Rose stares at the carnage, her stomach churning and it takes everything she has to not throw up her breakfast. There were no survivors, and from what she was looking at, she believed it. The Strigori had finally figured out how to hurt them.
An entire village of dhampir women, had been slaughtered; both women and children. She's the only woman there and it affects her more than she ever would have thought. It's different than the village Dimitri grew up in, it's much more rural, away from humans. Moving through the small community she examines the angles and does her job, until she hears the whimpers.
She breaks off immediately ignoring the people calling her name in favor of finding the noise. She walks out of the house and follows the sounds still ignoring the cries of her name. She only walks for a few minutes before the sound becomes much more pronounced. It's coming from a shed and with out a second thought Rose peels open the door; and then she stops.
Standing there is a boy, no more than four years old, behind him is another little boy, and if the crying from the metal washing bin is anything to go by there's one more. Rose takes a step forward and the oldest boy rushes towards her and throws himself on to her; clinging to her as though she were life itself. Picking the boy up, she carries him farther into the shed, and sets him down beside the younger boy. The boys favor each other heavily and she would have bet her next paycheck that they were brothers. Kneeling down next to the large and old metal tub Rose looked in and smiled. Nestled within the bin are two babies, no more than a few months old, both male, and if Rose had to guess; twins.
Rose realizes that there's no way she can get all four children out at once, and she's reluctant to leave any of the children alone, especially since the second infant just started crying. She doesn't hesitate, picking one baby at a time, she sits down on the dusty shed floor and starts trying to clam the children down. A moment later the boy that had been behind the one with the screw driver is crawling towards her, demanding her attention as the oldest boy helps him.
That is how she is found, surrounded by children with two wailing infants. The other guardians are quick to help . . . after they get over their shock of seeing Rose with children. Except the two older boys refuse to let go of her; the oldest one clings to her hand while the younger clutches her shirt refusing to be removed from her lap.
Rose shakes her head at the guardian trying to cajole the child off of her; instead she shifts the boy into her arms, clutches the older boy's hand and leads them out of the shed and to the car herself. They drive to an airport where the group is then flown to the nearest Moroi based hospital. The children are checked over while the guardians try to dig up anything about the children.
They are able to get in contact with a guardian who had grown up in the village, he identifies the children as belonging to a dhampir woman he had known; the father's identity is unknown, not that their father is even an option. Their names, birthdates and ages are also unknown and are simply given letters until further notice. There is no documentation of them. The doctors are able to determine ruff ages; The oldest, A, is three years old, the next oldest, B, is around one and a half, the twins C and D are fraternal and roughly three months old.
Rose doesn't like the letters, and chooses to give them names herself. A becomes Tucker, B becomes Benjamin, C become Ethan and D becomes Jace. Rose spends the next few days with the children; they speak Russian, more fluently than she does, even after nearly six years with Dimitri, and they speak no English, but they make due. After nearly a week Rose receives orders to return to court.
Her heart nearly breaks. The children will be sent to an academy, there is no dhampir adoption service, but at that moment in time Rose really wishes there was. She returns home and Dimitri greets her at the door. That night she shows him the pictures she has of the children, and then he holds her as she cries.
Over the next week Rose is not Rose. She's quiet, gives short answers, gets her paperwork in on time and refuses to go out at night. Lissa is worried; Rose won't talk to her about what happened, and any time a child comes in the room Rose leaves as quickly as she can; even when it's her own god-children.
Dimitri knows how much Rose wants children; how a small part of her heart had broken when Lissa had told them she was pregnant that first time. She never cries after that first night home, but Dimitri knows her mind is on the children.
After three weeks of being home Dimitri is forced to leave with Christian. Rose assures him that she'll be fine, but after the past three weeks of non-Rose behavior Dimitri isn't all that sure. Lissa promises to check in on her, giving a secretive smile.
Dimitri and Christian fly to an academy where Christian is supposed to be speaking about Moroi defense magic. That's why when they're escorted into a small room Dimitri gets suspicious. After a few minutes of Christian smiling like a fool and refusing to tell him what's going on the door opens and several Moroi women escort two children in. It takes Dimitri only a second to realize that they are the boys from Rose's picture, and he can't help but smile.
He glances at Christian and the man smiles "Why do you two always seem to forget that Lissa is Queen?" Dimitri understands and smiles back before moving towards the children who just seem to stare at him. Shrugging off his duster, Dimitri sinks to the floor and starts playing with a truck, it isn't long before the two older boys come over to play. After a few hours of playing and a nice lunch Dimitri helps lay the Tucker and Benjamin down for a nap before being escorted back to the small room where Christian is playing angry birds on his phone.
A moment later two women come in carrying Ethan and Jace and Dimitri settles down in a chair, and is allowed to feed the two boys their bottles. By then end of the day Dimitri understands why Rose has been the way she's been.
Rose comes home from her shift to find the light in the house on, she smiles; a real one the first in a long time. Dimitri is home. Walking through the door she kicks off her shoes and yells out her standard greeting of "Hey Comrade." The shout is met with the sound of cries. Rose stops as weight hits her legs and she's sent backwards. Looking down she stares into eyes she would know anywhere and smiles, before pulling Tucker up off her legs and into her arms. Dimitri appears from their bedroom a moment later; looking tired but happy, with two bundles in his arms and one clinging to his leg.
Her mouth opens and closes several times and Dimitri smiles at her "We meet with the lawyers to sign the papers tomorrow after that we have a meeting with the realtor to find a bigger place, a one bedroom apartment isn't going to cut it anymore Roza."
Roses' mouth opens and closes another few times before finally getting her questions out "How?"
Dimitri smiles before walking forward, his one leg stiff with Benjamin clinging to it. Rose removes him to her lap next Tucker as soon as Dimitri gets close enough. "Lissa, she had guardians follow up and make sure that there were no remaining relatives, then she had the paperwork drawn up and approved and flew me out with Christian to meet the kids."
"And they're ours?"
He nodded "As soon as we sign the papers."
"What about work?"
"You have six months maternity leave starting tomorrow, and I have two months paternity leave."
"Hans is ecstatic I'm sure."
"He did a dance."
Rose smiled and Dimitri smiled back "We're parents."
He nodded before sitting down next to her "Yep."
"Normally you get nine months and only one at a time."
Dimitri laughed "There's nothing normal about us Roza."
She smiled as Tucker and Benjamin began demanding her attention and Ethan and Jace began crying. Rose cold just smile, she was a mother.
She could only imagine her mother's face when she told her.