Title: Only 16
Story One in the Cries for Help Trilogy
Part: 3 (*Cheers go up, the weapons go down, and Azurite's
inbox slowly empties...*) 
By: Azurite
Email: **!!** azurite_moon@yahoo.com **!!**
Site: www.geocities.com/sailor_andromida/
Disclaimer: Despite the fact that I could be making moola
off of this, I really don't desire to be sued... so here
I am, disclaiming any and all ownership of Sailor Moon and its
respective characters. 
Notes: Hey, join my Mailing List!
www.onelist.com/community/sailorfic_review
Greets: To any and all who emailed me, nagged me, threatened to kill
me if I didn't finish this part... you know who you are... there are too
many to name at once. 
Dedicates: This part is soley dedicated to Lady Setsuna. You know why. 
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She sipped the rich cocoa slowly, savoring its warmth, its taste. 
	'It tastes like Darien.' 
	'DON'T THINK ABOUT THAT!!' She reprimanded herself. 
	'Why not?' The naughty part of her mind asked. 
Before she could 'respond' to herself, Serena had doubled to the 
carpeted floor in pain. 
	Darien had just emerged from the bedroom, where he had been
changing out of his wet clothes. 
	"Sere?" He asked, truly concerned. 
Serena's expression of pain melted into a smile, and then back again
as the sharp jabs in her stomach increased. 
	"Dare... Darien.... it kicked... our baby kicked!" Serena 
whispered, tears filling her eyes. Serena had grabbed Darien's 
hand as he kneeled beside her in concern, and placed it on her
stomach, where the baby was kicking happily. 
	If it was possible for Darien to go porcelain-white and granite-hard, he did just that, all in a matter of seconds. He was much too pale for a healthy 19 year old. 
    	"Our...Our baby?" Darien croaked.
************************************************************************
	Serena went white and she gasped audibly. She hadn't... hadn't 
meant to say that, had she?
	"Wh-Well, what I mean is... I... And this is... Oh damn..." 
Serena's stomach began to churn, and she rubbed her belly to soothe
the pain it was causing her and her child. It was a slow, circular 
motion, warm and caring. She concentrated herself on this, hoping...
maybe he'd forget? Or maybe with some luck, he'd just faint or 
something... 
	'Yeah right. This guy, the guy who manages to wake up after being
stabbed in the back... will faint when he finds out he's a dad.' 
However, the memory of that incident... brought back the same tears, 
the pain, and all the hurt... 
	Darien had collapsed onto his knees beside her, and with 
emotionless eyes, followed the movement of her hand across her swollen 
belly. How many times had he wished it would be like this? Well, never, 
nothing like THIS, not exactly like it was! And she was unmarried! 
And... 
	'We never... never... did *anything*... so it cannot be my 
child...' Darien felt his heart due a double beating on his ribs, and
the pain inside from not seeing her increased tenfold now that he had. 
	'She is no longer chaste... no longer mine to have or hold. 
There... There is another.' (A/N: No! Not like Yoda!)
	'Perhaps she was never yours. You took her for granted, gave her 
reason to believe it was over... YOU TOLD HER SO! And she believed it...
Now she has found doubt in you forever, and happiness with another.' 
	Darien hated these thoughts, he felt so contemptous. So, it was
his fault that all of this had happened, but no one could blame him-
he DID try to reconcile with her!
	'Hugging her doesn't count, you fool.' He reminded himself of
that night painfully. That night... that night... three months ago...
SHE HAD BEEN PREGNANT THEN?!
	"You're joking right?" Darien finally managed. Serena stopped
her soothing movements, and stared at him blankly. 
	'J-Joking?! He thinks I'm joking... but...' 
Serena shook her head to clear the conflicting emotions invading it. 
Anger... for him not believing her was a sign that he didn't trust her, 
as a friend, as a lover, as a companion or even as an enemy. At all...
Sadness... He didn't believe her, and his trust meant the world to her. 
It broke her heart in two. 
Disbelief. Had she ever lied to him? No. And yet, deep inside, she knew 
some things he had said to her, even AFTER they were together as a 
couple, were false. And now, when she wanted to lie the most... she 
didn't. And he still didn't believe her. 
Shock. He... He didn't believe her?! About something as serious as this?
Heartbreak. He didn't WANT to believe it. He didn't want to think that
such a precious connection to Serena could have happened. 
Remembrance. He didn't know it was his child, did he? 
	Serena was silent. Darien didn't know what to make of this 
response... all her knew was that his head and his heart were throbbing
painfully, and he needed some air. Rubbing his temples, he stood up 
abruptly and walked briskly to the balcony. The door slid open easily, 
and there, at his balcony, in the slight rain, he stood. 
	At first, Serena didn't notice, and when she did, she was mad. 
Mad for leaving her like this. Sad that he had to find out because of
a slip of her tongue. Simply confused, however, was more life it. 
She decided to explain herself, because if he was REALLY becoming the 
man he had been before they were together, hard-shelled and uncaring, 
and she was the one he once claimed "could break through his shell",
then he needed to know. For ALL their sakes. 
	The door had been left open, and so when she stepped outside, 
he didn't hear her. She placed two small, pale hands on the balcony
railing, and looked out at the misted skyline. Every building was
covered or surrounded by a gray haze. 
	"It's beautiful." She finally commented, breaking the silence. 
Darien was silent a moment. He bit his lip and then replied, 
emotionlessly, "Is it?" 
	"It is. How something we see everyday, so apart of our lives...
so taken for granted, looks so mysterious and enticing after something
we run away from." 
	"Poetry of the rain." 
	"What?" 
	"You commented on the rain, and how it affected one's point of 
view of the skyline... the buildings we see everyday, that we work in. 
We take them for granted, in one way or another. And they look so
mysterious and enticing, as you said?" 
	"They do. The things we take for granted slip through our fingers, 
but that doesn't mean that once they're gone, they lose their beauty, or
we can never see them... never have them again." 
	Darien stole a glance at the profound woman standing beside him. 
It was true, then. She was a woman now, even at the young age of 16. 
It seemed as if she always had been, for she had been through so much...
	'I see the pain in your eyes, I see the truth that never dies.' 
	'Where did I hear that from?' Darien thought. 
	*FLASH*
	It was almost two years back. When he had remembered nothing, 
and she remembered everything. What torment that must have been for 
her. What he remembered was when he realized he loved her... long
before his memories came back. 
	"You-You found someone else to help take care of Jordan, didn't 
you? I-I guess then, I'll be going and-" Darien could see the tears
forming in her eyes, the sparkles that flew from them when she turned 
away so abruptly. He didn't like to see her hurting; he didn't know why. 
He groaned internally and shot his arm out. She stiffened under his
warm touch, and slowly turned. 
	"D-Darien?" 
	"Serena, you know I didn't mean it that way. You know I'd never
replace you with..." Darien made a face that turned Serena's frown into
a slight smile, "Ann." 
	Before he went on, and ranted about how she was so caring, and
kind, and beautiful, and someday would make some man very happy, and
some child the best mother... she paled. 
	"Look!" She moved forward a good yard from her place near the
door, and pointed towards Jordan. The small, red-headed child was
standing, on a pair of wobbly feet... and walking!!
	Both teens were astounded beyond belief... and they watched in
awe as Jordan toddled his way across the room to the tissure box he 
loved so much. 
	Jordan happily pulled out the cotton tissues from their box
again, giggling merrily as if nothing had happened. Serena turned
to Darien, her eyes sparkling with HAPPY tears, and a light
flush staining her perfect features. 
	"You owe me twenty bucks, pal!" Darien smiled, and then when 
Serena turned away to play with Jordan, an expression of shock took
over his face. 
	'You WERE going to tell her you loved her... because you do!' 
	'I-I'm in love with Serena? No, I'm IN LOVE, with Serena!' 
Darien smiled to himself privately before kneeling at her side
and playing with Darien. When they rose, she bounced around happily. 
	"I told you so!" She reached her hand out for a high-five, but
Darien grasped the small hand within his own instead. A bolt of 
electricity passed through them, and the warmth was undeniable. 
	They raised their joined hands triumphantly, and Darien joined
in her celebration... that was when Amy walked in.
	*FLASH*
	'Her eyes were what I loved most. Sparkling, always truthful. 
She's not lying is she?' Darien shifted yet again, uncomfortable, 
for now he was wet and upset for what he had said to Serena. 
	"D-Do you want to go inside?" 
	"Yeah, I guess so." Serena followed Darien inside, one hand
relaxing on her belly, the other hanging limply at her side. 
	'But maybe it was just a slip of the tongue...' 
	'PLEASE, Darien! Can't we talk... even as friends?!' 
	'And she is with another?' 
	"Darien--" 
	"Serena--" They both said simultaneously. Serena and Darien both
smiled... they had done this before. They had said something at the
same time, usually when they were both trying to express a shared 
emotion.
	"I-" Again, they both said it at the same time. This caused the
couple to burst into fits of laughter. They collapsed next to each other
on the couch, tears rolling down Serena's face as she leaned back on
the cushions to support her sore back. 
	Darien paused midway, noting the tears. He didn't like to see her 
in tears... happy or not. Too many times he had been the cause of her 
tears, and that was stopping, here and now.
	He moved closer to her, one hand holding up her chin with his
finger, the other brushing away the spilling tears. 
	Her eyes opened abruptly, and the laughter died a painless death. 
No words were exchanged... her eyes started to flutter in nervousness.
	She was uncomfortable. He could see it in those eyes. 
	'What am I thinking? I can't... I can't do that!'Darien scolded
himself mentally. He backed away, removing the hand from her face and 
under her chin. 
	A slip of cold filled her face where his hand had been. It had
always been that he was the missing part of her, he completed her in 
ways she had never known. And she was feeling that way now. As if 
all that she had missing for so long was finally within her reach
again. She needed it... needed *him* so badly... 
	"Darien..." 
	Darien's eyes opened at the sound of his name, and he saw an 
unreadable expression on his beloved's face. Her perfect features, 
long, golden hair framing her delicate face, sparkling eyes...
	Serena opened her mouth to speak, but what came forth was
a racking cough. Again and again she coughed until she moved her
hand... it was stained an unhealthy shade of wet, red. 
	She continued coughing and choking until the pain was too 
much for her, and she collapsed onto the couch, weakly. 
	"Serena! Don't do this to me!" She heard dimly in the background. 
	'Darien? Do you still care for me?' 
Her eyes faded into blackness as the pain increased... her baby... 
something was wrong... it hurt everywhere... 
	'Darien... don't... don't leave me...' 
	"I love you..." Serena whispered before fainting. 
***********************************************************************
Part 3 folks! HAH! I told you it'd be short!! *NYAH NYAH*
I like Ranma too, so when I'm ALL done with all my leftovers and such, 
antoher crossover's coming your way! 
	Azurite out! ^_^