Hello Hello Hello my dear readers! Here I am again with a new chapter that I hope you'll love! Thank you to my wonderful betas, CrystalCuCu-Mariarty and Spirit Quartz for helping me out! They're amazing, and so are their fics, so go check them out! Right after you finish reading this, of course.

Disclaimer: Richelle Mead owns all recognizable VA content. I own the plot.

"Will you stop your worrying, Roza? They're going to love you." I looked over at my boyfriend (I really wished I had a better title for him. 'Baby Daddy sounded crass, but boyfriend wasn't enough) who was loading our luggage into the trunk of the Honda we rented. "Roza, do you know why they're going to love you?" He asked, closing the trunk and coming to me, "because I love you." He placed two fingers under my chin and titled it upwards, giving me a tender, chaste kiss.

"But what if-"

"No, 'what if', Roza. It's going to be alright." Dimitri reassured me. "You've talked to my mother before, right?"

I bit my lip and nodded. "But that was over the phone. This is completely different!"

"How so, Roza? How did you introduce yourself to her?" Dimitri asked me, leaning against the door of the car.

"As your girlfriend," I mumbled quietly.

"And how did Mama react to that?" He said with a hint of a smile playing on his lips like he already knew the answer.

"She was happy." In truth, that lady could've rivalled Lissa in any squealing match.

Dimitri laughed. "If I know my mother, she's overjoyed that I've finally found someone to share my life with. The woman of my dreams, whom I love so much."

"Okay, okay, no need to flatter me... much." I said smiling, his words easing my fears.

"Oh, Roza, I love you"

"The feeling is mutual, comrade."

Even in my stretchy black leggings, I was having constant muscle spasms in my calves. I stretched my legs out as much as I could, which kept the cramps at bay for a while.

I found Dimitri's hand across the console and laced my fingers with his, our intertwined fingers resting lightly on his thigh. I leaned my head back against the headrest and closed my eyes, trying to get some rest. This symptom of pregnancy was starting to get to me. Even though I loved to sleep, I was starting to hate it. I was tired of being tired. I don't think I'd ever slept more than I had in the past couple weeks.

I let myself slowly drift off to the sound of Dimitri's soft singing along to the radio. He had a really beautiful voice.

I remembered this dream; it was the one I had the night in Portland, right before Dimitri found Lissa and me. Though instead of a random hot guy, it was Dimitri who was rubbing suntan oil on my back. I hummed in content. Nothing could've been better. My family was safe and happy, spending the beautiful day under the hot sun at the beach. My husband was sitting beside me and my two children were making a sand castle in front of me while I watched them in delight.

"Mommy! Look!" I turned my head in the direction of her voice. My baby girl had a huge smile on her face.

"It's beautiful, Lesya. Come here." I said. I sat up and she bounded into my waiting arms. I squeezed her tight and she giggled.

"Mommy, you're so silly! My name isn't Lesya!"

"Daddy! Daddy!" Dimitri raised his gaze from his book to our son, and lit up. Dimitri scooped him up and placed him on his lap, his attention solely on his son. "What do you have there, son?"

"A sea shell. I found it. Keep it?" He looked up at Dimitri with wide eyes and Dimitri chuckled.

"Of course you can, son." Dimitri would give the world to his children if he could. He was the best father these kids could ask for.

"I wanna see!"

My baby boy looked at his sister and hugged her, my heart swelled. He handed her the shell and she looked at it, 'oohing' and 'ahhing'. They had one of the best sibling relationships, and I cherished it while I could; before they grew up and got older, wanting nothing to do with each other.

"I think it's picture time!" I announced, wanting to capture this moment forever. I scooted closer to Dimitri and we switched kids. I had my little man and Dimitri's princess was in his lap. Dimitri stretched his arm out and everyone looked into the camera and he pressed the button, the flash so bright.

Suddenly I was somewhere else. I was spiraling into bright light and I immediately knew where I was going. A vision.

This time, I saw the same old building, with the same papers and books as before. Except it was more prominent now. That had to be important. My heart plummeted when I saw him again. His blond hair flapping in the wind. He was talking to someone; she was obscured by the fog. All I could make out was black hair.

'Time is running out'.

The words echoed all around, louder and louder, faster and more frequent.

Suddenly it all stopped. I opened my eyes. My vision darted around the place as I tried to calm my erratic breathing and pounding heart.

"Good nap?"

I whipped around to look at Dimitri whose focus was still on the road. I resisted the urge to place my hand on my heart and alert him of anything. "Um, yeah, sure I'm fine." I said, not sure of myself.

He nodded and we drove in silence until Dimitri turned off the road and into a gas station. "We need to get gas. Do you want to stay in the car? Or do you need to get out and stretch?"

"I'll get out. I have to go to the washroom. I'll get some snacks too."

Uneasiness crossed his face, and his brows creased together, obviously uncomfortable leaving my side – I wondered why this place made him nervous. He kissed my cheek and let me go.

Once I was sure I was out of his sight and hearing, I let out a shaky breath that I hadn't even realized that I was holding. Get your shit together, Rose. It was just a vision.

I used the bathroom quicker than I ever thought possible and grabbed some snacks, joining the line. When I got up to the till, I placed my items on the belt and hoped the girl knew what I wanted. I thanked god when the price showed up on her machine because that was the one thing I could read in this country. Cyrillic is ridiculously hard. I handed her rubles and grabbed my bag, thanking her and leaving.

"Everything okay, Rose?" Dimitri asked as I slipped back into the passenger's side.

"Everything is fine. How much longer do we have until we get there?" I said, diverting the subject from me.

"Half an hour, an hour at most." He said, his face radiating the excitement at seeing his family.

For the time being, I pushed away my worries about the vision and decided to deal with it later. Right now, I dedicated my attention one hundred percent to Dimitri. I grabbed his hand and returned his smile. "Tell me more about your family."

"Well did I already tell you about…"

And that's how the rest of the drive went; I listened to his voice and he soothed my nerves with every word he said. When we turned into a suburban neighbourhood, my heat started thumping loudly. When we turned onto a street and passed the park, my heart wanted to jump out of my chest. When we finally turned into a driveway, my heart fought against my rib cage to leave me.

"You ready for this, Roza?" Dimitri turned and chuckled at my horrified face.

"I changed my mind. Let's go back to America. I like it there. I don't think I can do this."

Dimitri outright laughed at me. "Of course you can do this. You're Rose Hathaway, you can do anything."

I took a deep breath. "You're right. Okay, let's get out of the car before I chicken out and shove the keys back in the ignition."

"Roza, you never fail-"

"DIMKA!"

Whatever Dimitri was going to say it was cut off by a girl's scream as she came rushing down the driveway and engulfed Dimitri in a bone-crushing hug, talking rapidly in Russian, She jumped on him and he spun her around, returning her fierce embrace and answering her back in their native language.

"Mama! Dimka's here!"

Dimitri managed to spare a glare at me – like I was somehow responsible for it – before he was bombarded with hugs and kisses from his other sister and his mother. Russian flew fast and furious. Happiness and something else, something I couldn't describe, emanated from the Belikov family; something that once would've made me roll my eyes now made me tear up. Stupid hormones.

It took a while before I was noticed by a woman who appeared to be in her late forties. One look at her and you could tell she was a mother, a personality that just shone through. She whispered something to Dimitri and smiled, and he beamed widely at whatever his mother said. When Dimitri realized she was motioning to me, he walked over and looped an arm around my waist, his hand resting firmly but gently on my sweater clad bump.

Well, here goes nothing.

He cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention. It wasn't like he needed to, their eyes hadn't left their beloved brother since they greeted him, "Mama, Vika, Karo, I have someone I'd like you all to meet. This is my Roza."

The girls looked at me, eyebrows scrunched in confusion. Their expressions were so familiar…it was the same one Adrian wore when he scrutinized my aura. Oh, shit. This was bad. Out of Dimitri's two sisters, the younger one, Viktoria whispered something to Karolina before returning her gaze – glare – to me.

I crossed my arms consciously, like it was going to do any good. Apparently Dimitri noticed his sisters' evil eyes, and knew what they were looking at. He moved in front of me, just enough to cover the gigantic bump. I opened my mouth to say something, but no words came out.

As I struggled to find the right thing to say, Dimitri's mother smiled at me, a genuine smile. One that told me she hadn't seen yet. Before anything could happen, I was going to do some damage control and make a good impression. Though I didn't know how to fix the one I had just made.

"It's so nice to meet you Ms. Belikova." I said, making the first move. I smiled shyly. How much worse could it be?

"Olena, dear." And that's when she shocked me. Olena grabbed me in a hug that could only be described as the same one she bestowed upon her son. Shit, shit, shit, shit.

I stood stiff as a board; I wanted to return the hug so badly, but no matter how much I willed, I couldn't move my arms to wrap around her. "It's nice to finally meet you, Roza. My son talks about you-."

I felt her stiffen and her arms loosened. Olena pulled away from me slowly and her eyes bugged out as she took me in, and gave me a full once over, twice, thrice. Her movements were heavy and lethargic; the complete opposite of mine. My heart beat so fast and my breathing was past the point of being erratic.

Olena swallowed, and slowly turned to look at her son. I felt my whole being drop, as I heard the disappointment and anger clear as day when she spoke to Dimitri.

"When were you going to tell me?" She asked quietly. For once, I wish she'd spoken in Russian around me.

I felt sick, like I was going to throw up. I needed to get out of here. I needed to leave. I needed to-

"Mama-"

"No, Dimitri! This is important. How dare you bring this girl into my house and she's pregnant? With someone else's child, too." Oh, she didn't.

Dimitri stretched his neck from side to side and I felt him shake next to me. I laid a hand on his clenched arm, hoping my touch would cool him down a bit. Before he could say something, one of his sisters had stepped out and stood next to Olena.

Viktoria didn't have her anger masked as Olena did. Her arms were crossed, lips pressed in a tight line, and eyes narrowed. She looked at me and her lip curled in disgust as she not so quietly yelled, "I don't know who you think you are but you need to leave right now."

Oh believe me, I wanted to. Seriously, at home the Moroi treated me like Dhampir trash, and here the Dhampir's did! I must have 'slut' written on my forehead, though I'd only ever been with one man.

She then turned to Dimitri. "Why are you so idiotic? Why in fucks' sake would you bring her here? Especially when she's like that."

I heard Dimitri growl. "You need to shut your mouth, Viktoria."

She raised her eyebrows. "Or what, Dimitri? You gonna fight me?"

His hands clenched into fists. I hadn't ever seen him so angry before. It was scary. I grabbed his shaking hand to stop him from doing anything rash. "Dimitri, the neighbours. We're causing a scene." His head whipped to me, and I looked at him, imploring him to stop and just, I didn't know. Anything.

Around us, several neighbours were looking out their windows and some had come out of their houses to see what the spectacle on the street was. They looked at us with curiosity and wondering. None of them even tried to be discreet about it; the eyes were on us, watching, listening.

I needed to do something. I took a deep breath and stepped out from behind Dimitri, immediately wanting the asphalt to open and swallow me up when four pairs of eyes landed on me. Instead, I stood up taller and found my voice. "Please, don't be mad at Dimitri. It's not his fault. I can explain."

"Explain? Are you going to tell us that you're pregnant? And it's another man's child?" I looked over to Dimitri's third sister, Karolina, who hadn't spoken up until now. She was calmer than Viktoria but she was still just as angry. I had to bite my tongue – I had been alone when I found out I was pregnant because she was having a fatherless child. How backwards was this country? I'd rather eat borscht than deal with this. And that's saying something.

"Please," I pleaded. "Just let me explain. Give me a chance."

Olena looked at me, her brown eyes, the same ones as Dimitri, bore into mine. She looked conflicted.

"Please. It's not right to judge me for being a Dhampir. Yes, I'm an unfortunate freak of nature, but I would expect you all to listen to what we have to say first." I was getting angry, being judged by a family of unmarried Dhampirs, women with children, especially. I wanted to love these people, but the utter hypocrisy was infuriating. If I hadn't been focused on calming Dimitri down, I might have said worse.

Olena sighed, and finally nodded after a few moments. I breathed out a sigh of relief, and prepared myself for what was going to come next. I won one battle, now I had to convince them that what I was going to tell them was true, and win the war.

"Don't be intimidated," Dimitri whispered in my ear. I looked up at him. How can I not?

Dimitri pressed a kiss to my forehead and smoothed my hair back, and took the lead, pulling me along, and into the house.

As soon as I walked in, I could tell that it was a place you could call home. It just had that feeling. Dimitri followed his family into the living room, where a boy sat, playing with action figures. A boy who looked like a younger Dimitri.

At his side, a baby, less than a year, sat in her jumper, laughing and giggling. She had dark black hair, and brown eyes, her baby smile lifting my mood slightly. Karolina walked over to her and picked her up, placing her on her lap. That must be Zoya, Karolina's daughter, and on the ground, her son, Paul.

Dimitri took a seat on the loveseat and pulled me down, tucking me into his side so tightly I was almost sitting in his lap. His arm wrapped around my waist and hand rested firmly on my bump. He felt warm and safe.

I tried to ignore the glowers from Viktoria. Footsteps pounded down the stairs and another woman burst through the doorway, her smile so huge when her eyes landed on Dimitri. "Dimka," she said. "I missed you."

"I missed you too, Sonya." I could hear the genuine sincerity in his words.

"What's going on? Mama said you were home and you had to talk to us." She said.

Dimitri nodded and gestured to me. Sonya moved her gaze from her brother. "Oh, you must be Roza! It's so nice to finally meet you! You know when my brother said he had a girlfriend I didn't believe him cause you know-oh," Sonya trailed off and I knew why.

She clucked her tongue and nodded her head. "Okay then, I'll just go take a seat."

She did that, eyes wide. Shortly after Sonya had joined us in the living room, a frail old woman, who had to be no taller than five feet walked into the room, muttering in Russian. She looked up and acknowledged Dimitri and I, grinning a toothy grin when she saw us together.

"Babushka." This time, Dimitri got up to go hug his grandmother. It was startling, the height difference. He let her go after a few moments and came back to me, resuming the same position he was in before.

"Okay, now that everyone's here, please explain to us what this is." Olena said curtly, waving her hands to gesture at my pregnant belly.

Dimitri beat me to it. "I know what you all think. That it is not my child."

"We all know it is not your child, Dimitri. That's impossible. We're not stupid." Karolina said.

"That's where you're wrong. They are mine." He said simply. I laughed internally at the inadvertent insult.

Much like what happened on the driveway repeated itself once more. Except with less of the yelling, and more silence. Loud, deafening silence.

Viktoria was the first to regain her composure. "Did you hit your head on a rock? Wake up, Dimitri!"

Olena looked at Dimitri, her facial expression unreadable. "Dimitri, I know you want to believe that but it's not possible. They can't be yours. Both you and Rose are dhampirs. It's not possible."

"They are mine. Just let me explain."

Olena shrugged. "Go ahead. But I don't see what difference it will make."

Dimitri began. "This is possible. It's very, very rare, but it's possible. It's only happened twice before." Dimitri held a hand up in protest when Sonya started to say something. "Our situation is different. Rose, well…" Dimitri trailed of, and I knew he was struggling for words.

I placed my hand on his arm and smiled sympathetically. I would take over. "I died a few years ago." Not waiting for a response I continued, both for the sake of them and me. If I didn't let it all out now, I wasn't sure if I could do it again.

"When I was in kindergarten, I met Lissa Dragomir and we became inseparable. Almost three years ago, Lissa and I, as well as her family were in the car. A drunk driver was driving on the wrong side of the road... Lissa's family died on impact…so did I.

"It was only for a few seconds, but it was enough for Lissa to bring me back. See, Lissa specializes in Spirit magic, and one of the things she can do with her magic is heal people, and in my case, she brought me back to life. The result makes me shadow kissed.

"Among other things, when Lissa brought me back, it forged this one way bond between us. I could hear all her thoughts, but she couldn't mine. Until recently. The bond is now two ways, we're still trying to figure out how that's possible.

"Anyways, my genetic code was also altered slightly, and Dr. Olendzki said that's just enough for me to get pregnant by another Dhampir. It's a genetic fluke she said. Also, Dimitri, he's not normal either. In fact, none of you are."

I didn't know how well this was going to go over with the Belikovas. I basically just said they were all freaks. So I did what was best. I pressed on.

"According to the accounts of the two other cases, it wasn't just the mishap of my genetic code that allowed Dimitri to get me pregnant. Both parties also need to have spirit in them. My spirit comes from being shadow kissed, while Dimitri's, ergo all of yours, comes from her."

I looked over at Yeva, and so did the rest of the Belikovas. Yeva was grinning. "Ochen' khorosho, devochka."

I had no idea what she said but I continued. "And that's how I'm pregnant. They are Dimitri's. He's the only one I've-" I stopped myself when I realized what I was going to say.

I let out a breath when I finished, leaning back onto Dimitri and closing my eyes. I felt him kiss the back of my neck, right on top of my promise mark, and drew much needed strength from him. When I opened my eyes to face his family once again, I was met with looks of disbelief and shock around the room.

"I don't understand." Karolina said. "Why hadn-"

"She speaks the truth."

Once again, Yeva said something that stunned the rest of the family. Dimitri let out a breath and whispered something in Russian. Dimitri had told me that Yeva can see things others cannot, and usually they were true. Dimitri certainly believed in whatever visions his grandmother had, and it seemed the rest of his family did too, because not a second later were they turning to us, looking all apologetic.

"It really is your child, isn't it, Dimka?" Olena said to Dimitri. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you two at first. And I'm sorry that my actions to you have been nothing but rude. I hope you can forgive me."

"Of course, Mama." Dimitri said, his voice breaking ever so little. He got up to hug his mother tightly. When he pulled back, Olena turned to me.

"I am so sorry, Rose. I had no right to treat you like that. I hope we can start over."

"Please. I'd like to make a good second impression if I can." Olena chuckled nervously, still worried. "Olena, it's fine. Please. If I were in your place, I might have acted the same." Well, I wouldn't, but there was no point in being petty.

Maybe I was growing up... nah.

Olena nodded. I grabbed her in a hug, shocking both myself and her. "We're all good." I said.

Around me, the family chortled quietly, and I let Olena go, only to have Viktoria bound up to me. "Oh my god, Rose I'm so sorry! You have to believe me! I only said what I did because I was blinded by anger, you have to believe me. I'm so sorry! I didn't really mean it!"

I laughed. This girl reminded me a lot of Mason, with all the apologizing. "It's okay, Viktoria. It's your brother. You just want to protect him. I get it. I just won't name our daughter after you." I winked, so she'd know I was joking – mostly.

She breathed out. "Oh man. Thank you, Roza. You know when Dimitri told us about you, I couldn't stop imagining how cool you were? And how cool it'd be to hang out with you?" she shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I kinda blew that chance now, huh?"

"No you didn't. We can still hang out. And I promise I'm much cooler than whatever Dimitri said." Okay, so I was lying to myself a bit. No matter how much I told myself that their words were just out of anger at the situation, what they said really cut me deep. And even though I was forgiving everyone left, right and centre, I was still very wary of what could happen. I was still cautious, because I knew that it could happen again.

But for now, I pushed those fears away, as I did with everything it seemed these days, and decided I would enjoy my vacation for now.

Well, as much as I could.

Well? How was it? Review and let me know! The next chapter's already done and in the beta-ing process. I hope to have it up by next week

In the meantime, I'd love to hear from you guys! Your response to last chapter blew me away!

Much love,

Sarah