A/N: Hey all! I am sorry for the delay in chapter 8, I was going to post it last night, but we had an incident at our house involving our subpumb blowing and water filling up the crawlspace, about 5 inches surrounding our house, and flooding the neighbor's lawn too...it was great! Well, not to my parents, but I was highly amused. Oh, and a word of advice, if a similar situation arrises for any of you, don't crack a bunch of castle and moat jokes...or state that the swamp thing, Nessie (the lockness monster), or the sea monster...yeah, they don't appreciate it too much...amused the heck out of me, but my parents, especially my dad, didn't like it too much...anywho! Here is chapter 8, and I'm going to go and work on chapter 9 so I can hopefully get it posted before I start school again on Thursday.

Chapter 8
April 20, 2008
3 days before Jude's Birthday

Tommy and Jude were in the studio, working on a new song for her album. They were both stuck on what to write a song about, so they eventually gave up and used the time to just talk. The last couple of days had been hectic and the couple rarely had a chance to have a moment to themselves.

They were relaxed and laughing at a joke Jude had made when EJ popped her head in and demanded Jude's presence to go over party plans. Jude groaned and followed the PR Manager out of the room with an apologetic look to Tommy. Once she was gone, Tommy sighed and stared out at the recording booth, a slightly pained look in his eyes. He shook himself of a memory of regret and glanced over at the CDs against the wall. He still hadn't had a chance to listen to Jude's albums. Between getting the cliff notes version of the last three years and he suspected some pieces of the story were left untold, being pestered by the press for a statement on his health, producing the artists he had to, plus working on Jude's album, his days had been filled. He shuffled through CDs quickly and stopped at one that was written in a different handwriting than his own. All that was on it was 'Love is Broken'. Tommy frowned and opened the clear CD case and extracted the disk, staring intently at it.

With a shrug, he popped the disk in the player and adjusted the volume on the soundboard. He frowned at the acoustic melodies. At first, he liked it, but then the rhythm got rough and choppy, and then her voice floated through his mind and he was frozen where he was. Her voice carried so much raw emotion that he could almost feel her pain, her love. This Jude was different from the Jude he remembered. She sounded grown up, mature, her voice in a vocal range he never thought possible of her. Sure, he thought she was great, a natural talent, and all that jazz, but he didn't expect her to completely unfold like this.

The song ended and Tommy instantly knew the pain his accident caused her and he wanted nothing more than to comfort the younger woman.

"What'd you think?" A small voice said. Tommy started and spun around, seeing Jude in the doorway, her eyes looking slightly haunted as she looked at him. Tommy stared at her a moment, as if he was looking at her for the first time. Gone was the naïve teenager; in three years, she managed to turn into a woman and somehow, it had completely escaped his notice for the last few days. Her question registered in his mind and he shook his head of his thoughts.

"It was great." He said, not really knowing what else to say. Jude nodded slightly.

"I had Kwest record it for me." She stated, walking into the room, not looking into his eyes. It was too painful to look him in the eyes when she knew she wouldn't see his love reflecting into them. She crossed her arms around herself and stared out to the sound booth, her eyes beginning to fill with unshed tears. She lowered her gaze and stared at the floor, trying hard not to cry. She knew she should be thankful he was even alive, but she couldn't help but hate God, fate, life, whatever it was, for taking his memory away from him. She felt a couple tears fall down her face and then a hand was on her shoulder. She jerked her head up and she was staring into Tommy's concerned blue eyes.

They stared at each other for a long moment, both getting lost in the others eyes. Jude found herself fighting the urge to kiss him. She knew she promised she'd hold out on the romance, but god how it killed to have him standing before her, looking as sexy as always, and her lips could not touch his, her arms couldn't be running through his silky hair, and his arm around her shoulders or hand on the small of her back while they walked.

She didn't know who started it, she guessed it was a magnetic pull that both of them couldn't fight any longer, but their lips met in such desperation. Her arms circled around his neck to pull him closer and his hands circled her waist and pulled her closer to him, not even a millimeter space was between them. They kissed as if it was as necessary as breathing, as if their lips parted, it would be the end of both of them. God I've missed this, Jude thought as she ran her hands up slightly to tangle into his hair.

As they kissed, images flashed through his mind, at first startling him but he couldn't pull away from her. It was like this girl was necessary for living and he wasn't going to deny himself of her. As the intensity of the kiss grew, so did the images. Flash-they were outside, in the rain, she was crying, asking him, pleading him about something-Flash-another concert, they were singing together-Flash-a smile-Flash-a kiss-Flash-"I'm not that guy…"

The images stopped as they pulled away from each other, both gasping for air. They stayed in each other's arms, panting and staring into the other's eyes. Tommy tried to force the flashes in his mind to make any coherent sense. All they were were moments in time, nothing more, nothing solid, but it was a start. Tommy went to open his mouth to tell her when Jude gaped at him and stepped away.

"I'm sorry, I just got…"

"It's fine Jude"

"No it's not!" Jude said, running a hand through her hair. "I promised myself I would stay away so you wouldn't go running scared…again! And god! Look what I do!" Jude started pacing.

"Jude"

Before Tommy could say anymore, a knock on the studio caused them both to start and glance at the door. Georgia was leaning into the doorframe, taking in the couple's mussed appearances.

"Jude, if you have a moment…?" Georgia said, her eyes darting from Jude, to Tommy, and back again, as if trying to assess the situation at hand from their appearances.

"Yeah," Jude said, and crossed over to the door.

"Jude"

"We'll talk later Tommy." Jude stated and followed Georgia out of the studio.
Tommy sat down in a chair and ran a hand through his hair. What happened back there? He wondered as his mind went back to the kiss. His mind called up the information he received but was unable to make sense of it. He groaned and slammed a fist down on the soundboard in annoyance.

"Whoa man, watch it. We just had that replaced." Tommy glanced over at Kwest and groaned once again before putting his face in his hands. "Uh-ho, that's a Jude groan." Kwest stated, walking over to his friend, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You just tell Dr. Kwest everything…damn, I could make a fortune if I started charging ya…"

Tommy glanced up and glared at his friend, but he ended up smiling and laughing softly so the glare didn't hold much power.

"Shadd uuup man." Tommy stated, looking annoyed, and ran his fingers through his hair, making the man look agitated.

"Sure you don't need to talk…"

"I…I think I might have remembered something…" Tommy stated, looking confused. Kwest looked surprised for a moment and then grinned, happy for his friend. Kwest also couldn't help but feel relieved. He had been feeling guilty over Tommy's memory loss, and if he was starting to remember…it would definitely be a load off his mind.

"Hey, that's great! What brought it on?" Kwest asked, looking very interested in what Tommy had to say. Tommy sighed.

"I think I kissed her…or maybe she kissed me, I'm not really sure on that part…" Tommy stated, frowning for a moment.

"And…?" Kwest stated, looking apprehensive.

"And I got a couple…flashes, snippets of memories really." Tommy said, looking annoyed.

"Did you tell Jude?" Kwest asked, wondering where the girl had gone.

"No, Georgia pulled her out of the room before I could tell her." Tommy stated, looking defeated. Kwest grinned.

"Well…on the plus side, you can tell her you remembered when she, or you whichever it was, kissed you and you remembered, it would only be scientific to see if it would happen again…" Kwest stated, grinning at Tommy. Tommy stared at his friend, an incredulous look on his face, and then laughed.

"I don't see Jude going for that…" Tommy stated, though in the back of his mind, he kind of wished that would happen.

"You know you hafta tell her."

"Tell her what? I remembered her crying in the rain, a random smile, one of her concerts, us singing together-very brief, another random smile, and a kiss? For some reason, that doesn't sound like a lot."

"Better than nothing." Kwest stated, and added "besides, even if you're too stupid to admit it, you know you love her." Tommy stared at Kwest, his eyes questioning. "Please man, I've seen you cry over this girl…" At Tommy's look, Kwest shrugged "ok, not cry, but you've come close a few times…what I mean is, I can recognize the way your eyes light up when we talk about her…see, you're doing it now!" Kwest stated, looking smugly at Tommy. "Tell her!" Kwest insisted, and got up and went to leave the room.

"Where the hell are you going!" Tommy demanded, annoyed at where the conversation ended.

"Unlike some people, I don't get paid to sit around moping about Jude." Kwest stated and pointed up at the clock. "I don't get paid past my normal 8 hours, and I'm officially off the clock. Dr. Kwest is leaving for the day. Please make another appointment." Kwest stated, grinning, and left the room. Tommy glared at his friends retreating back and sighed, thinking of how to tell Jude what little he remembered.