*Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead does!*

When we went to the kitchen, I was shocked to see Sydney was waiting for us in the kitchen. We had told her we weren't going to be doing any research for a couple of days while we get used to living in our new house.

"Sydney, what are you doing here?" I asked her confused.

"It's nice to see you too Rose," she told me, rolling her eyes. I looked at her expectantly. She sighed. "I'm going to be gone for about a month for alchemist business. I wanted to drop off a couple of files for you to look through while I'm gone." I looked towards where she was pointing.

I groaned. Of course she would come with a mountain of work. Literally. There were about five boxes overflowing with papers. "That's not a couple of files. That will take us weeks to go through," I complained.

"That's the idea. You'll be able to get something done while I'm gone," she said. "I won't be able to do any research. It would be dangerous to go snooping through alchemist records in the alchemist headquarters."

I sighed. I knew we didn't really have a choice. And I did really want to figure out how to help Lissa. Adrian had been looking more and more gloomy every time I saw him. He was started to think Lissa might never recover from what was bugging her. He also wasn't sure how much longer Christian would be able to hold on. She had been so bitchy towards him lately. I felt bad for Christian. As much as we liked to argue, we were close and I knew this would be killing him.

Once Sydney seemed content that I would indeed be doing the work she assigned us, she left. No one in the Belikov house, aside from Olena and Viktoria knew what why Sydney was in the house so much. Viktoria knew because we told each other everything during our pregnancies. She's even helped me look through some of the files. Viktoria really has become my best friend. She has in no way replaced Lissa, but it's nice to have someone to confide in and talk to. But Karolina, Sonya, and even Yeva are confused by Sydney's constant presence.

They knew better than to ask by now, but I could see the burning curiosity in their eyes, particularly Yeva. Well, I don't know that I saw curiosity in her eyes, it was more like annoyance. I think she's still bitter that she hasn't figured it out yet. Yeva usually just knows things, they come to her. I think the reason she can't figure this out is because we don't really know what we're looking for.

Dimitri and I took our seats at the kitchen table, ignoring the stares of Sonya, Karolina, and Yeva. Viktoria looked at us knowingly. Now that she was moving in with us, I knew we would be able to breeze through the files.

Karolina kept looking back and forth between the two of us. She looked ready to burst with her questions. Which I found odd, because she had displayed the least amount of interest in prying into what we were doing with Sydney. After a moment, I put down my fork and turned to her. "Did you want to ask us something Karolina?" I asked her amused.

She looked at me seriously. "Are you seriously not going to tell us how your doctor's appointment went?" She demanded.

I could barely contain my laughter. I must be getting paranoid. I should have known that's what Karolina would be dying to hear about. "No we are," I reassured her. "I was just starving. I have a lot of mouths to feed."

Dimitri chuckled at my joke. "You're having twins?" Sonya asked, her eyes sparkling.

I shook my head. "Rose, if you're octomom I can't move in with you anymore," Viktoria joked. I knew she wasn't serious. I could be having ten babies and she would still move in with us.

"You're moving in with them?" Karolina asked surprised.

Viktoria nodded excitedly. "Dimka asked me after their doctor's appointment," she explained. She turned back to me. "But seriously, you're not really octomom are you?" She looked legitimately nervous.

"Not exactly," Dimitri said, echoing our doctor's earlier words.

I couldn't stop my laughter that time. "Not even close," I corrected him.

Dimitri shrugged. "Half way there. I would say that's pretty close," he pointed out.

I heard several audible gasps and Olena dropped the dish rag she had been holding. "Four?" She asked shocked.

I nodded, smiling tentatively. "Four as in quadruplets?" Viktoria asked. She was excited now. I guess to her, anything was better than eight babies. I nodded once again. Then the kitchen exploded. Everyone was shouting at once, everyone wanted to hug us or congratulate us.

Olena still stood in her spot on the wall, looking pale and confused. "Are… are you sure?" She asked uncertainly.

I nodded. "The doctor wasn't able to get a definite picture, but it looks like one of them is hiding behind two of their siblings," I explained as I pulled out one of the ultrasound pictures. "She said there's a possibility there is only three babies and the fuzzy picture is making it look like four, but in her professional opinion, we're having four. We'll know for sure in six weeks."

Olena held the picture carefully as if it were made of glass. "Are you sure you're ready for this?" She asked uncertainly. "You're going to have six kids to take care of. Eight babies in one house."

I thought back to my breakdown I had before when I was with Dimitri. I looked Olena right in the eye. "We can handle it," I told her as I grabbed Dimitri's hand.

Olena looked down at our intertwined hands and smiled. "I know you can dear, I know you can," she told me sincerely. She pulled me into a gentle hug. "I'm so happy for you two!"

"Thanks mom," Dimitri and I said at the same time. Once everyone had congratulated us, Dimitri insisted I finish eating my lunch. As he constantly reminded me, I was eating for five.