Thank you for all the reviews!

Haha don't fret – there are babies to be had. Sorry if I left you all with the impression that that was it! That would have been a bit too anticlimactic for me.

This story probably has at least another 4 or so chapters left! I have a few more things I'd like to show and then there will definitely be an epilogue :)


Two and a half years later

DPOV

"Rose!" I called out, grabbing my water bottle and keys. "Are you ready?"

I huffed in annoyance when she didn't respond to me. Well, that means no. "I am not being late to my own session again!" I called out in warning.

I shook my head in exasperation when there was still no response.

She'd better not still be in bed.

I rounded the corner to our bedroom, fully prepared to dump a glass of water on her if that's what it took.

Lissa had been kind enough to have the cabin extended for us to live in during our time at St Vlad's as a parting gift and a thank you. It now consisted of a separate kitchen and living room, as well as a bedroom and ensuite.

I pulled up short when I entered the room to find the bed was empty. If she was up, then why wasn't she responding to me? I paused when I heard a soft, muffled sniffle coming from behind the closed bathroom door.

"Roza?" I asked, gently pushing the door open.

She was sitting on the closed toilet seat, her head cradled in her hands. My heart leapt in my throat when I saw the two pregnancy test sticks gripped tightly in her fists.

I sucked in a deep breath, walking towards her slowly.

"I was sick when I woke up," she explained, looking at me with nervous hopefulness in her teary eyes. "I thought maybe..." she sighed, her eyes flitting to her workout watch where it lay on the vanity. "It's still got another minute left."

I nodded, pulling her hand into mine and rubbing my thumb over it gently. We'd decided to start trying just over a year into our work with the new program. We had Roza's contraceptive removed and figured we'd just see what happened, no pressure. But more than a year and three false hopes later, the possibility seemed to be slipping through our fingers; further and further out of our grasp with every single pink line that appeared on the screen.

I turned, pacing back and forth in the small bathroom. Rose had become more and more distraught each time the results came back negative, convinced that she was the problem. I tried to hide my disappointment as best I could, I didn't want to add to the pressure she was feeling. But I wanted it so badly. It didn't help that it felt as though we were constantly surrounded by success stories. Lissa and Christian had had their first child, a little boy, and she was already pregnant with the next. Sydney and Adrian too were due for the birth of their first child any day now.

The watch beeped loudly throughout the silent room and I spun around to face Roza. She took a shaky breath, peeking down at the sticks nervously while I held my breath.

A heavy sob wracked through the room and my heart shattered in my chest.

Another negative.

I was beginning to think that Declan's birth had just been a fluke, or that maybe it only worked the one way round – when the female had been restored.

"It's okay, Roza," I consoled, my voice thick with emotion. I stepped forward to comfort her; fighting back my own emotions that were threatening to come crashing to the surface.

"It'll happen for us. We just have to be patient."

She shook her head, her tearstained face looking up to meet mine.

"No, Dimitri," she cried, holding up a stick for me to see.

Two pink lines.

I stared at it in disbelief.

"Are they – are they both?"

She nodded, holding up the other one for me to see.

"Nichego sebe!" I leaned forward and pulled her up into a tight hug, her feet dangling off the floor as I spun her around.

She laughed, wiping the tears out of her eyes and placing her hands on either side of my face as she stared at me lovingly.

"We're having a baby," she marvelled, her voice thick with emotion.

I shook my head in disbelief.

We're having a baby.

Roza and I were having a baby.

The news didn't even feel real.

"Ya tebya lyublyu," I whispered, placing her down and cradling her face in my hands.

She smiled at me, tears shining in her eyes, as they were in mine.

"I love you more," she promised, leaning forward to rest her head on my chest.

I shook my head, dropping to my knees before her and gently lifting her t-shirt.

"Not possible," I whispered, leaning forward to kiss the skin of her belly softly.

I stared at it in amazement for a long moment, my hand running gently over the hard planes of her stomach.

"It's so crazy to think that our baby is in there," I said in disbelief, planting another loving kiss on her belly. "All I can feel now is abs... They're nice abs though." I added with a chuckle.

She rolled her eyes, reaching down to run her fingers through my hair.

"Well don't get used to it," she warned. "Soon I'm going to be huge!" She ballooned her cheeks out as if to illustrate her point and I laughed. "You're going to miss these nice abs," she continued. "No nice cute little Moroi bump for me. Mom said she was the size of a house before she had me."

I shook my head, leaning forward to rest my head against her stomach.

"You're going to be beautiful," I said. "The most beautiful woman in the world."

I kept my head cradled against her stomach as I let the news truly sink in.

Roza was pregnant with my child! Never in my wildest dreams had I thought it was possible to feel this happy. It was like our wedding day, times a million. After everything: all the setbacks, all the mistakes, all the pain and the disappointments, we were moving forward. We were going to be a family.

I shook my head in amazement as I leaned back to stare at her face. "I can't believe this is my life," I said, my eyes filling with tears. "I can't believe that I get to be this happy."

She smiled down at me tenderly, leaning forward to wipe a tear as it escaped over my lashes.

"Me neither," she whispered, unable to keep the smile from her face.

The moment was cut off by the sound of my phone ringing. I pulled it out of my pocket and looked at the caller ID.

"It's Alberta," I said with a sigh. "Class was meant to start ten minutes ago."

She nodded, wiping the tear tracts from under her eyes.

"Just give me a minute to get changed," she said, moving to step around me.

"No," I shook my head, holding her hips still. "I'll go. I'll tell them you couldn't make it today. You stay home and rest."

She looked down at me in amusement, the corners of her lips fighting twitching into a smile.

"What?" I asked, getting to my feet.

"You know, I'm not an invalid yet," she said, raising her eyebrows at me.

I chuckled, leaning down to kiss her stomach one last time before I gently lowered her t-shirt back over her skin.

"Humour me."


For the first time in my many years as a teacher, I gave my students an early mark.

To say they were surprised was the understatement of the year.

"But Guardian Belikov," one of the students argued. "Trials are only two and a half months away! I thought you said we should be training every minute possible."

"As I said, I have somewhere I need to be," I explained, being as incredibly vague and suspect as I had been this morning when I simply said Rose 'couldn't make it'. "If you're so concerned though, Novice Willis, I will happily put in an extra training session with you next week. 4 o'clock Monday morning."

I fought back a smile at the look of distress on his face as his classmates snickered around him. I'd dolled out more than a few extra sessions as punishment over the years. Word had quickly spread about the brutality of a one on one session with Guardian Belikov.

It had proved to be an effective threat and a good motivator to keep my students' standards from slipping. Honestly, they all just needed to suck it up. Rose managed it almost every morning, and she was years behind in her studies.

I checked my watch as I exited the gym – 9:45. The shops would be shut by now. I'd have to go later this evening when they opened. There had to be so much that I needed to get; I knew there had to be. But I just couldn't think what. My brain was all scattered, it wasn't like I had a wealth of experience in the pregnancy department. Yes, I had nephews and nieces, but I had always been away when my sisters were pregnant. I needed a list or book of some kind.

I stopped in my tracks, altering my path and heading towards the library. When I reached it, I brushed straight past the librarians, hoping to avoid them as I headed straight for the biology section. I trailed my fingers along the spines of the books as I skimmed the titles, eager to get out of here as soon as possible.

"Need any help, Guardian Belikov?"

I turned to find Moira, the librarian, smiling at me warmly, albeit looking a little confused at my presence in the textbook section.

"There's general fiction over there if you're looking for something to read," she said, pointing towards the section of the library that I usually frequented. "We just got in a new Western one, actually," she said excitedly, starting to usher me through.

"Actually, I'm looking for a biology textbook... on reproduction," I said, my mind reeling for an excuse when she looked at me in confusion. "...Trying to win an argument with my wife." I said with a small shrug.

Trying to win an argument?

Christ, Dimitri.

"Oh," she said, staring at me oddly for a moment. "Well, we have this one here."

She reached around me, pulling out a huge, dusty book.

Reproductive Biology in the Human, Moroi and Dhampir Species

"Perfect," I said, grabbing it from her and tucking it quickly under my arm. "Thanks."

"Did you want the new Western too?" she asked as I tried to hurry off.

"Um... no," I said, pausing to scan my book out. "Thanks though."

I walked out of the library, my head shaking in exasperation at myself. I could not have been more suspicious if I'd tried. I should have really thought that plan through more before I barged into the library looking for a book on reproduction like some kind of weirdo pervert.

At least Roza would get a kick out of the story, I thought to myself with a chuckle.

I returned to the cabin to find Roza curled up on the couch, fast asleep. An old Russian sitcom was blaring through the television. I had been teaching her now that our hours were so much shorter, and she had been trying to keep up her learning through TV and movies. It helped that we were living in Russia for six months a year. She was really getting quite good. She could understand everything my family and I said to her, although she still found the alphabet and constructing longer sentences difficult. And her accent was genuinely terrible. I laughed at the memory of the bewildered look on my family's faces when she'd decided to spend an entire day speaking only in Russian.

I smiled at the sight of her, stepping forward to pull the old throw off the back of the couch and place it gently over her. I lifted her feet, sitting on the other end before I draped them back over my lap and opened up the textbook.


Forty-five minutes later Roza awoke to find me pouring eagerly through the pages.

"What'cha got there, Comrade?" she mumbled sleepily, sitting up to curl her body against mine. Her eyebrows wrinkled together in confusion. "Is that a biology textbook?"

I nodded sheepishly.

"Not as helpful as I had hoped," I said, closing the book with a thud. "Though still interesting."

"You mean they didn't have a section on 'What to expect when your wife is growing a biologically impossible of Dhampir-Dhampir baby?'" She asked sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes, glaring at her good-naturedly.

"No, but I did find out a lot about what's going to happen to your body over the coming months, assuming it's all the same. By the way, you need to eat more vegetables. And I think I need to get you vitamins of some kind – the book didn't go into specifics too much."

She nodded, staring at the book in nervous apprehension.

"You didn't reach the section on 'birth', did you?"

I nodded and she smacked my arm.

"Gross, Dimitri! It's bad enough you're going to have to see it first hand."

"I think it's amazing," I said with a shrug.

"Yeah you're not the one pushing a watermelon out of your vagina," she mumbled, her eyes flicking to the book nervously.

"How much out of ten do I not want to look at that section?"

"... Ten," I said, smiling at her softly. "Sorry in advance, I think you might hate me in nine months time."

She groaned, staring down at her perfectly flat stomach.

"Do you want to see what our baby probably looks like right now?" I asked, trying to get her mind off the doom of the birth. We still had eight months to prepare for that.

She nodded, shuffling over to get a better look as I opened the book back up, searching for the page where I'd seen the depictions of foetuses at different gestational ages.

"Oh my god!" Rose shrieked, her hand flying to a page and halting my flicking. "Is that going to happen to my nipples?"

I looked at the page and then looked back at her apologetically.

"I think so, yes."

She stared at me, absolutely horrified for a long moment.

Suddenly, we both burst into laughter.

"Vlad," she cried between fits of laughter. I buried my face in her hair, trying to compose myself.

"It's really not so bad," I reassured her, gaining my composure. "It's just a little..." I glanced back at the page and lost it, a loud snort erupting from my mouth as I tried to hold back my laughter.

Roza sighed, wiping tears from her eyes as she let out a few final giggles.

"For the love of God, Comrade," she said, her hands falling to cover her eyes. "Please change the page."

I nodded, fighting back more laughter as I continued to flick through the book, being careful to avoid the more... graphic sections.

"Here," I said, pointing to the 'one-month' diagram. "I mean we don't really know how far along you are, but it's somewhere around here. We'll have to get a doctors scan soon and see where you're at."

She nodded, leaning forward to study the page closely.

"It's like... a little bean," she said with another giggle. She shook her head, her gaze flitting between the page and her belly in amazement. "Our little bean."

I smiled, my hand reaching out to caress her stomach gently.

"Our little bean."


I hope you enjoyed!

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