'You are still as crazy as you always were.' Christian says with a grin on his face as we catch up on each other's lives. Telling crazy stories and making wide arm gestures.
'Like you have changed a single bit.' I bite back and have the same grin on my face. He picked me up from the airport and we decided to get some coffee before riding back to court. That will be trouble.
'But, serious now Rose. How are you going to handle everything when you pick up Declan?' Christian asks, all serious now and I let out a loud sigh. And I finally let myself drift off to all the events from the last couple months.
Adrian married a girl named Sydney a year ago. The most chocking part of that was that she is or was an alchemist. A human girl. They disappeared from court for six months and after they came back they brought a child with them, Declan.
Everybody thought that it was their child, he was a dhampir after all. And that he had been the reason they got married in the first place. I and Dimitri had thought the same thing for the first months until Adrian and Sydney finally told us who the child was.
And that left to some serious talks between Dimitri and me. Thinking about our future and that we maybe could have a child of our own someday. But that is not the thing that brings me to court today. Not at all.
In the time that Adrian and Sydney were back they visited us a lot and always brought Declan with them. He was a very sweet and easy child. If I ever had a child of my own I could only wish for that he was as easy as Declan was.
Two months ago we received the heartbreaking news that Adrian and Sydney were killed by strigoi. They had been travelling to Sydney's sister and on the way home they were surrounded by strigoi and even the two guardian that they brought with them couldn't protect them.
Luckily they had left Declan at court for once. And that had been only because the boy had a fever at the time and wasn't feeling very well. Adrian's mother had been taking care of him and had done that after they both died.
I had gone to the funeral by myself because Dimitri wasn't allowed to step inside the boundaries of the court and it was the first time in years that I had hated them. Hated them for their way of thinking and all of their rules. It was also in that moment that they had asked me to lay down my guardian title. I hadn't done that.
And now I found myself going back to the place that I had started to hate. But I had decided that this was going to be the last time that they would see me there. And the last time that anyone would call me guardian again.
But that wasn't the first thing I was going to court for. No, the reason I was going was the one year old boy. Declan was the reason I needed to go to court. Because he was going to be mine and Dimitri's son from now on.
Adrian and Sydney had written their will on paper the moment they had taken Declan into their home. So everyone should know what they had wanted when they both suddenly died. And that thing had happened.
Adrian's mother, Daniella, was the reason that it had taken them two months before they had made the call to tell me that I was a mother. She hadn't wanted to give me the baby. But it had been their will so there had been no other choice than to call me and let me pick up Declan. If I wanted to have him and I wanted him.
I had called Christian to tell him the news and after that I had called Eddie. But Eddie was in Australia at the moment and wasn't able to meet me. Christian on the other hand had been in court at the moment.
'I don't know, Christian. I had never thought that I would be a mother and I guess that Dimitri had given up the hope to be a father when he married me. But this changes everything. And I guess that we will just have to find out on the way how to raise a child.' I tell him and shake my head.
Luckily for me Dimitri is a natural and already has a couple of nephews and nieces. Every time I doubted and was overthinking it he would be there to assure me that we could do this. We had a steady life and a perfect home. We could take a child in our home.
'I think that every parent has to do just that.' He says. 'Let's go.'
We stand up and walk to his car. He drives a little too hard towards the court but I don't mind it.
There a lot of things going on in my head. And I wish that Dimitri could have been coming with me instead of going to another continent.
'Are you giving up your guardian title?' Christian asks me suddenly. I turn a little toward him to look at him. But he is looking at the road.
'Yes. I haven't been one for years and I don't want to be anymore. Especially when we take Declan in our home.' I tell him and he gives me questionable look.
'They have been keeping files about me. After all this years. They know where I live and what kind of work I do. And I don't even want to know what else they have been writing in that file. But if I give up my title they will stop keeping records of me.' I tell him. Giving the honest explanation.
Adrian and Sydney told me that they had wanted to send Declan to an academy when he was old enough. But the future for dhampirs was even worse that it had been when I had turned eighteen. So they had both been thinking to let him grow up differently.
And now that I was given custody over the boy it seems more than right to let him grow up as a normal human boy. However that would be. I didn't know that and Dimitri didn't either. But we would find out how that is going to be.
'But when you give it up they still will have all the information they already have. Are you going to move now?' he says and I see what he is thinking about.
'We are not going to move. If I give up my guardian title, Abe will do the rest.' I say with a grin. The old man comes handy sometimes. He will just manage to get my file out of the hands of the moroi and destroy it.
And while he is doing just that, he will destroy the files of Dimitri and Declan as well. It is like we never existed when they will be searching for us. Or rather for Declan when he will be old enough to go to the academy to become a guardian.