Sorry it took so long to update, I've finally finished my ICT coursework :) Hope you enjoy this chapter x

RPOV

A little while later, I was sitting on the sofa with a plate of black bread. Yeva sat in one arm chair, Sonya and Karolina on the other sofa, with the kids sitting on their laps. I was sitting next to Dimitri, and Viktoria sat on his other side. We were just waiting for Olena to come in from the kitchen so we could begin telling our story.

She came in just then, and sat down in the free arm chair. Viktoria immediately started bouncing up and down in her seat.
"Go on, tell us then!" She begged.

I looked to Dimitri. "Where do we start?"
He shrugged.

"Start at the beginning!" Viktoria shouted.

I frowned. "What, right at the beginning? What you've already heard?" I asked.

She nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah. We were all too busy trying not to cry last time to actually enjoy the story, so tell us again. Plus, I want to hear Dimitri's side of the story."

I took a deep breath before starting, speaking dramatically.
"It was a dark and stormy night, and I awoke with the feeling something was distinctly wrong... I looked out the window, and in the shadows stood a tall, dark figure. Lissa and I ran from the building, but before we could reach our car, we were stopped by Guardians. I tried to fight, but when I tried to hit the leader, he knocked me over. Just before I hit the ground, he caught me."
I paused dramatically, before continuing in a spaced-out, overly dreamy voice. "And from that moment, all I saw were brown eyes and a cowboy duster."
Viktoria snorted.

I turned to Dimitri. "Your turn now, Comrade."

He smiled and carried on talking.
"So there I was, ready to take the Princess and her Dhampir friend back to the Academy, expecting them to come quietly. But as soon as we have them cornered and outnumbered, I start getting threats from the one who calls herself the princess's Guardian. She tries to hit me, and I block her, and she falls. But I can't let her hit the ground, so I reach out to stop her falling. I do, and as I look into her eyes for the first time, I thought 'I'm going to have trouble with this one'."
He smiled at me. "Rule number one- Never underestimate Rose Hathaway."

We skipped quickly through our time at the Academy, and the last time I was in Russia. They knew most of it, and the parts they didn't, they were better off not knowing. I took over the storytelling from when I got back to the U.S.

"So I promise my mom, Alberta, and Lissa that I won't leave until we've graduated. So we stay there, graduate, and I get ready to leave right after that. Then, Lissa tells me that she's coming with me, and then my other friends tell me that they're coming too. So Lissa, Christian, Eddie, Adrian and I all go to Vegas to find this Spirit user guy. That leads us to Alaska, and from there we end up planning a prison break to release one of Tarasov's highest-security prisoners."
Everyone looked shocked.

"You broke Victor Dashkov out of Tarasov. The highest security prison in the world?" Sonya exclaimed.

I shrugged. "Their security system really isn't all that good."

"But only 2 people have ever got out of there before." Karolina pointed out.

"No one else had my friends and I helping them. I had to get Victor out; there was no other way to save Dimitri. It just goes to show that the universe should think twice before screwing with the daughter of one of the world's best Guardians and super-villains."

They looked confused, and I realised they probably didn't know about Abe.
"Uh, yeah. So I found my dad. Or, well, I guess he found me. Stalked me, whatever."

They all looked at me expectantly.
"My father is, uh, Abe Mazur."

To her credit, Olena only looked shocked for a second.
"Well, of course you are. I see the resemblance now, and it explains why he was following you around last time you were here."

Viktoria suddenly started laughing.
"Dimka, you're dating Zmey's daughter!"

Dimitri kept his face blank. "He's alright once you get to know him."

I snorted. "Oh, please. You're terrified of him. When he and my mom come over, you'll make up the craziest excuses not to see them."

Sonya laughed. "So now you know how our boyfriends felt when we brought them home to meet you!"

Dimitri groaned. "Can we just carry on with the story? Please?"

I smiled sweetly. "Of course. Your part's coming up soon, anyway."

An hour later, we had finally got up to our return to Court with the identity of the murderer.

Olena sighed.
"When I heard that it was Tasha that had killed Tatiana, I could hardly believe it. We knew you were a suspect, Roza, but never knew that you were on trial for it. Why would she frame you?"

I decided to give the easy answer. "I was the perfect candidate. She had easy access to my stake, everyone knew I didn't like Tatiana, and I had no alibi. It was easy." They didn't look convinced.

Dimitri didn't have the same reservations as me.
"Tasha was jealous. She had some twisted idea that if I believed Roza had done it, I wouldn't want her anymore. If that failed, then when Rose was executed, then she would have a shot with me. She thought I'd just replace Roza if she was dead."

All of Dimitri's family looked disgusted. "I never liked that bitch." Sonya said, and Olena looked murderous.
"How could she think that? You were friends for so long."

Dimitri's face was cold. "She said she was in love with me, and I felt bad that I didn't feel the same way about her. But if she ever actually loved me, she'd never have tried to put me through the pain of losing Roza. Tasha made her choices, and if she had just killed the Queen, I might have forgiven her one day, as she was doing what she thought was right. But there is no way to justify how she framed Rose, knowing full well what it would do to Lissa, to me, knowing that Rose would die. Even once the truth was found; Tasha still took the coward's way out and refused to go out quietly. She took a gun from one of the Guardians and threatened an innocent girl, and would have shot Lissa had Rose not taken the bullet."
Dimitri paused for a moment. "Tasha is not the woman she used to be. I will never forgive her for nearly killing my Roza."

The room was silent.

"You were shot?" Olena asked quietly.

I nodded. "3 times, in the heart." I replied, also quiet. Dimitri tightened his hold around me and I looked up at him.

"She was in surgery for 8 hours. None of the doctors thought she would pull through- it was less than a 3% chance of survival. Lissa and Adrian were forced to stay away, so they couldn't heal her. Her heart stopped twice in surgery, and they officially called time of death at one point. The doctors said they'd never seen someone hold on as long against such low odds, that it was unbelievable she survived."

The pain in his eyes and voice was obvious to anyone, and I could feel my own heart breaking thinking about the pain he'd been through.

"I'd already un-died once; I knew my way back even without Spirit. I refused to stay dead then; I had too much still to live for. No way was I leaving you when I'd only just got you back again. I had a promise to keep."

Dimitri pulled me closer so I was curled against him and pressed his lips to my forehead, which told me more than words ever could. When he released his hold on me, I kept a hand on his chest, feeling his heart beating under his shirt.

Turning my attention back to the room, I could hear Viktoria sniffling on the other side of Dimitri, and Olena had tears in her eyes.

"You two are so beautiful together. Love like yours is rare; cherish it." She said, and the silence that followed her words was cut by the sound of a timer going off. She smiled as she stood up.
"That's dinner ready. It'll be on the table in 5 minutes. Dimka, you and Roza will be sharing your old room, Vika, go and get what you need for tonight and put it in Karolina's room."

Viktoria left the room behind Olena, and I checked my watch, suddenly remembering something.
"I have to call Lissa quickly. She'll want to know if we got here okay, and I need to check if she's alright. She should be up by now."

I sat up straight and hit speed dial #2. She picked up almost straight away.
"Hey Rose."
"Hey Liss. Are you okay? Everything alright at Court?"
"Yes, Rose. I'm fine. What about you? Are you there yet? How did it go?" She asked.
"We arrived a few hours ago. Everything's fine. More than fine. Great." I said with a grin.
"He deserves this. I'm so happy for you both."
"I know. Do you have any meetings today?"
I could practically see her smile from here.
"Nope. Free day, though I have to do some paperwork later. But I'm just going to watch a film with Christian right now."
"Yeah, right. Guarantee that after 10 minutes you won't even remember what you're supposed to be watching anymore."
She giggled, and I knew I was right.
"Eew, Liss. Gross. Have some standards."
I heard Olena call from the kitchen. "Oh, hey, food. Gotta go, Liss. I'll talk more tomorrow."
"Bye Rose, love you!" She said, and I heard Christian singing the same thing in the background.
"Tell Christian he sounds like a girl and hit him for me. Love you too Liss, bye!"
I hung up, and shook my head slowly.

"There is something seriously wrong with that guy."

"What's he done this time?" Dimitri asked, humouring me.

"He seems to think that just because I'm on the other side of the world he can get away with calling me names. But he forgets that I'm on a different time zone so can call him tomorrow lunchtime and wake him up in the middle of the night without losing any sleep myself."

Dimitri didn't object to my revenge plan as we walked into the kitchen, where I was greeted by the amazing smell of Olena's cooking.

It seemed I wasn't the only one who had missed Olena's cooking. Together, Dimitri and I must have eaten as much as the rest of the family put together.

"Your food bills must be ridiculous!" Viktoria observed as Dimitri and I refilled our plates again.

"That's why we eat with Lissa and Christian most nights. He's always got some new recipe he wants to try, and Lissa doesn't eat much at all, so we do them a favour by eating it."

Viktoria shook her head in amazement.
"I never thought Dimka would find a girl who eats as much as him, especially for someone so small." Karolina added.

"Hey, she eats more than me." Dimitri told her.

"Yeah, recovering from triple bullet wounds here. I need the energy." No one debated that.

It was late when we actually left the dinner table, and I was looking forward to going to sleep. It had been a long, emotionally tiring day, and I was still a little jet-lagged.

As I climbed into bed next to Dimitri, I couldn't help but sigh in contentment. Today had been perfect.
Dimitri wrapped his arms around me and held me close against his warm body, which chased away the last of the cold lingering beneath my skin.

"Thank you, Roza." Dimitri whispered into my hair.

"What for?" I asked.

"Everything. For loving me, for saving me, for making me come back here, for just being you."

I trailed my fingers down his chest and drew circles on his abs.

"Thank you for being equally amazing. I love you."

"I love you too, Roza."

When I woke up the next morning, I was alone in a strange room. For a second I was confused, before remembering where I was and realising that Dimitri was probably downstairs spending every possible moment with his family.

I stretched cautiously, pleased to find that my chest was better than it had been yesterday. Even over the last few days since being away from Court it had begun to heal faster, much to my relief.

I checked the clock by the bed and found that I had slept in quite late, but at least I could blame jetlag.
I changed out of Dimitri's T shirt and pulled on comfy jeans and a hoodie, and brushed my hair.
Just because I'd slept in didn't mean I wanted to go downstairs looking like a slob.

Following the gorgeous smell from downstairs, I skipped down the stairs and the kitchen, where everyone was sitting, except for Yeva, Paul and baby Alicia. I'd heard Paul snoring from his room, so at least I hadn't been beaten out of bed by a ten year old boy.

When I walked into the kitchen, Dimitri was the first to notice me.
"Good morning, Roza." He smiled, and pulled out the chair next to him.

I went and sat down as I greeted the others. He kissed my cheek.
"How are you feeling?" Dimitri asked me, dark brown eyes full of concern.

"Surprisingly good. Now it just feels like I've been punched instead of shot, and that's nothing unusual."

"Do you want to practice today?" He asked.

"Yes! I swear I can feel my muscles wasting away!"

40 minutes later, we were standing outside in a patch of garden that had been cleared (mostly) of snow. All of Dimitri's family were gathered around, waiting to watch the fight.

Dimitri and I dropped into crouches, and on some hidden signal we both jumped forward.

I started with a punch to collar bone, which he knocked away. I used the momentum to keep spinning, and stuck my foot out to try and trip him. He dodged, and landed a hit on my shoulder.

We sparred for a minute longer, and I could tell Dimitri was deliberately avoiding my chest, and I was glad. It still hurt when I touched it too hard.
Finally, I managed to nail him in the stomach with my knee, but he retaliated. We were too evenly matched, and both of us were giving and receiving hits.

Becoming seriously cold now, I was getting pretty desperate to end this fight.

I jumped to avoid Dimitri's foot swinging out, simultaneously stepping back to prepare for a spring.
That was my mistake. I hadn't realised how close we'd come to the edge of the circle, and my foot sunk into nearly a foot of slushy snow.
I tried to pivot around to get out of the snow, but my foot was trapped and I fell backwards into the cold.
"Oof!"

I opened my eyes to see Dimitri standing above me, smirking.
"I win."

"Stupid arctic wasteland." I grumbled in response.

Dimitri laughed. "I thought you liked snow."

"Just help me up already."
I took the hand Dimitri offered, and flashed my killer smile, momentarily distracting him. I clenched my free hand into a fist, balling up a lump of snow. As Dimitri pulled me up I pretended to lose my balance, and put an arm around his neck for support.

I opened my hand, and the snowball hit the back of his neck.

Dimitri hissed and flinched at the cold, and I smiled brightly.
"I thought you liked snow." I repeated, and turned and ran as he bent down to scoop up more snow.

"Paul, help me!" Dimitri shouted, and next thing I knew I was hit by a rapid succession of 3 snowballs.

"Vika!" I squealed, and she came to my rescue.

15 minutes later we were all inside, drinking hot chocolate. I sat with a thick blanket around my shoulders, pressed against Dimitri's side.

Olena was discussing plans for tonight's party with Sonya, and Karolina was upstairs with Paul.

Suddenly Viktoria jumped up.
"Roza! Go get changed and we can go into town and get something to wear for later!"
She looked so keen that I didn't have the heart to tell her that I didn't want to move from the sofa all day.

"Alright. Give me a minute."

As I went upstairs, I thought about the coming conversation with Viktoria, and the things we still had to sort out.
This should be interesting...

Review and Dimitri will make you some of his awesome hot chocolate :)