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Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Academy, just this story line.

Chapter 18

DPOV

It was amazing watching Rose slip back into the person she used to be thirteen years ago. Some things obviously hadn't changed and although I would still sometimes look over my shoulder, it was quite clear she had never stopped doing it. The thought of her living in constant fear that something bad was going to happen or the past would catch up to her didn't sit well at me and I found myself turning to look out of the window to hide my facial expression. That illusion of solitude only took me further down that train of thought and what I witnessed earlier started to play in my head all over again. The scenes were a torture all on their own; the upset and hurt she'd been concealing from everyone but her husband were enough to make me wish I had never left; the fact he had used the knowledge to wound her further were even worse. The frustrated, hateful growl escaped through my clenched teeth and I found Rose looking at me with a frown of her own.

"Dimitri, are you OK? What's wrong?" Her concern for me only made me loathe myself more that I already had been. Sinking back in my seat as far as possible, I couldn't bare to look at her. "I was thinking about earlier..." I trailed off, knowing I didn't need to elaborate further. Then, all of a sudden, I developed a case of verbal diarrhoea. "You have no idea how much I wanted to hit that bastard you call your husband."

I could feel her icy glare. "Then you won't be surprised the feeling is mutual. Adrian hates your guts. Put yourself in his place, Dimitri, and you'll realise in his eyes you are the villain."

"I might be a villain in almost every meaning of the word but I'd never break your trust and spill your secrets," I turned to look at her, "or humiliate you like that." The road apparently demanded Rose's full attention, because she was staring straight ahead with her lips pursed in a thin line as if she was trying to hold back her own case of word vomit. I shook off the urge to provoke her. "I'm sorry, Roza. I don't want us to fight. It's just... I can't bare seeing you like this or anyone treating you this way."

Her eyes were glossy when she finally looked at me, "Don't do this, Dimitri..." Her bottom lip was trembling and her voice wavering, "I can take your anger and your hate, I can deal with you despising me, but not with your pity..." Her knuckles were turning white on the steering wheel when, with a sharp turn, she pulled over and all but ran out of the car, leaving the door open behind her.

She was sprinting away from me in a field of overgrown grass, and all of a sudden I had a memory of her running between sunflowers taller than her, her hair streaming wildly in the wind created by her movement. She had been a vision of beauty and power, her movement almost feline and I hadn't been able to do anything but stare at her retreating form. She had been laughing, when instead of stopping, she had begun spinning wildly under the scorching sun of a hot summer day. Just like now, she had stopped running away from me just before I had lost sight of her, between the sunflowers, like a creature made of sunlight and warmth. It had been a happy time, we had been young, wild, full of hopes for the future.

What happened this time was different: she stopped dead in her tracks and screamed silently at the sky, her hands reaching up, until a sob broke through and she fell down on her knees. That snapped me into action faster than anything else possibly could and I quickly closed the distance between us. I knew better than to ask questions; she'd talk when she was ready. Instead, I sat down behind her and pulled her flush against me in the space between my legs, wrapping her in my arms in an attempt to give her some comfort.

I pulled her long hair free and started combing through it with my fingers. When we were together, it had been a favourite way to pass time for both of us and we'd had some of our more serious, honest conversations in that exact same position. When I felt her body relax against mine, I knew it wouldn't be long before Rose started talking.

"I hate being like this, Dimitri. After you left, it was like someone had pushed my self-destruct button. I thought I could cope with losing you, but it turned out I was wrong. I don't know what it was like for you, but it was like someone had ripped my heart out. I was numb for a week and then I turned angrier than ever. After... we dealt with the Strigoi... I just didn't have anything left to live for. You were gone and so were Lisa and Christian. All that anger turned towards me. I started drinking, took some drugs, forgot to eat..."

"What about our daughter, Rose? Weren't you worried you were going to harm her?" I interrupt her, suddenly angry myself.

"I didn't even know I was pregnant until the end of the first trimester, Dimitri. You heard what that doctor said after the car crash, so I had no reason to believe it was a possibility. I would have never drunk or taken drugs if I knew..." She takes a deep breath and swallows heavily.

"How did you find out?" I asked. At least I knew she hadn't known about the baby when I left.

"Mason started coming around to check on me. One day I just passed out in front of him while making coffee and he called an ambulance. The paramedics took me to the hospital and when they ran tests, it came up." Her laughter is bitter, when it leaves her lips, "I told the doctor he was insane. I was convinced they had made a mistake and he made me take another test. The little plus sign finally drove the truth home. It wasn't a mistake..." She turns to look at me and her smile is so sad, it makes me want to weep. "Isn't it ironic? I thought I was never going to be able to give you a family and let you go, only to find out I was pregnant after that."

"Why didn't you get in touch with me? Why didn't you come after me?" I needed to know the reasons more than I needed to breathe.

"I couldn't, Dimitri. I was a person of interest for the police. I had been involved with you, and you disappeared, after leaving an amount of blood that would suggest you were dead in the flat we shared. Then, all of a sudden, your "competition" was taken out in a well-planned massacre... First the cops thought I'd killed you, then they tried to connect me to the other murders. I was under surveillance for a while." Rose was tense in my arms, imprisoned in the painful past I was making her relive.

The information she disclosed explained a lot but not everything. A memory of me sending my brother to talk to her popped in my head and I had to ask a question, the answer to which I was dreading.

"Did Gregory find you?" She was silent and still, as though bracing herself for a storm; that was all the answer I needed. "I can't believe you! You, Natasha and Gregory! Did anyone else stab me in the back without me knowing?" I let go of Rose, jumped to my feet and started pacing around. She slowly rose to her feet, straightening up to her full height, but didn't approach me or make an attempt to calm me down. She just stood there, as still as possible, like I was an angered predator who could attack her at any moment. "Why? What did you say to him? Did he know you were pregnant with my baby?"

"Yes, he did." Rose's reply was like another knife through my heart. How much more was there to her story? "What would you have done, if you'd known I was pregnant, Dimitri?"

The words tumbled out of my mouth without a pause or hesitation: "I would have come back! You know I would have come back in a heartbeat!"

"That's why..." was the only thing she said and I knew she was right. For all my control, when pushed too far, I could be impulsive and stupid. I'd proven that hasn't changed when I had turned up at her office that very morning.

We hadn't realised it, wrapped in our own world, that the sun was gone and the sky was darkened by thick, dark clouds. Then big raindrops were falling in a constant stream, creating a downpour that resembled a waterfall. It was like being sprayed with a water cannon and it did wonders to cool off my anger.

"Get in the car, Rose! We'll finish this conversation when we get wherever you are taking me." Two doors were slammed shut, Rose started the engine and that was that.

We travelled in silence the rest of the way, down a country lane, until we stopped in front of a cabin in the middle of nowhere.

-WWO-

Don't be angry with me for ending the chapter there.

What do you think will happen in that cabin?