He should have been asleep, he wanted to be asleep, but it wasn't going to happen. His mind was full, full of music, full of Jude, full of his mom. Maybe he needed to get a hotel, find a different place to stay. As he laid in that bed, the one he had once shared with her, he knew that it was going to be impossible to just focus on the music.

He pushed the blankets away from him and sat up, looking around at all of the things that loft was home to. He had seen SME almost daily since he had been back, they were often at the rehearsal space when he would be getting back from the studio. Their equipment still sat where he had always pictured it, and Wally's newest pet, a scorpion he had named Spike, was glowing under the black light above his cage.

He quickly flipped on the lights and looked for his phone. He searched through his contacts, looking for the name, the one person he knew that would be awake this early.

"Hey." She was always bubbly. "I was just thinking about you."

Tommy couldn't help but laugh. It killed him that she was such a morning person. "Aren't you always thinking about me?"

"If I admitted that your ego would get to big to fit in the studio." She laughed. "What's going on, you're awake way to early."

"Nothing." Tommy sighed. "I thought we might go over some of the songs for the album, see what you want to record."

"You want to work at six in the morning?" she questioned. "You've lost your mind Tom. Or are you sick? Do you need chicken noodle soup?"

"Should I take that as a no then?"

"Of course not." The girl protested quickly. "I'll be there soon, I was just getting ready to go for a run, you're saving me the trouble."

Tommy laughed as he hung up the phone. He would give her fifteen minutes, if she wasn't there by then, he would allow his mind to wonder away from the song list.

She had made it well within the fifteen minute time limit he had given himself. He smiled at her as she quickly made herself at home on the old couch. The first time she had been there, he wondered if it should bother him that she could make herself so comfortable there, like it was her home. But he knew that if she knew what the place was, who it belonged to, and what had happened there, she would feel different, she would act differently there.

"So what's the real reason you aren't dead asleep right now?" she asked, as he went to get the list of songs.

"I guess I just have a lot on my mind." Tommy told her. She had always been easy to talk to outside of the studio.

"Tom." Her tone told him that she wouldn't give up until he told her what she wanted to hear.

"May." He laughed handing her a list of songs from previous Instant Star winners. "I called you talk about this." He tapped the top of the paper, wanting to distract her and himself.

"It's about her, isn't it." It wasn't a question, he knew that much. She was stating a fact, like she already knew all the details. "I saw the pictures from the airport, they are all over the internet."

"I picked up an old friend. That's all." Tommy shrugged his shoulders. If he kept saying it, it would be true, right?

"Right." She rolled her eyes, tossing her long hair behind her back as she looked down at the list. "Of course Karma picked the top selling single."

"And Milo picked the second one." Tommy laughed. "Mason picked Milo's last single, thought it would sound good with a country twist."

"That leaves a bunch of crap for me." May rolled her eyes.

"Hey, I helped write some of those." Tommy reminded her. He studied her face, watching as her eyes searched over the list, looking through the ones on the second page. He knew she already had a song in mind, but he was going to have to force it out of her. "Time to Fly, it's a great song." He pointed to Karma's last single.

"It's about her leaving the label, not the direction I want to go in." she sighed.

"What song do you want to do?" Tommy asked, watching as she slowly pushed her lips out into a pout trying to make herself look cute and innocent.

"White Lines." She quickly smiled batting her eyes at him.

Tommy felt like he had just been punch, all the air had been knocked out of him. White Lines, that was a song he had longed to forget, a time in his life he wished he would pack it up in a box and store it somewhere else, somewhere he could forget about it until he was old and gray.

"The words, the sound, everything about that song screams to me." May explained.

"No." he said softly shaking his head. "She hasn't released the rights for it."

"But she's here, we can talk to her, you can talk to her." May was pouting again. "For me?"

"I can't." he stood up and turned his back on her. He couldn't do that. He could already hear her yelling at him for even asking. That song, that song had started something he had thought he put a stop to, something he thought he had under control. He would never be able to produce that song for another person.

"Okay, then I have another idea." He could hear the excitement in her voice still, as though she had expected that reaction, and come up with something different, better.

"What?" he asked, turning around slowly.

"A duet, you and me." She smiled. "We sound amazing together, and you know it."

He nodded his head. He couldn't lie that they sounded good together, their voice complimented each other nicely. "What song?"

"Here We Go Again." She smiled, clapping her hands together.

"May." Tommy groaned, watching as she jumped up from the couch, and started to sing the chorus from the song. Was this his punishment for going to meet Jude at the airport, to be reminded of the pain he had caused her, the tears he had made her cry. He could still remember her face when he had told her they were done, the cell bars separating them.

"Think about it." May laughed stopping in the middle of the room. She smiled softly at him as she walked slowly towards him.

Tommy knew what she was doing, what she wanted. But all it took were the voices in the hallway, and the sound of someone trying to open the locked door to make them both look away from each other.

"Are you expecting someone?" She asked, pointing to the door.

"No, maybe it's some reporter." he shook his head, watching as she went to see who was there.

"I'll take care of it." She laughed, turning to the door.

Tommy could hear May talking, but he couldn't make out what she was saying. He knew that if it was a report, she would have slammed the door shut by now. The curiosity was starting to bother him. "Who's at the door?" he asked walking towards the half open door. As he reached for the door, to open it farther, he stopped, looking back at Jude.

"Jude?" he asked, he could tell that she was just as confused as he was.

"Tommy." She whispered back.