It had been a few hours since I had returned home. Home being the cottage like house situated in the middle of no-where. I liked this house though, not only because I had my wife and my son with me but because it was a place where I didn't have to be a guardian, I could just be a man, and worry about my son when he falls over and scrapes his knees or my wife when I through my 'crap' about the floor not about defending royalty and fighting for my life. This house wasn't tainted with death and blood it was full of smiles and giggles.
"Papa!" Nickolai came scampering through the house at full speed into the kitchen. The two other guardians had just left the house after my long month away at the Royal Court, we had wrapped up the meeting quickly and settled on me going back out to the Courts in a month again.
Nickolai was still holding the stake I had given him when he finally made it into the kitchen. To be entirely honest with you, he looked ridiculous, and made a stake look more like a cuddly toy than a deadly weapon, but who could say no to those big brown eyes when they looked at you so piercingly your heart would throb in your chest or those little dimples on either cheek when he grinned and you just knew he had some crazy plan in his head, it was these moments that he reminded me of my Roza.
"Nick, why don't you go put the stake in your box of things from daddy? Your little collection is slowly growing, like you my little man" Nickolai ran off again, only to stop and turn around, gaze at me and then run off again.
"He was checking that you weren't about to leave. Dimitri, he misses you so much when you're gone."
Rose looked at me, not with anger or hatred, but with tiredness. Was she sleeping okay, She looked absolutely shattered.
"Roza, my beautiful Roza" I pulled her onto my lap at the kitchen table and just held her close, it had been too long since I last seen her and even longer since we had, had any time alone. Nickolai was three now. It had been about five years since we were criminals on the run. I felt very old all of a sudden, I was going on thirty years old and I already could say I had corrupted a minor, lost my soul, tried to turn my one true love into a Strigoi, been a criminal and been on the run and now I was sitting with a family. Letting out a sigh Rose got off my lap.
"I better go see our little monster, he is never this quiet." She gave me a wistful smile and slowly made her way to Nickolai's room.
A few hours later...
"So comrade..." Rose walked up behind me when I was looking out the window in the kitchen onto our backyard. There was a mini obstacle course set up for Nickolai; he always had to be the same as everyone else.
"Nick is in bed...you are finally home...what are you thinking?" She wrapped her arms around my waist and laid her head against my back.
"I am thinking Roza that you and I have some catching up to do" I turned around and grinned at her. She took it as an invitation and she ran. She ran out of the back door. So I played, I ran after her, after all running together was what we had always done best, how we got to know each other more at .
Sometime later we both lay under the oak tree out back; moonlight shone of Rose as we lay under a blanket, rather under dressed, but not worried because no one lived nearby.
"I love this, this peacefulness. It is something we haven't had a chance to have Dimitri..." She closed her eyes and drifted to sleep. She was so tired, probably because she still helped other guardians with their duties, she had to be a full time parent and looking after Nickolai wouldn't be easy, he is too like both of us. I hadn't been there when she had gone into labour with Nickolai, thinking back now I knew if I hadn't cancelled my duty and drove like a bat out of hell home she would very likely have divorced me. Nickolai was far too precious and giving birth to him was a once in a life time experience.
"Comrade you get your ass in that car and you drive like there is four hundred Strigoi chasing you because our baby has too much of me in it and it's getting a little impatient, it wants out and it wants out NOW!"
I remember just running, phoning Lissa as I went telling her to phone for more guardians and that I had to get to Rose. Lissa understood and told me to get moving or else get a pen and sign the divorce details now.
Holding Rose's hand as she gave birth was the most amazing moment of my life. Hearing those shrieking cries from the little bundle of blankets just made me cave in. Tears ran down Rose's face as I got on the bed beside her and we both cradled our little baby in our arms. I remember feeling wetness run down my face too, but I wiped the tears away quickly. It felt like I had been tied to balloons filled with weights and when Nickolai was born all those balloons just floated away, I felt light as air.
"What should we name him, Dimitri?" I was wandering the same thing, I wanted him to have a perfect name for such a special little man.
"How about Nickolai?" I asked Roza, She looked at me and then down at our little bundle of pink joy and she smiled "Nickolai Belikov, it fits so well."
And that's how we choose, I don't even remember where I got the name from, it was just a Russian name. I have to laugh now though, I talk to my son in Russian, wanting him to nowhere half of his heritage is but Rose is just so American, shortening Nickolai to Nick and calling herself and me Mummy and Daddy rather than Mama and Papa.
We had better get to bed, a proper bed I finally though. We were getting many visitors tomorrow, my return and Nickolai's late birthday celebration was something that everyone wanted to be together for. Taking a deep breath I quietly got up and carried Rose inside, I placed her on the double bed in our room and crept over the hall to check on Nickolai. He was sound asleep; I checked that his window was closed tightly and that the blinds were down. I then checked every corner of his room, slowly sweeping through the darkness, I closed the door after my thorough check, not completely though, I left a gap where I could hear him if he made a noise. I guess old habits really did die hard.
