The computer is still crashed =/ Just to let you know, I am writing this on Christmas day. In fact, it is so infected with a Trojan virus that I have to use a shortcut just to get Microsoft Word to open. It really sucks. But – hopefully – my mom will actually get our security system renewed on the first. I finished the previous chapter yesterday night, and hopefully I can get this chapter finished tonight. Enjoy!

I felt like I was famous, in a way. Dimitri and I weren't allowed out of our room without a horde of guardians with us. We had to keep Maya with us at all times, which meant no time out to ourselves. The queen had decided that we could keep Maya with us because we had protected her during the attack at the house ourselves, but only on the condition that she be with us all the time.

Dimitri was asleep in the bedroom. Maya was in her new crib that the queen had sent over, sleeping. I was sitting in the living room. Instead of watching the TV that I had turned on, I was worrying.

When we got of the jet earlier, a horde of guardians surrounded us. I mean that literally. No one could see us outside of the guardians. I knew that because I couldn't see anyone outside of them. Dimitri had had to crouch in order to not be spotted because he was so tall. Lissa, Christian, and Adrian had their own guardians. I imagined that everyone knew who was in the horde because the other three were easily seen, but they didn't know why we were being so protected.

Dimitri, Maya, and I were brought straight to the queen's quarters. There, she gave us our instructions. We were to get our own room in court. We couldn't leave the room for a month, until Maya was about six weeks old. Dimitri and I would focus on taking care of our daughter and protecting her until we could start training outside. Then, we would train for six weeks straight. Dimitri was to make out our routine.

Tatiana told me that I was already considered a guardian, even without graduating. She would send a tattoo artist in three days to give me my tattoo. I was, of course, assigned to Lissa, and Dimitri was assigned to Christian. We had proved that we could not only take care of ourselves and our baby, but also Christian and Lissa, not to mention Adrian.

I wasn't really worried about any of that. In fact, I was ecstatic. I was going to be the guardian I had always wanted to be. Sure, there were different circumstances, but it didn't matter as long I got to be Lissa's guardian.

No, that didn't worry me at all. What worried me was that the queen had sent word to me thirty minutes ago that my mom would be visiting me. She would be here any minute now. She had no idea that I had had a child. She also didn't know that Dimitri and I were together. Even though we were very open with our relationship for almost a month after the attack, she had never seen us together. There were actually a lot of people who didn't know about Dimitri and I. Lissa had been around court and came back to tell me that a lot of people had asked her about us because they heard a rumor that we were together. They didn't know that the rumor was true.

I got up and drank a glass of water from the kitchen. The queen had stocked the kitchen full of food and baby products for Maya. We also had all the other supplies we would need for Maya: furniture, clothes, bottles, toys, you name it.

It wouldn't be so bad that my mom was coming to visit if I hadn't gained a little weight. Okay, so I had gained about ten pounds from the pregnancy. It was easily noticeable. I was sure that I would work it off with the training Dimitri and I were going to go through. I could've lied to my mom and told her that I was the only one staying in this room, and just made up some lie about why that had put me in this suite with two rooms instead of the rooms dhampirs normally get, if it weren't for the weight.

Maya had yet to sleep in her new room. Dimitri and I couldn't bear to be away from her so soon after the attack. We figured once we were comfortable with her sleeping in another room, we would let her. Until then, she stayed in our room with us.

I put the empty glass that I had drank the water out of in the sink and made my way back into the living room. Of course, as soon as I sat down on the couch to start worrying again, there was a knock at the door. I cringed at the sound. I knew who was on the other side of the door, and it made me want to pretend like I wasn't here.

As I made my way to the door, I seriously considered just letting her knock and knock until she figured that I wasn't home and went away. I knew that that wouldn't happen, though. If I didn't answer the door, she would just wait there until I showed up.

I took a deep breath and opened the door. There stood my mother, Janine Hathaway. She had one hand on her hip, the other posed to knock on the door again. As soon as she saw me, she grabbed me into a bear hug. Needless to say, I didn't expect that reaction.

"Uh, hi, mom." I said, still in her arms.

"Rose, I was so worried about you. No one had heard anything about your trip, I had no way to contact you, and there was a rumor going around that the queen had sent you and Guardian Belikov on an impossible mission. I thought you were dead!" she whispered fiercely in my ear.

I gave my mom a short squeeze – something I had never done before because she never showed me this kind of affection – before breaking out of the hug to look at her. "Mom, I am fine. Yes, we had some difficulties, but we made it. You should've known not to worry about me. I am your daughter, after all."

She gave me a small smile before getting down to business. "Rose, you have some explaining to do."

I put on a fake smile and said, "I-I don't know what you're talking about. I mean, you know I can't tell you anything about our job. It's top secret."

"Oh, cut the crap, Rose." Man, when that woman got down to business, she got down to business. "Like the queen would send you, of all people, on a top secret mission. She hates you. Besides, look at you! Do you really expect me to believe that you've been gone for eight months fighting strigoi and doing guardian jobs when you come back bigger than you were when you left? If anything, you should be more fit! And –"

That was the moment my mom realized what was going on. I could see the realization all over her face. I think the thing that did it was saying "eight months" out loud. It would only make sense that I figure out I'm pregnant a month after I had sex, leave for the remaining eight to have the baby, and come back with a little weight remaining from the pregnancy. My mom was anything but stupid.

"Mom, I have to explain something to you. You see, –" But she didn't give me the chance.

"How could you? You just gave up everything you worked so hard for!" she grabbed the bridge of her nose and walked to sit on the couch.

I sat down next to her and said, "Mom, you don't understand. There are…extenuating circumstances."

She looked like she wanted to slap me. She opened her mouth like she was going to say something, but at that moment the bedroom door opened. I cringed on the inside, silently wishing that Dimitri would change his mind about coming out here for the moment. But, it seemed like Fate was against me today.

My mom turned to see Dimitri standing in the doorway. Luckily, he had some pajamas on instead of what he normally wore to bed: boxers. He took two steps before he saw us sitting on the couch. A sheepish smile appeared on his face as he said, "Uh, hi. How are you, Janine?"

I think what really pissed my mom off was his use of her first name. Whatever the case, her entire face turned red. Dimitri and I both were waiting for the explosion that was about to happen, but it never came. Instead, my mom took a deep breath and snarled, "You have two minutes to explain. Go."

So, I launched into the tale. It was a little hard in the beginning because I didn't want to tell my mom about Dimitri and I having sex, but it had to be done. After I explained that part, it was actually pretty easy to explain the rest. Dimitri didn't move throughout my entire speech, mostly because my mom's eyes never left his face. The only part of my explanation that she looked away from him was when I told her about me dying. I saw the shock on her face, and then she was looking at Dimitri again.

My mom took a deep breath when I finished. She shook her head just a little and whispered, "Well?"

Dimitri and I glanced at each other before looking at my mom again. "Well, what?" I asked.

"Where is my granddaughter?" She didn't really look mad, but she didn't look happy, either. I simply stood up and went into our bedroom. I thought my mom was going to follow me, but she stayed on the couch. Dimitri decided not to follow me into the room.

Sometimes, my little girl would scare me. It seemed like she had some sort of sixth sense. She was still asleep, but when I leaned over to pick her up, she simply opened her eyes. "Maya, honey, how did you sleep?" I didn't really expect an answer from her. I picked her up and looked at her in my arms. "I want you to know that grandma loves you, no matter what. Even when it seems like she doesn't."

With that, I walked back out to my mom. It was like she wasn't going to believe me until she saw Maya, because when I walked out with her, my mom let out a little whimper. That whimper turned to tears as she held her arms out and I gave Maya to her. They stared at each other for a minute or two before my mom said, "Rose, she acts just like you."

Yet again, Dimitri and I shared a look before looking back at my mom. "Huh?"

My mom laughed. "I mean, she acts just like you did as a baby. Very quiet, makes eye contact, and you can just tell that she will be very, very strong. Inside and out."

[BREAK]

The next month went by slowly. And by slowly, I mean glacially. We basically watched TV, took care of Maya, and cuddled. I guessed I was so ready to begin training that the time before I could train felt like forever. Although it was really slow, I did enjoy just spending time with my small family.

My mother would stop by, along with Lissa, Christian, Eddie, Mia, and Tatiana. Eddie and Mia had been shocked when we showed them Maya, but they were excited. Eddie took the news about Maya pretty well, but not the news about Dimitri and I. He was disappointed in how unprofessional we were acting.

Unfortunately, Adrian refused to come see me. He was still stung from his encounter with Dimitri. I was afraid that he was mad at me, too, because he wouldn't even come visit me in my dreams. Lissa said that she would talk to him, but she hadn't seen him since the second week we were here. I figured he was hiding in his room again, drinking his problems away. I tried to act like it didn't bother me, but after the day I had with Adrian in the cabin right before we left had made me miss the old him.

However much I missed Adrian, though, it would never be enough to leave my family. It strange to think that. I had a family now. I knew that I wouldn't give them up for anything in the world. I was prepared to forget about being a guardian to keep my family together. I didn't want Maya growing up like I did: abandoned to the school without a mother or a father. I had never had a father, and I understood why. A lot of dhampirs only had one parent. But I didn't have either.

No, Maya would not grow up like that, and if I had to give up my dream to keep her, I would. If you had asked me a year ago if I would ever give up guarding, I would've laughed in your face. But that all changed as soon as Maya came into this world.

Finally, it was time to go out training again. I knew that it would be tougher than it was before, but I knew that with hard work, I would turn into the guardian I once was. In fact, I had fought strigoi without training for almost a year, and I won. But I knew that I needed the training to get back on track. After all, I had almost died fighting a strigoi by myself.

Dimitri and I got up together at 5:30 for the first time. The sun was just about to go down as we heard a knock at the door. It was Lissa and Christian. The queen was going to assign a moroi to watch Maya as we trained, but they had offered to do it. Lissa said she had wanted to spend more time with her niece – as she viewed her – and Christian wanted to spend all his time with Lissa. They had Eddie and three more guardians I had never met with them. Two of them were filling in for Dimitri and I. Apparently, I would be guarding with Eddie one day, and Dimitri would be guarding with the tall man named Greg. The other two guardians were women – one named Jasmine, who was about my height with black, curly hair, and the other one was named Daphne. She was about two inches taller than me with blonde, straight hair. Both had olive skin.

"We'll be back around noon for lunch, and then we're leaving again at one to train more. I'll fill you in on when we'll be back for good then." Dimitri told Greg, holding Maya in his arms.

"Liss, make sure Maya doesn't run a fever. She hasn't been feeling well lately, and the doctor told us that if her temperature goes over 100 degrees to call her and make an appointment. I told her that you could make an appointment for her and bring her over if that happens." I said.

"I will! Now, go! How are we supposed to babysit if you don't leave? We've got this." she assured me.

I laughed and gave her a hug. "Okay. See you in a bit."

Dimitri and I gave Maya a kiss before we left. She had started to make little noises when she liked something. It wasn't really laughing, but you could tell she was trying to. She did that when we gave her kisses. I looked back at her one more time before we walked out the door.

"I know that you haven't been away from Maya like this since she was born, but she'll be okay, Rose. Now, let's go." Dimitri told me. We kissed, and then made our way to the gym.

As we did, we got a lot of stares. No one knew about Maya who wasn't in our little circle of friends, but people still thought it was weird that we had been there for a month without coming out of our "rooms". They didn't know we shared a room.

We started out running for about an hour. Dimitri ran twelve laps, while I ran eight. I was way more out of shape than he was. Dimitri went out of his way to make sure I kept hydrated, although there was no way I was going to get dehydrated with the amount of water I drank.

After we ran – without stopping, by the way – Dimitri started helping me gain my muscle back. He still had his because he worked out every morning in the cabin. The queen had sent him a set of weights and machines to work out with. I wasn't allowed to use most of the equipment because of the pregnancy, and towards the end he wouldn't let me get anywhere near it because he was afraid I would rip my stomach open. I told him that there was no way that would happen, but he was still paranoid. Men.

We had just under an hour before lunch when an alarm went off. At first, I thought it was a fire alarm, but Dimitri's reaction tipped me off. "Is that…?"

"Yes." he confirmed. We stood there looking at each other for a minute before we ran out of the gym. "I can't believe this is happening." Dimitri said as we ran through the halls.

"Do you think it's because of –?" I didn't even finish because Dimitri was nodding furiously. I, then, started running faster. Dimitri matched his pace with mine. We were sprinting. Finally, we were back at our room. There were two other guardians running toward our room, also.

"Guardian Belikov, we need to get all the moroi in your room to the auditorium!" one yelled.

We burst into the door. Lissa and Christian were clutched to each other, Maya in Lissa's arms. Maya was crying because of the noise. I ran over, grabbed her, and tried to soothe her. It didn't work. Eddie and the other guardians had been at the doors and windows, keeping a lookout.

"We need all guardians outside and all moroi in the auditorium. Quickly, go!" One of the guardians herded everyone out. As I walked out the door, he grabbed my arm and whispered, "You and Dimitri are allowed to go to the auditorium, too." He looked down at Maya as explanation.

I nodded, and we ran with Lissa and Christian to the auditorium. Once there, I gave Maya to Lissa, and Dimitri and I stood at the two different entrances to the auditorium. We had decided on the way there that since we were guardians we might as well guard the doors just in case.

A herd of guardians came into the room, followed by the queen, and then more guardians. She was posted in the back of the room, surrounded by guardians. I was having the hardest time staying away from Maya. I looked over to Dimitri, and he nodded at me. We both ran back over to Maya at the same time.

"I'm sorry, I just can't leave her." I said, to both Lissa and Dimitri. I took her in my arms and held her close to my body.

"Uh, Rose?" Christian said. I looked up and saw that every moroi around us was looking at me and Maya.

I didn't have time for this. "Don't you have anything better to do than look at me? Oh, say like, a strigoi attack?" I snapped.

A hand grasped my shoulder. It was one of the guardians that brought us to court. "The queen needs to speak with you and Guardian Belikov."

Dimitri grabbed my free hand – the one I wasn't holding Maya with – and led me to the queen. It seemed like a death march. Everyone was looking at us as we walked to the queen. Well, our secret was out now. Who knew what they were thinking? Probably that I had gotten knocked up by some moroi and Dimitri had decided to help me raise her.

We were enveloped by other guardians as we met the queen. She held out her hands, and I raised an eyebrow at her. Finally! I had mastered the eyebrow raise!

"Give me the child, Rose. I will keep her safe with me. I can't have them getting her. The strigoi must not be able to walk in the sun. It is the only time when we are really safe." Tatiana explained. I trusted that she would keep Maya safe – especially with all the guardians she had – and put Maya in her arms. "As for you two, you are some of the best guardians we have. I want you out there fighting."

Well, maybe we were walking a death march.