Joe Dawson glanced up to check to see who was entering his crowded bar now. Apparently the word had spread about him allowing SIMsCities newest resident an audition as a singer and the place was filled almost to capacity with people curious about her. Frankly, what he had heard was enough to make him very curious as well. Entering the door now was Crystal MacLeod and a petite young woman dressed in a long jean skirt and a peasant style blouse. He couldn't help but think that she sure didn't look old enough to be allowed into a bar. Surely this wasn't his potential new singer! He just shrugged and went back to mixing some more drinks. He would find out soon enough.

Crystal and Katherine stopped at the doorway briefly, looking the place over. They saw Doc Adams sitting in a corner waving at them to come over and join him, so they did. "Evening, Doc!" Crystal said, giving him a hug and a kiss. Katherine stood quietly beside her, looking around and studying the faces of everyone in the crowded room. She saw Paul and Dani sitting at another table across the room and smiled brightly at them when they both blew her a kiss at the same time. Sitting beside them were two more men with the same face but with different hair and mannerisms. She shuddered slightly, still not quite used to seeing doubles of the man she had loved for so many years.

Doc Adams reached out and pulled her close to him. "You're looking wonderful! Feeling better then?" She nodded, still not looked at him as she surveyed the crowd around her. A couple snuggling close to each other at a table near the stage caught her attention immediately. The lady, another red head like Crystal, was obviously in the advanced stage of pregnancy and the man on whose chest she was leaning was another Connor look-a-like, but at the same time was very different. He had long white hair and an aura about him that sent shivers down her spine. So this must be that guy named Rayden, she thought to herself.

"How did it go last night?" the doctor asked Crystal.

"She managed to eat a light supper and then she crashed, Ben. She did have some pretty bad dreams thoughout the night that kept waking both of us up." Crystal said ruefully, not wanting to go into detail about having to hold and comfort her guest after a series of nightmares horrible enough to wake Katherine up screaming and crying uncontrollably.

Crystal gently nudged Katherine to draw her attention back to them and pointed out a few of the people in the audience who had sent welcoming messages to her. She could feel Katherine's inward nervousness about this audition, though on the outside she appeared quite calm.

"You ok with this?" she asked, and Katherine nodded her head again.

"I will be. Don't worry", she said softly, as once more she began to look over each and every person in the room. This done, she turned and smiled at Crystal and Benjamin. "Well, I guess I better get this over with then. Which one is Mr. Dawson?" Once he was pointed out to her she lifted her chin up almost defiantly and walked across the room towards him.

Joe looked up from his work to see the solemn faced young lady that had come in with Crystal MacLeod standing in front of him. "Can I help you, Miss?" he said pleasantly.

"I'm Katherine Dixon, Mr. Dawson. I'm here for my audition", she said quietly. Joe smiled at her and pointed up to the stage.

"I have a guitar up there for you and there is the electric piano if you want to use that. I will go up and set the mic up and introduce you to everyone." He started to dry his hands and walk up the stage but she stopped him.

"That won't be necessary, Mr Dawson. I can manage on my own". With that she turned on her heels and strode with an air of confidence towards the stage. Katherine climbed up on the stage and walked to the middle of it, ignoring the microphone. She then turned and faced her audience and stood patiently waiting for the noise to subside. One by one all eyes turned to her and a polite hush began to descend upon Joe's Bar.

Ev snuggled even closer to Rayden as they looked her over. "Rayden, I can't believe how tiny she is! And I love her blonde hair". Rayden whispered back to her that he liked Ev's red hair better. But what interested him the most was not the physical appearance of the slim young lady standing quietly on the stage before them. Rather it was the fact he could feel her reaching out with her mind to get a feel of the emotional climate of the crowded room as she tested the waters in preparation for her performance. Rayden gently reached out with his mind as well and brushed hers lightly to see what she was up to. She looked down at him when she felt him doing so and they made brief eye contact. He got the impression that he was being told in no uncertain terms that he had better behave himself. Shrugging, he decided to play along with whatever the girl had planned and put his arms around Ev, pleasantly distracted for a moment by the movement of the babies under his hands.

As the room grew silent in anticipation, Katherine's gaze fell upon Paul and Dani. They sat open mouthed, not quite believing that this confident, almost regal young woman was the same one as the wild eyed, hysterical girl they had wrestled to the floor at the hospital. She could feel Crystal MacLeod broadcasting a wave of encouragement and support to her so she turned and smiled back at her. Her gaze then shifted to Joe Dawson and she bowed her head slightly, as if asking his permission to continue. He couldn't help but grin at her and nod his head.

Her eyes sparkling with a luminous inner light as she opened her mouth and began to sing. Katherine began her performance with a Scottish Puirt-a-beul in her native Gaelic to test the acoustics of the room. Her clear voice filled the room as her voice ran up and down the scale ranging from alto to soprano. With each verse she increased the tempo as the crowd listening in amazement at the sheer quality of her voice. Rayden sat fascinated not only with her singing, but with the way she was using her empathic abilities to draw her audience into her music. Across the room Crystal MacLeod was feeling much the same way as

Rayden and was privately wondering if Katherine was actually conscious of what she was doing as she sang.

Her first song ended, it's last words echoing slightly throughout the room. She then turned to where the guitar stood leaning against a stand and picked it up. It was too big for her and she really had to stretch to be able to play it. A brief regret of having to leave her own custom made one behind crossed her mind, which she quickly pushed aside. Strumming a test chord to test the guitars sound, she smiled at her audience and proceeded to play and sing a song called "Somebody". As she sang the lines "I have wept many a day, for someone banished far away. I cannot sing and must not say, how sore I grieve for somebody", Ev and a few others started to brush tears away from their eyes as they picked up her feelings of loss and loneliness that she was projecting through her song.

Her next song was a lovely old song from the early 1700’s in French called "La Fontaine" about a woman who lost her love because she had refused the rose he gave her and longed for him to return to her. About that time Ev started crying even more as the song played on her emotions that were already made unsteady by pregnancy hormones. Rayden just smiled in amusement and cuddled her even closer. Katherine let the song fade and stood quietly with her eyes closed for a moment as she picked up feelings of strong love and affection that existed between people out in the audience.

She then introduced her next song. "This song is very special to me. The words come from the Good Book and are a great deal older than most of us in this room. I hope they touch your heart as much as they touch mine. It's called 'Paul's Song'." With that she began to sing.

"If I spoke with tongues of men and spoke with tongues of angels, If I could not speak with love, I'd just be cymbals clanging.And everyone would hold their ears, they wouldn't want to listen! No would want to hear the racket I was making.

If I spoke in prophesy the fate of many nations, If I knew all mysteries, the secrets of creation And had I all the faith I need, enough for mountains moving! But had no love to carry me, what good would it do me.

Love is kind, it suffers long, it isn't proud or jealous! Love it won't remember wrong, and love will never fail us. It hopes, believes and bears all things! It will never be defeated. But more than faith and more than hope, love it is the greatest.

Knowledge, prophesy will fade; tongues will all fall silent; love it faces everything, it's solid and defiant. I know it's hard to see these things, as through a dark glass straining! But when we're standing face to face, the truth won't need explaining."

As she sang, she reached out to all present giving herself to them in song completely and without reservation. When she finished there were tears running down many of the faces in the crowd as they reached out to take the hands of their lovers or friends close by them.

Rayden pulled Ev up into his lap and she lay with her tear stained face against his chest, sobbing quietly. He glanced up and made eye contact with Katherine again and she smiled at them, her eyes bright with mischief at what she had planned next. "Now what?" he couldn’t help but wonder.

As Katherine stood surveying the people in the crowded room and picking up on the emotions they were feeling toward each other, she decided to give them once more song to remember her by. Her eyes glinted with amusement - she knew just the right one! "Folks, you’ve been a wonderful audience - I just have one more song for you tonight. After that I wish a very enjoyable evening! The name of this little ditty is ‘I Go To Bed’." Before their eyes her whole attitude changed, the image of the fresh scrubbed young woman-child standing proudly on the stage changed suddenly became one that was much more sensual in many ways. She smiled wickedly at them all. "Hang on to yer, britches guys!" and she started to sing.

"I go to bed to close my eyes so I can be dream of you all night. Make believe hands on my thighs, trace my fingers down your spine.I go to bed to be alone, where my thoughts are all my own and I can take you!

I feel the frizure of your back as skin to skin you lay me back, sense of spinning off the ground, your warm sweet body holds me down. I feel your warm breath on my neck, your lips my body they caress, And you can take me!

I go to bed to close my eyes, so I can be with you all night, So I can taste you on my lips and I can guide your fingertips. I feel your heart beat loud and clear, your soft sweet whispers in my ear, And I can take you!"

Her song trailed off slowly and she opened her eyes. Many of the couples were now kissing or caressing each other as they were lost in the spell of her little song. Without a word she turned and started to walk off the stage.

Rayden sat kissing Ev as she sat on his lap and they were both were having difficulty controlling thier hands in such a public place. With a little reluctance and a silent promise to her, he turned his attention back to the departing singer and started to clap. One by one, the others come back to themselves and join in the clapping. By the time she reached the table where Crystal and Doc Adam waited for her, the crowd was on their feet giving her a standing ovation. She collapsed in happy exhaustion in a chair and buried her blushing face in her hands. Benjamin gently rubbed her shoulders and whispered a proposition in her ear that caused her to laugh out loud and giggle behind her hand. He tried to look offended but found himself quickly caught up in her laughter.

Joe made his way over to her table and grinned broadly at her. "Little Lady, I only have two words for you!" he said. Katherine tilted her head up expectantly at him and waited. "You’re hired!" Her answering smile left him with a warm feeling that swept over him like a caress.

"Would you care for a drink? Its on the house for you tonight", he asked. She just shook her head and smiled sweetly.

"Just ice water, Mr. Dawson. The one and only time I partook of the Creature I ended up in someone else’s bed other than my own." Doc Adams looked at her with renewed interested and suggested that Joe spike her water for him which earned him a hard nudge in the ribs from Crystal. He shrugged and inquired innocently "And just whose bed was it, Katherine Ann?"

A happy smile crossed her face as she remembered that night. "Whose but the Captain himself!" Benjamin made a sarcastic remark about this Captain fellow that earned him yet another hard nudge, this time from both of the women sitting beside him.

"I just can’t win with you two, can I?" he complained. Anything else he wanted to say was lost as people started to crowd around their table to offer their congratulations and to meet Katherine.

Ev and Rayden waiting until everyone else had greeted Katherine before they too came up to add their congratulations and introduce themselves. "It was wonderful!" Ev gushed as she eased herself down in the chair next to Katherine. She nodded her head, accepting the praise while looking in interest at Ev's expanded belly.

"Twins?" Katherine asked, one eyebrow raised slightly. Ev grinned and told her that it was indeed twins she that she was carrying and that it wouldn't be much longer from the way she was feeling.

Rayden gave her another appraising look, wondering how she had know that there were two babies, then added his own comments. "Your performance was very impressive. I've never heard singing quite like that before."

Katherine looked up and him and returned his intent gaze with one of her own briefly before turning her attention back to the pregnant lady. Looking up into Ev's face, she asked if it would be ok if she touched her belly.

"Sure!" Ev said, glancing sideways at Rayden who was grinning and curiously watching Katherine to see what she was up to now.

Katherine leaned over and placed both hands on her stomach and Ev felt the babies move and kick. Katherine sat with her eyes closed and her head cocked to one side like she was listening to something, humming something quietly while she was doing so. She then slipped back into her native Gaelic and softly spoke a greeting to the unborn babies.

"Dia dhaoibh mo storin, dia dhaoibh." She then she sang a lovely little lullaby in the same language to them as her hands rested lightly on Ev's stomach. When she was finished she looked up with a luminous glowing expression on her face and said in a thick Scottish brogue, "Och, such a bonny wee lass and brae laddie!" The couple exchanged curious glances with each other. How did she know that it was both a boy and a girl?

"I'm pretty fond of them", Ev said as she patted her belly and then grunted when one of them kicked her hard in the ribs. Rayden took her into his arms and cuddled with her.

" Promise you won't explode?" he teased her. Ev giggled and swatted at him, then had to hold her belly as she said "Ow!".

Katherine glared at Rayden and for a split second he got the impression of what it was like to be a naughty schoolboy caught teasing one of the girls by their teacher. He grinned at Katherine, delighting in that new feeling. Ev saw the wordless exchange and tried to explain to her that they always teased each other that way.

"We really must get to know each other better, Katherine. Would you like to come over for dinner sometime? I will do the cooking so it will be no trouble at all for Ev!" he asked her, grinning broadly. "Yes, please do", Ev seconded, "I promise he'll be good!".

Katherine agreed to dinner while still eyeing Rayden, not quite knowing how to read him, a fact combined with the feeling he was making fun of her that irritating her. She lifted her chin in a defiant manner and with her eyes flashing fire at him said "He had better!".

Rayden could not help but think of a tiny kitten with it's tail and fur all fluffed out and doing it's best to look vicious, and broke out in laughter at the thought. Katherine managed to catch a glimpse of that mental picture and snorted before joining into the laughter as well. Rayden chuckled with her for awhile before saying, "That's better! I wasn't making fun of you. When you get to know me better you will see that".

Shaking her head and still giggling she told everyone she was knackered and needed to go get some sleep. As she rose to leave, Rayden reached out and took hold of her arm, making her skin tingle strangely.

"I think you forgot something", he said as he pointed up at the stage.

Katherine stared in disbelief. Leaning against the stand with the other guitar was the one that had been specially made for her but had been forced to abandon with the rest of her things when she ran for her life.

Ev gave a Rayden an affectionate kiss, and told him that was real sweet of him as they watched Katherine make her way hesitantly back up onto the stage. She reached out nervously to touch it, not quite believing what she was seeing. A look of raptured amazement covered her face as she picked up the guitar and hugged it briefly too her before sitting down to play. As she played she wove through a series of lovely melodies that blended together, communing with her music while tears of healing started to fall down her face.