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"Okay, that was great everybody," the director of the show says to the two actors standing center stage. "Really great. Grant, I love the way you did that just then. But when you're singing the end of that song, I need you to remember to sing it right to your leading lady, never taking your eyes off of her; you want her to really know how you feel about her and this entire situation you're in."
Grant nods his head in understanding, "Right, got it."
"Great," the director breathes out. "Let's run that number again from the top." He presses a finger to his headset mic, "Can we get playback ready to go, please?"
"Playback is ready whenever you are," the feminine voice on the other end says.
The director turns his attention back to the actors in front of him, "Alright. Let's start from right before the song, with your line, Lorelei."
The redheaded woman nods and she and Grant move back to their starting positions. She takes a deep breath before opening her mouth to speak completely switching over to her character, "We can't keep going on like this, Marcus. Something has to be done."
"I don't know what you want me to say or do, Carrie," Grant says as his character.
"Anything," she replies, with tears shining in her eyes. "Anything that'll show me that you really want this."
"I do want this," he says, taking her hands in his as the music for the song slowly fades in. "Despite what could happen to us, I want this more than anything."
Before he can start singing, a loud screech of feedback comes through the speakers followed by a "Jessie! No!" and then some shuffling and a click. There's a brief pause, everyone's heads looking up towards the tech booth at the back end of the theatre. "Sorry, sorry," the same voice says, "so completely sorry about that. I'm uh, just gonna need a few minutes to fix some things up here. Again, so sorry."
The director sighs. "Alright, everybody, let's take ten. When we get back we'll run the show from the top." He turns around and makes his way up the aisle of the theatre, determination in his walk and on his face.
"Grant," Lorelei speaks up in what he assumes is supposed to be a sultry voice, making her way towards the him, "wanna go somewhere and work on that scene near the end? I'm still having some trouble with it."
"Yeah, uh, maybe later," he tells her offhandedly, his attention still directed up towards the tech booth.
Making his way across the stage he goes down the stairs and then up the aisle, following the same path his director did just a minute before.
When he steps out the theatre doors he goes over to the single door that leads up to the tech booth, finding it slightly ajar. Pushing it open the rest of the way, he leans in and then pauses, hearing voices coming from up above.
"...you know that I do, but I made it very clear from the beginning that this cannot happen."
"I know, I know, and I'm really sorry, Phil. But I honestly had no other choice today. I promise that this won't happen again, though."
"Good. We're running the show again from the top in ten minutes."
"Yep, got it. The system will be ready to go when you and all the actors are."
Hearing footsteps approaching, Grant quickly leans back out of the door and moves across the hallway to lean back against the wall in what he hopes is a casual manner.
"Grant."
He lifts his head to see his director standing in the hallway. "Hey, Phil."
"What are you doing out here?" Phil asks him.
"Just uh, just getting some air."
"Lorelei?" the man questions with a slightly raised eyebrow and small smile.
Grant sighs and nods, "Yeah."
"I'm sorry you have to go through that, Grant."
"The things we do for the theatre, right?" Grant says with a small smile of his own.
Phil chuckles, "Yes. Well, I'll see you back in there."
"Yeah," Grant nods, watching as Phil makes his way back into the theatre. He waits a quick beat before moving back towards the tech booth door and pulling it open.
Making his way inside he closes the door behind him as he ascends the stairs, rounding the corner into the medium sized room.
He sees a petite brunette woman hunched over in the far corner of the room, her back to him.
"Hello?" he calls out, getting her attention.
The woman turns her head to look at him. "Hi. What are you doing up here?" she asks him with furrowed brows.
"I uh, I heard you talking to Phil and I guess I just got a little curious. I'm sorry if I interrupted or disturbed something. I'll just...I'll go now." He moves to go back down the stairs when a small voice speaks up.
"Mommy? Who is that?"
The woman turns back to the corner, "He's one of the actors in the play mommy's working on, baby girl." She turns back to him and stands up, revealing a small child with the same color hair sitting in the corner with toys and other things spread out around her. "You don't have to go," the woman tells him. "I'm just not used to having any actors up here. You guys usually tend to stay down on the stage or in your dressing rooms, mingling with your own kind."
"Right," he nods. "And I don't think I've ever seen you down near the stage either. Do you techies tend to stay up here and not interact with others?"
She shrugs, "It's easier. No offense, but most of the actors I've worked with have been pretty stuck up and snooty, I'd rather not hang around them."
He holds his hands up for a moment, "Hey, no offense taken. I don't really hang out with them all that much either outside of rehearsals."
"Not even your leading lady?" she asks, moving to sit down on the couch that's against one wall.
He shakes his head and leans against the wall, "No. Lorelei's a little...much for me."
"Of course she is," the brunette nods. "I'm Skye, by the way."
"Grant," he tells her.
"Yeah, I know. I know who everyone in this show is."
"Right, of course you do."
"I'm Jess."
Grant turns his head towards the little girl to see her standing up and toddling over to the couch where Skye sits.
Skye leans forward and lifts the little girl into her lap, "Yes you are." She looks up at Grant, "This is my daughter, Jessica."
"Oh, wow. It's very nice to meet you, Jessica."
"You too," the little girl smiles up at him. "Mommy," she turns her head to look at Skye, "how long we stayin?"
"Oh, we've still got a few more hours left here, sweet girl." Skye adjusts her daughter's position in her lap and runs a hand over her head, smoothing back some of her hair.
"Today is daddy day. I want daddy."
"I know, baby girl. But remember, daddy couldn't watch you today. So you got to come to work with mommy."
"But I wanna go down there," she points through the large window in front of the sound and light board. "I wanna watch."
"Sorry, baby. Not today. Maybe another time, okay? Now go back over and play with your things."
"Okay," Jessica slides down off of her mom's lap and goes back over to where her things are located.
"How old is she?" Grant asks her as he sits down on the couch next to her.
"Just turned four," she tells him. "She's a little bit of a handful but I love her."
"She definitely seems like she has a lot of energy."
Skye nods. "Ever since she started crawling I knew she was going to be keeping me pretty busy. But she's also a big ball of love," Skye smiles over at her daughter. "Her dad and I are very lucky to have her."
"Forgive me if I'm overstepping, but uh, I couldn't help noticing how she said that today is 'daddy day'. Are you and her dad not together?"
"You're fine," she tells him with a small smile. "And no, we aren't together anymore. We were for a while, we got married relatively young. Kids weren't really a part of our plan, the topic had never come up before, but then Jess happened and we decided to keep her. I'm not exactly sure what happened along the line with our marriage, but eventually we both realized that things weren't working between us anymore. We just finalized the divorce a couple months ago."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Thanks. It's been a little tough not having him around the house 24/7, but he's still there for Jess when he needs to be. He's a great father, and there's no bad blood between us or anything which I'm especially grateful for."
"That's really good to hear," Grant gives her a small smile.
"Yeah. He was actually supposed to watch Jess today, but apparently he had an emergency at his work and wasn't able to take her. My best friend and her husband are both out of town so they couldn't watch her like they usually do if I need someone to, and no one else I asked was able to watch her last minute either."
"Your parents couldn't?" he asks.
She shakes her head, "Don't have any. Orphan. Never found my parents."
"Oh, wow, I'm so sorry," he says.
"Don't be," she replies. "I got over that fact a long time ago."
"Right," he nods. "So I'm guessing Jessica is the one who messed with the equipment up here just a little bit ago?"
Skye sighs and nods, "Unfortunately, yes. Phil wasn't too happy about that. I've known him for years and he loves Jess, but the tech booth isn't really the place for a toddler to be."
"No, I guess it isn't."
"But I didn't really have any other choice."
"Don't you have a whole team, though?" he asks. "Couldn't one of them have been here today so you could stay home with your daughter?"
She nods, "Yeah, I do have a team. But I'm really the only one who's competent enough to actually set everything up and make sure it's running well. Plus all the ideas for lighting schemes and whatnot from reading the script and seeing the show rehearsals are all up here," she taps on the side of her head, "so it's easier to just do this all myself and then teach it to them once it's all figured out so they can do it for the shows. All they really have to do is a press a button to switch to the next scheme."
"So you're kind of like the head honcho up here, then," he smiles.
Skye gives him a small laugh, "Yeah, I guess so."
Grant takes a deep breath and stands from the couch, "Well, I should probably go, you need to fix your setup and I need to go get ready onstage."
"Right," Skye nods and stands as well. "I guess I'll see you around, then."
"Yeah," he nods. "Bye."
"Bye," Skye gives him a small wave.
"Bye, Grant!"
Grant smiles over at the little girl in the corner, "Bye, Jessica." He turns and makes his way back towards the stairs.
Stopping a few steps down, he turns around and makes his way back up. "Skye?" he calls out, getting her attention.
The brunette spins around from the lighting equipment and looks at him. "Yeah?"
"This may seem a little sudden because we literally just met and you just recently got divorced, but would you like to go out to dinner next Saturday? With me?"
Skye gives him a small smile, "I'd love to."
*Several months later*
"Welcome back to the 74th annual Tony Awards. Please welcome to the stage, from What's In A Name?, Kara Lynn Palamas."
The crowd cheers and claps as the raven haired actress makes her way out onto the stage, an envelope clutched tightly in her hands.
"Good evening," she says into the microphone in front of her when the noise dies down. "It is my upmost pleasure tonight to be able to present the award for Best Lead Actor in a Musical. All five of these men who are nominated have such tremendous talent and the world is truly blessed to be able to witness the magic that happens whenever they step out onto that stage and do what it is that they do." She pauses. "The nominees for Best Lead Actor in a Musical are...Steve Rogers, Love and War; Clint Barton, Louder Than Words; Grant Ward, Split In Two; Lincoln Campbell, When Sparks Fly; Joey Gutierrez, Love is Love."
Holding up an envelope, Kara smiles into the mic, "And the winner for Best Lead Actor in a Musical is..." she quickly pulls open the envelope, reading the name to herself before leaning towards the mic again, "Grant Ward, Split In Two."
The crowd bursts into applause as, down in his seat, Grant gets a wide smile of happiness and disbelief on his face. He turns his head to the brunette woman sitting next to him.
She smiles wide back at him, resting a hand gently on his arm. "You did it, babe. Go on up there and get what you deserve." She leans forward and gives him a quick kiss before nudging him up out of his seat.
Grant takes a deep breath, straightens out his suit jacket, and then makes his way up onto the stage.
Reaching the center of the stage, he accepts the golden statue from the person next to him and then stands at the microphone, taking a moment to admire the award in his hands.
"Wow," he says into the mic, looking out at the audience. "This is...incredible, absolutely incredible. This is my first ever Tony Award, as well as nomination, and I'm so grateful and honored to be able to celebrate this moment with so many of the wonderful people that helped to make this happen; I don't think this would be possible without all of the amazing people who took a chance on me."
He takes a deep breath and shifts on his feet. "I've always had such a huge passion for theatre, even when I would get teased about it relentlessly in high school. People always told me that I looked like an athlete and that I should be on the football team, or on the wrestling team. A few times I almost listened to them; I almost gave up doing what I love just so people would stop harassing me about it. But I didn't listen to them and I continued to do what I love. And because of that, I'm up here tonight in front of all of you, receiving this amazing award. If I hadn't continued to do what I love then I wouldn't be here, and I might never have met the most incredible and amazing woman I've ever met, my beautiful leading lady in life. I love you so much, honey, thank you for being by my side through this whole journey and supporting me every step of the way. And thank you to all the incredible people who came out to see the show, your support has been so amazing." He holds the statue tightly in both of his hands, "I am going to treasure this for a very, very long time. Thank you so much." He smiles out at the crowd and then is lead backstage before going to back down to the audience.
Sitting back down in his seat, he leans back in his chair and lets out a breath.
"I told you you'd get it."
Grant turns and smiles at the woman, "And I told you that you'd get yours for Best Lighting Design. And you did. Because you, Skye, are the absolute best at what you do."
Skye smiles up at Grant, "We both are."
"Yes we are," he smiles back, leaning forward to capture her lips in his.
"I got a video from Miles while you were backstage," she tells him when they pull away. "I think it's of Jess watching you win. We can watch it after we get out of here."
"Can't we just get out of here now?" he asks.
She gives him a sympathetic smile, "Sorry, babe. But unfortunately we have to stay for the rest of the show. It's almost over, though. So we'll be able to get out of here soon."
"Good," he says. "Because as much as I love being here, especially with you, I really want to get out of this suit."
Skye leans towards his ear and speaks in a sultry voice, "I think I can help you with that. Jess is staying with Miles tonight so we have all the time in the world. I'll help you get out of that suit for as long as you want." She lightly nips at his earlobe before sitting back in her seat, a small smile on her face.
Grant just looks over at her, his eyes darkened, "You can't say stuff like that to me when we're in public."
"But it's more fun that way," she smirks.
"If there weren't a whole bunch of people around us right now..." he trails off.
"Oh, I know," Skye smiles and nods. "Me too, believe me."
...
"Alright, play the video now," Grant says to Skye when they get out into the lobby of the theatre, moving off to the side, out of the way of all the people.
"Yeah, yeah, hold on," Skye says to him, still holding onto his hand as she pulls her phone out of her purse. She unlocks it and goes into her messages, selecting the most recent one from Miles.
She turns up the sound a bit before clicking on the video, allowing it to fill the whole screen.
Jessica's side fills up part of the screen; she's standing in front of the TV in the living room of Miles' apartment, leaning forward against an ottoman as her eyes are fixed onto the TV screen sitting on the stand against the wall.
When Grant's name and image is shown on the screen and he's announced as a nominee, Jessica bounces excitedly on her feet, a wide smile on her face as she clutches her favorite stuffed animal close to her.
"Grant Ward, Split In Two."
As Grant stands from his seat, Jessica begins jumping up and down, cheering and clapping along with the crowd. "Yay!" she shouts. "Yay, Grant! Yay!"
"What do you want to say to Grant, sweetie?" Miles' voice comes through the phone.
Jessica turns around fully to face the camera and takes a step towards it, smiling wide. "I love you, Grant! And you, mommy!" She blows a big kiss at the screen before the video ends.
"Aww, that was so cute," Skye smiles.
"It really was," Grant smiles as well. He looks at Skye, "Have I told you recently how glad I am to have you and Jess in my life?"
"Certainly wouldn't hurt to hear it every once in a while," she smiles up at him, reaching up to wrap her arms around his neck.
Grant wraps his own arms around her waist to hold her close. "Well I'm very glad," he tells her. "I am so in love with you and Jess has most definitely wormed her way into my heart. You both mean the world to me and I don't know what I would do if you ever stopped being a part of my life."
"Well let's hope that we never have to find out," she smiles. "Because I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon. And Jess seems to be very attached to you, too."
"I've grown pretty attached to her as well," Grant tells his girlfriend. "Now come on, why don't we go home and relax. I'm not really feeling up to an after party tonight."
"That's a shame," Skye says with a hint of smirk. "Because I was thinking we could have our own little after party." She lets the smirk grow and gives him a wink before pulling away and making her way towards the exit.
Grant lets out a breath and then quickly follows after her, a smile on his face as he grabs her hand in his, lacing their fingers together, and walks with her out the front doors.