E.J. sat quietly at her desk, fervently typing up a report from a recent press conference. She glanced up, irked from being interrupted, to see a most jubilant Karma standing in her doorway. E.J. almost told her to go away before she saw the look Karma had become famous for; the one, which meant she was up to something. Once she noticed the one quirked eyebrow, along with the dimpled smirk, E.J. was out of her chair and onto the couch in an instant.

E.J. stared incredulously at the fellow brunette still standing in her doorway, seemingly in no hurry at all to move and share this obviously juicy news.

"Karma! Come on! What are you waiting for? Sit down, explain." She drew out this last syllable with a hint of desperation in her voice, while motioning toward the empty space of her couch. E.J. wanted this. E.J. needed this. The studio had been dry of any and all gossip there normally was. No scandal, no secrecy. What had her world come to? She posed this question in her mind, while she anxiously awaited her long lost lifeline to be reinstated. She knew it had to have to do with Jude. Her returning was the best thing that had happened to her in weeks. She knew there was a reason she – wait, no, she had never liked Jude. Well, now there is a reason to. If only Karma would spill the beans.

"Okay, so guess what?" Karma squealed excitedly.



E.J. rolled her eyes, "What?" she asked impatiently.

"Tommy and Jude totally want to be with each other," she thought about this a moment, "again."

E.J. groaned, clearly frustrated. "This is your big news?"

E.J. put her head in her hands, as Karma nodded sheepishly.

"Okay, Karma, listen. Of course, they want to be with each other. Of course they do. Those two are made for each other. But just because something should happen, does not mean that it's going to happen. Tommy and Jude will never let go of the past and other baggage for long enough to see that it really won't have that much of an impact, if they would just let go. But no. Don't even think about it. Tommy and Jude together will never happen. Wait, how did you come to this conclusion, anyway?"

Karma seemed to perk right up at the question she had been waiting for, "Directly from Jude and Spiedy."

"Spiedy? I mean, Spied? I mean, Vincent? What does he have to do with this?" She asked, skepticism ebbing into her voice.

"He heard it right from Tommy. Well, almost."

At this point, E.J. gave up her faith in Karma's gossiping abilities and picked up a file from her desk, flipping through it.

"How almost?" She asked, halfheartedly.

Karma huffed, annoyed at this sudden lack of interest on E.J.'s part. "Well, he could tell. It was obvious he wanted to be with her." She paused, to register the other woman's reaction. Nothing. She continued, "He was acting like a hormonal teenage girl! He couldn't get his feelings straight!"

This made a change of expression wave over E.J.'s face. If there was one thing Tom Quincy did not do, it was let his feelings show to anyone, especially another male. That is, unless Jude's sudden return had rattled him enough. An evil glint appeared in her eyes, as she looked up from her pile of papers, letting them fall to the floor.

"Same with Jude?" E.J. could already see where this was heading. And it was good. Very, very good.

"Well, from my eavesdropping standpoint, I'd say she is deep in denial."



E.J. smile grew into a wide grin, as she simply stated, "Let's get to work."


Jude awoke the next morning to an annoying tapping on her forehead.

Whoever you are, you obviously have a death wish," she mumbled angrily. Once she regained consciousness fully, she figured that whatever was causing her strife would be dissuaded by her throwing a pillow at it. So, that's exactly what she did.

"Hey!" A surprised yell came from her sister, whose voice was slightly muffled by the pillow now laying on top of her. "You could have just told me to stop," she grumbled quietly, as she replaced the pillow by her sister's head.

"Sadie, go away!" She griped, vigorously shoving the pillow over her head.

"Okay, okay, I'm going."

Jude, satisfied, settled back down to sleep to her heart's content. Although, if she had looked up at her sister's mischievous smile, she may have been more prepared for what was about to take place.



When Sadie poked her head back in a few minutes later, she narrowed her eyes in competition. If this was what it had to come down to, then so be it. Jude had it coming to her. Literally. That aroma; it filled the air. It made its way slowly to the sleeping form on the bed. Jude felt it, though her nose, she could taste it in her mouth, and she could almost hear its presence.

She weakly opened her eyes, "Coffee," she said as she wildly grasped the air around her in an attempt to grasp the cup.

"No, no, no, Judey," Sadie said in a baby voice, "you have to come get it yourself. From way over here."

Jude juggled her two options in her head quickly. She could either go back to sleep or – oh, who was she kidding? She could never go back to sleep with that sweet smell of freshly brewed coffee infiltrating her ever sense.

She bolted up from bed, grabbing the cup of coffee from Sadie as she passed by, and sped down the stairs until she was on the couch, remote in hand. Sadie chuckled quietly at her sister's predictability. Well, at least she was out of bed. "Jude, Georgia said she wanted to talk to you about something today. Think you could maybe come in with me?"



"What could possibly be so important that I need to come in so early?" Jude asked, becoming increasingly suspicious of her sister's motives.

"Oh, I don't know, Jude, just come on, we need to leave. Go get dressed!"


Georgia was half walking, half running across the lobby of G-Major, when she saw Jude in her peripheral vision. "Ah, Jude! Come on, in my office! Thank you!"

After this instruction, she turned on her heel and made a beeline in the opposite direction, back toward her office. She set the box she had just received down on her desk and shoved it out of the way, so she had a clear view of Jude on the other side. "So Jude, how are you enjoying being back, so far?"

Jude looked uncertain as she answered quickly, "Good, good. Georgia, why am I here?"

Georgia smiled at the very direct question. Only Jude would have cut to the chase that quickly. "Well, Ms. Harrison, I would like to formally invite you back into the G-Major family," she announced, as she slid a piece of paper and a ballpoint pen toward the younger woman.

Jude stared at the paper, stupefied for a moment. "A contract?"

"Yes, Jude. A contract. I figured you wouldn't want to give music up completely."

"A two-year contract, Georgia? I mean, really, I've had enough with the fame. I stopped now because my albums weren't selling. I don't want to sing anymore." Jude waited for Georgia to dismiss her, but it didn't happen. All she heard was an amused sigh.

"Jude, just read the contract, already."

Jude took the piece of paper in her hands, and after reading over it, looked up at Georgia, with pure joy in her eyes. "You mean to tell me, you're offering me a job producing?"

Georgia had a proud smile on her face as she nodded the affirmative. "Yeah, I figure you could start out co-producing, and then eventually, once I'm confident enough in your talents, you can go on your own."

Jude's eyes widened in disbelief. She grabbed the pen from the desk, scrawled her name on the signature line, and handed it to Georgia. "Thank you, so much, Georgia!"

"You're welcome, Jude. When did you want to start?"

"Tomorrow?" Jude asked, excited.

Georgia laughed lightly at her obvious enthusiasm. "Sure, come see me tomorrow at eight o'clock sharp, we still need to iron a few things out."

Jude ran out of Georgia office, literally, skipping. She almost didn't hear Georgia yell back at her, "That means A.M., Jude!"


Sadie sat on the living room couch, reading a magazine, when she heard Jude come in. "Oh, um, Jude? Could you come over here for a moment? I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Sure, Sadie, what is it?"

"Well," Sadie began, before placing her magazine down on the table, "I wanted to ask you a question."

"Okay, like I said," Jude said, "What is it?"

"Jude, will you be my maid-of-honor?"

Jude sat there for a moment, staring at Sadie, blinking quickly, and attempting to make sense of the question. Finally, coming back to reality, Jude asked, "Since when are you getting married?"

Sadie looked down for while she admitted, "Since two weeks ago."

"Two weeks? Sadie, two weeks? Why didn't you tell me? You never even told me you were dating!"

"Jude, calm down. Now, I'm sorry about not telling you, I really am. It's just, I knew you wouldn't approve of him, so I decided not to tell you until I knew for sure whether it was serious or not. And then, I was just plain scared to tell you. You know, you're really not an easy person to tell unpleasant things to, but I thought that maybe—"

"Sades, you're rambling. Now, of course I will be your maid-of-honor, but I have to ask, who are you marrying?"

Sadie took a deep breath before replying, "Milo."