Loverboy

Gemma ran her fingers through her hair once more, fluffing it up at the end to add more volume. Despite the late hour she arrived home last night, or this morning technically, she got up considerably early. She took a shower to rid herself of the smells that lingered from last night.

As she started to reach for her perfume, her phone began to sing and vibrate loudly from her bedside table. She sighed and turned around, grabbing it and tapping answer.

"Gemma!" A deep voice said frantically on the other end not giving her the chance to greet her caller.

"Tom?" She held the phone away from her and looked at it as if it would suddenly answer her question about who was calling her. "I don't remember giving you--"

Tom cut her off before she could finish and said, "That's besides the point! Look, we have a problem!"

"Oh, no." Gemma sat on the bed and pinched the bridge of her nose, beginning to worry about what he would say and how she would handle the situation. "What's happened?"

"We can't find Jay." Tom answered, still trying to calm his own nerves. "We've been trying his mobile all morning and he's not been answering. Max went over to his place, but there's no sign he even made it back last night."

"What?" Gemma jumped up, throwing the heels that were resting at the edge of her bed on her feet. "Why haven't you called Jayne?"

"We didn't want to worry her." Tom answered.

"So you figure calling the new girl would be your best bet?" Gemma rolled her eyes and stood up trying to balance herself. The last thing she needed was to break a bone due to lack of coordination in her new shoes.

"I figured you'd be able to handle the situation better." Gemma could just imagine him shrugging as if were no big deal and found her eyes rolling in their socket again. "So what are we going to do?" Tom answered, the worry creeping back in his voice.

"Okay, just take a calm deep breath," Gemma heard him do as she said. "And I'll try and locate the entire person you managed to have lost!" Gemma walked into Hennessey's room, hoping to ask her if she knew anything seeing as how she was the one stuck to him like glue last night.

"Oh my god." Gemma yelped. On the floor, passed out with glitter in his hair and drool slopping out of his mouth was Jay. Gemma saw that Hennessey was sleeping peacefully on her bed, bundled up and covered. Typical, Gemma thought. "Found him."

"Great," Tom said, the smile evident in his voice. "Knew we could count on you."

"Not a problem." Gemma said, each saying their goodbyes before hanging up.

Gemma sighed and set her phone in her pocket. She got down beside Jay and poked him. Nothing. "Jay," she said softly trying to wake him up. Still nothing. "Jay!" She screamed in his ear. Jay jumped and his eyes shot open. He looked over and jumped again when he saw Gemma. "Good morning sunshine!" Gemma beamed at him. "Is my tiger ready to greet the day?"

Jay looked around and then back at Gemma who was already standing up. "Oh, man. That must have been some night." Jay muttered to himself.

"Obviously not if you're on the floor." Gemma said, brushing the glitter off his shoulder. "We've gotta go, we're running--" Gemma stopped what she was saying and began to sniff the foul odor that was now clogging her nose. "You reek bro." She said, pulling away realizing the smell belonged to him.

"Sorry, I'll just jump in the shower real quick." Jay said hopefully.

"No time." Jay followed Gemma out and into her room. He watched as she began to rummage through her drawers. A small "aha!" Emitted from her mouth when she found what she was looking for.

"Here," she said, tossing a large blue shirt at him. "Put that on." He caught the shirt and quickly did as he was told, knowing he had no time to argue with her. She grabbed a can of air freshener and began to spray him.

He coughed furiously. "Are you mental?" He asked, waving his hand around his face trying to clear the air.

"I'm helping you." Gemma replied, now brushing the glitter out of his hair. "Unless you wanna go in that studio smelling like total shit."

Jay laughed and shook his head, realizing she was right. "No. Thanks."

"Thank me later." Gemma said grabbing her keys and turning him towards the door and pushing him out. "We've gotta scaddattle!"

Gemma screeched into the parking lot and both her and Jay practically ran inside the building. Gemma smiled seeing they were only running 20 minutes late. When they got to the office Gemma and Jayne shared, the boys were all sitting waiting.

"Three cheers for Gemma!" Tom started, jumping up the second she walked through the door and hugging her tightly. "We knew we could count on you!" He raised her hands in the air and the boys cheered for her. Gemma blushed slightly and put her hands back at her side.

"Aren't you guys suppose to be recording something right now?" Gemma asked, setting her bag down by her desk, where Nathan said behind the computer clicking away at various things.

"Well now that Jay has arrived," Siva said, throwing his arm around Jay's shoulder. "Yes. As a thank you, we'd like to take you out tonight."

"Get to know you properly." Max clarified, smiling cheekily. All noted that last night was just an excuse to party. Gemma accepted and rushed the boys into the studio across the hall.

She turned around and saw Nathan still staring at the computer. "Nathan." She snapped her fingers in front of his face. He looked at her and smiled mischievously before exiting out of whatever it was he was looking at and got out of the chair which Gemma soon replaced.

Instead of going to join the rest of the boys, Nathan sat in the seat opposite of Gemma. Gemma looked at him weirdly and he began to laugh. She shook her and asked, "Is there something I can help you with?" Nathan shook his head let out another small laugh. She tried to ignore him, but found it hard to concentrate. "Okay, I'll bite. What's so funny?"

Nathan sat up straight in attempt to seem serious, but couldn't quite think of a way to say what was on his mind. He looked at her, his eyes traveling her body before he finally just began to laugh again.

"You googled me, didn't you?" She asked, sitting up straighter and staring at him intently. She knew he knew about her old modeling career. And now she worried she would lose some of the respect she might hsve possibly garnered from him.

Nathan nodded his head and cleared his throat trying to control himself. "So uhm..." he scratched the back of his neck. "Maxim, huh?" He didn't know what to say really, especially not now after seeing her with 90% of her clothes off.

"Not something I'm exactly proud of." She answered curtly, turning back to her computer.

"Why not? You've got an incredible..." Nathan trailed off suddnely becoming shy. He didn't want to say the wrong thing and possibly offend her. He could tell she already seemed put off by the subject. "They were nice pictures." Nathan slapped himself realizing that came out wrong. She watched him curiously as he struggled with what he wanted to say finding this slightly amusing. "I mean you're beautiful and...none of this is coming out right."

"Allow me to help," Gemma started, putting her hands together. "Nathan, I left that career because it's too physically and mentally challenging and it just got to be too much. I don't want to be seen as a sex object anymore."

Nathan nodded. "Okay, yeah. I understand that. I didn't mean...I just got curious." Nathan finished nervously, not wanting to continue to say the wrong thing. The last thing he wanted to do was make her mad by snooping around in her business.

"Don't worry about it." Gemma smiled at her, trying not to show her slight disappointment. "You should probably join the others." Nathan nodded and stood up. "Just...don't tell the others please?"

Nathan saw a hint of sadness, but now knew better than to try and push for questions. He nodded and gave her a reassuring smile and walked out to join the others.