A/N: Just started this one. It will likely be a long one.

We're going AU here, and since we're going AU, I thought I'd make it easy on myself and set this in Melbourne. So, yeah, it's Australian Paily.

Sections in italics are flashforwards.

They were gathered in Spencer's basement. Of course, a basement may not sound like much, but everything in her house was larger and more deluxe than it sounded. Their dining room could comfortably sit over twenty, and their 'entertainment area' was big enough that they could have a hundred people over, something they regularly did.

So the basement itself could hold a large party, and had a sound system that would put a small nightclub to shame. When the Hastings had one of their famous soirees, it would be the adults upstairs and the older children and teenagers down here, safely out of the way.

Tonight it was just the four of them, though, eschewing the couches and armchairs, relaxing instead on the beanbags.

"So Em, tell me about your new found interest in live music," Spencer said. "Aria tells me you've suddenly become a denizen of the night, haunting the seedier bars of Fitzroy and Collingwood."

"There's a band I like, that's all," Emily replied.

"Emily Fields likes a band!" Hanna exclaimed. "Are they some sort of sci-fi nerd band?"

"No," Emily replied. "They're just a band, Hanna."

"Who are they?" Hanna asked. "I want to know if you're actually becoming cool."

"You wouldn't have heard of them," Emily replied.

"Try us," Spencer said.

"Look, it doesn't matter," Emily responded. She wasn't sure why she was so embarrassed, but she was.

"I know," Aria reminded her. "If you don't want to tell them, I can."

Emily glared at Aria for a moment, but the other girl was undeterred.

"They're called The Snotrags," Emily finally answered, barely able to make the words come out of her mouth.

The others laughed, not helping Emily's embarrassment.

"The what?" Spencer asked, though from the look on her face she'd clearly heard.

"The Snotrags," Emily repeated. "They're a punk band."

The others kept laughing. They were lucky they were her friends.

"Oh my god, Em!" Hanna shrieked. "That is so fucking cool. We have to give you a makeover. Do you want your hair green or red? And you need more piercings. I can take you into town tomorrow, you'll be looking scary in no time."

"Hey, Em, tell them what the tour is called," Aria suggested.

Emily glared at her again, but to no avail.

"On The Rag," she replied, to more howls of laughter

"So why is Emily sits-up-the-front-in-Physics-and-argues-with-the-teacher-about-atomic-structure Fields suddenly going to crusty pubs and listing to punk music?" Spencer asked.

"I just like them," Emily answered. "It's fun."

"Aria?" Spencer prompted.

"I'm not saying anything," Aria replied.

"Oh, now you decide to keep quiet," Emily pointed out. Aria just smiled and had a sip of her drink.

"Who is she?" Hanna demanded.

"What?" Emily asked, though she knew she was only stalling.

"Who is she?" Hanna repeated. "Come on, Em, it's obvious. Who is this girl that is going to turn our delicate little Emily into a hardcore punk rocker?"

The music was so loud it just sounded like a wall of static to Emily. She didn't understand why it had to be so loud. If they'd just turn it down a little everyone could hear better, and people might be able to talk. Then there was the room. The carpet was sticky, the whole place stank of beer, and she could hardly breath after the smoke machine had done it's job.

"I thought you liked jazz," she shouted to Aria.

"I do, but I like this as well," Aria replied, equally loudly.

"Why did you invite me?" Emily asked.

"It's not as much fun alone," Aria explained. "Spencer wouldn't come because she says it's too loud and the place is disgusting, and Hanna wouldn't come because she says you can't dance to it."

Emily allowed herself a bit of a chuckle. She was turning into Spencer. No, check that, they'd both been like this for a while. Why did they argue so much when they were so alike?

But the fact that Emily was even here was something. All through high school she had been the unsocial one of the group. It's not like she didn't like going out, but her idea of fun was hanging out with her three best friends. While Hanna was out clubbing, Spencer was entertaining guests at her parents' lawyer get-togethers and Aria was going to exclusive parties with her artist friends, Emily would be at home reading, whether it was epic fantasy novels or books on theoretical physics.

Sometimes even her mother would worry she spent too much time at home.

"Why don't you call one of your friends?" Pam would ask.

"I was reading a really interesting article in the newspaper about teenage drug use," Emily would reply. "Apparently it's increased dramatically just in the last few years."

If that didn't put her off, Emily would move on to teen pregnancy statistics. Not that that would work these days.

Since Emily had finished school and gone to Uni, however, things had changed. Before she had been spending all of her time in a boring suburban house, going to a boring suburban school, and shopping at a boring suburban shopping centre. Now she was going into the city every day, meeting new people, going to cafes and theatres and parties, seeing a life that had seemed so exotic not too long ago. There was so much going on around her, and she had so much freedom.

And that was how she found herself here, at a punk 'gig', as Aria called it. She studied the people around here. They looked slightly intimidating, at least to someone unfamiliar with this subculture like Emily, but they seemed nice enough. There was a lot of denim, and leather, a couple of mohawks, but less than Emily had expected.

It was the dancing that really scared her, though. They just seemed to throw themselves into each other. It wasn't even really dancing, just, well, colliding. Emily was glad she and Aria were well back from that.

"Did you want a drink?" Aria asked.

"Lemon squash, thanks," Emily replied.

Aria disappeared into the mass of people as she headed off to the bar. Emily was the only one of her friends who didn't drink alcohol, but they never gave her any flak about it, though Hanna did try to sneak some gin into Emily's lemonade one night. As soon as Emily tasted it she knew what had happened. Spencer and Aria told Hanna off, but Hanna didn't seem that sorry.

As out of place as Emily was here, she still found it intriguing. What was the attraction of it all? There wasn't any real melody to the music, or if there was it was lost to the shear volume of it all, not to mention the distortion from their amplification. Even the rhythm was fairly basic, just a fast beat, accenting the two and four.

She started letting herself move the the music, but all she could really do was nod her head and tap one foot in time. It was quite different to the nightclub she went to the other week. That was too loud as well, but at least the music made you want to dance, however repetitive it was.

Emily tried to look through the crowd to see the band. As tall as she was, all she could really see was hair flying back and forth.

Aria arrived back with their drinks.

"What do you think?" Aria asked.

"It's loud," Emily replied.

Aria just smiled. She knew that Emily was too polite to say any more.

"We can go somewhere else if you want," Aria suggested.

"No, I said I'd come, and I'm going to tough it out," Emily responded. "Anyway, it's interesting. It's different."

"I'm the one doing sociology, Em," Aria reminded her.

Emily found herself scanning the crowd again. She really meant it when she said it was interesting. This wasn't the kind of place Emily would normally go, but the people here weren't that strange. Maybe a bot more flannel then usual, and the footwear of choice seemed to be all connies or boots, but that was about it.

As she looked around, Emily's mind began to wonder. There were some seriously attractive women in the room. Emily had been single ever since she and Maya broke up, and while she hadn't been on the look-out, it wasn't like the thought had never crossed her mind.

At that point she made eye contact with a woman at one of the tables. She hadn't meant to, but it just happened. She hated this. The woman was maybe early thirties, had multi-coloured dreadlocks, and was dressed in a black tank-top and black tights. And now she was looking at Emily.

She smiled at Emily, and Emily froze. Should she smile back? What if this woman thought Emily was checking her out? Emily looked away. Oh god, now this poor woman probably thought Emily was gawking at her. She could probably tell Emily was new here and thought Emily was looking around judging everyone. Emily had to be polite.

She looked back. The woman in black was still looking at her. Emily smiled. The woman raised one eyebrow.

Shit.

Emily turned and stared bolt forward.

"Let's go up the front," Aria suggested, oblivious to Emily's dramas.

"OK," Emily agreed, sensing an escape. She downed the rest of her drink in one go and was ready to set off into the melee.

They pushed they way through the mass of bodies, and soon they were separated. Emily was knocked into and jostled along the way, but for some reason she didn't mind. She let herself go, and moved with the pack as it surged back and forth. She was covered with sweat now, but she was starting to understand. There was something exhilarating about this, the sound, the energy, the crush of people around her. The chaos. She was losing herself in the maelstrom, and she was loving it.

She was pushed forward and found herself in front of the stage.

Directly ahead of her was the bass player, a wiry, athletic woman around Emily's age. She had the tank-top and the tight jeans which were so popular here, but a lot more tattoos. Like, lots of them. Her part seemed to consist of only a few notes played over and over, but she played them with intensity and determination, her eyes fixed on her fretboard as her hands pounded the strings. As she played, her long hair shook violently, forming a cloud around her head.

Emily became transfixed, watching as this woman seemed to attack her guitar, driving the bass line on and on. The roaring notes kept coming, propelling the sound into the audience. Emily watched the sweat trickle down the other woman's body, over her glistening skin and the tight muscles that were powering her playing.

It was mesmerizing. Emily had never seen someone play quite like this, and it was more than the sound that was exciting Emily now. It was this woman in front of her, with her fervent playing, her contained yet powerful presence, her focus, her strength, and her stunningly ripped body. Emily was oblivious to everything else now.

And at that moment Emily realized that she was feeling something else. In just a few minutes, the space of less than a song, this woman had captured her. Emily was intrigued, she was entranced, she was… fuck!… she was turned on.