MJ's phone was pinging with notifications as it sat on the table next to her. MJ sat, unmoving, as the last notes of the song died away, as the last, strange beats echoed. She heard Jason's voice, changed through the computer, bouncing around the arena:

And know that I am with you

The reverb was so strong, and the echo just went on and on. Her song, written as a soulful, mournful lullaby of grief for her mother, had been turned into some kind of dance anthem, a club song with a syncopated disco beat.

Screams and applause were filling the arena as Meredith acknowledged her partner. "The one and only Jason Fielding, everyone! Yeah! He came all the way from LA just to play my new song for you, Santiago!" And the applause swelled and grew.

MJ's phone continued to go crazy next to her while she sat motionless. She felt sick. Now her phone was actually ringing. For a second she didn't recognize the sound, because it had been so long since it had rung. Everyone texted these days, didn't they?

There was shouting and the sound of footsteps in the hall, and suddenly Heath, Archie and Poppy were in the doorway. Heath had his phone held to his ear.

"MJ! Thank Christ!" He put his phone in his pocket and strode to where she was. "Are you okay? Did you hear?"

"Of course she heard, Heath, look at her face," Archie said, putting an arm around MJ's shoulders.

"MJ. MJ!" Heath bent to look her in the eye. "Did you give Meredith permission to use your song?"

"Dear lord, Heath Michael, she's in shock," Poppy said quietly.

Heath looked at his sister, who looked back at him. He shook his head. "I can't," he said.

She sighed. "Move."

Heath took a step back, and Poppy lifted her hand and slapped MJ, not hard, but very briskly.

MJ raised her hand to her cheek, and looked up at Poppy in surprise. She looked around at Archie and Heath. "What are you doing here?" she asked Heath. "You have to go on stage in a few minutes." She made no mention of the slap, or of anything else.

The three Spencers looked at each other before Heath bent to talk to MJ once more.

"MJ," he said slowly. "Did you give Meredith permission to perform your song? To change it, to rewrite it and perform it tonight?"

MJ looked at Heath, her hand still on her cheek, and shook her head. Her eyes filled with tears. "It's about my mother," she whispered. "Meredith and that guy messed-messed it up."

"I know, darling," Heath answered, squeezing her shoulder. He rose to look at his brother and sister.

Poppy nodded and went to the next table, where there was an urn of hot water and some tea bags. She returned with tea for MJ.

"I've got to go," he said to them. "Stay with her, and find Sally. And you'd better call Douglas as well. And talk to her, try to find out how the fuck this happened." He ran his hand through his hair and looked down at MJ. "This is going to be one gigantic cluster fuck for sure." He shook his head.

"MJ? I've got to go, but I'll be back as soon as I can, yeah?" He bent to kiss her forehead.

MJ nodded. The tea was doing its job, and she already looked better. "Yes, I know. Please go, don't mess up your show on top of everything else."

After he'd left, MJ asked, "Who's Douglas?"

"Douglas Archer. He's Heath's solicitor," Poppy answered. "Lawyer, you'd call him in America." At MJ's look, she nodded her head. "This is going to be a complete and utter cock up, I'm afraid."

Archie looked up from his phone. "I've found Sally, and she's on her way here now. I've told her to bring Meredith and that wanker Jason as well, okay? And I've put in a call to Douglas, though I don't know when he'll get back to me, since it's two in the morning in London."

"You have Heath's lawyer's phone number?" MJ asked.

Archie nodded. "I have all his numbers," he said with a grin. "So does Pops. We're a very close family, in case you hadn't noticed," he added, hugging his sister and giving her a very wet kiss.

"God, Arch, why do you have to be so disgusting?" Poppy asked, wiping her cheek. But she smiled at her little brother.

Just then Sally arrived, but without Meredith and Jason. She looked around, but didn't say anything, because Heath took the stage just then, and the roar of the audience would've drowned out any words she spoke. She waited until it died down, and she took the extra measure of turning the speaker down.

She turned to MJ, Poppy, and Archie to ask, "Is this a prank? I can't imagine why the three of you would need to see me and Meredith and Jason?"

"Are they coming?" MJ asked.

Sally seemed surprised that MJ was the one asking.

"No, they've already gone back to the hotel," she responded. "What's this about, please?"

MJ took a deep breath. "The song Meredith performed at the end of her show? The one Jason helped her with?"

Sally smiled. "Amazing, yeah? Putting the screws to her before the break was a stroke of genius, I think. The crowd loved it, and streams of videos taken at the concert are through the roof already. I didn't think she had it in her, to tell you the truth, but its an incredible song, absolutely marvelous it's just--"

"Mine," MJ interrupted.

"Sorry?" Sally said.

"I said the song is mine," MJ repeated. "I wrote that song, and I never said Meredith could use it, ever."

Sally just stared at her. "Dear god please tell me you're joking."

"No," MJ said, drawing her brows together. Her chin began to quiver. Apparently her strength had run out.

"She's not joking," Poppy said, stepping in. "We, my entire family, heard her sing it at our house in Surrey over the break, with Heath."

"So Heath wrote the song," Sally said.

MJ shook her head.

"No, MJ wrote it," Archie interjected. "She wrote that song about her mum. She died when MJ was very young, you see."

Sally put a hand to her temple. "Oh god, what a mess. So how did Meredith wind up with the song, then?"

"I don't know," MJ said, shrugging.

"You must've played it for her?" Sally suggested.

MJ shook her head.

"Did you show her the music."

Another head shake.

"Well, you've at least discussed the song with her, then," Sally said, her voice nearly a plea.

Head shake.

"And the song she performed is exactly the same as the song you wrote?"

Archie and Poppy looked at MJ.

"It's in a different key, and it's been given a different beat, a different tempo, to make it a dance song. And a lot of weird reverb has been put in, probably by that guy, Jason, that's the sort of thing he does, but the lyrics, the melody, it was all the same," MJ said.

"So maybe she heard yours somewhere and changed it enough so it's a completely different song," Sally said hopefully.

The other three all gave her a withering look.

"It was the same song," Archie said firmly. "Even I could tell that, Sally."

Sally sighed. "I guess we need to talk to Meredith and Jason, then," she said with a shake of her head. "We'd better head to the hotel."

"I think we should wait for Heath Michael," Poppy said.

"What? Why?" Sally asked, turning to Poppy.

"Meredith can be a right stroppy cunt, and I think having Heath there will help, that's all," Poppy replied, sitting down.

Sally looked at MJ and Archie, who both nodded, so they all sat to wait for Heath. MJ sent him a text so he'd know to come to them as soon as his show was over, and Sally sent Meredith a text telling her to expect them in a couple of hours.

Of course Meredith wanted to know what it was about, but Sally didn't answer, and Meredith didn't ask again, so she probably knew.

Heath came directly to them, and they left right away. He took MJ's hand as they walked down the corridor.

After they were in the car, Heath asked MJ if she'd heard the whole thing.

"No, I only started to listen partway through," she answered.

"So you didn't hear the intro or anything?"

"No, why?"

He just shook his head.

After a few minutes MJ leaned into Heath and said, "You're hurting my hand."

Heath released her fingers, saying, "I'm so sorry, darling."

"Sally, they know we're coming, right?"

"Yeah," she answered. "Hey, Heath?" she went on. "You're not going to go all crazy, are you? Beat Jason up or anything?" At his continued silence, she added, "It's just you seem that furious, you know?"

"I am," he answered briefly.

They ran the gauntlet of the fans at the hotel, and finally were in the whispery silence of the elevator.

Heath's silence was beginning to frighten even MJ.

"Heath, please don't do anything that's going to get you into trouble, okay?"

He just kissed her temple.

He knocked on her door, and when it was opened, he pushed on it and entered, and MJ grasped his hand firmly, hanging on with grim determination.

"Wow, look at all of you guys," Meredith called out gaily. She'd changed into Gucci sweat pants and a soft sweat shirt. Jason was wearing his usual board shorts and tank top.

"Shut your stupid, thieving, lying, mouth, you miserable cunt," Heath said, pointing at Meredith.

"Oh my god, Heath," Meredith cried out. "What's the matter with you? I was going to offer you a drink!"

"Heath? That approach won't help anything," Sally interjected. She reached out a hand and grabbed Heath's arm.

"Meredith," she turned to the pretty blonde girl. "MJ says she wrote the new song you performed tonight, the song you said you wrote with Jason over the break. She says she never gave you permission to perform it, and that it belongs to her."

Meredith blinked big blue eyes. "Well, that's news to me, and to ASCAP, because I just registered the song a few hours ago. It's mine." She looked at MJ. "She might have given me a few ideas, you know, when we spent all that time together before the break, maybe, but I wrote it, all by myself. Period."

She looked at Heath, Poppy, and Archie. "Why are all you guys here, anyway? What do you have to do with my PA?" She looked at Sally. "Why did you bring all of them with you?"

Sally was looking at Heath. "What do you want to do?"

Heath was biting his lip, looking around. "I know that it's her song. I know it."

He turned to MJ. "Run to your room, darling, get your notebook and laptop, bring them here, yeah?"

MJ nodded and left.

"You--you called her darling?" Meredith's voice was soft in the quiet room.

"Yeah," Heath nodded, sitting next to Archie on the bed. "I did, didn't I? Because I've been seeing her."

"You've been seeing her," Meredith repeated. She, too, sat down, on a chair, carefully setting her drink down.

Poppy sat down next to Heath. This was getting fun.

Sally remained standing next to the door.

MJ was back within a few minutes, as her room was only two doors down, connected to Meredith's.

It's gone," she said, speaking only to Heath, her voice stricken.

"What?"

"The song's gone," she repeated. "Look, the pages have been ripped out of my notebook, and the file's completely deleted from my laptop, like it was never there, even the backed up copy!" MJ's voice was quivering, she was trying very hard not to cry.

"How convenient," Meredith's voice was silky.

"Shut your gob, twat," Heath said, not looking away from MJ.

"You know how trusting she is," he said to Sally. "It would be so easy for Meredith to watch her and get her password, and to send that tosser to come and mess with her laptop, you know I'm right!"

"Oh, come on!" Meredith said, picking up her drink and taking a sip. "Which is it? I mean, if she wrote it, where's the proof?"

MJ was holding up her notebook. "You can see the little bits where the perforations were left when the pages were torn out."

Sally looked, and nodded.

"And I did have it on my laptop, I swear I did," she said, her voice rising.

Heath rose and went to stand before Meredith.

"Hey, Mer? What's your new song called again?" he asked.

"What?" she asked.

"What's your new song called?" he asked again. "I didn't quite catch it at the show."

"Oh, it's called 'Callie—ope's Lament'," she told him.

Heath smiled at her.

"You are so—fucking—stupid," he enunciated in her face.

"What?" she nearly hissed, beginning to rise from her chair.

He shook his head at her.

"You're so lazy you couldn't even be arsed to change the title," he said with a chuckle. "I heard you announce it that way during the show, and couldn't believe it. It's pronounced 'Ca-LIE-oh-pee's Lament,' you stupid cow," he told her. "You stole someone's song, didn't know how to pronounce the title, but didn't change the title to something you could pronounce. That's the definition of stupidity, I think, don't you?" he asked the room.

Meredith just stared at him.

"Oh, another question, Mer: Who's Calliope?" Heath asked with a smile. "Or Callie—ope, if you prefer your mangled pronunciation?"

Again, Meredith stared.

"Look, everyone, she doesn't know!" He smiled again. "How about this one, then: Meredith, what's a lament?" He looked at her. "Oh, what a shocker, ladies and gentlemen, she doesn't know that one, either!" He looked around the room once more. "So Meredith's written a song with a title she can't pronounce, using two words she can't define! Totally believable, don't you think?"

"Heath, stop."

Heath looked over in surprise.

"What?"

"You're embarrassing her," MJ said, her voice soft.

"MJ, she stole your song!" Heath said.

MJ nodded.

Sally spoke. "MJ, who's Calliope?"

MJ sighed.

"MJ?" Sally prodded.

MJ nodded. "Calliope is a greek muse, mother of the sirens, the muse of epic poetry, goddess of music, song and dance, and eloquence. Her name means 'beautiful voice,' and my father used to call my mother 'Calliope,' because she sang so beautifully.'

"And a lament?"

"A lament is something sad, usually a song, sometimes a poem, about something sorrowful that's happened in your life. I wrote that song as if I were my mother feeling sad because she had to leave me, trying to comfort me by telling me she would always be with me."

"And," Heath continued, "I have a copy of the song on my laptop, that I copied there, weeks ago, when I was singing the song with her, working on harmonies. And we performed it together for my brother, my sister, my mother, and my father, when she was in England with me over the break."

"What?" Meredith's voice was barely a whisper now, but it could be heard very clearly. "You and Moose Jugs?"

Heath put an arm around MJ and kissed her temple. "Please, Meredith, keep your disgusting, foul mouth in check around the girl I love, if you don't mind."

MJ risked looking over at Meredith.

She'd never seen such a look of hatred in her life.