Chapter 14

"Where the fuck are you taking me?" His voice slurring at the edges as he was hauled through the bar, "Get your filthy hands off me!" His indignant exclamations were left ignored as Derek continued stalking ahead, pulling him by the collar.

"Let go off him, you brute!" the brunette shouted as she tried catching up with them in her impossibly high heels. Paying customers scurried away or only stared, clearly not keen to get involved in something that looked to get ugly real fast.

The cool night air hitting his skin was a pleasant welcome against the simmering anger he could feel thrumming within his veins. Derek let go of the person he was holding on to causing the brunette to gasp as she watched the latter trip over his own feet and stumble towards the ground. She rushed towards his fallen state and glared at Derek, "What is your problem?"

"Yea, Dev," Derek sneered "What is the problem?" He watched the brunette's huge brown eyes widen in surprise. They were almost like Karen's he noted causing him to scowl even further. Dev staggered to his feet, straightening himself in the process.

"You know him?" The brunette looked at Derek and Dev curiously.

"We've met," Dev muttered while working out the kinks in his neck before staring straight at Derek as if daring him to say otherwise.

"What is this, Dev?" Derek demanded. The brunette sensing the tension came close to Dev and placed her hand on his arm in a protective manner.

What the hell?

"It's okay, RJ," Dev motioned her to go back into the club. Derek's eyebrows rose at that. The infamous RJ. RJ gave Derek a last wary look before entering again.

Derek paced restlessly, watching Dev from the corner of his eye.

"What do you want?" Dev asked coldly once she stepped in. Derek continued pacing and then he stopped, spun on his foot and walked purposefully towards Dev till they were almost nose to nose.

Dev flinched almost instinctively and glared at Derek's broadening grin when he realized what he had done.

"What are you doing with her?" Derek's voice was so chilly like glaciers in the already cold night.

"Why do you care? Just because you're able to run Karen's life doesn't give you the right to budge into mine."

"Run. Karen's. Life?" What was he talking about?

"That's right, you come in like this brilliant director badgering her around, making her stay out so late," Dev's voice almost like a petulant child "She doesn't have time for me."

Doesn't have time for him? Karen always made a point to meet Dev for lunch or dinner if she could. It sure helps that she's always informing the rest of the ensemble that loud. Derek stared at him incredulously.

"Aren't you supposed to be having a business meeting tonight?" Derek stared at him pointedly. Dev's shifting of eyes and backing away was enough to make Derek snap. No one saw it coming and in the next instant Dev was lying flat on the ground, gaping at Derek in pain.

"Bloody wanker," Dev growled and leaped from the ground towards Derek.

Derek managed to ward off some of the blows but a slight miscalculation saw him nursing a split lip that began bleeding profusely.

Fuck, this is getting out of hand.

Just as Dev's fist was coming in again, Derek side stepped swung his arm under Dev and grabbed the front of his shirt before slamming Dev against the bricked wall, knocking the wind out of him.

Dev's eye was swelling up now and he wheezed in anger, struggling against Derek.

"I suggest you tell Karen the truth before you go any further with your damn RJ," Derek hissed "She deserves better."

"Why you piece of sh—"

Derek jerked him against the wall again causing Dev to wince in pain.

"I mean it, tell her or I will."

Dev glared with his non swollen eye but nodded quietly.

"It was nice bumping into you," Derek muttered coldly as he wiped off the blood on his lip gruffly before letting go of Dev's shirt and with that he walked off.

Karen walked out of the bedroom, dressed and ready to head out for her morning shift at the café. She walked into the kitchen, greeted Dev who looked like the living daylights were knocked out of him. Karen did a double take and really looked at Dev. His hair was tousled and his right eye swollen. Karen rushed towards him, "Dev! What happened?" She gently prodded his face at various angles to check causing Dev to wince.

"There was a scuffle outside a bar that I was passing and I got caught in it," he muttered.

"Didn't anyone try to stop it?" Karen padded towards the fridge and began raiding it in search for an ice pack.

"Erm…yea, they did," Dev rubbed his palms against his eyes "I don't need an ice pack, the swelling's subsiding."

Karen frowned and walked up to him, in doing so she took notice of the living room and the couch that looked like it had been slept in. "You slept on the couch? You could have just entered the bedroom and slept beside me."

Dev sighed, "I didn't want to trouble you. Shouldn't you be off now?"

Karen offered to stay but Dev deflected her offer in every way possible till she finally relented.

"You know I love you, right?" Karen asked before leaving. Dev looked at her silently before he finally nodded.

"Fancy seeing you here…" Karen turned almost sloshing the pot of hot coffee that she was carrying. Derek sat there with an amused smile on his face that was spotting a bruised cheek and swollen lip. A dark red scarf set around his neck, followed by a dark grey shirt, his leather jacket and denim jeans completed the look.

"What are you doing here?" Karen asked.

"The last time I checked, this was a free city," Derek smirked and gestured towards his mug. Karen rolled her eyes and filled it with coffee. It was a little disconcerting to have the great mighty Derek sitting in this humble café where she worked.

"Please, take a seat," Derek said pleasantly. Karen scanned her surroundings to check if her boss was looking and then plopped herself on the chair.

"I want to apologize about what I said last night, I was just being a little presumptuous," he added before leaning towards her.

"A little?"

"It's not every day I get a bottle thrown at me!" Derek exclaimed.

"Well, there's a first for everything," Karen said smiling, slightly amused by how frazzled Derek was looking. "What happened to your face anyway? Was there a memo that went around?" she pantomimed scribbling on a piece of paper "Hit a Brit day."

Derek touched his face and scowled in response.

"Dev came back from last night with a ringer around his eye which is looking rather swollen, the last time I saw him," Karen explained "He was caught in some scuffle apparently."

"He said that?"

Karen looked at Derek and noticed that the lines on his face had tensed up.

"Yea, I'm glad he's okay though. What is your story anyway?"

Derek chuckled to himself but it wasn't one done out of humor, "What a bastard," she heard him mutter under his breath.

Karen looked at him puzzled. Derek pushed his chair back, "I'll see you at the studio later, thanks for the coffee," he said rather briskly and dropped some change on the table. He gave her a noncommittal smile before leaving.

She stared at him bemused, watching his retreating form.

"Karen! Table 6 please!" her boss called, startling her from her seat to attend to the waiting table.

"Excited for tomorrow?" Ivy asked Karen as she sidled up to her. Karen studied Ivy before shrugging. "You would think the understudy would have more excitement than that," Ivy stated as they observed Derek leading Rebecca to the corner of the room.

"I am but we have Rebecca," Karen replied, "I don't see the point of being overly excited."

"I would do anything to have her role," Ivy sighed.

Karen gave her a knowing look though she decided it was best to not comment.

"I guess your leg's doing fine?" Karen asked.

"Wow Karen, do you actually care?" Ivy snipped.

Karen rolled her eyes, "I don't think everyone has little schemes up their sleeves like you do."

Ivy looked back at her with new appraisal, "Touché, Iowa. Touché."

Their eyes returned to the corner of the room when Rebecca broke into giggles.

"King Sauron is at it again," Bobby commented softly before gazing back at Ivy. The dark emotion that crossed Ivy's face then was not lost on Karen.

They were finally in Boston and the theatre that the Bombshell previews were going to be held at was huge and breathtaking on the inside. Karen not to say the least was gob smacked. "Pinch me," Karen whispered in awe as she walked down the aisle towards the stage, her head turning left and right as she took in her surroundings. "I'm not dreaming right?"

Jessica reached over and pinched her arm eliciting a yelp from Karen. "Nope," Jessica grinned.

Karen ran up the stage and began executing a few ballet moves on the stage. She pliéd, twirled and pirouetted, lost in her own world. Just as Karen got into a saut de chat two strong arms captured her waist and lifted her in the air. Karen gasped and looked down to see Derek staring up at her intently, his light green eyes sparkling "Having fun, Ms Cartwright?"

Karen felt herself blushing as Derek slowly brought her down causing the back of her body to slowly brush against his while she descended.

"What are you doing, Derek?" she heard herself ask him softly once they were head to head.

"Nothing, Karen," he murmured behind her ear "You were dancing and I caught you."

Unwittingly, she felt her skin tingle from the base of her ear lobe down her neck to somewhere deep within her. Karen blinked. Shaking off the sensation, Karen swiftly extracted herself from his arms and rushed towards where the rest of the ensemble was waiting, in the wings. Ivy who had caught the whole exchange was staring daggers at Karen.

"Alright, everyone!" Derek called "Let's get down to business, Rebecca, where are you?"

Rebecca shuffled out with a huge grin on her face and she came closer towards Derek who welcomed her with open arms. The whole ensemble watched Derek gave a quick chaste kiss on her cheek which brought on a giggle from Rebecca.

Looks were shared among the ensemble, curiosity piqued. It was getting quite apparent that Derek was setting his sights on Rebecca Duvall for some reason. Karen found herself rolling her eyes at this. Couldn't the man keep it in his pants just once? She wondered if there was really anything going on between the both of them and if yes, did Ivy know about it.

Instructions were given to get into costume change so that Derek could work out the lighting with the technical crew and also ensure that blocking was in tip top condition. Derek wanted the best for Bombshell, Eileen had planned to have three live previews to test the waters before fully extending to a few weeks or so in Boston. If things were to go according to plan they would then head to Baltimore for a few more shows and then it would be back to New York.

It was time to get the show started.

plié - A continuous bending of the knees.

saut de chat - A jump where the front leg extends with a développé

A/N: Kudos to those who guessed that it was Dev, it was pretty obvious ;) With this chapter away, it's time to get the real drama started that means more brain storming. Thanks for those who reviewed or dropped private messages, they really mean a lot to me.