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Chapter 37 – Next Steps

The following morning, Raye walked into the Arcade not knowing who she wanted to run into, if anyone at all. She had been thinking all night and slept horribly. She looked around and saw Andrew at the counter talking to Jadeite and Darien as they sat there and drank their coffee. She saw Andrew look up, pause, and the other guys turn to follow his gaze.

She sighed and said, "Hi, Andrew. Could I have a chocolate shake? I will be sitting in that booth." She pointed to indicate which one she meant, and she watched him as he nodded. She then took a step to walk towards the booth.

"No nasty cutting remark for us today?" Jadeite questioned. "I'm surprised. Maybe you're off your game today. You look awful. Trouble sleeping?" He smiled, enjoying the fact that she looked exhausted.

"Actually, yes. I had trouble sleeping." She sighed and decided to tell them, "I've been using the sword, and well… it has been an experience for lack of a better way to put it. He hasn't pulled any punches when he has spoken to me."

"He?" Darien asked.

Raye looked around and noticed the only kids there were playing loud video games and couldn't hear them. "Yes, he. Mars, if you want a name. The sword is owned by him, and it brought me to him when I held it long enough." She paused and thought a second. "Andrew, make that shake to go. I don't want to disturb any of you."

Jadeite narrowed his eyes, "Does this mean you're going to back off of Molly? I don't need you to be nice to her, I just need you to not be you."

"Ouch. Yes, I will leave Molly alone. Oh! And Darien, I heard you're engaged to Serena. You must both be happy," she stated.

"Actually, we just eloped Saturday."

"Good, you both belong together." Raye took her shake from Andrew's outstretched arm and exited the arcade.

"She knows Serena won't make her Sailor Mars again, right?" Jadeite asked Darien and Andrew.

They both shrugged.

OoooooO

Darien made it to the biology lab early that day with the hope, for the first time, to talk to Dave, Stephen, and Rick. He walked in and noticed Dave and Rick were already there. He waved at them and headed over to them. "Where's Stephen?"

Rick pointed behind him and said, "He just walked in. Why?"

Darien waited for Stephen to join them and then shocked them first by smiling at them and then by announcing, "I married Serena Saturday." He then held up his left hand and showed his wedding band to them.

David just said, "Ah! Now I know why you're smiling. I don't even have to ask what you were doing last night."

The guys chuckled.

Darien shook his head and replied, "No, you don't." The professor walked in and indicated that everyone should prepare for the lab. As Darien walked away, he said, "Or this morning."

Rick let out a barking laugh, "Did Darien just make a joke? I didn't expect that of him."

Darien looked Rick in the eyes and said, "Who said I was joking?"

OoooooO

Luna looked at the boxes stacking up in the hall outside Serena's room and Nephrite came to stand next to her. He said, "Strange, isn't it? I can't believe she isn't going to be living with us anymore." He then leaned down and picked up a box to load in her uncle's car and walked downstairs.

Luna followed him and made sure not to get underfoot since he couldn't see well around the box. "It won't be the same around here, and I'll miss her."

"Yea." Nephrite said, "But, isn't that what we were reincarnated for? They are together and married now. She is technically Queen, and serving them is ultimately what we're here to do. We're all succeeding in our goals and oaths. It makes me proud."

Luna sat, and her tail twitched, "The girl that was born to be Queen." She mused and then smiled, "You're right. Everything is happening just as it should be."

OoooooO

Wiseman checked his progress as well as his course and was pleased. He was right on schedule, and he loved when things went his way.

Soon, very soon, he would bring Earth under his heel and control the solar system.

Now, he just had to finalize his plans on how to defeat Serenity, Endymion, and the Sailor Scouts.

OoooooO

Molly stood at the top of the stairs looking at the temple. She was sure she was crazy, and that this was a bad idea, but she had a strange dream last night and had mentioned it to Jadeite. The moment she mentioned Mars being in her dream, he looked shocked and told her about what Raye had said in the arcade. So, she was now listening to the advice she received from Mars in a dream. Crazy.

Her comment to Jadeite then was that she wasn't any more likely to have premonitions than Darien was. That earned her a laugh. He then went on to say, "You aren't having dreams of the future. Mars is possibly coming to you and advising you how to handle your sister. It's different."

"It's weird."

"It is, but what is the real problem?" He stroked her cheek and lifted her chin to have her look him in the eyes.

"She's mean." She sighed, "She hates me, apparently I'm her sister, and I'm dating the guy she wants. I don't know how to handle all of that."

"You have handled her without a problem before." Jadeite was confused, why was it a problem now? Had it been before, and he missed it?

"When she came in, yelling and saying awful things, it wasn't a problem. Now... now I want to go and have an actual conversation. That is hard. I'm choosing to engage in conversation with her, and she can choose to be vile again."

"Love, look at it this way. You're choosing to follow what Mars has instructed you to do. Her reaction isn't as important and your decision to listen to him. You're responsible for you."

She had kissed him then headed off to the temple, and now here she was. She sighed and walked over to Raye as she was sweeping. She got her attention by saying, "Hello, are you willing to talk to me for a couple minutes?"

Raye hesitated in her sweeping then resumed and glanced at Molly, "What do you want to talk about?"

"I don't know," Molly admitted. "Mars talked to me in my dream and told me to come to you."

That caused Raye to stop sweeping and invite Molly over to the bench to sit. "What did he tell you?"

"Not a whole lot, I guess. Just that we are daughters of Mars, and while we are bred for war, we aren't bred for war against each other." Molly shrugged. "He then said that everything isn't as I assume. Then he made a weird comment about how I know the truth about Serena's family, and you need to hear it from me." She looked at Raye and said, "There isn't some deep dark secret about her family, so I don't know what he wanted me to tell you."

Raye looked down towards her feet. She knew what Mars was saying, and she was afraid it would expose how abandoned she felt if she told Molly. She sighed and carefully phrased what she wanted to say, "Mars and I got in a disagreement about how much Serena's parents love her. He believes they are all show, and I believe she is the doted-upon-daughter."

Molly knit her brow, "That isn't a secret at all. Her parents only care about how she makes them look. They were so awful to her that Darien asked if she wanted to elope so they wouldn't have to have her parents at the wedding. She was relieved. They knew Serena was getting married, and they weren't even there. Her brother was the only one at the wedding Saturday, and her parents haven't even talked to her since." Molly decided to tell her more, "They knew she was sneaking out of the house since she was fourteen, and they didn't say anything. They didn't feel like taking the time. She would come home from battle wounded, and they never noticed. If they did, yet again, they said nothing. They didn't even know she and Darien were back together until he spoke to her father about wanting to marry her. She was away for a year, and they never went to see her once. They talked to her on the phone just to be able to tell people they knew how she was doing."

Raye's eyes had grown wide, "But, everyone loves Serena."

Molly snorted, "Serena has learned that love is based on what others can get out of her. Darien had to have a conversation with her to assure her that his love for her wasn't conditional recently. Until then, she believed even his love had to be earned daily."

Raye's eyes widened, and she let the truth slip out, "So, she is like me. Her parents don't love her like my father doesn't love me."

Molly said, "And, you have the love of your grandfather just like she has the love of her uncle."

Raye abruptly stood, looked around, and then sat back down. "I didn't know."

"Serena has hidden things that are ugly in her life for a long time. Only recently has she started letting those parts show. She will know how you feel because she has lived it."

"I'm tired of being mad all the time." Raye admitted to Molly.

Molly tried a tactic she hoped wouldn't backfire, "You do realize that, since we're sisters, neither of us is an only child any longer. It's strange to think that we're family."

"I really don't know how I feel about that fact." Raye stated.

Molly stood up, brushed off her skirt, and looked at Raye, "We aren't currently arguing, so I'll be content with that. I should head out. Goodbye." Raye said goodbye too, and Molly headed down the steps.

Molly shook her head. It was strange to think that Mars really did come to her and talk to her in her dream. That had to be the case though. There was no other possible explanation for what just happened.

OooooooO

Serena and Darien had met after he got out of class, and he drove her to go furniture shopping. Once there, they had a happy sales attendant following them with an iPad and quickly typing in everything Serena told her.

Originally, the workday for Tracy had been absolutely maddening. She had asked for today off two weeks ago knowing that she would be working five days straight and didn't want to work a sixth. Her boss had looked her in the eye and promised that she would have the day off. When the schedule had come out, and not coincidentally on the first day of her boss's vacation, she was scheduled for the six straight days. And due to his vacation, she wasn't able to get the schedule fixed. She was grouchy before she even came to work, and then she arrived to find out the other two people scheduled to work that day had called in sick. She was then angry that she would be the only one in the specialty furniture store, and she had to stay late to lock up.

She was furious and trying to hide it until shortly after she introduced herself to Darien and Serena. She had immediately noticed that Serena was sweet and was glad she wouldn't be stuck with mean customers. The rest of her realizations came in rapid succession. They were newlyweds. Darien had some opinions but mostly deferred to whatever Serena wanted. Money was no object, and that combined with the last fact was the most important to Tracy, they had a whole huge house to fill.

She suddenly wanted to kiss her boss and the two people who called in sick. She was alone in this whole store, and the commission on this huge order would go to her.

Serena and Darien had already looked seriously at a dining room table for twelve, several couches and arm chairs, a kitchen table for the two of them, three bedroom sets for their guest rooms, a large desk with three matching bookcases, a desk chair and a table for the entryway. And much to Tracy's joy, they planned on actually purchasing each and every single one, and they were still shopping.

Tracy wanted to do a dance every time Darien insisted to Serena that she pick out her favorite and not to worry about cost.

Long after the purchase was paid for and she had locked up the store for the night, she went home and danced around her living room.

OooooO

Molly had come to absolutely love her lunch dates with Jadeite. She loved to relax halfway through the day and laugh with him. She loved the look in his eyes when she would tell him something new about herself. It made her stomach do flips. Increasingly, she realized that he drew great pleasure from learning more about her and making her smile.

And here she was, sitting and giggling. She was actually giggling. She wondered when she had become so girly. She quickly decided that since she could transform into a superhero and kick youma and alien butt, she was allowed to be girly. It just gave her new layers to her personality she decided.

So, she was currently sitting at a restaurant and giggling as Jadeite arrived and was quoting Much Ado About Nothing to her loudly, drawing everyone's attention during the first line. As he made his way over from across the room, he had started with, "I do love nothing in the world so well as you - is not that strange?" That was when she started giggling. Then he winked and said, "I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy eyes."

Molly shook her head at him smiling and said, "I didn't realize I was dating Benedick. Does that make me Beatrice?" She then kissed his cheek, "You're a strange man."

"Oh, my dear Beatrice, 'Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.'" Jadeite quoted in reply.

"Oh no!" She laughed, "Now you're the villain."

"Yes, but you have to admit Don John had a great line there." Jadeite said.

"It's Shakespeare. There are a lot of good lines throughout the whole play. But yes, it is a great one. What inspired you to start quoting it?" She was really curious.

"Well, one certain line had popped into my head, and it got me to thinking about the play as a whole."

"So, which one of the lines was it that came to mind?"

"None of the ones I have quoted to you." He paused and grew quiet.

Molly grew concerned, "Since Benedick and Beatrice are arguing through much of the play, should I be concerned?" She quickly added, "Well, there was that and Hero having to fake her death because Don John slandered her." Her brow had drawn together, and her lips were pinched.

Jadeite looked startled, "No! Nothing like that at all. The line that popped into my head was…" Here, he sighed and grew serious, "I don't want you to feel pressured, okay?"

Now, Molly just looked puzzled, "Okay."

Jadeite shook his head and said, "You can't really agree to that without knowing what I am going to say." He took a deep breath and quoted, "When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married."

Molly teared up, "You're actually thinking of marriage? Wait, I didn't read that wrong, did I?"

"No, you did not." He smiled at her, took her hand, and kissed it.

"So, you thought you would die young?" She asked.

Jadeite gave a short laugh, "You do realize that I died young one thousand years ago, and I have already died once in this lifetime. Serena brought us all back from death."

Molly looked at him and decided to push for more, "Do you really want to marry me, or are you just thinking about the possibility of marrying me in the future?"

"Molly, I have just been struggling to come up with the perfect way to ask you. We haven't dated long, but you are it for me."

Molly got tears in her eyes and said, "Then ask me now if you really mean it."

Jadeite looked into her eyes and found what he was looking for. Determination and love. "Molly, you are amazing, strong, bright and perfect. You're everything I have always wanted but didn't think I deserved. Marry me, please. Marry me, and spend the rest of our lives astounding me with your strength and intelligence."

Molly nodded and sniffled, "Yes. Yes, I will marry you. I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you."

Jadeite quoted, "Peace. I will stop your mouth." He then leaned in and kissed her.