You're The Storm ((Matt))

[Raelee Gray]

'Cos you're the storm that I've been needing.

"Take her! Just... just take her, damn it!" Rae shoved the crying two year old into Elina's arms, trying to keep herself from crying, too. Maddie hitched her wailing up a notch, and reached for Rae. But Rae just couldn't do it right that moment. She couldn't handle Maddie. It broke her heart to have those feelings, those feelings of drowning in her own exhaustion, in Maddie's needs. She was so bogged down by being a mother that she was having trouble focusing on being a human being and a woman and an executive. She hadn't been in the studio all week long, and her artists were starting to get pissed. Weetzie had been a tremendous help, but it was still her label and she needed to be there. She needed to be working. She felt ashamed for being so upset and blaming Maddie for it, but at the same time - Rae didn't feel like it was her fault. She would need to learn how to juggle everything but Maddie wasn't making it possible for her to learn. All of Maddie's needs had to be catered to right then and Rae just couldn't do that. She just... it wasn't possible. "I have to go out. I'm going to do some work. Have some lunch. Do something for my damn self for once!" Rae grabbed her purse and shoved it, violently onto her shoulder, before snapping up her wand and preparing to apparate. Elina stood with a sobbing Maddie in her arms, astonishment riddled across her face. Rae wasn't supermom. She wasn't meant to be. She wasn't like Dixie.

She apparated away with Maddie's "MUMMY!" lingering in the air, enveloping her, and breaking her into two. She hated that she couldn't be strong enough for Maddie. But how was she expected to be strong enough for her daughter if she couldn't be strong enough for herself? Rae appeared in her office in London, her knees shaking from the sudden realisation that she was weak and couldn't be a mother. She was afraid that she was going to let Maddie down, that she was going to destroy her somehow. Rae was afraid of failing the girl, and she knew that deep down she might actually do just that. Her mother hadn't been the best, and that was all Rae had to go off of - her mother's parenting techniques. Her father was worse, but her mother...a mother and daughter should have a bond that was unbreakable. Rae didn't really care for her mother, and she had wanted to change that multiple times. It was always so difficult, though, when her mother acted more Rae's age than Rae herself did. With shaking knees, Rae sank into the leather chair behind her desk, letting her head fall into her hands as she tried to calm herself down and overtake the panic attack that was sneaking upon her. They had become more...just more...recently and Rae hated it. She didn't want to take medication, but sometimes this non-medication techniques type thing didn't do any good.

10 minutes passed, then 15, then 20; and Rae finally lifted her head, the panic attack long gone and her shaking subsiding. She looked around her office, the office she hadn't been in since last week, and sighed. She didn't even know where to begin. Messages were piled up in her basket, some of them written on by Weetzie - dictating their importance, or if the younger woman had taken care of them (God bless that girl!), but most of them hadn't been touched. Already she could feel the oppressive weight that running her own label meant. And she didn't like it. Rae stood, sighing to herself, and retrieved the notes from the basket - placing them in the center of her desk before walking over to one of the boxes that had piled up in one of the chairs across from the glass desk. She opened the lid and peered inside, surprise coming across her face as she reached in and pulled out one of the new CDs. Mikayel and Weetzie had been working overtime if they had already cut the album. It wasn't meant to be dropped until next month.

Turning the case over, she peered at the track names and was pleasantly surprised to see Weetzie's name on some of them. She had either co-written or performed with him, and that was good. It meant they were getting along. Rae tossed the CD back inside the box and picked it up, deciding to distribute these to the nearer stores - knowing they would appreciate the only copy. It would be leaked to the internet soon enough, file sharing would occur, but that was beneficial to the artist and to the label. It promoted Mikayel, and because it wouldn't transfer to their MP3 devices - they would have to buy the CD eventually. Rae smiled to herself and walked out of her office, trying not to let the box fall from her arms and the CDs tumble. She crossed the main foyer and exited the large glass door, passing beneath the arc that she had painted along the first wall. The studio had originally been Arc Records, but SplatteRecords involved a lot of Rae - her artistic side, and it was much more clever. Dixie had actually helped her think of the new name, but the interior of the label stayed the same - she hadn't wanted to redecorate quite yet.

As she turned to lock the door to the studio, Rae had to juggle the box in her arms so she could fit the key into the lock and turn it. But as she turned the key, the box bumped from her arms and fell to the cement sidewalk below. CDs skidded across the ground, and the people kept on walking - without stopping to help her - though they did sidestep away from the CDs. Rae groaned and pocketed her keys before kneeling down to collect the CDs within her reach, hoping they weren't damaged. Damaged goods were never attractive.

[Matt Harper]

It was Matt’s first day off in nearly two weeks, and he was glad to be able to dress down a bit. While he thoroughly enjoyed looking good in a suit and tie, he loved it just as much to be in his worn jeans and a t-shirt, with a track jacket over it. The weather wasn’t bad out, but it was windy enough to warrant a jacket, so he slipped his favorite on and walked out into the seemingly busy streets of downtown London. He had made sure he had grabbed his wand, and his mind wandered as he walked down the sidewalk. The stress of the homicide job wasn’t completely wearing him thin, but Aviva seemed to be giving him the hardest time. The job wasn’t a problem, and it wasn’t so much her, but he just wanted more. She seemed to be warming up to her new rookie partner though, at least a bit. That day when they had been on scene and some guy had showed up asking for her, man, Matt had gotten quite a laugh at her expense. He chuckled at the thought as he walked down the street.

He came up to a police car parked along the side of the street, and decided to peek his head in, seeing if the officer was anyone he knew. With his personality, it could be someone who he knew well, or someone who didn’t care for him much because of his recent promotions. Noticing that the car was empty, he shrugged it off and kept walking. “What are you looking for, Harper?” he heard from behind him. He recognized the voice and turned around quickly. “Johnson! How’s the good old street beat?” It had been only about three months since he had been off that job, and he didn’t miss it, but it was good to see his friend again. “Oh, ya know. Same old. Had to stop in for a bite to eat. This place has got fantastic chicken, ya ever tried it?” Johnson pointed to the restaurant next to them. “Zantana’s? Nope, never been there. I’ll have to take your word for it, Johnson. But you get back to that beat, and I’ll get back to my glorious day off, alright?” Johnson smiled and shook his head. “Yeah go have your fun Harper, while the rest of us make a living!” Matt smiled back. “I plan on it!” Matt walked on, feeling like it was going to shape up to be quite a good day.

People swarmed past him suddenly, as if a bus had just let dozens of patrons off. He had to almost stop to let people get by, since there was only so much room on the sidewalk. People continued hustling and bustling, and in the short distance ahead of him, he saw a woman standing outside of what looked liked a studio. She was locking the place up, and holding a rather large box. This wasn’t going to end well, he could tell already. He picked up his pace a little bit, but it was too late. The box fell to the cement ground below, spilling CDs out all over the sidewalk, and Matt could tell the woman was much more than frustrated. Not a single person stopped to help the poor woman with her things either. She began picking them up, and he reached his hand down to meet hers. “Need a little help?” he inquired with a smile. Her eyes looked up at him and he could immediately tell that she had been crying before this incident had happened. “Let’s get these back in the box, shall we? You don’t want some neighborhood kids picking up these CDs and shooting them with a fake BB gun, do you?” He chuckled a little at his own joke as he helped her clean up the rest of the discs. He placed the last one back in the box and smiled at her. “Almost good as new, right?” He elected to take her hand and lift her up to his level. “I’m Matt. Matt Harper. Now what’s a fine woman like you doing out her with a box full of these fancy discs?” He made the gesture to shake her hand before he let go of it, and hoped he wasn’t being rude.

[Raelee Gray]

It was just like the average Londoner to not offer any assistance. Rae scowled as she set the box down and knelt to pick up the fallen albums. She was glad she was wearing jeans, otherwise it would have been a rather horrible predicament. Rae tucked her hair behind her ear and began haphazardly tossing in the albums, thinking about how rude some people were and how the world was better off without any of those rude people inhabiting it (damn, she was in a bad mood). When her hand reached for the next CD case, it brushed against someone else's and she looked up, shocked to not have realised they had approached her. A fleeting smile flashed across her face, "Thanks. You would think someone else would have stepped up before you. People can be so..." Rae lifted her head a bit and said in a louder voice, "rude!" A few people turned around to look at her, giving her a dirty look. Rae shook her head and continued to pick up the remaining albums as she listened to the kind man mention something about kids and BB guns.

A small laugh came from somewhere inside her, a storage place for those happy times that Rae had so very rarely now-a-days. Her green eyes looked at him again as she closed the lid of the box, "Oh, they better be. They won't sell if they're damaged and then I have a very angry musician on my hands." Rae shuddered at the thought of Mikayel being angry at her stupidity, or clumsiness. It wouldn't be a pretty sight, nor would it be something she needed right at that moment. Gratefully, Rae took his hand and stood, juggling the box with as much unease, if not more so, than she had been juggling it before. "Oh, ha!" She laughed again, finding the 'fine woman' comment funnier than the BB gun joke. "Fine woman. Right." She didn't have confidence issues, but when you were a single mother with tears in your eyes almost every day, an overwhelming job that you are pretty much losing hope for, you tend to not think of yourself as fine. Rae hadn't in almost a year.

"I'm the president of SplatteRecords," she motioned to the building she had just exited, "And these CDs are one of my musicians' new album. It wasn't supposed to be released until next month, but they burnt some anyway... I decided, stupidly may I add, to distribute the 50 or so copies I have in this box to nearby vendors. This way I can get the sound out there soon." Rae, having shaken his hand, juggled the box back into both arms and stood - somewhat awkwardly - with this giant box in between her and Matt. "I'm Rae, by the way." She smiled, another fleeting smile, and then shifted her weight from one foot to the other slightly in order to keep her balance. "Look, uh, I hate to impose or anything..." Rae trailed off, thinking about this a moment, and then she shook her head: "No, actually - that's exactly what I want to do. Impose. So, do you have time to help me deliver these albums? I can't exactly go around London with this box in my arms. I'll probably trip and fall and lose them all or something. With my luck."

[Matt Harper]

Matt nodded as the woman thanked him. Londoners did tend to be somewhat full of themselves, but not him. If there was anything working in the force had taught him, it was to be courteous and self-serving to other people, and even though he wasn’t on a street beat anymore like Johnson, he knew this woman would appreciate the little help he could offer. He was a bit taken aback when she nearly yelled at the passerby's, and to compensate, he just gave those that gave dirty looks a little wave. It was obvious this wasn’t the woman’s best day, and he made it up in his mind to change that. He was glad when he finally got a small laugh out of her, since she was quite upset already about dropping the box. She described herself as the president of a record company right there in London, and in fact, one that Matt found himself buying many a CD from lately. “President, huh? Well there’s no way the president of the company would be happy with having the vendors of her artist’s newest CD being all over the streets of London.”

He smiled at her again, and she introduced herself as Rae, while still trying to manage the large and awkwardly sized box. “Here, let me take that for you. We don’t need the president dropping any more CDs, do we?” Without letting her object, he took the box from her, shifting the weight inside so it was easier to carry. “Nice to meet you, Rae, the president.” He loved making jokes, and it was sometimes a problem with meeting new people, because he tended to lay it on a little thick. But she seemed to enjoy his company, so he stuck around. Rae then started to ask him something, then she changed it to a demand. “Impose? It’s my day off, imposing isn’t in my vocabulary on my days off.” She basically invited him to come with her and deliver the albums, and he wasn’t about to pass up a day walking around London with a beautiful woman, especially if she wasn’t Aviva. Aviva would likely just punch him and tell him to get his act together. Who knows what could happen here with Rae? “Well, I guess I could. I don’t want to see you spilling these precious CDs anymore. You need my muscles to carry this heavy box around town, don’t you?” He laughed at his own statement, hoping she would laugh as well.

They began to walk down the street together, and he followed right behind her. “So where are we going first? How far is it?” He was likely asking a few too many questions, but he didn’t care. She had asked for his company, and his company she was going to get. “And while we’re at it, let’s hear a bit about you. What’s a little bit of your story?” Matt had more tact than to ask directly about why it had appeared that she had been crying, and if she wanted to tell him, it would come up. Besides, they had just met and it wasn’t really any of his business in the first place. Of all the things it could be, it could be that she had just broken up with her boyfriend or something, and she was looking for a guy to fill that place right away. He didn’t need that kind of relationship right now, but he was also thinking four steps ahead of himself. All he knew was the woman’s first name and what she did for a living. There was certainly more to her, just like there was more to him, as she would find out if she asked.

[Raelee Gray]

Another small smile. That was all she seemed to be capable of these days. "No," Rae agreed, "Can't have that." She noticed how weak her arms were growing, but she didn't want to say anything. Rae wasn't unusually weak. She was a strong person. Perhaps not as strong as her best friends, but strong enough to get through her life each day. So much had changed about Rae, and she was apathetic about it; but being strong was something that she didn't want to change. She did not want to become weak. She couldn't afford to become weak. Her green eyes fell to the CDs in the box and she found herself trying to pull out of this mist that she had somehow settled quite comfortably into. Was she depressed? She wasn't sure, and yet all signs pointed to yes. Elina, Adele, Ashley, Weetzie, they were all helpful and comforting, but they couldn't understand how it was to be a mother of a 2 year old. Ashley had Lucas, but he was still a baby – younger than Jamie even! She didn't really understand. She couldn't. Dixie wouldn't understand anything. Dixie was supermom. Rae didn't know how the woman did it.

"Oh," she smiled again, this time a little bit brighter when he took the box of CDs from her, "Thank you. They aren't that heavy, but I'm not that strong, either. So…it doesn't add up to an equal sum." She shrugged and fixed her jacket, straightening her purse on her shoulder, and feeling the burden of the CD lift from her in a relieved sort of way. "Oh…please," Rae groaned and pushed her hair over her shoulder, "Please, please, please don't call me president. I'm just Rae. Well, actually. Raelee Gray, if you want my full name, but I go by Rae. I don't like formalities." In any sense, actually. Rae would show up to a business meeting in jeans and a Get Up Kids t-shirt if she thought it wouldn't looked down upon. She was a woman in the music industry, a new woman in the music industry. She had to gain their respect. And she wasn't going to do that in jeans and a ratty, paint splattered, t-shirt. After she had requested his assistance, Rae's face split into the brightest smile she had worn in weeks: "Good! Thank you! And yes…" she shrugged, not afraid to admit it, "Yes. I do. Seeing as I don't have any muscles. At all. Really. It's quite pathetic. What would I do if someone tried to mug me or something?"

The more she spoke, the more relaxed she felt. She hadn't had a casual conversation in forever. The last casual conversation she had had was with Clay, at the Three Broomsticks when they were toasting to her business and to his cottage. It felt like ages ago, when really it was only about a year ago. She felt sick. She needed to stop thinking about this. "First; is the Album Box… just down the street. They have a great collection of vinyl, but because no one can stay old – they have a good collection of CDs, as well. The owner's an old friend of mine and he practically demanded I give him the first CD." Rae smiled, proud of herself, and lead the way toward the Album Box, listening to Matt ask about her. She looked down, folding her arms over her chest and trying not to let her pain show.

"Well," maybe she'd start with the easiest and happiest part of her life, "I'm the mother of a 2 ½ year old girl. She's probably the best thing to happen to me, but sometimes it's frightening being a single mother. Especially that of a toddler. I live in Italy, but I fly over here every once in awhile for work. Now that I think about it, I should probably move back here sometime soon…" Rae bit her bottom lip and then looked up at Matt, "Does that, like, intimidate you? The fact that I'm a mother? I've always wondered how people perceived me…I mean, it's not like I gave birth to her. I'm her adoptive mother. But… most people don't know that. And they judge me on it." Rae looked off in the distance a moment and then frowned, "It's actually really bothersome."

[Matt Harper]

Matt carried the box easily down the street, walking with Rae next to him. It had been a while since he had kept a decent conversation going with a woman around his same age. Rae appeared to be in her 20s, and admittedly, she wasn’t Aviva. He had a much easier time keeping a conversation going with her, unlike Aviva where he had to watch what he said, otherwise he might get a smack in the mouth from time to time. Either that or just a glare and an eye roll. But it was part of the job, and Kragen knew who was good and who wasn’t, so he wouldn’t have put the two of them together if he hadn’t thought they couldn’t work well together. Rae, on the other hand...things seemed to be going pretty well for him, and he was proving himself to her, at least he liked to think that he was. “Oh I’m sure you’re plenty strong,” he assured her. “This box is just awkwardly sized. I’m even having a bit of a struggle with it,” he said as he shifted the weight inside the large box again. He listened and nodded as she shut down his quick-fashioned titled for her. “Fair enough, Ms. Raelee Gray.” It would be the last time he acted formal with her, and he knew she would appreciate it.

Matt laughed with her about her lack of muscles. “Well you could always dump all the CDs on the mugger. He’d be so overwhelmed with this artist’s new album being dropped on him that he’d forget about mugging you. See, dropping the CDs might come in handy!” He hoped that Rae felt comfortable talking to him, because he was having quite a bit of fun as it was. She then described the first place they were going, not too far down the street. “That’s a good place, I’ve been there a few times myself. I’m one of the oldies, I guess. I’m a big fan of vinyl. But of course, I’ve got plenty of CDs in my collection too. You should see my car. It’s a mess of discs and booklets.” It was a true statement, and it just always got worse every time he went out shopping for something new. He ripped open the new music and threw the trash into the back of his car. Matt made a mental note to clean out his car when they got done today.

When he asked about her life, he noticed that she folded her arms over her chest and seemed to be trying to hide from something. Obviously he had hit somewhat of a sore spot, but she perked up quickly after that. She was a mother. Interesting. At that, she was a single mother. Rae asked Matt quickly if that kind of thing intimidated him. “No, not at all. You’ve made the decision to take another person’s life into your hands, and I respect that fully. I find it quite attractive, and I was about to ask how a mother of a 2½ year old stays so fit! You look like you do this kind of a walk every day. I’m impressed.” Rae described how she was bothered by the judgmental glances and words from people who didn’t know her situation, and Matt nodded. “I totally understand. I’ve been in that kind of situation before, where people misunderstood me. It’s happened at work plenty of times.”

Matt assumed that since he had brought up the subject of his work, it was his turn to describe his life. “Well I guess that would make it my turn, huh?”, he said with a smirk on his face. “I’m Matt, as you know. Matt Harper, fully. I’m a homicide detective for the local 409 District. I’ve been on the regular cop street beat for a couple years now, but this is probably my third week of homicide. I got thrown into the job with the best partner the captain could give me, but boy does she have an attitude. We’re warming up to each other though, I’m sure you can understand how that is, right?” As he finished his description of his job, they approached the Album Box store. “Well here we are. I can wait out here if you want, while you go in and do your business duties. Then we can finish our conversation.” He decided to take a chance with her and looked around, noticing no one was around. Matt pulled his wand out and made the box hover in the air. “How many do you need?” He picked five discs up with his wand and sent them over to Rae. “That enough? Get in there!”

[Raelee Gray]

"Ah, well," Rae said with a resigned nod, "That could do the trick, I suppose." She smiled, actually chuckling a bit, "Though, then he'd probably snatch the CDs and take off at a run with them. Then I'd have Mikayel, that's the musician by the way, on my back and I think I'm more afraid of him than I am of a random mugger." Mikayel had a temper. Rae didn't like tempers, but he was one hell of a musician and she knew better than to turn down a musician who loved what he did and knew how to do it well. Weetzie had been the first person that she had taken a chance on, and Mikayel was her most recent person she took a chance on. He was chancy. And he was worth it, as far as Rae could tell. These albums she would be handing out would prove whether or not she was right. That was the main point of doing this; getting his music out there. It was a test run. If the people didn't like his sound, then Rae would either make him change his sound, or Mikayel would have to go somewhere else for his business. It was as simple as that.

She looked over at Matt, her smile easily slipping back onto her face; "I grew up with the owner, he was my dad's friend and so he's kind of like an uncle to me. I spent most of my childhood in his record store, actually. Somewhat of a second home." Rae ran her fingers through her hair, trying not to appear nervous – although running her fingers through her hair was definitely a nervous habit of hers. It was just so foreign to her. Talking to a guy. She had hardly said two words to a male that wasn't Adam, Mikayel, or Adele and here she was – carrying on a conversation with one quite easily. Of course, the topic of conversation was easy. Rae was capable of going on and on about music for days. "Ah, I'm a vinyl girl. All of my favourite albums are vinyl, and I have very few actual CDs. But, in order to appeal to the consumers… I have to send out my albums on discs. It's sad, because the music comes alive on vinyl – you can just…" Rae sighed musedly, trying to think of how to explain it. She put her hands on her chest, laying over her necklace, and closed her eyes; "You can just feel it go through you. And it's the most… the most amazing feeling in the world. Discs don't give you that feeling. They try," she looked at Matt and smiled, "but they fail."

Talking about Maddie was a rather good distraction technique before she went into the sob story of losing Clay. Maddie was the limelight, the good part of that tragedy, and she wanted to focus on the good, not on the bad. She laughed, a full blown hearty laugh, "No. I don't, really. I mean, yeah – I have to chase after Maddie because she likes to run and thinks it's fun to play tag when Mummy's in heels… but other than that I don't do much walking, really. Especially not here." She was glad that he understood where she was coming from when she spoke about being misunderstood or judged. She didn't like either of those feelings, and unfortunately she had grown up with it. Her parents were the ultimate judges in her life. Everything she did was wrong. She couldn't ever do anything correctly. She hadn't even told her mother about Maddie yet, afraid of how the older woman would reply. Rae knew what to expect, though. She would expect a barrage of "you can't handle the responsibility!" and "what were you thinking?!"

Rae turned her attention back to Matt when he talked about his job. Her eyebrows arched and she let an impressed smile cross her face as she nodded her approval, "I applaud you…" she clapped her hands and then shrugged; "I couldn't ever do that job. And, speaking from experience: the most difficult people to work with, are usually those who do the best. Mikayel is egotistical, horrible, extremely selfish, and arrogant – but he is the best damn musician I have heard in a long time. I can learn something from him, just like you can learn something from your partner." She came to a stop in front of Album Box and chuckled as he performed magic. She should have known. Then, her chuckle grew into a laugh and she took the 5 discs from him; "You're cute. But no, I'm going to need at least 20." And with that, she reached in and pulled out 15 more, balancing them easily as she smirked at him and entered the store. The little bell dinged over head and Rae walked up to the counter where Oliver worked. She exchanged the CDs, chatted a bit, and then walked back outside to see Matt standing with the box again.

"I graduated from Ravenclaw – so totally not the top of my class." She pulled on his arm a bit to get him to start walking in the direction they had been walking before, heading toward another vendor.

[Matt Harper]

Matt chuckled with Rae at the mugger story. London was known for a mugger or two to show up at the most inopportune times. Being a cop had taught him how to deal with those guys so they didn’t try anything ever again. “Yeah, and since I’ve run into quite a few muggers throughout my career, I’m sure they follow the latest music trends and would treasure these discs!” He listened and joked as Rae described the musician that she had to deal with at the record company. “Sounds like quite the hard guy. Want me to give him a lecture or something? He’ll have to listen to a police officer. I’ve got handcuffs too!” The conversation moved on from Mikayel, her artist, to the store they were coming up on. She explained how the man’s store was like a second home for her. “Yeah I can relate to that feeling, but not quite with the store aspect. This city is home for me. School, way back when, was my second home, since I rarely ever went home. I’ve been on my own for a long time, probably for longer than the average kid should be. But I’m 24 now, so I would be on my own by now anyway, right? So I guess I’m sort of used to it.”

Matt was surprised at how open he was being with this new woman, but at the same time, it was normal for him. While he didn’t usually open up fully to strangers, he found himself to be an open book with friends and their acquaintances, people they didn’t know very well, so why should it be different with Rae? He noticed that she constantly put her fingers through her hair, and that had to be a sign of nervousness. Why was she nervous? He was simply helping her out. Of course, Matt didn’t know her backstory, nor did he know what she had been apparently crying about just a few minutes before, and he had no intention of prying unless she left it open-ended for him to make a comment. Matt nodded again. “I agree completely, the music sounded like it really comes alive on vinyl. You should think about selling vinyl with a CD inside. I know your costs might be a little higher, but you could charge a bit more and people would get the luxury of both vinyl and CD at the same time.” It was a novice idea, but it could work. He wasn’t trying to change her business, not that at all. It was just something that came up in conversation.

“Well a workout from a 2½ year old is a good enough workout, isn’t it? I can imagine that’s where you get your exercise each day.” He found it funny that her daughter liked to chase after Rae whenever she was in heels. He laughed as she applauded him for his job. “Well, it’s just a job. It’s my career, so I guess I have to be good at it, right?”He wasn’t trying to sound smug, the fact was that he went to school for all this so he hoped that he would be good at his job by now. “Yeah, my partner may be hard to work with, but she’s one of the best in the precinct, so I’m thankful. I’m new in the department so I’m looking forward to learning from what the best can teach me. And aren’t musicians usually like that?” he laughed. All the musicians he had met (which hadn’t been much, but it was enough) had been like what Rae had just described. She looked at him and didn’t seem impressed or shocked by his magic, so he assumed she was a witch. She laughed at him and took 15 more CDs. “Well, my estimates are a bit off. Maybe I’m not quite cut out for this music business thing.”

She said she had graduated from Ravenclaw. “Are you pulling my chain, or were you the top of your class? Are you seriously a little brainiac behind that beautiful figure?” He laughed again as she pulled him towards the next vendor. “I’m a Gryffindor graduate, could you tell? I did well on my OWLs and NEWTs, but I made time for fun all the way through. I’m surprised I didn’t know you...Guess that’s what happens when people are in different houses.” They kept walking, and Matt recognized the street they turned onto. “Is your next vendor Starlee’s Coffee, by any chance? I know they sell a few CDs there, and I go there quite often for coffee. It’s right down the corner here.” It would be quite the coincidence if that was her next vendor, since he loved the place. This was shaping up to be quite a good day.

[Raelee Gray]

She shook her head, "That's not a good idea," she told him with a small smile, "People don't want to have to pay more money for something that they don't want. Why buy a vinyl record with a CD when they could just buy the CD for half that mount? I would lose a lot of listeners. No, no. Someday I might put some artists on vinyl, but I won't ever sell them." Rae had spent many nights thinking about this sort of thing. She had wanted to spread the loveliness of vinyl years ago, but she hadn't ever been able to. When she opened SplatteRecords, she and Ashley had sat down and talked about where they wanted the company to go. Vinyl wasn't on their agenda immediately. It would take a bit of time. One step at a time. "Good idea, though. I'll lock it up somewhere and revisit it later. It could be a great promotional technique." It felt good to be thinking about work again. She had neglected her career for so long and she knew it was time to grow up a bit, and start to work again. Somehow, Matt was enabling her to make that first step.

Rae listened to Matt talk about his career, choosing not to reply about Maddie. She was starting to feel guilty for pawning her daughter off to Elina in her fit of hysteria earlier. Somehow she would have to make it up to the toddler. Though, Rae knew that Maddie's attention and memory wasn't nearly that good at the moment, she still felt like Maddie would grow up to resent her if she didn't do something to mend the wrong she had made. "Oh, no…see… I don't think it's just a job. If it was just a job, you wouldn't stick with it." Rae gave Matt a pointed look and then shrugged. She knew what it was like being in a career that she didn't enjoy. She had tried illustrating graphic novels, and she even had one out there somewhere, but she just couldn't put her entire heart into that job. Rae had found her sanity in music. It was the one thing she and her mother had in common and it was the one thing that Rae felt like…it made her complete.

"What?" Rae questioned, drawing herself back into the conversation, "Oh, Merlin, no! Not all musicians are like that. Actually, the first artist I signed to my label is one of my very best friends. She's probably the most down to earth person you'll ever meet. Though, with a name like Weetzie O'Keeffe… you kind of have to be down to earth, don't you?" She mused over this. Weetzie had been through a lot. Gracie being abducted and killed in Hogsmeade, then falling for Bryce only to have him fall for Ashley, then Bryce dying once they were all reconciled and friends. It was insane to think that Weetz had developed into an almost completely mellow human being. Her music had been a cathartic therapy for her, and Rae wondered what would be cathartic like that for her. "I don't generally associate myself with arrogant arses. They just don't make the cut in my friends circle." She smiled, as if that were that, and then they had reached the Album Box.

When she had told him her graduated house, she laughed at his response; "No, I really wasn't. I could have been, don't get me wrong – I'm intelligent, although that might sound conceited – but I am incredibly lazy. I have absolutely no work ethic. That was my downfall in school. I'm surprised I even graduated at all, let alone on time." She shrugged as they continued to walk. She hadn't been the best student. Actually, Dixie had surpassed her in grades up until the year she had dropped out. Rae just hadn't ever been able to see the point in school when she was going to go into a generally muggle career. Magic would pretty much be obsolete except for the everyday tricks she used. "That," Rae agreed, "and the fact that I was pretty much antisocial except for when I hung out with my best friend – who happened to be in Slytherin. So…" she trailed off and shrugged with an innocent smile on her face. The fact that they didn’t know each other in school wasn't that big of a shock to Rae. She didn't know many people.

They were about ten seconds away from the next vendor when Matt guessed where they were heading, "Yeah, actually." She smiled brightly, "But they only get five CDs because they don't attract the right clientele for Mikayel's music. The coffee scene isn't much into heavy metal." They reached the coffee shop and Rae held open the door for Matt to step inside. She had every intention of getting coffee before walking to the next stop, "In you go this time, since you're a frequent visitor. I'll even buy you a cup of coffee." She smirked and walked in after him, leading the way to the manager's office. Before she could knock it swung open and a blonde woman wearing a deep purple apron, "CDs for the lovely Coffee Mistress?" The woman laughed and held out her hands where Rae deposited 5 of Mikayel's CDs before turning around and heading over to the counter, "What's your poison, Mr. Harper?"