Title: Landing in London

Word Count: 1,729

Rating: PG 14

Warnings/Spoilers: Watch the Series, or this won’t make sense.

Summary: All I think about is you.

Official Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN Instant Star. I DO NOT OWN Landing in London. No Profit is being made on this fiction.

It was the duet that the whole nation was waiting for. And the one no one knew was coming. The house lights dropped entirely except for a small spotlight on the right hand corner of the stage, and when the blonde wandered into the light, it followed her to the lone mic stand down stage left, not revealing any more then the band.

Her gown was exquisite, floor length and red strapless satin that floated around her as she walked. Her sister had gone all out when it came to her appearance, something she herself didn't really care about. Her hair was pulled up into braids that were intricately woven around her head and she didn't have her signature Stratocaster with her either. She'd asked if she could play the solo, but had been informed rather rudely by her sister that it would ruin the line of her outfit. Her partner in crime for the evening was hidden behind the drum cage, sporting a tasteful black tux with a vest to match her dress, something both of them had questioned multiple times.

Everyone wanted to celebrate Darius's fortieth birthday in their own way. Unfortunately for them, Darius just wanted a concert, televised and showcasing all of his favorite stars that he thought he had cultivated during his career. He had just wanted her to sing. It was her sister's idea that she write a new song and duet it with her old producer. The man with his own solo album that she hadn't spoken to in two years.

Calling him to set up a time when she could e-mail her lyrics to him almost killed her.

Finalizing the new song might as well had.

Darius was going to love it.

Sadie took the stage slowly, moving gracefully even at six months pregnant, to the center mic in hand. "Ladies and Gentlemen." She held her hand out to motion to her sister and smile. "Jude Harrison!"

I woke up today in London
As the plane was touching down
All I could think about was Monday
Maybe I’d be back around
If this keeps me away much longer
I don’t know what I will do
You've got to understand it’s a hard life,
that I’m going through

She had brought her own back-up band from London, a group of people that she thought knew her new life better then anyone else. They knew what to expect from her that night, and in the green room they pushed her in the green room to let it all out.

She was not going to disappoint.

The lead guitarist couldn’t be found in view of the audience.

She had started writing this song two years ago when, with a wave and a smile, she had left her old comfortable life to jet to a foreign country. She didn't know when or even if she would be coming back. The second she was on the plane she was scribbling poems and lyrics into her journal and praying that she could come up with the perfect ballad. Little did she knew that the ballad would come back to haunt her.

At least she knew she wasn't alone.

From the front row, Speiderman smiled up at her. He had offered to be on stage with her that night, to help her if she needed it. She had declined for the sheer reason that too many people she trusted with her past on stage and there would be no end to the tears that the song would bring.

She barely trusted her voice as it was.

And when the night falls in around me
I don’t think I’ll make it through
Ill use your light to guide my way
Cuz all I think about is you

The spotlights on the stage multiplied, revealing a large monitor behind her showing miniature home movies made from her time at G Major. Both of them had donated pictures and tapes to be made into a montage fans would both love and recognize. They showed all of the aspects of recording and album with Tom Quincy, who was now in the middle of the stage, maybe closer to the right hand side, Stratocaster strapped to his chest and eyes glued to the floor. As the good, the bad and the ugly played out behind them, Tommy made Jude's guitar sing a melody that was going to bring tears to almost every person in the room.

There was a reason why Sadie had chosen them to go last.

They didn't look at each other, didn't even acknowledge that the other was on stage. They took their assigned cues and the rest was left up to the music.

They both preferred it that way.

London’s getting kind of crazy
And Toronto's getting kind of cold
I keep my head from getting lazy
I just can’t wait to get back home

She kept reminding herself to breathe, they split lines and shared stanzas and the one thing Jude kept telling herself was that if she didn't breathe this would be over too quickly.

Despite her dream, she didn't have a Rock star life in London. The studio kept her busy, with mini tours and guest appearances. Her only tabloid moment had been when Speid and Karma had come to visit and Karma demanded they go to a club. Her and Speid dancing made page fifteen of the London Times, below a picture of a tribe of natives in Africa that worshipped Donald Trump's hair, and none of them had even thought to apologize for it.

Karma was just happy for the attention.

She was producing her own music now. Something that he had taught her to do and he wouldn't have been amazed to find out that the single version of Landing in London was the very first that she mixed one hundred percent by herself.

There were no boyfriends. No lovers.

Jude spent her nights like she spent her days. In the studio surrounded by the only life she knew and holding on to the love she knew she lost.

And all these days I spend away
Ill make up for this I swear
I need your love to hold me up
When it’s all too much to bear

Their voices joined, and it was as if all of the time wasted apart never existed. There would never be a voice to compliment hers like his did and vice versa. The audience was captivated by the way they were so close and yet so far away.

He had spent his two years in almost solitude, wandering from house to studio and back again. Kwest had introduced him to Sadie's assistant Alexz one night when she had dropped by the studio to have them sign some forms that Sadie needed. They hadn't hit it off, mostly due in large part to the piece of Tommy's heart that would never be returned, but in time they warmed up to each other.

They'd been together for three months when Sadie had approached him for the duet.

He'd almost left her the day Jude arrived.

He'd told no one.

The next morning when Alexz called him he had just pretended that he had stepped out for donuts and left the packed duffle bag in his office.

He’d had no where to go anyway.

And when the night falls in around me
I don’t think I’ll make it through
Ill use your light to guide my way
Cuz all I think about is you

Tommy took the solo, and Jude forced herself to concentrate on the way he ripped through the chords and found the perfect rhythm to make her guitar weep. She still doesn't know why she donated her own for him to use. He had plenty of his own that he could have pulled out of storage to take with him on stage. It just seemed right to have the one they had always used on late nights and early mornings to accompany the pain and the heart break.

They were facing each other now, eyes locked and bodies tense. It was something neither one of them realized that they had done. Jude's body was sideways to the audience, and Tommy was turned slightly to face her, and neither one of them acknowledged that there was anyone else in the room. Band members’ faces disappeared in the sea of black that Jude was developing around her vision and managers and girlfriends vanished from memories.

All that was left was the two center stage, eyes on each other.

The melody through the speakers giving voice to the words they couldn’t find.

And all these days I spend away
Ill make up for this I swear
I need your love to hold me up
When it’s all too much to bear

She was sobbing now uncontrollably, clutching the microphone stand as a lifeline and trying to keep herself up. And yet still she could still find it in her to sing. The words fell from her lips almost faster then they should have, music swelling around her.

Never in her life had she been so vulnerable on stage. Never had she broken so completely.

He watched as she did the one thing she swore she wouldn’t do during this performance, she turned to look at the monitor and the tears came down harder as Past Tommy pulled Past Jude into his lap in the studio, kissing her nose and burying his face in her hair. He shouldn't have allowed that slip to be a part of the show. He shouldn't have donated pieces of their life to be on display.

But Jude kept singing; it was the one thing she knew how to do at the moment.

Even as her heart was shattering in front of a live audience of friends and musically colleagues, she remembered how to sing. She remembered how to capture attention of her fans and pull herself together long enough to get through the song and get off the stage.

Tommy just hoped her composure lasted that long.

And when the night falls in around me
I don’t think I’ll make it through
Use your light to guide the way

Her knees hit the floor as the last line fell from her lips

Cuz all I think about is you

And the crowd went wild.

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