Disclaimer: I do not own Smash! or any of the characters. I am not making any money off of this!
A/N: Hello everyone! This is my first attempt at a Smash! fic, let me know what you think! : )
"AGAIN!" The voice echoed through the studio. The panting cast moved back to their starting marks to begin the song again.
It seemed like a broken record, again, again, again… She thought that she would have been used to it by now, but even Derek's quasi attractive British accent was beginning to grate on her.
"KAREN!"
Her head shot up as she realized that she had missed her cue to enter the song. She stepped forward.
"Do we have a problem, Karen?" Derek asked giving her the once over with a critical eye
"No, no sorry, I lost focus." She said quietly, blushing as the group turned to look at her.
"That much was apparent, be sure it doesn't happy again. SAM! Music!" He called. Karen backed into her place, and adverted her eyes from Ivy's satisfied smirk at Derek's harsh criticism. As much as she disliked the public humiliation of being singled out by Derek, she knew he was only doing it to make her better. He wouldn't be such a successful director and he didn't know what he was doing. Well, that was what she was telling herself at least.
This time as the music started, Karen was careful to listen for her 8 count that she entered on. After Ivy's perpetual whining about how grating the ensemble (aka Karen) was, she had been shifted to the back line for the majority of the number, only coming forward for the last 6 beats.
Ivy had been nasty to her since before she got Marilyn, but Karen had tried to avoid her. Now, acting in the same show, it was becoming increasingly difficult to avoid her. If anything went wrong in rehearsals, Ivy found a way to blame Karen. At least she was consistent.
Karen cleared her thoughts as she came into the end sequence.
Kick-two-three-four, slide down, step, and turn, slid-, but her thoughts were cut off as she felt a heavy, sharp object collide with her ankle. She cried out as it gave out from under her. She fell, most ungracefully she might add, to the ground, only looking up to see a crowd forming around her with Ivy smirking down at her once again. At this point Karen was absolutely sure that her face was permanently stuck like that. A strong throb in her right ankle brought her attention away from the blond's face and back to her slowly swelling ankle.
"Alright, everyone let's back it up." Tom called as he made his way toward her with Derek and Julia in tow.
"Looks like someone isn't even capable of handling a simple ensemble part hmmm?" Ivy chimed in as she took a few steps back with the rest of the cast. "Maybe she just needs to-"
"That will be quite enough, Ivy." Derek said coldly, Ivy sputtered momentarily, but she quickly disguised it with a look of disgust.
Derek kneeled down in front of Karen to view the ankle which she was currently clutching. Her eyes were clenched tight trying to hide her growing pain.
"Let me see, Karen." He said calmly, she just bit her lip and clutched her ankle even tighter.
"Oh for god's sake, let me see." He said. She was sure that he intended for the remark to have much more of a bite than it did. He pried her hands away with surprisingly gentle hands. Julia kneeled down to join him. Derek prodded the discolored joint slightly and she hissed in pain.
"It might be fractured." He said turning toward Julia, "We'll need to get her to the ER and have it looked at."
"No, I'm fine! I don't need to go to the hospital; it's probably just a strain." Karen said quickly, eyes flashing between Julia and Derek.
"Karen, I think I'll have to agree with Derek on this one." Tom said, with a grimace, looking at her foot, "That is a nasty looking sprain you've got; you need to get it checked out." Karen groaned. Tom would never agree with Derek unless it was absolutely necessary, and even then he would try to find a way to disagree if he could.
"Fine, I'll go." She said shaking her head slightly. She avoided looking to Ivy, who was surely smirking at her misfortune once again. She resisted a strong urge to glare back at the girl, knowing no one else had noticed the real reason for her fall. She gritted her teeth thinking back to the fall. When Karen slid forward to her spot on the floor, Ivy had forgotten her choreography and stepped back directly onto Karen's ankle causing it to bend in a most unnatural position. Of course, Ivy would never fess up to it. Karen had come to the conclusion that Ivy would always get her way. After she left, she was sure Ivy would blame the fall on Karen's bad fitness or lack of dancing ability. Her only consolation was that at least a few of the ensemble members could see through Ivy's lies, and a longing hope that karma would eventually come back and bite Ivy in the butt.
"Can you walk?" A voice asked. She glanced up to see Derek waiting for a reply.
"Umm, I think so." She replied hastily, shifting her weight and attempting to stand. She pushed up to but the pressure was too much and her ankle gave way in protest. She cried out and grabbed her ankle again. She felt a pair of strong arms slide under her legs and behind her back and lift her from the ground with no words of warning. Her eyes widened when found that Derek was the one that held her. For a moment, she saw a flash of emotion in his eyes, it almost looked like… sympathy, but suddenly he turned to Julia and it was gone.
"I'll take her to NYU ER; continue with the rehearsal, I'll let you know how things go." He said before turning and walking out of the door to the studio toward the elevator.
Karen and Derek traveled in relative silence as they exited the building to a line of cabs. Luckily a few of the cabs have found that around 1:00 every day, a throng of starved performers flooded out of the studio looking for a taxi to a restaurant. Derek stepped up toward the first cab in the line and the driver jumped out to open the door for him.
"See we've had an injury here, eh?" he commented in a heavy northern accent. "I take it we'll be going to the NYU, it's the closest hospital from here." He said, as Derek slid her into the seat.
"Yes, that would be acceptable," Derek said to the driver, before turning his attention back to Karen "You need to keep that foot up." He said, shutting the door before she could respond. Classic Derek, giving commands even after hours.
Karen had to admit though; she had been mildly impressed by Derek's strength as he was carrying her down the elevator. Not once had he faltered or slowed under the extra weight. She had never noticed his build before; she assumed that his harsh criticism and cold demeanor had prevented her seeing anything but an egotistical director. But now looking though the badly tinted window of the cab, she could see an attractive figure under his standoffish pose. She shook her head.
Karen had always prided herself in her judge of character, but Derek… he was unreadable and it bothered her to no end. He picked on her and pushed exactly the right buttons to provoke a reaction, and what bothered her more is that it seemed he had no problem reading her. But there was something about him though, attracted her. She sighed; she had had to remind herself, just the other day, how much she hated Derek Wills. She hated his cocky, sarcastic remarks and devil-may-care attitude. She hated the way that he looked at her from the corner of his eye during rehearsal when he thought she wasn't watching, and the way he smirked at her each day as she left practice. And most of all she hated the way every smirk made her heart flutter. So, each day after rehearsal as she was walking down the stairs, she told herself why she disliked him, but today, he seemed almost… concerned… caring, and all of her hard work at convincing herself about how much she hated him had gone right down the drain. She mentally slapped herself, she would not let one kind action, one caring touch- no, she, she would not fall prey to Derek Wills and his little games; she would make sure of it.