Title: '3rd Time's the Charm' - Instant Star - Part 3
Author: Laur set for after 'Lose Your Skin';
Pairing: Tommy/oc , Jude/Jamie
Synopsis: When a former flame of Tommy enters the picture, he has to decide between the love of his life or the girl who showed him there was more. And now Jude needs to find shelter in the arms of the one who was there all along. 
Note: I got the idea for this story after seeing the preview for "All Apologies". I thought about how things would be if Tommy really had to come a long way before he was the "Nice Guy" he is now. What if the past had much darker secrets than Jude knows about, and it's come back...
And I felt the way your arms pulled in
The light from your eyes I'm swimming in
If I lied will I be pulled away from here?
Toss me in the churning sea
One more day of this wondering
Leave me, writhing without your care?
My life which just had started has now left into the blue
And I'm waiting out on the edge
For you
You took it all
It fell to the ground
Now without that, my pride is struck down
Jude hit the last E-chord, and heard the click from inside the recording studio over the headphones.
"Jude! Oh my god! That was INCREDIBLE!" Georgia chirped over the headphones. "Honestly, that was one of the best song you've ever written." Jude turned around and looked into the booth to see Georgia beaming, E.J. bouncing, and Tommy blankly staring back. Georgia nudged him, and said something that Jude couldn't hear.
The two were going to get into an argument before he gave up and spoke into the mic. "Yeah, Jude. Much better than yesterday. But watch the change from the C to E chord." Georgia smacked Tommy upside the shoulder and waved a finger in his face, like a child to a teacher. He swiveled in the chair and faced the direction away from Georgia, and E.J. who was still bouncing in place, and giving Jude a 'thumbs-up' through the glass. Jude awkwardly gave one back, which caused E.J. to get even giddier. Georgia turned back over to E.J. and pointed towards the exit. Her body slumped and E.J clomped out of the studio.
Jude put her guitar on the stand next to her and headed into the studio herself, just in time to see E.J.'s back heading towards the offices, muttering something under her breath that she was sure included the words "incompetitent" and "egotistical". Who were those things was only Jude's guess.
"Honey. Honestly, that was brilliant. I am so proud of you." Georgia reached over and squeezed Jude and pulled her in close and Jude returned the embrace. Georgia had always looked out for Jude, so she always felt the best after she pleased her. "I have to go do some paperwork, mostly for you, doll. Great job again." Georgia pulled Jude in again before she headed out the door then Jude made her way over to the board next to Tommy.
"Hey." She took a seat next to him, pivoting back and forth in his chair. His lips were pouty, and he looked annoyed.
"Hey." He said, continuing his motions.
"Tommy, I need to talk to you about something. I wanted to tell you-"
"You're going to write the new BoyzAttack song, aren't you?" Tommy bent over the board and pretended to fiddle with the knobs and dials in front of him.
Jude was stunned. "How...how did you know what I was going to say?"
Tommy stood up and looked down on Jude, and spoke straight into her face. "I've been in the music business long enough to know. You wouldn't have passed this up. You shouldn't have." He stared Jude in the face a few seconds and headed out of the studio.
She stood up to follow. "Tommy, stop." And he listened, turning around to look her in the face. "Yes, I've been angry with you lately, and originally, yeah I thought by working on the song that it would hurt you. I came in here today with this idea. But...that's not right. I know that."
The same designer combat boots moved back towards Jude and folded his arms across his chest.
He wanted to see where this self-rightous speech was heading. "So what? Are you going to do it? Write the newest song for my former band."
Jude looked down on the floor and shuffled her feet. "I wouldn't do it to hurt you." Her hand moved to the back pocket of her jeans and pulled out the crumpled packet of blue papers. She held them up in her hand. The papers crinkled in Jude's hand as she waved them, and Tommy followed their movement in her hand. "I swear that's not what I'm trying to do."
He moved forward and stared straight into Jude's eyes, their noses almost touching. Their mouths less than a few inches apart. His breath was hot as he drew it in, and what seemed like hours, he finally spoke. "You already did."
A few hot, angry tears came to the corner of Jude's eyes. She threw the packet into Tommy's chest and stormed out of the studio.
As Jude made her way out of the office, Georgia headed her off. "And where are you headed?"
"Home." Jude tried to maneuver around, but Georgia anticipated.
"No you're not. I just got off the phone, and the editor-in-chief of Blender magazine is holding a party at his mansion at this moment." Georgia put her arm around Jude's shoulder and started walking her back to the studio. "And you need to be there." Jude tried to sputter out a few words of protest, but Georgia, in all her grace put an end to them quickly. "Stop arguing. You're going. Right now."
Tommy walked out of the studio, holding the packet still. "Tommy. Sam Managhan's house. Now." Georgia pointed down over Jude, and headed back to her office to wrangle more phone calls and look very important.
Jude's leather coat was in Tommy's hand, which she grabbed before haphazardly throwing it over her shoulders. "You forgot these." He said as he held the contract back out towards Jude. Without another word, the two headed out towards the parking lot.
All of the radio stations sounded the same, and after Jude ran across her song on two separate stations, the thought it best to be turned off. Instead, she fished around in the cup holders, the dashboard, and whatever else could occupy her time that was not conversation.
Stuck in between a few CDs above the stereo was the business card of Nicolette Andromedia. Jude studied the card for a while. Tommy looked over and saw Jude giving the card the once over. His hand reached out and stuck the card in the visor. He didn't bother glancing over, where Jude continued to stare at the visor, where an edge was sticking out.
"What is that? Jude finally piped up.
"What does it look like?" Tommy's voice hissed in response.
Another few moments of awkward silence passed. "Where did it come from?"
"What is this? 50 questions? From Nicole! Where else would give it to me? God Jude."
"I. I just wanted to know what was going on." Silence. "Did she ask you back? Because I really don't want you to go back." She paused and played with her fingernails so she could avoid Tommy's gaze. "I know we've been fighting a lot, and...things have been rough but...I want you around. You're an amazing producer and-"
"No. I was not asked back. I wouldn't want to go back anyway." It sounded convincing. And it was honest. But even though he didn't want to go back, he wanted to know why he wasn't asked back.
"And Nicole?" Jude sounded a little hurt speaking her name, because she knew by asking, she was opening up a can of worms.
"What about her, Jude? What do you want to know?" He started shouting, and his voice was defensive and angry. "Did Nicole and I date? Yes. We dated. We dated a very long time. And seeing her again was a surprise for me, and incredibly hard. Okay, you got your answer! Anything else you want to know!"
Jude was stunned, and could only stare at Tommy, her face holding the same expression that Tommy's did when he first saw his old love. The car was silent again, only the sound of the air whizzing past the open windows. "How long ago?"
Tommy took deep breaths in and out, letting his anger settle a few moments before, but he knew matter how many breaths he took, he was still going to be annoyed...and hurt by someone by someone he had considered to be one of his best friends. "When the band was still together. We met...in the beginning before we really made it anywhere, and we were together. And then in the first year of success..." Tommy trailed off, but found his thought trail again. "When we finally got the taste of fame, I went crazy. I started drinking way too much.
Wild parties. You know, typical rock star lifestyle. And I started being a real jerk to her. Staying out all night, missing rehearsals, just generally treating her like garbage. and I went away one weekend to Vegas, having a really wild time, and I woke up in the morning and found out that the night before I had married Keisha." Jude felt the breath catch in her throat. She asked if they were still together when it happened, Tommy and Nicole.
"Techincally, even though I had completely given up on trying to be a good person to her. Yeah, but when the press came out about me and Keisha, she called it off. And rightly so. Keisha and I were done within a month. She actually thought it could work, and I thought drinking could make it work. She left me. And when I came back after the divorce, Nicole got me on my feet again. She had the band on hiatus working on 'solo projects', well, that's what she told the press, and she carted me to a clinic. She saw...what a mess I was.
"After six weeks, I was better. But still had no place to go. And she took me in...again." Tommy's voice got softer as he spoke. "She never gave up on me.
"Then the group got back together, and things went well for the next two albums. Nicole and I...we were great, but she was diplomatic, keeping the band first. She managed to keep the drinking out of the papers to keep the band squeaky clean. But by the time we were recording the last album, everything was strained. BoyzAttack couldn't be around each other anymore. And Nicole tried to keep us working, but I didn't like the direction we were going in. And when no one would do what I wanted, I flipped, said I was 'too good' and quit the band an hour before a performance in the U.S. I left her to pick up the pieces...I hadn't seen her since."
Jude sat stunned. Tommy's entire romance with this girl, this woman, was so tragic. And he hurt her in the end. Screwed her over; her career. If she didn't know Tommy beforehand, and she had heard this tale of alcoholism, deceit, egos, and just plain cruelty, she would have hated Tommy. To see him face-to-face, and know who he was now, made Jude more confused then she had ever been. "All those articles after the band broke up; they blamed you for leaving."
"They were right, and wrong. I did leave first, but it was a matter of time before one of walked out the door too." Tommy rubbed his fingers against his temples. The simple thought of his past made his head throb. "I...HATE what I did to Nicole. How it ended. I ruined everything for her. I really was...just a horrible person." He found himself baffled. It hadn't thought about this in five years, when he walked out that door in Baltimore, he never wanted to give BoyzAttack, that music, or even Nicole another thought. And he didn't. He blocked it out; took off for Europe for almost a year and came back with a new focus. Without any ties to his past. It wasn't until Nicole walked back into the studio that day that everything he had been burying for years came back to the surface. And thinking back on it now, he realized what he had done, and how he hurt the people that he cared about the most, or at least the one person that had meant the most.
A piece of Jude's bright red hair fell into her eyes, but it was enough for her to gain her composure. "Tommy. I'm sorry. I...I had no idea."
"Of course you didn't." Tommy looked over to Jude, and pushed the hair out of her eyes and behind her ear. "I never told you. I didn't want you to know."