Here's a new chapter for you all to enjoy! More notes at the end.

After ironing out the finer details of his employment, Darien walked out of the elevator and onto the 29th floor of the great steel and glass building that housed the ParkWest offices. It was his first official day and he was rather nervous. After all, here it would be an honest working environment and he would have to earn his own respect.

Pulling open the glass doors that separated the foyer from the rest of the R&D floor, Darien strode into the Lab proper. To one side were the terminals that the programmers used, to the other was a sealed and decontaminated area for the assembly of specialized servers, and ahead was a large set of rooms complete with whiteboards and large windows facing the San Franciscan skyline. Taking in the atmosphere of what was set to become his new home, he made his way to Amy Davis' office ready to meet her as his new boss. Quickly straightening his shirt and tie, he stepped up to the wooden door and knocked sharply. A faint "come in" made its way through the door and Darien made his way in. Amy was sitting behind a large desk spread with pages of her scribbling and was typing furiously busily transferring it all onto her computer. When he entered she looked up and when she noted who it was, she jumped up and strode around her desk her arm outstretched.

"Darien!" she cried delightedly. "Drew said you'd be joining us. It'll be a blessing to have another bright mind to help us with the programming. Especially one that can keep up with my stream of consciousness," she chuckled. "Sit down and I'll fill you in on the project you'll be working on." Darien took a seat on one of the leather chairs and Amy perched on the edge of her desk and she launched into a detailed account of the project and the client's expectations. Her dedication to her career was evident in her concise dialogue as she outlined exactly what her thoughts were on the code and her suggestions for it, leaving Darien with no room for extraneous thought. Soon enough she'd outlined everything that she could in her office and suggested a tour of the Lab accompanied by and introduction to the rest of the project members.

"—working on another project with Eric Canarvon. Oh! Here are two more of your project members, Zach Brooks is on the left and Jay Geddes the right. Guys, this is Darien, we just signed him on and he'll be working on the Harrison project too."

"Hello," Zach nodded.

"Nice to meet you," Jay grinned.

"Oh, Zach. You wanted to go over some files with me?" Amy said casually.

"Ah, yes, the Pembroke project files?"

"I believe so. Shall we discuss them in my office then? Gentlemen." She nodded at Darien and Jay.

Jay watched them leave and grinned again at Darien. "Yes, the infamous 'Pembroke Project' They've been working on it for six months now."

"Is it a particularly challenging project?" he asked naively, which caused Jay to burst out laughing.

"No, its their code for when they want to head to the office to mack. They have a relationship on the sly."

"Isn't that rather unprofessional?"

"Well, they don't let it get in the way of work and both of them seem to think the office'll frown on it whenever it gets out, but the truth is there's a pool going about when they'll actually start dating. Everyone is in on it, even the execs upstairs. I'm hoping it'll be soon, I still have about 2 months left on my bet and Mina'll rub it in if she wins."

"Mina?"

"Oh yeah, you probably haven't met her yet. Mina Alden, CFO of ParkWest Enterprises; has a reputation as a matchmaker and is cousin to the Serena Parker ad best friend of Andrew West." Jay sighed wistfully. "It's a shame she won't date me, she's a beauty that one. But that's alright. I'm working on another one of the girls on the 30th floor."

"Oh?" Darien asked amused by his commentary, "What's she look like?"

"Long dark hair, killer bod, fiery temper. She's actually Serena Parker's secretary. Her name's Raye, Raye Finn." There was a pause on Darien's part where he was unsure whether to laugh or—well laugh. Finally he ended up laughing so hard that tears fell.

"I see. So you're that Jay," he finally managed to get out after catching his breath. Jay was staring at him confusedly. "I'm Darien Finn." Jay looked so startled that he had to laugh again.

"Oh man, I had no idea," Jay panicked when he regained the ability to speak. "I, uh-- I'm sorry-- "

"Relax, its fine. She really needs some one who can keep her on her toes and put up with her attitude. I should actually be concerned for your welfare; she seems to be rather pissed off at you."

"Really?" Jay was unsure how to react to this turn of events.

"Mmm-- You'll just have to work harder to win her over. But, and I'm sure this goes without saying, you hurt her and I'll hurt you," he began ominously. Jay nodded weakly. "After she gets through with you, of course. You really don't want to get on her bad side." Jay seemed amused and concerned at the same time.

"Zach told me she has a mean right hook."

"She definitely does," Darien mused. "Wait-- How does he know? What did he do to her?" Darien's thunderous expression had returned.

"It wasn't him! Davies from accounting, I think, did something to piss her off. But then again he was an annoying little bastard. He didn't last long after Serena and Drew found out he tried something with Raye. I heard he couldn't find another position for a while after it happened; Serena had a lot of people wrapped around her fingers, or so I've heard." Darien's sense of justice was appeased by this revelation, but his thoughts were interrupted again as Eric Canarvon made his way over carrying a file and a mug of coffee.

"Jay, can you pull up the code for this on the Project Room 2 terminals?" He asked as he handed Jay the file. "Darien and I'll make our way over there." Jay nodded and got to work, while Darien followed his Project leader, his mind focussed once more on his job.

The sunlight was slanting to the west as Mina was sitting at the huge desk in her office, perusing the accounting reports for the previous week. Stretching she decided to take a break and pushed back from her keyboard. Her eyes roved her desk as she leaned back in her brown leather chair, finally settling on a framed picture of her and Serena that was a few years old. She was hugging the other blonde around the shoulders, their golden hair mixing together and both of them were smiling at the camera. But if one looked closely, there was something missing from Serena's smile. Mina shook her head, recalling when she had confronted Serena about it. Serena kept alleging that she was fine that summer but everyone could tell something had happened. 'And she never came to me to talk about it!' But she had eventually caved and told someone, that someone being Andrew West. 'Well they say that every cloud has a silver lining and if this hadn't happened to Serena we wouldn't be here now!' Serena had been going to the SFU campus coffee bar regularly back then, and Andrew who worked there had noticed she wasn't her cheerful self. When he had asked her what was wrong she had broken down and told him the whole sordid story becoming a huge sobbing mess at the counter. Ever the gentleman, Andrew had allowed her to cry it all out and then given her some good advice about her situation. From then on they had formed a close bond which had happily extended to include Mina herself.

But even though Serena learned to adapt herself to the situation, there was still something missing from her smile. 'I still don't understand his reasons for doing this to her!' Mina thought furiously. 'What could have possibly been missing from their relationship? I saw them together and they were perfect for each other.' She had been so sure about their relationship that she had even gone so far as to test him after they had broken up. 'I called in all of my favours and even after they all threw themselves at him, he still didn't even bat an eye.' He truly had been looking for something else, and Mina couldn't find fault with the fact that he had decided to tell Serena before he went looking for someone else. When it came down to it, she was angry on Serena's behalf but, she was also a bit furious that he had proved her wrong about their relationship. 'It had me wondering about all the other predictions I made. If I'd been so wrong about them, who else might I have been wrong about?' Sighing, Mina glanced at the picture again and shook her head. 'I'll just have to start working on Serena again, someone has to be able to bring the old Sere back.' Mina just wished she knew where to start.

Raye smirked to herself as she sat in her Business Communications class at SFU. Her manipulations had succeeded far beyond her intentions. She had expected Drew to ask about Darien's programming skills and then slowly make the connection to the free position that opened up. She hadn't expected him to actually be able to solve Amy's problem so quickly and effectively. But the upshot was that Darien now worked at ParkWest with Amy and Zach, which meant that she could see her brother as much as she wanted to and he was getting his life on track again, out from under the crushing grip of their father.

'I guess both Father and I underestimated his skills. I don't think we had any idea that he was that talented.' Shuddering at the realization that she had agreed with her father about something, Raye deliberately turned her thoughts back to her brother.

It had felt great to help Darien after he had suffered so long in the claustrophobic grasp of their father and since he had sheltered her from the same when they had been younger. He'd made sure she got to school on time, had the chance to go out whenever it was possible, bought whatever she wanted and made sure she didn't get spoiled. The last task had become increasingly daunting as the years passed after their mother's death. Fionbarr O'Reilly had married a string of increasingly young and beautiful women all of whom treated Raye as though she were a threat to their position. It had been Darien who intervened when a couple of them had wanted to send her off to boarding school and sheltered her from their wrath when she had ripped their clothing to shreds. Raye shook her head when she remembered how close she had been to being packed off that one time. Their "Father" hadn't even known that she was going to be sent to Europe and the only reason she wasn't was because Darien had convinced him that 'Wife #5' was a scheming cow. Raye scowled at the memory of 'Wife #8' who'd tried to seduce Darien, and who temporarily ended the parade of wives while they both still lived at the Manor.

Through it all, even when he had his own issues with their "Father" and current "Mother", Darien had been there when she had needed someone to rant at. And he had always had the best advice, seeming like a friend than an older brother at times. She never realized how much she'd missed him until he had called to invite her to lunch. Their lives had been so busy that they'd lost some of the special rapport they used to have; but now that he was back on her radar, Raye would take advantage of the fact hat he was close-by and bother him as much as possible. Chuckling evilly to herself Raye tuned back into the professor's droning voice and attempted to figure out where they were in the lecture.

Slowly and surely Time progressed along its well-worn path without the permission of its thralls. Before anyone realized it, a month had passed since Serena's birthday party and life had progressed as usual for most of the employees at ParkWest.

However, Jay Geddes, the resident mischief maker and amicable cad, was in a state of relative panic. He sat slumped over the keyboard at his desk frantically paging through his address book for any number that he had missed. Unfortunately he had been very thorough the first three times he had gone through it. With a groan he stopped his frenzied flipping and threw the book backwards over his shoulder, collapsing on his desk in despair. His sulking fit was interrupted by a question.

"Any reason why," there was a pause before the person continued. "'Jay's Book O' Ladies' hit me on the head while I was trying to work?" They continued amusedly.

"Its not 'Jay's Book O' Ladies'," came the sulky reply. "It's 'Jay's Book O' Ladies and Backstabbing Mates'."

"Ah, having problems on both accounts are we?" The person asked still amused.

"Well--" Jay gave it some thought. "Just on the 'Backstabbing Mates' part. None of them are free to help me."

"Help you with what?"

"My apartment situation." Jay heaved a martyred sigh. "My roommate is moving out at the end of the month and I can't find anyone to replace him." There was laughter on the other person's part.

"Can't you just put an ad out somewhere?"

"And be forced to interview people on my free time?" He shuddered. "I've been through that process. I ended up with a crazy roommate and I was forced to move out. There's no way that I'm going to take that chance again."

"Alright, then why not put up an ad here, around the office?" Jay raised his head and looked over his shoulder at his visitor.

"You're sure about not moving in with me, Zach? We'd have fun!" he pleaded again. Zach blushed faintly.

"You know I would, but I'm not quite ready to move in with anyone yet." Jay raised his eyebrow at the wording and correctly assessed the reason for Zach's blush.

"Et tu Zacharias?" he proclaimed, clutching at his chest in mock agony. Zach rolled his eyes.

"You know Caesar was supposedly stabbed in the back, right?" he retorted as he left Jay's black book on his desk and made his way back to his own cubicle.

"Artistic Licence!" Jay cried dramatically as he furiously flipped through the calendar on his wall. 'Damnit! I only have three days left on my bet. I knew I should have covered that extra month. Who's nex-- I knew it! Mina's going to rub it in so much. I could have used the extra cash.' Muttering to himself he turned back to his computer and got started on his ad.

Darien was strolling through the aisles that separated the sea of cubicles at ParkWest when an object on the wall caught his eye. Glancing around he noticed several other pages taped up at irregular intervals. Confused, he turned back to read the one he was standing in front of.. He read it, started, read through it again and grinned to himself. Reaching up he grabbed hold of the 81/2 x 11" sheet and tugged it off the wall. He then headed down the rest of the aisle pulling the remainder down as he went. After rounding two corners he finally caught up to the blond man who was methodically taping them up. He sidled up behind him and cleared his throat. The man tensed and turned with an 'innocent' look on his face; when he realized who it was the look relaxed into a grin.

"Oh hey Finn," he greeted Darien while turning back to his flyer. Darien chuckled to himself at the man's audacity and nonchalance.

"So, are you serious about these?" he asked while waving his stack of flyers.

"Of course! I haven't been putting them up solely for my own amusement."

"Well, that's great. You can stop putting them up now." Jay finished his taping and turned back to Darien with a mildly confused look.

"You haven't gone all psycho rulebook on me have you, Finn?" Darien grinned at the question.

"No. I just thought you should stop putting them up before someone gets their hopes up"

"Eh?"

"I've decided to take you up on you offer, pending a glimpse of where I'll be staying, of course," Darien punctuated his reply with another wave of his stacked flyers.

"Uh--You want to be my roommate?" Jay asked finally cottoning on.

"Yep. It'll be the perfect revenge."

"Revenge?" Jay asked confusedly.

"So, how much will rent be?" Darien asked, smoothly changing the subject. Jay then proceeded to fill him in on all the relevant information and they agreed to head over to the apartment after work so that Darien could see the condition of it for himself.

Jay headed back to his cubicle in a state of glee, as Darien tore down the remaining flyers and chuckled maniacally to himself. 'She keeps rubbing in how she 'got' me this job, every time I see her. Peh, the next time she comes over for a visit, she'll be in for a surprise!' Darien reflected on the irritation his little sister felt when she spoke about his new roommate. He let out a blissful sigh at the scene conjured up by his imagination of their meeting. 'Oh look Raye! It's my new roommate Jay! You'll get to see him every time you come over and eat all my food! Plus, I can keep an eye on their 'interactions'!' Satisfied that his brotherly duties were complete on both fronts, Darien continued his stroll in cubicle-land, a bounce in his step accompanying his cheerful whistling. As he reached he end of the hall, he caught a glimpse of his sister, chuckled evilly again and headed in her direction to set the stage for his victory.

Finally noticing that the glare of the computer screen was the only thing illuminating her hardly legible notes, Serena decided she needed to take a break. She had been working on this project since she had come in this morning; come to think of it, she'd worked on it yesterday morning, last night at her apartment and would probably take it home tonight as well. Rubbing her eyes with the palms of her hands, she leaned back in her chair and swivelled it around to look at the view of the San Franciscan skyline at night. She sighed softly, the scene before her was a peaceful one with the lights glowing cheerfully in the buildings below her and the stars shining faintly above, and Serena was content to just admire it for a while.

It had been some time since the sight of the night sky had a calming effect on Serena, it was usually a painful reminder of what had been. Before her birthday, it had been painful to think about the reasons why, as it had led to recollections of memories she had painstakingly shoved into the furthest recesses of her mind. Now glancing across the star strewn heavens brought only a twist of longing and a faint reminiscence of loneliness.

'I have to remember that I have friends to depend on. I may be lonely, but I'm not alone, and that has to count for something. Letting go of him was hard, but no I have to make my way back on the dating scene, and that will be even harder.' Sighing, she glanced at the calendar on her desk, 'I still have a month to get a date to the Charity Ball, and so far there's none to be had.' She chuckled wryly, 'I suppose if worst comes to worst, I can always rope Drew into going as my date!' There was a pause as the thought sunk in. 'A month! That's not enough time! Where would I even start? Its not as if I have free time in the evenings to go looking for a date, not to mention that's not even my forte.' Shaking her head Serena thought about it some more. 'Mina has been pestering me about a blind date. I think that would be the easiest solution, at least I'll be getting out there again and I can use these as a couple of trial dates to get back into the swing of things.' Recoiling slightly at the thought of dating at all, Serena leaned forward to rest her head on the glass and looked out at the sky again. She sighed softly, feeling a little lost and alone, and stroked the glass with her hand.

'Goodbye, Stephen.'

HUGE thanks to Dare my editor who got this page edited the day I sent it to her via IM. Also, with finals coming up in a months time the next chapter won't be out 'til well after the hols.

Now, down to the WISE stuff....

Did you think the characterization in this chapter meshed properly with the other chapters?

Do the sudden changes to thoughts bother/throw anyone off? Should I stop using them?

What did you think needed the most improvement in this chapter? Any chapter?

And a couple of reviewer questions:

What would you like me to explain thoroughly?

In what way was the pace too fast/slow?

How was it boring to start with and what would you suggest to improve it?

Thanks for reading and reviewing! See you after the hols!

selenis