I don't own Sailor Moon, Hurt Before &c &c
Hurt Before
*What do you say*
*Show me the way
Show me, tell me how
What do you say…*
The weeks passed, and so did a month or so, and suddenly the end of November was approaching, along with that there was the General Meeting of the Board of Shareholders of the Diamond and Shields company. It was an important meeting which took place twice every year, where the members discussed how the company did during the six month period, and how the future plans looked like.
Serena was the president's secretary and therefore she was to attend the meeting, as she took care of important papers concerning the budget and economy of the firm. This meeting was bigger than the ones she attended every fortnight or so, as the senior Diamonds would be present too, and she wanted to make a good impression on her employers.
A few days before, Amara passed by her desk to inform that the meeting would start at eight in the morning, giving her an assuring smile, telling her not to worry about a thing just as long at she had her papers organized.
The last day before the meeting Serena stayed after hours making sure that everything was in perfect order. It seemed, however that Darien was just as ambitious, and he too stayed overtime. They were the last ones to leave the office (save Trista, she usually stays really late!) and shared the elevator ride down. They reached the ground floor; she was going out as Darien continued down to the garage.
"See you at eight," she exclaimed cheerfully.
"At eight?" he asked her gravely raising one eyebrow.
"Yes, at the General Meeting," she told him bluntly.
"Oh, that has been moved up to eight-thirty," he corrected her, "Mr. and Mrs. Diamond called this morning saying that they had business to do before arriving here."
"Oh—" Serena said surprised, as the elevator doors closed. It was one of his subtle nice gestures, she thought, because Darien was still the asshole from a month ago which she managed to somehow find herself in love with.
So, at five to eight sharp, she entered the conference room in order to make things even more perfect, when to her surprise she found it filled with people looking at her annoyed. She jumped back with surprise and frustration and stammered a good morning.
"Of all days to be late, Miss Moone," Damon rebuked the shocked Serena.
"I'm truly sorry," she uttered trembling with dissatisfaction over herself and uneasiness as she figured that everyone now say her as incompetent.
"Now, what might be the cause of this tardy, Ms. Moone?" she heard the dominating Mrs. Diamond ask in a frigid, disapproving tone. Instinctively Serena turned her eyes to Darien, who sat back relaxed enjoying her torture; she glared at his with fury, as if she wanted to rip him apart. "We have been waiting for the meeting to start for twenty-five minutes, now."
"Perhaps Mr. Shields might want to offer and explanation, Ma'am," she said in her half shaky voice, giving him a death glare, as she proceeded with handing down the papers to the people around the oval table.
"What could you possibly mean by that?" was his cool, stony response, and Mr. Diamond Sr. eyed her waiting for her to explain.
"I was told by, you, Sir, that the meeting had been moved up a half an hour," she explained, glaring at the criminal, "Why, you wanted me to be late is also a mystery to me."
"Darien!" Andrew shouted. "Did you just have to choose today to play one of your nasty pranks? How dare you? You know how important this meeting is, and not everyone has all the time in the world."
"Hey, don't blame me," he said nonchalantly, "It's not my fault that she's so trustworthy, and besides, she's the secretary around here."
"It's normal for people to trust their coworkers, Mr. Shields," Serena commented. "Perhaps you have an excess of energy which you let out by tormenting lower ranked colleagues. I would advice you to be more mature, and waste your energy on collecting butterflies, or playing golf, so as to preserve the well being of others."
She heard Michelle trying to repress a chuckle, obviously succeeding miserably. Then she saw how Darien glared at the woman sitting beside him. That scary, mad scientist, Heathcliff look. He turned to Serena with the same expression.
"Don't give me that shrink talk," he retorted, "I don't need your advice."
"No, for people like you it takes a while before you realize that you are in desperate need for help!" she snapped back at him, ignoring her fear of him, as she needed to release the ball of fury that he managed to coil up inside of her. She sat on the only unoccupied chair beside Damon, and waited for him to start the meeting.
Darien was about to answer that, but his older cousin cut him off by saying that it was a shame that he had to go around bullying employees and that if he didn't tone down his behavior he'd be out of his job, making Darien flash one of his stony Mona Lisa smiles, perfectly aware that there was no way Diamond and Shields could afford to discharge him (he was the best).
And so the boring meeting started, with Mr. and Mrs. Diamond having a poor impression of the new secretary slash counselor. But by the end of it the tables turned as no one could possibly be as stiff as Darien; immune to her radiant disposition.
As for Serena, deep down she was struggling to understand why she was attracted to such an imbecile. She knew that was there was a softer side in him, but obviously, he didn't want her to feel it, so why didn't her heart just give up already? That's where the answer got tricky; she couldn't give up until she knew what he had against her. She could think of nothing she had done that would make him dislike her so (save that incident at the grocery store, but it was just for fun), and when she asked him why he was being so mean he either refused to respond or just said that it was because she existed. But what kind of answer was that? The case was the she hated to be in love with him, but her heart wanted what it wanted.
Later that day, when she was preparing to go home, Trista called her to her office. Awkwardly, she mentioned that she needed to talk, and Serena, being the counselor and all, seemed like the right person to talk to. Serena was only too happy to stay with Trista, over the weeks she had had many such requests from other co workers, but never had one of her superiors come to her.
"I've been thinking about what you said to my brother this morning," she started with her eyes on her desk, doodling on a piece of paper. "Perhaps we do need help, and maybe it as you said with me too, that it takes time before we realize it, so I'm asking for your help now, before it's too late."
"Oh, you didn't have to take it so seriously," Serena soothed, "I said it only because I was hurt and I wanted to hurt him back…"
"But even so, you are right," she insisted. "The only normal person of us is Amy. She is still happy with her husband and doesn't have the eccentric traits that my brother and I are famous for. I wish I could get back with my ex-husband, you know. Sometimes I want it so much that it hurts…"
"Tell me, why did you divorce?" Serena asked gently, and noticed that Trista had stopped doodling and was not relaxed with her presence.
"He was being unfaithful," Trista answered. "I'd like to know why…It could be that I was just a difficult person to deal with— Darien and I have always been difficult."
"In what way?"
"We were never good with people. The counselor at high school told our guardians that we were asocial and rude. Amy always managed to gain a friend or two— but not us. People just seemed to annoy us, and we enjoyed being alone, I guess."
"Why did people annoy you?"
"They all look so happy. Why must their lives be so good and perfect?" Trista said calmly.
"No one's life is perfect; it can be good, but never perfect. Sometimes people feel down, but they rise again. Now, why don't you think your life is good?"
"Right now I'm content, I've got Hutaru, but I'd like us three to be a family again. It's not fair for others to be so happy, like Amy for instance. She never missed a family. She was too young to remember our parent's death— they died in a plane crash— so she easily fit in with the Diamonds, who took care of us. We never belonged, Darien and I. I always wanted to belong… I wanted Damon to notice me ever since I was twelve, and ten years later when he asked me to marry him I was the happiest person! I was overjoyed to have my own family— but that didn't last long, it never lasts long! Damon's happier sleeping with twenty-something year olds…"
"Well, it looks like you're still not over Mr. Diamond. I'm not an expert in relationships, having never been in one, myself," Serena started. "But the lady who lived next door to my family had her husband leave her for a twenty-something year old after almost thirty years of marriage. She cried for over a month… she devoted almost her whole life to him."
"And he just left her like that? Wow, can you believe how awful men can be?" Trista exclaimed shocked.
"Midlife crisis can do that to a person," Serena replied dryly. "She didn't leave her room for almost a month, she lay there crying, watching soap operas, and eating chocolate. Then she got angry at him, for making her waste her life for him, for making her get fat, for cheating on her, and for endless of other things, so she started boxing to lose weight and to relieve herself off her anger, and grief. It took nearly two years for her to be normal again, and it normally does take time. In the process she joined a feminist group, burned all of the things that belong to her husband or that reminded her of him. She even destroyed the nice little garden in the front lawn and built a gazebo on it. But now, she's happily dating again.
"I'm not saying you should go to such extremes, but one has to start doing things that one enjoys to do. Think of the things you could never do because you were married and just go for it. Try something new; try something that you wouldn't dare to do. Spend more time with your daughter; get to know her better, instead of working yourself to death. Then, whenever there is a vacation, you could always go away, just to avoid seeing Mr. Diamond…"
"I think I'll start with crying then," Trista smiled weakly with her eyes already starting to water. "It won't be that hard…"
"Yes, and don't worry, it's okay to cry, and feel pain, a person can only get better if she lets it out. Crying is a good way to let it all out."
"Thanks…" Trista whispered before Serena left.
She left only to bump into Darien.
"You'll never learn to watch where you're going, will you?" he growled at her annoyed, and looked even more irritated when she looked at him with a friendly smile, apologizing. "What are you doing here so late, anyway?" he added nervously, as he felt as if he was being searched.
"Being a shrink," Serena answered, "I have time for you too."
"You would like that, wouldn't you?" he told her coolly, "But, I'm not about to satisfy you any time soon."
"Well, then, have a nice weekend, Mr. Shields," she greeted him and headed home. Headed home to cry over the morning's humiliation, and angrily punch some of the pillows, imagining they were him. Then she'd fall asleep, heartbroken.
Fiy-chan & kirei*snow*tenshi: Thank you, I'm glad u thought it was funny…
serena79 & Lara1786: Thank you, I'll try go on updating so often!
Silver Running Water: I've been thinking about what you said, and going over the story I think I know what you mean, but I'm really not sure… so, I'd be a great help if you'd give an example so I can actually see what you mean (only if you have the time, of course), and improve. I've had my sister try to find an example that would illustrate what you mean, and the pointed out the parts where Serena goes suddenly from being scared of Darien to trying to annoy him... and I guess I had a point with it, because as we go along she starts to talk back to him more and more to show that she isn't intimidated by him, but in reality she'll keep wondering what she has done… but I guess I didn't do a job getting my point across *sigh* gomen…
SteelHeartRose *goes super deformed: bounce, bounce* Thanks… now how I came up with this? That was a long time ago, when I was writing Breathless, and I though I'd do one more song/fan fic with my fave song in the album…which is Hurt Before. Heh, then I wrote stuff that vaguely fit with the song in chemistry class (that class is to friggin' boring).
Anyway, I thought I'd talk about Heathcliff… from Wuthering Heights by one of the Brontë sisters (read the book! It's great!)… Don't you just love him? In a weird sadistic way? Although Hareton is much better… he all pretty and sensitive and in love with Catherine.