Five Years of Fame [COMPLETE]

49. Her Final Award Show

Winter, Year 5, Month 1

Reeve stood at the edge of the stage. People were hurrying all around her but she made a point not to notice. Just as she made a point not to notice the look the backstage manager had sent first her then Kelly when they informed her there would be no wardrobe change.

Her Grammy was gone. It had been passed to an underling as soon as they were off stage. Kelly only paused to make sure that Reeve's would be in her hands, engraved, along with the rest she had won that night, by the time her performance was over.

The lights in the auditorium were up and the crowd was chatting with each other, mingling, while everywhere around the country a round of commercials was playing. A crew was preparing the stage and Reeve watched as they pushed the large piano into place. And then she watched as the string quartet took their seats beside it. Anton's doing, Reeve thought. The two made a small half-moon of space where they then placed a microphone stand.

Reeve held the missing mic in her hands. Kelly had passed it to her, her interceptor from all others.

There was a small flurry of activity and Reeve turned her head to catch sight of Kelly whispering something to one of the security guards standing nearby. Reeve recognized the look on Kelly's face when she met her eyes. An unspoken thank you passed between them.

Jon had tried to approach but been turned away. His attempt to somehow make this night about him had failed. This night wasn't his to celebrate. It was hers.

Anton appeared at her side having left his seat in the crowd. He already had his in-ears in place and gave Reeve a quick squeeze on the shoulder before heading out onto the stage, taking his place behind the piano. The sight was familiar and Reeve's mind latched itself to it, making it her anchor as the lights all around went out and a single spotlight lit up the empty mic-stand.

The hurried energy behind her reached its climax but it only reached Reeve in Kelly's gentle words, whispered in her ear. Reeve placed her in-ears in place at the words "It's time" and stepped out onto the stage.

A large group sat waiting for her. The bottom level of the theater ran to the back of the house, those final seats near the exit impossible to even see. It was somehow bigger than she remembered. She had played before crowds three times this size, recently, and yet this particular crowd made her hands shake. She didn't want to look up at the two levels rising towards the ceiling.

With so many eyes locked on her, Reeve closed her own just as her steps placed her right at her mark. She gave Anton a nod and the music started.

It was low and quiet. It came in soft through her headphones and the only thing Reeve could hear was Anton gentle touch on the piano keys as he played the intro. It wasn't too long before she had to open her mouth and sing. When she did, the words came out on their own, her brain barely even aware of putting in an effort as the song did all the work.

Her voice followed the words, letting their meaning dictate the strength and emotion. It was everything she was feeling within herself at that moment and she couldn't have written a song that fit the situation more.

Her hands stayed wrapped around the mic as she stood in its shadow. All that was missing was a kitchen bar-stool and she would have been in her studio back home rehearsing. It was still Anton at her side behind the piano like it had been during those late nights, only now the mic she held in her hands was hooked up to a sound system and it was sending her voice out into a large room filled to the brim with every important member of the music industry. When she sang this time, it was heard.

As the strings came in and the emotion in the song dared to swell, Reeve's mind let her voice take charge and instead took a quick stroll down memory lane, the same one this song always sent her down.