Okay, to the spineless 'guest' who has been reviewing of late... you've got my attention... Is that what you want? As far as I can tell, you must have a pretty pathetic life. I really pity you that your only form of entertainment comes in the form of reading all of my stories only to send derogatory, error filled reviews. But you know, if you really want to get the attention you so obviously think you deserve, why not grow a spine and send in your reviews under a real name and not as a guest... I'm sure that you'd get more than your small little ego could handle... You really are pathetic. Get a life, better yet, get some talent and write your own stories... but let me know who you are so I can bow down to your writing brilliance... After all, you must be the worlds best author...
I don't make you read my stories. If you find them so offensive to you imagined superiority... please, by all means, stop reading them... Trust me, I won't miss you. You do realise that I just delete them anyway... But then with your mentality, you probably don't.

But if you want to keep sending in your idiotic, pathetic, spineless, gutless reviews... please do. It's good to see that there are other people out there who have a worse life then me...

=x=

Okay, sorry for taking so long to update... With two stories going, it's a little harder to get them up as fast as I was before...
I can't wait till you all read the next chapter of Alternate Universe... It's a crack up! hehehehe
Anyway... Enjoy everyone...

Chapter Thirty-five.

Blood ties...

I continued to keep my eyes shut tight and my head to one side. He let go of one of my wrists and he pulled my face back to his, wiping my tears away. I felt him kiss me and a traitorous sob escaped from me. "I'm so sorry..." I said to him. He pulled himself off me and sat beside me; his arms reaching around me pulling my body into his.

"Sorry for what? You didn't go into that fighting trance you go into, you fought with focus, why on earth would you be sorry?" I wanted to tell him, but I had to get myself under control first, and I didn't know how he'd react; he still held a lot of guilt over what happened in Russia.

"When you came into the gym... what you said... your voice..." the last part a whisper... he looked at me confused. "It was what you said...in the trees, when..." Suddenly he realised what I meant and guilt flooded into his eyes...as I knew it would. I turned away from him again and pulled myself out of his arms and stood up to leave. He grabbed out at my hand...

"Don't leave..." he whispered. Since getting him back I have never looked at him and seen the 'strigoi' version of him, the one who hurt me, I only ever saw the man I loved, but this particular time; what he said and how he said it, it just transported me back to that instance in time. I walked back to him and he pulled me into his lap. Looking into his eyes, all I could see was pain, pain that I just inflicted. "How often?" he asked. I knew what he meant... he wanted to know how many times had I looked at him and only seen the strigoi version of him.

"This was the first time. I'm so sorry Dimitri." He shook his head.

"You are the last one who should feel sorry Roza. I forgot; I try not to say the things that I said to you when..." he stopped and looked down at our joined hands. "I think that if you want to continue training, you should train with Mitchell from now on."

"No, that's not what I want. I want you, I know you won't forget about our baby and hit in the wrong spot, I know that I can train safely with you. I trust you..." I reached up and touched his eyelids with my finger. "I hate seeing the hurt in your eyes." He opened his eyes and looked at me. "You can't protect me from the past, what happened, happened; neither one of us can change it, and I wouldn't even if I could." He looked at me like I'd lost my mind. "If that week had never happened...I wouldn't have you here with me now, I wouldn't be carrying your child and either you, me or both of us would probably be dead. If it wasn't for that week, I wouldn't have known that I could save you. I wanted you to start training with me again like we used to; when we started falling in love...we'll leave the hunting for a little later on." I said the last part with a little smile and he gave me a small one of his own that really didn't show any humour.

"I'd give anything to be able to take those memories away."

"Well, you can't. So how about we make some new ones. I love you Mr Belikov, more than I ever thought it was possible to love another person, now will you please try to punch me?" I grinned. He tried not to laugh, but a smile did escape as he shook his head at me again.

"I love you too Mrs Belikova and you're on." I smiled widely as we got up and went to the centre of the gym. We faced each other and fell into the fighting stance. We started to circle to the right, never taking our eyes away from each other, but watching each other's arms and legs in our peripheral vision. I smiled at him and then licked my lips. He shook his head as he leapt forward... We sparred for nearly an hour, well I sparred, he blocked...and it was wonderful. We were walking back to the apartment laughing about some of the moves we'd done; he even gave me some more pointers... I felt on top of the world... Just then Dimitri's phone rang.

"Hello." He said. Whoever it was had his attention as Dimitri stopped walking and looked at me as he spoke. "Yes, we'll be there shortly, thank you Doctor." He closed the phone up and started walking again. "Let's get cleaned up shall we, the doctor has some results and I don't think he'd appreciate us in our current state."

We arrived at the clinic in half an hour as we borrowed the car of the apartment guard. "Thank you for coming so quickly Guardians, I'll get straight to it shall I?" we both nodded. "Rose, your blood work has me a little concerned. You're terribly anaemic and your blood is a little thicker than it should be. Normally that's caused by a kink in the clotting process, but there are markers in your blood which show that this isn't the case. We think that it has something to do with the baby; we think it's taking certain elements out of your blood for itself. If left untreated it can lead to widespread hormonal and nutritional deficiencies, miscarriage and other chronic conditions." Panic shot through me when he mentioned miscarriage... "You said that you've had a heightened awareness to blood since being pregnant."

"Yes, I have a burning in my chest and throat whenever I think about it or if I'm around it." Dimitri squeezed my hand. The doctor sat there nodding his head and tapping his pen on the desk.

"Have you tried to drink it?"

"No."

"Do you want to?" He didn't say this in a condescending way, but it did take me back a little... The thought of tasting it at first disgusted me... I'd always hated going into the feeding rooms, but then the thirst flared and I closed my eyes and swallowed hard. I really hadn't thought about how I would get blood into me if that's what I actually needed, but here I was...about to find out how it was going to...go down, as it were. I opened my eyes and took a deep breath. If I was going to do this, it wasn't going to be in front of Dimitri.

"I need to talk to the doctor alone, do you mind?" I asked him. He seemed to know why I asked him this as he gave me one of those annoying smiles he gave me whenever he knew what I was thinking. He leant over and kissed me softly.

"Of course, I'll be outside in the waiting room." Then he walked out the door. I looked back to the doctor.

"I don't know if I can do that." I said honestly. "What if I can't, how am I...?"

"Rose, it's alright. If you can't or you don't want to even try it, then we'll have to see if giving it to you intravenously will do the same thing. But I would like to try it the old fashioned way first, if you can. When Moroi feed, the blood goes to the stomach, same as when you eat, but when Dhampirs such as yourself can't eat for some reason, we'd normally put a tube in so you wouldn't starve, but I didn't think you'd want a tube stuck up your nose for the next three months." My forehead creased at the thought...

"Not friggin likely." I responded. He smiled and nodded to himself.

"Do you want to try? I can go get some for you if you want." He waited while I thought about it and as I did, the thirst was almost too much. I nodded quickly and he got up and walked out the other door that led out of his office. He came back in a couple of minutes holding a silver cup, a thermal one that we sometimes used if we were out on patrol in the dead of winter. I stared at it as he walked to me, but when he held the cup out I couldn't move; seeing my reluctance to take it he put it down on his desk and put a hand on my shoulder. "Would you mind if I leave you with it, I forgot to see a patient?" I nodded, silently thanking him for giving me the space I needed.

I heard the door click shut as I stared at the cup... I reached forward and grabbed it, my heart thumping, and took the lid off. The instant I caught the scent my mouth came alive... I swallowed a few times and lifted it to my lips. I was so confused...I'd spent all my life, slightly disgusted at watching Moroi feeding, but the smell of this blood was taking over my senses... I tilted the cup a little more and it touched my lips. I pulled it away with shaking hands and my tongue automatically licked at the liquid that was now on them... OH GOD! It was amazing... I brought the cup to my mouth again but this time I didn't hesitate... I drank hungrily... I could feel the warmth as it poured down my throat, that same warmth that was now spreading to every inch of my body. I pulled the empty cup away and licked the blood from my lips. I sat there feeling totally satisfied... and that feeling alone scared the hell out of me. Just then I felt the first movements of my child. I squeezed my eyes shut knowing that this was exactly what my child had wanted. I jumped out of my chair and ran out the door and headed straight for the waiting room.

As I got there, Dimitri looked up... I don't know what my face looked like but he flew across the room and stood a foot away from me. "What's wrong? Are you alright?" he whispered. I placed his hands on my stomach as I stared into his eyes. They widened and he smiled as he felt his child move for the first time.

"It's what it was waiting for..." I said. Realisation crossed his face as he comprehended what I'd just said.

"Was it...alright?" he asked. I nodded and looked to my stomach.

"But it's something I think I need to do alone, at least for the time being, do you mind?" He put a hand under my chin and lifted my face to his.

"No, I don't mind. You are the strongest person I know Rose, you will get through this, be it on your own or with me at your side. But always know that even if you are in that room alone, I am still with you." Then he bent down and kissed me softly.

"Everything alright?" asked the doctor from behind me. I turned to face him.

"Everything is good Doctor. The baby moved...afterwards." I said. He smiled and nodded.

"Good. You didn't have a problem, any reaction?"

"No." I said slightly embarrassed to be discussing this in front of Dimitri.

"Well then, as you already know, Moroi need to drink at least every day, over time you will probably notice when the cravings start and you'll need to come in for some more... to drink." I really liked this doctor; he was doing everything he could so I didn't feel too uncomfortable. "If you need me for anything, any time of the day or night, you can reach me on my private cell." He said handing me a card.

"Doctor, can we speak to you for a minute?" I asked him. He nodded and then we followed him back to his office.

"What can do for you Rose?"

"Well, have you spoken to Yelena Zahkov yet? Done any tests?"

"Yes we've spoken, but no tests yet, they'll start tomorrow, why?"

"Well, you're obviously aware that she is the child of two Dhampir's, one of which was returned from a strigoi." He nodded but didn't say anything. "Like us. Well, she told me that she doesn't eat, at all. Do you think that's why I've had these cravings? Why they've been so strong?" He thought about that briefly and started to nod his head.

"Well, it's very possible I suppose. If in fact your child is like Yelena, then that could be what's going on. As far as I know, Yelena is the only Moroi that doesn't eat any food at all other than blood, so we're really going into uncharted territory so to speak. In a few weeks, I'd like to do a test called an amniocentesis, it's where a fine needle is put in through your stomach and a small amount of the amniotic fluid that is around your child is taken out. This fluid contains your child's DNA, and it can tell us the child's state of health, what sex and it may even tell us if the baby will be the same as Yelena; as far as eating habits go."

"Is it dangerous, to the child?" asked Dimitri.

"There are some slight risks," he said handing me a small pamphlet. "Read this and let me know if it's something that you wish to proceed with. Tests would need to be done on the baby when it's born anyway, to see if it needs anything other than blood, this way, we can find it out before hand and be ready." Just then I got a bolt of pain in my stomach and I groaned as I wrapped my arms around myself.

"What's wrong?" asked Dimitri.

"Um...Nothing," I said as I thought about what I'd just felt. "Oh my God Dimitri... it's Lissa. Something's wrong with the babies."