"I wish I didn't have to do this."
Copper glanced at her reflection in the dressing room mirror, biting her lip. "I want to run and hide...are you sure I can do this?"
"You can, Copper, and you must." Nancy told her firmly. "You look fine, by the way. The camera will love you, and once you're out there it'll be fine. Dean's agreed that we'll go straight on and sing before we go to talk to him, so you'll get it over with before we interview."
"Jetta thought that would be better, rather than have you a nervous, gibbering wreck by the time we reach the set." Sadie added, amusement in her dark blue eyes. "Listen, Copper, Nance and I are both nervous too. But you were fine yesterday. We ran through it and through it and the studio drummer picked up the beat almost at once, so you needn't worry there. It might be that you never do this again - so go out there and give the whole of Los Angeles what for. Okay? They have no right to print nasty things about us in the press, and we're going to dispel all of that this morning. Right?"
"Right." Determination crossed Copper's face. "I'll do my best, I promise."
"We're not asking for any more than that." Topaz squeezed her arm reassuringly. "And whatever happens, Copper, it happens as a team. Don't forget that."
"I won't." Copper shook her head. "All right. I guess I can do this. I guess."
"Jewel? We want you up on set." Julie Kazar, Dean's production assistant poked her head around the dressing room door, casting the girls a grin. "Well, you look real pretty! Come on - we're live on in a few."
"We're coming, Julie." Sylva assured her. "The sooner we put this horrible bad press behind us the better."
"Thanks for letting us play at such short notice." Sadie added. "We promise it will be worth the reshuffle."
"Honey, Jewel are always worth the reshuffle." Julie winked, leading the way upstairs. "Dean said it was important, anyhow, and he has pull in these parts. So, well, here you are. Give them hell, huh?"
"Don't we always?" Sylva grinned. "Come on, girls. We have a point to prove today!"
"I'm glad someone's excited about this." Copper muttered, as they made their way over to their set, where their instruments were already set up, behind a gauze curtain that hid the audience from view. The studio drummer hailed them with a wave of his sticks, and they grinned at him, taking up their positions. From the sidelines, Aaron sent his fiancee a thumbs up, and despite herself, Copper felt a little better.
"After all, it's like Topaz said." She mused, as the studio lights dimmed around them. "Whatever happens, it happens as a team. And that's more important than anything else. So...so I can do this. Oh, but I wish it were over already!"
As if in answer to her prayer, the opening theme of Dean's show began to pump through speakers, and a few technicians scuttled around making sure everything was in it's rightful place. Dean strode out from the wings, casting Jewel a playful grin, but there wasn't time for anything more, because the cameras were rolling and they were live.
"Good morning, Los Angeles!" Dean beamed out at the rows of fans, who cheered and whistled him with all their usual fervour. "Well, we had one hell of a show for you today, and then we got a call from Misfit Music, to make it even more of a hell of a show. I'm sure you've all seen the presses recently?" He pulled a face. "Well, Jewel are here with us this morning, to prove that they do do things by the book. Here, with the first ever live playing of Dolorida - it's Jewel!"
The curtains swung back, and for a moment Copper froze. Then, as the darkness over them began to lift and the introduction of the song began, she forced herself to throw off her fear, focusing her attention on the beat of the music and not the gasps and amazement of the fans.
She cast a glance sideways to Sadie, who gave her a reassuring wink. Then she took a deep breath, said an inward prayer for help, and opened her mouth to sing.
The next thing Copper was aware of was that they were taking their seats on Dean's couch, amid wild applause and ovations from the fans. Dean cast them all warm smiles, moving up to make room for the whole group.
"Well, that was some opening to the show!" he said playfully. "Copper! This was a first in all senses of the word, wasn't it?"
"It wasn't my idea, I promise you." Copper found her tongue, sending the host a rueful look. "But we all wanted this song to be special, and when the idea was hit on to make it a bilingual song, well, the only way to do that was for me to sing. I tried to teach Topaz..." She trailed off, sending Topaz a knowing look, and the singer laughed.
"My Spanish pronunciation is appalling, apparently." She said good-naturedly. "I can sing in French, because my mother is Quebecoise and she taught me her language, but I was never very good at languages at school, and try as I might I couldn't get the words up to speed. We rather press-ganged Copper into doing it, but she has a beautiful voice, and it made for something different. This was a big come-back song for us, after all - we wanted it to stand out."
"Unfortunately it seems to have done so rather too much." Nancy said slowly. "We loved the song, and as Topaz said, Copper sings it beautifully. What we didn't bank on was the local press's confusion over the vocal line. I suppose that it's been taken for granted that Copper never sings, and the rest of us have done enough that our voices are recognisable. But we didn't think it would be such a big deal. After all, Copper's name is Santiago and her heritage is Mexican-American. If we wanted Spanish lyrics it was only logical that she'd be the one who'd be singing them."
"How come you kept the whole thing in mystery till this morning?" Dean asked interestedly. Sylva winked at Copper, then,
"Well, we wanted to spring a surprise at the award ceremony, but, well, the tabloids totally ruined that for us." She said matter-of-factly. "We had to come out with some kind of response to all the nasty stuff that's been written, after all, so Jetta decided we'd better play here as soon as possible and prove to everyone that our song is one hundred percent Jewel, as always." She flashed a smile at the audience. "We know that our true fans have stuck by us, and we've had some lovely emails from people. But these things snowball, and at one point it looked like we might have been kicked out of the award completely. That's why it was so important to clear this up, before it got any further."
"Well, consider it cleared!" Dean laughed. "Copper, any plans to sing on any more Jewel songs?"
"No, not if I can help it." Copper admitted. "Singing out there today was....was strange, I honestly don't remember much of it. It went in a blur. But I don't think I'll be making a habit of it. As we've said, this song was special, and so it should be a one off for that reason."
She grinned at Nancy.
"We wanted our first song after the fire to make everyone sit up and realise that despite all we'd been through, we were still as good as ever." She added. "I think - I hope - we've done that, because we are also hard at work on a new album, which will be out before Christmas."
"Has anything changed since the fire?" Dean wondered.
"Yes...I think so." Nancy nodded her head. "I think we appreciate more how much we have, and how much of a team we are." She smiled. "I know that for me at least, the fire was a big deal and it could have been something that...that I'd have taken a long time to get my head around. But, horrible as all of that was, it's good to be back on track and recording again. It takes more than a madman or scandals in the press to stop us, after all."
"Nancy's right." Topaz nodded. "We've all been through a lot of changes over the last couple of years, but we're all decided on one thing - Jewel are here to stay!"
"So, on to the awards?" Dean asked. Sylva nodded.
"You bet!" She exclaimed. "We'll be there!"