FicWad

A pair of small black and pink skateboarding shoes slammed the ground in the middle of a forest somewhere in the California country. The owner of these shoes was running, heavily out of breath, her heart hammering so hard against the inside of her chest, it was likely to break through. The girl groaned, terrified, and stopped where she was at. She looked around.

"You can't hide, Jade!" another male voice shouted from far off in the distance. Jade gasped and turned to run again. She'd made it about 8 feet when her foot tangled around a tree root, and her body tumbled to the ground.

"Ah!" she cried, landing hard. "Fuck!" she said in a high pitched, cracked tone, scrambling to her feet. She turned in every direction, breathing heavily. A fair amount of blood was running from her nose now. A twig snapped to her left. Shee looked quickly in that direction. Suddenly an arm flew around her neck, pinning her in a headlock. Jade gasped and cried out in horror.

"Jade, Jade, Jade," the tall man tutted, waving a gun around in the air. Jade tugged at his arm, throwing hher head back, blood still pouring from her nose. "Why are you running from me, Jade? It's not going to hurt." He ran his gun down the side of Jade's face.

"Please," Jade choked, tears forming in her eyes, "Brad, please." Brad shook his head.

"Big Bad Brad doesn't know what 'please' means, Jadie," he chuckled, putting the gun to Jade's head.

"No, no, no, no!" Jade cried, "Please! Please!" She screamed so loudly it echoed. She pulled hard on Brad's arm, now whimpering as if she were a little child. Brad let his finger put a little pressure on the trigger...

A loud growl issued from Brad's left, and when he turned to see where it was coming from, he was knocked to the ground, the gun falling from his hand.

"Run, Jade!" the man yelled. Jade, who had landed hard, looked up. "Run!" the guy yelled again. Jade wiped her nose hard on her sleeve.

"Mike," he muttered. Brad started to move.

"Jade, just get the Hell out of here!" Mike yelled. Brad groaned. Jade looked down at the man.

"Arggh..Mike," Brad moaned, looking up at his opposer. Mike looked down at him. He glanced back up at Jade, out of breath.

"Jade, go," he growled. Jade still didn't move. "GO!" Brad jumped to his feet. Jade gasped and fell backward on a tree, then turned and ran, looking over her shoulder at Mike.


~*~



The tour bus stopped, and shouting issued from inside.

"Damnit, Chester, stop fucking pushing," Rob yelled, "I'm getting out as fast as I can." Chester shoved him hard.

"Well, my grandma was slow, too, but she was old. Get out of the way," Chester complained, "I'm hungry." He pushed Rob out of the way, and came down the stairs of the bus, stepping into the sunshine. Rob, shaking his head, stepped out of the bus and shielded his eyes. Mike, Brad, Joe, and Phoenix followed, conversing about Joe's stupid stunt at the meet and greet some 2 hours before.

"If that fat ass security guard hadn't been there, we would have had to have peeled you off the ground, Hahn," Phoenix laughed. Joe looked at him.

"I didn't see you helping," he spat. Phoenix laughed, whacking him on the back. Mike chuckled and shook his head. He looked up at the studio that they'd been away from for 4 months.

"I'm so fucking happy this tour is over," Joe muttered. Brad looked at him.

"Yeah, me too," he smiled. Mike sighed.

"Yeah, well, at least you guys have something to go home to now," he shouldered his bag and walked inside the studio, leaving the others behind. Brad sighed and watched Mike go. He and Anna had broken up at the beginning of Linkin Park's summer tour. She'd gotten fed up with Mike's constant leaving. It had been pretty hard on Mike.

The others followed him inside, looking around. The place had changed a little. The owner of the Laurel Studio was getting ready for another project. They turned around, hearing the front door open and saw a short, harrassed looking girl walk in, her hair in her face. She was fumbling with her car keys, a folder, and a water bottle. She groaned, dropping the folder and all the papers inside of it all over the floor. She sighed and fell to her knees to pick it all up. While the rest of the guys stared at her blankly, Mike pushed through to help her pick the papers up. She smirked slightly and tucked her hair behind her ear, not looking up.

"Thanks," she muttered. She shoved the papers messily back into the folder and held it to her chest, standing up. She looked at all of them, her eyes becoming suddenly wide. Chester smiled.

"Hi!" he extended his hand for her to shake. "I'm Chester." He smiled at her. She used her free hand, still awestruck, to shake his.

"I'm--" she was cut off.

"Jade!" a voice came from behind them. Jade looked up.

"Hi, Rick," she smiled. The attention was suddenly off of her and now focused on Rick.

"Rick! Buddy!" The six men rung Rick's hand, patting him on the back.

"Hey guys, how was the tour?" Rick asked. Chester nodded.

"Pretty good," he said, "A few shows were better than others." Rick nodded.

"That's good, that's good," he said. "Well, guys, I'd love to stick around and chat," he walked forward and threw an arm around Jade, "But I need to start working on this young lady's album." Jade blushed, looking at the floor. "Mike, I was meaning to talk to you about that," Rick looked over at Mike, who was taking a drink of water, "I was wondering if you could help produce this one." Mike looked at him.

"Uhh, I can take a look," he said, scratching his neck. Rick smiled.

"Alright, well, we'll be upstairs," Rick said, motioning for Jade to go on ahead of him. She smiled.

"It was nice to have met you," she grinned at the men of Linkin Park, and turned on her heel to go. Rick smiled after her, waiting for her to make it upstairs. He turned back to the men.

"I found her at a small club in Santa Monica about 2 months ago," he grinned. "She's amazing." Chester laughed.

"Well, then, why haven't we hard anything about her?" he asked. Rick chuckled.

"Well, she was SUPPOSED to be a surprise," he laughed, "Your tour manager wanted her to open for you for your European tour." Chester laughed, nodding.

"Well, I think we'll need to hear a little of her first," he laughed. Rick laughed.

"Well, come upstairs with me then," he demanded. He filled them in on the way up.

"She's 21 years old. She writes all of her own music," Rick thought a little more, "She hails from Indiana." Phoenix laughed.

"She must have that funy Hoosier accent then," he smiled. Rick looked at him.

"Actually, no," he laughed, "Well, maybe a little." He laughed loudly and then walked into the recording studio. Jade was sitting in a computer chair, lounging, reading over a piece of paper. She had a pen cap in her mouth, chomping down. She looked up when they entered the room and smiled.

"Hello, again," she grinned. Rick smiled.

"The guys are going to watch us do a little bit of recording," he told her, "Is that okay?" She nodding, shrugging.

"Yeah, sure, I don't mind," she said. Rick nodded.

"Okay, well, get in there," he said. Jade laughed playfully and got up from the chair to go into the studio. She stood in front of the large microphone, putting headphones over her ears. Rick pressed the conference button to talk to her.

"Okay, we're going to run through 'Down the Road,' okay?" he asked her. She nodded, rolling up the sleeves of her longsleeved shirt. Rick turned on the music.

"Playback," he muttered, and she started to sing. When she opened her mouth, it seemed like 2,000 angels were singing. She sang through the song without a flaw, her eyes closed the entire time, and her hands holding the headphones. She stopped, coughed, and looked at Rick. Rick smiled and gave her a thumbs up, hitting the conference button again.

"Great job," he said, "Let's run through Room 308, and we'll talk after that." Jade nodded, and waited for the music to start. Once she started to sing again, Rick looked at the other men.

"Well?" he asked. Chester smiled and nodded.

"She's good," he grinned.

"Yeah," Brad muttered, "She's like a mix of Avril Lavigne, Amy Lee, and Britney Spears." Rick laughed.

"That's exactly what I said when I found her," he chuckled. Mike watched her sing, nodding with the beat.

"And I'm helping you produce this album?" he asked Rick. Rick nodded, taking a drink of Pepsi.

"Yeah, there's a lot of mixing that I'm going to need help with," he told Mike. Mike nodded.

"Alright," he said, "I'll help you." Rick smiled.

"Thanks," he grinned. The song ended and Jade pulled off her headphones. She walked back into the recording room. Rick smiled at her.

"Great job," he said. She smiled.

"Well, I guess Mike's going to stay, and help us with the album," Rick said, "You guys staying too?" He looked at the other 5. They laughed.

"Yeah, right," Joe sniggered, "I'm going home to my wife." Rick laughed.

"Alright, you guys go," he said. The others laughed, shook Jade's hand and left. Mike watched them go and then looked back at Jade.

"So, do you play any instruments?" he asked. She shrugged.

"I play a little piano," she told him, looking at the floor. She was clearly shy around him. Rick chuckled.

"She's a Linkin Park fan," he laughed. Jade blushed again and looked at the floor. Mike laughed.

"It's alright," he told her, "Let's get to work." Jade smiled and sat down next to him to work with him on the mixing.

"He can teach you how to do all that, you know?" Rick asked. She looked at him.

"You wanna learn?" Mike asked her. She shrugged. He turned back to all the knobs and started showing her all about sound levels and faders. She nodded, listening to him, laughing at his jokes. Rick watched them.

It was the first time that he'd seen Mike really smile in a long time.