A young woman scrambled on through the airport, immediately regretting having slept in once she realized that she now only had an hour, possibly less, to board her flight to New York.

She had been waiting for this opportunity for some time now. It had been ages since she had seen her, and she had been reading reviews online, not only about the show but about her talent as well. She couldn't believe what some of the people had said about her... about him...

She was her friend though, and she couldn't think of anything better to do than to support her friend and watch her perform on Broadway as the lead in her show.

She began to pick up the pace just a little as the crowds ahead of her began to dissipate, making it to the exit gate just as the boarding call began. Straightening herself up, she made her way over to the flight attendant, handing over her boarding pass as she waited to be given a final confirmation.

The flight attendant looked over the boarding pass and smiled, giving it back to the woman. "Welcome aboard, Miss Kenton. Enjoy your flight..."


Michael offered Julia an apologetic smile as he boiled the kettle. "I'm sorry about what happened with Frank..." he murmured.

"It's not your fault..." Julia mused, circling the countertop she was sitting at with one of her fingers. "I know that what I did was... wrong... leaving myself open like that but, he did have a point. I haven't been as attentive as I should, but I didn't do it for him, I did it for me... and Hit List..."

"Hey..." Michael cooed. "It's been a few days, right...?"

"I'm not talking to Frank anymore..." Julia sighed. "It doesn't matter what I do, something always goes wrong... So I'm just not going to do anything..."

"Julia, I made the choice to tell Monica about what happened between us, not because I felt like she had the right to know, but because I knew it was the right thing to do... for us..."

Julia's phone rang as she slid off the seat to pick it up. Walking over and retrieving her phone from the coffee table, she groaned, seeing that it was in fact Frank who was calling.

"It's Frank..." Julia muttered, turning to Michael.

"What are you gonna do?"

Julia smiled, muting the incoming call and walking back over to Michael as the kettle finished boiling. "I'm gonna have a cup of tea... maybe read a book..."

Michael smiled, fishing out the teabags from the cabinet. "I know that... almost everything I've done in the past year has affected you or your... family in some way... I don't want to pry though. Do what you think is right. Do what you want to do. Not what I want... Not what Frank wants... He needs to realize that you're your own person. Don't worry about what he thinks."

"You're right, Michael. Every time we talk, all he does is yell at me. Why should I subject myself to that? I've tried to do the right thing!"

"You did the right thing... It's not your fault..." Michael smiled, sliding a cup of tea over the countertop. Michael's smile did more than show Julia kindness. It gave Julia a gentle reassurance that everything would work out in the end, so long as she had someone like Michael to love and support her.


The last auditionee finished a rather shaky rendition of 'Reach For Me' as the lights of the Brooklyn Arts Space faded back to their normal setting, wrapping up the auditions on an unfortunately negative note. Derek sat back in his seat, sighing to himself as the auditionee waited to hear the verdict.

"Thank you," Derek paused, peering down at his copy of the headshot he received from her. "Ashley. We'll be in touch."

Ashley bowed to the team, before walking off of the stage with a smile on her face and making her way out the door.

A long moment of silence followed. It seemed as though nobody knew what to say or do at this point.

"So what do you think?" Moira asked.

"Dreadful... the lot of them..." Derek muttered.

"They weren't dreadful..." Karen insisted.

"Darling, the Diva is Amanda's rival. Whoever plays her has to at least be on par with you. These poor girls could barely hold a note to save themselves..." Derek said, turning to Karen.

"Well then how about we talk offers?" Moira suggested.

"Please..."

Moira nodded, handing out the sheets of paper to the team. "The list was slightly out of date, but it has been amended." She explained.

"Why is Megan Hilty's name crossed out?" Derek asked.

"Since uh, the offer... she's decided to work with Sean Hayes on a television show. As I said, the list is an old one."

Derek sighed. "Is there anyone else on the list that's not supposed to be here? I don't want to get my hopes up for people who are unavailable." Margot's eyes widened, quickly scanning the names on the list as she retrieved a red pen from her breast pocket. Retrieving Derek's list from him, she began crossing off multiple names in pen as Derek looked on in chagrin. "Bloody Hell! There's what? Three names left! And none of them are fit to play the Diva!"

"Derek..." Karen muttered.

Derek quickly turned to face Karen, before snapping his head back to the list. "The deadline's tomorrow and we've got nothing!"

Karen of course knew the reason why they didn't have a Diva. Nobody wanted to be a part of Hit List, what with Derek as the director. If the auditions were for a male character, then there probably wouldn't have been an issue. But with everything that had gone on with the whole Daisy scandal... it was a long shot.

"What are we gonna do?"

"I don't know..." Derek murmured. "Maybe this whole thing was a mistake..."

"Well you didn't know that Daisy would do what she did-"

"I meant... leaving Bombshell for Hit List..."

Derek's statement seemed to catch Karen off guard. It took a while for her to formulate an appropriate response in her mind, considering that she thought Derek would never say something like that, having been the first to leave Bombshell for Hit List. "You can't be serious..." she eventually said, unable to think of anything more to say.

"Look at what's happened, Karen. We've got no composer, no book writer, and now, no antagonist. Everything that Hit List was is gone now."

"Okay, so you wanna throw in the towel? Just like that?" Karen asked, finding it difficult to believe what Derek was saying.

"We don't have any other options. Jerry's fully prepared to pull the plug on Hit List... and besides, we gave it our best shot..."

"I can't believe you!"

"I know I've probably said it before, but there are other projects out there. You were brilliant as Marilyn, and you were brilliant as Amanda..."

It angered Karen that Derek was using past tense whilst talking about Hit List. "How can you be saying this?!"

"What? Do you think this is easy for me?! Letting go of Hit List?!" Derek shouted. "I had such high hopes for the show! For you in the show! I believed in Hit List more than I ever did in Bombshell, and I know that I've made mistakes, both as a person and a director. But you can't honestly believe that after everything this show has had to go through that there is still life left!"

Karen sighed.


Tom sat in his living room, his eyes keenly focused on the board which housed all of the work that he and Julia had done for Bombshell. The flashcards and the sheet music were now accompanied by additional notations Tom had made in relation to the recent changes to the choreography and general structure of the show. He knew that he may need to get together with Julia and amend the book to make note of all of the changes made, which he hadn't yet done.

In fact, now that he thought about it, Julia probably didn't know about any of the changes that Tom had made, and Eileen had commissioned, not that she needed to though. There were no changes made to the script or the lyrics, after all. Though he knew it was the right thing to do to keep her in the loop and notify her of any changes to the musical.

Tom retrieved his phone from his pocket before bringing the phone close to him. He attempted to use the phone's voice dial to call Julia, but was cut off by the phone actually ringing. He brought the phone away to look at who was calling. It wasn't a number he had saved into his contact list nor did he recognize it.

Nevertheless, Tom swiped his finger across the screen before bringing the phone back up to the side of his face.

"Hello?"

"Tom, this is Brad Lee calling on behalf of Patrick Dillon." A young-sounding voice broke through the static on the line.

Tom's eyes widened as he couldn't help but smile. "Uh, hi... Brad!"

"I'm sorry I haven't been able to get into contact with you the past few days. There have been a lot of things that Patrick has asked me to take care of. He's been rather occupied lately himself." Brad's voice came through in an overly apologetic tone.

"Oh it's no problem." Tom smiled. "I understand completely how busy he must be."

"Well I'm calling just to say that he will be back in New York in a couple days and I'm hoping that he could maybe get together with you and a... Julia Houston I believe her name is... and talk about his upcoming project." Brad said.

"Yeah, that would... That would be great... Do you happen to have any information in regards to what exactly Patrick has the rights to?" Tom asked.

"No I don't, unfortunately." Brad apologised. "Will you and Julia be available Wednesday next week?"

"As... far as I know..."

"Okay, I'll make a reservation for the three of you at The NoMad for eleven o'clock."

"Sounds wonderful." Tom chimed.

"Alright then. If anything changes, I'll give you a call."

"Thank you, goodbye."

"Bye."

Tom brought his phone away from his face, the smile hanging across it unmistakable. He'd be such a terrible liar if he said that his kiss with Patrick at the Tonys wasn't at the forefront of his mind ever since it happened. And now Tom had another reason to call Julia, which was also a good thing.

Tom turned to look at his reflection in the piano.

"'Glass closet' my ass. That door is wide open..."


Traffic beamed past Karen and Derek, the two sitting just outside Table 46, which at the moment was closed for renovation as the two had found out upon arriving. Karen and Derek had just come from a meeting with Jerry, who had asked about the progress made into finding a replacement for Daisy.

Derek took it upon himself to act as the spokesperson and informed Jerry that they'd had no such luck in finding a new Diva, Jerry accordingly stating that he would be pulling out of Hit List and have it shut down. This of course came after the ensemble had also been notified, most if not all of the female members blaming Derek for what happened.

Since then, Karen had not said a single word. She tried as hard as she could to make herself believe that she was dreaming, as it was the only sort of solace she had. She couldn't believe it was all real. But it was.

"Karen..." Derek mumbled. "I'm really sorry."

"If you were sorry, you wouldn't have slept with Daisy." she retorted, breaking the silence.

"I think you and I both know that it wouldn't have mattered either way." Derek said, turning to her. "Jimmy's gone-"

"You don't think I know that? Aside from Hit List, he's all I've been thinking about, and now I've let him down."

"It was just as much our work as it was his, Karen. Jimmy might've helped create Hit List, but you brought it to life. All Jimmy did was get high on coke or act like a bloody twelve year old... I preferred you with Dev honestly. At least he was British..."

"This isn't the time for joking around, Derek..." Karen mumbled.

"Look, you didn't let Hit List down. Jimmy did..." Derek paused, willing himself to do something that he wasn't prepared to do. "I did... but not because I called it quits. That doesn't have anything to do with it. We tried, you and I, to make Hit List what we wanted it to be." Karen's downed expression hadn't changed, so Derek decided to add: "I promise I'll make it up to you..."

"Karen!"

The voice of a young woman calling out her name drew Karen's focus away from Derek and across the street. Her eyes widened as she watched the woman make her way towards her from a crosswalk. Karen smiled, her face lighting up. "Hailey!" she shouted, getting up and rushing over to the red-headed woman who looked to be the same age as her. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Well I had to come see you..." Hailey explained.

"You came all the way from Iowa?"

"Of course I did!"

"When did you get in?"

"Last night." Hailey smiled. "I've wanted to come and see you perform for ages, but when I saw that performance you gave at the Tonys which someone posted on YouLenz, I just knew that now would be the perfect time. Plus, I just miss talking to you, seeing you. It's not the same if we talk on the phone or text." Hailey paused, noticing Karen's now somber expression. "Something wrong?" she asked.

"Hit List is dead... We just came from a meeting about it..." Karen muttered.

"I'm sorry..." Hailey apologized. "Well... you were in Bombshell too, right? There's bound to be other projects out there for you!"

"That's exactly what I said..." Derek smiled, walking over to the girls. "Hi, Derek Wills." he introduced himself, offering the girl a handshake.

"Hailey Kenton..." she replied, accepting Derek's handshake.

Karen was surprised to see such... restraint from Derek. "So how do you know Karen?"

"Wait, so you haven't mentioned me?" Hailey asked Karen, feigning offense. Hailey laughed. "I'm kidding! We went to Dubuque Senior High School together. Junior year, we did The Sound of Music. She played Maria, and I played... Elsa."

"I see... so you're a stage performer as well I presume...?"

"Well not really..." Hailey giggled. "I work as a pharmaceutical sales representative and... occasionally at the Country Club close to where I live... But this one here," Hailey paused, poking Karen in the arm several times over. "Is awesome! She's been taking dance, acting and singing classes ever since she was in elementary school!"

"You don't need to sell me to him..." Karen blushed. "I've been working with him since the year began... He knows what I can do."

"I know, it's just..." Hailey trailed off.

As Derek looked away from the two girls and towards the direction of the Brill Building, a thought popped into his head. He smiled.

"I think I know just who can help us..." he muttered.