Okay, first chapter since the hiatus drama. I hope everyone likes this, and it's the start of Nic planning the party and how things are slowly going to progress with Spiederman. To everyone who reviews, you're amazing and thank you for sticking with me.

Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue.

When Nic woke up Tuesday morning, she decided to skip out on G-Major for the day and just lounge around Tommy and Jude's townhouse. After making herself a bowl of Fruity Pebbles, she settled in front of the TV and turned on her guilty pleasure, E! to find that E! News was on and featuring a story about her.

"Yesterday afternoon, sources report that supermodel Nic Hill was seen leaving a small Toronto airport with Tom Quincy, Jude Harrison, and the boys of the Spiederman Mind Explosion. The source claims she remained close to Quincy, who has been dating Harrison for two years and the relationship between the supermodel and popular music producer is unknown. As of late, Hill has been seeing actor Jordan Avery, but close sources to him claim they've amicably split up for the time being to focus on their careers," Ryan Seacrest reported.

Nic turned the channel. She didn't know who inside Jordan's camp had said their split was amicable because it had been anything but. She sighed and settled for a re-run of Oprah with Kelsey Grammer.

"Hey," Tommy said, letting himself into the townhouse. "You're not coming in today?"

"No," she replied. "What are you doing here?"

He shrugged and sat down next to her. "I took an extra long, extra early lunch break. As the VP, I can do that now."

"Slow boy, Ego Boy," she laughed. "So, on a more serious note, what's the deal with you and Jude? You live together and you've been together for like, six years, and yet, no ringer on her finger? What's up with that?"

"We've been together for two years," he corrected her. "Not six."

"Right," she smirked. "Like you two haven't been in love since you first met? I don't believe that anymore than I believe my split with Jordan, according to his people, was amicable."

Tommy stared at her. "Where'd you hear that?"

"On E! News from Ryan Seacrest," she explained. "But forget that. What about you and Jude?"

"I wish I knew," he admitted softly. "We've had issues in the past, but we got over them and things are perfect now. I just don't want to pressure her into something she clearly isn't ready for."

Nic eyed him. "Do you honestly believe she isn't ready for marriage?"

"Yeah," he answered. "She's only 20, Nic. That's too young to be married."

"Says the guy who was married at 18," she teased. "Tommy, take a leap of faith and run with it, would you? Grow a pair, Quincy. Besides, she's almost 21."

"It's complicated," he resolved. "What if it doesn't work out and we still have to work together?"

"What if dating doesn't work out and you still work together?" she shot back. "I'm not sure if you've noticed here, Tommy, but she lives here, too. You guys are already practically married, are you not?"

"How?" he scoffed.

She considered it. "Do you share a bank account?"

"Yeah," he mumbled.

"What about a cell phone plan?"

"That, too," he nodded.

Nic patted his shoulder. "You're married, Tommy; you just need it legalized."

"And she needs to admit it, which is never happening," he rolled his eyes. "Now drop it. Let's talk about you."

"No," she answered forcefully. "Tommy, I'm tired of talking about me."

A laugh escaped his lips. "Ha! Not very often you hear supermodels saying that one, huh?"

"I guess not," she grinned reluctantly. "But seriously, let's just drop the Jordan thing, okay? I came to Toronto to get away from all of that."

"All right," he agreed slowly. "So, what are your plans?"

"A big birthday party for Jude!" she gushed. "It's in a couple of weeks and I need something to focus on. I was thinking a surprise party, but those are too hard, so I'll tell about her about it, but she won't get any details other than a theme, date, and location."

He smiled. "Yeah, she'd like that. I can't believe she's gonna be 21."

"You know what would be a great birthday gift?" she mused.

"What?" he immediately regretted asking. "A pony?"

She laughed sarcastically. "Ha, ha. No, I'm thinking more along the lines of an engagement ring."

"Nic," he groaned, getting up and walking to the kitchen. "We're not doing this."

"Just a suggestion," she said quickly, following him in. "I'm sure there's something you guys need around the house that you could buy her."

"I am not buying her something for this place," he denied. "That's so impersonal."

She hopped up onto the bar. "Then what, Tommy? You're not good at buying presents because for my 15th birthday, you bought me a Hello Kitty swatch and a matching pencil bag like I was still seven or ever liked Hello Kitty. Newsflash: I didn't."

"Sorry," he apologized. "I was always on the road and the last place we stopped before home was a drugstore in Montreal and it was that stuff or tabloids."

"I would've preferred the tabloids," she admitted. "Hello Kitty is stupid and it always was. But, moving onto Jude's party. I'm thinking we'll have it at G-Major, cause that's free, and since it's November 24 and her birthday is December 16, I have to get to work. I need to come up with a cool theme."

He pulled a bottled water from the refrigerator. "How about something like a costume party?"

"Favorite movie character!" she cried. "You have to come as a character from your favorite movie!"

"Or that," he nodded. "That means she'll come as Allie from The Notebook, which also means I'll have to escort her as Noah."

"I see you more as a Lon," Nic teased. "But Jude's a fan of The Notebook? I went to that movie premiere a few years ago."

"What will you go as?" he wondered. "Belle from Beauty and the Beast?"

She shrugged. "Maybe. Or maybe Lara Croft?"

"You hate Angelina Jolie," Tommy pointed out. "And you don't like Tomb Raider movies."

"That's true," she sighed. "Okay, maybe I'll go as Jordan Baker from The Great Gatsby. I love the book and the movie; Jordan's my favorite character."

"Yeah, because she's a deceitful, little liar like you are," he joked.

"But in a good way," she defended. "She, nor I, ever lied maliciously. It's always in good fun."

Tommy pulled a frozen pizza from the freezer. "You hungry?"

"I just ate breakfast and it's only 11:00," she pointed out. "Wait until 12:30, we'll pick something up, and take it to G-Major."

He put the pizza back. "That works." He turned to face her. "So, you know that Spiederman is in love with you, right?"

"Oh, Tommy," she muttered. "He's a good guy and I like him, but I think he and I will just be friends."

"He doesn't, so just be careful with him," Tommy warned. "That's all I'm saying."

"And all I'm saying," she countered, "is don't worry about. I'm cool."

After they picked up pizza for everyone at G-Major, they got to the studio just as a fight was breaking out between Kyle and an intern.

"What's going on?" Tommy demanded of Wally.

"Well, Kyle's favorite drummer of all-time is Tommy Lee and the intern, who's name is escaping me right now, said the only reason Tommy Lee is famous is because of his infamous sex tape with Pamela Anderson and that he's a mediocre drummer. So, in true Kyle fashion, he went nuts and pushed the guy down to the ground and that's where we're at right now. The funny thing is, the intern said what everyone else on the planet thinks and is too scared to tell Kyle."

"His name is Jason," Jude put in. "The intern, I mean."

"Hey, hey, hey!" Tommy called, holding Kyle back. "Break it up!"

Kyle wrestled himself away from the vice president and took a deep breath. "Keep that punk away from me!"

"Were they really fighting over something that stupid?" Nic whispered to Jude. "That's so trivial."

Jude shrugged. "Kyle loves him some Tommy Lee, I guess. Personally, I think it's because he's a famous womanizer and that's what Kyle aspires to be."

"I can see that," Nic nodded. "It's always the drummers."

"Always," Jude agreed. "So, where have you been all day?"

"Your house," Nic replied. "I slept in, had some breakfast, watched E! News, and realized Jordan Avery is a bigger douchebag than I thought."

Jude's face darkened. "Why?"

"Apparently, his people said we've split amicably to focus on our careers," Nic explained. "It had nothing to do with him beating me up."

"They're gonna get him," Jude assured her. "It'll just take time to build a good enough case."

"It's fine," Nic shrugged. "I'm safe here and I'm not going to worry about it."

Later that night, while everyone was actually working, Nic sat in the lobby, flipping through old issues of Solid magazine, getting more and more bored as the night went on. Tommy and Jude were doing some rough tracks of songs she'd been writing, Kwest and the SME boys were recording in studio B, and Darius was on a conference call to Vancouver.

"You look tired," Sadie noted from her spot at the front desk. "You can go bug your brother and Jude if you want."

"Yeah, but they need to spend the time together," Nic reasoned. "I'm hoping he proposes by her birthday. Which reminds me, I'm gonna throw her a big party here and I'll probably need your help if that's at all possible?"

"Absolutely," Sadie agreed. "I love Jude, but I love parties even more. I'm totally game."

Nic smiled. "Good to hear. I'll come to you with more details later this week once I really start planning. I just think it'll good to keep my mind off all of the Jordan stuff by focusing on something else."

"That's probably good," Sadie said. "Not that I know much of what's going on, but from what Kwest said, it isn't good."

"It's not," Nic confirmed. "But I'm a big girl and it'll be fine."

The door to studio B opened then and Spiederman walked out. "Hello, ladies."

Sadie rolled her eyes. "Spied, shut up."

"She loves me," he whispered, sitting down next to Nic. "So, anything good in the rags this week?"

Nic held up the latest issue. "It's Solid, not a tabloid. And, no, nothing good."

"Wait, there was an interview with me in this one!" he cried, flipping it open to the pages with his article. "Oh, look, I mentioned you."

She took it back and read aloud. "So, you say you have multiple celebrity crushes, but if you had to pick your favorite, who would it be?" And your response was, "Hands down, Nic Hill. She's a supermodel and she tells it like it is. I like those two qualities in a girl." So your particular type would be a funny supermodel? Hate to break it to you, but there are very few of those. Heidi Klum is funny, Tyra Banks is super funny, and Elle McPherson is funny; beyond that, complete robots."

"Really?" he said. "That's believable, I guess. Your job requires you to be hot, not hysterical."

She nodded. "That's true. Gisele has the sense of humor of a Gregorian monk."

"She's hot," he stated. "That means her job requirement in fulfilled."

"Don't you ever wonder why she's never in commercials where she has to talk?" Nic asked. "For starters, she has a thick accent and secondly, she's not very personable."

Spiederman laughed. "I take it you two don't get along so splendidly?"

"No, she's a nice girl," Nic assured him. "You just have to know her or else she comes off kinda snobby."

"Yo, Spied, I need you back in here," Kwest said from studio B. "Music's down, we just need vocals."

Spiederman stood up. "Nic, it was very nice talking to you and I look forward to getting to know you better in the future." He smiled and walked away.

"I'd watch out for him," Sadie warned from her desk. "He's sneaky, will do whatever it takes to get what he wants, and you know he likes you."

Nic shook her head. "I'm not getting into another relationship for a long time and I think he feels really bad for what happened to me, so I doubt he'll be trying anything."

"Oh how naïve you really are," Sadie murmured. "You'll see."

Nic looked over her shoulder and into the window of studio B, where Spiederman was laughing with Kyle at Wally for something. "Yeah, I guess so," she muttered, smiling to herself.