Dimitri

I opened the door after a soft knock was heard – barely audible. I brushed my hands off before I opened it. I looked down, shocked to see a small Rose standing there, her arms wrapped around herself.

"Hey." I said as I answered the door. She rubbed her hands along her arms.

"Hey, I know Olena is your mom. I found her address in my dads files." She cut herself off. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"No, it's okay. Do you want to come in?" I asked, opening the door wider to let her in. She shook her head.

"Can we walk?" I nodded, told her I would be one second before running up the stairs and grabbing a zip up for me and one for Rose. It was going to be too big, but night's are chilly here.

"I'm going out for a while!" I called throughout the house, ignored the questions and opened the front door, closing it after me. I extended my hand out with the zip up. "You looked a bit cold." She gave me a smile, took the zip up gratefully and wrapped it around herself. I was right. It went down to her knees, her hands invisible in the sleeves. I gave her a smile as I gestured for her to lead the way.

"Are you okay? You didn't come to school." She looked up at me and smiled.

"I'm okay." She sucked in a breath, swallowed before continuing. "You were there yesterday?" I nodded. She blushed and turned away.

"Does it happen often?" I asked, generally curious, worried even. I just wanted to make sure that if it happened again, I would be able to tell the signs.

"Not like that." She replied, startling me. She's usually quiet, has been since she started in school, I didn't expect her to answer. She would sit with us but she wouldn't talk a lot. "I get panic attacks often but I can calm myself down most of the time. When I can't - it's worse. I was hospitalized once." She went on. "Migraines come after the really bad ones."

"Do you know when they come?" She shrugged.

"Most times. My hands start to sweat, I can't breathe or I babble and don't stop." She laughed. "But I babble when I'm nervous so that's not a good indicator - It's like having two unknowns in an equation, you never know what the outcome can be." I gave her a smile.

"So, are you having a panic attack now or are you just nervous?" I looked up at me, bumped her elbow into my side. I looked down at her and raised an eyebrow.

"My mom said she was coming into town." She said. "That's why I had the bad panic attack, because where she goes Tony goes."

"Tony?"

"I don't know who he is anymore." She sighed, wrapping her arms around herself. "Mom said he was to 'protect' me."

"Yeah, mama would tell us to be careful. Abe was getting death threats, not just aimed at him, but at Janine too. Mama always wondered if that's why she left but she always said Janine could handle herself."

"She said she left so she could protect me." I nodded.

"From the stories we heard growing up. that makes sense. When Abe started his business, he was very young. There were many people trying to take him down." She shrugged. "It probably wasn't an easy decision."

"So you think what she did was right? She was never around to make the decision easy for me." She looked up at me. "I never had so much free time." I gave her a smile. We walked in silence for a while. Comfortable silence.

"Thank you for coming out." She said after a while. We made it to the park not too far from either of our homes. I looked down at her. "You were probably busy." I shook my head.

"I was just going to finish my calc homework." Rose gave me a smile. "Why a gym?" I asked, bringing up what she said at dinner the few nights previous.

"I find the gym – exercise really – helps with my panic attacks. The more I work out, the less likely I am to have a panic attack. I've done the stats. I want others to feel the same." I gave her a smile.

"That's very thoughtful."

"What about you?" She asked as we sat on a bench. She crossed her legs and turned towards me.

"The same actually but for different reasons. I want to work in a gym – train people in self-defense. Alberta helps me with it – she tells me what I need to do and she helps me." She gave me a smile.

"That settles it – I'll open the gym and you can work for me!" I gave her a smile but I was watching her lips. I leaned forward as she sucked in a breath but didn't pull away. Our lips met and too soon she pulled away blushing.

"I'm sorry – I've never-" I smiled at her and kissed her again. She didn't put away this time, we both pulled apart together. Rose bit her lip, looked down and blushed. I gave her a smile. "I wanted to do that for a while."