A/N: Short chapter but it's only because I want the next chapter to be Rose's perspective. I'm trying to tie up the rest of this story and then take a little break from writing fanfiction. It's not that I don't love writing fan fiction but my last 2 or 3 stories didn't turn out the way I planned so I'm going to finish writingmy next planned story before posting it. Thanks for the reviews and favorites. You guys rock!

"It feels like time is standing still. I swear every clock I look at is moving backwards."

If it wasn't so true, I would have laughed at Rose's comment. But she was right, it does feel like time has slowed down ever since the trial started.

"I can't believe the judge postponed it until Monday. I don't know whether to be happy or upset about it," she sighed, closing her eyes as she burrowed closer into me. I lifted my arm around her shoulders so she could settle comfortable at my side.

Rose was usually hesitant about moving closer to me or simply holding on to me. I think she still expected me to push her away and that made her so unsure of herself.

But I'm here and I've never turned down an opportunity to hold Rose.

Sleeping has become even more difficult lately. I might just be my imagination of the effect I had on Rose, but I've found that the best way to get Rose asleep is to hold her, rub a few slow circles on her back, comb my fingers through her hair, and hold her until she's ready for me to let go the next morning.

There are plenty of times I just don't want to let her go.

Especially now after such a long day and it's finally just the two of us.

"At least everyone has the weekend to just relax for a bit, forget about things."

"True," she mumbled. She was already drifting to sleep when suddenly her body tensed and she opened her eyes again. "I could've been done with my testimony already. We all could have been done with our testimonies if he hadn't shown up," she said angrily. "This is all his fault. I hate him."

I don't exactly have any warm and fuzzy feelings for Ibrahim Mazur either. Not the way he made everyone feel exposed and uncomfortable even if he was just 'stating fact'. Especially not the way he came at my sister.

He didn't say anything about Rose. Not for any of us to hear any way. He stared at her for the longest time, taking her in. It was easy to recognize just then that they're related or at least that they have the same character and physical traits. I don't think Rose has realized it yet but she does the same thing when she's meeting new people, silently examining them as though tracing for any sign of a threat. She shares Ibrahim's dark eyes, hair, and smile though she hasn't had much reason to smile lately.

She hasn't said anything about what Ibrahim said to her at the courthouse. He asked to speak to her privately and, through some reluctant coaxing from me that I'd be less than five feet away, she let him take her aside. I'd promised earlier that we'd both talk to him but she waved me away and agreed to talk to him alone. Whatever he said to her didn't take long and it made her more angry than she was before.

I've seen a lot of emotions on Rose: happy, sad, crying, uncomfortable, fear, embarrassed…

It's rare I see her angry.

Today, though, she was furious. Almost as furious as I was, if not more. Her small body was stiff, her face went from pallid to flushed as it settled in that Ibrahim is here and he's staying. It was so startling to see, to feel, her body so angry that I was a little hesitant to touch her afterwards.

She didn't say anything as we left and only spoke to hug and thank Stan, Yeva, Mark, and Christian for being here and to say goodbye to Vika and Lissa who Christian was taking home while Rose was coming home with me.

Despite her understandable dislike for Ibrahim, It isn't healthy for her to hate him.

"You can't afford to hate anyone right now."

She shifted to look up at me.

"I hate Adrian, Camille, Ralph, Jesse, Charlie…" she listed. "I can spare a little hate for him too."

"Rose…" I started.

"He should have been there Dimitri. I keep thinking that...if...if he had never left me and my mom, maybe he would have protected me...and my mom would be here. Instead, I have to give a detailed testimony for hundreds of people to hear about my attack and my mom is…"

She trailed off, letting her head drop back down on to my shoulder. I lifted her face between my hands and met her gaze. There are days where I have to go an entire day without seeing her and in that short span of time that stretches like eternity, I forget my favorite traits about Rose, small details of what she looks like.

She slightly wiggles and twitches her nose when she's in thought sometimes, her beautifully thick dark eyebrows furrow, she nibbles at her full bottom lip, she has soft cheekbones and her large eyes are wide and shimmering even when she's not smiling. Rose has a soft beauty that not many people appreciate. Now that it was just the two of us for a while, I kiss her forehead, really able to appreciate having Rose so close to me.

We stay like that for a moment before she moves to wrap her arms around me.

"Playing the 'what if' game with yourself will drive you crazy," I tell her, my words muffled by her hair.

"I just...I just don't understand why my mom would send him here," she whispers. Releasing her hold on me, she decides to fiddle with the buttons of my shirt.

"Did he say anything about your mom?"

She shakes her head sadly. "He just repeated what he told me the first time, that she's alright and not to worry but of course I'm going to worry until I know where she is! He said that she asked him not to tell me. What does that even mean?"

She groans and holds her head as though she has a headache before flopping back onto the couch.

"Maybe she doesn't want you to worry," I offer.

Rose breathes deeply but doesn't say anything about my suggestion possibly being right or wrong. She just stares up at the ceiling. She does that a lot whenever she's over here. I can't pretend to completely understand what she's going through but I can guess that everything she's trying to process has created a huge ball of inner turmoil and chaos and she can't make it go away.

"You haven't eaten anything," I point out.

"I had that granola bar you made me eat this morning," she mumbles, rubbing her eyes before refocusing her gaze to the ceiling.

"I only strongly suggest you eat it because you haven't been taking very good care of yourself lately. I understand you're looking after Lissa, trying to stay caught up on your school work, and worrying about your mom and everything else on your plate but you have to keep yourself healthy too."

"No I don't."

I tug at her hands gently, pulling her up so she's facing me. She speaks before I can say anything.

"I don't have to take care of myself because, as self as it is, I know you'll do it for me. You look after me pretty well, Dimitri, and I kind of came to rely on that a lot lately." Her tanned cheeks are flushed and she's looking up at me through her lashes, bashful that she's admitted to relying on me so much to look after her.

"I feel good that you trust me so much and you're opening up even more but I'm worried that you're intentionally not looking after yourself and-"

She presses her lips against mine, silencing me. She's so soft, warm, and gentle against me. Her kiss is admittedly dizzying and it takes me a moment to focus on what we were talking about by the time she pulls away.

"Don't worry. I promise I'll take better care of myself," she swears. "I just got use to the nice feeling of you doing it." That ashamed, bashful smile is back again and she looks away. "I think I'm getting pretty good at this independence thing though, right? I mean except for my little mental breakdown in the bathroom today..."

"Considering everything you're going through, it's understandable," I assure her.

She seems to consider my words contemplatively nibbling at her lip. "You think I'll be one of those mysterious independent career business women who works in a big city? Eventually, everyone will figure out my past but then they'll admire me and say that I'm stronger because of it," she fantasizes, playfully.

"Without a doubt, you will be a big CEO of some global company," I humor her. "And you'll be amazing."

She laughs and settles herself close against me again on my sofa. "I don't know about CEO. All that sounds a little too much...I just want to be a normal every day person. Blend in with the millions of other people in some city."

"That works too," I agree.

"And hopefully...you'll still be with me...if all this insanity and soap opera drama hasn't driven you away." She says it jokingly but I can hear the genuine fear in her voice. Even with all the trust she's put in me lately, she still really thinks that I'll be like most of the people she's known her entire life and turn on her, leaving her alone.

"I plan on being with you as long as you're willing to have me around, Roza."

"Roza," she repeats. "My Russian nickname right?"

"Right."

"It's pretty. I like when you call me, Roza," she tells me, nestling her head against my shoulder. "I feel...different, like a completely different better person than Rosemarie Hathaway."

Some of what she's saying is true. Rose acts differently when I call her Roza and that's usually when it's jut the two of us. She's less guarded, more willing to smile, a little more relaxed and little less tense. It feels good that I'm allowed to see this rare side of Rose that most people don't get to see.

"I think both versions of you are pretty amazing but I kind of agree with you. I like Roza better."

"Yeah?" She asks surprised. "Why?"

"It's special. No one, besides my family, really calls you Roza. It's like this private version of you, your personality, only just for me. Does that make sense?" I ask, chuckling nervously at my jumbled explanation.

Rose thinks it's both unbelievable and funny that I'm nervous and embarrassed around her sometimes. It's not that I don't know how to act around her or that I'm uncomfortable. There just an array of emotions that come out whenever we're together and I'm just never sure we're ready to face, accept or talk about them yet.

She smiles and pinches one of my cheeks playfully. "You're so cute. And yes that made perfect sense. You're pretty romantic Dimitri. You sure know how to melt a girl's heart." She yaws that last bit and I can see how tired she's becoming. She's more open and lighthearted with her words when she's tired.

The lack of sleep and exhaustion along with the day's events is finally taking it's toll. She says she only really sleeps when I'm with her but I think it's mostly so she won't have to sleep alone. I never object to staying with her.

"We should get you to bed," I suggest, ready to lift her up and carry her back to my room where she can stretch out but she shakes her head.

"If I go to sleep, we'll be one day closer to being back in court. Let's stay up for a while," she suggests, her eyes still closed.

"Didn't you just promise me you're take better care of yourself?" I remind her. "Part of doing that is sleeping. Just a few hours and then we'll stay up tomorrow night."

She considers my suggestion but eventually decides against it. Neither of us says anything for a while. I figure if I wait long enough her exhaustion will wear her down and she'll go to sleep on her own. She moves slowly against me, turning her face into my neck, surprising me by pressing her nose against my warm skin. Her arms are suddenly secure around my neck and she's managed to shift her entire body, pressing her chest against mine.

She breathes softly for a few moment. She smells and feels so good it takes a lot of power for me to resist tilting her face up to kiss her again.

"Sleep, Roza. You need sleep."

"Calling me 'Roza' isn't going to help me get to sleep any faster."

Rose and I have been in this position before where things between us are warm enough to eventually get a little too heated. One of us always stops before crossing some line we cant come back from but I can tell it takes a lot of effort on both of our parts.

Someone in Rose's position, with everything she's been through needs time to heal. As a defense instructor and a witness to the after affects of any types of abuse, I know that better than most and I understand better than most. She scared and vulnerable even if she's not always showing it. She thinks she's ready and sometime pushes the boundaries between us a little further but I know it's not healthy for her.

It's hard pulling away from her and allowing any space between us. Rose is so beautiful, sometimes it's breathtaking. Now is one of those times.

With great reluctance, I try to pull her back a little ways so we're at least looing at each other again but her hold is firm.

"Please, Dimitri. Just for tonight."

"This can't go far, Rose," I tell her, using her common name hoping my words were stick through whatever cloudy fog she's in. "Not now. Not tonight. You know that right? You know why?"

She nods. "I know..." she answers and she sounds both disappointed and relieved. I just hope, need her to understand I'm not rejecting her because I don't want her. Before I can do any reassuring she beats me to the punch. "I know I'm not ready for that yet...but what if I'm never ready, Dimitri? Will you-"

"We're taking things one hurdle, one day at a time. I'm not with you because of sex. I'm with you because we're good together. You make me feel a certain way and I think I do that same thing for you?" I ask skeptically. She immediately alleviates my worries by nodding.

"You make me feel good. I just want us to feel good together...more than we normally have...physically," she answers, nervously smiling and she suddenly can't meet my gaze.

She called me cute before but she is exactly the same way.

I don't know what to do.

I don't want to completely reject her, hurting her. But I'd be rejecting her to protect her. She's scared of my answer, that much is obvious. Frankly, I'm scared of either decision. Either way, things are going to change tonight. Good or bad, I don't know.

She finally looks up and reads the uncertainty on my face. We read each other's emotions like books sometimes, even when either of us is doing our best to hide it. With a hesitant hand, she reaches out to cup my face in her hands. She uses me to slowly anchor herself closer as though she's testing the water, testing the limits between us.

"I just want to see how far we can go."

I nod, understanding.

"You lead the way then. The second you feel it's too much, you tell me and we stop," I bargain.

She agrees and then she looks uncertain of where she wants to go from here.

"J-just...just hold me, okay?" she whispers in a trembling voice. Her body is shaking in the light hold I have on her sides but she tells me to ignore it. "I'll calm down. I always do," she reminds me. It's taken a lot of time, but Rose has grown use to my touch. She's always trembling slightly at first but she eventually relaxes. I can't wait for the day where I hold her without eliciting a flinch from her body. For now, this is good.

Uncertainty is still on her face and she doesn't know what to do first.

I give her a little help and slide my hands to her waist, deciding to simply stick to my part of just holding her and following her instructions. I lock eyes with her brown eyes to see if my repositioned hold is okay and she nods.

Me making the first move gives her a little incentive to make the next step. As she did before, she presses every inch of her body close against mine so that not even a paper could squeeze in between us. I feel every inch of the front of her small frame against mine and it feels too perfect to even describe.

She presses her face against my neck again and instead of just breathing me in, she kisses my heated skin. It's light, kisses that I can barely feel until she starts a trail up and along my jaw. Every kiss closer to my lips is a little longer and feels stronger. She finally makes it to my lips and kisses me with everything her small body can give me, with everything she is able to offer. And though I'm worried of how she'll feel about all of this later, I take it.

"Tighter," she whispers, breaking the fierce kiss long enough for both of us to catch our breath. It's a second before I realize she's talking about the hold I have on her waist. I tighten my grip on her just a bit and she sighs contentedly, resting her forehead against mine. The only sound in the room is our rapid breathing.

For a second, I feel a little relieved that that's as far as she's willing to go. But she proves my relief wrong when she gently tugs at the front of my shirt and shifts her weight so she's laying back on top the couch, taking me with her.

I'm careful with my weight on top of her but she shakes her head. "It's okay."

I let my body presses a little more weight on her and closes her eyes for a second. I worry that I've hurt her and I'm ready to pull away but she tightens her hold on me.

"It feels good."

I may not be able to completely relate or understand everything she's feeling but I can help her feel a little better.

Rose was right before when she said it feels like time is standing still. If only we could be frozen in moments like this, moments where it's just he two of us, forever.