A/N: I don't own Instant Star. I don't own When I See You Smile by Bad English. Reviews are always welcome.

Episode 11 - Daylight

(6 months later) My North American tour whizzed by in a blur. I mean it wasn't as glamorous as the last tour, we still go to stay at the best hotels, but we had to travel via bus, albeit really really nice buses, but you tend to go a little crazy in enclosed spaces, especially without a lot of girls around. I mean really how much testosterone can one girl stand? Shay took me out even more than he took me out in Europe. He let me mope for as long as his patience would allow and being Shay his patience lasted as long as a child taking Ritalin for ADD. I mean the best part of touring was the pranks that went on between me and the boys. But other than that, it was business as usual and a countdown until I got to see my boyfriend, God it's good to say that, again. But as my luck would have it everyone and their mom was crossing the border back into Canada and I was getting really annoyed and annoying to those around me. "I swear to God, Jude, if I hear one more are we there yet, border officers be damned I'll pick you up my damned self and run you across the border!" Shay said well more like yelled. I decided it'd be beneficial for everyone if I just piped down. And I decided to distract myself by trying to call Tommy who was flying back, lucky bastard, back to Toronto. It went straight to voicemail. A good 3 hours have passed and instead of getting to go home I was brought straight to Darius' office for a meeting. Darius congratulated Shay, me, and Tommy for our successful tours. Then he went on and on and my ears didn't pick up until he said the words 'vacation' and 'contract up.' 'What were you saying Darius, sorry I wasn't paying attention?" I say. "I said you've earned yourself a couple of weeks of R & R. And your contract will be up as well as a few other people. Georgia and E.J. already mentioned that they will be leaving G Records for other pursuits. Tommy you were only contracted to work with Jude, now that you have a bonafide solo career you might wanna think about your options as well. If you wanna discuss something with me you'll have to leave me voicemail because I'll be out of the office as well. I've got a clothing line I'm developing as well as producing some movies. Anyway that's everything," said Darius. And with that we were all dismissed.

Part 1

When I got home I just wanted to collapse on my bed, but I noticed that I had some voicemail. It was Tommy. He left some cryptic message telling me to pack a bag because he was taking me somewhere as a surprise. I basically dumped out everything in the bags I already had and went to my closet. Being famous has a few perks like free clothes! I couldn't even afford half the clothes that were given to me for free if I had to buy it on my own. Anyway after about 45 minutes I was starving. I was in the middle of calling for take-out when Tommy knocked on the door carrying dinner, handed me dinner, and told me to eat it in the car. I thought he had completely lost his mind. I mean it was tough enough getting allowed to go near the viper, but when I got outside with my heavy bag I made him lug down to the familiar blue vehicle, which was nowhere to be seen. Instead out front was a pick up truck. He nonchalantly threw my bag into the back, opened the door for me since I was carrying dinner, and got in the car and turned it on.

Part 2

"Hey, is the car in the shop?" I ask in between bites sesame chicken and steamed dumplings. "The car's fine, but this is really better suited for where we're headed," he said. "And where exactly are we going, Quincy?" I ask. "Good things come to those who wait," he says. "God that's what my parents say," I say groaning and nearly choking on my food. "Just enjoy the scenery, Harrison," he says. "Tommy, I was on a bus for 6 months with nothing to do, but enjoy the scenery," I say as I tear into my fortune cookies. "Here make yourself useful," he says handing me a map "You don't know where you're going," I say with disbelief. "If we get lost it's all on you, you've got the map," he says with a grin. "Um Harrison," he says. "Hmmm," I answer. "You're holding the map upside down," he says. "Oh, hee hee," I say weakly. "Alright, you can be in charge of the music he says and drops his iPod on my lap," he says.

Part 3

After a few minutes Tommy tells me to hurry up. "Relax," I say before pressing play. As soon as he hears the opening beats he groans. And I start to sing.

Sometimes I wonder
How I'd ever make it through,
Through this world without having you
I just wouldn't have a clue

'Cause sometimes it seems
Like this world's closing in on me,
And there's no way of breaking free
And then I see you reach for me

Sometimes I wanna give up
I wanna give in,
I wanna quit the fight
And then I see you, baby
And everything's alright,
everything's alright

When I see you smile
I can face the world, oh oh,
you know I can do anything
When I see you smile
I see a ray of light, oh oh,
I see it shining right through the rain
When I see you smile
Oh yeah, baby when I see you smile at me

Baby there's nothing in this world
that could ever do
What a touch of your hand can do
It's like nothing that I ever knew

And when the rain is falling
I don't feel it,
'cause you're here with me now
And one look at you baby
Is all I'll ever need,
you're all I'll ever need

Chorus

Sometimes I wanna give up
I wanna give in,
I wanna quit the fight
And then I see you baby
And everything's alright,
everything's alright

After the song ends Tommy can't help, but smile as I tease him mercilessly. "I can't believe you've got that song on your iPod. "It's a classic," he says. "God was I even born yet," I say. The conversation was starting to head down a path neither of us wanted to discuss just yet, so I just put on something safe that both of us enjoyed, and the awkward moment was soon forgotten. We stopped for dinner at some side of the road diner and then continued on our way. It was already dark when we drove down a number of dirt roads and pulled up to a house. Tommy had to gently shake my shoulder to wake me up. "Jude, we're here," he says. He decides he gave me enough warning and opens my door, which I had been leaning on and I nearly fall out and hit the ground before I'm able to right myself. "Thanks a lot I say," trying to get my hair out of my eyes. He just shrugs and starts bringing stuff into the house. This is my grandfather's house where I summered every year until I joined Boyz Attack. He left it to me as part of his will. "Oh," I say. "Sorry," I say. "He would have liked you," he says before grabbing another arm load of stuff. "Why are there so many grocery bags," I ask. "Jude we're in the middle of nowhere, and I doubt you have proficient hunting skills," he says. "Real, funny, Quincy" I say. "Jude Harrison, hunter gatherer," I say dramatically. "Just get the rest of the bags, Harrison," he says. After trying to carry in 5 grocery bags, which pretty much weighed as much as I did I collapsed unceremoniously in the entrance. "Actually Jude you should probably bring that stuff to the pantry," he says. "Actually I was planning on just lying here until the morning," I say. "I'm just taking a break Quincy, relax" I say. He took 3 more trips to the truck before I picked myself up again and carried the bags to the pantry 2 at a time.

Part 4

"I'll put the rest of the stuff away," he called from in the kitchen. "Anyway, I left your heavy bags in the bedroom upstairs. I wandered the living room and marveled at the pictures of Tommy with his grandfather. I then made my way to the couch where there were a number of musty looking photo albums. I had just gone through Tommy's grandfather's pictures of his childhood, his wedding, his family, and was on Tommy's childhood photos when he came into the room. "Ready for a tour," he says. "Sure," I say. He showed me the dining room, the finished basement, I'd already seen the kitchen, the bathrooms, and we were making our way upstairs. "This is your room and mine is right down the hall. Every bedroom has a bathroom and a walk in closet, so you'll have plenty of room to unpack. Anyway, I'll leave you to get settled," I was just about to say something when he walked out of the room and went down the hall to his room.

Part 5

I decided to follow him to his room. "Tommy you're like 5 bedrooms away from me," I say. "Yeah, I know. I thought I'd give you some space," he says. I start to slowly walk towards him and I swear it looks like he's frantically looking for the nearest exit. I decided to be the aggressor and made the first move by kissing him. Kissing him always made me weak in the knees and a little light-headed to say the least so I gently pushed him on the bed and made myself comfortable against him. All my senses seemed heightened when I was near him. I could feel his breath against my skin and smell his scent. And I swear somewhere in the distance I could hear some drums, but I'm sure that was all in my head. And then the clothing tugging war began and he stopped me. "Jude…" he says out of breath. "You know every time you say that something bad happens, so just shut up Tommy," I say and start kissing him again. When I start tugging on his clothes again he gets up. "Did I do something wrong," I ask with a little hurt in my voice. "Tommy, I'm 18," I say defensively. "It's not that," he says. "What you don't want me," I say with my voice a little agitated. "It's not that," he says. "Then what is it Tommy!" I yell and start pacing the room. "I thought this is what you wanted," I say exasperated. "It is," he says. "But I don't want to pressure you into sleeping with me," he says. A moment or two passes. "I don't want to rush into things," he says. "Especially, if you're not ready," he says. "We're going to be here for a few weeks, Jude. Why don't we spend that time getting to know each other?" he says. I don't know if it was the full moon or all the frustration I felt, but I was still seeing red and made my way out the door, down the hallway, and to my room where as soon as I got there slammed the door as hard as I could so that a picture frame on the wall jumped right off and fell the ground. I heard the frame break and threw myself on the bed for all I was worth.

Part 6

Sunlight was streaming through my blinds. One of my pillows was on the ground as well as my blanket and I was freezing and I hadn't gotten much sleep after the little tiff we had had the night before. I was debating whether or not to just lie there or to get up and get my blanket off the floor. My reverie was soon broken when the door opened slightly. Tommy was waiving around a white handkerchief and had 2 cups of coffee he was trying to balance with the other hand; it was quite comical. He came in, picked up the blanket and pillow off the floor and threw it casually back on the bed as I sat there with my arms across my chest. "I come in peace," he says. I grab the coffee and don't say anything until I drain the entire mug. He starts rambling on about what we could do the rest of the day when I rudely interrupt him and say, "You know you must be an expert at avoiding things you don't want to talk about." "Do you want to talk about last night," he asks tentatively. "No," I say truthfully much to my surprise. "Okay then, get up and get dressed we're going on a little adventure" he says. He walks out of the room.

Part 7

After a nice and long luxurious shower I made my way downstairs. "Where are we going," I ask as I grab a piece of toast and put butter and jam on it before we head out the door. "It's not far," he says. I start to make my way towards the passenger side when Tommy tells me it's within walking distance. Actually it was within 20 minutes walking distance and was part of the property. He walks into the barn where he introduces me to Brownie the 3rd. "I loved my first horse as a kid and when he died my grandfather got me another horse that I named Brownie 2nd, and then I bought her last year" he explained. I was nervous at first, but then Tommy gave me a couple of sugar cubes and carrots and we became fast friends. He took her out of the barn as well as another horse and saddled both. I was still admiring Brownie when I found myself boosted into the saddle by Tommy. Having never been on a horse before or any other creature I started to panic, making the horse panic. "Jude just calm down," he says. "Tommy, I'm gonna fall off I know it," I say frantically clutching at anything I could put my hands on. Tommy gets of his horse and gives me an hour lesson on how to stay on the horse and not fall off. It was mid-afternoon by then and I had made some small triumphs. "I'm hungry," I say. "You must have worked up a real appetite trying to not fall off that horse," he teases. When I dismounted I nearly collapsed because of how sore I was. Luckily Tommy was there to catch me before I made a bigger fool of myself if that's humanly possible. This time he put his hands over my eyes and led me to a picnic lunch set up under the shade of a tree. "Voila mademoiselle," he says theatrically. Before me was a couple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with the crust taken off, some chips, cookies, and a couple of bottles of water. "It was either this or tuna and I know you're not a fan of tuna fish," he says as he dug into his sandwich. We finished our meal and decided to take a nap. Tommy leaned against the tree and I leaned on him. He had even brought a blanket.

Part 8

I was walking to the front door when I heard the ignition of the truck. Apparently our adventure was not over yet. After a few minutes we pulled up to a drive-in movie theater that looked abandoned. Well it wasn't really abandoned, there were the people that worked at the concession stand and that sold tickets, but other than that it was empty. Tommy parked his car in reverse, so that we could sit in the back of the pick up. We ended up watching a black and white movie from before either of our times. It was very dramatic and a bit sappy. "Tommy are you crying," I said at one point as I myself was sobbing. We were watching 'An Affair to Remember'; everyone who has ever seen that movie has cried, so I decided not to tease him. After the movie, he drove me to a look out point and took out a telescope. God the whole day was so cheesy, but I loved every minute of it. When we got back to the house, Tommy escorted me to my door, said good night like a gentleman, and went to his room alone. I was so tired and happy after the day I had with Tommy that I didn't even protest and promptly fell asleep.

Part 9

Tommy and I are experts about not talking about things that happened it seems. I mean everything went back to normal, which is to say it seemed like there was a giant elephant trailing us whenever we went. We hung out, he taught me to cook, well sort of; I can proudly say that I can boil water and not much else really. "I mean it's not really over cooked is it, it's well done," I say as I fork a charred piece of chicken and bring it deathly close to my mouth. "Jude, pizza's on the way," Tommy says laughingly. "Thank, God," I say as I slide all the contents of my plate into the garbage. "Anyway it'll be some time before it arrives, so why don't we play scrabble" he says. We had already gone through most of the board games he had when he was a kid and tonight scrabble was it. We sit Indian style on the floor and Tommy begins to hand out the letters. "I could use this to my advantage to tell him how I feel," I thought to myself. "God scrabble, Tom Quincy, Jude must think I'm the lamest person on Earth," Tommy thought with a groan that was a little more audible than he had hoped. Jude raised her eyebrow. It was funny, they knew what each was thinking and now had pinned it down to a science of giving each other glances that spoke volumes. "My letters are terrible, Quincy" I say. He just shrugs. The next 45 minutes were spent with a lot of whining, mostly by me, and gloating mostly by him. And I was starting to get a slight headache from hunger. Then after I didn't think I could take any more scrabble or lack of nourishment, we get a call. The pizza guy got lost and our choices 2 choices are either to cancel it or wait it out. We decided to cancel it and just eat cereal, which was dry by the way because we desperately needed to go food shopping. After "dinner" we decided to play some more scrabble, but we decided to make the score 0 to 0, so it was sudden death. I put down the letters, 'f', 'r', 'u', 's', 't' to make a word with 'ate', which was already there. Tommy, put down the word 'food' then looked up at me. I shook my head. I then decided to just go for it and put down the letters 's', 'e', 'x'. And almost comically, well kind of embarrassing really, the game ended on that note. Tommy started putting the board away and he just looked tense, I on the other hand looked like a predator coiled up and waiting to pounce on its unsuspecting prey. Did I mention that Tommy had instated an unspoken rule of me not being allowed in his bedroom and vice versa? I mean I swear I saw him make a mad dash past my door, to block any kind of interaction. Anyway, I decided on following him as he put the board game back inside the closet in his old room he used to spend his summers in and I tried to quietly lock the door. As luck would have it he heard me and freezed. "Jude, what are you doing?" he asks. And I swear to God he looks like he's mentally checking where all the exits are. "Tommy, don't make me handcuff you to the bed," I say exasperated. He makes a guy face, then quickly shakes his head to peal him from whatever fantasy he was having and said "What?" like he was the innocent virgin. "Tommy, I. Want. To. Have. Sex. With. You. Period." I said. He immediately sat on the bed. "Jude…"

Part 10

I would not be denied. I basically threw myself at him. I mean I know I've been wearing him down. Hell, I've been wearing myself out running after him. "Oh my God, this is finally happening," I thought to myself and then starting to mentally freak out. He had just rolled us over, so he was on top, when I put both my hands on his chest. We were both breathing heavily. "I'll be right back," I stammered and ran into the bathroom and shut the door. I was sitting on top of the toilet with my knees to my chest, when Tommy knocked and asked if everything was okay. "Tommy this is my first time…I mean obviously you know that and...you know I've never been naked in front of anyone except when I was like a baby and…" At that point I think I started hyperventilating and didn't really notice when he put his arms around me and I calmed down and just felt completely and utterly safe. "Jude, I will always protect you," he murmured into my hair. We were both a little surprised by the force of his words. And I just knew that he was telling the truth. A small pressure had lifted off my shoulders and I could feel tightness in my belly. I mean I was nervous as hell. He led me from the bathroom and he sat me on the bed and remained standing. "We don't have to do anything," he said. "That's not what we have is about," he says. "Besides I have plenty of girls on the side," he says with a straight face before breaking out into a grin. I decided that it was a good time to tackle him and tickle him mercilessly when I found myself straddling him and bam the giant elephant was back in the room. I took a deep breath and now was as good a time as any and tentatively took off my shirt. He sat up and I stood in front of him half naked, well technically I still had my bra on. I was so nervous as he stared at me. His eyes were drinking me in and I could feel a slight blush spreading on my cheeks. He put one of his hands on the small of my back and placed the other one on my arm and started moving it down my arm and I admit I was feeling slightly okay more than slightly light headed, but only for a second because he enveloped me in a kiss. Then he took his shirt off and wow. He was patient with me as I stared unabashedly and then when I started to trace the contours of his body with my hands. He led me to the bed and I lay down propped up on my elbows. "Jude if you want to stop at any time, just tell me, okay," he asks. I nod my head and pull him towards me for a kiss. Colors seemed brighter; I could feel his heart beat, and our breathing quickened. And we weren't even naked yet. God, and when he kissed my collar bone I felt like I had turned into jello. I couldn't even think straight at that point. Anyway, I was thinking how amazing it felt being kissed there when he stopped and grabbed something from the bed side table. "Tommy why are you stopping," I murmur as I playfully nip his ear. "Jude don't tell me you never had sex ed," he says with a condom in his hand. "Tommy, I know that kids don't come from storks, so just relax," I say a little miffed. "You're awfully cute when you're annoyed with me," he says with a grin and kisses me on the forehead. We're both sitting at the edge of the bed now. He turns to me with a serious expression on his face, "Jude are you sure this is what you want?" "I'm sure," I say. "I want you," I say and reach for him.

Part 11

Red hair was pooled on his chest and her arm was resting across his chest. "I could get used to this," he accidentally said aloud. Jude's sleep seemed unperturbed with only the slightest disruption from her REM session snuggling closer to him. Jude looked so peaceful while she slept. He watched her sleep for a little longer before falling back asleep. A few hours later he reached over to her side of the bed and found it empty. He wrapped himself with the blanket and made his way downstairs. He found her sitting on the front steps wrapped in a bed sheet and she was shivering. He just shook his head and sat down behind her and wrapped the blanket around both of them. "Better?" he asks. She responds with a "hmmmm" sound almost like a cat purring. "I could get used to this, too" I say with a teasing smile on my face. The next couple of minutes pass with the two of them sitting in silence, wrapped together in the blanket, and watching the sun rise.