Here's my first Sailor Moon chapter story. Woo. I mostly do one shots with Sailor Moon. This is an AU story. One of the many where he left and didn't return… Until now. Serena/Darien.

Standard disclaimers apply. I own nothing yada yada

Enjoy.

"I think… I think I'm staying."

Her eyes widened and the phone nearly dropped from her hands as she heard those words. He'd only been gone two months and he already decided he liked it enough to stay. She, somehow, managed to mumble out two words, "How long?"

"At least more than the intended year. Maybe for good…" he trailed off and became silent.

"But, you promised. What about our future?" she fingered the ring and looked over at the small pink headed girl asleep on her bed, having been in a deep conversation before the phone interrupted them.

"I don't know and I'm sorry," he gave her no time to react as he hung up the phone.

She let a yell of frustration out before pulling the ring off her finger and chucking across the room where it hit the wall and fell to the floor. She made her way over to it and picked it up, cradling it her hands and started to cry. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up into red eyes. The small girl questioned, "What happened?"

--

"Serena, wake up. We're going to be late!" Serena opened her eyes to look in blue eyes that were like a reflection of hers. The girl hand the same color hair and would easily pass as her sister.

"Mina, go away. I don't want to go to work today," Serena complained, trying to block out the intense sunlight that was streaming in the window.

"She's right, Serena. You need to get up and come into work today," Serena turned her attention to her third roommate and groaned. It was just like that bluenette to right there. It was probably her idea to force Serena into work into the first place.

"Amy," Serena whined but finally three off her covers. She lived with the two in a very large apartment. They owned the entire top floor. It was complete with a kitchen, dinning room, a living room, a study, three bedrooms, and four bathrooms, one off each of the bedrooms and one off the living room. It was, by absolutely no means, an inexpensive apartment. Even with Amy still in collage, they earned enough money to pay for it. With Amy's mother sending them money monthly, with Mina's money that she earned from her two CDs before becoming a receptionist at the hospital two years ago, the money that the Three Lights had earned, and by recommendation of Seiya, left Serena, and the money she's paid for being a helper in the psychiatric ward. Amy spent a good amount of time at the hospital as well watching the doctors. Since it was where her mother had worked, Amy had quite a bit of credibility there.

"Get dressed and let's get out of here," Mina demanded as she walked out of the room in her dress suit.

Serena grumbled. Serena had only gone to a two-year collage and picked up a basic psychology degree. Why did she ever decide to work in the psychiatric ward at the hospital? It was completely beyond her. Amy tells her she's lucky that she's just an assistant and that it's a straight '8 to 5' job. She could be like Amy and have to work uncontrollable hours and up to 48 hours straight. Serena silently agreed; she wasn't so sure she could do that.

She was really little more than a nurse that couldn't touch the medications. She delivered the food and talked to some of the patients and made sure that they stayed one hundred percent comfortable. She was actually quite good at this. She supposed that it was because of her time as a candy striper when she was younger.

On a second note, she couldn't believe that she was working in a hospital. She was so unhealthy that it wasn't even funny. Much less that she was working in the psychiatric ward. She probably needed to be there just as bad as some of those peoples. She'd changed a lot since he made that decision to stay away and she'd picked up some not so good habits along the way. In the end, she had Mina who started to go through the same thing not long after, and they both had Amy, Raye, and Lita to keep their feet on the ground.

She threw on her uniform and grabbed her bag, looking into the mirror to make sure her normal pigtails that she still wore were in place before rushing out of her bedroom. She saw Mina had waiting for her and guessed that Amy had already left. She yawned dramatically, "Let's go, Mina."

Four hours later, Serena found herself on the roof enjoying her lunch break. This was usually the place that she'd escape to. She didn't even have to worry about stumbling and falling off the side because there had been a fence built in the center of the wide standard building ledge, in case any one of their suicide risk patience found their way up there.

Not that it would have made much difference. The fence was about seven feet tall, but it wasn't like it had barbed wire twisted around the top of it. It could be climbed if someone really wanted to throw themselves off the room top. Most of the patients thought process never really got that far though. She'd had one patient came into the hospital for stitches but had to stay in the ward because he was at risk to try whatever he had again. He was convinced that he could melt to jell-o and fit through tiny spaces and that whatever made him do this was taking over his mind. He tried to prove it to me and squeeze through the little holes in it. She had very calmly explained to him that if he were a jell-o man, throwing himself off the building wouldn't do anything. Cause, then he'd just jell-o back together. He'd conceded and went back to his room for his anti-jell-o treatment.

She once again yawned as she looked over the city that she'd invested so much of her younger life in saving. She was glad that everything had been at peace for the last five years. Enemy wise that is, of course. Each of the members had their own personal turmoil to deal with.

The outer Senshi were still out there. They hung out with them at least once a month, sometimes more. Setsuna worked as the assistant to a scientist that, ironically enough, sometimes worked closely with the hospital. So, they saw her more than the rest. Amara went back to racing her cars and Michelle still played the violin and sold multi-million dollar pictures. The two still lived together with Hotaru, who was now 14. And, Setsuna still visited the three daily to keep watch.

Amy, as we know, was happily in collage making reality of her dreams to be a doctor. She came to the hospital a lot and was already being called upon by the residents of which one she'd be an intern for. She had tried dating, briefly, with Greg after he returned. It just hadn't lasted very far. In the end, Greg decided that he was once again moving away because that was his place.

Raye worked exactly how she wanted to, as the head priestess of the temple. She was very happy there. She had tried to date Chad. But, in the end he'd decided that she was just too secretive about things in her life and, not long after they had broken up, left the temple as well.

Lita, on her part, was doing absolutely amazing. She owned one of the best five star restaurants in Japan. She lived in a large apartment that sat over the restaurant. This had been built there before she had become a big hit. And, it was simple with one bedroom, a kitchen/dining room combined, a bathroom and a living room. Not that she minded, she just loved being so close to her restaurant. She, as Amy and Raye, had tried dating. Andrew and Rita broke up after she'd said something about some connection she felt with someone she worked with, and three months after that, Lita and Andrew started the relationship that was two years in the making. Unfortunately, it also seemed that it was also a little later because they it ended two months later with the truce to be friends. Luckily, the truth held and Andrew and Lita weren't awkward with each other. Even after he started dating Rita again.

Mina had made her first CD when she was seventeen and they were still in high school. It had been an instant hit and made it almost to the top of the billboards. They she released her second CD a little over a year and a half later and after that, announced that that was her 'I'm-sorry-but-I-decided-this-may-not-be-it-for-me' CD. This CD did hit the tops. She'd admitted to the girls that she'd missed them when her work pulled them away and she could easily settle for a normal life and immediately bought the top level of the apartment building with Serena and Amy. Five months later, she happily took the job as a receptionist at the hospital that Serena had told her about.

Unlike the others, she never tried dating. She had, since the beginning, always been the most in-tune one with the past. So, she got the vivid memories of the betrayal that happened to the four of them back in the Silver Millennium. And, as an affect, joined Serena in a short downward spiral that would have been worse if the other girls hadn't caught them so quickly. Ironically, this happened a month before she stopped making her music. Her four friends had the sinking feeling that this was one of the things that had caused the abrupt halt in her dreams, as she really did need her friends there.

Unfortunately for the two, a few of their bad habits had already been picked up and, even though they didn't show it, they still held onto the reasons that had caused them to start the habits in the first place.

Serena shook her head of her thoughts and brought her lighter and lit the white stick that she held in her mouth. Taking a deep puff she let it out slowly. This was one reason that she came up to the roof. It was one of the few places that they allowed her to smoke on hospital ground. They'd even supplied her with on of those large black, closed things that only had to holes to drop the finished cigarette into.

"You really should stop. It's bad for you," a voice called out behind her and Serena turned around to see Mina walk up beside her.

"You just ran out, didn't you?" Serena asked, knowing her friend had very little room to talk.

Mina smiled and put on a 'please' face. She nodded thanks as she took the offered cigarette from her and pulled out her lighter and lit it. Pulling it to her mouth and taking a small puff before she turned and sat on the ledge with her back against the fence.

Serena followed, her mind wondering back to Mina's, and her own, lighter. Mina's had been white on the bottom and orange on top, the two colors separated by a blue bow. The memory brought a smile to Serena's face. They'd found the 'Sailor Scout Influenced' lighters at a gas station. They'd bought nine, one for each of the Scouts, even though Mina and Serena, with Amara sometimes joining them for a quick smoke, were really the only smokers. The others found simple, everyday uses for them.

Mina was quiet for a few minutes, obviously keen to the fact that Serena was lost in thought, before she threw caution to the wind, "We're getting a new doctor from America, ya know?"

Serena took a deep breath, "Yeah. But, really, what are the chances?"

Mina shrugged and silence surrounded them once again. They'd grown close and silences didn't bother them. In fact, they could communicate silently just as well as they could with words. And, in this moment, they both knew what the other was thinking.

Worth continuing or not? It's up to you. So, yeah, review and tell me please. And, can someone tell me if there was ever an episode where one of the scouts made the comment of not being able to transform until Serena got there. I need to know what that line came off of. I heard it a LONG time ago and I don't even remember if I'm remembering the right show xD Please and thank you?