Hello my fellow Fic readers! I'm so sorry about not being able to get this chapter up... I wanted to get it up on Friday.. .but my dad came to pick me up earlier than expected...

I'd like to say thanks to everyone who reviewed! It really means a lot to me that you guys take the time to send me a little feedback! I hope more people get into the habit of doing so! (:

Soooo... Here's Chapter 14..

"Rose!"

My heart was pounding. Rose hit the ground with her ankle still caught in the wooden bench. From here I could tell it was bent at an unnatural angle. Pain was apparent on Rose's face and all I wanted to do was make that look go away. I rushed over to her, being the first one to get to her and ripped the rotted wood away. Rotted wood? It looked fine! As I pulled Rose's ankle out of the bench, I noticed it resembled an awkward 'W'. Lissa had a horrified look on her face as she fluttered over Rose. Victor and Natalie were next to arrive at the scene of her injury and they both had shocked looks on their faces.

"No No. No! I cant… no practice… with Dimitri… my ankle… I'm dying." Rose mumbled as I picked her up and started for the infirmary. I wanted to get there as soon as possible, but I was afraid if I ran I would jostle her ankle, and I couldn't bear to put her in any more pain than she already was. "Cant practice… with broken… ankle… out… too long… without…ugh." That's when Rose started moaning. It killed me to see Rose in this much pain, but to have to hear it as well… it was utterly heart breaking.

I burst into the Infirmary, startling Dr. Olendski. I set Rose in one of the beds gently placing her ankle on the bed. Rose was moaning about pain and how she wouldn't be able to do practices and she was not being quiet about it. Her hands grabbed at my shirt, bunching it into her tiny fists, making it impossible for me to move away from her. Rose let out a loud, disturbing moan of pure pain before whimpering and muttering about all the practices she will have to miss because of this "stupid-ass injury". Even half-unconscious Rose was still Rose.

"What on earth happened here!" Dr. Olendski asked with wide eyes as she came rushing over to stand beside the bed Rose was occupying. The doctor's hands fluttered over her, afraid to touch her for she didn't know where her injury was. With the amount of noise Rose was making, I didn't blame her. I would be scared to touch her as well.

"Rose fell and hurt her ankle very badly. She is mostly unconscious from either the fall she took or the pain from the fall." I told her, looking down at Rose. She was still moaning and her eyes were squeezed tightly closed, as if the tighter she held her eyes closed, more of the pain would go away. She still had my shirt fisted in her hands.

"Unggh… my stupid…ankle… hurts… like… hell. No… practices… for a… uughhh… long time…"

"What was she doing to mess up her ankle so horribly?" She asked, examining Rose's ankle. I looked down at her and gently unwrapped her hands from my shirt so I could stand up straight. Rose was staring to curl into herself, assuming the fetal position.

Then, Lissa ran into the room and made a beeline for Rose. The moment Lissa sat down next her Rose calmed down and the muscles around her eyes relaxed. Lissa had both hands on Rose and her eyes were closed. There was a certain glow about them both that I had never noticed before. Was it the bond? When they are close, they both glow? Why had I never noticed that? Then Lissa removed her hands kissed Rose's cheek. I noticed that Rose no longer had that radiant glow, but Lissa did.

I shook my head, looking away from the girls and turned my attention to Dr Olendski. "She was walking on the wooden benches right outside the commons and one of them was rotted and she fell through." I said flatly, remembering the exact moment that Rose had fallen. I think my heart stopped beating in that moment. She had scared me so much with just that little fall… what would I have done if… if… something worse had happened? My strange attachment to Rose was becoming a problem. I don't consider it a problem. Why would you? Well you are out of your mind. We are the same person, buddy. If I'm out of my mind what does that make you? I think I'm going crazy.

The door opened and Victor Dashkov walked in. He had a small box in his hand with a short note scrawled on a piece of paper.

"This is for Rosemarie. I got it for her and was going to give it to her for doing such an excellent job today… could you please give this to her when she wakes up, Guardian Belikov?" He asked with a smirk. I nod and take the small box from his hand. He glances at Rose for a moment with a strange look that I can't decipher and then walked out. I am sitting in the chair playing with the small –jewelry?- box when Dr. Olendski comes back into the room.

"Well… her X-ray doesn't show any broken bones… I guess I'll just give her something for the pain, hm?" She asked, pulling the hem of Rose's pant leg up to show me that, indeed, her ankle did not resemble an awkward 'W' anymore. What the fuck? All I could do was nod. She was okay? Maybe I had imagined the whole ankle thing. I weighed the box between my hands trying to figure this thing out. There is no reasonable explanation for this. But you heard Rose. She was moaning so loud you could probably hear her on the other side of campus. You did not make that up. I promise you. Nobody could have that sick a mind.

"So how long will the meds knock her out for…?" I asked. Right now I just wanted to see her eyes, I just wanted to see her awake because seeing her like this was just torture. I needed to know she was okay. I needed to know. Proof.

"A few hours." She said. She looked at me for a moment and said, "You may stay if you like?" I nodded and sat down in the chair that Lissa had been occupying and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Just watching her, unmoving, was not working out for me. I tried to imagine her smile, her laugh, or her voice when she talks about something she's passionate about- all the things I love about her. It distracted me for a few minutes, but then I would remember the awful moans of pain she had been making only a few hours ago. Just when I thought I couldn't take it anymore, Rose's eyes started to flutter and slowly they opened.

"Rose." Relief flooded through me. I had been waiting hours just to see her open her eyes. Rose turned her head slowly in the direction of my voice. I leaned toward her, not being able to stop myself, and looked straight into her beautiful dark chocolate eyes.

She was going to be okay.

"Hey," She said, her voice sounded groggy. It kind of resembled a frog, but a cute frog.

"How do you feel?" I ask her, I needed to know if she was still in pain.

"Weird. Kind of groggy." Her voice was quiet as she answered me.

"Dr. Olendski gave you something for the pain- you seemed pretty bad when we brought you in." I told her. Her eyebrows knit together.

"I don't remember that… how long have I been out?"

"A few hours."

"Must have been strong- must still be strong." Rose was quiet for a moment before she wiggled her toes. "I don't hurt at all." She said with a shocked expression. I let out a breath that I didn't know I had been holding in. I ran a hand through my hair and felt like laughing. I didn't.

"No. Because you weren't seriously injured." I was still baffled by that little phenomenon.

Rose shuddered as if remembering something then asked, "Are you sure? I remember…. The way it bent. No. Something must be broken." She stated, trying to sit up so she could get a look at her ankle. "Or at least sprained."

I moved forward to stop her. She shouldn't be moving around this much just after waking up. It can't be good for her.

"Be careful. Your ankle might be fine, but you're still a little out of it." Rose carefully shifted to the edge of the bed. She looked down at her ankle for a few moments before looking back up to me.

"God, I got lucky. If I'd been hurt, it would have put me out of practice for a while." I smiled, remembering how many times she told me that when I was carrying her, and sat back down in the chair.

"I know. You kept telling me that while I was carrying you. You were very upset." Rose seemed flustered and a little bit sad. Why was she sad?

"You… you carried me?" was that bad? I quite enjoyed it, although I would have enjoyed it more if it were under other circumstances.

"After we broke the bench apart and freed your foot." Rose seemed to contemplate that and a dreamy look crossed her face. Then she seemed to realize something and groaned.

"I was taken down by a bench!" She threw her hands up in the air in frustration and ran her hands down her face.

"What?" I asked, dumbfounded. This girl never ceased to surprise me.

"I survived the whole day guarding Lissa, and you guys said I did a great job. Then I get back here and meet my downfall in the form of a bench." She groaned again. "Do you know how embarrassing it is? And all those guys saw, too."

"It wasn't your fault," I said, kind of ticked that she was embarrassed about other guys seeing what happened. "No one knew the bench was rotted. It looked fine." I still couldn't believe that I hadn't noticed the bench was rotted.

"Still. I should have just stuck with the sidewalk like a normal person. The other novices are going to give me shit when I get back." I felt bad that she was going to have to put up with the other novices, because I know how awful they can be sometimes, but I think I have something that would make her feel better.

"Maybe presents will cheer you up?" Her face brightened instantly and she sat up a little bit straighter. I couldn't help it, I let a genuine smile spread over my face, just glad to see her so happy. It was refreshing to see an actual smile on her face after worrying over her constantly for the past three and a half hours.

"This is from Prince Victor." I tell her. I give her the little box and the note. She reads the note and looks at the box again.

"That's nice of him," She said, opening the box. Her eyes widened at what was inside. "Whoa. Very nice." It was a rose necklace. Rose held it up, looping its chain over her hand so the glittering, diamond-covered rose hung free. Whoa was right.

"This is pretty extreme for a get-well present," Rose noted.

"He actually bought it in honor of you doing so well on your first day as an official Guardian. He saw you and Lissa looking at it." I told her, remembering the look on Lissa's face when she saw the price. It must have been extremely expensive. I was a little shocked that he had bought that for her.

All Rose could say was "Wow." She paused for a moment. "I don't think I did that good of a job."

"I do." Rose had a huge shit-eating grin as she placed the necklace back into the small box and set it on the table.

"You did say 'presents,' right? As in, more than one?" I laughed out loud at her eagerness. "This is from me." I handed her the small brown bag with the lip-gloss in it. I felt kind of unworthy after she got that extravagant necklace from Prince Victor. I didn't look at her while she opened it, until she started to speak.

"How'd you manage to buy this? I saw you the whole time at the mall." She said, looking up at me with questions in her eyes. So she was watching you…? I smiled inwardly.

"Guardian secrets." I said with a small smile, not really wanting to tell her that I had paid some college kid to buy it for me.

"What's this for? For my first day?"

"No," I said simply. "Because I thought it would make you happy." The next thing I knew, Rose had her small arms wrapped around my neck in a tight embrace. It was heavenly. "Thank you." She whispered. My body was stiff and tense because I hadn't been expecting her to hug me, but after the momentary shock wore off I wrapped my arm around her small waist and let my hand rest on the small of her back. It felt so right to hold her in my arms. So right, it scared me.

"I'm glad your better," I whispered into her ear softly. "When I saw you fall…" I trailed off not wanting her to know how much her little fall affected me.

"You thought 'Wow, she's a loser'."

"That's not what I thought." I pulled back slightly so I could see her better, but I didn't say anything. I didn't know what to say. Her eyes were so warm and inviting, I could stare into them for the rest of eternity. Slowly, and without my permission, my hand reached out and traced the edge of her perfect cheekbone, moving up the side of her face. Her skin felt smooth under my fingers, and I never wanted to remove my hand. My finger wound around a lock of hair that had fallen down in front of her face, just like I had in the gym, but this time, I wanted to do it, and I liked to touch her hair. It was so smooth, so soft. Rose was staring at my lips, I could tell, she swallowed noisily and looked back into my eyes.

A soft knock echoed throughout the room and Rose hastily leaned away from me. Dr. Olendski slowly opened the door and stuck her head in. "I thought I heard you talking. How do you feel?" She walked over and made Rose lie back down. She touched and bent her ankle, assessing it for damage. When she was finally done she shook her head. "You're lucky. With all the noise you made coming in here, I thought your foot had been amputated. Must have just been shock." She stepped back. "I'd feel better if you sat out from your normal trainings tomorrow, but otherwise, you're good to go." Rose let out a loud sigh of relief. Dr. Olendski gave Rose the okay to go and then left the room. I walked over to the other chair to get her coat and shoes. I watched her slip one of her shoes on.

"You have a guardian angle." I stated.

"I don't believe in angles," She told me. And I was completely dumbfounded. How could she not believe in guardian angles? I mean, with everything that happened to her… the accident, the fall... "I believe in what I can do for myself."

"Well then, you have an amazing body." My eyes widened a little bit as I realized what I had just said. What the fuck? Where the hell is my filter! I couldn't believe that had just come out of my mouth. Rose looked up at me with a questioning look. "For healing I mean. I heard about the accident…" I knew Rose normally avoided this topic, and I hadn't meant to bring it up… I hadn't planned on telling her she had an amazing body either…

"Everyone said I shouldn't have survived," She explained. "Because of where I sat and the way the car hit the tree. Lissa was really the only one in a secure spot. She and I walked away with only a few scratches."

"And you don't believe in angles or miracles."

"Nope. I-" She stopped short as if something just occurred to her. I saw a multitude of different emotions cross her face.

"What's wrong?"

"Where's Lissa? Was she here?"

"I don't know where she is. She wouldn't leave your side while I brought you in. She stayed right next to the bed, right up until the doctor cam in. You calmed down when she sat next to you." Something seemed to don on her at that moment and I felt like I was missing something vitally important.

Rose closed her eyes. She was starting to look a little bit green. She seemed to be somewhere very different than here at the clinic. After a few minutes I called her name. I called her name again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

I was starting to worry again. What the hell? Was this a side effect from the medication that the Dr. gave Rose? Was she going into shock? Oh holy fuck, was this my fault for bringing up the accident..? Shit, if I had known Rose was going to freak out about it I wouldn't have said anything. Damn.

I gently placed my hands on her shoulders and shook her a little. Nothing. "Rose?" I whispered. I had just gotten her back. "Rose?" I said a little bit louder because I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Lissa? She could be in Lissa's head again? It's just like that time when we were running laps. She'll come around .I couldn't stand not having her one hundred percent here. "Rose!" I shook her a little bit more firmly. That's when Dr. Olendski came in. She probably heard my yelling her name.

Suddenly, Rose's eyes opened and she was staring at me. She had a peculiar look in her eyes; it was trust and understanding. She quickly glanced at Dr. Olendski then looked back at me.

Rose's voice cracked as she spoke. "I know where she is. Lissa. We have to help her."

Sooo... don't be shy! I love getting reviews! Tell me what you thought about it! The next chapter should be up tonight or tomorrow evening... I have no practice tomorrow so we'll see what I can do! (:

Until next time,

~Brittany3