a/n: Hey, guys! I haven't had a chance to respond to reviews yet. I will be doing that as soon as possible, but I wanted to at least get the next chapter up for you!

As always, thank you so much for reading and enjoy! :)

Rose laughed nervously. "You must have me confused with someone else," she said, shaking her head. "It's… " She swallowed past the lump in her throat and turned her gaze on Dimitri's unmoving form. "Your son never loved me," she whispered, willing her distress over seeing him so still to go away.

"On the contrary, Ms. Hathaway, my son loves you very much."

Rose's head snapped back to the other woman and her brows drew together as she looked her up and down; the present tense in her declaration didn't escape Rose. "How do you know my name?"

"I was introduced to you," she said simply.

"Five years ago. You remember my name from once five years ago?" Rose pressed.

The woman smiled sadly. "No. I remember your name from last week. You stopped by to visit my son. Things didn't go so well."

Rose took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Belikov, but—"

"Olena," she interrupted.

Rose went on as if she hadn't spoken. "I don't think this is a conversation we should be having."

The woman gave her a stern look. "You're not big on communication," she said chastising.

Your son has a big mouth. "I don't…know what Dimitri has told you about me—"

"Nothing. He hasn't told me anything."

"Then how do you know…?"

"His sister," Olena explained with a touch of sadness in her eyes. "He…won't talk to me about you. I think he still blames me for…oh, well." She pasted a smile on her face that Rose instantly recognized as fake. "It's in the past."

It's my freaking present! "For what?" Rose asked, trying not to hide the urgency in her tone. She cursed herself for being so damn curious.

Olena took a deep breath as she made her way to Dimitri's side, forcing Rose to turn around if she wanted to face her. The older woman kept herself busy straightening the blankets around her son. "I may have made some assumptions upon meeting you and shared them with Dimka," she admitted as her eyes lifted to meet Rose's.

Rose stood there in shock for a few moments before speaking. "After spending less than sixty seconds with me?" she whispered.

"I've regretted it every day since."

"Why?" Rose asked with a careless shrug. "If you can make assumptions about someone you met for only a moment, why would you have regrets? It doesn't seem like that sort of person would have regrets," she said bitterly.

"Sweetheart—"

"My name…is Rose. Not sweetheart. And I don't know what sort of guilt you are carrying around with you, but trying to use me to absolve yourself of it…" Rose shook her head. "Don't do that."

Afraid to look away for even a moment, Rose backed slowly out of the room, then turned on her heel and made her way to the nurse's station.

After arguing with the woman at the nurse's station for almost ten minutes, Rose hadn't gotten anywhere. Apparently if you weren't immediate family, then you weren't in the know.

Finally giving up, she trudged to the elevators, trying to keep herself together long enough to call Tony and get an update on Dimitri. Once she was assured he would be fine, Rose pressed the button for the elevator and waited impatiently for the car to arrive.

Sighing in relief when she saw that it was empty, Rose stepped inside and hit the button that signaled she needed to go to the lobby.

"The second she walked into that room today, Liss, I just knew."

"What do you think she said to him?" Lissa asked, wide eyed with curiosity.

Rose shook her head. "I don't know. I just know that when I left his apartment that day, he wanted me to go out for lunch with him and his mom. The next time I saw him…he was packing to leave."

"Well…Rose…if she did say something that changed his mind about you…does that change anything for you?" Lissa asked softly.

Rose smiled bitterly. "Sure. It means the man I thought I'd had a hot affair with is actually a momma's boy. Nothing hot about that."

Lissa's eyes narrowed. "Uh-uh. No way. Flippant Rose is not welcome in this conversation. Make her go away!"

Rose laughed. "She's gone." Her voice was lowered to a whisper when she continued. "At the end of the day…it doesn't matter what she said to him, Liss. He chose to leave. And it's been screwing with my head for years. And now…I feel like he is still screwing with my head. I can't get answers from him because he keeps talking in circles. He wants in my bed, but…I think that's all he wants. And if he was anyone else…"

"But he's not," Lissa said softly as she reached over and gave Rose's knee a gentle squeeze.

Rose sighed. "I hate him for doing this to me. I hate him for making me be so petty that I put all the blame on him. I just fucking hate him!"

Lissa sighed. "But you told him that it's not his fault. Why do you think that is, Rose?"

Because I can't stand the thought of him tormenting himself for screwing up someone who was already screwed up. "I don't know," Rose lied as she pushed to her feet. "I have to get back to work…if I still have a job. I just blew out of there this morning."

"I'm sure once you explain, it'll be fine," Lissa assured her.

"I hope so," Rose said with a heavy sigh. "I'll see you later."

Rose made it back to the gym and finished her work day—she was still employed, thank God. Courtney covered for her, saying she'd had had an emergency to take care of, but would be back as soon as possible.

Thoughts of Dimitri always plagued her, but today was worse than usual.

In one breath, she was telling Lissa that he only wanted her in bed, but she'd seen the look in his eyes when he'd cornered her at the Firemen's Ball. There had been a longing there that she had never seen before. And he'd been so…gratified when he'd realized she was jealous of the thought of him with another woman.

She needed to stop tormenting herself and make sure Dimitri got the message loud and clear: They were done. They were never going to be together again. Sexually or otherwise.

And once she made sure he was OK, that's exactly what she was going to do.

Rose slipped out of her apartment building around midnight to make her way to the hospital. The cab she'd called for was already waiting for her, and she slid in the back and gave her destination to the driver.

When she arrived she headed straight for his room, avoiding eye contact as she'd done earlier in the hopes no one would try to stop her. No one did, and she made her way to his side.

She looked down at him, again struck by how young he looked in slumber. There was a cup with water and a straw on the table beside his bed, and Rose chose to believe it meant he'd finally woken up and wanted a drink.

When Rose lifted a hand to his cheek, he instantly turned into her touch; she froze. He stopped stirring, and she let her gaze wash over him. The rise and fall of his chest was steady, and she could hear the sound of his breathing. Her eyes lifted to his slightly-parted lips. Unable to stop herself, she lowered her head and brushed her lips tenderly against his.

God, he was smelling her now? As if it wasn't bad enough that he could see her in his dreams, now he could smell her? Dimitri stifled an agonized groan that had nothing to do with the pain in his body.

It was a moment before he recognized that he wasn't dreaming Roza was there with him, another before he felt her lips pressed against his.

And a few more to realize that the wet heat washing over his cheeks were her tears.