"Dimitri have you seen my... Oh, never mind. I've found it." I called from the bedroom. I stuffed my iPod in to my pocket and went in to the living room where he was reading one of his Western novels. He was sprawled out on the sofa like a king, one arm supporting the back of his head as the other head his book. He turned the page skilfully with one thumb and then looked up to me. He frowned when he saw that I was in my workout clothes and sat up, placing his book on the coffee table.
"Where are you going, Roza?"
I held my hand up and stopped him from going any further. "I know what you're going to say, but hear me out. It's been weeks since I was shot, I'm healed and I'm going crazy sitting in the apartment all the time. I need to get back out there before I get out of shape."
"Your shape is perfect, Roza."
I ignored his compliment and continued. "If I get out of shape, I won't be able to guard Liss and then I'll be no good to anyone."
He stood up and in three strides he was standing in front of me. "You're not ready. You still have another two weeks of rest and then you have to ease back in to things. You can't rush the healing process."
"I'm healed." I lifted my top up to show him my scar and his eyes filled with pain and sadness as they always did when he saw it. "See?"
He took my T shirt in his hands and pulled it back down so that he couldn't see the scar any more and frowned. "Roza, you need more time. What if I order us a pizza and we put a movie on? You can pick whichever one you want?"
"Even The Notebook?"
He shook his head and chuckled. "Yes, Roza. Even The Notebook."
"Okay." I murmured as he pressed his lips against my temple and went to the kitchen.
I went over to the front door and took my key off the hook, being careful that it didn't make a sound as I clutched it in my fist. I opened the door, knowing that Dimitri would be furious when he came back and saw that I was gone, and crept out, closing it quietly behind me.
I didn't stick around long enough to find out whether or not he'd heard me leave, I just sprinted down the corridor as quickly as I could, not stopping until I was out of our building. I bent over, resting my hands on my knees as I gulped in as much air as I could. I knew that I was right; spending six weeks lounging around with Dimitri, eating pizza and donuts, had done me no good at all. And yet he still wanted me to spend another two weeks at home.
To be fair, Dimitri spent every one of those six weeks with me. He'd taken some time off and taken me to all of my appointments and made sure that I was healing properly. He'd made me wait until my stitches had been removed before he touched me in anything other than a supportive way and even then he'd made us take baby steps. We hadn't been past third base in six weeks and it was killing me. I needed a little time in the gym to work out all the tension and frustration that was building up inside me.
I didn't hang around too long, figuring that if I was already at the gym, he couldn't drag me home. As soon as my breathing had settled to an almost normal rate, I made my way through Court and headed straight there. I pushed the door to the gym open and let it lose behind me, made my way over to the warm up area and started stretching. I was surprised at how difficult it was. My muscles didn't react the way that they had before the shooting and I was nowhere near as flexible.
"Rose? What are you doing here?" Eddie's familiar voice asked from behind me.
I turned around and smiled up at him. "Am I not allowed to be here?"
"Not according to Dimitri."
"Yeah, well, he isn't here."
"Should you be?" He asked, his face full of concern.
"I'm fine, Eddie. I've got to get back in to it sooner or later."
"Maybe later would be best."
"The longer I leave it, the harder it's going to be. Now, are you going to help me or just lecture me?"
"I'm not lecturing you, Rose. I'm worried about you."
"Don't be. I'm fine."
"You know, I learned a long time ago that when a woman says she fine, it means that she absolutely isn't." He held his hand out to me and helped me to stand up. "Let's just take it slowly, okay?"
"Fine." I groaned.
Eddie helped me stretch and we were just about to run a few laps when the door to the gym opened and everyone turned to look at it. Eddie and I followed suit, my heart dropping when I saw him. My Russian jailer had come to take me back to my prison. He gently took hold of my elbow, nodded to Eddie, and led me outside.
"I thought we agreed that you were going to stay at home?"
"You agreed, Comrade. I made no promises."
"Roza, this isn't a game. This is your health."
"My health is fine."
"Then you won't mind if I take you to the doctors for a second opinion." He folded his arms across his chest and I knew better than to argue with him. "Your appointment is at ten o'clock tomorrow morning."
"Dimitri-"
He reached out and stroked my cheek gently. "I can't let you risk your health, Roza. You're too important to me."
I was going to tell him that I risked my health, and my life, every day as guardian but decided that now wasn't the time. If it would make him happy, I'd go to the doctors. "Okay."
"Promise me, Roza. There are no loopholes."
"I promise." I said, going up on to my tiptoes to kiss him. "Let's go home."
"The pizza will be cold by now." He said with a raised eyebrow. Ugh, I hated it when he did that. It made him even more handsome and I was insanely jealous because I'd never been able to do it.
"We'll warm it up."

I was surprised that Dimitri still let me pick the movie but he sat beside with me his arm over my shoulders as we watched The Notebook and ate an entire pizza. It was more like Dimitri had two slices and I had the rest, but who was counting?
I paused the movie and went to the bathroom and to change in to my pyjamas. Dimitri tidied away the pizza box and told me to hurry back. I'd never been able to make it through an entire movie without needing to move around. Dimitri said it was because I was so used to do something that doing nothing was difficult.
I went it to the bedroom and started to undress when I noticed something on my pillow. It was a white envelope with 'Rose' written neatly on the front. I opened it up and stared down at the piece of paper. The words 'Rosie, Rosie, give me your answer do' had been cut out of magazines and stuck to down. A chill ran down my spine as I read them, though I wasn't sure why. The words weren't particularly threatening and they didn't mean anything to me. I pulled my jacket out of the wardrobe and threw it on, shoved the envelope in to my back pocket and headed out of the bedroom.
"Is everything okay, Roza?"
"Yeah, I, uh, I just forgot that I was supposed to go and see Liss."
He nodded and stood up. "I'll get my coat."
"That's okay. You stay and, uh, I'll be back soon. It's girl stuff." I said, knowing that I didn't sound very convincing. I was usually an excellent liar, but something about the note had completely thrown me. "I won't be long."
"I'll be here." He said and kissed me quickly.
I left our apartment and went down the corridor and knocked on Lissa's door. I was surprised that she hadn't decided to live in the Queen's Quarters but she said that she didn't want to change. I suppose she thought that living with all the luxuries of the previous queen would somehow change her. I thought it was a load of rubbish and would have gladly moved in there with her, but she'd said no. I thought that part of it had something to do with Adrian; Tatiana was his favourite aunt and it had hit him really hard when she'd been killed. Another part of it must have been Christian. It had been his aunt, Tasha Ozera, that had killed Tatiana, tried to frame me and have me executed so that she could control Liss and get Dimitri all to herself. How would it look to everyone else if he were living in Tatiana's house? So, she'd decided to stay in the normal housing, though our floor had been cleared of everyone except the guardians that watched over the two of them.
I knocked on the door and Christian answered.
"This better be good." He grumbled. "We were about to go to bed."
"I don't even want to know." I said with a exaggerated shudder. "I need to show you something."
"Come on in." He said and hugged me as went past him. "It's really good to see you, Rose."
"You too, sparky."
We went in to the living room where Lissa was laid out on the sofa. She looked up to me and smiled, jumped up and hugged me. "Is your house arrest over?"
"Temporarily. I actually needed to show you guys something." I took the envelope out of my back pocket and handed it to Liss. She read the note and then handed it to Christian.
"Rosie, Rosie, give me your answer do." He read the words aloud.
"Did you leave this for me?"
"No, why would I?"
"You're the only one that has ever called me Rosie."
"True." He said with a smirk. "But why would I take the time to cut out letters from a magazine when I could just call you Rosie to your face?"
I frowned, knowing that he was right. It wouldn't Christian, it wasn't he style. "Well if it wasn't you then who was it?"
"One of your adoring fans?"
"I don't have adoring fans."
"I hate to break it to you, but you totally do. You're the talk of Court. 'Rose Hathaway is so wonderful', 'Rose Hathaway is so badass'. I'm no longer Christian Ozera, amazing boyfriend of the Queen, I'm now Christian Ozera, friend of Rose Hathaway."
"Uhuh." I looked to Lissa who was frowning, a slight 'v' on her perfect face. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know, it just sounds so familiar. Read it to me again."
"Rosie, Rosie, give me your answer do." I said.
"Why does it sound so familiar?" She asked, more to herself than to either of us. "I know it from somewhere, I know I do."
"Hey, don't worry." Christian said as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and kissed her cheek softly. "Rose is fine, it's probably just someone trying to prank her."
When Christian shot me a meaningful look, I agreed with him. "As much as I hate to admit it, Liss, he's probably right. Don't worry, okay?"
Lissa nodded but her eyes were so sad. I looked to Christian but he was watching her carefully. "Why don't you go on to bed, Liss? I'll be there in a minute."
"But Rose-"
"Rose is going to her own bed." I said with a smile that I didn't really feel. "Go on, you'll feel better in the morning."
Lissa nodded and said goodnight to us, hugging me and giving Christian a quick kiss before she retreated in to her own room.
"Is she okay?" I asked as soon as the door closed behind her.
"Not really. Ever since you guys lost the bond, she's been having a hard time with the madness. She thinks that turning in to a female version of Adrian will make it all better. I'm having to hide everything from her and keep the two of them apart."
"Why didn't she tell me? Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because we knew that you'd feel guilty."
"Why?"
"Because you're the one that broke the bond."
"It was either that or die." I snapped.
He held his hands up defensively. "Hey, I'm just saying it how it is. You broke the bond and now instead of the darkness seeping in to you, it's not going anywhere. She needs a release but I can't find one that won't hurt her in other ways."
"Will she go back on ani-depressants?"
"No. She says that she needs spirit to be a good queen and flatly refuses to take anyhthing whenever I bring it up."
"I'll come by tomorrow and see if I can talk to her."
"Thanks, Rose."I nodded and hugged him tightly.
"It's not your fault." He said, saying the words that I desperately needed to hear. It was amazing that he seemed to know me just as well as Dimitri and Liss did, but I supposed it was because, in quite a few ways, we were so similar.
"Thanks, Christian."