Tom and Julia sat with Patrick and Ross at 244, a local rehearsal studio, ready to continue on with the auditions that had been going on since a week prior. Ivy had been released from Kings County Hospital Center during this time, but it was decided that she wasn't quite ready to get back on stage for Bombshell, so Ivy had spent her time at her apartment resting, and Kate was still performing in Ivy's place. Tom was planning to go and see Ivy after the auditions wrapped up for the day.

Ivy had been rather detached since being checked out of the hospital. When either Leigh or Tom would ask about what happened to her, where she went, what she did, or how she ended up in the hospital, she would reply with short, discreet sentences.

It did worry him that Ivy was so distant (even Leigh didn't get much of a conversation out of her), but Tom knew that if and when Ivy decided to talk about what happened to her with him, he'd be there for her and support her, and he wouldn't judge her.

The piano had been set up, the curtains drawn, and the lights switched on as Tom pushed everything else out of his mind but the task at hand.

"Alright, so who have we got coming in today?" Patrick asked.

The auditions for To Sir, With Love was something that Karen was definitely not prepared for in any sense. When she auditioned for Bombshell last year, she of course auditioned for the part of Marilyn Monroe and sang two songs, a ballad and an up-tempo song, only doing the scene work and a dance audition once she got a callback. With To Sir, With Love, there were two different auditions, many of them with separate calls.

As it was suggested to her, Karen had auditioned for the role of Barbara Pegg and had just done a scene audition the previous week. After a quick pep talk from Hailey, Karen went into the room, blowing Tom, Julia and Patrick away with a stunning rendition of ABBA's 'I Wonder (Departure)'. There was just one thing standing in her way. A man named Ross Kryachok, the director.

"Thank you, Karen." Tom smiled, Karen bowing slightly. She collected her sheet music from the pianist who had assisted Karen with her performance. Karen was just about to leave the room so that the next auditionee could come in, but she was stopped.

"No, no, no. Hold on. Don't go yet..." Ross instructed as Karen stopped, turning back to him. "Tell me: what do you think of the performance you gave just then?"

"The performance?" Karen asked, Tom and Julia leaning back in their seats, as if sensing something terrible was about to happen.

"Yes. The performance. Do you think you're going to get the role of Barbara based on how you sang for us just now?"

"Um..." Karen stammered. "I-I hope you'll at least consider me..." she mumbled.

"Listen, sweetheart." Ross began, with an extremely patronizing tone. "I know your type. You came to New York City to fulfil your dream of becoming an actress after your family and friends told you that you actually have talent, and with what you've been doing, things have seemed to work out for the best, right?"

"Well, I..." Karen stopped, not exactly sure how to respond to Ross's question. Seeing that Karen wasn't going to give any noticeable response, Ross spoke again.

"Sorry to break it to you, sweetheart, but you're a Pop singer, not a Broadway star. The only reason you got into Bombshell was because everybody was mesmerized by you, and from the performance you gave, I really can't see why."

"Ross!" Patrick shouted, getting up from his seat and turning to him from across the table. "That's enough!"

Karen was almost awestruck by Ross's words. It all seemed to be less of an honest critique and more of a personal attack in Karen's eyes. She wanted to just silently grab her sheet music from the pianist and leave the room, but then she remembered Hailey's advice, and on top of that, what Derek had said and done before leaving Bombshell for Hit List. Karen decided that she wasn't going to just let this person, director or not, push her around.

"Excuse me, sir. But with all due respect, you don't know me. So I would appreciate it if you didn't make such generalized comments about me. You didn't work on Bombshell, so you don't really know about a lot of the things that happened, okay? I get that some people might find me talented, and others might not, but the fact that you seem to feel the need to put me down, put my career choices down seemingly just to make me feel bad, well it just tells me that you're an unhappy person... and I wouldn't want to work with you anyway..."

Karen turned, retrieving her sheet music from the pianist before walking out the door, satisfied with what she had said. Tom and Julia turned to each other, the two of them wondering...

What had happened to the real Karen Cartwright?

Licking his lips, Ross turned to the rest of the creative team. "Well, Karen's got a bit of an attitude hasn't she?" Ross mused, tearing the copy of Karen's headshot in half as Patrick, Tom and Julia looked on in shock. "So... who's next?"

"Didn't go so well, huh?" Hailey muttered, walking alongside Karen as the two of them passed by all of the other people sitting outside or near the room waiting to be called in for their audition.

"The director's a real piece of work. Even if I get the part, I don't think I'll do it." Karen explained.

"Well, hey, at least you tried. And had it have been another director, like Derek or somebody, I'm sure you wouldn't have even needed to audition."

Derek...

The last time Karen had spoken to him was the day after Hailey moved to New York, the day that Hit List was canned, the day that Derek had promised to make it up to her. How had he been doing since then? What had he been doing since then? Karen hadn't gone this long without talking to him since the two of them had first met, and she desperately just wanted to talk to him. She didn't want to tell Hailey, but Karen was feeling rather upset at how her audition went. She knew as soon as Ross had said what he did that she wasn't going to land the role of Barbara, and she needed to confide in Derek just like when Bombshell was temporarily frozen, she just wanted him to tell her that everything was going to be alright.

"Hey, you okay?" Hailey asked softly.

"I will be..." Karen muttered as the two of them made their way into an elevator.

"You did really well with that song." Hailey assured her. "So don't think that it was because you didn't do a good job for your audition." Hailey smiled, punching in the floor number for the elevator as the doors closed.

"Thanks..." Karen mumbled as the two of them stood in silence as the elevator brought the two girls down to the main floor of the building.

"I heard what you said to the director, by the way. That was awesome."

"I couldn't have done it if it wasn't for you." Karen admitted.

The elevator doors opened slowly, as a group of young actors stood, sheet music in hand, on the other side, before squeezing past Karen and Hailey, the two girls making their way out slowly as Hailey clutched Karen's bag that she'd been holding for her. As they made their way out of the building and onto the streets of New York, neither Karen nor Hailey were expecting to see a certain blonde woman sitting on the bottom step, who upon hearing the two walk out, turned to face them.

"Ivy?" Karen spoke softly.

"Hi, Karen."

"Wh-what are you doing he-"

"Please just listen." Ivy interrupted. "I want to apologize to you. You weren't to know what was going on between Derek and I, I thought maybe you were doing it out of spite because of what I did to you last year. The truth is, I knew back then that doing what I did would hurt you, and I tried to fool myself into believing that it wasn't as bad as it was, because Dev did the same to you, and that you deserved it. But you didn't. You truly loved Dev... And you were going to marry him... And I..." Ivy trailed off before regaining her composure. "It doesn't matter that we were competing for the same role, it was a truly terrible thing for me to do. Derek and I have been growing apart, and that's not your fault either. I'm trying to be a better person. I..." Ivy paused, rubbing her stomach with one hand. "I need to be a better person..."

Ivy smiled and turned to walk away, Karen and Hailey shooting each other confused glances. "Ivy, wait!" Hailey called out, causing Ivy to stop and turn back to face her. "I'm sorry I hit you before..." she apologized.

"It's okay." Ivy said softly, before turning to Karen and smiling warmly. "Good luck, Karen."

For the second time that day, Karen was awestruck, this time by Ivy's behavior. Neither she, nor Hailey said anything as they watched Ivy walk away. Karen at least had expected Ivy to be angry about what happened, and she obviously hadn't told anybody otherwise Tom and Julia wouldn't have acted how they did during the audition, but for some reason, Ivy was as calm as anything.

A thought crossed Karen's mind. A thought which had actually crossed her mind a few times in the previous year, but this time, with everything that'd happened, there was no way for her not to ask herself the question...

Had Ivy changed?

"I hate him!" Tom shouted, pushing the sheet music off of his piano and onto the floor in a fit of rage. "He's a terrible human being! What kind of director talks to an actor like that?"

"Evidently, Ross." Julia sighed, her bag slipping off her shoulder and onto Tom's couch. Tom had been complaining about Ross the entire cab ride back to his apartment, and he definitely wasn't up to going and paying Ivy a visit. They both knew that Tom would probably just end up unloading all of his problems with Ross onto Ivy, which she definitely didn't need.

"How did he even get this far in the business?" Tom asked out loud. "All he did today was complain about every single person that auditioned."

Julia wanted to state that all Tom had been doing today since the audition was complain about Ross's behavior, but she didn't. "Well what do you want to do then, Tom? He's the director."

Tom ran his hands through his hair as he sat down in front of his piano. "I can't work with him, Julia... I just can't..." Tom muttered. "If he talks to Karen like that, someone who's not even in the show yet, what's he gonna be like to the people who are actually in the show?"

"Maybe he'll mellow out. You know, like Derek." Julia suggested.

"No..." Tom whispered. "He's always been this way... And I don't think he'll ever change..."

Julia was rather irritated by Tom's negative attitude, but once he turned to her, and she saw the tears streaming down his face, a pained expression appeared on Julia's. She could obviously tell that something was amiss. Something had happened between the two of them that was more than just the fallout that she thought it was. "Tom?" Julia asked softly.

"I don't want to do the show anymore..." Tom mumbled, turning away from Julia. "I'm really sorry. I know how excited you were to do this, and I know you must hate me for dragging you through weeks and weeks of this, but... I just... I can't... Not with Ross..."

A few minutes of silence passed, with Julia debating in her head what she was going to do. She knew that Tom hated Ross, and Ross hated Tom. But she never knew that Tom hated Ross to the extent that he did, and she sort of did pressure him into doing To Sir, with Love. "So you really want to quit?" Julia asked.

Tom didn't respond, and neither did Julia for a while. A couple of minutes passed, and Julia spoke up again.

"I'll give Patrick a call, and tell him that we're out."

Hailey spent the afternoon attempting to cheer Karen up. Although Karen assured Hailey that she was fine, Hailey knew Karen well enough to tell when she was upset. And she knew exactly why she was upset. Karen had never been intentionally assertive before. She preferred to be, for the most part, quiet and reserved, and not cause conflicts. So although she put on a brave face to show that what Ross said didn't upset her, she could tell that Karen was quite unnerved by the whole experience.

To Karen, it was almost as if she was reliving her early Bombshell days all over again, only without actually being in the show. And it seemed like one thing after another was going wrong or keeping her from doing something right. She should have felt proud for standing up to Ross, but she didn't, because there was a part of her, one little inkling in the back of her mind that told her that what Ross said was right.

And so Karen laid still on the couch, eyes closed, while Hailey sat at the table, browsing the internet on Karen's laptop.

"Don't let what Ross said affect you. What the heck would he know anyway, right?" Hailey sighed. "Look at his IBDB page." Hailey turned the laptop so that Karen could look at it. "One play, thirty years ago. You don't need to listen to him, he doesn't know what he's talking about!"

"I know, but... Ever since Hit List went down, I..." Karen stopped, her breathing quick and erratic. "I just want a part, Hailey. Just something, anything!"

Hailey got up from her chair and walked over to her couch-ridden friend, before bending down and pulling Karen into a hug. "You're gonna get something soon... I just know it..." Hailey assured her, bringing her arms away as Karen's phone vibrated and lit up.

"What now?" Karen groaned, getting up from the couch and walking over to the table to pick up her phone.

It was a message from Derek, which read:

'Need to talk to you about something really important. I've got some good news. Come to my apartment as soon as you can.'