"Mumma. Mumma, 'ook!" Alexander said and patted my knee.

I put the phone down in its cradle and put Alexander on my knee. He was holding apiece of paper that had lines all over it in a few colours. I'd just called Dimitri's Mum and explained what was going on. We'd spoken for about an hour and she asked me more questions than Tatiana had. I was exhausted, completely mentally and emotionally drained, and it was only half six in the evening.

"What have you got there?" I asked looking at the picture he'd drawn. "Who is it?"

"Unca Dima!" he exclaimed. "When Unca Dima here gen?"

"When's Uncle Dimka coming over?" I asked. I sighed. "I don't know, Alexander. He's… ill at the moment," I simplified. "He might come over soon."

"Well soon?" he asked.

"I hope so."

"Give pishur?"

"Sure, I bet he'll like it."

I put him to bed a little while later and just after that Mum and Dad came round. I sunk into the sofa between them and rested my head on Mum's shoulder.

"Being Strigoi destroyed him," I whispered.

"He'll get back up on his feet," Dad said.

I nodded. "I need to call Stiva and Inna."

Dad picked up the phone for me, but just as I was about to call Stiva it rang.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Hans here. The Queen has ordered me to take you off time table so that you can help Dimitri. You're allowed down here whenever you want. Princess Vasilisa also called. She'd going to be here for haft ten," he hung up.

"I think I'm in the bad books," I said with a happy smile as I dialled Stiva. Only the phone rang again.

"Tasha called me," Inna said before I could say anything. "Is it true? Have you seen him?"

I laughed. "Yes! He's dhampir."

"Ah ha! I knew it!" she cheered. "Olga said it wasn't possible. How is he?"

"Not in a good place," I sighed.

"I have some holiday time racked up. I'm coming over. Olga!" I heard her call just before she hung up.

"Jazz!" Tasha called from the door.

I frowned. Since the whole none event with Dimitri we'd hardly spoken. I wondered why she sounded so happy and what the hell she was doing in my house, especially when she walked into the lounge like she owned it and sat in one of the chairs as if she'd been living here the whole time?

"Stiva's coming over. He'll be here in a few hours," she said. "Want to come to the landing strip with me?"

"Whoa hang on a minute," I said and stood up. "Just what makes you think you can waltz into my house?"

"Carol, did you hear Alexander?" Dad asked her.

"I think I did," she replied and swiftly walked out of the room with Dad.

They closed the lounge door.

"Now, Jazz – "

"No, Tasha. You haven't spoken to me for seven years! Ivan was one of your best friends and you haven't once been over to see Alexander even though I emailed you about him as soon as I found out and now here you are?! What the hell?"

She looked taken aback and opened and closed her mouth a few times. Then she narrowed her eyes. "You weren't exactly there for me when Lucas and Moira came back."

"I called you as soon as I found out. You told me to stay away."

"I was an emotional wreck."

"Exactly. It's called giving you time. And I was an emotional wreck at the time too. But even so I always asked Dimka, Stiva and Inna how you are."

She slid her jaw to the side and then firmly said, "I'm here for my Dimka."

I had a feeling I wasn't supposed to hear the 'my' part, but I knew what it meant. "Trust me, he isn't ready for a relationship now. And he's got Rose."

She shrunk in her chair. "I know. I just… Never really got over him."

"Aren't you dating someone?" I asked.

"Casually," she said flippantly. "Can we just be friends now? I have missed you."

I sighed and sat back down. "Fine. Friends. Tentative friends. No barging in like this again, right?"

She blushed a little. "Sorry. Oh, I've got this." She reached into a pocket and pulled out her purse. From that she pulled out a Polaroid and passed it over to me. "The colour's faded a bit."

It was a picture from graduation of Dimka, Stiva, Inna, me and Ivan. We were completely oblivious to the photo being taken so we were all laughing at Ivan who had just opened a can of coke that had erupted and fizzed everywhere. I smiled remembering the sound of our laughter and the happiness in all of our hearts. I traced Ivan's face with my finger and for a moment swore I could feel his arms around me.

"I have a copy. You keep that one," she said softly.

I smiled up at her. "Thank you."

"Christian tells me you yelled at Lissa," she said.

"I set a few rules," I said. "Dimitri said he's a good kid."

She smiled. "He is. Lissa brings out the best in him."

I made Tasha hurry over to the landing strip even though we left with plenty of time. I walked quickly and ushered her along. I didn't care much that it was cold and I wasn't dressed for it. Tasha had a thick jumper on and was still shivering. I just told her to walk faster not caring that I was acting like a child. Happiness and excitement was building up inside me and I was bursting with it.

"Seriously, when was the last time you saw him?" Tasha asked.

"When he went on assignment," I said.

We got to the landing strip and waited the last ten minutes in the cold looking up to the sky, waiting for a plane. Eventually we heard the engines and saw the lights. It felt like a lot more than ten minutes that we waited for and I grew steadily more impatient. I ended up walking around in circles and bouncing on the balls of my feet. Tasha laughed at me a few times as I growled at the sky and told him to hurry up. Then I cheered and pointed like a little kid when I saw the plane.

"Did you grow up?" she asked.

I ignored her and rushed over to the plane when the door opened. The first person out was a guardian I didn't know, then there was a Moroi I didn't know and then the familiar sandy blonde head of hair stepped out of the plane with a huge smile on his face.

"Stiva!" I called excitedly and ran over.

He looked over and his eyes opened wide and a grin cracked his lips. He hurried down the steps as fast as he could without knocking his charge and guarding partner over and dumped his suitcase on the floor. I was swept into a once familiar bear hug and he more or less crushed me with his big strong arms. I let him since I was hugging him back just as fiercely. He was laughing and I was laughing too.

"I'm so glad you're here," I told him.

"How are you?" he asked and gently pushed me away so that he could look into my eyes.

"Fine," I smiled. "You?"

"I'll be better when I can see Dimitri," he said worriedly.

"That's gonna take a while. He's in a bad place. He doesn't believe he deserves this second chance."

He sighed. "Right. We'll get him back on his feet." He looked over my shoulder and frowned. "Are you two talking now?"

"We're 'tentative friends'. Did I mention that I'm so glad you're here?"

We walked over to Tasha who said a quick hello but then declared herself tired and went back to her place. Stiva came with me back to mine and we chatted the whole way about nothing important. Mum and Dad were still up when we got back. They were sat in the lounge watching a comedy show.

"Hiya," Mum smiled.

"Mrs. Stanton," Stiva nodded. "Mr – "

"Carol and Nikolai," Dad corrected and then asked me, "Are you staying in now?"

"Yeah. Thanks for covering my shift earlier."

"No problem, kiddo," he said and got up. "Well, we're off home."

"I'll be over at half eleven –"

"I'm not on rota anymore. Princess Vasilisa's going to see Dimitri at half ten and I have to be there. I'm not sure how long I'll be."

"Ok, I'll be here for ten." Mum said and kissed my cheek. "Night, Jasmine."

"Night, Mum."

They walked out. Stiva stayed stood up until the door was closed and then plopped himself down in a chair. "Wow."

"What?"

"I never thought I'd see a human here."

I shrugged. "Mum's awesome like that. Coffee?"

"Tell me what happened," he said.

I sat in a chair. "Long story short, Rose – the student he fell in love with – didn't stake him right and he went after her. She learned how to restore someone and was going to go after him, but he managed to get Lissa and Christian first. There was a huge rescue and Lissa managed to get him in the heart with a spirit infused stake which turned him back but only someone with spirit can do it. Now he's dhampir again and an emotional wreck because of the things he did while strigoi which he probably isn't going to forgive himself for."

He nodded. "Ok. But, who's Lissa?"

"Vasilisa. She prefers an American alternative. Apparently Vasya is old world," I explained.

He nodded again and ran a finger over his lip in thought. "What's being done to help Dimka?"

"Lissa and I spoke to him today, but Hans – the head guardian here now – still sees him as a security risk, but that might be because he had no idea until now that this was possible. Lissa, the idiot, used compulsion on him so that she can see Dimitri."

He sucked in a breath. "Risky, but my mouth is sealed."

"Queen Tatiana's on board though. She's being clever about it – not stepping security down too quickly and all that. I don't like it, but it's also to stop people panicking and whatever." I shrugged. "I'm going to talk to Hans tomorrow and see about a little bit of freedom."

"Freedom?" he asked.

"He's in a cell."

He nodded thoughtfully again. "He's also under guard?"

"Six of them."

Another nod.

"And I'm not allowed to be one of them because I'm too close to the situation. However I'm allowed to see him whenever I want."

"That's good," he conceded. "Do you think he'll see me?"

I let out a slow breath. "He won't let his mum come over and see him. I dunno." I slipped into English. "Eventually. Maybe not tomorrow."

"He'll want to wrap his head around me even being here?" he asked.

"Maybe. Stiva… Sti, he's so different. He doesn't feel much, just sadness and the odd spark of gratitude, but he doesn't really let that show. Did you see him after Ivan died?"

He nodded. "He took it just as hard as you."

"Yeah. Well, he's not even anything like that serious Dimitri. He just looks so small and… helpless."

And for me that was the worst part in all of this. Even when faced with the strigoi at school he hadn't been helpless. He'd always been able to do something and help people. He was proactive and larger than life almost.

"Maybe he's scared."

"Fear never got him down either," I said in a whisper. "Not even when he killed his first strigoi. He just got on with it and dealt with it. Sure he was sad and needed us to lean on for a while, but he didn't look like this."

"We'll help him, Jazz."

"I know."

Please R&R!

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VA belongs to Richelle Mead