RPOV

We made our way into the crowded store. Dimitri was holding Mia's hand, and Mia was dragging me around by my elbow. She was even more excited about this than I was, and it was my baby! But I didn't mind really. With Mia being the one who was picking most of the clothes and other necessities out, I had time to think.

But I didn't want to think. If I had any time to think, I'd think about... Christian... Shaking my head slightly, I turned my full attention to the pink pajamas Mia was holding up and gushing over.

"They're so adorable!" she squealed, clutching them to her chest and grinning from ear-to-ear. "Here," she said to Dimitri, who was the one who had been forced into pushing the cart. I kind of felt sorry for him. Mia was piling the cart high with baby clothes, toys, and furniture.

"Mia," I grumble, although I have to admit, this was actually pretty entertaining. The way Mia's face lit up every time she saw something cute was priceless! "You have over half the fucking store in the cart. Slow down. Not everything that's cute is needed, you know. And besides, what does a foot massager have to with a baby?" I ask, eyeing the pink machine Mia had thrown into the cart.

Mia looked at me, her eyebrows raised. "Nothing," she said, "but I want it." I shook my head as she led us threw the store, stopping at every other object on the shelves. This was going to be a long day...

Finally, After two hours of walking and stopping, walking and stopping, walking and stopping, Dimitri convinced Mia to discard most of the unnecessary purchases. We ended up buying a few pyjamas for the baby, a rattle, a couple bottles, and that damn foot massager! Stupid fucking foot massager...

We were sitting at a table in the corner of the food court, by the Mexican food. The sweet, delicious scent of the tacos drifted over to my nose, and my stomach growled. I closed my eyes and sniffed again, but this time I didn't smell tacos. I smelled pizza.

Opening my eyes, I see six pieces of pizza sitting innocently on a plate in the middle of the table. Mia was staring hungrily at the food, and Dimitri was standing behind her, smiling widely.

"Dig in," he exclaimed, drawing attention from a couple tables around us. At my glare, they all looked away. Smiling, I picked up the closest piece of pizza to me and took a big bite out of it. The cheesey cheese filled my mouth, and I closed my eyes. I was starving! Mia had kept us in that one store way too damn long! I was starting to regret coming with these guys...

"Gotta pee!" Mia squeaked before jumping out of her seat and running to the closest bathroom. Too bad she didn't see the bathroom right over there... I watched as Mia ran the opposite way of the bathroom, bumping into people and squeaking "Gotta pee!" as an apology.

"She's a card," I chuckled, avoiding Dimitri's gaze. "You're lucky," my voice cracked, "to have her." A single tear slid down my cheek, and I tried to hide it, but I never was really good at hiding anything from Dimitri. He lifted his hand and wiped it away softly, gently brushing my lower lip with the pad of his thumb.

"Yeah," he sighed, "I guess I am lucky. But I'd much rather have you." He lightly kissed my temple. My tears were falling freely now.

I took in a shaky sigh, trying (unsuccessfully) to calm myself. "You shouldn't say that," I cried, not wanting to go behind Mia's back, and definitely not after she had bought me all these things for the baby, even after all the arguing I did that I could take care of it.

"But it's true," Dimitri murmured softly, pressing his lips gently to the corner of my mouth. "I love you." Another kiss on the side of the face. "Please turn around and look at me."

I wanted to. Oh, how I wanted to. But... but I couldn't shake the feeling that what we were doing was wrong. I mean, I was engaged to Christian, and Dimitri was seeing Mia. And... there was another feeling... a feeling of foreboding, saying that I shouldn't look at him, that I should move to another chair or go into the bathroom until I knew that Mia was back at the table. But I did neither. Instead, I faced him...

...And was met with enthusiastic lips, kissing my lips with love and need. "I love you, too," I murmured between kisses. I closed my eyes against the familiar, wanted feel of Dimitri's lips on my skin as he kissed his way down my neck.

Someone cleared their throat rather loudly, and I was hit in the head with a stick of celery. Jumping away from Dimitri, I feared we were caught by Mia, but I let out a sigh of relief when I saw that it was just someone sitting at a table near us.

"There's children in this mall!" They shouted angrily before standing up and throwing away their uneaten food. I watched as the father, the celery-thrower, the mother, and a little baby walked away rather quickly.

Oopsies.

I cleared my throat, choosing to ignore the man and went with my earlier thought: I moved away from Dimitri and sat in Mia's vacated chair. Just as I was sitting down, Mia appeared, her face flushed.

"OMG, you guys," she gushed. "Some guy was walking out of here saying something about a couple that was making out. And then something about celery, and then something about children. Did you see the freaky couple? Damn I really wanted to see that!" Mia plopped down in the seat beside me and put her head in her hand miserably.

Dimitri chuckled. "No," he sighed, "we didn't. Maybe they were over on the other side of the food court?" Nice acting, Comrade, I thought as I put my head in my hands and sighed tiredly.

"Oh, no!" Mia exclaimed, jumping up out of her seat dramatically. "Are you okay, Rose?" Mia gently touched my shoulder, then played with my hair until I lifted my head slightly and looked at her.

"Peachy," I grumbled sarcastically. Mia started to open her mouth to speak, obviously not catching the sarcasm in my voice. "My head hurts. Can we I home now?" I blinked several times, waiting for Mia to respond.

Mia sighed sadly. "Yeah we can go. I hope you feel better..." she grumbled as she helped me stand up and told Dimitri to hold the bags.

We walked out of the mall, and I couldn't help but feel as if everyone we passed were staring accusingly at me, burning a hole in my back. But I knew I was just over reacting, so I climbed quietly into the back of the van and leaned my head against the window as Dimitri pulled out of the parking lot. It wasn't long until I was asleep.


CPOV

I sighed as the plane landed and hoped like hell that Adrian kept his word and showed up to pick me up.

I grabbed the suitcase from the baggage claim and made my way to the exit. As soon as I walked out, I scowled at Adrian. Everybody, excluding Rose, Mia, and Dimitri, was waiting for me by two black SUV's.

Avery and Lissa came over and tackled me. I groaned as my back made contact with the ground and hugged the two girls before remembering what Lissa had caused between me and Rose and letting go of them.

"Let me up." I said, pulling myself up off the ground.

Janine came up to me saying, "Sorry, but I have to do it." Then she punched me in the face. "How dare you leave my daughter!" She hugged me tightly. "Welcome back."

I shook my shock off and hugged her back before pulling away and rubbing my nose. "Ow." I said, flinching.

Lissa reached up and pressed her hand to my nose. I flinched again, but smiled when the pain went away. "Thanks."

She nodded and went back to Adrian. I relaxed slightly. Viktoria came over and dragged me into one of the SUV's. "Some sit with me and Paul." She said, climbing into the backseat.

I sighed and climbed back there too, pulling Paul into my lap. "Uncle Pyro!" He said, hugging me. "Please don't go again!"

I felt tears sting in my eyes and hugged Paul to me. "I wont Paul, I promise."

"Good because Rose wont be able to handle it again." Stan said, climbing into the drivers seat. I nodded at him. I had no intentions of ever leaving her again.

Alberta climbed into the passenger seat and Avery, Lissa, and Adrian climbed into the seat in front of me, Viktoria, and Paul.

I sighed and stared out the window as we drove, tuning in and out of the others conversations. Then the questions came.

"So, Christian, where've you been?" Avery asked.

"West Virginia."

"Why?" Lissa asked. "Does Tasha live there now?"

I shook my head and felt the corner of my lips pull up. "No. But it's where Rose and I will be living." I turned to her. "And hopefully everyone else too."

"You bought a house?" Adrian asked.

"I bought a property with two mansions and a two-story house." I said, turning to him. "Rose choose it before we got into that fight." I sighed. "I've spent the last two months getting it ready and I have a friend of mine finishing it up for me so I can be here with her."

Everybody left me alone after that until we pulled up to the Academy's gates. The guardian's checked us out and then let us through.

Without saying a word to anyone, I started on my way to the room Rose and I once shared with Adrian following behind. "She's not here."

"I know. She's with Mia and Dimitri." I sighed. "Gives me more time."

"She loves you."

I nodded as I pulled the old key out of pocket and unlocked the door. "I know."

He put a hand on my shoulder. "She'll be glad your back and she didn't even seem mad about the fact that you left. She seemed like she understood. But she is kind of sad."

I walked in telling him that he could come in for a few minutes and went to the bedroom. As soon as I walked in, the puppies I had bought Rose jumped on me. I chuckled and pet them before standing up and looking around.

Nothing had really changed except for the few clothes laying on the floor. I shook my head and picked them up. As I picked up a pair of blue jeans, I found a picture of Rose, Mia, Dimitri, Eddie, and Avery. Rose was sitting on a stump, holding her stomach with Dimitri and Mia behind her on the right, holding onto each other. Avery and Eddie were doing the same to her left. I smiled and set it on the nightstand.

"You should make tonight special since she's going to be surprised anyways…"

"Adrian, I am." I snapped.

"I was just trying to…"

"I don't care."

Silence fell between us and finally he just sighed. "I'm sorry, but I love her."

"I don't care." I said, turning to face him. "I could care less about Vasilisa."

"Then what's your problem?" He asked.

I shrugged. "I don't have one. I'm just nervous."

"She understands. All you have to do is make tonight special for her and you guys will be as good as new. Look at how much you guys have been through already. She hasn't and never will give up on you." He said in one breath. "And, as for Lissa, she's been trying to keep the darkness out of Rose for the baby's sake. She can't control it, so when she tries to break you and Rose up, it's because of that."

I frowned and looked out the window. Was it really just the darkness or did Lissa lie to him? Could we trust her? Could we trust him? I looked at him and noticed that his eyes held nothing but sincerity in them. "Fine. Whatever. I trust you, Adrian."

Adrian smiled slightly. "So… want me to help you for tonight?"


So what does Christian plan to do?

Is Lissa really innocent?

What was that thing that happened between Rose and Dimitri?

Indefinite reviews guys!

Just review until I can post another chapter up...

~Nicole Panthera Ozera~