Chapter IV: Let Me Be Your Star

Kayleigh was exhausted and Derek could read it all over her face. She was sitting on the dance studio floor cross legged, facing the mirror as she sipped at her water bottle. When she wasn't sipping from her water bottle she was humming a tune that he didn't recognize. He practically knew every single song on her album, but the tune she was humming, it was one that he had never heard before.

Just give me a reason
Just a little bit's enough
Just a second we're not broken, just bent
And we can learn to love again

"What's that you're humming," he asked, as he ran a hand through his sweaty blonde locks. Kayleigh looked up at him and smiled.

"It was a song that I was writing back when," she paused again. Derek could sense that once again she had come close to mentioning her ex-husband, but something always stopped her. Maybe it was the heartbreak that she was quietly suffering from or maybe it was the sorrow she felt at the loss of her former marriage.

"You know you can talk to me if you want to," Derek started, "I mean, I don't know what it's like to be married and I definitely don't know what it's like to be divorced, but I-I can be someone who can lend an ear that-"

"Derek," Kayleigh interrupted him mid-thought, "Thanks. That song I was humming, it's a song that I was writing back when Brian and I first separated. It was my clinging hope that maybe the separation was…hope that it was just temporary."

"But, it wasn't," Derek observed, "Obviously."

"Yeah," Kayleigh chuckled, her beautiful laugh filling the quiet air between them, "After the first month, we met for lunch, and we talked about it. We were ourselves again, the people that we had been when we first got together." Derek nodded and watched in silence as he noticed her starting to fiddle with the bracelet that never left her wrist. A gift from her parents when she had signed her recording deal and it had become a familiar sight for all of her fans, but the fiddling was something she almost never did on camera. He knew what it meant though, deep down inside, he knew that it was her tell that in that very moment she was feeling extremely insecure.

"We, uh, we noticed the changes almost immediately," she continued unaware that Derek was watching her intently, "His eyes had the same sparkle that I had fallen in love with, I was laughing more, this passion neither one of us had had in a long time had returned. We thought it was a sign."

"That the divorce was a good idea?"

"No," Kayleigh answered, which surprised him, "We thought we were just happy to see one another again, so I was going to come back to the house in Tampa and take some time off to write my album, we were going to even try to have a baby, but then just as I was packing up the last of my clothes, I noticed that I wasn't wearing either of my rings, I wasn't even wearing any of the jewelry that he gave me."

"Maybe you had just taken them off or decided not to wear any that day," Derek suggested even though something inside him was screaming at him to not even mention the possibility. Kayleigh shook her head though, the moment that the suggestion had left his mouth.

"I hadn't worn my rings since the day I had left Tampa," Kayleigh explained, "The two rings that meant so much to me were shoved into my jewellery box without a second thought that evening and then when there's that tiny possibility that Bri and I will be fine, I can't even put them back on. It was at that moment that I knew that we had to go through with it."

"What did Bryan say when you told him," Derek asked, watching Kayleigh closely once more. As she spoke about the moment she knew the fiddling with her bracelet continued, but it was now paired with her sometimes running her fingers through her long hair that was now flowing down her back.

"He didn't say anything for a moment," Kayleigh sighed, "And I felt horrible, I mean, I thought I was breaking my husband's heart, but then he admitted that he hadn't worn his either except for that day that we had met for lunch. I hadn't even done that."

"And it was in that moment that you both decided to go through with it," Derek said, looking at the brunette in front of him.

"Yeah," Kayleigh nodded, a hint of sadness in her voice, as she wiped a stray tear from her cheek, "A week later we decided that we would both file for divorce and that would be the end of it. We would still be friends, but we just couldn't stay married anymore, not when there was a chance that we could both find someone who was better for us."

"Your brother obviously thinks that the only man for you is Brian," Derek joked, as he watched the sadness disappear slightly from Kayleigh's face. A smile replaced it as well.

"Yeah, well, my brother is a little biased," Kayleigh answered with a slight chuckle, "Brian was the first boyfriend that he really liked. Brian didn't treat him like a kid like my high school boyfriend-"

"Bradley," Derek confirmed causing Kayleigh to look at him out of the corner of her eye. It was becoming more and more obvious to her that Derek knew a lot about her.

"Yeah, Brad," Kayleigh answered with a nod, "Well, when I first brought Brian home to meet him and the folks, he pulled me aside and told me that Brian was 'the one,' anyways from that point forward they were pretty close. Brian took Luke dirt biking, taught him how to drive an ATV and even gave him a few pointers for playing the guitar."

"So, he's not ready to let him go?"

"No, but despite all that he held my hand while I signed the divorce papers," Kayleigh continued, some of the sadness coming back, "So, I guess, I'll keep him around for a little bit longer. Now, why don't we continue practicing, I want to get this right."

Fade in on a girl with a hunger for fame
And a face and a name to remember
The past fades because as of this day,
Norma Jean's gone, she's moving on.

Her smile and your fantasies play a duet
That will make you forget where you are…

The next morning, Derek tiredly followed the melodic voice of his host into the designer kitchen scratching his head. The week was slowly coming to an end and they would only have just a few measly hours tomorrow afternoon to practice due to Kayleigh's scheduled appearance with her ex-husband and his friend/band mate. Kayleigh was standing by the stove singing along with her iPod as she made what smelled like buttermilk pancakes.

"Someone seems to have worked up a bit of an appetite this morning," Derek joked, as she pointed him to the plate she had already made him, while he had been struggling to get out of the comfy bed she had so generously allowed him to use during his stay in Toronto. Now, that he had spent a couple of nights using her guest room, he doubted that he would get the same amount of rest at a hotel in the Canadian city.

"Someone looks well rested," Kayleigh observed, as she watched him pour some of the specialty maple syrup she kept in her refrigerator, "If I didn't know better, I would say that you looked like you had slept on a cloud."

"I feel like it," Derek responded, "I don't know where you got that mattress, but the moment I laid down I just dosed off."

"It's the feather mattress," Kayleigh shrugged, as she flipped the pancake that was cooking, "Now, I know I said that I was free pretty much the entire week, but my lovely assistant forgot to inform me that I have a nail appointment today in about an hour and then I have a radio interview with CHUM FM to explain my side of this divorce story."

"I thought you said that it was completely mutual," Derek asked, after he swallowed a fluffy piece of heaven that had been slathered in butter and syrup.

"I did," she answered, placing her plate beside him, reaching for the maple syrup, "But, apparently not everyone is buying this completely mutual and very friendly divorce, so I have to go explain it." Derek nodded, before placing his fork and knife down.

"Do you want me to go with you?"

"You don't have to," Kayleigh shrugged, "I don't think, we'll get a lot done practicing wise. I mean, I'll be stuck in a chair for my nail appointment because everybody will apparently be looking at my hands tomorrow on the Morning Show instead of listening to the performance, so I can't do the usual self-mani that I usually do, and then I'm stuck at CHUM FM until about 4 tonight, so you'll probably be really bor-"

"I'm sure, I can find something to do," Derek interrupted, trying to find an excuse to spend more time with the singer, "Even if it is just you and I going over ideas for the actual show or showing you some choreography that I thought would fit with our dance."

"I thought we were just perfecting it now," Kayleigh asked, looking at Derek with an amused smile on her face.

"I'm still a little iffy about the ending," he admitted, "You can really dance, everybody knows this and will be expecting a lot from both of us when it comes to the difficulty of the choreography. I-I-I just don't want to let you down."

"And you won't," Kayleigh assured the blonde dancer, "Plus, I don't want to pull out all the stops in the first week, we won't be able to go any higher after a certain pointer. And if you can't go up-"

"You gotta go down," Derek agreed, "Okay, but I'm still a little iffy about the ending."

"Well, if you're iffy about it, I'm sure you'll think of something to top it," Kayleigh said, placing her plate and utensils in the dishwasher, "Now, you're welcome to join me during business hours, but, if you want you're welcome to just barricade yourself in the dance studio and drive yourself crazy over a dance." Derek thought about it for a moment, but he also knew what Kayleigh was trying to tell him in a kind of roundabout way.

"I'll join you then."

"Good."

"Now, I gotta know the story," the radio DJ asked, "Because, I remember you coming in three years ago, this huge smile on your face and that huge hunk of rock on your left hand. You just couldn't wait to tell everyone that you and Bryan Kelley of Florida Georgia Line were engaged. I mean you were practically jumping in your seat." Kayleigh smiled at the radio DJ, as she continued to go on and on about the past she knew all too well. From where Derek was standing outside the booth, he could easily tell that the smile on Kayleigh's face was fake as fake can be.

"And now, here we are, your first interview with CHUM FM in over a year," the DJ continued, "And you and Brian Kelley just signed the divorce papers. What happened?" Derek drowned out the rest of the interview already knowing the story that the brunette was going to tell. It was the same story that they had told everyone from the moment that the news broke that Kayleigh had moved out of her and Brian's home in Florida to her apartment in the heart of Toronto's downtown core.

"Have you and Brian spoke since you signed the divorce papers," the DJ asked, once Kayleigh was finished, "I mean, we all know that you and Florida Georgia Line are going to be doing the Morning Show tomorrow. So, what everyone wants to know is, will tomorrow morning be the first time that you and Brian have spoken since you both signed the divorce papers and it made official."

"We have spoken," Kayleigh answered, honestly, "With everything that has been going on, we're the only two in our social circles that really know and understand what the other is going through, so even though we are divorced we try to be there-"

"So, what you're saying is that, you and Bryan could be getting back together." The DJ interrupted, looking at Kayleigh expectantly. Derek shook his head in disgust. He knew exactly what the DJ was trying to do. She was trying to get Kayleigh to slip up and reveal any leftover feelings that Kayleigh may have towards Brian and get the first scoop on it all.

"No," Kayleigh answered strongly, "Brian and I, uh, we're better off this way. We've had our time together and it was great, some might say that we were perfect, but we weren't and it's time for us to move on. Yes, we'll always be friends, but, uh, romantically, Brian and I are done and there is no going back."

"Alright, well, you heard it here from the mouth of the woman herself, her and Brian are still friends," the DJ ended, "We'll be back in a moment with Kayleigh when she sings us a song off her new album." The booth was cleared, and Kayleigh made her exit as they radio began playing a few songs that they had lined up via online requests. Derek caught her arm before she could turn away from him.

"You okay," he asked, "That couldn't have been easy."

"It wasn't," Kayleigh answered, wiping a single tear from her cheek, "I feel like I let everybody down you know."

"You didn't let anybody down," Derek told her, "You and Brian did what was best for you both and nobody on this planet can fault either of you for doing that." Kayleigh looked up at Derek with her brown eyes and nodded.

"You know, in the short amount of time that we've known each other, you always seem to know what to say," Kayleigh said, with a smile. Derek smiled back at her, neither one of them noticing a flash of a camera taking a picture of the scene.

"Well, I need to look out for my partner," Derek joked, rubbing Kayleigh's arms, "Can't have you having a mental break down before the show even starts for something that really has nothing to do with the show to begin with right?" Kayleigh nodded and smiled. This smile was different from the one that she had given the radio DJ just a few moments earlier. This smile reached her eyes.

"Thanks Derek, that really means a lot you know," she chuckled, "Now, I just have to get through tomorrow's Morning Show interview and the constant badgering until either one of us moves on and maybe even then it won't end. Gah." Kayleigh groaned, and leaned her head against the wall, mentally thinking about the pros and the cons of knocking herself out against the concrete wall.

"I'm sure they'll have better things to talk about once they see how well you do in the competition," Derek assured her, leaning with his back against the wall beside her. Kayleigh opened her eyes and looked at him. He was right and she knew it.

"Okay," she groaned, pushing herself away from the wall.

"Now, go kick some ass and let everybody hear that amazing song," Derek chuckled, patting her on the head, like she was a little child. Kayleigh playfully glowered at him before fixing her hair and letting the quiet production assistant that just walked up to the pair lead her to the audio booth, where the members of her band were waiting for her.

"Ready," she asked them upon entering the booth. The four men nodded with a sincere smile that only served to make the smile on her face widen.

"We're ready when you are," the production assistant explained, as she stood by the door with Derek. Kayleigh nodded, indicating that she was ready. The radio DJ cued her in and the band started playing. Derek watched in fascination as Kayleigh's eyes closed allowing her to feel the music that was playing. He never had the fortune of being able to see her perform live. Either he had a commitment when she was in town or the concert had been sold out before he had gotten the chance to even buy himself, let alone a couple of tickets. It wasn't a concert that was for sure, but even though it was just an old radio audio booth, she still put her entire self into the performance.

Dry lightning cracks across the skies
Those storm clouds gather in her eyes
Her daddy was a mean old mister
Her mama was angel in the ground
The weather man called for a twister
She prayed, blow it down

"First time ever hearing her sing live," the production assistant asked, watching Derek as he took in every aspect of the way her hands moved, and the way her eyes portrayed the exact emotion she was trying to get across in the song.

"Sing, no," Derek answered, referring to the moments before they had even met when she was finishing the last song she would need to record for the upcoming album, "Perform, yes." He was captivated as her voice grew strong as the chorus started. It was then that the perfect ending for their first dance hit him; start soft, end strong. They needed to dance to the song the same way she sang one and the judges would never know what hit them.

A/N: Wow, okay this has been a long time coming. Let me know what you think.

Songs are (in order of lyrics) - Just Give Me a Reason - P!nk, Let Me Be Your Star - Smash and Blown Away - Carrie Underwood