Ok, I'm soooo sorry. But, as I've warned you, life happens. I really wanted to update last weekend but I only had about two tiny paragraphs.

This week, I tried to make it long to make up for having none at all last week. I know, excuses, excuses. I'm promising you right now, I will not abandon this story.

Anyway, as always, I don't own Vampire Academy and I hope you enjoy the chapter.

"That's all I wanted, you can go ahead and sleep now." Not even thirty seconds later, and she was out. Not wanting to leave her and have her wake up alone, I laid my head against the catch, and fell asleep myself without a problem.

"I want to adopt her," I told dimitri. Anabelle was still sleeping and Dimitri was making breakfast. I had passed on the whole fiasco from last night to Dimitri, and he got pissed off as well.

"But you don't even know her," he started.

"I don't care. I know her enough. I feel like we need to."

"Yeah, me too, but that doesn't mean we are. No matter how much we want to, we can't just decide that we want to adopt her and have the guardians be ok with that," he was trying to be the reasonable one.

"They'll just have to deal," obviously I'm not the reasonable one.

"That's not how that works"

"I know it's not, but we can't just give her back. She feels safe with us."

"With you," he said solemnly.

"I feel safe with you too," came a little voice at the doorway of the kitchen. We looked over, a little surprised, and embarrassed that she had heard our conversation.

"Do you know what that means?" I asked.

"Yeah," she said, "my mommy told me. You'll be my new mommy and daddy."

"Your mommy told you?"

"Yeah, she said if something happened to her, she wanted me to find the perfect people to be my new parents."

"How do you know that we're the perfect people?"

"Because I do," she said with confidence.

"Do you really want us to be your mommy and daddy?" She nodded yes. "Ok, then it's settled," I said looking to Dimitri.

After gazing at the girl for a few more seconds, he looked at me and nodded his head, agreeing about trying to adopt her.

ooooo

"No," Hans said firmly.

"Why not?" I asked.

"You know why not!" He yelled.

"Even though she's under questioning, it doesn't mean anything about adopting her. And no matter how hard you try, you'll never get anything out of her by scaring her."

"That wasn't me. Where is she now?"

"That's none of your business," I said. We had asked Lissa to watch over her because we didn't want her to hear this conversation and we didn't want them to try and take her away. I say try because we'll never let that happen. Dimitri and I both wanted to be here, or else one of us would have stayed with her. Anabelle took a liking to Lissa, so we felt good with leaving her there.

Hans sighed, "You guys probably knew what I'd say when you came here. You have Lissa supporting you, don't you?" We both nodded. "She still needs to be questioned, so -"

"I can tell you what she says," I interrupted. "She talks to me and feels safe with me, I can tell you all the information you need to know."

Hans gave up, "Fine," he said as he reached into his drawer and pulled out a small stack of papers and handed them to us, "fill these out, and bring them back." We nodded. "Now, leave," he said rubbing his head.

Dimitri and I hurried out and went to find our soon to be daughter. On the way out, I could have sworn I heard Hans grumble, "Best friends with the queen."

ooooo

"I'm so happy for you guys!" Lissa squeaked.

"Thanks," I said, picking up Anabelle. I was so excited, all of us were.

"You guys are ready for this." Lissa sounded so sure.

"I hope so," I said unsure.

"I know so," Dimtri said, wrapping his arms around both me and Anabelle. He was so sure, so confident. It gave me the confidence I needed.

Our eyes met, so full of happiness. "Yeah, we are."

In between us, Anabelle clapped and squeaked, fully happy for the first time since I've known her. "Yay!" She squeaked, and we all laughed. We left with Anabelle in the middle and both of us holding her hands.

ooooo

On the way home, we stopped by the park as requested by our soon to be daughter. She was so happy and carefree at that moment in time, it was certainly a beautiful sight.

"Come and catch me!" She yelled as she ran around the tree. We chased her around and caught her. Dimitri held her up and we tickled her. She laughed and screamed and finally yelled, "Stop! Stop!" We all laughed and put her down, letting her run to the swings.

Automatically, Dimitri went behind her and pushed her. "Yay!" she said as she laughed. "Higher!" Dimitri did as she asked, and she laughed even louder the higher she went. After a few minutes, she wanted down and wanted to play on the toys.

Dimitri went after her and I stayed back to look at the sight before me.

Dimitri was as undeniably happy as Anabelle. He got on the toys with her and chased her around as fast as he could, and when they got to a slide her put her on his lap and the slid down together. It was one of those moments when you wish you had a camera.

As soon as the thought came to me, I remembered my phone. Taking it out, I got it open to my camera and started taking some pictures. They noticed and started posing. Then, they came closer and, with Anabelle now on Dimitri's shoulders, started making funny faces.

Dimitri handed our daughter over and stole my phone, taking of pictures of me with Anabelle now. However long later, we started heading home.

ooooo

"What do you want for dinner, sweetie?" Dimitri called out from the kitchen. Anabelle was on the couch with me. We were, well she was, watching Doctor Who. Who knew she liked those kind of shows? I was filling out the paperwork.

"He's talking to you," I said, nudging her after she hadn't answered for a few minutes.

"Um," she said as she got up to go to the kitchen and look. She was in there awhile, so I assumed that she was helping him cook. I finally finished the paperwork and headed to the kitchen when I was finished.

Anabelle was making salad at the table, and Dimitri was cooking something at the stove. "Yum, it smells delicious," I said while walking over to him.

"It's almost finished," he assured me, giving me a quick peck on the lips.

"How about you, sweetheart?"

She looked up with a proud smile. "Just about finished," she told me.

After dinner, we watched another episode of Doctor Who, and then went to bed. We put her in our spare room, which will soon be hers. After telling her good night, we walked to room, and I fell asleep with Dimitri's arms around me.

So, how was it? Oh, and I don't own Doctor Who, either. It's just such an amazing show, so when I was trying to think of a show, that's what came to mind. Anyway, until next time.

"'You can't fool me, comrade. You want to put on a cowboy hat and keep lawless bank robbers in line.' 'No time. I have enough trouble keeping you in line.'" - Rose Hathaway and Dimitri Belikov