The Wrong Crime

02/12/05 (Started and most of it written at that time)

Summary: Serenity Windsor has come to love the freedom of her life that she can only snatch in small quantities but she longs of the true freedom only one man can give her.

AN: Warning! I am going to take a fair amount of liberties with this story! I know a few facts are wrong, but seeing as how they were written 7 years ago, before I knew any better, deal with it. They're only minor details and not pertaining to the characters or overall plot.

Chapter 1

Serena packed her clothing into her suitcase. There was some haste in her movements but no urgency as she moved clothes from the room into the smaller container. She glanced about her for anything else that she could have forgotten and then zipped up her bags. As she turned to close the door, she looked at the room one last time with a delirious sigh on her lips and closed the door behind her as she headed down the hallway.

As the elevator descended, her right hand surrounded her left one before it opened and played with the ring around her finger. It had been a glorious few weeks, ones that promised a future that would hopefully last forever. She leaned against the wood paneling and thought about what she had left to do. She promised him that she'd meet him back on the island, and she had every intention to do that, she had to sign out still but that would only take a few minutes.

Later, tonight, she'd call her father and tell him that she would be extending her vacation indefinitely and tell him her happy news, calling her work could be delayed for tomorrow for she was sure that by the time she called them tonight she'd be too exhausted to care. Besides, she doubted they'd have even opened yet and would be unable to get a hold of them.

She stepped out of the lift doors and into the brighter foyer; she pulled her bag along behind her and stepped up to the man behind the desk. "How may I help you Mademoiselle?"

She smiled at the coolly delivered question in good cheer. "I wish to check out."

"Any problems we should be aware of because of this earlier than expected event?" He asked a tad concerned when he looked at her file, she hadn't been destined to leave for another week.

"I had a change of plan is all and I will no longer be needing the services of this hotel." She gave him another smile to reassure him that the absence wasn't in anyway the hotel's fault.

"Of course, if you will just sign this sheet, it has the expenses as well as the additional cost of leaving early." He put the paper on the banister for her to sign and handed her a pen.

She leaned down and scribed her named onto the document. "Is that all?" She asked handing back her key as well.

"Yes, and thank you for your stay." He said giving her his first smile towards her.

"It was lovely." She answered with her own and walked out of the front doors, now she had her ferry to catch. She looked down at her watch, and up at the streets and found the right one to head down. She started down it but stopped when a shadow over-fell her.

She looked up into the face of the one man she did not expect to see and stifled a gasp. "Don't scare me like that."

"Miss Serena." He said without a question attached, he knew exactly who she was and she knew exactly who he was, unfortunately.

"What is the meaning of this?" She demanded hotly.

"You will come with me." He was dressed in a pair of nice dress pants and a pressed white cotton shirt without a tie to complete the ensemble.

"No." Serena denied, she wouldn't go, no matter what they told her.

"You will." He pointed to the opposite direction, towards a car waiting for them.

"Make me." She ground out rashly.

"I am ordered to do what ever is necessary, I will if you do not comply." He said simply, and took a menacing step towards her.

"I am supposed to be somewhere very shortly, there will be trouble if I am not there." She warned. "Could this possibly wait?"

"No." He took another step towards her. "Come with me willingly and do not cause a scene."

"I could pay you double whatever it is he's paying you." She tried, knowing she wasn't going to get away but was using whatever effort she could to delay the inevitable.

"I'm glad you've already packed so one of the men didn't have to find a way into your room and do it for you, I know you would have hated that." He ignored her attempt to buy him out as he did every time.

"If you take me home, I'll just leave again." She attempted towards his logic this time.

"And I will find you again, which must be what you want because you haven't learned to hide very well yet have you? You use your real name on the check in sheet, you use your credit cards and checks and don't do a thing to try and put us off the scent. Same type of places, same hair, same clothes, nothing to really try and get away with."

"It was too much of a bother." She relented. "Are you going to do this every time? Doesn't it get tiring to follow me around the globe?"

"I get paid well for it, and it's entertaining. Doesn't it get tiring running all the time and trying to hide but in the end feeling embarrassed when you are returned home and have everybody knowing you failed again?"

"Yet nobody does anything to stop me from trying again." She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Three weeks at least, I had another one planned before I was going to go home myself, longer than usual. What is it this time?"

"He's had an accident and is in the hospital." She was graced with a charming smile from a man ten years older than her, and that was how long she'd known him. "He wishes to see you."

"Fine, lead the way, I would just like to make one phone call before we leave." She was regretting the fact that she had never told him about this, and she knew he could do nothing about it. But she at least owed him an apology and a goodbye.

"No." His simple reply had her heart tearing to pieces, she could have managed if she could have heard her love's voice one last time but to be cut off so completely and simply had a devastating effect on her.

Serena could only look up at her companion with sadden eyes. "No?" She repeated on a broken whisper. "No?"

"Yes, no." He told her. "It's demanded that you come right away with no telephone calls to rally support or true problems to delay your arrival to the hospital."

Serena looked down at her bags, up at her old escort and down the road towards the car.

She bolted.

It had been a quick turn of the legs and a shot out nowhere and he hadn't expected it from her this time. Serena usually fought and complied in the end but she had only truly run away from him once on actual legs with speed and not a plane. She had gotten as far as the next block when he grabbed her by the back of her shirt and stopped her relentless sprint.

Still she struggled and pulled against her shirt trying to continue running but he had hold of her upper arms now. "Please stop Miss Serena, you're causing a scene."

"I don't care." She hissed, trying to shake his hands off of her. "You can't do this, these people here are my friends and won't let you get away with it, not this community, this behavior will be noted and called in by the police."

"We've gone down that path several times before, recall?" He tightened his hands and gave her a fair shake. "You were ultimately not believed and were given into the care of my hands to restore you to your rightful home. Other times they didn't care because you weren't their citizen."

"That won't hap-happen here." She cursed her quiver, she needed to be strong and right and believed.

"Even you are unsure of what will happen here, come quietly Miss Serena and go home with an open heart. You can try again to leave if you'd wish but at least go home, you're wanted there and there you are protected."

Her lips trembled from the pain in her heart and the knowledge that he was right. She had to go home, but not for the reasons that others believed, she'd had her share of falsities in life to know the truth. She'd see to it that when she got home she'd tell her father face to face of her coming marriage.

She finally nodded her agreement and he ushered her to the recently washed Porsche. He opened the door for her and waited until she was buckled in before closing the door and walking around to other side quickly. He had put the bags in the back seat while she was getting in and so they left as soon as the engine purred to life.

They were greeted at the airport by another man dressed similarly but with a jacket over his white button down shirt and had a blue tie to match his eyes. He greeted her professionally. "Lady Windsor." He nodded his head before speaking to her partner.

Serena gazed at her surroundings, they were in a small private waiting room that would let them leave and catch their flight on the ground. There was nobody else around that could possible offer her assistance. She fished in her pockets for her cell phone but had no luck as she remembered that she hadn't had a need for it this trip so it had been in her bags. "Lady Serenity." The second man said her name to gain her attention. "The flight will be leaving shortly, would you like anything to eat on the trip?"

"No thank you." Her stomach churned on the thought of eating something.

"Are you certain? It is a long flight." He said kindly.

"Positive." She said without humor and any smiles she would have offered him died on a frosty glance between the two men.

The first shook his head at the younger man. "You may leave us, go get two sandwiches."

When the other man left Serena turned on him. "I said I wasn't hungry."

"They're not for you." He laughed as he told her. "They're for me. Sit down Serena and wait in peace, getting worked up won't do you any good."

Serena grumbled but she complied and sat down on the large black chair made for comfort. "I would have suspected to leave as soon as we got here the way you made it sound."

"I excepted as much but there had to be refueling." He told her calmly and looked out the window into the setting sun, she knew it was far too late and her fiancé was just beginning to realize she wasn't coming. How would he handle that? She wondered.

She swallowed back the tears, there would be plenty of time to come when she would mourn over what she lost, because she'd never be coming back here again, her family would see to it. That was why she'd always gone to other places, never tending to the same spot twice, she'd tried once and the airport denied her access, recognizing her destination and the computer saying she couldn't go because the country became off limits.

"There is one thing I have to say for you Serena, you pick nice places, it's always a marvelous weather to arrive in." He told her as the sun vanished from the horizon. "We'll be home to see the sunset again, that's a bonus of this place."

Serena remained silent.

"Your not cross with me are you? Every other time you bounce back and stopped hating me, even the first time you relented and found it in your heart to forgive me."

"I don't hate you." Serena sighed. "I just wished you'd have come a day later."

"Because you'd be home by then or onto another place?"

Serena offered a rueful smile. "I'd have been home." Just it wasn't the place where he was taking her, but to her real home.

"I'm sorry to hear that, it would have been a nice change of pace."

"Kevin." She said his name and he turned to look at her. "Why- Do you have a family?"

He smiled at her. "I have a wife, a son and a baby on the way, why do you ask?"

"How old is your wife?" Serena put aside his question for later.

"Twenty-six."

"And your son?"

"18 months." Kevin's posture changed when speaking of his family.

"Do you love your wife?" Serena questioned.

"Very much so." He ran his hand through his hair. "What is with all of the personal questions Serena?"

Serena shrugged, his wife was only four years older than she was and already had two children. "Does she know that you do this? Track down a girl and bring her home almost every other month?"

"She knows I work for your father, and no, this isn't the only thing I do for him as you know."

"What would you do if she suddenly disappeared on you?" Serena wondered thoughtfully, finding a new way to convince him to let her go.

"I'd go insane, and would probably break most of the things in the house. She is my life, and I'd do anything in my power to find her and bring her back to me." His voice turned dark and reflective. "If it was my son I'd find him and bring him home, which is why I'm sure your father has hired me, so stop trying to change the subject and use my emotions to help you, I understand his reasoning."

"Except I'm twenty-two years old and can make my own choices. For heaven's sake, I graduated from college last spring! I'm suppose to be living on my own and finding my own way through life."

"Yours is a special family with him trying to help you out in anyway he possibly can, and to do so, he needs to know where you are and have you within the same country to protect you."

Serena looked down at her hands to the brilliantly shining engagement ring sitting on her finger and covered it with her other hand, how he had afforded it she'd never understand. She looked up at him with tears burning at the back of her eyes. "Can I tell you something and you promise not to tell anybody else, not even my father?"

What ever his answer might have been was interrupted when the other man walked in carrying a bag of sandwiches. "As promised, and the flight is ready to leave when you are."

"Thank you." Kevin took the bag and gestured for Serena to leave out of the door leading to the metal stairs that would land her on the runway and to the small private plane.

The plane wasn't noisy but there were too many people that could over hear their conversation and Serena choose not to say any more on the subject though she could feel Kevin's eyes questioning what she could have possibly wanted to say.

Serena laid her head against the seat cushion and watched as the small plane took flight, away from the country and the man she loved. She just couldn't find it in her heart to say goodbye and silent tears rolled down her face. Serena reached up and pushed back the salty warm water and turned her eyes to the man next to her who was currently eating a sandwich.

He caught her gaze and raised the bag. "Want one?" She nodded and he drew one out of the bag for her. "I thought so."

She took it with her right hand and after eating it and throwing away the wrappers she fell into a light doze. Kevin woke her a few hours later. "We're home." He said softly and she awakened to look up into his kind eyes. "Let's get this out of the way and I'll bring you back to the house afterwards."

She nodded and followed him off the plane into the waiting limo. They drove silently to the hospital and Serena got out after him, steeling her nerves so she could pass this off as calmly and coolly as she was known for.

When she got out, Kevin was waiting for her and he took her arm to direct her into the hospital room. Entering the room she stifled another gasp, this one filled with pain, her father was sitting and had one leg and one arm in a cast and around his head was a bandage. "What happened?" She came to his side gently touched his face, all anger evaporated at the sight.

"An accident."

"Kevin didn't tell me what happened or what to expect, what type of accident?"

"Michael apparently decided he was invincible." Serena turned at the sound of her stepmother's voice and was greeted by a warm smile followed by an equally warm hug.

"What happened?" Serena asked again.

"He was on site when an accident happened and knocked him sideways, he forgot to put a hard hat on."

"To think, after years of telling me over and over again when he brought me with him to do just that." Serena reprieved mockingly.

"Yeah, yeah." He waved off her teasing. "Come here." She came over and was engulfed in a one armed hug. "How are you Honey? Did you have a nice trip?"

"No, it would have been a lot nicer if I didn't just think this was another silly ploy to bring me back."

"I didn't want to worry you." He told her, his voice filled with love towards his only daughter.

Elizabeth, Serena's stepmother joined them on the bed, sitting next to her husband. "Other than the untimely cutting of it short, did you have a nice vacation?"

"Really nice." Serena admitted. "I was actually going to call you tonight about it."

"Oh? What about?" Elizabeth asked kindly, they got along well together, Elizabeth and Serena.

A knock on the door brought their attention to the arriving individual. "Excuse me, Earl Michael, Duchess Elizabeth, Lady Serenity, Kevin." He nodded his head to each individually. "I have a Miss Anne to see all of you."

Serena's lips twisted in amusement at her uncle's antics, he was always playing around and that was just something he'd do, come in pretending to be all formal with them. "Scandalous! Tell her I don't want to see her." Serena said playing along.

She heard a loud HEY! Behind the door as Charles relayed his message to the young Anne. She burst into the room and pounced onto Serena. "When did you get back?"

Serena laughed as she caught up her little cousin who was too young to understand her long absences. "Tonight actually." But Serena was young herself, wasn't she? "Is this your first visit also?"

"We couldn't get away any sooner." Katharine, her aunt replied. "Most likely the same story for you?"

"When did this happen?" Serena looked around to her family.

"A few days ago, Kevin was sent down the next day but he couldn't tract you." There was a question in her father's gaze but Serena ignored it for the mean time.

"You know what?" She looked down at her cousin with large eyes.

"What?" Anne replied tuning into her curiosity.

"I hear the tickle monster coming." Serena started towards her, Anne shrieked and ran away with Serena following her. They could still be heard down the hallway as Serena finally caught up with her little cousin and they fell into long laughter.