Disclaimer: I do not own Roseanne; the series are its characters are all property of Carsey-Werner

Forbidden Love

Written by: SSJ God SS Juuhachi

Chapter 27: Sensibilities.

Roseanne sat on the couch watching TV when the front door opened. She turned toward it and saw her middle-child walk inside.

"Darlene,"

Darlene sighed, "I don't have time for this, all right? I'll be in my room doing homework."

Roseanne pursed her lips; she might as well wait till Dan gets home to talk about it. She turned as she heard the back door, and DJ entered the kitchen.

"Hi, Mom." He greeted his mother, taking off his bookbag.

"Hey, DJ,"

"I'm going to get a snack; do you want one?"

"Sure,"

DJ walked over to the pantry and got down a pack of Little Debbie brownies. He pulled one out and walked to the living room.

After he removed the wrapper, they split it.

"Thanks, sweetie."

"You're welcome."

"How was school today?"

"Fine," DJ answered, "How was your day?"

"It was good, thanks for asking,"

Just then, they heard the back door and turned to it. Mother and son walked into the kitchen to see who it was and discovered it was Becky.

"Hey, Becky," Roseanne said,

"Hey," The blonde responded, "Ah, thank god, I'm home." She sighed, taking off her coat.

Mark walked in time to hear her say this, "Did you have a hard day at work today, babe?"

"Just the usual rude customers is all,"

"You sure?" He took off his jacket. "Because normally your able to handle rude customers. Did something else happen?" Mark asked as the couple walked into the kitchen.

"My supervisor complained at me for being late,"

"Ah, that sucks,"

"Yeah, so that kinda put me in a bit of a bad mood,"

Roseanne began gathering the ingredients she needed for her meatloaf. "It's your fault. If you had let me take Darlene to school, you wouldn't have been late,"

"Thank you for that, Mom."

"Just being honest,"

"Well, in any case, your home now and can relax," Mark bent down and kissed her cheek.

"Thanks, babe." She smiled, "How was your day?"

"Oh, you know, same as usual." The dark-haired man walked over and grabbed a soda from the fridge, "I might have pulled something it's nothing worry about, though,"

"You call that pain? Just wait till your 40, Mark; that is when arthritis starts kicking in," Roseanne said, putting the meatloaf together.

"Oh, god." The young man whined,

"It will be okay, honey; I'll give you a nice massage later. That will ease up those sore muscles."

"That sounds nice," Mark muttered, sitting down. He noticed his mother-in-law staring at him and Becky.

"Oh no, don't stop on my account. Just keep on your lovey-doveyness. I already threw up a couple of times today, your helping work up another one."

Dan then walked through the door, "Hello family," He greeted them, "What did I miss?"

"Becky said she's going to give Mark a massage later," Roseanne said as she put the meatloaf in the oven.

"Next time, a simple "Nothing" would suffice."

Roseanne smiled, "Dinner will be in an hour,"

Later that evening, the family sat eating meatloaf, everyone except Darlene. She had in front of her a veggie burger and fries.

"How was your day today?" Dan asked his wife

"Good, I finished up a lot of paperwork; and supervised the guys fixing the buses. How was yours?"

"Fine," Roseanne answered, "After I stopped by the High School today," She glanced at Darlene, noticing the teen looked uncomfortable, "I stopped by Buy N' Bag and picked up a few things."

"You stopped by the school?" Darlene asked

"Yes, I did, and I talked with Principal Hiller."

"About taking me out of school?"

"Yeah,"

"And so what's the verdict?"

"Well, nothing right now," She said, "Mr. Hiller said he was going to look into what happened at school; and do an investigation of who was it that started the fight,"

"I can save you the time; it was Marcy."

"We know, but the school still has to do an investigation."

"Fine," Darlene responded, annoyed, "What else did you talk about; Oh, let me guess, you talked to him about having me homeschooled?"

"I did, actually, yes."

Darlene closed her eyes and shook her head.

"I knew it..." She said, crossing her arms

"Darlene, hear your Mom out..."

"Listen, I know you think that this is all about me, and I am trying to control your life, but Darlene, you have to see this from my point of view. First, you get beat up and end up in the hospital; we have no idea what happened. Then we find out kids are picking on you, and now this fight, it's clear you are having problems in school, and I thought having you homeschooled would help you,"

"What would you know what would help me; you never even asked me what I thought about all of this. You just decided for me,"

"I just want what's best for you, Darlene."

Darlene rolled her eyes, "Keep telling yourself that, Mom."

"Principal Hiller also suggested that I should listen to you and ask you what you thought and that we discuss it."

"If Darlene gets homeschooled, can I also get homeschooled?" DJ chimes in, giving his parents the best smile he could muster.

"No," Dan and Roseanne said in unison.

Roseanne then turned to Darlene, "So come on, Darlene, tell me how you feel about the situation? Do you want to stay in school, or would you rather be homeschooled?"

"Does it really matter what I think? You have already made your decision of what you want to do,"

"Just answer the question, all right? Do you want to stay in school, or do you want to be homeschooled?"

"I want to stay in school,"

"Why do you want to stay? Is there a particular reason..."

"Yeah," Darlene replied, turning to her mom, "Because I have a friend there, and unlike you, she has made an effort to make everything that has happened a lot better, and that makes being there a little more tolerable."

Darlene raised an en eyebrow, noticing her sister and brother-in-law smiling at her. "What are you two smiling about?" She asked, raisin

"Nothing, I'm just glad that you're going to stay in school," Becky replied

"Mark?"

"I'm just happy; that you are happy,"

Darlene shook her head, "You two are weird,"

"Now that discussion is over, father and I will discuss this and decide on what your punishment should be,"

"You already took away my car keys, my freedom, and stole my future; what more of a punishment can you give me?"

"I think she's got you there, Mrs. Conner," Mark commented.

Roseanne shot him a look before turning back to Darlene.

"If you remember right, we gave you part of that back,"

"You gave me back the weekend, and the only reason you did that is that you wanted me to go to that stupid dance,"

"It's better than nothing,"

"It's hardly anything, two days. You might as well; throw the book at me and give the prison jumpsuit."

Roseanne turned to her husband, "Dan, you want to help me out here?"

"I'm not going to be part of this, Rosie."

"What?" Roseanne asked as everyone else looked shocked.

"Darlene didn't do anything wrong, Roseanne. What she did, she did it to defend herself."

She glared at him

"I told Darlene I would never punish her as long as what she did was in self-dense, and that's what she did." He said firmly, "If you want to punish her, go ahead, but leave me out of it."

Everyone looked at Roseanne expectantly.

She turned to her daughter, "You will be helping out at the Lunch Box after school,"

"Of course you would choose that," Darlene said exasperatedly, "What about my chores?"

"DJ will do them,"

"What?" The young boy exclaimed, "That's not fair!"

"It's either you do Darlene's chores, or you can help out at the Lunch Box,"

"Fine, I'll do her chores,"

"It's settled then," Roseanne smiled.

"You're going to torture me with this again," Darlene said, glaring at her mother. "You know how I feel being around meat."

"That's why it's the perfect punishment,"

"Mom, stop it,"

"No, I told her that choices have consequences., well here it is. You're going to work at the Lunch Box until this matter with school resolves itself,"

"Am I at least going to get paid for it?"

"Of course, I'm not a monster, Darlene. Do we have a deal?"

"Deal,"

Dan breathed a sigh of relief, "Balance has been restored,"

"And I will be picking you up from school every day and taking you to work,"

"Great, as if it's not punishment, having to work in that place, now I have to deal with the humiliation of my mom picking me up from school,"

"Alright, meeting adjourned," Dan lightly banged the table before another possible argument; can break out.

"Did you finish your homework?"

"Yes," Darlene answered.

"Good. Now that you; are done eating, I want you to go get ready for bed."

Darlene glared at her.

"Now!"

Darlene got up from the table and went upstairs to go; brush her teeth.

After she was gone, Roseanne turned to her son, "DJ, you too, go get ready for bed,"

The young boy glared at her before storming upstairs.

Roseanne begins clearing the dishes from the table.

"Oh, Mom, let me help you with that," Becky said as she tried to take the dishes from her mother as she walked toward the sink.

"Don't worry about it, Becky, why don't you and Mark go upstairs-"

Becky cringed, "Mom, please,"

Roseanne placed the dishes in the sink, "And get some rest; you have to get up early," She finished her sentence.

Becky looked at her

"What, did you think I was going to say something about the massage?"

"Well, yeah,"

"Come on, Becky, you know me better than that. Now I'll do these dishes; you two go upstairs and get some sleep,"

"Okay, thanks, Mom." The couple smiled at each other as they made their way out of the kitchen.

As they entered the living room, Roseanne spoke up again, "Enjoy your massage, Mark."

"T-Thank you, Mrs. Conner; I will,"

Becky sighed, "We really need to get our own place."

Mark and Becky then go upstairs in hopes of having their privacy.

Upstairs, Mark laid shirtless on the bed stretched on his stomach, his arms folded in front of him while Becky straddled his waist, giving him a massage.

"I'm not hurting you, am I?"

"No, but can you move a little to the right?" She does as he asked her, "Right there, oh, that feels great. Don't be afraid to get in there,"

"I thought for sure tonight there would be yelling and screaming, that Mom and Darlene would be at each other's throats, but it wasn't that bad this time,"

"That's because once in her life, your Mom stayed quiet long enough to listen,"

CRACK

Becky's eyes widen, "Was that your shoulder?"

Mark rolled his shoulder, "Yup,"

"Did it hurt?"

"No,"

"You sure?" Becky worriedly asked

"Yeah, it wasn't painful at all; to be honest, it felt relaxing."

"Okay," She said as she continued with the massage. "Hey, did you notice that was the first time that Darlene acknowledged Molly as her friend?

"Yeah, it was," Mark smiled, "It's nice to her opening up and slowly letting someone in again,"

"Yeah, she has; after her break up with David, she just shut herself off from people, refusing to let herself get close to anyone,"

Becky finished the massage and got off him. Afterward, Mark rolled his shoulders a moment; before putting his shirt back on, feeling much better after the massage.

"Kinda like you when we met, you were closed off and withdrawn, but then you opened up as we got closer,"

"Well, that's because you were such a positive influence," Mark smiled, "You brought out the best in me, Becks."

He pressed his forehead against hers, "You accepted me for who I am and never tried to change me," Becky then added, touching his face.

"I love you, Becky,"

"I love you too, Mark."

The two then shared a brief but sweet kiss.

"Let's go to bed; we both have to get up early to go to work," Mark and Becky got on either side of the bed and pulled back the covers, climbing under them. They snuggled close together, holding one another.

"Goodnight, sweetheart,"

"Night, babe." Mark kissed her forehead tenderly before they both closed their eyes, falling asleep within minutes.

Darlene lay under the covers, staring up at the ceiling of her room. She brought her hand up and touched her cheek where Molly had kissed her.

"I wonder why she did that?" She shook the thought from her mind, "I'm not going to get any sleep if I keep wondering about this. I'll ask Becky's opinion about it in the morning,"

Afterward, she turned off her light and turned on her side, closing her eyes, and soon fell asleep.

Morning soon came; the family sat around the table for breakfast, pancakes in front of them, with maple syrup and butter in front of them. Roseanne looked around the table when she noticed one family member was still missing.

"DJ, can you do me a favor? Can you go wake your sister and tell her breakfast is ready,"

DJ smirked, "With pleasure,"

DJ goes downstairs and soon arrives at Darlene's door. He opened the door and walked inside, finding his sister lying still on her stomach, with one arm dangling off the mattress.

He walks over to her, a smile still on his face as he plans to yell and scare her awake.

DJ got close to her and opened his mouth to shout when she suddenly grabbed him by his shirt collar, and her eyes snapped open.

"Ahhhh!" DJ yelled

Darlene got out of bed, keeping her grip on him. "You thought you could scare me, huh?"

"Mom, Dad, help!"

Upstairs Roseanne and Dan looked at each other before turning towards Mark and Becky.

"Can you two go see what's keeping them so long?"

"You want us down there?" Mark asked

"Yeah,"

"You just don't want to go down there, right?"

"Right, go."

Mark sighed, "All right, let's go, Beck."

Becky and Mark went downstairs where they heard DJ yell, "Let me go!"

They walked into Darlene's room, where they find, she had DJ lifted on his tippy toes, a scared look on his face.

"Darlene, let him go, right now," Becky said firmly.

Darlene turned to Becky for a moment before turning back to DJ, "Next time you try that, you won't get off with just a scare, you understand?"

DJ nodded his head

"Good, now get out of here,"

She released him, and as he ran from the room, he shouted, "Enjoy pushing loose meat sandwiches today!"

"Enjoy doing the vacuuming!"

"Darlene, Mom told him to come down here,"

"Is that so?" She asked, annoyed "Well, you can tell the queen I have an invention called an alarm clock; and don't need rat boy to come down here and wake me up!"

"I think she heard you," Mark said

"Breakfast is ready if you want some,"

"I'll be up in a minute," Darlene said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"I think she wants you up there now,"

"I said I'll be up in a minute!" She snapped

"All right, geez," Becky mumbled.

"Come on, Becky, let's go," Mark beckoned for his wife to follow him.

"See you upstairs," Becky said as she turned to leave.

"Becky, wait..."

Becky turned back to her.

Darlene stared at her, wondering whether or not to ask her about the kiss before deciding it wasn't the right time.

"No, nothing, never mind..." Darlene shook her head

"What is it, Darlene?" Becky then asked, "Is everything all right?"

"Yeah, everything is fine, just forget I said anything..."

"Are you sure? You look like something bothering you,"

"No, I'm fine, see you upstairs,"

"Okay," Becky wasn't convinced but let things go for now and walked away.

Upstairs the family was eating pancakes when Darlene emerged from the basement and sat down next to her sister.

"You look tired, Darlene," Dan said, noticing the bags under Darlene's eyes.

"I didn't get a lot of sleep last night,"

"How come?" He asked

"I had some things on my mind,"

"Well, I hope you didn't lose much; we're going to need you at your best today at the restaurant,"

"Don't worry, I'll still be able to work this afternoon," Darlene told her mother.

Finished with breakfast, Dan polished off what was left of his coffee, "Come on, Mark, we got to go, or we're going to be late,"

"Right behind you, Dan." Mark finished his coffee and dumped his cup in the sink, along with Dan.

"I'll see you later, babe." He kissed Becky on the cheek before he and Dan walked towards the back door, grabbing their coats as they headed out.

The bus driver then honks the horn.

"DJ, your bus is here," Roseanne said, handing him his lunch, "See you later,"

"Yeah," He muttered as he then walked out the door.

Roseanne turned to her middle child, "Come on, Darlene, I'll take you to school."

"No, your not," Darlene said, "It's embarrassing enough you are going to pick me up from school; you're not taking me there too."

"Fine, well, here's your lunch," Roseanne handed Darlene a brown paper bag.

"Fine," Darlene turned to Becky, "You mind taking me to school again?"

"Not at all, but we have to hurry. I can't afford to be late for work again."

"Alright, let's get going then,"

"See you later, Mom," Becky called back to her mother.

"Okay," Roseanne said, "See you later, Darlene. Have a good day,"

Darlene didn't answer though, she grabbed her coat and slammed the door behind her as she and Becky left.

The sisters were soon on the road, and Darlene began rolling down the window.

"What are you doing; I have the heat on."

Darlene didn't answer. She continued to roll down the window till she got it down low enough that she could throw her lunch out.

"Why did you do that?"

"I don't want her stupid lunch,"

"Someone is in a mood," Becky teased.

"Well, you would be too if she robbed you of your future, took away your freedom, and is now making you push loose meat, though she knows your vegetarian."

"I know it's not fair, Darlene-"

"But?"

"But it could have always been worse she could have taken you out of school and forced you to be, homeschooled,"

"That's true, I guess,"

"That was sweet yesterday what you said about Molly," Becky smiles, "When you said she was your friend,"

"Well, she is," Darlene said, "She is the only one in that whole damn school that hasn't judged me or treated me as an outcast."

"That's good; I'm glad you found a friend, Darlene."

"Yeah," Darlene paused briefly, "Becky, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure,"

"Let's say that your friends with someone and you've been friends for a little while, and when you were walking this friend to class, they suddenly kissed you. How would you feel about it?"

"Molly kissed you, didn't she?"

"Just answer the question, please."

"All right, well, it would depend on how long I knew them and how close we were; if I had known them a while and we were good friends, I might be flattered by the kiss. But if it was someone I didn't know very well, and they did that, it would probably freak me out."

Darlene nods her head in understanding.

"Now answer my question; did Molly kiss you?"

"Yes," Darlene responded after a moment.

"Where at?"

"On the cheek,"

"And how did that make you feel?"

"I don't know; it kinda caught me off guard and caused a reaction,"

"A good reaction or a bad reaction?"

"When she kissed me, my heart began racing, and I felt a rush of different emotions. The same thing happened later after school when she took my hand in hers right before she left. I have never felt like that before..."

"Not even with David?"

Darlene shook her head.

"I don't know, Darlene, it sounds to me you like her,"

"What? No, Molly and I are just friends, that's all,"

"Okay, but I am just saying the same thing happened to me after Mark kissed me on the cheek. I felt a rush of different emotions, and my heart began racing. Not to mention, it was difficult to sleep."

Becky soon pulled up in front of the school, "Look, Darlene; go in there and see how you are around her; if you get the same reaction, then it's clear your feelings have toward her have changed,"

"And if they have, what do I do?"

"You sit down, and you figure out exactly what those feelings are,"

"How long did it take you, you know, before you realized you had feelings for Mark?"

"There is no set time for these things, Darlene. All I can tell you is that one day it will just hit you, and when that happens, you will look at that person, and you won't be able to imagine your life without them in it."

"And that happened to you?"

"Yes, I can never imagine my life without him, and he can't imagine his without me,"

Darlene nodded, "Well, thanks for the ride, Becky; I appreciate it."

"No problem," Becky smiled, "And try not to let Mom what says get to you today,"

"I'll try,"

"Have a good day,"

"Thanks, you too," Darlene got out of the car, slung her book bag on her shoulder, and walked inside. After she was inside, Becky pulled away and began heading to work.