A loud buzzing noise filled apartment 2C, and the blond owner rolled over and hit the snooze button. "Just five more minutes, mom! I swear!" she mumbled in her sleep. Her black cat jumped onto the bed and began to purr loudly in her owner's ear. There was a weird thrashing movement and the blonde landed on the floor with a thump. She yawned, stretched and stood up, tossing her bed-covers back onto the bed. "Morning, Luna!" she said as she sleepily made her way into the bathroom.

After a long shower and a change of clothes, Serena headed into the kitchen to feed her cat. Setting a can of food into the auto-opener, she checked her fridge for anything to provide herself with sustenance for the day. 'Nada. Looks like I'm going to have to go shopping tonight.' Serena checked her watch, and then rushed back into her room to finish getting ready. 'Make-up, hair, shoes, keys, purse, briefcase…. water for the cat!' She ran back inside to fill up Luna's water dish. "Be a good kitty while I'm gone and guard the apartment will you?" she threw over her shoulder, Luna meowed in response as Serena dashed out her door and headed for the stairs.

Following the mad rush to the ground floor, she strode sedately out of the building and began the short 15-minute walk to her office. It was a gorgeous fall day and Serena briskly stepped along the sidewalk, neatly dodging the vendors and storeowners who were setting up shop. Serena smiled and entered the door of the nearest café.

"Morning, Serena! Your usual latte?"

"Morning, Iris! Make it a mocha latte?" she politely asked the cheery pink-haired barista.

"You got it. What's with the change this morning?"

"Thought I'd treat myself. It's my birthday."

"Oh, hey! Happy Birthday!" Iris said as she handed the doubled paper cup over to the sophisticated blonde. Serena took her drink and handed Iris a $5 bill. "Oh no, it's on the house! Think of it as a birthday present!"

"Are you sure?"

"Of course! You're our best customer!" Iris grinned at her. "Don't forget to go grocery shopping tonight, either!" she shook her head. Serena forgetting to go grocery shopping was a regular occurrence, even though she always ran out of food by Friday. Serena waved a hand in thanks and blew at her gourmet coffee before taking a huge sip. Iris winced. Even after this long, she still couldn't stand the sight of Serena slurping up the scalding liquid. Exiting the café, Serena walked down two stores to a bakery and emerged with a chocolate croissant, also on the house.

She finally continued on her way to her office, content and prepared for another day at work. ' I think I'll get together with Mina and the girls at lunch today,' she thought to herself. 'I rarely see them outside the office anymore.' If there was anything Serena regretted, it was the fact that she had less time to spend with her friends now than she had when they were first starting up ParkWest Enterprises. Hours of meetings and strategy sessions left her with no free time of her own although she never forced anyone to adhere to her hours. 'After all, Raye is still in school and Mina has always had a boyfriend and Lita has that catering service on the weekends with her husband. They'd never be able to stand my hours and I can manage fine without them when I have to. Although for Raye it always means that she has more work to do in the mornings.' Serena entered the building where the ParkWest offices were located, waved to security and rode up the express elevator to the thirtieth floor. When she entered the well-lit foyer, she noticed that Lita was absent from her post. Although it wasn't that rare for Lita to be talking to other employees, she usually did it later in the day and she generally phoned other people from the switchboard rather than visiting them at their desks. Shrugging to herself, Serena turned towards her office and noticed several people missing. 'Ok, that is more than a little strange. Where is everyone? It's not as if I'm early or anything,' she checked her watch and a clock on the wall, "Nope. Not early at all, in fact, I'm kinda late.'

She picked up her pace and entered her office proper. 'Nothing out of the ordinary,' she thought as she looked at the papers strewn on her desk. She leaned over to check her schedule. 'Nada.' Serena frowned in thought for a couple seconds then gave up for a bit. Nothing made sense. 'Might as well check my e-mail or something,' she thought as she walked around to the other side of her desk and switched on her PC. Which was when she noticed the post-it ™ notes stuck to her screen. One was green, and the other yellow and both informed her that her presence was required at a meeting in the Conference Room as soon as she got the message. Serena froze. 'They both left me a note? What am I missing?' Serena dropped her briefcase on the desk, checked her hair in the mirror, straightened her clothes and proceeded to rush through the empty office space to the Conference Room. She was only two steps from the door, when it opened and shut behind Andrew. "Drew!" Serena said as she reached him. He jumped.

"Oh! Serena! There you are! We were wondering when you were going to show up." Drew said in an overly loud voice.

"Uh, yeah, you know me. I can never get up in time" Serena replied confused.

"Ha, ha! How true!" Serena shot her friend an odd look. 'What is up with him?' "But we should be heading in," Andrew said moving away from the door. "You're late as it is—After you milady," Andrew said standing beside her and bowing. Serena rolled her eyes and reached for the doorknob. With a simple twist-and-push, the door was open and before she had even finished taking a step, there was a shout of "SURPRISE!!" which caused her to stumble a little in shock.

"Oh my God?! Oh my God! You guys! This is incredible! You really shouldn't have!" Serena said to Mina, Lita, Amy and Raye, who stood by the door, as she hugged them.

"Oh c'mon Sere, it was nothing. You've been working too hard." Mina began.

"And spending too little time with us!" Amy chimed in.

"Yeah, boss lady! Besides it is your birthday and you deserve to take at least one day off."

"Right! So Lita made sure you had a clear schedule and the rest of us helped decorate!" Lita shot them all a series of dirty looks.

"Oh come on, we at least tried to help," Amy said. "It's not our fault you can decorate much better than we can."

"Yeah, decoration-nazi," Raye added in impudently, which caused Lita to smack her on the arm. "Ow! What was that for? You were!" At which point Lita stuck out her tongue at Raye and all the girls laughed.

"You guys, I can't thank you eno—" Serena began after they had calmed down a bit. "Is that—Is that?" she tried to speak again, her attention focused behind Lita.. Mina followed her cousin's wide-eyed stare.

"A table of presents? Yeah," she said nonchalantly.

"Presents?!" Serena almost squealed. Amy giggled behind her hand as Raye and Lita both handed Mina a $10 bill. Mina rolled her eyes and pointed to herself while mouthing 'CFO, duh!' as they headed towards the table behind a Serena who could barely suppress her glee at the sheer volume of paper wrapped goodies. But, Drew who led her away from her main objective thwarted her not even halfway there. "Drew!" she whined in a low undertone whilst smiling at the guests surrounding her. "Where are we going?"

"I'm taking you to the head table, you have to make a speech."

"Oh God, Drew, you know that I'm terrible at impromptu thank-yous. They always come out sounding like pathetic, gushing drivel."

"Ah, its not that hard. Use a "thank you for coming", an "I'm touched by this gesture", a "I hope this tradition continues", a couple of cracks about your age, and a couple of toothy grins and you're done." Serena rolled her eyes.

"Great. Thanks for that astounding support and advice." With that sarcastic quip and Andrew's help, Serena stood up on the large table at one end of the room. She then "said her thanks", "told them she was touched", added a joke about how hard it was going to be to plan her 'over the hill party' and added few patented "Serena-grins". Unfortunately, after this "ordeal" Drew promptly whisked her off and forced her to mingle with her clients and employees.

Darien had followed his sister's directions explicitly after finding them stuck to his forehead that morning in her apartment. After a good night's rest, he was feeling a little better about his predicament, but really felt no enthusiasm for a party, which was exactly where he found himself headed. He had made a quick stop to his apartment for a quick shower and change of clothes and another to a boutique to pick up a present for Raye's boss. 'A present, which is supposed to suit a woman I've never met, and whose age and personality I don't know.' Darien shook off his thoughts and exited the mirror and vine covered express elevator to the 30th floor, where the ParkWest offices were located.

"Go past the cubicles, turn left at the hallway and it's the second door on the right," Darien read off the red post-it ™ note. "You can't miss it." Of course, there was no way that he could have, because by the time that he reached the business complex, Serena's party had already been well under way. The sound of people talking floated out into the hallway, where other guests lingered in the quieter area. Smiling hello at the few that noticed him, Darien moved smoothly through the door and into the throng of people; on the look out for the head of dark hair and bright clothes that usually signalled the presence of his sister. Not seeing her immediately, he decided to head over to the present table and drop his gift off, then grab something to eat.

Five minutes later found him leaning against the wall drinking water and eating a sandwich as his sister strolled past in search of something to drink. At first, he didn't recognize her with her hair up in a French roll and clothed in a sedate business suit, but when she turned in his direction, sure enough she had a blouse on in her trademark: fire engine red. "Raye," he called over the crowd. Her head snapped in his direction.

"Oh, hey Darien! You made it!"

"Yeah, well its not as though I had anything better to do with my time," he commented.

"I know! That's why I made you come here!" With that comment, Raye grabbed hold of her brother's arms and dragged him into the crowd, heading toward a destination that only she knew of.

Soon enough, Darien was dragged up to a tall blond man and a petite dark-haired woman. "Hey Ames! Drew! This is my brother Darien O—uh Finn!" Darien raised an eyebrow slightly at the introduction. He had no idea that Raye had used their grandmother's maiden name as her surname, just as he now did. 'Why would she have any reason to change it? Well, something to quiz her on later.' He thought as Raye rambled on in her introduction. "So Ames, Darien here has a degree in Comp Sci from Berkeley, he might be able to understand that programming problem you were trying to explain to me! You know me Ames, I have no idea what to do with computers beyond typing documents and surfing the Net! Oh hey, is that Lita calling me?" Before Darien could do anything to stop her, she had dashed off to blend in with the crowd once more.

Sighing, Darien turned to Amy and gave her a small smile as her face lit up and she began to go through the problem in a methodical, engaging and detailed manner. Before long, Darien found himself involved in the problem, the seemingly simplistic problem that was throwing her current project entirely off balance. Half an hour and several napkins full of scribbled code later, Amy and Darien grinned at each other as they shook hands. They had finally found the simple yet complicated answer to Amy's frustrating problem. Of course, by that time, Drew had wandered off and Darien and Amy's drinks had long since been emptied. Darien offered to get them both another drink, but Amy had insisted upon coming with him after first firmly folding her precious napkins and forcing them to the bottom of her pocket. As they made their way over to the refreshment table, Raye once again waylaid her brother, this time with Drew in tow.

"Hey, Amy, Darien! Have you finished that boring discussion yet?" When Amy nodded that they indeed had, Raye continued. "Well then I'll leave Drew here with you Dare, Mina wants Amy and I to join Lita and her at the front." She dropped Drew's hand, grabbed Amy's and dragged her off. Darien was a little amused by her odd behaviour 'She seems unusually perky today, and she's in a perpetually good mood' She was also spending next to no time with her brother, not that this was a bad thing… 'At least one of us has found somewhere to fit in.' Darien was happy for his sister and from what he'd seen/heard of Amy she had made a good choice in her friends.

"So, Darien, how much older are you than Raye," Andrew asked good-naturedly snapping Darien out of his reverie.

"About four years," Darien replied with a fond smile.

"Hmmm… That would make you about our ages! I mean Mina, Serena and I… Lita's a bit older and Amy a bit younger," Andrew mused aloud. "But, anyways, I hear that you went to UC Berkely!"

"Yeah," Darien replied a bit confused with the subject change.

"Smart man! So what do you do now, if you don't mind me asking?" Darien froze, this was the first time that particular question had arisen, and he was at a bit of a loss as to how to answer it.

"Uh… I'm in between jobs at the moment. There was a family crisis about a year ago and I had to find time to take care of it, so I gave up my job," Darien replied with just the right amount of truth. ' "Gave up" a job is damn right, there is no reason I shouldn't have had a better job at ORI several times by now. Its not as though I didn't have any job offers from different companies. That bastard made me turn them down to work for him.' Darien thought bitterly.

"That's brutal man. Have you had very many interviews?"

"Dozens! But they've all said the same thing. I just don't have the experience they require." He answered frustrated. "It's not as though I wanted to quit my job, but I did have to take care of something for my father."

"I understand where you're coming from, that's why I asked. See, um…we could use a little help down in R&D. We've been looking for another programmer. How would you, uh… like the job?" Darien just stared at him in shock.

"Oh God! Raye asked you to give me a job didn't she?" He uttered after a long and awkward pause, on his side at least. "Oh God, I am so sorry if I'd known that she put you up to this I wouldn't have come. I swear—" Andrew looked shocked and then amused as he stopped Darien in the middle of his sentence.

"Nice to know that you hate our company so much," he chuckled, teasing the ebony-haired man. "But in truth Raye asked me for nothing of the sort. The way I see it is that she knew Amy was having trouble with a program and she suggested that you help her solve it, which you did. I can tell by the was Amy's acting, as though she has the freedom to party now that work is out of the way. And if Amy Davis had a problem with the programming and you helped her out, then you know exactly what you're doing. Since we need another programmer, and you yourself told me that you were free, I offered you the job. Raye had nothing to do with it. Although, she may have known I'd think like this; she's a smart one, your little sister." Darien looked sharply at Andrew.

"You could tell all that without even speaking to Amy or Raye?" He asked a little intrigued.

"It's what I do here at ParkWest," Andrew confided. "I'm in charge of personnel because I read people very well." Darien was very interested in this comment. ' If he can read a situation this well, he must be outstanding in the boardroom. I wouldn't want to be sitting across the table from him hammering out an agreement…unless of course, he taught me a few things first.' Darien mused, off on a tangent, while he processed Andrew's speech.

"Well?" Andrew asked.

"Well what?"

"Are you going to join the ranks of ParkWest?" Darien broke out into a genuine grin.

"Of course, do you think I have job offers falling of trees?" And with that mild quip, the men shook hands, laughed and proceeded to talk about other things.

Finally free of the manipulations of the ever-observant Drew, Serena set her sights on the table of presents. Her eyes darted left and then right. 'Presents sighted?' she thought. 'Check. Drew not sighted? Check. Girls keeping clients busy? Check. All systems are go, proceed to target.' Serena manoeuvred her way through the room towards the far end. 'Closing in on target. 12m – 10m – 8m – 6m – 4m – 2m. Target reached.' Her eyes darted around again. 'Perfect. No one in sight.' Giggling quietly to herself, she picked up the nearest package and gently shook it while holding it up to her ear. There was the telling sound of… silence. 'Damn it! People these days wrap their presents too well.' She placed the rectangular object back onto the table and looked around for something else to pick up. Her eyes landed on a small silver wrapped box, large enough to fit in the palm of her hand.

'Well, well. Just what do we have here? Jewellery perhaps?' Serena thought to herself as she scrutinized the package. She poked it slightly, satisfied when the package did not yield to her manipulations. Turning it over in her hands, she searched the surface for a tag of some sort. It was located on the top right-hand corner and was, 'Torn?! How did that happen?' Serena glanced over to the pile of other presents; they didn't appear to be tampered with. Internally shrugging, she focused her attention back on the package she was holding, squinting slightly in order to make out the remaining writing. 'Hmm, it most likely says: Best-- Wishes for a-- Happy Birthday. And then there's an unintelligible half of a signature. Bloody people need to take penmanship lessons.' Serena grumbled to herself as she tore open the present. The plain white box inside gave her a little trouble as she tried to pry the two halves apart; sticking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth in concentration, she finally managed to open her gift. Nestled on a bed of white cotton, a silver and crystal starburst pendant glittered accusingly up at her.

Serena's next breath caught in her throat as her eyes widened in shock; she stared at the pendant for a good while before her eyes snapped up to scan the crowd of assembled guests, looking for a once familiar face; her own face expressionless. Suddenly she caught a glimpse of ebony black and intense blue, but before she could focus on it longer, someone moved and blocked her view. Her heart now beating overtime and her thoughts awhirl, she moved to the side and searched the same spot again. There was nothing. Serena closed her eyes at the flood of conflicting emotions rushed over her. It had to have been a mistake; perhaps, a figment of her overactive imagination. She had wanted him to be there, and her longing had made her see what wasn't there.

'The present must have been a disturbing coincidence,' she concluded. One that bore a remarkable resemblance to the pendant she had thrown into the Pacific years ago. 'A coincidence. That's all.' She repeated to herself as she closed the box and quickly moved back to the table, where she proceeded to mechanically shove it under the pile of presents and made sure that no glimpse of the white package could be seen. Not a moment too soon, it would seem as Mina bounded over soon after and pounced on the pile of gifts; as eager to see what there was as Serena had been, before she opened the silver package.

Soon after, the rest of her friends made their way over and Mina began handing her their presents one after another. From Amy: 'a day of pure relaxation and pampering' at San Francisco's best spa.

From Raye: a bottle of heavenly smelling perfume and a can of mace. The girls all stared at Raye, who stated: " It never hurts to have it handy!"

Lita's flamingo pink and green wrapped box was next, and it contained a cookbook of Thai cuisine and a promise that Lita would show Serena exactly what to do before any attempt to use it was made. Also tucked into the front flap was a note for an open-ended dinner reservation to one of the top restaurants in the city. "I know the chef from cooking-school," Lita casually added when Mina and Drew had oohed and ahhed at it.

Mina's was the last amongst the girls' presents and contained a black beautiful beaded ball gown. Serena and the rest of the girls gasped at the sight of it, and Serena stated that it was a pity that she wouldn't be able to wear it anytime soon, to which Mina just smiled mysteriously.

The absolute final gift from Serena's nearest and dearest came from Drew. The white wrapped gift bag contained a pair of black satin elbow gloves, a pair of black strappy heels, a matching set of silver earrings, bracelet, and hair combs and a pair of tickets.

"Those are for the Bay Area Annual Charity Ball in November, Sere. We need more presence than just Mina and I at the event this year, a lot of our customers ask where you are and this year you have to be there. ParkWest could stand to have a stronger influence there, and who better than the CEO?" Drew began. "I know the reason that you haven't gone for the past two years Sere, but the company could really benefit from your coming there and mingling." He said softly. "You wouldn't even have to stay the whole night, only until you've mingled enough that our clients can see you out there making personal connections too. Your connections to them are purely professional and there are some people who perceive you as a bit too work-involved. And you are allowed to take a break, Sere, once in a while! The girls and I think that you've been working yourself too hard; you haven't even had a vacation since we started ParkWest. This would be the first step in getting yourself free from here again. Just give it a shot?"

Serena stared down at the tickets as she listened to Drew's quiet speech. His argument was valid, but the Ball would bring back some memories she'd rather keep buried. 'Still… it has been a long time,' she thought. 'Why shouldn't I enjoy myself there…or at least I can take this first step. It would be nice to have different memories of the Ball…' she thought wistfully. Serena nodded once, and then met Drew's eyes. "I think you're right, Drew. I think I should go to the Charity Ball this year." Mina gave a happy gurgle and flung herself at her cousin in joy.

'Perhaps this is the right decision after all.'