Carmine looked at Lamenta in his arms as she was still crying, the former desperately trying to calm her down.

"Hush, little lamb." said Carmine as he bounced Lamenta in his arms, only for the baby to barf up her milk on him.

Carmine grunted in disgust, and Lamenta started crying again.

"Shh. Don't cry. Please stop crying!" Carmine begged as he tried to wipe himself clean.

Lamenta just kept crying for what felt like forever to Carmine.

This was getting crazy! Carmine clearly did not spend enough time parenting these last few months. His wife had the most experience in the job, given that she'd taken the stay-at-home mother position to take her online classes and care for their baby. How Caroline managed to do so and still do well in school, Carmine may never know. But if he was going to prove to her he was a good husband and could handle not working for a while, he had to become a master of fathering his daughter.

Carmine tried everything he could think of! Lamenta wasn't hungry. Her diaper didn't need to be changed. She wasn't tired, and she didn't want her rattle either.

"What would Caroline do in a time like this?" Carmine asked himself.

Carmine thought, and then he had an idea!

Quickly, Carmine looked through the music disks and put on one Caroline played sometimes. And he pressed the button to make it play. Lamenta always loved when her parents sang to her, and all through Caroline's pregnancy, they'd played ballet tracks and classical music records, as they'd read somewhere doing such things kept the mother calm and increased chances of a healthy and potentially very smart baby.

On the radio, some beautiful ballet music played, and when Lamenta heard it, she slowly stopped crying, to her father's relief.

Carmine placed Lamenta in her baby seat and started doing a few ballet movements for her.

"You like the music, Lamenta?" smiled Carmine. "It's called ballet music. People called ballerinas move like this to the music. It's a kind of dance that I'm doing now called ballet."

Lamenta cooed and clapped as she watched her father dancing. And she started reaching out to him, wanting to do what he was doing.

"Oh, you wanna dance with me? You wanna dance with Daddy?" Carmine cooed. "Is that what you want?"

Lamenta clapped her little hands, and Carmine picked her up and spun her around in a dance. The baby girl laughed as her father danced about with her. Carmine was so happy to see Lamenta finally stopped crying, and even happier that they were finally having some wonderful daddy-daughter time at last!

Carmine danced with Lamenta to a couple more songs and then set her back in her seat as he played a funny song on the keyboard and made faces to make her laugh. Lamenta laughed more than Carmine had ever seen any baby laughing. If there was one thing about Carmine that made Caroline fall in love with him, it was that he had an interesting sense of humor, and always looked for a way to make his loved ones laugh whenever they were sad.

For a while, Carmine did all kinds of fun stuff with his daughter. Played with her toys, showed her how to play piano by holding her little hands to the keys and making music with her, played Peek-a-Boo, and pretended she was flying.

Carmine looked down at Lamenta as she drank her bottle just before she would have her nap. And once she was burped and changed, her father sang a special lullaby her mother taught him.

Baby mine, don't you cry

Baby mine, dry your eyes

Rest your head close to my heart

Never to part, baby of mine

Looking at Lamenta, Carmine knew Caroline picked the perfect song just for their little girl.

Little one when you play

Don't you mind what you say

Let those eyes sparkle and shine

Never a tear, baby of mine

And as Lamenta's purple eyes started to drop into sleep, Carmine felt the love in him grow that much stronger.

If they knew sweet little you

They'd end up loving you too

All those same people who scold you

What they'd give just for

The right to hold you

Carmine gently kissed Lamenta on her curly-haired little head and gently placed her into her crib, swaddling her up in her star decorated blanket.

From your head to your toes

You're not much, goodness knows

But you're so precious to me

Cute as can be, baby of mine

Since Lamenta was asleep, Carmine decided to do something quietly. He decided that he wanted to give his little girl something very special and he wasn't going to wait for her birthday to give it to her.

Carmine he found various things in a box of his grandmother's old sewing supplies, and he got out a sketch pad and got designing.

And eventually, Caroline walked in the front door.

"Mama's home." Caroline sang.

"How was work, Honey?" Carmine called from the other room.

"Where are you?"

Carmine came in with a little surprise to show Caroline.

"Meet our newest little ballerina." Carmine smiled, holding Lamenta.

Lamenta was all dressed up in an adorable purple dress of lavender with a frilly tutu, her curly hair tied in a tiny bun. She even had cute little ballet booties on her feet.

"Oh, my goodness!" Caroline squealed when she saw how adorable her baby was. "Who's this little beauty? Is that Lamenta?"

"I made her this outfit myself." Carmine smiled.

As the family sat down for dinner, Caroline and Carmine told each other about their day. Carmine shared all the fun things he and Lamenta did together, and Caroline told her husband all about her first day at Rock and Rockus, the recording studio where she'd gotten a job as the personal assistant and advisor for the lead producer.

"The place is always looking for new talent." said Caroline. "If you'd like, I could maybe convince Mr. Rockus to let you audition for a recording contract."

"I don't know." said Carmine. "I kinda like being at home with Lamenta."

"But, isn't being a performer what you've always wanted to do?"

"Well, yeah. But, aside from family being the most important thing to me, I don't know if I'd be good enough to perform for a live audience."

"How is it scarier than performing in front of the camera?"

"All a camera does is stare at you, like Fluffy with his literal button eyes. Live people can laugh at you or throw things if they don't like your act."

Caroline understood Carmine's fears; it was a natural reaction for a lot of the best performers. According to many of their teachers, being nervous was a good thing because it typically made a performer strive to improve constantly, and never stop practicing. But at the same time, fear could be a roadblock when given too much power. And Caroline knew Carmine, though he portrayed himself a scaredy-cat at times, he was a lot braver and stronger than even he knew.

Being a professional performer was Carmine's dream, and Caroline was going to help him see it through. She might not be a professional dancer like she'd originally wanted, but she had what she needed. She had her loving husband, a beautiful daughter, a safe place to live and come home to a loving family, and she had a good job too.

A few weeks later, Caroline was delivering some disks with the names and recordings of various wannabe performers looking to be considered for a recording contract, or at least an audition on the next season of Coruscant's Got Talent.

Having been made a very organized young woman, and very knowledgeable about music in more ways than she typically showed, Caroline was able to stick a great job at a recording studio that happened to be looking for new talent.

"No, no no! Amateur!" said a really angry producer, looking at yet another reject. "What part of 'new and original' do you people not understand?!"

His name was Andre Rockus, lead producer of one of the biggest record labels on Coruscant. Rock and Rockus was famous for leading big stars such as Taylor Drift, Justin Timberwolf, Ladonna, and Lady Kerry. But lately, finding new talent has been in a serious drought, and Mr. Rockus was desperate to find new talent to save the studio. In order to keep the studio from going bankrupt, not that it was on the verge as of yet, he needed to bring in a really talented singer. One who was good enough to make it to the top five, maybe even win C.G.T next season. But, as you might've guessed, that was easier said than done.

Caroline was helpful in organizing all the audition tapes so Rockus could look through them quicker and more efficiently. But even with her help, that didn't make finding the studio's guardian angel any easier.

"Ahem. Mr. Rockus, on that note, we have twenty more disks that just came in." said Caroline, placing a cup on the man's desk. "And I brought your tea. Red Chai, extra honey and lemon, just as you like it."

Rockus, the producer, took a big gulp of tea and sighed.

"I'm at a loss at this point." said Rockus. "C.G.T is expecting an amazing new audition to come in soon, and I still haven't found anyone good enough for this!"

That was when Caroline had an idea. She took a gander at Rockus' computer and went onto StarScreen, to her boss's confusion. And then she showed him ShyGuy's latest music video for his newly recorded song 'Super Bass,' as well as a few videos of him dancing too.

Mr. Rockus was impressed! ShyGuy definitely had an amazing voice and a lot of great potential where talent was concerned. And the fact that no one saw his face added a great sense of mystery to him that made him that much cooler. Not to mention he had a following of almost twelve million people already. Being able to have him represent the studio would make a huge difference to the studio's financial stability. But... no one knew who ShyGuy was or how to contact him. Except for one.

"You're in luck, Mr. Rockus." said Caroline. "It just so happens that I know ShyGuy personally."

"You do?" said Mr. Rockus.

"I do. I happen to be his editor and camera woman. And my husband is the choreographer of all his dances. We work together on those videos, every bit of them, all while caring for our baby girl."

Mr. Rockus thought, and he decided to cut a deal for Caroline. If she could get ShyGuy to agree to come to the studio to perform in person, he would give her a raise in her pay and talk with her about mentoring her to be a record producer herself, as she'd applied for an internship months ago, which was still under consideration.

Caroline couldn't believe what her boss just told her. She'd only been working there for a few weeks, and she was already being offered a promotion.

And when she told Carmine about it...

"He really wants me to audition for Coruscant's Got Talent?" said Carmine.

"In the future." Caroline said. "But first, you have to ace an audition just for the studio."

That made Carmine nervous. He hadn't performed a song and dance routine for a live audience since his entrance exam for Melody Prep! How would he remember how to even do it all? He'd barely even sung during his days as a student. He mostly danced, and only sang in his alone time, with his wife and his daughter now, and sometimes he sang songs when he was in the dorm with his roommate Sanjay.

Carmine felt so hesitant to do this, but Caroline insisted he had to at least try.

"Just give it a try." Caroline gave Carmine a pleading look. "For me?"

Caroline then picked up Lamenta and got her to face Carmine.

"For our little baby?"

Carmine looked at his wife and daughter and started to think. He always sang for them. What could one more person hurt? The only people whose opinions he really cared about when it came to his music other than his own were his wife and daughter. And there were two other people who'd always told him to never give up on his dreams.

Carmine looking into his locket and saw the picture of his girls, and next to it, he saw the one with his late father and grandmother. All he ever wanted was to make them proud of him, and this could be his one chance at becoming the performer he'd always dreamed of becoming. After all, what did he have to lose?