It's amazing how things can change in such a short amount of time.

"You wanna know about Nick don't you?" Jude said, reading Tommy's eyes.

"Yeah, but only if your ready to tell." She nodded and opened her mouth to talk just as the front door swung open.

"Hey guys!" said Sadie from the door. They both turned to look at her.

Whether it's a conversation ruined by a few seconds.

"Uh, one second," Jude said to Tommy before walking up to Sadie and pushing her out the door. Ignoring Sadie's silent protests of literally being pushed around, she asked, "What are you doing here?" loudly with anger laced in her voice once they were both outside.

"I had to get out of the house."

"What?!"

Or a relationship ruined by a few years.

"I was hoping we could… talk?" Sadie said with a confused voice.

"Ok? Talk!" Sadie sighed and looked in the cottage at Tommy who was strumming on the guitar. Jude followed her gaze and grew angry.

"You know what? Just never mind!" Sadie yelled.

"Oh, this is rich. You did not come out here to talk to me. You came out here for him, right?"

"Oh chill out! I'm not here to hit on your producer."

"Good, cause you don't stand a chance!" Sadie raised her eyebrows at this. "He's not gonna go for some mall rat. Tommy has class."

"Then he definitely won't go for you either, will he?" Sadie asked snidely before storming into the house and into her room.

"Guess not!" Jude yelled back without thinking. After shaking her head at what had just happened, she walked back into the cottage and back to Tommy.

Amazing. I guess you could call it that.

"A song is a story. So what's our story about?" Tommy asked after a few minutes of Jude strumming on her guitar. When she first came back into the house, her playing was angry and aggressive, but a few minutes later she was more calmed down and so was her playing.

"The song is about a girl," she said strumming random chords.

"What about her? What's going though her head?" Tommy asked.

"She's frustrated."

"Frustrated," he repeated.

"She really likes this guy, but he's not just any guy. He's the guy of her dreams, and she's almost positive that he likes her too."

"But?"

"There's too many things in the way," she said looking down.

"Okay," said Tommy before hitting a button on the keyboard that caused music to fill the room. "So the setting. On a train. The girl looks up and meets eyes with the boy."

"Okay."

"The Attraction? Obvious," Tommy said smiling at her. He strummed a few chords and sang, "I know what I feel and you feel it too."

"I dream of the first kiss and who makes the first move. Who's gonna put their heart on the line?" She took a step closer to him with every line she sang.

"It could be me. It could be you."

"Tonight," she finished as she stood in front of him, meeting his eyes.

"Steph's hungry," Sadie said from the door with her niece planted on her hip, interrupting the moment. "We'll meet you guys outside. Hope you know how to use a grill Tommy, cause we're helpless," she said over her shoulder as she walked out of the house while tickling Steph's stomach.

"What's up with that?" Tommy asked nodding towards where Sadie just left, the toddler's giggle filling the air.

"She hates me with everything she has, but would walk though hell and back a thousand and three times for Steph. She loves her to death and would do anything for her," Jude said, putting everything down in its proper place before following Tommy to the kitchen. "Sadie just hates how everything played out." Jude opened the fridge to take out the hotdogs and hamburgers that they picked up in the small town up the road and they walked out onto the porch.

Outside, Sadie was sitting in the grass playing dolls with Stephanie while Jude sat in a chair behind Tommy as he cooked.

"Squirt, your hotdogs are done," he said placing two of them on a plastic plate and handing it to Jude. She cut them into tiny pieces as Steph wobbled to them.

"Thank you Tommy," she said, wrapping one of her arms around his leg while the other was clutched to 'Tommy-Bear.'

"You're welcome beautiful," Tommy said smiling down at her.

"Here baby," Jude said, picking her up and setting her on her lap so that she could eat. Tommy finished cooking the meat, giving both Jude and Sadie a plate, before sitting down next to Jude and placing an arm over her shoulders, a gesture that did not go unnoticed by Sadie.

About an hour since lunch and when Jude laid Steph down for her afternoon nap, she and Tommy were sitting outside. Tommy had set up the chairs with the baby monitor on the table next to her. She was jotting down lyrics when the door opened and Sadie strolled out with a glass of lemonade and sat in a chair close to the house, but still in Tommy's line of vision. Jude rolled her eyes as Sadie turned up the radio even louder.

"We're trying to work and Steph's asleep. Do you mind?" Jude asked glaring at her.

"Nope, go right ahead. I'm fine," said the older sister, reclining in the chair.

"God, you are such a disease Sadie."

"And you're a moron," Sadie called back.

"Bite me." The younger sister said standing up and turning to her sister.

"No thanks." Sadie called of the newest hit of Shay Mills.

"Mommy? Tommy?" Steph's sleepy voice came out though the speaker. Tommy jumped up to go get her as both Jude and Sadie started to walk towards each other, both looking beyond pissed.

Tommy ran up the stairs and into Jude's room where Steph sat in the middle of the bed with her pillow from Kwest on her left and 'Tommy-Bear' clutched to her stomach.

"Where's Mommy?" asked as the tears began to fall.

"She's outside sweetie," Tommy said, crossing the room and taking the half awake toddler in his arms. "Hey, it's okay. I got you," he said attempting to comfort her.

The screaming of the two teenagers could be faintly heard from outside. Tommy rolled his eyes and turned back to go confront the two.

"Whatever!! Even if Nick wasn't dead he still would have taken off on you and you know it!" Sadie yelled at her sister, neither hearing the door open.

"He didn't ask to get sick, Sadie! Just shut up because you don't know what the hell you're talking about!" Jude yelled just as loud with tears streaming down her face and pushed Sadie by the shoulders.

"You really don't wanna be doing that," Sadie said in a smart tone.

"Oh really? Either learn what you're talking about or shut up, Sadie!"

"No, you shut up!" Sadie screamed right back.

"Both of you shut the hell up! You're scaring Steph," he said, rubbing the little girl's back as she buried her face into his neck.

"Stay out of this!" They both screamed at him before turning their backs to each other and storming off in different directions. Tommy just sighed, not knowing what to do.

"What'd we miss?" Jamie asked as he and Kat walked up the driveway holding hands. As soon as they were within distance, Tommy handed Steph over to Kat and ran into the house after Jude. Kat and Jamie just looked at each other confused.

Walking into Jude's room, Tommy saw that the window was open and her soft sobs could be heard coming from outside the window. Stepping onto the window seat, Tommy climbed out onto the slanted roof where he found Jude. He sat down next to her and she wrapped her tiny arms around his waist and buried her face into his chest. He took a deep breath and rubbed her back while kissing her head. They sat like that in silence until Jude found the strength to say something.

"Nick died when I was six and a half months pregnant," she whispered almost an hour later. Tommy looked down at her, shocked for the first second that she spoke before her words sank in. She pulled away from his chest and looked him in the eyes before pulling her knees up and wrapping her arms around them. "I was asleep. Winter break just ended and school started the next morning. It was three o'clock in the morning," she said resting her chin on her knees before looking out as the sun slowly disappeared from the sky. Tommy wanted to say something to comfort her, but he knew that no matter what he said, it wouldn't help.

"He was diagnosed with Leukemia right before they moved in October. The doctors did all they could, but they couldn't help him. His parents did everything they could the last couple of weeks. I did everything I could. My cell phone was always on. It never left my side. I was just waiting for the call." She stopped talking and closed her eyes before moving to rest her forehead on her knees.

"One of the reasons Sadie hates that I'm so close to Jason, well besides the obvious, is that he was the one that called me and told me. He drove up just so I could ride with him and not my parents when we had to go to LA. He didn't know if I could handle a flight with just them. So my parents and Sadie followed us back to LA a few days after it happened. I was home for a week before I had Steph." A few minutes later, Jude opened her eyes to look at Tommy.

"So Steph is-"

"Yeah. I had her two and a half months early. Jason caught a red eye the night Sadie called to tell him I was in labor. He made it just in time. He was right outside the delivery room when I had Steph and he was the first person besides me to hold her. She's named after him in a way. His middle name is Michael, so Steph's is Michelle. He brags about her like she was his own, and she might as well be, but everyone that we grew up with and all of his buddies in New York know that she is the last thing he has left of his best friend and little brother."

"What about Nick's parents? Do you still talk to them?" asked Tommy.

"I try to at least once every couple of weeks, but they're busy and so am I. I send them pictures and updates of Steph and what's going on up here." She stopped to rub her nose after she stopped crying. "It's hard for all of us. Nick and I were friends from the day his family moved into the neighborhood when I was five. It was only natural that we would eventually end up together when we were older," she said before taking in a deep breath.

"Nick dying almost killed me too. I was screwed up for months. Steph was in the hospital for a month and a half before I could even bring her home, I was still hurting over Nick, and things with Sadie went from bad to where we couldn't even look at each other anymore. I was trying to mend my broken heart while trying to raise a newborn that hurt to even look at. She looked so much like her dad when she was a baby. It was like looking at a spitting image of him."

"It must have been hard, but you did it," he said trying to make her feel better. She didn't say anything. "You pulled yourself together and you are the best mother that I have ever seen," he said pulling her closer to his side.

"It took a lot of work. My parents and Jason helped more then they will ever know. Being part of Instant Star was the first thing I looked forward to since that night."

"Well I'm glad you won. Your passion for everything that's in your life reminds me how music can pull people though anything," said leaning his face closer to her, wiping away any tears she still had. "You don't deserve the things that happened to you," he said meeting her eyes.

"You're so beautiful," he whispered. They both closed their eyes as their heads closed the little gap that was between them as they met in a soft kiss. Neither noticed the figure leaning against the fence below them.

Twenty minutes later, Jude and Tommy walked down the staircase with their hands clasped together in between them. Walking into the living room, they saw Kat, Sadie, Jamie, and Stephanie all standing together with their bags by their feet.

"Get your bags Jude. Trip's over," Sadie said in a harsh voice.

"Uh, no it's not. We still have to finish the song," Jude said just as harsh.

"Well finish it at home. We're leaving tonight. Mom and Dad already know. They want us home in two hours, so hurry," said Sadie before storming out of the room.

Jude looked at Kat and Jamie and they just shrugged, indicating that they didn't have anything to do with it before they walked outside. Jude looked at Tommy and he just shrugged before leading her back up the stairs to her room so she could pack.

When she was done the two went to the guest room so he could do the same. After the packing was done Tommy lead her down the stairs and out the front door to the group of silent teens. Jude looked down to see Steph playing with her baby dolls while her ever faithful Tommy-Bear rest against her left leg. Looking to her right she saw Tommy smiling a small smile at the little girl too before he looked up at Jamie. "Andrews where's your car?" he asked.

"Yeah about that. The hunk of junk kinda broke down." Jamie said. Jude and Kat met eyes before they started to laugh. "Don't laugh, my nana is going to kill me." Jamie told the two of them.

Tommy rolled his eyes. "Jude's up front and Steph's seat is already set in the middle seats. So you guys can sit next to her or in the back." Tommy said before he started to load the bags in the trunk.

The next Monday, Jude sat in her chair next to Tommy in the studio as he mixed 'It could be you.'

"Did you eat yet?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at her.

"No, I was gonna wait till I got home," she answered, propping her feet up on the soundboard. Tommy saved what he had on the computer and stood up.

"Come on, I'm up for pizza," he said holding his hand out to her.

"Should we ask Kwest if he wants to come?" Jude asked grabbing his hand.

"Nope, just me and you," he said lacing their fingers together.

Monday and Tuesday passed quickly for Jude. She had school during the day most of which she spent most of her time wondering about the secret whispers between Jamie and Kat. She also had the studio every say after school, which she spent her time with Tommy as they mixed 'It could be you.' On Wednesday evening the final mixing was done and Jude was home in time to have dinner with her family. "Hey Dad, I have a new song." she called out walking though the front door after Tommy dropped her off.

"Bring it in the living room we'll listen to it." he said taking it from her hands. Picking his granddaughter from the floor where she sat at his feet he carried her into the living room.

Jude looked across the kitchen and saw Sadie sitting at the table working on homework. She walked over to her as the first beats started as did Jude's voice. "Hey, so I know we didn't talk this weekend." Jude said leaning over the chair next to her sister. "What's up?"

"Jude, sweetie, this is so great." her dad called out to her as he danced around the living room with Stephanie in his arms. "It sounds amazing. Come dance with us."

Sadie looked up at her dad then to her sister who had a huge smile and was blushing because of her dad's complements. "Nothing. Don't worry about it." She said sending Jude a smile. "Go listen to your song. Dad seems really happy about it. He's right, it's not that bad." She finished.

"Thanks." Jude said.

Oh my God, So I finally updated this story. About time, I know. I'm not goign to go into evberything that has happpened. But I will say Writers Block, Life, hospital stays, school, and work. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. I hope you guys like this chapter and it kinda makes up for the months that have gone by. The next chapter is already typed I just have to add a little bit more and edit it. Hopefully it will be up soon. In the mean time please read and review.