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Summer Romance.

Chapter 38.

With barely 30 minutes to spare until Dimitri came over, I wasted no time. I stripped quickly out of my clothes and hopped into the shower. Even though I was aware of the time, it took me a longer time than I'd expected.

I took my time though, feeling myself relax as I stood beneath the cool spray of the shower. My muscles loosened, my head cleared and all of my doubts and fears melted away, washing down the drain with the water. I was weightless, completely at bliss.

When I got out of the shower, however, the feeling vanished. Everything came crashing down again. Someone was pounding on my door. From the sounds of things, they were desperate and had been there for a while.

"Fuck," I said, scrambling around to dry myself off and slip on some underwear. I pulled my panties up quickly and put on a bra before slipping the hotel issued robe on.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" I yelled getting frustrated. Hurriedly, I wrapped my hair up in a towel and ran out to the door. Without any hesitation, I flung it open.

"Can I help you?" I asked the man on the other side of my door. He was no one I knew, but there was something oddly familiar about him. From the looks of things, he was older than me, probably in his 30's if I had to guess. Before I could figure out what was so familiar about him, someone pushed the man out of the way.

"Ivan?" I asked, surprised. "What are you doing here? Are you ok?" He too I realized, looked quite flustered.

"Fine," He said, sounding practiced. I shook my head. There was something in his eyes that I could not understand.

"I don't like being lied to Ivan," I said seriously. "And whose your friend?" Now it was his turn to shake his head.

"Just get changed," He said his Russian accent so thick I almost didn't understand what he was saying.

"What? Why?" I asked feeling something drop into the pit of my stomach. He gave me a look so serious I didn't bother questioning him anymore. Instead, I rushed inside and frantically rummaged around for something to put on.

I pulled on the first pair of jeans and t-shirt I found and shoved my feet into the first pair of shoes that I found not caring if they were mine or Lissa's. I undid the towel from my hair and ran the brush through the tangled strands.

My eyes suddenly fell on the time displayed on the clock. Shit…My heart sped up. Dimitri should've been here 10 minutes ago. Instead, all I got was a very flustered looking Ivan pounding at my door and some man that I didn't know.

"Is Dimitri ok?" I asked in a rush rejoining them outside. Ivan looked up seemingly startled by my question.

"Well is he?" I asked impatiently. I was getting seriously pissed with the lack of answers. First some guy that I didn't know was pounding at my door and now Ivan was refusing to answer my questions.

"Ma'am, you need to come with us." The unknown man said. I turned my head to look over at him and froze. Of course there was something familiar about him; he was wearing a police uniform, the same police uniform that Dimitri wore.

"What is going on and who on earth are you?" I had to work hard to not swear, the last thing I needed was to get arrested for abuse of an officer.

"Are you Roza?" He asked. I nodded my heart in my throat. There was only one person that called me Roza, well, one person who was on the force that is.

"Of course she's Roza," Ivan grumbled unhappily. "I wouldn't have brought you here if she wasn't."

"I'm Roza, Rose to be exact." I said sensing the tension. "Please tell me what is going on, Officer Tanner." I said reading his name off of his badge.

"There has been an incident," He started and I leant against the wall for support. Whatever had happened, I knew it couldn't be good.

"Officer Belikov was asking for you. He wouldn't calm down unless we brought you to him." Now I looked over to Ivan. He met my eyes and I finally understood the frantic worry I saw shining in the blue depths. He simply nodded, answering my unasked question.

"What kind of an incident?" I asked stepping outside and locking the door. In my head I was praying that it wasn't anything bad, but I knew it was pointless.

"He's been shot, Rose." Ivan told me. I only nodded.

I didn't really know what I felt. My emotions were a jumbled mess making me incapable of speech. I followed the men into the elevator on autopilot. I could not believe that I'd just spoken to Dimitri just under an hour ago. He sounded fine, so happy and carefree and now they were telling me that he'd been shot? No, this couldn't be right, right?

…

"Excuse me," I said to the lady behind the reception desk. She dropped her pen and looked up confused. Great, she didn't understand me. I really couldn't switch to Russian now but thankfully, Ivan was by my side.

"We're here to see Dimitri Belikov," He said quickly. She smiled and flipped through some files.

"Second floor room 204," She said. "Are you Roza?" Ivan nudged me making me look up from where I'd been staring at the white tiled floor. It was then that I realized that the lady had been speaking to me. She was making the effort to talk in English though her accent made it almost impossible to understand her.

"Yes, I am." She nodded and smiled.

"Go on in then, he's been asking for you." I grabbed Ivan's hand but he shook his head.

"No Rose, you go." I nodded and took the elevator up to the second floor. While I waited, I sent out a silent prayer to whoever was listening. I needed Dimitri to be ok, because life without him wasn't much of a life at all.

Viktoria was standing outside when I finally made it up to his room. She was talking to the doctor but she waved me over the moment she noticed me. "How is he?" I asked, my voice shaking slightly.

"He just got out of surgery," She said. "Mama's in there, go on in. He's been waiting for you." The moment I opened the door, Olena looked up. Her eyes were slightly red and puffy. She was still in her uniform.

"Oh sweety," She said noticing me. She wrapped me up in a hug that instantly made me choke up. After that, she left and I was alone with Dimitri.

"Baby," It was all I could get out. I'd been fighting my tears and hiding my emotions behind a fake smile. But here in his presence, seeing him connected to so many machines, I could fight no longer. I didn't want to fight any longer. A single tear rolled down my cheek and then in the domino effect, they began streaming down my cheeks.

"Roza," I thought I was imagining that voice. His eyes had been closed moments before, but when I looked up at him, I knew I hadn't imagined them.

"Dimitri…" I whispered, more tears streaming down my cheeks.

"Roza, baby, don't cry." Tentatively, he reached up and brushed the tears from my cheeks. He opened his arms for me and I wasted no time hugging him.

"I'm ok, it's ok." Being in his arms only made me cry harder, much to Dimitri's dismay. I didn't realize how scared I had been until this moment.

"H-how bad was it?" I asked once I'd stopped crying. Dimitri smiled playfully.

"I got shot in my shoulder," He said. "They had to remove the bullet." At least it wasn't as bad as I'd thought; at least major organs had not been damaged.

"Jesus Christ Dimitri," I snapped. "Don't ever scare me like that again!" Now that I knew he was ok, I couldn't help but feel exasperated. I was sick of things happening to the people I loved dam it.

"I'm sorry love," He said seriously. "I'll try not to get hurt next time."

"What even happened anyway? I thought you said that this is a quiet town and nothing much happens here anyway?"

Dimitri sighed. "A drunk driver, an altercation, and guns."

"What?" I asked confused.

"Some guy was drunk and drove his car into another guy's car. Apparently things got heated and someone pulled a gun. The next thing I knew I was pulling into the station and needed to go be back up for Officer Kozlov. Shots were fired and I unfortunately was the casualty." By the time he was done recounting his tale, he looked tired.

"Oh you poor thing," I said brushing some hair from his face. "I'm at least glad that it wasn't anything too serious." He nodded sleepily. It was then that I realized that he was obviously doped up on pain medication.

"Sleep now," I whispered stroking his face. His eyes were already starting to droop. Gently, I untangled myself from his arms and stood. I only made it as far as the floor before his eyes snapped open again.

"Roza, stay, please." Those brown eyes locked onto mine and I was done for. How could I say no?

"Ok," I said, sitting down on the chair beside his bed. Apparently, that wasn't enough for Dimitri. He shook his head and opened his arms again. I ended up staying there until the nurses told me I had to leave.

I tried again to untangle myself from his arms without him noticing but I should've known it was pointless. His eyes reopened the moment I was out of his arms.

"I have to go baby," I said quietly. "You should get some rest, ok? I'll be back here first thing tomorrow." Dimitri looked tired as hell, but that did not stop him from arguing.

"Roza, I don't want you to leave." He said, reminding me of a fussy toddler. It also broke my heart, seeing him so vulnerable.

"Come on you big baby," I teased. "I'll be back and, the more rest you get the faster you can get out of here, right?" He still looked like he might argue, but for once I was being the logical one.

"When did you get so smart?" He asked. I rolled my eyes.

"What can I say? You're rubbing off on me." He chuckled and I leant down. Staring directly into his eyes, I pressed my lips to his, hoping that the kiss conveyed everything I felt.

Well there you go my darlings, I'm sorry it took me so long to update. I hope you guys liked the way this ended! Let me know in a review, ok?

Review lovelies and Dimitri/Adrian will stare into your eyes and kiss you ;)

XXX

Roza