Hey there everybody! I know it's been longer than usual and I've had quite a few people telling me it's been over a week which of course is unacceptable so I quickly finished this chapter just for those guest reviewers who keep reminding me that it's been a while. I really hope you enjoy this chapter and I'll leave you to read it.


"This is so good Mummy!" Ivy exclaimed, as she bit into her chocolate donut.

"I'm glad you like it baby. I used to have at least three of these every day. They were so good." I said, relishing the taste of my own donut. We continued walking down the corridor to Linda's apartment, who Ivy was going to spend the day with.

"Do you miss it?" She asked, looking up at me curiously.

"The donuts?" I asked, amused.

"No, Court. Do you miss living at Court?"

"Why are you asking that, angel?"

"Because sometimes at home, you look sad, but now you're here and you still look sad, but different sad." She was too observant for her own good.

"I do miss Court a little bit, but I'm very happy at the Complex. Don't worry I'm absolutely fine." I told her, stroking her cheek.

"You promise?" She asked, grabbing my hand, halting me in my tracks.

"I promise." I told her, taking her other hand in mine, and pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"Rose!" I heard a voice call.

I looked up from Ivy, and saw Charlie and a woman I didn't know walking towards me. The woman was a Moroi, and looked to be in her late twenties with auburn hair falling past her shoulders, and deep green eyes.

"Charlie." I greeted him; "it's nice to see you're still alive after dealing with my father."

"I'm still in one piece. For now." He laughed. "May I introduce you to my girlfriend, Alice. She's recently arrived at Court and I'm showing her around." He said, wrapping an affectionate arm around Alice.

"It's nice to meet you… Rose was it?" She said, a smile breaking onto her face.

"This is Mr. Mazur's daughter, Rose." Charlie told her.

"Mr. Mazur? What type of business partner are you?" I said, subtly edging Ivy behind me, hoping he wouldn't ask. Or tell Abe.

"A very junior one, it's more like I work for him but I own my own company, instead of working for his." Seeing my look of confusion he laughed. "It's very complicated. Anyway who's this little lady?" He asked peering round to look at Ivy. Shit. I hoped he wouldn't ask.

"This is Ivy. " I told him, Ivy waved shyly at both of them. "Now I'm very sorry but I'm late for a meeting." Best to just avoid talking too much.

"Of course, I won't keep you. It was lovely seeing you again." He said.

"Actually." I said, changing my mind. "Would you do me a favour? Would you mind not mentioning this meeting to Abe? I avoided brunch with him, and I'm afraid he won't be that happy if you mentioned you'd seen me."

"Of course." Alice said.

"Our lips are sealed." Charlie told me.

"Thank you so much." I told them and walked off, straight into Eddie.

"Edison, lovely to see you but I have a meeting. Bye" I said in a rush trying to hide Ivy. No such luck, he didn't respond, but just stared at Ivy's hand in mine.

"I said I'd bring her to the babysitter." I told him, trying to give the impression I'd done Ivy's mother a big favour, while not outright lying which Ivy would pick up.

"Of course." Eddie said. "I'll see you later. I think we have a meeting tomorrow."

"Great." I mumbled, rushing away.

I quickly dropped Ivy off at Linda's and rushed off to meet Master Gregori, not giving myself time to wonder if Eddie had thought anything of Ivy and me. I was running late, I could panic about it later.

"Hey." I greeted Master Gregori, as I stumbled into the small office Court had assigned him. "What do we need to do?"

He looked at me disdainfully. "You're a mess Rose. Did you even go to bed last night?"

"Yes." I said defensively. I just didn't sleep, I tossed and turned all night and in the early hours of the morning I had crept into Ivy's bed and managed an hour of sleep.

"Well it doesn't look like it." He told me. I opened my mouth to argue but he cut me off.

"Let's not talk about it now. I asked the Head Guardian here for a quick meeting, He'll probably be here soon. I finished working out the details of the training schedule you drew up at the Complex and we can probably start tomorrow."

"Great." I said yawning, my tiredness covering up the fact that as soon as I heard Dimitri was coming my body had started humming.

"What do we need to go over?" I asked, my guardian mindset kicking in.

"We need to cover guardian patrol rotations with our own members, until we get the guardians up to a standard where we're confident they can cope on their own. We've also got to insure that-"

A sharp knock on the door interrupted Master Gregori.

"Come in." I called.

Dimitri entered the room, hesitating briefly as he caught sight of me, before sitting himself in the only available chair. Right next to me. He avoided eye contact, instead setting down some papers on the desk.

"I'd like to thank you, and your whole group, for giving your time to help us improve our skills." He said to Master Gregori, never shifting his gaze.

"You are most welcome. We are glad to share our skills with you. Aren't we Rose?"

He ended sharply.

"Huh?" I said, distracted by my urge to stroke Dimitri's cheek. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"I said that we are looking forward to sharing our skills. Are you feeling okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine." I told him, sitting up straight.

"I'm sorry, I've been so rude. " He said suddenly, with an almost too innocent look on his face. "Guardian Belikov have you met Rose Bell? She's our second in command, and has constructed most of the training programs we utilize."

Dimitri drew in a sharp breath, and I decided to make the first move not leaving room for interpretation of my intentions.

"We have met before. Guardian Belikov was my mentor at the Academy." And so much more, I added in my head. "It's good to see you again, Guardian Belikov, I wasn't expecting you to be Head Guardian here." I said, sticking out my hand. His eyes swiveled to me, and I saw him taking me in. I swear I could almost see the lust developing in his eyes.

To cover up what a disaster I'd looked this morning, I had put on some of my nicer, more professional clothing. I'd worn my smart black pants, with a white silk blouse, and a black jacket with silver buttons. I looked, according to Ivy, 'beautiful'.

Unfortunately my head had refused to cooperate with my smart look, my hair was frizzy and sticking up from rolling around all night, and not even make up could cover up the dark circles under my eyes.

Dimitri kept staring.

"Well things change, don't they?" He said, never moving his gaze.

"They definitely do." I told him, he reached out and shook my hand, and I had to stop myself from gasping as I felt the familiar spark shoot down my arm.

"Well I hope your visit will be a success, Miss Bell, or is it Mrs?" Ah, how sneaky. He was checking on the reason for my name change.

"Miss is fine." I told him, resisting the urge to tell him, that I'd sort of taken his name. Well, half of it.

"It's great that you two know each other." Master Gregori said. I shot him a death glare. "Moving on, do you have any requests Guardian Belikov?" He asked hurriedly.

"I am wondering whether we can have some Court Guardians still guarding the border, as well as Complex members. We have many more people than you."

"Not that many more. Not anymore." Master Gregori told him.

"I know, I would just feel more secure knowing some of my people were out there as well." He told him.

"Of course. Though I also have a request. Though it's not really a request." Master Gregori said. "It's just that there will be some days where we will require the majority of your guardians, and we will endeavor to replace them with our own members. However we're not used to your type of body guarding, so you'll have to inform the Moroi there may be some changes."

"What type of changes?" Dimitri asked, confused.

"Just that Complex members will not grovel, and pretend to be shadows that don't exist. We are not going to be part of their surroundings. We're people too, who have just as much right to be free and safe. We know we're equal, and we will protect them, but we will also protect ourselves." I told him.

"I don't remember you taking these viewpoints at the Academy." Dimitri said, looking me in the eye. "In fact I remember you almost dying several times at the Academy for the Moroi." You did die. He added silently.

"Well as you said things change." I told him. They had. Ivy was born, and I realized I never wanted her to be second to anyone. She was number one to me. It was simple; she would never face the decision or the pressure to sacrifice her life for a Moroi.

"I've also got the personal guarding schedules for all guardians who are currently at Court." Dimitri said, changing the subject, seeing the fire in my eyes.

"Thank you for that, we will look through that and assign schedules and of course mentors. " Master Gregori said.

"Mentors?" Dimitri and I asked in unison.

"That wasn't part of our training plan." I told Master Gregori.

"Well I would have told you, but you haven't been around." He said, hidden steel in his voice. "I decided it would benefit one to one sparring to have someone really get to know your style, and be able to offer proper feedback. In fact now that I think of it, wouldn't it be a great idea if Rose was your mentor. She already knows your style, and she is the most highly skilled combatant, in the Complex."

"Except for you." I said hurriedly. "Why don't you mentor Guardian Belikov? You would be best." I was furious, and about to explode, and only having Dimitri in the room was stopping me from flying across the room and shaking Master Gregori.

"Oh, I'm too busy to do one to one mentoring. You will mentor Dimitri." I stared at him in desperation, as Dimitri stared at the desk in front of us, as if he was memorising the grain of the wood.

"I'm sorry to kick you out, Guardian Belikov, but we have a lot of work to be done before tomorrow and…" Master Gregori started, giving me a look that told me to be quiet.

"Of course. I'll go. Thank you for this." He said, getting up from his chair and leaving the room, his face eerily calm.

"What. The. Hell!" I yelled, getting up from my seat. "You know about my history with him, yet you pair me with him. Do you hate me? Is that what this is?" I yelled at Master Gregori.

"Stop being so pathetic Rose." He snapped at me, I opened my mouth to argue but he cut me off. "I've been watching you these last few days, and you know what I've seen? A coward. You just run or hide, or cry, but you never confront it. I know your history with Dimitri but you need to stop being a coward and face your fears. Face him. You've been pathetic and a coward, and I've put up with it, because I know you're hurting, but you've gone too far. Stop running away. Is that your recovery strategy? Things get tough and you run. Like how you ran from Court, like you've run away from your duties here? You need to stop running, and face your problems like the courageous young woman I know you are. You can't do anything hiding from the world. You can't change anything, when you won't even confront your past, let alone start to come to turns with the present and future. " He stopped for a breath, and I wiped a tear from the corner of my eye. "You need to face your demons, face them and demolish them. Kick butt." He said with a smile. "You can do it Rose. I believe in you. We all believe in you. Jade, Seth, Ian, Ivy. We're all with you."

"Thank you." I told him. "Thank you for this."

Because I understood. I finally understood now that I had to stop running from my problems. From Dimitri's father. I had to find him and defeat him, and introduce Dimitri to his daughter, and become friends with Lissa again, and become the person I was meant to be. Ivy deserves to know her real family, and know a mum who is truly happy, not one whose smile can crumble in a second. I have to be brave and stand up now, not only for me but for my daughter.

I was Rosemarie Hathaway, and no one would my hurt my family.

I was Rosemarie Hathaway and I was going fight back.


So this is a major turning point in the story for Rose, and there will be quite a rapid plot progression, especially with those chance encounters with Charlie and Eddie. Tell me what you want to see coming up, especially in regards to Rose and Dimitri's reversed mentorship. Please review and follow and also please have an absolutely lovely day.