~Help. Someone please help me! Darien!~ a voice floated across his mind. He looked confused and looked around. "Did you hear some one calling for help?" he asked Eric. "No." But Darien still felt wrong. "What time is it?" "8:07" "Serena should have been up by now!" Darien whispered, a horror struck look in his eyes. He grabbed his tank and slung it on his back as her jammed the scuba mask over his eyes. He then rolled into the water and looked down. The sight that greeted him made his blood run cold and his heart break. Serena floated motionless, all tangled up in seaweed, her hair floating eerily around her like a golden aura. He frantically kicked down to where she floated lifeless in the water. He created a razor sharp rose and slashed furiously at the life-choking weeds. Within seconds she was free and Darien wrapped an arm around her chest and gave a mighty kick upwards, propelling them to the surface. They surfaced next to the outboard and Darien handed Serena up to Eric who was hovering anxiously before hauling himself onto the outboard, shedding his tank on his way to Serena's side. He pushed Eric out of the way. "Drive. I've got her," he ordered before leaning over and starting mouth to mouth. Tilt her head back, plug nose, create a tight seal over her mouth, and breathe life into her lungs… two hands on her chest, press firmly, repeat… (AN: thanks to Alicia Blade for putting in a very detailed description in Christmas Prayers. I hope she doesn't mind I use it in mine. ^_~) Darien repeated the process over and over again, pushing his breath into her lungs, praying for them to breathe life into his angel on their own. "Come on Serena don't die on me!" he pleaded his voice breaking. "I NEED you! What would my life be like with out your sunny smile, your musical laughter and friendly nature to brighten my days? What would I be without you?" he cried, stoking her hair, still filled with seaweed. Then he began mouth to mouth again. After he finished breathing life into her lungs for the third time, he was ecstatic to feel her move underneath him and begin to choke up the liquid that had nearly killed her. He rolled her into recovery position as she began to choke up all the water in her lungs. When she had finished, Darien pulled her into his arms as she took deep breaths of air. "I'm alive," she whispered wonderingly as she briefly opened her eyes to see Darien staring down at her with the odd look dominating his features. "Thank you," she whispered before she fell into a deep, healing sleep in Darien's arms.***************** The doctor finished his examination. "She's no worse for the wear from her ordeal. Her body needs this long restorative sleep she fell into. All her vital signs are good and because she dispelled all of the water from her lungs and regained consciousness, I don't foresee any lasting damage. Just let her sleep and she should wake up tomorrow morning perfectly fine. She's a lucky one, but keep an eye on her." Darien picked up the dreaming girl and thanked the doctor before carrying her back to their room.****************** Darien closed the door with his foot and wondered what to do with Serena. 'Problem 1) She's still in a wet bathing suit. Problem 2) her hair is still wet and tangled with seaweed. Problems 3+4) She'll catch a cold and I can't change her. OK…Temporary solution 1) put her in one of those robes the ship hung in the closet and let her sleep on the bed while I take care of her hair. Seems like the best move,' Darien thought. 'Nonsense, you just want a chance to touch her,' his conscience argued. Darien shrugged and headed into the thankfully open closet and slipped Serena into the robe then laid her on the bed, with her hair pooling onto the floor. He fetched the brush and blow dryer from the bathroom then sat on the floor and untangled her hair from the seaweed. Then he plugged in the blow dryer and thoroughly dried her long silky hair. AS soon as it was dry he started to gently brush it out so there wouldn't be tangles. An hour and a half later when her hair was dry, brushed and seaweed-free as it spilled into golden pools on the carpet. He debated what to do next. Finally he decided to braid it so it wouldn't tangle while she slept. 'How hard can it be?' he thought as he went in search of elastics. Finding some in the bathroom, he grabbed some towels on the way out also, as her robe was getting wet. Carefully her eased her out of the robe and wrapped the towels around her, then began to braid one side of her long silky hair. Well, he did more playing with her hair than actual attempting to braid it. It was softer than he imagined it to be. A grin plastered itself to his face as he idly ran his fingers through her hair, shivering as it flowed over his hand. Closing his eyes he welcomed the flooding memories. 'She seems so nervous as I offer her my arm to walk into the restaurant… Her crystal blue eyes fill with tears as she accuses me of teasing her… her cute little blush when she explains to me she doesn't want to embarrass me by tripping on her dress… all the times I've seen her sleeping… Darien was pulled out of his dream world when Serena stirred. But when he looked down at her she had fallen asleep again and he sighed and got to the difficult task of braiding all that hair of hers. 'I never knew braiding could be this difficult!' he thought. But he persisted and FINALLY all of her hair was braided. It was late when he wrapped the last elastic around her hair. He yawned as he put his hand on her forehead, relieved that she was at a normal temperature still. Yawning, he lied down on the very edge of the bed. He was too tired to go to the couch, besides if she woke up in the middle of the night, or something went wrong he wanted to be there. Seconds later he was fast asleep, and didn't wake even when Serena rolled over onto him. Instead he unconsciously wrapped his arms around her.~ ~ ~ Out of the darkness the faceless ones came, all her friends and people she knew. People she didn't know, but were very familiar to her came and spun around her, all whispering the same thing. "What he doesn't now can't hurt you. What he doesn't know can't hurt you…" The voices rose in volume and they all spun faster and faster and faster around her till they were screaming. All of them, still faceless, Ami, Rei, Mina, Lita, her family, classmates, teachers, a girl with wavy green hair, a girl with short purple hair, another with long dark green hair and a boy/girl? She couldn't tell with short blond hair and many others screaming their message at her as they spun wildly around the dark place. She crumpled in the middle, screaming as the voices continued to scream at her. Suddenly all was quiet and she looked up into blackness. All were gone. She huddled up and sobbed. A silvery-white light shone, melting the black place to a light place (AN: like the astral plane thingy from stars) and a woman appeared and placed a hand on her shoulder. Serena looked up into kind blue eyes, so like her own, framed by silver hair in an identical style to hers. "Hush my child do not cry," she said softly, drying Serena's tears. "Remember what he doesn't know CAN hurt you. He needs to know. You MUST tell him…" she floated away, her voice echoing around and Serena was left alone.~ ~ ~ Darien was in a black place. 'Where am I,' he wondered. All of a sudden a bright light flashed and when his eyes cleared, he was again standing in the grey foyer of the orphanage. Grey, everywhere and he shuddered. All of a sudden children in grey smocks and uniforms, with pale grey washed out eyes and grayish skin surrounded him. They joined hands and began to circle around him singing in small childish voices, "Stay away. Forget about her. What she doesn't know can't hurt you." They repeated the chant in singsong voices, spinning faster and faster around him. "No!" he yelled in frustration. "Leave me alone!" He rushed forward to try and break out of the circle. He hit a barrier just in front of the children with their glassy grey eyes mocking and taunting him as their chant grew louder and their spinning faster. He banged on the barrier with his fists, but it refused to budge. He wandered back to the middle of the circle and collapsed, trying to get away from the children with their doll-like stares and haunting singsong voices. He pressed his hands to his ears and squeezed his eyes shut to block out the pitiful, small and unloved children. All of a sudden the children disappeared and Darien was left huddling on the dusty floor of the orphanage, all alone. A bright silvery light shone and the orphanage melted away to a light place. Darien looked up into a face that could have been Serena's mother's from the kind blue eyes to the hairstyle. In fact had he not met Serena's mother already, he would have thought this woman was her mother. "Darien," she whispered. "Do not listen to the lonely and bitter multitudes. What she doesn't know CAN hurt you. What she doesn't know can hurt HER. You know that the truth must be told before you get back to Tokyo. You MUST tell her…" She faded away, leaving Darien alone in the light place. ~ ~ ~She was cold. Or rather part of her was cold. She snuggled closer to the source of the warmth as she patted around her to find her blankets. Her hand came in contact with something solid and un-blanket-like. Confused she opened her eyes to find herself wrapped up in DARIEN of all people. Carefully disentangling his arms from around her she scooted off the bed to assess the situation. 'Darien, asleep at edge of bed, fully clothed. Me, wake up in his arms…' She ruthlessly squashed down all feelings that thought provoked. Right now she couldn't afford dreams of living happily ever after with him. '…wearing the swim suit I was wearing while I was scuba diving and towels lying in the center of the bed, wet…OH!' She sunk down at the edge of the bed as her memories came rushing back, of running out of air, her silent good-byes and cries for help, of downing, falling into that black abyss. Tears fell from her eyes and she struggled to keep her sobs quiet, managing quite nicely from ease of long practice to keep Luna and her parents from hearing all those long nights she stayed awake to cry out her frustrations of her life. This time she struggled to make sure one of the reasons she cried asleep. When she had run out of tears she resumed her assessment. 'Well I think I must have been where the towels were and the way I woke up I probably rolled over onto him, though I don't know why his arms were around me. Maybe the reason he was with me was he just fell asleep there cause he was on the edge to obviously he wanted me to keep, I dunno privacy or decency or something…' it was when she had finished puzzling out this that she became aware of something underneath her. She looked down and to her horror she was sitting on the seaweed Darien had pulled out of her hair. The memory of the seaweed entrapping her ankle came rushing back and Serena screamed at the top of her lungs, leaping off the pile of death. Darien was startled awake by Serena's shrill scream and looked up to see her frantically trying to peel a piece of seaweed off her ankle, panic in her eyes. In one swift motion her had the weed off her and across the room and pulled her into his arms to comfort her. She trembled in his arms as he stoked her hair and whispered words of comfort. When she had calmed down out of her panic attack, and had gotten dressed, Darien brought up the idea of going into Half Moon Cay for the day. They walked into the small town at Half Moon Cay and began to look around and do some more shopping. Serena grabbed Darien's hand upon seeing a dress shop and pulled him in. instantly they were surrounded by lovely tropical dresses in bright colours. Serena grinned and began looking though the racks, occasionally handing a dress to Darien to hold, the shop lady hovering in the background smiling with delight. "Does the lady want to try on the pretty dresses?" she asked and Serena nodded enthusiastically and grabbed one more dress off the rack before following the lady to the dressing room. Serena stepped out of the dressing room to model the last of the dresses to Darien, who was getting very tired of the whole thing cause she looked good in everything she put on! But when he looked up he was surprised as this she looked even better in this one than she did in all the others. The bright blue matched her eyes and well she always looked great in pink. "Get that one," he managed to get out. "It looks wonderful on you." Then he blushed along with her and turned away as she disappeared into the dressing room. When she emerged she had the one dress as well as another 2 over one arm and the others over her other arm. "Let me take the ones you don't want," the lady said as Serena handed the three to Darien and then handed the rest to the lady. She then went over to the racks and quickly found three other dresses and two skirts. Taking them to the register she laid them out for the lady to ring up. "Would you like these wrapped?" "Yes could you wrap this skirt separately as well as these 5 dresses? The other two dresses and the other skirt are for me so just shove them in the bag, but the others are gifts for my friends." Serena said, pointing out what she wanted done."Who are you buying for?" Darien wanted to know. "The skirt is for Molly and the dresses are for Mina, Lita, Ami and Rei. Now you need some tropical clothes!" she laughed. Darien sweatdropped. "Uh…not today Serena…" he started. "Nope you're getting some tropical clothes! You need to loosen up and not wear that jacket for once!" Serena declared as she handed her money to the lady who had finished getting Serena's purchases together. After she got her change and bags she pulled Darien out of the store and down the street to the shop that sold men's clothing. It was only after she stepped into the shop that Serena realized she'd grabbed his hand and how nicely their intertwined hands fit together. She blushed and looked down at her feet, but didn't let go. Darien was surprised that once they were in the store she didn't let go of his hand. He looked down at her and saw the faint blush spread across the angel's cheeks. He smiled and gently squeezed her hand. He didn't know what possessed him to do it but was well rewarded with her small intake of breath and the colour spreading. Just then the salesman came up to them and Serena put her attention on getting stuff for Darien. She dragged him through the store, holding shirts up to him and looking critically before discarding some and putting others over her arm. Her grin widened when they came upon a section of ties. She flipped through those, and held a few up to him before shoving him towards the dressing room the salesman had pointed out. Darien went in the room still iffy about getting tropical clothes, but to keep his angel happy, he would try on all of the shirts and the ties. After he came out in the first shirt and went back in to get into the next one, the salesman came over to talk to Serena. "You have very good taste in clothing ma'am. Do you always help your husband pick out his clothes?" he asked the surprised Serena. "Well thank you for the compliment Sir," she giggled. "But we're not married." "Oh," said the man, surprised. "I'm sorry, you just looked so perfect together and so in love I just assumed you were…" "Don't worry about it," Serena said quickly trying to keep the heated blush from rising in her cheeks. Darien came out in the next shirt to find a blushing Serena. She looked up and nodded at him to say it looked good, then went back to fiddling with the hem of her shirt. He finished modeling the rest of the shirts and ties to a red Serena. They quickly bought the best looking shirts and a tie then left the store. When they were a block away from the store Serena began to relax and the red began to ebb from her cheeks. "What happened in there?" he asked. "Why were you so embarrassed?" She blushed. "Well when you were in the dressing room the salesman asked me if I help pick out all my HUSBAND'S clothes…" she trailed off blushing. Darien laughed and wrapped an arm around her. "Well do you?" he teased. She made a face and smacked his arm lightly before laughing too. They walked off towards a cafe with his arm still slung casually over her shoulders. "I'll have a burrito and a Pepsi," Serena ordered at the small café. "The same." The waitress smiled and went off to the kitchen. Just then the song over the intercom changed. Darien stiffened as the song said exactly what he was feeling."Maybe it's intuitionBut some things you just don't question Like in your eyesI see my future in an instantAnd there it goes I think I've found my best friend I know that it might sound more than a little crazy, but I believe I knew I loved you before I met youI think I dreamed you into life I knew I loved you before I met youI have been waiting all my life There's just no rhyme or reasonOnly this sense of completionAnd in your eyes I see the missing piecesI'm searching forI think I've found my best friend I know that it might sound more than a little crazy, but I believe I knew I loved you before I met youI think I dreamed you into life I knew I loved you before I met youI have been waiting all my life. A thousand angel dance around youI am complete now that I've found you I knew I loved you before I met youI think I dreamed you into life. I knew I loved you before I met you I have been waiting all my life." It hit home. It really did. 'I need to tell her,' he vowed. 'This had to be a sign. She needs to know.'~ ~ ~ "I don't know how you talked me into this!" Serena laughed as they headed out into the crystalline waters of the half-moon shaped beach in the small sailboat they had rented. "Trust me!" he called back. "Sailing is fun! Just make sure the boom doesn't knock you over board!" she laughed and began to follow his instructions. They were heading out very nicely in the brisk wind when a rope went loose, one that held the sail in place. Serena noticed the movement out of the corner of her eye and made a leap for it. Her hand closed around the errant rope but discovered her feet were nearly off the boat. Darien however had seen the danger and before she could react he had an arm around her waist and was dragging her back into the safety of the boat. "Thanks," she whispered. He smiled. "I couldn't let you fall into the ocean now could I?" "I suppose you couldn't, though you might want to get rid of the one girl who didn't fawn all over you…" "Nope, I don't want to get rid of her, cause well I want to fawn all over her…" he said, then panicked. 'Oh my god I hope she doesn't break my heart…but it needed to be told…' "What?" Serena gasped. 'Please let this be true, please let this not be a dream…' Darien gulped. He needed to say this but it was so hard. "Well I sorta…umm…need to tell you something…something I should've told you a long time ago…" "Yes?" Serena waited impatiently. 'Please, please let my dreams be coming true…please don't break my heart Darien…' "Well I…I've always…since we first met…well I've loved you," he whispered. Serena's eyes widened and filled with tears, the as an afterthought she viciously pinched herself. Darien grabbed her hand and pulled it away. "Why'd you do that?" "To make sure I wasn't dreaming," she whispered back then threw herself into his arms. "I've always loved you too. I tried to convince myself that you were a mean out of reach college guy who would stomp on my heart given a chance, but I never could." Before he could capture her lips with his own, the boom swung around and barely missed their heads. Darien sat up. "Oh crap, if we don't get in now, we'll be washed out to sea," he said and they reluctantly untangled themselves and sailed back to shore. When the boat was docked again Darien and Serena decided to walk down the beach. Hand in hand they strolled through the surf, explaining themselves to each other, and why they had kept up the charade so long. When they returned, they found an empty hammock and curled up together and swung idly in the gentle breeze. At 3:30 they left the hammock in order to mail the postcards Serena had gotten that morning. "Hey look Darien! The stamps have a cruise ship on them! That's neat!" Darien smiled at her and nodded, then gave an amused chuckle as she wheedled the sale of an extra stamp out of the guy for 'a memento of the trip.' Faced with her charm, the guy couldn't help but agree so Serena and Darien left the post office with a stamp for a memento and a promise that the post cards would be rushed off without delay. "Now if only all those roses would be as easy to get back to Japan," Serena sighed.~ ~ ~ They stood at the rail and watched the island of Half Moon Cay fade into the distance and setting sun. "I'm gonna miss that nice little island," Serena sighed, looking up at Darien. "Yeah me too," he answered. "But hey we're going home tomorrow! Won't we have a surprise for them!" "Yeah," she giggled. "Who would've thought?" That was all she got out before Darien's lips captured hers and they kissed, as the sun sank into the ocean. Whew!! I made it! Even though semester 2 came quicker than I expected…I made it, just barely, but I made my promised deadline. Well look out for an epilogue heading your way soon, hopefully with a few laughs included. And yes I do have another multi-parter planned as well as some side stories that don't fall into the sailor moon category. One of them being an insane one for my friend's Utena page, which is more like a parody fic. Very funny even if you don't understand the Utena plotline. You can go to my page, which has ALL of my stories on it plus a bunch of other things at http://www.geocities.com/moon_princess_selene/ And you can go to my friend's page at http://www.geocities.com/swap4p/ Ja ne minna-chan! Selene Terra.