A/N: I own nothing, Richelle Mead does.

RPOV

"So what happens now? I mean, Victor's gone, Tatiana's gone, Lissa is waiting to take her position in the throne and it's aranged so that I can still guard Liss while you guard Christian. I don't see ghost any more and Liss says my aura is as bright a can be. Actually she compared me to that of a light bulb but you get the point right? What do we do next?"

Dimitri, speechless and taken aback by my question leaned his head back against the headboard. He thought about it for the longest of times. It never occurred to either of us to think about what might happen if things worked in our favor for once. We'd both assumed that this treachorous road we're on ended with one of our deaths or maybe both. I thought that once Victor was taken care of another problem would be standing right behind him, maybe death would take it upon him self see to it that I'm "taken care of". That could only happen to me, a girl who's died more than once and yet ironically lives to tell about it.

"I don't know. It all seems like everything's worked out but I dont want to get our hopes up," he finally anwsers.

We sit, words unsaid. I watch the sunight move across the opposite wall of my hospital room and fade before I drift off to sleep.

I wake up in the sparring room, sprawed on the floor. There's someone in the room with me with a golden hue around them, light practically eminating from her wild hair.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me!" I exclaim sitting up. I stand, arms crossed over my chest. "No offense mom but this wasn't exactly the dream I was hoping for."

She turns away from the window with a hint of a smile, clad in her exercise outfit, her hair sprung every which way yet she still looks...beautiful. I suppose I had to get my good looks from somewhere.

"What, were you planning on dreaming about Guardian Belikov tonight?"

I feel my eyes widen and i stumble a step back. She gives a small laugh at having the upperhand on my snarky attitude for once.

"You think I didn't notice? You both made it very hard not to."

"DID EVERYONE KNOW?" My voices echos off the walls. "Everyone makes it seem like Dimitri and I were all over each other in public."

"I don't know how everyone else knew but I'm your mother. These things I notice about my lovestruck daughter. Or noticed actually," she corrects. I avert the topic away from her untimely death.

"You make it sound so bad." I go to sit beside her ontop of the many layers of sparring matts.

"It isn't like I didn't think you'd be involved with men but your mentor, Rose? Really, of all the men in our society and you fall for your teacher. Couldn't you have gotten pregnant like those normal human teenagers?"

We laugh. If all it took was for my mom to die to be light hearted, is it terrible of me to say it's good that she did.

"Well with Dimitri, I won't be getting pregnant anytime soon."

"That's a positive. Don't ruin your life like I did."

"I ruined your life?"

"No, I did. When I was about your age. It doesn't matter any more but these are things I should have told you before. I made bad decisions and paid for them all in the end but I don't regret any of them. If I did, I probably wouldn't have you as my daughter."

She playfully nudges me. In a weird sense, I have my mom back. We look up at our reflections in the mirror.

"I guess we do look alike," I admit.

"Yeah. You get your hair and those eyes from your father though."

"Do I want to know who he is?"

"That's sort of a trick question. Do you want to meet the person you inherited that flippy attitude from?"

"Do I want to meet another me? I think I'm good for now."

"If you change your mind, you know where to find me."

"I dont get it. I thought I stopped seeing ghost. Or maybe since this is a dream it doesnt really count?"

"That i something your going to have to figure out on your own. You've made it this far. You'll make it even farther in your very long life." She looks down at the watch on her wrist.

"Time still works when you're dead?" I ask.

"I guess so. This is your dream though and you wouldnt have dreamt me up if you didn't need me."

I sat for a second. I did need my mom for once. I missed her.

"Maybe I dreamt you up because I never got to say goodbye. I meant to at your funeral but there was this-"

"-battle. I know. I saw."

"Yeah. Don't worry though. You're going to be burried pretty soon wth the rest of your fallen comrades, this time without anything happening."

"That's good. So you dreamed me up to say goodbye but that's not it is it?"

"I...I'm scared. What happens now? High School is about to end and now it's life. REAL life. I don't know what to do. Dimitri doesn't know either which makes it even more scarrier."

"Be patient. Dimitri is still pretty young. I'm sure he relies on you as mch as you rely on him. He'll take good care of you though. He loves you."

"Yeah, he does," I say smug.

She hesitates before asking another qestoin. "Have you guys been,,,you know..."

"Don't ask a qestion you don't want the answer to," is my reply.

"Yeah your probably right," she laughs and looks at her watch again.

"I have to go soon. I want you to know that I am proud of you. I'm glad you have someone to fight beside you and make you stronger when you need it. Be careful out there Rose."

The dream fades.

DPOV

What do we do? Do we contine living by the original code we were broght up to follow or does everything change now?

Life for us both is about to change and the only thing we can do is be ready for it when it does.

Rose stirrs in my arms having drifted asleep. She mumbles something about a 'goodbye' and her eyes flutter open. Her grip on my sweater loosens and she stretches, hair plastered to the side of her face and her hospital gown crumpled.

"What time is it?" she yawns still in a stretch.

"Midnight. Did you have a good dream?"

"Yeah. I dreamt about my mom and we...talked. No arguing. It was nice. She knew about us by the way."

"Figures. So the only people who wouldnt admit we were in a relationship was us."

"Pretty much."

She slowly sits up and leans against my shouler, burrying her facr into my neck.

"She told me the only thing we can do is be patient and let the road lead us to where it wants to."

"Same conclusion I came to."

"So we let life take us where it wants to."

"Basically."

"That's a trip i'm ready for."

"Me too."

She kisses the side of my cheek, in a way sealing our fate.