"I'm so happy to see you."

My mother smothers Rose into a one of her tightest hugs. Rose patted her reassuringly that she was all right and probably hoping she'd loosen a bit so that she could get some air. She looks to me for help but I can't help but smile at the pained expression on Rose's face from my mother's grasp.

"I'm all right Mama Belikov," Rose said hoarsely. "Really."

My mother pulled Rose far enough away from her self to look her over.

"I'm glad. You could use a good meal though," she commented turning Rose from side to side. "I'm really ashamed of myself. We all are," she says suddenly serious.

Rose looked confused.

"Why? You didn't do anything."

My mother hung her head low and sighed. "For a while, after the car accident, I thought it was best if maybe Dimitri and you were apart."

Rose's round eyes softened knowingly. "I know. I understand, though. If it was my family I would've done the same thing."

"Well, you should probably know that now, we are supporting you one hundred percent and we are going to help you by any means necessary. You are family and we don't turn away family. Family is thicker than blood."

Rose's cheeks lifted into a smile. "Thank you, really. I still think this is way too dangerous-"

She waved Rose's words off. "I raised a good son, a big six foot seven son that is more than capable of protecting someone, especially the woman he loves."

Rose laughed looking at me for reassurance of my love.

"It's true," I told her.

My mother clapped excitedly and looked from me to Rose.

On a lighter note my mother said smiling, "Besides, I always love new additions to our large family."

She was quick to grab another hug out of Rose before moving toward the refrigerator pulling food out left and right. I pulled Rose toward me and she rested against my chest against my heart. I was never really one to imagine myself in any type of real relationship nor had I ever really experienced the strong feelings that were building up inside of me but if I had to pick one of those few perfect moments out of the many terrible moments, this was one of them. Having Rose so close that we were practically molded into one being was one of the best feelings in the world, despite the fact that my mother was a countertop away.

"Well, everyone else is at school and work but maybe that's for the better. The fewer people that know what's going on the better," mom said making some huge meal. "So what's the plan so far?"

I explained everything that happened and what our plans were.

"The beginning of my plans mostly involved getting Rose out of that house to get her here," I admit.

I hadn't really thought beyond that.

"I'm just glad you got me out," Rose said, reaching for one of the cucumbers my mother was chopping.

"I think the only thing we can do next is to get Rose as far away from Baia as possible. Maybe even out of Russia," mom proposed.

I sighed suddenly thinking of how homesick I'd felt when I'd first left my family to live out on my own. I was younger then, and alone. Now I had someone to travel with I had a few more years of experience as a young adult.

I was worried what troubles awaited us once Adrian or Abe had discovered we'd left.

"I figured."

Rose, noticing the sadness in my voice, looked up at me. She held her hand against my cheek.

"You don't have to leave," she assured me.

I realized then that she had interpreted my sigh a snot wanting to leave.

"We stay together, Rose," I reminded her. "I was just thinking how difficult it would be for everyone that still here once it's realized that we're gone."

She relaxed a bit, falling against me.

She was as afraid of being alone in the world as much as I was afraid of being without her.

"We can handle things here. You just think about where you two are going to go," my mother said.

"I'd like to go home more than anything," Rose mumbled.

"Where's home?"

"Montana," she answered my mother.

I remembered Rose story about her family and how often they moved but Montana was the home they had returned to.

"That might be a good idea. You're family with the area there and you can find a safe place to hide until we think of a more permanent plan," my mother suggested.

"I think the more permanent plan involves finding enough proof or evidence and maybe people to help us bring down Abe and Adrian," I pointed out.

"Well he has plenty of enemies in Montana. Once he realized his businesses were failing, he ripped off and fired all of his employees and I'm pretty sure he owes money to a loan shark or two, people who agreed to support him in the elections so long he did a few favors for them. At least that's what I heard when he was talking to Adrian the other night," Rose explained.

"But won't he anticipate that we'll head home to Montana. It's too obvious a place."

"Maybe, maybe not. There's nothing there for me except really bad memories." She stared down at her hands remembering. I hugged her closer trying to send her as much comfort as I could. "I'd love to see my sibling's graves. If I 'm going to go on the run or whatever it is we're doing, I'd like to see their graves at least once in my life."

"You've never visited?" I asked curious.

She shook her head. "Lissa was buried so quickly in a private ceremony because the police were already investigating my father somewhat for money laundering or something but they had nothing concrete to arrest him. They told everyone that she hit her head, which isn't technically a lie," she muttered. "I wasn't allowed to go see her. I'm lucky they even buried her at all instead of having one of their mob friends do their dirty work but you know my parents, it's all about show."

"And your brother?"

"I don't know. I only know they buried Lissa. She was the popular one. Andre stayed on the sidelines, few friends."

"It wouldn't hurt to make a pit stop to Montana and then you two can move on to a bigger city like New York or Los Angeles," my mother said. "You might find something that can help you along the way."

"Sounds like a plan. Somewhat of a plan anyway," I decided.

"So we're going home?" Rose asked hopeful.

I nodded.

Her face lit up. "This could work. Maybe we could get the police there to help us. We could tell them what happened. They were already suspicious of Abe."

"I hope so." I turned to my mother who was shoving plastic food ware into a large recyclable grocery bag.

"And what are you doing?"

"You can't leave here on an empty stomach, Dimka! What kind of mother or future mother-in-law would that make me?" she asked incredulous.

Rose laughed; reaching for one of the Tupperware my mother had left out full of fruit. She chewed on an apple slice happily. I thought about how weird it would be taking care of someone new, someone I was still getting to know but knew I loved.

I was willing to take all of these chances though. My family was more than capable of taking care of themselves. I was strong because of them and now I had to move on to help someone else.

This plan we had, had a few holes but I had hope that it would work. At least it was a plan. It was better than nothing.

"I'm still worried about leaving you guys here," I said turning to my mother.

"Oh, Dimka! We survived your father didn't we?" My mother said tucking a handful of sandwiches into more Tupperware.

"After I beat the hell out of him," I mumbled.

Rose sat up looking from me to my mother. "This is a story I definitely have to hear."

"If we survive this, I'll be sure to tell it to you."