RPOV
"She's asked him to guard her," Mom said after Christmas lunch. We were in my room and I was putting away Tasha's gift. I liked the woman, she was nice, but a little too clingy around and friendly towards Dimitri for my taste buds to handle. I was about to find out why. "Oh, she's interested in him, willing to have his kids."
My world stopped and I stumbled back to lean on my desk for support.
I asked the dreaded question despite feeling winded. "Is... is he going to take it?"
Two words completely brought my world to a stop. "Of course."
"Please leave," I cut off her inaudible words. "I'm tired and sore. Please leave." She stormed out and I collapsed on my bed. He wouldn't leave after taking my virginity, would he? He wouldn't place kids above love, would he? The problem was a part of me was certain he would. And that part was controlling my brain and body's reaction.

I walked straight past him on the jet the next day. Tasha was sitting with him and holding his hand. My heart shattered all over again and I could tell this was going to be a long and painful fortnight. Because the only thing worse than remembering five nights ago, was imaging just how quickly he'd moved on, how soon it would be before he took her to bed.

"I mean since she's giving you fringe benefits and all," I spat ten days later after the makeshift Council meeting had gone to hell because of her.
Dimitri looked agonised. "Who told you?"
"Not you, and that's what matters."
"I didn't tell you because there was nothing to tell," he bit out.
"So you couldn't tell me you were abandoning yo-" I stopped. He didn't deserve to find out... at least not in the middle of an argument in the middle of a corridor.
"My what, Rose?" he demanded, suspicious.
I shook my head. "You kept secrets from me regarding me. Two can play at that game."
Dimitri nearly glared at me. Okay. He did glare at me. "This isn't a game, Rose. Tell me. And don't lie, I can see right through it."
Right through me, is more like it. "No. N-O. No."
"You're an Academy student, my student. Tell me."

I shook my head and ran for my room. Disobeying direct orders was something I didn't do... at least from Dimitri. But he'd just used his professional superiority in a personal context again and I wasn't about to let him gain that control of me, I wasn't about to let him think he ever could control me in that way. In any way.

"Rose, open up," he demanded as he nearly kicked the door down.
"Leave me alone!"

He couldn't know. He couldn't afford to know. If he wanted a family, he was safer starting it with her. Not me. If he knew he could be thrown in jail, regardless of the fact I'd consented.

"Roza," he turned pleading.
"You don't get a say in this," I snapped.

There was a silence before I heard what sounded too suspiciously like a sniffle then his quick and impressively, nearly undetectably quiet footsteps rushing away from my door. I'd hurt him, and I was about to do the unthinkable to apologise.

DPOV
F***! Now I'd done it. I had officially royally screwed up. Rose was hiding something about me from me, and I'd pissed her off to breaking point. I hardly paid attention to the facts pouring in about the Strigoi attack and its follow up.
"Go to bed, Belikov," Petrov ordered. "You're of no use right now, so go."
I nodded numbly and left.

When I approached my bed I spotted a white speck of plastic. Upon closer inspection it was a positive pregnancy test telling me someone was two weeks along. I flipped it over and noticed her handwriting. One word had my world shaking at its core. Yours. It and I dropped to the bed. How? was the one thing running through my head. I guess it didn't matter anymore because the only male she could have slept with two weeks ago was me. She was having my baby, and there was nothing I could do to support her.

"Dimka?" Mama answered before I processed I was calling her.
"Help me, Mama," I cried in desperation.
"What is it, my boy?" she asked gently.
"I got her pregnant, Mom. Roza, I somehow got her pregnant. Another dhampir! I'm the only possible father of another dhampir's baby! And I can't help her, Mom. I can't support her! I love her, but I can't support her!" I wailed unintelligibly.
"Dimka, breathe," she ordered. "Now explain what you're a mess about."
"I love her, Mom, but I can't support her. Another dhampir is carrying my child, but I can't be there. And on top of that, no one can know."
"Can't, as in she isn't letting you? Or can't as in you won't?"
"Can't, as in I fell in love with a girl I can't have, a girl I'm not supposed to have." Rose wasn't a girl, she was a brave, extremely independent young woman, but I was trying to tell my mother without actually telling her. I couldn't afford someone overhearing, for Roza's sake, even if the conversation was happening all in Russian.
"Are you, Dimitri Belikov, trying to tell me you somehow impregnated an underage dhampir?"
I nodded, forgetting she couldn't see. "I may be. I love her so much, though, Mama. And she loves me too, I know she does." If her anger and jealousy weren't sign enough then attempting to keep me away from our baby for my own safety certainly said something.
"Then do what you can from afar to help her, protect her."
"She's a Hathaway, Mama, she'll be able to tell and then will get pissed off at me for it." She's far, far more observant and intelligent than people realise. It's sad, really.
"You need to try, Dimka. For her sake, for the baby's. She'll thank you for it later. Trust me, pregnancy is a bitch at times, but creating a child, a family, is worth it."

I eventually fell asleep. They were beautiful. Our babies. Our son and daughter. Rose was barely twenty but was juggling family and guardian life well. Our twins played well together at the tender age of two. Both looked remarkably like me, yet had gotten Rose's hair and eyes. We were in the middle of sending them down for their nap so Rose could leave for her shift when I was awoken...

... By a fuming Tasha.
"When were you going to tell me you had a pregnant girlfriend!" she screeched. It took me a few moments to realise she was waving Rose's positive test around.
"Give that back, Tasha," I growled. "I didn't tell you because I didn't know. Hell, she didn't know until the last day or so. And I'd hardly classify her as a girlfriend." A lover and my soulmate, sure, but she couldn't be my girlfriend... yet. My mother had given me a solution or two, and I was going to tell Rose as soon as possible. I had to.
"Then what would you classify her as?" Tasha dumped the test on the bed. She was radiating outrage, envy and jealousy.
"The mother of my child, the one who holds my heart in her hands, the one who sees my soul," and I doubt she realises the power she has over me because of it.

RPOV
A knock on the door woke me from my slumber. Through the bond I registered Lissa's shock at who had arrived.

"Morning, Princess. Is Rose here?"
"In here, Comrade!" I sleepily called as I wrestled to escape my sheets and blankets. "Lissa, let him in," I told her when I realised she was still standing at the door, frozen.
You're still in pyjamas, she argued through the bond.
"He sees me in my workout clothes, I think he can handle a set of flannel pjs."

Dimitri looked distinctly uncomfortable at being the topic of discussion, especially a discussion he could only hear half of. Lissa backed down and let him in. Dimitri turned to Lissa, "Lissa, would it be possible for me to speak to Rose in private, please?"
Rose? she asked through the bond.
"I'll tell you later, Lissa," I promised. I hoped I wasn't making a mistake and had to lie to her, because I suspected Dimitri wanted to talk about... our, hmmm, personal problems.
"Be back soon," she said and left.

"I got your message," Dimitri smiled and wrapped his arms around my waist then gently guided me back to the bed.
"And?" I asked nervously as he lowered me onto his lap.
"I'll do what I can to help," he swore honestly and wrapped his arms around my waist. "I was always staying and now I'm going to ensure you aren't expelled. I'm going to fight harder than before to ensure you graduate." He looked me dead in the eye, his seriousness and love flowed out of his brown orbs and through me to our baby via the hand rubbing my still-very-flat stomach.
"But Lissa?" I asked, knowing he was promising to protect me and our baby, especially our just-conceived baby. The repetitive, gentle, loving motion against my stomach said as much.
"My mother came up with a few solutions to that problem."
"You told your mother!" I squeaked.
"You're carrying my child, Roza, her grandchild. I didn't register what I was doing until I heard her voice. And she did come up with some good suggestions. One is me getting reassigned after grad. The next was getting a desk job and being permanently at Court. Or I could quit to look after the two of you- don't look at me like that! Out of the two of us, if only one could be a guardian it should be you."
"But we need you," I cried into his shoulder, automatically letting the plural slip, "and you need to guard. I want you guarding Lissa. I'll guard Court, you guard her. I'll be seven months pregnant by grad!"
Dimitri's arms held me firmly to him as he ran a hand through my hair. "If that's what you want, then I'll go with it," he murmured softly into my hair. "Because I love you two so much, so, so much." I was comforted and calmed by the honesty and sincerity in his eyes and voice.
"We love you too, Daddy," I whispered into his chest and his breath caught. I could just see how great he would be as a dad and it made me love him all the more. Because quite frankly I was scared shitless of becoming a Mom.

DPOV
Daddy. It was official. Rose really did want me in our baby's life as his or her father.
"Mommy," I whispered.

It was all so surreal, so fragile. Two weeks. She was only two weeks in, but we were talking as though she only had two weeks left. In our world, by two weeks gestation it was the same stage as four weeks human gestation... then it evened out to an identical rate of development. It was an evolutionary protection mechanism. It was difficult for Moroi and dhampir to fall pregnant, but once they did, nature protected itself the best it could. No one was supposed to know until three months in, but in our world, that just wasn't realistic. At the very least, Alberta and Kirova had to know. And soon.

That soon came far too soon. I didn't want to tell them, I didn't want to spill Rose's secret without her permission. But she'd put our unborn baby's life in danger, and for his or her sake, I had to. I was scared for Roza, but petrified for our baby.

"Petrov, can I speak to you in private? Now."
Alberta looked stunned at the authority in my question. She didn't look annoyed... yet. She nodded and led me to the next room over.
"We need to find them in the next 6 to 10 hours, because if they're captured that's as long as Rose can safely go without food or water."

Alberta'sPOV
What on earth had gotten into Belikov's head? And why was it only Rose that could go for such a short time without sustenance? What did he know about her that we didn't? Okay, stupid question, I knew there was a lot about her he knew that no one else did. Then I truly read the panic in his eyes. He'd been scared for Rose and the others, but now I noticed he was terrified for her... petrified even. And that told me all I needed to know. It was the look of a desperate father, the natural instinct to protect one's next generation mini-me.

"She's pregnant?" I asked, working hard to hide that I knew he was the one responsible for the fact. No matter how physically and biologically impossible it's supposed to be I knew he was the only one possibly responsible. He was radiating I'm an extremely worried lover and expectant father, and it was a wonder no one else spotted it.
He nodded. "Yes."

I had a feeling he wanted to spill more, but he valued her privacy too much... and his own arse, but this I could tell was more about her privacy. He wasn't about to tell me, her mother-figure, when she'd had- illegal- sex.
"This will stay between us. For now."

I thanked god it was only two hours later Adrian Ivashkov had found the runaways. I took a moment of guilty delight at seeing Dimitri's jealousy and envy. Ahh, Rose Hathaway, you truly are fit for him... especially if you and anything about you makes him lose control of his emotions. Which tended to happen every time she was mentioned... especially when she ended up in the infirmary.

We found them and entered the house just as Rose was staking a male Strigoi, six hours after I found out she was expecting. "Rose, get here, now," Belikov bellowed the order the millisecond she removed the stake. He didn't move from the sun while we spread through the house in a trained manner and Rose reluctantly went to him.