Once again, all the good stuff belongs to someone else: Wicked, CSI: NY regulars, the various movies and musicals mentioned, Helen Dallimore and Julia Murney... The cast of Wickedare all mine, though. With thanks to delgaserasca for betaing.
LULLABY OF BROADWAY
(sleep tight, let's
call it a day; listen to the lullaby of old Broadway)
(xx 3 xx)
---
"Why does Wickedness happen?" Lissa laid her head against Don's chest. Mac and Stella were no closer to finding whoever killed Holly and she was getting frustrated. Don would remind her that it had only been two days, but Lissa was not consoled.
At any other time, Don would have complained about Lissa's question. This time, however, he shrugged it off and pulled her against him. "I don't know, babe."
She sighed heavily and closed her eyes, wishing once again for peaceful slumber to take her. It didn't.
Lissa had been plagued by nightmares since that fateful night and was restless at home during the day. Since the theatre was still out of bounds and her show was, until further notice, not playing, she had been spending her time at the lab, answering questions about Holly: her career, the show, and the rest of the company. She spent most of her time in the break room, nursing mugs of hot tea and conversing with whoever entered.
She was just about to refill her mug when her phone rang. She returned the freshly brewed pot to the counter and dug her phone from her pocket.
"Lissa, it's Roz."
"'Sup, NiT?" Lissa forced herself to sound cheerful. She was surprised how easily it came upon hearing her friend's voice.
"NiT?"
"Nessa-in-training," Lissa explained with an exaggerated sigh. "Baby Nessa didn't really fit there."
"Roz will do just fine, Liss."
"So, did you call for a reason?" Lissa sandwiched her phone between her shoulder and ear and poured tea into her mug.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Are you doing anything today?"
"Harassing my boyfriend and the CSI team, why?"
"Wanna go out? I have untouched paycheques and Macy's sale is calling my name."
"Macy's have a sale?" Lissa asked excitedly. "I'll be there in an hour!" She ended the call and took a gulp of tea, before deciding it was too hot and dumping the rest down the sink. She rinsed out the mug, grabbed her purse and hurried out of the room, hoping to bump into her boyfriend on the way. She did, and she swore she saw him visibly relax when she told him where she was going.
She went home first, to change into a nicer, shopping-friendly shirt and a more comfortable pair of shoes. She discarded half of the contents of her purse and left them strewn across her bed as she rifled through her room to find other things. Eventually, her purse filled with more unnecessary necessities, she left her apartment, locked the door behind her and practically skipped to meet Roz.
(xxx)
"Baby Nessa!" Lissa greeted Roz, pulling her into a bear hug. Roz returned the hug with equal force, almost crushing her friend. "How are you?"
"I'm okay. Jamie dragged me out last night and things kind of got better from there."
"Jamie, huh?" Lissa pulled out of the embrace and raised her eyebrow suggestively. She had long suspected there was something between her two co-stars.
"Not like that," Roz insisted. "Just pizza. And then we walked. It helped, y'know, to see people – people who were there, who knew her, who understand what's going on."
Lissa had no answer, so she wrapped her arms around her understudy once more, before changing the subject. "Macy's! Let's go."
By mutual agreement, the girls headed straight for party wear.
"Do I needanother dress?" Lissa asked.
"Duh," came the response. Roz pulled out a deep purple dress and held it against herself. She turned to Lissa expectantly.
"No need to respond, that was rhetorical."
"Someday, I will gag you."
"That dress would look so hot on you."
(xxx)
Several hours, several pit stops in Starbucks and a lotof money later, Lissa and Roz returned to Lissa's apartment, laden with bags. They found Don sprawled on the sofa, watching a classic hockey game on TV. He looked up as they entered and Roz suddenly resembled a deer in headlights.
"I should go," she began. Don cut her off.
"Don't leave on my account," he stood and crossed the room to his girlfriend. She leaned into him and smiled at Roz.
"We'll order pizza and watch movies. Call Jamie – or anyone. Or everyone! It'll be fun. We all need to unwind," she reasoned. "Hey, are Stella and Mac still working? Or Danny, or someone? They could come over too," she suggested.
"Knowing them, they're probably still at the lab." Don scoffed. "They should come over. They work too much – even by my standards."
Lissa smirked.
(xxx)
"You got something?" Stella called upon hearing the computer alarm.
"No match," Mac answered miserably. "Weapon's not in the system."
"Shit." Stella answered. "No fingerprints anywhere, it doesn't seem like any of the cast saw the guy – just a flash."
"Audience?" Mac asked, pushing himself off the desk he was sitting on and crossing the lab.
"The people on the front row – where the shot came from – were mostly teens. Lotto winners." Mac frowned.
"Lotto winners?" he repeated.
"You put your name into the lottery, and twelve or so names get called. You win two tickets if your name is called; you can just take one, obviously, then another name would be called for the single ticket. But if you win, you pay twenty-six fifty; if you don't win, you don't pay anything. And you get front row."
"Beats paying over a hundred bucks, I suppose." Mac mused.
"Anyway, the lotto winners – mostly college-age girls – said the man sat on that row was wearing all black. He was the only man on the whole row."
Mac nodded. "Black would keep him reasonably well hidden in the dark of the auditorium.
"Y'know, what gets me is how everyone's so calm about it," Stella began to tidy the counter she'd been using. "When Flack and I interviewed the cast, it was like nothing had happened."
"They're actors, Stella," Mac reasoned. "They're trained to be calm. If something goes wrong, they're taught not to flip out, to think fast and improvise – not to let their guard down to their audience."
"I suppose you're right," Stella conceded glumly. Mac's gentle smile became a smug grin and Stella had to bite her tongue to refrain from making a sarcastic comment.
"Saved by the bell," Mac noted, smirking, as the ringer on Stella's phone cut through the silence they had lapsed into. Stella stuck out her tongue as she answered it.
(xxx)
"Flack wants to know if we wanna go crash his girlfriend's pizza-movie party," Stella informed Mac as she flipped her phone shut. Mac raised an eyebrow.
"I'll give it a miss, thanks."
"Party pooper," Stella threw over her shoulder as she left the room. She found Danny and Lindsay in their shared office and extended the invitation to them, and then to both Adam and Kendall, the technicians with whom Lissa had struck up a friendship over the previous days. Only Adam and Danny accepted, and before long, the three of them were on their way to Lissa's apartment.
(xxx)
"Liss?" Roz yelled from the kitchen. "How are half the cast and half the NYPD going to fit into your not-very-big apartment?" She poured pretzels into a bowl and tossed the wrapper onto a pile.
"I'm moving furniture!" Lissa yelled back. "Oof."
"What are you oofing?" Roz snickered.
"Flack just dropped my coffee table on my toe."
Roz laughed freely as she cleared the empty food packets into the trash and rummaged through Lissa's cupboards. She pulled out bottles of soda and lined them up on the counter, before looking around. She had only been to Lissa's apartment once before and she hadn't stayed long. It was homey, she noticed; warm, neutral colours gave the entire apartment a comfortable atmosphere. Lissa bounced into the kitchen as Roz was watching the fish.
"Oh, crap, I need to feed them!" Lissa exclaimed, following her friend's gaze. She opened a cupboard and pulled out a bag of fish food.
"Do they have names?" Roz questioned, fighting back giggles at Lissa's frantic actions.
"That one's Fillet," she pointed out. "That's Rabbit, and that one's Shiz."
"Shiz?" Roz looked mildly disgusted.
"I had the fish before the show?" Lissa attempted to justify her pet's name.
"You can't help yourself, can you?" Roz laughed. Lissa shook her head sadly before changing the subject.
"So, who's coming?" Lissa carried bowls of food into her living room and strategically placed them on windowsills and side tables.
"Kerry, Andy, James – oh, God. Maybe half of the company?" Roz followed suit with the remaining bowls, before returning to the kitchen for a pile of paper plates she'd dug from the depths of Lissa's cupboards.
"Don said only Stella, Danny and Adam were coming from the lab. Everyone else either has a date or is a party pooper."
"So, only three extra people. We can squish up a little." Roz stated.
"I'm sure Jamie wouldn't mind if you wanted to sit—"
"Don't even go there," Roz warned. The door buzzed and Lissa smirked. "You can hold that comment, too."
"Would I ever say something like that?" Lissa feigned innocence as she headed to the door, only to find that Don was already there and greeting his colleagues from the lab. They were invited in and introduced to Roz, who had moved over to Lissa's TV cabinet and was sitting cross-legged on the floor surrounded by piles of DVDs. She wriggled her fingers in greeting before diving back into the cupboard and pulling out another pile.
"Liss, you need a better DVD organisation system." Roz complained, shaking dust from her hair.
"Says she who has them in various piles strewn throughout her entire apartment!" Lissa retorted. "Keep The Wizard of Oz out?"
Roz and Don answered her with vehement cries of "No!" and Roz tossed the box back into the cupboard. She held up DVDs in each hand and waited for a response.
"Seriously?" Danny whined. "Xanadu?"
"We could watch Moulin Rouge?" Roz suggested, holding up another box. "Or Rent?"
"That one has Rosario Dawson, she's hot. Keep that out," Adam instructed. He knelt beside Roz and surveyed Lissa's DVD collection. "Basically, you have chick flicks, British period dramas and musicals?" Lissa scowled.
She was saved from further argument by the door buzzing again. She opened it to six of her cast members and was about to close it again when Sara Bassett and Brianna Regan called her name. They slipped through the door and closed it behind them. Moments later, four more people trickled in and the party was complete. Introductions were made as everyone climbed over each other and settled down.
"Jase, Nicole, Andy, Christy, Barrett, Rosie, Sara, Brianna, Michelle, Bradley, Jamie, Kate," Lissa pointed to her co-stars as she named them all for the scientists. "Stella, Danny, Adam – and you know Roz and Don."
As Lissa introduced everyone, Stella noticed how the actors in the room had no qualms with sitting close together – or even on top of each other if there were no free seats. The people introduced as Jase and Nicole were sat together, but from the joined hands, Stella deduced that they were indeed a couple. Brianna had settled herself in Barrett's lap and Sara had sat beside him, resting her head on his shoulder.
Roz held up a DVD box and listened for affirmative votes. Hearing more encouragement than negativity, she slid the disc into the player, turned on the TV, grabbed the remote control and settled back against the sofa, between Jamie's legs. Lissa smirked at her.
(xxx)
A little over two hours and a box of Kleenex later, Roz crawled over and ejected the DVD with a sigh. Behind her, Sara and Brianna were singing Seasons of Love quietly. Barrett laughed at them.
"Who's for pizza?" Lissa, settled comfortably in her boyfriend's embrace, pulled away and climbed over Bradley and Michelle to stand by the door to the kitchen. People began calling out affirmative answers and pizza suggestions and she silenced them all with a sharp whistle.
"Can we get a non-pizza option too?" Kate asked. Bradley threw a pretzel at her. "Fine, gunk up your chords, I don't care!"
"We can get cheese-free pizzas, I usually do," Lissa answered. "Hands for cheese free?" All but Don, Stella, Danny, Adam and Bradley raised their hand. "Decide your toppings amongst yourselves," she instructed and tossed the phone to Don. "Don will call." Don raised an eyebrow.
(xxx)
Evening came and went, and the sun set outside Lissa's window. The group talked about theatre, politics and current affairs; once in a while, someone would share an embarrassing story involving their friends. Holly was spoken of frequently and as Stella and Danny left, they promoted the group of actors that they would do everything in their power to find their friend's killer.
The remaining guests pitched in before sharing theatrical farewells and leaving. Before long, the only people left were Roz and Jamie.
"C'mon, I'll walk you home," Jamie offered and Roz smiled gratefully. Lissa smirked. As they left, Roz turned and scowled. Lissa feigned innocence and smiled cheerfully.
(x)(x)(x)
The following morning, dressed in a new outfit bought during the previous day's shopping spree, Lissa returned to the Gershwin theatre for the first time since her friend was murdered. Lining the wall outside the stage door were bouquets of flowers in their thousands. She knelt to read some of the cards.
"Helen freaking Dallimoresent flowers?" Lissa exclaimed to herself.
"We Glindas stick together," a voice behind her spoke.
"Jools," Lissa sighed. She didn't look up.
"There are more flowers at the front entrance. It's like an ocean."
"How's yo—"
"He died on Tuesday night."
"I'm sorry, Jools." Lissa stood and hugged her friend. Jools clung to her like a life ring.
"There are flowers from Lara, too," Jools continued, referring to her predecessor, "and Julia Murney." Lissa pulled away.
"Julia freaking Murney?"
"This hit everyone. Holly wasn't exactly a tiny fish – and Broadway's family."
Lissa nodded. "Can we go in?"
"They're just cleaning up," Jools answered. "Show starts again on Tuesday."
"They okayed that?"
"Yeah," Jools nodded. "There's nothing more they can do atthe theatre; holding it closed isn't beneficial to anyone."
"I guess not. So, you missed a party last night." Lissa changed the subject as she and Jools began to walk along the path outside the theatre.
"You had a party?" Jools eyed her friend wearily.
"Yup. We watched Rent and ate pizza. With cops." Lissa turned to see the cleaning team leave the theatre, so she and Jools began to head back.
"Pizza with cops? Is that some sort of olive?"
Lissa huffed.
(x)(x)(x)
Lissa stepped out onto the stage cautiously. Above her, Jools was strapped into the bubble using the rehearsal harness. They had sweet-talked the stagehands into allowing them to use both the bubble and the stage to help settle their own nerves. Automatically, Lissa stood on her own number as the bubble was lowered, and slipped wordlessly behind it as it came to a halt on the stage. She unclipped her friend and Jools grinned wickedly.
"Want a ride?" She fitted the harness to her friend and watched Lissa's horrified face as the bubble rose once more.