RPOV
Dimitri hadn't even been gone 3 hours and already I was losing my mind.
How could all the rest of my friends stand this? It was worse than medieval torture!
Not that I really had any idea what that was like…
Last time I'd checked, I'd never been stretched on a rack or had my limbs pulled apart by horses…
But even so, I had to believe this waiting was worse.
At least with that kind of pain, you knew the torture would end. Sure you might suffer an agonizing death, but once it was over, the pain ended.
If Dimitri didn't come home from this mission my pain would never end, and that was infinitely worse.
At least it was in my book.
For the first hour after he left, my friends did my best to distract me. Olena cooked me food, and Christian offered to let me make fun of him. He even supplied me with ample material. But after a few half-hearted attempts, even he could see that my heart wasn't in it, so he left to go help Lissa.
She was off overseeing the details for tonight, but I had passed on that distraction as well. Party planning was about a high on my list as getting a root canal.
So after all of their attempts had failed, I retreated to the solitude of my bedroom with the hope that maybe a nap would pass the time.
But it didn't.
Try as I might, sleep just seemed to evade me, and it was the reason I had resorted to this. I was still staring at the ceiling when I heard the door creak open.
I didn't bother looking for the culprit until I felt the bed under of the weight of someone beside me.
We laid in silence for an immeasurable amount of time before I got bored.
"Did you know there are 63 red tiles on this ceiling?" I asked.
Christian continued to lie there quietly after I asked, and I got the sense that he felt the need to count the checkerboard ceiling himself. When he finished he let out a snort.
"What the hell kind of number is that? I could understand a nice even number like 50 or maybe 100. But 63? What's up with that?" He asked.
When I didn't offer up an answer, he continued talking.
"I mean if you're going to go all the way to 63, why not take it a few steps further and make it 69? At least then you could find the humor in it. 69 tiles on your bedroom ceiling is at least symbolic."
When he reached the end of his ramblings, I couldn't help but laugh.
"Does Lissa know what a pervert she married?" I asked grinning widely.
Christian looked back at me with a devilish grin of his own and laughed.
"Not only does she know about it, she likes it." He smirked, causing my stomach to turn.
Christian's sex life was the last thing I wanted to think about. I'd been forced to witness more than enough of it in the past.
"In fact, you would be surprised by the things your Queen has asked me to do to her…" he trailed off when I cupped my hands over my ears tightly.
"Eww! Seriously dude, I thought you were here to cheer me up, not traumatize me!" I laughed.
Christian cackled evilly beside me.
"What can I say; I'm a jack of all trades. I'm so talented, I managed to do both at the same time."
That little shit…
"What's so funny?" Sydney asked opening the door. She had Juliet in one arm and a bag of books in the other.
"My sex life." Christian announced proudly as he crossed the room to offer her a hand. He took the bag of books for her while she claimed his previous sport on the bed.
Just the sight of Juliet brightened me, and I sat up to take the baby from her arms.
"Do I even want to know?" Sydney asked warily and I shook my head no.
"Trust me on this one." I told her, and Christian sat at the foot of the bed still laughing.
Sydney shrugged uninterested before gesturing for Christian to hand over her bag.
While she was busy spilling its contents onto the bed, I focused my attention on Juliet. She was exactly the kind of distraction I'd needed, but when everyone left earlier she had been asleep.
Thankfully she was awake now.
I watched in amusement as her bright emerald eyes searched my face curiously. The irrational joy I got from watching her make weird faces wasn't something I could easily explain. It just fascinated me.
Unfortunately for me, she had the attention span of a Nat and eventually her eyes drooped closed.
It seemed Juliet and I shared the same appreciation for sleep.
"What's all this?" Christian asked as he rifled through the contents on the bed.
The curiosity in his voice peaked my interest and I looked up from Juliet to investigate.
Scattered across the bed were an assortment of books, a few highlighters, some pens and notebook paper.
"It's Rose's distraction." Sydney smiled brightly.
"You're giving me homework?" I asked skeptically and it caused Christian to cackle loudly. "Thanks but no thanks Sydney. I mean I love you and all, but you're the only nerd I know that enjoys learning."
"It's true." Christian threw in. "It's a miracle Rose even graduated."
Sydney rolled her eyes at the both of us while I used my free hand to chuck a book at him. He tried to dodge it neatly, but he was no match for my aim, and I smiled in satisfaction when the book hit him.
"Ouch." He muttered rubbing the spot on his head where it hit him.
"It's not homework." Sydney explained, holding up one of the books for me to read.
"101 Baby Names." I said reading the title out loud. "That's what we're doing?"
Sydney nodded her head enthusiastically.
"Rose, that baby will be here in less than two months and you haven't even started to think about baby names!"
What was so weird about that?
We hadn't even learned the gender until two weeks ago.
"Ha!" Christian laughed loudly, holding up another book for me. "Check this one out. The Top 100 Worst Baby Names of All Time." He grinned flipping it open to a random page. "This is going to be awesome."
Sydney and I both laughed at his unexpected enthusiasm. This hardly seemed like his type of activity.
"What's so awesome about it?" Sydney asked picking up a different book to skim through. There were at least ten different kinds to choose from.
"Well unlike Rose here, Lissa has been throwing baby names at me for weeks now, and I'd be cool with it if she wasn't picking such lame names. Anyway just the other night she got mad at me for rejecting them and told me they were better than anything I could come up with…"
It was only because I knew him so well that I could see where this was going.
"Well you aren't going to find any good names in that book. I only brought it along for some laughs." Sydney explained practically.
Unlike me, she wasn't skilled in the art of reading his devious mind.
"That's the whole point." I told Sydney. "He wants to pick out the worst names just to annoy her."
Sydney looked at me disbelieving, but when she caught sight of Christian scribbling down a few names, she got her answer.
"You are unbelievable!" She announced chucking another book at him.
He was so preoccupied with his evil scheme; he didn't even see it coming.
"Hey!" He complained just as Lissa walked through the door. "What was that for?" He whined and Lissa watched on in amusement.
"I wouldn't mind knowing the answer to that myself."
The second he heard Lissa's voice behind him, he froze and Sydney and I burst into a fit of laughter.
DPOV
I couldn't get the image of Rose out of my mind.
She may have put on a brave face there at the end, but it was clear it nearly killed her to do so. Roza wasn't used to being the one left behind, and she wasn't handling it well now.
"She's tougher than you give her credit for."
The sound of Adrian's voice broke into my thoughts.
We were on the plane back to the rendezvous point where we would meet up with the rest of the team. In an effort to save time, we were bypassing a landing back at court, and instead found a small landing strip closer to our target.
"Look I know you're worried about her, but don't be. I've got Sydney all over this." Adrian continued slapping my shoulder. "Rose is going to be so preoccupied with Juliet; she won't even have time to miss you alright? Just focus on the task at hand."
There was a time when a pep talk from Adrian Ivashkov would feel as foreign to me as space travel, but now a days it was common place.
I suppose life is just funny that way.
As difficult as it was, I tried to do as he said but the sound of Janine's voice nearby distracted me.
"You weren't there Ibrahim; you didn't see how awful it went."
Janine's voice sounded stress but that didn't keep Abe from laughing.
"I'm sure it wasn't as bad as you think." He tried to console her, but she wouldn't have it.
"Trust me, it was worse. I told her I was there on guardian business." She said flatly and Abe laughed louder.
"Would you quit laughing!" she scolded him. "This is serious Ibrahim."
I silently wondered if this had anything to do with Janine's impromptu visit last night, and I strained my ears for a better listen/
"You need to stop worrying." Abe encouraged her. "Rosemarie knows how much you love her."
"That's easy for you to say." Janine muttered. "You two have a great relationship. Meanwhile I can't even have a conversation with my daughter that doesn't make me sound like a robot."
Abe chuckled once more but Janine continued.
"I went over there knowing all of the things I wanted to say to her, but then I get there and she goes and makes me crazy. I don't understand it Ibrahim, I just don't. Why can't we ever have just one normal conversation?"
There was such a vulnerability to her voice, and it sounded so out of place on Janine. It also sounded identical to something I've heard Rose say once before.
I smiled silently to myself knowing what Abe would say to her next.
"Janine my love, you are just too close to see it clearly, but for all the ways you claim that she's like me, she's so much more like you. She's beautiful and stubborn and tough as a battle axe. She is all those things because she's your daughter, and it's your similarities that drive each other insane."
From where I was sitting my view was obstructed, but I could have sworn I heard a sniffle.
Was Janine Hathaway crying?
"I know you wish your talk had gone better, but it's not necessary. Rose doesn't need a declaration of love from you, and she knows how much you care. You may not be able to show it in the same way as Olena, but that doesn't mean you love her any less. Olena shows her love by nurturing, while you my love show it with protection. You've been protecting Rose her whole life, even if she doesn't know it and you always show up when it counts. I promise you, she knows that."
"Do you really think so?" She asked so weakly, it didn't even sound like Janine.
"I know so." Abe answered her confidently.
When the silence between them dragged on, I thought their conversation was over, but just as I closed my eyes I heard Janine speak softly.
"You're sure Lissa got the letters?" she asked and Abe let out a heavy sigh.
"Yes Janine, I put them in her hands myself."
"And she knows what to do with them?" She continued to push.
Judging by the exasperated sounds he was making, he was tired of talking about this.
"Your directions were quite clear. Deliver them to Rose and Dimitri when the time is right. Now please dear, can we stop talking about this? If I have any say in the matter, those letters won't even be necessary and we both now I always have a say."
In a strange show of public affection, I heard the sound of their lips meet.
"I love you Ibrahim." She murmured softly and I heard the sound again.
"It's the only logical reason why you put up with me." He teased.
"Oh I don't know why I even bother with you!" She exclaimed hitting him playfully and the sound of Abe's throaty laugh echoed throughout the small plane.
I hadn't intended to eavesdrop on their private moment, but the conversation about Rose had caught my interest.
I wished there was some way that I could reassure Janine without letting her know that I was listening.
And while I hated to admit Abe was right about anything (because the man never let you forget it) he had been right about this.
Rose knew how much her mother loved her. She may have a hard time showing it, but Rose knew the love was there.
Now if only I could find out more about those letters she was talking about.
But that would have to wait.
When the fasten seat belt sign flashed overhead, I knew it was time to focus. If all went according to plan, then by this time tomorrow Tasha and her reign of terror would be nothing but a bad memory.
If all goes as planned…
Okay people, next chapter we'll see some action! But after an intense last chapter, I thought we all needed a little light hearted conversation.
Leave me your thoughts on how you want the fighting to play out.
I'll see what I can do : )
