A/N:- Just like to say thank you to Orlissa92, and her series 'Little Bit of This, Little Bit of That', specifically chap 411: Dough, for the inspiration for the second half (after the page break) of this chapter. And thank you Orlissa for letting me use it :D

Today was the day. The day that Dimitri and I would get to hear our child's heartbeat for the first time. See and hear actual, tangible proof of the fact that we were going to have a baby. We were also going to see how many of the embryos had implanted. Our friends were taking bets. We hadn't meant to tell anyone, except Lissa, Christian and Mikhail, who'd told Sonya, until I was twelve weeks along, but word had gotten around.

Now, I'd had to tell Hans and Pawel, captain of the Royal Guard, so my duties weren't too strenuous. That, and the fact that I wasn't allowed to spar with anyone, as well as the fact that I kept rushing to the bathroom to throw up, resulted in the entire guard figuring it out. Not to mention that whilst visiting with Sydney, Adrian had seen it in my aura. Or he'd seen the baby's aura. Either way, he knew. Which meant that Jill knew, and she naturally told Eddie, who told Mia. At least that was it. Everyone who knew had been sworn to silence.

"Quintuplets," Chrsitian said with a smirk, leaning against the sink in the kitchen of mine and Dimitri's apartment, next to Eddie. I was sitting at the island with Lissa on one side and Sonya on the other. Celia, who'd turned two yesterday, was sitting on Mia's lap, who was sitting on one end of the island. Because it was the middle of June, we were all eating ice-pops. Dimitri was in the sitting room with Mikhail and Jill, going over some lesson plans for the next day. "Definitely quintuplets."

"Nah," Adrian siad lazily. He was sitting on the counter a little was along from the guys, Sydney leaning against the fridge next to him. Like everyone else present, they were also eating ice-pops. "Sextuplets. Three sets of identical twins."

"I agree with sextuplets, but I think that only two of the embryos implanted, and you guys are going to have two sets of identical triplets." That was Eddie. Everyone, independent of one another, had decided to come over and wish us luck. Or in some peoples' cases, freak me out. Dimitri had better hurry up in there.

"The odds of having identical triplets is somwhere in the region of one in two million," Sydney informed us. Thank God for that girl's encyclopedia of a brain. "I'm going to vote for fraternal triplets." I take it back.

"The doctor said that it was unlikely that I'd have triplets," I told everyone grumpily. Part of it was hormones, part of it was annoyance at my friends' predictions. They'd been doing it for the past month. "Scarring on my uterus apparently."

"Leave her alone," Lissa sighed. She knew how fed up I was getting. Plus, she'd already seen a couple of emotional outbursts, and I think she was keen to avoid another one.

"Yeah," Mia piped up, grinning mischieviously. "She's clearly going to have quads. Only one of the embryos split."

"You guys better hope that I'm not going to have that many, because you're all going to have to babysit!" I turned my head towards the sitting room. "Dimitri!"

"Nearly done!" he called back. "Don't worry, the appointment's not for another thirty minutes."

"Go early," Sonya laughed. "Before your wife murders someone."

There was a pause, and I could imagine Dimitri's eye roll. "Stop making predictions," he said wearily, coming into the kitchen, Mikahil and Jill following, the both of them grinning. "Because I'm not pulling her off any of you," he added with a hint of a smile.

I decided not to respond to that, and just pleaded with Dimitri to leave now. The clinic was only a ten minute walk, but the thought of having multiples was making me panic.

"Whatever happened to moral support?" I asked. "And you people call yourselves my friends. Why did you all come over anyway?"

Jill and Mikhail had needed to talk to Dimitri, their significant others coming for the visit. But Adrian and Sydney had no reason to be here, nor had Mia, and I knew for a fact that Lissa and Christian had rescheduled a lunch with Jonathan Dashkov.

"You guys are having a baby!" Mia exclaimed, as though it was obvoius, and like she was a little insulted. "We're excited for you! You know, two dhampirs starting a family, and you're our friends. We're just happy for you."

"Despite the teasing, we really are," Adrian pointed out. "Out of all of us, we never really pegged you two as prospective parents. No offence," he added.

"Yeah, I mean this is just insane," Eddie added. "A baby. You guys are having a baby. It's still trying to wrap my head around it. No offence either."

"None taken," Dimitri told him. "But please, just keep your predictions to yourselves."

"And thank you," I added.

"Well I think," Jill started. Dimitri and I looked pointedly at her. "That you two are going to make great parents."

"Thank you." I looked around the room. "Now that's support."

"Well she's right," Sonya said smiling, Lissa nodding along. "You two will be great parents." Coming from someone who had a child, that meant a lot. And after everyone started echoeing that statement, I got a little teary-eyed. Damn hormones. Mercifully, I didn't start crying, and we left soon after that. Everyone said they were going to wait there for us, and Mikhail instucted us to get a DVD. Their support was really touching. Though, considering how we'd all banded together to support Mikhail and Sonya when she was pregnant with Celia, it shouldn't really be a surprise. Adrian called it our 'Muskateer Mentality'. You know, one for all, and all for one.

We met Kaleo and Tom just outside the palace. From the looks of things, they'd just come back from a run.

"Good luck," Kaleo said as we passed them.

"You better show us the pictures," Tom added grinning.

We didn't stop for very long, but we told them we would, and then we went on our way. We were a little behind time, so we had literally just sat down, when we were called to go in to the examination room. Which was a good thing, as we'd both been getting steadily more, and more nervous as we walked.

I hoped up on the bed, lay down and Dr. James told me to pull up my shirt to expose my still flat stomach. She was a fairly young woman, not much older than Dimitri. She was also the only OB/GYN in the Court.

"This is going to be cold," she told me. She then squeezed some gel onto my stomach causing me to shudder.

Dimitri was sitting next to the exam table holding my hand. He smiled when I said "She wasn't kidding about that gel."

Dr. James smiled too, before starting to move the wand for the ultrasound machine over my stomach. She moved the screen so we could see as well. We couldn't see anything, or hear anything for a few seconds. Then we heard the most wonderful sound. Our baby's heartbeat. I looked round at Dimitri who was staring, frozen, at the screen, his mouth slightly open. His eyes looked a little too bright. He moved my hand, so that he held it with both of his, and he rested his chin on our fingers. He was still staring at the screen.

"And there's your baby," Dr. James said smiling, pointing to a tiny speck on the screen. I had to blink back tears. Your baby. Our baby. I didn't miss the fact that it seemed like only one of the embryos had implanted. I could hardly believe that this was real. I was so happy that I felt like I could sprout wings. We were really having a baby. "Nice, strong heartbeat, normal size for the sixth week."

"So, everything's healthy?" I asked the doctor. Dimitri didn't seem capable of speech right now.

"It's still early, but things are looking promising," she replied.

I asked her where exactly was the baby, and she pointed to the tiny speck again to the left of the screen. I could just make it out. "There's the baby." She moved the wand a little to the right, and started smiling again. She pushed a button on the screen, causing it to freeze. "And there's your other baby."

"Other baby?" I repeated weakly. "As in, twins?" Dimitri tightened his hold on my hand, and brought it to his lips.

"There's two?" he asked, sounding like he could not believe his ears. "You're sure?"

"Positive," Dr. James said, wiping the gel off my stomach. "Both of them have good heartbeats, and are good sizes. It's hard to tell whether they're fraternal of not, but we can test that when we do the amniocentesis in your third trimester." She smiled again. "I'll go see about getting that DVD and some pictures, and I'll book your next ultrasound while I'm at it." She left us alone saying she'd be back in a minute.

I pulled my shirt down, and sat up. Dimitri had frozen again.

"Comrade, you okay?" He nodded. He was still holding my hand, and was staring at the screen.

"It's just, I can't believe, that's," he took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose, with his eyes closed, fighting back tears, before continuing. "That's our babies." He laughed. "Those are our children." He pressed his lips to mine. "I think that it's really just hit me. We're going to have children. I knew we were going to have a baby, but," he shook his head. "We're going to have a baby." I laughed as well as he kissed me again.

"What, the morning sickness didn't give it away?"

Dimitri smiled, that full smile that I adored. "Roza," he breathed, "We're going to have a baby. We're going to have twins!"

Yeah, we really were. It was absolutely unbelievable, incredible, astounding. We were having a baby. This was one of the greatest moments of my life. and I was so, so glad that I got to share it with Dimitri. I don't remember ever being happier, than that moment.


They say that when you're pregnant, all of your hormones go into overdrive. They're not wrong. You burst into tears for no reason, you get angry over the tiniest things, things that really aren't that funny are suddenly hilarious and, of course, you're horny as hell. And if you haven't had sex in, say for example, six weeks, that just makes it worse. What made it really bad, was what Dimitri was currently doing.

Oh, he wasn't doing anything overtly sexual. In fact he was doing something that I'd seen him do plently of times before. He was kneading bread. I knew he could bake. He made this bread twice a week, the special russian black bread that we both devoured every time we visited his family. Not to mention the fact that when he made it the entire loaf only lasted – barely – for lunch.

I was currently leaning in the doorway of the kitchen watching him, as he was worked on the dark-coloured dough, our friends having left an hour ago, after we watched the DVD. Lissa had been in tears. Now don't get me wrong. I love watching Dimitri bake. I normally did, but there was just something about it today, that, well. The bread wasn't the only thing in this kitchen that was mouth-watering. When he realised I was there, Dimitri turned to look at me, smiling, flour on the end of his nose, and a bit on his left cheek and forehead.

"Can I help you?" he asked, smiling a bit more widely. I unbottoned the top button of my blouse.

"What did the doctor say about us having sex again?"

"That we should wait for confirmation of a foetal heartbeat." He glanced at my blouse.

"Right. And what did we get today?" I undid another button.

Dimitri smiled more widely, and a bit cheekily. "Confirmation of two foetal heartbeats."

I undid a third button, and started walking towards him. He put his flour-covered hands on my waist, and I threw my arms around his neck as his lips came crashing down on mine. "Then why are we still in the kitchen?" I asked breathlessly, once we resurfaced.

"I have no idea," he said, picking me up so that my legs wrapped around his waist, carrying me, whilst kissing me, to the bedroom. He took care of the rest of the buttons before we got there, my blouse lying discarded on the floor of the sitting room. Next to my bra, and his T-shirt. It had been a long six weeks. But that day more than made up for it.