A/N: Thanks for all the reviews :) Dee and I decided that to give you this chapter and answer your questions early. I hope you guys like it :)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything VA related and the idea came from DEE2389

Rhea POV

"I still don't think we should have let the girls go with that boy," my husband huffed. "We should go back and get them."

"Andre's with them. They're fine," I reminded him, placing my hand over his and rubbing it soothingly. He spared me a glance before relaxing.

"You're right, Rhea. And I guess it wouldn't hurt for them to make some friends."

"Eric, honey, I'm pretty sure that boy wants something more serious with Lissa," I said, chuckling when he grabbed the steering wheel tighter. I leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Remember what you were like in high school?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. I was the quintessence of being a gentlemen."

"Honey, you were hitting on me when you still had a girlfriend. And I had a boyfriend!"

"Hitting on you? Rhea I was being friendly! I didn't attempt anything until I broke up with my girlfriend."

"Yes well doesn't matter now does it?" I asked I leaned into him.

"No it doesn't," he said with a big smile, leaning into me. Our lips met and it was a sweet, slow kiss with a lot of spark. Almost 20 years later and we still have that spark.

When we pulled away, our eyes locked with each other, telling the other just how much we loved them. It wasn't until I noticed a bright light approaching us that I looked away.

Wide-eyed, I noticed they were headlights. "Eric watch out!" I shouted.

He quickly reacted and swerved away from the other car, but it wasn't enough. The other car hit the end of our car, sending us spinning. Eric tried to get control, but it was futile. I looked up at Eric, worry and sadness in both our eyes. We knew we weren't going to make.

"I love you," we said before leaning into one last kiss as the car hit something.

"Oh my gosh!" Lissa squealed. "I can't believe you know this song."

"You, my blonde beauty, underestimate the control my sister has over my radio," Christian responded with a chuckle. Andre and I made a gagging face before falling into a fit of laughter.

"Pyro, please, cut the bullshit. We all know you're using your sister as a scapegoat and in reality you have that song on repeat," I shot back jokingly. He glared at me from the review mirror and stuck his tongue out at me. I stuck mine out in retaliation.

"Christian. Rose. Really? Stop acting like five year olds," Lissa said, but I could see the humor in her eyes.

"She started it," Pyro gruffed as he turned back onto the road. Lissa just shook her head and I started laughing.

As we drove on we saw the flashing lights of an ambulance shine through the trees. It wasn't soon after we saw ambulances and cop cars barricading a scene. But it didn't hide the car rammed into a tree.

"Christian stop the car," Andre said. I gave him a questioning look but he was already out the car, me right behind him. I was faintly aware of Lissa getting out too, Christian with her.

"Andre, what is-" I started to say when I caught up w him, but the I got a good look at the car.

"Rose, tell me it's not my parents car," he pleaded me, his voice broken and in a low whisper. Unable to say anything, I shook my head.

"You guys what happened?" Lissa asked when she approached us. We walked up to the scene, getting as close as the yellow "Do Not Cross" tape would let us. Thankfully not many people were out this late at night, so it was just us and the cops and paramedics. We didn't say anything as one of the paramedics pushed a gurney, a body covered with a white sheet on top of it. Lissa gasped, her hands covering her mouth. She was always so sympathetic, so surely it was just a response to the tragedy that fell upon that person and their family.

Except when the arm fell out of sheet when the gurney wobbled her a bump, I was the one to gasp.

The body had the same bracelet Rhea had, with the same charms we had given her for Mother's Day a few years ago.

A sob escaped my lips when I saw someone else pushing a gurney with another body. No doubt in my mind that it was Eric.

"No," Lissa quietly said, shaking her head adamantly. "No. No. No." She kept repeating, each 'no' louder than the last one. I pulled her into my arms, trying to hold back my tears while she clung on to me, weeping the loss of her parents. At one point she gave up saying no and started screaming, the pain and denial in them made the no's more bearable. It wasn't until Andre came up to me, a small, sad smile on his face, and wiped the tears on my face that I realized my control had cracked and I was silently crying as much as Lissa.

Christian came up and stroked Lissa's back, letting her know he was here for her. She let got off me and turned into Christian's arm, snuggling into his embrace while her wails quieted down to heavy breathing while she cried. Andre wrapped his arms around me and I wrapped mine around him. I felt his body shake as the tears dripped onto my neck when he rested his head on the crook of my neck, and I heard the soft cries he let out as he accepted the loss of his parents. I tried not to break down. How could I? Yes it sadden me to know that I'd never see Eric or Rhea Dragomir again, but they weren't my parents. Right now Lissa and Andre needed comfort, and I needed to be strong enough to give it to them.

Once both the gurneys were loaded onto the ambulance, they started to close it up.

"Wait," I shouted. Andre stood up, giving me questioning look before letting go I could jog up to paramedic. When I passed under the tape and got to him, he gave me a weird look. Shit, I thought when I remembered we were in Russia and not the US. "Uh…do you speak English?" He shouted something and a young, rookie like cop came up to us.

"What can I do for you?" he asked in a very thick Russian accent.

"Can we go in the ambulance?" I asked, pointing to where Andre had taken over Christian's position and was holding his sister, who was still crying, except by now her tears had dried up. I could see the indecision in the cops eyes. "Please. You see those two over there holding each other?" He nodded his head. "They're twins, and those two bodies you have are their parents. Please just let us ride with them to the hospital, where we can identify the bodies and say our last goodbyes in private. Please."

He bit his lip as he mulled over the pros and cons of each option. "Fine. But I can only allow the children to go with them."

"But what if I'm their adoptive child?"

He was silent for a moment before I saw his shoulders sag in resignation and he nodded his head. I gave him a curt nod and thanked him for his understanding before he turned to the paramedic to explain what was happening and I went to Lissa and Andre.

"Liss, Andre, I was able to get them to let us ride in the ambulance with them. But we have to hurry because they're about to leave," I said softly, feeling bad for ruining their moment. Lissa looked up at me, her eyes glistening with tears and the ghost of a small smile on her lips, and I could see how much the situation pained her but how thankful she was I was able to give her some limited time with her parents. I waited until her and Andre got into the back before I turned to Christian, who was on the phone.

"Just get to the hospital…which hospital do you think? Fine. Just be there," I heard him say before he hung up. He answered me before I even knew how to say what I wanted to say. "Yea, I'll follow the ambulance and see you guys there. Oh, wait, do you need a ride?"

I shook my head and thanked him before joining Lissa and Andre in the back.

"Can someone please tell me what the fuck happened?" I shouted, to no one in particular, as the fifth nurse rushed past me. Lissa and Andre had gone with the bodies to identify them and I stayed in the emergency room where the two ambulances parked outside of and tried to get some answers as to how the accident happened. All I got was being put in some waiting room according to Christian.

"Language, Roza," I heard Dimitri say from behind me. I turned around, thinking my mind was playing tricks on me, and was surprised to see not only Dimitri, but his father and Adrian's father coming through the entrance.

"Sorry we weren't here sooner, but we wanted to come all at once and make sure everyone else was a sleep," Alexander said. "Do you know what happened?"

"No," I gruffed. "Every nurse has walked passed me like I don't exist and I don't know where they took Andre and Lissa and the bodies, but I'm pretty sure no one there knows English and the cop that did know English had to go." He gave me a curt nod before grabbing the first nurse and said something in Russian, but I could hear the command in his voice challenging her to not listen to him.

"Are you sure it was Rhea and Eric?" Nathan said.

"Positive. It was their car smashed into the tree and the female body had the same charm bracelet we gave Rhea for Mother's Day a few years ago."

"Well according to the nurse a drunk driver was serving on both sides of the road, and Eric tried to drive around it, but the driver's car nipped Eric's in the back and sent it on a spiral until the front collided with the tree. The drunk driver's car hit another tree on the driver side, all three dying upon impact. There was only one witness and that was the person behind the drunk driver."

"But I didn't see any other cars there," I said, trying to remember if I saw any but all I remembered where the two ambulances and the three cop cars. "I guess it was behind the ambulances." Alexander and Nathan nodded their heads. "So where are Lissa and Andre?"

"In the morgue. Which is where Nathan and I need to go to sign for the bodies since the twins still aren't 18." I nodded my head, watching them walk to the elevator.

"Are you ok?" Dimitri asked, making me look away from the hallway and look into his eyes. I nodded my head because honestly I was ok. Maybe it was because of the shock or because they weren't my real parents, but something in me was completely at ease, and it kept everything else in me nice and calm. "It's ok to break down. You don't have to be strong around me, I know you're grieving."

I let out a sigh and plopped down on one of the chairs, Dimitri sitting down next to me. "I don't know why I'm so calm about it," I confessed. "Maybe I'm still in shock, but it just feels so surreal, you know? Like I know what's happening, but it doesn't feel like it's happening to me. Rhea and Eric are…were…the parents I never had. Anything Lissa or Andre got, I got too. It was an all for one and one for all mentality living with them. It helped since my mom was always gone, going on business trips with Eric and going to the office to manage security, so really it was mostly Rhea I grew up with, but even when Eric was home, I always stayed with them and rarely saw my mom since she was always out doing something security wise and only came home to sleep. And now they're both gone. I just feel empty…not the 'I can't move on' empty…the 'I don't feel anything' empty."

"Yea, but it's ok to cry, empty or not, surreal or not, it's fine to cry."

"You're probably right, but I already cried when Lissa was screaming in the middle of road, in denial that it was her parents under the white sheets. I can't cry anymore. I have to strong for them and I can't let myself cry when they could be coming up at any minute," I said. "Plus it's exhausting to cry."

"Then you should rest."

"Oh yea? On what? You?"

"Sure. Why not?" He pulled me to his chest and then laid me down so my head was resting against his lap. He began running his hands through my hair, whispering something in Russian. Whether it was his light, caressing touch or his soft, soothing voice, or both, either way I felt my eyes getting heavy and soon I gave into sleep.

"Roza," Dimitri said softly while he gently nudged me back to consciousness. I slowly opened my eyes and blurringly saw Lissa and Andre walking my way, Alexander and Nathan behind them. All four of them had grave, hopeless faces. I quickly got up and looked at Andre, my eyes asking him what I couldn't voice. He just gave a sad, empty look and nodded his head.

A sob erupted from me and the tears came crashing down. This was why I was so calm. This was why I couldn't cry. I was holding onto the hope that it wasn't them. That it was a mistake, and Rhea and Eric had made it home. But I was wrong. And now it was all coming down on me, and I couldn't take it. I felt my legs give out, and Dimitri's arms wrap around me as he sat down, with me on his lap, crying onto his shoulder. He kept saying something into my ear, his voice low and soothing, and honestly I don't care what he said, the way he said it was all that matter.

After a few minutes, I felt tears run out, and I pulled myself together.

"Sorry I wet your shirt," I muttered as I stood up. He gave me a small smile with a shrug.

"It's nothing but a shirt," he replied. "Is that why you weren't crying? You thought it wasn't them."

"I hoped it wasn't them, and I didn't want to cry in case I was right. But, well, I was wrong." He nodded his head, somehow understanding me better than anyone else, before wrapping his arms around me. I wrapped my arms around his lower back, clinging onto him as I kept the tears from coming down again.

"If you need anything, just let me know." I nodded my head before letting go, a smirk on my face.

"You know for the school's badass, you're kind of a big teddy bear," I said, trying to make light of the situation. It must have worked, because his lips dropped into a frown.

"I'm not a teddy bear," he gruffed. "I just know what it's like to lose a loved one."

I nodded my head, wanting to ask who but knowing it's not my place. "Well we need to get home. It's late and we still have school tomorrow."

"She's right. Lissa, Andre, Rose, I'll be taking you home," Nathan said as he started inching towards the door. Lissa and Andre nodded their heads and followed, but not before Lissa gave Christian a parting hug and thanked him.

"Thanks for the ride, Christian," I said as I walked towards Lissa. He nodded his head as Dimitri walked up next to him.

"Hey dude is it fine if I crash at your place?" I heard him ask Dimitri, who said it was fine.

When we made it back home, Nathan said him and Alexander would work everything out, our living situation, the funeral, everything. All we had to worry was grieving the loss of our parents and keeping up with school. We nodded our heads and went to inside, going out separate ways for our room.

I found myself staring at my ceiling because every time I closed my eyes a memory of Rhea and Eric would play out, ending with their bodies being rolled away and into the ambulances. At one point, my mind went as far as to depict how the whole thing happened based of what Alexander said. Safe to say I was kind of relieved when I heard a knock at my door.

"Come in," I said, not bothering to get up.

"Rosie," Lissa's small voice called out. I sat up and looked at her, nodding my head for her to come in. "I can't sleep. I just keep seeing them on the corner's table."

Fuck, I thought. Here I was cringing at seeing them under a white sheet when Lissa and Andre had to go see them uncovered in a creepy place like the morgue.

"C'mon," I said I got up and grabbed my pillow. I took her hand and we walked to Andre's room where we knocked and waited until he called us in. When he saw us, I saw the hope in his eyes fleet away before he scooted over and pulled his blanket back for us. We rushed forward, Lissa getting in first so she was in the middle. He pulled the blanket over us and we just laid there hearing each other's heartbeats and breathes and slowly, but surely, sleeping finally came and greeted us.