When Love Comes Knockin' [Davy Jones/Monkees Fanfiction]

one

The band onstage wasn't them.

That was the only thing Davy could think about as he wandered around the party, surrounded entirely by blissful conversation from people he'd never met before. Typically a social butterfly, even he himself was surprised that he wasn't entertaining at least half of the crowd that had gathered that evening in Malibu — and he'd been there a whole twenty minutes! But, he had his reasons, at least.

It wasn't such a jolly time in his career, or for his band. Their show was over. Peter was gone. Their popularity had seemingly hit rock bottom. Needless to say, none of the three remaining Monkees necessarily had a casual, cheery outing in mind for the evening, but it was Friday night and they had nothing scheduled, and so what else were they to do but head out to one of their favorite places in the city, the Vincent Van Go-Go?

Aside from Peter's absence, everything had pretty much been the same. It was their same old hangout, and each of them assumed their same old roles – except for Davy. Mike took to the corner and tried to appear busy, having it in him to exchange lighthearted small talk with whatever passersby that happened to stumble his way. Micky? Well, who knew. But Davy, he was wandering. Normally, he'd be saying hello to everyone, amiably asking how they were, how their day was, etc., but on that night in early February, he was too preoccupied searching for his girlfriend, who'd vanished into the sea of people, and casting disapproving looks toward the stage every time he overheard someone saying how good the band sounded.

Davy didn't know who they were and didn't have a reason to dislike them. He knew that, but that only frustrated him. After all, the Monkees used to be on that stage on Friday nights, not this band. It used to be their songs that people were dancing to, not whatever psychedelic cacophony this group was playing. He sighed aloud as he made his way through the crowd, distracting himself from the new band by continuing to look for a head of curly, blonde hair that could belong to his girlfriend.

Now, that, unlike most other things in his life at that time, was going well. Though they'd only been going out for a little over three months, she was quickly becoming the apple of his eye.

A stunning beauty, Pamela Sutton had captured his attention immediately and his heart not long after. He'd met her in a coffeeshop just a few days before Peter turned in his resignation, and a long conversation ended in her lending him a book. When he returned it to her the following week, she saw that he was feeling down and allowed him to vent about Peter leaving, and before either knew it, they were on a date, and then a continuous string of dates. Davy hadn't been this excited about a girl in a long time.

Davy finally spotted Pamela across the room. She was leaning on the wall, a few strands of hair curled around her fingers as she twirled them, smiling thoughtfully as she discussed something with a taller man in formal attire. He headed her way, and her friend noticed him before she did. She followed his gaze to find her boyfriend.

"Oh, hi, honey," she said sweetly once he was close enough to hear her. Her eyes flickered back to the man that was still a stranger to Davy and she said through a soft laugh, "I was just... getting to know this lovely man. Gary, this is David. David, Gary." As the man looked down at him and offered out his hand, she added almost dreamily, "He's a professor."

Gary had a strong handshake, firmer than Davy's, as the latter noticed to his slight dismay. "How do you do," Davy greeted.

"Oh, and Gary," said Pamela, as if just remembering, "David is a very successful musician. Isn't that right, darling?"

Before Davy could say anything else, Gary spoke, in a deep, warm voice, "Have you played here before? I may have caught a few songs."

"My friends and I—"