A/N: I'm so sorry that this is just coming out now, but this week has been absolutely insane! I haven't gotten home before 11pm any night this week, and it's all been work-related. I'll be putting out the last pre-show chapter tomorrow, but here's one of the lead-in's. :) Hope everyone had a great Halloween! What did you all dress up as? :D

********** Sentimental Man **********

Two days after the air conditioner had broken down (and several angry phone calls by an overheated Lester to get it fixed), everything was back to normal at the ARC. Business continued as usual, with one or two anomalies per day, but around their actual work, the vast majority of the ARC staff was working hard on the show. Emily had set it up so well that everyone involved knew only as much as was needed. Those who had built the sets had no idea what was being done with them, and were only brought back in if there was a problem. That meant that Matt and Becker had been relegated back to their normal duties, while Abby, Connor and Jess were still pulled out of their respective areas on a regular basis for practice or other show-related matters. Even Lester was being called in more than his top two soldiers. But no matter what they were doing, when that anomaly bell sounded, everyone bolted for their necessary positions.

Not that they minded at all. It was nice to be able to focus on their work, and they tried not to get too annoyed when their charges were taken away by Emily for whatever reason. Lester had decided on their skeleton crew for while the show was happening, and was working with them and Emily on how they could watch the show unless they were absolutely needed. With Jess' help, they had gotten pagers set up so that when the portable ADD picked up an anomaly, they'd be paged (vibrate only) and easily slip out the back. Becker had helped set up another weapons closet between the canteen and Ops, so that they would have easy, on-the-way access to the EMD's if they needed to leave in a hurry. It really was a brilliant plan, and the only way the show would be interrupted would be if the anomaly created an incursion that was bigger than expected.

In the week leading up to the show, Becker had heard singing coming from some of the labs every afternoon. He had figured out that both Abby and Connor were singing in the show with Emily, but that was all he could tell from the singing itself.

One afternoon, he had passed by the canteen one day to see Jess in there and working with the musicians in their 'band'. Becker had been floored at the amount of instrumentalists they had working at the ARC. From what he could hear through the thick doors as he approached, they were pretty good. It was initially only a quick glance as one of the lab techs was walking out the door, but Becker managed to slip his toe in the way before the door shut. He watched for a minute as Jess grinned her way through their performance. He could see her mouth moving at times, singing along with the music, but couldn't tell what she was singing or what she sounded like. But he focused on how happy she looked there with them, and wished that he could be the one to do something to get that kind of look out of her.

Sure, she graced him with her brilliant smile every time he brought her chocolate, but she always seemed like she was holding something back. Each day he managed to keep from blurting out something that would completely give away how he felt, but it was getting harder as time passed. He'd felt the major shift in his feelings during the beetle incident two months prior, and had wanted to jump for joy when she actually pulled through it. It had been then when he had fully realized how much he needed her around to be happy. She had punched her way through the tough-soldier shield he'd raised around himself, and settled herself somewhere close to his heart. Now he just needed to find the nerve to tell her that…

Later that day, Becker was still trying to pull himself from his thoughts of Jess as he passed the 'rehearsal lab'. He heard Emily singing sweetly through the thick door, but stopped short when he heard a second voice. He couldn't make out the words, but the melody was fairly easy to pick up. It was a voice he hadn't heard before, and it shocked him with its clarity and tone. It was, simply put, angelic. Becker backtracked a bit to try and peek through the window to see who it was. Unfortunately for him, the singer had her back to him, and her hair was completely obscured by the black witch's hat that she wore. After watching for a few minutes, he accepted the fact that this woman wasn't going to turn around, and moved a little ways away from the door. He listened to her and Emily singing together for a few minutes more, and then continued on his way back to the armoury.

Inside the lab he had just passed, Emily smiled brightly at her singing companion. Emily had known from the minute she'd first opened her mouth to audition that she was the perfect choice for the lead. There was so much energy and emotion in her voice, and the Victorian found herself getting swept into the hypnotic voice. They finished their duet, and both grinned as the last note faded out. "Perfect!" Emily exclaimed happily.

"Really?"

"It was beautiful," she assured her. "Now we have to figure out how we're going to get everyone rehearsing together without running into spies…"

Two days later, the canteen was completely shut down for the afternoon as everyone involved with the show began practicing as a whole company. Everyone not involved went about their normal activities, but Jess had rigged up the canteen doors so that the only people who had access were those actually in the show.

Some of the soldiers grumbled about the fact that they couldn't get their usual afternoon coffee as a result, but most of their complaints were good-natured. In truth, everyone was starting to get excited about the show. It was the first time that anything like this had happened at the ARC, so everyone wanted to know how it would turn out.

Lester smiled as he watched the stage production rehearse. Lady Merchant's idea had been a far-out one, but he was very glad that he'd supported it. It seemed to only be bringing his staff closer as they worked in another capacity with each other.

The show couldn't come fast enough.