A/N:This is a really long one shot that I've been working on for about a month. Thanks to Lorraine for being my beta and for helping the story make sense. Let me know what you think.
Disclaimer: I do not own instant star or the songs used. I do own the plot, Jake,Rob, and any other people you don't recognize. Expect agent reyes she belongs to x-files.
Enjoy
Leslie Carmichael looked at the computer screen, not really paying attention to what she was doing. For five years this had been her life, she was 25 and no one knew of the life she had had before: the life of rock star, Jude Harrison. She had left that life and Canada behind her when she was 20.
"Hey L, you want to go to lunch with us?" her roommate and co-worker, Ali, asked.
"Sure." She quickly grabbed her bag from the floor, and a few minutes later they were at a small café down the street. She was listening to her friend, Janet, talk about her boyfriend, who she thought was cheating on her.
"If you think he's cheating, dump his ass." Ali said.
"I know, but I really love him."
"Sometimes you have to hurt the ones you love," Jude said quietly, more to herself then to her friends. Ali and Janet looked at her for a minute, but then they saw the distant look Jude had in her eyes. As her friends talked about something else, Jude thought about the life she had had and the love she left behind, Tommy. Even though they had been apart for five years, the love she felt for him was still there. He had truly changed her life, and it had killed her to leave him behind, but it had to be done. She fingered the ring that still hung around her neck. Tommy had surprised her on her 20th birthday by proposing to her. If she could go back in time and change the weeks leading up to her departure from Canada, she would. In a matter of three weeks her whole life had been shattered, her best friend and sister were killed and her fiancée was clueless to the whole ordeal.
"Earth to Leslie. We need to get back to work," Ali said waving her hand in front of Jude's face. A few minutes later she was back in front of that damn computer entering useless information in. She heard her phone ringing next to her, so she picked it up.
"Carmichael."
"Miss Carmichael, this is Mr. Regent. I have those books you ordered. What time can you pick them up?"
"Uhm, I can be there at 3."
"That'll be fine. I'll see you soon." Four hours later Jude walked into the old bookstore.
"Hello? Mr. Regent?" An older man with gray hair came out of the back room.
"Miss Carmichael, I have those books you ordered in the store room."
"Thank you, Mr. Regent," she said as she followed him to the back room. The older man led her in, and shut the door behind her. She waited for the lights to come on, and when they did, she saw a figure sitting behind a table in the back of the room.
"Miss Carmichael, please have a seat," she said as Jude walked towards the table.
"Agent Reyes, it's good to see you again," Jude said as she sat down.
"Well, it's not that good, Leslie," Agent Reyes said as she shuffled her papers.
"What do you mean? What's wrong?"
"I know you were told six months ago that it may be safe for you to go home. But we were wrong. We thought Delmore had been killed, but he has resurfaced."
"But now you can put him on trial, right?!"
"Well, we're still compiling evidence."
"Still compiling evidence?! It's been almost six years dammit!"
"I know that. But this wasn't his first crime. Please bear with us. We are trying to make it safe for you."
"Okay, fine. Uhm, no agent has ever told me this, but what does my family know?"
"Everyone believes you're dead. A private plane crash was staged, and Jude Harrison is gone." Jude bowed her head for a minute.
"So you're telling me that even if I do get to go back to my 'life.' It really won't matter because I won't get to be Jude Harrison again. I won't get to go back to my music because I'm freaking dead," Jude said feeling her anger rise.
"If the time ever comes for you to return to your old life, we can make it look like you walked away from the crash but had no way to get home; something like that. We'll come up with a story, so don't worry about it. But that's a huge if. The reason we've asked for you to come in today was to give you an update."
"Which is?"
"That Delmore is still a threat, and that you have to stay here for six more months," Reyes said as she packed up the folders.
"Can he find me here?"
"No, as long as you keep the low profile you've been keeping, he won't be able to find you."
"Okay, I will." A little while later Jude walked into her apartment. It was quiet inside, so that meant Ali wasn't home. She dropped her bag and jacket on the couch, and turned on the radio. Of course as fate would have it, an old Boyz Attack song came on. She sung to herself as she cleaned up the living room. When the song ended, the DJ came back on and said,
"For all of you Boyz Attack fans, it was announced today that Boyz Attack will be reuniting later this year, but without former heartthrob, Tommy Q, who walked away from the business five years ago when his protégé--" Jude quickly turned off the radio and put a CD in, not wanting to hear about her "death." Jude hit the play button on the CD player, and Spied's solo record filled the air; this was one of her favorite songs off of his first album. Though she had a strange feeling it was about her.
I
open my eyes And I can't stand the pain How could this happen
to me Everybody's
screaming So I try
to hold onto a time when nothing mattered How could this happen to me I made my mistakes
I try to see but I'm blinded by the white light
I
can't remember how
I can't remember why
I'm lying here
tonight
And I can't make it
go away
No I can't stand the pain
I made my mistakes
I've got no where to run
The
night goes on
As I'm fading away
I'm sick of this life
I
just wanna scream
How could this happen to me
I
try to make a sound but no one hears me
I'm slipping off the
edge
I'm
hanging by a thread
I wanna start this over again
And I can't explain
what happened
And I can't erase the things that I've done
No
I can't
I made my
mistakes
I've got no where to run
The night goes on
As I'm
fading away
I'm sick of this life
I just wanna scream
How
could this happen to me
I've got no
where to run
The night goes on
As I'm fading away
I'm
sick of this life
I just wanna scream
How could this happen to
me
As the CD was playing, she sat down on her couch and thought back to the day she had to leave her life in Canada.
"Jude, come with me." A guy in a black suit said, grabbing her arm and dragging her out of the house, as Jude just stared at her bloody living room.
"Hell no. I'm not going anywhere with you." Jude said, yanking her arm away from him.
"Jude, you need to go with them. It's the only way we can protect you. You need to pack a bag and anything you want to take with you, but we have to approve it first." Jude just nodded her head, and walked up the stairs to her room. Fifteen minutes later all of her most treasured possessions where in an SUV with her in the front seat, as they headed to an unknown destination. She asked the question that was haunting her thoughts.
"Is Tommy coming?"
"Mr. Quincy is being left behind. Delmore has no interest in him, so it'll be safer for him to stay here," the agent driving said. After hearing that the love of her life is being left behind, she curled up in the passenger seat and cried herself to sleep. Her whole world had just been pulled out from under her, and she had no clue how to put it back together.
She was taken out of her trip down memory lane by Ali coming in; Jude quickly stopped the CD, and wiped her tears away.
"Hey Leslie. Do you want to go to that new club in Smithsdale? A bunch of us from work are going, and there's supposed to be this band from Canada. I think they're called Spiederman Expulsion or something like that."
"Spiederman Mind Explosion." The words slipped out of her mouth before she could catch them.
"So you've heard of them? So that means you want to go?"
"Uhm...no I'm going to stay in. I don't really like their music anyways." She started to play with her short black hair hoping Ali wouldn't notice that she was lying.
"Suit yourself. I'll be out late so don't wait up."
"I never do." And with that Jude was once again left alone with her thoughts. She turned on the TV, but the only things that were on were reruns of American Idol and Grey's Anatomy; both programs, that at one point in her life, had been watched almost religiously. But now it was too hard to watch the doctors that her sister had loved so much, and the contestants she had once been; it just brought up too many memories; memories that she tried to distance herself from everyday, but everyday she would fail. She got off the couch and walked into her bedroom. She glanced around the somewhat the empty walls of her room. She never felt the need to put anything up on them because she never thought she'd be staying here forever. She opened her closet and looked at the things she had hidden in the very back. She pulled the big streamer trunk and guitar case out of the closet. She flipped the latch on the trunk, and pulled the top up. She took out her photo album and flipped through the pages. On days like this, she wished she had told Tommy about Delmore when the whole thing started. But she had wanted to protect him, and in the end it had cost her their relationship. With each flip of the page, the years passed. She kept flipping till she landed on a picture from Sadie and Jamie's wedding. She and Tommy had been together for about four months when the picture had been taken. She remembered the day like it was yesterday.
"Sadie, will you please clam down?" Jude said as she tried to straighten her big sister's veil for the hundredth time that day.
"Jude, how can I be calm? I'm getting married! Oh god Jude, what if I'm doing the wrong thing, what if--"Jude stood in front of her.
"Okay Sades, breathe. You're doing the right thing. Jamie loves you and you love him."
"But aren't we doing this a little too fast? We've been dating for a little under a year, and he just proposed to me a few weeks ago "
"But you've known each other for 15 years, maybe even more. And let's go over your reasons for getting married so quickly. Number one, you wanted to be a spring bride."
"And if we waited, it would be a whole year, and I don't want to wait that long. Reason number two, I wanted you to be my maid of honor."
"And I leave for tour next week. And Number Three."
"I want to be Mrs. Andrews as soon as possible," Sadie said with a smile as Tommy, who was doing the best man duties since Jude had already been snagged by Sadie to be the maid of honor, popped his head into the tent.
"Andrews wanted me to make sure she was still here," he said as he stepped into the tent.
"Is he having second thought?" Sadie asked starting to get nervous again.
"Nope, just wanted to see how things are going," Tommy said as Jude pushed him out of the tent.
"We'll be ready in five minutes," she said as she turned to go back into the tent, but he quickly grabbed her arm.
"Hey, do I even get a kiss?"
"Of course, even if you are a shitty liar," she said as she leaned up and kissed him before she walked back to her sister. The ceremony went off without any problems, and then it was time for the reception. Half-way through the reception, Sadie had gotten tried of talking to the relatives she didn't even know, so she snagged a bottle of champagne and motioned for Jamie, Jude, and Tommy to follow her up to the balcony of the ballroom far away from where the reception was being held. All four of them had sat on the balcony for hours; none of them had ever realized that the photographer had taken a picture of them on the balcony, until weeks later when the pictures came in. It was one of Jude's favorites; you could only see the side of their faces, but you could still see the love that was in that picture. Jamie had Sadie wrapped in his arms while Tommy had Jude wrapped in his. And both sisters had faced each other while their bare feet were intertwined at the moment the picture had been taken. All four of them were laughing at something that was said.
Jude traced the picture with her fingers until she was taken out of her thoughts by the sound of her phone ringing.
"Hello?" she said with the southern drawl she had picked up while living in the small town.
"Hey Leslie, you want to go to the movies with me? I'm bored has hell and Marc is at work," one of her few friends, Robert, asked. He was like her new Mason, and he too was a gay cowboy. But he was a lot more open about it then Mason had been.
"Sure. Let me change and I'll meet you at the Cineplex." They said their goodbyes, and after she closed her phone, she quickly shoved her past back into the closet. A few hours later she and Robert were walking out of the new horror flick. The fear of horror movies Jude had once had, quickly disappeared after she had lived her own horror film.
"So did you like it?" Robert asked while they walked in front of the old storefronts.
"It was okay, I've seen better," she said as she took a drink from her soda.
"So what are you doing tomorrow?"
"Sleeping in."
"That's what you do every weekend. You need to live a little."
"I've lived enough thank you."
"Why don't you come to Lancaster with Marc and me?"
"I don't want to be a third wheel, Rob."
"You won't be. Please come. If you come, maybe we can stop Marc from going to the comic book store."
"There's a comic book store? Why didn't you say that earlier? I am so there," she said with a laugh, remembering all the Saturdays spent in the music/comic bookstores back home with Jamie and SME.
"Just when I thought I had you all figured out, you still stump me. Hey, look at that. They're finally putting a new store in," he said as he pointed to a storefront.
"Wonder what it is," Jude said looking into it.
"Hopefully it's something cool."
Jude spent most of the next day in Lancaster with Marc and Robert. That night when she came home she felt really happy, which was a feeling that she wasn't use to feeling. When she was with Marc and Robert, they made it easy for her to forget about her problems. She walked into the apartment and saw Ali lying on the couch.
"Hey, how was your day?" she asked as Jude sat down next to her.
"It was good; we hung out in comic stores all day."
"Ew. I don't understand the appeal of those places. You missed a great concert last night, it was really cool. Tommy Q was there; apparently he and the lead singer are good friends. He even sung a few songs. I recorded them," Ali said pulling her iPhone out and handing it to Jude. Jude listened as the music for Pick Up the Pieces played, then after hearing Tommy threatened Spied to change the song, it changed to White Lines. Jude dropped the phone on the coffee table and stood up.
"Uhm…I've got to go and…do something," she said making a quick exit, as she ran up the stairs to her room and she shut her bedroom door and locked it, then slid down it. It was only then that she let the tears fall. The fact that Tommy had sung White Lines in public was too much for her. It reminded her of her 20th birthday when he proposed to her.
Jude looked around the ballroom that NBR had rented for her 20th birthday. Even though all of her birthdays in the past had been shitty, she had a promise from Jamie, Sadie, and Tommy that this birthday wouldn't be. She was playing with baby Jake, when Tommy took the stage.
"We're all here tonight to celebrate a very special girl, who for a year has been my girl. So I am going to be singing a song that we all know and love. So this is for you, Jude Harrison. Spied starting playing the piano and within the first three notes she realized what the song was, White Lines.
I
tried to tell you
I've got to get away
I tried to say
I need
my space
I got to get some
Distance in between
My heart and
my head
I'm on the razor's edge
I've been here before
I
know the way
White lines
And headlights in my eyes
White
lines
I'm ready to drive all night
White lines
How many
'till I'm in your arms
White lines
Will bring me home
I
held you in
My arms last night
I dreamed we were
Riding on a
star
I kissed you and
The sun began to shine
In dreams I can
do anything
It seems like I'm on my own
It feels like I'm
losing it all
White lines
And headlights in my eyes
White
lines
I'm ready to drive all night
White lines
How many
'till I'm in your arms
White lines
Will bring me
Seems
like I've been here before
I know the way
Seems like I've been
on my own
So long
So long
White lines
And headlights
in my eyes
White lines
I'm ready to drive all night
White
lines
How many 'till I'm in your arms
White lines
Will bring
me home
As the song progressed, he took the mic off its stand and made his way towards Jude. When the song ended, he grabbed her hand and got down on one knee. All Jude could do was stare at him in shock; she didn't know what to do or think when all of her dreams were coming true.
"It's been five years since my life changed forever. When I met you I was just some boy bander who had a huge ego, and you were a red-haired little punk. And somehow during that year I fell in love with you. You made me the man I am today, and I love you for it. You're the best thing to ever happen to me, so Jude Elizabeth Harrison will you do me the honor of being my wife?" He said as he pulled a ring box out of his pocket and opened the lid.
"Yes. Yes, I'll marry you." He then picked her up and twirled her around, finally l he placed her back on the floor and kissed her like it was their last.
Jude pulled the ring out from under her shirt and looked at it. It was truly her ring. It had a diamond star in the middle and two ruby music notes on each side of it, and engraved inside of it was Always My Girl. She ran her finger over the diamond and watched as it glittered from the fading sunlight from her window. She looked out the window and prayed for a day when she could once again wear her ring.
A month later Jude was walking through the downtown center not wanting to go back to her empty apartment since Ali was out of town for two weeks. She stopped in front of the shop that she and Robert had seen weeks ago; it now had a name, Jude's Jukebox. She laughed quietly to herself thinking about how another person was obsessed with The Beatles like her father was. She looked at the display window, and behind it was a 69 Gibson, which was like the one she left behind. The only thing she had taken from her house, music wise, were her journals and her Ephiphone Austouic. Regretfully she had to leave her other three guitars behind. She looked around and noticed no one was around, so she pulled her hat tighter on her head and walked in. She had made it a rule to avoid anything involving music because anybody really into music would be able to figure out who she was, even though her hair was now black and her blue eyes where now green.
In the past it hadn't been worth the risk to be anywhere near anything music related, but lately she'd been feeling so disconnected, and music always made her feel better. She looked around the store, and noticed it had a bunch of great guitars and sound equipment. She looked at the walls and noticed they had been decorated with old album covers. She walked closer to one of them, and saw that it was a rare Dylan album her father had looked around for years to find. Jude had found his in a vintage store one day and bought it for him even though shortly after she bought it, Sadie had spilt fingernail polish on it. Jude absentmindedly glanced at the right corner expecting to see the cover photo, but in the corner of the vinyl were a few specs of hot pink fingernail polish, the same kind that Sadie had spilt on her dad's. She blinked thinking that she was seeing things. She quickly turned around to look at the other vinyls that were hanging on the walls; each of them could easily have been from her father's collection. She continued to survey the walls, when her eyes landed on a set of album covers that only her father would have. It was the vinyl versions of her five albums; she quickly backed up towards the door. It was then that a little boy with black hair sitting on the counter caught her eye. He looked just like Jamie had when he was little.
"Hi," he said looking up from the child size guitar he had been strumming.
"Hi," she heard her own voice say. Her mind still couldn't process the fact that this little boy was her nephew, and that who ever owned this store was someone from her former life.
"Do your parents own this store?" she asked quietly hoping he would yes.
"Nope. My uncle, Tommy, does." When Jude heard the words the little boy said, she quickly took off out the door, and started running, wanting to put as much distance as she could between her and Tommy. Because she knew if she paused for even one second, she would go running back to him. She didn't stop running until she reached her apartment. When she reached her apartment, she ran up to her bedroom and locked the door. Her mind was racing with questions: how had Tommy found her? Had he found her, or was it just the universe messing with her? She sat on her bed for a long time just thinking about everything and trying to deal with her emotions. Jake was so big now. He had still been in diapers when she had to leave, and it hurt her even more that Jake didn't know who she was. But that was a price she had to pay. At that moment, she felt like all the air had been sucked out of her. Of all the ways she thought she would see him again, this was definitely not one of them. She was torn; her heart wanted to run back into that store and grab Tommy and never let him go, but her head knew that wasn't an option. She couldn't risk his and Jake's life.
For the next four months she avoided the downtown area like it was the plague, and she hardly went outside in fear of running into Tommy. As long as he thought she was dead, then he was safe. No matter how much it hurt her. She was sitting in her little office cubicle when Robert leaned over it.
"Hey, beautiful. I've came to take you to lunch."
"Thanks Rob, but I really can't. I've got a ton of work to do," she said.
"Yeah, right," he said looking at her game of solitaire on the computer.
"Okay, let's go. But let's go to Lakes," she said as she grabbed her bag and followed him out of the office.
"Nah. I was thinking about going to this new restaurant downtown."
"Uhm, no," she said as she got into his car.
"Well, I'm driving so we're going where I want to go." Thirty minutes later they were done eating, so they headed to Robert's apartment.
"We need to talk," Rob said as they sat down.
"About what?"
"About the reason you've been avoiding the downtown area for the last four months."
"I told you before, I just haven't had a reason to go downtown," she said playing with her necklace.
"Or is it because the person who owns the new music store is your fiancée and the little boy he is taking care of is your nephew, who you had to leave behind because you're in the program." All Jude could do was stare in shock at the man in front of her. How did he know all of this about her?
"How the hell?" she asked.
"Agent Carl Magenta. Nice to meet you," he said holding out his hand for her to shake. But when he saw that she wasn't going to shake his hand, he pulled it back.
"You've known for five years who I was and why I was here?! And you never once said anything?!"
"I couldn't. I'm what you call a 'guardian agent.' I watch over people who are in the program."
"As their best friend?"
"Well, you were a special case. I knew that you would need at least one person to trust. So here I am." Jude just sat there for a few minutes thinking about how the past few years fell into place.
"Marc's an agent too."
"Yup."
"So the whole gay thing?"
"Is real. But believe it or not, before this mission I was straight I just…"
"Found the person that makes your life worth living," she said quietly.
"Yeah."
"Is Tommy safe being here?"
"Yup. Delmore has no clue about your relationship, and he has no clue where you are. Plus, you have Marc and I here to keep you safe. You deserve to be happy, Jude, and just because a psycho is after you doesn't mean you have to give up everything. I checked out everything, and it is safe for you to be here, and to be with Tommy as long as Jude Harrison doesn't reappear."
"She won't. Leslie Carmichael will just be a whole lot happier," Jude said with a smile.
"I called you in for the rest of the week."
"I have one question though, why did Tommy choose this town for a music shop?"
"He wanted to get away from the limelight, so a Mr. Toppet with Cherry Hill found him a perfect little town to live in."
"You are such a meddler. But I love you for it," she said as she hugged him.
"I know, let's go."
A few minutes later Jude found herself in front of Jude's Jukebox. Rob quickly pushed her into the store and locked the door behind her so she couldn't run away. She stood there for a minute hoping no one was there.
"Customer." She heard Jake yell, and a few seconds later she was face to face with Tommy.
"Hi," Jude said while Tommy looked at her like he was seeing a ghost; the ghost of the woman he loved. A few minutes later, Tommy finally snapped out of his trance and asked,
"Am I drunk?"
"No. Uhm, can we go to your back room so we can talk? I don't want to have this conversation out in the open." He nodded and then grabbed her hand and pulled her into the back. She saw Jake sitting on the floor playing his guitar, and saw that Tommy was also looking at him.
"Hey, Jake. Why don't you go sit at the counter and play, okay?"
"Sure!" He said as he grabbed his guitar and ran to the counter.
"He's so big. It's hard to believe that's baby Jake."
"It is. Uhm, how about instead of going to the back room, I close up and we go to my house. That way we can talk more because I have a feeling this is going to be a long conversation, and we're going to need some beer."
"Sure." A few minutes later they pulled up to a three-story house that looked like something out of a storybook.
"Nice place," she said as he opened the door. Tommy sent Jake up to his room and led Jude to his bedroom. He shut the door behind him, and then turned to her.
"They told me you were dead," he said as he sat beside her on the bed.
"Yeah, it was to protect me."
"From that psycho, Peter Delmore."
"Yeah."
"Why didn't you tell me Jude?"
"I didn't want to lose you."
"But you did."
"And I regret that every day. I've cried myself to sleep every night because I lost you. When the whole Delmore mess started I thought I was protecting you by not telling you about him. It turned out that he just wanted to kill my mom, Sadie, and me. He could care less about anybody else."
"Then why was Jamie killed?"
"He was at the wrong place, at the wrong time. He would've died protecting Sadie anyways. He couldn't have lived his life without Sadie."
"So why have I lived without you for five years?"
"Because the police didn't know who he was until a few months ago, but even when they found out who he was, I couldn't go home. I have a question for you, though, why did you come here?" She asked as she moved herself to sit in his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"I decided I needed to get away from Canada and that Jake didn't need to grow up in the life style of the 'rich and famous.' I decided to move here because it's a small town and that's what I wanted Jake to grow up around."
"Well, I'm glad you picked this place to live in," she said as she leaned down and kissed him for the first time in five years. She felt his hand slid down her back to her butt. She then moved her hands into his hair, and she pushed him back onto the bed and straddled him. Just when he got Jude's shirt off, there was a knock on the door.
"Uncle Tommy! I'm hungry!" Jake yelled from the other side of the door.
"Okay buddy, we'll be there in a minute," Tommy yelled as Jude got off of him and put her shirt back on.
"What are we going to tell him?"
"That you're his aunt. He knows that Sadie and Jamie were his parents, and that I'm his uncle."
"Okay then. Let's do this," she said as he grabbed her hand and led her down the stairs. Jake was sitting in his kitchen chair playing with his Power Rangers action figures.
"Who are you?" He asked when he looked at Jude with the eyes of her best friend. That thought made Jude stop, she could see so much of Jamie and Sadie in this little boy, and he would never get to know who his parents were because some psycho had to take them away from him. She bowed her head down for a minute to wipe away her tears. After a while, she looked back up at the little boy.
"This is your Aunt Jude," Tommy said as he grabbed Jude's hand and pulled her closer to the little boy.
"I thought Aunt Jude died with mommy and daddy."
"No, she didn't buddy." Tommy was silent for a minute then he spoke again.
"Hey buddy, you want to play a game?" He asked as he knelt down so that he was eye to eye with the little boy that had been his world for the last five years.
"Yup."
"Okay, we're going to play pretend. Whenever it's more than the three of us, or whenever we're outside, you need to pretend that your Aunt Jude is my friend Leslie. Okay?"
"Okay. But why?"
"Because you know the bad people that hurt your mommy and daddy? Well they want to hurt me too, so I have to pretend to be someone else," Jude said as she knelt down next to Tommy.
"Is the bad guy going to come after us?"
"No buddy, he won't come after us, as long as we keep this secret between us. Can you do that for us buddy?" Tommy asked has he stood up and headed to the fridge to fix them something to eat. Jude stayed knelt down in front of Jake who was still staring at her. Jake then reached out and touched her cheek with a small smile.
"You're pretty Aunt Jude. You look like mommy." Jude pushed back the tears that threatened to fall and touched his hand with her own.
"Your mommy and daddy loved you very much. You were the best thing that ever happened to them."
"Aunt Jude can I have a hug?"
"Yes baby you can," she said as he wrapped him in a hug. She looked over her shoulder in time to see Tommy wipe a tear away from his eyes, and turned back to the stove. A few minutes later when Jake went back to playing with his toys, Jude walked over to Tommy and wrapped her arms around his middle as she laid her head on his shoulder.
"You've done a good job with him," she said into his ear has she kissed below it.
"Thanks. I never thought I would be a parent, but it came to me pretty easy. At first I had your dad's help, but then when Jake turned three we moved out on our own."
"My dad. Is he still…"
"No, he passed away last year. I was at work when I got a call from your neighbors who found him unconscious in your yard. They called the paramedics, but when they got to your house, it was too late. He died from a heart attack. That call was devastating, but the call I got five years ago, that was the worst call I ever got. But your dad, he was one of the last pieces of your family and in the few years after the accident, we became really close. It was hard to explain to Jake, and I still don't think he understands what happened."
"Thank you for taking care of him. I know that he wasn't legally your responsibly." Tommy turned away from the stove and put his arms around Jude.
"I wasn't going to let him go to foster care, and he kept me going. I don't regret my decision to keep him." She leaned up and kissed him.
"So Jude, how is this whole thing going to work?" Tommy asked as he let her go, and turned back to the stove.
"Lots and lots of lying."
"So I guess you moving in would be too quick."
"We can work it out; I can tell my friends we've been dating for a few months already, and that we've decided to take the next step. Believe it or not, I've became a very good liar."
"Is that your way of saying yes?"
"Yes it is," she said as she once again wrapped him in a hug. After five years of not being able to touch him, she was cherishing every chance she got. Later that night, for the first time in five years Jude picked up a guitar and played. As soon s she started playing it, it felt like the nightmare she had been living faded away. She was halfway though I Still Love You when she heard two other guitars join in. She looked up and saw Jake and Tommy playing with her. For the next couple of hours they just enjoyed playing and being together. After a while Jake fell asleep on the couch, so Tommy and Jude put the guitars away and took the little boy up to his room. Tommy changed him then laid him on his bed, which woke him up.
"Uncle Tommy."
"Yeah Jake?"
"Can Aunt Jude sing me to sleep tonight?" Tommy turned to Jude who was standing in the doorway.
"Sure little man, what do you want to hear?"
"Live Like Music. It's my favorite song by you."
I
forgot what this is all about
Lost - surrounded by a storm of
doubt
I - I make it so hard
It's hard enough to keep it up
And
I can't give in
To what they want
And I'm not gonna
I
wanna live like music
I wanna live like music
Songs about
justice
Songs about love
Songs about freedom
And never
giving up
I wanna live like music
I - I'm outta tune with
who I am
Now - it's gotten way outta hand
I spread too thin
And
it's hard enough to zero in
On the heart of it
The soul of
it
And now I know that
I wanna live like music
I wanna
live like music
Songs about justice
Songs about love
Songs
about freedom
And never giving up
I wanna live like music
Like
music
Like music
I'm gonna take it back
To the cafe
bar
Show you what I got
With my guitar
And I'm not gonna
hold anything back
Gonna strip it right down
Put it on the four
track
Oh yea, yea yea
Hey
I wanna live like music
I
wanna live like music
Pouring out the windows
Rolling down the
street
Punching every station
Singing dirty and sweet
I
wanna live like music
Like music
Like music
Halfway through the song he fell back to sleep, so Tommy and Jude quietly left his room and went to Tommy's room.
"I missed you so much," he said pulling her toward the bed.
"Me too."
"When I saw you standing in the store today, I thought I was hallucinating. For five years I promised myself that if somehow, someway I saw you again, I would tell you this: you are my other half Jude. The day I lost you, I lost my will to live. Then today, when you walked back into my life, it felt like my world was right again. I am never ever letting you go, ever again. Somehow we've managed to get a second chance at this, and I'm not losing you, and when the time is right I'm going to marry you."
"I love you."
"I love you too."
Soon the only thing between them was their love, and for the first time in five years Jude didn't cry herself to sleep. But later that night Jude was lost in a nightmare.
She was once again in her old house; the floor and walls were splattered with her sister's blood. But this time, the bodies weren't Jamie and Sadie; instead they were Tommy and Jake. She shot awake with a scream, which instantly woke Tommy up.
"Babe? What's wrong?" Jude caught her breath then spoke.
"It was nothing. It was just a nightmare." Tommy ran his hand up and down her back as she wiped away her tears.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"No, not really. Just having you here helps a lot though," she said as she wrapped her arms around him and lay back down.
"I'll always be here Jude. I'm never leaving you again," he whispered in her ear as they both drifted off to sleep.
A month later Jude was sitting behind the counter at Jude's Jukebox. After their reunion Tommy had offered her a job at the shop so that she didn't have to work in the office, which she always hated doing. She loved working at the store because for a while a piece of her could be Jude again. The last month had been heaven for her; she had moved in with Tommy and Jake, and they had become a family. Jude's world was perfect; every morning she'd woke up in Tommy's arms, and every night she'd tuck Jake in, and soon her nightmares had disappeared. She was broken out of her thoughts by Robert coming into the store.
"Hey Leslie," he said walking up to the counter.
"Hi Rob. What's up?"
"I was wondering if you, Tom, and Jake would like to go to that new restaurant in the next town tonight."
"Sure, that'd be great." Before Rob could reply back, Tommy came into the store with Jake, and interrupted them.
"Hey babe, Rob," he said as he came around the counter and kissed Jude, while Jake, who Tommy had to pick up from school, went to his desk to start his homework.
"Hey. Rob just invited us to go to the new restaurant in Capestown."
"Cool. I've been wanting to check that place out," Tommy said as he opened a box he had received in the mail. The address had been from Canada so he figured that Kwest had sent it to him. But when he opened the box, he realized it wasn't from Kwest. He pulled out a pile of pictures, and when Rob saw the pictures, he quickly pulled them away from Tommy's hands. Tommy saw Jude staring at the pictures and saw the tears streaming down her face. He wrapped her in his arms as she started to cry at what the pictures held, Jamie and Sadie's death.
"H-h-how did h-he find m-me?" she asked with her head buried in Tommy's chest.
"I'm not sure. Tommy, can you lock the door and shut all the blinds while I call Agent Reyes about this." Tommy nodded his head before sitting Jude on the chair and walking to the front of the store to lock the doors. Jude sat down on the chair quietly just staring at Jake. She had once again brought death and pain into his life. She glanced down at the package, and that's when she realized something.
"The package was mailed to me."
"What?" Rob asked.
"It says Leslie Carmichael. He's knows I'm here. I have to leave."
"Jude…" Tommy said stepping towards her.
"She's right Tommy. She's not safe here, not anymore. Agent Reyes has instructed me to leave with her tonight."
"We're going with you," Tommy said.
"No, you're not. He's not after you; he's after me. That package was addressed to my apartment, not yours. He has no clue about you."
"I can't lose you again Jude. I just got you back," Tommy said as his voice started cracking from the tears that were threatening to fall. Jude came around the counter and wrapped her arms around him.
"I'm going to come home, just make sure you're here when I come back. Okay?"
She asked leaning her forehead against his. A honk that came from outside broke their moment. Rob looked out the door and saw Marc in his car.
"Marc's here. We have to go."
"I love you," she whispered as she pulled her necklace off her neck and put it in his hand. Tommy then did the same to the necklace he wore that held his wedding band that they had bought before she first disappeared. He clasped it around her neck before kissing her.
"I love you too." She pulled away from him and walked over to Jake who was watching the whole conversation with scared eyes. Jude kneeled down in front of him.
"Hi Jakey. I have to go away for a while, but I promise I'll be back," she said as she hugged him.
"I need you to promise me something. Take care of Uncle Tommy. Okay?"
"Okay," he whispered as Jude kissed him on the forehead before walking to the door. She kissed Tommy one last time before she walked out of the door, once again leaving him behind. She got into the back of the SUV that was waiting for her. As the door was shut behind her, she felt like a door had been shut in her heart. As soon as Rob got in the SUV, it quickly pulled away from the curb. As she watched the country side past by through her window, tears fell down her face. She was so angry and heartbroken; she had just started putting her life back together, but now her life was once again in pieces. Around midnight that night they pulled into a gasoline station to get gas.
"You want anything?" Marc asked her as he got out.
"No, I'm fine," she said quietly. Marc got out of the car, leaving Rob and Jude in the vehicle.
"We're going to catch him Jude. You're going to be able to go home soon."
"Tommy and Jake will be okay, right?"
"We have agents in position to watch them. They'll be safe Jude." Before he could continue a gunshot went off, shattering Rob's window. Jude screamed when she saw blood seeping out of his head. One look at him, and she realized that her friend was dead. She heard two more gunshots, so she quickly grabbed her bag, which had a spare gun in it. But before she could pull it out something crashed through her window. She quickly tried to get out, but her door was ripped open before she could get to the other side. She felt somebody grab her leg, so she tried to kick her attacker. Before she could do anything else, she was flipped over so that her back was against the seat, and she could see her attacker's face; it was the same face that had taken her sister and Jamie away from her.
"I've waited a long time for you, Miss Harrison," he said before he put a cloth filled with chloroform over her mouth, and soon her world went black.
Form this point on Rape and harsh death is includedThe first thing Jude realized when she regained consciousness was that she was tied to a bed. She tried to pull her hands lose, but her binds wouldn't give. She quickly looked around the room, hoping to find a way out, but every exit was blocked. She could tell that she was in a run down house, but where she had no clue. A tall man coming in the door interrupted her thoughts.
"We finally meet Jude," He said as he walked over to the bed. Jude instantly knew this was the man that had taken her sister and her life away; this was Peter Delmore. He ran his hand over her face and down her neck. Jude felt a tear slip down her cheek, and she knew how this was going to end: with her funeral. He walked over to the TV in the room and put a video in. Then he walked back over to the bed, and ran his hand down her neck and into her shirt.
"It's taken me over six years to find you, and in that time I came up with the perfect way to kill you," he said ripping her shirt apart. Jude started crying harder thinking, not about herself, but of her family, Tommy, Jake, all of the people she loved, but would never get the chance to see again.
"When I killed your mother, she just laid there; she thought she deserved it," he said as he hit play button on the TV. When Jude looked at the TV, she saw her mother tied to a bed just like she was now.
"She just laid there while I finally showed her how much I cared," he said as he pulled her shoes and pants off leaving her in her panties and bra.
"Your mother was such a tease in high school. So I decided to show her how much I liked that," He said as Jude watched the scene. It showed this man raping her mother, and when she turned away from the TV, not wanting to watch anymore, he grabbed her head and forced her to watch it. Right when he was about to stab her mother he stopped the tape.
"I won't spoil the ending for you. You can experience that for yourself." Jude tried again to to pull loose of her binds, thrashing on the bed to get away, but he quickly climbed on top of her to stop her.
"And you sister, well she was quite a beauty," he said pulling her bra straps down so that he could lick her collarbone.
"It was so much fun with her; she gave me quite a chase. Down the stairs, across the kitchen, then finally to the living room." While he said each word, he licked different parts of her body.
"Then finally, I ripped her clothes off and took her right there." He pulled Jude's bra off leaving her chest bare. He sucked on each nipple before he spoke again.
"And now I'll do the same to you," he said as he pulled away her final piece of clothing, her underwear. The minute he entered her, she bit on her lip so she wouldn't scream. She let her mind drift away to a happier time with Tommy, and for a few minutes pushing the pain away with thoughts of Tommy worked, but then the pain became too much as he began to thrust into her harder. He countied to kiss her all over, and thrust in and out of her as he talked about how much he loved her mother, and how this was the final step of getting even with her. In his mind, killing Victoria hadn't been enough. Jude just laid on the bed, too exhausted to fight anymore. She knew what was coming, and she knew there was no way to stop it. After a while he got tried of raping her because she wouldn't scream, so he got off of her and walked to the edge of the room and came back with a knife in his hand.
"Now it's time for my big finale," he said has he bit her neck while he let the tip of the knife graze her left nipple. But before he could make a cut, the door to their right burst open and she heard a gunshot, and Delmore fell off the bed and onto the floor. Then she saw Marc coming toward her, and he quickly undid her binds and wrapped her in a blanket.
"It's okay Jude. It's all over," he said wrapping her in a hug while she cried. A few seconds later she heard someone at the door, and then Tommy was beside her.
"Baby, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, now that you're here," she said as she fell unconsciousness in his arms.
When Jude came too three days later, Tommy was still by her side.
"Tommy," she said her voice scratchy from the lack of use.
"Jude, you're awake. Thank God," he said kissing her.
"How long?"
"You were missing for two weeks, but we found you three days ago."
"I remember you finding me. Where are we?"
"California. How much to you remember?"
"Believe it or not I was unconsciousness the whole time except for like six hours before you came. Then h-h-he…" Tommy crawled onto the bed and held her.
"We know baby. It was pretty obvious, and the doctor confimed it. But no physical damage was done."
"Is he?"
"He's dead Jude. He can't hurt us anymore."
"How did he find me?"
"Your friend, Janet, she was a plant."
"Oh--I knew there was a reason I never liked her. My mom's dead."
"I know they found the tape. Turns out he loved your mom in high school, but she didn't return the feelings, so he—well you know what he did." She nodded her head. It was then that she felt the cool chain against her neck; through everything, Delmore had never taken her necklace off of her. She went to pull the necklace off, but Tommy stopped her.
"The next time you give me that ring, I want it to be for good. Okay?"
"Okay," she said as she kissed him. She then looked around the room.
"Where's Jake?"
"He's in Canada with Speid and Karma."
"Canada? Can we go home?"
"Yeah we can, as soon as you're released," he said kissing the top of her head.
"The question is, which life to do we go back to?"
"What do you mean?"
"Do we go back to the life we've built over the last few months or do we go back to our lives in Canada. I mean you left Canada for a reason, and there is no way in hell I'm leaving you again."
"If you want to go home to Canada, then we'll go. The reason I left Canada was because I couldn't face living there without you."
"Then let's go home to Canada."
It had been two years since that day. Tommy and Jude had made good on there promise and had returned to Canada a week later. Over the next two years they built the life they had dreamed of. Jude attended counseling session weekly to deal with the fallout of everything that had happened over the years. And for the most part, Jude had put all of the drama of her past behind her. A year after they returned to Canada, Tommy and Jude got married and officially adopted Jake. Tommy reopened Jude's Jukebox, but this time it was in Canada, and he had added the Harrison-Andrews School of Music onto it. It was a center where children and adults could go to learn how to play music, and forget their problems; it also served has an emergency shelter for people who were in crisis. Jake had adjusted well to all the changes, and was a happy little boy who loved music. Jude had also gone back to recording, with Tommy as her producer, which lead her to this moment right now. She grabbed the mic from the stage, and looked over to where Jake and Tommy stood; she then glanced at her 4 month-old daughter, Sadie, who was snuggled in Tommy's arms. She blew a kiss to the three of them as she took a deep breath, and walked onto the stage.
Jude Harrison was finally home.
A/N2: I hope you liked it. Please review