A/N: Okay, feel free to hate me! Or rather, hate Mobile Mac. I keep my running copy of this story on my .Mac account (a web-based server so I can have access to it on any computer) because currently I am…nomadic. I'm sort of just going across the country and stopping and seeing and visiting and … that's not the point. The point is that I usually use hotel computers 'cause it's a bitch having mine with me at all times. ANYWAY my .Mac account is all screwy, so this is the first time I was able to pull a decently formatted version from it. And I'm posting it as soon as possible!
Also – thanks everyone sooo much for all the reviews! They were SO amazing, and if I wasn't in such a rush to get this chapter out for everybody, I'd be responding to a lot of them. I actually just finished the tracklisting for Jude's album and they all play a big role in the story, so I'm super inspired.
I hope everyone likes this chapter! I know there was a lot of anticipation for it, and in a situation like this it's really hard to grasp all the emotions, so hopefully I did an okay job with it all.
Disclaimer: I don't own Instant Star! And also, I don't own the song in the previous chapter – that was Katherine McPhee's "Home."
Tommy watched as the Hummer went up in flames and Jude's body flew across the parking lot.
"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," was all Tommy said as he ran as fast as humanly possible to Jude's prone body.
"Jude, wake up, c'mon babe, wake up," he knelt down frantically next to Jude and cradled her head in his hands, patting her cheeks lightly while scanning her body for obvious injuries. Tommy was oblivious to the sirens in the background quickly approaching or the sudden onslaught of people running out of G-Major. All he was aware of was Jude, lying there on her back after witnessing her flying backwards over 20 feet.
His hands traveled around her legs and back and arms and chest and finally up behind her head. He retracted his hands and found blood.
"Oh, God." His panic became full-fledged. "Help," he said softly, although in his mind, he was screaming. Tommy wanted desperately to look away from Jude, to flag someone down, to get help of any kind, but he couldn't bring himself to stop staring at Jude, to stop running his hands over her body, to stop feeling her pulse to simply reassure himself that he was alive. He gently picked her up and carried her farther away from the blazing Hummer.
"Jude!" Sadie's voice shrieked louder than any sirens in the vicinity.
"Please, please, please," Tommy pled earnestly, hands still searching, heart still racing.
"Ungh," a soft moan escaped Jude's lips.
"Oh, okay, oh god, Jude," Tommy gently lifted Jude's head into his lap as Sadie, Darius and Kwest rushed over and knelt beside the pair.
"What happened?" Darius's usual commanding voice was now almost as frantic as Tommy felt.
"The Hummer exploded," Tommy said, still in disbelief. "And Jude…I was chasing her and she was upset, and ..oh god, Jude, are you awake?"
"My head," Jude softly moaned.
"You'll be okay, shh, I promise."
Tommy was vaguely aware of Sadie burrowing her head in Kwest's chest, crying. Darius was being pushed aside by paramedics.
"Ms. Harrison, I need you to open your eyes," one started speaking with her, as the other turned to Tommy.
"What happened, sir?"
"The…Hummer. It exploded," Tommy watched as they gently moved Jude off his lap and onto a stretcher, but made no move to wheel her away.
"Tommy…" His name was faintly heard coming from her lips. Tommy scrambled over as quickly as he could and took her hand in his. She used her other hand to move it to her head, although still not opening her eyes.
"My head," she moaned as she tried to sit up, "Oh, I'm going to be sick." She mumbled as she lay back down.
"Don't try to move, girl," Tommy whispered urgently as the paramedics continued to bark out orders to each other. They took her blood pressure and barraged her with questions.
"Do you have any medical issues?"
"Well, I think I have a head wound," Jude joked weakly, drawing a strangled laugh out of Tommy. He was still so worried and nervous and felt like he hadn't been able to take a breath since he saw the explosion. The paramedics ignored Jude's jokes and persisted.
"Can you open your eyes, Ms. Harrison?"
"With or without getting sick?" A paramedic smirked at this.
"Without, if you can manage it."
Her eyelids fluttered slightly before opening, but she couldn't seem to focus on all the shapes lingering above her.
"How many fingers am I holding up, Ms. Harrison?"
"Twelve? That's impressive."
Tommy had to laugh at this, despite the burn of tears he felt at his eyes. He wasn't a naturally emotional guy, but it seemed as if the relief of discovering Jude was okay was wearing him down.
"Close your eyes and try again please, miss."
She did as she was told, and as she opened her eyes again, they focused much faster.
"Four. Am I right? Did I do good?"
"Very good, Ms. Harrison." The paramedic responded.
"What happened?" Jude asked groggily.
"I believe the Hummer exploded, Miss. Do you think you can sit up now?"
"I guess," Jude said hesitantly. She tried to prop herself up, and Tommy moved behind her just in time as she almost collapsed backwards, her face white as a sheet.
"Miss, you've lost a lot of blood, but it doesn't look like you're going to need a transfusion. We are going to give you an IV, though, okay?"
Jude just leaned against Tommy and nodded slightly. Tommy's shoulder was quickly becoming saturated with blood and the shock was written all over his face.
"Sir, don't worry. Head wounds are notorious for being very heavy bleeders, despite size." The paramedic handed Tommy a towel. "Hold that on the back of her head with steady, firm pressure, okay?"
Tommy just did as he was told, murmuring words of comfort to Jude the entire time as they prepped her hand for an IV.
"I hate needles," she muttered softly, trying to remain calm, as the more panicked she got, the harder her head pounded.
"Hey, just think of it as…intravenous licorice, okay?" Tommy kidded into her ear.
Finally the paramedics got Jude up and sitting in the back of the ambulance, which was farther away from the fire and further out of sight to the press that had congregated around G Major. Tommy sat next to her the entire time, not speaking, just…being. He watched as police made their way to all the G-Major staff, and stood up to shake the hand of the cop approaching both him and Jude.
"Hello, detective," Tommy said respectfully, shaking his hand before sitting down next to Jude again.
"Hello, Mr. Quincy, Miss Harrison. I'm Detective Piercy, I'll be handling your case with my partner, Detective Costanza," he said, motioning to a man interviewing a distraught Sadie and a shaken-up Kwest.
Detective Piercy was a nice looking gentleman, a black guy maybe thirty-five at the most. He was wearing jeans with a shirt and tie, his shiny gold badge hanging around his neck.
"Nice to meet you, Detective Piercy. I'm not sure how much help I can be right now, and, well, Jude's not really coherent," Tommy said with a smile, motioning towards the blonde girl leaning heavily on him.
"I'm coherent," Jude said grumpily. "My head hurts. They should probably give me an Advil or something…"
"There's codeine in her IV," Tommy confided in the detective.
"Well, if you could just run me through a brief outline of what happened today, then I'll get out of your hair. You'll both need to come down to the station sometime to sign statements, but I, of course, want you both to get home and get some rest."
"Okay, good, well, we were walking out of G-Major when, I think Jude hit the remote unlock button for my Hummer and it exploded. She was pretty far ahead of me so she got most of the blast…"
"Light," Jude managed to get out, followed by a yawn.
"I'm sorry, Miss?" Detective Piercy asked politely.
"There was a blinking light," Jude clarified. "I don't know what it was. It was underneath the bumper. I don't know."
Jude was obviously very tired, but she was very insistent on what she had seen.
"Is there anyone out there that was upset with either you or Mr. Quincy?"
"I don't know, I don't think so…"
"Was anyone aware of the fact that the two of you shared cars frequently? Is there anyway to know who this attack was made for?" Tommy just shrugged.
"I usually drive it, she drove it a couple of times this week, but I drove us to work this morning together, so it's hard to say."
"And your relationship with Miss Harrison…?"
"Complicated," Jude answered for him. "And please, call me Jude."
"Alright then, Jude, have you gotten any disgruntled fan mail recently? Anything that caused a red flag to stand up?"
"Darius handles all my fan mail. I wouldn't know if they've gotten anything alarming, they generally don't tell me that stuff. But recently…" Jude opened her eyes and looked at Tommy, wondering if she should confess to the police her recent paparazzi scares. Tommy nodded.
"Yes, Jude?"
"Recently," she sighed, "the paparazzi have been…a little more invasive than normal."
"How invasive are we talking?"
"Break-into-the-Hummer invasive."
Jude then proceeded to relay the conversation the stalkerazzi had had with her for what felt like the millionth time.
"Alright Jude, well I'm going to probably have some more follow up questions for you later on, but if you guys come down to the station tomorrow at around, say, 9 a.m., I'll be able to deal with everything all at once. I don't want this ordeal to inconvenience you anymore than it already has."
"Thanks," Jude mumbled, the codeine taking affect. Tommy shook the man's hand once more, saying his thanks as well.
"Girl, you about ready to-"
"JUDE," Stuart Harrison was jogging through the emergency personnel and G-Major staff that littered the parking lot to get to his daughter and her producer. "Oh, goodness. How are you? What happened? Where's Sadie? She was so upset on the phone, I should go see her, but what happened?"
Tommy bit his tongue to refrain from admonishing Jude's father for looking for Sadie when his youngest daughter was just in a near-death experience.
"It was an accident," Jude said softly, playing with the tape holding down the IV needle in her hand. "We don't know how it happened."
"An accident?" Stuart echoed. "The Bomb Squad's here, Jude, what kind of 'accident' requires the Bomb Squad?"
"Mr. Harrison, we really don't know much. It was all very fast. Jude's fine, they say she has a mild concussion, but nothing to worry about. That, plus some minor cuts and abrasions, but no permanent damage."
"You don't know?"
"No, sir."
Stuart Harrison sighed loudly.
"The press is going to have a field day with this. Our house is going to become a three-ring circus. Sadie can't handle that in her…condition." Well, that answered the question if Stuart knew about whether Sadie was pregnant or not, Tommy realized.
"Oh, Jude's going to be staying with me." Tommy said confidently, not aware of the words that were coming out of his mouth until they were out, hanging in the air. He felt a collective raising-of-eyebrows from the two Harrisons surrounding him. Yeah, he probably should've cleared that with Jude before mentioning it to her father.
"It's for the best, Dad," Jude said, surprising both Tommy and her father. "Sadie really doesn't need that, and Tommy's got really good security. It'll be fine. Don't worry."
"Are you sure you're okay, sweetheart?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Jude reassured him. "Go find Sadie and give her my love, okay? Tell her I'm fine, but I really just need to get out of here."
"Okay," Stuart said, leaning down and kissing Jude on the forehead. "Go get some rest and call me tomorrow, okay?"
With that, Stuart walked over to Sadie and Kwest, comforting his eldest daughter.
Jude and Tommy watched that for a bit, before Tommy decided to get Jude away.
"I'm going to go tell Darius we're leaving, then I'll get you out of here, okay?"
Jude looked around hesitantly, not liking the idea of being left alone, but then spotted Darius, not more than a few yards away, talking animatedly on the phone, probably trying to do some PR damage control. She nodded to Tommy and he got up to talk to D.
Darius closed the phone as soon as he spotted Tommy coming over and met him halfway.
"How is she?" He asked without any pre-empting.
"Holding up. But she's exhausted and sore, so I'm going to get her out of here."
"Good plan," D said, nodding thoughtfully. "Call me tonight, once she's settled, okay?"
"Sure," Tommy responded. "One more thing though. See, we both sort of showed up in the Hummer this morning, so…"
"You're both adults, so I won't comment on the one vehicle thing," Darius said with a slight condescending tone.
"It's not even like that."
"Whatever. So what, you want to use my car?"
"I'd appreciate it. We just want to get out of here as quickly as possible."
"You're lucky that firebomb didn't take out my Jag as well," Darius said with a smile as he handed over his keys to Tommy. "Take care of her."
Tommy wasn't 100 sure if he was referring to the car or Jude, but he just nodded, glad to be leaving that place.
- - - -
Tommy got both him and Jude back to his place without incident. He carried her to the elevator and up into bed.
"You'll be okay for a bit then?" Tommy asked for the fifth time.
"Yes, Tommy. I'll be fine, I promise. If I need anything, I'll call for you. I really just want to sleep."
"I'll be in in two hours to wake you up, okay?" Tommy said, mentioning the stipulations the paramedics set up. They recommended Jude be woken up every two hours, and Tommy had to agree to do so in order to avoid a hospital visit for Jude.
Jude nodded sleepily and Tommy kissed her on the forehead before leaving the room. Jude was asleep before the door shut.
Tommy hit the speed dial for Darius's cell, and was connected immediately.
"T? How's everything going?"
"Fine, she's asleep."
"Good, good. Listen, I know the detective handling this case, so he's going to keep me in the loop, okay?"
"That's fine. Do they know anything yet?" Tommy hadn't wanted to stick around to see what would turn up on what was left of his Hummer.
"It was rigged to blow, Tommy."
"Christ," he murmured, running his hand over his face.
"We've tightened security over here and it's pretty impenetrable, but you still might want to talk to your super at your building."
"I will. Is it calming down over there?"
"I wouldn't say that. The fire is out and the ambulances are gone, but the Hummer, or what's left of it anyway, is still taking up a huge portion of our parking lot."
"And the press?"
Darius heaved a large sigh.
"It's tough to see how this one will go. They'll either love Jude for being so strong through this, or paint her to be some example of too much fame too soon. Either way, they're jumping on this story. Its only going to get worse, Tommy."
"I guess that could have been expected."
"We'll just play it by ear. The most important thing through all of this is that Jude's okay. Hopefully having this constant press surrounding her will deter anyone from trying anything. And now I know the two of you think you're so clever by keeping your relationship out of the spotlight and tabloids, but-"
"What?" Tommy said faintly.
"I just think that if it was hard before, it's going to be damn near impossible now with the press coverage Jude will get."
"It wasn't hard before. Because we're not together."
"Oh, come on, Tom. You're good but you're not that good."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that you can fool the media and the reporters that only see you a couple of minutes every day, but you spend all your time at G-Major. You didn't really expect no one to find out, did you?"
"And you just don't have a problem with this?" Tommy asked, confused.
"Like I said before, the two of you are adults."
"Well, it doesn't matter. We're not together."
Darius's laughter boomed across the line, causing Tommy to actually move the phone away from his ear.
"Keep up the charade as long as you want, T."
"Thanks for the permission," Tommy responded dryly. "I was just calling to check in. It's been a rough day and I'm still exhausted from L.A."
"That about covers it. I'll keep you posted as the day goes on, but I doubt we'll be hearing much back today."
"Sounds good, D."
"Alright, I'll let you get some sleep. But T, that album came out great. I'm really feelin' it."
"She's amazing, isn't she?"
"She sure is. Talk to you later."
Tommy didn't bother responding, he just clicked his phone shut and pinched the bridge of his nose.
What happened today? He asked himself as he walked back to his bedroom. It seems like it was years ago that he had come home to find Jude asleep in his bed. It was weird for him to think that just this morning they had been laughing and watching geeky sci-fi movies and eating breakfast to having intermittent fights to Jude nearly getting blown up. It's too much, if you ask me. She shouldn't have to deal with all this ever, let alone in one day.
Tommy pulled off his shirt and pants and slid on some loose cargo pants before sliding into the bed with Jude. He felt like he aged ten years in the past few hours. He couldn't recall a time in the past five years that he had felt that scared for someone. Jude. He had been so scared. So worried. What would he have done without her? What if she had been walking just a little faster? While his body sunk deeper into the sheets and shut down, his mind reeled with 'what-ifs' and 'what woulds.'
Finally, Tommy glanced at the head of blonde waves next to him and he felt his mind slow down just a little bit. She was there. With him. Nothing bad had happened, nothing was going to happen. She was there.
And for the moment, that was all Tommy needed.