Hello lovelies. I am giving you all a heads up, this chapter gets intense and kind of violent. I would appreciate it if y'all didn't chew me up and spite me back out for this chapter.
I am the only one to edit this chapter, I apologize for any errors. I also apologize that this chapter is short. The next one will be longer.
I hope you all are well!
Disclaimer: I own nothing
I really hate going to the doctor's office, it smells sterile and the posters about babies and pregnancies lining the walls are weird. There is a woman sitting on the other side of the room with a little boy that looks to be about three, and a little girl that looks about two with her brown hair pulled into little buns on top of her head, and a small boy in the carrier next to the mother, and the mother strokes her humongous stomach while watching her two older children play with toys on the floor.
Dimitri next to me is reading one of the brochures about different disabilities babies can have with laser focus and my mother is on the other side of me looking at something on her phone.
"Please tell me I won't be that big," I whisper in my mom's ear. She looks up at me and then glances over at the women across from us, and a sympathetic smirk crosses her face. "Rose, you'll probably be the same size," she whispers and I groan and slump down in the seat. I tilt my head back and close my eyes, silently cursing Dimitri. If I get that big, he isn't getting sex until way after the babies' are born.
A small hand pats my stomach and I snap my eyes open to see the little girl standing in front of me with her hand on my belly. She smiles sweetly at me, her little teeth visible as she grins. "Baby." She says and pats my stomach again. Dimitri chuckles beside me as he watches the little girl pat my belly.
"Ellie, come here," the woman across from us says. The little girl, Ellie, turns and wanders back to her mother. "I'm sorry. She sees any type of belly and yells 'baby'. It's become a problem," the woman apologizes and I wave her off. To be honest, Ellie is quite adorable.
"It's ok, there really are babies in there," I say and smile at Ellie again.
"Twins?" the woman asks, rubbing her belly again and I nod. She chuckles a little before putting Ellie to sit on her knee. "I understand. I'm expecting triplets," she says and my mouth snaps open. Oh man, six kids?!
"I get that reaction a lot," she chuckles as Dimitri snaps my mouth shut. I throw him a pointed look and look back at the lady. That poor lady, that is a lot of weight to be carrying around.
"Rose?" Dr. Chu calls and I push up out of the chair, towing Dimitri towards the room.
"Mom, you coming?" I ask and I stand up quickly and follow us in. Knowing the drill, I step onto the scale for Dr. Chu to measure my weight before hopping onto the table and shuffling my pants down to my hips. Dimitri taking my hand and standing next to my head and Mom standing next to him. I tilt my head up to look at Dimitri and he meets my gaze with a loving smile before leaning down to press a kiss to my lips.
"I see that you are all healed up," Dr. Chu says as she warms the gel up with a smile and I nod. Mom had called her Boxing day about the attack, and Dr. Chu soothed her saying that I would be fine. She wraps the blood pressure cuff around my arm and takes the measurement. Tucking a towel into my waistband, she pours the gel onto my stomach and turns the machine on.
"Any big plans for tonight?" she asks us, and I laugh.
"I will probably be asleep before the countdown. I haven't been able to sleep properly the last few nights," I joke and she laughs. I think it's hilarious that I would rather spend my New Years' Eve in bed than interacting with others, but I need sleep.
"The only downside of these scans is not being able to go to the bathroom before," I whine as the wand presses down on my bladder. Dr. Chu throws a sympathetic smile as she turns the screen towards us. "There is your little girl, and there is your little man," she says point to them on the monitor. They are curled towards each other, and our little man looks like he is sucking on his thumb.
"Hello wee bairns," Mom says sweetly towards the monitor and I laugh at her. She has officially turned into a pile of goo.
"Rose was complaining of some cramping last night, should we be concerned?" Dimitri voices and I groan a little. I told him it was nothing, but he is like a dog with a bone.
Dr. Chu moves the wand around a bit, clicking buttons on the computer as she does. The view changes away from the profile of the babies as the cramping happens again. "That?" She asks me and I nod. "It looks like Braxton Hicks, nothing to be overly concerned about because it happens in most pregnancies, but if they become very frequent and painful you should give me a call. Does changing your position help?" She explains and I nod to her question.
"Make sure you're staying hydrated, it will help too," she says as she wipes the gel from my stomach softly. I readjust my pants and pull my shirt down before hopping off the table. Walking out and making another appointment, Dimitri's phone rings and he looks down, reading the message before sighing.
"I have to go, can you take Rose to get her prescriptions?" Dimitri says to Mom and agrees. HE leans down and kisses me softly. "I'll see you in a bit," he whispers and I kiss him again before he leaves. Mom and I head to her car and I climb into the front seat.
"So you got to see your grandbabies for the first time," I say with a smile on my face. She beams at me and leans over to hug me.
"Thank you for letting me come, I really enjoyed seeing them," she whispers into my hair.
After picking up the prescriptions, Mom and I decided to go and have lunch together to have a little mother-daughter bonding time. Outside of Moroi society we've been able to come closer, we put differences aside and started with a fresh slate, and I can appreciate my mom's choices a little more. Not coming to see me was her way of trying to protect both of us; her distancing herself made it easier to focus on her job and not worry about me and she had hoped that if anything ever happened to her, us not being close would mean that I wouldn't be hurt too much. It seems kind of backwards, but I understand where she is coming from.
Dropping me off at the house, she promised she would be back over with Abe to go through some things with me about what is going on at court. I unlock the door and call out Dimitri's name but get no response. I hang my coat up and kick my shoes off, wandering into the living room to see Dimitri seated on one of the chairs, his back to me.
"Hey Comrade," I chirp coming over and kissing the top of his head as I head towards the couch. Before I even have a chance to register what is happening, he is up out of the chair, his hands clutching onto my neck and forcing me downwards. We both crash through the glass coffee table and he pins me down, tightening his grip on my throat.
"Dimitri!" I choke out, scratching at his hands as I squirm beneath him. Looking up at him, his face is completely blank and his eyes glazed over, empty of any emotion
Fear begins to seep in as I struggle to breathe; fear of not being able to get out of his grip, fear for my babies, fear of dying at the hands of my fiancé while he is deep under compulsion. I try to buck him off but he moves and pins my hips down, putting his weight down on my belly and I panic. I move my head to look for something to get free and see where my stake rolled from my pocket. I reach for it, choking and gasping trying to get more air, black spots dancing through my vision.
Tears pour down my face as I squirm for my stake, my fingers just brushing the cool metal. My lungs burn more, and I can feel myself losing consciousness. I silently pray for a miracle, even though I know that there is a good chance I'm not going to make it out of this. A thousand things flit through my mind: Lissa's voice, Christian's snarky eyeroll, Adrian's green eyes, Mason's smirk at the ski lodge, the sound of Eddie's laugh, my parent's faces, and lastly Dimitri. Multiple memories of Dimitri flash before me, him rubbing salve into my hands, the way he looked at me as if I were the brightest star in the sky, the cabin.
Looking back up him now with his stoic face, I rack my nails across his cheek as my fingers finally latch onto my stake and I slam the butt of it into the side of his head. His grip loosens slightly as he rocks to the side, and I move my leg to kick him off me, sucking in a deep breath once he is off me. Coughing and gagging, I try to pull myself away, but he grabs onto my ankle and yanks me back to him. I let out a scream and kick my feet at him rapidly as he grabs my legs. He grips onto my neck again and cracks my head against the hardwood, stars burst across my eyes. I whimper and try to push him back off of me as I hear the front door crash open, footsteps running down the hall.
"What the fuck!?" Abe yells as he and my Mom come down the hall with Pavel, and the two latter rush over, pulling Dimitri off me. I gasp for air again and scramble away from them as Adrian sprints down the hall over to me and pulls me away from the scuffle and glass. I watch Pavel and Mom struggle to hold Dimitri back, his face morphing into a look I haven't seen since he was Strigoi.
Abe cracks the butt of my fallen stake across Dimitri's temple, and he goes limp in their hold. Mom and Pavel let go of him and he slumps to the floor, Abe makes his way over to me.
"What happened?!" he asks furiously as he looks over my face and neck.
"He was compelled, I could see it in his eyes. He ambushed me the minute he locked eyes on me," I sputter, still trying to breathe normally. My head is pounding, and I think I have a concussion and I definitely have bruises forming on my neck.
Abe moves my head from side to side gently, I grimace at the movement while Adrian looks at the back of my head. "You have a little blood on the back of your head, it doesn't look deep," Adrian said quietly before pulling me to my feet. I wobble a little on my feet before Abe wraps his arms around my waist and help me move to the couch.
"Is he going to be ok? I hit him pretty hard in the head before you got here," I rasp darting my eyes to him limp form on the floor. Abe turns to look at him and then looks back at me, his eyes softening considerably.
"I think so Kiz, but we'll have to wait until he wakes up."
I nod my head slowly and shallow roughly raising a hand to my neck and wincing as my fingers brush the tender flesh. Mom walks over and hands me a bottle of water that she must have grabbed from the fridge and I sip on it slowly. I stare at Dimitri lying on the floor, a small trickle of blood on his face from where Abe hit him, and all I can do is worry about him. I move a hand to my stomach and caress it gently, the babies are squirming like crazy and pressing against my stomach firmly.
"We are going to need a feeder," Adrian voices a few minutes later. I look at him confused, my parent's matching my expression. "There is a very good chance he is going to wake up still under compulsion, and I may be able to break it, but I will be weak after," Adrian clarifies, and I sigh. I don't want him to put himself at risk by using spirit, but he would be one of the only ones here with compulsion strong enough.
An hour later I hear a groan from across the room, and I move my eyes over to Dimitri. Pavel had moved him from the heap on the floor and placed him against the wall next to the archway into the kitchen. I tuck my feet under me and fold my hands in my lap as Abe stands next to me and Mom and Pavel move to flank Dimitri, prepared for him to move. Adrian stands between the two groups, ready to compel him.
Dimitri lifts his head up and groans again, his eyes moving around the room before the set on me, and they glaze over again. He moves to get up, but gets pinned back down by Pavel and Mom. He thrashes around trying to get loose as Adrian moves closer and crouches down.
"Dimitri, I need you to look at me," Adrian says clearly trying to make direct eye contact with him. He says it a few times before he grabs Dimitri's chin roughly and yanks his face towards him.
"You are going to break through this, and you will tell me who compelled you to hurt Rose," Adrian says forcefully and Dimitri falters a little but still struggles. Adrian repeats himself three times before Dimitri tenses up and stops fighting, his eyes sliding to mine and agony crosses his face.
"Rose," he whispers and slumps against the wall, pressing his hands into his face. I get off the couch and move towards him, stopping directly in front of him and placing my hands gently around his wrists. He flinches as I slowly pull his hands away from his face, and I smile meekly at him.
"I tried to stop, I tried to fight it, Rose. I couldn't stop," he gasps and I nod my head, letting him know that I understand and pull him closer. He says it over and over and I climb into his lap, hugging him tightly. He presses his face into my neck, tears streaming down his face. He clutches me as a scared child would to their mother and I let a few tears slide down my cheeks. I know he wouldn't purposely hurt me, and I know that he was compelled to do it. We stay like that for a few minutes, nobody moving from their spots aside from Abe who walked closer to us.
"I'm sorry Roza," Dimitri whispers and I stroke his hair.
"I know, I know. It's ok," I coo as he pulls his head up and he looks at me. His eyes travel over my face before the reach my neck and he takes a shaky breath, moving his hand to ghost his fingers over the fast forming bruises shaped like his hands. He lets out a strangled noise from his lips and I cup his face.
"It's ok, I'm ok. Do you remember what happened before I got home?" I say softly. His eyes flicker up to mine and he swallows harshly before nodding his head.
"I remember," he whispers and I encourage him to continue. Abe's cell phone rings shrilly through the room and he reaches into his jacket and pulls it out.
"I have to take this," he whispers and steps out of the room.
I turn my attention back to Dimitri and he takes a deep breath and leans his head against the wall.
"I came back to the house after getting off the phone with you when you called to say you were going to get lunch with Janine, and when I walked into the living room there was a man here. I recognized him from when I followed you to Vegas," he says shakily and I look up at Adrian, who looks pale but seems to be managing.
"Robert?" I ask and Dimitri nods his head. "He was here, but he wasn't alone…God, I can't believe she would do this," Dimitri moans and closes his eyes.
"Who? Who are you talking about?" I question desperately.
He cups my face softly and opens his mouth just as Abe storms back into the room.
"Tasha Ozera." Both Abe and Dimitri say at the same time.