A/N: I'm alive! I survived my first day of High School :D I really hope you guys don't hate me after this chapter... but I know you all will :) Anyways, on with chapter fifteen!

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own the characters of VA, just Dimitri. HA, I wish. I'm totally kidding, though I wish I wasn't. Dimitri and everyone else belong to Richelle Mead.

Chapter Fifteen: Unexpected

Twenty minutes after our little ordeal, we were in our rental car on our way to the airport to pick Sydney up.

"I wonder if she'll recognize me . . ." I mused.

"I'm sure she will once she looks past the blonde hair and blue eyes." Dimitri replied. "And once she sees the way you act." he added with a smirk. I smacked him on the side of the head.

"I wonder what she'll say when she sees you. After all, you're supposed to be Strigoi." I said in a flat tone. "She was at the memorial service with me that we held at your house, so she knows everything." I added. Dimitri was silent for the longest time.

"I can't even begin to imagine how you felt . . . It must've been horrible." he choked up at the end.

"It was, but it doesn't matter now that I have you back. It's all in the past." I replied.

"I don't know what I did to deserve you. You're so forgiving, loving, beautiful, caring . . . I could keep going forever, but one thing is clear: I'm insanely lucky to have met you." he said. "I love you so much it hurts. My life was boring and meaningless until I met you."

"Oh Dimitri . . . I feel the same about you. If anything, you becoming Strigoi strengthened us, made us see that we'll never let eachother go." I replied.

"I agree. Even when I was Strigoi, all I thought about was you. You dominated every thought in my head and I wanted to make you mine. It was in a twisted way but it made me see that even in that state, our love shone through." he said.

"I know what you mean. Even when you were like that, I still loved you as much as I did before. That's what made me hesitate." I replied. "I'm glad that I hesitated both times, or else you wouldn't be here." Just then, we pulled into the airport parking lot. We found out that the flight from New Orleans was at gate 3 so we made our way over and waited. The plane was landing in 10 minutes. We sat down in some chairs, and it still amazed me how Dimitri could sit so gracefully, considering his height. I just plopped down in my chair, earning a chuckle from him.

"What? I'm not as poised and graceful as you." I said, glaring at him.

"That's one thing I love about you: you don't care what others think of you." he responded.

"I care what you think of me . . ." I mumbled so he couldn't hear me. "I love you." I said loudly.

"I love you too. More than you know." he replied.

"Oh I think I have an slight idea . . ." I said before leaning over and kissing him swiftly. He pulled me out of my chair so that I was now sitting on his lap. He sat there, gazing into eachothers eyes for what seemed like eternity.

"I'm gonna talk to Lissa . . . just to see if she's making any progress with my case." I told him.

"Hurry back to me." he replied.

Hey Lissa.

Hey Rose . . . what's up?

At the airport waiting for Sydney.

I see . . . why?

She had some files on your dad that I want to investigate, see if I can find any clues.

Oh.

Yep . . . so how is your search for the person who framed me going?

Not so good . . . I've been searching everywhere for some type of clue . . . I just can't find anything. Christian has been helping, and he hasn't found anything either. I feel like a failure.

Oh Liss . . . you're not a failure. We'll figure everything out. Maybe once I get back to the hotel room I'll try to contact Tatiana. Maybe she knows somthing that can help us.

That's a brilliant idea! Oh and speaking of your hotel room . . . you have to teach me how to block you out faster. I almost couldn't get out in time last night.

I grimaced internally. Yeah . . . we'll take care of that when I see you again. Which I hope will be soon because I miss you like crazy! And I'm dying to show you my new look!

New look? What did you do?

Hold on. I'll try to think of my reflection and see if you can see a picture.

'Kay. I pulled up the picture of my self in the mirror the first time I looked at my new self. Wow Rose! You look beautiful! I never thought blonde would suit you so well! Now we're both blondies!

Ha. Thanks Liss. How is everyone back at Court?

Christian is the same as ever . . . Adrian is a different story. Just then I saw what Adrian looked like, because Lissa was thinking of it. He looked haggard, deep purple circles under his eyes, he needed to shave, his clothes were rumpled, and he was pretty much always drunk.

I can't believe I did that to him . . .

You had to, Rose. He'll understand someday. You just don't love him as much as you love Dimitri.

I know, I just feel horrible. I don't even think he'll want to be friends. It might be selfish, but I need him in my life to be happy.

I know. Well I gotta go, and I bet Dimitri is getting lonely so go and be with him. Talk to me whenever.

Okay Liss. Can you tell Adrian I'm sorry?

Sure. Bye Rose.

Bye Lissa.

I went back to reality just then, seeing big beautiful brown eyes staring into mine.

"You scare me when you do that. You look dead or something along those lines. It's freaky." Dimitri said worriedly.

"Aww . . . Don't worry about me." I replied. Just then, my eyes scanned the room to look for Sydney, as her plane landed while I was talking to Lissa. Her eyes zeroed in on Dimitri, and I ran over to her and hugged her.

"Um . . . Excuse me?" Sydney said, looking uncomfortable.

"Aww Syd . . . I can't believe you don't recognize me!" I said, mock sadness in my voice.

"Rose? Wow you've changed. A lot. And why is Dimitri standing beside you?" she replied, sceptisism on her face.

"The appearance change was for security reasons, and I'll explain Dimitri in the car." I told her. She nodded, and we headed off to retrieve her luggage and then went to the car.

"Okay. Explain." she said from the back seat as we were driving away. Dimitri chuckled at her.

"Wow you don't waste time, do ya Syd?" I asked, laughing a bit at her serious face.

"Well what am I supposed to do? I thought he was a Strigoi!" she replied.

"Long story short, I found a way to turn him back. It takes too long to explain, so maybe another time. Dimitri is a dhampir again." I explained.

"Oooookay?" she replied.

"So did you get the files on Eric Dragomir?" I asked.

"Yes. They're in my bag." she replied.

"We need to investigate the whole 'Jane Doe' thing. That's why we're in Vegas. That is where the money was being transferred, right?" I asked her.

"Umm . . . yeah." she replied. "Might I ask why we're investigating this?" she asked.

"Well it turns out that Lissa has a half-sibling and she needs that sibling to get on the council so she can vote against the age-decree." I hoped Sydney would know what I meant by the age decree . . .

"Okay. I guess that's a good enough reason . . . You're lucky to have met me or you'd be lost right now." she said with a smirk.

"I know . . . but you're actually lucky to have met me or else you would be dead right now." checkmate! I chuckled.

"Fine, you win." she said in a defeated tone. Dimitri stayed silent, except for the occasional chuckle or smile. "So where are we headed?" she asked.

"To our hotel room. We're going to sort through all of the files there." Dimitri replied.

"Okay." Sydney replied. We drove in silence.

I noticed something on the road not too far ahead of us. "Dimitri, what is that?" I asked.

"I don't know!" he replied.

We got a closer, and I saw what it was. "DIMITRI! STOP! WE'RE GOING TO HIT-" but it was too late.

OOOOOOOOOOOO! Cliffie :) what do you think they hit? Review and you'll find out sooner. I'm not updating until I get 10 more reviews. I'm at 25 reviews now, so when I get to 35 I will update. Capiche? Review :)