Poker Face

11 March 2010-

but the idea came about SO much earlier, just not sure if typed it up before...

SUM: Not Gaga song! Serena's in witness protection, Darien is a local chief of Police in her relocation, he doesn't know she's in it.


AN: What more can I say? This is pretty self-explanatory, and the rest of it will just need you to read to understand the rest of the plot or whatever else. I just hope I remember all the fine details I had thought up when I created this story in my head a long, long time ago. If not, I'll still try to create something awesome! It seems as I'm picking up all of my old stories and a few new, original ones too, this is an old story, finally making its way into cyberspace, although I'm not sure if it was ever written on paper.

Please review!


Prologue


Serena glanced over her shoulder as she walked down the street towards her apartment. Her lips quirked up at the girl following her. The child was walking the dog and the dog seemed to be walking her more so than the other way around. Neither dog nor child were very large, but it was interesting to see such a tiny dog pull the little girl.

Serena shook her head and headed into the building. She turned too quickly and ran into a man that she hadn't realized was there. He caught her and her groceries from falling onto the dirty ground that everyone trampled through. "Hey there!" He teased as he held the bags, but let her back away from him to a comfortable distance.

"Thank you, these things would have bruised easily." She attempted to take it back from him, but he moved them out of reach.

"I'll carry them for you." The man was tall, pale, blond and green eyed. "Especially since you seem to have problems carrying them yourself."

Serena laughed and pointed him towards the elevator. "Thank you, it's very kind. What should I call the rescuer of my produce?"

"Hero?" He teased as the elevator took them skyward. "My real name though is Andrew."

"I'm Serena." Serena's blue eyes met his and he smiled back at her, even though they weren't saying anything, they were flirting with one another. There were glances, look aways, smiles when caught and it kept going on all the way up to her flight.

"You live pretty far up." He commented when they were looking for something to say.

"Yeah, it'd be a pain if the elevators ever stopped working."

Andrew chuckled. "I'd just have to help you carry up the groceries every day then."

Serena couldn't keep the smile off of her face as they talked on their way up. She was newly single and she normally wasn't for long. So she leaned against the side of the elevator and looked up at him with a coy smile. "So you live in the building?"

"I moved in earlier this week."

"So have you finished unpacking yet?" She batted her eyelashes. He seemed like a nice guy, and she wouldn't get serious with him until after getting to know him for awhile, but he seemed like the normal guy she went for, nice, handsome, blond, maybe a little paler than she was used to, but then maybe he had a different ethnic background, more Northern European than the rest of them.

"Not yet, the apartment is in complete disarray." His smile was really nice too, his white teeth gleamed in the light.

He helped her carry the groceries into her apartment and set them on the counter, but since they were talking, he took a seat on the stool and continued their conversation as Serena put the groceries away. Afterwards though, he had to leave, he hadn't realized how late it had gotten and had to go to work. It was all right with Serena as the made plans for the following week to go out to get dinner and when he left, she cooked a meal and ate it before heading out herself. She had to open up her cafe, no doubt though her chef was already in working away on new recipes.

She picked up a couple of dozens of flowers before walking the rest of the way. Her cafe wasn't too far away, she could walk there every day in any type of weather. Serena stretched as she walked, it was rather sunny out, and it was a nice change after the very cold winter they'd had.

She let herself in, and called out to Lita, the chef, Lita responded in return and Serena heard a bit of noise before the girl was wiping her hands onto her apron and smiling at her boss. She was an olive tone color, with chestnut colored hair and green eyes. She was very pretty, and Usagi didn't know where her coloring came from, but whatever it was, it was a great mix.

"Hey Sere, how's your day going?" Lita adjusted the straps behind her, tightening the apron a little bit. It was a habit Lita had developed whenever she talked to anyone while at work, when they were hanging out outside of the cafe, Lita never toyed with her clothes, then again, they had been friends since infanthood and it might just be weird for Lita to be under Serena, even though it wasn't like that between them. Lita had almost as much in stake in the shop as Serena did, only Serena had put up the most money for it and they took care of different aspects, Serena the business, surprisingly and customer service for the most part, Lita pitched in there as well on occasion, and Lita took care of the food and buying it from the markets to create her fantastic creations.

"Oh, it's good..." Serena grinned at her friend before turning to exchange the flowers, the previous day's were still decent, but she'd rather keep them fresh and keep the stink out of her cafe. "I met a guy."

She heard nothing and she titled her head to look at her friend, and Lita had an eyebrow raised. "What's new about that? Guys are just falling off your fingers like cheap, oversize rings."

Serena rolled her eyes and finished arranging the closest bouquet. "He seems nice, his name is Andrew and he just moved into my apartment complex, we have a date for next week."

"Well, if he's better than Shawn, then he's got that going for him."

"Shawn wasn't so bad." Serena defended, though it had taken her months to finally work up the courage to get rid of him, once and for all, he had a lot of faults that outweighed the good and by the time Serena had recognized that, she had trouble shaking him loose.

"He was a shopaholic." Lita shook her head. "Not to mention his personality defaults."

Serena sighed and straightened away from the flowers, she was done, and she didn't have something to occupy even her hands now, if not a tiny part of her attention. "Lita, I'm done with him, he finally got the hint and left, let's not even bother to talk about him, ok?"

"All right. Hey, you want to test out my newest concoction?"

Serena beamed. "When have I ever said no to food, especially yours?"

Lita laughed, and the two of them headed into the back to test out the newest addition to the menu. In some ways, they weren't any different than they were in high school, and for that, both were very thankful for the consistency.


Serena was nursing her over-filled stomach, Lita always made slightly too much, and part of the reason was so they'd have something to take home for the next day's meal each, and Serena appreciated it. But Lita's extras were also for the two of them, and mostly Serena, to snack on during the shifts, as they served the guests and Serena worked on paperwork in the back during slower times. Serena never gained any weight from all the food she served her body, which she was thankful for a hundred times over, because otherwise she'd never make it through a door if it affected her like most people. That was saying something too about her eating habits, as Lita's food not only tasted good, but was magically healthy too, comparatively.

Serena would be remiss to have to find another chef as amazing as Lita, and not only in the kitchen. Lita was the greatest friend a girl could have, and she was almost like a sister in so many ways. Serena reminisced about the girl she not only co-owned the business with in all practical senses, but also her oldest and dearest friend.

They had grown up together, living practically right next door to each other, their parents had been friends, and their mothers had grown up together as well, almost like sisters in their own rights and their parents were friends too, but not nearly as much as the following generations. When they were fourteen, as it so happened to be that their mothers had gotten pregnant right after the other, they were so close, a tragedy struck. Lita's parents were going on a second honeymoon when their plane fell from the sky, and were never seen again, lost in the chaos of the ocean and retrieval of remains.

Lita was going through a hard time and the house was so large for a girl so young and on her own. When news arrived, it was on her answering machine as she was staying the week at Serena's anyways. Lita was only going back to her place for a change of clothes and as she was upstairs picking things up, Serena saw the blinking flashing light. She hit play, to see if it was anything important and that day both the girls felt like they lost family, even if only one was blood related. Serena didn't even need to convince her parents to take Lita in, there was no were else that they would allow her to go. Lita and her then grew up together and graduated high school.

The money Lita got for the house and her parent's estate went towards college and putting a down payment on her own place after college and rent and everything else needed in the mean time. It was a small nest egg, and it was only after Serena had put up the money towards the cafe and employed Lita, Lita would have waited to put down roots until after finding a job otherwise.

They had roomed together throughout college, the two were inseparable their whole lives. Serena smiled at all the memories filtering through her mind, they were so different, yet they worked together so well, it was so easy being friends with the girl, and even though it was time to live apart, they were never closer.

Serena was heading down the street to her apartment thinking about the house that was near Lita's that had just gone up for sale, it wasn't right next door, but it was a cute place. Maybe she should finally move out of her cramped space and invest in a house as well. She had the funds for it and she'd had serious relationships in the past that could have shifted towards marriage, but she was not ready for it, but maybe she could see herself making the move towards it some day, and even if that didn't happen, then she'd at least have a place of her own to call home, and not have to ride up the elevator 30 flights and pray that it never failed. The idea was forming in her head and she was growing to like it a lot. She was working on the numbers and trying to figure out how it would all work out when something caught her eye as she passed an alley leading into a hideaway business front. With the city being so old and new buildings growing despite what was there earlier, it created interesting and sometimes creepy ways into shops.

What she saw in this one, changed her entire life and all her tentative plans blew up in her face.