Gemma had successfully been able to avoid Palmera City for the last couple months. She had placed all her focus on the Metropolis and Central City locations, leaving Tom in charge of Palmera. But there were only so many responsibilities that she could avoid and there were some things that she had to take of herself.

She had tried to make sure that their brief trip to Palmera City was as discrete as possible but as they drove towards the front of the building the press was already waiting for them outside. Over the last couple of months the press had started to become less interested in what she was up to, but she knew that in some way they would be interested in her. After all she would always be known as the daughter of mad scientist Doctor Ivo.

Though seeing them now was a little more frustrating than normal as she had been hoping that her arrival to Palmera City wasn't going to be public knowledge.

"Fuck." Brenda muttered as the car came to a stop. Javier, Tom and Gemma all looked at her in shock having not expected the outburst. Although outside of work she tended to be the most outgoing of them all whenever she was at work Brenda was as serious and dedicated as them all. "I'm sorry, it's just that I did everything to make sure that the press didn't know about this"

"It's fine we won't be here for very long anyway." Gemma assured her knowing that Brenda really would have done everything possible to make sure that everything was as discrete as she had asked.

They all stepped out of the van, Javier quickly handing the keys to the valet to try to block the press from getting to close to the three of them. Over the last couple of months Javier had started to transition to taking care of anything related to security. There had been a couple of cases of vandalism from people who continued to resent Ivo Tech over everything that Anthony Ivo had done. Truthfully Gemma couldn't blame people for hating the Ivo name.

Gemma finally felt like she could take a breath once they were inside the Ivo Tech building. Although they hadn't told anyone at the Palmera location that she would be stopping by, they no doubt expected her from all the press that had warned them about her arrival.

"Brenda can you stop by the marketing department and make sure everything is going as planned?" Gemma questioned as she came to a stop in front of the elevator. Her plan was to make sure everything they needed to take care of was finished as soon as possible. Grabbing the hair tie around her wrist Gemma pulled her hair back in a ponytail ready to get started.

"Of course." She replied as she stepped back and walked towards the front desk.

"And Javier can you make sure the press is gone by the time we leave?"

"Right away." He assured before also leaving her side, leaving only her and Tom.

They only needed to look over all the projects that were in development and then decide if they were going to move onto the next stages of testing. With the two of them working together they were going to get it done rather quickly, not mentioning that usually less than 15 percent of all the projects tended to move onto the nest phase of research and testing.

Once they got to the lab they went to work quickly and mostly in silence as they tended to do. For the most part Gemma was disappointed about most of the projects that were in the initial testing phases.

"You hate them all don't you?" Tom questioned a slight smile tugging on his lips. She hadn't said anything but  he knew her better than most.

"Yeah, I do." Gemma replied with a small laugh. The irony of her coming all the way over to Palmera City for projects that were not worth her time was amusing.

"Well, you should have seen all the ones that I didn't accept to go to the next stage."

Before Gemma could reply the doors to the lab opened as Rudy stepped inside. He was wearing jeans and a button up shirt that she was sure was the most business causal that he would attempt doing.

"Rudy." Gemma said finding it impossible not to smile. She hadn't seen him in months and although she would get the occasional text or work related email it just wasn't the same.

"You didn't tell anyone you were coming today stranger?" He replied and there was no ignoring the tone in his voice. He was upset that she hadn't given a heads up that she was going to visit, but that was exactly what she wanted. She didn't want anyone to know that she was coming so that she could slip in and out unnoticed.

Gemma felt at a loss of words for a moment, but she just wanted him to understand that it was nothing personal against him. "It was a last minute trip."

"I'll be right back." Tom told her placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. He was giving her the privacy she needed though some part of her wished that he would stay so that Rudy could leave.

"I don't like that kid." Rudy stated firmly once Tom was out of the room. It was a statement that Gemma had heard before, and she had never attempted to charge his mind about it knowing that it would be impossible. It was a miracle that he had even warned up to her and Jenny.

"You never have."

"He's part of the reason why I wanted to talk to you," He said the serious tone in his voice causing her to immediately worry. Gemma didn't say anything waiting for him to continue because she really had no idea what his concern could possibly be about. "He hasn't approved any of my project ideas the last four months. I don't even think he's opened any of my proposals."

Gemma opened her mouth wanting to find an excuse for Tom, but all the ones that came to mind still didn't seem fair. "I'm sorry... email them personally to me and I'll look over them."

"Are you doing good kid?" He questioned the sudden change of subject catching her off guard momentarily.

Gemma smiled all while knowing that Rudy was possibly expecting a different response than the one she was going to give. "I'm great. Maybe dealing with more work than I can handle but I like the challenge."

"Gemma what the hell?" Milagros' voice echoed through the lab causing both Gemma and Rudy too flinch a little in shock.

"Millie," Gemma said with a smile as she met her halfway across the room giving her a hug. "how are you?"

As Milagros pulled away from the hug she looked over at Rudy who maybe seemed a little annoyed by the interruption. "A little privacy Rudy?"

"Fine." Rudy said as he threw his hands up before walking towards the door.

"Just email me about getting those approved." Gemma reminded him before he left wanting to make sure that she did right by him. She was the one that had offered him the job and he hated the thought of Rudy believing that he wasn't being given a fair chance.

Milagros rolled her eyes as Rudy finally stepped out of the office. She seemed both amused and slightly  annoyed. "He's been complaining about Tom for months."

"Yeah I'll talk to him about that." Gemma told her knowing that it all had to be some kind of misunderstanding that needed to be cleared.

Gemma couldn't help but be surprised by how serious Milagros was acting as she crossed her arms over her chest looking as Gemma with disappointment. "Just a talk?"

"What do you want me to fire him?"

"That's a start."

"He's one of the few people who's been there for me constantly. He's never walked away even things have gotten hard." Gemma stated not sure what Milagros was expecting from her, clearly she had been wrong in believing that maybe everything between them would be normal. Like nothing really had changed. "I'll talk to him."

"I told mom you were here and she said to invite you to dinner." Milagros said slowly clearly testing the waters with her, almost like she was afraid that Gemma would run off. Gemma didn't feel like running but she certainly felt frustrated. This was what she had wanted to avoid in the first place. Planning her trip around Milagros and Rudy's schedules had been difficult and now that the press knew she was here she shouldn't have bee surprised that they had decided to visit.

Gemma immediately shook her head not even wanting to give it any thought. "I'm sorry I'm only going to be here for another two hours and then I have a flight back to Metropolis."

"You can't change your flight?" She questioned.

"No I'm sorry. There's so much work I need to do." Gemma said feeling terrible for lying but for once she really needed to put herself first. She always focused so much on what everyone else and that was clearly a problem. Trying to please everyone in her life was exhausting and she didn't have it in her to even consider the invitation."Tell your mom that I'm thankful for the invitation."

"I think it would be good if you talked to Jaime."

It shouldn't have surprised Gemma that Milagros was being so blunt about the real issue. Milagros was very forward and wasn't one to dance around an issue.

"I don't have anything to say." Gemma replied honestly, her answer might have been different a couple of weeks ago but now she felt at peace. There were so many exciting things coming up for her that she didn't want to look back on her past. Her past was where her father lived and she didn't need her past haunting her anymore.

"There's some things I'm sure he would like a chance to say."

Gemma shook her head in disbelief feeling like this was the last thing that she wanted to talk about with Milagros. "I think he said everything that he needed to say."

"I don't think..."

"He broke up with me Milagros. There's nothing to talk about." Gemma said quickly raising her voice in a way that she hadn't intended but she couldn't really take it back. There was no point in discussing the topic further when there was nothing that Milagros could say that would change her mind. "I'm in a good place, I don't want to ruin that by seeing him. I finally moved on."

Of course Gemma didn't expect Milagros to take her side on anything, Jaime was her older brother after all. Regardless of how much of a coward Jaime had been Gemma didn't hold anything against the Reyes. Milagros was trying to look after Jaime, but the less that Gemma knew about him the better.

"I understand." Milagros assured and Gemma couldn't help but be grateful that she wasn't choosing the press the issue any further.

"I have a lot of work." Gemma continued hoping that she didn't sound like didn't want Milagros around. She really loved talking to Millie but the truth was that it wasn't as easy as it was before. The more that she spoke to Milagros the more she thought about Jaime.

"Right." She replied not needing any other kind of hint to know that the conversation was over. "We miss you."

"I miss you too." Gemma said and it was nothing shot of the truth. She did miss the Reyes, they were the closest to a real family that she had ever had. She really did hate losing the feeling that she had some kind of family.

Milagros gave her one last quick hug before walking towards the door. Thankfully before Gemma could even start to overthink their interaction the phone began to ring. "Brenda any updates?"

"Oh that invitation is that for all of us?" Milagros asked suddenly causing Gemma to lose her focus on what Brenda was saying on the phone.

"Yes, of course." Gemma replied quickly and Milagros slipped out without another word. "Sorry Brenda can you say again?"

"Marketing is ahead of schedule and Javier took care of the press. So everything is clear when you're ready." Brenda said quickly to the point where she almost sounded out of breath.

Gemma knew that Brenda was feeling stressed about the entire trip which she couldn't help but feel terrible about. Clearly Brenda was trying to be a good friend and was trying to go to extremes to make sure the Gemma was as comfortable as possible. The last thing that Gemma wanted to do was make one of her friends uncomfortable.

Gemma had lost track of how many glasses of wine they had finished. Jenny, Brenda and Gemma had somehow gone from sitting on the couch to laying on the carpet staring up at the ceiling. Jenny had recently sold Victoria Kord's mansion and had decided to move into a penthouse in the city close to the Kord Industries building.

"Let me guess you feel bad for lying?" Jenny questioned as she sat up grabbing the bottle of wine and refilling all of their glasses.

Gemma also sat up hating that she wasn't as indifferent as she wanted to be. The people pleaser in her wished that she could do everything to make sure that everyone in her life was happy. But that was also so exhausting and she couldn't do it anymore. "I just wonder if she knew I was lying."

"You've done so much for them you don't owe them an explanation." Brenda replied her words a little slurred from the alcohol. They had originally planned to go out, but decided to stay in to avoid any kind of trouble that would come with the press finding them again. "You need to keep focusing on yourself."

"Enough about me." Gemma said not wanting to discuss it any further. Regardless of what some other people thought Gemma really felt like she was in a good place. Sure she had been a mess the first couple of weeks after the break up but Jenny and Brenda had really been there for her. Gemma had never really had close friends like them before and they were all she really needed. "Jenny are you still talking to Ray Palmer?"

Jenny's love life was so much more interesting and exciting than Gemma's. Truthfully she still didn't feel ready to consider dating and she didn't have much time for it, but she felt like she was living through Jenny's experiences.

"I stopped answering his messages a couple of days ago." Jenny replied not making a big deal about it, unlike Brenda who gasped in horror.

"You ghosted him?"Brenda exclaimed in disapproval, because out of all the people that Jenny had been involved with Ray Palmer had been Gemma and Brenda's favorite. He had been different from the models and business people that Jenny had hooked up with before. Ray Palmer was an up and coming scientist and he was incredibly good looking in a dorky kind of way. "You said the sex was amazing!

"And it was!" Jenny confirmed though she really didn't need to considering that she wasn't one to hold back any details on her romantic rendezvous. From everything that they had heard about Ray he had changed Jenny's world when it came to sex. "But he was starting to get a little boring. We have nothing in common."

That was typically Jenny's go to explanation why her relationships didn't work out. Maybe it was true she really just hadn't found the right person, though Gemma couldn't help but wonder if Jenny simply wasn't giving them the chance. Everyone that dated Jenny practically worshipped the ground she walked on, not that they could probably help it. Jenny was not only beautiful but she was genuinely a great person.

"Haven't you ever heard of opposites attract?" Gemma questioned as she took a sip of her wine already starting to feel the drowsiness that usually came when she drank too much wine.

"Yes, cause that worked out so well with you." Jenny countered causing Gemma to open her mouth in shock. Though it was the truth she and Jaime really hadn't had anything in common. They were too different which had clearly been a problem. A problem that maybe they should have foreseen. Yeah maybe they had been attracted to each other but that hadn't been enough. They simply didn't work. "Too soon?"

"No, because it's true." Gemma confirmed not at all feeling hurt by the comment. She had long ago accepted the break up and locked away all the feeling associated with it.

Brenda sighed as she leaned back on the couch and nodded in confirmation too. "Yeah Paco and I had nothing in common."

The three of them laughed a little knowing that the only real success they had in their life was the success in their professional lives. Maybe that was why they had become such good friends. They didn't have any family and all they really had was the love of their work. In many ways that was fulfilling for them enough.

A/N: I'm going to take a short break from updating this story to focus on writing a couple of chapters of Onism. There's only 12 more chapters until the end of this story so still a little ways to go. These chapters really are going to be more character driven and focused with of course a little bit of action sprinkled throughout so I hope you continue to enjoy!