There was light trying to peak into Mia's room through a crack in the window shade's defenses. It was shining right down onto her eyes and keeping her from falling back into the deep sleep from which it had dragged her. The shades weren't thick and the room was already glowing with the soft low light of the morning waking up outside.

Mia yawned and stretched, appreciating the space the single bed provided her, her last resting space an airplane seat. And while it was more comfortable than most of its kind but it was still constricting when it came to elbow room.

It took her an extra second to remember just where she was. But when she did, she relaxed deep into the folds of comfort beneath her. Her mind and body were in agreement that the most important place she needed to be at that moment was still snuggled up underneath the light comforter that smelled foreign.

Her eyes, still half closed, roved around the room and could faintly make out the images that hung on the walls around her. She knew the other rooms in the apartment were immaculate and sparse, perfectly neat and ready for visitors. Mia could tell this particular room was not used for such occurrences.

There were posters hanging throughout the room, acting as one of the only means of decoration. They were mixed together with what looked like souvenirs from all over the world that were scattered throughout the room. Knick-knacks cluttered the top of the desk and hung from the ends of the bed, some even daring to peak out of the barely tidy closet, only half shut from prying eyes.

Mia was just making out the signatures and long inscriptions that appeared on every poster of some of the worlds most famous musicians when her body told her it was now time to get up.

The familiar restless feeling shot up to her brain from her toes and she was climbing out of bed within a second, grabbing the closest article of her own clothing that she could find before heading out of the bedroom that wasn't hers.

The rest of the apartment was still silent, the other occupants surely still asleep due to the early hour of the morning and the late arrival time they had all experienced the night before.

It was Tommy's request that they take the latest flight out of Boston, guaranteeing that both the airport there and the airport when they arrived in New York would be as quiet as possible. The whole troupe had agreed and there was only mild grumbling about the disruption in sleep schedules.

An atmosphere of excitement was born the minute the travel plans began and many of the crew gave concrete assurances that timing wouldn't matter as they were sure they would be spending the first night all together again talking until the sun came up.

This did not end up being the case but they were able to arrive in New York with relative anonymity, especially for a city that never sleeps. It was only five minutes after room assignments were given out that the majority of the travelers were passed out, fast asleep, some already snoring.

The main common room of the apartment was flooded with early morning light. The sun didn't agree with the time that read out on the clock but the spring season was still brand new and so the sun had risen late.

Mia tiptoed past sleeping figures passed out on the long leather couches, their beds looking more comfortable than the one Mia had spent the night in. Her twinge of guilt at being given sole occupation of one of the rooms melted away the instant she found Mac passed out, snoring proudly with his face pressed up against the luxurious cushions and his mouth half opened.

Her eyes threw away any lasting signs of sleep or exhaustion when her nose detected the soft scent of coffee that was just them making its way in her direction.

Passing by Mac and his sleeping companion, making sure to make the least amount of sound possible, Mia passed through the expansive family room, it's high vaulted ceilings echoing back the soft snores of the unconscious.

She found, to her delight, the prettiest view she could have asked for that morning. A view that not only rivaled the scenery that expanded beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows that made up the furthest wall of the apartment and displayed New York City in all its glory but a view that caused Mia to barely register the sweeping cityscape that spread out before her.

Jay was leaning against the furthest counter in the narrow kitchen area, the coffee pot sitting right beside him and already half empty. Mia's ears picked up sounds of movement coming from the other rooms but didn't give them any notice as she made her way first to the coffee and then to her boyfriend.

"Good morning," she whispered after he had instinctively passed her first a mug and then filled it with the remaining coffee.

"Hmm," he groaned back.

She didn't let a sound escape her lips out of respect for the sleeping figures only a few yards away but smiled still, holding back tight the laugh she felt in her throat.

His hair was tousled and he had yet to open his eyes and look her way. Her mind came up with arguments about why he shouldn't be so tired, claiming that he wasn't the one who had had to run from an all-day photo shoot to catch their flight, that he had been the one that had been able to catch hints of sleep on the flight down.

Instead, she closed the distance between them and stepped up on her tiptoes and pressed a light kiss on his cheek.

His lips twitched up in a smile and it was the most emotion she had seen on his face yet. To return the favor, he allowed the arm not holding a steaming cup of coffee to raise itself up and then back down upon Mia's shoulders after she snatched the opportunity and snuggled herself into his embrace.

Their little bubble was sweet and cozy and the perfect way to wake up and face a cold morning in a strange apartment but like all bubbles, it was doomed to burst. The death came with two loud occurrences of sudden noise, following quickly one after another.

The first came in a loud groan that was only amplified by the large and open space of the apartment as Tommy appeared from the end of the hall and the direction of the remaining two bedrooms. He was grumbling something, shuffling his feet and making his way toward the kitchen and, presumably, the lingering smell of coffee.

Mia barely caught notice of Casey trailing along behind him, looking more pleasant than Tommy did but still only half awake, because within the next second any silence that had filled the space ran for cover as the front door was burst in and a loud cry reverberated through the room.

If the cry hadn't been in Nate's warm and kind tone and followed very closely with the strong scent of the coffee and doughnuts piled high in his arms, the intruder and bringer of morning would surely have been stoned to death by couch pillows.

"All right, you lazy bums! Time to get up!"

And just like that, their week began.

With the supply of energy and nourishment, the troupe fell into formation and the reminder of why they had all trekked down to New York in the first place returned to everyone's mind.

The atmosphere of excitement reappeared and there was a sense of reuniting in the warm words everyone passed to one another. It was heavy that first morning, as Nate struggled to get everyone out of the apartment and on the road to the first meeting and it had dissipated a fair amount when they had all traipsed back through the front door that night, tired and exhausted.

However, the pile of warm pizza boxes waiting for them on the long wooden dining table brought back the smiles within minutes and the atmosphere of excitement seemed determined that it was here to stay.

Mia found she was just as impervious to the charms of the event as everyone else. She had spent so much time with Jay over the past few months and had loved every second. Game nights with Tommy and Casey had been thrown in there, as well, when Tommy was not in the throes of creating a brand new album experience.

Now Mia was getting the chance to spend time with people she truly considered to be her second family. People she had traveled all over the country with several times, and across the globe only once. They were a true family and it was the first time they had all had the chance to reconvened in a very long time. And Tommy had insisted on bringing everyone.

There were eight of them total in the apartment, Nate's brand new wife making it an even number. And Tommy insisted that all of them were needed. It was a big week, full of meetings and discussions and there was a sense of importance that hung above everyone's head.

With a small front-man team and only a touring back up band, the rest of the core crew that made everything possible behind the scenes were considered just as crucial during a time like this, in many ways even more so than either Tommy or Jay.

Mia was grateful for the vacation days she had refused to use up until that point. And her week didn't pass by without any of her own work being completed. She had a freelance assignment she had scored from the Times weeks before and she was already planning a weekend trip to the city with Jay when the team endeavor had come into being.

It fit perfectly into her schedule and she looked forward too much to the week away from her work at the magazine.

Her assignment took her throughout the entire city and to nearly every borough. And so she dragged Casey along with her, even managing to convince Nate's wife, Erin, to come along as well. The apartment hung eerily silent the second after the main crew had screamed their goodbyes over their shoulders and the front door had shut behind them.

Mia was dressed and ready to leave within five minutes, determined not to spend another second waiting around in the large and unfamiliar apartment while knowing there was a city just beneath them begging to be explored. It had taken ten minutes longer to notify Casey of her plan and wait for her to get ready.

Mia spent that ten minutes getting quickly acquainted with Erin, whom she had only met briefly at her wedding and then convincing her that they were now friends and she would enjoy a day out in the city.

It wasn't the smartest choice teaming up Casey, specifically. Although they got along great, and always had, to the point where Mia considered her one of her closest friends who wasn't a sister, it was the sight of the two of them together that caused the real trouble.

It burst some of the anonymity Tommy had been craving for the trip after a brief run-in with a small huddle of teenage girls who turned out to be fans.

Mia and Casey smiled through it like pros and were happy to talk with the girls but asked for no pictures as they knew it would have defeated the purpose of arriving so late at night and staying in Tommy's friend's apartment, purposefully away from any prying eyes.

From that moment on, Mia made sure they avoided any tourist spots and took the girls all through the rest of the sights New York had to offer, their stops falling perfectly into the piece Mia wrote in her head and then had to shoot as they explored the city.

Things fell quickly into a rhythm and the apartment soon started to feel like home. It was the first night when Tommy demanded they play Monopoly instead of arguing over which movie to watch as the extreme differences of opinion among the group ensured that they would never actually watch a movie.

And so they resumed the game nights they had established as tradition back in Boston there in the apartment every night. The first few nights, it was just the eight of them. And then slowly a trickle of people made their way in for whatever the game of the night was to be.

The owner of the apartment was an apparent fan of board games as Tommy quickly sniffed out a cupboard full of them, some even games Tommy himself had never heard of.

One night that week, the owner herself even made an appearance, bringing along her younger sister. Mia was shocked to find her so young, even more so when Jay whispered exactly who she was and what she did.

She had heard her name before and thought she might have even met her before. Tommy had mentioned her name a couple years before as he had been over the moon when he had managed to get her to help produce the current album of the time.

Originally, Mia had been under the impression that Tommy had been talking about a guy. But Mia quickly remembered the familiar face as her smile shone welcoming and sweet entering her own apartment. And it was with a same energy that Mia returned the smile and the quick, warm handshake when given the greeting of, "Hi. I'm George. It's nice to see you again."

The end of the week was marked by an actual outing for the entire crew. As a complete package, they hadn't ventured beyond the walls of George's apartment, every day Jay and Tommy taking the crew with them to a string of label and marketing meetings, Mia taking with her Casey and Erin to explore another corner of the never-ending city.

George had been the one to pass along the invitation and Mia was almost shocked at Tommy's enthusiastic reply of "Sure! Sounds fun." They all even bothered to dress nicely for the occasion but that was mainly due to Nate's judgment eye that had sent Mac back into the bathroom to trade out his ratty old tee-shirt for something more appropriate. Everyone else got the message.

Mia kept looking over at Jay as the car wound them out of the city and over the river towards the other side. He would catch her staring and stare right back.

He looked nice. She never thought he didn't look good. It was more of the fact that they were getting to go to a party together and she was holding his hand in the back of a black SUV that made her keep looking his way.

Their quiet flirting did not go unnoticed, even in the loud chatterings of the rest of the occupants.

Tommy took it upon himself to rip up a piece of paper he had found in his pocket and hurl it their way whenever he caught them making eyes at each other.

It happened frequently and Mia's vague pleading looks in Casey's direction did nothing. She was laughing right along with Tommy. There was a determined air of joviality that hung throughout the car and amped up the energy in every one of them as they neared their destination.

A freight elevator, large enough to fit all of them and then some, carried them skywards and then dumped them out onto the floor where a party was already in full swing.

Although on perfect time, thanks to Nate's infallible time schedule, there was already a hoard of people mingling, their voices mixing with the music that pulsed through the various speakers spaced throughout the room.

It was one long room that took up the entirety of the floor. It's long brick walls radiated the cool night outside but the copious amounts of large area rugs that were spread all over the hardwood floor underfoot helped heat the interior.

Along with the help of sound-proofing padding scattered all along the walls and up on the ceiling, the room felt warm and inviting, the cold night outside completely forgotten.

Mia recognized instantly recording equipment, moved off to the side, and the vast array of instruments kept just out of reach. A recording booth, tucked into the wall at the furthest end of the room, just past a small array of couches hidden in low light, was the last thing she took notice of her surroundings as the group's arrival was noticed and then heralded by several of the attendees who rushed up to greet them.

Mia recognized a few of the party-goers but only because their names held the same weight as Tommy and Jay's. The two of them knew more than anyone else in the group and Mia spent the first half an hour by Jay's side as he caught up with old friends, always making sure to introduce her first and keep her included in the conversation.

Mia met a lot of people that night, a very surprising amount that weren't musicians at all. It seemed the host collected interesting people and she found the most fascinating to be a young man who was working to start his own brewery out of his basement apartment.

Mia finally got the chance to meet the host after George had arrived and taken the minute to gather Tommy's attention to bring together two giants of the music industry. Mia hadn't met Jack before but she was quickly reminded that Bobbi had referenced him as a friend and absolute genius as he had been a large part of making sure the latest Wild Wallflowers album came to be.

He was shorter than Jay but just about Mia's height and had curly black hair that matched perfectly his round glasses. His constant smile was heard in his voice and often as he didn't seem able to stop talking once the mutual subject of music was brought up.

But neither Tommy nor Jay seemed to mind and neither did Mia as his genius became evident within the first thirty seconds and it captured all of their attention. Mia caught the hint of a warm smile on George's lips as she gave Jack a pat on the back and disappeared back into the crowd.

It had been dark when they had arrived but it got darker as the party drove on. And the energy didn't stop.

Introductions were soon a thing of the past and the general feeling throughout the whole room was simply old friends hanging out and catching up. The air never lacked chatter and laughter and the constant string of music that poured of the speakers.

Mia finally pulled herself from the magnetic power of the comradery to sneak out onto a balcony she had caught sight of earlier in the evening. She had to pass right by the quiet corner of couches and only choose the balcony as her escape when she found George and a friend already talking quietly in the dark.

The cold wind felt refreshing against her hot cheeks. But her arms went around herself in a second as it was still a New York night in the early spring. The city seemed just as vibrant as it had during the day. The sound of cars honking and people yelling to one another still rose up into the air.

The city was finally starting to feel familiar to her. After several trips into its depths, this was one of the first where she had been given the true opportunity to explore and make herself feel at home. Each time before had been when while traveling on the road with the band.

During those times, Jay would grab her hand and sneak her out of whatever venue they had been trapped in all day and hurry off out of sight of Nate. He wouldn't dare let go of her hand as they squeezed in an hour or two of true tourist nonsense before they knew they would have to be heading back.

Now she felt she knew the city well enough. But this time her hand had felt lonely.

It's near constant companion then made himself known at that moment as the quiet of the bustling city was disrupted by the mingling laughter of the party still raging on behind her. Mia didn't fight the smile that flew to her lips as Jay slid the glass door shut behind him, once again cutting her off from the endless amounts of energy inside.

He didn't say anything and instead took his stance behind her and wrapped his arms around hers. His presence helped fight off the chill of the night but it was more the glow that came from inside, the warmth her heart took on at the sight of him and the feeling of his presence, that helped keep her warm.

They eventually talked, but only after a long moment when Jay got the chance to absorb the beauty of the city that lay spread out before them, just beyond the glittery wave of the famed river. When they did talk, it was in hushed and quiet tones. Even with just the two of them, there was an unspoken agreement not to disturb the chaotic peace of the humming city.

As Jay got colder, he talked faster. And it was when Mia could hear his teeth chattering together that she suggested they go inside. Both born and raised in the cold American Northeast, they were used to low temperatures.

But a temperature in
the low teens with a wind chill nearing zero would have sent an Eskimo inside.

But Mia held onto that quiet bubble, the bubble that acted as a bookend to the trip. They were flying back to Boston that night and so back to the regular life and routine they had established in the last few months.

But the trip sent Mia home with more than just memories, photos and a few souvenirs she had picked up. It sent her home with the knowledge that the life she had with Jay while on break, that too was a bubble. A bubble that was going to have to pop eventually.

She was returning home with a renewed determination to hold on to the time she had with Jay even harder than she had before because she knew it would come to an end. The time when she would be in one place and he would be traveling all over was going to start again.

Whether or not she could handle the separation after so long together was the question that now took up residence in the back of her mind. This trip was just the beginning and only the first toe back in the water.

But soon they would be completely submerged. And it was going to be sooner than she wished.

A/N:

Wow. I really like this one too. Shocker.

Goodness gracious. There are so many Easter eggs in this story and they're only there for my benefit because I'm the only person who actually knows all of them.

You guys might eventually but that's only if I ever actually finish Bobbi and then George.

This story was born out of fixing a problem I had to solve in George's book. So. You're welcome, I guess.

Also this story probably has the least amount of dialogue out of any of them ever. There's only like two lines of it. That's gotta be a record for me.

Oh! And! This is the first story of the band on break! See?!? I told you there would be!!