So I decided to re-write this chapter...please make sure to re-read this one before heading to the next, hopefully to be up in the next few days.

I guess I can write two stories at once! LOL

~A

Twelve Years Later…

It was a hot summer day that found Darien walking down the main street of town, his hands thrust into the pockets of his overalls, towards the grocery store. He hated coming into town, but he was running out of food and he needed to restock. As it was, he tried to only come to town a couple of times a month.

As he walked his raven hair glistened in the sun, falling gently into cobalt eyes while his sneakers with holes in the toes kicked the dirt up around him. He looked up briefly to see Mr. Johnson standing on the front porch of his general store staring at him. On the other side of the street was Mrs. Bellamy and her sister outside of the local salon smoking their cigarettes and whispering to each other. He was not a stranger to the whispers of the town folk who watched him walk by. Darien had grown up an outcast, both he and his mother. Granted, his mother's activities didn't warrant much respect, what with the nightly callings of every lonely man in town. Whether they were married or not didn't matter to his mother. She offered a service, and those services were taken advantage of, frequently.

Darien had always been the topic of gossip just like his mother. He never socialized with the kids at school, never went out to play with the neighborhood kids, and never said more than two words at a time. In truth he was just shy, but in a small town like this that wasn't normal and everyone agreed there was something not right about Darien Shields.

The gossip roared back to life three years ago when the old Hathaway house was burned to the ground with Darien's mother asleep inside. Some say they saw him running from the house with a can of gas. Some were upset he wasn't inside while it burned. Darien was taken into custody for questioning but he wouldn't talk and didn't show any emotion making every think he was guilty. The truth was he didn't feel like any one of these people deserved an explanation, not after the way they treated him and his mother. All they ever did was gossip and give dirty looks to both of them and never accepted them. The lack of evidence made the sheriff release Darien, but not before he gave Darien his two cents.

*Flashback*

"You're one lucky son-of-a-bitch you know that son? Or should I say son-of-a-whore?" The sheriff was goading him, but Darien knew better. If he reacted to him now, he could lock him up.

"Am I free to go?"

The sheriff's face was beat red at Darien's refusal to engage with him. "I know it was you boy. Just because there isn't enough evidence to convict you doesn't mean this whole town doesn't know what a loose cannon you are. But I'm warning you now. Any other fires and I will personally see to it that you're behind bars or in a nutter house for the rest of your damn life! So you'd best watch your back boy. I'll be watching you."

Darien held the sheriff's gaze, until something shiny caught his eye. His eyes flitted for a moment to the sheriff's pocket, a silver pocket watch was peeking out.

Standing up the sheriff followed Darien's gaze to his pocket and removed the watch. "Oh you like my watch huh?" Darien remained silent as the sheriff flipped the watch over in his hand before pointing a finger at Darien. "Don't even think about it grubby hands. If my watch disappears I'm coming after you for that too. In fact, why don't you just leave town? No one wants you here and I know no one will take you now that you've burned down your house."

Darien kept his face calm as he asked once more. "Am I free to go?"

The sheriff stared him down for a second longer before he waved his hand at him. "Go."

*End Flashback*

The sheriff was right. After his mother died, no one in town wanted anything to do with him. He was barely sixteen and no one would take him in. So he took the little money his mother had left and bought a trailer on the outskirts of town where he's been living ever since. Once an outcast, always an outcast.

Once Darien reached the grocery store, he went about his business as usual with people staring like they usually did, but there was something off. People were whispering, but he knew it wasn't about him this time. Looking up from the fruit stand he was standing at, he noticed a beautiful stranger standing across the isle. Her long blonde hair looked as if it was spun of gold, and her lithe figure made her look like a ballerina. He noticed she was picking out a head of lettuce.

Darien stood there, unmoving and completely entranced by her. Strangers were not common in Hazard, since their town was completely off the beaten path. If someone was in Hazard, it was by choice, not chance.

Struck by her beauty at first, his awe quickly dissipated into fear for this girl who would suffer the same outcast fate he did. No one deserved that but small towns weren't known for their acceptance of change. Unless you were born here, you didn't belong.

He must have been staring for a while because the next thing he knew she was looking up at him and when her cerulean eyes met his she smiled. He could feel the foreign muscles in his face betraying him in a returned smile and he knew from that moment, this girl would be different.

Darien stayed in the store longer than he'd ever had before, and he knew she was the reason. He watched as she made her way through the store, picking up this and that, but always making sure to stay out of her line of sight. Even knowing what he was doing was creepy, Darien couldn't help himself. He had to know more about this angel, and even though he wasn't brave enough to talk to her, he was content with just watching her.

After she left the grocery store, Darien made his way back to his trailer, all of his thoughts on her. Where was she from? Did she have any family? Why did she move to Hazard? Then the most devastating question hit him. What would she think when the townsfolk started to fill her head with lies about him?

Needless to say, Darien didn't sleep well that night.

This cycle continued for weeks. Darien would see the golden angel in town, and follow her, always at a respectable distance. He didn't want to scare her, but she was mesmerizing and he couldn't help but be pulled towards her. These times when he watched her from afar she was either grocery shopping or talking to neighbors. He was happy to see that she wasn't being treated as an outcast like he and his mother had been. Once he had seen her talking to Mrs. Thomas and Mrs. Quill on the front steps of the ice cream parlor. Unfortunately Darien had to walk by them to head to the outskirts of town where his trailer was. As he passed, he noticed Mrs. Thomas and Mrs. Quill whisper hurriedly to her and cast suspicious glances at him. They were warning her about Darien Shields.

But he never expected her to catch him watching.

Remembering that day still brings a blush to his cheeks. It was another hot summer day when the air was thicker than soup and the breeze was all but a memory. He had just come into town, for what he couldn't remember, when he spotted her. Taking up his regular routine, he trailed her until she entered the post office. Then he entered the general store across the street and made himself look busy, all the while watching out the window for her to leave. It had been more than ten minutes and he hadn't seen her come out. Putting down the magazine he was pretending to read, he walked outside onto the porch and squinted his eyes across the street towards the post office. Then his heart jumped out of his chest.

"Looking for me?"

Darien whirled around to see the pretty little blonde smiling up at him, a mischievous look in her eyes. She had been standing behind him on the porch when he came out of the store and Darien realized she must have come out of the post office while he wasn't looking.

His face held horror at being caught, but instead of striking up a conversation like a normal person would have done, Darien bolted, a trail of dust kicking up in his wake.

All the way to his trailer he had been afraid she'd tell the sheriff and he'd be in trouble again, but after a few hours he realized no one was coming for him. The blonde pixie continued to amaze him.

He laid low for a few days, unwilling to have another run in with her just in case she really was mad. It was evening when he finally ventured outside of his trailer and headed for town, a glutton for punishment.

After that incident at the general store Darien made sure he was more careful not to get caught again. He didn't know why she didn't report him for following her, or why he was even doing this but he couldn't go a day without seeing her.

A month later, Darien was walking down main street again and saw the blonde beauty heading toward him. He just assumed she was going to walk past him, and was surprised when she stopped right in front of him.

"Hi." Her blonde hair was swaying briefly around her and Darien was speechless. No one had ever approached him about anything unless it was absolutely necessary.

She shifted nervously at his silence. "Um, my name is Serena. Are you Darien?"

Shock still covered his face as he tried to regain his train of thought. He didn't want her to think he was simpleton and prove everyone right.

Darien cleared his throat. "Yes."

Serena smiled and held out her hand. "It's nice to meet you."

Her smile was infectious and Darien found himself grinning like a fool. "It's nice to meet you too." Darien took her hand and he for the first time since he was young, experienced genuine human contact.

Better? It's definitely longer with more details.

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Thanks!