Sydney had to bring his kids to the studio. Normally he tried not to. They were fairly well behaved but there were times when they acted up. He felt especially bad because Imogene was coming in today. His normal sitter couldn’t swing it. Everyone had always told him to get a nanny. Sydney didn’t like the idea of having to rely so heavily on another person to raise his children and now with Pippin in school it was a little easier to deal with the timing. Not to mention any nanny he got Wynona would just give him a hard time about, There was no winning with her. Having a sitter meant he was putting his job over his kids, bringing them into the studio she would assume meant ignoring them the whole time.

”Daddy that is supposed to be blue.” Pip giggled as Sydney started to color in a whale purple. “Oh now I thought maybe it wanted to be purple.” He smiled at his little boy. ” I think it’s pretty like that dad” Maizie said glancing at the page and then getting back to her own coloring book.

The whole week the kids had been way too excited about the holiday. Pippin currently was dawning todays costume, or at least part of it. A bright red fireman’s hat place on his head. Maiz had a tiara, a princes as always. Pippin had made a point to switch his costume everyday that week. It was a little excessive but Sydney couldn’t say now to his children.

He looked up at the clock hoping that Imogene would be there soon. The song was going to be a good one. He was excited to put a female voice to his lyrics. And the guys at Warped Stereo thought it would be a good move for Sydney, something to put out between Red Light albums. It was an older song he had laying around, written when he and Wynona where in the thick of their problems, before the marriage was actually ended but well into it’s falling apart.

There was a knock on the door and Sydney looked up from the page he was coloring in the book with his son. Soon fallowed the cotton candy pink head of Imogene.

“Yeah,” He called out and stood. Maizie lit up gawking at the new comers hair. ” Daddy…can we do that to mine?” she whispered to him examining a lock of her own boring blond hair. Sydney just laugh. “Maybe but you will have to ask your mom.” The girl pouted knowing that it was a long shot now.

Sydney walked over to Imogene to give her a quick hug. “Glad you made it sorry about the youngins I couldn’t find someone to watch them, promise they are well behaved.”

Pippin then came bounding up to her waving frantically. “I’m Pip!!” Sydney just shook his head with a laugh.


[note: this is maizie
and Pippin]

Sydney thought that Imogene was a bright talented girl. He was honestly a little sad that she had the persona she did on stage and in her music. It could have been because he did have a daughter. Really Sydney never liked the idea of someone having to have an image for the sake of sales and managers that worked that way were not the kind of people Sydney wanted to work with.

It wasn’t that he thought woman shouldn’t be sexual he just wanted his friend to respect herself enough to not be afraid to be herself on stage. That could have been the real motive behind asking Imogene specifically to help him with this song. It could give her a chance to branch out from the sex thing if she wanted.

When they had to reschedule he was worried that maybe Imogene was rethinking saying yes. Maybe the song was too different from what she was used to. Or her management had tried to turn her away from the collaboration. Luckily their schedules lined up, if only the slight hiccup on his end.

Sydney shook his head. “Nah, just fashionably.” He joked with her. Imogene, despite a good amount younger was someone he was comfortable around. Joking came easier and she didn’t quite have to deal with the stuffy too serious person he was most of the time. More than that, they were going to record and being able to make music always made it easier for him to lighten up.

”Imog…Imma call you Immy, is that okay?”” Pippin peeped when he couldn’t quite deciffer her name. ”Pippin it’s not that hard. Imogene. See.” Maizie corrected her brother.

“Now Maiz, I’m sure that Imogene doesn’t mind.” He was scared of his little girl being pushy. She had two different but still both very head strong parents.

Whenever she was around he did notice that his own accent got a little thicker than normal. Sydney did have a home still in Belfast but spent most of his time in Jersey so he wasn’t too far from his kids even when they were with their mother. Soon enough their chatter would be a mess of UK accents with her Scottish and his Irish.

”You gonna sing right?” Pippin then asked with wide eyes and a bright smile. His sister just shook her head and then looked down at the paper. She was six going on sixeteen and Sydney was honestly terrified of the years to come with her.

“Aye, buddy that is what we are gonna do.” Sydney came up and ruffled his hair. “You should go back and color with your sister, it shouldn’t take too long and then we can all hang out maybe get some food.”

”Okay dad.” The boy said looking up at his father and then walking back over to the table to continue the picture he had been coloring before. Sydney looked at Imogene. “You ready?” He smiled at the pink haired girl.

Immy was always great to have around. She seemed to be able to get a smile out of him easily. Soemthing that had been rare between dealing with Wynona and working. His family issues were known, they were in the press a whole lot more than he would like. The music magazines would pick up his side, while his brother’s Quidditch career had it covered from another angle. Both were annoying and more often than not had him frustrated enough to just lock himself in the tour van and only come out to play. Imogine would help, because she would hear him out, cox him into meet and greats that she knew he would regret if he didn’t do. No need to get a bad reputation over blowing off fans.

Still he had to keep the girl at almost an arms length. Her comfort came as a double edged sword for the man. She was young and had been dating another musician who was a good guy. It didn’t seem possible from any angle. More press, more hounding from Wynona, and the fall of a good friendship. Still he liked having her around. Seeing her interact with his kids. Not to mention that he was impressed by her talent.

“Always,” He nodded making sure that Pippin and Maizie were settled and coloring again. He lead her to the recording room just through the door. After sitting and taking up his guitar, he quietly strummed making sure that the strings were in tune. “Thanks.” A tricky side smile pulled at one corner of his lips. Immy knew more about his failed marriage than most. That was another thing. She knew how he had failed once. And she knew that it was just as much his fault as it was Nona’s. Sydney was under no delusion that he was hard to deal with. Still it was hard for him not to notice that with the pink haired singer a whole lot seemed easier to open up about. He had never had the luxury with Wynona.

“I have a couple that are like this.” He admitted. Most of Red Light’s lyrics tackled the same sort of subject. Love and loss. It was how he worked through feelings so it was not much of a surprise. But Red Lights was not as careful and tender as these songs were. “I just haven’t had a female voice that was right to help, until now. “ He smiled at her. “ Thanks for agreeing to this. “

Wynona would be pissed with anything that Sydney did. She would claim that his songs were boring and repetitive now. When that was the very thing that had attracted her to him in the first place. She would say he was bad with their kids. Sydney was just tired of the fights and of her. She was just making his life hard because she could. And Sydney had been letting her get to him. Finally he was trying to move passed it all. Even if it was hard to ignore his ex-wife when her new relationship was with his brother.

The smug part of Sydney said that she was only doing it to annoy him more. The more rational side said that Shawn and Wynona probably got along very well. He was always the more laid back one.

When he had first reached out to Imogene he was a little worried that maybe the emotion was not right for her. She had a lovely voice, precisely the type that he always pictured for this song. She was young and he wasn’t sure she had the right experience for such a song. Then her recent break up happened and Sydney realized that he was unfair for ever thinking that her age could possibly hold her back from understanding the idea of heart ache.

He was hoping that the song could be for her as it was for him. If she needed it. The release and permission to move on. The years, kids, all of it didn’t mean he knew a thing about what he was doing. He was tripping through life basically and he was realizing how much he hated doing it alone.

As his fingers strummed along he watched her sit. “Careful now I’ll hold ya to that and then we will end up with an album.” He smirked. “Not sure your manager would like that big of a change to your image.” That image that Sydney would always hate. Immy was such a kind girl with such a big heart. And this whole new stir in his gut when it came to attraction with her did help.

“I should have known it wasn’t just for me.” He chuckled looking through the clear soundproof partition at the two blond kids coloring away. When he was sure that all the strings were tuned right and the mics set at the right height he looked to Imogene. “So you ready to lay down this first recording?” Sure they could have each done their parts one at a time in separate booths but Sydney didn’t want to do that. He wanted to feed off her energy feel her vocals and recording separately wouldn’t do that for him.

Of course whenever he even thought about dating Sydney had to think about his children first. Would whoever he brought into the mix be able to care and love for his children? Whenever he had to have them around Imogene was surprising. She seemed to just dote on them without having to. It was a pleasant surprise and what actually released the flood gates on his feelings.

Sydney couldn’t just chalk it all up to recent heart ache. He had been apart form Wynona for a while. Their marriage had been broken for even longer and his heart had plenty of time to move on from his former wife. He had time to connect with other woman, woman that were around his age, but nothing happened.

Would she even believe him if he brought it up to her? Immy could just laugh at him, or think it was this weird fetish. Another man who was just dazzled by her on stage persona. Sydney would hope that she would know better. More than once he was fairly blunt on his opinions about all of that.

He could feel the slight burn under his cheeks as he glanced up and spotted that Imogene was biting at her lower lip. This was getting ridiculous and Sydney knew that something had to happen or he would go crazy. The last thing he wanted to do was just freeze her out. Even before he was married Sydney was never the flirting type. He didn’t party too hard, like a rock star. All of that was his brother’s scene. Sydney was the quite guy that was perhaps too serious. It took a lot to get to him and even Wynona never got all the way through his walls.

Sydney then let out a small laugh. “Then it’s a deal we can make it happen somehow.” Even if it was just the one collaboration album. They could sing together spend time together. She would gain a new audience and really show case all her talent. Of course Sydney was tip toeing up to that dangerous ledge. He couldn’t help it and even lingered as he glanced, watching her lips move and studying her hands as they pulled up the headphones.

He got his own headphones set and then hit a couple switches when she said Ready. Sydney set the count and then began to play the song. The slow melodic melody and somber vocals that were passed between them.

Recording the song with Imogene was a dream. They seemed to sing through the song with no trouble. The timing was immaculate, her tone was beautiful. There wouldn’t be much in postproduction to take care of. Maybe they would record a second cute just for the sake of the option. Sydney wasn’t the biggest fan of the studio. That was only because he was more of a purist, despite his control freak tendencies.

Every time it was Immy’s turn to sing Sydney would look over and watch her sing. It felt like he was crazy, thinking that the words being sung were for him. Sydney couldn’t shake the feeling as they moved to sing together. Their voices meshing together so well, with such emotion. He was done whining over his loss, Immy was helping him realize that Wynona didn’t deserve his passion anymore.

With the song ending Sydney smiled at the girl with pink hair. Lingering on her face before turning and catching the sight of a woman in the other room. Her arms crossed and red painted lips turned down in a scowl. Great…

“Um just wait here real quick… I need to talk to her, sorry,” Sydney mumbled off to Imogene, his mood suddenly sour.

Sydney set down the guitar and took off his headphones. He stood and walked out to the room. The kids were packing up their coloring books and not looking particularly happy about it. “Wynona..” Sydney greeted his ex-wife. “What are you doin here? They have one more night with me.”

”If you bothered to look at your phone you would know Sydney,” She practicly spat in his face.

“How about you just tell me what is going on.”

”Maizie has ballet and Pippin is going to swimming lessons.”

“But we wanna stay with Daddy,” the kids whined in unison. Wynona just looked back at her kids shooting each one a glaire.

“Sense when did they have those lessons?”

”Like I said Sydney if you bothered to answer me ever you would know.” Her foot was tapping impatiently. ”By the way I don’t like her being here when the kids are, especially Maiz. That’s a bad influence.”

“Wynona you don’t even know her, not to mention there are some people I know for a fact that are a million times worse that you hang around.” He bit back. “I don’t appreciate you just comin in here and taking them…” Sydney was trying to keep his voice down, and avoid a fight while the kids were there and Imogene was in the other room.

”Like it matters. Seems work is too important for you to actually spend real time with your kids anyway.”

“You know…” Sydney held back his comment and just sighed shaking his head. “So now they have classes, send me the schedules so I know, I will take them when the classes fall on my days. I will see you next week to pick them up.”

“But daddy I don’t like the pool, there are too many other kids.” Pippin ran over clinging to his father’s leg. Sydney kneeled down and put a hand on his son’s shoulder. “Come on now Pipp, you will be great at it if you just give the lessons a chance. Tell you want if you still don’t like em in three months let me know and we can find you a new class to start up?”

“I wanna play the drums!” The boy exclaimed. Wynona not looking exactly keen on the idea. Sydney laughed. “Mkay well give swimming a chance first and in three months if you wanna switch we can get you into drumming. “ The little boy agreed and then hugged his father. “Go get, or you will be late.”

Sydney went up to Maizie and gave her a hug and kissed her forehead. “Be sure and ask your mom about your hair, then we can see about taking you next time you are with me okay.” Maizie lit up at the possibility saying she will. “I love you daddy.”

After standing he looked back at Wynona. “Don’t forget their schedules. And tell Shawn I said hi.”
“I will, bye Sydney.” She took each of the kids hands and was out the door, heels click the whole way. He sighed not exactly happy with how the exchange went. Still it could have been worse.

Sure most of his song were about yearning about a loss. That was something he romanticized about Wynona. Every time she ever showed up now a days he would remember that they were no good together. It was more than toxic it was just down right destructive how they acted when with each other now. He knew that it was hard to see anything that could have been there between them. The fact that they had two children together seemed practically impossible.

At one point it was there and it was that Sydney was sad that he had lost. Not nessisarly Wynona herself but the feeling of being in love. Once he was sure that she was gone, Sydney walked over to the door and closed it with a sigh.

Part of Sydney was embarrassed that Immy had to see that. He didn’t like butting heads with anyone and he knew that he did with a good amount of people, especially his ex. He felt bad that she had to hear Wynona make such an ignorant comment about her. The phantom blonde woman drained him and it was just frustrating. Still Imogene managed to stand there with stride, even have a smile on her face. It was amazing to see and made Sydney realize how much of a woman that she was despite her age. Of course that realization only made his attraction to her stronger.

He turned to Immy and with a sheepish smile apologized. “She is a little…ridiculous.” Sydney was sure that she had enrolled the kids in the classes just to take up more of the time that he had with them not because they wanted to take them.

Sydney walked over to Imogene, the room suddenly very quite without the kids there anymore. He could feel his body vibrating with all the feeling that had been bottled up so quickly when Wynona had showed up. Now it was just him and Imogene and it just made him understand how much more he felt for his fellow singer than he ever had for his ex-wife.

Without much thought he wrapped his arms around her loving the warmth of her body against his. He had been far too lonely for far too long and everything about Imogene felt right. “Thank you.” He whispered to her and then moved to look her in the eye. He didn’t stay looking at her, getting lost in her eyes like he often had, instead he moved forward and gently pressed their lips together, not fully gathering what exactly he was doing. All the emotions and urges he had been pushing down just building up and breaking the flood gates so that he was pulling her body in closer and pressing into the kiss more.