"God, is she ever going to wake up?" Sullivan complained, staring morosely at the cappuccino machine.

"Reckon you should've learned to work it, mate," Jude said smugly over his morning tea.

"Reckon you should shut your mouth," Sully returned. "It's nearly ten, why isn't she up?"

"I guess she's really tired," Dane said smugly, smiling at Jude.

Tommy heard the tone and turned to look at his friend. "Do you know something we don't?" he asked. "Did you hear something? Or even participate in something?" He quirked an eyebrow in Dane's direction.

"Maybe." Dane stood, arms casually in his sweatpant pockets, looking at Sully and Tommy.

"What?" Tommy looked between Dane and Jude, surprise on his face. "You two got busy with Momoko last night? No fucking way!"

"See what you miss when you come home and sod off to bed like an old fart?" Jude said, taking a sip of his tea.

Sully, too, was looking between Dane and Jude, shock on his face. "Well, this is definitely something I want to hear all about later, but right now all I want is some motherfucking coffee!" His voice rose on the last two words.

"So make some," Jude suggested, gesturing at the forlorn and forgotten coffee pot, pushed back between the pasta containers.

"I can't drink that crap anymore," Sully admitted. "She's spoiled me for everything else."

At that moment, Momoko's door opened and she came wandering out, rubbing her eyes, still in her nightgown. "What in the name of god is going on out here?"

"Oh, did we wake you?" Sully asked innocently, looking over at her. "So sorry."

"It's okay, honey," Momoko assured him, kissing him and patting his cheek. "I'm dying for a cup of coffee. Anyone else?"

"I could go for a cup," Sully said casually.

The other two also nodded agreement.

"Lattes all around, then," Momoko said with a sleepy smile. "Coming up."

Sully sighed with satisfaction and boosted himself up on the kitchen counter to wait.

"You know, you guys really should learn to use this," Momoko remarked as she shook the tamped the ground up espresso down and swung the arm shut. "I mean, it's not rocket science, you know?"

"But it's so fun to watch you do it," Tommy said, leaning against the counter. "Especially in your little nightie.

"Speaking of which," he continued, shooting Dane and Jude what could only be called a Look, "I heard that nightgown got some action last night?"

Momoko threw Tommy a smile over her shoulder as she assembled the cups and got the cream from the refrigerator. "Did someone tell you that, or did you hear something? Because if it was the latter, you should've joined us." She turned and patted his chest, pressing a kiss onto his mouth before giving her attention to the steamer.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Sully kicked the counter with his heels. "Me and Tommy slept through the whole thing?"

"Tommy and I," Momoko corrected. "What kind of school is Princeton, anyway? NYU isn't even in the Ivy League, but I at least know the difference between the accusative and the nominative case, Sullivan Palmer."

She handed out the coffees and they moved to the living room to sit, and Momoko sat next to Jude, leaning her head on his shoulder.

He turned and kissed her hair, slipping an arm around her.

"So?" she asked after taking a long drink of her hot latte. "What's on the agenda for today?"

"Well, I have some notes about last night's performance," Dane began. " Then we have to unload the van and take it back to the lot. And then I believe we're footloose and fancy free, as the saying goes."

"I was thinking we might want to try writing some new songs for Battle of the Bands." Dane looked around. "What do you think?"

"Really?" Jude sat up, putting his tea aside. "But we've had our set list decided for weeks. You want to fiddle with it now?"

Dane shrugged. "I'm just saying that, it's a whole different ballgame with Momoko in the mix. We can write for both genders now, and for the upper registers, it opens up a new world of subjects and ranges for us, don't you think?"

"I think Dane's right," Sullivan spoke up. "If we can come up with some good stuff, I say we give it a go. It's not like it's high pressure. I mean, we're always scribbling new stuff anyway, let's just pick up the pace a little, that's all."

He looked over at Dane. "So, notes about last night?"

Dane opened up his laptop. "Okay, first? Momoko? Seamless fit. No negative feedback at all. Not one person asked for Marshall, asked where he was, nothing."

Jude gave Momoko a squeeze. "Well done, you."

Momoko smiled.

Dane looked down at his laptop. "Tommy, your solo in Remember Me? It could go longer."

"How much longer?"

Dane considered. "A good fifteen seconds, at least. Jude's messing with his plug-ins, and could use the time, you know?"

Jude gave Dane a salute. "Gotcha, mate."

"You guys do this after every gig?" Momoko asked, looking around.

"More or less," Tommy told her. "Today might be more, since we added you to the mix and that changed everything, but usually we have a short meeting after every show, yeah. There's always something that we could improve, right?"

"Oh, and the big reaction of the night," Sully interjected, grinning at Momoko and putting a hand on her ankle, "came when sexy kitten here decided to come on to all of us during 'Let's Be Alone,' I think."

Momoko shrugged, a feminine and alluring gesture. "I act how I feel when I'm singing, and it felt natural. I was just sorry I couldn't get to Tommy."

"Me too," he responded, hoisting his coffee cup at her.

"So, given the audience response," Sullivan continued, "I say leave that in, and do more of it for sure, agreed?"

Everyone nodded enthusiastically.

Tommy's phone pinged with an incoming text. He picked it up, looked at it and began to set it back down, then looked at it again, eyes wide.

"Whoa," he said. "Whoa. WHOA."

"What?"

"It's Shelby, my friend at Carmine's? Three members of Skyscraper were in a car accident on their way here from Boston and they can't perform tonight, and the people in charge of Concert in the Park want us to fill in!" Tommy was still reading his phone as he spoke.

"Concert in the Park? The Concert in the Park?" Dane repeated. "Like the Concert in the Park at Washington Square Park?"

"That's the motherfucking one!" Tommy assured him, nodding and laughing as he finally stopped looking at his phone. He looked at everyone in the room, who was sitting straight up and looking back at him, eyes wide open. "Well? What do I tell her?"

"Are you kidding? Tell her to tell them yes!" Jude looked around. "Right?"

Everyone was nodding. Concert in the Park was a huge venue. It would be their biggest to date. It was a big weekend festival, with food, small artists selling their crafts, an organic farmers' market, and, of course, music, a nighttime concert.

Tommy was already texting back, saying, "Good thing our stuff's still in the van, we can be there in a few hours."

"Do we have time to shower and eat and stuff?" Momoko wanted to know.

"We should, the concert's always at night," Sully assured her. "Let's wait until Shelby texts back with the details." He gestured toward Tommy's phone.

Tommy's phone pinged and he read for a few seconds before he began speaking. "Okay, we need to be at the south entrance to the park by three o'clock with all our gear, sound check at five, to perform at--holy shit, you guys, we're the headliners!" Tommy looked around with a huge grin.

Major whooping and hollering ensued.

"Okay, okay, sh, sh, let me finish," Tommy said, hushing everyone. "Sound check at five to perform at 9:00."

"No problem, we got this," Dane enthused.

"About how many people?" Momoko asked.

"At least a thousand," Jude responded.

"What?" she gasped, standing up so quickly she nearly made Jude upset what was left of his tea.

"He's joking," Dane said quickly, stepping over to put an arm around her and rub her shoulder. "He's joking, aren't you, Jude?" He shot the Englishman a look as he spoke.

"Completely," Jude said without missing a beat. "You know how I like to tease, Peaches. There aren't nearly that many."

Momoko swallowed and nodded. "I need to shower and get ready," she said in a small voice.

"Uh, you mind if we go first?" Sully asked with a smile. "It's just that we know how you like to take your time," he finished diplomatically. "We'll be finished in twenty minutes, promise, okay?"

Momoko nodded and sat back down, hugging herself.

Tommy sat next to her, and she leaned into him immediately. "You'll be great," he promised her. "You kicked ass last night, didn't you?"

She nodded again, snuggling into him. He stayed with her, motioning for the others to go and shower.

They remained that way until the other three had finished with the bathrooms, and then, with a last hug and kiss, Tommy sent Momoko off to shower and "get ready."

"You think she'll be okay?" Dane asked, brows furrowed with worry.

"She'll be fine," Jude said, shaking the last of the water out of his hair.

"No thanks to you, idiota," Tommy said, punching Jude in the arm. "'A thousand people,'" he repeated in an English accent, doing a pretty good imitation of Jude. "She's probably never coming out of the bathroom today."

Momoko's nerves notwithstanding, they did make it to the park on time, and began unloading their equipment onto the stage, following the directions of Nell, the stage manager. Some of the lead up acts were already there, and were quite impressed that they were opening for Peppermint Silk.

"You guys the replacements for Skyscraper?" Bobby, guitarist for Hammerlink, asked Sully. "Personally, I think you guys are better, so way to trade up, Nell, well done."

Nell, who had about a million things to do, just gave him a thumbs up as she passed him.

"We thought maybe they'd just bump us up, since we're next to last, but it's cool," he assured Sully.

"And who are you, little lady?" he asked Momoko as she walked by with her mic set up. "That's just about the hottest crew I've ever seen," he remarked to Sullivan, who was setting up his amp.

"She's not crew, she's our lead singer," Sully responded.

"The hell you say." Bobby leaned back so he could see Momoko's ass as she bent over. "What happened to Marshall?"

Sully shrugged. "We went our separate ways. He sings for Mangled now." He tilted his head toward Momoko. "And watch where you're looking, please, she's not just a piece of ass."

Bobby looked back in time to see Momoko stand up, lift her shirt and shake it, trying to cool off. She showed a bit of toned tummy, and more than a little of her black lace bra. "Nope, she's definitely more than an ass, for sure," Bobby agreed, laughing at his own joke.

Sully pursed his lips but said nothing, shaking his head as he headed back for more equipment.

After they were set up and had finished sound check, they wandered around the park for the next few hours, trying out some of the food stalls, checking out the artwork and mingling. The boys got recognized and asked for selfies, which Momoko found adorable, and she took many of the pictures for them.

"Feeling nervous?" Dane asked as it was getting dark. The music had already started, and they were hanging around the periphery, listening to the other bands. Momoko was looking out at the audience, chewing the side of her thumb, and it did seem to her that there were quite a lot of people.

"I'm okay," she replied, seeming anything but.

"Good," Dane answered, patting her bottom comfortingly before moving away.

"How's our girl?" Tommy asked him.

Dane teeter tottered his hand in a comme çi, comme ça gesture. "She hasn't run away, and she hasn't barfed, so that's good, right?"

They watched her as Sullivan approached and put an arm around her. She leaned back into his chest and he put his arms around her.

"Maybe Sully can calm her down," Tommy said hopefully.

Bobby, the guitar player from earlier, was standing near them, and spoke to them. "What do you think of them?" He gestured toward the band onstage. "I think they're called Wild Elephant."

Momoko looked over at him and made a mouth of distaste, remembering his words to her earlier. "I think they sound nice, though the vocalist is straining a little. He needs more training."

"You know, I heard Vaughn Berriman's in the crowd tonight, scouting for acts," Bobby remarked casually.

Sullivan looked over to gauge how serious Bobby was. Vaughn Berriman owned a pretty big management company in New York City, and having him manage you was a pretty big step in getting signed to a record label.

He felt Momoko tense in his arms.

Bobby, obviously believing the ice to be sufficiently broken, addressed his next words to Sully. "Why didn't you tell me she was yours, man? I never would've spoken so disrespectfully about her if I'd known you were screwing her, dude."

"You shouldn't speak disrespectfully about her no matter who's doing what to whom," Sully said clearly, turning away from Bobby. "Do you mind? We're trying to listen to the music."

"Excuse the fuck out of me," Bobby grumbled. walking away. "Got to get ready to go on, anyway."

The other boys joined them. "How you doing, Peaches?" Jude asked.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me," Momoko assured him, reaching out to rub his arm.

"Hey, I'm going to go to the bathroom, be right back, okay?" Sullivan said, releasing Momoko. "You going to be okay?"

"I'm fine, really," Momoko said with a laugh. She took Jude's hand and waved Sully away.

Hammerlink, featuring the odious Bobby, took the stage, and Momoko thought they were just okay. Bobby's playing she found to be merely loud and unimaginative.

"Come on, we're on in twenty, let's go," Jude said into her ear.

They finished their preparations and were waiting for Hammerlink to leave the stage before making last minute adjustments to their own equipment.

After the boys had been onstage a couple of minutes, they realized Momoko wasn't with them.

"I'll go," Tommy volunteered, and dashed offstage to see where she'd gotten to.

"Peaches?" he called.

"I'm right here," she responded.

He found her leaning against a pillar, one leg braced against it. People were coming and going, paying no attention to them.

Tommy took her in his arms and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. "What's wrong?" he asked.

Momoko shrugged. "It's a lot of people, and that manager guy's supposedly in the crowd, and this has suddenly turned into one of the most important gigs of your career," she said.

"Our career," Tommy corrected. "You're in this band too, right? It's only been a couple of weeks, but you're our singer."

Momoko nodded. "So I just don't want to fuck it up, that's all," she said with another shrug.

"You're not going to fuck anything up, Peaches," he said softly. "I can tell, just from what I saw last night. The bigger the event, the more you give. You were so upset at home, but then you got onstage, and you were smiling, dancing, and you practically gave Sully a blowjob in front of all those people, remember?"

He chuckled, and leaned in to kiss her, gently at first, then with more passion, pressing her against the pillar, pressing his body into hers. Their mouths opened to each other, and Tommy was so strong that he nearly lifted Momoko off her feet.

"Well, shit, if that hot little piece of ass ain't two-timing Sullivan Palmer with the spic drummer!" Bobby drawled. "You'd better watch it, I hear Sully's got quite the temper."

"So does this spic drummer," Tommy said without turning his head. "Get the hell out of here," Bobby, if you know what's good for you, you no good piece of garbage."

He took Momoko by the hand and headed toward the stage.