Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or any character involved with it. It belongs to Naoko Takeuchi.

Chapter 12

Serena had spent the whole night, being haunted by various versions of her possible future life.

She was exhausted from her sleepless night when her Father came to wake her up. Serena opened her eyes to find her dad sitting on her bed beside her.

"What's wrong?" he inquired with a tone of concern.

Serena realized she had been crying in her sleep, and the remnants of tears were on her cheeks, and in the corners of her eyes.

"Nightmares I guess," she said with a forced smile, and wiped her face.

"Does it have something to do with that boy, that's been calling all weekend?" Kenji probed.

Serena grabbed one of her pillows, and placed it over her head.

"I wish, he'd leave me alone," she snarled, from under the pillow.

"Well next time he calls, I'll talk to him," Kenji stated angrily. "Your breakfast is on the table," he said in a sweeter tone, as he got to his feet.

Serena remained under her pillow.

"I'll get you a new alarm clock, on my way home," Kenji informed her as he left her room.

Serena was surprised to see a familiar black sedan, sitting in front of her house when she reluctantly dragged herself out of the house.

"How do you tolerate this cold, and snow stuff?" Maliki asked, as he stepped out of the car.

Serena bent down, scooped up a handful of snow, and lightly packed it together.

"We play with it," she giggled, and threw the snowball towards him.

The flimsy ball managed to fly passed Maliki, and into the car as he held the door open for her.

"Serena," Lita's voice boomed from inside the vehicle.

Serena giggled all the way to the car.

"Where's Rei, and Mina?" Serena asked, as she climbed in.

"Rei has no school today," Lita replied. "She's staying with Mina. I guess Mina's still sick, and her mom had to go out. So she called Rei to come stay with Mina. Rei said to come to Mina's after school."

"Kakyuu is worried about our people contracting various Earth ailments if they come here," Maliki revealed. "It's not something, we even considered when we came here."

"Our immune system, must be better than yours," Taiki commented. "Yaten was fine by last night. And they both seemed to have the same sickness."

Lita and Ami exchanged glances.

"Our people could bring a virus here that Serena's people might not be able to recover from," Maliki added.

"Sikora, and Kakyuu have been up all night, reading about viruses, and diseases of this world," Maliki continued. "They won't allow any of our people to come here, until they are sure no harm will come to either people."

Maliki pulled the car up to the front of the school.

As soon as Maliki pulled away from the curb, Lita turned to Yaten: "Normally I would laugh at gullible adults, for not knowing the difference between the flu, and a hangover. But Kakyuu, and Sikora need to know why you, and Mina got sick."

"There was a reason?" All the boys said at the same time, as they all made their way to their lockers.

"To much wine," Ami scowled.

"What wine?" Taiki questioned.

"I've never heard of someone getting sick from drinking wine," Yaten remarked.

"When you guys were here before, you were around us when we got sick, and you never caught a cold or the flu from us," Ami responded. "So I'm thinking it was the wine."

"We all had some wine," Taiki commented.

"We're not talking about the wine we had with dinner," Lita explained, "We're talking about the bottles of wine Yaten, Mina, and Serena drank on Saturday night."

"What wine?" Taiki asked again.

"Yaten, and I found a secret room, and it was full of different bottles of wine, and they drank.. A lot of them," Seiya quipped.

"We were just tasting different ones," Yaten said defensively.

"If that wine was old, and not sealed properly, then it could have made you sick," Ami explained, as she pushed buttons on her little computer.

"You have to tell Kakyuu, and Sikora that the wine could have made you sick," Lita scowled at Yaten.

"Fine," Yaten responded, and disappeared.

"Couldn't he just call?" Lita squeaked with shock at his sudden disappearance.

"Sikora isn't answering," Ami replied. "So I left a message on her phone, to contact me as soon as she can."

"We'll meet you in the hallway after math," Lita told her, as Taiki and Ami headed the opposite way to their class.

"Serena," Taiki called back. "I forgot your book report in my locker. I'll get it for you after math. I don't have time right now," he ran off.

"We missed homeroom check in," Serena mentioned, "And if we don't hurry up we'll be late for math."

"What book report?" Lita inquired after the three of them dropped down into their seats.

"Taming of the Shrew," Serena answered.

"How'd you get him to do that?" Seiya questioned.

"Class has begun," Mr.Hayashi barked at the three of them.

"I'm practicing my skills for when I am Neo Queen Serenity," Serena giggled. "I must find the best person to do a particular task, if I know I can't do it myself."

"You're full of shit," Lita scowled.

"Ok," Serena sighed. "I never read the book, and I pleaded with him." Then a big grin returned to her face: "Now all I have to do is read this book report, and I'll know what that stupid book was about."

Lita and Seiya exchanged glances.

Yaten came scurrying into the classroom, just as Mr.Hayashi was about to close the door.

"There's no one at the house," he informed them, as he dropped down in his seat.

"Then you should have called Sikora's cell phone," Serena scowled.

"How?" He returned the scowl. "You're not allowed to use the phones after the school bell rings."

"His brain is shrinking from spending to much time with Mina," Lita remarked sarcastically.

"Class has begun," Mr.Hayashi barked towards the four of them.

"You should have used the phone at the house, while you were there," Seiya sneered.

"Maybe he doesn't want to tell Sikora that he got two girls so drunk, they didn't know what they were doing," Lita commented.

"I would like to see him explain Mina sitting on him, while she was half naked," Seiya laughed.

"What?" Yaten bellowed.

"Can't remember that?" Lita snarled.

Seiya's laugh had gotten louder.

"The four of you can leave the class now," Mr.Hayashi ordered.

Serena was once again, plagued by blurry glimpses of her, and Seiya laying on his bed, her legs tightly wrapped around him, and the sensation of his naked skin in her hands.

"I guess we have time to find Sikora now," Lita sighed, when they left the class.

Serena continued down the hall at a quickened pace.

"Serena," Seiya called, as he ran to catch up with her.

Serena stopped, but didn't turn around.

Yaten was standing near the classroom door, looking like he wanted to disappear off the planet.

"Lets grab our coats, and sneak out to find a phone," Lita suggested, grabbing Yaten's sleeve, to drag him along.

"What's wrong?" Seiya quietly asked Serena.

Serena shook her head.

Seiya turned Serena so she was facing him, but she refused to make eye contact.

"Remembering something about Saturday," Lita chuckled.

"Some blurry images," Serena mumbled.

"You trust him with your life, but not your body," Yaten commented sarcastically, as he and Lita continued past them.

"Is that what you think?" Seiya snapped.

"No," Serena stated, and turned her back to him.

"Then what's wrong?" His tone hadn't changed.

"I think I did something that was... Ah..." She mumbled, as she walked away from him.

Seiya took a few big steps, reached out, and grabbed her arms. He pulled her back against his chest, and tightly wrapped his arms around her, preventing her from moving.

"I thought it was great," he whispered in her ear, then softly kissed her neck.

"Would you two hurry up," Lita demanded.

Seiya let go of Serena, and she ran to Lita's side.

Seiya strutted down the hallway, like a proud peacock, with a beaming smile.

"We don't need to mention the Mina incident," Yaten said with a pleading tone, while they all stuffed their book bags in their lockers.

"But that was the funniest part of the night," Seiya quipped. "I will have to see if I can come up with a few witty comments about you two. You know, like the ones you came up with about Serena and I, when we were all sitting at the Crown on Friday," he teased.

"Seiya," Yaten whined.

"That's the best Serena imitation I've ever heard," Lita chuckled.

"Your mind is shrinking like Mina's, and now you're whining like Serena," Seiya commented. "You have really got to stop spending so much time with them."

Serena slammed her locker closed after pulling her jacket out.

"Let's go find a phone somewhere," Serena huffed.

"You mean leave the school?" Yaten queried.

"Haven't you ever cut class before?" Lita questioned.

"No," he stated.

'Beep-Beep'

"That's my communicator," Serena mentioned, as she fumbled with her lock.

Serena pulled the small device from her bag, to find Ami's face on the screen.

"I have an idea about the wine," Ami whispered. "Can you find a way to get out of class, and meet me in the library?"

"We got kicked out of math class," Serena replied. "We were going to go find a phone."

"Never mind the phone," Ami told her. "Just come to the library."

"Ok," Serena answered, and slipped her communicator back in her bag.

It wasn't long before the four of them joined Ami and Taiki in a quiet corner of the library.

"What's your great idea?" Lita asked.

Everyone was now seated at the table looking at Ami.

"You said the wine bottles looked old, or had no labels," Ami was looking directly at Yaten.

"Ami and I can run some tests of whatever is left in the bottles, and see if one of them was bad," Taiki explained.

"I'd like to test the wine," Ami told them. "That way, if one of the wines were bad, we can tell Sikora and Kakyuu that you got sick from tasting one of the bottles of wine."

"But," Taiki added. "If the wine isn't bad, then you'll have to tell them you might have gotten sick from drinking to much."

"Where are the empty bottles?" Ami inquired.

"I don't know," Yaten admitted.

"Seiya and I put them back in the room they got them from," Lita responded. "We didn't know what else to do with them."

"You put them back into the wine cellar?" Taiki asked her.

"It's a hidden room, off the wine cellar," Seiya explained.

"A hidden room?" Taiki scowled at Seiya, and Yaten.

"Full of wine," Seiya grinned.

"And how do we get in this room?" Ami inquired..

"There's a lever behind one of the racks of wine, in the real wine cellar," Yaten informed her.

"Once I have a general idea of where it is, I can just appear in the wine cellar. Then pop into the next room, grab the bottles, and bring them to the lab we're going to use," Taiki said to Ami.

"You'll need help carrying them," Lita remarked, while scowling at Yaten.

"Exactly how many bottles are there?" Ami queried.

"I'd say more than a dozen," Lita stated.

"Not in the room," Ami stated. "Just the ones they drank."

"I'm talking about the ones they drank," Lita giggled. "Some they just tasted, and put the tops back on, and some they polished off."

"Well Yaten, I think you've broken Seiya on the 'stupidest things I've done' list," Taiki barked.

"If one of the wines was spoiled, then why didn't I get sick?" Serena asked.

"Did you taste all of them too?" Taiki inquired.

"I think so," Serena admitted. "I can't really remember."

"You didn't have any of the first bottle," Yaten responded.

"Which one did you try first?" Ami questioned Yaten.

"I don't know," he sighed.

"There's no way we can test that many bottles at lunch," Taiki grumbled.

"We'll have to rig up some more computers, to do analysis, and they can help us," Ami told Taiki, and looked at the others.

"Whatever we don't get done at lunch, we'll have to do after school," Lita added.

"That means, no detentions," Ami remarked, while looking directly at Serena.

They all stood up as the class change bell sounded.

"Here," Taiki handed Serena a folder.

Serena opened it and read the cover: 'Taming of the Shrew'.

Serena stood on her tippy toes, and gave Taiki a big kiss on the cheek.

"Meet us in homeroom at lunch time," Ami yelled, as the others began to run off.

Taiki and Ami weren't in homeroom when the others arrived.

When they still hadn't shown up after five minutes of waiting, Serena pulled out her communicator, and called Ami.

"Where are you?" Serena huffed.

"Miss Ito had to leave suddenly, so she excused our class early," Ami replied. "So Taiki fetched the bottles, while I set up the computers. We've already started testing some of them."

"Do you still want us to help?" Serena asked.

"Yes," Taiki's voice boomed in the background.

"We're in lab room four," Ami told Serena.

"Ok," Serena replied, then turned her communicator off.

As they made their way to the lab, they saw Sikora heading their way.

"Do you know where I can find Ami?" Sikora smiled.

"Ami?" Yaten queried.

"She tried to call me this morning, but I was off world," Sikora explained. "She didn't sound like it was an emergency, so I thought I'd just wait until lunch time."

"She is running some tests in one of the labs," Serena mentioned.

"I don't want to bother her if she is busy," Sikora remarked. "If you see her, tell her to call me."

"We'll give her the message," Lita smiled.

"Thank-you," Sikora smiled, and walked away.

"Why did you tell her where Ami was?" Yaten scowled at Serena after Sikora disappeared around a corner.

"I'm not going to lye to her," Serena stated with a snap.

Serena and Yaten were more surprised then Lita and Seiya, when they saw bottle after bottle lined up along a counter.

"Did we really drink that many?" Serena screeched.

"Some of them are only missing a mouthful or two," Ami mentioned.

"Well this one must have tasted good," Taiki sarcastically remarked, as he held up an empty one.
"Can't you just pour what's left in the bottles into a bucket, and test it all at once?" Serena suggested.

"If all the wines were made from the same fruit, then we would be able to test it your way," Ami explained. "But some of them are from grapes, some from berries, others from mixed fruits."

"Different fruits can carry different bacterial molds, or fungi," Taiki added.

"Just show us what to do," Seiya demanded, "without the science class explanation."

"Take the dropper, put it in the wine," Ami began to demonstrate. "Fill the dropper. Then put the contents of the dropper into one of these vials. The vile then goes into this holder. Take one of these straw looking things, put it in this little hole in the arm looking part of this machine, then lower the arm so that the straw is in the little vial."

"You have to use a different dropper, vial, and straw looking thing, for each bottle of wine," Taiki added.

"This sounds like work," Serena whined

"With only three machines to do all these tests, it'll take us hours," Yaten moaned.

"Maybe we should give all these bottles to Sikora, and she can test them," Taiki snarled at Yaten.

"Just do what we came here to do," Lita ordered.

"No need," Ami announced. "This sample has one of the mycotoxins I was looking for."

Taiki went over, and looked at the information on the computer screen.

"It's from one of the bottles that only had a little bit missing," Ami smiled.

"Is Mina going to be ok?" Serena inquired.

"I think she is suffering from drinking to much," Ami replied. "No one drank enough of this one to get seriously ill."

"Then how do you know that made them sick?" Serena inquired further.

"It is more likely that they got sick from drinking, than from a flu virus," Taiki noted.

"With this bottle, we can say that they got sick from the wine, without having to say how much was actually drank," Ami told Serena.

"There is probably more spoiled wine in that room," Taiki remarked.

"I don't think they'll be doing anymore wine tasting," Ami stated.

"You will still have to tell them where the wine came from," Lita said.

"I'll try and contact Sikora again," Ami began.

"She was just here, looking for you," Serena informed Ami.

"Why didn't you bring her here?" Ami scowled. "Never mind," she quickly added. "She doesn't need to see all these bottles."

"Call her now," Serena ordered. "We have to put her and Kakyuu at ease, as soon as possible. I don't care if she finds all these bottles. I don't want them to be afraid to bring their people here because of someone getting sick."

"We'll clean up most of the bottles." Seiya said, while grabbing a couple. "Ami can call Sikora, and Taiki can print out that information from the analysis."

"Why not all the bottles?" Serena queried.

"You guys said you were tasting different wines. That's a good story to stick to," Lita grinned. "You wouldn't just take a mouthful out of a bottle, and then stop. We need a couple of these ones that are half full."

"We want to show that you tasted, not that you got drunk," Taiki scowled, holding up a couple of empties.

"Sikora is on her way," Ami said, slipping her communicator into her sweater pocket. "Someone can go meet her outside, and then bring her here."

"I'll go," Serena offered.

"You'll do anything to get out of cleaning," Lita commented with a slight scowl.

"Yup," Serena beamed, and bounced off.

Serena reached the front doors just as Sikora was pulling up to the curb.

"You shouldn't be out here without a coat on," Sikora told Serena, when Serena went out to meet her.

"I'm fine," Serena smiled.

"Ami said she thinks she found out way Mina and Yaten were sick, but she wouldn't say much more," Sikora mentioned, as they made their way into the school. "Do you know what's going on?"

"Kind of," Serena grinned. "But I don't really understand all the technical stuff."

"Technical stuff?" Sikora queried.

"I think they can explain it better when we get there," Serena said, and increased her walking speed.

"That's why Ami was in the lab, when I first came here?" Sikora probed, as she kept pace with Serena.

"Yup," Serena answered. "She figured the wine made them sick, not some kind of flu."

"What wine?" Sikora asked, cutting Serena's explanation short.

"Ami will show you," Serena told her, and held the lab room door open.

Ami turned, and smiled at Sikora when she heard the door open.

Serena noticed Taiki and Ami looking like they were still testing one of the wines, while Lita, Seiya, and Yaten sat on a table like spectators.

"We think we've found the cause of Mina and Yaten's sudden sickness," Taiki announced, when Sikora entered the room.

"And that would be?" Sikora inquired, and went over to Ami and Taiki.

"A mycotoxin in the wine they were drinking," Ami revealed, and pointed at the five half full wine bottles, that sat on a near by counter.

Sikora didn't pay much attention to the wine bottles, she just took the computer print out that Taiki was offering.

Sikora read the paper, then went and looked at the bottles.

"We were trying to find a wine that Serena might like," Yaten confessed.

"We didn't know you could get sick from tasting wines," Serena began, "My parents have gone to wine tasting parties, and I've never heard about them getting sick. But Ami said that some of the wine we found could be old, and not made right. Some of them don't even have labels, but we didn't take any of those ones. Cause if I liked one of them, we wouldn't know what kind it was," Serena took a quick big breath, and continued: "Like the first one Mina and Yaten tasted. I didn't have any of that one, cause Mina said it tasted like dirty feet. That might be what made them sick, cause I didn't drink any of that one. So Ami wanted to test that bottle, but I couldn't remember which one it was. Taiki brought all the bottles here, so they could test them, That way Ami could show you, and Kakyuu that the wine made them sick, and your people could come here now cause they won't catch anything," Serena smiled.

"Ok, as long as they don't catch stupidity," Sikora stated, with a hint of sarcasm.

"Huh?" Serena queried.

Sikora looked at Ami, while she gently shook her head.

"If you take these analysis from the wine, and show them to Kakyuu it might offer her some comfort," Ami smiled, and handed her all the paper work.

"Where did the wine come from?" Sikora inquired.

"A hidden room in the estate," Ami answered.

"A hidden room?" Sikora had a skeptical expression on her face.

"There's a little room behind one of the wine racks in the cellar," Taiki informed her.

"What about Mina?" Sikora asked Ami.

"She should be fine by now," Ami said sweetly. "Her mom probably kept her home today, just to make sure she's better," Ami gave Sikora a big smile.

"We'll be going to see her after school," Serena mentioned.

"I'll take this information to Kakyuu," Sikora told them, as she waved the papers. "Then I'll try and find this little hidden room," she remarked, and looked over at the three quiet ones sitting on the table.

Another chapter, tell me what you think? There was actually alot of studing in this chapter, my mother went online to find out about toxins and mold in wine!! Next chapter is a good one so please read on!!!