This is the end! The real end! And I'm exactly on schedule for once. All right, all my sappy thank you's are at the bottom of this. Before you read this, just know that they're still in Cape Canaveral, and Mr. and Mrs. Lands had been flying down anyway to visit Serena. I hope you guys enjoy the last part of my first major fic :) Sailor Moon belongs to lots of people like Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha, Toei, etc., etc., etc. But, EW belongs to me, including all the original characters (McNoll, Ernie, Katie, Brickens, etc.) Endless Waters by Tess. Epilogue. Posted 8-14-02 Serena checked her watch for about the fifteenth time. 'Where is that man?' she thought. It was their first night on land, Katie and Brickens were on a date, and she was standing in a corner of the Southpoint Seafood Grill restaurant, waiting for Darien. They had each told their parents to meet them there, at the same time, for different reasons. The catch was that there was only one reservation, so they'd all be sitting together, unbeknownst to their parents. The problem was, Serena and Darien had agreed to meet at 7:00, half an hour before their parents arrived, and it was now 7:15 and Darien wasn't there yet. She looked towards the doors and finally spotted him coming in. She waved to him and he walked to where she was. "Where on earth have you been?" she hissed. "They'll be here soon!" Darien smiled at her and gave her a light peck on the cheek. "Sorry. I had some things to do." It was when Darien pulled away that Serena realized he looked tired and worried. "Are you ok?" "Yeah...just a bit nervous." Serena's face broke into a relieved smile that it was nothing serious. "Everything will be fine!" "*Everything?*" "Yes!" Serena wondered why he'd put such an emphasis on the word everything. She shrugged it off as nothing important. "Nice hiding place you've got here," said Darien with amusement, eyeing the huge potted plant in front of them. "Yeah well, it's the best I could do! Plus, it's right next to our table." Serena pointed to an empty table in front of them. "You know how ridiculous we must look, hiding behind a plant? It's a good thing Lizzie knows what we're up to. Her parents would probably kick us out if she hadn't told them." Lizzie was a waitress at the restaurant, which her parents owned. Serena giggled. "Yeah. They'd see us he-" Suddenly, the swishing of the door interrupted her. They turned towards it to see Mr. and Mrs. McAllister walking in. "Honestly, Andrew," Mrs. McAllister was saying, "This restaurant was so much better before they changed the menu. The scallops in cheese and wine sauce were much better than the garlic ones." They reached the hostess and told her their names. "Right this way," she said, and guided them to the table in front of Serena and Darien. Serena was now dying with anticipation for her parents to show up. She didn't have to wait long, for minutes after the McAllister's had sat down, Alice and Richard Lands walked through the door. After they told the hostess their names, she began leading them to the same table that the McAllister's were at. Serena gripped Darien's hand in anticipation. 'This is it,' she thought. It was when the Lands' reached the table that Serena wished she had a camera with her. The expressions on all their faces were priceless. Mr. Lands' eyes narrowed, Mrs. Lands' mouth was formed in a slight 'o', Mr. McAllister look furious, and Mrs. McAllister looked as if she had just seen a ghost. Mrs. Lands finally regained her composure. "Excuse me," she said to the hostess. "There must be some mistake. *These* people are already sitting here." The hostess shook her head. "There is no mistake, ma'am. The reservation was made under the name, 'Lands and McAllister'." "This is preposterous!" exclaimed Mr. Lands, his voice rising slightly. "Just move us to another table!" "I'm sorry, sir, but all the other tables are either full or reserved for later. You'll just have to sit here until we get another table cleared," said the hostess apogetically. "They will do no such thing!" protested a red-faced Andrew McAllister, getting up from the table. "Richard, dear, I think the best thing we can do now is to call Serena and tell her to meet us elsewhere. We certainly don't want her in contact with these people," Alice Lands said. Veronica McAllister snorted. "Surely the little brat hangs out with all sorts of riff-raff. We wouldn't be any different, would we Alice?" she said, her tone cold as ice. Serena winced. She hadn't expected it to get this ugly. Darien squeezed her hand. She looked up at him and understood. It was almost time for them to go out. "Well I've never heard anything so rude!" exclaimed Mrs. Lands. "Really?" asked Mr. McAllister sarcastically. "With a husband like yours, I would think otherwise." Mrs. Lands, didn't reply, just said to her husband. "Richard, call Serena. We're leaving. Now." Behind the plant, Serena turned to Darien. He nodded, put an arm around her shoulders, and they emerged from their hiding place. "That won't be necessary, mother," came Serena's voice, loud and clear. All four of their parents looked up in horror as Darien and Serena approached the table. "Serena!" her mother hissed. "What do you think you're doing?" Serena stared her straight in the eye. "Trying to make all of you be reasonable! You're acting so childish!" Veronica McAllister had turned bright red, and was coughing and sputtering on her water, trying to form sentences. Mr. McAllister, however, was in fine condition to speak. "Darien, I told you years ago, I'll tell you now, remove your arm from that girl at once," he commanded. "No. Now it's your turn to listen," Darien replied. "So, all four of you, sit down. We're going to eat together and we're going to resolve this together." "Are you out of your mind, boy?" asked Mr. Lands furiously. "Honestly, mom and dad, if you weren't so caught up in your old arguments maybe you would care about the cruise ship we were on being hijacked! And to you, Mr. and Mrs. McAllister, maybe you would care about your son almost dying! We're not telling the whole story until you all sit down and stop acting so shallow!" "Darien! You never said anything about the ship being hijacked!" accused Mr. McAllister. "Well if you'd all sit down, you'll find out!" Darien pulled out Serena's chair for her and then sat down next to her himself as everyone else reluctantly sat also. A waiter came to their table and they all placed their orders. "Hijacked?" asked Richard Lands incredulously. "You two had better come up with a more convincing story than that!" "It's the truth, dad," Serena said, and with that, launched into a detailed explanation of what had happened, Darien contributing here and there. Mrs. McAllister let out a horrified cry when Serena said how she'd found Darien in the storage room, and Mr. McAllister's face swelled with fury when they explained how they'd heard McNoll and Jackson on the loudspeakers and put two and two together. "After that," Serena continued, "we decided to try and find a radio, while Katie and Brickens tried to alert some other crew members." Darien then told how they'd split up to go to the two different radio rooms. Serena had been dreading telling this part, so she turned to Darien, the expression on her face pleading for him to tell about Ernie's attempts to win Serena over. He nodded. "After my encounter with McNoll, and went down to find Serena, and discovered that Ernie Jackson had found her first," Darien explained, fury building up inside him and the memory. "He was attracted to Serena, so tried to force a kiss on her." Serena was staring down at the tablecloth, trying to forget, but the memories of it were so fresh and vivid. Ernie slamming her against the wall, forcing his lips on hers. Now she just willed herself not to cry. "Well, what did you do about it?" asked Mrs. Lands sharply as their food arrived. "I..I.." Darien wasn't exactly sure how to word it. (AN: More like Tess isn't sure how to make Darien word it!) "He saved me," said Serena quietly, looking up from the tablecloth, tears forming in her eyes. "He arrived in time, knocked Ernie out, and brought me to the room where everyone thought he was. He saved my life, and I'm so grateful for it." She looked down once more as a tear trailed down her cheek. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "But I can remember it so well." Darien scooted his chair closer to her and put his arm around her once more. There was no need for words between them. For once, their parents were rendered speechless. "I'm sorry," apologized Darien. "I don't think this is the right time to finish." "No!" said Serena forcefully. "We're going to finish this tonight." Darien looked at her in shock. "Please Darien...I'll feel a lot better if we just get it over with." Darien nodded and Serena continued with the story, telling everything from McNoll and Jackson finding them in the room to the deck party the night before. "This cruise made me-no, us-realize, how stupid it is to have an ongoing argument about something as trivial as money. We both nearly died, and when Ernie was up against me I thought, 'I don't want to die without telling Darien how much I love him. And when Darien was thrown in the pool, I didn't want him to die thinking I hated him all because of an old fight and a *fake* newspaper article." She looked directly at her mother as she said this. "So, now we've told you what happened. Are you going to keep on hating each other, or will you remember how you were friends before that argument, and the good times you had? Serena and I are staying together either way. We love each other, and don't want to lose each other again. But it would be wonderful if all of you could put your differences behind and start over." Mrs. Lands spoke up, "First, I want to apologize. To Veronica, Richard, and Darien for being so rude to them. And to Serena." Mrs. Lands' eyes filled with tears as she looked at her daughter. "I'm so sorry sweetie. It was just...you were so sad and I wanted to see you happy again, and I thought that the best way to do it was let you be shocked and then get over it. I know what I did was very wrong, and I'm so sorry. Forgive me?" "Oh, mom. Of course," said Serena, giving her mom a hug. Mr. Lands cleared his throat. "Andrew and Veronica, I am also sorry about being so pompous and money-hungry," said Mr. Lands, extending his hand to Mr. McAllister, who took it and said, "You're forgiven. Both of you. We're also extremely sorry about our attitudes, and Serena, forgive us for all the things we've said about you. You're a beautiful, smart young woman with nothing but class" The next few minutes were full of, "I'm sorry"s and "I forgive you"s. Serena smiled and turned to Darien. "We did it," she said happily. "We really did it." ************************************** Later that night, Serena and Darien were walking barefoot hand-in-hand on the beach in front of the restaurant. They had left their parents reminiscing about old times. Serena leaned her head onto Darien's shoulder and smiled. "Can you believe it's all over?" she asked him. "Yeah...it's great." Darien stopped walking and turned towards the crashing waves. Serena moved her head and looked up at him. "What's wrong?" she asked. "There's something I want to tell you", he said, turning back to her. "Is anyth-," Serena started, but Darien pressed a finger to her lips, gently silencing her. "Serena, you're the most caring, kind, sweet, sensitive, smart, talented, not to mention gorgeous girl that I've ever met. I've known ever since that rainy night when we first met that I would never meet anyone else like you. You're truly the bes-the most wonderful girl in the world. I love you Sere, and what I'm trying to say is" Darien got down on one knee and held out a blue velvet box. Inside the box was a beautiful, simple, gold diamond solitaire that shone in the moonlight. "Will you marry me?" Serena gasped and stared down at him. It was when the moonlight hit her face that Darien saw she was crying. "Oh..Sere...I understand...it's too soon, isn't it?" He began to close the box, but Serena stopped him. "Yes," she said, smiling with tears coursing down her cheeks. "Of course I'll marry you Darien. I love you so much!" Darien smiled joyfully, lovingly place the ring on Serena's finger, and stood up, his face right next to Serena's. She'd never seen him so happy. He ran a hand over her face. "Sere, stop crying...this is supposed to be happy." "It is, Darien. It's the happiest day of my life!" she exclaimed, sobbing tears of joy and relief. Darien held her close to him and whispered in her ear, "I'm the luckiest man in the entire world." "And I'm the luckiest woman," Serena whispered back. "Thank you, Darien. Thank you so much!" Then they shared a long, lingering kiss. When they finally pulled apart, they watched the waves, Serena still in Darien's embrace. "I'm so happy it's ending this way." "Ending? This is just the beginning." End Endless Waters. Wow. Now I'm really done...really really done. I hope everyone enjoyed it. So, here are all of my thank you's: Holly: Happy Birthday! This story wouldn't be what it is without your help (the whole hijacking was all your idea, remember? And reading the rough draft a year and 1/2 ago (woah! Time flies) Thanks!! Ashley: My im person :) Whenever I'd come up with a story idea I'd 1 in the morning, it was 'email Ashley so she can read it' You've always been really supportive of my writing :) Thanks!! Stacie: You know, all I have to do is change the characters and I *will* have an original story. LoL! You've always been awesome in telling me what you think about my writing! Thanks so much! Most of the people who read the rough draft, including Rose, Katie, Justine, Leah, Rachael, Amanda, etc.: I never thought people would be interested, but you guys were. Thanks!! Bunny M.: Thanks for knocking some sense into me :) Everyone who signed my guestbook and said such great things. It's really touching to hear that you like my work. Chico: My little chihuahua :) For sitting on my lap all throughout my typing of this story Sailor Sarah: Thanks for the award! Ms. K- It's not a book, but I didn't use a pseudonym ;) All the people who in some way contributed to this story, whether they know it or not. You guys are great! Love, Tess P.S. Hopefully, my next story will be out somewhat soon.