Catalyst

by tempest-races

A catalyst is not consumed by a reaction, only precipitates it; remaining itself unchanged and yet instigating momentious change in the reagents. Like a catalyst, will they fall out of solution unscathed or will the reaction consume them both?

6. Breathe

AN: Hey folks. I want to take a moment to thank you all for the wonderful reviews and address a few things brought up or asked. First off, Gem's name-Gemmalynn-is a Latin/Italian name I found online. I wanted her name to be ostentatious in the face of her being nothing of the sort. As many have noticed she'd just the girl next door, with some unacknowledged emotional baggage of her own and an artistic side a mile wide. In short she's nothing like me, a departure from my norm as most of my other characters have parts of me in them, from slightly like Kat and Nyssa to pretty much all me-Storm. About all Gem and I have in common is our hatred for doing laundry, LOL. She manages to deal with her emotional issues just slightly better than Vince. The way I feel about Vince is that he has a loving side, but he doesn't have a mushy, lovey dovey in public side. I work with too many guys like Vince to ever see him that way because in reality he's just not that kind of guy. I deal with 'Vince' on a daily basis, several of them really. Too bad none of them are as hot as he is. (Hope my coworkers don't read my shit, LOL. Ya'll know we cool ;) Megan, thanks for the support chick! The wonderful thing with this story is I like it. So I love getting reviews but I'm cool with the number I get. I'm actually doing this one for me, you guys liking it too is a 'Effing A' bonus, LOL. So if you like it or have anything to say than review, but hey if you just wanna read it to I'm cool with that. I'ma hang out here for awhile at least. Spiralling out of Control, thank you so much for that comment! And thanks once again to everyone else who took time to review. I really hope the chapter length isn't turning anyone off. If it is, lemme know and I'll start posting it up in chunks, like chapter 5 part one, two sorta thing. I've tried to tone the length down but I don't want to leave out any of the details that come to mind either. shrugs I don't know which way is better, all at once or in chunks. Let a girl know if you care either way folks. This chapter deals with some harsh topics later on, such as abortion, rape and death. It was a very emotional chapter to write, so just a warning. Check out Anna, she rocks! Much love to you all, Tempest. And remember, sometimes all you can do is breathe…

Catalyst

By – TempestRaces

Chapter 6 – Breathe

Gem woke up Sunday morning as something flopped on her bed beside her. She cracked her eyes open to see Mia fairly quivering with excitement as she sat on her sun warmed comforter.

"What time is it?" Gem rasped out, her voice still tired from the Saturday night roaring she'd had to do and the second hand smoke she'd inhaled. It was one part of her job she wouldn't miss when she cut her hours back.

She'd finally had a conversation with Barry about her plan to work for Mia so she could go back to school. He had tried to talk her out of it, the reasons he gave her because he needed her around and because he was sure she wouldn't make tips at a little café the way she could working for him. The most important reason he had went unspoken however. Gem was sure he wanted to say something about her being too involved with Mia and more importantly Vince already, and not wanting to see her even more tightly wound with them but he kept any such thoughts to himself.

"It's ten." Mia answered brightly.

"I only got home at two thirty. Why are you waking me up at ten for?" Gem asked, hating how cranky she sounded. She tried to tell herself she shouldn't feel guilty for being in a bad mood when she'd been woken up a mere seven hours after she'd gone to bed.

"You said we could go to church today. Remember?"

Gem groaned. She did remember. What had she been thinking? "Yes I remember." She'd made the commitment, it was too late to decide she didn't want to now. "I'll get ready."

Not a deeply religious person by any stretch, church had still been a part of Gem's weekly routine at home. It was something she had always done but had fallen out of doing since getting a job which kept her up late nights every Saturday. It was something Mia had confided she couldn't bring herself to do alone, despite being a devout catholic. Before the incident they rarely spoke of had occurred Dominic and Letty had attended Sunday services with Mia every week, the brother and his girlfriend simply because it was something they'd always done.

Vince, while catholic by birth, had never had religious parents or any desire to pick up his faith where they left off. Mia had always known there was no chance of talking Vince into going with her so she'd just stopped going. She had confided to Gem that she knew God didn't care that she went alone. It was just that she couldn't get past the fact all those people would be looking at her there all alone when she had use to have company and some of them would just know. They would know why her brother and Letty didn't come anymore. Some would be angry, feeling surely living in the same house meant that Mia had condoned what was going on. But worse than that, some would have pity in their eyes. The anger Mia could deal with, could brush off. The pity she couldn't take.

"We can go out for brunch after. What are you going to wear?"

"I won't know until I get up and see what's clean. I need to do my washing today." Gem made a face. The laundry room was in the basement.

"Is that why you only do your laundry twice a month?"

"Yeah, I'm scared every time I go down there I increase my chances of never coming back. The place is a sad, scary mess."

"I know what you mean." Mia answered.

Gem couldn't help but think that Mia's agreement hadn't been as enthusiastic as it could have been but she let it go. Mia left for her own room to get dressed and Gem got up with a groan for her tired legs. She felt like she needed about another three hours sleep to just feel half alive.

A short sleeve jersey knit sweater in pale blue and black skirt later she decided she would do, just as soon as she brushed her hair. That done she headed downstairs to find Mia. She found her friend in the kitchen, arguing with Vince about why she didn't have time to cook him breakfast before she left.

"Vince, if we don't leave right now we're going to be late getting there and we're not going to get seats."

"I don't know why you wanna go anyway. What's God done for us lately?"

"I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer. If you're so darn hungry than make your own breakfast." Mia turned away from Vince and saw Gem in the kitchen doorway. "Good, you're ready."

"I'm ready, but I'm not sure I'm totally awake yet."

"See, you shouldn't be waking Gem up this early when she worked last night anyway."

"It's ok, I said I'd go and I don't mind going. I have tomorrow off, I'll sleep in then."

"We'll get you a coffee on the way." Mia said as she picked up her keys from the kitchen counter and headed for the back door. Gem followed her through the kitchen. She heard Vince's chair scrape back from the table and his heavier steps fall in step behind her.

"If you can hang on for about an hour and a half I'll try and convince her to come back here for a second to get you before we go out to brunch." Gem said as she paused at the back door of the house. She knew Vince was right on her heels.

"I'll find something to do me until then but you better come back. Otherwise I might starve."

"I somehow doubt that," Gem looked over her shoulder at Vince with a smirk. He had been gaining weight lately but it sure wasn't in body fat. "But I'm sure I can talk her into letting you come with us."

"Ok, see you then."

"See you." Gem walked out of the house and down the stairs to the backyard before following the path around the house to the driveway where Mia was waiting. They headed off down the street for the church Mia had attended before everything had fallen apart.

An hour later they were on their way home again. Mia parked the car at the curb and Gem got out to go and tell Vince they were back. She crossed to the front door and pushed in. "Vince!" She called as she stepped into the front hall. "You ready?"

"Yeah, just a second." Vince called up from downstairs. He immerged into the hallway a moment later.

Gem could only shake her head at him, smiling even though she knew she shouldn't be. Here were her and Mia, all dressed up in their Sunday best clothes and there was Vince, wearing the same jeans he'd worn to work the day before and a dark green tank top. He hadn't shaved in days and while some would believe his hair was in artful disarray it actually simply hadn't been brushed since he'd gotten out of his bed.

But somehow, when it was Vince, it worked.

Any other guy she'd ever met would look like a bum in dirty jeans with his hair unbrushed but Vince just somehow managed to pull it off. It could be a function of the fact he honestly wasn't aware there was anything wrong with how he looked and therefore gave off a confident vibe or it could be that the man he was just honestly didn't care about clothes or hair and because he didn't really care you couldn't help but not care right along with him. In any event, Gem was sure instead of getting dirty looks, like so many guys would if they went into any restaurant other than Burger King looking like Vince was looking, he would only get longing looks from any females who saw him and jealous looks from many of the guys.

Or maybe it was just that Gem was finding the old fashioned man who still worked for a living getting his hands dirty and thought, albeit erroneously, that a real man just put up and shut up and didn't whine or heck, admit he had problems was the kind of man who appealed to her. Which would certainly explain a lot. Like why none of the guys she'd ever gone out with before had made her feel anything but the most perfunctory interest in them and keeping their presence in her life. It would also explain why the things those other men did didn't have the power to make her care much either way, had never tested her ability to keep her cool. Not like Vince, who could make her forget she was a lady with a few hastily chosen words said in that tone of voice with that look on his face.

He made her laugh, he made her cry, and it was more than any other guy had ever managed to do. She still wasn't sure if she liked it or not, but she was trying to be open to the fact that she just might. It was hard to think of not wanting him in what ever way he wanted her to have him when he was standing there looking at her.

"You ready?" She asked again, just to end the moment, and put an end to her thoughts.

"Yeah. Where we going anyway?"

"I don't really know. Mia seems to and I never thought to ask her."

"Well, I'm fuckin' starving so let's just get goin'."

"I'm starting to see that Mia's fairy tales about you and how much you can eat weren't figments of her imagination."

For the longest time Gem had been unable to juxtapose the Vince she knew who rarely ate to the one Mia told of in her stories who did almost nothing but. However, in the last few weeks Vince had rediscovered his love of eating. The amounts he could pack away had shocked her. He could out eat each of her brothers. Maybe even both of them at the same time. It was hard to miss the extra muscle on his-which had become almost wiry-frame. He was, Mia had confided, returning to his former bulk.

Of course, Mia had also confided that Vince had had reason to need his bulk in his previous activities. It was as Gem had always guessed. While big himself, Dom used Vince almost like a hired tough. Even though Dom was big and strong enough to do his own dirty work, when it came right down to it he sent Vince to do the dirtiest of it, only involving himself when something aroused his anger to the point where he couldn't hold back.

Gem had thought to ask what would happen if Vince and Dominic ever went head to head. A look of genuine fear had crossed Mia's face. She'd almost stammered through her confession that it had happened once and they didn't really like to talk about it. She would only confess that the hospital had been up two patients overnight and that the two hot heads hadn't spoken for weeks after. The way Mia told it bones had been broken and the only reason it stopped was because Letty had tossed herself between them and all it took was for a close call from each of them almost hitting Letty instead of each other and they backed off.

Otherwise they would likely have fought until one or the other was a breath away from death. Mia refused to speculate on which one would have been left standing. From the pictures she'd seen, Gem guessed Dominic had more physical strength but she would bet real money that Vince was a hundred times more tenacious. He'd win or die trying. He was the most stubborn person she'd ever met.

"I used to like to eat." Vince admitted as he started to crowd Gem out the door.

"Used to?"

"Well, lately I'm startin' to think about savin' up some energy for late nights."

"Why? You keep late nights at the bar all the time." Gem's forehead wrinkled in thought. She looked back over her shoulder again and caught the leer on his face. "Oh." She squeaked, a blush creeping into her cheeks as she got the implication. He chuckled.

"Come on. Let's go before Mia mounts a search party. You might be starting to figure she likes things to happen on her schedule."

"Yeah, I did pick up on that this morning when she threw herself on my bed and stared at me until I woke up." Gem said as she giggled, pulling open the front door. She found Mia on the step about to push the door open from her side. "Cripes Mia, have some patience. We were on our way out."

"Gem, you have visitors." Mia said, her tone unsure. "At least I think you do. I know I've never seen that car before. I thought I'd get you out of the house to find out who they are." Mia pointed at a black Toyota Corolla parked at the curb behind Gem's Honda. "They've been sitting there talking for the last few minutes and I can only figure they must know you. I've never seen them before."

Gem looked up and took in the car at the curb. She started down the steps slowly, until the car doors opened and two men got out. Then, with a happy squeal, Gem tore off down the lawn and threw herself at the closest of them. He caught her with a smile, swinging her up into his arms and around in a circle before setting her down close to the other man. Gem and the second man hugged, though not as enthusiastically as with the first one.

The second man said something to Gem and whatever it was it caused her to look over her shoulder at where Mia and Vince were still standing. The look on her face wasn't a happy one.

Vince fought a growl. Who were they? They just land and Gem is hugging them looking happy and then the next second she looks upset. He moved to push past Mia to go to Gem's side. Mia held out her arm to stop him. He growled at her. She shot him a look which clearly stated not to interfere.

Yet.

Gem sent a longing look over her shoulder as she caught an earful. Of all the times for her brothers to show up! She had been looking forward to a nice Sunday brunch with her friends and now she was catching the third degree from Doug while Nick looked on, unwilling to interrupt his formidable older brother, even if the look on his face did give away the fact he thought Doug was crossing the line.

"And then I find out from mom you were living in a boarding house but moved out of there and into the home of two strangers." Doug finished his rant. At least, for the moment.

"I suppose it was a good thing I didn't ask your opinion on my living situation then." Gem said. She was glad to note that her ability to keep her calm was still in place when it came to her brothers.

"I just want to know what you were thinking," Doug stated. "I can't believe you just moved in with strangers with out even telling us first. You don't know them. What if one of them was a serial killer or something?"

"Than I'd be dead by now." Gem answered. "I'm fine because they're just two people who gave me a place to stay when I needed one because I needed one and because they needed the extra money. Besides, since I don't have Nicky around anymore I was lucky to find Vince. He's been keeping the Honda on the road."

"You still drive that thing?" Nick, Gem's second brother broke into the conversation.

Doug was the oldest. Nick came next, two years behind Doug, and Gem was the baby. She was three years younger than Nick. Doug, at twenty seven, tended to act like a second father more than a brother and it about drove Gem nuts.

"Yes I still drive it and I'd rather not talk about it."

"Why?" Doug asked, his analytical mind clearly going into overdrive.

"Because Vince is constantly at me to replace it and I'm constantly telling him that I can't afford to right now. I don't want to have the same conversation with you." Gem realized how rude she was being to leave her friends standing on their step while she fought with her brother. She turned to Vince and Mia. "Guys, come meet my brothers."

Brothers! That explained it. Vince was glad to know Gem knew the men but wasn't sure how he felt about meeting Gem's family. He still followed Mia down the lawn.

"This is my oldest brother Douglas." Gem said as she pointed at the dark haired man on her left. "Doug this is Vince and Mia."

Doug shook hands with both people he was introduced to. With Mia he was polite and cordial. When he and Vince shook hands it took longer than strictly necessary and it was clear each man was trying to out grip the other. From the look on Doug's face, Vince won the little clash of wills. Gem and Mia rolled their eyes. Gem continued her introductions.

"This is Nicholas, the middle child but also my older brother."

To Mia, Nick looked like a male Gem. He had dark blond hair, tanned skin and aquamarine eyes. He stood about six foot and was lean and muscular. Mia recalled that Nick was the military pilot. That made Doug the aspiring lawyer. Even though she'd done nothing wrong, Doug made her nervous. Nick shook hands with Mia first, then Vince. Rather than attempt to outgrip the bigger man, Nick simply shook his hand firmly with a toothy grin.

"So you're the poor sap who got suckered into working on the Honda when my little sister ran away from home?"

"Yeah, I've been working on it but I gotta tell ya, whoever was before was really dropping the ball. The damn thing had next to no brakes and an exhaust like a sieve."

"Vince!" Gem admonished, slightly embarrassed that Vince was showing his surly temper to her brothers the first time they ever met. She was also confused. When had her brakes and exhaust been called into question? "You never told me about any of that stuff."

"Um," Vince fought for an explanation as to why he'd done work to her car without telling her about it. "You seemed so upset about the starter. I didn't want to tell you that you needed all that other stuff too so I just fixed it."

"But I didn't even know you then."

"I know." Vince looked down at Gem. He couldn't tell her in front of her brothers that he'd been unable to think of her driving around in a car that might get her killed and therefore render her unable to show up to work and serve him his drinks while verbally sparring with him. The look that passed between them was intense. The fact he couldn't stand to have harm come to her, even back when he hadn't known her definitely came across in his shining blue eyes.

"Why was he working on your car if you didn't even know him?" Doug asked, his suspicion of Vince clear on his face. It was only intensified by the fact he'd caught the look which had passed between his sister and the shaggy haired man she lived with.

"It's what we do down at the garage I own. We work on cars." Vince answered in a growl before Gem could answer. Doug's snap judgement of him didn't go unnoticed. It pissed Vince off for reasons he didn't understand. He was quite used to not caring what strangers thought of him. It bothered him to care what these two men thought of him just because they were related to Gem. He didn't want to want to impress them.

"You're a real mechanic then?" Nick asked Vince, who only nodded in answer. "Score! I never claimed to be good at it. Gem just never wanted to take the car to the garage because she was always saving up for something more important like better bass strings or computer programs and accessories for her recording. I learned to fix cars just so hers wouldn't go totally unrepaired."

"It's time it went unrepaired and went to the scrap yard." Vince said vehemently.

Gem punched him in the arm. "That's my car. You don't have to like it for me to drive it."

"I don't have to like the idea of it stranding you some night on your way home from work either." Vince retorted. "What would you do if it died on the side of I95 at two am?"

"You work a lot of nights?" Doug asked in a deceptively conversational tone.

Mia could totally see him being at home in a courtroom. She would be willing to bet that he would have no trouble tricking witnesses into telling him more than they wanted to by turning on the charm.

Gem looked stricken. Mia wondered if she'd ever told her brothers or family just where she worked. Gem straightened her back.

"I only work evenings as a matter of fact."

"Why's that?"

"Because I work in a pub." Gem answered Doug's question and her chin rose in preparation for the blow-up she was sure was on its way.

"Get your stuff together! I'm taking you home." Doug bit out, pointing at the house.

"I am home." Gem snapped back. "I'm perfectly fine here."

"You are not going to continue to work in a bar!" Doug's voice rose as his composure started to slip. "You were supposed to be here trying to get a contract to sing, not to work in a bar."

"I am trying to get a contract to sing! But you don't just walk into a record company and say 'I'd like to sing please'. You have to get discovered. The Cobalt has open mic night and the owner lets me off work to sing. Barry is very good to me and I've made lots of new friends since I started there. Not to mention forming a band with some of those friends and we sound really good."

"Why don't we just go out to get our brunch and you guys can continue catching up then?" Mia broke in with a smile, always trying to be the peacemaker. She wanted to disfuss the situation she felt growing between Gem, her brothers and Vince.

"That's a great idea Mia." Gem turned to her brothers. "You two can follow us in Doug's car."

Doug and Nick watched as Gem, Mia and Vince got into Vince's Maxima. They had no choice but get into the Toyota and follow if they wanted to continue to talk to their sister.

"She's not a baby Doug. She's too old for you to run her life for her." Nick said as he reclined into the bucket seat of the Corolla and ran a hand through his sandy coloured hair, which was cropped short around his head, except on top where it was allowed to grow slightly longer. In any event it was clear his last haircut had been government funded.

"Did you see that guy she lives with? Mark my words, he's bad news."

"How do you figure?"

"You see the car he drives? See the baby blue one in the driveway? They're those car racing types, the ones you hear about on the news."

"Making judgements about the man based on the cars in his driveway is pretty thin Doug. For someone who says he wants to defend and uphold the law in court you sure are quick to make snap judgements without proof."

"Please. The car and the tattoos are proof enough, Nick. Don't delude yourself. I want to work for the crown, not the defence. It's going to be my job to put men like him in jail in the future."

"I can't believe you. Did you see our sister while she was talking to us Doug? Or did you look right past her to your own agenda?"

"What about her?"

"She was happy. She looked good too, all tan and I think she even lost weight since she moved out here. Besides, it's not like she only lives with the guy. The other girl lives there too."

"I didn't like how he looked at her. Like he had the right to save her from us. We're her brothers."

"Exactly. We're not her father or keeper, just her brothers. Unless she wants our help and asks for it we have no right to tell her where she can and can't work or live."

"I just know that guy is bad news. I'm going to find out who he is and when I do I'll make her see she doesn't belong there."

They pulled up behind the azure Nissan in front of a small restaurant. Gem and her friends were already standing on the sidewalk out front of the establishment. Doug and Nick joined them and they entered, waiting to be seated.

A waitress led them to a table and left them with menus. Gem and Mia started to peruse the breakfast menu. Vince skipped right to lunch as both girls had pretty much known he would. Doug and Nick picked up their menus and started to look over what was offered as well.

"What're you getting?" Vince, who was seated beside Gem, leaned over and asked her in a low tone.

"I don't know yet. Why? You already hoping I can't finish whatever I order?" Gem's answering question was accompanied by a smirk.

"Of course."

Mia laughed. "At least there's never leftovers to worry about with you around V."

"I try to do my share around the house." Vince said as he leaned back in his chair with a grin, tossing a casual arm over the back of Gem's chair.

Nick and Doug shared a look. Doug's end of it did not look pleased. "So, how long have you all known each other?" He asked. He tried to make it seem like an innocent question. He failed to hide the prying behind the question however.

"Gosh!" Gem had to stop and think. "I guess I've known Vince for about a month now, a little longer and I've been living with Mia for three weeks or so. It feels like we've always known each other to me though."

"Awwww." Mia drawled out with a smile and leaned over to hug her friend. Gem returned the hug with a grin.

"So, you own a garage right?" Nick asked, directing his question to Vince trying to be polite and make some conversation that Vince could appreciate and participate in.

"Yeah. Well," Vince paused, his forehead furrowed as he thought about how to explain it. "I manage it. I'm really a half owner I guess. My partner moved out of the country so I'm alone with it now. I spend most of my life under a car there so I guess I just think of it like it was mine now."

"And that's just fine because Mia and I can hardly pump our own gas." Gem tossed out. "But at least Mia's car isn't about to disintegrate around her."

"Mom and dad would help you buy a new car if you moved back to San Francisco."

"I'm sure they would Doug. The catch is I have no desire to wait tables and play hostess for the rest of my life."

"I got some money coming to me from the Navy in the next few months. I'll send you some."

"Gosh Nicky! Does that mean you finally got stationed someplace permanently?"

"Yeah. Sorta." His face broke out into a huge grin. "I got into Top Gun."

"Really?" Gem asked with a gasp.

"Yeah. They're going to teach me to fly the F-16. The only pilots who aren't Air Force who get to fly the F-16 are Top Gun Navy pilots."

"I'm so proud of you!" Gem said as she got up and rushed around the table to hug her brother, who stood up to catch her and hug her back.

He was unable to stop smiling. Top Gun had been something he'd been, well, gunning for. Ever since he'd seen the 80's movie featuring the school. It wasn't half as glamorous as the movie had made it out to be. The Navy had only thought of it as fighter weapons training until they'd taken the name Top Gun by popular consensus. It really was a school for the most talented naval pilots and getting in was an accomplishment. His mom and dad weren't happy with his choice because they knew the odds he'd see active duty were very good. They were also very proud of him.

"Doesn't that mean you're going to have to be stationed to Nevada?" Gem asked as she sat back down.

"For 9 weeks. Then I'll be sent back to my unit right here in California."

"Don't you have to stay where the planes are?" Mia asked.

"We have planes on the base I'm with. The Top Gun movie gave the wrong impression of naval flying in general and of the real point behind Top Gun. The graduates went right out to war in the movie. In real life my job as a Top Gun graduate is to go back to my unit and improve the other pilots flying techniques."

"Nick is one hell of a pilot."

"Thanks sis but this assignment is going to test everything I've ever learned."

"So Doug, how goes school?" Gem turned to her oldest sibling.

"Good." Doug answered, still more interested in staring down Vince than in small talk.

The waitress returned to their table and everyone ordered. "You must be almost done now." Gem continued.

"I'm working on my masters before I make any decisions so I have another year to go. I'm thinking of taking the Bar though. If I go that route I'll have to find a barrister to do my reading period with."

"I can't believe I'm your sister. Either of you. Here are the two of you, educated and getting great jobs and here I am. My two choices keep working in a bar trying to get discovered or run home to my mom and dad and work for them for the rest of my life." Gem smiled to show that as plain as she spelled her situation out it didn't really have her that down.

"Or, barring that, you could go back to school and get your arts degree in music and teach." Doug said. "San Francisco has a great music program."

"So does UCLA." Mia said, looking up from her plate. She caught Doug's dirty look. "I mean, so I've heard."

"Mia's premed at UCLA." Gem said, giving Doug a look that clearly dared him to have something to say to that.

"Really?" Nick asked, his attention focused sharply on Mia once she'd made her admission.

Mia found the attention of his intelligent aquamarine eyes flattering. She knew he was just interested in his sister's life. Not like the other one, who she knew was out to make trouble for them all every time she felt his navy blue eyes on her. Or Vince.

"Yeah. Well, I had to drop out last year when things got tough at home. But since Gem's going to work part time in my store and cover some of my hours I can finally go back and finish."

"What made you decide to pursue medicine?"

"My brother," Mia's eyes lost focus as she drifted off into her thoughts. "I think he pressured me into it because he wanted me to be able to put him back together when he crashed." She shook her head slightly and focused on Nick again. "But when I got started I liked the idea of it. It's a lot of work and a demanding job. But it's pretty rewarding too."

"Do you know what you want to specialize in yet?" Doug asked. He was genuinely interested, Gem noted with interest.

"Not really. Family medicine likely, maybe paediatrics."

"Doctor Mia Toretto. Has a nice ring to it."

"Stop Gem. I'm only premed. I have a long way to go yet. Like getting into med school, passing MCATs."

Doug made a note to remember the dark girl's last name and wondered how he could go about finding out the full name of the large man with his arm still across the back of his sister's chair. There was more to the story about the missing business partner and Doug was going to find out just what the story was.

They all finished up and after getting their bills went to leave. Doug noted with displeasure that Vince was picking up the bill for both girls. There might be some truth in Nick's statement that someone who had decided to spend his life attempting to show that justice was blind shouldn't make snap judgements based on someone's looks. But from the moment he'd seen the shaggy haired, tattooed man he had made up his mind that his little sister had no business being involved with him.

The girls and Vince paid first and went to wait outside on the sidewalk.

"You need to lay off her Doug. You're just going to make things worse if you get any pushier. She's going to just blow up and tell you where you can get off."

"It's not my fault you can't see that guy is bad news." Doug pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, told the cashier to add his brother's bill to his own and handed over his Visa card.

Nick continued with a smile of thanks to his brother to be polite before the jovial look left his face and his scowl returned. He watched the clerk swipe the card as he spoke. "You don't know that. You know he's a mechanic who has more ink than you find respectable."

"He's rough and the story about the business partner who just left the country didn't sit right. Why did the guy just up and leave his business? I'd bet anything he's the missing brother who pushed Mia into medicine, so why did he leave his sister here? How'd this Vince character end up with those scars on his forearm? This story isn't adding up right at all. Listen, I've been training to spot stories that don't ring true and that one doesn't."

"So what? Gem is happy. Why isn't that enough?"

Doug took his credit card back from the cashier and put it back into his wallet, which he then slid back into the back pocket of his slacks. "It's fine that she's happy. That's for now. What happens when this loser breaks her heart and she lives in the same house so she can't even get away from him?"

"Doug, you've felt that way about almost every guy she's ever dated. She knows that mom and dad are waiting for her to come running home as it is so if, and I stress if, Vince is bad news than she can go home to 'Frisco. Besides, they never said anything to make me believe they're more than friends."

"Then Nick," Doug looked at his brother in exasperation. "You weren't looking at the same two people I was. Just friends don't look at each other the way our sister and that man look at each other when they think no one is looking."

"I still say she's old enough to make her own mistakes, even if Vince is one of them."

"I'm going to figure out what about him bugs me. Just wait and see." Doug pushed the door of the restaurant open and joined his sister and her friends outside. A fake look of affability replaced the ire on Doug's face. "I guess we're heading back home now. We just wanted to check up on you since we hardly ever hear from you."

"It was nice seeing you again. I miss being close to you guys. I'll try to make time to call more. Tell mom and dad I miss them and love them." Gem asked. "Be careful Nick. Call me when you get there."

"I will." Nick hugged Gem tight and got into the passenger side of the Toyota.

"Be careful coming home from this bar. I might just drop in someday to check it out." Doug said as he looked down at Gem.

"I am careful Doug. Come by some Thursday around eight and see us play."

"Ok. See you." Doug didn't hug his sister again, but simply put his hand on her shoulder for a moment and moved off to his car.

The three others watched the black car pull off, then got into their own with Vince driving and Gem riding shotgun, Mia in the rear. "Well, that went well." Gem said.

"Your brothers don't like me much." Vince answered.

"Doug doesn't like anyone new to him much. He has a suspicious mind. It comes from being involved in the law and seeing the darker side of human nature all the time. He has it in his head he wants to be a crown prosecutor." Gem reassured. "Nick liked you fine. A genuine mechanic is something exciting to him."

"Yeah, I can see why a Navy fighter pilot would feel that way." Vince answered sarcastically.

"You find his job exotic, he finds yours that way. Everyone thinks things they aren't good at are somehow more elite than what they do." Gem shrugged. "A lot of people would find the fact you play guitar well when they can't carry a tune makes you better than them. Where as they might be super at math and you can't understand it. Nicky's always been jealous of the way I can sing when he can't carry a tune. It's one of the things that make the world interesting."

"I guess."

"She's right," Mia added. "The way Jesse could work the internet always made me so jealous because the darn computer hates me. But Jesse hated the way I could get the wax to apply so smooth on the cars when he could never make them shine. Neither of those things is really a big deal but when it's something you can't do no matter how much you'd like to it really feels like one."

"I see that, I suppose." Vince answered without much conviction and switched lanes to pass a slow moving Crown Victoria. He sighed. "Speaking of things you don't want to do it's time I washed the RX-7 and Skyline again."

"You should take the cars for a drive too or they're going to rot out in that little shed." Mia said reproachfully from the back seat. Her position on keeping all the cars had already been made quite clear.

"Wanna help me?" Vince addressed Gem. "I'll wash you dry, then we'll take them for a spin."

"Sure. But if there are two cars I'm washing one. I'll dry the other."

"I'll do the seven, you do the Skyline. Deal?"

"Sure."

"I wouldn't mind getting some sun. I'll wax." Mia said.

When they got home the girls changed into their bathing suits and Vince changed into shorts instead of his jeans. He moved the cars out of the shed onto the front lawn while Mia and Gem tracked down buckets, car soap, washmitts and sponges.

They got started once they had all the supplies gathered together between the two cars. Mia decided to clean the rims and dress the tires while she waited for the other two to clean and dry their respective charges.

Gem was rinsing off the yellow car which had been given to her to wash when she saw Mia crouched down beside the red Mazda applying tire shine to the rubber on the car's 18 inch Veilside rims. She couldn't resist the urge; she turned the water on Mia and hit her square in the back.

Mia squealed and jumped up out of her crouching position and spun around to find Gem calmly rinsing soap bubbles off the yellow paint of Leon's car.

"You!" Mia sputtered.

"What?" Gem asked innocently.

"You splashed me."

"I did not. I'm just washing a car here Mia. I don't know what you're talking about."

"Really?" Mia asked, disbelieving. Vince was watching the action with a smirk on his face.

"Really."

"Ok." Mia bent back over to where she had been cleaning. She stood back up with a wet sponge and heaved it at Gem. It connected against Gem's breastbone with a wet slapping noise before falling to the ground between the blonde's feet.

"Hey!" Gem shouted, watching as water ran down her torso and down her legs.

"What?" Mia asked, her face schooled into the same look of calm innocence as Gem's had been.

"You hit me with a wet sponge."

"Did not."

As Mia started Gem's way with a bucket of water and Gem headed Mia's with the hose Vince went and got his own bucket of cold water. Just as the two females were about to clash in the middle of the lawn he tossed the water over both of them. They forgot about each other in a heartbeat and turned their attention to him as they gasped in shock from the icy water. "I had to break up the cat fight before it got started is all." Vince smirked as he delivered his smug explanation.

In a split second Gem had the hose turned on Vince full blast. He caught the first wave in his chest but she moved quickly to nail him in the face. He came up sputtering, slightly disoriented as both girls laughed at his expense. As he shook the water out of his hair and wiped it off his face the girls caught the look in his eyes. Only one thing was obvious from the look on his face.

Revenge.

"Uh oh." Gem squeaked as she and Mia took off running down the driveway. They couldn't run very fast in flip flops and it wasn't long before Vince was striding confidently back up the driveway toward the hose, one struggling female under each arm as he carried them toward their punishment.

A few minutes later there were three very cold, wet friends washing some cars on the lawn. They laughed as they finished up, showing it had all been a game in good fun and there were no hard feelings. Even if for Vince, it was hard to not look around to see if they were staring at him because he'd given up on his sodden tank top after he'd turned the hose onto Gem and Mia to get back at them.

He was still self conscious. Were they staring at his scars? Was he too skinny? Too pale? He hated the fact that he thought about these things now. A short year ago he'd have been strutting around knowing girls were staring at him, whether they really were or not. Now he was almost scared he was revolting them instead.

"I guess we're going to have to go get dressed before we go for those drives huh?" Gem asked as she walked up behind Vince. While he'd been busy thinking she'd been busy drying off the Skyline. It now sat gleaming behind her. Vince turned to face her before answering. Her red suit looked good beside Leon's yellow car.

"Why? This is California in the summer. I don't think anyone would think anything of a couple people in a fast car wearing swimwear."

"Maybe not, but we would get the seats all wet."

"Not like Dom or Leon are around to care." Vince shrugged. "They'll dry."

"Ok, which one first then?"

"RX-7." Vince answered without thought. "Just let me check the oil and we'll head out."

"You coming with Mia?"

"That car has no back seat." Mia answered. "You two go ahead. I'm going to start waxing the Skyline. I might even wash my car too."

"You sure?" Gem asked, not wanting to leave Mia out, hurt her feelings.

"I'm sure. Go have fun. I'll stay here and enjoy the thought that my brother would hate to know someone else was driving around in his car."

Gem got into the front seat of the RX-7 smiling. She didn't want to think too hard on why. She didn't like the aspect of herself she was discovering. The part that made her happy to do something that would upset someone else just because she didn't like the person. Yet, the thought of doing something Dominic would hate filled her with a feeling that felt strangely like happiness.

Vince slammed the hood closed after adding half a quart of engine oil and slid behind the wheel. He started the car up and put it into reverse gear, backing off the lawn and down the driveway. He slammed into first and revved the rotary engine up to almost eight thousand rpm. His footwork with gas and brake allowed him to execute a textbook brake burnout. Smoke billowed off the rear wheel drive tires and the screeching noise was deafening. Then with a snappy movement he pushed and dumped the clutch, still revving the car close to eight thousand rpm in first. The car took off down the road, the rear end sliding from side to side in a fishtail as flames shot out of the dual exhaust. He laughed at the look on Gem's face.

"You didn't do that with your car."

"Much as I like my car, it's nothing like this one. This one is made for racing, for speed, and not much else. It's a lot more fun to fuck around with rear wheel drive."

"Do you think we have any tires left on this thing now?"

"Enough for a few more burnouts. Why, you wanna do a few more?"

"Not especially."

"I thought we got past this when we went for our drive."

"That was in your car at night. This is the middle of the daytime in a strange car."

"It might be strange to you but no matter what Mia says I've driven this car plenty in my day. There was a time when Dom and I both raced it. Van Toretto bought it for Dom but it was always understood we were both going to learn to race with it. I've won my fair share in this car. Not like it is now, but how it was before Dom started rolling big time."

"When did you get the Maxima then?"

"About three years ago. When we started, well, doing what we were doing. I used the money I got from the first one to buy it. First new car I ever bought."

"It was new when you got it?"

"Yeah. Of course then I had to do all the mods and the paint. It took forever to pick that colour. The only colour I ever liked and it's off a Dodge Viper. It cost like five grand to paint."

"My whole car only cost two thousand and that was four years ago."

"Four years too fuckin long." Vince mumbled.

"I'll buy a new car when I get a little more money. I need to get a new set of strings-"

"-For the bass." Vince cut her off, finishing her sentence with her own brother's words.

"Yeah. Ha ha, very funny. But trying to get Indigo Sound discovered and a record deal is more important than me having a fancy car right now."

"What about if we forego fancy and just go for functional?"

"The Civic is totally functional, thank you." Gem sat back in the seat and stared out the side window as the waterfront scenery flew by.

"Why are you so attached to that damn car?"

"Why are you so attached to these darn cars?"

"Because this car is all I have left of someone I," Vince paused, clearing his throat as he looked for the right word for what he felt for Dominic. "Loved." He finished gruffly, hating to make the admission out loud.

"You have Mia. She's his sister."

"I wasn't talking about Dom. Well, maybe I was, but he wasn't my main point. I was talking about Mr. Toretto."

"Oh. You must have spent a lot of time around Dom and Mia's as a kid."

"Me'n Letty both. Neither of us had it great at home. Single parent homes with various temporary step parents don't tend to be the best places to grow up. Sometimes we'd get lucky and get the good ones but it was the good ones our crazy mothers drove off fastest. Mostly you got unlucky, and got the ones even crazier than your actual parent."

"What happened when your mom died?"

"I woulda went into foster care but Dom's father took me in instead. I guess to him it was all the same. Letty and I were always there anyway. He just musta looked at it like he had four kids not two. Letty pretty much never went home either. She stopped going home all together when Dom's dad died. She was only sixteen at the time, Mia's age. Dom was only eighteen. Why he didn't get tried as a juvenile I never figured out."

"Because when he beat that guy almost to death he didn't swing the wrench like a kid?" Gem asked. She wished she had thought before she spoke when she saw Vince wince.

"Yeah, but he hadn't been in the adult world enough years to learn to control his temper. He sure as fuck learned how in jail though. I never did."

"Learn how to control your temper in jail?" Gem asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah. Jail taught me a lot of things but control over my temper wasn't part of it."

"You've done time?" Gem's shock was evident in her voice.

"Yeah, and not for a heat of the moment crime like Dom either." Vince convinced himself he owed it to Gem to be honest. "I did a year for armed robbery, resisting arrest, and aggravated assault. They sentenced me concurrently so I only did a year, but I did the whole thing. Of course, there was no good behaviour for me."

"Why?"

"Why what? Why did I try to rob the liquor store?"

"Sure, that's a good place to start." Gem had many questions. She wasn't sure how many of them she could safely ask Vince without making him angry but while he seemed willing to talk she would simply be willing to listen.

"We needed the money mostly. Dom was already in jail, the garage was doing poorly and I had both girls at home to worry about." He lifted one shoulder in a sanguine shrug. "It seemed like a good idea at the time. Then the clerk fought back and I beat him down to get away but the cops were on me like white on rice from the second I squealed out of the parking lot. The whole thing pretty much backfired in my face. The girls were left alone anyway and while Dom got minimum security I got maximum so we weren't even in the same place."

"What was it like in prison?" Gem asked softly.

"'Bout how you'd think. A lot of rules, a lot of tough guys." Vince shrugged dismissively, not wanting to talk about how being incarcerated had made him feel. "You did everything on their schedule. I was enough of a bad ass to make the staff's lives hell and they returned the favour. I kept to myself a lot and the other prisoners left me alone. A few of them started shit with me but I was always quick to finish it. When Dom went in he was wiry, a lot like Leon, if Mia's ever showed you pictures. He came out huge. He had to get big inside as a protection measure and for something to do. I was always, as the social workers put it, a big boy. Big enough to warn people that if they started shit with me I was more than ready to oblige them in returning the favour."

"Mia says Dom's time in changed him. Did it do the same to you?"

"Yeah, but it went the other way. Dom came out with his emotions in a strangle hold. I came out more determined to be wild and rebellious than ever. You know, from the time Dom got out of jail right up until everything went to shit I can count on one had the number of times I've seen him smile. Like really smile. He used to have a big, goofy grin on his face a lot of the time. But when he got out of jail the only look he seemed to have with any frequency was that stoic, reserved look."

"Dominic must have been afraid of what he was capable of when he was angry. You said it was out of character for him to beat up that other man, that he only did it because of his grief for his father. Perhaps he was scared if he let himself let go of his feelings he'd do something horrible again."

"I have no doubt that was it. But it was like I went the other way. I didn't care if I did something else horrible. I took to carrying my 9mm everywhere I went. It's not like I'm proud of it now but there was a time when I was friends with some pretty bad guys. Almost like I went looking for more trouble. Well, more trouble found me. It was how we got into the truck thing in the first place. I knew a guy who hooked us up." Vince took the turn that ended them back up on their own street. They'd given the Mazda a good run while they'd been talking.

Vince parked the car back in the shed and they got into the Skyline. Mia refused their offer to come with them, seeing as the Skyline did have a back seat. She claimed to have had enough sun and outdoors and to be ready for a rest.

It was fine with Vince, honestly. He was enjoying his time with Gem alone, getting to know her better. It was, in his mind, part of taking the thing he felt between them slow. She had to know all there was to know so she could make up her mind honestly if she wanted anything to do with him or not. Especially now that her older brother was going to be poking and prodding into his past. Vince knew that Doug would dig and when he did he would find the prison time, the accusations regarding the trucks, the petty crimes he had committed but not done time for.

And when he did he was going to come looking to make Gem leave. He didn't want to see shock and revulsion appear on her face as her brother spilled all his secrets. He thought if he spilled them himself, confided in her she would take it better. If he was honest she would surely take it as a sign he'd really grown up and matured beyond his criminal ways.

They climbed into the yellow Skyline and Vince started it up. It started on the first try but sputtered like it was going to stall out.

It was showing the effects of sitting around in storage without a driver to take it out for fast runs. Evening knowing it was just a car and didn't have feelings, Vince still felt bad for the fact it was being neglected. But he was still not decided on what he wanted to do with the RX-7, Skyline, or Silvia. The Jetta would be going home soon enough. Jesse's dad was due out in a month's time.

Some nagging feeling he had told him if he sold the cars he'd regret it. On the other hand if he didn't sell them they were going to fall apart in a shed. But selling them to someone else wasn't something he was willing to take responsibility for, he realized. Maybe Mia would have to do it. He might be able to reconcile their loss if it wasn't him that caused it to happen. He might have to talk about that with Mia. But it would mean opening up to her, to someone else, that he still harboured hope that Dominic, Leon and Letty would wander back into the house and back into his life someday. And that was something that Mia and Gem both seemed sure would never happen. Moreover, Gem seemed convinced it wasn't something he should even want.

"So how did the cars come to have the graphics on them that they do?" Gem asked, shocking him out of his thoughts.

"Letty."

"How so?"

"Letty designed them all for us."

"Why doesn't yours have a coyote on it then?"

"Because when it came to the streets the shark was more apt."

"Dom got a rocket ship why?"

"He's just that fast. Jesse got the guy on the bomb because the car kinda was one. It's really not that fast. Fast enough I guess, but not like everyone else's."

"So how did she arrive at Leon's?"

"The guy on the side is Leon in a lot of ways. The green line for his green eyes, the sword because Leon is something of a martial artist himself, and since the car is Japanese."

"I see. What's on Letty's?"

"A girl getting pulled along the side. It's hard to describe but when she explained it to me she said the girl on the side is tied to the car and no matter what she's along for the ride. I imagine Letty felt like that with Dom some times."

"Because of how he treated her?"

"Yeah, that and because he bought her car for her. She was pretty attached to it. But she was always along with Dom for the ride. Not a lot of what went down was something anyone but Dom had any control over. But he really loved Letty. I think it finally occurred to him how much the day it all went down. Mia says that he told her he loved her that day and really seemed to, just, mean it more than before. It was like he was finally serious about her. "

"So Dom wasn't always a jerk."

"No. You woulda had to know him to really get it I guess. But he wasn't always a jerk. He could act that way but he wasn't."

Unable to concur on the Dominic issue Gem turned on Leon's stereo. She was startled when Michael Jackson's 'The Way You Make Me Feel' started blasting. She started to laugh. "I thought Leon was your cool friend."

"He is. Was." Vince shook his head with a rueful smile. "I didn't say he had great taste in music though."

"I think this is a great song. I don't have to like Michael to appreciate his singing. I just don't jive this song with the image of a street smart, car racing ladies man."

"Leon liked all kinds of music. The next song will be something totally different than this, just wait." Sure enough the next song was some Sean Paul song with indecipherable lyrics and more beat than point.

"The stereo in this must practically rival the Maxima." Gem said, her voice raised to be heard over the pounding bass.

"Almost." Vince roared back with a smirk.

They gave the Skyline a run enthusiastic enough to blow the carbon out of the neglected engine and give Gem a few moments which left her heart in her throat and then they headed home and parked the car in the garage. They headed into the house to the aroma of something delicious cooking.

"I thought you two would never get home. I cooked pizza for supper." Mia said, smiling as she made her way from the living room to the kitchen to meet her friends at the back door.

"Mia, you spoil me far too much." Gem said as she hugged Mia and felt her gesture returned.

"No kiddin'." Vince added as he brushed past the girls to go down to his room to change.

When he walked into his room and past his mirror he realized with a start that he'd never put a shirt back on. He'd been out with Gem all day long in nothing but his shorts, hanging low around his hips and after the first few moments he'd never thought of his scars being on display from his shirtless state. After changing into jeans and a clean tank top he left his room whistling.

After dinner Vince announced he was taking the girls out to a movie. Gem agreed to go see the latest block buster with him enthusiastically but Mia again cried off, citing too much sun and not enough sleep the night before as her reasons to stay home. She claimed that as she had to work the next morning early she wanted to get to bed early. Since Monday was Gem's other day off she had no worries.

She was happy that if Vince was taking her to a movie he wasn't going out to a friend's house to get drunk. The more nights he didn't drink the happier she was. He still got drunk too often to suit her, and drove in that state half the time too, but progress was progress. After all, he'd said himself he hadn't planned on changing his ways at all. But yet he had, and all without anyone forcing him to. Sure, she'd pointed out how stupid it was, and how much it bothered her and Mia when he did it, but at the telling he'd said it was his life and he didn't plan on changing his ways. But he subtly was, and for the better. So if he was willing to pick popcorn and Pepsi over Corona and craziness then Gem was more than happy to accompany him.

Besides, she knew Mia wasn't going simply because she was at playing matchmaker again. Gem was getting it from all angles. Mia, Barbara. Even Vince himself, although he wanted to take it slow. How was a girl to hold onto her plan not to get involved with someone as broken inside as Vince when two of her best friends pushed her at him and him himself opened up to her and told her things he'd likely never told another living soul? She wasn't sure she even wanted to hold onto her plan anymore. She was fairly sure she had already given up on that plan in favour of the falling for Vince plan. She knew she should be worried. Worried and upset about it. But she wasn't. She was filled with a sense of anticipation for where it could go.

The sense of worry was there, nagging at the back of her mind, but it wasn't over anything Vince himself had done or could do. It was more over the trouble she knew Doug could and would make when he caught wind of Vince's past. And catch wind of it he would. Hell, he'd go looking for it. Gem had seen it in her brother's eyes when he'd sized Vince up on the lawn. He'd taken one look at her tattooed, scarred roommate and decided to go looking for dirt.

By Vince's own admission there was a lot of dirt to find. And when Doug found it the proverbial shit would hit the fan. He'd tell her dad before coming back to L.A. to confront the issue himself, her father in tow. And by then Nick was likely to be assigned to Nevada, unable to come to his sister's aid. Gem knew instinctively that Nick would be on her side. He supported her desire to do her own thing when no one else did. He was the one who convinced her to come to L.A. even when she'd convinced herself not to; that it wasn't worth hurting her mother and father over some silly child's fantasy of getting a record deal.

Nick was the one who supported her desire to further her musical career. Her parents and Doug alike tried to convince her that her place was working in the restaurant. Nick had some skeletons in his own closet as far as the law was concerned and she knew he'd be more understanding with the trouble that Vince had gotten himself into. After all, none of them knew what it was like to go through what Vince had.

It was true they'd always had a stable, two parent home. Parents who loved them and had spent time actively raising them, being there for them. They'd never known what it was like to be a sixteen year old with no parents, depending on a friend's parents for a place to stay and food to eat. They'd always had money for the necessities. Food, a place to live, clothes, good schools, these things had never been a worry for the Davis family. They always knew there was enough money for all the things they needed. So Doug had no right to judge someone like Vince, who'd grown up in a totally different way. How Vince had ended up wasn't something Doug could ever hope to understand. Gem had trouble herself and she only started to grasp the situation by putting herself into Vince's place.

She came back down the stairs dressed in jean shorts and a tank top. She found Mia and Vince waiting on her at the kitchen table. She joined them, bowed her head while Mia said grace, and started to eat with her friends. When they were done eating Gem and Vince both tried to convince Mia to go with them to the theatre one last time before giving up on her when she continued to say she didn't want to go.

Vince and Gem took off alone. After the movie, during which Vince actually pulled the old fake yawn and stretch move for an excuse to put his arm on the back of Gem's seat he insisted on taking her out for an ice cream. They walked along the boardwalk under the moon and stars as they ate and at some point without either being really sure how it came to be they ended up hand in hand. By the time they got back to the car Gem was almost asleep on her feet and Vince had his arm around her, half holding her upright and half holding her to his side.

They drove home and said good night at the base of the stairs.

When Gem woke up on Monday it was already eleven. She got up and got dressed and then headed down to see Mia at the café.

"Morning." Gem said with a yawn as she sat at the little counter.

"Hey. You just get up?"

"Yeah."

"When did you and V get in last night?"

"At one. I guess I was making up for the sleep I didn't get Saturday night."

"Yeah, must be. Where'd you go after the movie?"

"Out for ice cream. It was too nice of a night to head straight home. You should have come with us."

"Naw, three's a crowd." Mia winked playfully. "You here for lunch?"

"Aren't I always?" Gem asked, smiling.

"Why don't I pack it up to go and you can take some lunch to Vince and the boys down at the shop?"

"Mia," Gem cautioned. "What are you trying to do this time?"

"Nothing. I just worry about Vince and those boys eating nothing but that Fat Burger junk."

"Fine, pack me up some sandwiches and I'll take them down."

Mia made up all the boy's favourites and packaged them in tin foil before placing them all in a paper bag. She added a plastic bag of Coronas out of the fridge in back. "There you go." As an afterthought Mia added some sodas too, knowing Gem wouldn't drink the beer.

"Thanks. You sure you don't want me to eat here with you first?"

"I'm sure. I'll see you later. This is your day off after all. You should come by this afternoon and learn some of the stuff you're going to need to know to work here in fall."

"I guess I will need to start picking it up soon."

"Yeah, you will. But for now take the men their food."

Gem stood up from her stool. "Alright already. Sheesh, I know when I'm not wanted."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll see you tonight." Mia called after Gem with a grin.

"See you." Gem answered as she slid back into her hot little car. Another thing to add to the list of things on the car that didn't work was the air. It had finally given up the other day. It was another thing Vince swore wasn't worth fixing. He said by the time it was retrofitted to take the new R-134a refrigerant and recharged it would cost more than a newer car that wasn't so busted up. Gem rolled down both front windows and sped up, wanting to force more air to rush around the cabin of the little car. She really was going to have to replace her car.

It galled her to spend her money on a car. She could think of so many things she'd rather use her money on than a car. As long as she could get from one place to another in the Honda what did she need something fancier for? But it was an old debate and she knew that with her smog coming up to due she was going to either have to spend the money on fixing up her engine or just replacing the whole car. If Vince wasn't exaggerating how much work her car needed than it would just make more sense to replace the whole car.

She giggled as she realized half the reason why she didn't want to replace the Honda was because she didn't want to give Vince the satisfaction of being right about it. But he likely could find her something that worked better, that was more reliable and wasn't killing the atmosphere. Soon, she resolved. She'd give him permission to start looking for something else for her soon. She just wanted a few more pay checks under her belt to have a bit more saved up first.

She parked her car in the back of the garage and pushed into the dark interior via the back door. It let out directly onto the shop floor. She found all the guys in various states of undress, in various states of dirtiness, in various positions over and under cars.

"Lunch is here." She called as she walked out to the center of the floor.

Cory pushed out from under the car he was working on and stood up with a groan. He saw the bag of amber Coronas in her hand. "You're an angel. A genuine, certifiable Goddess." He said as he relieved her of her plastic bag burden and reached inside. He came out with a bottle of beer and with a moan of relish started rubbing the cold, sweating bottle over the back of his neck and his face before popping the top off and downing the first half in one go, the sweat on his face and bare chest glistening.

Bill sauntered up and took one of the cold beverages out of the bag for himself. He gave Cory a look to let the youth know it was evident he was showboating for Gem, and that the boss wouldn't like it one bit before he took the top off his own drink and took a swig, though nothing to rival the enthusiastic chugging of Cory a moment before.

"I have food too, or are you two only interested in the booze?" Gem asked in mild reproach as she took a chilled Pepsi out of the bag for herself and started unpacking the sandwiches.

"Are those Mia's sandwiches?" Cory asked. At Gem's affirmative nod he sighed dramatically. "The heat must have killed me. I've died and gone to heaven and you're the angel they sent to welcome me."

"Shut up'n eat fool." Bill said.

Gem didn't really know him but she knew he was older than Cory, someplace close to Vince's age, perhaps slightly older and kept to himself a lot. He drove a Nissan Sentra, totally unmodified, and didn't seem to go in for the whole street racing, car tuning scene. According to Vince, he was a good, steady, dependable worker who was more mechanic than tuner and that suited Vince just fine.

Gem unwrapped the first sandwich her hand closed over and found turkey. She handed it over to Bill without a word, knowing it was his favourite. She got a pleasant smile in return as the older man sat on the couch off to the side and started to eat, his beer between his feet on the floor. The next was ham and went off to the side for Vince, who still hadn't immerged from under the black s2000 he was working on. She found roast beef in the next one and handed it to Cory who fell on it with relish.

"I think I love you." Cory said through is mouth full of food as he savoured his sandwich.

"You think you love Mia. I'm just the messenger."

Cory swallowed his mouthful and washed it down with the rest of his first Corona. "Ok then, I think I love Mia."

Gem giggled. "I'll let her know."

"Where's mine?" A deep voice asked from over her shoulder. She jumped a bit before turning around with a hand to her throat.

"You scared the bejesus out of me V. It's on the table over there." Gem pointed to the bag. Vince collected his sandwich, the one clearly left over for Gem and two drinks, one Pepsi and one Corona before ushering Gem over to the end of the sofa opposite Bill and forcing her down to sit. He sat on the floor in front of her and unwrapped his own lunch. Gem followed suit.

"So what brings you down here?" Vince asked in between bites of his meal.

"Mia. She said you guys eat entirely too much fast food and she wanted you to have a good lunch for once."

"Always a worrier." Vince said with a grin and downed some of his beer. "But this beats a greasy hamburger ten to one."

"Then you should go eat with Mia more often."

"Yeah dude, and you should bring us back lunch while you're at it." Cory added as he polished off his second beer and sandwich and headed back over to the car he'd abandoned in favour of food on Gem's arrival.

"We'll see." Vince addressed Cory's comment before turning back to Gem. "So what do you have planned for the rest of the day?"

"Nothing really. Day off and all, I mostly figured I'd hang out around the house. I have to get my laundry done." Gem pulled a pinched face of distaste.

"Have fun with that." Vince said with a smirk, knowing how much she hated doing laundry. He suspected it had something to do with venturing into his domain but she also just hated the monotony of folding clothes, he knew. He did too, and that was why he lived out of three piles on the floor; the must be washed now, can be worn at least once more, and clean piles. Wasn't like he had much in the line of good clothes.

"I'm sure I will. If I don't contract plague, or get buried under a freak landslide of your stuff, never to be seen again." Gem teased back.

Bill chuckled and Vince looked mildly embarrassed. "Whatever."

"Yeah, whatever."

Gem watched as Vince polished off his food, then his drink and stood up. "Well, back to the grind. See you tonight?"

"Unless you have a hot date. I know where I'll be."

"I might have a hot date. It depends on what you're doing after supper." Vince looked mildly shocked to have phrased his statement the way he had.

"Nothing, if I have my washing done by then."

"We'll have to talk later then."

Gem stood up off the couch. In her flat flip flops Vince had almost a foot on her. She looked up at him. "Ok, see you later." She left with a little wave to the other two men and pushed open the back door. She heard Cory teasing Vince with kissy noises as she pushed out into the sweltering heat.

She had heard enough out of her brothers, mostly Nick, to know how men carried on when there were no females around to hear them. She wasn't envious of Vince in the least, knowing the teasing he was going to take simply because a friend who was a girl showed up with food she didn't even make herself for him. Imagine if she had cooked the meal herself, such as it was. Things would be even worse on poor Vince. Not to mention he'd as good as asked her out in front of them. He was in for one hell of an afternoon.

Gem drove home and got started on her washing. She darted quickly into the laundry room, avoiding seeing the rest of the floor. Like an ostrich with its head in the sand she hoped that if she couldn't see the horrendous mess it didn't really exist.

Despite the plans they'd tentatively made that afternoon at the garage they ended up staying in with Mia watching movies Monday night. Gem pinpointed the moment that Vince thought about heading down to the bar but he seemed to think better of it all on his own and talked Mia into making popcorn, claiming that for him the 'damn microwave was still broken', despite the fact Mia and Gem used the appliance almost daily. They all headed to bed around midnight, Gem only going because everyone else did. She sat up in her room with her notepad trying to work on the song she would have to have done for Thursday if she didn't want to play another cover song or repeat one of the songs she already wrote.

She kept coming back to the chorus she had but she had no idea how to fill in the verses.

When the phone rang at two am Gem got up to answer it quickly, hoping not to wake the rest of the house. "Hello?"

"Gem?" A naggingly familiar voice asked.

It took Gem a second to realize it was her friend Cindy from home. "Cin, that you?"

"Yeah. Gem, I need to talk to someone, can we meet up?"

"Of course. But I'm a piece away from 'Frisco Cin." She didn't point out it was also the dead of night on a work night.

"I know. I'm in Los Angeles. I came down when I found out from Nick where you were. Can you meet me tonight? I know it's late but I really need to talk to someone."

Sensing the desperation in her friend's voice she answered of course and picked a place for them to meet, a coffee shop about half way between their positions that was also open all night. Gem could sense from her friend's voice that everything wasn't ok. She rushed out of her bed to pull on pants and a sweater over her PJs that consisted of gym shorts and a tank top.

Vince met her at the bottom of the stairs. "What's wrong?" He asked, worried.

"The phone call was from my best friend from back home. She sounded really upset and she came all the way from home to find me. She needs to see me so I'm going to go meet her."

"Do you need me to come with you?" Vince asked. "It's awful late for you to be out in the city alone."

"I'd normally be coming home from work at this hour and the coffee shop I'm meeting her in is in a well lit spot not too far from here. She sounded really upset so I don't think I should show up with strangers in tow. I'll be careful."

"Ok, but I want you to take my car." Vince saw Gem go to protest. "No buts. I don't want to think of you broke down on the side of the road at this hour. Just take the car.'

"Ok, thanks." Gem took his keys, actually grateful for his offer, and for his concern. She kicked on her sandals and headed out to the blue Nissan, starting it and backing it out of the driveway. Her skills with the manual transmission had improved a great deal over the times she'd driven Vince home.

She pulled up to the brightly lit establishment about twenty minutes later and cut the engine after she parked. She headed up the steps into the building and found Cindy huddled in a back booth, a steaming cup of black coffee in front of her.

Her black hair was scraped back into a messy bun on the back of her head and there were black circles under her eyes to match. She'd lost weight since Gem had seen her last, more weight than she could technically have afforded to loose, Gem thought. Her friend looked far too thin and pale. Gem rushed up to her table.

"Cindy, what's wrong? Why'd you run off to L.A. out of the blue like this? Does your mother know where you are?"

"Oh god, Gem!" Cindy stood up as she wailed her friend's name and launched herself into Gem's arms. She started to cry, sobbing against Gem's sweater.

"Shush, it's ok." Gem comforted.

"I'm so sorry I called you this late but Nick said you kept late nights now and you'd still be up."

"I was, it's fine. What's the matter?" Gem held her friend at arms length and looked at her.

"I don't know where to start." Cindy admitted as she sat back down. Gem sat down with her, sliding into the same side of the booth and putting a comforting arm around her friend's shoulders.

"Start at the beginning. What made you this upset?"

"You know I was dating Bobby Webb right?"

"Yes, of course. You seemed so happy about it."

"I was. Until I found out just what kind of guy Bobby really was."

"What do you mean?" Gem asked, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"It wasn't so long after I started going with him that he started calling me names. He was only verbally abusive for the first while. I just sorta got use to it I guess. Started to think what he was telling me was true. I learned to tune it out but at the same time it started to get to me. I think I started to believe him."

"Why didn't you leave him?"

"Because I started to think he was right. That I was worthless. Since he was right that meant he was the only guy that would have me. If I left him I would have been all alone. But then, it was like calling me down wasn't enough. He started smacking me around a little. Just a little at first. Never enough to leave a mark or a bruise. But lately he's gotten even worse."

"So leave him Cin. You've only been with him what, eight months. Just leave him."

"I was going to. I mean, I did. But then he found me and when he did he beat me around again but he didn't stop there."

"What do you mean by that?" Gem asked. She was glad she was able to keep her cool and not get mad. She didn't want to upset her friend further.

"He said he'd teach me to leave him and he," Cindy broke down into sobs again. Gem rubbed her back and made calming noises, trying to help her friend keep it together under the harsh florescent lighting of the diner. She resumed her story. "Well, he forced himself on me."

Gem gasped in shock. "Did you call the police?"

"No."

"Why not?" Gem asked, in disbelief.

"Because he told me he'd make my life even worse if I did. That was about a month ago now. He left me alone after that, told me he didn't really want me anyway."

"Well, he's the fool not you. You should have called the police anyway. You should have told Nicky everything and had him take you to the police."

"I couldn't tell Nick what that bastard did to me. And Gem, it gets worse."

"What else is wrong?" Gem asked, still reeling in shock from what her friend had been through.

"The last time, the time he raped me, I got pregnant." Cindy started to cry in earnest again, having been able to find her control in spurts. "I'm going to have the bastard's baby. I'm glad I'm not with him anymore and I don't want to be a mother. I'm not ready, I'm too young and I don't want something tying me to that asshole for the rest of my life. What am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know." Gem answered honestly. She was totally thrown for a loop. She had never dreamed she'd be in the position of knowing her best friend had been raped and was now pregnant by her rapist. "Did you talk to anyone?"

"Just you."

"Cindy, you need to see a professional. I'm not qualified to help you with this. I've never been through anything like this and I don't know what to tell you, what you're going through."

"I know, and I will see someone Gem I swear to god. But for right now I want you to do something for me."

"Of course, what it is?"

"I'm going tomorrow morning to get an abortion while it's still early. It gets harder to do the farther along you let yourself get and I don't want this baby. I don't want to be a mother and I don't want to bring a baby into the world that was only conceived out of violence. I don't want a constant reminder of Bobby and what he did and I don't want anything in my life that ties him to me for as long as us having a kid together would."

"Are you sure it's what you want?" Gem asked. "It's something that once you do it you can't go back again."

"I'm sure. Will you come with me Gem? I can't go alone and I want it done here in L.A. so no one from home ever knows."

"Of course I'll go with you Cin. If you're sure it's what's best for you than I'll go with you. But you have to promise me that you're going to go to a councillor when you get home and talk to someone that can help you put this all behind you in a healthy way. Promise me."

"I promise."

"Good girl. Ok, where's your coat?"

"I didn't bring one. I didn't think. I just hopped on a bus after I talked to your brother and came to find you."

"You don't even have a car?"

"No. I sold my car so Bobby could have the money to get a better truck. I'm so stupid."

"No you're not Cin. Come on, I'm taking you home with me."

"I can't stay with you. You have roommates. What will they think?"

"Nothing. Mia's great and Vince'll be asleep downstairs by the time we get back. Come on. You can get a good night's sleep in my room and we'll go tomorrow. Did you find the clinic yet?"

"Yeah. I have an appointment at eleven."

"Ok. Let's go home." Gem helped Cindy out of the booth and the two crossed to Vince's car, arms around each other.

"Whose car? Nick told me you were still driving the Honda."

"I am. This is Vince's. He insisted I take something more reliable than the Honda if I was going out into the dead of night."

"I'm sorry I woke him."

"Don't be. He keeps a lot of late nights himself. The people I live with are nice, very nice, but they have their own quirks. You might have woke him but then again he was likely still up. He might be still up when we get home but he's pretty nice so don't worry about it."

"Ok."

When the girls pushed through the front door they did in fact find Vince watching some late night rerun in the living room. He got up when Gem came in the front door. He scratched his chest as he walked her way, stopping self consciously when he saw Gem wasn't alone. "Everything ok?" He asked softly.

"Yes, thank you for letting me use your car. Cindy," Gem turned to her friend. "This is Vince. Vince, Cindy. Cindy is a friend of mine from 'Frisco. We've known each other since we were little kids."

"Hey." Cindy said and sniffled.

"Hi. You sure everything is ok with you two?" Vince asked, knowing if Gem was in trouble, even if it was through one of her friends that she obviously cared about he'd be down to help her out, no matter what the cost to himself. He wondered if it was a good thing he felt the same loyalty to Gem that he had to Dominic. Look where that had gotten him.

"It's fine. We're going to go to bed now though." Gem said as she started to push Cindy up the stairs.

"Do you want to use one of the extra rooms down stairs?" Vince asked, knowing the extra bed upstairs was covered in musical paraphernalia.

"No, we'll share mine. It'll be just like old times." Gem said with a smile. "Night V."

"Night Gem. Cindy." Vince added Gem's friend to his good night self consciously. He was glad the dim light kept the details of his face and body from being too sharp. He wasn't sure if he was ready for strangers like Cindy to see him in his shorts.

The girls headed up the stairs together and Vince went back to bed, finally able to sleep now that Gem was home safe.

In the morning Gem woke to the ringing of her alarm at nine am and woke up Cindy. She lent her friend some of her new clothes, even the smaller size things she wore now being almost too big for her very thin friend. Cindy needed to get help to get over the issues she was bound to have and Gem decided, confidence or no, she was going to give Doug the gist of the matter and have him make sure Cindy got the help she needed.

Gem put Cindy in the shower first. It was obvious her friend was very nervous, not that Gem could blame her. She couldn't imagine any of what Cindy was going through. How did her friend decide to end the life growing inside her? Even knowing it wasn't likely something she could do, no matter how the child was conceived, Gem respected Cindy's right to chose her own way. Maybe it was better for everyone if the pregnancy never made it full term. Cindy was right, no matter what kind of asshole her ex was the law would say he had a right to be involved with his child. Especially since Cindy hadn't reported his abuse of her or the rape itself.

When Cindy was out of the shower and getting dressed in Gem's room she jumped in the shower herself and proceeded to get ready for the day. When she left the bathroom Cindy was sitting quietly on the edge of Gem's bed.

"You ready?" Gem asked.

"As I'll ever be." Cindy answered.

"You still sure this is what you want to do?"

"I think it's for the best."

"Ok, let's go then. I don't know that part of town very well and the traffic might be bad. Are you sure this is a reputable place?"

"Yeah, I checked into a few and this one was the best one I looked into."

They got into Gem's car, both Vince and Mia already being at work and headed toward downtown. They made small talk on the way to the clinic, neither of them wanting to talk about the ordeal Cindy was about to go through. Gem wasn't sure if she could ever do what Cindy was about to do and it rendered her unable to talk to her friend about it, unsure of what was ok to say. Cindy didn't seem to want to talk about it or think about it anyway so Gem let it go.

They parked the sad little grey car in the lot of the clinic Cindy had chosen and entered through the sliding glass doors in front of the building. They walked into a waiting room done in shades of calming green. Many of the chairs were occupied by women. Many of them were not obviously pregnant, just like Cindy wasn't showing any signs on the outside of her condition. Some were showing small bumps under their shirts. Gem really didn't know how those women were standing to do what they were planning on. She could see only one reason for an obviously pregnant woman to be in an abortion clinic.

Cindy gave her name to the duty nurse and the two girls took a seat until it would be her turn to be called into a consultation room. As they both picked up magazines and started to flip through them Gem became conscious of one thing.

Many of the other women were glaring at them. She was sure she was only noticing it because she wasn't as emotionally destroyed as Cindy but it still galled her. How dare they?

They were there for the same reason as her friend. But yet they were judging her on looks only as not having as valid a reason to be there, ready to end the life of her baby same as they all were. They didn't know Cindy, didn't know what had driven her to the point she was at in her life.

As the time wore on one by one the women who'd been in the clinic earlier got called into the back section by a kindly looking nurse. By Gem's estimate Cindy would be next to be called. She was right.

"Cindy Murphy?" The nurse called.

"That's you." Gem said. She saw the look of uncertainty flash across her friend's face. "You sure you want to do this? You can still change your mind. You have more time to think about it. It's still early."

"I'm sure. I just don't want to face it alone. I'm scared."

"You're not alone. I'm here."

Cindy walked up to the nurse and after a few seconds of hushed conversation Cindy motioned Gem over. "She says you can stay with me until they start the procedure. Will you?"

"Of course." Gem answered with more confidence than she felt and followed the nurse and her friend into a small consultation room. She looked around. She was so nervous just being in the room she almost was sick. She got control of herself solely for Cindy's benefit and held onto her friend's hand.

"I'm scared." Cindy admitted again, in a small little child's voice.

"It's ok to be scared. This is a big decision. But if you're sure it's what's best for you and for the baby than I'll support you."

"I can't be tied to Bobby for the rest of my life and I can't know that my child is being raised by strangers. This is how it has to be."

"Sounds like you're pretty sure about it, just scared of the action itself then."

"Yeah."

"Well, I want you to remember your promise to me about getting counselling when you get home. This isn't something you can just walk away from and pretend never happened. You're going to be upset about doing it, no matter how necessary you think it is and it's going to be worse for you since you already have low self esteem from what Bobby was doing to you. But if you tell the people who love you what you went through and let us we'll take care of you. But you still need professional help."

"Your friend is very wise." The female doctor said as she walked into the room. "I recommend everyone who undergoes this procedure talk to someone, even if it's only one or two times. Just to make sure you have a handle on how it makes you feel and the emotions you're going to be coping with afterward."

"Gem made me promise her I would get help last night when I practically showed up on her doorstep."

"Do I understand correctly that this pregnancy is the result of a rape? Because that's very rare."

"My boyfriend, ex now, forced me to have sex with him after we broke up and that's when I got pregnant."

"Ok. I have a few questions for you. How far along are you to the best of your knowledge?"

"Five weeks."

"Do you have any children?"

"No."

"Do you want to talk to a councillor before we do the procedure?"

"No."

"Ok, you sound confident you know what you're doing. Just remember you can't take this back. Once we start the procedure it's permanent. In rare cases there can be problems conceiving a planned child later in life."

"I know."

"Right, then the only thing we still have to talk about is how you wish to proceed. You can go the drug route, which will cause your body to basically have a chemically induced miscarriage. At this stage of your pregnancy it will be like a very heavy period. It will hurt with bad cramps and will be messy. It takes about a week for the whole thing to be over using the drug method and will require two visits."

"I wanted to head for home later today."

"Ok, well your other choice would be over with an hour or so after we prepped you for surgery. You'd be woozy for the rest of the afternoon but you would be back to normal physically by this evening. This second method involves dilating you and using a suction device to remove the lining of your uterus. You might have some spotting for a few days afterward and I highly suggest you take birth control for at least six months after to ensure you don't get pregnant again for at least that long to give your body time to heal."

"That sounds like the way I'd like to go. I just want this over and done with."

"We'll get you ready then. Your friend can stay in this room until we take you back after the surgery. Please change into this gown." The doctor left the paper hospital gown for Cindy and left the room. Cindy changed out of her clothes into the backless dress and got back up on the table.

"Thanks for staying with me Gem."

"Of course I'm staying with you. I'm your friend."

"You're a better friend than I deserve." Guilt about what she was going to do started to kick in. Cindy still didn't change her mind, but that didn't mean she didn't feel bad about the whole situation.

"Shush. That's not true." Gem held her friend while she cried and by the time the doctor came back Cindy had herself back under control.

They wheeled Cindy away and Gem sat in her chair and worried. She tried to read one of the magazines in the room but nothing could hold her attention. She knew that wouldn't change until Cindy was safely returned to the room to wake up. Cindy was her best friend and she thought it was more important to be available to her and supportive but Gem was also having a very hard time grappling with the moral issues surrounding what her friend was doing. After all the baby hadn't asked to be conceived but now it wasn't ever going to get a chance to be born. Perhaps that was better than being raised by a single mother, unable to know it's father. But perhaps it would be better yet for Cindy to tell herself she gave her baby the gift of love and put it into a home that would love it despite how it was conceived. When it all boiled down to it Gem knew it wasn't her decision to make and all she could do was hope and pray she never found herself in the position of making the choice Cindy had had to make. About an hour later Cindy was returned, still under heavy sedation.

Gem stayed with her and talked to her while she came back around. When she was fully conscious, but feeling dizzy and sick they discharged her with instructions for how to take care of herself for the next few weeks, a prescription for birth control pills, and the name of a good psychologist back in San Francisco. They spent the rest of the day vegging out at Gem's house before Cindy insisted on catching a bus back to her home that night. Gem drove her to the bus stop under protest, trying to convince her she should stay another night to recover. Cindy was having none of it. She wanted to get back to her life and routine as soon as possible. She committed to calling the psychologist she'd been referred to the next morning and then she was gone with a tight hug and a few more tears.

Gem went home to find she still had the house to herself. She went up to her room and picked up her pen and pad. There was only one way for her to cope with what she'd just been through and that was to put it down as a song. She didn't know how she'd ever gotten through her emotional traumas without song writing to see her through. She put pen to paper and started to write, her song so long struggled with finally starting to flow. After the first verse and the chorus were down on paper and finished Gem rolled over on her bed and lost it, breaking down into tears. She had her self under control a few minutes later, but when she let herself go she really flipped out. She felt better when she was done.

Mia came home at the normal time but Vince didn't make it home for supper. He was out the door so fast when he did get home it almost gave Gem whiplash. She was use to him taking the time to eat with them before he took off. She wondered if he was on the way to the Cobalt. His face had been a study in black storm clouds.

"What was with him?" She finally got up the nerve to ask Mia after Vince's departure.

"I should have warned you earlier I guess but tomorrow is the year anniversary of when we lost Jesse. Vince has to be taking it hard. I imagine with all the other stuff that's been going on around here lately he forgot. But now that it's tomorrow he no doubt saw the Jetta at the shop, put two and two together back to the day he was hurt and realized that Jesse has been dead for a year. Not to mention that tomorrow is the day my brother and friends took off for parts unknown."

"Oh Mia, I'm sorry. I wish I had known." It hit Gem like a ton of bricks on top of the day she had already lived through to find out that tomorrow was the anniversary of the death of 'The Mad Scientist'. Vince would be taking it hard, his guilt over being hurt himself and unable to help his young friend not something he'd ever gotten over.

"You didn't know. That's fine. I'm sad but it's easier to remember the good times with Jesse now than it has been. I'm gonna be ok. I worry about V though."

"Me too. He's still carrying so much guilt over the whole thing and I know he's been moving past it now but it's going to just drop him right back to where he was if he falls into a funk over this. I might have to try to talk to him about it." Gem blew out a breath. She knew about how well that was going to go.

"Good luck." Mia answered with a frown. She too knew how well it would go. Not terribly.

"Thanks." Gem got changed for work and headed out after popping two Tylenol to try and deal with her splitting headache. She hated to cry. She always ended up with a headache when she was done. But she felt better to have gotten her feelings over the whole situation with Cindy and with Jesse out of her system. At least for now.

She drove to work and was immediately accosted by Barbara and Barry at the door.

"What is it guys?" She asked tiredly as she walked into the back room, Barbara and Barry on her heels.

"What drove him to drink this time? He's been sucking back beer since he got here about forty five minutes ago."

"I don't know Barry. He had a bad day? Do I look like his mother?" Gem said. "I'm sorry for snapping," She sighed. "I had a really bad day myself. A friend from home came to visit because she was having a bad personal problem she wanted my help with."

"Is she ok?" Barbara asked as she hugged Gem.

"No, but she will be. I think she will be."

"You sure you want to work tonight? You can go home if you want." Barry offered.

"No, I'll stay and work. I think it would be best if I kept an eye on Vince."

"Ok, but take it easy."

"I will."

Gem headed out onto the floor of the bar and started waiting on people. It was like they designed things so she wouldn't have to deal with Vince for the first half of her evening. When her break came she decided to go sit with him for awhile and see how he took it. She hauled one of the empty chairs out from under his table and sat wearily.

"Hey V."

"Mmm." He grunted.

She decided to feign ignorance of the significance of the dates. "Bad day at work?"

"You might say that." Vince finally looked at Gem, his eyes blurry and red rimmed. "What happened to you? You look like you got run over by an eighteen wheeler."

"That's about how I feel too, to be honest. My girlfriend Cindy from last night?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, she's going through a really hard time right now." Gem chickened out from telling Vince just what while he was drunk and angry. She didn't know how he'd react. "Anyway she needed my support to get through something really hard for her today and it was hard for me too. Called a lot of my beliefs into question and made me think on some things I don't really like thinking about." Gem shook her head. "But enough about that depressing topic. What happened to you?"

"Nothin'. Same shit different day." Vince upended his current beer over his mouth and chugged the rest of it.

Gem looked at him. There would be no talking to him, no reasoning with him after just a few more drinks. "Ok V, if that's how you want to play it." He gave her a look, angry she knew he was hiding something when he'd thought he did such a good job of hiding it. "But make me a promise."

"Wha?" He snarled.

"Get as drunk as you want, but wait for me tonight. I don't want you driving home. We'll take your car together. Ok?"

"Sure. Whatever."

"Ok. See you later." Gem got up with a sigh for how weary she felt and went back to work. It was a busy night, something none of them were use to on Tuesday and by the end of the night Gem was so tired and mentally exhausted she wanted to pass out in the back seat of her car and just forget about going home. But then she remembered she'd made Vince promise to let her drive him home. And boy did he ever need a designated driver tonight. Gem had watched as he'd slowly gotten himself obliviously loaded in his corner. It hadn't helped either of their mentalities that the band had been some angst filled cover of the latest teen punk superstars. All the songs had been heavy on both beat and teen style angst.

Gem collected her coat and purse from the back room, said good night to Barry and Barbara and headed out to find Vince. When she found her car alone with Barry's truck she growled. "So much for your promises I guess." She slammed into the Honda with jerky, irate motions.

After the hellish day, and night, she'd had now she had to drive the whole way home wondering if she was going to find Vince's car in a ditch, or smashed into the median or into the front, side or rear of another car. If he's not dead I'll kill him, she snarled in her head.

When she arrived home the shortest time later she'd dared to push the Civic for she found Mia's car home alone in the driveway. She stormed into the house to find Mia still awake, sipping tea at the kitchen table.

"Where the hell is he?" Gem asked, the next thing to yelling at Mia. "And don't cover for him either."

"What are you talking about Gem?"

"Where the hell is Vince?"

"I thought he was with you." Mia stood up, a hand to her throat. "I hoped he was. He never came home. I thought he'd have the good sense to let you drive him home tonight. I knew he was out to get sloshed when he left the house tonight with that look on his face."

"He was supposed to let me drive him home but he took off on his own in his own car when I was getting my stuff out of the back room. You mean he never came home?"

"No."

"I didn't see his car ditched anywhere on the way home and I didn't pass any accidents either, so either he took another way home or he just didn't come home."

"Where else would he go?"

"I don't know but I'm going to go check out Cory's and the garage. I don't know where else he'd go."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Mia asked.

"No, I think I'll do better on my own with him if I find him." Gem headed for the front door. She slapped her forehead with her hand. "I'm such an idiot." She exclaimed.

"Why?" Mia asked as she followed Gem through the house.

"Because I know where he is."

"Where, did he tell you?"

"No but when you really think about it it's obvious. He's at Jesse's grave. It's technically tomorrow now, the day Jesse died."

"I guess that's a good guess of where he might be." Mia admitted. "So what now?"

"Now I want you to drive me there so you can leave me with him. I don't want him to have an excuse to drive himself any farther tonight."

"Good plan."

Mia got her car keys and she and Gem headed out to the Acura. Mia turned the car toward the cemetery they'd buried Jesse in. Both girls were quiet for the trip, each with her own private worries. If they didn't find Vince at the cemetery than neither of them would have any idea where to find him.

Gem was also worrying about Cindy. She'd tried calling her house at break time but no one had answered. Gem knew she'd been pushing it time wise as far as how long the trip from L.A. to San Francisco took anyway but she was still worried about her traumatised friend.

As they pulled up to the cemetery and started down the main road Gem felt a shiver go up and down her spine. It was creepy to be in a grave yard at night.

"You sure you want to do this Gem?"

"Yeah. He promised me he'd wait and he lied. Plus we can't let him drive anywhere else tonight."

"I just worry about how he might be even to you in the state he's bound to be in Gem."

"I know he can be violent but he won't be that way with me. There are a few things I can talk to him about after tonight anyway Mia and it'll be fine. You'll see."

Mia's headlights sliced through the gloom of the cloudy night and illuminated the Maxima. It was sloppily parked off the side of the road on a drunken angle. The driver's side door wasn't closed all the way.

"Jesse is buried down this isle about half way." Mia pointed. "You can't see it from here, which is likely a good thing because if Vince sees you coming before I leave he'll send you packing." Mia was worried for what was in store for Gem when she found Vince and Mia worried it wouldn't be pretty.

"Thanks Mia. I'll see you in the morning."

"Gem?" Mia called nervously.

"Yes Mi?"

"I want you to promise me that if it comes to it and he scares you or acts like he'd get violent in any way you'll take off running and steal the car. He keeps a spare key in a magnet box under the drivers side floor pan on the outside."

"Ok Mia, if it comes to that I will take off with the car ok?"

"Ok. I just," Mia trailed off, and blew some baby bangs off her forehead. "I worry about him but sometimes I worry about you too."

"I appreciate it Mia, but I'll be ok. I promise. And when I promise it actually means something." Gem said, her ire at Vince rising again when she thought of his broken promise to her.

"Ok, just go a little easy on him. It's a hard time for him."

"I know Mia. We'll both make it out alive. Don't worry so much."

"Ok, night." Mia closed her window and backed her car around, spinning it around to drive back out the way she'd come. Gem carefully retrieved the spare for the Maxima, knowing if it came down to it she'd be smarter to have the key on her already than to be fishing for it if she needed it. She hoped it wouldn't come to that. She knew Vince was volatile, but she had a feeling that when it came to her and Mia, he wasn't really dangerous.

She stood up with the key in her fist and started down the row of headstones Mia had indicated. About half way down the isle, over a small rise which hid the area from the road, she found Vince sitting on the ground at the foot of one of the graves. Only the mostly full moon let her see where she was going, even though it only peaked out occasionally from behind the clouds. There was no other source of illumination around.

The atmosphere wasn't creepy as Gem had expected, but rather tranquil. There was a gentle breeze, it had the briny tang of ocean air on it as well, leading Gem to believe they weren't that far from the shore. The grass and head stones were carefully tended. She paused a piece away from Vince's position and just took some time to gauge his mood before continuing to his side. When he started to speak she couldn't move, but rather stood fixed to her spot and listened, a hand to her mouth to hide her pain at his words.

"I'm just so fuckin' sorry I wasn't there for you kid. I shoulda never let you outta my sight at race wars. I knew you had big plans and I knew they were stupid. And Leon, always so easy goin'. Shoulda know he'd let you do whatever the fuck you wanted no matter how stupid it was. I shoulda stayed with the two'a you instead of goin' with Dom to check out those two blondes. I coulda kept you outta trouble if I'd just stuck around. I knew from how you were always tryin' to watch my back in fights you thought you were bigger than you damn well are. Well, were.

"And I sure as fuck shoulda taken off after you when you bailed instead of just hangin' around and hopin' you came back. Shouldn'ta put more importance on the fuckin' truck than on findin' you. And now I can't never take it back cause you're dead." Vince lifted the flask in his hand that Gem hadn't even realized he had to his lips and took a big swallow. He coughed as he wiped his hand across his mouth, unaccustomed to the hard liquor he was swilling down like water now.

"And you know what kid?" It was clearly a rhetorical question. "I should be too. I'm the one with the fucked up past, the volatile temper, and the one who got us into that mess. But you're the one who died.

"Of course since it was fuckin' Tran who killed you and we all know whose fault the thing with Tran was maybe I'm blamin' the wrong guy. I can tell that Mia and Gem both think I should hate Dom for what he did. For getting us involved in a feud with Tran, for agreeing the trucks were a good idea and for bailing on us when it went to shit but I just can't. Mia seems to and he's her own fuckin' brother but I can't. What about all the good things he did? Like givin you and Leon a place to stay when you had no where and a job for some money. A place on our team. Gem doesn't even seem to realize that he'd do the same for her if she had showed up with no where. I know it looks bad from where she's standing but I just can't explain to her why I can't let Dom go.

"She's been after me in her own way to lose their cars and clean up you'n Leon's rooms and get rid of all you guys's shit but I can't do it. I think she might be right about the whole thing too but I just can't take responsibility for it. Someone like Mia'll have to tell me it's ok to let it go because from where I sit it sure as fuck ain't ok. But that's me, coyote the fuckin' follower. And ok, Dom shouldn't have run, and Leon and Letty shouldn'ta been so quick to bail with him, but if I let go of their cars and all their stuff it'll be almost like they never even existed. And they fuckin' well did. We were a fuckin' team but it meant shit all to them, with how fuckin' fast they bailed.

"God damn it for all they knew they were leavin' me'n you'n Mia to take the goddamn fall for what they did. They don't even know for sure that you died. When Dominic took off you were still alive on the sidewalk. I know it was just barely but you weren't dead. You know, I think Gem's right. Dom's off someplace with Letty and Leon and they're all pretending life back in Cali is fuckin' fine. But here I am dealin' with all this shit. I should hate him. So why don't I kid?

"I just don't know what to do Jesse. So much of me wants to just let it go. I could have a new life with the girls. A normal life. I'm just not sure if I want it more than I miss the old one."

Vince finished off whatever he'd had in his flask and hung his head down between his bent knees. As Gem watched the moonlight reflect off the hair on his bent head she realized his shoulders were shaking. She knew he was crying and momentarily thought about simply walking back to his car and sitting on it to wait for him like he'd waited for her so many times. She knew he'd want his privacy. But she couldn't leave him alone in his dejection. She knew, after this afternoon waiting for her friend to end the life of her unborn child, what despair was. So rather than play it safe and go wait for him by the Maxima she finished her trip to his side and stood behind him on the grass.

With a brief hesitation she reached down and touched his shoulder. "V?"

He looked up at her with a snarl. "What the fuck are you doin' here?"

"You scared me, taking off the way you were when you said you'd wait. I couldn't sleep until I knew you were safe."

"How'd you find me?" He asked, looking away, still irate at having unwanted company. He didn't want anyone, let alone Gem to see him like this.

"I figured out where you'd go. Mia told me earlier what today was and I guess I knew something like this was coming." She dropped beside him on the grass. It was wet and she shivered as the tiny drops of moisture soaked into her pants. She pulled her knees up to her chest and looked out over the rows of headstones with her chin resting on her bent knees.

"You saw I'm fine so you can just go the fuck home."

"No I can't."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because Mia left me here and you sure as hell are not fine. I won't let you drive home V. If you want to be alone here so bad than I'll leave you here and go wait in the car for you but I won't let you drive home."

"Why do you insist on treating me like I can't make up my own mind what I wanna do?"

"Because you insist on doing stupid things that could get you killed and I won't have it." She turned her head to look at Vince, resting her cheek on her knees instead of her chin. "You know you don't have to feel guilty for what happened to Jesse V."

"I didn't stop it."

"You didn't make him do it either. Not to mention where was the great Dom who was supposed to run his team? Did he ok Jesse's race against Tran that day?"

"No. No one did. Just Leon who wouldn't have said no if Jesse wanted to jump off a diving board into an empty pool."

"You can't keep taking every bad thing that happens to anyone you know onto your own shoulders Vince. It's not all your fault."

"It's too bad it's not your absolution to give." Vince growled. "I wasn't there for Mia when she needed me most and I wasn't there for Jesse."

"You couldn't help what happened to you taking you out of commission for so long. You didn't leave Mia alone on purpose. You can be there for Mia now. You can be there for Cory and Bill. You're still here V, you're still alive. You can't go on living your life like you wish you were dead."

"Sometimes I do." Vince admitted and like it was the end of his strength he broke down into great racking sobs. "The kid didn't do anything wrong but he's dead. I did lots wrong but here I sit. It should be me here in the cold ground alone. Not Jesse."

Gem could hardly stand to see him cry. He wasn't the crying type and she knew it. She put an arm around his shoulders comfortingly and he tried to shrug her off. She knew he was upset and embarrassed she was there to see his loss of control. She refused to let go of him. She was as determined to be there for him as she had been for Cindy. "It's ok to be upset V and its ok to cry."

"This from the girl who never cries." Vince said around his tears. "Kinda hypocritical."

"I spent most of this afternoon bawling my eyes out in my room as a matter of fact."

"Why?"

Gem relayed the story of her friend Cindy in graphic detail after swearing Vince to secrecy. It wasn't likely he'd remember much of it tomorrow anyway, Gem told herself.

At the end of her story he pulled her into his lap and continued to cry into her hair at the foot of Jesse's grave. After wrapping her arms around him she let go of her own tears and cried onto his shoulder, for Cindy, Jesse, Mia, Vince and herself.

She hoped, now that it was all out it would be cleansing, life could go on. Life had to. It only went one way. There were no do overs, was no rewind button. All you could do was keep on breathing and hope to see the light.

Slowly, over the course of half an hour both their breathing returned to normal and with a last hiccup Vince regained his composure. He stood up, Gem still in his arms and thanked god he was again strong enough to carry her because he wasn't ready to let her go just yet. She, despite her unwelcome presence had been like a beacon of light in the middle of his bleak, suicidal thoughts. He set her down beside the driver's door, knowing without hearing the lecture there was no way she was letting him drive.

Not that he would want to, not if she was in the car. Her life was too important to take stupid risks with. She fished the spare copy of the key out of her pocket and opened the door. Vince actually managed to chuckle. "You found that did you?"

"Mia told me to get it in case you turned into a crazy person and chased me to the car. She told me to leave you here to sober up and run away." Gem slid into the car and let Vince in before starting it.

Thinking of how close he was to totally out of his mind Vince couldn't even find it in himself to be mad at Mia for thinking so poorly of him. In the state she'd found him, who knew what he would have been capable of. There was just something about Gem that changed him, calmed him down. She was his engine in Jesse terms. They pulled up to the house and went in. Mia, Vince was glad to note, had gone to bed.

"Gem?" He started tentatively, knowing he was still drunk as he'd ever been before and still been able to remain conscious. He couldn't walk a straight line to save his soul and he seriously wondered just how slurred his words were.

"Yeah?" She asked as she kicked off her shoes.

"Stay with me tonight. Just so I'm not alone."

With a look at Vince she agreed. She ran upstairs first to change into her PJ's and on a whim grabbed her notepad and pen in case she couldn't sleep before heading downstairs. She noticed something this trip she hadn't when she'd snuck into the laundry room two days before.

The basement was clean.

Spotlessly so. The floors had all been picked up and vacuumed. Quick glances into the open doors of Leon and Jesse's room showed them neat and organized, beds made and floors devoid of the stuff that had been left strewn around from Leon's hasty departure. Gem snuck into Leon's old room and found the boxes of Dom and Letty's things had been joined by boxes of Leon's personal effects in the closet. Other than that the room might have been any guest room in anyone's house.

When Gem finally got into Vince's room to find it in slightly more lived in but yet still neat and tidy condition she didn't know what had occurred to bring on the change. It was a huge difference. Vince was already in his bed under the blankets. Figuring he was asleep already Gem fought with herself, wondering if she should stay anyway or leave him to sleep it off on his own. She decided that as she'd committed to not leaving him alone she should keep her promise.

Lifting the other side of the blankets she slid into the bed and was surprised to find the sheets smelled like sunny days. Just like the laundry had been washed and hung out on the line to dry.

"Figured you'd changed your mind." Vince mumbled into his pillow.

"I took a minute to look around the place. I wasn't sure I was in the right basement."

"I thought about what you said the other day and figured it was time to put their stuff away and put it behind me. I just didn't figure on the anniversary of Jesse dying hittin' me so hard."

"I'm glad you packed up the stuff V, and things will look better tomorrow. Well, after your head stops spinning."

"Don't remind me."

"Ok, I won't. Get some sleep V."

"You too."

"I will." Gem lied prettily and waited until she heard Vince's breathing even out in the steady timbre of sleep. Then she turned on the light and began to write.

By the time she was done she realized it was five am. With a groan she turned out the lamp and rolled over to face Vince, who was asleep with his back to her, curled up on his side. She, with a desire she couldn't control, slid closer to him and draped and arm over his waist. She fell quickly asleep, exhausted beyond her limits from her trying day and the emotional storm reliving it all to write a song about it had been.

When Vince woke up the next day he again felt like some unsympathetic person was using an air chisel inside his head. When he realized he was laying on his back with Gem half on top of him the night all came rushing back. An ill advised glance at his clock showed the time to be almost twelve.

Gem looked like death warmed over and he imagined he could make the same claim about himself. With a groan he decided he wasn't ready to be conscious yet and rolled over onto his side facing Gem, tucking her head under his chin and falling back to sleep.

When he woke up again it was two hours later and Gem was still asleep just where he'd left her, as it were. He got up slowly, his head spinning but his body telling him he had to use the bathroom in a bad way. As he made his way back to his room after brushing his teeth and drinking about ten gallons of water he paused in the open door of Jesse's room.

Gem was right. It didn't hurt so much now, in the light of day. Jesse was dead, that much was true. But it really hadn't been his fault. There were things he could have done differently and if he had the kid might still be with them. But the same could be said of Dom, Leon and even Letty's actions that day. So maybe there were things he could have did, but there were things they all could have done. No one did them. Hindsight truly was twenty twenty so now all he could do was second guess the events anyway. It was over and in the past.

He wandered back into his room and flopped back on the bed. The rocking motion woke Gem. She opened her sleepy eyes and waited for them to adjust to the gloom of waking in the basement not her sunny second floor room. When she'd adjusted to the low light she looked around before finally finding him. "Morning." She croaked. "Why does my head hurt so much? I wasn't the one who was drinking."

"No, but you did your fair share of crying."

"Oh yeah." Gem sighed. "How do you feel?"

"Like hammered shit." Vince answered honestly. "But better than I have in a long time, strangely enough."

"Good." Gem sat up and stretched. "Maybe I'll feel better after I shower."

"Go on then. I'll catch up with you in a few and we'll go get something to eat someplace."

"We should likely go talk to Mia so she knows everything is ok."

"Everything's not ok, but it's getting there." Vince admitted honestly.

"That's all we can ask for really." Gem said enigmatically as she stooped to pick up her pad and pen before heading upstairs to her own room and her shower.

She and Vince did go eat with Mia, who looked almost unreasonably happy to see both of them alive and well. After that Vince went to the garage to finish the day and Gem went with him just to hang out with him and the boys. She didn't feel like being alone. She brought her notepad and pencil and figured she'd polish off the song while she listened to Vince and his friends carry on. She was laying on the hood of Letty's purple car, adding to her lyrics when Cory walked up to her.

"What you writing?"

"A song for tomorrow." Gem answered, preoccupied.

"Really?"

Gem nodded yes.

"Can I see it?"

Gem looked up and looked around. For some reason she was tempted to let Cory read the song. She'd never had any desire to let anyone read anything she wrote before she preformed it before. But she was nervous about this one and thought Cory might be a good neutral sounding board. "I guess, but I normally don't let anyone read my stuff. It's like my personal thoughts, almost like a diary so you can't say anything to anyone."

"But you're just going to sing it out loud tomorrow night."

"I know, but its different then."

"If you say so." Cory gave her a look letting her know even he saw the flaws in her logic. He read the song quickly. "This really is like reading your diary out loud isn't it?"

"Uh huh." Gem admitted as she took her pad back.

"It's good." Cory assured. "Is it about anyone I know?" He asked with wisdom that should have been beyond his years.

"No." Gem stammered. She'd hoped it hadn't been that obvious. She hoped to the rest of the people who heard it, it wouldn't be.

"Well, it was still good." Cory assured as he went back to work.

Gem went to work that night still not feeling up to par. She put it down to the trying few days and tried not to let her fatigue show on the outside. It did a little to raise her spirits when Vince never showed up. She hoped that meant he was at home with Mia not drinking. Maybe he was done with killing his guilt by drowning it.

She finally got a hold of Cindy on her first break and was glad to hear her friend had talked to the psychiatrist the clinic had recommended and she was going to be seeing him once a week for the next while at least. That was very good news to Gem. Now, if she could only get Vince to admit he could use some time talking to a professional too she'd be happy with her lot.

She went home and the house was already totally dark. She noted both her friend's cars were home as she dragged herself tiredly up to her bed and crashed.

Thursday night came in a rush that left Gem worried about what she was going to do. She had seen first hand Vince's reaction to being in her songs last week. How would he respond to her newest one? There was nothing she could do about it now. The song was written and she couldn't take it back.

She phoned Vince around seven to make sure he was even coming and to tell him something else. She needed him to bring his acoustic guitar instead of electric. The song she'd written just hadn't seemed appropriate to the electric guitar so she'd written it for a six string. He agreed, although he seemed confused by the request.

By seven thirty he was with her and Tamica in the green room just waiting on Elliott to show. Elliott showed up at ten to eight, telling them a traffic accident had held him up.

"You're here and that's all that matters." Gem assured as she handed him his music. It was a pretty simple drum line, really it just kept the rhythm of the song for the most part. There were a few simple rifts in it but mostly it was straight forward. They'd programmed a soft violin line into Tamica's keyboard to accompany the rest of their playing and were finally ready to go on.

Gem couldn't remember the last time she'd been so nervous getting up on stage. It was even worse than when she'd gone up the first night to sing 'Break Away'. Maybe because the subject matter of this song was libel to make Vince hit the roof. There was no help for it now. He'd hopefully see it was more about her and her inability to deal with it all if she kept it inside than it was about him and not be too mad at her for it.

"And now we welcome Indigo Sound." Nalia called as the hands on the clock pointed to eight on the nose.

"Here we go." Gem said as she stood up and tossed on her bass.

"Don't sweat it princess, if the music is anything to go by this is good."

"Thanks V." Gem tried to smile at him, hoping he still felt the same way after he'd actually heard the song. They took the stage to applause and set up their instruments.

Mia was sure that Gem hadn't seen her in the dark corner usually reserved for Vince alone. She was hoping that was the case as Gem's brother had taken her up on her offer and was currently nursing a Coors beside her. Mia was quite sure that Gem wouldn't appreciate her brother showing up to check up on her. And that was clearly what Doug was up to.

"They're really good." Mia said, trying to make conversation.

"Is that your friend Vince up there with her?"

"Yeah, he plays guitar. He's really good at it which isn't something that can be said for Gem." Mia said with a smile.

"Where did Vince learn to play guitar?"

"He mostly taught himself I think. He knew some guys in junior high and high school who played so they likely taught him some things too. He reads music and plays by ear so he might have taught himself by hearing other people play and then fine tuned his playing by having those other guys teach him to read music."

"He just doesn't seem like the musical type."

"There's a lot to Vince that isn't obvious on the outside." Mia said, her displeasure at Doug's obvious snap judgement of both of them coming across. Doug held up his hands in temporary surrender. He'd found out some things about Vince. He knew he was only brushing the tip of the iceberg about the inked up man but what he'd already found out was enough to make him want to take his sister forcefully home with him right now.

He knew that wasn't going to happen but he damn sure was going to enlighten Gemmalynn about her new friends.

Gem stepped up to the microphone. "Our newest song is called Breathe. Enjoy." With that simple introduction she glanced at Tamica, who started to play the keyboard melody. After the first chord Gem began to sing.

"Two am and she calls me 'cause I'm still awake. Can you help me unravel my latest mistake? I don't love him, winter just wasn't my season." Gem's voice was accompanied only by the simplest of piano notes until she started her next sentence, when Vince cut in with his own set of haunting simply notes on the acoustic he'd obligingly brought.

"Yeah, we walk through the door, so accusing their eyes, like they have any right at all to citizen. Hypocrites, you're all here for the very same reason."

"Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable and life's like an hourglass glued to the table. No one can find the rewind button girl, so cradle your head in your hands.

"And breathe,"

Tamica hit the key that let the violin score start to play and Gem started to strum her bass at the same time.

"Just breathe. Woah breath, just breathe."

Vince remembered her telling him about her friend and he didn't know how she found the strength to sing about it, as upset over it as she'd been. He kept playing for all he was worth, humbled by the fact she was willing to open up her private hurts and share them with the public. She continued to sing.

"May he turned twenty one on the base of Fort Bliss. Just today he sat down to the flask in his fist. Ain't been sober since maybe October of last year. Here in town you can tell he's been down for a while, but my God it's so beautiful when the boy smiles. Wanna hold him, maybe I'll just sing about it."

Gem felt herself start to tear up when she sang about Vince and what he'd been through. She knew she had to keep it together until the end of the song, no matter how much reliving both Cindy and Vince's stories hurt her. She had to get them out.

"Cause you can't jump the track we're like cars on a cable and life's like an hourglass glued to the table. No one can find the rewind button boy so cradle your head in your hands and breathe, just breathe. Woah breathe, just breathe."

Mia found herself trying hard not to cry as Gem sang her beautiful words about Vince. Her song had such a poignant message to them all. They couldn't live life like they would have the chance to change any of it. They had to live life like they had a finite amount of time to do it in. And mostly they hadn't been. It was time to start.

"There's a light at each end of this tunnel, you shout. Cause you're just as far in as you'll ever be out. These mistakes you've made, you'll just make them again, if you only try turning around."

She was talking to him, and to her friend Cindy and Vince knew it. Strangely enough her song featuring his life didn't bother him this time. There was no malice in it, it was just her way of dealing with everything that had happened.

"2 AM and I'm still awake, writing a song. If I get it all down on paper, it's no longer inside of me, threatening the life it belongs to. And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd, cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud, and I know that you'll use them however you want to.

"But you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable, and life's like an hourglass, glued to the table. No one can find the rewind button now. Sing it if you understand.

"And breathe, just breathe. Whoa breathe, just breathe, oh breathe, just breathe. Ohhh breathe, just breathe. Oh breathe, just breathe."

Because it was all you could do. Just breathe.