Chapter 37

DPOV

"Could I talk to whoever's in charge here please?"

"Name?"

"Dimitri Belikov. FBI."

The young nurse nodded quickly and scurried away as though I'd arrest her on the spot; I couldn't help but smile to myself at the power one little badge held. I waited by the desk for no less than one hundred and twenty seconds before the nurse returned with an efficient looking middle-aged man in a suit.

"Mr Belikov, is it?" he held his hand out to shake mine.

"It is. And you are?"

"Doctor Derek O'Malley, Chief of Surgery and owner of this hospital. Can I help you with something?" He led me into his office.

"As I said, I'm Agent Dimitri Belikov," I repeated once the door was closed. "I'm the investigator in charge of the stolen files you reported last month."

After showing him some proof of identity and talking about the incident itself, Dr O'Malley presented me with a copy of one of the files that had reportedly gone missing. It was the record of a four-day stay by a woman who had given birth in the hospital a couple of years back. She went by the name of Galina Dolan.

"Was there anything unusual about this woman's stay in your hospital?" I asked him, scanning over the seemingly normal details of the record.

"Not that I can remember," he replied, leaning back in his chair. "I just don't understand why someone would want such information."

"Neither do I…yet. You said the baby's birth certificate went missing also?" he nodded. "Could I take a look at a copy of it?"

He sighed, looking tired. "I'm afraid not, Mr Belikov. We don't keep replicas of the birth certificates. There are only two copies - we have one and the mother of the child has the other."

I sighed. "Alright, thank you anyway."

I left the hospital feeling a little disappointed. Ok, so maybe this wasn't going to be as straight forward as I would have liked; I hadn't really gotten any useful information from my visit to the hospital, but I now knew the name of the woman whose files had been taken.

I dialled Abe's number as I hailed down a taxi.

"Belikov," he greeted me. "Work call or personal call?"

"Work."

"What do you need?"

"I need you to put a name through the system for me; Galina Dolan. I need all the information you can get me."

"I'll email you with the results later on." With that, he hung up and I instructed the taxi that had pulled over to take me to my mother's address. On arrival, I paid him the fair stood out in the open air. It was winter now, and the leaves from the now bare trees had accumulated in piles across the front of the lawn.

I checked my emails for the fifth time since calling Abe; still no update. Steele would have my head if I didn't get this case figured out and closed soon – I had already wasted a month doing nothing about it because I was focusing on my personal life.

There was a small tapping sound behind me. I turned to see Rose standing on the other side of the living room window with Luka, who had one small hand pressed up against the cool glass.

I took one look at Rose's smiling face as she pressed a kiss to our baby's cheek and pointed me out for him. That smile was all I needed to see for the stress I felt to melt away. Work was work, and now it was time for me to spend some time with my family and forget about work until tomorrow.

RPOV

"Look Luka, there's Dada." Luka let out a babble as he spotted Dimitri in the garden. I tapped gently on the window to get his attention. The creases in his forehead and the way he ran a hand through his hair told me that he was stressed.

He seemed to relax though when he spotted us and walked to the front door, waving at Luka as he did.

"What are you still doing up?" Dimitri asked Luka when he came through the door. "I thought you'd be down for your nap by now?"

"He was down, but then he woke. Must've smelt Olena's delicious dinner; I did all the way from the shower."

"Like mother like son," he kissed my forehead and reached for Luka. I let him take our baby into his arms and stretched my own. Luka had grown a lot since he was a new born – and gotten heavier too. Let's just say I was glad that I didn't have to breastfeed him anymore, because if that was the case, I was pretty sure that my arms would have some serious muscle cramps.

"Dinner!"

Olena's voice wafted from the kitchen along with the combination of gorgeous scents. I hurriedly followed the smells, leaving a very amused Dimitri behind me. He joined us of course, a couple of minutes later, and took the seat beside me.

"I thought I'd give him a bath after dinner," I told Dimitri. "The warm water usually tires him out anyway so it should be easier to get him down for the night."

"Good idea," he tilted the bottle further upwards so that Luka could finish off the remnants of milk inside of it. I was about to ask Karolina for the loan of her baby bath when I felt a soft tugging at my shoe.

Peeking out from under the table was Paul, looking not so innocent with his signature cheeky grin.

"Roza…is Luka old enough to play with me yet?"

"Not yet, Paul. But he does like it when you make funny faces at him," I suggested, giving his hair a ruffle. Paul's face lit up but quickly dropped again when Karolina spotted him under the table.

"Paul! Did you eat your vegetables?"

He grimaced. "No…"

"Well then, no playing until they're all gone."

"But mama!"

"No buts, Paul! Eat. Now."

I chuckled as the six year old dragged his feet back to his chair, just as Luka let out a cute yawn.

"Here," Dimitri handed me the baby. "I'll get the water warmed before he falls asleep."

"Remember how loud he used to be?" Dimitri asked me. We were both kneeling by the bath; Dimitri holding Luka in the warm water while I gently washed down his body. I paused though to give him an incredulous look.

"What do you mean 'used to be'? He's still loud!"

"But he's not as bad as he was when we first brought him home. Remember all of those completely sleepless nights we had? How much we resembled zombies?"

"I was probably too busy being a member of the walking dead to notice how tired I was," I joked. "At least he's sleeping better now. I don't think either of us could've handled it any longer."

Dimitri shifted him so that I could wash his hair.

"I feel bad hiring Avery and then leaving for a few weeks so suddenly," I told him. "Do you think she minds?"

"I wouldn't imagine so. It's probably worked out better for us though. We need to earn some more money to make sure we can afford to have her full time." It was true. Having a baby was expensive enough, and we had added a new house to that particular pile of bills. Even though I was on paid leave, it wasn't as much as I had originally been getting, making me even eager to return to work soon. There was still a difference between mine and Dimitri's pay checks due to his recent promotion, but if we piled our monthly wages together, we'd most definitely be able to manage our payments perfectly fine, along with basic needs and necessities.

I took Luka from his arms as he went to retrieve the fluffy white towel from the radiator. With our joint effort, we managed to get Luka from the cooling bath water to the warm towel in only a few seconds.

"His breathing sounds really good," I commented, noticing our baby's almost silent inhalation. "I don't think we're going to have any more problems with his lung."

"It doesn't look like it at this stage," Dimitri agreed happily. It was amazing how much younger he looked just by feeling happy on the inside; it didn't even matter if he had gotten two hours sleep or ten hours sleep the night before. It made me feel warm that Luka and I were the ones to make him feel that way, and I couldn't help but lean into his chest.

He wrapped his arms around me and ergo, Luka in his soft towel. I could feel his lips form a smile as he placed a kiss on my head.

"I think someone might be tired," he whispered and I glanced down at Luka. His eyes were drooping slowly, and then opening quickly for fear he was missing something…but then slowly, his eyelids would drop again.

I dried him quickly but gently. Before we put him down for the night, I made sure he wasn't damp in the slightest, and then snuggled him up in the blankets in the cot. Dimitri switched the baby monitor on and the light off, and we retired to our own room.

Once in my warm pyjamas, I climbed into my side of the bed, not bothering to wait for Dimitri who'd had a work phone call to make. He was still dressed in the clothes he had been wearing earlier the next time he came into the room. I was just drifting off to sleep.

"Goodnight, Roza." He kissed my temple and I heard a smile in his voice as I nestled deep into the covers. "Sweet dreams."

As my vision darkened and sleep began to take over, I was vaguely aware that he left the room again; either to check on Luka or say goodnight to his family. Maybe both. That was ok with me, but I couldn't wait until his warm body would suddenly appear against my back, his arms wrapping around me and holding me tightly. It was routine at this stage; and I loved it.

I want to sincerely apologise if you guys don't see me for a long time, because you see, I have managed to get my hands on a copy of The Fiery Heart…and well, you know the rest. I will be in hibernation while reading it, and once finished, I'm pretty sure I will fall into a coma because of it's awesomeness.

So, yeah, see you guys when I see you ;)

(I'm just kidding; I would never leave you guys ;) I'll update ASAP, with news on how I'm getting on with reading TFH :P)

-Also, apologies for short chapter. I had to post this before I became to engrossed in TFH :D