This chapter I wasn't to pleased with mostly because it isn't very eventful but it's necessary in order to move on to the next. The next chapter is most likely going to be Serena and Darien's first official "Wager Date" for one of the four reasons Serena listed in the previous chapter. Which one would you guys be most excited to see do as a date?

As always R&R!

Lots of love! -Renee Bell

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon.

"You said we'd talk about it today Darien." Raye tapped her pencil anxiously against her notepad while waiting for a response from her brother on the other end of the phone. She swore it was only Darien who could drive her up the walls. She had barely gotten any sleep last night after their fight when he came home from whatever the hell he was doing with Serena and now, after he had promised to talk about his "dying with dignity" decision in the morning, took off before Raye even woke up. God knows she loves him but he could use a serious kick in the balls.

"I know but I forgot that Samuel wanted me to come in for a check up. We'll talk when I get back, I promise."

"I swear to God if you try and run off and avoid this again I'm going to beat your ass."

"I swear." Darien chuckled.

"I'm serious Darien!" Raye felt like Darien was disregarding her emotions and it was so fucking aggravating that he couldn't see what he was doing to her. Tears began to well in her eyes. "You're...you're breaking my heart."

"Raye, please don't cry. Please just wait until I get home. I swear to you we'll talk about it."

Raye wiped her tears away and inhaled deeply. "Okay. Well, I'm going out to get a few things. I'll probably be a while."

"Why? Where are you going?"

"Downtown. When you get home don't be surprised by what you see and don't freak out, okay?"

"What? What are talking about? Raye, what are you going to do? Raye?!"

"Okay, bye!" Raye hung up the phone, tore off her shopping list from the notepad and stuffed it in her bag. She nearly screamed when she opened the apartment door to see Serena standing there just about to knock. "Jesus christ! Don't do that."

The blonde looked just as surprised to see Raye instead of Darien in the doorway. She was holding what Raye recognized as Dairen's sweater in her hands. "Sorry, I just wanted to return this to Darien. He let me borrow it last night. Is he here?"

Raye looked at the folded grey sweater in the young girls hands. She felt something in the pit of her stomach, pity maybe, for the pretty looking blonde. Darien was leading this poor girl on not knowing the damage he could cause by not telling her about his current condition. She could see that Serena was enamored with her brother. Every time Darien and Serena passed each other in the hallway Raye could see a sparkle in her eyes. She saw the same spark in Darien's eyes last night when he returned home from whatever adventure he took Serena on, a sparkle that suddenly that faded when Raye confronted him about him not telling Serena about his illness. Being the stubborn ox that he was Darien refused to talk about it just then. Raye silently cursed her brother for his stupidity. "He's at a doctor's appointment."

"Is he okay? He said he got over the flu but he looked a little sick last night." Serena hugged the sweater to her chest.

Raye could see in Serena's eyes that she was really concerned. "He's fine. It's just a check up."

"Oh, okay. Well, um, here." Serena handed Raye the sweater. "I washed it and everything. Can you make sure he gets it?"

"Yeah, sure." Raye said taking the sweater. Just as Serena tuned to enter her apartment Raye grabbed her arm."Hey, wait. I know that I haven't exactly thrown out the welcome wagon for you and I've been somewhat of a bitch. It's just...Darien and I, we're really all each other has and all we've ever done is look out for each other and I've had to do my share of steering him away from obvious heartbreaks and mistakes."

Raye suddenly wanted to retract those last few words when she saw Serena's mouth gap open and eyebrows furrow in offence.

"I mean no offence Raye but you barely now me." Serena stated.

"I know, and even though you and Darien seem to have this strange thing going on between you two I feel that you guys barely now each other. I mean, do you even know what kind of food he likes or how he takes his coffee?"

"He takes it black, one once of cream, no sugar. "

Raye looked wide-eyed at the blonde. She had to admit she was rather impressed. Maybe she wasn't like the other girls she had to chase away. Serena was smart and generous and completely, hopelessly, undoubtedly hooked on Darien. And Darien was hooked on her.

An idea struck Raye just then, a very cunning and clever idea.

"Obviously we both got off on the wrong start. If you and my brother are going to be around each other all the time I'm bound to be around most of the time too since I'm staying here and I don't want us to have to be uncomfortable standing in the same room together. So, how about you join us in a painfully boring family gathering as a peace treaty."

"A gathering? " Serena asked obviously confused. It honestly sounded like the raven-haired girl was having some weird pagan seance and was planning to use Serena as a sacrifice.

Raye ran her hand down her face in annoyance. "I'm inviting you to dinner, airhead."

"Oh, that sounds nice but-"

"Great! Come on, grab your purse. You're going shopping with me.

...

Darien sat on the examining table staring up at the styrofoam tiled ceiling while Samuel got all his equipment ready. Darien had spent so much time on these examining tables staring at the celings that he was able to count all the holes in the tiles. There were sixty-four holes in each tile. He never understood why there were sixty-four, perhaps it was just the way it laid out or perhaps there was a specific, functioning, very important reason for it. But he didn't know, he wasn't a styrofoam tile expert. He wondered if being a styrofoam tile designer was an important job. Maybe it was one of the most important jobs in the world, maybe there was a certain science to making the tiles and making sure there were exactly sixty-four holes, not sixty-three or sixty-five, exactly sixty-four. He wondered what would happen if there were ever any more or less than sixty-four holes. There would be chaos, there wouldn't be enough insulation in the building, patients would die, some weird Resident Evil T-Virus would spread throughout the hospital and all the dying would become zombies, they would break out off the hospital in search for more fresh brains and meat to feast on and so wold begin the zombie apocalypse. All because there weren't sixty-four holes in the tiles.

"Raye called me last night." Samuel stated snapping Darien back into reality.

He looked at the white haired man as he put on his latex gloves. Darien had known Samuel his whole life and in every memory hes ever had of him Samuel has had white hair. Even if Samuel maybe just a few heavy years older than Darien's father he was still too young and lively to have a silver mane, although, he knew the hardships Samuel had to face in his life. He supposed that if he lost his wife and child the way Samuel did it would weigh on him. Even though his hair made him appear older than he actually was you could always tell by his skin and eyes that he was younger than he looked. But lately it seemed as if Samuel had gained some wrinkles upon his brow and puffy bags below his eyes. Even his seemingly transparent blue eyes had begun to lack the shin they once had. All this change in his dear friend; the worrying, the wrinkles, the aging, the stress was because of Darien. Because of him and this God damn disease.

Samuel tilted Darien's head down a bit and began to check for swollen lymph nodes, putting pressure on the spots he touched behind Darien's ears and neck.

"Oh yeah? What'd she say?" Darien asked still staring at the ceiling.

"Well, she cried most of the time. I could only assume that you told her about the situation. She said I should have beat your ass into treatment and when I explained to her that it was illegal for me to force you against your will she told me to 'grow a pair and just do it.'"

Darien chuckled at his sister's aggressive nature. He knew she was trying her hardest to persuade him to go through treatment but it was all in vain. He knew he had to talk to her about it, give her his reasons why.

Samuel took out his pen light and guided Darien's gaze to him.

"She also told me about a pretty young lady you left with last night and returned home rather late." He said shining the pen light in Darien's eyes.

"Im sorry, I didn't know I still needed permission to go out at night with friends at twenty-seven years old." It came out a bit more harsh than Darien intended and suddenly wished to retract the statement. He knew that Samuel and Raye were just worried about him but he hated how they sheltered him when he was sick. Samuel had rarely let him venture on beyond his house, he couldn't be around too many people, no physical contact with people he didn't know in fear that they could easily spread some virus or bacteria to Darien's already weaken immune system, and all the constant questions of "are you okay? How are you feeling? Are you warm enough? Do you need to through up? Are you in pain?" He knew it was all because they loved him and were worried about him but it grew tiresome having to constantly reassure them that he was fine and he hated seeing the sense of hopelessness and pain in their eyes when they would look at him. He never wants to see that look in their eyes again. "Sorry Sam. I just know how you and Raye can get when I go through these things."

"This isn't a 'thing' Darien, it's cancer." Samuel simply stated tucking away his pen light in his breast pocket. "I know Raye and I may overdue the role of a worrying mother but it's our given right as family. Take off your shirt and lay back."

Darien did as he was told and began to unbutton his oxford button down. He laid down on the table looking up at the ceiling once more. Samuel began to exam Darien's abdomen, putting pressure on certain points, felling certain organs.

"What's this girl's name?"

"Serena. Serena Tsukino." He breathed remembering how beautiful she looked twirling in the beach grass last night.

"How'd you meet her?"

"She moved in right across from me about a month ago. I first saw her when she was moving her stuff in to the apartment but I never got the chance to introduce myself until recently. She was trying to lug her bike up two flights of stairs."

"And you, being the gentleman that you are when you're around pretty girls, gave her a hand?"

"What are you talking about? I'm always a gentleman."

Samuel gave him a disbelieving look and motioned for him to sit up. "May I remind you of last months incident when you decided to be a gentleman for a lovely young redhead. You had no problem holding the door open for her but neglected to remember that I was following right behind her. My glasses are still bent from that and I had to walk around in a coffee stained lab coat all day thanks to you. Oh, yes go ahead and laugh. It was rather embarrassing for me."

Darien struggled with the last button of his shirt as he tried to settle down his laughter. "Anyways, I helped bring her bike up to her apartment and I invited her to get coffee. We talked for a while. She's...different. Different in a good, mesmerizing, beautiful sort of way. She has this beautiful long golden hair that flows around her like water, and her eyes are this clear blue but if she looks into the sun you can see that she has specks of green in them. She has this cynical front that she puts up but I can tell that she's really a kind, caring woman. "

"Well, you tell this kind, caring woman with blonde hair and spotted green eyes that has my adopted son completely tranced that I expect to meet her someday. Back to reality Darien." He snapped his fingers in front of Darien's face to bring him back from whatever happy memory of the girl had him smiling like an idiot. "Are you in any pain today?"

"A little. It's tolerable."

"On a scale from one to ten?"

"Um, a four I guess."

"It's going to progress and get worse within the months. When that time comes I can prescribe you some medication to deal with the pain."

"What kind of medication?"

"Opioids, Morphine most likely."

"It's going to be that bad, huh?'

"Yeah," Samuel looked at Darien with that hopeless look he hated. "It's going to get that bad."

Samuel removed his stethoscope from his neck and inserted the ear-tips. He pressed the diaphragm against Darien's chest instructing him to inhale and exhale deeply.

"Tell me something Darien," Samuel removed the ear-tips and looked at Darien intently. "Did you make your decision before or after you met Serena?"

"What difference does it make? This is my decision Sam and mine alone. Even if I hadn't met Serena that day I would still give you the same answer. I know that its hard for you to understand why I want to do this but believe me when I say that this is the only way for me to be happy. I know what I'm giving up and leaving behind but I want to have the strength to enjoy those things while I can. Serena didn't have any part in my decision." Darien didn't know if he was responding because of shock that Samuel would ask him that or the small tinge of anger at the fact that Samuel would think of him as that type of person.

Samuel nodded his head in what Darien hoped was understanding. He removed his eyeglasses and rubbed his eyes. "I'm sorry, this was my fault. There is a time and a place for this conversation and this is no place or time. Next week at dinner you, me and Raye are going to talk about this. I'll make sure Raye understands that we need to talk not yell and cuss, okay? We're done for today. You can take you time getting ready."

Samuel made his was to the door but hesitated to pull it open. It seem as if he still wanted to know something.

"What?" Darien asked.

"If you haven't told Serena yet it would be best to do it soon before any sort if relationship develops so she doesn't get hurt. You are going to tell her aren't you, Darien?"