she panicked. Wild eyes scanned the room in horror, scared of what could happen to her nervous kid when in a studio full of equipment and people she had not been little around before.
In her crazed state, she locked eyes with Tommy who had subbed in for Angela. He could tell something was wrong so he walked over to offer help.
“Did you see Angela get up? I left her here but I don’t know when she wandered away and I don’t know where she went.”
“I didn’t see her leave, but I can help you find her. Why don’t you check the bathrooms and I’ll look around the studio?” Amanda agreed to that and left to check the bathrooms. Tommy wandered over to each of the other sets, taking his phone out to use the flashlight.
Eventually, he checked behind the couch and found Angela passed out on the floor, some action figures still in hand. Not wanting to disturb her, he snapped a quick picture and sent it to Amanda, hoping she’d see it on her watch.
After a few minutes, he heard her rush back to set out of breath.
“Oh my god, thank you so much Tommy. I don’t know what got into her, I told her to stay where I could see her!” She whispered to him, not wanting to wake Angela up just yet.
“Don’t worry about it, littles will be littles. I’m just glad she’s safe and sound,” he pats her shoulder on his way out, knowing she needs the support of a friend at that moment.
With Tommy gone and only a few minutes left until her last shoot of the day, she bends down and gently shakes Angela’s shoulder to wake her up. The little girl whines but picks her head up to look at her mama in confusion.
“Angela Giarratana, you were supposed to wait for me in your chair. I couldn’t find you and I was so scared something happened to you,” Amanda looked down at her firmly, showing her how unhappy with her choices she was. To her credit, Angela looked very contrite, now realizing how she’d hurt her mama.
“Sorry, Mama, I didn’t mean to scare you! I just got bored an’ I wanted to play.”
“Next time you need to wait until I know where you’re going. This room can be dangerous for little ones if a grown up isn’t with you.”
Angela nodded at that and finally got off the floor and put the figures back after being prompted to do so. The pair walked over to the next set for Amanda to finish out the day doing Smosh Mouth with Shayne.
Angela dutifully stayed in her chair this time and watched her mama and friend talk for an hour with Amanda glancing over at her every so often just to be sure. After the shoot was done, Angela bounced over to sit in her lap before she had the chance to get up.
“Hey kiddo, how you feeling?” Shayne asked from across the table.
Angela suddenly became very shy as she hid her face in Amanda’s chest. Amanda smiled down and chuckled at her antics.
“Honey, Shayne asked you a question. Can you at least say hi to him?”
A shake of her head was the only reply. Amanda smiled at Shayne apologetically, knowing this unusual situation was causing her girl to hide away more than she usually does but he just smiled back and said his goodbyes.
Most of the people were out of the room already so Amanda stood up with Angela still in her arms and carried her out to retrieve their stuff. A few people cooed at Angela on their way but most gave them the space to pack up and go home in peace.