A/N: I wrote half a page off the top of my head and the rest just kind of progressed from there. I recommend listening to an Usher ballad while reading it. Try 'Moving Mountains'.
There were…issues.
"I don't like it."
"What's wrong with it?"
"Too flashy."
"The last one wasn't flashy enough; now it's too flashy?"
The words 'make up your mind already' hung in the air, unspoken but an all-too real presence.
Jude fought the urge to sigh as she continued to stare at the album jacket in her hand.
"You think I'm being obsessive."
"I think you're nuts," her assistant for the past eight months stated bluntly.
"In a good way," she hastily added when Jude sent a distinctly unhappy expression her way.
"How is that even possible?" Jude asked, setting the album cover down with a force borne of frustration, wry exasperation in her tone. "How can somebody be crazy in a good way?"
"They could be in love," Skye muttered under her breath.
"What?" Jude frowned at her. "What did you say?"
"Noth-ing," Skye sing-songed, rolling her eyes as she turned away from Jude in a show of picking up the next selection for an album cover.
"How about this one?" She asked, showing it to Jude. It was a good picture – the concept of her newest album was 'Desire: Wanting Things That Are Bad For You' and so far they'd run the gauntlet of bad-cliches.
There'd been boys, male models imported from around the world but Jude hadn't clicked with any of them.
Oh they'd definitely been trying but even a complete stranger could tell Jude's mind was elsewhere throughout the entire photo session.
They'd salvaged a couple of the photos through sheer artistry on behalf of the photography, but most of the rest were lost causes.
So they'd moved on to that old stand-by: chocolate.
They'd gussied Jude up in a tight black and right corset, rogued up her lips in the brightest shade of red imaginable, and surrounded her with enough chocolate confectionary to make Willy Wonka weep with joy.
It'd turned out slightly better than the boys in the sense that at least Jude didn't have romantic memories associated with chocolate that made her expression go goofy at the oddest times.
Those covers, in Skye's opinion, were completely ridiculous.
"Geez," Jude muttered, staring at one said cover, blinking twice before squinting. "What in the hell am I wearing?"
"Chocolate," Skye offered lamely.
"Is that all? Was I naked? I don't remember being naked…"
"You were wearing pasties and a thong," Skye supplied helpfully and Jude jerked back as if she'd been slapped.
"Seriously?" Skye bit her lip as she nodded and Jude's jaw actually dropped a little bit.
"How the hell did I not notice that?"
"I don't know," Skye replied. "But it was right after the models and you seemed distracted…"
She trailed off as Jude nodded, rolling her eyes.
"I get it, I get it – moment of weakness."
Moment of wistfulness, Skye thought silently, setting the cover aside and reaching for the next one.
She'd been Jude's personal assistant for six months now – the first two had been interesting, but as time wore on, Jude seemed to be fading right in front of her eyes.
She missed the fun girl – as briefly as she had known her – who had played guitar in the back hall and sang her newest songs not in the recording studios but in the storage closets while nestled among the old equipment nobody used anymore.
"Are there any good photos?" Jude asked in frustration, staring at the display in front of her with frustration and exasperation. "Please tell me I was at least paying attention in one."
"Actually…" Skye trailed off for a moment before reaching for the one photo that had immediately caught her eye.
Angelo – the photographer – had taken it once the photoshoot was over with.
Jude had taken a shower and had been standing by the windows, watching the sun set. She had her iPod in her ears, her bag at her feet, wearing ratty converse sneakers, a scarf and sweater that had seen better days, and jeans that were ripped almost from mid-thigh to upper calf.
She'd looked wistful, lost, and desperate leaning against the window staring west.
There were three pictures – two full body shots and one close-up. In the first full body shot she was standing – not leaning – about two feet from the window, bag slung over her shoulders as she stared at the glass with a faint frown. She looked on the verge of something but the viewer would have a hard time figuring out what.
Mysterious, Angelo had called it when he'd silently handed her the photos.
Lost, he'd called the second full-body shot. Jude had set the bag down and was leaning against the wall, chin down and head tilted slightly so she was looking out the window almost halfway, as if she wasn't sure it was really what she wanted to be doing.
Desperate, had been Angelo's name for the last photo, the one Skye showed Jude now.
She was still leaning against the glass, but she had placed her hand against the glass just below her chin. And her eyes…
Her eyes were full of so much longing that it almost hurt to look at it. There was a single line traveling down her face, a single teardrop that had leaked unknowingly from the corner of the rockstar's eye – alone and forgotten.
Skye loved the photo to death which was why she'd purposely hid it from upper management and taken it directly to the source itself.
"That's…me?" Jude stared at the photo, disturbed by the sight, her question uncertain as she raised her gaze to look directly at Skye. "How?"
"Angelo caught you after the shoot while you were waiting for your ride," Skye explained carefully. "None of the other shots were working and Angelo just wanted to take a good picture…"
She trailed off, uncertain as to whether or not Jude was even hearing her.
"Whoa," Jude was murmuring under her breath, her gaze now traveling beyond Skye to the wall behind her.
"Whoa."
"Is that a good 'whoa' or a bad 'whoa'?" Skye asked uncertainly.
"Huh?" Jude refocused on reality, blinking at Skye for a long moment before shaking her head. "I'm sorry, did you say something?"
"Are you okay?" Skye peered carefully at her. "I mean, you've been spacey for a couple of months now but you seem really out of it today – I mean, really out of it."
"You know what?" Jude smiled and it struck Skye as really strange and it took her a few seconds to figure out why – it was the first genuine smile Skye had seen on Jude's face in months.
"I think I'll be fine. Excuse me for a second."
"O-kay." Skye shook her head, watching with a frown as Jude brushed past her, heading for the exit.
"Where's Jude going?" Brody, one of the graphics guys, asked, eating an apple as he came to stand behind her.
"No idea," Skye replied with a frown.
"Did she at least pick a photo, cause management is really riding my ass on this one. We're supposed to have the jacket done in, like, an hour."
"Huh? Oh, that. Here," Skye offered the three photos to Brody, throwing in a couple of the male models photos for filler. "Use these."
"Cool," Brody uttered, glancing at the photos with interest before nodding his head and turning to walk away. "I can work with these."
"Whatever." Skye frowned as she continued to stare at the door Jude had disappeared through.
What the hell was going on with Jude?
"It's me. I need you." Five words and Tommy's world tilted on it's axis.
"Where are you?" He asked, half-expecting her to say something 'I'm in the hospital' or 'I'm at the airport.'
"London," came the reply and he felt a wave of disappointment. "But I can be in Toronto in a matter of hours if I need to be."
Tommy frowned at the phone in confusion, his heart giving an odd thump in his chest.
"What? Why?" Tommy asked, absently reaching up to rub at his chest. "Why would you do that?"
"I want you," Jude replied. "Now."
"Jude…" Tommy trailed off, uncomfortable. On the other end of the line, Jude let out a light chuckle that had his heart giving another uncomfortable thump.
"Not like that, silly," she teased and Tommy let his hand drop from his chest, releasing his heart to do whatever it wanted, a small smile forming on his lips.
"Hey, aren't there rules about calling somebody to mock them?"
"No," Jude replied and Tommy could hear the laughter in her voice.
"Why did you call?" Tommy asked, genuinely curious. He'd missed her so much and just hearing her voice – God, it was amazing.
He was a selfish bastard and he knew it – she knew it. He'd put himself first and he'd put his wants and needs first without any real consideration of hers and it'd took her leaving – it took eight months of silence – for him to realize just how unselfish he was willing to be if it meant having Jude.
"I want you here, by my side," Jude replied. "Or I can be by your side – whichever works better. I can fly home tonight and – "
"Whoa, whoa – wait a second. What did you say?"
"I can fly home tonight," Jude repeated patiently but Tommy shook his head, irregardless of the fact that she couldn't see the gesture.
"No, before that. What did you say first?"
"What?" Jude asked, sounding mildly amused. "That I want you by my side?"
Tommy closed his eyes, leaning against the wall behind him for support, his heart suddenly beating so heavy and light at the same time he forgot the sun existed, he forgot the earth, the moon, the stars – he forgot everything and saw nothing except for those six words.
"Say it again," he murmured into the phone, lips practically numb. "Please, just say it again."
"I love you, Tommy," was what she said instead. "Come home."
The perfect words. Home – not here or there, but wherever they were, together.
"Give me eight hours. I'll be there."
"I'll be waiting."
"God, I love you," Tommy let the exclamation burst from his chest, let the words ring out into the silence surrounding him and not caring who heard them.
"I love you more," Jude murmured into the phone. "Come home to me."
"Always," Tommy replied, dizzy with the reality of it all.
"Always."
A/N: This took about forty minutes to write so could you possibly take five seconds to leave a review? Pretty please?