Disclaimer: I don't own VA

I stood in the back of the church, smoothing down my shirt. It was risky, very risky, for me to be here. I had been officially uninvited to the wedding, and I'd witnessed what happened to uninvited guests: they were dragged out - literally. The only thing I had going for me was the fact that I was a guardian. Sebastian had been invited, and by default, so had I.

Sebastian Voda was alright. Not the greatest guy, but he treated me with respect. He understood that his life lay in my hands, and he was grateful that I kept it safe. In the last two months of guarding him, we had become good friends, and I would be sad to see him go. Not sad enough to end this operation, certainly not, but sad nonetheless.

I sighed, then ducked behind the curtain as Priscilla Voda walked by. She most definitely knew that I shouldn't be here, and it was imperative that I stayed.

I let out a relieved breath when Princess Voda walked to a different part of the church. Anticipation trickled through me. I could almost taste the sweet flavor of my reunion with Dimitri.

The ceremony couldn't come fast enough.

A few eternities later, Dimitri stood at the altar. I drank in the first sight of him I'd had since our goodbye. He looked absolutely gorgeous in his tux, his hair neatly tucked into a ponytail. From what I could tell, he'd gotten it trimmed. A smiled tugged at my lips, and when the music started, I almost walked down the aisle before remembering myself.

All heads turned as Lissa appeared. She looked like a dream; whoever designed her wedding gown captured her character perfectly. It was the purest white I had ever seen, wispy, diaphanous*, insubstantial. Lissa floated down the aisle, seemingly not touching the ground. A gold band circled her waist, and a bouquet of lilies and pink roses, a shade so light it was almost fake, was gathered in her hands.

My heart ached at the sight. As much as I wanted to watch my best friend walk down the aisle, as much as I would love to see Dimitri at the altar, I wished these two events were mutually exclusive, not mutually inclusive. An effulgent** smile sat on Lissa's mouth, her face glowing. At the same time, I could see a sadness lingering in her eyes, the only indication that she wasn't one hundred percent happy about this union. But what could she do?

Eric, Lissa on his arm, walked proudly and confidently to the altar, then joined Lissa's and Dimitri's hands together in an action that pierced me right to my soul. An ache formed behind my eyes.

The preacher began the ceremony. "We are gathered here today..."

As much as it pained me, I listened carefully to the preacher, waiting for my cue. And in three, two, one...

"Should anyone here present know of any reason that this couple should not be joined in holy matrimony, speak now, or forever hold your peace."

Silence rang in the church as I stepped out from behind the curtain I'd hidden. The preacher's eyes instantly zeroed in on me, widening. With the shift in his focus, everyone turned to look at me, horror in various degrees ranging along all the face.

"I object!" I said loudly, my hands shaking. I stared at Dimitri. "Don't do it, Comrade. I love you."

Dimitri's eyes met mine, a thousand messages passing in a split second. Simultaneously, we turned to Lissa.

"I'm sorry!" we both blurted out. And then we were running.

I started off at a jogged, one hand behind me, giving Dimitri a chance to catch up. He did so in an instant, grabbing my hand as we sprinted, bursting out of the church doors.

"After them!" Tatiana's voice screeched. "Use any means necessary! Treason! Traitors!"

The guardians sprang into motion. A bullet whizzed by my ear, as others shot passed the two of us. Dimitri let out a small gasp, giving me my next cue.

"Spider monkey!" I screamed, and a could seconds later, a weight jumped onto my back, jarring me. I stumbled, but hours of practice helped me right my footing instantly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dimitri stumbled briefly before righting himself.

Another bullet pinged nearby, and a guardian shouted, "Stop! They have Moroi!"

I grinned in spite of the situation. "Just a little more, Comrade," I gasped out.

"Right, Rose, right!" Mia yelled into my ear.

I zoomed off to the right. "That Jeep, right there."

I skidded to a halt in front of the rear door. "Go, go, go!" Mia slid off my back, shielding me with her body.

I yanked the door open and waved Dimitri in. He awkwardly hobbled in, and I jumped in afterward. Mia slammed the door, and got into the driver's seat, Adrian jumping into the passenger. We sped off in a squeal of the tires.

Dimitri and I crouched on the floor of the back seat.

"Roza," he breathed, caressing my face. "How did you...?"

"With a lot of planning, Comrade," I gave him a smile, but before we could have our reunion, Adrian spoke.

"Who's bleeding?" he asked.

I flared my nostrils, the smelling of blood hitting me suddenly. "Dimitri!"

"I'm fine," he said, wincing.

I snorted. "Yeah, okay. Where were you hit?" I realised he was hit by a bullet.

"Rose, it's nothing, okay? Besides, what can we do? We're being chased by guardians, who, may I reminded you, are still shooting at us?"

I shook my head. "They're trying to shoot the tires, and if you hadn't yet noticed by the tossing and turning of the car, Mia is very good at avoiding them," I replied, refusing to let go the subject of his wound.

"Um, Rose? I think it was his thigh. I think it might have grazed his femoral vein."

My eyes widened to the size of saucers. "Femoral vein? And you say you're fine!" Everyone in the car winced at my screeching voice.

Adrian suddenly turned around in his seat, put his hand on Dimitri's leg. Closing his eyes, his face furrowed with concentration. I could now see the bullet hole in Dimitri's leg, and the subsequent blood surrounding it. I swallowed the lump in my throat. There was a lot of blood. In the dim light, I could see Dimitri was paler than he had been a few minutes ago. I had to look away to avoid throwing up.

Adrian's gasp drew my attention again. Now it was Adrian who was pale, as color began to come back into Dimitri's face.

"You healed him?" A stupid question, really. What did I think he was doing? Groping my boyfriend?

Adrian just rolled his eyes, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. "What'd you think I would do? Let him bleed to death?"

"You...healed me?" Dimitri was dumbstruck.

Adrian nodded, settling back in his seat.

"Thank you." Dimitri turned to me, drinking me in the way I had him. "Roza," he whispered. "How did you manage this?"

I sighed and shifted on the floor into a more comfortable position. I pitied Dimitri, stuck in this small space with his huge frame, but it was the best way to stay safe. Since we were on civilian roads now, the guardians chasing us couldn't shoot at the car without risk of injuring someone, so we were somewhat safe.

"Hang on, it's going to be a bit bumpy," Mia warned us, making a sharp left turn. "We're going off-road now."

I looked at her with amusement. "You're having way too much fun with this, you know that?" I said wryly.

Mia flashed me her teeth.

I turned to Dimitri. "Well, it's a long story, and I don't think we'll be able to get through all of it, since we'll have to trade vehicles in about ten minutes, then we'll have to cross a couple more boarders before we meet up with someone who will take us to a safe house." I took a deep breath. "Hm. Where to start?"

"The beginning?" Dimitri prompted helpfully.

I rolled my eyes. "Sure. Which one, though?"

"Start from where you left," Dimitri suggested.

I exhaled. "Alright. So, I flew to Russia and was given my dorm assignment. I ended up with Viktoria, weirdly enough. Although, that might have been Abe's doing," I mused. "Anyway, I explained the situation to her, then went to bed. The next day, I met that doofus." I pointed to Adrian.

Adrian turned around and flashed me a grin. "Yup, and I'm her best friend."

I rolled my eyes again, but didn't correct him. I didn't know if I should; he'd done so much for me. "So, we tried contacting you, Vika and I, but we couldn't get through. I couldn't even contact Lissa. On top of all of that, I had to deal with Russian school. By the way, you'll be pleased to know that I have been forced to learn Russian, so I am now very fluent." Dimitri smiled at that. "Then, one day..." I trailed off. How to phrase it? I didn't want to get into the whole emotional mess with the other two in the car. "One day I was very upset," I said carefully, "and Adrian found me. He gave me his email and our contact began." Dimitri nodded. "Then, the day after you sent me the reply, I met my dad." Dimitri's eyes widened. "I know, shocking. So after we had our little reunion, he helped me hatch a plan to get you out of the wedding. Oh, my dad's Abe Mazur." I thought Dimitri's eyeballs would fall out at that one. "Yeah. But apparently he didn't have enough power to get us completely out of this, so this was our solution."

A sharp right turn threw me into Dimitri. I gasped at the contact, feeling a flood of relief, as if I'd been in pain, but now that he was touching me it went away. It hit me then, that this was the first time we'd touched in months, barring the brief hand holding we'd had on the run from the church. Gazing into Dimitri's eyes, I knew he was feeling the same thing.

"Hey, lovebirds? Now's not the time." Adrian's voice broke the spell on us.

Slowly, oh so slowly, I pulled away from his arms. However, our hands stayed linked.

"So," I began, my voice a bit husky, "Abe got me assigned to someone going to the wedding. Mia, as you know, moved to court shortly before I left, and met Adrian there. They hit it off, and when he was sent to St. Basil's they obviously kept in touch. When we realised that the only way we wouldn't be shot as soon as we left would be to use Moroi, he recruited Mia to be our shields. I hated that idea, still do, but we had to do it. The plan was for me to interrupt the wedding, and us run. Abe would get your family out. Christian would take care of Lissa's happiness. Then, when we were out, if we were being shot at, the Moroi would jump on our backs, protecting us. Then Mia would drive us to a drop off point, we'll get a new car, and drive to some other state, which I'm not sure. Then, we'll meet an alchemist, who will take us to a safe house, and there we will stay for a bit, before moving somewhere else." Silence rang in the car after my last words.

I could see Dimitri struggling to come to terms with everything. I sympathized; I'd had months to figure all of this out and accept it. All he had was now, while we were in the middle of the plan.

The car jerked to a stop, interrupting my train of thought.

"Everybody out! Meet at the sea board in a half hour." She gave me a meaningful look.

I nodded and all of us bolted from the car. It took a few moments to uncramp my legs. I could see Dimitri doing the same thing out of the corner of my eye, and then we were off.

"Where are we going?" he hissed.

"Just...act normal," I replied as we reached the crowds of people waiting for a movie. I had a brilliant idea then. "Let's get a movie, Comrade."

"I - what?!" He gave me a look that clearly said he thought something was wrong with me.

"Yeah." I glanced back to the way we'd come and saw a guardian. I grabbed Dimitri's hand and pulled him to the ticket counter.

After getting the tickets, I pulled him into the theater. "Rose, what are you doing?" he hissed.

"Blending in," I muttered back.

"Ooh..."

We made our way to the middle of the theater, sitting in the section closest to the wall, away from any light.

"What's the sea board?" Dimitri whispered in my ear.

"The place where we'll be getting our car," I whispered back. "Codename of a sort."

"Did we need a codename?" he asked, puzzled.

I gave him a sheepish smile. "No, but I wanted one."

Dimitri chuckled and put his arm around me. "I missed you so, so much, my Roza." I could hear the pain in his voice.

I cuddled closer to him. "I missed you too, my Comrade. I love you." I leaned up and kissed him, probably the stupidest thing I could have done.

Dimitri instantly kissed me back with such ferocity, I was afraid we'd get kicked out, but didn't care enough to stop. The only thing that kept me from climbing into his lap was the rapidly fading memory of the plan.

We pulled apart to breathe, but i didn't want to stop touching him, stop kissing him, and trailed kiss down to his neck.

"R-Roza," Dimitri gasped out. "Th-the plan."

I groaned, burying my head in his neck. "No time?"

I felt Dimitri shake his head. "No. Not at all." He lifted his arm. He must have checked the time because he said, "We have ten minutes to get to wherever we're meeting them."

I sighed, blowing warm air over his neck, causing him to shudder, before I pulled away.

"We better get going then," I said softly. "The sooner we get there, the sooner we can be on our way, the sooner we arrive, the sooner we're safe."

Dimitri gave me a long look before nodding. "Then let's go."

We pushed our way through the sitting people, receiving grumbling in return.

After making sure no guardians were near the entrance, we casually walked to the parking lot.

Though we had to duck behind several cars to avoid detection, we managed to reach our destination without hassle.

We stopped at the car. I looked around, wondering what was taking Mia and Adrian so long. Dimitri, on the other hand, was staring at the car.

"Roza," he finally said. "What is this?"

"Hm?" I mumbled, still looking around.

Dimitri tugged on my arm and I glanced behind myself. "What?"

He pointed at the car. "What is that thing?"

I snorted. "It's a Geo Metro***. What's wrong with it?"

Dimitri gave me an aghast look. "What's wrong with it?! It looks like Barney!"

I chuckled. "I didn't even know you knew what Barney was," I replied.

Dimitri grimaced. "Unfortunately, I do. I really don't want to ride in Barney."

A full blown smirk settled on my face. "Too bad, Comrade. You're going to have to."

Dimitri pouted. "But Roza, I don't think I'll even fit."

I frowned, not having considered that. I looked between the car and Dimitri calculatingly. "No, you'll fit. It'll be a tight squeeze, and you'll have to sit in the front, but you'll fit."

"I thought we were supposed to be incognito," he whined. "Be under the radar."

"We are. No one would ever think that we'd ride in this thing. Besides, it's so small, we are under radar. Literally."

Dimitri opened his mouth to argue once more, but the arrival of Mia and Adrian stopped it.

"What took you guys so long?" I asked.

"Well, we're not as experienced at hiding and blending in as you. We had to get creative. You forget how much we stand out," Mia gasped out, breathless from running. "Alright, everyone in."

"Dimitri will have to be up front since he's so huge," I piped up.

Mia frowned. "So Adrian will have to drive." She turned to him. "You know where we're going, right?"

Adrian snorted. "I was there when we planned it, wasn't I?"

Mia smiled. "Yes you were." They held each others eyes for a long moment, until I cleared my throat awkwardly.

Mia blinked. "Right."

She opened the door and hit the lever to push the seat forward then crawled into the back - literally.

I crawled in after her, and Dimitri pushed the seat back before folding himself awkwardly into the vehicle.

"I would love to know where you go this. A junk yard?" Dimitri questioned.

"No ,actually, Abe knew a guy who knew a guy who wanted to sell this," Mia replied.

"I can see why," Dimitri muttered, taking in the bare interior with distaste.

"It's not a bad car," Mia defended it.

"Mia, love, if I had a choice, I wouldn't be caught dead in this," Adrian commented. "It's a good thing we're supposed to be hiding. Otherwise, I would never go within ten feet of this piece of crap."

Mia and I exchanged a looked and rolled our eyes. "How long until we get to the alchemist?" I asked.

"A few hours," Adrian replied vaguely.

"Where are we going?" Dimitri asked.

"Missouri," Adrian said.

"Missouri? What's in Missouri?" Dimitri said, bewildered.

"Nothing," I grumbled. "Exactly why we're going there."

Mia giggled. "Yeah, Rose isn't too please with our choice."

"I was hoping somewhere like California, but Abe claimed it was 'too popular,'" I said, using air quotes. "I told him that it would be easier to get lost in the crowds, but all he did was smile and walk away."

"I'm sure we can move to California in a couple years," Dimitri reasoned.

I pouted. "It's not the same."

After that, no one really spoke. Adrian turned on the radio, filling the silence with music. I wanted to be sitting next to Dimitri so we could at least hold hands, but the size of the car inhibited us. Suddenly, I liked the car much less. Stupid Geo Metro.

Instead, we held hands over the seat. It wasn't the same, but it was something. I knew Dimitri wanted to talk to me, and I wanted to talk to him, but the presence of Adrian and Mia made it impossible. So we stayed silent and basked in the comfort of each other.

The drive flew by for me, as I fell asleep shortly after we passed the Ohio border. I hadn't slept the night before, too worried about the wedding. Now the fatigue caught up to me and I slept like a baby through the rest of the ride.

Dimitri shook me awake when we reached Missouri.

"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty," he murmured.

I blinked my eyes open. "Huh? We're here already?" I said groggily.

Dimitri nodded. "I would have carried you out of the car, but, well." He shrugged.

I was starting to seriously hate this car.

I clambered out of it, stretching my tense muscles.

"This is where we part, Rose," Adrian said dramatically.

"Yeah, I know." I went over to him and gave him a hug. "Thank you for risking your life today," I whispered.

"It's nothing, Rose. Though she is my aunt, she has no right controlling your life likes this," Adrian murmured back. "Take care Rose. We'll keep in touch." He released me.

Next, I walked to Mia. The small blonde threw herself into my arms. "Oh, Rose, I never thought you'd be the one to fall in love first. I'm going to miss you so much. Be safe, alright? We'll keep in touch."

I squeezed her tight to me. "If you get the chance, tell Lissa everything, okay?"

Mia nodded, then let go. "The alchemist is right over there, so, be safe and don't do anything stupid." She kissed me on the cheek, then went over to say goodbye to Dimitri.

I watched morosely as Mia and Adrian got back into the car and drove off. This is it, I thought. My life as a refugee official starts.

A/N: Mk, the first *: diaphanous: airy, light, transparent. **: effulgent: splendid, radiant. Sorry, those are two of my vocab words, and I figured might as well use them :D The third...well, I didn't think anyone would know what a Geo Metro is, so here's the pic: static . Cargurus images/site/2009/01/09/20/22/1996_geo_metro_2_dr_lsi_hatchback-pic-168 . jpeg You can look at it on my profile too :P

I stayed home today, just to write this chapter for you :D Jk, I stayed home cuz I didn't feel good and bonded with my oldest brother watching the Smittybuilt Every Man Challenge. It's an off-road race on the King of the Hammers track. Anyone live near Johnson Valley, California?

What do you think? There's a chapter after this, maybe two. I'm not sure if I'm going to write an epilogue, or do a sequel. Either would work. I think. Either way, we'll cross that bridge once we get to it :P

Hey does anyone know where Dimkaisshmexy24 disappeared off to?

Thank you for reviewing to Mori Belicov Hathaway, RozaRocks (thanks :D I figured everyone would love Abe (:), J (Yeah, I should...I've been so caught up with this story, though. I'm not sure what I should do for Wide Awake :P I'll try to update it soon. She's marrying a dhampir, who I'm not sure yet. I've seen it, just never read it. You should write them and post them! They've done a pretty good job with the movie, from what I've heard. The actresses/actor they've chosen is pretty good, and Richelle Mead likes the script, so it can't be too bad. I love that they chose a Russian for Dimitri xD There's no trailer yet; like the 'Official Vampire Academy Movie' on Facebook; you'll get all the updates for the movie :D), vampiregirl2014 (clsoe call!), and Gaspazha Belikova (It is, isn't it? Oh, I do love the actor playing Dimitri! No fake Russian accent! Yay for the production team! xD Yes, a bit cunning. Not too, much, though :P).