Chapter two:

Adrian's POV

I softly closed Rose's bedroom door, leaving her sitting on the end of the bed. I couldn't deal with her right now; it was painful to see her like this. I needed some time to talk with the Vasalissa and to pull my thought together. Rose needed time alone too, I couldn't predict how she would deal with this but if I stayed with her she'd just keep shouting and crying. When I came back I'd know what to do, how to help and I'd see what state she was in.

I pulled out my cell phone and dialled Lissa's number.

"Hello?"

"Hey Lissa, Its Adrian."

"Oh Hi, I'm with Guardian Petrov and Guardian Alto. They just told me about Rose. Thank you for going with them to get her."

"I couldn't leave her out there. Can you get them to re-enroll her? I don't think she was thinking straight when she decided to leave. It might take a bit of convincing; it took me five minutes of arguing to get her back in her old dorm room. They said she wasn't a student anymore."

"Yeah, sure. Are you still with Rose?"

"No, I wanted to meet with you. Can you come to the courtyard near the Dhampir dorms in 5 minutes?"

"Okay, I'll come as soon as they re-enroll her. See you then."

I clicked off my phone and walked down to the dhampir kitchen. They left some muffins and biscuits on the bench in a container for anyone who got hungry throughout the night and there was a fridge with milk and water and juice for the students. I grabbed a water bottle and walked outside through the side door to meet Lissa. The courtyard was cool and foggy as the sun slowly began to rise but it was too low to cause any trouble for us yet.

I looked up at Rose's window as my eyes adjusted and saw the curtain was shut, Rose had gotten up off the bed at least. A few minutes later Lissa walked out of the main office and across the lawn to where I was standing,

"Hello Cousin, How'd it go?"

"They said that they need to get her to see a counsellor to prove that her decision was ill-judgment and then they will reverse the paperwork and she'll be free to go back to classes as normal."

"I don't think it will be normal though Liss, she is in a pretty bad way." I told her quietly.

"How bad?" Her voice was anxious and she glanced up at Rose's window.

"I had to use compulsion just to make her stop crying and screaming in the car back to here, the Guardians found her clinging to Guardian Belikov's body, they had to drag her away. She was still crying when I left but it was hard to look at her like that, you know?"

Lissa spoke softly staring up at the window as if I wasn't here, "Rose is always strong, no matter what she's going through she pretends it's better than it really is. If she's crying and screaming then inside she's probably dying. She never cries, Adrian." She looked back to me as if this would have great meaning for me.

"Lissa, I don't know what to do, you know I love her. I see what this is doing to her and if I could I would make her pain go away but I can't. I watched her on the car ride back and all I could think of to do was use compulsion."

"It sounds like that's all you could have done. I can't usually help when she gets crazy; there's only ever been one person who can get through to her when she's like this and now he's gone I don't know what she'll do."

"Yeah, he is gone. I am the one who has to do something now. I just don't know what. Seeing Rose like this makes us crazy Lissa, you and me, we can't stand to watch it. But the thing is we need to be able to watch it calmly and be strong for her. It's so hard."

"I know. Adrian what they had was unique in its way. We can help her by understanding, let me explain. Do you remember when Rose told us about Anna and Vlad?"

"Yeah, she didn't want anything bad to happen to you, she wanted to be your Anna. But Anna didn't have a happy ending, only Vlad did."

"Sadly that's right. Rose didn't think of it this way but if you put aside the magic and their endings, Rose is Vlad and Dimitri is Anna. He is the only one who can take away her craziness and without him she's completely lost. He was the person she could tell everything, she could truly be herself. Think back to the story, and then maybe we can get some idea of what she's going through."

We both looked at each other for a moment before I responded, "I understand some of that but... I just don't know what to do. What can I do? Because I can't just let her change into a different person, somehow I've got to help her become Rose again."

We stood in silence and Lissa watched my face for a moment before looking away back to the window as if she'd seen something too personal which made me look down in embarrassment. A few minutes later she looked back and spoke quickly,

"Don't look up. Okay, just keep pretending to stare at the ground. Rose just opened her window and she looks... mad. I don't want to make her more upset, but let's just make sure she's not going to jump out the window or something. I'll go up to Rose's room and you can go back to your room, I'll go straight over there when I've checked on Rose."

"Okay, seems like a good plan. Is she planning to jump?" We both looked up at the window and Rose was looking past us into the shadows. When she turned back I could feel the full force of her rage weighing down on us through her stare. She hated us with all her being. Then she leaned forward and begun shouting into the night,

"Shouldn't you have waited for lover boy before starting the 'lets-spy-on-Rose' meeting?" She pointed behind us and I saw Christian was only a few metres away coming towards Lissa then continued,

"Jeez Lissa, Already over him? Well don't worry Christian; at least she's not Adrian! He really treats people badly, especially the ones he says he cares about!" What had I done to her? I couldn't think of what was making her say these things and could tell that Lissa was really hurt by them, Rose kept yelling down at us but her voice was getting rougher, probably from the screaming earlier.

"Oh and Lissa? I've made all the sacrifices I can to protect you, so please don't expect me to risk my life being a guardian! I hereby end this meeting of spying on Rose!" She doesn't want to be a guardian? That's crazy! She's Rosemarie Hathaway, for crying out loud, Famous soon-to-be guardian and excellent strigoi hunter.

She closed the window and the curtain again and I turned to Lissa. Christian was standing behind her with his arms around her trying to be reasonable and soothe her but she looked as if she was about to cry. Then she abruptly straightened up and walked over to a bench, putting her bag down and searching through it until she found her phone. She looked at us sharply and said,

"Christian I'm fine, I'll be going back to Adrian's room after I see Rose so you can go to bed or wait there. Adrian you should go back to the kitchen and get some food and juice for us and then go to your room, I'll be there in about 10 minutes. Can I have that water bottle for Rose?"

I passed her the drink and then something occurred to me "Lissa, what if Rose does something before you get to her?"

"That's why I have my phone; I'm going to call her on my way up to the dorms. Don't worry, I'll be back soon. Now let's get moving." With that she marched into the dhampir dorms and started punching numbers into her phone.

Christian walked over to me, "Wow, Never seen her do that before."

I looked at him confused, "Rose or Lissa?"

He grinned, "Lissa. Do you mind if I tag along with you?"

"No, but we should get moving or Lissa might come back."

He nodded and we made our way into the kitchen again. Rose's words repeated in my mind and twisted to have a new meaning each time that was more and more terrifying. I grabbed three muffins and Christian got some drinks, he laughed and I looked at him questioningly,

"Maybe we should run just in case Lissa is faster than us?" He suggested.

I agreed and we were running up to guest housing with the food. When we got inside we both fell onto the reclining chairs.

"Well at least we beat Lissa!" Christian joked.

"Yeah, I hope she's okay." I didn't mean Lissa, I meant Rose and from Christian's solemn expression he knew that.

"Adrian... Is Rose, I mean – Do you think she'll be okay? What she was saying... I couldn't believe I was hearing it from Rose. I saw her in Spokane, so I know that this is... worse, but ..." He trailed off and for once he seemed serious.

"I don't know. But we've all got to be here for her."

Just then Lissa walked in the door panting, "She wouldn't open the door and I figured she was fine for tonight so I just left her."

I sighed, "Yeah hopefully, So tomorrow if she won't answer the door?"

Lissa looked at Christian as if considering if he should be here, "If she stays in there too long, I can make the Guards give us a key to her room. But I think that she'll be fine by tomorrow. Today was traumatic for her, she needs to... rest. So do you guys."

Christian stood up and stretched but Lissa walked over and stopped him from leaving, "I don't want to leave Adrian alone tonight... Do you mind?"

He looked dubious, "Can I stay or...?"

She looked at me and I nodded, there was no refusing Lissa on a Mission.

Lissa explained to Christian that he could stay and they'd sleep on the couch, I got into bed planning on dream walking with Rose but I was overcome with sleep and my dreams were just her words shouted over and over again down at me, getting closer as she fell to the ground.

Review if you want to see what happens next!

This story gives me a lot of freedom in what I put because it's not from VA so if you have suggestions please comment and I'll consider it otherwise you'll just be leaving it to my craziness to create this story.

Xx Girl in sunshine xX