Disclaimer:
I do not own Vampire Academy or any characters pertaining to Vampire Academy - Richelle Mead does. :)

"Why couldn't I ever get a small stomach like you?" Nicole asked, setting a hand on my bulged out stomach. "When I was pregnant, I used to get stomachs, really huge stomachs."

"I really don't know or care," I said, leaning my head back against the soft recliner in the Ivashkov house.

"So have you thought about any names for the baby?" Eva, Adrian's most timid sister, said, sitting in the small ottoman, painting my toenails a bright, bloody red.

"No," I answered. "But, I have always liked the name Owen."

"That sounds good!" Melissa said, handing me a glass that was filled with pink lemonade with pieces of strawberry in there. I took a huge sip from out of the glass and it felt refreshing in my stomach. "Oh, and you can use Adrian's name with it! Owen Adrian Luke. How about that?"

"That sounds nice," I said, biting into fresh strawberries that Sky had brought. "But, there are too many Luke's in this family already."

"True that," she said, looking away. "But, that shouldn't stop you, Rose."

"Besides, I really don't know what I am going to have." I said, taking another sip from the glass of lemonade.

"I do," Beth said, fixing the curtains on the wall, letting as much sunlight as their Moroi eyes allowed them to have to come inside the room.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "How?" I asked.

"I just can. My element allows me to do all wickedly awesome things." Beth said, sitting down and biting delicately in a piece of Cowboy bread.

"What's your element?" I asked.

"Spirit, sweetheart, just like Adrian."

"Okay, and how can you tell what I am having?"

"Well, it's this certain power called Verlo; it does some crazy things. The gender knower is one."

"Verlo?"

"It allows you to see things that other people can't see." She placed a hand on my stomach and closed her eyes.

"It's going to be a boy!"

"No, a girl!"

"Twins!"

Was what you heard while Beth concentrated. I put a hand up to shut their chatter. One bye one, they obliged. Everything was silent as Beth concentrated. I was really excited to know what I was having. All through out my pregnancy, I had been dreaming a girl with my colored hair and Adrian's eyes. Last night, was when that dream had changed; I dreamed about a beautiful little boy that looked exactly like Adrian.

"Rose, sweetheart, close your eyes and think about nothing." Beth said, rubbing circles onto my stomach.

What she ordered me to do was easy. What was not easy was struggling not to sleep when I closed my eyes.

"Congratulations, Rose, you are having a boy," she said, smiling over at me. "That dream you had last night was trying to tell you something."

I raised an eyebrow. "Hey, how in the world do you know about that?"

"When I do the gender stunt, I have to look in you with my mind. And, when you gave me permission to take your spirit over, I got all your thoughts and memories." She held up her hands. "I promise I didn't see anything happening between Adrian and you."

I blushed. How embarrassing that Adrian's mom knew what Adrian and I had done before that dream. "I am sorry you had to see that."

Beth laughed. "Sweetheart, that was nothing compared to what I saw when I was checking Melissa and Nicole. Those two are just sex hogs." Beth said with another chuckle.

They continued to banter, but I ignored it all. I just wanted Adrian to get to home already to tell him the good news that we were going to have a baby boy. I really hoped he was happy, like I was. I cradled my stomach and smiled. He would be happy. Very, very happy, indeed.

———————————————————————————————————————————

Adrian took me into his lap as when he noticed me sitting on the couch of our beach house. Last week and this week, I had been having these sudden pains in my stomach. According to Beth's expertise, I was soon going to deliver. I was going to have a baby soon! The thought of having a baby in my hands was very touching, however, the thought of pushing out that baby, was not so touching, as it was scary.

"Sweetheart, are you feeling well?" He asked, rubbing his hands on my stomach.

I yawned. The first months of pregnancy were the best, but when it got to the last months, your stomach got really huge and that made you not so very comfortable while you slept. "Right now, I am. I just need some sleep."

Adrian lifted me into his arms. "What do you say of a little nap in the hammock outside?"

"Sounds good," I said, my eyes closing because of lack of sleep.

He carried me outside and set me on the white hammock that was located under a shady palm tree. The cool wind felt so relaxing. Adrian hugged me from behind, his hands teasing their way to my stomach. He did not say anything, just held me in his arms, one of his hands stroking my hair and the other rubbing my belly. His arms were very comforting that I fell asleep in zero time.

I woke up to horrible pain in my stomach and body.

I gasped as the pain doubled in intensity. Where the hell was Adrian? He was just here a second ago. I realized that I had fallen asleep two hours ago, not a second ago. My feet cramping made it impossible for me to go find Adrian. I tried calling out to him. "Adrian!" My voice did not come out louder than a whisper. The pain was just horrible.

The pain eased and faded within seconds. Nevertheless, it was not over. I got off the hammock and went to go find him.

"Rose, are you okay?!" Adrian said, when he noticed me struggling to get to him.

"No," I stopped walking and sat down on the white ottoman. "I think I am going into labor." I was sure these were the labor pains that the doctor warned me about—the labor pains that were often referred as contractions.

"Are—are you sure?" Adrian asked. In his voice, there was excitement. He had chosen to keep the gender of the baby a surprise until the day the baby was born. I, however, decided to find out as soon as I could.

"Yeah, I think," I said, squeezing my eyes shut as yet another contraction hit.

He jumped into action. "Well, then, come on! Let's get to the hospital!" His excitement was somewhat catchy. I was only excited because I was going to have my baby soon. Thank God Melissa had made me do a Pre-register; I did not have these awful papers to fill out anymore. I had to thank Melissa later.

It hurt like hell, trying to walk to the room. All the while, as I walked, it felt as if something were slipping. Adrian just rubbed my back and said nothing. He probably did not want to say anything that would get me mad. And, it was a good thing. Or else, I would have ripped my hair out.

"Put this on," the doctor's assistant said, handing me a white hospital gown.

Adrian took the gown out of her hand and I started taking off my clothes. The nurse tied the strings from around my neck. "Lay down, honey," she said, "the doctor will be in here soon."

"Okay," I said, trying to be as calm as possible. I did not want to start freaking out. I wanted to be calm. I took huge breaths as I laid on the hospital cot. The pain of the contractions…there were not enough words to describe what you felt. Not a million words were good enough words to describe this pain. You just wanted to be done and over with this pain. The pain you felt, was not like regular pain; this pain felt…wrong, just wrong.

I gasped in pain as a big contraction hit in. After that, they were so frequent. Minute by minute, second by second, I would get a contraction. They were so regular…I would be pushing out a baby soon. Each time one would hit me, I would bite my lip to keep from screaming.

Twenty minutes later, the doctor finally came in. I was dying in pain, though. "Alright, sorry for the holdup," she said putting on the white doctor's coat. "I want you to lift your legs up, sweetie, so that I could check you." I complied to her words and bent my knees so that she could have a look down there. "Oh, my, the baby already started crowning; no time for an epidural."

Adrian gasped in joy and I gasped in panic. "I want you to give me one big push, honey." I took a deep breath and I could see what the contractions were for. Contractions helped you to push. I did not know how to explain it, but they did. I pushed while each contraction lasted. "One more push, darling." I gave her the push and it hurt like hell. But, I kept all screams and insults inside me.

Adrian's POV
Rose, covered in sweat, gave a push. The doctor had said one more push and Rose ended up giving her ten. For each push the doctor said, Rose gave her at least ten pushes. It must hurt, pushing out a baby. What a stupid assumption. I was glad that I did not say it aloud or else would have slapped me.

"Okay, the baby is almost out…give an easy push." The doctor had the nurse press down on Rose's stomach and that made Rose scream in pain. "Focus, Rose. The world does not matter, you need to take this baby out. And now. The umbilical cord is wrapped around his neck, that is blocking the trachea, the windpipe."

Rose gave a cry of pain and the doctor caught my son in her hands. I would have given a scream of joy if not for noticing that the color my son had was purple because of lack of air. Dr. Smith unwrapped the umbilical cord around his neck, and little by little, his color returned. Seconds later, he started crying.

The nurses took the baby away for a couple of seconds, and then brought him back and set him on Rose's chest. Rose had a billion tears following out of her eyes. They shared their mother/son bonding moment before the doctor had to interrupt.

"Sweetheart, I want you to grab the baby out of her hands." She said to me. Her tone scared me. Something was wrong. "We need to stop this hemorrhage before its too late." She yelled to one of the nurses their to get bags of Rose's blood type. She started massaging Rose's abdomen.

I tried to take our baby out of Rose's arms, but she wouldn't hand him over. I don't think she cared that she was about to die. I don't think she cared about anything or anyone because she had her long-awaited baby in her hands. If she was going to die, she would get to hold our baby for the last time. I was scared; I didn't want to loose Rose. I loved her to death. And, I would die if she died.

The nurses injected Rose the blood and the doctor started stitching her closed. You could see Dr. Smith's determination in her eyes; she was not going to let anything happen to Rose. She sighed a sigh of relief, which meant that she had somehow stopped the bleeding. She looked over at Rose and the baby and me. "Congratulations on that beautiful baby boy."

Rose looked up from marveling at our son. "Thank you so much. You saved me and my babies life." She leaned down to hug Rose and Rose hugged back.

The doctor admired the baby and cooed at him. "Hey, baby, you sure look like your mother." She smiled one last time, and began her retreat.

Before she left, I stopped her. "I would have lost my newborn son and my wife today, if not for you. And, for that, I am so very grateful and I will be ever grateful. Thank you." I said, tears semi dripping.

She smiled. "It's my job," she said, exiting the room, leaving Rose and I to share our moment of joy.

I walked back to Rose and kissed her hard and deep and quite passionately.

Rose's POV
That was a close call. I almost died.

I looked down at Adrian's precious mistake and mine. Like the doctor had mentioned, he looked like me. His eyes were that same shape as I had, almond-shaped, but the color was green, like Adrian's beautiful green eyes. Beautiful, long lashed framed his eyelids. His hair color was almond brown, kind of like mine. He had the same exact color I had, expect he wasn't tanned out like I was. His lips were pouty like mine. According to the nurses, he had weighed seven pounds and ten ounces. He measured twenty inches. So, he had inherited his daddy's height.

"I couldn't have imagine a more perfect baby. Thanks, lovely love," Adrian said, stroking our son's small amount of hair.

I didn't say anything to comment on his compliment. I took my hands out, handing Adrian the baby. "Here, Adrian, hold our son." He seemed more than happy to do it. In his dad's arms, our son started crying. "What should we name him?" He asked, cradling his son.

"Owen Adrian." That was the name I had decided.

"Owen Adrian," Adrian said, looking down, addressing our newborn son by his name.

So sorry it took so long to update, but I was planning the sequel to Deeply Scarred Soul…which is this story. Thanks for all who reviewed and read Deeply Scarred Soul. Thanks so much, and don't forget to read and review this one.
-Rose Melissa Ivashkov