Chapter 2

Derek strolled into the rehearsal room coffee in hand, his long grey coat swinging behind him. He stopped up short in the doorway when he saw a blonde woman bent in front of the desks, getting things out of her bag at random, clearly looking for something. What she was looking for he didn't really care about. These were closed auditions, what he cared about was why the hell there was a random woman in his audition space.

"Excuse me miss, I don't know what you're doing here but you need to leave," warned Derek sternly. "This room is being used for auditions. For a male part. So unless you're hiding something very unexpected under that dress of yours I think you should go."

The woman stood up straight, her blonde long loose curls tumbling down her back, and stilled with a sharp intake of breath. "I know I look different but I never thought you'd fail to recognise me."

A whole range of emotions hit Derek like a kick to the stomach but the one that stood out was confusion. "Karen?"

She turned around and she was indeed Karen. In three years she looked the same except the startling shock of the long honey blonde hair, pulled back in a headband and flowing over hear shoulders. The same big brown eyes, the same beautiful face, the same Karen. Yet different. For one things, the old Karen used to (most of the time) look at him with a smile, with adoration. She was often the one person who made himself feel better. If everything went to pieces she'd still be there with a smile. All for him. Now she was looking at him with guarded eyes. Not the disgust she showed when he did something terrible, which he had thought was the worst feeling until now, but a wary look of distrust. "But you're..."

"Blonde?" Offered Karen, gesturing to her hair. He nodded not really trusting himself to say anything yet. "I'm currently Alice in 'Alice in Wonderland', I finish next week though. We do a lot of performances at children's hospitals and schools and my producer thought it would be easier and less confusing for the kids if I just dyed my hair blonde. I've just come from the children's hospital now actually, hence the hair and the headband and the silly white dress."

Derek noted she did have a Disney-esque look about her. "What are you doing here?"

He ignored how gruff his voice sounded and she raised her eyebrows in contempt. "Eileen invited me to help with the auditions. I'm going to get changed before anybody else gets here and we start."

She practically glided past him, making sure she didn't touch him in the slightest as she went through the doorway. He flung himself down on one of the chairs with a sigh. There was a time long ago when she would be always wanting to please him. He had known he'd probably get the cold shoulder, he deserved it, but it hurt more in reality than what he thought.

"I didn't expect you to be here so early," said Julia cheerfully, as she took a seat next to him.

"I didn't expect Karen to be here at all," said Derek dryly.

"I'm sorry," said Julia softly. "I only found out from Eileen yesterday. We did all agree that whoever we pick needs to have chemistry with her and Eileen thought it would be easier if we involved Karen from the start. Where is she?"

"Well a heads up text would have been nice," admitted Derek. "She's changing. Also a little heads up about the blonde hair too would have been good. I barely recognised her."

"I've got so used to it I forgot all about it," smiled Julia. "It'll be strange when she dyes it back. Did you apologise to her?"

"Apologise?"

"Oh I don't know Derek," pondered Julia sarcastically. "Maybe for leaving without saying a word to her, playing with her feelings like a yoyo, letting her think she'd done something wrong."

"The only thing she did wrong to me was fall in love with someone else," admitted Derek. "And then maybe acting a bit like a brat when she was with him. How is our dear Jimmy?"

"I wouldn't know," answered Julia conspiratorially. "It's not my story to tell and I'm sure when you and Karen are on better speaking terms she'll tell you, but, they're not together still. Haven't been for years. Probably made Karen even more mad that you left cause she needed a shoulder to cry on."

"She had Ana," said Derek guiltily.

"No she didn't," explained Julia. "She went on that tour, remember? The one you set up for her when you took her part away for a quickie."

He frowned at her smirk. "Please don't remind me of that. God, whatever happened please tell me she wasn't all on her own?"

"She had me," smiled Julia. "Which is why I'm telling you to apologise and if you act like your usual Derek self and upset her again you'll have me to deal with."

"Is that so?"

"Yep, and Ana's back too and let's face it you're not her number one either."

"I'll be on my best behaviour."

"Glad to hear it, Derek," said Eileen sharply. She took her seat as did Tom and Karen. He sent a half hearted glare at Julia when he realised where she sat had made it so Karen would be next to him. All she did was smile sweetly back.

He looked at Karen as unobviously as he could. She'd scraped her blonde hair into a high bun, and had changed from the sweet white dress into emerald green vest top, tight black jeans and a short black leather jacket. Her make up was slightly darker, a bit smokey, a bit sexy. His naive little green Karen had certainly grown up. It annoyed him.

"Is there anyone I know auditioning?" Asked Karen. He smiled when he realised she wasn't really so cool as she was looking cause he could he the traces of giddy excitement in her voice.

Eileen looked down the list. "There's no names I recognise. That's good though, this is a role that could do with some - shall we say - greenery."

"It would work," agreed Julia. "He's supposed to be naive and new to the world of the Moulin Rouge. He needs to feel overwhelmed, and make the audience feel overwhelmed with him."

"But not to be genuinely overwhelmed," added Derek dryly. "Why don't we send the first person in? Get this over with quickly."

Derek was getting more and more grumpy. Nobody they'd seen so far had impressed him very much. A couple of them he had noted might get a callback for an ensemble role providing they could dance but nobody with the calibre of leading man.

"If we don't find someone today then maybe we're gonna have to start sweet talking some agents," said Tom, saying what they were all thinking.

"We've still got half a list of people, guys," said Karen cheerfully. "We'll find someone."

"Karen, honey, as this is your first audition process this side of the bench I'll let you off for your optimism," said Julia.

"I have the faith," smiled Karen. "This is how you found me."

"Darling, you were a rare find," sighed Derek.

"Four years ago," reminded Karen, not looking at him and only addressing the others. "I'd say we were due someone else."

"Karen's right," said Eileen. "We can't give up now. Every one of us is more stubborn than that."

"Damian," called out Tom, to their hired piano player for the day. "Bring in the next guy I suppose."

Derek looked down at the call list. Troy Peters. Troy Peters could be anyone, it was just a name. For now.

"Oh wow," exclaimed Troy, causing Derek to look up. He was tall, sandy haired and blue eyed. Charming, boy next door. He could be Christian, if he could sing, dance, and not be cocky. "Sorry, I just didn't expect Karen Cartwright to be here."

Karen chuckled. "Relax, the other people behind this table are much more impressive than me, and the ones you need to impress."

Derek glanced at her, surprised and pleased to see she still blushed at attention and compliments. "You're not the first one who's gawked at her today and I doubt you'll be the last."

"I really am sorry," said Troy nervously. "I seem to speak before I think."

"Why don't you show us what you've got?" suggested Julia.

"I hope you don't think I'm being too cheesy but I've picked a song from the show," said Troy. He gestured to Damian to start playing the piano. Your song. It could be construed as a little cheesy, and he wasn't the first person to sing that song today, but the moment he started singing the opening notes everyone in that room knew it wasn't cheesy. He could sing and sing well. Nice soft tones that he knew would suit Karen's voice well. He wasn't overly broadway which is what he appreciated all those years ago when Karen first auditioned for Bombshell.

He glanced at the rest of the panel and caught Julia's twinkling eye. They shared a look of agreement. Troy Peters had officially caught their attention. Especially Karen's by the looks of things. Her eyes were glued to him, and he was singing to her with unwavering attention. He could tell she was captivated and perhaps a little flattered judging by the faint pink splash on her cheeks that hadn't faded since Troy had entered the room. It sickened him slightly but he couldn't deny the chemistry between his leading lady and this guy could be phenomenal on stage.

Eileen clapped when he had finished, complete with a delightful smile. "Very impressive."

"I agree," said Tom.

"Thank you," smiled Troy, bashfully running a hand through his hair.

"The resume's a bit light," grumbled Derek.

"Ignore Derek," scowled Karen before smiling sweetly at Troy. "He enjoys being grumpy. You were really good."

"I think it's safe to say you can expect a call back," said Julia.

"I'll look forward to hearing from you," said Troy, grabbing his sheet music and heading for the door.

"And Troy, I look forward to dueting with you," smiled Karen.

"Sorry I'm late!" cried Ana, as she came through the door and hurriedly made her way to sit on the couch with Karen. "But I did bring the wine."

"Good, cause I have the glasses," grinned Karen, grabbing them off of the coffee table.

"So how did it go then?" asked Ana, pouring a generous serving of red wine for the both of them.

"I think we've found our guy," said Karen excitedly, tucking her legs beneath her. "I mean, we are having a few people come to call backs but we already know this guy is perfect. His voice is amazing, he looks like a good fit, we just need to know if he can act and dance. Fingers crossed."

"That's great but you know that's not what I meant," drawled Ana.

Karen furrowed her brow. "Oh."

"Yes, 'oh'," exclaimed Ana. "Did the dark lord beg for your forgiveness? I hope you made him suffer."

"We barely spoke," she frowned. "He didn't apologise or explain himself but it wasn't really the right time I suppose."

"Don't defend him," ordered Ana angrily. "He didn't need to say everything he just needed to say sorry. Even after three years I can't believe what he did. He just toys with your feelings like you're worthless."

"I was the one that toyed, Ana," reminded Karen.

"That wasn't your fault," dismissed Ana. "Jimmy confused things for you. Derek shouldn't have said he cared for you and then knock up Ivy. He shouldn't have left without telling you. Even without the messy relationship you had with him, you were his friend."

"We had no relationship."

"Yeah but only cause things got in the way and don't deny it," said Ana, arching her eyebrow. "He was your person."

"I was never his, Ivy is his person."

"Just because he's with Ivy does not make her his person

"He didn't even recognise me," said Karen sadly, knocking back a large amount of wine.

"What!?"

"I mean, I wasn't facing him and I was in an Alice costume and I'm blonde now so I can't really blame him," explained Karen, letting Ana's face relax from the one of outrage she had on. "But it still hurt."

"I know," said Ana as she resting her head on Karen's shoulder.

"I don't really know what I was expecting," admitted Karen. "We're totally different people now, everyone's moved on. He doesn't need to apologise or explain, not really."

"Honey, I think everyone has moved on apart from you. And that's his fault."