Thank you so much to everyone for being so understanding. It really means a lot to me. I've been trying to get better and my nausea is mostly on and off now, but I've recently started eating again :)

This chapter may seem like another filler but I can't help myself with the family fluff!

After another three months, the majority of our house was decorated to our liking. We still needed to set up family photos when the time came, but Dimitri and I spent time shopping for stuff we needed whenever we had the time. We worked eight hours a night while Nevaeh was placed in a daycare, and when our shifts were over, we picked her up and took her home. She was always optimistic about helping us decorate the house, so eventually, we just brought her on most of our shopping trips on the weekends.

We had a nursery in the third bedroom which hadn't been painted yet. Just a few weeks ago, we had discovered we were having a boy, so Dimitri offered to get some of the stuff ready even though I was still about four months away from my due date. We had plenty of time, but we were always overly excited whenever we passed by a maternity store.

The only room that wasn't ready was Nevaeh's room. It was plain and only had a twin bed with some furniture, but it was nothing like the room we had once seen in her dream. She had hinted towards wanting a pink room for a while and her birthday was coming up in a few days. I was planning to buy paint tonight after my work shift so that I could paint her room with Dimitri's help. Adrian was coming over tonight with Eddie to keep her company as we didn't want her to see anything until her actual birthday.

I was sitting at my work desk, going through some files on a new case that was called in a few weeks ago. Three moroi and two dhampir girls had gone missing in California. All of them were teenagers. We didn't have enough leads on where they were now, but with the little bit of evidence we had, they were suspected to have been trapped in a sex trafficking ring just like I had once been. Although this job wasn't overly stressful in terms of workload, it was tough on my emotions. When I thought of someone being stuck in that situation, it made me think of myself.

I felt a pair of strong hands on my shoulders and smiled, taking my eyes off the screen for a second. "Hey, Comrade."

"Hey, you," he said, massaging the muscles in my shoulders. I loved it when he did this. "Still haven't heard anything in that case?"

"No," I said reluctantly. "Those poor girls may never go home." It was such a sad reality. I had been lucky, but most people weren't. Most of them were never found and never got out.

"We're trying, but nothing has come up so far," he said, sitting on the edge of my desk. "I have some good news. Remember the guy who abducted and assaulted that young boy last month?"

"He's hard to forget. What happened?" I asked, leaning back in my seat. Last month, there was a report about a man who abducted a young teenage boy who he took advantage of multiple times. The poor kid was traumatized and we were doing everything we could to help him now. He admitted feeling more ashamed because he was a boy and that he thought he was supposed to 'be a man' about it, but I thought that whole mentality was toxic. Adrian had thought that too when he had come out about being raped by Avery. It pissed me off that male rape wasn't taken seriously, because it still happened.

"He's been caught," Dimitri said, crossing his arms. "He was taken straight to Tarasov. I'm not sure what his sentence will be, but he won't be getting out anytime soon."

"Good. I'd kill them all with my bare hands if I had the chance. I'll never understand why anyone would want to hurt a child. Especially that way."

"Makes me sick," Dimitri muttered. "The boy's family is devastated. He'll never be the same."

"No," I agreed. "He won't."

Dimitri sighed and I closed the folder in front of me with the most recent case. "Are you sure you're okay with this job? I know it can't be easy for you."

"It's not, but I still want to keep helping. It's important to me," I admitted. Dimitri smiled and stood, putting his hand on my head to pet my hair. He had a thing for petting my hair and I adored it.

I checked the time and saw that my shift was ending in five minutes. "Mind if I quickly search something up? I'll be ready to go soon."

"Of course. I'll be by the door." Dimitri kissed my head before leaving my side and standing near the entrance. Whenever he wasn't working on a case, he was guarding me. I was always in his line of sight.

I focussed on my computer again and logged back into the system. I searched up our daughter's name which had been recently changed to Nevaeh Belikova. I went through some of her files and found her former last name which was titled Montgomery. I remembered the story about her birth mother—being turned into a strigoi and then killed. I always knew that, but I wanted closure, so I looked through her files too.

Her name was Alexis Montgomery and she had been abducted when she was only twelve. She had Nevaeh at the age of fifteen and died shortly after she turned four. Sure enough, her body had been found somewhere deep in the woods with a stake wound in her chest. It made me so sad to think that her life was taken away so horribly, but at least she was in peace now. If I ever had a chance to see her spirit, I would let her know that her baby girl was safe and now had a loving home. She deserved to know that.

There were no files or information on Nevaeh's biological father. What I did know based on the information I had received when I had been in the business was that he had raped Alexis. That was what had gotten her pregnant in the first place, but he was nowhere to be found now. He was never caught and was still walking free. It made me feel scared for Nevaeh. Hopefully, he would never find out about her. He might do the same thing to her that he did to her mother for all I knew.

I closed the tabs and shut the computer off, grabbing my purse which was sitting on the table. I turned off the desk lights and walked towards Dimitri, grabbing his stretched-out hand.

"Don't worry," he said. "She's safe with us."

"Were you in my head again?" I asked as we walked out the door.

"No, but your thoughts were loud. Nevaeh's father won't lay a finger on her. He probably doesn't even know she exists."

I sighed. "Yeah. Let's hope it stays that way."

"So, this shade of pink or that one?" I asked, handing the piece of paper to Dimitri with different shades of pink paint. His eyes switched between the two and he knitted his eyebrows together.

"Rose, they look the same."

"How? This one's lighter and the other one is closer to magenta. Can't you see?"

Dimitri blinked and let his other eyes come out, hiding his face with his hair. He blinked again and his eyes were back to their natural colour. "I still don't see a difference."

"Dimitri!"

"The lighter one. Take the lighter one," he rasped, putting his hands up. I sighed and took the lighter shade, telling the clerk behind the counter. He found the paint we were looking for and I placed it in the shopping basket.

"Sorry. I just really want this to be perfect for her," I said apologetically as we walked away.

"Roza, I'm sure she'll love it. She loves every gift she gets, and I'm sure she'll love us for putting everything together."

"She better," I muttered. When we reached an aisle full of junk food, I stopped walking.

"Pregnancy cravings?" Dimitri guessed. I bit my lip and nodded, feeling guilty for wanting to eat all the bad stuff even though my diet was healthy for the most part.

Dimitri grabbed my favourite chips off of the shelf. "A few treats won't hurt. Get some more if you want. We're celebrating Nev's birthday this weekend. She'll want some too."

"Oh, right. That'll be my excuse for having a bigger tummy than I already do." My bump wasn't huge yet, but it was certainly noticeable.

"Hey." Dimitri put his hand on my lower back and pulled me in. "Your tummy is beautiful."

Nevaeh's room was a mess of cluttered furniture that we had put in the middle of the room to avoid getting them dirty with the pink paint. I felt a tiny kick in my stomach and stopped painting for a second, halting my movements with the paint roller.

"What's wrong?" Dimitri asked, putting his roller in the tray.

"He's moving around again," I chuckled, holding my stomach. Dimitri flashed me a warm smile.

"You should take a break. I'll finish up here," he said, patting my lower back. I smiled at him and headed downstairs where Eddie and Adrian were talking quietly at the dinner table.

"Where'd Nev go?" I asked them. Eddie put a finger up to his mouth and cocked his head towards the couch. Nevaeh was sleeping peacefully with a blanket draped over her body. She had been energetic and hyper when we had gotten home over an hour ago.

"How'd you guys get her to sleep?" I whispered.

"Here's a tip," Adrian said. "If you want her to sleep, just read her one of Dimitri's novels. Worked like a charm."

I laughed at Adrian's tactics and pulled a chip bag out from the cabinet. "We'll both fall asleep if I do that. She probably just got tired of all her energy earlier. She gets hyper sometimes."

"Oh, she was hyper. You guys should consider buying her a trampoline so she doesn't destroy your couch."

I had actually considered that. Nev had a habit of jumping on our couches or our bed when she was excited. We didn't want her running around the house so much in case she got hurt, so Dimitri and I took turns playing with her in the backyard when she was energetic.

"Have you told her about the adoption?" Eddie asked, taking a sip of his coke.

I shook my head. "No. I think she knew we were planning on it, but she doesn't know it's official. We're planning to tell her on her birthday. I just hope she's happy about it."

"Why wouldn't she be? She's been calling you Mommy for over half a year now. And she's been calling him Daddy," Eddie added, looking behind me. I didn't even have to turn around as Dimitri's hands slid around my waist.

"You smell like paint," I murmured, leaning back and kissing his cheek. "How does her room look?"

"Like a princess's dream. We just need to wait for the walls to dry. We'll rearrange her furniture tomorrow. For now..." Dimitri placed a hand on my stomach and gave it a light tap. "I think we can relax and give you a belly rub."

"I don't think I've ever seen Dimitri this soft before," Adrian observed. "You've really got him wrapped around your little finger, don't you?"

"Well, I've also been wrapped around him in other places, but—"

Eddie jumped up from his seat and let out a nervous laugh. "Oh, won't you look at the time! I should really head back to my place now."

"And I need a guardian to escort me," Adrian added, quickly grabbing his things and heading out the front with Eddie. "See you this weekend, love birds!"

They closed the door so loudly that it woke Nevaeh from her sleep. She stirred on the couch and lifted the blanket, stretching her arms out as she yawned.

"Did Uncle Eddie and Adrian leave?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Just a second ago, yes," Dimitri answered, sitting on the couch. He patted the spot between them and I sat down, lifting my shirt to expose my belly. Nevaeh had an obsession with rubbing it and so did Dimitri, but I didn't mind. It felt good and was incredibly relaxing. Sometimes, it even put me to sleep.

"You'll be staying in our room tonight and tomorrow," I told Nevaeh as I went through Dimitri's Netflix account on our TV.

"Why?" she asked, drawing circles on the right side of my stomach with her fingers. "What about my toys?"

"You'll have your toys and your mattress. We're just...fixing something in your room right now."

"Okay. I'm cool with that," she said nonchalantly, sliding onto her stomach. "Mommy, when will he come out?"

"Sometime before Halloween."

"Ooh! Can I dress up as a princess?" Nevaeh exclaimed.

"You can be whatever you want to be, sweetie."

"Cool! I'll be a princess, and Daddy can be my prince charming!"

Dimitri chuckled lightheartedly and rubbed his hand through Nevaeh's hair, making a frizzy mess. "Okay. I'll be your prince charming."

"Yay!" she squealed. I chose something for us to watch and laid back while they both rubbed and caressed my swelling abdomen. Nevaeh's curiosity wasn't coming to an end.

"Mommy, where do babies come from?"

I pursed my lips and shifted uncomfortably. "It comes from mama's tummy."

"Yeah, but how are they made?" she continued.

"That is something you'll learn when you're older," Dimitri responded. "And where is this sudden curiosity coming from?"

"Well, I asked Adrian and he said when Mommy and Daddy love each other, they make a baby."

Of course Adrian told her that.

"Uh...it's past your bedtime," Dimitri said quickly. He stood up and held his hand out. "Come on. Off to bed."

Nevaeh slid off the couch and took his hand. While he took her to bed, I stretched my feet out and got comfy. Being pregnant made me a lot more tired than I usually was, and after a long day of reading up on heart-wrenching cases at work, all I wanted to do was relax.

Dimitri came back down a few minutes later and took his place on the couch again. "I tucked her in. She should be asleep soon."

I smiled and leaned on Dimitri's shoulder. I wanted Nevaeh to get as much sleep as possible while she was growing. Kids her age were stubborn about bedtime unlike adults like us who craved sleep the most and unfortunately got the least of it.

"If she's going to sleep in our room, we can only cuddle."

"I'm okay with that," Dimitri said, rubbing my round stomach again. "You can sleep. I'll carry you to bed if you do," he offered, wrapping me up in his arms and pressing a his lips to a sensitive spot right below my ear.

I kissed his cheek and buried my face in his neck. "You're the best."

Nevaeh's special day finally came around, and she was delighted. Our friends and family had joined us as our house to celebrate, gifting her with toys and clothes which she was more than happy about. We had ordered a customized cake with princess figurines and a birthday wish written in cursive. Our house was a mess of tissue paper, gift bags, ribbons and balloons by the time the party had calmed down, but Nevaeh's joy and excitement were well worth it. It was nothing like an adult party, but we all had fun.

I couldn't help but laugh when I walked into the living room and found Adrian with a cone-shaped birthday hat on his head. Dimitri sat next to him with a stubborn look on his face while Nev was gathering a section of his hair into her hands.

"What's going on here?" I asked with a grin on my face, trying to ignore the loud voices coming from the kitchen.

"I promised Nev I would wear a birthday hat if she gave Dimitri pigtails," Adrian said, smirking at Dimitri who had his arms crossed.

"I'm going to kill you," he murmured. I pursed my lips to stop myself from bursting into laughter. This had to be the funniest thing I'd ever seen on Dimitri.

"Not the cool uncle!" Nev squealed, finishing one pigtail. Nevaeh had pigtails too, but there were pink ribbons fastened around them.

"Hey Rose, look what happens when I blow into this thing." Adrian picked up one of those obnoxious party horns off the floor and put the whistle into his mouth.

Dimitri cringed. "Oh god, not again—"

Adrian blew into the loud whistle and the coil unravelled, striking Dimitri's cheek. He scowled at him and I could no longer control my laughter. "You guys look ridiculous!"

Dimitri yanked the party horn out of Adrian's hand. "You just had to buy those, didn't you?"

"How else am I going to annoy my favourite Russian?"

Dimitri groaned. "You already annoy me enough. Hey, stop laughing at me."

"Your hair!" Adrian laughed, pointing obnoxiously. "Dude, you look like Boo from Monsters Inc!"

That did it. I giggled so hard that my stomach hurt and I fell onto the couch. I never thought I'd live to see Dimitri with pigtails, but it looked hilarious.

Nev yanked Dimitri's socks off and stepped away. He stood up and I laughed again when his hair flailed around. "Give those back!"

"You can't catch me!" Nevaeh bolted out of the room, her loud giggles and rapid footsteps filling the house. While Dimitri chased her around, the other people in the house started laughing at what I assumed was his hair.

"Hey, look." Adrian tapped my shoulder and grabbed another party hat off the floor, placing it on my belly. "Now your little boy can wear one too."

"You're hilarious." I grabbed the cardboard and threw it at his head. We walked out of the living room to join the others in the kitchen where I spotted Dimitri again. I thought he was limping at first, but when he came around the counter, I saw Nev's little figure wrapped around his leg, refusing to let go.

"This is what happens when you give a kid too much sugar," I stated, lifting her off of Dimitri's leg and holding her at my hip. Our doorbell rang and Dimitri took the pigtails out of his hair to answer the door, but Abe was already there. Whoever was outside gave him a small package which he brought to the kitchen shortly after.

"It's a package from the queen," he said. "Looks like it's for Nevaeh."

"This must be a present. Want to open it?" I asked her. She nodded enthusiastically and latched onto the brown-coloured paper, ripping it open to reveal a black box. Taking the lid off, she got rid of the tissue paper and found a very beautiful diamond hair clip. It was silver and had a pink sapphire in the middle which had diamonds—real diamonds—encircling it. Several patterns and engravements lined the sides. This little clip must have cost hundreds, maybe even thousands.

There was a card in the box with Tatiana's cursive handwriting. Happy 5th Birthday, Nevaeh.

"Woah," Lissa breathed. "This is something a royal princess would wear."

"We'd better keep this safe. You're a very lucky girl," Dimitri said.

The rest of the night was pretty relaxed and all the excitement from earlier had started to die down. My parents were the first to leave since they had to be up early, and my friends stayed behind for another hour before finally going back to their apartments. They had offered to help clean up the mess, but we insisted on taking care of everything. It didn't take us too long to clean and Nevaeh had surprisingly helped us.

"Thank you," I said as she dumped the last of the garbage into the bin. She ran back into the living room where all her presents laid neatly on the small table.

"Are you happy with what you got?" Dimitri asked her.

"Very happy. Thank you for the party," she said sweetly, hugging our legs. It hadn't occurred to her that we were the only ones who hadn't shown her our gift.

"There is one more thing," I told her.

"Really? Can I see?" she asked, clasping her hands together. I looked up at Dimitri and smiled. We made her follow us upstairs and stopped right outside her room.

"Ready?" Dimitri asked, putting his hand on the doorknob. Nev had been sleeping in our room for the past few days, but we had moved her mattress back into her room as soon as it was done.

"Yes," she said, her eyes full of curiosity. Dimitri slowly opened the door, and the sight before Nevaeh's eyes made her jaw drop. The walls were now a baby pink and were illuminated by warm LED string lights. In the corner, her twin bed now had a white canopy over the top and her teddy bear sat on her pillow. Her windowsill now had proper cushioning so that she could sit, and the bottom of the window was now lined with some of her other toys. She didn't have a desk yet since she was so small, but she did have a dresser where she could keep her clothes for now. There was a fluffy white rug in the middle which covered a large section of the hard-wood floor.

Nevaeh spun around. Her mouth was open in shock. "You painted my room!"

Dimitri smiled. "That's not all. Look on the bed."

She had no control over her excitement as she climbed onto her bed and shoved her hands in the bag that had been sitting on her mattress. The first thing she pulled out was a new stuffed animal. This one was a dog and she wasted no time hugging it in her arms. The second item was a light purple blanket which she also seemed to love. Something I shared in common with her was our love for soft, fluffy blankets. It was an obsession.

Lastly was the birthday card. I grabbed Dimitri's hand and prepared myself as she read it in her head. This was what we had been excited and anxious for. Nevaeh was smarter than most kids of her age and could understand certain things, so she'd surely understand the extra note we had written down.

"You're really adopting me," she said, lifting her head as the realization dawned on her. She had been happy all night, but the joy in her face now was on a whole other level. Tears filled her eyes and she ran over to us. Instead of picking her up, we kneeled to her level to accommodate her height. With tears of my own, I wrapped my arms around her and held her tightly.

"For real? This is for real? I'm really yours?" she cried, switching over to Dimitri's embrace.

"It's all real, and it's official. We love you," he said, wiping some of her tears away.

"I love you too. Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

I smiled again. Her reaction was all I needed. No amount of presents in the world could ever replace a family. She was happier about being our daughter than anything else. That, to me, was worth every penny, every bit of effort, and every obstacle we had to face as parents.

Nevaeh pulled away only to lift my shirt again. Pressing a kiss to my exposed belly, she spoke to the growing baby inside. "I can't wait to be your sister."

I know I said the story is ending soon, but when I wrote about Rose reading up on Nevaeh's files, it made me want to write a third story (a very short one and partially in Nev's POV) but I'm not sure if a third one would be too excessive.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Thank you again for being so supportive!