Disclaimer: merry Christmas everyone:)

"I think that that's enough for tonight Roza," I said realizing that this could escalate far too easily and not wanting to push Rose for something that she wasn't ready for, I got up and left the room so Rose could put her top back on before we went to bed.

Abe POV

I walked into the Head Guardian's office room ready to bang some sense into her head for letting my daughter go on this "training exercise". But then again, Janine had always told me how kind Alberta had been to Rose and how much she thought of her as her own daughter. So instead of going in there "all guns a blazing" so to speak, I decided that Alberta had probably just fallen for Belikov's charm. The same charm that a seventeen year old girl might fall for.

I knocked on Alberta's door and waited until I heard her say come in. I had never met the woman but Janine had sent me photos of some of Rose's teachers over the years and told me some things about them. Boy did Rose hate a guy named Stan Alto.

Alberta looked up at me and gave me a kind smile that made me like her instantly, no wonder she was one of the only teachers that Rose liked.

"Hello, I'm Head Guardain Alberta and you must be Abe Mazur, the investigator that Jainine asked to help us," Alberta said standing so we could shake hands.

"Well I wouldn't call myself an investigator, but I assure you that I certainly have the brains and the resources to find this guy," I said adding a charming smile.

"Well that would certainly be appreciated. I assume that Janine has filled you in on what we have so far?" Alberta asked as she took her set and gave me her undivided attention.

"Yes she has and I have a few leads that I'm working on. But now that I'm here, I would like to start off with questioning everyone that was involved with the ambush at the mall," I said looking very closely at her reaction.

"That won't be a problem but I'm afraid that two of those involved at currently unavailable and will be for another five days."

Oh I know. "Well from what I understand the two that are unavailable are two of the most important. Rose was taken first and was the only one with the Princess in the store and played a vital part in the battle. And Guardian Belikov was the one responsible for the rescue. So I must have them back here as soon as possible," I said trying to sound as professional as I could when discussing my daughter alone with Belikov.

Alberta looked deep in thought. "Well I don't really want to interrupt their training and with only a few days before we have to head back for the Academy there would be no point in them going back if they do come here early for questioning. Perhaps a phone interview will suffice?" Alberta asked not realizing how close I was to exploding right now and just going up to the cabin myself with my guardians and MAKING them leave early. But I tried again. I don't think Janine would appreciate me making a scene in front our daughter's school.

"I'm afraid that that won't do. You see I know about the bond that the Princess and Rose share and I believe that that is of key importance to this mystery," I lied smoothly.

But Alberta apparently knew when she was being lied to. She just folded her arms across her chest and raised one eyebrow.

"Is that so?" she asked, wanting me to back up what I said.

Well damn.

I cleared my throat. "Well you see... from the reports, the Strigoi boss was very interested in Rose, so it makes much more sense for her to be back here where the wards will protect her... But also with the bond she will know if the Strigoi try anything so they will be after her first. If she's here, we almost get an early warning alarm," I made up on the spot and hoped that Alberta bought it. But now that I think about it, that was just one more reason that I wanted Rose back here and not with the charmer Belikov.

Alberta thought over what I had just said and seemed to come to a decision. "Very well, I will call them tonight and they will be back here tomorrow human time."

I let out a quiet sigh. "Thank you. Until then I will do some more work on this case," I said, my mind already going over possible suspects.

"Good. I have rearranged all of Janine's shifts so she can accompany you where you go. No one will question your presence or why you're here with her by your side."

Well that was a bonus! Not only do I get my daughter away from the Russian pedo bear but I get to spend the next few days with my lovely Janine by my side. Things were looking up indeed.

DPOV

I was halfway through making dinner when Rose came out of the shower to join me. She told me that I didn't have to go through the trouble of making her candle lit dinners every night now that we were back together but I enjoined doing it. And more importantly I wanted to do it, because all too soon we would be going back to the Academy and then I wouldn't be able to show her how much I cared about her there.

She didn't really help much, just chop something or stir the pot but it was nice to have her so close to me again and not have to worry about her pushing me away if something happened.

"Whatever this is smells great," she said as she sniffed what was cooking. I raised one eyebrow just to annoy her.

"Are you saying that everything else that I have cooked so far hasn't?" I teased and got a death glare for it.

"Well I was just giving you a compliment but if you're just going to take it like that than I won't bother," she huffed. But I could see the smile that she was fighting.

We finished dinner and cuddled up on the couch playing scrabble. It was actually quite funny because my English was better than hers.

"No Roza, weirded is not a word," I said and suppressed a sigh as she shot me her determined face.

"You're wrong, it TOTALLY is a word. I'll show you," she said as she started attacking the dictionary that came with the game. After about a minute she cried out, "Aha" and shoved the dictionary in my face.

"Read it and weep Comrade," she said and I looked at where she was pointing.

Weirded, to be in a state of feeling confused and a little scared. The way someone would act when something really weird happened.

"That can't be right!" I said completely shocked. As if the English language wasn't bad enough, it had to throw in words like that that shouldn't exist.

"Well it is, so muun," she said sticking out her tongue at me.

"Fine, then what about this," I said and spelt out a weird word that I only knew because I had read it in a book once and googled it to make sure that it meant what I thought it did.

"Sororicide? What the hell does that mean?" Rose asked looking utterly confused.

"It's the act of killing your sister. Something that was very tempting to me when mine insisted on dressing me up and making me marry their dolls," I said but smiled at the memory. And the fact that I would actually be getting married soon.

"Wow Comrade that's messed up, why would you know a word like that," Rose said, but she still sounded more surprised than disturbed at the meaning of the word.

"I read it in a book."

She just rolled her eyes. "Of course you did."

We sat up playing for a few more hours. Then I heard the phone ring. I got up to answer it.

"It will just be Alberta asking for an update," I told Rose when I saw the worried look cross her face.

"Hello?" I answered the phone.

"Hello Guardian Belikov, how go's the training?" Alberta asked just like normal.

"Very well, Rose has now mastered the art of building a snowman and is well on the way to Kung fu snowball fighting champion," I said just to see the look on Rose's face. We had still been doing some training in the daytime, but now it wasn't so intense and formal.

"Well I'm very glad to hear that," Alberta said and I could hear the smile in her voice. "But I'm afraid that today was your last day," she said sounding serious now.

My heart sank, I knew that this was coming. "Really? And why's that?" I asked playing along because it would just take longer if I told her that Rose had heard about this through the bond.

"Yes, we have an investigator here and he needed to ask you both some questions right away. I'm sorry about the short notice, but you have to come back here tomorrow human time," she continued, but I was barely listening. Even though I knew it wasn't a possibility, I had wanted to spend the whole two weeks up here with Rose. But at least we were back together now and after graduation, we would be married and be able to spend the rest of our lives together.

"Of course, we will leave in the morning. Good bye," I said politely before hanging up.

"We're going back aren't we?" Rose asked from where she was sitting in the couch. I nodded and walked over to her and wrapped her in my arms.

"I'm sorry Roza. I wanted to make this trip special and all about us. But it seems that the real world is waiting," I muttered into her hair.

"Don't apologize Comrade, I understand. And we're together now, nothing matters more than that." she said quietly as she nuzzled closer to my neck. I pulled back just enough to look up in to her eyes and then leaned in and softly kissed her. She returned it instantly and we held each other for a few more minutes, just soaking up the last night that we would got to spend together.

But sadly we had a busy day tomorrow, so I reluctantly pulled back and we got up and went to bed.

RPOV

My alarm clock was the last sound that I wanted to hear this morning... well to be honest it was usually the last sound that I wanted to hear period. But today I had a whole other reason to not want to hear it.

Woah déjà vu!

The last time that I had thought that, it had been because I had to go to this cabin with Dimitri when I didn't want to get back together with him and I still wanted to run for the hills. Now I was thinking it because I didn't want to leave the cabin or Dimitri, because after we got back we would have to go right back to sneaking around again.

But sadly it couldn't be helped. I reached out and threw the stupid alarm clock at the wall and snuggled back in Dimitri's arms.

"How many alarm clocks have you gone through in your time at the Academy?" Dimitri asked with a amused smile on his face.

"Obviously not enough as there is still enough to wake me up in the morning," I muttered and tried to go back to sleep before Dimitri made me get up. I knew he didn't have the heart to wake me up because he had told me in the past "how peaceful" I looked when I slept. And wasn't it just a little creepy that he watched me when I slept?

But sadly my tormenter wasn't going to have any of that.

"Oh no you don't Roza, we have to hike back to the lodge today so we have to leave nice and early," Dimitri said getting up and taking away the blankets as he did so.

"Hey! No fair!" I cried as I hugged myself to keep warm.

"The fire is on in the lounge room so stop complaining. I'll go and start breakfast while you go and have a shower to wake up," Dimitri said before turning to leave the room.

"I think I liked it better when you just did everything I wanted when you were trying to win me back," I muttered as I went to the shower.

When I got out it was to the smell of one of the best breakfasts ever.

"Pancakes!" I cried as I ran over to the stove. They were big and fluffy and all mine!

Dimitri chuckled at my reaction. "I figured to was our last day up here so why not?" He said as he set a plate down in front of me.

"Oh I think I love you," I whispered as I looked at the food in front of me. It was a tall stack for sure, but at the top was a stack of chocolate covered strawberry with whipped cream dusted with icing sugar.

"Are you saying that to me or the food?" Dimitri asked with a laugh as he sat down opposite me.

"I don't know yet, I'll have to taste them first," I said as I eagerly cut into my breakfast.

"Well just let me know," Dimitri said with a smile.

"Mmmmm SOOO guood," I muttered as I stuffed my face, these were even better then Dimitri's blini! Though I didn't tell him that.

"So do you love me or the pancakes more?" Dimitri asked as we finished up breakfast. I paused and pretended to think.

"Wellll, if I say the pancakes then you will probably get jealous and never make them for me again. But if I say you then you will make me more pancakes in the future. So the answer is you, definitely you," I joked as I licked the last of the syrup off of my fingers.

"Good answer," Dimitri laughed as he lent over and gave me a light kiss. "Come on, we need to get moving."

"I know I complained most of the time and acted like a spoiled kid while we were up here. But I actually had a really nice time," I said as I looked back at the cabin as we started walking away, I really would miss the place, it now held one of my most special memory's. The one where Dimitri and I once and for all devoted our lives to each other.

"We can come back here some day. Once you graduate, maybe for our honeymoon?" Dimitri suggested with a shy grin. I beamed back at him.

"I would love that!" I said excitedly and grabed his hand. We had a long hike ahead of us but for now I wasn't letting go of him until I had to.

We actually made pretty good time on our trip down the mountain. But I don't know if that was because of the extra muscles that I built up over the week and a half doing straight training or the fact that the way down is always easier than the way up. But either way we were back at the lodge and looking down at a very nice view.

"We should take a picture of this, so we have something to remember our time together by," I said as I fingered my necklace. But I didn't think that I would have any trouble remembering our time up here.

"Good idea. We can look at it in front of others and they would be non the wiser. It can be like our private joke," Dimitri said as he got his camera out of his backpack. We had left our luggage at the cabin for some one else to pick up while we just took the essentials. Dimitri took a few snaps then we just stood together for a while looking over at the lodge.

"I never thought that my life would turn out like this but I'm really glad it did," I told Dimitri with a smile. And he returned it with one of his full on ones that made my heart melt.

"So am I. I wouldn't change a thing," I said and then pulled a sudden sour face. "Well maybe the part where I told you that we couldn't be together, but aside from that, no complaints."

"Thanks," I said dryly. "So what do you think is waiting for us down there?" I asked as we started moving again.

"I'm not sure, but hopefully it will help us find out who the spy is and then Lissa will finally be safe again," Dimitri said with a hard look.

"Yeah, here's to hoping."

It was the middle of the Moroi night when we got back to our rooms so nobody saw me go into Dimitri's room to say a private good bye.

"I'm going to miss you so much." Dimitri muttered across my lips for the tenth time in the last hour that we were saying good bye in.

"What are you going on about? You will see me tomorrow," I said back. We wouldn't have training as we were both still getting used to the backwards time schedule. But we would both have to go and see the investigator tomorrow for questioning about the attack. We couldn't exactly hold hands or kiss or anything but we would still see each other.

"But we won't really be able to be together," He whined again, and I actually found this clingy, whiny Dimitri rather adorable.

"I know," I said then a cheeky smile spread across my face. "But thanks to a very meddling mentor that shall go un named, our rooms just happen the be next to each other. So I'm sure the we will be able to sneak in a kiss or ten," I said and got a grin and more kisses for my effort.

But sadly we had to part ways so with one last sweet kiss, I slipped out of his room and back in to mine. Lissa was asleep as I knew she would be, so I just dumped my bag on the floor and went to wash the hike off of me.

I crawled in to bed and tried to make myself sleep but it wasn't easy. I tossed and turned a bit and then I was sucked into a spirit dream.

AAAAw there leaving:( but don't worry everything will woke out ok! Well except if the bad guys get Lissa and Rose had to sacrifice herself leaving Dimitri for me...oh I like the sound of that!

So as a Christmas gift I'm giving you two chapters right now! For the price of one! Yes you heard right

But you have to promise me that you will Review on both of them or (and this is a thret from my beta) I won't give you a New Years chapter! Oh the horror! So be good little fan ficshon addicts and review please and thank you:)