***** I'm back again. I must be doing something right, because within the first half of the day that the story is posted, I get five reviews. Since the story is getting more harder to write, I think I'm going to up the ante of five to eight reviews. That shouldn't be too hard, really it shouldn't be. Plus considering the fact that I posted chapter six well before I got the reviews that I asked for. But I couldn't help it, I finished it, and wanted to put it in. I knew you'd all be excited over seeing Serena telling Darien about Rini.

Now, the reaction to the cliffhanger... come on, you couldn't expect it all to pull through like a fairy tale. I'm still working out ideas. Originally, I was going to have the party as chapter five, but I thought it was important for Rini to make Serena promise to let her see her father. It heightened the whole thing, I think. But enough about that, I'm just glad that y'all like it.

Again, I must say that I don't own S.M characters. But this is my story, so if they want it, they can pay me... but then it doesn't work with S.M. Darn. But one can dream. Hope you enjoy!!!! *****

... Still at the party....

"Did I hear you correctly?" Darien asked her after some time. The song had ended, but they were still standing on the dance floor. Darien's face still holding it's wild disbelief.

Serena took a deep breath. "You did if you heard me say that you're the father of my child. If you didn't hear that, then I guess you heard wrong."

Darien blinked as he felt the words imprint upon his brain. He had a daughter; he had a child with Serena.

The next song came on, and to avoid any problems Darien grabbed Serena and kept her on the dance floor.

"Why didn't you tell me," he asked her.

"At first I wasn't allowed to say anything to anyone. Then I was just too scared to say anything. I mean my father made me feel like I was nothing but an embarrassment, and that's a lot to take on when your nineteen, alone, and pregnant."

"You know I would have taken care of you," he said, his face even.

"Yes, I know that. But I felt like I had to do this on my own when my father kicked me out. I felt like I had to prove that I didn't need him, that I didn't need anybody."

Darien was then quiet as they moved around the floor.

"Please say something," Serena said.

"Well, now it's my turn to not know what to say."

She sighed. "I understand that. But I had to tell you. I've wanted to so many times but considering how I left you that day, I didn't know how to go about it. I knew it was going to be a shock to you. I also think eventually I got scared. I felt that if I ever saw you again and told you that you would want nothing to do with both of us because not only because I hurt you by leaving but that I lied and kept you from knowing about your daughter."

"Well, see, you're not going to know anything until you say something."

"Well I just did Darien. It may have taken me a long time to do it, and I would have kept going with it but I had to tell you."

"Why then?" he asked her.

"Because I promised our daughter that I would let her father know all about her and tell him that I was ready to share her with him. She wants to have her father in her life, and no matter how I feel about the situation, or her father, I will not deny what my daughter wants."

Darien looked into her eyes. He could see the depth of love that she held for her—their daughter. He had always known that she would be like that.

"Does she know who I am?" he asked her.

She shook her head, turning her head away from him. "I told her that her father was a busy man and I wanted to have her all to myself. She then asked me to tell her father that I was done keeping her all to myself and that I was willing to share her now. I promised her that I would."

Darien took a deep breath. "So, what do we do now? I mean I know you're going to say us getting back together is out of the question."

"Well it is out of the question. I told you that Rini was your daughter so that the two of you could share some family joy. She wants a father in her life, and I'm doing that. What you do is your call."

"But what if I do want to get back with you. I mean I know how I felt about you when you left in the first place. I wasn't the one that left—you were."

Serena frowned. "I don't understand what you're saying."

"I'm only saying that I still care deeply for you Serena. I always have. The last five years have been torture and I would do anything to erase them from existing."

"But this isn't about us," Serena protested against her own hearts words. Her mind was calling her an idiot. You should try to hear him out, her thoughts nagged. She ignored them, she charged on with her main goal. "Darien this is about Rini wanting her father—you."

"So, you won't even consider us at all?" he asked.

Serena finally looked into his deep, soulful blue eyes. She could see the heartbreak she had caused by walking out of his life. She might as well have walked off the face of the planet for all the pain and torture she read deep inside of his once eternal loving eyes.

"Look, I don't think I can quite look at you without thinking about all the heartache that I must have caused you. And I would hate to know of the misery I caused, and knowing I betrayed all your sense of love and trust. I don't think I can cope with all my self-guilt over it."

"Serena," he said sharply. "I'm not blaming you—not anymore."

"But you did. You blamed me before you knew that I was forced to leave because I was pregnant with our child."

"You know," Darien said, looking nervously around, "I don't think we should discuss this so openly like this. There are reporters and we do not need to cause any problems for your—our daughter."

Serena sighed in concession. "Alright."

He took her hand and they crossed the room, to find a quiet place away from prying ears. To anyone who wanted, the story would be sensationalized over her and Darien leaving the group of partygoers, but this was too important to leave alone.

They went into the small room adjacent to the ballroom filled with chairs and other things in storage supply.

Serena took a seat on one of the chairs, and sighed as she adjusted her eyes to the partially lit room.

"Look Serena, I don't want you to feel guilty over how you left me every time you look at me. If you don't want us to be together we are at least going to have to be friends for the sake of our daughter."

"I'm not saying..."

He brought a finger to her lips to stop her from continuing. "Okay, however it is, then if I have to play it your way I will. I have a lot to make up for in Rini's life since I haven't seen her up until today."

"I should have told you," she said quietly, still feeling the small tingling in her lips where he had touched her.

He gave her a sad smile. "I will agree with you because I did deserve to know, but I can understand why you didn't. You felt like you had to take care of you and Rini, and damn everyone else."

Serena wanted to throw herself into his arms, but she held back. She couldn't just ask him to forget the wrongs she did him, forgive her, and let them just start over. She betrayed him and kept his daughter a secret from him—she knew she couldn't ask for anything for herself, like letting them try again.

Darien was still her one and only love, but right now, all she could concentrate on was how Rini had wanted her mother to bring her father into her life. So, she would at whatever cost.

"What would work out best for you?" she asked him.

Darien stared at her. What he wanted was for all of them to be a family like they were meant to be. They were almost there. They did have their daughter, their beautiful daughter as she looked a lot like Serena, especially with her strawberry blond hair. And deep down they still had their love for each other. He just had to think of a way to get her to admit that she still loved him and that they should be a family.

"Look, I don't know right now. I know that I want to get to my daughter, and I know I want..."

"You want what?" she asked him.

"Nothing," he said quickly.

She sighed in irritation. "If you're mad at me, just say it. Don't play games. I know I would be mad if you held back something as important as Rini, but what is done is done. I'm trying to rectify this now, that's all I can do."

"Serena, I'm not playing games. I'm trying to sort out my thoughts. I'm sorry I'm not popping out the perfect solution, but I am trying to think of a way to make this work. You won't let us get back together which would make the whole thing easier."

"But you won't be happy," she said quietly. "And I'll know everyday of the mistakes I made, and how I wronged you. We can't be together just because we have Rini. People have to be together because that's what they want together."

"And you want nothing of that?"

She groaned. "I don't have my own separate needs any more. I washed away with them the moment I realized that I had a daughter to take care of. She comes first in my life, and I can't wonder about the what ifs and the maybes."

"How about the could have beens? You must have had lots of those torturing you over the years. I know I did."

"Darien stop. Just accept it as just is. This is about making Rini happy. And once you get to know her, you're going to be wrapped around her finger, and you'll worship her, like I do."

"I have no doubt of that, she sounds like her mother's daughter all right, because I know I..." he didn't speak anymore. He knew he couldn't say it with words.

He closed the distance between wall he had been leaning on, and where she sat. She was looking down. He lifted her chin with a finger. "Serena," he said softly.

"You said that you could never date or even marry anyone other than your one and only, and..."

"But Darien, like I said, what I want to say and what I had to tell you are two different things," she said to him, her eyes looking at him with the small glisten of tears.

"Then say what you want to say," he said giving her one of his brilliant smiles that always made her heart leap.

A tear slid down her cheek. "What I want to say isn't important Darien."

"I think it is, and one of these days coming up, I'm going to make you say it," he smiled, then before she could protest he took her lips in a kiss that brought back every searing memory of their past together.

Losing herself to him in that kiss, she surrendered her heart to him once again, only she wouldn't let him know it.

Darien stepped back, and gave her a smoldering gaze that told of his great want of returning to what they were once.

She sighed then; taking all the courage, she had in her, despite the screams of protest from her body and thoughts, said, "We should go back."

He nodded. "But I'll have you know, that I mean it that I'm going to get you to say what it is you desperately want to say to me. Because my heart, you know we've never, and nor will we ever be through."

***** Now what did you think of that? Hope to hear from you. Remember, it's eight reviews, and then the next chapter. And to let you all know, because I know several of you will be crazy in wanting the next update, it will be soon, as you all know, but this wasn't a cliffhanger, it was just a promise... Ciao. *****