Thank you for all of the reviews and story adds! The reviews keep me writing! A special thanks to Western Wicked Witch for help with ideas for this chapter.

Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter out. It was a crazy busy weekend! Hope Chapter 5 was worth the wait.

Chapter 5

The next morning I awoke to a phone ringing. I looked over and saw Derek sitting in a chair watching me.

"Eileen, it is six o'clock in the morning, what are you calling for?" Derek said, looking over at me and mouthing the word "Sorry."
"Fine, but I need a few hours to help Ms. Cartwright with a few things." Derek said looking at me and giving that grin that barely registers on his lips, but lights up his eyes.

"Alright, I'll bring Ms. Cartwright along with me, but you need to take it easy on her. She's had a very rough night." Derek said, his overly protective voice making my heart beat faster. "I know, because she spent it with me Eileen. Her ex-fiancé beat her while we were in Boston and was released on bail. I was afraid to let her go home because he has a key so we went back to my place. When we walked in there was a note on my bed from him and a broken window, so we spent the night in a rundown motel." He stopped and listened for a few moments when I saw his face flush and his look turn instantly to one of anger.

"No Eileen, I'm not banging her and if I was it would be none of your bloody business." Derek spat out, while looking at me and mouthing the word "Sorry" one more time.

They ended the conversation and Derek turned his full attention to me.

"I'm sorry the phone woke you. I had no idea she was going to call. I would have turned the ringer off."
"It's okay," I said, wiping the sleep from my eyes, "How long have you been awake?"
"About an hour, I couldn't sleep." Derek said with sadness in his voice that I hadn't heard since he told me about Becca.

"Are you okay? You sound," I hesitated because I didn't want to upset him "different."

"I'm just tired I guess" He said, putting his head down and looking away from me. I knew he was lying to me.

"You don't have to tell me what's wrong, but I wish you wouldn't lie to me." I said, watching his face for any reaction. I was definitely not expecting to see tears well in his eyes.

"Derek, are you okay? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to push." I said, feeling horrible that I had made him this upset.

"I'm fine, I just…" He stopped and took a deep breath "Today is Becca's birthday, was Becca's birthday. It's just a hard day, but I'll be fine." He said, straightening himself up and taking another deep breath.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked hesitantly.

"No, but thank you for asking, it…it means a lot." He said, looking down, avoiding eye contact. "I'm sure you heard that Eileen wants a meeting this morning."
"Yeah let me grab some clothes and I'll be good to go." I said, partially thankful that he had changed the subject.

We headed to the studio in a comfortable silence. When we arrived we walked in together and Tom and Julia exchanged a look. I'm sure they thought there was something more going on between Derek and me, but I was beyond caring what other people thought. I knew that we weren't sleeping together and that's all the mattered, and yet, it wasn't all that mattered. I did care what they thought. I didn't want them to think that he gave me the part because we were sleeping together; I wanted them to know that I had earned the part of Marilyn.

We all sat at the table, except for Tom who was sitting at the piano.
"Shall we get started?" Derek asked, in a formal, director voice.

We talked about notes from the preview and Tom and Julia made a few changes to the book and had me sing through them a few times. It was a pretty informal meeting and as we were leaving Julia stopped me in the hall.

"You know Derek has a bit of a reputation, right?" She asked her face and voice showing nothing but concern.

"I know, but there's really nothing going on between us, he's just protective of his star." I said leaving out how my heart felt about the whole situation.

"Okay I just don't want you to get hurt. He's a bit of a heart breaker." She said in a hushed tone, like it was some kind of secret.

"Thank you for your concern." I said trying to not get annoyed that she was making such a big deal out of our arriving at the same time.

As I walked away, towards Derek's car I overheard Tom and Julia talking.

"You know what he did to Ivy. I hate to see him destroy another young star." Julia told Tom.

"Yeah, she's not strong enough to take a broken heart when she learns the truth about Mr. Director. He's such a jerk." Tom responded in his annoyed, I hate Derek voice.

I kept walking pretending not to have overheard the conversation. I finally got to Derek's car and he was standing there waiting for me.

"What took you so long?" He asked his voice emotionless.

"Julia had to warn me about you and what a heartbreaker you were. I need to be careful because apparently I'm not strong enough to handle heartbreak." I said, trying my best not to laugh.

"You should listen to her. I am a heartbreaker." He said a wide smile spreading across his face and for the first time today reaching his eyes. "How about we head over to your place and get those locks changed?"

"You can just drop me off if you want, I'm sure you have better things to do than babysit me today." I said feeling very insecure in where he and I stood. I couldn't believe that I had let myself develop feelings for Derek, and yet here I was praying that he'd say he wanted to spend the day with me because I couldn't imagine going home without him by my side.

"Nonsense," he said in his adorable accent, his smile fading as he added, "I don't really want to be alone today if you don't mind the company I'd rather enjoy it, of course if you'd rather I just drop you at your place that would be fine too." He added almost as an afterthought.

"I'd love for you to join me, I just…" I stopped. I so badly wanted to know how Derek felt about me, but I was too afraid to ask. "I'd really appreciate that." I said deciding that it would be safer if I just left that question unasked, at least for the time being.

Do you think there need to be more characters involved or do you like it with just Derek, Karen and Dev? I'm trying to decide where to go with this. I have an idea for Chapter 6, but no ideas past that.