A Jewel Whodunnit...
BLAST FROM THE PAST
PART ONE: CURTAIN DOWN
Chapter Three: At Sirena's Place

"Well, that's another load off my mind."
Emily Gabor, better known as rock singer Sirena tossed the computer mouse down onto the desk, unplugging her pc and getting to her feet. "I hate having to do online chats with fans every so often, it's a totally sucky idea and most of the questions they ask are so damn repetitive."
"It's good PR though." Her companion, and sometime boyfriend Luca Ranieri, lead singer of Diablo sent her an amused grin. "Sirena is big business, after all, Em...people wanna know all about you."
"And don't I know it." Sirena groaned, stretching. "I just spent the last hour fielding questions like 'What's it like to be famous? How do you feel when you're performing on stage? Are you and Luca really an item or is it just for show? What's it like being a Misfit's daughter?'. Blah. Same old stuff, over and over."
"Well, you can answer one of those questions for me, too." Luca observed, getting to his feet and putting his arms around her shoulders. "Are we an item, Em?"
"Beats me." Sirena admitted. "I'm not sure myself. We just seem to have clicked like this. I dunno, Luca. I've never been a 'relationship' person."
"I know." Luca acknowledged. "You told me very firmly once or twice that you didn't need a guy in your life."
"Mm. I take after Mom." Sirena looked rueful. "But I s'pose for the time being, it's best not to question it. We're better off just carrying on as we have been, so long as we're both cool with it. Don't you think?"
"Yes, so long as my sister's quit her games." Luca rolled his eyes. "I love Steffi like anything, Em, but sometimes her possessiveness drives me up the wall."
"She's a brat, but she won't bother us." Sirena said dismissively. "She and I had words, I made it clear that I'm not the kind of girl who sits back and lets someone trample over my life. She was warned categorically that if she interfered in any way in my life, social or otherwise, she'd find a big fat lawsuit on her doorstep and my fist in her face."
"Kinda harsh." Luca chided her. "Stef just cares about my welfare, Emily, even if she goes about it in an odd way."
"Pah." Sirena snorted. "I know she's your sister, Luca, but the girl is trouble and that's that. I had to do something drastic to keep her off my back. And anyhow, it worked, didn't it? I got her to quit interfering without laying a finger on her!"
"Well, that's something I suppose." Luca looked doubtful. "Does she think I'm involved in this veto, by the way?"
"Nope. I told her it was some friendly advice between girls." Sirena replied sweetly. "She took the hint. She's not dumb."
Luca rolled his eyes.
"I really need to do something about all these women fighting over me!" He joked. Sirena raised an eyebrow, turning to look at him.
"Keep dreaming, honey." She said pointedly. "I'm kinda fond of you at the moment, but I can go off you, you know that."
"Okay, okay. I got you." Luca laughed, kissing her on the ear. "Hey, it's awfully quiet... What do you suppose Mike's gotten himself into this time?"
"Hopefully he's done as he's told and finally dropped off to sleep." Sirena rolled her eyes. At two years and four months young Michael was at a trying age and was always trying to see how far he could push his mother's authority. Michael's father, R&B artist Blade had been killed in a shooting before he was born, so he had taken to calling Luca 'Daddy', much to both his mother and Luca's own consternation.
"I'll go check on him." Luca offered. Sirena shook her head.
"No, he's my brat, I'll do it." She said wearily. "I should, anyhow. I wouldn't play trains with him because I had to do that stupid chat, so he's probably still in a temper with me anyway. I swear it gets harder and harder being a mother, Luca...not easier. I thought I had it sussed then bam, he starts walking, talking and answering back!"
"He's no different from any other two year old." Luca told her gently. "He wants to explore his world and see what he can do, that's all. And he loves you more than anything. Who does he always go running to when he's hurt or scared? Mommy."
"Mm, I know." A small smile touched Sirena's lips. "I never saw myself as the maternal type, Luca, but I wouldn't swap him."
She crossed the living room of the apartment she and her son had lived in since she had signed her contract with Misfit Music, pushing open the door and heading down the hallway to the small bedroom which had become 'Michael's Room' in the past two years. Sure enough, Michael had finally settled down to his afternoon nap, though there were still tears on his lashes that hinted of the violent tantrum he had thrown and, despite herself, Sirena felt guilty.
"Work is so heavy sometimes, I feel like I'm neglecting you." She murmured softly, crouching beside the bed and gently stroking his short fuzzy dark hair. "I'm sorry, Mike. I didn't mean to ignore you. Perhaps I should talk to Mom and see if I can get a week or two off around my birthday, so we can go away and try and have a normal mother and son relationship for a bit, huh? Much as I love my singing, sometimes I wish I didn't have Misfit Music on the phone to me all the time with some publicity event or other. Sometimes I just wish it would all disappear."
Michael stirred slightly, opening his dark brown eyes and meeting his mother's gaze. Sirena sent him a grin.
"Hi there." She whispered. "Wanna play now?"
Michael's eyes lit up and he nodded, scrambling out of bed with little heed for the fact he was still clad in his Thomas the Tank Engine pyjamas. Sirena laughed.
"Okay, well, lets get your trains down and see if we can't play a while." She suggested.
"Is Daddy here?" Michael demanded. Sirena bit her lip, then,
"Luca's here." She agreed. "He wants to play with you too."
"Yay daddy!" Michael seemed excited by this, grabbing his mother's hand and pulling her towards the door. "Play now!"
"Okay, okay, woah boy!" Sirena exclaimed with a laugh. "Let me get your trains down first, huh? We can't play railroad without them now, can we? And you're wearing your pyjamas still!"
"Like them." Michael pouted. Sirena rolled her eyes.
"You men are all the same." She decided, scooping up her son into her arms and carefully getting down the basket of railway stuff from the shelf with her free hand. Luca had brought the toys for him especially once they had gotten together, and they had been part of his own childhood, but, though they were old now, they had still captured Michael's imagination and he loved them dearly. "Okay, I got them. Now, let's go play!"
Luca watched with some amusement as his companion helped the small boy to set out the toys, perching on the edge of the sofa so he was out of their way. He had been friends with Sirena for some months now, but, bit by bit things had developed and grown into something more and, a month earlier, they had taken another step towards a monogamous relationship. Sirena wasn't fussy, romantic or over-emotional, but Luca knew that she had feelings for him as much as he did her, and he knew that his perseverence and patience had paid off.
His close bond with Sirena's beloved son had only helped matters. Michael was growing fast, he knew that, and he felt somewhat touched by how much the infant thought of him.
"But one day he's gonna have to know who his real father was, and what happened." He mused. "I hope Em's gonna be up to the challenge. He's a bright kid, after all."
Sirena raised her gaze to his at that moment, putting her hands on her hips.
"Are you helping or just gawking?" She demanded. "If I'm playing trains, Luca, you're damn well playing them with me, all right?"
"Fair enough, I suppose." Luca held up his hands, getting down onto the floor beside them. "There, I'm here. What do you want me to do?"




BLAST FROM THE PAST: PART ONE

Prologue: 1989
Chapter One: The "Anniversary"
Chapter Two: Jewel's Sound
Chapter Three: At Sirena's Place
Chapter Four: Jewel's Video
Chapter Five: Fanmail
Chapter Six: A Stranger
Chapter Seven: Stefana's Date
Chapter Eight: The Results
Chapter Nine: A Moment's Weakness
Chapter Ten: A Shock For Zoe
Chapter Eleven: A Surprise For Jetta
Chapter Twelve: Fire!

DISCLAIMER: PLEASE NOTE
Copper, Nancy, Sylva, Anna, Blade, Raesha, Sirena, Topaz, Aaron, Sophie, Justin, Elliot, Rosita, Luis and any other characters in this fiction which do not appear in the animated Jem series are copyrighted to me (E.A Woolley) as of January 2002 <unless otherwise specified> and are not to be reproduced without permission ANYWHERE. Jetta, Pizzazz, Stormer, Roxy, Raya and all other original Jem characters are the copyright of Hasbro Inc, Sunbow, Christy Marx and the other writers of the Jem series. The future world of Pizzazz, Raya, Jetta, Roxy, Stormer, Clash, Synergy, the fate of Jem and her memorial are all copyrighted to me. The future world of Kimber and Shana is copyrighted jointly to myself and Gemma Dawn.
The concept of 'Jewel' is entirely my own, and any apparent link with any fictional or actual person or persons of this name is entirely coincidental. Equally the characters in this fiction are not based on any real life individual.
The concept behind the future world of Danse, Aja and Craig, the idea behind Jerrica's futureworld and the split of the Holograms is copyrighted to Gemma Dawn, whose Teenangel Outsiders fiction is directly twinned with Just a Dream. The character Sammi and any of the other Teenangel Outsider characters mentioned in this fiction are entirely copyright to Gemma Dawn and appear here only with her permission.
Pay her page a visit!