Disclaimer: Still not mine and still not getting paid.

Gwen arrived at the dojo fairly early the next morning to work out with Richie. Duncan was nowhere to be seen. As they warmed up, Richie asked how her date had gone.

"It was okay," she said, "Peter and I are really just friends. He had tickets to a play and no one to go with. We did go to that new Japanese place across town and it was fabulous. You should take Andrea there."

The young man laughed, "Andrea has already told me that she is not ever eating raw fish!"

"They do have a sushi bar, but they also cook food." Gwen told him with a smile. "Steak, chicken, shrimp. Trust me – she'll love it."

"Maybe we'll check it out next weekend," he said. "You ready?"

"If you are," she said as she picked up her weapon.

Later, as Gwen was getting ready to leave, the elevator descended to the dojo and a haggard looking Scot slowly emerged. He had come down to speak with Richie and was surprised to see the young woman there.

"Damn, Duncan," Gwen said, "you look like hell. Rough night?"

Blinking a few times, he replied, "Uh, yeah. We stayed at Joe's later than we meant to."

"Well, I hope you feel better. I'm off to the library." She picked up her bag and waved to the two men. "See you guys later."

Richie turned to his friend and smirked, "Tied one on last night, huh? What did you do, drink all of Joe's scotch?"

Duncan sighed, "I feel as if I did. Joe wouldn't let me drive home. Can you take me by the bar later to pick up my car?"

The red head snickered, but agreed. "I just hope Methos feels as horrible as I do today," he heard Duncan mutter as he headed back to the loft. 

Duncan pulled off the motorcycle helmet and handed it to Richie when they arrived at Joe's later that day. He thanked his friend for the ride, got in his car and drove off. Richie shrugged at his actions and went into the bar.

"Hey, Joe!" he called. "How's it going?"

The watcher was seated at a table with several files spread out in front of him. He gathered them up as the young immortal approached. "Hey, Rich. I'm pretty good. How are you?"

"Apparently, I'm doing better than Mac and Methos," he replied. "What went on in here last night?"

"That's what I was going to ask you," Joe told him. "I was going to call you to find out why the two of them were in such pissy moods and drink most of the alcohol in my bar."

"Pissy moods, huh?" Richie said thoughtfully. "Well, neither one of them were too happy about Gwen's date last night. But, it's Gwen. I mean I'm glad she's setting out and doing some other stuff."

Joe chuckled and shook his head, "Well, that explains a lot! It seems both of these guys have a crush on our little Gwen. I wonder what they're going to do about it?"

"Whoa, both of them after the same woman," the young man mused. "I'm not even sure what to think about that. I don't even know if Gwen likes either one of them. I mean she likes them, but, you know, LIKES… You know. Should we do something?"

"Hey, I'm just supposed to watch and record. Never interfere," Joe said, laughing. "I wouldn't get in the middle of this for anything, but I'm sure going to enjoy watching."

Duncan left Joe's and started home. Halfway there, he made a right hand turn and drove toward the campus. He pulled up in front of Gwen's duplex, noting that her Jeep was there. He sat in his car for several minutes trying to figure out why he was here. What did he think he was going to say to her? Why did he think it was any of his business of she went out with someone else?

Finally he took a deep breath and got out of the T-bird. Putting his hands in the pockets of his long coat, he stood looking at the house in front of him. He swallowed hard and slowly walked up the path to the porch. The highlander stood at the front door for a moment, again wondering what he was going to do. At last, he knocked on the door and held his breath as he waited for a response.

A few minutes later, the door opened to reveal the petite brunette, with a tissue in one hand and eyes red and puffy. She looked up at Duncan and sniffled, a tear escaping from her eye, making its way down her cheek.

Duncan immediately reacted, grabbing Gwen into a tight hug. "Oh, God, Gwen, what happened? Is everything all right? Are you okay?" He held her and stroked her hair, trying to calm her as she shook in his arms. Eventually, he pulled back to look at the woman he was holding and realized that she wasn't sobbing, she was laughing.

Confused, he placed a finger under her chin and lifted her face so he could look into her eyes. She was indeed laughing. In fact, she was laughing so hard she had new tears flowing down her face. "What is going on, Gwen? And what's so funny?"

When she could breathe again, she managed to say, "I'm sorry, Duncan. I didn't mean to worry you. Come in and close the door. It's cold out there." She pulled him into the apartment, still laughing.

"Are you going to tell me what is going on?" Duncan asked indignantly. He followed her into the living room, removing his coat and placing it across the back of a chair.

Gwen sat on the sofa, still trying to compose herself. She waved at the space next to her, indicating that Duncan should sit down. "I feel like an idiot now." She giggled again. "Okay, I came home from the library with copies of some texts that I needed to work on. It was too quiet, so I turned on the television and I found the last half hour of  'Mr. Holland's Opus.' Call me a big, ol' sap, but when his former students come back and play his symphony… well, it makes me cry every time."

During her explanation, Duncan had visibly relaxed and finally sat down. "So all that was because of a movie?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Yes it was and I feel really stupid now, okay?" she replied, covering her face with her hands. "What are you doing here, anyway? Still nursing that hangover?"

"No, my hangover is much better, thank you," he said with a smile. "I just stopped by to see what you were doing for dinner."      

Gwen shrugged, "I had planned to keep working after my crying fit was over," she giggled again, "and probably heat up some soup or something."

Putting on his best 'mother hen' face, Duncan said, "Now, young lady, that is not a proper meal. If you really need to concentrate on your work, you need some real food."

"Are you trying to fatten me up for some reason?" she asked him. "Every time we have a meal together, I end up running extra miles the next day to make up for the pasta and desserts you force on me."

"I have ever forced you to eat anything!" he teased. "Just because you can't resist my cooking…"

She rolled her eyes, "Yeah, yeah… So what are you going to feed me tonight? Provided, of course, that I agree to have dinner with you."

"What ever you want," he answered with a big grin. "Where ever you want. I'm not really up for cooking tonight anyway."

Gwen regarded him for a moment, "Is there good Chinese in this town? I haven't had decent Kung Pao shrimp in ages."

"Actually, I know just the place, Shun Li Palace," Duncan said. "Their food is quite authentic. Are you hungry now?"

Turning to look at the clock on the table behind her, she said, "It's a little early yet. I think only senior citizens eat at four-thirty. We can hang out here for a while, though, if you don't mind me working for a little bit before we go. I really need to get through some of these texts."

Duncan was happy to be spending any time at all with her and readily agreed. "Anything I can do to help?"

"Do you read Arabic or Kurdish or this bizarre form of Cuneiform we found?" she asked handing him a picture of a stone tablet.

Giving her a blank stare, he replied, "Uh… I speak a little Arabic and some Farsi, but I never learned to read it."

She shrugged, "Well, you are welcome to see what's on TV or you can dig through the CD's and find some music. I just need to work on this a bit more, then I promise to be sociable."

Duncan got up and went to the stereo. He flipped through Gwen's vast collection of CD's. "You really do have just about everything in here. I haven't heard of a lot of it… Ah… The classical section… Mahler, Chopin, Schubert, Sibelius…" He selected a collection of piano concertos by various composers.

Gwen looked up as the music started, "Nice choice. Oh, do you want something to drink? I'm not sure what there is. Water, juice, maybe a beer or two." She started to get up.

"Stay where you are. I can get it," Duncan said as went into the kitchen. "Do you want anything?"

"I'll take a water since you're in there," she called. Just as he returned to the living room the phone rang. Gwen reached over to grab the phone from the coffee table. "Hello? … Hey, you. What's up? … Well, I sparred with Richie early this morning, then spent several hours in the library. I brought some stuff home to work on, but I got a little distracted," she winked at Duncan as she said this, then listened to her caller. "We're going out for Chinese. Do you want to come? … Oh, Duncan's here. … Why don't you come here and we can go together? … I guess around six. … Okay, see you then. Bye."

Duncan stood in front of her with an expression of surprise and confusion. She turned the phone off and said, "That was Adam. I invited him to come with us to eat. That's okay isn't it?"

Uh… yeah," Duncan stammered. "That's great. The more the merrier." He sank into the chair as Gwen returned to her texts. 'Wonderful,' he thought. 'just wonderful.'