I Am a Warrior
Disclaimer: I don't own Smash…otherwise Derek and Karen would've gotten together, and the show wouldn't have been cancelled because Derek and Karen would've been together and people would've continued watching. Do you like how that all circles back around to Derek and Karen being together?
I also don't own Warrior it belongs to Demi Lovato.
AN: Possible spoilers for anything, I'm trying to keep it only Season 1 but some things from Season 2 might slip past. Derek and Karen are friends. Derek only slept with Ivy two or three times, and he didn't sleep with Rebecca. Karen is also friends with Jessica, Sue, Bobby, and Dennis.
This was supposed to be a one-shot, but kept growing. I'm not sure how long it'll be now...maybe somewhere between 5-10? We'll see.
Please R/R!
Now I'm a warrior
I've got thicker skin
I'm a warrior
I'm stronger than I've ever been
And my armor, is made of steel, you can't get in
I'm a warrior
And you can never hurt me again
Warrior – Demi Lovato
Chapter 1: The Beginning in the End
Karen has this way of dealing with her break ups and heartbreaks and emotions when they build up too much. It's never let her down before, and she's just hoping and praying that it will work again tonight.
She had never been proposed to before. She had never wanted someone to propose to her before. She never thought that she would break up with the man proposing to her the night he proposed either.
However, she's found that life rarely goes the way you imagine it will.
When Karen had envisioned her proposal in the past, the scene that played out a couple of hours ago never entered her mind. She pictured romance and roses and a ring and champagne.
What she got was severely lacking and disappointing. Dev asked her to marry him because he realized that he couldn't live without her while he cheated on her. While making out with RJ in their apartment. Seriously, how could he think that would be a good way to propose to the woman he supposedly loves?
After telling Dev that she couldn't make any life changing decisions during tech week, Karen just walked the streets of Boston around their hotel for a couple of hours. As she walked past a random bar for the second time she slowed her steps and contemplated going inside, but stopped completely when she who was inside.
She saw Dev sitting at the bar, which completely surprised her as she thought he was back in New York. What surprised her even more was who he was sitting and flirting with – Ivy.
She stood there for an indeterminate amount of time when she saw them get up to leave. She hid in the shadows just watching. It was like watching a train wreck – you don't want to see it, but you can't make yourself look away.
Dev and Ivy paused outside the door to get their bearings in their intoxicated states. They turned in the direction of the hotel, and just before they began walking again, they shared a passionate kiss. They laughed as they started walking toward the hotel.
Karen just stood there, numb as silent tears streamed down her face, as the pieces of her heart were shattered into even smaller pieces. She felt her pockets for her phone, but finally realized that she left it in her purse in her hotel room. The room she shared with Sue. She couldn't see any of the ensemble members in her condition. There would be too many questions, too much sympathy…just too much of everything.
There was only one person that could help her right now. He wouldn't be full of sympathy. He wouldn't ask any questions. He would just be there until she was ready to talk. Unexpectedly, that man was Derek Wills.
If someone told Karen a year ago that Dev would cheat on her, then propose to her, she wouldn't answer, then she would see him in the process of cheating again – with Ivy, nonetheless – and then she would be going to find Derek Wills, of all people, she would have laughed in their face.
However, that's exactly what's happening.
Once her brain and body started working again, she headed to the hotel. She was actively praying she could make it to his room without running into anybody she knows. Once at the hotel, she glanced in the lobby and headed straight to the stairs – the elevator always takes too long when you're in a hurry.
Tears still steadily flowing down her face, Karen runs up the stairs taking them two at a time to the tenth and final floor. She bursts through the door and pauses to take a couple deep breaths, then heads to Derek's door. She knocks three times and leans against the doorframe as she waits.
Karen hears footsteps and angry muttering on the other side of the door. She braces herself for an angry rant. She hears the beginning of it as the door is opening.
"Bloody hell! It's 3am! What the hell…" Derek trails off as he sees exactly who is at his door.
"Karen?" Derek asks as he steps aside for her to enter his room.
Her tears are still pouring down her cheeks as she enters the room and turns toward him.
"I need a piano or a guitar and a lot of water." Karen states her eyes pleading for him just to do as she is asking and she'll explain when she's ready.
Derek nods. "Okay. Give me a minute." He turns, puts his socks and shoes on, puts his coat on, and grabs his bag with all his work.
"Let's go. I know just the place." Derek says placing his hand on the small of her back as he leads Karen out of his room and to the elevator.
Karen leans against him as they walk silently. They walk for a few blocks before Derek leads her into some sort of 24-hour restaurant or café. Derek guides them up to the counter to talk to whoever is working right now.
"Hi…" Derek looks at the cashier's nametag, "Jonah. Can she borrow your piano for a while?"
Jonah looks at Karen who still has tears steadily curving down her cheeks. "Umm…sure, it's right over there." He says pointing to the back of the building where they see a stage with the radiant piano.
"Thank you." Derek and Karen say at the same time, although hers was more of a whisper.
Derek leads her up to the piano and pulls the bench out for her to sit. He helps her take her coat off and watches as she gets a feel for the keys and gets comfortable on the bench.
Once she starts playing Whitney Houston's It's Not Right, But It's Okay he goes back to the counter to order some food for himself and water for Karen. He tells Jonah that she's going to need her glass refilled as much as possible.
Derek gets his phone out of his pocket and sends a quick text to Julia.
To Julia: 3:30am: Migraine, most likely won't be available all day. Need a new ending…maybe a song after Marilyn dies, so it's not as depressing for the audience? Thanks darling.
Karen just loses herself in the music. She easily flows from Whitney into Natalie Imbruglia's Torn into Carrie Underwood's Before He Cheats. Derek can hear the distress and pain in her voice as she sings.
Derek settles the table closest to her, and gets lost in her voice and his work. He just watches as she sings Mary J. Blige's I'm Going Down leading seamlessly into Toni Braxton's Unbreak My Heart and then Bruno Mars' Grenade.
He hears quite a few Taylor Swift and Adele songs, which if he's figured it out right are very fitting for the woman before him.
He listens as she plays and sings her out. Her anger and pain are being laid bare for all to hear and feel.
He hears a few mellow songs like Miley Cyrus' I Hope You Find It, Taylor Swift's The Moment I Knew, and Boyz II Men's End of the Road.
He thinks they've reached the angry portion fully now as he hears her go from Alanis Morissette's You Oughta Know, to Pink's So What?, to All American Rejects Gives You Hell.
He's hoping they're nearing the end when he hears CeeLo's Forget You, Florence and the Machine's Shake it Out, and Whitney Houston's I Look to You.
Derek realizes that he's just been watching her for the last hour and a half, but can't force himself to start working again. He noticed that she hasn't stopped crying the entire time he's been with her tonight, which looking at the time is going on four hours. The process that she's taking herself through seems to be what she needed to work through all of her emotions from whatever happened tonight.
The last few songs flow easily through her fingers and, even though she's been singing for the last three hours, her voice is still as powerful as when she started, and he knows they've gotten to the "I'm better off without you" phase now.
The last four songs are the most powerful and emotion filled songs that she sings that night, or morning would probably be a better descriptor. She finishes with Beyoncé's Listen which flows into If I Were a Boy then Christina Aguilera's Fighter and finally into Demi Lovato's Warrior. When she's done, she just sits there for a minute collecting herself and her thoughts.
Thankfully, Jonah kept refilling Karen's water because she would drink it as she moved from one song into the next. She had closed her eyes after Derek placed the glass and coaster on the top of the piano and didn't open them until now.
She looked up and her eyes locked with Derek's who was just watching her. She looked around and started blushing as she noticed a few of the ensemble members watching her as well.
Bobby, Jessica, Sue, and Dennis had been out wandering around looking for a 24-hour restaurant where they could get greasy food and lots of water so they could head off their hangovers later that morning. They stumbled into the very same place Derek and Karen entered less than an hour earlier.
They watched her, mesmerized until she finished. They didn't think clapping would be appropriate, but they definitely had a new respect for Karen now.
Karen got up from the piano and walked to Derek who was standing by the time she got to him. She leaned into him; side hugging him while using him as a crutch to keep standing. "Thank you. Can we go back to the hotel now?" She whispers now completely spent.
Derek nods, puts his coat back on, helps her put her coat on as well, and gathers his work back into his bag. She leans into him with her head on his shoulder and her eyes closed as he leads them back to the hotel with his hand firmly situated on the small of her back.
Jessica, Bobby, Sue, and Dennis just watch them leave in awe. They see the blind trust Karen has in Derek, but they don't know why she has placed her trust in him to keep her safe. Right now, they are too tired to contemplate or argue about it. So, they follow their lead, so to say, and head back to the hotel to sleep the day away, before they interrogate their friend.
They were given the next couple of days off so the creative team could fix everything that went wrong with Rebecca Duvall at the helm.