Thank you so much for the amazing response to the last chapter! I was kinda scared you wouldn't like it, but you did! Yay! :D I'm going to speed things up a little bit so you can get titbits from the pregnancy and Romitri's life! :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Academy.

CHAPTER 21

DPOV

Time passed quickly after my proposal to Rose. It seemed like we had too little time on our hands to organize and plan everything that needed to be planned. Even though Rose was still at an early stage, I couldn't wait to tell my family so the next morning I called Mama to share the news. She cried for nearly half an hour on the phone. My sisters didn't get as emotional as my mother, thank God, so those phone calls were shorter. I decided to tell Viktoria in person, seeing as a visit was due. Rose came with me and showed off her engagement ring to my squealing sister.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God," she exclaimed, gleeful, clapping her hands together. "You guys are getting married! I can't believe this."

"That's not everything," I told her, barely able to hide the excitement in my own voice. I looked at Rose, waiting for her to give me the green light. When she nodded, I said, "We're having a baby."

My sister's eyes widened in shock. Then she looked Rose up and down, grinning. "You're pregnant? Oh my God!"

"Jeez, Vika," Rose said, amused, "how many times are you going to say 'oh my God'?"

"Oh my God," Viktoria exclaimed again. She was so loud other residents were looking at us, but she didn't seem to care. She sprang up from the couch and pulled the both of us in an embrace. "I'm so happy for you guys! Congratulations!" She hugged Rose extra long before sitting back down. "How far along are you?"

"Six weeks," Rose answered. She pulled out the ultrasound from her purse and handed it to my sister. "Here's our peanut."

"Your peanut?"

"It looks like a peanut," Rose said with a shrug.

"It kinda does," Viktoria admitted, laughing. "I'm going to be an auntie again." She smiled up at me. "Our family is getting bigger and bigger. Karolina's baby will only be a few weeks older than yours. They can be play mates!"

Rose's parents were just as excited as my family, especially Abe. I recalled him whining about wanting to be a grandfather at the surprise party at Mama's. I guess now his wish had come true. Maybe a little bit sooner than expected, but that didn't matter. He wanted to pay for the wedding, much to Rose's annoyance, but after a lot of nagging on his part she finally allowed him to. Though we didn't have a date yet, Lissa was already planning our wedding, which I thought was funny, since she hadn't had her own wedding yet.

Of course Lissa had already known about the pregnancy. Rose had told her when we visited our friends. That's why she'd been crying at Lissa's, I knew now. Christian felt very satisfied with himself that he'd guessed Rose was pregnant. He never let an opportunity pass by without rubbing it in Rose's face.

During one of our dinners with our friends, to which we'd invited Ivan as well so he could get to know our group of friends, Rose told them about our engagement and the baby. They'd been so loud in congratulating us that the hostess politely asked us to leave if we didn't quiet down.

I went in search for a second job, but after several weeks of busting my ass off in two different restaurants, Rose pleaded with me to quit.

"I know we're going to need all the money we can get for when the baby comes," Rose said to me, "but this isn't worth it. You're barely home. You barely sleep. You need to rest."

"Roza, it's okay. It's only for a little while," I reassured her. "Until we have enough to rent something bigger."

She shook her head. "No, I can't ask this of you."

"You don't have to. I want to do it."

"But working two jobs is draining you," she argued. "You're exhausted."

While that was true, I wasn't going to give in so easily. We really needed that money if we wanted to move to a bigger place.

"Roza," I started, sighing.

She put her hands on my chest. "Please, comrade. Think about your health."

That made me laugh. Shaking my head, I said, "Milaya, you don't need to worry about my health." I cupped her face in my hands and kissed her. "Your health is way more important right now. Yours and the baby."

"Peanut is doing fine," she said, putting her hand on her stomach. "I'm fine too. You're not."

It still amused me that she was calling our baby 'peanut'. She'd always had a knack for inventing ridiculous nicknames. I hoped she wasn't actually going to name our baby peanut, though.

"Rose," I said, quiet but firm, "we're not going to be able to pay for a house if I don't-"

"We'll loan from my parents," she interrupted.

I arched an eyebrow, surprised. "Did I hear that right? You want to loan from your parents?"

An annoyed expression crossed her face. "Yes," she said tersely. I knew this was hard for her, which is why it surprised me all the more when she said, "I already spoke to them about it."

I frowned. "When?"

She shrugged. "A few days ago. Does it matter?"

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked.

"I'm telling you now," she returned. Crossing her arms, she muttered reluctantly, "We actually don't have to loan if we accept their gift."

I looked at her, confused. "What gift?"

Rose cleared her throat, seeming uncomfortable. "Their wedding gift," she mumbled, not looking at me.

"What is it?" I asked hesitantly, dreading the answer.

She looked up at me, biting on her lower lip. "A house," she admitted after a few moments.

I stared at her, incredulous. "A house?"

She nodded.

I felt light-headed all of a sudden. Was she serious right now? "A house as a wedding gift?"

Rose clenched her jaw. "I know it's a little bit much-"

"A little bit?" I interrupted. "He's already paying for the wedding."

"I know!" Rose exclaimed. "But we can't exactly forbid him to do it, right? I mean, he's going to do it anyway. You know how he is."

I rubbed my forehead, trying to clear my head. "Was he really a banker?" I asked, feeling very confused right now. "Where does he keep getting all that money?"

"Could be that he stole it from his own bank," she deadpanned. I stared at her, almost believing her, when she smiled. "Come on, comrade. It's not that bad."

I sighed, defeated. "But I'm supposed to take care of you now. Not your dad."

"You are taking care of me," she said firmly. "Of us," she added, placing her hand on her baby bump again. "Dad just wants to help out." She paused. "He said I could choose: either he pays for our education or a house. Seeing as neither of us wants to go to college, I'm thinking a house is the best option. It's what we need for our baby. I don't want to raise our child in the city, but the houses in the suburbs are expensive. We could use some help. Even I can admit that."

Rose looked at me with wide, innocent eyes. And then she started batting her eyelashes at me. I groaned, knowing I was about to give in.

"Roza, don't give me that look," I said in a whiny voice. But instead she grasped my hands and looked at me more desperately. "Fine," I sighed. "It's your dad. If he wants to help you out so badly, I have nothing to say about it, really."

"Don't be sad, comrade," she said, wrapping her arms around my waist. "I know you feel like you have to take care of all that stuff, but it's okay to accept help from time to time."

"You're one to talk," I snorted, though a reluctant smile crept onto my face as I wrapped my arms around her as well. She looked up, glaring at me playfully. "What? It's true."

"Are you going to quit your second job now?" she asked.

"I guess," I answered.

She smiled, hugging me a little tighter. "Thank you. If it cheers you up, we can always pay him back. In time."

"As if he's going to allow that," I muttered.

"Probably not." Rose shrugged. "If we have any money left, we'll try to return it to him, but I have a feeling he won't accept that either. So I was thinking, just in case, that we should put it into our peanut's bank account. For later."

Now that was an idea I liked. "We should probably visit your parents soon, then, and thank them in person for doing this."

After a week, I had to admit that working one job was much less exhausting so maybe it wasn't so bad after all that Abe wanted to help out. Though I would pay him back, if he'd let me. I was able to spend more time with Roza and the baby again. While she watched TV – or rather, napped in front of the TV – I read one of my western novels to the baby in the hopes that it would recognize my voice once he or she was born.

We went back to Columbia Falls for a few days to visit her parents and thank them. We were going to visit Mama as well, but we found her at Rose's parents' house. They'd probably filled her in that we were coming. Abe and Mama were crying happy tears when they saw Rose's growing baby bump.

"Don't worry about Abe, I think he's in his menopause," she said, rolling her eyes.

"I'm a man, Janine," he shot back, scowling.

She grinned at him. "You sure don't act like it."

"Can't I be happy that I'm going to be a grandfather?" he exclaimed, clutching Rose to him. "When do you know if it's a boy of girl?"

"In a few weeks," Rose answered, prying herself away from his embrace. "You're crushing the baby."

We all went to dinner – thankfully somewhere in town. I didn't want another rerun with Galina; last time was really awkward. We filled them in on everything that had happened the past few weeks. Rose's morning sickness was better now that she was taking Dr. Olendzki's advice – though she hated every second of it when she had to drink the ginger ale – but unfortunately her headaches came back more frequently.

When I told Dr. Olendzki my concerns, she assured me that it wasn't uncommon to have returning headaches after the brain injury Rose had sustained in the car accident. Carrying a baby put a lot of extra stress on her so it wasn't abnormal that Roza had more headaches than usual. It put Rose's mind at ease immediately, but I wasn't so easy to reassure. I'd asked Rose to stay home for now, but she'd refused to do that, saying that she didn't want to sit around all day and do nothing. I could understand that so I hadn't asked Rose again, knowing Mia would look out for her.

"I'm so happy you're moving back closer to home," Mama said, sighing happily, when we drove her back home after dinner. "It's so nice of Abe and Janine to help you two out. I'm so grateful to them."

"We are too," I answered.

After we'd dropped her off, we went to Lissa and Christian's. The wedding was in a few weeks, right after we'd know the baby's gender. I could hardly wait to find out. In the meantime, we'd be looking at houses. Neither of us wanted to move back to Columbia Falls, but we thought about buying something that wasn't far off so it would be easy to visit our family and friends.

The house was finally finished so we got another tour. This time Lissa didn't make Rose fit any bridesmaid dresses because Rose's belly was still growing and by the time the actual wedding happened, her dress wouldn't fit anymore. So instead, Lissa agreed to come to the city a week before the wedding so they could shop for a bridesmaid dress together. Mia could come along as well so she could give her opinions on which dresses fit with the centerpieces – or something like that.

Lissa and Rose both tried to explain it to me, but I didn't understand why it was important that the color of the flowers matched the bridesmaid dress. I really hoped planning our wedding would be easier and less confusing.

I was counting the days until the next doctor's appointment and I thought it would take forever, but we were so busy trying to find a suitable house near our hometown that time flew by faster than ever. So when Dr. Olendzki announced we were going to have a baby girl, I couldn't have been happier.

"Don't start crying now, comrade," Rose said in a teasing voice. I was clutching her hand as I stared at the monitor, at our little girl, and listened to her steady heartbeats. But she was almost crying herself as she said, smiling, "We're having a girl."

I smiled back and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "It's perfect."

There you go! I know this chapter was short, but I'll try to make the next one a little bit longer! I hope you have an amazing day/evening! :)