Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon.

Hey guys. Special thanks to LoveInTheBattleField, peaches252, GraphicsChyk, ISana55, Aiyoku Saotome, Jenna Zabla, savannah123, and sabina21 for reviewing the last chapter. Thank you so much for your reviews, and I am so glad that you are enjoying Ever After and the crazy, emotional rollercoaster, which is Darien and Serena's relationship. LoveInTheBattleField, thanks and Sailor Mars' transformation was amazing in Episode 3. peaches252 and GraphicsChyk, thanks. ISana55, you're right. Darien is switching one family for another. This chapter focuses on how Serena, Katie, and Rini deal with Darien's abandonment, and we'll learn more about the evil doctor soon. Aiyoku Saotome, thank you and I concur. Jenna Zabla, yes, I am going to write more chapters. This story is not done quite yet. savannah124, thank you. sabina21, here's your answer.

Chapter Fourteen

Mother Knows Best

It was a beautiful sunny day outside. Children played outside running around, shooting hoops, and riding through the neighborhood on their bicycles. Men mowed the lawns of their home and washed their cars, while the women tended to their gardens and yelled at their children for running in and out of the house.

Serena could hear the sign of life going on around her as she lied in bed, still in her pajamas, glancing dispirited at the alarm clock in big bright red numbers reading ten o'clock in the morning. She had no desire to get out of bed today. The house was quiet since the girls were down the street at a party for one of Rini's classmates. She was completely embarrassed and dreaded showing her face in public. Everyone in the neighborhood knew that Darien left her a week ago. They had the same friends, so her friends were his friends' wives. The nosy women constantly blew up her phone trying to pry into the matter and left her messages saying to call them. It was quite the juicy, little scandal in their small suburban town about how Darien left her for Karen and how she made a fool of herself going to Karen's house searching for her husband. Serena tried to remain strong for her children, but found herself crying her eyes out behind closed doors or drinking away her sorrows with vodka, beer, or whatever other alcoholic contents they had in the house.

She had to get herself together soon. Her daughters would be home in a couple of hours. She changed into a faded t-shirt, tattered jeans, and old sneakers. She cleaned up the house. An hour later, she heard the doorbell ring. She smiled happily, ready to see her beautiful little girls.

Serena raced to open the door. She beamed happily until she saw that it was not her children. She stared into the eyes of a woman she had not seen in a long time. They did not speak at they stared at one another for a moment.

The woman spoke, "Hello Serena."

Serena said emotionally, "Hello mother."

Irene Tuskino was now in her mid-forties. Her long blue hair that hung loosely over her shoulders had a streak of grey now. She sat on the sofa dressed in a blue cardigan and matching blue long skirt. She was holding a mug in her hand of soothing hot tea that Serena made for her.

Serena remained quiet as she sat in the lounge chair next to her mother bent over with her arms propped on her knees and her hands clasped together. The divorce papers sat on the coffee table in front of her unsigned taunting her. She turned to her mother. She asked breaking the awkward silence, "What are you doing here mother? The last time I spoke to you, you slapped me and called me a disappointment then told me to get a rid of my child."

Irene said apologetically, "I'm sorry, Serena. I wasn't acting like myself. I was upset that you finally were finding your way in the world and Darien ruined that."

Serena said, "It takes two."

Irene retorted, "He knew better. He knew exactly what he was doing." Irene's comment reminded her of what Darien wrote in his letter.

Serena asked again, "Why are you here mom?"

Irene said, "Darien called me two days ago and told me that you needed me. He apologized and we mended our ways."

Serena said in a deadpanned voice, "He left a week ago." Serena had a moment of weakness where she found herself constantly calling him and leaving him with hateful messages telling him how much she hated him and how much the girls hated him too for doing this to them, which was a lie. Darien never answered or returned her calls and soon her messages went straight to voicemail.

Irene said, "He said that you were not yourself." Serena could not believe that he called her mother and told her. "Honestly, baby. I have been looking for since you left." Serena stared at her mother in surprise. "I came to my senses two months after you left home. But I couldn't find you and did not know where you were. I did not know that you were married until I went to your friend's Raye's temple and asked her. I could tell that she was still upset with your father and me for how I treated you at your eighteenth birthday party. Yet, she did informed me that you were married and that you lived somewhere in the United States. I called Harvard University and they told me that Darien had dropped out of medical school. A couple of years later, I stopped by your other friend Lita's restaurant and asked her about where you were. She informed me that Darien was the vice president of a marketing company. She gave me the company's number. I called and asked to speak to Darien for over a week. His secretary constantly told that he was busy. Darien finally answered the phone one day. He told me to stop calling and that you didn't want me in your life anymore." Serena could not believe that Darien had said something so untrue. "I was devastated so I stopped calling. I stopped trying. I figured that you didn't want me in your life anymore."

Serena shook her head. "That wasn't true, mother. I don't know why Darien would do something so vindictive."

Irene placed her cup of tea down on the coaster. "He was afraid. He was afraid of losing you."

"I don't know what to do. My husband left me for another woman and doesn't say good-bye. Our marriage has been pure hell from the beginning with a few good moments mixed in between. When I wanted a divorce, he didn't want one saying that we are in this until death. Now, that he finally crossed the line and allowed….." She stopped speaking not wanting to utter the words as she stared ahead at nothing in particular.

Irene leaned over clasped Serena's hands with one of her over. She pushed. "Darling, what happened?" Serena's eyes started to form tears. "Serena, tell me what happened? I am here, baby. I will not judge you."

Serena paused. "I can't. I can't utter the words mother. It was too inappropriate. I feel ashamed and dirty."

"Serena, you're a woman now. You're not a little girl, anymore. Tell me what happened."

Tears fell down Serena's face. "Four years ago, I didn't love my husband anymore. I loved our daughter, but I did not love him. He was perfect. He was handsome, a good father, a good provider, and all he wanted was for me to love him and I could not. So I cheated on my perfect husband with another man. It was strange because while I had sex with this man I started to feel love for my husband again. So when my husband returned four days later, I had sex with him. Then, I found out that I was pregnant. I knew that Darien was crazy. He told me that if he ever found out that I cheated on him with another man, he would kill them. So I kept my infidelity a secret. I had a little girl that Darien delivered with his own hands and named after his mother. I never told Darien that this child may not be his. I know a parent is not supposed to have favorites, but Katie is his heart." Serena smiled sadly. "We had our eighth year anniversary and it was a perfect day. Then, I found out that he had a child with some girl he hooked up with eight years ago when we broke up for three days. He didn't know. I was so upset with him that I told him that Katie wasn't his to hurt him. I wanted to make him hurt as much as I did." Serena paused. She then added softly remembering that hurt look on his face, "And I broke him, and I can't fix it."

Irene soothed Serena and softly rubbing her back. "It's going be okay dear. Cry and let it out. Mommy's here."

Thirty minutes later, Serena slept peacefully in her bed. Irene fixed her daughter a cup of tea and told her to rest. Irene looked impressed at her daughter's home. There was not a speck of dust anywhere and it was beautiful decorated. Irene stood in the middle of the living room when she heard a car horn blowing outside and the soon the door unlocked. Two beautiful strawberry blonde girls rushed in. The oldest one took her house key out of the doorknob and closed and locked the door while the little one raced in with a teddy bear backpack on her back.

The little one stopped running when she saw Irene standing there. She asked looking at Irene, "Who are you?"

The older one looked stunned as she walked next to her little sister. She asked, "Who are you?"

Irene said pointing to each of them. "You must be Katie, and you must be Rini." She smiled warmly at them. "And I am your grandmother Irene, your mom's mother."

Katie said, "I thought you were dead." Rini elbowed Katie causing her to wince in pain.

Irene smile faded. She asked upset, "Did your mother tell you I was dead?"

Katie shook her head. "She never talked about you. Whenever we mentioned our grandparents, she always looked so sad. Since dad's parents were dead, I assumed you must be dead too."

Irene smiled. "Well, I am very much alive, and you have a grandfather named Ken and an uncle named Sammy too."

Katie smiled happily.

Rini looked suspiciously at the nice woman. She asked, "Where's mom?"

Irene said, "She's asleep."

Katie asked, "And where's daddy?"

Rini rolled her eyes. "You know our dad is gone, stupid."

Katie frowned and said, "No, I'm not. Your hair is stupid, meatball head."

Rini yelled at her sister. "Don't call me that, stupid."

Irene smiled as Katie and Rini got into a yelling match. It reminded her of Serena and Sammy when they were younger.

Irene calmed them down by offering them a treat. She gave them a couple of cookies from the cookie jar and a cup of milk.

When Serena woke up, the room was dark and it was night time. She glanced at the digital clock and saw that it was fifteen after seven at night. She jumped up. She slept for ten hours and the girls arrived home hours ago. She tossed the covers off of her. She rushed out of bed to only look into her daughters' room to see they were asleep in their rooms, tucked in and in their night clothes at seven in night. Serena never could get to ready that early for bed and fast asleep. She slowly walked downstairs holding the railing for support.

She saw the light on in the kitchen. She saw her mother standing over the sink washing dishes. She stood in the doorway. Serena spoke, "Hey."

Irene smiled as she finished up cleaning the dishes and placing everything away. "Hey."

Serena said, "I can't believe I slept that long. I haven't slept that long since I was a teenager."

Irene laughed. "Yes, I remember but you were emotionally drained. You went through a lot this week."

Serena pulled at chair out of the kitchen table and sat down. Serena said, "This has been the worst week of my life."

Irene walked towards the refrigerator. "I know, sweetheart, but you're going to make it through." She placed the milk on the counter.

Serena thought of how her daughters were handling their father's desertion better than her. "It amazing how well they are taking this. They're handling it better than me. I'm supposed to be the adult."

Irene grabbed to glasses and poured them each a glass of milk. "Children are very resilient."

Serena smiled. "How did you get them into dressed and ready to bed so quickly? I have never been able to get them asleep for seven."

Irene placed the milk back in the fridge. "The poor things were exhausted." She handed Serena a glass of milk. "Your generation is helicopter parents. We were just parents. When mom said something, you did it." Irene grabbed a couple of cookies and sat down handing Serena one.

Serena smiled. "I had pretty awesome parents. Just wish I didn't disappoint you when I became pregnant."

Irene laughed. "Darling, you left home when you were eighteen and never came back. I think that is kind of successful." Serena laughed as she bit into the cookie. She laughed for the first time in over a week.

Irene looked around. She said, "You have a beautiful home. You managed it very well, and your daughters are so beautiful and well-mannered. I could tell they are good kids. You raised them well."

Serena smiled and laughed. "You must be joking mother. They argued and fight with one another all the time."

Irene smiled. "That's how Sammy and you were when you were kids, but you clearly loved another. It's the same for them. The bond between sisters is unbreakable."

Serena laughed. "How's Sammy? I missed him so much. And dad is okay? Does he still hate me?"

Irene sipped her milk. "Sammy is fine. He graduated from undergraduate school with a Bachelor's of Science Degree in Political Science a couple of months ago in May. He starts law school in the fall, which is four hours away." Irene sighed. "He's spending the summer with friends backpacking through Europe. He has a girlfriend. She's a sweetheart."

Serena smiled. "That's amazing. I'm happy for him." She missed her brother's high school graduation now she missed his college graduation. She felt disappointed and regretful as she continued to smile.

Irene said with a sigh, "Your dad's another story. He hasn't been the same since you left. He keeps waiting for you to come home and seek forgiveness. I've told him that you were not coming back. We can say many things about Darien, but there was no denying his love for you and he obviously did well for himself and provided you and your daughters a good life." Irene looked around at the house that Serena wanted and Darien brought for her.

Serena smirked. "That is one thing I cannot hate him for. He was a good provider and a good father to his children. He rose through the ranks to Vice President of Marketing, he delivered our daughter Katie, and he achieved his dream of becoming a doctor."

Irene smiled. "So besides being a psychotic lunatic, he was quite successful and every mother does want their child to marry well-off for the bragging rights like my child is a doctor. My daughter married a doctor."

Serena looked at her milk. She laughed. "Is this your equivalent to getting drunk with milk and cookies?"

Irene laughed. "Sweetheart, you know that I do not drink. I think a cup of milk and cookies is just as good as alcohol and it's healthier too." Serena laughed. Irene stopped. "A couple of years ago, your father had a massive stroke." Serena stopped laughing and looked horrified. "We thought he was going to die. He was in a coma for days. He couldn't breathe on his own and he had to eat through a feeding tube. Your brother and I prayed every day for your father's recovery. The doctor told us that he only had fifty percent chance of waking up. He woke up and we could hardly understand what he was saying. We went to therapy every week. I cooked for him and I took her to the bathroom. It took a year for your father to recover and return to his normal self. The first thing he told me when he started to getting his speech back to normal was that he wanted his daughter to come home. He wanted to see her again. He wanted to see his grandchild. We didn't know at the time that you had another daughter. I didn't know until Darien called me the other day and asking me to save you from yourself." Irene hesitated looking her daughter in the eyes. She grabbed Serena's hand and locked it was hers across the table. "We're sorry for how we reacted and we want to be a part of your life again. We want to see our grandchildren, Serena. Please let us."

Serena nodded blinking away her tears threatened to fall. Irene said looking around, "You have a beautiful home, Serena." She looked at her daughter. "But it's time for you to return home. Come back with me to Japan with your daughters. We'll help you raise them."

Serena laughed. "I can't. Plus, Darien may come back."

Irene shook her head. "Sweetheart, he's not coming back. There's nothing here for you but pain. You need a fresh start."

"Wouldn't returning mean that I failed at life and I failed at my marriage? I can't go back. I can't go backwards."

"Serena, sometimes we have to take a step back in order to make a large step forward. Your life is over here, Serena. Your husband is not coming back. Your marriage is over, and it's nobody's fault. Things like that happened sometimes. It's part of life."

Serena became emotional. "I don't want to be a failure mom. My friends look at me and Darien as being this perfect super couple and now it's over."

"Serena, you think your friends don't have problems in their own lives? They have problems too. They just don't tell you about them. No one wants to admit that some part of their life is falling apart. Everyone wants to pretend they have this perfect life, but perfect doesn't exist. We're all imperfect creatures striving for perfection in an imperfect world. Life throws us curveball. It's hard and it knocks you down sometimes. But as long as you keeping getting back up and keep going on, you are never a failure."

Serena shrugged her shoulders in defeat. "So what do I do now?"

"You listened to your mother." Serena laughed. Irene leaned over and touched her daughter's face wiping away the tears. "You close this chapter of your life. You return home. You start over and you create the life that you want for yourself, and know that everything is going to be okay."

Serena said, "He was my first love and the father of my children. He's always going to be a part of me."

Irene said, "I know. The best part of Darien Shields is always going to be a part of you, but Darien is gone. It's time for you to let him go." Serena sat in silence as her mother walked out of the room. Irene grabbed a pen and the divorce papers off of the coffee table.

She placed them on the kitchen table in front of her daughter. She sat back down. Serena ran her hands through her hair.

Irene said, "Serena…"

Serena said, "I know, mom. Give me a second." Serena propped her elbows on the table and placed her face in her hands and covered her eyes. One document ended her marriage. With the signing of her name, she signed away a marriage that was not easy, but there were good moments between them. She remembered their wedding day eight years ago and their anniversary a few weeks ago. She remembered the joy in their eyes when Rini made milestones like learning how to walk and talk. She remembered the look of joy in Darien's eyes when he held Katie in his arms for the first time. She remembered the times when they would share moments of happiness. She remembered the times that he made love to her not the times that he had sex with her. But the times when he made passionate love to her and told her that he loved her and how she was everything to him. She remembered how it felt when they were connected and happy and how he would kiss her softly after their lovemaking and fall asleep holding her tightly in his arms. She remembered the breakfast in bed and the way he lavished her with gifts every holiday. She remembered how sometimes they acted like children when the girls were not around and spend the day making out like teenagers.

She remembered their first argument and their epic fights of their teenage age years that drew crowds. She remembered all the times that he saved her life and when they found out their secret identity. She remembered their kisses and laughing when he finally confessed that their first real kiss was at a ball when she was drunk. She remembered the way they danced together.

She then found herself remembering the bad. How they argued with one another. How they yelled and screamed at one another.

She slowly picked up the pen signing the divorce papers with shaky hands. She pushed the paper away from her. Her mother took the paper away from her and walked away after placing a reassuring squeeze on her daughter's shoulder as Serena sat in silence.

Since their marriage started eight years ago in July on a plane ride departing from Tokyo, Serena found it poetic that fate ended their marriage in July on a plane ride returning back to Tokyo. A few days later, Serena was on a plane flying back to Tokyo looking solemnly at the clouds outside of the window.

Rini sat next to her while Irene sat in the seat behind them next to a talkative Katie who was excited about her first time on her airplane. Irene had taken care of everything. She filed the divorce papers, placed the house up for sale, completed the moving out process, gave Serena's job her notice, and transferred her granddaughters' school records from their American school to elementary schools in Juban, Tokyo. The same schools that Serena went to when she was their ages. Rini was bummed out that she had to return to school early. She was worried about her Japanese. The girls spoke perfect English in public. At home, they spoke only Japanese since it was the language that their mother preferred to speak in. They could speak Japanese well but were not as strong in writing in Japanese.

Rini sat silently. Serena felt something warm on her hand. She turned her head and glanced down. She smiled when she saw Rini's tiny hand on top of hers. She glanced at her daughter.

Rini said, "I miss daddy." The day after her mother arrived, Serena sat her daughters down and explained them about how things were going to change since their father was gone. Irene stood next to her as she explained. It was a hard discussion and there was a lot of tears and confusion. Katie cried and Rini was upset. She yelled and screamed at her mother blaming her again for running their father away and told her that she would never speak to her again. This was the first time Rini spoke to her since then.

Serena smiled placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I know."

Rini asked, "Do you think it was my fault that I left? If I was good, then he would have not left."

"You are good daughter, Rini."

"Yeah, but I am so mean to Katie all the time." She added depressed. "Katie was his favorite."

Serena smiled. "We love you both equally. We didn't play favoritism." She knew that she was lying but you can't tell one kid that you like the other better than them. That would be detrimental to their self-esteem.

Serena embraced her daughter pulling her towards her resting her head on top of Rini's while rubbing her arm. "Your father did not leave because of any of us. He left because he was sick and he needed to leave to get better, and maybe one day when he is better, he'll return to us." Serena flicked Rini's nose with her finger causing Rini to smile for the first time in days. "So you have to continue to be that daughter that he was proud of…"

Rini asked, "So are you going to help me with my writing? I can speak Japanese well, but my writing was never that great."

Serena snorted. "You're kidding. I sucked at school. Maybe you can ask your grandmother to help you."

Rini said worried, "Mom, do you think I will fit in?"

Serena found herself remembering what Darien told her when they were flying on a plane ride to a new life. Serena said, "Stop worrying. Just breathe. It's going to be okay. We're going to be okay." Rini smiled at her mother's reassuring words. She sat up in her seat and began reading her book, Frances Burnett's The Secret Garden. Serena turned away from Rini resting her head against the seat looking out the window again. She took a deep breath and exhaled hoping for a good life for her children and herself.