"Rose, Rose it's time to get up."

I groan and roll over, throwing the pillow over my head.

"Rose, you need to get up. We're almost there, Rose. It's time to get up."

I throw the covers off of myself. "Okay! Okay! I'm up!"

He smiles, looking tired.

"You okay, Dimitri? You look exhausted."

He shrugs. "I'm fine."

"Liar. You look like shi-"

"Rose," he scolds. "And thank you, for the compliment." His voice is thick with sarcasm.

I roll my eyes. "Well, you do." I sigh loudly and sit beside him on the bench. "Are you still not sleeping well?"

Dimitri shifts, looking uncomfortable.

"Dimitri..."

He sighs, giving up. "No, Rose, I'm still not sleeping well."

"How long has it been since you've had a good night's sleep? I mean honestly..."

"Rose-"

"No," I interrupt. "I'm worried about you. You're not sleeping. You're hardly eating anything..."

"I'm fine, Rose. You need to stop worrying about me."

I snort. "Says the man who travels halfway around the world to find me."

"That was different."

"Of course it was."

Before he can muster a response, the train screeches to a stop, and Dimitri rises, holding open the door for me.

He grabs my wrist before I can get ripped away in the crowd. The train is swarmed, and I can feel him start to lose his grip.

"Dimitri!" I try to shout out, but as we step out of the train and into the incredibly crowded station, the noise level intensifies.

I try to grab his hand, but I only end up twisting my wrist out of his grip, and I get swept away in the sea of people.

...

I press myself up against the brick wall, panicking.

I was in a strange city, a strange country. I had idea where to go, no idea how to find Dimitri.

"Excuse me?" I tap a man on the shoulder. He looks at me gruffly and lets out a rapid string of Russian before disappearing into the crowd.

I can feel tears begin to build up in my eyes. My phone was with Dimitri. I didn't have any change for a pay phone. I was scared. Very scared. How strange, that I could fearlessly attack strigoi, while a sea of harmless humans made me shiver with panic.

"Rose? Roza?"

I see a hand appear, and I grab onto it, being pulled between passerbys.

Dimitri tugs me against his chest. "Are you alright?"

I nod and press myself against him, holding onto him tightly. He wraps an arm around me, leading me through dense multitude of people.

"How do you know where you're going?" I ask, and he smiles down.

"I've done this before. You're just used to Montana, where it takes you hours to find another person."

I laugh and burying myself further against him when another wave hits us.

I hear him mumble something in Russian, his voice in awe, and he starts to move faster. I hold onto him tighter.

"Dimitri..."

He grips onto my waist and continues to pick up speed. We burst through the crowd and into a less bustling area, only to see Dimitri's entire family waiting.

I look up at him and see the smile on his face, the tears in his eyes. It takes me a minute to realize that my arms are still clamped around him, and I quickly let go.

Paul begins to run forward, wiggling away from Karolina's grasp. The Belikovs watch, mystified, as fearless Paul jumps at his Uncle, allowing himself to be lifted into the air.

Dimitri wraps his arms around Paul, whispering to him in Russian, patting him on the shoulder.

And with that, his entire family rushes forward, coming at him, and they surround him, Olena falling into his arms first.

He moves to each of them in turn, wrapping his arms around his mother, kissing Karolina's forehead, stroking Sonya's hair. Viktoria jumped full-on into his arms. He kissed her cheek and held her tightly.

It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen, excluding Dimitri himself, of course. I smile, tears falling from my eyes.

Dimitri smiles, a beautiful smile, and talks quietly to Viktoria, after several more seconds, he seems to realize I'm not there. He looks around frantically before his eyes meet mine. He walks over to me and places his hand on the small of my back.

Olena gives me a tear-filled look and wraps her arms around me. "Oh, Roza. How will we ever thank you?"

I shake my head and embrace her tightly, unable to speak. "No need," I whisper.

She laughs again, cupping my face. "Roza, you came to Russia, told us the news, then you save my daughter's life, and my son's soul."

"Technically, Lissa saved him. Isn't that right, Dimitri?"

I twist to face him, and, to my utter shock, he looks...ashamed. Really, truely ashamed. Hell, now I feel guilty. Olena looks between us, a look that says she knows something's up.

But Viktoria steps towards me again, her look of shame looking eerily similiar to that of her brother's.

"Rose, I didn't mean to insult you, I didn't mean to call you a liar. I just-"

"I know, Viki. It's alright," I reply, and give her an awkward embrace. Karolina and Sonya talk to me rapidly. They ask me questions, what happened, how I was, and I asked about the babies.

Apparently Yeva is at home, watching the babies. I promise them I'll explain everything when we get back to their house.

After a long, awkward drive, me, of course, sitting beside Dimitri, we finally arrived.

When we entered the Belikov home, Yeva jumps up, giving him a hard embrace before turning to me, kissing both of my cheeks and speaking in Russian.

Wide-eyed, I turn to look for anyone who could translate.

Sonya speaks up. "She says she is so happy that you were able to bring him back. That when she received her vision, she could scarcely believe it herself."

She quickly leads me to the couch, and shoves Dimitri down beside me. They all settle in the living room, staring at us expectantly.

Dimitri lets me talk most of the time, explaining what he remembered before he was turned, then a few sentences here and there.

Karolina, always the romantic, looks heartbroken. "Oh Roza, Dimka, I'm so sorry!"

Dimitri and I don't look at each other, don't even sit close enough for our shoulders to touch.

Yeva sits back against the large armchair, hands clasped. She speaks sharply, and Dimitri turns bright red, and looks away, his eyes looking scolded and humiliated.

I had never seen him like this. His family's jaws' hung open, Karolina bit her lip, almost hesitating to translate.

"What did she say?" I ask. "What did she say!"

Karolina looks down. "She asked-"

But Yeva speaks up. "I asked," she says crisply, her eyes never leaving Dimitri. "Why he abandoned the woman who saved him, why he threw her away for his own feelings. His mother did not raise him to be so disrespectful to those who help him. He is disgracing his family."

Her voice is bitter and disapproving, and I slowly glance towards Dimitri. His hands are shaking, his eyes turn downwards. Dimitri had always had a good reputation, and all the stories I'd heard of his childhood were him were doing what he was told, when he was told. He thrived on approval, and now, he seemed to have to disintegrated.

"No, he didn't," I say, rising, much to everyone's shock.

"Roza," Viktoria whispered. No one speaks back to Yeva.

"No!" I say, turning back to her. "No, he didn't. He's in pain. You have no idea what he's gone through. Yeah, I might not agree with all of his choices, but he's not...disrepecting me. And he's certainly not disgracing his family. He hasn't done anything to shame you, all he wants is your approval. He needs his family! And if you're going to just cut him out of your life, than you're disgracing him! So who raised you to be so disrespectful to your own grandson?"

By the end, I was panting. Everyone looked at me with utter shock. The infamous Hathaway temper had flared. All I was missing was the red hair.

Yeva rises, and I expect her to hit me, to curse me out, but she simply nods and looks at Dimitri, who sits frozen on the sofa.

"See?" Yeva says. "She defends you, even from your own family, even when you hurt her. She loves you, Dimka, and you are so obviously in love with her. Don't do this to yourself."

And she walks away.

He looks up at me, awe on his face.

"Rose-"

But I shake my head. "I'm sorry," I whisper, though I'm not sure what for, and rush up to the room.

...

But when I get up to the room where my bags were taken by Viktoria, I freeze. My bag sits on the dresser.

But so does Dimitri's.

We're sharing a room.

"Rose," says a voice from behind me, then it stops, breathing deeply.

Dimitri brushes past me, grabbing his bag off of the dresser. "I'll move my things downstairs."

"No!" I cry, and take his bag and setting it back down. His eyes seem to shine, but it is gone by the time I grab onto my own luggage.

"I'll sleep on the couch."

Dimitri quickly grabs the handle of my duffel bag. "No, you can sleep here."

I tug at them. "This is your house!"

"It's yours too!"

We both freeze at his comment. "They consider you to be family," he murmurs, and hauls his suitcase out of the room.