It had been a week since Darien and Serena had made it back to shore, where all their friends had been eagerly waiting for them. Lita had gone out with Ed twice and already said she was "in love." In fact everyone was due to come over within two hours. And that's where we find Serena.

Serena groaned as she set down the grocery bags on the granite countertop of her and Darien's apartment.

"Why did I tell Darien to wait to get me a car, again? Oh right. I wanted to make sure we had money for the baby," said Serena to herself as she began removing the groceries and putting them in the fridge.

Ring...Ring...Ring...

Serena jumped and mumbled, "I hate being alone in this quiet apartment." "Now where did Darien leave that phone?" she asked frustrated by the insistant ringing.

Ring...Ri-

"WHAT?", yelled Serena into the phone.

"I... I'm sorry for bothering you Mrs. Chiba... but there's a gentleman down here with a package. Should I send him up?" asked the frightened caller.

"Oh. I'm sorry Jeff. I've just had a bad day. Is it a small package?" asked Serena.

On the other end Jeff looked at the package, wondering if Mrs. Chiba would consider it small, "Mhmm" he settled for.

"Oh good! My book is here. I'll be done in a bit" and with that she hung up her phone.

"She reads?" muttered Jeff as he hung up the phone.

Faster than if she had been offered a chocolate sundae, Serena Chiba was standing by the delivery boy with extended hands for her package. She signed where she had to sign and ran off at lightening speed, leaving two confused men staring at her.

Back in her apartment, she placed the rather large box on the counter and began to rip through it.

"This box is rather large for such a small book," she thought. She stuck her hand in and grabbed a... box? She studied the box and then realized there was an exercise kit in it."

"WHAT? Where's my book?" She looked at the sender's address and found it to be from Lita. Off to the side of the large brown box, was a piece of white paper with writing on it and she read it out loud,
"Hey girl! Thanks so much for setting me up with Ed. I couldn't be happier. Anyway, I thought you were getting a little pudgy ;), so as a thank you I got you this! Also... you seem to have ordered something and sent it to the wrong address. It came here. I didn't open it. But CONGRATULATIONS! Love, Lita and Ed"

Serena thought of being mad at Lita, but remembered that Lita had hinted that her book was in there. She rummaged through the box and found a smaller brown box. She tore it open and there was her book, with white hardcover.

Craddling the book in her hand she ran to her and Darien's room to retreive a silver giftbag and white tissue paper. Carefully she wrapped the book in some white tissue paper and placed it gently in the silver bag. Then she used more white tissue paper on top of the book.

"Now I'm ready." She looked at the clock, " Hmm. I killed about an hour. Oh, Darien will be home any minute."

Serena walked casually back to the kitchen counter and noticed she left her Vanilla flavored ice cream on the counter and it had melted, "OH NO MY ICE CREAM!," she cried as she ran towards it.

As Serena's big,fat tears slid down her cheeks and hiccups came from her lips, Darien walked in to his home to see Serena craddling an ice cream container to her breast, as her back slid on the counter's side, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen." She continued to mourn her loss.

"Serena? Honey... Is everything alright? Why are you holding the ice cream like that?"

"DARIEN! Look at what I did. And I can't make it better. I killed it!"

"Baby... It's ice cream. Here let's put whatever hasn't dripped from the container in a bowl and back in the freezer. That should fix it." Darien cleaned up the mess and picked up his wife, "I didn't know you were this emotional over ice cream...," he commented.

"I am not emotion- Oh Darien! I forgot... I have a present for you!"

Darien sighed as he followed Serena into their room. He would never fully understand his wife.

"Here it is! Open it!" she said excitedly as she pushed the bag towards him.

"Do I open it now or when everyone else gets here?"

"Oh no... everyone else... Ummm... open it NOW"

"Ok ok... sheesh. The things I do for love" he said smiling as he pulled out a book from the silver bag. He cocked an eyebrow, but Serena didn't say anything. As he slowly and carefully took off the tissue paper, Serena looked ready to faint.

"JUST OPEN IT ALREADY"

"Okay. Sorry." and he tore the paper. In his hand was a white hardcovered book with the large black words "52 Things Kids Need from a Dad: What Fathers Can Do to Make a Lifelong Difference" (By Jay Payleitner)

Darien smiled at Serena and told her, "This will come in handy someday down the road." As he went to kiss her, she backed away and ran crying.

"Crap... I shouldn't have gone that far." And Darien went after her. "Serena. Serena! SERENA! Stop please! Can we talk?"

Serena turned around and said "NO," as she tripped over a part of the hall carpet that had convienently, become undone.

Before she fell, she felt her husband's muscular arms come around her waist and turn her so she fell on top of him. All the while, his hands rested on her abdomen.

"Let me go Darien!" Serena cried.

"Not until you listen to me," with his hands still around Serena's waist he stood up and walked them back into their apartment, closing and locking th door behind him, "Sweetheart, I know you're pregnant. I've known since the ship. Rebecca said it by mistake. I thought you'd catch my smile and teasing tone. I'm sorry baby. I never meant to hurt you."

"You knew?"

Darien shook his head in response.

"Oh... then it wasn't a surprise... I thought... But you don't want..."

"I do want. I love you Serena. And this baby too, whether it be a girl named Serena, or a boy named Dairen Jr." They both smiled.

The door was being pounded by a group of girls and two guys, but all they heard from inside the apartment was a moaned, "GO AWAY", from Darien.

&&&&$$$$####%%%%****====-TADA-====****%%%%####$$$$&&&&

It's done now.
I profusely apoligize for the delay. In al honesty, this chapter was supposed to be different, but I e-mailed it to myself from my school's computer and it never made it to my home e-mail. And at school, I deleted the file (it's a shared school compuer), so I didn't exaclty find the muse to rewrite it till just now, and it came out differently, but I like it.

Thanks so much to everyone who has read this story, whether you left reviews or not (I can see how many people have opened the story to look at it and I compare that to the reviews... There's like 1 review per 10 people...)
Let me know what you thought, and till next time. I start school in two days... which may mean more time in classes to write some stuff, sicne I really don't pay much mind to lectures... :]