Last Chance

Revised Chapter 1

Sorry It's been over a year! However, I really appreciate all the reviews I have gotten. I am finishing up chapter two and will post it soon. I am looking to finish this in the next month!!! Thank you to everyone reading and especially to those who have left comments.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters. Haha this is my first fic! Please be kind and review. You're welcome to toss some ideas for the story my way if you like it. I'm not completely sure where to go with this yet.

"Shit!" Serena exclaimed as she tripped over some unidentifiable object causing her to fall unceremoniously on her behind.

Rubbing her injured ankle, she picked up the offensive object to examine it more closely. Despite her initial intentions of taking out her frustration on said object, these feelings quickly dissipated as she realized that she was holding the left pair of her favorite black, knee-high boots that she had spent the past two months looking for. Upon recognition of the object she held, her feelings of animosity was quickly replaced by sheer joy. Serena was ecstatic! That is, until it dawned on her that she did not remember where exactly she put the other pair, though she did remember thinking at the time to put it in a "safe" place. Sighing, Serena stood up and limped over to the light switch on the opposite side of the room to turn on the lights. Glancing around the living room of the place she now called home, she was forced to admit that a woman of twenty-six should not be living in such a state of disarray.

"I really should start cleaning up more," she muttered to herself as she struggled to make her way towards her cluttered couch.

If her mother saw this mess she would have a heart attack. She could practically see the look of mortification on her mother's face. Thankfully, her parents now lived in Tokyo. After Serena and her brother Sammy graduated college and moved out her parents had decided to travel and moved around often. However, there was something about Tokyo that had grabbed their attention and held on to it. Thus, here parents have now lived there for a little over a year.

Admittedly, her house may not have been the most organized or very clean, heck her friends were always saying how she would be the perfect candidate for those home makeover shows.

Lita had once told her, "Now if only you had some sort of disability or adopted a lot of impossibly cute kids you would have a serious chance of being on the show. But then again looking at this place they might just take pity on you and put you on the show anyway."

Of course, they were just exaggerating, right? But Serena didn't care. This house with all its mess and imperfections was hers. It was on the small side, but she lived alone so it was perfect for her and despite everything, all she really needed to do was get the place cleaned up a little and unpack the boxes of stuff she had "never" had the time to sort through since she moved in two years ago.

Two years?! The realization shocked Serena. "Had it really been that long?" she wondered.

She just couldn't bring herself to unpack. Not yet. There was a feeling of finality to it. They were things she had brought with her from a different life- a life that was no longer hers. God knows how much she had struggled to comprehend and finally acknowledge that fact. Thankfully, she had a lot of great friends who gave her an endless supply of love and support. She loved this house because it signified all that she had achieved, cherishing it even more when she thought of a few years back when she had felt so low that she believed the future held nothing for her. No, she did not want to think of that.

Yet here she was now, twenty-six years old and working for a huge Public Relations firm. She was young, beautiful and successful. She had everything people say you should have to be happy. So she should be happy right?

"Yes," she thought, "things are definitely good." But deep in her heart she did not really believe it, at least not completely. There was still something missing which she was unwilling to admit. It tried to fight its way out but Serena was determined and desperately struggled to keep it locked in the back of her mind. No she would not let it consume her again. But it was there. It was a feeling, a thought, an invisible "something" that just bore down on her. Though she refused to speak of it, its persistence was beginning to wear her down.

While her current state was definitely a big improvement from the wreck that she was, there were still those cold, lonely days when she was forced to remember. She felt his touch in the gentle caress of a breeze on a windy day and she saw his deep blue eyes every time she looked out into the fathomless Pacific Ocean.

And then it happened. She wasn't sure how as the lone name passed through her lips unbidden.

"Darien."

She had whispered his name so that it was almost inaudible even to her self. It was then, that Serena lost control as she began to sob. She had not said his name for years and if saying the name alone brought this much emotion, imagine the effect of the man attached to the name on her. Through her tears she glanced at the coffee table where she had earlier tossed a few magazines and the various mail she received that day.

Among them was an elegantly designed ivory colored envelope addressed to a Ms. Serenity Tsukino. As Serena's gaze landed on the invitation, she felt her heart break all over again as she began to sob even harder.

Darien was getting married.