Something I found on my laptop, hope you like it. All brilliance belongs to Karen Chance.

Mircea waited by Dorina's bedside as she slept off the injuries she'd sustained in that damned explosion that she'd had the stupidity to start. If she ever did anything like that again he was going to kill her. Didn't she have any idea what she was doing to him? Sure she was going to survive because she had been wearing that rune, but she hadn't known at the time! She had been prepared to sacrifice herself for vampires which, for her, was astonishing. He wasn't sure if he was proud or angry.

She began to stir after a while, her body still back and red, Louis-Cesare holding her gently. He'd tried to get him to leave so he could sit with her alone, but it seemed that he was as stubborn as he'd always been. Mircea still wasn't sure if he liked the idea of Louis-Cesare courting his daughter, it was a recipe for disaster, but he couldn't exactly comment. His relationship with Cassie was unorthodox in itself. Not to mention that he knew Dorina could handle herself – she hadn't lived for five hundred years for nothing. But it was still… concerning.

"I will not harm her, Mircea," the Frenchman said as if reading his thoughts, which was a possibility. It was a family trait after all.

"You had better not," he warned with dark, glittering eyes.

"Please don't argue," Dorina grumbled with her eyes still closed.

Mircea looked pointedly at Louis-Cesare. The other vampire looked pained, but assented.

"I will be back soon, Dory," he said and kissed her hair.

Mircea immediately bristled but he couldn't very well kill the man. He'd finally turned Christine in after all and accepted his punishment with grace. He waited for him to leave before talking to his daughter. She slowly began to sit up, but he saw a grimace cross her face. He moved to help her and she didn't protest.

"Jack wanted to save the part of the wall that you were prized from," he commented to hopefully make her feel better.

"Sadist," she muttered and fell back against the pillows which Mircea had just propped up for her. She looked tired already, but he knew that moving was good for her – she wouldn't be quite so stiff when she was finally able to walk. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at the trials?"

"They're having a break for the rest of the night. We'll move onto the next round tomorrow," He replied. Dorina yawned and her stomach grumbled. "I will ask someone to get you some food."

"Not Horaitu," she said firmly.

Mircea chuckled and then began communicating with someone in his head. Dorina kind of hated it when vamps did that even though she was now able to do it herself.

"The book survived," he said to keep the conversation flowing.

"The sketch book?" she asked. "How?"

Mircea took it out of his pocket and pensively turned it over in his hands. "She made bread every day. How did you know that I marred her?"

"Fey wine. Stops the rages and gives me memories."

He sharply looked up and bored his eyes into her. "And you still drink it?"

"Ugh. Maybe not anymore. I kind of needed a couple of rages this week and didn't get one." She tried to throw an arm over her eyes but it didn't move very far. "You know those healing powers you have…"

"Louis-Cesare is more adept than I."

"I feel like death."

"At least you are alive," he whispered.

Dory looked over at him in surprise. Honest, true emotion. That was all. No faked emotion, no added inflection. Just him. Just the truth. It was something she wasn't sure she'd ever hear again and it made her heart clench and flutter at the same time.

Dad? she thought, "Mircea?" she asked.

His eyes looked sharply up at her once more, but they were melting at the same time, just to be awkward. He knew he'd heard her thought right, but he wasn't sure he could believe it. The only time he'd ever heard her address him as something other than Mircea was when she called him 'Daddy' when she met Louis-Cesare to drive a point home. Now she was doing it voluntarily which meant that she didn't hate him. It meant… It meant she loved him. A tear fell from his eye.

Dory guessed that he'd heard her traitorous thoughts. Special occasions, only. "Ugh. Don't do that," she complained and actually managed to throw that arm over her eyes. "Ow. A lot."

Mircea sighed and helped her ease her arm back to her side, healing it a little at the same time. "I am glad you are alright, Dory."

"Are you feeling alright? You never call me that."

"It is a special occasion."

"If I could move, old man, I'd throw a pillow at you." She tried to glare but even her eyes hurt. Not to mention she felt like killing the Consul for the stunt she tried to pull, the bitch.

"I have no doubt you would. Your mother had a certain penchant for doing that too." A small smile tugged up a corner of his mouth. "You should keep this for a while. You cannot have looked at it for long before you got yourself nearly killed." He put the book on the bedside table and then leaned forward in his chair. "What were you thinking, Dorina?" his voice was rough with emotion and she couldn't figure out if it was anger or worry.

That I couldn't lose you too, she thought before she could stop herself. She wasn't up for a deeply emotional conversation, especially not with him, but she'd gone and done it now. She didn't reply in words because she suddenly couldn't talk and for the first time in a while it wasn't because she was being strangled by some bastard fey.

In a swift movement Mircea picked Dorina up and sat her on his knee holding her close. After a moment he sighed. "I am needed by the Consul." He kissed his precious daughter's forehead and then gently lay her back down in bed. "Never scare me like that again, Dorina."