A/N: Thanks for all the reviews! The reaction to this little story is fantastic and I'm glad you all like it. The song here is "In Another's Eyes" by Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood - I kinda grew up with country music, thanks to my dad. And Trisha Yearwood is amazing. I kid you not.
Sarah x
"Can we get another mic, please, George?" Jonny called over to the bartender. The man nodded with a smirk before heading through the back. "While he gets that set up, let's have a wee chat about what these two are about to sing," he grinned. "Country song. Actually, if I remember right, the two singing it ended up married!"
Jac looked around to find Michael with his iPhone, filming the priceless moment of their bosses being roped into singing a country song in the middle of a pub in front of all their colleagues.
"Oh no!" Serena shouted, cottoning on to what she was about to do. "No, Jonny."
"Oh, yes, Ms. Campbell!" Jonny smiled. "Anyway. It's a song from the nineties, which is probably how these two know it. Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood released it, and it raised a lot of eyebrows," he explained to the crowd. "They were probably right too, considering they ended up married."
"Nurse Maconie," Henrik protested when he realised. Jonny ignored him and shoved a microphone into his hand. George the bartender came over and handed Serena a microphone with a wordless smirk. She took it grudgingly, glaring at him as she did so.
"Ready?" he asked them.
"No!" they shouted in unison.
"Jonny, I can't sing to save my granny!" Serena added. She looked horrified at the idea of singing a song like that.
"Aye, you can," he dismissed her concerns, and he started playing the guitar whether they were ready or not.
"Up the creek without a paddle," Jac muttered to Michael, who just shook his head and grinned cynically.
"In another's eyes," Hanssen sang uncomfortably. "I'm someone who loves her enough to walk away from you; I'd never cheat, and I would never lie, in another's eyes."
He actually wasn't have bad; he had a deep, emotive voice Jac had never expected from such an aloof man. But when was anything predictable about Hanssen?
"In another's eyes, I can do no wrong," Serena sang; it was clear to Jac her cockiness had worn off and she was now rather nervous. "And he believes in me, and his faith is strong; I'd never fall, or even compromise, in another's eyes, oh..."
"In another's eyes, I'm afraid that I can't see," they went on together. Serena glanced up at Hanssen, as if she was looking for support. It was unusual for Serena to want support, especially when she had been cocky in dragging him up there in the first place.
"This picture perfect portrait that they paint of me," Hanssen continued as he took a small step towards Serena, obviously seeing her need for him to help her out.
"They don't realise, and I pray they never do," they both sang. Their voices intertwined quite perfectly – it was almost like they were meant to sing together. "'Cause every time I look I'm seeing you; in another's eyes."
Actually, once the nerves had been banished by Hanssen, Serena had a good singing voice too. Jonny was still smugly playing the guitar; he met Jac's eyes and beamed at her. She had to smile back. She could tell the plan was working. The connection in their voices was undeniable.
"Oh, in another's eyes," sang the Swede, "Staring back at me, I see a sinking soul, trying desperately."
"To turn the tide, before it dies, in another's eyes," Serena continued. They stepped together so there was only a could of inches between them, and Serena's free arm slipped around Hanssen's waist. There was something strange between them when they sang. Some sort of union.
"And what they don't see," Serena and Hanssen sang, his arms around her shoulders now, "Lord, is killing me; it's a blessing-" Hanssen stopped dead.
"-and a curse that love is blind," Serena sang, leaning back slightly and allowing her voice to project through the pub. Her voice filled the area. It was the best voice Jac had heard in ages; she looked around her.
Bartenders looked up. Malick's mouth fell open in shock. Mo was wide-eyed. Jonny looked up at Serena from his chair, utter astonishment on his face. Michael let out a shocked laugh next to Jac. The whole pub, even the chatterbox Chantelle Lane, fell silent when Hanssen left Serena a lone voice.
"Bloody hell!" Jac exclaimed, knowing only Michael, equally amazed, would hear her over Serena. Her voice continued to saturate the air of the pub as she held those last notes with all the extraordinary power in her voice – Hanssen looked slightly gobsmacked. Whatever he had expected, it clearly hadn't been for a powerhouse of a voice to come out of Serena Campbell.
"'Cause in another's eyes," Hanssen sang with Serena, still slightly dazed by what lay behind her exterior. "I'm afraid that I can't see, this picture perfect portrait that they paint of me; they don't realise, and I pray to God they never do, 'cause every time I look I'm seeing you..."
"In another's eyes," Hanssen sang, separating their bodies and facing her.
"In another's eyes," Serena sang back at him.
"In another's eyes," they finished together, Serena's voice trailing for a few moments after Hanssen fell silent. He smiled at her; she leaned up and kissed his cheek in thanks.
"Excuse my language, Ms. Campbell," Jonny said as soon as he stopped playing the guitar, and everyone had finished clapping and cheering. "But. Oh. My. Fucking. God."
"Crude, but yes," Hanssen backed him up. "I think that pretty much summarises what we're all thinking."
Michael just stared at Jac for a moment. "Why the hell did she decide to slum it to be a doctor?!" he demanded.
Jac rolled her eyes at him. "How am I meant to know?!" she retorted. "Why don't you go and ask her that?" she added. A look of horror flashed across his face and Jac smiled at him. "Thought not. Coward."
"What?" Serena asked. Jac couldn't believe it. She genuinely didn't know. There was no faking the confusion on Serena's face; Jac could see it, and she was halfway across the pub. "What?!" she demanded louder when nobody answered. "Will somebody just spit it out?"
"Please, please tell me someone has that on video," Jonny pleaded with the crowd. To Jac's surprise, many people owned up to having filmed it. Michael. Elliot. Sacha. Gemma. A blonde barmaid. "Go and see Michael," Jonny advised Serena.
"You cannot possibly be telling us that you have no idea," Hanssen said sceptically.
"No idea of what?" Serena exclaimed. He surprised everyone by wrapping a hand around her arm and dragging her over to sit next to Jac. Michael passed Serena his phone with the video ready to play. Jac watched with her, as did Hanssen, while Michael laughed and shook his head in total disbelief. Jac, too, had a hard time believing that she never realised she was capable of what she had just done.
They watched as the pair of them protested and Jonny ignored them, starting anyway. They watched as Hanssen proved his voice was something to be envied. Playing it back, Jac heard the deepness of his voice and how well he hit the notes.
Then they watched Serena sing for the first time; even when it was gentle, her voice was rather beautiful. It was like nothing she had heard before. Jac looked to see Serena's expression; she looked mildly surprised but not shocked. Truthfully, nobody had doubted she was capable of singing. It was the power she had hidden in her voice that amazed everyone.
Then the chorus, and how their voices were matched so well. And how their voices seemed to just connect like they were supposed to be heard together.
Then much of the same in the next verse until they sang together again and their voices began to rise. An odd expression crossed Hanssen's face right before he stopped. Jac realised now he had done it on purpose. And then Serena's voice was left alone, the power behind it still unbelievable.
"But that can't be me!" Serena denied illogically as she listened to the quality of her own singing.
"It is you, Serena," Hanssen asserted. Serena glanced up at him when she came to the same realisation as Jac had just done – that Hanssen had stopped short so everyone could hear what he had picked up on before anyone else. "I don't understand how you can fail to realise you have that in you," he added, nodding to Michael's phone as Jac passed it back to the American.
Serena shrugged. "What I wanna know is why you chose medicine when there are record labels in the States that would kill to get hold of you," Michael added, putting his phone back in his pocket.
Serena gave him a stony glare before she burst out laughing. "I didn't even know I could sing at all, never mind that!" she protested. "I still think you did something to that video. It doesn't sound like me," she insisted.
"It bloody well is you!" Hanssen cried. Jac was taken aback to hear Hanssen curse; perhaps the alcohol had loosened his tongue. Jac stifled a laugh and, as she looked away, was startled to see Jonny moving tables and chairs out to the walls.
"Oh, Christ!" Jac moaned, getting to her feet and stalking over to Jonny. "What are you doing?"
"What does it look like?" he replied. "I'm clearing a dancefloor, obviously," he rolled his eyes at her, earning a glare.
"I don't dance," she reminded him.
"I know. That's why you're with me on the music," he explained, gesturing for her to help him shift a table. She didn't argue; she knew there was little point. And she would far prefer singing to dancing. "Most of them are sober enough, aren't they? Even Michael Spence is comprehensible," he grinned.
"Alright. I guess it'll be fun," she sighed. The idea of watching the rest of them make prats of themselves was rather appealing too. "Well done, by the way."
"On what?"
"Mummy and Daddy don't seem to want to murder each other anymore," she smiled. She put her arms around his waist and kissed him lightly. "Good work, Einstein."
"Well, thank you," he replied. "Now for phase two of aforementioned operation," he added. A wave of realisation fell over Jac and she burst into giggles into Jonny's chest. This was going to be funny. She had thought them singing together was going to be funny, and it kind of was as they could both sing and Serena didn't even know it. But there was no doubt that they would be left with nobody else to dance with but each other.
"Evil genius," she accused. He just laughed and proceeded with moving the chairs and tables. Jac silently helped him, wondering how he came up with his ideas.
Hope this is OK!
Please feel free to leave a review and tell me what you thought!
Sarah x
