"This is complete crap, Quincy."

The words flew out of her mouth without warning and, even though Tommy Quincy knew better, he felt his heart flip a little bit at the familiar ring of them. He never would have guessed those words would not only become so familiar but would be such a pleasure to hear. Then again he had never seen Jude Harrison coming before she blindsided him like a freight train. Who would have guessed a fifteen-year-old girl with flaming red hair and a complete innocence coupled with a drive that matched his own would determine his whole world for over four years now? When she had berated his career and his talent that very first day, he never would have known she was it.

The One, capital letters and all.

"Quincy?"

Tommy pulled himself away from this dangerous train of thought and looked up at his artist. "Sorry, Hails. Try it again but without over singing the hook."

Hailey Adams glared at him from behind the glass before smiling and proceeding to over sing the hell out of everything but the hook.

Tommy winced. He had thought Jude was a handful but Hailey put new meaning in that word. He could still remember the day that Darius had shoved Hailey into his life.

Darius had sent out one of his ominous summons for Tommy to come to his office. Tommy had never seen such a wide smile on Darius's face. It was a smile as if Tommy had just made him another million dollars which might not have been far from the truth. The remix of Jude's third album has already gone gold and was getting closer to platinum each day.

"What's up, D?"

Darius leaned back in his chair and his smile slowly dissipated. "Why are you here?"

Tommy looked around in confusion. "I thought I was here to do my job, the job you contracted me to do for the next two and half years."

"Which is what? Because all I've seen or heard from you in the past few months is- oh wait. I haven't seen or heard anything."

"I do the work. I don't create the work."

Darius shook his head. "I can remember when you did. You were constantly trying to get anyone with a label to sign one of your up and coming artists. That was then, though." Darius didn't need to say it out loud for both of them know what he was really speaking of.

"We are not discussing this." Tommy said, standing up from his chair. He was not talking about her. Not now. Not ever.

"We won't discuss it, not now, but we do need to discuss what's next for you." Darius stood up from his desk, and motioning for Tommy to follow, walked out of the room.

Tommy wasn't surprised when they stopped in front of Studio A. It had taken Darius longer than he thought to realize that Tommy hadn't produced anything. It was only a matter of time before another artist was shoved upon him.

"So who desperately needs my… help…" Tommy's voice trailed off as he set his sights on the young woman currently belting her way through White Lines. "Jude…"

Everything inside of him knew that it wasn't Jude, couldn't be Jude, but he still felt all his breath rush out his body. It was all there, the sparkle in the eye, the bright red hair, the untouched quality in every ounce of her being. This was the Jude he had first fell in love with when he wouldn't even allow himself to think the word.

"Tom Quincy, meet Hailey Adams, the new rising star of G Major."

"No," Tommy said, shaking his head and taking a step away from the glass. "No way."

"This isn't a discussion." Darius gave one more meaningful look before leaving Tommy alone in the producer's booth.

Tommy let himself sink into the couch at the back of the booth, closing his eyes and just letting the words of White Lines wash over him. He could still remember the moment when Jude confessed that it was about him. It was in that moment that he knew it was finally okay to let everything he was fighting turn into everything he was waiting for.

White Lines was the moment where he knew that it was not the situation nor the excitement of moment. It was this one particular, brilliant woman who made his very earth move. It was Jude.

He had gotten a lot of flack from his friends throughout the years about falling in love with his artist. Not only was it cliché for a producer to have a relationship with their artist, but he had to fall in love with his fifteen-year-old artist and then wait three years so as not to seem like a complete creep.

It was almost refreshing to feel himself back in the same exact situation and know that he had the chance to prove that it was something extraordinary that happened with Jude. He wasn't some creepy guy who fell in love with fifteen-year-old girls. He was a guy who fell in love with one particular fifteen-year-old girl who was special.

As the last few lines of the song came a close, Tommy sighed and stood up from his seat. The young girl looking at him through the window was not Jude and she would never be, but that didn't mean he was able to walk away. She was not Jude but she could be the one that helps him prove that his heart was right to think what he had with Jude was special.

Tommy strode into Darius's office, ignoring the intern who started to explain that Mr. Mills was in a meeting. He marched straight up to the large desk in the middle of the room and crossed his arms. "I have one condition."

"Excuse us for a moment," Darius said to the man sitting in front of him. He placed his hand on Tommy's back and guided him back out of the office. "You don't set conditions, Quincy. I set conditions and you follow conditions."

"No White Lines," Tommy said, ignoring Darius completely. "No Waste My Time. No Don't You Dare. No Ultraviolet."

Darius held his hand up to interrupt Tommy. He figured his producer would probably continue for the next few minutes if he didn't. "I get it. No Jude."

Tommy nodded. "I don't even want to hear one bar of her music."

Darius smiled. This was a condition he could handle. No covers of Jude Harrison's songs and in exchange his best producer would be on his A game. Darius held out his hand to Tommy. "Okay. We are in business."

Tommy shook his boss's hand, one hundred percent certain that he was both doing what he had to do and making an impossibly big mistake. For something he had just made certain would specifically not be about Jude, it sure felt like it was all about Jude.

"Quincy? Are you even listening?"

Hailey's voice snapped Tommy back to the present. She was staring at him with a really angry look. When she saw he was finally paying attention, she narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her hips. "Just tell me what I have to do to get you to focus today."

Tommy leaned over and pressed the intercom button. "Singing the song like I told you to would be a great start."

Hailey's mood immediately shifted as she realized that she did have her producer's attention. Giving him a wink, she launched into yet another over-the-top version of what was going to be her first single.

"Seems like you have your hands full with that one."

Tommy turned to smile at the blond woman standing in the doorway. "This is nothing compared to what I took on when it was the Harrison sisters."

Sadie laughed and took a seat next to Tommy. "How are things, Tommy?"

"Are we really going to have this conversation, Sade?"

"Yes, we are. I'm worried about you. We see each other practically every day and you haven't even asked how she is."

"That's because I don't care. Jude wanted to do this on her own. She wanted the life of a rock star without the crutch so I let her go. It's as simple as that."

Hailey's song filled up the silence between them as Tommy tried his hardest to concentrate on everything but the woman sitting beside him. There was a reason why he hadn't spoken about what happened, especially with Jude's older sister. He didn't need this right now. Not when most of his day was spent fighting to push down the anger and just take one more breath.

Sadie reached out and gently rested her hand on his arm. "You don't have to put on the show for me."

Tommy leaped out of his chair. He could hear Hailey stop singing as she watched her usually calm, cool, and collected producer have a full out breakdown. "What the hell do you want me to say, Sadie? That she broke my heart into a million pieces? That I think about her every damn second of the day? That I still am so madly in love with her that even the mention of her name makes me want to punch anything that's near me?" He paused to take a deep breath. "None of that matters anymore. What matters is that I chose to be with her and she chose to leave me behind. My whole world revolved around her so much that I was blind. While I was busy trying to fit her into my life, she was trying to figure out how to get me out of hers. Every day, I wonder why it took me so long to admit how much I needed her…" Tommy voice's faltered for a moment as he felt himself slipping away again. Shaking his head, he looked Sadie in the eyes. "Maybe if I had figured it out sooner, it would have been enough for her."

"Stop it, Tommy. No one's too blame for what happened."

"That's complete bullshit," Tommy yelled. "There's always someone to blame no matter what happened." A small smile flickered across Tommy's lips and he turned to look at Sadie. "You know I never let myself think I was good enough for her, not once in all those years. So it really wasn't much of a surprise when she realized what an idiotic move it would be to marry me."

Sadie stared at Tommy as he sank back down in his chair and rested his head in his hands. Sighing, she leaned over him and spoke into the intercom. "Take five for me Hailey."

"I'll take twenty," Hailey yelled back before rushing into the chaos that was G Major.

Tommy waited for Sadie to tell him how sad and pathetic he was being right now, but the words never came. She just put her hand on top of his and waited.

"Do you know what the saddest part is?" Tommy asked. "It takes all the strength I have to keep myself from walking away from everything I have here and jumping on the next flight to London. She wanted me out of her life, but it's not as easy as I thought it would be. All I want in the world is to hear her sing one more time. She may hate me right now. She may never want to see me again. I know there's been times since she left when I felt like that. Even then, even when I was furious at her, all I could think about was hearing her voice." He let his head drift back down into his hands.

"That's why I'm here, Tommy," Sadie said, reaching into the bag she had placed by her feet when she sat down. "I thought you should have this."

Tommy only had to hear the soft click as plastic hit wood to know what Sadie was giving him. Jude's face stared back at him from the cover of her fourth album. "That was fast."

"The new label wanted her to assert her presence right away and it seems like she had a lot of songs that wanted to come out. She's happy, Tommy."

"Good," Tommy said with a nod. He let his index finger drag along the contours of her face. "That's what this was all about, right? Her living life and figuring out how to be happy?"

"She misses you," Sadie continued. "She won't say it, but she does."

Tommy smiled. "You don't have to lie to me, Sadie. I lived that lifestyle once. There is no room for missing the people that hold you back."

Sadie smiled. "You're wrong as always, Tommy. You'll see that in time."

Tommy continued to stare at the CD until well after Sadie had left the booth. He had an album to produce. He didn't have time to deal with this.

By the time Hailey returned to the studio, the CD was out of sight and mostly out of mind.

"Let's try this again, but slow down the tempo a few notches," Tommy said with a sigh.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Please visit the homepage in my profile if you want to view the fanmix I made to represent Jude's fourth studio album... It's connected to the post for chapter one.