Chapter 2: BabaAnne

Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Academy.

So just to clarify: They all converse in Turkish except for Rose and Dimitri and Rose and Dr. Olenski. I don't know Turkish so it will appear in English. Happy reading! Also Check out the pics on my profile.

RPOV

I shuffled nervously from one foot to another as I waited at the terminal gates. Today was the day Dimitri was arriving and although he insisted he'd take a cab to the house, I wanted to surprise him so I'd asked Baba to borrow his car. I'd expected him to tell me no and that I didn't know the city well enough to be cavorting all over town by myself, but he'd handed me the keys without a second thought telling me to be sure to wear a seatbelt.

I'd entered the garage to find that the keys did not open his car, but a white sports car with plates that read" RMMAZUR". My eyes widened in realization that he hadn't just handed over the car keys. He'd given me my own car albeit with the wrong name on it. I was still accustomed to being Rosalie Ozera that it felt strange when people addressed me as Miss Mazur, like the staff at the estate had been since I arrived. I'd become more used to Rosemarie, but the whole last name thing was throwing me for a loop. I had no idea whether I should change my name legally to Ozera or if I should keep it Mazur like on my birth certificate. Why did my life have to be such a mess?

"You like it huh?" Baba asked from behind me. I spun around to see Baba and Abi watching my reaction with amused looks on their faces. They must have followed me out to the garage.

"Uh yea, I love it," I told them running my fingers over the smooth, sleek, white surface. It was definitely pretty.

"What is it?"

"It's an Etox Zafer Coupe," Avery rattled off also entering the garage.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Her eyes gleamed as she gave it a once over. (pic on profile)

My brother smirked from beside her. "My wife is in love with that car. She has one in red," he remarked.

"This is for me?" I questioned already knowing the answer.

"At your disposal," Baba said his face crinkling into the smile I loved so much. I simply nodded and opened the door slipping inside. At first I was uncomfortable with the lavish lifestyle living with Baba provided, but I'd slowly gotten reacquainted with the finer things in life and although I didn't need or crave them, there was no way in hell I was going to turn down a free car. I wasn't a martyr.

So here I was waiting at the airport for my boyfriend with a brand new car that was sure to make him nervous. Baba said he trusted me and had equipped the car with the finest GPS system so I wouldn't get lost. It also had a self park feature for parallel parking, which I sucked at, a built in speaker phone and the equivalent of the Onstar system that was in some American cars. It had a leather interior and a tinted back window. It was pretty pimped if you asked me and boy did it ride like a dream. I couldn't wait to get to the deserted roads of the country to open her up and see what she could really do.

Baba had allowed me to drive his car in the States, but those were roads I was familiar with. I couldn't believe he was so willing to let me do as I pleased. He always made sure I was safe, but hadn't really laid down too many rules. He only asked that I call if I wasn't going to be home by nightfall. I reminded him kindly that I didn't really know anyone so I'd be home most of the time.

Adrian kept reminding me that I was legally an adult and that he didn't want to take away my liberties. It was funny because I still felt like a lost child most of the time. I also realized how sheltered and protected a life I'd lived with my parents in Astoria. There had been so many rules and restrictions that now that I had freedom, I didn't know what to do with it.

I watched as people began to spill out of the terminal where Dimitri's plane from St. Petersburg had just landed. My breath caught in my throat as I caught sight of him in the crowd. He was just as magnificent and Godlike as ever with his hair slicked back into a ponytail. I could tell the minute he laid eyes on me because his face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Roza," he breathed sweeping me off my feet into his strong arms kissing me senseless right in the middle of the airport.

"Well hello to you too Comrade," I said cheekily as he set me back on solid ground.

"God, I've missed you," he said cupping my face in his hands. I leaned into his touch reveling in the feeling of the tangibility I'd been missing for the past month.

"Do you have a lot of bags?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Just this one and one other suitcase that I checked," he replied hoisting his duffel over his shoulder as we walked hand in hand towards baggage claim.

"Does that mean you're only staying a short while?" I asked hoping that wasn't the case. As much as being together all the time scared me, not being with him all the time was not preferable either.

"I'm here for the long haul. I just don't have too many things. My home in Baia is simple and I've been on the road a long time so I haven't accumulated much," he explained grabbing his bag as it rode by on the dusty old conveyer belt.

"I wasn't expecting you. How did you get here? Is Pavel with you?" he asked curiously as we boarded the tram towards the parking lot.

I shook my head.

"Nope, it's just me," I said holding up the keys to my new car with a sly grin.

"You drove here alone?" he asked sounding a little perturbed. He was just about as overprotective as my parents.

"Sure, why not?" I asked putting my hands on my hips pursing my lips in a tight line.

"No reason, just wondering," he replied taking the hint that he should shut up now or face my wrath.

"Good answer," I said hopping off the tram leading him to my car. I was glad he was a fast learner.

"This is yours?" he asked his mouth agape.

"Shut your mouth. You'll catch flies," I told him clicking off the alarm and unlocking the doors simultaneously with the push of a button.

"Belikov, It's good to see you again," Baba said greeting us as we came through the front door. The ride to the house had consisted of Dimitri telling me to slow down and turn down the radio. What a bore.

"Mr. Mazur, it's always a pleasure."

"Where are you staying?" Baba asked motioning for Pavel to take Dimitri's bags.

"Uh, I haven't quite figured that out yet. I thought I'd find a motel for a few nights and start looking at apartments," he said looking pointedly at me. I knew that was a not so subtle hint that he wanted me to come with him.

"Nonsense, you'll stay here until you find a place. I'll give you the name of my realtor. Rosemarie won't mind having you around I'm sure," he said with a chuckle.

"Thank you Sir. That's very kind of you. I would be grateful to stay in your guest room," Dimitri said graciously.

"Son, I may be old, but I wasn't born yesterday. Just be discreet and we won't have an issue," he said clapping him on the back causing Dimitri's eyes to bug out of his head. That was Baba for you, always full of surprises.

"Pavel will bring your bags up and Emil is almost finished with dinner," he said leading us into the dining room where indeed there was a feast fit for royalty on the table.

"Uh, what's with the formal dinnerware?" I asked nervously eying the fine china and glassware on the table.

"Your grandmother is coming and she's very excited to see you," he replied like it was nothing.

"Which one?" I asked becoming edgier by the minute. I hadn't even given a thought to what I would do or say when faced with people from my past. I was so not ready to deal with this right now, but I guess I couldn't ask them to wait forever to see me. They'd waited so long already.

"BabaAnne," he responded and I let out a breath of air. It was his mother and for that I was grateful. I so did not want to face AnneAnne right now. She resembled Janine too much and I wouldn't want to answer her questions should she have any.

"Are you okay?" Dimitri asked in a hushed tone.

"Sure why?"

"You're squeezing my hand like you're about to fall off a cliff."

"It's nothing, I was just worried that it was AnneAnne, but it's just BabaAnne so I'm okay," I told him wondering how much of what I'd just said was the truth.

After freshening up and pulling a brush through my long tangled mess of hair, I deemed myself presentable to see my grandmother after all these years. I had vague memories of her and my grandfather from my childhood, but nothing stood out.

"Rosemarie?" A voice questioned as I was making my way back to the dining room.

"BabaAnne?" I said tears filling my eyes as I took in the figure before me. She was slightly older than I remembered, but still familiar.

"Oh my Lord all these years I thought my son was crazy to keep searching and yet here you are beautiful as ever standing in front of me," she said looking me up and down before pulling me into a gigantic hug.

"Welcome home my dear," she said kissing me several times before letting me go.

"Anne, let her be, you'll have plenty of time to smother her after dinner," Baba called from the other room.

"Yes, let's eat, you're far too thin. You need some meat on your bones," she said hurrying me into the dining room where everyone else had already gathered.

"Who is this tall handsome gentleman?" she asked eying Dimitri like he was man candy.

"This is my boyfriend, Dimitri Belikov," I introduced them.

"A little old for you isn't he?" she asked eying him closely. I rolled my eyes happy that Dimitri did not speak Turkish. He just sat politely waiting for us to finish our conversation.

"Keep your elbows off the table. What did those sloppy Americans teach you over there?" she muttered between bites. I sighed removing my elbows from the table shooting a dirty look at my brother who was laughing at me

"So have you thought about college plans?" BabaAnne asked as we were finishing up our meal.

"I would like to try university, but I'm not sure they'll take me with my less than stellar marks from my high school," I told her.

She shook her head. "Those American schools and their coddling. Probably didn't learn a thing. Ibrahim, you should have her take the last year of school over here and see if she can catch up. God knows she probably hasn't even had a proper history lesson unless it was about the civil war."

"My father is a history teacher," I bit out not liking what she was insinuating about my family and friends. If she thought I was taking another year of high school, she was as insane as Janine.

"Your father is a businessman," she said taking great pride in correcting me. "Whoever that imposter was that held you hostage all these years causing my son grief and misery should be hung." Oh she so did not say that!

"Anne, that's enough," Baba interrupted in his no nonsense voice.

"You can't seriously be defending them after what they did," she said in disbelief.

"Those monsters stole your daughter and my granddaughter. I will not sit here and have her defend them!" she rose to her feet anger lacing her words.

I could feel my blood begin to reach its boiling point as she continued to berate my parents right in front of me.

"Anne leave it be. The Ozera's are good people and Rose has chosen to keep them in her life and I accept that and am grateful to them for having raised her up so well," he defended them.

"Raised her so well? She just admitted she didn't do well in school; she has no table manners and is frolicking around with a man seven years her senior. The girl is confused. She needs to be set straight. We're her family! I will not sit at the table and listen to her glorify the Neanderthals who caused you so much pain all these years."

"Rose don't!" Adrian warned as he sensed I was close to losing my cool. Dimitri squeezed my hand tightly holding me in my place. Even though he had no idea what we were arguing about due to the language barrier, he knew from the tone of the argument that I was about to blow my top.

"You don't know anything about me!" I cried jumping up from the table so quickly my chair fell backwards breaking the glass on the curio cabinet that was behind me. Hot tears flew from my eyes as I rushed out of the room and up the stairs. How dare she insult my family! She didn't know me or them. I was as American as they came and if she truly thought they were all stupid then I guess that included me.

I could vaguely hear the argument continue in my absence and registered the door opening and Dimitri's footsteps as he entered my room.

"Are you alright?" he asked the bed sinking as he sat down beside where I was curled up with my face in my pillows.

"No! You should have heard her," I sniffed shaking off this hand as he tried to comfort me.

"I'm sorry she upset you my love. Is there anything I can do?" he asked stroking my back gently.

"No," I said wiping the tears from my eyes. I couldn't believe how much I'd been crying these last few months. It was ridiculous.

"Hold me," I whispered. He didn't need me to ask twice and had me enveloped in his strong embrace seconds later.

He lay with me until I calmed down.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked sitting up pulling me along with him.

"No, it's not worth it. I shouldn't have gotten so upset," I told him regretfully. It wasn't her fault. She couldn't possibly understand the hell I'd been through and how my entire life had been thrown for a loop.

"You can be upset Roza, it isn't a crime," he said softly stroking my hair.

A short while later there was a knock at the door.

"Kizim?" Baba entered tentatively probably making sure we were fully clothed, like I could think about sex right now.

"I'm fine," I told him not wanting to have another conversation about my shrink or my mental breakdowns or my possibly going insane.

"I'm sorry for my mother. She usually isn't so feisty, but she suffered a lot while you were gone. I was distraught and then my father became ill and between the two of us she had her hands full. I told her she was acting inappropriately and asked her to come back another time when she was feeling less bigoted," he said in English for Dimitri's benefit.

"Thanks Baba," I told him. Dimitri took this as his cue to step out and give us some privacy.

"Don't worry about her. She'll come to her senses. She's just been through hell and back like the rest of us. Give her another chance one day. You'll see. The two of you are a lot alike."

"We are?" I asked curiously.

"Definitely. You have short fuses, are stubborn as mules and are the most beautiful women in the world," he said pulling a photo out of his wallet. It was a photo of himself as a child. BabaAnne was holding him in her arms. She couldn't have been more than twenty at the time and boy was he right. We looked like mirror images.

"She was so beautiful," I remarked running my fingers over the photograph.

"She still is," he said smiling. "And so are you. Don't forget that," he said rising to his feet.

"I think that Emil has saved you a piece of her famous baklava if you want to come down," he encouraged knowing full well I could never turn down sweets.

I slept through until morning that night because I never felt safer than when I was in Dimitri's arms.

"Do you want to come look at apartments with me?" Dimitri asked. He was sitting at the dining room table with the paper and a cup of coffee browsing through the rental section.

"I guess," I told him resignedly after seeing the look of discouragement cross his face at my hesitation.

"You act like I'm asking you to get a root canal," he commented dryly setting the paper down.

"Feels like it," I muttered under my breath in Turkish.

All in all we saw six apartments, none of which I particularly cared for. Some were too small. Some were filthy and had vermin living there.

"What do you think?" Dimitri asked as we sat outdoors at a small café. We'd stopped for lunch after I'd complained a million times that I was starving to death.

"The last one wasn't too bad, but the kitchen was small and there was no closet space and the carpet was ugly," I rattled off my dislikes in no particular order.

"What about the other one?"

"Too far from everything, plus did you see those weirdo neighbors with the gnome collection on their balcony. It was creepy," I said with a shudder.

"We can keep looking, but I think those are the best I can do for my price range," he stated. I tried raising my eyebrow at him.

"What did you do with the money my father paid you?" I asked curiously. He couldn't possibly have spent that much money in the past few months.

"I told you, I don't want to use that if I can help it. I feel strange about it. If you were living with me then it wouldn't be so awkward," he said hinting again that he wanted me to move in with him.

"I'm not really ready for that yet. I've barely been here a month and I'm going to hopefully start school soon and I've got a lot on my plate. Please don't be mad."

"I'm not mad Roza," he said smiling at me. "As much as I would love to wake up to your beautiful face every day, I know you are not ready and I understand. Let's just keep looking," he said lending me his hand pulling me to my feet.

We ended up finding him a decent one bedroom close to my house that had an okay kitchen and a storage area for a somewhat low price.

"I know you're not ready to move in yet, but let's say once I get things settled in we play a little house," he said with a grin pulling me into his body for a soft slow kiss.

"Mmmm, that sounds like Heaven on Earth," I told him allowing him to deepen the kiss as he pressed me against the wall of the apartment he'd just leased.

"Don't tease me Roza," he growled as I ran my fingers just under the waist band of his boxers.

"You like that huh?" I said smirking a little as I repeated the action this time using my other hand to squeeze his ass.

He let out a low moan before lifting me up into his arms and setting me down on top of the counter.

"You don't play fair Milaya," he whispered yanking at the buttons on my shirt before discarding it and the rest of our clothing.

"Well that was certainly a great way to break in your new kitchen," I panted as we lay in a tangled heap on the floor.

"I'm sorry, you were just too tempting for me to resist," he said nibbling on my ear.

"Stop, or we'll never get out of here," I moaned as he continued to touch me in places that made me writhe in pleasure.

"Who says I want to leave?" he asked sexily before capturing my lips roughly with his. And leave we didn't for another two hours.

Three days later I was back at Dr. Olenski's office staring at the paint wondering if I stared at it long enough if it would peel off the wall.

"Rose, Rose are you paying attention?" she asked snapping her fingers in my direction.

"What, yeah, I'm here," I told her readjusting myself in my seat. I was so not in the mood for therapy today. Baba was hosting a welcome home gathering with a whole lot of family members that I didn't remember or hadn't ever met. Everyone was burning with curiosity to see the long lost Rosemarie who was apparently raised by wolves or so they were told by BabaAnne. I'd tried my best to convince Baba that it wasn't a good idea, but he said it was either on our terms at a gathering in public or they'd just start dropping by the house on their own. I'd finally acquiesced feeling it was better to get all the drama over with at once then to have to worry that they'd just show up randomly at the house one day.

"What's bothering you?" she asked.

"Stupid family gathering we're having so everyone can gawk at me like some sort of freak show," I muttered sullenly.

"You don't want to see your family?"

"It's not that, it's just that I feel like I'm trapped in a snow globe and people just keep tipping me upside down and shaking me for their own amusement."

"You said your grandmother came to dinner the other night. Tell me how you felt about that."

"Well besides insulting me and my family in every way possible and calling my boyfriend a cradle robber, things were just fine."

"It sounds like you didn't enjoy her visit," she mused.

"You think?" I snorted.

"Have you spoken with your father about your feelings on having this gathering?"

"Yes, but he's right. It's time. I want to know them, but I don't want them to judge me," I admitted.

"Try and keep an open mind. As much as it is strange for you to be back here dealing with all of them, remember it is hard for them as well. They've been grieving the loss of a six year old child for a long time. It's going to take some time for all of you to adjust to your being back here with your family."

I sat for another half an hour absorbing her suggestions like a good little sponge before returning home.

"This came for you in the mail Little Cupcake," Adrian said handing me a box.

It was addressed to Rosalie Ozera.

"It's from Mom," I cried happily tearing open the box.

There was a card inside.

~Thought you'd be missing home by now and thought you could use a little something to make your adjustment a little easier. Hope you enjoy and don't forget to call. We love you~ Mom, Dad, Christian & Tasha

My eyes lit up as I pulled out a huge tin of mom's special cookies, the ones we used to make together.

"What's in the box?" Adrian asked nosy as ever.

"A little taste of home," I said wasting no time in stuffing my face.

Okay so this was supposed to be a ten chapter sequel. I highly doubt I'll be able to keep it to ten chapters seeing that I am so wordy. I hope you won't mind if it runs slightly longer than that. Next chapter will be the family party and Rose signing up for classes at Istanbul University. All reviewers will get a personal tour of Dimtiri's new apartment from the Russian himself=)