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[x-dazzler.livejournal.com]

Heartbeat
Sunday afternoon...

One of the few moments where Alison was allowed to wander off on her own and out of Miles sight was during his nap times, which the little boy very much needed, regardless of his protests. Hank was still too busy with Lorna (and her parents) to give Miles a full physical yet, although he had taken the time for a quick "not about to die on the spot" evaluation earlier, and the naps had been established as mandatory until a more in depth examination could be done, much to Miles' dismay - clearly sleep was an inconvenience when there was so much to discover in his new home. Still, napping he now was, and this meant Alison could take the chance for some time to herself.

The sound of drumming wasn't unusual at this time of the day, although usually the soundproofing of the music room blocked it out completely. Alison tilted her head, pausing at the end of the corridor, and headed down, thinking that Jamie had probably not closed the doors properly. However, the way he kept pausing and restarting again, as though testing out something, brought her to slow halt in front of the door. Cocking her head to the side she listened, until a slow smile broke out. He's composing! nudging the door open, Alison stealthily slid inside, closing it firmly and quietly behind her, rather curious as to what one of her students was up to.

Jamie was seated behind the drum set, eyes closed, with a frown of concentration that evaporated into a slightly dreamy smile as he eased into something upbeat and catchy, with a strong rhythm. It slowed near the end, and finished with a gentle, fading roll on the cymbal, and he nodded, satisfied. He opened his eyes, blinked--and nearly dropped his sticks when he noticed Alison in the room. "Uh. Hi. Didn't hear you come in--I was just practicing, I can take off if you need the room?"

With a random thought about farm boys having a 101 class in 'deer in headlights' expression, Alison shook her head slowly, giving him a reassuring smile. "Nope. I was just hearing something I very much liked the sound of, though if you'd rather, I can leave you alone to work some more on it?" There was a light, interrogative lilt to the sentence, although the gleam in Alison's eyes clearly indicated she wouldn't mind staying.

"It's, um, done, I think. Or it sounds mostly the way it does in my head, anyway. Just something I started playing around with while you were off in Mexico." He smiled brightly. "How was Mexico, anyway, apart from finding Miles? All sunny and stuff?"

The sound of Jono's voice as he called Paige 'Sunshine' flitted briefly through Alison's mind as she smiled, but the brightness in her eyes was easily recognizable - the same one that shone through any time Miles was mentioned. "Mexico was Mexico, same as ever," she winked at him, leaning on the wall, very amused at the abrupt change in topic. "Wish I'd been here though. I'm feeling a particular thrill at seeing one of my kids starting to work on original compositions, I am."

"Well, I ran out of practice books. And there's only so much you can practice the stuff for the band. So I had to do something, and, um, this was it." One corner of his mouth perked up. "You really like it? I didn't know if it was any good."

Gotcha! Nodding slowly, Alison wandered over, selecting a seat a bit off to the side and still facing him, leaving him the choice to turn over the music sheets or not, as he preferred. "I'd need to hear the whole thing to be able to offer a proper critique," she pointed out idly, "but the end seemed to be pretty solid." She smiled, beating out the rhythm on her leg thoughtfully.

"Well, that was most of it. It isn't very long. You can look, if you want." Jamie nudged the music sheets over. "I dunno if I wrote it down exactly the way you're supposed to, though, and I didn't stick on a symbol key 'cause, well, I didn't figure anybody else would be looking at it."

Picking up the music sheets carefully, Alison noted the basic tempo, lips quirking every now and then, fingers drumming out the beat. "Were you thinking something acoustic, like we did for the interviews," she barely faltered over avoiding saying Trish's name out loud, and went on, "or a full band piece?"

"I dunno. I think I'd have to bribe Jono with . . . whatever the heck you bribe Jono with, and a lot of it, to get him to play it, though, it's not his kind of thing. And I can't write anything but the drum part anyway, so I hadn't really thought about it that much."

"Well," Alison eyed the music sheet, apparently giving the matter much consideration - for all of two seconds. "I could do the guitar line for you, if you like? Course, acoustic or electric depends on the lyrics and what the song tries to say, though..." And I'm sure you could easily bribe Jono with a game of scrabble... as long as Paige were there too.

Jamie did his deer-in-the-headlights expression again. "Lyrics? Who said anything about lyrics?"

Amusement glinting her eyes, Alison nodded wisely, making a show of settling the sheets together neatly. "Aaaaah, of course! I just assumed - see, by the time I'm hammering out a tune, it's usually cause I've got the lyrics down first."

Jamie shifted around in his seat. "Well, um . . . I might have, sort of, written a little bit. But it's not any good. Especially not to show to, uh, other people. Probably wouldn't really work very well to actually sing. Especially with other people listening."

"Well, the drum beat sounded interesting to me," Alison opined casually, handing him the sheets back matter of factly. "As for the lyrics, well... that's why you work them over, and keep poking at them until they're good to sing and let others listen to and all, mmm?" A pause. "I could take a look at them, if you'd like... second opinion and all."

"Welll . . ." Self-consciousness fought the chance to get help from an actual professional musician (this actual professional musician) and eventually lost; he dug a much-folded computer printout out of his back pocket and set it on the music stand, folding his hands in his lap as if resisting the impulse to snatch it back. "I'm telling you, it isn't very good."

The printout was accepted with the respect it deserved - Alison knew only too well what it took to show off your very first set of lyrics, after all. Head bending down over the paper, she went through the lyrics slowly, noting a few basic grammar mistakes that didn't matter overall, and a few words that would need to be changed if only because singing that combination out loud might be tricky... and repressing a smile as the subject of the song was only too clear.

After a moment she nodded, looking up at him for a moment, before offering him a small grin. "You know... I think you got something here."

"It's not--" Jamie blinked. "What, really? You really think so?"

"I do," she smiled wider, eyes crinkling at the corners as she worked out the tune he'd been drumming out, glancing at the lyrics every now and then. "You know... a bit more poking at a few of the lines, and it'd be a good time to work out the main melody for the lyrics themselves. Especially since you have a solid drum line going already..."

"If you want to, I guess. Doesn't really matter if it isn't finished, though, it's just something I did in my spare time."

Liar liar, pants on fire! Leaning back in the chair, Alison wagged a finger at him admonishingly. "Remember who you're speaking to young man, and think that statement over again."

Jamie grinned apologetically. "Well, yeah, it'd be fun to have it finished, I have to admit. And it's not like I'm going to say, 'no, famous rock star and personal hero, you can't write music for me.' But it'd just be the having it finished, I mean . . ." Jamie's ears went red. "I can't sing it, obviously, and it'd be . . . weird, if anybody else did, you know?"

The smile that bloomed at his words wasn't mocking, just a mixture of understanding and delight. "Well... I happen to know a certain club owner who also has juuust the kind of voice you want for a song like this. Although that would be getting a bit ahead of ourselves, since we don't even have the lyrics set to song. Yet." It was very firmly said, that last word. "But now seems like a good time as any to get started on that, don'tcha think?" She waved at the guitar quietly resting on its stand in the corner.

"Er. You're thinking about actually performing it? In public? . . . With Kitty there?" Jamie's voice broke on his last words, and his ears went redder. "I really don't know if that's a good idea."

"Having it finished means someone should get to sing it at least, kiddo," Alison pointed out practically. "And I know Georgie's been missing the chance to sing and just jam around since the baby was born. And he plays bass..." She waited, letting that sink in. "You could get the rest of the class band to hop in, I'm sure, just working the melody. And see how you feel about it before letting Georgie take a shot at singing it. Don't you want to hear what it'll come out like?"

"Well . . . yeah, I just . . . " Jamie waved feebly at the printout. "It's very all there. More than any of the other, uh, never mind." He paused, staring at his feet. " . . . What if she doesn't like it? I mean, it's been what, six months of creative writing class, I know I'm not that good at it yet."

"Mmm, some things don't have anything to do with being good in class, and everything to do with just needing to be written down, kiddo." She will melt into a gooey puddle of mush and we'll need a mop and a bucket, we will. She went on, the mention of more possible lyrics not going unnoticed. "And then closing your eyes and taking that jump, and just going for it." She paused, then reached out to pat his arm. "She'll love it, Jamie."
Jamie took a deep breath, held it, and closed his eyes, one hand unconsciously tapping the beat on his knee. Finally he vented an explosive sigh and opened his eyes agian. ". . . Okay. If it ends up sounding not horrible, we can talk about letting--people--actually hear it. So how do we start?"

Alison grinned, handing him the paper, and got to her feet, fetching some paper from her desk and retriving her guitar on the way back. "Simple, kiddo. We get new music sheets for the guitar melody, and we work something out that you like, and then we twin the lyrics to it. Might take a day, might take a week, but it'll all be fun." She paused. "But look at the fourth line first, and try and say that out loud, see what it sounds like, mmm?"

They spent a productive few hours working on the melody, and when the song started to come together Jamie forgot to be nervous, caught up in the moment, and even went so far as to admit that he was really looking forward to playing the finished piece. As they wound down, however, he withdrew again, and fidgeted with his drumsticks in his lap before shooting Alison a sidelong look.

". . . Can I ask you a question? It's kind of silly."

"Sure," was the slightly distracted reply, as Alison went over the music sheet one last time, nodding to herself in satisfaction every now and then.

"Well . . . d'you mind if I start calling you Alison? I mean . . . see, I told you it was silly, it's just Kitty does, so it's started to feel a little weird. And, well." Jamie paused, glancing over in the direction of the medlab. "You and Lorna, I mean, ever since I got here, I kinda stopped thinking of you as teachers after a while. I mean, you're teachers, yeah, but . . . you've done so much for me, to help me out, and just to be nice, I guess . . ." He paused, and the next words came out in a rush. "I guess I kind of started thinking like you were the cool big sisters I used to want when I was a kid, only skipping the part where I was a huge brat and messed with your doll collections. Or maybe really young aunts, if that was too weird. But, you know, family, anyway. So it feels kind of weird anymore, calling you 'Ms.' But it's totally up to you."

Looking up from the music sheet as he spoke, Alison listened, with a slow smile that soon turned brilliant. "I wouldn't mind one bit, Jamie," she answered softly, not even bothering to try and stop the smile from staying right where it was - and the look in her eyes, which said it all, really.

"Okay, then." Jamie grinned. "Thanks. And for helping with the song."