Second Chances - Chapter 4 PG-13/R. Athena The next day at work, Kimberly had called in sick. Darien wasn?t surprised. He was actually glad that she did. It would?ve been damn awkward if she had come. But it soon became knowledge exactly why she hadn?t come in when everyone kept asking what was wrong with her and Darien had mumbled that they had broken up the night before. People didn?t really ask any more questions after that because they were too embarrassed. But Darien sat behind his desk and tried to ignore everyone around him. After about an hour, Darien called his friend who worked over for the US government. His name was Steve and he was really good at finding things or people that were difficult or just didn?t want to be found. He was intelligence for the CIA. "Hello. Central Intelligence Agency, Tokyo Field Office. How may I direct your call?" the cheery voice asked. "Extension 4589, please." Darien said. "Thank you." And then there was a moment of silence and then the line began to ring again the an extremely annoyed voice answered. "This is Baker." "Steve?" "Yeah?" "It?s Darien. Darien Chiba." "Oh hey, Darien! How are you, man?!" the voice changing to a more friendlier tone. "I?m good Steve and you?" "As well as can be expected, considering that I?m here. So what can I do for you?" Darien chuckled at his friend?s response and then sobered as he asked, "Steve, I need a favor. I need you to find someone for me." "O.K. Who?" "A woman by the name of Serena Tsukino." "Sorry pal, but you?re gonna have to spell that one." "T-s-u-k-i-n-o." "Got it. So exactly do you want? Just to know where she is, or everything?" "Everything." "O.K. so what?s the story with this one? She another one of your wacky leads or something?" Again Darien chuckled. "No, she?s an old friend that I lost touch with and I really need to get in touch with her again." "O.K. buddy, I?ll get on this right away. You still at the same number?" "Yeah and thanks, I?ll owe you one." And he hung up. Darien sighed and opened the drawer to his desk and in the drawer was the picture of him and Serena. ?Soon,? he thought, ?soon I?ll find you again and this time, I won?t let go.? He closed the drawer and started to attack the mound of articles that were in his "in" box. Three hours later, as Darien was reading through an intense article about the economy, the phone rang beside him. "Chiba here." "Hey Chiba, it?s Steve." "Oh hi! Boy, that didn?t take long at all." "Yeah, no kidding. Boy Chiba, you sure have some friend." "Huh? Why?s that?" "She?s god damn FBI that?s why!" "What?! Are you shitting me?" "I wish that I was, brother, believe me." "Well, what does she do there? Can you tell me that or can you at least tell me where to find her?" "Sure, I can. You did say get all the dirt. Well, let?s see here. Special Agent Serena Tsukino. Graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in Psychology with top honors in three years, got her Master?s in two. Been with the Bureau as a profiler now little over two years. Graduated from the academy first in her class and she?s one of the best the Bureau has. She?s stationed here in Tokyo, in my building as a matter of fact. She about ten floors below me. "Steve, you?re on sub-level 10." "That?s right, buddy. She?s on sub-level 20. Has classified clearance, like I said Chiba, she?s one of their best." "Yeah. So did you happen to get an address on her, or do I have to come over there and see her?" "Sorry pal, but you?ve gotta come here. The bureau keeps personnel files locked up real tight and I?m not jeopardizing my ass for anyone, including you." "Well, how did you find all of this out?" "Once I realized she was Bureau, I started asking around. I basically went and asked her boss." "You didn?t!" "I did." "What did you tell him you needed to know that info for?" "Don?t worry, Marcus and I go way back, although, I was surprised that he told me anything at all. He seemed real protective of is little profiler. Guess he figured he told me what he thought would be public knowledge. But I told him that her name came up in a coversation that I had had with someone here and that I was just curious." "O.K. Like I said, I owe you one." "So what are you gonna do? Just waltz on in here and ask to see her?" "Exactly, I am the Editor-in-Chief of one of the biggest magazines around. I'll just tell whoever that it's related to some case or something like that." "Well good luck buddy, you're gonna need it!" "Thanks!" and he hung up the phone. 'How about that.' he thought sitting back in his chair, 'My little meatball head is a big time profiler with the FBI.' For some strange reason, Darien felt full of pride. He always new that she was smart. Then he suddenly sat up and began making plans to visit Serena after he finished editing the articles in front of him. **************************************************************************** Darien nervously walked up to the receptionist desk in the building that housed both the FBI and the CIA field offices in Tokyo. It was actually a week later. He hadn't been able get away from the magazine due to the month end deadline. But he was here now and this place was so intimidating, that he was ready to turn around and wait outside until he saw her. But finally, he walked up to the counter and looked down behind the dark sunglasses that he was wearing at the girl who was sitting at the desk. "May I help you sir?" she asked politely. "Yes, My name is Darien Chiba and I'm here to see Serena Tsukino." "And the nature of your business?" she asked as she typed in Serena's name in the computer for a phone extension. "Personal." she looked up at him questioningly. "I'm a friend." the girl nodded and punched a few more keys and then was silent as she stared at her computer screen. "Hello, sir. This is Marie at the front desk. I have a visitor for Special Agent Tsukino, but she's not answering." she was silent as she listened, then continued, "A Mr. Darien Chiba, sir. Says he's a friend of hers." Silent again. "O.k., yes sir." and then she looked up at Darien and handed him a visitor's badge and a pen and said, "Sign in Mr. Chiba. Someone will be here for you in a few minutes. You can wait over there." she said pointing to some couches across the area. Darien signed in and thanked the girl. Then he turned and walked over to an empty couch and he pinned the badge onto the jacket of his immaculate black suit jacket. Then he sat down and nevrvously waited for 'someone' to come for him. He looked down at his tailored black pants and flecked imaginary lint off of his pants. He had what he considered his best suit on, his black double breasted, with his colbolt blue dress shirt and matching blue and white tie. Both of which he knew enhanced the color of his eyes. He wanted to look his best for his first meeting with Serena in seven years. 'Well, not exactly first,' he thought, 'we did see each other last week.' "Mr. Chiba?" startled Darien looked up to see a tall well built man with long white hair standing in front of him. Something about him was so familiar... "Uh, yes?" "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." He said as Darien stood, He stuck out his hand and continued, "I'm Marcus. Marcus Montgomery. I'm Serena's boss. I don't really know where she's gotten off to. I checked her office before I came up here, but she wasn't there." By now they had reached the elevators and were waiting for one to open. "Oh, is she already gone for the day?" Darien asked. "No, she's just around." He said, stepping into the elevator and pushing the button marked S20. Neither man said anything again until they were off of the elevator. Then Marcus lead Darien into the Tokyo office's division of Violent Crimes and continued down the hallway. Darien noted that it was an open place, but very dark. There were desks all scattered throughout the open floor with printers, fax machines and the like all over the place. The offices lined the wall to his left and each office had two large windows with blinds on them and a door. Darien glanced in each office as they walked by, when Marcus again startled him out of his thoughts. "Here's her office here. But she's still not back. Hmm let me see if I can see her standing around anywhere," He said stopping at the second to last office on the left. Darien looked into Serena's office while Marcus looked around the floor for her. It was strange, because it wasn't what he expected. For some strange reason, he expected to see moons and bunnies on everything, but that wasn't what he saw. He saw a very modern room, with a large black leather couch against the windows. There was a large bleached wood desk towards the back of the room with a very comfortable looking leather chair to sit in behind the desk. She had a credensa and bookcase that matched her desk nearby and two chairs in front of her desk. These items were cluttered with her pictures, radio and CDs. On the walls near the desk were grisly photos taken from various crime scenes. Darien was about to enter her office when he hears Marcus say, "Oh there she." Darien turned around and pointed to where she was standing looking over someone's shoulder at a computer screen. "Wait here and I'll go and get her." Darien watched as Marcus walked over to Serena. He couldn't believe that it was her. She had no meatballs! He actually didn't believe that it was her until she turned around to see where Marcus was pointing to. But it was her. Even from here, Darien could see those eyes. Serena turned back to say something to the person she had been working with and then started to make her way over to him with Marcus. Darien just couldn't believe his eyes. He thought she was stunning the other night when he saw her, but nothing could have prepared him for the vision that stood before him now. "Hello Darien. I must say, this is a surprise." she said. Even her voice was different. Gone was the high pitched whiny voice, now she had a sensual voice that made him feel like he'd just been caressed. "Hi Serena. It's been a while." "Yes, it has." she replied and walked past him into her office. Darien couldn't help staring at the woman who stood before him. She was still short and for that he was glad, but that's where the similarities ended. Today she wore her long golden hair in a pony tail and had some kind of black ribbon wrapped around it that continued half way down the length of her hair. The dress she wore left nothing to the imagination about the shape of her body. The black the dress clung to her like a second skin and stopped at mid calf. She had the sexiest black high heeled shoes on that Darien had ever seen on a woman and a tiny black sweater that completed the outfit. She wore a pair of diamond stud earrings and silver rings on her left thumb and ring finger and then two smaller silver rings on her right ring finger. Her fingernails were long and painted with a french manicure. She stopped momentarily at the CD player and turned the volume down a notch and then sat down behind her desk, crossing her legs as she sat. "Please...have a seat." she said motioning to one of the chairs in front of her desk. "Well this is a surprise. I must say, I am shocked. So..what brings you here." "You look well." He said, clearly avoiding her question. "You've certainly done alright for yourself." "Yeah, well I guess that I shocked the hell out of everyone when they found out I worked as a profiler for the FBI. I mean, the little ditz actually did have a brain." she said with cold bitterness. "Serena..no one ever believed that you were a ditz. I never did, only you believed that." Serena started to rebuke that, but quickly changed her mind and shrugged with indifference. Her face betraying no emotion. "Why are you here, Darien?" "Well...I just had to f-find you after the other night." "Oh?" "Yeah...Seeing you again, well it just made me think that.." she raised an eyebrow at his awkwardness. Darien had never fumbled for words and here he was bumbling like a fool. Finally he just blurted it out. "I missed you, Serena!" This caught Serena totally off guard. She looked away, staring at her hands that were in her lap and then said softly, "Missed me? You have a strange way of showing it. You are engaged are you not?" Darien couldn't contain the look of surprise he felt. "You knew about that?" she just stared at him. That same blank emotionless stare. "Yeah well, we broke up." Again, she just raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I broke it off with her the night that I saw you." "Is that what you were doing in the park that night?" she asked again softly. "No, it was after." "What made you change your mind?" "Seeing you again." "Why now, why after all this time?" Darien was silent, he couldn't bring himself to say it yet, not like this, yet he couldn't stand the soft chilling voice that she was using or that emotionless face. It was so unlike her! Finally, "Because I Love YOU!!" At this, Serena snorted and said, "What about the dreams?" Again she surprised him. "How did you know?" he asked incredulously. She shrugged and said, "I know a lot of things Darien. But I want to know why now, after seven years and an engagement, you love me?" "Because I never stopped loving you, Serena! It killed me when I had to break up with you, I swear it did. I couldn't ignore that dream and the voice in my dream told me that you would die if I didn't stay away from you." "You have a strange way of showing that love Darien. Is that why you got yourself engaged?" "No! I dated and then asked her to marry me because she looked like you!" But Serena merely blinked, but her expression remained contained. So Darien continued, "But you see Serena, I don't care about all of that any more. I love you, I want things to be right between us. I want to be with you!" Serena showed no outward reaction, but inside she was trembling. 'He loves me! He loves me!' her heart sang, but her head won the battle with 'Yes, but he said that before and so did Marcus.' So instead Serena said, "I'm sorry Darien, but I don't believe in love anymore." "What?" he practically yelled as he leapt out of his chair. This was not what he had pictured. He had pictured Serena throwing herself in his arms as she use to, hugging him tightly and then kissing those lush lips of hers. But instead he was being hit with the coldest woman he ever met in his life. "No, I don't. I've been hurt too many times and well frankly, I just can't do it anymore. I honestly think that I don't know how to love anymore." Slowly he stalked up to Serena's desk and place his hands practically on the oposite side as he leaned down and got directly in her face and said, "Then I intend to teach you how to love again. You taught me, so now I'll reteach you. But make no mistake, Serena, you will be mine again." And just to prove his point, he leaned over even farther and captured her lips with his own for a brief, but powerful kiss and then he stood up, collected his things and walked out.