Brody opened the door and laughed when Ryan threw her arms around him. "I missed you, too." He hugged her with one arm while closing the door with the other.

Ryan looked up at him. "I can't believe we live in the same building and haven't seen each other in almost a week."

"Yeah, I know. Crazy." He put his other arm around her and leaned down to kiss her. She laughed against his lips when he straightened up, lifting her so that she had to stand on tiptoe. He grinned and they went into the living room.

"So how goes the packing?" he asked. "Finished yet?"

"I guess. I'm at the point where I'm so tired of it I'm just throwing things in boxes or bags. I've tried to throw away as much as I could, but—" She held her hands out in a helpless gesture. "I'm lucky Lara's mom will keep stuff for me. Oh, and Annette put me in touch with someone who needs a roommate, so that's one less thing to worry about. I hope."

"Would that be in Arlington?"

"No, in D.C., actually." Ryan looked excited. "That could be fun. The place would be near Adams Morgan, so there's lots of stuff there: clubs, restaurants, everything. I like it here but I like the idea of living in the city, too."

"Is that a safe neighborhood?" Brody liked the District well enough, but was only familiar with a few spots. He knew that like any city, D.C. had its share of higher-crime areas and he wanted Ryan in a decent place. It hit him that he was disappointed at the news. Living in the District mean that she wouldn’t be living in the building; she wouldn't be a few steps away. He shoved the thought away for later.

"Oh, yeah." Ryan laughed. "With the—what is it—the gentrification and all, Adams Morgan has become quite the happening place to live. You'll love it; there's a ton of ethnic restaurants there."

"Hey, I do like that. Speaking of which, let's eat." He stood and held out a hand for her. She took it and they went into the kitchen.

"Wow, that's great." Ryan took another bite. "What is it, aside from delicious?"

Brody smiled. "It's my mom's patented chicken pot-pie recipe."

"It's amazing. I've only ever had this frozen."

"Frozen is never better than stuff made from scratch."

"It is if my mom cooks it." Ryan rolled her eyes. "I don't think she's ever made anything that didn't involve at least two elements that were pre-made or pre-mixed."

"You poor thing." Brody laughed. "How'd you ever survive?"

"Sheer luck."

They ate in silence for a while and then she helped him clear the table. "Do you know, the last time I was in Nate's apartment, I don’t think he had a single clean plate. The ones by the sink looked like a science experiment." She pretended to shudder. "One had tentacles, I swear."

"And you solve that by never eating off of plates, right? Just out of bags and boxes?"

"No, that's not true." She gave him a fake glare. "I have those plastic plates you can reuse for a while."

"Oh, that's so much better." Brody shook his head.

"Well it's better than starting new life forms in the sink. I always tell Nate he should have majored in biology. He could bring down governments with some of the stuff he's got growing in his apartment."

"Doesn’t he have a roommate?" Brody rinsed the plates and handed them to Ryan to place in the dishwasher.

"No, Nate's always preferred to live alone. He had one at the start, after high school for a while, but ever since that guy left, Nate's had his own place. Sometimes his girlfriends have tried to clean things up, but it doesn't work." Ryan shook her head. "So either that stuff is a commitment-avoidance mechanism or Nate is a slob of pathological proportion. On the other hand, he's an excellent bassist and guitarist, so we figure it evens out."

Brody laughed. "I see."

"Plus we refuse to eat anything that comes out of his kitchen. We love Nate but we can't ignore our survival instincts."

"You know, I was curious, did any of you guys ever date? Each other, I mean?" Brody felt odd asking, but it had been on his mind ever since talking with Rick.

"What? Us? You mean, like me go out with Nate or Mitch?" Ryan stared at him.

"Well, yeah. I was just wondering, that's all."

Ryan laughed. "The answer is a total 'no.' Lara was already seeing Trout when we all got together. I think Nate had a girlfriend and Mitch had just broken up with one. So there was no interest in dating on anyone's part. Besides, we said at the start that we didn’t want to be the next Fleetwood Mac. I guess we were lucky; lots of groups have those kind of problems."

"You're not lucky, you're good. That's why you'll make it."

"Hey, thanks." Ryan looked surprised and pleased and stepped around the dishwasher to hug him. "I appreciate that."

"Yeah, well, it's just true." Brody kissed her forehead before closing the dishwasher. He felt guilty for even asking and mad that he'd let Rick's drunken statements make him feel insecure. "Come on, there has to be a better way to spend the evening than doing dishes." He led her back to the living room.

"I did go out with a couple of guys in other bands," Ryan said. "It never worked out, though."

"Why not? Not that I'm complaining."

Ryan paused as she considered the question. "Well, I guess they thought I was too serious about my career, and I should have been more serious about theirs. Like it was cool that I was in a band, so long as nothing happened. But if I wanted to work with Imaginary Grace on something, or we had a gig, and it interfered with whatever was going on with whoever I was seeing—" She rolled her eyes.

"Then I was this horrible, unsupportive bitch."

"How dare you have your own goals," Brody said with mock disgust.

"Oh, don't you start."

Brody rubbed her arm. "You realize I'm kidding, right?"

"I know." She smiled and leaned in to kiss him. "That's why I stick around."

"So, any other skeletons in the dating closet?"

"No. I didn't date a whole lot and basically they thought it was neat that I was in a band until they realized I was serious about it." She kissed him again. "How about you? Any potential stalkers in your past?"

"Not so far. I never stuck around long enough to piss anyone off to that extent." Brody smiled but inside, he cringed at his words.

"So you're the love 'em and leave 'em type?"

"What? Oh, no. I mean, it never got that far, either. I mean—that's not what I—" He stumbled over the words and stopped when he saw Ryan's lips twitching. He huffed out a breath. "That's a female thing, isn't it? Setting little traps like that."

She chuckled. "You're giving me too much credit. I'm not devious enough."

"That's good. Look, all I mean is, things never got like they are between us when I dated before. But I was always honest with people, okay?"

Ryan curled her legs under her. "Okay. So what brought all this on, anyway? I mean, I don't mind talking about it but I never had the impression you cared."

"I don't. I mean, I can't say I haven't wondered but generally I figure it doesn't matter, right? But then I was talking with Rick and—well, he's not real up on relationships right now. He thinks his wife either cheated on him, or would have."

"Wow." Ryan gave a low whistle. "That's pretty serious."

"Yeah, I know." Brody dropped his head back. "I know I have to take it with a grain of salt; I know he's pissed. Even so, I have to say I never saw him like that before."

"Well, he's never been through anything like this, right?"

"No. Not that I know of, at least. Still, he just said stuff and some of it stuck in my head, and it got me thinking."

"About whether I dated Nate or Mitch?"

"Sort of. Anyway, never mind. It's not important." He put his arm around her waist and pulled her to him. "What's important is that we're here and you're leaving soon and I have playoffs to worry about."

"Yeah." Ryan's smile was half-sad. "I was thinking about that, too. It'll be weird not to see each other for so long. I, ah, I was afraid you'd find things easier without me."

Brody smiled and kissed her. "Don't be ridiculous. Why would that be?"

"For one thing, you wouldn’t have to worry about what I eat, or cook for me, or—"

He cut her off with another kiss, more aggressive this time. "Hey, I like doing those things. I'll miss doing them."

"Really?"

"Really. Now, let's say we've had enough of discussing what might go wrong and start working on some of the stuff that goes right?" He snuck a hand under her shirt.

Ryan yelped a laugh as he tickled her side, then sighed and closed her eyes as he stroked her back. She leaned forward and kissed his neck, smiling as he groaned. "Yeah, let's work on that."

x-x-x-x

Two weeks later, Ryan sat at the bar of a club in Philadelphia, hoping she wouldn’t be sick. She ran her fingers over the table in front of her, pretending to play a scale on the keyboards. She hoped the familiar motions would calm her down.

"You okay, Ry?" Nate looked up from his smartphone where he was checking baseball scores. "You're looking a little off."

"I'm okay." She ran another imaginary scale. "Just a little wired."

Mitch laughed. "That's good. I was afraid you might be nervous. You're not allowed, you know; our fearless leader can't be nervous."

Lara glanced over as she pulled a brush through her hair. "You should have eaten something today."

"I ate something. Somewhere. I forget. You made me."

Nate checked his watch. "Come on guys, almost time."

"That's my line," Ryan joked.

"Yeah, well, I figure one of us can take the pressure of you once in a while." Nate grinned and nudged her arm.

"Thanks." Ryan tried to relax. She couldn’t tell them how she was having an attack of stage fright. It had dawned her with sudden clarity that they'd never been here before—this crowd hadn't heard of them; it wouldn’t be like playing in D.C., Virginia or Maryland.

"Oh, hey, Ryan." Nate held out his phone. "Check this out."

"What?" She blinked and tried to make sense of the screen.

"The Caps won. Brody got a goal and an assist."

She realized Nate had called up a box score detailing the Caps' victory over the New Jersey Devils. "Oh. Wow. Fantastic." A little tension drained away. She'd been worried about the game—losing would have put the Caps down 2-1 in the best-of-seven series—but she'd forgotten in getting ready for the show. She nodded and smiled. "Good. One less thing to worry about."

"Okay, I'm ready!" Lara looked at the others. "Everybody ready?"

"You bet," Nate and Mitch answered together.

Ryan was about to answer when her phone chirped. She touched the screen and saw a text message from Brody. Break a leg, rock star.

"Ryan, you ready?" Nate asked. The others looked at her.

She grinned. "Absolutely. Come on, let's show them who we are."