A/N: Sorry guys that the chapters have been coming in slowly lately, with summer ending I've been hanging out with everyone I can before College and my job has picked up a bit as well. Luckily, Chapter 8 is just going through my lovely beta (RozaRocks) and it will be ready for upload within this week as well! And in honor of being super slow I've made this chapter super long! So enjoy, remember to R/R and F/F and have a lovely week! -Rosa
Chapter 7
The next day, training began. Neither Rose nor Dimitri talked about the night before, or what was said, but the static from the fight still sparked between them. It had been decided that Adrian would watch Alexander during the morning exercises, and then Christian and Lissa would have him at the end of the day.
As the week went on, Rose found her body getting more exhausted. The double training sessions made her muscles burn, and strained her body in ways that it hadn't been in a long time. Alexander had also started crying more and more throughout the night, and Rose found that her sleep schedule had become practically nonexistent.
In fact, by the end of the week, Rose could barely walk up the steps of Adrian's house,
"Morning sunshine," Adrian yawned, as Rose walked through, cradling Alexander from the frigid air.
"Hey Adrian," she yawned, switching Alexander's sleeping bundle into Adrian's arms.
"Little dhampir…" he looked Rose up and down, "you don't look very well." Rose rolled her eyes, and wrapped her arms around herself,
"I'm just a little tired. A run in this cold weather should wake me up," Rose laughed it off, but she knew she wasn't fooling Adrian,
"You need to be careful," his expression had turned worried, "you're not indestructible." Rose laughed,
"I gotta get going, Adrian." Rose turned to go to practice with Adrian calling after her, saying he was serious.
When she got to the gym, Dimitri seemed worried as well,
"Maybe we should skip practice today."
"No, believe me I'm fine, just a little tired." Dimitri looked at her sceptically, but finally agreed,
"Fine, go out and do your laps." Rose nodded, and we to walk out to the track, when Dimitri grabbed her by the hand and pulled her back, he smiled,
"I'll come with you."
Running around the track did exactly what Rose thought it would, as she picked up her pace the wind blew through her hair and the brisk air cleared the haze that had wrapped around her mind.
"You look better," Dimitri was smiling down at Rose, easily keeping pace with her laboured running.
"Told you I was fine," Rose smiled back up at him, her heart skipping at his easy smile.
"You're slowing down your pace," Dimitri commented, with a coy upturn of his lips, causing Rose to blush, and pushed her to run faster. When the running was over, they did some stretching and went into weight training.
"Have you been around the court at all since you've gotten back?" Dimitri asked whilst swapping out the weights for heavier ones,
"Not really," Rose grunted, pushing through the pain in her arms to do a few more reps, "usually after our work outs I go home and take care of Alexander, I report back to the head of guardian security on my progress with training, and then bring Alexander with me to Lissa's until I have to come back here." Dimitri nodded,
"Why?"
"It's nothing." Dimitri said rather quickly.
"What?" Rose sat up from the bench, looking Dimitri dead in the face, "what is it you're not telling me?" Dimitri let out a sigh,
"It's slowly getting out about your pregnancy." Fear shot through Rose, she tried to sound indifferent, but she knew that her voice wavered as she pulled on her pony tail,
"It would come out eventually." She shrugged, "I couldn't hide a child forever, not to mention most people already had their speculations when I didn't immediately become Lissa's guardian." Dimitri nodded, looking anywhere but Rose's face,
"There's more, isn't there." It wasn't a question. When Dimitri finally looked at her, there was uncertainty in his eyes,
"There's been some gossip."
"What do you mean gossip? You mean who knocked me up?" Dimitri shook his head,
"There has been gossip about Alexander." Rose's heart stopped,
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"They're saying that he's 'special'." Rose could feel the fear rush through her veins, strangling her heart and lungs.
"I don't understand."
"Rose, why were strigoi after Alexander back at the academy?" Dimitri's voice was a dangerous combination of curiosity and scrutiny.
"You think I did something bad," Rose narrowed her eyes, "those are your 'Rose, what did you get yourself into' eyes." Dimitri looked shocked, and then angry,
"What did you get yourself into?"
"Nothing! Why does there have to be trouble?"
"Rose, if Alexander is just a normal little boy, what would the strigoi want with him? They can't turn him, he's not royalty." Dimitri paused, "is he?"
"No!" Rose was shouting now, fully outraged, "he's just Alexander, he's just my son!"
"You didn't something stupid did you, Rose?"
"I do a lot of stupid things," Rose said dryly, Dimitri's patience was visibly wearing thin,
"Rose, I'm not playing games here, this isn't just about you, it's about Alexander."
"You think I don't know that?" Rose's voice was so dark that she barely recognized it, "you don't think I understand how much danger my child is in each and every day? How much danger Lissa could be in because of a mistake I made?" Rose shook her head, "No one thinks that I can handle my child or Lissa, but the fact is that no one gets it as much as I do. All the people I love the most are hurt or in danger because of a mistake that I wasn't even aware that I could make."
"I never said that I didn't think you could handle yourself," Dimitri said quietly, wrapping an arm around Rose, "I didn't mean to upset you."
"You think I did something to my own son." Rose said, shrugging Dimitri's arm away, "what kind of person do you think I am?"
"Roza," he breathed, hurt flashing across his face, "I could never imagine I'd come back to a situation like this."
"Well I didn't expect to be in this situation."
"It's just, you have Alexander, and you're not saying who the father is, and people are talking about how you used the child to help with some sort of experiment-"
"Experiment?!" Rose shot up from the bench, lowering her face right in front of Dimitri's, "People think that I'm using my child like a lab rat?" Dimitri moved uncomfortably under her gaze.
"They believe that you're helping the queen with trying to create a new, stronger dhampir race."
"These royals need to stop watching dramas." Rose muttered, "That's the most idiotic thing I've ever heard of." Dimitri shrugged,
"It's not just the royals, guardians are talking about it as well, the whole place is stirred up since the attack at the academy, and it can't be helped. Like I said, why would strigoi want to harm a normal child?" Rose picked up her gym bag, downing a bottle of water before answering,
"Didn't anyone think that maybe the main target wasn't my child, but me instead?"
"What?"
"Well I did take down a whole bunch of them back when they attacked the academy, and I took down those two back on winter break. Not many guardians get marks on them before graduation, let alone all the marks I got. Maybe they found me to be a threat, and went after what they knew would cripple me most." Dimitri opened his mouth to argue, but then closed it, unable to respond.
"No one ever thinks of the simple answer, they automatically go for what would be the juiciest story." Rose shook her head, "I can't believe you let yourself get caught up in such stupid shit. I can't believe you thought so little of me." Rose knew she sounded confident, but inside, her mind and heart were at full on war. People were slowly starting to discover her pregnancy; it wouldn't be long until people started demanding answers. How long would she be able to hide the truth? She hadn't planned on telling Dimitri about Alexander, not after his outburst, but she was only kidding herself. If people were already getting wind that there was something special about Alexander, it wouldn't be long until people started banging down her door to take a look at the "mystery child".
"I'm sorry, Roza." Dimitri said quietly, standing up and taking Rose's hand in his own, her breathing hitched at his touch, "I haven't been myself, I've been horrible towards you, and I shouldn't be letting my feelings towards this whole situation cloud my knowledge of who you are as a person." His face had gotten closer to Rose's with each word he spoke, to the point where their noses were a whisper away from touching, " I know you would never endanger your child or Lissa on purpose. I never doubted that you would be a dedicated and astounding guardian," his breath caught in his throat, and he had to clear it many times, "as well as a mother." Time froze; Dimitri's gaze tore into Rose, exposing heart and soul, as she was wrapped up by those warm brown eyes. Her lips felt dry, and every hair on her body stood on edge, her body ached for him, as did her heart.
Pushing all her feelings deep inside herself, she merely kissed Dimitri's cheek, and then pushed past him to the changing room, refusing to look back.
xXxXxXxXxXxXx
Rose picked Alexander up from Adrian's and left quickly, before Adrian could start questioning her. The walk was short but brutal as Rose felt her exhaustion coming back, ten-fold.
"Hello, sunshine." Rose cooed, deciding that staying focused on Alexander would help her stay awake. "I hope Uncle Adrian took great care of you today." Alexander's eyes twinkled as he looked up at Rose, happy cooing came from his own mouth, his eyes were slowly looking more and more like Dimitri's.
"You're gonna be a lady-killer like your daddy," Rose muttered before a large yawn ripped itself out of her mouth. Alexander soon yawned as well.
"Are you tired just like mama?" Rose smiled, finally arriving home; she made her way straight for Alexander's room.
Rocking Alexander to sleep was simple enough, but Rose found herself fighting to stay awake. Carefully tucking Alexander in, she tiptoed out into the kitchen, finding she ravenous. Downing two bowls of cereal, Rose then made her way to the living room, collapsing onto the couch.
Suddenly, Rose realized she was sweating, wiping sweat from her brow, she began to shiver. Blankets and long sleeves couldn't keep the cold out, and Rose found that she could no longer sit up without feeling dizzy or on the verge of passing out. A feeling of vertigo hit her as her phone began to ring.
"Hello?"
"Hey, I was wondering if you had had lunch yet, did you want to bring Alexander over now? Christian was about to cook up some hamburgers." The thought of food suddenly made Rose sick to her stomach,
"Actually, Liss, I was thinking of staying in tonight." Lissa paused for a moment on the phone,
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Dimitri's just kicking my butt at the gym; I'm just going to rest up a bit."
"Adrian did say you looked pretty exhausted today…"
"Nice to know you guys are talking about me when I'm not there." Rose said only half sarcastically, "I'll be fine, and Alexander just hasn't really been sleeping through the night recently, that's all."
"Maybe Christian and I should take him then," Lissa pondered, "maybe you should have some time to yourself, you've been working really hard lately."
"I'm fine, I don't need any help." Rose knew she was coming of harsh, but for some reason, Lissa's voice just sounded so loud, and the lights in the room were starting to make Rose's head hurt.
"Call me if you need anything," Lissa said, and Rose thanked her, hanging up.
After many failed attempts, Rose was finally able to push herself off of the couch, only to regret it immediately. Rose didn't even make two steps when a dizzy spell hit her. The world whirled around her, and soon she was on the ground, darkness touching the sides of her vision. Rose cursed to herself, realizing she was about to pass out.
When her consciousness came back, it was only for a few minutes, her phone was ringing, but it sounded so far away, she fought to wake up, to answer it, but her exhaustion soon took the better of her, and she was swept under a wave of darkness once more. Unlike sleeping, the darkness seemed to last forever, and it was dreamless, she could still feel the aches in her body, and felt like a prisoner inside her mind, unable to open her eyes or use her senses but unable to sleep as well. Somewhere in the background she thought she heard a bang or a crash, but she couldn't be sure. The blackness dragged her deeper, and soon she couldn't even think, she was completely out of it.
Rose didn't know how long she was out, but when she started to come to, it was to the cries of Alexander. She felt like she was fighting through quicksand to reach full consciousness, and when she did, Alexander's crying had stopped. Rose found that she was no longer on the floor, but in her bed. Confused, she jumped out of bed, and flew to Alexander's room, ready to attack. A large figure was by the crib, and it took her a minute to realize that the figure wasn't a threat; it was Dimitri.
Turning to look at her, Rose saw that Dimitri was cradling Alexander in his arms, lightly holding a bottle to the infant's lips as he hungrily ate. Dimitri gave a small smile,
"I told you not to over work yourself. You should go back to bed, you have a fever."
"How did you get in here?" Rose was taking the whole scene in. Dimitri had cast his duster aside, and it lay across the rocking chair, a tight black t-shirt barely hid the muscles of his torso that seemed to want to break free of the fabric.
"I kicked the door down." Dimitri said it as if it were obvious.
"You broke my door!?"
"You wouldn't pick up your phone." Dimitri shrugged, looking down at Alexander. Rose couldn't help but notice that for once, Dimitri wasn't wound up. His shoulder's weren't tense, and his face had gone soft, his gaze was a mixture of awe and content, and Rose noticed that Dimitri pulled Alexander a little closer, "he's beautiful." He muttered, leaning his head down, Dimitri pressed a gentle kiss upon Alexander's head. Rose found that she was crying. This was it.
"Dimitri," he looked up, the small smile on his face dropped as he looked at Rose's teary-eyed face, "Alexander, he's yours."
