Chapter Fourteen

Nightmares

----------------

While in the car, Ken asked Darien a series of questions.

"Ever been arrested?" He asked.

"No."

"Okay, just one last question." He paused and took a deep breath in. "What are your intentions with my daughter?"

"My intentions, well, I'd like to date her for a few years."

"Then, you're just going to leave her-" Ken interrupted.

"No, not at all! I was going to say I'd like to date her for a while, then I want to ask her to marry me if things work out between us...and I think they will...with your permission of course." Darien added at the last minute.

"Good, I was going to have to beat you senseless. But you two seem very happy when your together. I haven't seen my daughter glow with this much happiness in years. And I'd love for you to become a part of our family."

"Thank you very much, Ken."

"If you do join our family, you'll be calling me dad." He smirked.

"Okay...dad." Darien gave out a little sigh, but Ken just brushed it off when Darien looked at him with a reassuring smile.

"What about your friends. They seem nice, are they as good-willed as you?" Ken asked, thinking of the frame.

"Yah, we were actually going to do a quintuple date and ask the girls to be our girlfriends together, but I just couldn't wait. I love your daughter too much to have put it off any more."

"I was just making sure, these girls are Serena's dearest friends, and she'd kill someone if they ever hurt her dearest friends."

"I know sir, I'd kill my friends if they ever hurt any girl...and they're my dearest friends."

"Well I'm glad that you are putting so much care into your relationship with Serena."

"I'd put nothing but care and love into our relationship." Darien realized that they've been sitting in the driveway for a few minutes now.

"I'm glad, now lets get my hungry daughter her food before she eats her sofa." They laughed.

"Let's."

----------------

As they sat down to eat dinner, Ilene came in the door.

"I'm sorry guys, where'd you get the food from?"

"It's okay mom, Darien's buddies picked up some on their way home today." Serena said between bites.

"Well you wanna come with me after dinner to go grocery shopping?" Ilene said, taking a seat in front of an empty plate.

"Sure!"

"How about you Darien, you might want to tag along so I know what you like and dislike." Ilene scooped a helping of mashed potatoes onto her plate.

"Sure, sounds good." Darien said.

----------------

After they returned from their shopping, it was already 9:30 and Ilene had to get up at 5 for work.

"Good night you two, thank you for the help." Ilene said walking to her room, leaving the two at Serena's door.

"Night mom."

"Night Ilene."

She retreated to her room, and Darien and Serena walked into her room.

"I've gotta get changed." she pondered a minute. "I'll change in my bathroom, and you can change in my room."

"Okay."

Serena grabbed her pj's and headed for her attached bathroom as Darien started to unbutton his shirt.

After they were done with that, Darien helped Serena pull out the pull-out bed from the couch.

"You have a very big room, Serena."
"Yah...more room then I need."

"But it's good for a sleepover, though. Enough room for four sleeping bags, and more."
"They come over so often for sleepovers, I have mini beds for them." She giggled.

Darien leaned in for a goodnight kiss...that is until she yawned.

"I'm sorry, I'm tired." They both just laughed.

"It's okay. If you need me at all, just come wake me, okay?" He said.

"Okay, that goes for you too." They had their goodnight kiss and went to their respective sleeping locations.

----------------

Serena lay there, unable to sleep, being that she had slept in so late this morning. She decided to pull her chair over next to her bed where Darien lay sound asleep to watch him. She had been sitting for a good 45 minutes before she noticed that he was tossing and turning on the bed. He seems to be having a dream, and by the tossing and turning, a nightmare. He started to mumble something, then minutes later, started to sweat.

"No, you can't, I won't let that happen." Darien murmured.

"It's okay. Nothing bad is going to happen." Serena said softly, grabbing his hand in hers.

"You can never take her away from me, she's the one that I love and always will." He continued despite Serena's efforts.

"I will always protect you, Serena, you must remember that."

"I'm here with you, Darien. Everything will be okay, it's just a dream." Serena looked confused, but whispered into his ear.

Darien finally calmed down. Serena just yawned, still confused. I'm really tired, but I want to make sure everything's okay with Darien. I'll just stay here a few more minutes... She laid her head down using her spare arm as a pillow, slowly drifting off into sleep.

Her Dream:

It was a beautiful night when Serena and Darien were walking in the park. Serena was draped on Darien's arm like always until she was pulled from behind.

"Ah, what are you doing?" Serena screeched as she was pulled from Darien's arm.

"Serena, what's wrong?" Darien turned around to see what Serena was doing, only to find a man holding her at gun point. "What do you want, I'll give you anything, just don't hurt her."

"But you see, all I want is her. I just want to kill her..." The mugger said with a smirk.

"No, you can't, I won't let that happen." Darien screamed.

The mugger just laughed.

"You can never take her away from me, she's the one that I love and always will." Darien yelled to the mugger.

There was a strong with, rustling the leaves behind the mugger. When he looked to see what it was, Darien kicked him where it would count. The mugger just bent over in pain, letting Serena fall to the ground. Darien pulled her away and started to run, until he heard a bang, and felt pain in his back. He'd been shot.

He fell to the ground telling Serena to keep going, leave him.

"I can't, I have to help you." Serena bent next to him.

"I will always protect you, Serena, you must remember that." He said, falling limp into her arms.

She heard another bang, before she jolted awake.