Love in Progress

Author Note - This story takes place after 'The Fringe" and incorporates some hints from the previews for 'Musical Chairs'. I have taken some liberties. This is my first fanfic, so please be kind.

Disclaimer - I do not own Smash or anything related to it. I am just borrowing the characters for some fun. Cartwills Forever!

No beta so its all my own doing.

Chapter 1 - Distraction

Choices. Life is all about choices. Karen had some hard choices to make now. Stay with Bombshell or go with the very rough Hitlist? Her big Broadway break or her friends? Then the biggest choice of all – Derek or Jimmy?

Derek was…. Derek. He was handsome, arrogant, challenging, understanding, charming. He was the only one who believed in her, believed that she had what it took to become Marilyn. He showed her sides of himself that he didn't seem to show to anyone else. He was never like that with Ivy. Yes, they understood each other, but it always was more about the work than any actual outside connection. The biggest worry of all when it came to Derek was the fact that he was a heartbreaking womanizer. And yet, Karen had been the only woman he had spent any significant time with since the Rebecca Duvall incident in Boston. Surely that had to mean something? And then there was that almost kiss…

Then there was Jimmy. In a lot of ways, he reminded Karen of Derek. He was dynamic, brilliant and arrogant, just like Derek. He was also destructive, and a loose cannon. While Karen liked to go through life seeing the best in people, sometimes that just wasn't always possible. Jimmy made his faults abundantly clear. Taking off when things don't go his way, and losing his temper at the slightest provocation. But that kiss… She felt tingles in that kiss. More than she'd ever felt with Dev.

"Karen! Could you kindly pay attention to your cues please?" Tom interrupted her internal reverie. She had missed her cue. Karen flushed and apologized " I'm sorry Tom, I was thinking too much on the new sequence and wasn't concentrating. I'll do better." Tom merely nodded at her. "Well, now is the time to do the steps not just think about them, so from the start again please." Tom's tone implied he didn't believe her, but being Tom he wouldn't say anything further.

She worked through the rest of rehearsals with no further faltering, keeping her mind firmly on Bombshell and far away from the more confusing thoughts of Derek and Jimmy.

Rehearsals were tense these days. While Derek was a hard and exacting taskmaster, Karen always felt like she was accomplishing something. He pushed the cast hard, and especially her, but he got results and Karen knew he was helping to make her a star. Tom was definitely not a choreographer. While he did have the vision to be director, he didn't have the presence that Derek did. The tension between the creative and producing team was disturbing, especially to a newcomer like Karen. To her, the black cloud hanging over Bombshell was not a good sign.

Leaving rehearsals, Karen finally breathed easy. She waved goodbye to her friends and started walking to the apartment she shared with Ana. She needed to think more about what choice was she going to make.

Truthfully, as much as she loved Bombshell and playing Marilyn Monroe, it wasn't the same without Derek. Karen was so torn between Bombshell, her dreams, her friends and the men in her life. When did a small town girl from Iowa suddenly have the real life of Marilyn? She laughed at her musings and decided what she really needed was a night out. The production team had given them a further 2 days off while they sorted out issues.

Entering her apartment, she dropped her bags and headed for the shower. She would call her friends when she got out.

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The club was loud, crowded and fun. Karen had called her friends and they had all agreed that going out was a great idea to forget the troubles of Bombshell.

Karen was dancing with Ana, Jessica, Bobby and Dennis. The music was hot and pumping. She was happily buzzed and enjoying her friends. She, Ana and Jessica had attracted male attention from their short skirts and wild dancing, so she never noticed when Kyle and Jimmy arrived.

Jimmy was glaring at the man who had his hands on Karen's waist and was dancing close. Grabbing a drink he downed it in one go and kept glaring. "If you keep up those glares, you might just cause her to burst into flames" Kyle told his best friend. "I have no idea what you are talking about" Jimmy retorted.

"Dude, if you want Karen that badly, you have to tell her and make a move. A girl like that won't wait around. Some other guy will always be in the background waiting for a chance to prove that he can give her everything" Kyle said. Kyle had been watching Jimmy and Karen since the night Karen heard him play in the bar. He knew that Karen was interested in Jimmy, he had seen her watching him. Kyle thought Karen could be good for his friend, if only he could get out of his own way. "I'm getting another drink" Jimmy responded and pushed through the crowd and back towards the bar.

"Hey Karen, Jimmy's here!" Ana happily informed her friend. Karen pulled away from the guy she was dancing with, giving him a smile and a thank you and went back to her friends. The guy wasn't happy about it, but he figured he would try again later with the hot brunette.

"Where? I can't see with all these people' Karen said. "Over by the bar," Ana replied. Karen looked in that direction and could just make him out, drinking at the bar, talking to a pretty blonde. She smiled nervously, and ran her hands down her skirt. "How do I look?" she asked her friends. They all laughed at her. Bobby answered, "Well if he doesn't like brunettes in short skirts and clingy clothes, you are totally dressed all wrong". Slapping him playfully, Karen waved goodbye and started to push her way through the crowd towards Jimmy.

Jimmy looked around while talking to some random blonde, wondering where Karen was. He saw her laugh with her friends, and then start moving towards him. He was the one who saw the guy that Karen had been dancing with earlier, come up behind her and grab her arm.

Karen was shocked when her arm was grabbed. She was spun around and found herself held up against the guy from earlier on the dance floor. "Hey there honey, how you doin'?" he slurred all over her.

"Hi. Thank you for the, uh, dance earlier, but my, uh, boyfriend is over there by the bar waiting for me, so if you could please let me go?" Karen carefully tried to extricate herself, but the drunk was having none of it.

"Now, honey, I can do more for you than he can. Gimme a little kiss, hey honey." The drunk moved to kiss her, squeezing her against him. Karen was disgusted, and continued to struggle. The drunk slobbered all over her mouth, and tried to push his tongue inside her mouth.

"Hey! I think she said get the hell off of her Hulk" Jimmy smacked the guy mauling Karen on the arm to get his attention.

Letting out a growl, the drunk released Karen and turned on Jimmy. He was big, solid and drunk, a bad combination. Karen stumbled away. Jimmy let fly a punch that hit the drunk in the jaw. The drunk returned with a punch that sent Jimmy backwards into the crowd.

Before anyone really knew what was happening, a fight had broken out, not only between Jimmy and the drunk, but other people in the club. Ana and Jessica went and grabbed their bags while Bobby and Dennis started to make their way over to Karen.

"Jimmy, stop! You don't have to do this!" Karen yelled at Jimmy, trying to get his attention, and break up this stupid fight. Jimmy however, was concentrating on being beaten up. Kyle had grabbed Jimmy and was trying to pull him away. "Jimmy, dude, enough! This is stupid!" Kyle was yelling at his friend, but when Jimmy got this bullheaded there was nothing to do.

Jimmy was trying for a final blow to get the drunk. He circled around, but didn't see Karen in his rage-induced, alcohol glazed state. When he started back on the guy, Karen grabbed his arm, but he turned and struck out, glancing a hit along Karen's face. She cried out, clutching her face, and backing away from him in horror. "Karen, I'm…" Jimmy was cut off when the drunk grabbed him from behind and landed a king hit, knocking Jimmy unconscious.

Karen looked down at Jimmy sprawled on the floor. Holding her cheek, she couldn't help the tears from falling from her eyes. The drunk was about to grab her again as his victory prize when Karen's friends suddenly surrounded her. "Back off! Haven't you done enough damage?" Ana yelled at the drunk. Her friends hustled Karen out of the club and into the cool night air. "Well so much for a fun night out" Bobby said.

"Karen, sweetie, are you ok? Let me see your face," Jessica asked gently. Karen removed her hand and they all looked at the slightly split lip which was still bleeding, and the bruise that was forming around Karen's cheek. "How bad is it?" she asked. "Well, you definitely need some ice," Dennis piped up.

"Well I am definitely done with this night out. I think I will catch a cab back to the apartment and get myself cleaned up. You guys keep going." Karen said quietly to her friends. She was also done with Jimmy. Getting hit in the face, even by accident was not good in her book and she had no interest in getting caught up in Jimmy's tangles.

While her friends tried to persuade her to let one of them go with her, Karen was adamant. "Seriously guys, I just want to go home. But you're night doesn't have to be ruined. You all deserve a night out. And none of you got smacked" Karen tried to joke. Seeing that she needed some time out from everyone, they called a cab and saw Karen off home.

As the cab pulled away from the sidewalk, and took her closer to home, Karen was getting more and more upset. Finally, in tears in the backseat, she asked the driver to take her to a different address. She couldn't cope with this without him tonight.