Crumpled pieces of paper lined the pathway from his office chair to the wastebasket in the corner of the room. Ripped pieces of paper that were scribbled on and scratched off boasted rejected song lyrics and covered the better half of the wooden desk next to the soundboard. A laptop brightly displayed his recording software where each track, vocal, and digital effect was perfected and a tangled string of studio cables connected the guitar next to his feet to the amp a few feet away.

Never mind that it was in the wee hours of the morning or in the dead of the night, but every studio monitor in that home recording studio was turned on and JC seemed fixated on the task at hand- Whatever it was.

He was hunched over with his head down over the keyboard, his fingers lightly resting on the respective black and white keys.

Melanie stood silently, a few feet away from where her husband of four years sat next to the instrument. She smothered a soundless yawn and smoothed back a few pieces of auburn hair that had escaped from the clip that held back most of her tresses.

She listened with a smile as JC began to hum a few lines. His fingers had only played a couple notes in tune before he let out a frustrated growl and slammed his hands onto the keys, almost startling the woman behind him. She looked on as he shook his head and frowned as his forehead fell into his hands.

"Babe," she spoke, stepping further into the room. The sound of the unexpected yet familiar voice hadn't fazed JC at this point. He took a few moments to compose his patience before turning his head toward her.

"The red light is on, Melanie," JC practically gritted out. His red eyes, pale face and dishevelled brown hair were only a few of the physical results of what the work he was putting in. "You know damn well you're not supposed to be down here."

She frowned, placing her hands on the hips of the gold night gown she wore that cut at her mid thigh. The drained look on her face almost matched that of JC's. "It's three thirty in the morning, Jace. I thought you were gonna come up to bed."

JC turned back to the keyboard, already more irritated than he was just a few seconds ago. "In a while."

"You said that three hours ago," she whined.

"I'm working, Melanie!" JC said loudly, his back still turned to her. "I never told you to wait up for me."

"You've been down here since this morning," she pointed out with a hint of complain in her voice. "And the red light has practically been on since Friday! Just take a break and come up to bed. I'm tired wai-"

"Jesus, fuck, Mel, just go to sleep then!" he yelled. The room went quiet for a second before JC picked up the sound sheet in his lap and his eyes skimmed over the notes. With an unsatisfied ‘ugh', he balled it in the palm of his hand and through it onto the floor. Noticing there were still eyes on his, JC turned around to face his wife.

"What?!" he asked, impatiently. She had already bothered him three times before that night with the same question and JC was more than frustrated with it.

"When are you coming up?" Melanie sighed.

"Later," JC muttered. "I need to get this song done."

"How do you expect your brain to function if you're not giving yourself a break every now and-"

"I could not be more serious right now, Melanie," JC glared at her, harshly. "Go upstairs. I have to finish this song."

Maintaining eye to eye contact for a few moments, she finally surrendered to his demand with a tired and half annoyed ‘fine.' She turned around to make her out of the studio and back up the stairs to the first floor of the home they shared. Before closing the door all the way, she leaned in just in time to hear JC begin to sing a few lines before stopping abruptly and hearing an exasperated "Ah!"

She hated nights like this when he managed to trap himself in the middle of those four walls for hours on end where all he did was succumb to the pressure of wanting to exceed the impossible.

Closing the door gently, she treaded back up to the master bedroom with little hope that JC would be awake enough by the time he was ready to leave the studio to come back to their bed.

***

Slightly stumbling from the fatigue he had given into when he found himself asleep with his guitar in his hand, JC strolled into his bedroom an hour and fifteen minutes later and immediately headed for the connecting bathroom.

Turning on the tap, he splashed his flushed face with the cold water as he looked in the mirror. The bags under his eyes were unpleasing and obviously becoming more evident with every night he did this. After rinsing his mouth with some mouthwash and washing his face, JC turned off the light and re entered the room. This time, he headed straight for his side of the bed.

He frowned when he had realized that even after a few moments of expecting sleep to overtake his body, he found that his mind was still wide awake with incoherent thoughts running a mile a minute.

"Fuck," he muttered, bringing a hand up to rub his head.

He almost jumped when he felt the mattress ripple and the body next to him turned to face him. A pair of brown eyes stared at him through the darkness.

"Can't sleep?"

JC looked at her and returned his gaze to the ceiling. He sighed. "I thought you were asleep."

"I can't sleep."

"Me either," JC grumbled, almost to himself.

Sitting up and reaching over to turn on the lamp on the bedside table next to her, Melanie turned on her side to face him once more, her head propped up on her hand as her elbow sunk into the comforter. She extended an arm so that her small hand could cover JC's larger one that rested on his stomach.

She squeezed it comfortingly, but JC didn't react.

"Did you get the song done?" she asked gently.

JC didn't answer. Instead, he simply continued to stare at the ceiling.

"Jace," she called out to him and JC pulled his hand out of her grip.

"Whaaat, Mel?" JC asked, drawing out the first word. "What is it with you tonight, huh? Can't you just let me think for a while?"

A bit taken aback by his sudden aggravation, Melanie responded. "I feel like I haven't spoken to you for four days!" she defended. "And I just asked a simple question, God! I'm sorry for giving a shit about your music."

"I didn't finish the song, okay?" JC told her, staring at her directly in the eyes, and Melanie could see that look that she still believed she was the only one that saw. The look in his eyes that mirrored stress, exhaustion, want, determination, helplessness, and drive, all at the same time.

"I don't even have the final verse down," JC continued. "Or the bridge. And the goddamn chorus needs some more work too."

"Babe, you're killing yourself trying to perfect something that I'm sure is just fine," Melanie told him, and JC immediately got up.

He sat on the edge of the bed, his feet hanging over, and lightly chuckled. "You don't get it, do you?"

"What don't I get?" she challenged.

"I can't submit a piece of work that's just ‘fine,' Mel!" JC argued. "Do you think record labels want music that's just ‘fine'? Do you think people want to hear music that's just ‘fine'? Do you think that I've been working my ass off these past few days to come out of there with something that's just ‘fine'?"

"That's not what I meant."

"Yes, it is!" JC yelled. "Do you know what it's like to want to finish something so bad, but you have no idea how to start? Do you have any idea what it's like to know exactly how you want something to come out but for some fucking reason, nothing seems to be going right? Melanie, you don't know what it's like to wake up every, damn, morning and the first thought that comes to your head after a couple hours sleep is, "God, I hope I don't fuck up this song.""

"Baby," she told him soothingly as she crawled over to him and smoothed her arms over his shoulders and down chest. "You're letting the pressure get to you."

JC shook his head. "You have no idea what it's like for me to put one hundred and ten percent of my fibre into a project, and then have people stomp all over it. I'm not fucking around when it comes to getting this song to sound exactly the way I want it to. I'm not releasing something that's going to remind people of Schizophrenic."

Melanie pulled back and bit and her brows furrowed. "Hey, wait a minute. You say that almost like you're implying that Schizophrenic was a failure."

"You said it, not me," JC murmured.

"I loved that album, Jace."

JC snorted. "Yea, you and the other fifteen people that bought it, right?"

"You really need a good knock in the head sometimes, don't you, Chasez?"

"You don't get what it's like for me to want to put out new material but have no label to release for me. I hate waking up every day not knowing whether or not the musical part of my career is gone and I've just been sitting here all this time not realizing it."

"Hun, you have so much more going for you than someone's stupid opinion on your music," Melanie said, kissing his shoulder through the wrinkled white t shirt. "But you're pushing yourself to the point where you're forcing this. I know the song's due in a couple days but you can't make music in a state like this and expect to be happy with it. You look like you're ready to take a gun to your head and pull the trigger."

"I just really can't afford to fuck this up right now," JC sighed, gently nudging her away from behind him so that they could both lay back down. "I can't afford to mess this song up. If I do..." his voice trailed off. "I don't know what I'm gonna do."

"Regardless of whatever happens, baby," Melanie began, stroking his arm. "You're going to be okay."

"How do you know that?" JC asked her, turning his head to look at her uncertainly.

Melanie smiled softly. "I'm pregnant."

JC stared at her blankly for a moment, and Melanie assumed he was taking a second to let what she just told him sink in. He pulled back a bit and responded. "What?"

"I said I'm pregnant," she repeated softly.

"No way."

"Way."

"Are you serious right now?" JC questioned, uncertainly.

She giggled, reaching under her pillow to reveal a thin, white stick. "I'm as serious as far as these two blue lines go."

JC grinned, moving his upper body over her and taking her face into his hands before crashing his lips down on hers.

"How'd this happen?" he asked when he pulled away, almost in disbelief.

"Remember that Friday night we stayed home and you decided it was a good idea if we-"

JC laughed, shaking his head to stop her. "I know how it happened," he continued to grin. "It's just... We haven't even been trying that long! You only came off the pill, like, a month and a half ago."

"I guess we got lucky," she suggested.

"Hell yea we got lucky!" JC agreed before kissing her once more. "Babe, why didn't you say anything?"

"Because you yelled at me every time I came downstairs!" Melanie laughed, cupping the side of his cheek and relishing in the stubble that grazed her palm.

JC groaned, letting his head drop to her shoulder. "Sorry bout that." He lifted his head once more. "Baby, this is amazing. Are you okay? Are you sick or anything?"

"Just a little nauseous from time to time," she replied. "I'm okay, for now. I booked a doctor's appointment for Saturday."

"Why so far away?" JC frowned. "Tomorrow, well, today's only Tuesday."

"Because your song isn't done and you have only until Thursday before you have to send it in to the label and you've got all sorts of meetings on Friday. I didn't want to add much more to that."

"Don't worry about me, anymore, okay?" JC told her. "Call the doctor in the morning and see if she'll take us later today."

"You sure?" Melanie smiled.

"Positive."

"Well then," she yawned, turning away from him so that her back pressed against his front. She reached over and turned off the bedside lamp. "I'll call later. Goodnight."

"Hey, wait a second!"

"Whaaattt?" she groaned.

JC chuckled. "Don't you want to talk about this some more?"

"You made me wake out six extra hours to tell you this when I could have been asleep. I think I deserve to get some rest now."

He smiled, wrapping an arm tightly around her and burying his face in her shampoo scented hair. "I love you."

"I love you too," she said quietly.

A minute or two passed before JC pulled his arm from over her and sprang off the bed. Melanie almost did the same from the way he shocked her.

"Wha- Where are you going?!" she asked, obviously startled.

"I've gotta go finish the song," JC said anxiously.

"Babe," she groaned. "Seriously, the lack of sleep is getting to you. Come back here."

JC chuckled, going over to her side of the bed and leaning down to kiss her forehead. "After you just gave me the best news of my life, I suddenly really feel inspired to go down there and finish it."

"You sure that's not just the stubbornness talking?" she yawned.

He smiled, leaning down to kiss her one more time. "Get some rest, okay? For real this time. You're gonna need as much rest as possible as far as our baby is concerned. I'll be up here by the time you wake up."

"Mkay," she said, falling back down onto the pillow.

JC left the room quietly, closing the door behind him. As he made his way back down to where he had left his music, he took a seat on the chair and picked up the guitar. Strumming a few lines, he slowly began to feel the familiar force of inspiration he had thought was long forgotten.

Even if Melanie was right that it was his stubbornness that brought him back down there instead of going to sleep with his wife, even if he didn't finish the song he had been stressing over for the past few days, even if it wasn't a new record deal...

 He knew for sure that, he'd have something else to look forward to.