Author's note: This is the last chapter. Thank you for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following. I put some Russian in this that I got off my translator app. If you know the language and I put something wrong, please tell me how to fix it. I'll put the translations after the story.
Happy reading!
Chapter Nine
"I don't think this is something we need to examine." Prince Ivashkov droned on lazily. He stared down at the crowd gathered. "Send the children to Saint Vladimir's."
"No, wait." Said Princess Ozera. "What would be the harm in letting them be part of a family? They're so small."
A fight erupted and Lissa pounded a table with a gavel. "Let's discuss this rationally. All parties will have a chance to discuss this and make their point and then we will vote. It's how we do things. It's how we've done things all through my reign and that won't end now. Ivashkov, you've made your point. Ozera, Take the floor and argue your side of it."
For the next several hours, they went back and forth. Jill clutched Eddie's hand. Ivanna sat on her lap and played with the fingers of her other hand. She had quickly grown bored with the adults droning on. Eddie patted Nikolai's back as he started to fuss in the carrier strapped to his chest. The fussing turned into crying and Eddie gathered the diaper bag and slipped out of the room as the debate raged on.
"I just don't think these children need to be raised partly by a dhampir." Ivashkov sneered from the dais.
"And I don't see how you would think it would be better for them to be raised by a group of strangers as opposed to a married couple who want them and love them." Jill snapped.
Ivanna looked up at her. Eddie froze at the door as he slipped back in.
"Mrs. Castile, you must be recognized by the Council before you can speak." The royal pointed out hatefully.
She stood, putting Ivanna on the floor. "Princess Dragomir." She said. She looked to her sister who nodded.
"The Council recognized Princess Dragomir." The queen said. "You have the floor."
"Thank you." She squeezed Ivanna's hand as the little girl slipped it into hers. "Being the woman in question raising these children, along with my husband, I have to say that you're being incredibly bigoted. It seems that it's fine for our kind and their kind to mix to make more guardians, but the second one of us falls in love with one of them it's a bad thing. And as to one of them raising ours, it seems that it already happens when you send your children away to school. Not all the teachers, especially in the preschool level and lower, are our kind. Dhampirs are capable of so much more than being brutal fighters. And it would do you good to remember that." She sat down on her wobbly legs and pulled Ivanna onto her lap once more.
Jill looked around the room nervously as the members of the council turned to each other and started talking amongst themselves. She noticed the guardians around the room smiling and nodding at her in approval. Rose, standing directly behind Lissa, winked.
Lissa finally said, "I think we're ready to take a vote."
A few grumbled, but none refused. Eddie slid back into the seat beside her and held her hand as they slowly made their way through the vote. In the end only two said no. There were a couple that seemed grudgingly to say yes. The rest were quite enthusiastic in their consenting votes.
The queen smiled, "I think that does it." She called to a man sitting at a table off to the side, "Make a note. And have my lawyers draw up the papers to file with the state of Utah."
Jill looked to Eddie and squeezed his hand. "Oh, my god."
He wiped away a stray tear from her cheek. "Yeah."
Ivanna looked at them as people patted them on the back and hugged them.
"Jill?" She asked.
"Yes, my little Ladybug." She smoothed her hand over the girl's hair.
"Why is everyone hugging us?"
She sat down once more. "Sweetheart, do you remember why we're here today?"
"They were going to say if me and Niki could stay or not."
"And they said you can. You're staying with us, Ivanna."
"Forever and ever?"
"Forever and ever."
Ivanna looked at her critically for a moment. "You're my mommy now?"
"Ivanna, when you're older it will be easier for you to understand… I'm just Jill unless you want to call me Mommy. But you don't have to. You never have to."
She looked around in the confusion as it started to die down. She wrapped her arms around Jill's neck. "I love you, Jill."
"And I love you, Ladybug."
Eddie lifted them to their feet and pressed a hard kiss to Jill's mouth.
She smiled and kissed him again.
Lissa and Rose finally came to the small group.
"Congratulations." The queen said as she hugged her sister. She smiled at Ivanna. "There's a little girl who has been asking about you constantly from the moment she woke up. If it's all right with your parents, she would love to play." She winked at her sister.
"I think that can work." Eddie said, rubbing Nikolai's back. "This little guy needs to lay down somewhere. Needs it, but I don't know if I'll let him just yet until we have the official papers in our hands." He kissed the baby's forehead.
Jill squeezed his hand. "I should get a chance to hold him a little."
"We have all the time in the world for that." He assured her.
They spent the rest of the day with Lissa and her family celebrating the adoption. Reggie and Ivanna were excited to be told they were now cousins. They played in the corner for a long time with Sahsa and Nicole. The adults passed Nikolai around. Andrea sat close and waited her turn. Chris looked bored.
"Voskhititel'nyy." Dimitri said when he walked in and saw them.
"Oni." Rose asked.
He smiled. "I hope it doesn't make you soft, Castile."
"I'll show you soft." Eddie shot back.
"Is that a challenge?"
"Maybe it is." He chuckled.
"Let's go. I haven't sparred in a while." He smirked.
Reggie's eyes widened when she heard the challenge. "I wanna watch."
"Maybe not the best idea." Christian said.
"I have before." She argued.
Lissa laughed. "Can't fault that logic."
Her husband sighed. "Why is it that none of our other children have taken as big an interest as her?"
"Because the girls have my disposition and Chris just wants to be a fire user like you. But without the actual physical fighting." She smiled fondly around the room at all the children.
"Too bad his element is water." Jill joked.
"Yeah, too bad you can bond with your nephew by making water float around the room." Christian teased. "Speaking of, I think it's my turn to hold Nikolai for a while." He said to his wife.
"I haven't held him yet." Rose argued.
"I'm his uncle." He argued.
"I saw him first."
"All the more reason for me to get to hold him."
Dimitri walked over and scooped the baby out of Lissa's arms. "While you two are arguing, I will hold him." He smiled down at the baby and murmured to him in Russian.
Rose sat back and smiled.
"What's he saying?" Jill asked Rose.
"'Hello, Nikolai.'" She translated. "'Welcome to this mad family. I think you and I can be great friends.'"
"I sure hope so." She said.
Ivanna walked over and climbed into Rose's lap. "Are you Reggie's aunt?"
Rose smiled. "Yes, I am. In a way."
"What way?"
"I'm her mommy's best friend." She explained.
"Can you be my aunt too?"
She pulled the girl to her chest for a tight hug. "I would be honored."
Dimitri looked up from the baby and said into the lull, "You'll all be honored to know that Rose finally decided we should get married."
"YA sobirayus' skazat' im!" She shot at the man.
He smiled and replied, "Vy slishkom dolgo."
"YA zhdal v nuzhnoye vremya."
"Stop the Russian." Lissa said. "That's a language not everyone in the room knows. Who cares about the right time, anyway? You could have at least told me."
Rose looked at Dimitri with the most love in her eyes. "It's not a big deal. I never needed the ceremony. He's been mine for a long time."
"Well, today is just a big day of celebrating everything." Christian said.
Eddie watched his wife a moment as she tried to look at excited as everyone else. She was failing. "Oh, my god, you knew!"
"What? No, I didn't." She said quickly.
"I asked Jill to design the dress." Rose explained softly. "I didn't want to say anything because I knew you would all freak out."
"Of course we're going to freak out. I'm freaking out." Lissa hurried over. "We have so much planning to do."
"We're taking our time with it." Rose assured her. "It took well over ten years for him to convince me. He can wait a couple more."
"Can we be in it?" Sasha asked.
"I'd love you to be." Rose assured the girl. "You're my family." She looked around the room. "You all are." She smiled at the girl on her lap. "Even you, Ivanna."
The little girl wrapped her arms around Rose's neck and kissed her cheek. "I love you, Aunt Rose."
Rose kissed Ivanna and then asked Jill, "So how are those designs coming along?"
Eddie left the room to make a bottle for Nikolai as Jill explained a bit about some of the preliminary sketches she had worked on and her thoughts. Supper was announced for the rest of the group. It was hard for them to stick to one subject as both the excitement of the wedding announcement and the new adoption had everyone buzzing from one thing to another.
Jill pulled Eddie aside as they all left the room. She put her hands on either side of his face and pressed her lips to his once, twice, a third time. "I love you." She whispered. "I'm so happy for this family we're starting."
"Me too, babe." He wrapped an arm around her waist, cradling Nikolai between them. "This is the best day of my life after our wedding."
"And our wedding night. And the night we first—"
She cut him off with a kiss. "Small ears." She looked sideways.
Ivanna stood on the other side of the door.
"Let's go get some supper. Then we'll go home and start our life together as an official family." Jill kissed him once more and then scooped her daughter into her arms. "I love you so much, Ladybug."
"I love you, too, Jill. And Eddie."
"And I love you, sweetie." He kissed her temple.
Dimitri says, "Adorable."
Rose replies, "They are."
After the wedding announcement, Rose says, "I was going to tell them!"
Dimitri says, "You were taking too long."
Rose then says, "I was waiting for the right time."
I am going to be writing the craziness that is the wedding planning and the wedding eventually. I hope you keep your eyes out for that one. It will be a while, though, because I need to try to finish my other fics.
Thanks again for reading! You guys rock!