It didn't happen the second month either, but by that time, Rose had other things with which to occupy her mind. She found college courses to be much more fast-paced than high school courses had been, and she had to devote many afternoon and weekend hours to studying. Football season had also started, and Rose volunteered to help run the concession stands while Dimitri coached. During half time he came over to chat with her.

"This really takes me back," Rose commented.

"So, how does it feel to be on the sidelines for a change?" Dimitri asked with a smile.

"A little sad," Rose admitted as she watched the cheerleaders perform. "I wonder whether I could still do those moves."

"I'll bet you could, with practice," Dimitri replied.

The next day, which was Saturday, Dimitri returned from grocery shopping to find his wife practicing cheers on the back lawn. Rose tried to do a split and only made it halfway down before toppling over in pain.

"Oh, hon, are you all right?" Dimitri rushed to her side and helped her up.

"Guess I'm a bit rusty," Rose mumbled, embarrassed to have been seen.

"Oh, Roza, there's so much more to life than cheer leading," Dimitri said brightly.

"I know." She grinned seductively, and Dimitri laughed and picked her up and carried her into the house, where he sat her on the sofa and she pulled him down on top of herself.

Rose missed her period the following month. She didn't say anything about it to Dimitri, as she didn't want to get his hopes up too early, but when her breasts became unusually tender and she started feeling queasy, she bought an at-home pregnancy test and showed it to Dimitri.

"Let's get up a few minutes early in the morning and take it together," she suggested. They did so, and stood in the bathroom together watching as the wand turned blue.

"Hurray!" Rose shouted, kissing Dimitri's cheek and jumping up and down excitedly. Dimitri just stood there, grinning.

"Let's wait until Christmas to tell everyone," Rose said.

The fall term at the college ended a couple of weeks before Christmas. Rose received an 'A' in one class and an 'A-' in the other.

"Congratulations! I knew you could do it!" Dimitri grinned and embraced his wife tightly.

"I love how everything finally seems to be falling into place," Rose said.

"So do I," Dimitri replied. "You deserve every bit of it, hon." He still saw Lissa on a regular basis at the high school and had longed to tell her that he was going to be a father ever since he'd found out himself but felt that he shouldn't, since Rose wanted to wait until Christmas and surprise everyone.

Christmas Day was cool and crisp. Dimitri and Rose went to Janine's house for dinner. Adrian, Sydney, and Mason arrived about a half hour later. Dimitri and Rose waited until everyone was seated at the dinner table to share their own news.

"Everyone, I have some very happy news," Rose began. "Dimitri and I are going to have a baby in July!"

Janine spluttered and almost choked. Adrian and Sydney both looked shocked.

"Congratulations, Aunt Rose and Uncle Dimitri! That's great!" Mason was all smiles.

"Thank you, Mason," said Rose and Dimitri.

"Well...that's wonderful, of course," Sydney said shakily, exchanging glances with her husband.

Janine frowned darkly. "A baby, Rose? At your age?"

"I'm not even forty yet, Mom, and pregnancy and childbirth are safer than ever these days. Lots of women in their thirties, forties, and even fifties are having babies." Rose felt hurt that her mother hadn't reacted more positively to her news.

"You'll be...let's see...how old when this child graduates high school?"

"Only fifty-six, Mom. That's not that old."

"Dear God..." Janine hid her face in her hands. The family continued to eat silently.

"I'm really happy for you, Aunt Rose. You and Uncle Dimitri are going to make wonderful parents, and besides, I've always wanted a cousin," Mason told Rose after the meal.

"Thank you, Mason." Rose gave her nephew a quick hug.

"Lissa!" Dimitri greeted his longtime friend as he saw her getting out of her car. "How was your Christmas break?"

"Great!" Lissa smiled as she fell into step beside Dimitri. The spring term had just started, and Dimitri and Lissa were on their way to their respective classes. "How was yours?"

"Really nice, thanks." Dimitri cleared his throat. "Actually, there's something I've been wanting to tell you for awhile now, but Rose wanted me to wait until after she announced it to the family at Christmas. Roza and I are going to be parents!"

"Dimitri, that's great!" Lissa enthused. "I know you and Rose will make wonderful parents!"

"To be honest, I had second thoughts about it at first," Dimitri admitted. "I wondered whether it would be a wise decision, considering our ages, but now that I've had time to get used to the idea, I'm thrilled!"

"Oh, I don't think you and Rose are too old to be parents at all," Lissa assured him. "I'm really happy for you!"

Later that evening, Lissa called Rose to congratulate her on the happy news.

"Dimitri and I are both really happy about it," Rose told her. "But my Mom thinks it's a bad idea. She thinks I'm too old to have a baby, but Lissa, I was in a coma for all of my twenties and early thirties, the time when most women become mothers. If I want to have a baby at all, it has to be now, since I can't reverse time. Don't you see?"

"Of course I see, Rose," said Lissa. "I understand completely. I can't imagine what my life would be like if I'd never had Skylar."

"I knew you'd understand, Lissa," said Rose.

"See, this is the head," the ultrasound technician told Dimitri and Rose as she moved the wand over Rose's abdomen. "And this is the body."

"Wow, the head's just about as big as the rest of the entire body!" Rose exclaimed.

"It is at this stage, but as development progresses, the body will catch up and then everything will look more in proportion," the technician explained. She took some measurements and then printed out some pictures for Dimitri and Rose to keep.

"Do you think Mom would want to see them?" Rose asked Dimitri.

"Of course she would! Why wouldn't she? This is her grandchild!"

"But you know how she feels about me being pregnant..."

"Oh, she'll get over it," Dimitri assured his wife. "I'm sure Adrian and Sydney would love to see them as well."

Rose did take the ultrasound pictures to show her mother, and as Dimitri had predicted, Janine was thrilled. Then she took them to show Sydney, who gushed over them as well.

"Guess what, Rose," said Sydney. "Your baby will have a cousin the same age, because I'm pregnant now as well!"

"You are?" Rose was truly surprised, as she'd thought Mason was the only child Adrian and Sydney would ever have. "Why, that's wonderful! Congratulations!"

Rose told Dimitri about her conversation with Sydney that evening. He rolled his eyes and said nothing. A few days later, he told her that he'd talked to Adrian.

"He told me Sydney isn't pregnant," Dimitri said. "He said she'd been trying. He said she'd bought one of those home pregnancy tests and gotten a false positive result."

"But she already has Mason, and he's grown now," Rose pointed out. "Why would she all of a sudden want to start all over again with a new baby?"

"Adrian said she always wanted a daughter. I asked Adrian how he felt about it, and he said that if it makes Sydney happy, then it's all right with him. Personally, I feel sure I know the real reason Sydney wants to get pregnant."

Rose sighed. "So do I." She and Dimitri embraced one another wordlessly.

"Due to your advanced age, I'm recommending that you undergo an amniocentesis," the obstetrician, Dr. Newman, told Rose. "While chances are overwhelmingly good that your baby's perfectly healthy, this test will help to put our minds at ease."

"You mean where they stick a needle into my belly?" Rose couldn't help but feel a bit apprehensive.

"Yes, but the area will be anesthetized, so all you'll feel will be a tiny prick," Dr. Newman assured her. "It'll all be over with very quickly, and we'll have the results back in just a couple of weeks."

Rose shared the news with Dimitri, and asked if he'd be able to go to the appointment with her.

"Of course I'll be there," Dimitri assured her. "We're in this together, you know." He smiled and kissed her lips.

A few days later, Rose lay back on an examining table with her abdomen exposed as a long needle was inserted into it. On the ultrasound screen, she watched her baby move its tiny arms and legs and prayed that the needle wouldn't touch it. She sighed with relief when the needle was withdrawn filled with fluid. Then she went back home and rested for a couple of days and waited for the results.

The telephone call she'd been waiting for finally came a couple of weeks later.

"Good news," Dr. Newman's nurse told her. "The results of your amniocentesis are back, and everything looks perfectly normal. I can also tell you the baby's gender, if you want to know."

"Well...sure, I suppose so."

"It's a boy."

Wow! I hope he looks just like Dimitri, Rose thought. She couldn't wait to tell her husband the good news. Dimitri arrived at the usual time and hugged and kissed his wife hello.

"The doctor's office called today with the results of the amniocentesis," she told him.

"And?"

"And it came back perfectly normal."

"That's great news, honey!"

"And that's not all." Rose smiled mysteriously. "I know what we're having," she continued in a singsong voice.

"What?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Come on, Roza..." Dimitri chuckled, but there was a hint of impatience in his voice.

"It's a boy."

"Hot dog!" Dimitri shouted, joyfully picking Rose up and spinning her around, gingerly, of course.

"I take it you're happy," Rose said.

"Happy? I'm ecstatic!"

The next day, Dimitri called Rose to tell her he was going to be a bit later than usual coming home from work, as he had an errand to run. He entered the house carrying a large bag, from which he pulled a genuine rawhide football and an infant-sized football jersey.

Rose was startled for a moment, then burst out laughing. "Don't you think it's a little bit early for that?"

The spring term at college came and went and, to her relief, Rose didn't go into labor before the end of classes. She didn't know what she would have done if she had.

She didn't register for classes during the summer, and as Dimitri only taught summer school P.E. part time, he had a lot more free time as well.

Rose's labor pains started around midnight one night in June. The contractions were so strong that they awakened her, and her water broke and flooded the bed.

"Dimitri, it's time," she said, shaking her husband awake.

Instantly alert, Dimitri hurriedly dressed and drove his wife to the hospital, where she was admitted and taken to a room.

Rose was hooked up to an I.V. and monitor and quickly examined.

"You're dilated four centimeters," the nurse told her. "You'll be ready to deliver in a few hours."

At first the contractions weren't that bad, but as time wore on, they became much stronger, and Rose found herself having to depend on the breathing exercises she and Dimitri had practiced together in the prepared childbirth classes they'd taken.

It was in the early morning hours that the nurse finally examined Rose and told her that it was time to push.

"Would you like to watch the delivery?" the nurse asked.

"Oh, yes!" Rose replied. "I didn't even know you could do that."

"Of course you can, if you want," the nurse told her with a smile.

The nurse placed a mirror between Rose's legs, and Rose and Dimitri watched in wonder as their son came into the world.

"Oh, Roza, I just love you so much!" Dimitri told his wife when it was all over and he was holding his son in his arms. Tears flowed from his eyes, and they flowed from Rose's as well.