Hey guys! Here I am with a new chapter. Life has been a crazy up and down roller coaster right now that dedicates all my free time to other things. I hope from now on, it'll get better :)

"Serena… Serena it's time to wake up sweetheart." Darien whispered sweetly as he gently shook my shoulder.

"What time is it?" I groaned as I snuggled deeper into the bed and threw the covers over my face.

"It's only 11." Darien laughed heartily, "I made you breakfast, come get it before it cools."

I perked up at the sound of breakfast. "Oh yummy, why didn't you say that any sooner!" I squealed as I hopped out of bed and skipped to the kitchen.

When I walked into the kitchen, the sweet aroma of scrambled eggs, toast and bacon entered my nose. It smelled heavenly. I sat down at the table and began to wolf down my food, while I did that I burned my tongue.

"Hot! Hot! Hot!" I mumbled as I stuck my tongue out and waved my hands over it, trying to cool it down. Darien laughed a deep chuckle.

"You're such a silly girl you know that? But that's why I love you." He said quietly as he tucked a stray hair behind my ear.

"Well a girl has to eat, no matter how dangerous it may seem." I teased. I knew what Darien was doing. He was edging around the sensitive subject I didn't want to talk about.

"Serena, you know we need to talk about this." Darien's face lacked the playful behavior he had before.

"I don't wanna." I refused to look up from my plate as I pushed the food around. Mother had no right to talk like that to me. I couldn't believe that she would give Darien a chance. I mean I could understand that she would be upset with what she walked in on, but that didn't mean that she needed to escalate that quickly.

"Come on Serena," Darien gently lifted my head up, making me look him in the eyes. "As much as I would love for you to stay here forever, we both know you can't."

"I know, but I don't want to be separated from you. I can't be without you anymore." I said sadly.

"Your mother only wants what is best for you." Darien said sternly.

"She doesn't know what is best for me. My mother just wants to control me. I wish she was never my mother." I gasped as I covered my mouth. I shouldn't have said that to Darien. All he wanted was to know his biological mother and a chance to actually be able to spend time with his adoptive mother. "Oh my god, I am so sorry Darien. I didn't-"

Darien's face immediately changed to frustration. "Don't you ever say that. Ever. You will regret that. You should be grateful you still have your mother."

"I know, but she is always so frustrating. She always has to interfere with my life."

"That's what mothers are for Serena. They're there for you when you're down and they are there for you to protect you." He said with so much emotion behind it. I could see how this was a sensitive subject for him. "I can understand why she was so upset. I mean I would get a little upset if my daughter was making out with a half-naked man in her kitchen." He said teasingly.

"I guess I can see that, but could we just leave it alone till tomorrow? I think she'll be okay until then right?"

"Maybe you should send her a text saying you're okay and that you'll talk to her tomorrow. That should probably keep her from calling the police on you."

"That's probably a good idea." I said as I stood up from the table, and took a nice long stretch. "Let me go and send her one. I'll be right back."

I walked back into Darien's room and sat down on his bed as I grabbed my cell out of my purse. I turned it on and received an explosion of texts messages and missed calls, all from my mother. Most said "Serena please come back, I'm so sorry." Or something like, "Please can we talk about this." I sent a text saying that I was fine and found a place to stay and that I need time from her and I would contact her tomorrow morning. I received a text immediately saying that would be okay and to be safe. I closed my phone and placed it on the nightstand. I put my head in my hands. I felt so exhausted from these past few days. It was like the universe was just working against me and Darien. Like it said we could never be together. First there was Raye with her threats and then my mother who could actually tear me and Darien apart with a snap of her fingers.

I didn't know how long I sat there thinking until I heard a knock on the door. I looked up and saw Darien leaning in the doorway, observing me. "Hey are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm good, just a little stressed." I was able to muster up a small smile. Darien walked over and sat on the bed and wrapped his strong arms around me. With his arms around me like this I felt like we could face anything and everything together. I knew we would both fight to be together. No matter how much it took out of us. "So I texted my mother, and she's fine. I'll call her tomorrow about what to do next."

"Sounds good. How about we have a day in?"

"Oh a day in? What kind of things to you have planned?" I said teasingly as I planted light butterfly kisses against his cheek. "Something interesting perhaps?"

"Oh nothing too interesting, maybe some movies, board games, something of that nature?"

And that is what we did for the day. We cuddle on his couch and watched movies. We watched a comedy, and a romance. Which Darien poked fun at my tears as I shed a few during the professing of love scene. After that we played some board games, where I beat his butt at some of the games. But that might have been because he let me win a few. At the end of our nice day in we had a nice little dinner to finish on a sweet note.

Darien cooked up a homemade bowl of ramen with some fried egg on top, which was so delicious and made my mouth water.

"Darien do you really enjoy cooking? Your food is always so yummy!"

Darien gave me a soft smile as he said "One of the few times that I actually got to spend time with my adoptive mother, she showed me how to cook a few things. So I guess you can say yeah I do enjoy cooking. I feel like it brings me closer to my mother."

"Oh..." I said softly. He seemed a bit sad at telling me, but it was gone just as quickly as it came. "Well my mother never really taught me how to cook. I am just a tad bit awful at it. I once set the fire alarm off, and I told my mother it was fine because it was cheering me on." I giggled as I was trying to change the topic away from his mother.

He laughed a deep chuckle, "I could see you telling her that." After that dinner was just us bantering back and forth teasing one another of childhood mishaps.

While we cleaned the dishes is when Darien brought up the topic of my mother again. "You know we have to talk about what your plans are for tomorrow."

"I know," I said without looking at him, I knew once I looked at his eyes I would feel guilty about what was happening with my mother. "I just don't know exactly what I am suppose to do."

"How about we give your mother a chance to know me?" He questioned.

"What do you mean by that?" I said warily. I didn't know exactly where he was going with this.

"Let's have dinner with her. I think I can manage to woo myself into her good graces." He winked at me as he laughed.

"You don't know her. She'll never accept you after what happened." I said scared, I didn't want to lose Darien after all this. "What if she won't accept you, I can't lose you Darien." I started to shed tears.

Darien comes over and wraps his warm arms around me, and the smells of roses comforts me as I snuggle into his chest. "You won't ever have to worry about that again, I promise I will never ever leave you Serena for as long as I live." He said with sincerity. "We just have to give your mother a chance to learn about me, and us. I am sure she'll understand your feelings. She doesn't want to lose you just as much as you don't want to lose me. She is your mother, and you are her daughter. She loves you more than you'll ever know."

I sniffled a bit, "Okay you're right. I'll go ahead and call her tomorrow morning and ask her about it." All I could hope is that Darien was right and that this plan was going to work.

That the end of this chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed it :) I am hoping that I will be able to write more, and not leave you guys hanging for so long. Life just gets out of control sometimes. Don't for get to review guys!

~ Nerine