A/N: I'm enjoying embarrassing Serena! Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed!

Sarah x

When Serena returned she heard the mention of Harvard and bars and realised Edward was hell bent on embarrassing her. It had always been that Edward's big mouth had caused the fights and Serena prevented them from happening. Unless, of course, she had felt Edward had earned what he was threatened with, in which case he had been left to fight his own corner. While she had defended him, if she thought he was wrong, he was on his own, something he had quickly learned.

"She was offered two record deals in the space of less than a year," Edward explained. Oh, no. That had been a joke he had played on her, though he had repeatedly denied he had anything to do with it for the past twenty years. There were a lot of things he repeatedly denied, and a lot of things she repeatedly told him he was lying about.

"That was a drunken prank and you know it," she snapped.

"It wasn't!" Edward insisted. "Honestly, Serena. How many times do I have to tell you?!"

"You can tell me until you're blue in the face," Serena shrugged. "You forget that I know you, Edward, and your sense of humour."

"At least I've got one," he muttered into his glass. "Anyway, that's beside the point. The point is that you're a woman of many talents who only values two of them: business and medicine."

"I don't have any other talents," she growled at him, feeling vulnerable and weakened by what he was revealing. Michael was watching her carefully, as if ready to dive between her and Edward if she decided to slap him. Hanssen was resting an arm towards her, ready to restrain her if she lost her temper. Jac was leaning into her slightly – reassurance. Was she really that volatile?

Jonny picked that moment to chip in with the question of, "If you don't have any other talents, Ms. Campbell, then why would you be approached twice by record labels?"

"He," she nodded at Edward, "and his friends decided it would be funny to embarrass me in front of a whole pub. Twice. Even went as far as making business cards and crap like that," she explained.

"It wasn't a joke!" Edward half-shouted, his calm and playful demeanour shaken. "Honest to God, woman! Don't you ever relent?!"

Mo got up and stood between Serena and Edward as they both rose, ready to confront each other over the silliest of matters. "Come on. No need to get upset. OK?" she said to Serena, who felt Jac's hand on one wrist, Hanssen's wrapped tightly around on the other. "Edward, why don't you go and get another drink?" Mo advised him. Edward nodded.

When he passed, he placed a hand on her shoulder. She turned to glare at him. "Sorry, Serena." She reluctantly nodded her acceptance of his apology as she sat down. If this was how he was going to act then she had no reservations about using Michael and Hanssen and their tipsiness to her advantage.

When she spotted Edward coming back from the bar, she leaned over to Hanssen and whispered in his ear, "Thank you for not letting me kill him," with a mischievous grin. He gave a low and confused chuckle, and she was satisfied to see a sourness in Edward's smile as he sat down.

"No problem," Hanssen whispered back. "Wouldn't want you locked up for murder, would we?"

"I thought me being locked up was what you wanted more than anything else in the world," she laughed; Edward was busying himself speaking to Chantelle and Harry, still going on about the two occasions Serena had allegedly been offered her life made for her on a plate. He was, as she had said to Ric, an infuriating man. She frequently resisted the urge to verbally rip him apart for the sake of argument, as it was usually not worth the headache she always suffered afterwards.

"...so up walks this man as she gets off the stage after singing karaoke in the pub. She's half-cut and doesn't see him, walks straight into him," Edward recounted. "He stops her and says, 'Hey, young lady. Mighty fine job you did up there. We need a voice like yours,'" he continued in his best attempt at the Southern American accent she recalled that man possessed. "Shows her his card. She laughs and says, 'Ha ha, very bloody funny. Do I look like I fell in the last rain shower?' and just walks away from him."

Looking back, Serena realised that the look of shock on Edward's face had been equal to hers. That time, at least, he had had nothing to do with it. She was just too blinded by resentment and a secret lack of self-esteem that she hadn't seen it until now. The second time, nine months later, she still held reservations about.

"That wasn't you, was it?" Serena said slowly, grabbing Edward's attention. "You were speechless. I remember. That actually wasn't your doing."

"Oh, now she realises!" Edward exclaimed with a sarcasm heavy in his voice and his arms thrown upwards in despair. "You could have had anything you wanted and you turned it down because you don't believe in your own ability unless it's to do with business or surgery," he ranted. She often forgot that her attitude could wind him up as much as his did her.

"I have all I want," she retorted, though it was a lie. One thing was missing, and he had destroyed it.

With a sigh, he backtracked to the story. "Less than a year later, she's in the same pub, singing the same song, and another guy from some big record label pulls her over. That time she said, 'Yeah, yeah, hilarious. Comic bloody genius. Go away.' Poor man didn't know what to do with himself!"

"When was this?" Hanssen asked interestedly, and Serena had a feeling that he was taking too much pleasure in digging into her history.

"1994," Serena answered before Edward could.

"So you would have been, what? Twenty-seven? Twenty-eight?" Michael asked. "What were you singing?"

"'Runaway Train,'" Edward supplied fondly. "She had half the place in tears and she hadn't even shouted at anyone," he laughed. Serena made a face at him.

"I remember when that was first released!" Michael exclaimed. Of course he did. "It was in the charts for like three months."

"Yeah, it's a good song," concurred Edward.

"Go on then," Mo urged her.

"Yeah!" Jonny backed his best friend up.

"What?" Serena asked suspiciously, though already had an unpleasant feeling about what they wanted.

"Yeah, 'Rena," Michael piped up, and he received a glare simply for using her pet name. "Sing it."

"No, no, no!" she protested. "I can't even sing!"

"You can," Hanssen contradicted her. She looked at him questioningly. "I've heard you singing to yourself when you think nobody is there." The truth was, of course, that the song was one that now meant something to her, and she was rarely able to sing it without feeling quite hurt. It was a song about how easy it was to get hurt when you let yourself get lost in the concept of being love – being on a runaway train.

"Please?" Chantelle asked. Her angelic face made it impossible for even Serena to deny her.

"Fine," she sighed. Edward winked at Harry. "I'm worried about you; I'm worried about me; the curves around midnight aren't easy to see," she sang quietly, and she noticed that people from surrounding table had fallen silent. "Flashing red warnings, unseen in the rain; this thing has turned into a runaway train; long-distance phone calls; a voice on the line; electrical miles that soften the time; dynamite too, is hooked on the wire; and so are the rails of American flyers," she kept going. She felt the lump in her throat forming but would not stop for the sake of memories. "Blind boys and gamblers; they invented the blues; we'll pay up in blood when this marker comes due; to try and get off now, it's about as insane; as those who wave lanterns at runaway trains."

Despite her determination she could not keep going for fear of making an even greater idiot of herself. Nervously, she avoided everyone's gazes until someone spoke. Jac. "And you wonder why they wanted you signed?"

"My point exactly!" Edward said, and she knew he was taking great pleasure in being proven right.

She wanted the ground to open and swallow her up; it had just dawned on her that she had made herself look like a fool in front of those she most respected and who were meant to be respecting her. But they did not laugh. In fact, as she looked around she saw them all stunned. Harry let out a sharp bark of a laugh, more shocked than anything else. Chantelle's mouth was hanging open. Michael just grinned knowingly, probably only because he was slightly drunk. Jonny and Mo glanced at each other with smirks. Edward, however, was the one that Serena truly felt like flooring.

Thoroughly embarrassed and needing to escape so she could breathe freely, she got up and said, "I have to go to the bathroom, if you'll excuse me," with a smile.

She half-ran into the bathrooms and stood before the mirror. The woman in the mirror was not one she knew. Her intoxicated body was relaxed and yet still wound up by the presence of a man who had a talent for it. "Pull yourself together, Serena," she muttered to herself. "Don't let him win."

"Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness, you know," the familiar voice of Jac Naylor said behind her. "Or at least that's what Sharon says. Personally I think it's good to tell yourself off once in a while," the redhead smiled into the mirror behind Serena. "You OK?"

"Yeah," smiled Serena. "He's just..."

"...your typical, smug, arrogant, irritating ex-husband?" Jac supplied.

Serena let out a laugh. "Yeah, something like that." She turned around to face Jac. "He's just reminded me who I used to be. I used to be alright, you know. Not the person I am now."

"There's nothing wrong with who you are now," Jac said. "You keep us lot in line, don't you? And when Spence and Maconie are involved, that is an achievement and a half," she added with a grin. "Look, Serena, he's hurt you already. Let him have his fun but make sure he knows he can't hurt you anymore."

Serena smiled in the knowledge that Jac was not the cold woman she appeared. "Thanks."

"No problem," the younger woman grinned. "Now let's go and remind him what you're made of." With smiles they left together, Serena getting another drink before she sat down, deliberately placing a hand on Hanssen's thin shoulder.

"Another drink?" he demanded, eyeing the large glass balefully. Part of her wondered whether he just disapproved of her drinking habits or if he was genuinely concerned that she was going to go off on a bit of a bender.

"You're gonna be stoatin' drunk by the time you leave here," Jonny pointed out. She just shrugged; drunk sounded like a good state to be in to her right now. As long as she didn't drive home, she knew this lot would keep her safe, and anyone else she would threaten or otherwise inadvertently put in harm's way. "Each to their own then," Jonny smiled.

"Are you alright?" Hanssen asked so only she would hear.

She leaned in a bit closer to him than was strictly necessary when she replied, "I'm fine, Henrik."

She patted his arm reassuringly, to which he gave her an odd look of a cross between annoyance, amusement and – though she was convinced it was the alcohol talking – care. Meanwhile, Edward was glancing at her suspiciously, and she knew what he was thinking. He was thinking that there was something between her and Hanssen, and he didn't like it. His jealous clear blue eyes told her that much.

Serena leaned in towards Jac and said quietly with a nod towards Edward, "Men are so predictable. Don't you find it boring?"

Hope this is OK!
Please feel free to review and tell me your thoughts!
Sarah x