Two knock, one right after the other, was all it took for the brown door with stuck on flowers to swing wide opened. Standing there with her hand supporting the door was none other than Raye with Mina right beside her. Both with worry and anger on their faces.
"What the hell took you so long?!" Raye scolded. "Get in here!"
"I-" Darien started.
"THAT BETTER NOT BE WHO I THINK IT IS!" A shout came from the room down the hall. "IF IT IS AM GOING TO SCREAM!"
"SERENA CALM DOWN!" Mina shouted back. "He is only here to check on you, right?" She pulled him into the apartment and shut the door behind him. "She has been a terror, and you need to fix this." Mina demanded.
Even though he knew she was a tough scout and an amazing fighter, her strength still surprised him. He rubbed his arm the second she released her tight grip.
"You couldn't get here any sooner?" Mina asked with desperation in her voice.
"Of course he couldn't. He has patients. He has meetings with his coworkers. He has business lunches with his nurses." Serena answered for him as she walked down the hall.
He could see she had just had a break down. Her hair was in a messy bun. Her eyes were blood shot red and puffy. Her face and shirt had tears stains. Her nose was red.
"I got h-"
"Let me guess as soon as you could." Serena finished. She scoffed. "I don't need him here. He can leave. Please leave."
"Serena..."Raye calmly called. "I know you are upset, but he is here now, to check up on you."
"He is here now." She threw her hands in the air. "Do you here yourself Raye? We got the call at 9. Assuming they took a few minutes before they called him, he got the call 9:15. What time is it now?" She pointed to the brown clock on the living room wall.
"Serena." Mina approached her calmly. "I know you are upset, but you need to stay calm."
"I was calm until he got here."
Darien just observed her as the words flowed from her mouth. She was serious. Face unmoved. Almost like she as in a trance.
"Serena, please." Darien begged.
"It is almost 4PM. You usually finish rounds by 1 maybe 2." She took another look at the clock. "If you really wanted to be here, you would have been here over an hour ago."
"Serena, be understanding, he still has patients that he needed to take care of." Raye tried to defend him. "And he knew you had us."
"I always have to be the one is understanding, and I am always the one who has to be like tenth in line for his attention." She moved towards the hallway.
Tenth. He always knew that he took on more than he needed to at work. And he knew there times when he felt he should have spent more time with her, but for her to feel like she was that low of importance to him shocked him.
"He never wanted to be with me."
"Serena. Looked we know he messed up. But please don't say things like that." Mina approached her slowly grabbing her arms so gently. "You two are going to rule all of this one day."
"And I telling you Mina, that is probably the only reason he is here. Isn't it Darien?" She looked straight at him. "You aren't here because you want to be with me and be here to support me, you're doing this because you feel obligated to our future kingdom."
"Serena, please give him a chance to speak." Raye interrupted. "He wants to be here for you, right?" Raye turned to Darien.
Serena looked at Raye. She looked her up and down. Then she looked at Darien. Then back to Raye. Raye was always the opposite of her. Dark hair to her light hair. Taller. Stronger. Smarter. More organized. So much more like Darien. "You know what Raye, there is nothing he can say that I don't already know. He never wanted to be with me. For all we know him choosing the school far and choosing the crazy hours was his reason to avoid me."
"That is not true!" Darien finally argued as he stepped forward towards Serena.
"Really?" She shook her arms to release Mina's grip. "Before Beryl took you, who were you with?"
"Serena that is not necessary." Raye chimed in before he could respond.
"Oh no Raye is very necessary." She exhaled. "I was never the one he wanted. Before Beryl it was you. And after Beryl it was him trying to make me you. And it really makes sense it wasn't like you two ever officially called a quits. He got his memory back and all of you just expected us to be together. But did he want too?"
"Of course he wanted too!"
"Thanks Raye, but I can speak for myself." He looked over to Serena. "Of course I wanted too. I wouldn't have come back to you all those times if I didn't!"
"Actions say otherwise Darien!" She huffed and turned around to head down the hall.
"Serena we are not done talking." Darien started towards her.
"Yes we are Darien. I need to get rest so I can prep my body for another retrieval."
Darien stopped in his tracks.
"Serena you cannot tell us you are considering going through all this all over again." Mina ran her hand through her hair. "Your body has already been through so much and-"
"And not one embryo is viable for me to produce my child."
"OUR CHILD." Darien corrected.
She rolled her eyes and continued down the hall. So many emotion running through her veins.
"I am going to talk to her." Mina said putting her hand up.
"I am coming with you." Raye shouted.
"Darien, please just stay out here."
He nodded to Mina.
"And for the love of god do not leave!" Raye demanded.
The two walked down to Serena so cautiously. They stopped at her closed door. Took a deep breath in as Mina turned the door nob. She did a light knock as she opened it.
"Sere..." She went through the door first and Raye followed.
"Go away. If you are going to defend him go away!" She threw her pink bunny blanket over her head and dripped tight so they could not pull it off of her. She felt them both sit at the end of her bed. One girl on each side.
"Serena..." Raye said soothingly. "We know that you are upset and we know that you are feeling a lot of emotions."
Under her blanket Serena rolled her eyes.
"We really think you need to reconsider before starting another cycle." Mina added.
Serena signed. Threw her blanket off of her and popped up. She looked at both girls. "We know that I need to do another cycle otherwise we will have no Rini, and the sooner I get it done, the sooner I don't have to deal with him.
"You will always have to deal with him, you goof."
"Raye don't start."
Raye put one hand on one of Serena's covered legs. "Serena, Darien will always be Rini's father. You are going to have to interact with him eventually."
"Well I really hate him right now and I don't want to deal with him."
"You don't mean that." Mina debated."You are just really mad at him."
"You guys don't know that."
"Yes we do." Mina smiled. "We are you best friends and you don't have to say it but it's written all over your face. You love him."
Serena looked to her bedroom floor at the pile of clothes that did not fit in her closet. Her closet was so much bigger in the condo that she and Darien owned together. Everything was so much bigger. So much space. So much space that felt empty and cold. She pushed her blanket a little more off of her. She pursed her lips out. "But nobody knows how Darien really feels about me." She shook her head. "Like I said before all this unbrainwashing, he chose to be with you Raye." Serena scratched the top of her head. "Brainwashed or not, if he really loved me, he would have chosen to be with me. Simple. Yes maybe we do end up ruling together, but it doesn't mean we are together."
"You aren't making sense." Raye scratched her forehead. She had never seen Serena so messed up. "It is not like you showed any interest in him. You two just argued and argued.
"You're right and then snap we are supposed to be this ultimate fairy tale couple? She plopped herself back on her pillow.
"I am making a lot of sense. To me at least. I am not going to live in an empty home. I am not go to be with someone who makes me feel inferior."
"But Sere you never talked to him about it." Mina disputed.
"I know because if I did, his action wouldn't be from the heart. He has to want to change, not just do it because I wanted him too."
Both Raye and Mina laid down next to Serena, one on each side. "Serena you and Darien, still have time to work things out. Please think this all over before you start another cycle."
"Mina is right. We love you. And we don't want to see you hurt like you did." Raye added.
"This was a lot on you physically and emotionally."
Serena didn't just say anything. She just laid squished on the bed between her friends.