a/n: So I just realized that this is almost coming to an end :o
The song in this chapter is an edited version of Teena Marie's Lead Me On.
I guess that the content in this chapter is a little more mature and the content in the next chapter will be too. I'm not going to change the rating up to M, but just be fairly warned.
Jude, Darius, and Tommy sat in a spacious office filled with computers that had 24-inch screens. The three sat listening to Jude's freshly recorded song. It had been three weeks since the Christmas incident; Jude wasn't allowed to return to the studio for two weeks afterward and it took another week to finish recording. Tommy had convinced to cut out all the backup vocals and use only one extra voice. Jude, of course, chose Damien. The song sounded amazing, and Jude couldn't be more pleased.
When the song finished Darius turned to face her without any notion of emotion. He had been known for his poker face and Jude hated it. "I like it."
Jude grinned while Tommy patted her on the shoulder. She shot him a glare and he immediately removed his hand. Jude acted likethe kissnever happened to give Tommy a taste of his own medicine. He tried talking to her once, but she just ignored him. Things were getting back to something somewhat normal with them. Well, as normal as things between Tommy and Jude could be. Jude was still leery upon contact with Tommy and Tommy still pulled out the jealous boyfriend act whenever Jude was with Damien.
"So we're doing the video on it?" Jude asked sheepishly.
"Yes, I'll have Ben work on some frames to go over before you leave today." Darius burned the song onto the computer as he spoke. "We'll hire a male actor to star in the video with you."
"Uh, actually," Tommy gave Jude a sharp warning look, but she continued to speak anyways, "Damien did backup in the song, so I think he should be in the video too."
Darius raised his eyebrows and began to mumble to himself. "Kyle would be pleased…" He turned. "We'll see."
Jude nodded and left the room; she didn't feel like fighting today.
"Jude, you're not seriously going to do the video with him, are you?" Tommy sped up to walk next to her.
"What if I am?" Jude tried to shake him off by stepping outside G Major for some air.
But he followed her. "I just think it's a mistake."
She scoffed. You would know about mistakes, wouldn't you? "Why's that?"
"Because you're letting your personal relationship affect into your job." Tommy leaned against the wall of the building.
"Damien is singing in the song, he deserves to be in the video." She was getting aggravated. "It has nothing to do with the fact that we're dating."
Tommy winced. "He's only got a backup part and you'd be better off being unattached in the video. I've heard the lyrics, I know what Darius is going to make you do."
"Darius can't make me do anything," Jude knew this was a lie, "If I don't like what he's doing to my song then I won't do it."
Tommy shook his head and fumbled through his pocket for something. He still had that little box that was supposed to be Jude's real Christmas gift.
"Still smoking?" She asked.
"No," Tommy pulled out a piece of gum, "The safer alternative."
Jude nodded and slumped against the wall. After minutes of silence she decided to break it with mindless pestering. "You know, I recorded the Boyz Attack preformance you gave me." A sly grin formed on her face.
"Oh, really?" Tommy looked at her menacingly. This was the perfect opportunity to talk to her about the kiss. "Then I guess you'll have our little- ow!"
Jude had stomped hard on Tommy's footbecause someone had just walked out of G Major and approached them.
"Hey," Damien took Jude's hand and kissedit softly.
She blushed. "Hey."
Tommy's eyebrows rose through his cringe of pain. He suddenly realized why she had crushed his toes like that; Jude hadn't told Damien about what happened.
"You know what, meet me in the studio, Jude." Tommy walked away with a smile playing on his lips.
"So how did the meeting with The Great D go?" Damien obviously couldn't tell something was up because he was all smiles.
"Good, he's considering letting you be in it with me." Jude watched Tommy leave and forced a smile to try and satisfy Damien.
"That's cool." He brought Jude into a surprising hug. She suddenly forgot about Tommy and lost herself in his embrace.
Damien leaned down and gentlykissed her. Jude really loved how sweet he was. He even tasted sweet. They stood caressing for minutes.
"Jude, we need you to start working with Tommy on the final mixing of Lead Me On." Georgia poked her head outside and interrupted the moment.
"Alright, G." Jude reached up and kissed Damien one more time before heading back into the studio.
Tommy was tapping his pencil impatiently. He didn't know any way to talk to Jude but be blunt.
Jude entered theroom with a sigh. She sat next to Tommy and reached for the spare set of headphones but Tommy's hand stopped her.
"You never told him, did you?" He was forcing a smug smile off his face.
Great, how am I supposed to get anything done with him bothering me about that? Oh yeah, it never happened. "Never told who what?"
"Don't play stupid, Jude." Tommy looked at her seriously.
"I honestly don't know what you're talking about, Tommy." She gave him an equally serious stare.
He sighed and rubbed his now healed temple. "Fine, you know what? If you're going to act like that then I won't bother."
Jude shrugged and lounged back in her seat. She had no problem with that. "So what are we going to change about the song now, your highness?"
"I don't think Damien's voice fits into the song."
Jude's jaw dropped, not in surprise, oh no, but at how ridiculous Tommy was being. "You've got to be kidding me."
"No, when you guyswere outside Dariusand I talkedabout it."
"So?" Jude was furious.
"So he rather have a more experienced artist sing backup and star in the video."
"Like who?"
"Like," Tommy prepared himself for her reaction, "me."
"What?" Jude gaped at him, thrust herself out of the seat, and stormed out of the studio. "Darius!" She burst into his office in a matter of seconds.
"I'm on the phone." He growled in a low, threatening voice.
Jude crossed her arms and glared at him until his call was finished five minutes later.
"Yes?" He asked with furrowed brows.
"I am not doing a video with Tom Quincy."
"You are." Darius began to play around with things on his desk like the matter was unimportant and already settled.
"No, I won't have it!" She stomped her foot. Real mature, Jude.
"Tom needs this as a kick off for his new album, which is almost finished. After this song he will only need one more track. And because of his lack of producer," Darius grew aggravated as he said this last sentence, "it is necessary."
"I can't work with Tommy, he's too much of a distraction." Jude knew she had no fight on this. It was almost pointless to come here in the first place.
"Then instead of working and having Tommy as a distraction, work with Tommy so he can work with you. Go. The video shooting starts tomorrow."
Jude huffed and stalked back to Studio A.
"So?" Tommy could tell by her stoic demeanor that Darius had not obliged to her request.
"So we better get recording." Jude pushed through the sound booth door and sat on her stool.
"Let me go grab Kwest." Tommy was gone and back in five minutes with an amused looking Kwest following him.
"So erase the vocals and start over?" Kwest sat in the engineer's chair.
Tommy nodded and sat next to Jude. "Hey," He nudged her, "if it makes you feel better, Darius yelled at me for a good three hours for making Joanne quit."
Jude smiled a little but she quickly brushed it away. No, just because he lost a producer, a fiancé, and got in trouble for it, doesn't mean he's not being an ass.
Kwest gave the thumbs up through the window.
"Do you even know what you're singing?" She questioned.
"I produced the first track, didn't I?" Tommy shook his head and grew silent as the music began to play.
"Doesn't mean you know it." She murmured. Jude began to sing seconds later, "Turn around to see you
In a crowded place
I watch for the emotions
On a guarded face
Saying lead me on
Victim of a dream
And a memory
But when I try to break free
You say to me
C'mon, lead me on."
Tommy fell into the song as a harsh guitar part, presumably played by Spiederman, began. He sang his lyrics like it was his own song, "A matter out of time
In the reaches of space
Caught up in the patterns
In the lie of a life
Walk across the bridge
To the shadows of the night."
They both sang, "Saying lead me on
Lead me on
Lead me on
On and on."
Tommy silenced once more and Jude's magnificent voice filled the studio, "Voices in the night
Chase my hopes away
Looking in the mirror
It's easy to say
C'mon, lead me on
The regrets of a lifetime
In the dreams of a day
When the coast is gettin' clearer
I hear you say
Lead me on."
Tommy chimed in perfectly, "A matter out of time
In the look on your face
Caught up in the partners
In the lie of a life
Run across the bridge
To the bedrooms of the night."
They began to sing together and even Jude couldn't deny how their voices harmonized perfectly, "Saying lead me on
Lead me on
Lead me on
On and on."
The singing conversation began with Tommy's starting line, "Talk to me of lightning."
Jude looked over at him for the first time during the song. He had his eyes closed and she couldn't help but smile. "I won't hear what you say."
"Reaching for the meaning all of the way."
"I can't keep believing in you and me." She cringed. No matter how much she denied it, this song was about her and Tommy, and it was right that they sang it together.
"Not finding the answers that we need."
"Sometimes it's not meant to be." Jude was caught off guard when Tommy's eyes opened at her line. She watched pain broil beneath his eyes and a rush of her own regret filled her mind.
"Turn around to see you
In a crowded place
I watch for the emotions
As they cross your face
Saying lead me on
I see you in a dream
And a memory
A captive of the lie
You say to me
Lead me on." It was Jude's last two stanzas, but Tommy felt like he was a part of the song throughout the last syllable.
The music stopped and Kwest turned on the intercom. "Great, guys. Lets take it again; you were talking at the beginning."
Jude groaned. It was about an hour later before they were done. Tommy and Jude rushed into Darius's office to give him the new version of the song for the next day when theshooting began.
In hissmooth leather chair, Darius propped his feet on his desk and beckoned them to come around to where he sat. "It's been a long day. Let's listen to this on my computer and then go over what our designers came up with for the video so you can get the vibe for tomorrow."
Once the song was finished they all agreed that it was a much better copy.
"I want to see this kind of chemistry in the video." Darius waved the CD in its case at the two. "It's great- perfect for your publicity, Tom."
Tommy nodded with an anxious look on his face.
"Ah, right, the video." Darius went into a folder and extracted a power point that had a series of pictures on it. He slowly explained each scene that illustrated his words.
"First, off everybody in this video will be in black and white but you guys. You'll start in a crowd. Tommy will be wondering and Jude will be looking at him and singing. Then the crowd will slowly cloud up and Jude will sit up in bed, sweating, clearly having some sort of nightmare. Next to her will be her husband, a different man. She goes to the bathroom and washes her face and sees Tommy in the mirror, but when she turns around he's gone." Tommy and Jude exchanged looks. "Then you see both of you walking together into a hotel. You rent a room and Jude is obviously upset. Tommy coaxes her into bed with sweet talk, but Jude has to take off her wedding ring before she will comply." A smile was now playing on Darius's lips. "Jude comes home to her husband, who thinks she is at work. He notices her smudged lipstick and starts to question her, but Jude denies everything. They begin to fight and Jude leaves her home and sits out on the sidewalk. She sings until Tommy's last chorus, where she calls him and he picks her up. You drive off. Then it flashes to Jude walking to the house. She knocks and her husband answers. She begs for forgiveness and he does forgive her. On the last two choruses you will see Jude and Tommy going into a different hotel. Finally it flashes to Jude's husband sitting in his house and staring at the clock. The camera slowly moves over and past the wall and on the other side you two are in bed."
Jude's mouth was hanging open slightly. She now knew that when Darius had Shay grabbing her ass in the Waste My Time video, it was absolutely nothing.
"Uh, D?" Tommy interrupted the awkward silence. "That's a little…"
"Intense?" Darius shut down the computer and gave Tommy a furtive look. "The media still thinks Jude is a little kid, it's time she grew up."
Tommy just shook his head and walked over to the door. "Come on, girl."
Jude followed in a trance. Once the two were out of Darius's office Jude finally spoke again. "I'm not a girl, Tommy."
"I know." He led the way to the kitchenette. He poured Jude a cup of coffee. "You don't have to put yourself out there like this in your songs. People like Darius are always going to exploit you."
Jude groaned. What am I supposed to say? 'I didn't mean the song to be about having sex while I was married. I meant it to be about loving two guys at once.' Uh, no. Wait, what? Did I just say I loved Damien? I am in so much deeper than I though I was with this. What am I supposed to say to him, now? 'Sup, boyfriend? I'm gonna be pretending to have sex with Tommy in a video that will be shown on TV all over the world.'
"Earth to Jude." Tommy was waving his emptied coffee cup in front of her.
"Sorry." She sighed and clasped her head with her hands. "It wasn't supposed to be like this."
Jude felt his arm wrap around her shoulders as he whispered into her ear, "I know." She leaned into his chest with his muscles pulsing against her side.
"Uh, Jude?"
She quickly pulled away at the sound of a certain someone's voice. "Hey."
Damien was standing awkwardly behind them. They both turned around and Jude immediately hugged Damien.
Tommy began to tap his fingers on the countertop and tried to intimidate him. It clearly worked,for Damien pulled away from Jude's embrace.
"You need a ride home?" He clasped onto her hand with his and smiled sweetly.
"Yeah, let's go." She didn't turn around to say goodbye to Tommy; itmight arise suspicion.
"So…" The two settled in Damien's car in awkward silence. "What's the deal with the video, now?"
"Darius changed his mind. He wants Tommy to be in it with me." Jude wasn't going to go into details of the video.
Damien just nodded and drove off from G Major. With the exception of the radio, the rest of the car ride was silent.
When they arrived at Jude's apartment Jude declined Damien's offer to walk her to the door. She leaned over and pecked him on the lips. Her goodbye was quick and she was off into her living quarters to right another song. Hopefully this time even Darius couldn't mistreat it.