If you asked Jude on whether or not 6am was an appropriate time to, not only wake her up, but also shoving a camera in her face, she'd come up with something colorful say paired with a hand gesture or two to whoever dare ask.

If you asked the MTV camera crew, however, they'd think it absolutely necessary.

Jude and Tommy came to realize this simultaneously while waking to someone pounding on the door in the too-early hours of the morning. During the night, they managed to gravitate to separate sides of the bed, so their groaned argument traveled from one corner to the other. Jude grumbled in response to Tommy's "Get the door." And threw the blanket over her head. "You get it." She muttered

"This whole thing was your idea." Tommy argued "You get up and let them in."

"It may have been my idea, but you said yes, so it's your fault they're here."

Tommy scowled over his shoulder, "Have you ever said no to yourself? It's impossible."

"Sure I do." Jude's yawn could be heard from under the blanket, "Myself is begging to get out of bed, but I'm telling me no. "

Tommy groaned. Too tired to further the argument, he caved and pushed up from the mattress, stopping to throw a pillow at Jude on his way out. His socks slipped against the wood floors as he navigated through their dark apartment, eventually stumbling to the door. "What's up, guys?" He muttered to the men waiting on the other side, cameras and microphones in hand, "Come on in." Turning away from the light glaring from the camera, Tommy scrubbed his eyes with his palms and led them back to the bedroom.

"Nice place you got here." A sound man complimented, taking in the spacious bedroom

The other three men nodded, seeming to agree. "Where's the lovely lady?"

Tommy opened the blinds, revealing a cloudless early morning sky and switched on the lamp by Jude's unmoving body. "She's somewhere in…all that." He gestured to the mess of pillows and blankets covering the normally tidy mattress, "Juuuuude." He called, edging toward the bathroom, "Your cameras are here."

There was a long pause before the blanket moved, a hand emerging out grab a pillow, followed by an unintelligible grumble. A sound man busied himself with fishing a mic out from his bag and handed one to Tommy, "I'm George," He told Tommy, "I'll be tailing you all day, and this," he motion to the sound man on his left "Is Noah - he's tailing Jude."

"Hey." Tommy smiled politely and shook hands with the men. The camera guys lowered their equipment to shake hands with him also; introducing themselves as Owen and Isaac.

Hooking the mic pack to the waist of his boxers, Tommy wired the upper half through his shirt and attached it to the collar. Noah handed over Jude's mic and Tommy started work on digging her out of bed. "C'mon, babe." He climbed over her and pulled the cover from her face, "Rise and shine."

Feeling Tommy's lips on her neck, Jude smiled against her pillow, nearly forgetting the room full of cameras, "Hi."

Tommy returned the gesture and gently kissed her lips, "Hi. We have to leave in an hour."

Jude turned to her back with a yawn, looking up at Tommy with a sleepily begging expression, "Will you make me pancakes?"

Tommy clipped Jude's mic to the shoulder of her tank top and switched on the pack, a quiet groan rumbling in his throat, "I don't feel like cooking."

Jude stuck out her lower lip in a pout that made Tommy chuckle, "Please?"

Tommy shook his head with a firm "No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"Ugly no."

Jude clicked her tongue, "Please, Tommy?"

"No."

"Regular pancakes with syrup."

"Fine."

Jude grinned and pulled the blankets off her body while Tommy got off the bed and left the room. Jude soon became acquainted with her half of the film crew; their kind demeanor made it really hard to hate them for waking her up so early, but Jude managed a slight scowl anyway. By request, she showed the crew around her and Tommy's room, starting with the walk-in closet. "It's a bit of a mess right now," She warned, "We're still in the process of consolidating, so clothes are just…everywhere. But this is all the clothes we own, so that makes me feel a better – we're not one of those couples who have whole rooms set aside just for clothes." She gestured toward her and Tommy's guitars taking up the far wall of the closet, "There's not even enough to fill the closet."

"Shoes?" Owen asked

Jude crouched down and unzipped one of the four large suitcases on the floor, revealing a messy cluster of shoes of every kind and color, "I think there's thirty pairs in here," As she spoke, she dug out a pair of tan UGG boots, "Tommy's shoes are in that suitcase – he doesn't have nearly as much as I do."

llllll

After taking fifteen minutes for a shower, and twenty for her hair, Jude finally made an appearance in the kitchen, finding Tommy working over the stove, discussing his pancake recipe with Isaac. She yawned and stashed one hand in the pocket of her hoodie while the other rubbed her eye, "Get your censors ready, my brain-to-mouth filter is noooot working this morning." She smiled at Tommy's chuckle sounding behind her. "It's your fault," She accused, "You're the one who taught me how to curse."

"It's not my fault you're so susceptible."

Jude ducked into the fridge, gathering creamer for her coffee "Big word," She commented "Did you hurt yourself?"

"Ha-ha." Tommy muttered

Jude retrieved two mugs from the cupboard over the sink; filling one to the rim, and the other half way, "You used it in the wrong context." She told him

"I did not." Tommy immediately disagreed, stacking fresh pancakes onto a plate

Jude brought the steaming mugs to the table and turned for the door, "Yes you did." Cracking the door, she peered out, gaging the size of the media crowd. She gestured for the camera man and had him get a shot of the paparazzi lingering around the stoop, "Crazy, huh?" She snagged up the paper with a surprised smile, "Hey we actually got the paper!"

"It's a miracle." Tommy said, "One piece?"

"Yup." Jude settled at the table and freed the morning paper from its plastic confines, doing her best to ignore the camera only feet from her face, "It's strange if we ever get the paper," She explained in response to the questioning expression of her sound guy, "With the paparazzi circus out front twenty four-seven, it never seems to make it to the door."

"Jude, I did use that word right – look it up."

Jude smirked, "Fine, I will." She warned, taking her phone from her back pocket, "But I'm right about this one – it was on my SATs."

"Five bucks says you're wrong." Tommy wagered and set a plate in front of Jude

"Deal." Jude looked down at her plate, then up at Tommy with a knitted brow and a frown, "Did ask for pancakes, because I really meant-"

Before Jude opened her mouth, Tommy had already removed her plate and replaced it with one stacked with waffles, "Already had them ready."

Jude grinned and offered a sincere, "Thank you."

Tommy sat at the opposing end of their small round table, feeling awkward with the extra people lingering around. Jude laid her phone flat on the table as she scrolled through the page on her touch-screen, "The internet on this thing is so cool," She said quietly, "You were right about this phone – it's awesome."

"Told you so. But we need to distinguish the two, I keep picking up yours."

"I would, but I can't find a cover I like – why don't you get one?"

"Phone covers are a girl thing."

Jude rolled her eyes, "Whatever." She picked up her phone and began reading the small text, off a dictionary website, "Susceptible: capable of being affected emotionally; impressionable….I guess that's right, than. But barely."

Tommy smiled, "Barely enough for five bucks."

"Dammit."

lllllllll

Having showered the night before in anticipation of running late, Tommy went straight from breakfast to the bedroom to get changed. The camera right on her heels, Jude busied herself with clearing the table and tidying up around the apartment. Despite Tommy's playful jabs about her laziness, since moving in with him, Jude's made cleaning up part of her morning routine, temporarily silencing his quips.

Camera right on her heels, Jude dumped a load of dirty clothes into the washing machine, finding the overhead light had burned out while doing so, "Tommy," She called from the laundry room, "The light bulb's out again."

"I'll change it in a minute!" Tommy called back from the bathroom where he was delicately arranging his hair in his signature coif.

Jude sighed with irritation, "Can you do it now? I'm trying to get the laundry going."

"Now? We're about to leave."

Jude made her way down the hall and into the bedroom, briefly pausing to watch the crew arrange themselves to keep out of each other's camera shots, and stopping in the bathroom doorway, "I'm stopping back here anyway - I'll put the stuff in the dryer then."

"When are you going to have time to come back here?"

"After I meet with Darius, there's a two hour gap before the photo-shoot."

Tommy shot a questioning glance over his shoulder, "Why don't you just meet with Darius when you go in for our studio time?"

Another irritated sigh heaved from Jude's lips, quickly becoming annoyed with the conversation in her cranky state, "I don't know, Tommy. That's just how Darius scheduled it."

"Doesn't make any sense." Tommy muttered

Jude rolled her eyes and ventured back toward the dark laundry room. Gathering a light bulb from the hallway closet, she climbed up on a chair from the dining room to reach the light fixture. "Is that switch off?" She asked Owen, nudging her chin toward the switch mounted to the wall just outside the door.

The light steaming from Owen's camera shifted from Jude to the wall, and back to Jude again, "Yeah." He said

"What the hell is she doing?" Tommy hissed to himself, hearing the ruckus of Jude moving the chair around and felt his own irritation rising. The sound of a light bulb shattering against the floor had him going to check on her, "What'd you do?"

Jude flipped on the switch and began picking up scraps from the old bulb, managing to cut her thumb in the process, "Dropped the stupid light bulb."

Tommy sighed and handed her a small towel from the clean laundry pile, "I told you I was going to do it."

Jude dabbed the cloth to the slight cut in her skin, "Yeah, well, I wanted it done right away – Heaven forbid you could take one minute away from your coif to change a damn light bulb."

"Heaven forbid you could wait ten seconds."

"Ten seconds." Jude scoffed

Tommy rubbed at the ache growing in his temple, "I'll clean this up, go find a band aid or something."

The crew men watched in baffled amusement as the couple bickered back and forth; even though they seemed to be fighting, it came off almost jokingly, like they were teasing one another rather than actually arguing. Eventually their bickering shifted from the light bulb to there being no toothpaste, and that started a lengthy quarrel over whose responsibility it was to do the shopping.

Around fifteen minutes later, running late and irritated, Tommy found himself waiting by the door for Jude. "Jude, C'mon!" He called down the hall. Another three minutes ticked by before he decided he'd have to get her himself.

Again, with Jude and Tommy in the same room, the crew strategically arranged themselves around their conversation. Jude emerged from the closet in a different outfit, causing Tommy to shake his head, "The one time I tell you the actual time we need to be somewhere, and you make us late."

"Well maybe," Jude countered "If you would stop giving me the wrong time I wouldn't assume we're on time when we aren't."

"Well maybe if you could stick to a schedule…" Tommy hedged with an aggravated tilt of his head

It fell quiet as Jude quickly ducked into the bathroom to reapply her mascara. Frowning at Tommy in the mirror, she murmured a quiet, "We're bickering more than usual this morning." She turned and pecked him on the lips, "Truce?"

Tommy offered a somewhat tight smile, "Truce." He wound his arm around her waist and led her out of the bedroom. "Okay, so, you are going to be at the photo shoot an hour before me, right?" He asked

Jude nodded, "Yup. And then we have a solid six hour block in the studio. " She shrugged on her jacket and zipped it up to the neck, "Wow…do you realize it's been almost a year since we've been in studio together?"

"No," Tommy responded doubtfully, "It hasn't been that long, has it?"

"Yeah," Jude counted off the months on her fingers as she calculated, "One month while you were away, than I was with you for two months, I came back - to finish off the album," She added quickly, noting the camera on her left, "For about a month, then I toured for three – that's almost eight months."

"That's insane." Tommy muttered with an incredulous shake of his head

"I know." Jude pursed her lips quietly in thought, "Think it'll be peaceful?"

"Probably not."

Jude shrugged, "Oh well, it was nice while it lasted."

"We had a good run." Tommy agreed

Jude grinned and slipped on her sunglasses, "Ready?"

Tommy took a slow breath before flashing a fake grin of his own and opening the door to paparazzi hell. The smiles remained plastered on their faces as Tommy protectively guided Jude to her car and kissed her goodbye. With Jude and her half of the film crew safely locked in, Tommy worked his way more forcefully through the flashing cameras to get to his own car.

llllll

"I don't know how he does it," Jude murmured quietly, keeping an eye on Tommy in her review mirror and waiting until he was also safe in his car before heading down the street. "He's so strong through all this."

Owen adjusted the camera on his shoulder and made a finger motion that indicated Jude should elaborate

"You've seen the magazines," She continued "Those rumors are ruining his whole reputation and all he can focus on is making sure I'm safe…he's stronger than I am." She sighed

"How are you handling it?"

"The best I can," Jude gave a tight smile, laced with underline sadness, "But I couldn't handle it at all without him."

lllll

"Vultures." Tommy spat, glaring at a photographer through the windshield of his Porsche; the one Jude pointed out to be the newspaper thief "I always thought buying your own island was ridiculous, but now I'm thinking Johnny Depp had the right idea."

Isaac chuckled, "I don't know how you do it – I've followed celebrities who freak over anything, but you and Jude seem pretty stable."

"That's mostly Jude's doing."

"What makes you say that?" George asked

"Jude's just…amazing." Tommy shrugged with a smile hinting at his lips, "She's so strong and going through a lot but somehow manages to keep it all together…She keeps me together – I couldn't do this without her."