Here we go, second last chapter! Enjoy!

Chapter 27

For the next couple of days, Lissa and I took turns watching over Rose. Rose had been moved from her ward into the royal guest housing. Each room was bigger than any apartment I had ever seen.

She was now no longer attached to a heart monitor or any other machine except for a drip, which was how they were keeping her nourished. Her stitches were still in and wouldn't be removed for another few days.

While Lissa was with her this morning, I had showered and changed, feeling as fresh and new as ever. When I returned, Lissa had to leave to sort some things out before the coronation.

So now, I was walking around the fancy bedroom, all the while keeping a watchful eye on Rose's sleeping form. I moved to sit in the big, comfy armchair by her bedside.

I watched her carefully and felt my breath hold in my throat as she sighed loudly and stirred.

There were no were words to describe the happiness I was feeling when she opened her beautiful eyes.

"Sleeping beauty awakens." I said.

A smile spread across her face and I felt my breath catch once again at her beauty. "Are you my nurse?"

I stood up from my chair and walked over to her, wanting to be closer. I smiled back at her, feeling content. She began attempting to push herself up on her elbows.

"No, no, you need to lie down," I scolded her, not harshly though. I got the feeling that if she asked me for anything right now then I would grant it to her.

"Then come closer," she told me. "I want to see you."

I couldn't resist not being close to her after everything. I figured it would be okay as long as I was careful. I kicked off my shoes and then landed haphazardly on the ground by the bed. I pulled the covers back a little and climbed in beside her.

It was a double bed so there was plenty of room, but we both stayed curled up closely on one side, our heads resting inches apart.

"Is this better?" I asked her.

"Much." She answered and gave me a breath taking smile.

I lifted my hand and stroked some of the hair that was resting on her cheek. "How are you?"

"Hungry." She answered right away, making me laugh.

I wanted to pull her close to my body in a tight embrace but had to remind myself to be careful with her. Instead, I moved my arm down so that it was resting ever so gently around her lower back.

"Of course you are," I told her. "I think they've only managed to get broth into you so far. Well, that and IV fluids early on. You're probably in sugar withdrawal."

Her face scrunched up at the mention of the IV fluids, no doubt at the idea of having needles stuck in her arm. Let's just say that we were lucky that she was unconscious when they were they.

"How long have I been out?" she asked me.

"A few days."

"A few days…" she repeated and she shivered, goose bumps showing up on her skin. I pulled the covers right up to make sure she was warm.

"I shouldn't be alive," she said in a whisper. Her hand raised itself on its own accord and rested on her wound on her chest. "Oh Lord." She said suddenly. "Lissa healed me, didn't she?"

"No, she didn't heal you." I told her.

"No?" she questioned. "Then…Adrian? He'd never…after how I treated him…no. He couldn't have…"

"What, you think he'd let you die?" I asked her surprised she had come to that conclusion. She didn't answer.

"No matter how he feels…" I paused and studied her face, making sure I wasn't crossing a line with her. I knew Adrian was a touchy subject, especially after what we had done. "Well, he wouldn't have let you die. He wanted to heal you. But he didn't either."

"Then who?" she asked me. "Sonya?"

"No one," I told her. "Well, you, I suppose."

"I…what?" she asked in shock.

"People can heal without magic now and then, Rose." I joked. "And your wounds…they were bad. No one thought you'd survive. You went into surgery, and then we all just waited."

"But why…why didn't Adrian or Lissa heal me?" she asked me, almost sheepishly.

"Oh, they wanted to, believe me. But in the aftermath, in the chaos…the Court went under lockdown. They were both taken away and put under heavy protection before they could act. No one would let them near you, not when they still thought you might be a murderer. They had to be certain about Tasha first, even though her own actions were pretty damning."

"Is Tasha…" she paused, looking reluctantly to say what she was about to say. "still alive?"

I felt my good mood lessen ever so slightly. "Yes." I answered her. It pained me that one of my friends had done this. "They caught her right after she shot you – before anyone else got hurt. She's detained, and more evidence has been coming in."

"Calling her out was one of the hardest things I've ever done," she said quietly. "Fighting Strigoi was easier than that."

"I know. It was hard for me to see, hard for me to believe. But she made her choices, and all the charges against you have been dropped. You're a free woman now. More than that. A hero. Abe's been bragging that it's all his doing."

That smile from earlier reappeared on her face, instantly relighting my own mood. "Of course he is. I'll probably get a bill from him soon."

I laughed, realising that maybe Rose didn't hate her father as much as she let on she did. After all, she was just as much like him as she was like her mother.

"So what now?" she asked me after a moment of silence.

"I'm not sure," I answered her. I lifted my hand to her face to check for a fever. Her forehead was warm, but not hot. "I'm just so glad…so glad you're alive. I've been so close to losing you so many times. When I saw you on the floor, and there was so much commotion and confusion…I felt so helpless. I realised you were right. We waste our lives with guilt and self-loathing. When you looked at me there at the end…I saw it. You did love me."

"You doubted?" she asked me, suddenly sounding a little offended.

"No." I quickly reassured her. "I mean, I knew then that you didn't just love me. I realised you really had forgiven me."

"There was nothing to forgive, not really." she told me, not for the first time. It was the first time I really listened though.

"I've always believed there was." I told her. "And that's what was holding me back. No matter what you said, I just couldn't believe it…couldn't believe you would forgive all the things I did to you in Siberia and after Lissa healed me. I thought you were deluding yourself."

"Well. It wouldn't be the first time I've done that," she joked. "But no, this time I wasn't."

"I know, and with that revelation…in the split second that I knew you forgave me and that I really had your love, I was finally able to forgive myself too. All those burdens, those ties to the past…they went away. It was like…" I was lost for words.

"Being free? Flying?" she suggested.

"Yes." I confirmed. "Except…it came too late. This sounds crazy, but while I was looking down at you, having all these thoughts coming together in my head, it was like…like I could see death's hand reaching for you. And there was nothing I could do. I was powerless. I couldn't help." I told her, feeling the distant ache in my heart.

"You did," she told me quietly. "The last things I saw before blacking out were you and Lissa. I don't know how I survived getting shot, how I beat the odds…but I'm pretty sure your love – both of you – gave me the strength to fight through. I had to get back to you guys. God only knows what trouble you'd get into without me."

Her words were sweet, yet powerful…and they warmed me.

I leaned into her perfect lips and kissed them gently. She returned the pressure lightly but after a couple of minutes, the kisses got more intense and urgent. I pulled away quickly, having to remind myself once again that she was in a fragile state.

"Hey, what gives?" she asked me, pouting a little.

"You're still recovering," I chastised, more myself than her. "You might thing you're back to normal, but you aren't."

"This is normal for me," she tried to convince me to kiss her again. "And you know, I thought with all this freedom and self-discovery and expression of our love stuff that we could finally stop with the whole Zen master wisdom and practical advice crap." She said grumpily.

I grinned at her. "Roza, that's not going to happen. Take it or leave it."

She leaned towards me and kissed me; not like before. It was more like a soft peck. "If it means getting you, I'll take it."

"Dimitri…for real, what happens to us?" she asked me carefully.

"Life." I said simply. "It goes on. We go on. We're guardians. We protect and maybe change our world."

"No pressure," she said sarcastically. "But what's the 'we' and 'guardians' part? I was pretty sure we were out of that career path."

"Mmm." I placed her face in between my palms, rubbing my thumbs against her cheeks. "Along with our pardons, we received our guardian status again." I told her happily.

"Even you?" she exclaimed. "They believe you're not a Strigoi?"

I nodded in response.

"Huh. Even if I got my name cleared, my ideal future was that we'd get filing jobs near each other." She said thoughtfully. I leaned right in close to her, dying to tell her the next part.

"It gets better: you're Lissa's guardian."

"What?" She said loudly in shock. "That's impossible. They'd never…"

"They did." I told her, saving her from finishing her sentence. "She'll have others, so they probably figured it was okay to let you hang around if someone else could keep you in line." I teased her.

"You're not…" she started and looked nervous. "You're not one of her guardians too, are you?"

"No," I told her. "I have a different assignment."

"Oh." Was all she said. I could see sadness in her face.

"I'm Christian's guardian."

Rose shot up in a sitting position. I grimaced ever so slightly, wondering how it didn't hurt her.

From the look on her face, it did.

"But that's…that's practically the same thing!" she exclaimed.

I copied her and sat up, smirking at her shocked state. "A little. But they won't be together every moment, especially with her going to Lehigh. He's not going…but they'll keep coming back to each other. And when they do, so will we. It's a good mix. Besides…I think you've proved to everyone that you're willing to put her life first."

Rose shook her head in denial. "Yeah, but no one was shooting at you. Only her."

Her eyes turned to me and scrutinised me. "You followed when I jumped in front of Lissa, didn't you? Who were you going for? Me or her?"

Ah. The question that had kept popping up in my head.

"I don't know, Roza. I don't know."

She sighed and looked around the room. "This isn't going to be easy."

"It never is," I reminded her and couldn't resist pulling her into my arms. She snuggled close to my chest and breathed deeply. I tightened my arms and rested my face near her hair.

After a while, there was a quiet knock at the door, and Lissa entered, interrupting our sweet moment.

"Sorry," she apologised, although not looking very sorry. "Should have put a sock on the door. Didn't realise things were getting hot and heavy."

Before I could say anything, Rose piped up.

"No avoiding it," she said and squeezed my hand. "Things are always hot with him around."

I felt my cheeks redden ever so slightly in embarrassment. I should have expected nothing less from Rose when it came to talking about our sex life with Lissa – that's what girls did, right? I just never imagined I'd be in the same room.

Rose laughed loudly and kissed my cheek as Lissa grinned at us.

"Oh, this is going to be fun," she said happily. "Now that everything's out in the open."

"Yeah," I said. "I got a pretty 'fun' look from your father the other day." I shuddered, remembering the glare from Abe Mazur.

I knew Lissa would want to talk to Rose about everything else that had happened so I thought it best I leave. "I should go and let you two talk."

I got up out of the bed and slipped my shoes back on.

"Will you be back?" Rose asked me as I reached the door.

"Of course," I told her, feeling my heart swell up with the love I had for her.

I shut the door gently behind me and went for a walk around Court to revel in my happiness.

AN: Please review, they make me happy :)