Naru awoke, at first aware only that she was in the most comfortable bed she had slept in in years. It definitely wasn't the hard, lumpy futon she was used to sharing with Akeno in her tiny studio apartment. Then she realized that it was Nephrite's bed, and remembered what had happened between them. When would she ever learn? she wondered. Hadn't she learned her lesson by now about sleeping with a man who couldn't stay around? With her luck, she was probably pregnant again.

Neither Nephrite nor her child were in the room. She sat up quickly, her heart pounding. What if Akeno had wandered off and gotten lost? What if Nephrite had had to go away again? What if he had taken Akeno with him?

Voices floated up from below, the words indistinct but the tones recognizable. Several men's voices, among them Nephrite's, along with Akeno's babyish voice. Naru relaxed. Akeno was with his papa. Everything was all right... for now.

Aching all over, she got up and started looking for her clothes. Her white cotton underclothes had ended up on the floor, while her skirt and blouse were still folded neatly on the nightstand, where she had put them the night before. She hated to put her dirty clothes back on, but she didn't have anything else. Maybe Nephrite could help her get back into her apartment today. She pulled on the underwear and the skirt, but just couldn't bring herself to wear the bloodstained blouse. He had said he meant to see that she was provided for; surely he wouldn't mind if she borrowed a clean shirt.

Naru took a pale blue silk shirt from the wardrobe and put it on. In the bathroom, she washed her face, then tugged a comb through her hair until it was reasonably neat. She found her ribbon and tied her hair back, the way she'd been wearing it since she was little, then shook her head. Time for a change. She took the bow out and shook her hair back into place. It made her look more mature... No. She looked old and tired and sad. There were dark circles under her eyes, and her face was so thin. Again, she couldn't believe that Nephrite had wanted to come near her, looking like she did. She ended up tying her hair back in its usual style.

Downstairs, the four men were seated around a table in the kitchen, eating breakfast and reading through a stack of newspapers and magazines. Akeno was perched on Nephrite's lap, digging happily with both hands into a large bowl of neon-colored cereal. Nephrite looked at Naru as she came into the room. He smiled, and she smiled back, uncertainly. "Sit down and have some breakfast," he said. "These guys brought home some food last night, which we needed, but I'm not sure I approve of their methods."

"We liberated it," Jadeite, the man with short blond hair, said around a mouthful of toast. "We freed it from its imprisonment and put it to a much nobler use than just sitting on the shelf waiting for someone to buy it. And we thought the boy would like that cereal."

Akeno was stuffing the cereal into his mouth with both fists. At least there wasn't any milk on it; that would have been a terrible mess. Naru wasn't sure she approved, but she couldn't bring herself to object. Their usual breakfast was plain cooked rice cereal, sometimes with a small amount of canned fruit or jam spooned over it, if the budget allowed. Getting the sweet, colorful cereal for Akeno had been a kind gesture, the last thing she would have expected from the other members of Nephrite's "evil society." Even if they had stolen it.

"Thank you," she said, forcing a smile at Jadeite and the other two men. "Nephrite, I need to talk to you for a minute."

"Okay." He pushed away from the table and stood up. "There you go," he said, setting Akeno on his knees on the chair so he could continue to reach his cereal. He put an arm around Naru's shoulders and led her out of the kitchen into the main room. Once they were alone, he drew her close to him and kissed her.

"Nephrite," she said, rather breathlessly, when he finally pulled away, "I borrowed one of your shirts. I hope you don't mind. Mine was just too dirty."

"Everything I have is yours, Naru-chan. If I didn't say it in so many words last night, that's what I meant."

"Thank you."

After a moment Nephrite asked, "Was there something else?"

It was hard to say what she had to say, but she gathered her courage and spoke. "Nephrite, I still think it would be best if we stayed away from each other, unless you find out that you can stay here permanently."

"No, Naru-chan. I want to be with you as much as I can. And I never dreamed I'd have a child one day--I want to spend as much time with my son as I can. Please don't deny me that."

"And what's he supposed to do when you're gone? It'll be hard enough to deal with my own broken heart when you leave again. But what do I tell Akeno when he wants to know why his papa isn't with him anymore? How do I handle that? It hurts a child when his father suddenly isn't there any more. I know, Nephrite. It happened to me. When I was five, my father went out to a business meeting one morning and never came back. He had a heart attack during the meeting. I kept waiting for my papa to come home and couldn't understand why he didn't. I thought--" Tears overflowed from Naru's eyes, and she could barely speak for the knot in her throat "--I thought he left and didn't come back because I was bad and he didn't love me any more."

"Oh, Naru-chan." Nephrite gathered her close against him again.

"Please don't do that to Akeno," Naru said through her tears. "Please. I couldn't bear to see him in the kind of pain I was in."

"Perhaps I can help," said a woman's voice behind them.

Startled, they both looked around. The woman standing in the middle of the room had long, dark green hair. She wore a Senshi uniform with a black skirt and held an elaborate staff. "Sailor Pluto," Nephrite said. "Princess Setsuna." He pulled Naru closer against him, protectively.

Setsuna smiled, though the look on her face remained distant. "So you remember me. I apologize for my sudden entrance, but I believe the two of you are owed an explanation of Nephrite's true mission three years ago, and why the four Guardians have returned now. The Senshi, Prince Endymion, and Princess Serenity should be here shortly. Is there a place where we can all gather comfortably?"

"Upstairs in the den, I suppose," Nephrite answered. "But--"

"Good. You notify the other Guardians, and we will begin as soon as the others arrive."

Fifteen minutes later, the entire group was crowded into the den on the upper floor. Naru sat in one of the armchairs, with Akeno in her lap, while Nephrite stood behind the chair, leaning against the back. The rest of the furniture was occupied by Senshi, while the other Guardians and Mamoru gathered around them. Setsuna took her place in front of the group. "To begin with," she said, "many of you already know that a great change will come to the Earth. The Earth will sleep for a thousand years, and be awakened by Serenity, and will be united under the rule of Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion."

Mamoru and Usagi nodded, as did the Senshi, while the Guardians whispered in surprise among themselves. Naru had heard a little about this, when Usagi explained to her who Chibi-Usa really was.

"That time is coming soon," Setsuna continued. "Very soon." Usagi turned pale, and her eyes went wide. "How soon?" she whispered. Mamoru put his arms around her.

Setsuna went on without answering the question. "The Senshi have all been found, from Mercury through the outer planets to myself. But we also needed Endymion's Guardians, to assist the King and Queen in uniting the Earth. The problem was, the Guardians were all dead. And not only dead, but trapped in the weave of Metallia's evil. The spirit of Queen Selene--yes, Princess Serenity, your mother--and I tried everything we could think of to free the spirits of the Guardians and bring them back to life. But we couldn't make a magic strong enough to counter Metallia's hold on them. It occurred to me that perhaps we could create a need powerful enough to pull them free. Only one of the Guardians had any ties on Earth--" Setsuna looked at Nephrite and Naru, and Naru felt Nephrite's hand tighten on her shoulder "--but I believed that the four of them were so closely bound by their oaths as Guardians, even after going over to Beryl, that if one came back the others would be drawn along with him.

"Naru's love and grief for Nephrite were strong, but not quite strong enough. We needed to add to it. A child, perhaps, and the desperate circumstances that a young woman trying to raise a child alone can find herself in after a run of bad luck. We hoped that this might create a need strong enough to break the hold that Metallia had on Nephrite's spirit and the spirits of the others.

"So I went back in time and sent the young Guardian Nephrite forward to the time and place where he would meet the girl who loved him so much. As I guessed would happen, they quickly became deeply attached to each other. After too little time together, faced with permanent separation, they did what I had hoped they would do, and thus the required need was created." Setsuna turned her dark eyes to the little boy on Naru's lap. "It worked, as you can see. Serenity, you did bring the message Nephrite gave you, didn't you?" Usagi nodded, still wide-eyed and pale. "Please read it."

Usagi read from the cream-colored piece of cardstock she was holding, "Everything happened the way it was supposed to."

Sailor Pluto smiled. "From Nephrite's mission here three years ago, to the successful return of the Guardians yesterday, everything happened the way I intended."

Naru sat stunned, barely feeling Nephrite's fingers as they dug hard into her shoulder.

"Are you saying that you meant for Naru to suffer the way she has?" Nephrite spoke quietly, but there was a dangerous edge to his voice.

"I would have preferred something less life-threatening than a ruptured appendix; that happened on its own. But I did have a hand in the other events that brought her to the point she was at yesterday. I did what was necessary. Time is growing short, and all the Guardians and Senshi are needed in place before the Darkness comes."

"Why didn't you tell me any of this when you sent me here?" Nephrite demanded.

Setsuna, unruffled by his anger, said, "I believed that the emotional impact would be greatest if I allowed the two of you to discover each other for yourselves. And, Nephrite, do you think you could have done what was necessary, if you were doing it out of a sense of duty? Would you have been able to use Naru like that?"

"I--No. No, I don't think I could have done it that way. But--"

"Naru will be well-rewarded," Setsuna interrupted.

"What could possibly make up for what she's gone through?" Nephrite demanded.

"You."

Naru looked up sharply at the dark-haired woman.

"You and the other Guardians have been given your lives again," Setsuna continued. "You can stay, Nephrite. You won't have to leave Naru again. And after the change, lifespans will be much increased. You won't be immortal, by any means, but you and Naru will have a great many years together. You will be present for the births of all your other children, Nephrite."

Nephrite scooped Akeno from Naru's lap and took Naru's hand with his free hand. "If you'll excuse us..." He hurried down the stairs with Naru and Akeno, and out to the car. They got in, then Nephrite started the engine and pulled out in a squeal of tires and cloud of dust.

They drove to the same scenic overlook on the coastal highway where they had come twice before. Nephrite stopped the car and got out. He stood leaning against the hood, staring out over Tokyo Bay. Naru could see his rage in the tightness around his eyes and mouth and the tense set of his shoulders. After a few moments, she climbed out of the car, leaving Akeno strapped in the jump seat in the back, sucking his finger and looking around with wide blue eyes. She stood next to Nephrite, looking down at the gravel at her feet. "Nephrite... I don't want you to feel like you're being manipulated into being with me, if that isn't what you want," she said quietly.

It seemed to take a minute for her words to register with him. He looked down at her. "Is that what you think? That I'm angry because I don't want to be with you? He pulled her close against him. "I'm angry about what you had to go through, Naru-chan." He rubbed a hand along the cast on her wrist. "Maybe it was necessary, because of this change Setsuna spoke of, but I still don't think I can forgive her or anyone else who's responsible for what you've suffered. Myself included."

"I don't like finding out that I was purposely set up to need rescuing. I don't like feeling used and helpless like that. But I've never regretted having Akeno, not for a minute."

The tension seemed to go out of him. "I love you, Naru. I loved you the first time I knew you, when I was young. The second time, when I was with the Dark Kingdom, I think something inside me still recognized you even though I didn't remember you. I loved you then, but I didn't have the words to tell you and I ran out of time to find them." Naru blinked back tears. One slid down her cheek, and Nephrite brushed it away with his finger tips. "I love you now," he went on. "I love our son, and the children we're going to have. I want to spend my life serving my Prince and loving and caring for my family. I'm just sorry that my chance to do these things has come at such a cost to you."

"It was worth it, if it means we can be together for the rest of our lives."

They got in the car and headed back towards the city. Instead of going to the mansion, though, he drove to the Juuban district. Naru realized where they must be going. "Nephrite--"

"Don't you think it's time to patch things up with your mother?"

"She won't want to see me." All at once she felt like that scared and angry sixteen-year-old again. "She made it clear that if I was going to keep the baby, she didn't want anything to do with either of us."

"She tried to find you, Naru-chan."

Naru looked sharply at Nephrite. "What?"

"Usagi told me she went to your mother a week after you left home and told her the whole story," Nephrite went on. "They tried to find you, but your mother was afraid you would reject her, so they stopped looking. Your mother decided it would be best to let you come to her when you were ready."

Tears burned in Naru's eyes. "I guess I'm ready, then," she finally managed to say.

Nephrite parked the Ferrari on the street in front of the OSA*P shop, then they went into the shop, Nephrite carrying Akeno. Mrs. Osaka stood behind a counter looking over some papers while her assistant was waiting on a customer. She looked up at the faint sound of the bell, and went pale. "Naru," she mouthed soundlessly. Hastily, she beckoned them to follow her into her office.

As soon as she shut the door, before Naru could say a word, Mrs. Osaka wrapped her in a tight hug. "Oh, Naru-chan, I've missed you so much, I'm so sorry..."

"I've missed you too, Mama. I'm sorry I let you down."

"No, Naru. I let you down. I let my anger and pride come between us. It made me miss the first two years of my grandson's life. I'm so sorry."

"I'm sorry too, Mama. I was angry and proud, too. I should have come home a long time ago."

Mrs. Osaka gave Naru one more squeeze, then turned to look at Akeno. "And here's your baby. Come see Grandma, sweetheart." Akeno shrank back against Nephrite, then seemed to change his mind and let Mrs. Osaka take him in her arms. "Usagi told me his name is Akeno," Mrs. Osaka said to Naru.

Naru nodded. "After his father."

Mrs. Osaka turned to Nephrite. "Miyake Akeno. Also Sanjouin Masato. And, what was it? Nephrite? So that whole wild story Usagi told me was true, wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was," Nephrite said. "This time, though, I'm going to be able to stay with Naru. I was wondering if you would sell me a wedding ring for her."

"Of course I will," Mrs. Osaka laughed, though there were tears in her laughter.

Mrs. Osaka needed to return to her duties in the store, so Nephrite and Naru left with a promise to return for supper that evening and to select a ring. In the car, driving back towards Nephrite's mansion outside the city, Naru felt like it was too wonderful to be real, except for one thing. "You know, Nephrite, there's this dream I've had, ever since I was little."

"What is it?"

"It's that when I got engaged I would be wearing clean underwear."

After a few seconds, Nephrite laughed. "Very well, Naru-chan. We'll go to your apartment and settle with the landlady and you can get whatever is salvageable--"

Naru turned to Akeno in the back. "Akeno, we can go get Bear!"

"Bear!" the little boy echoed happily. "I want Bear!"

Nephrite continued. "Then we'll go shopping and you can pick out what you need for yourself and Akeno."

Smiling, Naru leaned her head against his shoulder as he drove. They stopped at a red light, and Nephrite turned to her and kissed her. It was real, she reminded herself. They had both gone from having almost nothing to having everything they could have hoped for. All it had taken was love, patience, and time.