Rose Hathaway

Lissa and I followed my mother to Lissa's first class. After a quick hug, she disappeared through the door and my mother drug me to the gym for my first class.

"So, mom…" I began. Maybe if I buttered her up some she would go easy on me.

"Rosemarie, whatever you are about to complete that sentence with, don't. I am very angry and hurt by some of your comments back there." Her voice was flat, nearly monotone. She almost sounded hurt. How did she have a right to be hurt? Some of the Dhampir novices here had already lost their Dhampir parent. Not many of us knew our Moroi parent due to the fact that we were often conceived by adulteress liaisons and careless flings. The novices that still had a living Dhampir parent usually had daily phone calls and other forms of communication. Well, except for me. I usually received an email from my mother on holidays or the few times I had done something really stupid, like breaking Dawn Yarrow's arm in the ninth grade. I only saw her once every one to two years, and even then it was just for a couple of hours.

The academy was the only home I had ever truly known and its head Guardian, Alberta Petrova, was essentially the closest thing to a mother figure I had ever known. My mother was essentially a stranger to me and it left us with a very strained relationship when she did come around. Now it appeared that I was going to be stuck with her a good while.

"I just wanted to say thanks for standing up for me back there." I mumbled as I quickened my step to catch up to her. Her eyes slid in my direction as she opened the door to the gym. It was the only confirmation I had that she had heard me.

"Get inside, we will talk later." She said firmly.

Walking through the door, I glanced around at the still familiar faces I found there. Locating a mop of red hair, I jogged over to my one time good friend, Mason Ashford.

"….Kirova probably handed her, her ass." I heard someone mentioned as I came up behind them.

"Get your minds off my ass and stop your drooling. Do it on your own time." I grinned as they all turned to look at me in surprise. The novices nearby broke the silence as they began to snort and snicker.

"Hathaway! You're on my time, seeing as I am leading the class today." Mason beamed down at me.

"That makes it a perfect time to think of my ass then, Ducky." I retorted

"Anytime is a good time to think of your assets." The voice of the guy that had his back turned to me cut in. Looking up at him, I felt the rest of the tension fade away as we all broke down in laughter.

"Good to see you Castile." I said between breaths. Our laughter settled down and my near forgotten friends began questioning what I had been doing and where I had gone. Our reunion was busted up a few minutes later when I heard Alberta's voice carry across the gym, as she scolded Mason for neglecting his duties. Mason grinned and started explaining the exercises we would be practicing.

"Come on, you can be my partner. I want to see what you've learned during your prison escape." He said taking my arm and pulling me a little further away from the rest of the group.

An hour later, he crawled outside the taped boundary line, mock crying uncle. "What the hell have you been doing, Hathaway? That was just brutal." He groaned.

I grabbed his hand and hauled him off the floor. I caught my mom watching me from the corner of my eye. "Can't help that you can't compare to what I was born with." I told him, waving my arms up and down my body.

Mason groaned as he bent over putting his hands on his knees. "I hate you, right now." His muffled voice carried up.

"I bet you would hate me more if I held back." I chuckled.

"Yeah, I really would. You've gotten good Rose. You'll have to tell me where you've been training. I might need to take a vacation myself."

"You did good Mason. I still had to work at taking you down." I told him, rolling my eyes.

"I still just had a girl hand me my ass." He grimaced.

I laughed as we walked over to our gym bags, grabbing our water bottles. "So what are you doing after dinner tonight?"

"I have to train with my mother, Kirova's stipulation. They think that I am behind because I missed the last year."

"Yeah, well I don't think so. You think you'll be able to get out of it since you can take me? I am, uh, was head of the class since you left."

"Nah, Kirova is taking some sort of sick pleasure out of forcing me to be socially deprived. She knows I don't get along with my mother, so what better punishment than tying me to her hip?"

"Well, you've surpassed what we have been taught, so maybe your mom can actually teach you something. She's kind of a legend, after all."

"So everyone says." I said, frowning. "Well, the great and wonderful Janine Hathaway is waiting on me. I better hit the showers before anymore steam starts pouring from her head." I turned and walked away before he could say anything else.

As if my day of being shadowed by mother couldn't get any worse, I had Stan Alto as an instructor for my next class. We had a hate-hate you more type of relationship. It was a daily struggle to limit myself to only giving him silent looks of contempt during his class. Most days, I lost the battle and ended up in Kirova's office. Then again, maybe a year of not having to speak or look at one another lessened the hard feelings we shared, or not.

I took an aisle seat as my mother took a post near the door. When Stan walked in his eyes snapped to mine and with a look of mock surprise, he smiled at me. "Oh I didn't think we were going to have any guest speakers until next week. I see that Rose Hathaway has decided to take time away from her juvenile escapades in order to come share all her knowledge and wisdom with us. My, my, don't we all fell privileged." He sneered at me with the last sentence.

I felt an angry flush creep up my neck and over my face. Opening my mouth, just to snap it shut and bite the inside of my cheeks, I was able to stop myself from telling him to fuck off. I kept replaying Kirova's warning in my head, to try and ground myself and instead just kept my eyes locked with his. My face must have said what my mouth couldn't.

His smile grew even more sinister. "Get up, stand in the front of the room, and tell us Miss Hathaway of all that you have learned while you were off gallivanting around. Surely you have something to teach this class."

"Do you really want me to-"

"Yes, I do. I meant what I said. Now up you go Hathaway, I want to hear this." His taunting gave way to seriousness and the silent classroom began to feel even more silent. I looked back at my mother, but her face was as still and emotionless as the Mona Lisa. I stood from my seat, tossed my hair behind my shoulder, and strutted to the front of the room.

Stan came to stand next to me. "Well?" he questioned as I just looked about the room. I really didn't want to discuss my time away from the academy. I had done it for Lissa, and though I didn't regret the decision to leave, I still had regrets. Things that I wasn't really prepared to talk about yet. "Cat got your tongue? Why don't you start with telling us what sort of guarding techniques you used? Tell us how you protected the Princess."

"Techniques," I questioned him.

"Yes, Hathaway, since you have missed a year of your classes, please tell us what the Hathaway Technique you applied to protecting Moroi from Strigoi?"

"But-" I stammered. "It isn't like you try to teach us. There isn't Strigoi hiding around every corner or in every shadow."

"That is very obvious since you are standing here breathing and alive, Hathaway. Now for the last time, tell us how you were able to protect an underage Moroi Princess after you took her from the safety of this campus and exposed her to the constant the constant threat that Strigoi impose?"

I was beginning to think that Stan was the male Dhampir version of Kirova. I lowered my head and bit my lip as I tried to reel in my emotions before I exploded.

"My patience is growing thin, Miss Hathaway. You have three seconds-"

"Do you really want to know what it was like Stan?" I bit out before I could think. "Do you want to hear about how I was able to not only escape this campus, but was also able to escape, with Lissa, from psi-hounds not just once, but three times? Or, do you just want the boring details of what days I drug Lissa along while I went to various martial arts gyms and indoor tracks. I know, what you really want to know is how the first time we ran into Strigoi, I locked Lissa into the trunk of a car, only to have to crawl back to it thirty minutes later, bloody and near broken. How it took Lissa nearly three weeks to talk me into letting her outside again." Collective gasps fell from the classroom, but I couldn't face anyone. I kept my gaze on a blank space on the wall.

"Perhaps, you want me to skip all the details and list how many Strigoi I killed and how I did it. A simple, short and sweet list, should be enough for you? Shouldn't it? Maybe you're considering making me relive every single second of each and every one. Well I have news for you Guardian Alto, I do that every night. Every damn night, so you will need to come up with something else to punish and embarrass me with." My whole body was shaking. I felt someone grasp my shoulders with a gentle yet firm hold as my world began to blur. I could vaguely hear Stan urging me to go with my mother. It wasn't until I turned toward the hand that rested on my back that I began blinking to bring them into focus, that I realized I was crying.

I let my mother lead me out of the room and to her room to one of the Guardian Lounges. Her head only came to my shoulder, but she still took most of my weight. It felt nice to finally experience the strength of my mother in a way I had craved for years. She settled us onto a small sofa, and wrapping her arms around me, hugged me against her. For nearly an hour she sat soothing me as my body wracked with sob after sob. It felt good to cry, I rarely did. With each sob, each stroke of her hand on my back, I felt all the sadness, hate, and fear that the last two years had instilled in me slip away.

When my sobs slowed and my breathing leveled, I pulled away from my mother looking into her face. Gone was the Guardian mask. Instead, her face was etched with sorrow and concern. She wiped the last of my tears from my face with an understanding smile.

"The first time I killed a Strigoi was in Italy. I was on leave and had decided that I wanted to spend the summer traveling. I had met a rich Moroi and I ended up letting him talk me into attending a festival with him that night. He was walking me back to my hotel, along with his Guardians. There were four of us all together, three Dhampir and the Moroi. As we passed an alley way, a Strigoi jumped out of the shadows. Ibrahim's near guard went on the attack, I ran to help. It was a foolish thing to do. Ibrahim's far guard was still a good ten feet away, but it was also a good thing too. It wasn't just the single Strigoi, but three of them. The two males were in combat with Pavel and the female was slowly slipping up behind him. I knew that if I didn't do anything, it would end badly for Pavel and he was young. My age at the time, and like all freshly promised Guardians, we were cocky. I slipped passed the two males and blocked the path of the female. She was strong and fast. I never realized just how much weaker we truly are than the Strigoi until that first battle. I was able to wrestle her to the ground and stake her. Pavel had staked one of the two males so I ran to help him with the last. I was able to distract him long enough for Pavel to drive his stake home."

Her voice was soft; her eyes glazed as she was lost in her memories. "When it was all over, we ended up going to Ibrahim's hotel, it was closer than mine. He held me against his side as I cried the whole way there. I fell asleep leaning into his arms as I sat in his hotel room. He had tucked me into his bed at some point and had joined his Guardians in the sitting room. I awoke a couple hours later to the nightmares that came. I spent the rest of the night sitting at the small dining table matching Pavel shot for shot of some horrible Turkish whiskey." Her hands lifted and wrapped around mine. "I understand Rosemarie. I understand, and I am sorrier than you will ever know, that you suffered that alone."

I nodded my head in acceptance. My throat felt like it was stuffed with cotton and I couldn't find the words to express my gratefulness of her words. After a few moments of comfortable silence, my mother stood and with one last gentle squeeze of my hand, helped me stand. "It's nearly lunch now, why don't we go find Lissa. Every girl needs her best friend to help her cheer up now and again." Her words were kind, but I had a feeling she had just shown more emotion in the last two hours than she had ever done in the near forty years she had been on earth. It was funny how even though I felt lightened by our sharing of stories, it still left an air of heaviness around us. She too, needed to escape and let her emotions settle.

We were walking through towards the cafeteria when I felt Lissa grow more anxious than she had been all day. I was about to run to her, when my mother laid her hand on my arm. "I'm going to trust you not to do anything. I am going to trust you, so I can give you a few moments of privacy with Princess Vasilissa while I go speak with Alberta about my shifts." I nodded my head and gave her my promise to behave. She broke away from me to head to Guardian Petrov's office and I made my way towards Lissa.

I drew close to her without her notice or notice of those around her. Aaron and his little doll girl had her cornered against the water fountain. Just as I came to stand behind Mia, I caught the tail end of their conversation.

"You would think that a Dragomir would have higher standards than second hand clothes from Goodwill."

Tapping Mia on her shoulder, I smiled as she jumped slightly. She spun around quickly, her eyes growing wide. Good, she knew of my reputation and had enough sense to fear what my reaction would be. "Her standards are higher than yours and that is why this conversation is over. Now, skedaddle, Doll Girl, back to the elementary before they notice you're missing." I cooed at her, as you would a child.

Her face flushed and her fist balled in anger. "Hit me little girl and I will prove all the questions floating in the tiny little head of yours is true." I patted her ringlet covered head.

"Don't touch me. Don't touch me ever again or I'll-"

"I said we are done here; now go before I leave a mark on your pretty little unblemished face." I said as I lowered my face down even with hers. Mia growled and after a moment unlocked her eyes away from mine. Grabbing Aaron's arm, she stomped off dragging him behind her.

I glanced around the commons, sighing in relief as I noticed we hadn't drawn too much attention to ourselves. Lissa's grew less anxious after they walked off so I coaxed her into going to grab lunch before there wasn't any food left. She agreed as long as we could stop by the feeders first.