Disclaimer: Ditto from last 5 chapters.

Gwen's arms felt like they were going to fall off. The last two weeks she had been working out with Duncan at least three times a week. Richie had shown her the fundamentals, but Duncan pushed her to her limit and then some. Luckily for her, she had always stood up to a challenge and pushed back. Today, though, she was exhausted. After an hour, she had had enough.

"Okay, that's the fourth time I've been disarmed and landed on my ass," she said as she stood back up. "I'm done for today. Besides, I've got some place to be in a couple of hours and I still need to shower."

"Hot date?" Richie smirked?

"No, I don't have a hot date," she replied. "I don't even have a lukewarm date. I just have somewhere to be."

"Oh, yeah? More research?" He rolled his eyes, "You spend way too much time in that library. You need to do something fun once in a while. Not that we aren't fun. You know what I mean…"

"Yes, Richie I know what you mean," Gwen smiled at him. "For your information, I am going to do something fun." She paused, her face more serious now. "At least I hope it will be fun."

Duncan looked at her curiously, "That sounds mysterious. Anything you want to tell us?"

"No. It's no big deal, really," she answered quickly. "I'm just meeting a few people from school. I gotta go."

After she was out the door, Richie turned to Duncan, "Now what was that all about?"

 As she pulled up in front of the house, Gwen noticed that her hands were shaking. 'I'm not sure I can do this," she thought. She took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, then slowly let it out. 'Okay, I have to do this.' She reached into the back seat, grabbed her guitar and got out of the car. With another deep breath, she made her way up the driveway and to the garage.

Inside, she heard the sounds of drums being struck and guitars being tuned. Another deep breath, and she stuck her head in the door. "Hi! Waiting for me?" she called out.

Peter, her friend and colleague from the university, looked up from the instrument he was tuning. "There you are. We were hoping that you wouldn't back out."

"Nope, here I am." She walked into the garage and removed her jacket.

"Let me introduce you." He gestured around the room. "This is Jack on drums and Mark on bass. We really appreciate you filling in for Kevin. I still can't believe he broke both arms! And we have four gigs between now and New Years." The other two men nodded in agreement.

Gwen smiled nervously, "I just hope I don't disappoint you. I haven't done this in a long time."

Peter reached over and hugged her, "Aw, come on. You'll be great! You picked up on just about everything that we went over the other day. Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be, I guess," she shrugged. Peter plugged in her guitar and they began their rehearsal.                     

Gwen had been walking across campus with Peter Harris after a staff meeting when he got the news about his band mate, Kevin. The two of them had discussed music before and he knew that she was a guitarist. She had balked when he suggested that she fill in for the injured man. Peter didn't let up and a week later he was at her house getting her up to speed on the music they were playing. Most of it was familiar and some she had played while in college. The rest she picked up with ease. Now she was going to perform in front of an audience again.

Purposely keeping Richie and Duncan in the dark about her new activities was harder than she thought it would be. She had begged off the last three times they had asked her to go to Joe's with them and she didn't hang around after their workouts the way she had a first. Richie kidded her about having a secret boyfriend, but Duncan knew that something else was going on.

Finally the day came, her first gig. Gwen was excited and petrified at the same time. Her last class ended at two, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to concentrate on any research or writing. Instead, she threw her boxing gloves into her gym bag and headed for the dojo. Neither of her friends was around, so she headed straight for the heavy bag.

Forty-five minutes later, Duncan found her there, still pounding away, dripping sweat and almost out of breath. "What are you doing, Gwen," he asked her. "You look beat."

"Just using up some nervous energy," she said, trying to laugh. "There was no one here to spar with, so I've been taking it out on the bag. So far it isn't working."

"Nervous energy? Is everything alright?" Duncan was concerned now. "You know, we are friends. If you need help of some kind…"

Gwen smiled up at the tall man. "No, Duncan, it's nothing like that," she assured him. "I just have a case of … I don't know… jitters or something."

He frowned at her for a moment, then pulling her into the office said, "Come here. I want to talk to you." 

"Duncan, What the hell…" she protested.

"Sit down," he said as he shut the door.

"Am I in trouble, Dad?" she asked lightly, trying to make a joke, but seeing the serious look on Duncan's face stopped her.

He sat down in the desk chair across from her. "Gwen, have I … have we done something to offend you? Are you angry with me… us about anything?"

She shook her head in confusion, "Of course not! Why would you think that I was angry with you?"

Duncan paused and tried to choose his words carefully before he spoke. "When you first came here, I know that we got off to a little bit of a rocky start, but I thought we got past that. Then… Well, I thought that we kind of… bonded. Then suddenly, you blow us off at every opportunity." He was leaning towards her now, elbows on the desk, as he continued, "Richie makes jokes about it, but he's hurt and I…"

"Duncan," she started to interrupt him, but he held up his hand.

"I realize that you don't have to tell us everything that goes on in your life, but I thought that we were friends at least. If that's not the case, just tell me now." He stopped and Gwen noticed for the first time the hurt in his eyes.

Letting out the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding, "I'm sorry, Duncan. I didn't know… I really am sorry." She closed her eyes for a moment, debating what to tell him. Finally, she spoke. "If I tell you what's going on, will you please not tell Richie just yet? I just don't want a big deal made out of it. Okay?"

"Gwen, I can't make a promise…" Duncan started.

"Duncan, please. Just hear me out." She paused again. "It's really not anything to get excited over. I have been playing with a band. We have our first gig tonight. Actually, they have been playing together for a while, I'm just filling in for their regular guitarist because he was blowing leaves off his roof and fell and broke both of his arms. I didn't want you guys to know because I didn't want you there in case I froze up or I really suck at this or something." She finally stopped for breath and looked up to see Duncan grinning at her.

"What?" she asked him.

He got up and came around the desk, pulling he to her feet, he hugged her tightly. "I think this is wonderful." Releasing her enough so that she could breathe, he looked down at her, "I understand now why you kept this from me…us. This is a big step for you, I know. If you don't want me there tonight, will you please let me come watch some time before that guys arms heal?"

Gwen breathed a sigh of relief, "Why don't you let me get through tonight before I answer that. If I don't fall on my face, I'll let you know. Besides, this isn't really your kind of music. You might just hate the whole thing."

"I don't know why you guys think that hate all music that isn't opera!" he said with a laugh. "I go to Joe's all the time and I have heard some of the current stuff."

She laughed with him, "I'm not accusing you of being an old fogy or anything, it's just that most of the people there will be college age, maybe a little older. And it will probably be louder than what you're used to."

"Okay, if my ears start bleeding, I'll leave." He realized that he was still holding her. Letting her go, he took a step back.

"Well, I need to go shower and get ready for this potential fiasco." She reached up to hug him again, "Thanks for understanding. I'll give you a call tomorrow and let you know how it went. Wish me luck!"

"Break a leg!" Duncan called as Gwen headed out the door.