A cuss word streamed out of Natalie Goodman's mouth, followed by a puff that was meant to be a sigh.

"Is something wrong?" Henry replied. This behavior had become normal for his girlfriend, but he always felt the need to help. For the most part, she had been okay for a quite a while. But now and then he could tell that she was still having problems. This was one of those times, that much was for sure. 

"Nothing, it's absolutely nothing," she said. In the tone of her voice, it became blatantly obvious that anything but "absolutely nothing" was going on.

"Natalie, tell me. I promised I'd be there for you for anything and everything."

Natalie rolled her eyes slightly. "I have to go get something from the attic for a stupid school project. I hate going up to the attic. I don't have asthma, but I always feel like I'm about to stop breathing whenever I go up there." She placed a hand on her hip as she said, "It sucks."

"It can't be that bad," Henry began. But he was very quickly silenced when he saw Natalie glaring at him. "Fine then. I'll go up with you and we'll get it together. Sound good?"

"Better than going alone," she replied with yet another sigh. "Just follow me, I guess."

Henry shook his head slightly. He was sure this attic couldn't be too bad. She was just making it seem far worse than it actually was. His thoughts churned until he realized that there must be something more to it than just the attic. There had to be something up there that was causing her to get irritated about it.

The two of them gradually made their way up through the house until finally they walked up to a certain door. Henry had never been through that door, so he could only assume that it led up to the attic. Natalie reached over to open it up, nearly taking her hand back. Everything in her was resisting going up there. Finally, she did retract her hand. 

Henry gave her a bit of a look and then reached out to turn the handle himself. The door popped open, revealing a staircase made entirely out of rough wood. Compared to the rest of the house, it was very unfinished. To Henry, it almost seemed as if the thought of the attic had slipped their minds until the last minute when they finally decided to build one up.

He found himself leading the way up to the attic, Natalie lagging behind. Halfway up the staircase, he turned around and said, "What, are you too tired to keep going?"

"Shut up," Natalie said, shaking her head. But she couldn't help but let her lips curl up. This slight drive to follow her boyfriend was the only thing that was keeping her going. The stupid project could just wait, or never get done. It didn't matter to her anymore. Almost anything was better than going up into the attic.

Finally, the two of them stood perched on the top steps. They had made it all the way up, and there wasn't really any going back. 

"Okay!" Henry said, clapping his hands together and then rubbing them. "What are we looking for up here?"

"Dolls," she said. "I had some when I was a kid, there has to be something left up here."

Henry let out a short laugh. "Why do you need dolls for a school project?"

"That's exactly what I said," Natalie replied. The two began their search, both heading in opposite directions. It didn't take Henry long to notice that Natalie seemed to be avoided a certain part of the room. He immediately made his way over to that side to see what was hiding there, behind the mounds of boxes with their thin layers of dust spreading into the air with every breath.

Finally, he spotted something of interest. "What's that?" Henry asked. Natalie followed his pointed finger and immediately let out an enormous sigh. 

There was a piano sitting at the end of their line of sight. Although it was meant to be painted white, it was rather chipped and scuffed. It had gotten a lot of wear and tear over the years, and no one knew that better than Natalie Goodman.

"A piece of crap," she replied, blunt as usual. "And not what I'm looking for."

"Oh, come on. What is it, really?"

"You know just as well as I do that it's a baby grand piano. As you can very plainly see, it's white. You know, like Marylin Monroe's, the one that Mariah Carey bought."

"Why do you have a white baby grand in your house to begin with?" Henry said, a smile still arching across his face. This was just flat out amusing for him.

"It was the piano I learned to play on," Natalie said, closing her eyes and letting out another sigh. 

"Really? It's gorgeous," Henry replied. "I wish I could have learned to play on something like that."

"Gorgeous? Are you kidding me?" she said, forcing out a laugh. "I've thought that thing was hideous even when I was a kid. I wanted to paint it pink. I was so stupid back then!"

"Natalie," Henry said, a warning tone in his voice. "Well, I do think it's gorgeous." With that, he made his way over to it, sitting on the bench right across from it. He gestured for Natalie to come and join him. She did nothing of the sort. Instead of trying to push her to do something that he knew that she would never do, he just changed the subject slightly.

"Where'd you get this thing from, anyways?" His eyes ran over the keys, looking at every flaw and blemish they had. It reminded him of something, but he just couldn't put his finger on it.

"It was the only piano we could afford when I decided I wanted to play," Natalie replied, crossing her arms. "With all of Mom's meds, all we could get was this crappy piece. It looked old when we first got it, so me playing only made that worse."

"But if you learned to play on it, it can't be that bad," Henry said. He tapped down on middle C, then played a chord. "I mean, it's out of tune, but any piano would be after sitting in an attic for...how long?"

"Four years," Natalie said, forcing a smile. Her eyes remained dull. "Haven't touched this thing after I turned thirteen. That's when they finally went ahead and bought me my keyboard. Thank God."

Henry looked at the piano rather than at his girlfriend. She wouldn't listen to him no matter what he said when it came to these sorts of things. Natalie was stubborn and would do whatever she wanted as long as she had the ability to. He had seen her through her ups and downs, and that had always stuck out.

"I still don't get why you hate it so much."

Instead of responding properly, she changed the subject slightly. "Mom tried to play this thing a few times," Natalie said. She let out a laugh that sounded more like a bird's squawk than an expression of happiness. "Let's just say she should have stuck to architecture and being insane."

"That's a bit rude, don't you think?" Henry said, raising his eyebrows. 

"Well, she was good at architecture. Good enough, anyways. I mean, she went to college for it. That's how she met my dad. As for the whole insanity thing, we both remember perfectly well what happened to her," Natalie said. She closed her eyes as thoughts of the past few months swirled up in her head like the dust on the boxes in the attic that had been disturbed.

Her mother had left several months ago. Henry had believed Natalie was pretty much over it. The day it happened, she had ended up being the support for her father. Most would think that it would have been quite a pressure on Natalie, who was nothing more than a teenage girl, but in reality she felt that it was hardly a weight compared to her past.

Henry had been there for her the entire time, but in terms of emotional support he wasn't really needed. The past few months had mostly been getting over everything and starting up fresh, the two of them able to enjoy time together.

"Natalie, come here," Henry said. "Please, for me?"

Natalie rolled her eyes, but she listened to him. She slammed down on the piano bench, not even looking at the white baby grand sitting right in front of her. She was going to ignore its existence for as long as possible. 

"Here." Henry took Natalie's hands in his own and placed them on the piano. "Play with me."

"No!" she exclaimed, immediately whipping her hands away. "I'm not playing this stupid thing."

"Come on," he coaxed. His voice lowered in volume. "It's aching to be played. The sustain pedal hasn't been used for years and just wants to be pressed."

"The sustain pedal is broken," she said with an eye roll. "Always has been, always will be."

"Well now, how was I supposed to know that?" Henry said. Natalie didn't respond. She just got up and started storming away, her puff of a ponytail swinging behind her. She had come up to the attic for a reason, and she still planned to accomplish her goals. 

"Natalie, come on. It's just a piano, you don't have to get so worked up about it."

"You don't know anything about it," Natalie said. Her voice began cracking slightly as she spoke. "You don't understand why I hate it."

"No, I don't," Henry said. "That's why I need you to tell me." By this point, Natalie had turned away from him. She felt that push to continue being stubborn, to ignore him and just do what she had planned and be done with it. But at the same time, she heard the sincerity in his voice. She clenched her fists together, feeling the slight layer of sweat from the stuffiness of the attic on her hands.

She turned around to face her boyfriend again. "It reminds me of her," Natalie said, looking down. But her emotions soon exploded. 

"I hate this thing because it reminds me of my mom, okay? It reminds me that she was always too busy taking care of Gabe, who was dead the whole God damn time, and it reminds me that my dad was always too busy taking care of her!" She began to walk away, fuming out of every pore. Her finish line was obviously situated at the staircase.

"Natalie, please," Henry replied. She wasn't listening, but she wasn't leaving the attic. He wasn't going to let her do that. He began to play a song on the keys, a song that ended stopping her right in her tracks. 

But Henry soon found that there was a problem coming. Parts of the song required the sustain pedal. Henry knew that the whole spell would be ruined since the pedal was broken. Despite all of this, he pushed his foot down like he was driving a car and flooring it. But the result was quite a surprise.

"Would you look at that," he said. "The sustain pedal works."

"You're kidding," Natalie said.

"Listen to it, though," Henry said. "Just listen."

His fingers tracked over the keys, wherever he thought they should go and stay. Every note resonated beautifully despite the damage that had been dealt to the white baby grand. The music alone was enough to attract Natalie back to the piano and her boyfriend.

"I don't think I can do this. It reminds me too much of my mom. She was the one who bought it for me, after all." She sat herself down on the piano bench for the second time, this time doing it gently and softly. Her breaking point was very near, and she couldn't handle much more stress.

"You're never going to forget what happened to her, and we both understand that," Henry said, pushing his fingers slightly deeper into Natalie's curls. "But think of it like music. Maybe putting the sustain pedal on and letting it stay on quietly isn't so bad."

"Are you starting your metaphors with me again?" Natalie said, raising an eyebrow.

"That's what I do," he said. "I'm just getting started, anyways. Just think of all the things a sustain pedal could symbolize!"

"I'd rather not," Natalie replied. 

"Well, you're no fun. I'm going to tell you anyways. Sustaining is something lasting, staying. But even when you press down the sustain pedal, the sound doesn't last forever. It's just like your memories. They're going to stay for now, but they're going to gradually go away too."

Natalie bit her lip for a moment. Knowing that Henry was right, she decided that there was nothing for her to say that would make a proper response. When a better idea popped into her head, she went ahead and opened her mouth.

"Let's play," Natalie said. "Let's play something together."

"Sounds great to me," Henry replied. The two of them went ahead and stared at the black and white keys as if it that would somehow give them an idea what they could play.

"Do you know how to play any duets?" Natalie finally said. "All I know is Mozart and that kind of stuff. You know, everything that you hate."

"Improv is always the answer, that's what I say," Henry replied.

"Always?"

"You just opened the door to a lot more metaphors," he said with a click of his tongue. "Improvisation is the key to life. The ability to be spontaneous and to-" Henry was cut off as Natalie punched him lightly in the arm.

"Sometimes I prefer it when you're stoned and don't have a clue what you're talking about," Natalie said. "Unless, of course, you're stoned now." She began leaning in towards her boyfriend, as if she could glean the truth about this from his eyes. But really, she just wanted to kiss him.

"I'm not stoned," he replied. "But does it matter?"

"Of course not."

"Now, let's play something on this white baby grand and make it well worth its cost."

"Improvisation, I'm guessing,"  Natalie said.

"There's not much of any other way to do it," Henry replied. With a smile, he raised his arms up and placed his fingers on the lower half of the snow colored piano. Natalie allowed her lips to curve up as well, doing the same but on the upper side.

The couple played away on the secondhand piano, with the functioning sustain pedal. Together they were able to create music, something that mattered. That's what the white baby grand was meant to do throughout its life, but was never able to truly accomplish until that moment.

The white baby grand might not have been Natalie's first choice, but in that moment it was breathtakingly stunning. It had finally received what it needed: love. 

A/N And this is a fun title, is it not? It's referring to pianos and music, of course. Well, this one shot was meant to based off of Secondhand White Baby Grand from SMASH, seen over on the side. I took a bit of liberty with this, but I tried to keep the main message of the song in: despite the fact the piano was messed up (sort of like Natalie's life), it was able to make something beautiful. I know that a grand total of very few people know anything about Next To Normal, but this would be taking place a few months after the events of the musical. Anyways...I worked pretty hard on this. Hope it's decent. Over on the side are Henry and Natalie. How cute are they?