Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon.

"You kissed him?!" Ami and Rei's voices echoed throughout the dinner startling a few elderly patrons and a server carrying a tray of food. The three girls including Serenity had met for breakfast during Ami's lunch break from the hospital and Serena had told them about the events that transpired a few nights before. It had been one week since the incident with Darien, her foot was almost healed (save for the ankle brace she had to wear) but Darien had avoided her completely. She didn't expect much but a call asking how she was doing would have at least bee the moral thing to do.

"Shhh! You don't have to announce it to the whole restaurant." Serena's face flushed.

"How could you wait so long to tell us this?!" Rei didn't seemed to mind the attention that her shouting was bringing to their table.

"I was still so hoped up on the drugs from the hospital I thought that I had dreamt it. I honestly didn't want to believe that I actually did that. God, I practically threw myself at him." Serena touched her lips remembering the warm sensation of Darien's lips against hers.

"Has he called you?" Ami asked

"No."

"Has he tried to see you?" Rei asked suddenly sounding irritated.

"No"

"Well what did he do after you kissed him?" Ami pushed her half eaten omelet to the side. Somehow she lost her appetite after hearing all this information.

Serena sighed. "He ran out of the house."

The raven haired women and bluenette gave each other a look.

"Maybe its a good thing he's avoiding me. I mean, he's engaged after all."

Rei scoffed. "Yeah, engaged to the Devil."

"Rei!" Ami scolded her friend.

"What? She is! You haven't meet her Ami. She's a fake. I can see right through her. Not to mention when I shook her hand I could feel the negative energy all around her. My aunt told me she wont even let Darien's dog into their room because she doesn't want to get dog hair and slobber on her special Egyptian cotton sheets." Rei said the last three words with air quotations.

"Didn't you say that she's from a wealthy family in New York. Maybe she's just trying to adjust to the way things are around here." Ami tried to reason.

"I doubt it. She's just...ugh. She gives me Dangerous Liaisons vibes. You know, psycho. Like Glenn Close."

Serena had to agree. That Beryl looked like a devious heartbreaker and she probably had her claws deep in Darien. Maybe she was keeping him from trying to contact Serena.

"Well, nonetheless, she is Darien's fiancé. But," Ami covered Serenity's ears who was completely oblivious of the conversation taking place as she drew with crayons on the back of her child's menu. "He is also Serenity's father and he should know before he sets a date for his wedding."

"I know Ames, I just never thought it would be this complicated." Serena threw her head back in frustration. "What am I going to do? I can't just run over to his house and tell him in front of his family and Beryl, I wouldn't want to embarrass him like that. He deserves to be told in private without any factors there to influence him."

"Well you'll have plenty of chances. Darien said Beryl couldn't take as much time off of work as him. She's flying back to New York next week and she won't return until December for Christmas." Rei took a bite of Serenity's half eaten waffle off of her plate and Serenity gave her displeasing look as she pulled her plate closer too her still trying to focus on her drawing. She may have Darien's defining features but she most defiantly shared Serena's displeasure of sharing food. "Maybe you should tell him on Christmas."

"Rei, thats an awful idea!"

"Oh lighten up Ami, I was only joking."

Small sharp chirps from Ami's pager interrupted their conversation. "Oh shoot, I forgot I was On-call." She wiped any crumbs left over from breakfast off her grey scrubs and reached into her purse to pull out change for her part of the bill. "All I'm saying 'Rena is that you should tell him before it get too late."

"Yeah, I know."

Rei stood as well pulling on her coat and gloves. "I'll walk you out to your car. I should start heading over to the shop anyways."

"Wait! I want a hug!" Serenity ran to the edge of the booth and hugged both of the girls and whispered something into Rei's ear. Probably telling her she owes her a new waffle.

"Are you going back to my house?" Ami asked wrapping her scarf around her neck as Rei walked over to the counter to pay for the bill.

"Not yet. I have to pick up my prescription from the pharmacy."

The long strip of the main street know as Downtown was decorated for the upcoming Halloween festival. The street and side walk was littered in a sea of oranges and reds from the fallen leaves of the large Oregon Maple tress that lined the street whose bark were lit up with orange and black string lights, street lamps were wrapped in black and orange fabric, banners advertising the date of the festival and the annual Harvest Ball hung along the power lines above the street accompanied by more black and orange fabric. Bat and skeleton silhouettes were pasted on all the store windows and some stores decorated their entrances with fake spider webs and autumn wreathes. This was something Serena had missed, how her hometown celebrated every holiday. Of course Seattle did the same during the holidays but it was such a big crowded city, everyone was always in a rush to get to where they needed to be, the holiday traffic was so unbearable it made everyone hostile and there was always the chance that you'd walk down the wrong ally way into a homeless encampment that was trying to celebrate in their own way. But here in her hometown it was so peaceful and all the passerbys were so kind and greeted her and Serenity if they made eye contact with them as they walked down the street to the Pharmacy.

The pharmacy was an older building unlike the other ones in town that had been torn down and remodeled, it was dark and smelt of dust and bleach. It still looked the same way Serena remembered. She made her way to the counter with Serenity in tow who had pulled out her stuffed animal from her own backpack. Seeing that the pharmacy technician was busy with someone Serena pulled out her prescription receip and Serenity's inhaler from her purse.

Serena's mind kept drifting back to the conversation that she and her friends had earlier. Beryl would be gone for most of the time Darien would be in town. Maybe she would have the chance to tell him without that awful women around. God, what did Darien see in her? She was nothing like the type of women she thought Darien would be attracted too. Serena only had that one encounter with her at the market but that was enough to see the type of woman she was.

The pharm tech called Serena over and she absentmindedly handed the tech her papers.

"Serena? Serena Taylor?"

The voice of the surprised woman broke Serena's daze and she looked at the technician behind the counter.

"Mrs. Shelids?"

Carolann Sheilds hadn't aged over the five years from the last time Serena saw her save for a dusting of silver in her pixie cut hair.

Carolann came from behind the counter and took Serena in her embrace. "Oh Serena, sweet girl. I thought I'd never see you again We were all so worried that something terrible happened to you."

The tall woman that was Darien's mother released her and Serena could see tears behind her large round glasses.

"I'm so sorry Mrs. Sheilds. I didn't mean to worry you and your family. I just-"

"No, no. You don't need to explain yourself. I know you had your reasons for leaving and I know how devastated you were when your mother passed. All that matters is that you're okay and safe."

Serena smiled. Carolann was always so sweet and kind to Serena, she made her feel like she was a daughter to her. When Serena's mother was put on hospice Carolann had taken Serena out to shop for her prom dress and even attended the disaster of a play that her anime club had put on. "Thank you. I'm honestly a little surprised Darien hasn't told you I came back. I've ran into him a couple of times"

"I hardly see much of Darien lately even though he's home. His father and I have been working double shifts to pay off my father's medical bills. The last time I even saw my husband was two days ago when the three of us took my father to his pre-op appointment." Carolann sighed. "Things have been quite stressful lately.

It hurt Serena knowing Darien's family was struggling. Ever since she had meet Darien back in high school she knew his family had financial problems which was the one of the reasons Darien worked so hard in school to get scholarships and into a good college, he wanted to help his family.

"And who is this cute little one?" Carolann bent down to Serenity's level.

"This is my daughter Serenity. Serenity, this is Darien's mother."

"You're Darien's mommy?!" Serenity's face lit up and she reached into he bag and pulled out her child's menu from the diner. "Can you give this to Darien? I drew it for him."

Carolann took the paper as Serenity handed it to her. "Why of course I will. I'll make sure he gets it." She stood then and looked at Serena. "You know, you just missed your father."

Serena froze instantly. She opened her mouth to say something but her voice faltered.

Carolann held up her hand as if to stop Serena's breathless attempt to speak. "Look, I'm not one to come in between family drama so I won't say anything to him but this is a small town, word can travel fast. If you do plan on seeing him or talking to him do it soon before someone tells him that they've seen you. It's a little less awkward that way. I'm impressed you've evaded him for this long actually."

"I've been avoiding my old stomping grounds for that very reason. There's less likely of a chance of someone recognizing me at the library than there is at the arcade."

The tall silver streaked brunette laughed. "That's very true. Well, come on. I've taken up too much of your time. You came in here to get those prescriptions filled."

...

"I'm home!" Carolann exclaimed as she walked into the kitchen carrying in her many grocery bags. Darien sat at the kitchen table with his face buried in his laptop the chandler above him providing the only light in the dark room. She placed the groceries on the table and flipped on the kitchen light switch. "Darien, you're going to make your eyesight worse than it already is if you keep looking at that thing in the dark."

Darien removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "I was just researching something. Do you need any help?" He quickly reached for a paper next to his laptop and stuffed it in his pocket as if he didn't want his mother to see it.

"No, this is all of it. " She reached into one of the paper bags and pulled out a pack of large water bottles. "And here is the special PH water that your fiancé requested. Do you know how hard it was for me to find this? The store clerk looked at me like I had a brain aneurysm when I asked him if they carried it. And not to mention how expensive it is."

Darien took the pack of water bottles from her looking slightly embarrassed. "Thank you for doing that Mom."

She unpacked the rest of the groceries and placed the perishables in the fridge. "You'll never guess who I ran into at work today."

"Who?" Darien asked closing his laptop as he got up to help in mother.

"Serena Taylor." Carolann could see her son's face turn bright red. "You didn't tell me that she was back in town."

Darien sighed and folded on of the paper bags as he put the last of the groceries away. "I didn't think it would have mattered that much to tell you."

"Really?! Serena, dear sweet Serena, love of your life Serena comes back into town five years later with an equally adorable sweet little girl and you don't think that it wouldn't have mattered to tell me?"

There was silence for a minute and Darien just shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "I don't know what you want me to say."

His mother pulled out a pair of scissors from the kitchen drawer and cut open a bag of dog treats. The floor began to shake as Bo, their giant Bernese mountain dog, came running from his bed in the living room as he heard Carolann open up the bag. The dog sat there next to her, drool falling from his mouth, waiting patiently for his treat. "How about you stop pretending like it doesn't bother you as much as it bothers me."

"Im not pretending. Like you said, it's been five years. A lot has happened since then. Things have changed. I've changed."

Bo let out a small whine waiting for his human to drop the dog biscuit that she was dangling above him. Finally she handed the K-9 his treat and he plopped down next to his food bowl happily chewing on his biscuit.

"Oh, Darien." Carolann could see the pain that her son as trying to hide. She walked over to her son and touched his cheek gently. "You've sacrificed so much for this family. Don't you think you deserve your own happiness?"

"I am happy." Darien furrowed his eyebrows slightly taken aback by his mothers accusation.

"No you're not. You can't fool a mother's intuition."

Darien tuned his head and took a step back out of his mother's reach. "Mom, I spent three years of my life trying to find Serena after she left. Eventually I realized she didn't want to be found and I tried to move on. I moved to New York, finished school, found a great job, I met Beryl, got engaged. Obviously It took less time for Serena to move on with her life. If you want me to be happy then you'll just let things be as they are."

There was a pregnant pause and Carolann sighed. He was stubborn just like his father. "You're right. I'm sorry for suggesting you weren't happy."

She was about to walk out of the kitchen but then snapped her fingers as she always did when she remembered something important. She reached for her purse on the counter and pulled out a large folded paper. "Here. Serena's daughter asked me to give you this. She said she drew it herself."

Darien took the paper from his mother and unfolded it to reveal a stick figure drawn in black crayon with a rather large yellow crown sitting upon an equally large head and a large red triangle connected to two blue circles above the sick figures arms. A long silver line with a yellow cross at the end was connected to the figures hand. The image puzzled Darien and he removed his glasses thinking that maybe his blurred vision would help him understand it better. "I wouldn't think a five year old would understand abstract art at such a young age."

Carolann rolled her eyes at her sons sarcasm. "It's a picture of you as a prince, smarty pants. She said to tell you 'thank you for saving her mommy.'"

Darien smiled and he could see the image clearly now. At the bottom right corner was the bunny caricature that Serena used as her signature. Had she really done that knowing Serenity wanted to give him the picture?

"So you saved her, huh?" Carolann couldn't help but smile at the way her son lit up at the thought of Serenity drawing a picture of him. Sure, he may say he was happy but it had been so long since she had seen him smile so genuinely.

"You remember how clumsy Serena is. She hurt her ankle tripping over a box. I had to take her to the Urgent Care and I drove her home."

Carolann raised an eyebrow and her smile widened.

"I just took her to the Urgent Care and drove her home. That's it. Nothing else happened."

The ever present pink color of his cheeks grew brighter as he tried to denounce his mother's suggestive accusation. He was stubborn and a bad liar.

Carolann held up her hands in defense. There was silence for a minute then Carolann grabbed her purse readying herself to go upstairs. "You know it funny, when that little girl smiled at me I could've sworn I was looking at you when you were a child. It was her eyes. They were the same color as yours."

Darien subconsciously touched his under eye and looked down at the drawing in his hand.

Bo's low defensive growl startled both Carolann and Darien. They looked up to see what had unsettled the usually gentile and friendly dog. Beryl walked in to the kitchen, her red locks wrapped up in a towel and her face covered in what they guessed could only be a face mask. The robe she wore was definitely one of many designer ones that she brought from home. She greeted Carolann and Darien and picked up the water bottle from the pack on the table.

"Thank you for getting this Carol! I know that tiny little airport wouldn't carry it and I refuse to drink that tap water they serve on the plane. I wouldn't be able to fly without it."

Darien cringed at the informal nickname Beryl had called his mother. She hated being called Carol and even though Darien had told her many times to call his mother by her full first name Beryl had forgotten or possibly refused to call her Carolann. He looked at his mother and could see the annoyance on her face but she forced a smile.

Beryl looked at Darien. "What happened to your contacts?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to wear my glasses."

Beryl wrinkled her nose. "Maybe we can schedule an appointment with Dr. Goldberg when you get back to New York so you don't have to wear those clunky things anymore." She opened the fridge and pulled out an apple from one of the drawers. "Come to bed soon. You have to drive me to the post office at six so I can pick up my dress."

"Your dress?"

"Yeah, you didn't think I was going to find anything here to wear to that town ball did you? I had Daddy fly my Chanel dress over."

She took a big bite of the apple and kissed Darien on the cheek. She turned and was about to bid Carolann goodnight but Bo ran in front of his human and growled at the redhead warning her not to get close.

"Your fiancé is the only person Bo growls at." Carolann stated scratching the dog behind his ears once Beryl ran upstairs.

"Beryl's not much of an animal lover. He can probably sense it."

"Maybe she can schedule an appointment with Dr. Goldberg to fix that."

"Mom." Darien said sternly.

Once again Carolann held up her hand in defense. "She's right though, it's getting late. I better get to bed. I have to open the pharmacy tomorrow. You're father picked up an over night shift so don't expect him back until tomorrow afternoon."

"What?! Didn't he just work a double shift?"

"Yeah well, Grandad's going to be needing more medication after his surgery." Carolann walked over to Darien, kissed him on the cheek then called Bo over and she and the Bernese Mountain dog disappeared up the stairs.

Darien sighed and looked at serenity's drawing that he still held in his hand. It flattered him greatly that the child would think this highly of him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the crinkled ultrasound he had taken from the hospital. He walked over to his laptop and flipped it open once again looking over what he was searching before his mother walked in, the many tabs he had viewed overflowed the screen. His search for Serenity's birth certificate and information had left him with more questions than answers. It seemed as if Serena hadn't filed any of Serenity's information in Astoria Memorial Hospital and in order to access her existing information he needed the file number. Darien sighed and looked at the ultrasound once again. It mocked him with the unknown knowledge that he needed.

"Are you mine or Seiya's?"

Filled with determination to know the truth Darien began a new search and entered Seiya's name in the search engine. Surprised to see so many results from that one name he clicked the first link which redirected him to the journalism website of Salem University reporting about the triumphant win of their soccer team thanks to the team captain Seiya Kou. Darien looked at the picture of the overly confident man in disgust somewhat. He would never understand what had possessed Serena to date him even if it were only for a month. Although most kids had said that they looked alike in high school their personalities were the opposite. Seiya was the kind of man who had savored the popularity that his athletics brought him and Darien was the type to spend his time in his studies. The article read on about how Seiya had saved the team from utter defeat and whatnot.

Darien picked up the receiver of the house phone and dialed the number of the only person he knew he could talk to about this. There were only three short rings before the voice on the other end picked up sounding slightly irritated.

"Malachite? It's Darien."

"Darien? Are you crazy? Do you know what time it is?! Mina's pregnant. You're lucky she didn't wake up." He whispered harshly.

"I know, I'm sorry. It just..." Darien hesitated and wondered if what he was about to ask was too much for Malachite and his new family. "I need to ask you a favor."

"A favor? What kind of favor?"

"I need you to come to Salem with me.