A/N: Hey guys! I MISSED YOU ALL! Here's the next chapter. I know I've been really bad with updating, and although I can't promise anything, I'm going to try and fix that problem. Once I wrap up Saving Me, which only has about 5-7 chapters left :(, I'm really excited to be focusing all of my attention to my other fic, Cop and Attitue! So don't worry, I still haven't given up on that one.

Anyways, I hope you like this chapter! I'm really aiming to update within the next two weeks. Enjoy!

~Ms. Belikov

Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, profit from this story and all creative rights to the characters belong to Richelle Mead.

The original content, ideas and intellectual property of this story are owned by Ms. Belikov. Please do not copy, reproduce, or translate without express written permission.

Previously on Saving Me...

There was a light knock at the door, and the nurse entered, facial expression blank. She approached the doctor and spoke into her ear lowly. When she pulled back, the doctor look displeased.

"I'll take care of it." she said disgustedly, waving her folder dismissively. "That man is a monster. It's hard to believe you're related to him, Rosemarie."

Absentmindedly I watched the nurse quietly exit the room, and then it dawned on me. My head snapped over. "What did you say?" I demanded.

Dimitri visibly tensed.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I do not mean you any disrespect, it's just that, well…in all honestly, I don't believe scumbags like him deserve to be treated medically." Dr. Olendzki said. "What's the point of even letting him live? The bastard's going to hell in the end anyways—"

"That's enough." Dimitri cut her off, standing in between the two of us.

I looked up at him, absolutely murderous. "Get the fuck out of my way, or you will seriously regret it."

He clenched his teeth audibly, and obliged.

"You mean Abe?" I growled, feeling my whole body begin to tremble uncontrollably. I clutched onto the bed for support before my legs could give out.

Genuine surprise and confusion flooded her face. "Uh, yes, I do. Once I wrap this appointment up, I have to head upstairs to sign some release forms before I can eat my lunch—"

My vision swam, my senses on overload. It was all too overwhelming and the last thing I heard before collapsing was Dimitri calling out my name.

My captor was alive.

Something cold and wet poured down on me. My body shot up. I gasped, "What the fuck."

"She's awake." said Dr. Olendzki, leaning down.

Blinking several times, the world went clear and I squinted at the annoying bright light above.

"Works every time." said Dimitri, appearing behind her.

"How long have I been out?" I glared at him, my nerves positively on fire.

"Not very long, about thirty seconds." He didn't back down, staring right back at me.

"Well…" The doctor cleared her throat, sensing the tension. "I must go and sign those forms—"

"When you said releasing…"

She stopped, hand wrapped around the doorknob.

"Did you mean release from the hospital? Into the real world? Free? As in he could find me again—"

"No." said Dr. Olendzki, tone firm. "Into police custody. To him, you are untouchable, Rosemarie. I can assure you that much."

I nodded, barely registering reality. The doctor stared at me with concern embedded in her gaze, then shared a grave look with Dimitri, and quietly left the room.

"Rose—"

"Go fuck yourself."

I stood up and headed for the door. He stepped directly in my path.

"Where are you going."

I bit my tongue, desperately trying to grasp onto any and every ounce of self-control I had left in my body - considering I had nearly none to begin with, it wasn't very much. "Get out of my way." I ground my teeth until my molars burned.

Crossing his arms over his massive chest, he didn't budge an inch.

"Dimitri," I growled, heat blistering my skin. "I'm trying to be civil with you, but you're making it very hard."

"Tell me where you are going—"

"If you don't move in the next two seconds, I will hurt you."

Dimitri merely stared at me, dark eyes blazing.

"Don't say I didn't warn you." I took a swing, aiming for his jaw.

Catching my wrist mid-air, he twisted my arm around and yanked me to his body. Back against him, I threw an elbow and caught him in the ribs.

"I taught you well." Dimitri whispered in my ear, causing goose bumps to tighten my skin, a chill dancing through me. For a microsecond, I completely forgot that he'd betrayed me. My body took control and I suddenly wanted to bang him right then and there on top of the hospital bed.

But then his hold tightened around my waist, and I was instantly pissed off again. I stomped on his boot, then he lifted me off the floor and I began kicking like a five year old. As a last resort, I brought my head back hard and knocked it against his.

Dizziness swarmed me. Apparently, head butting was a two edged sword because I immediately regretted my action.

Dimitri swayed slightly and set me down so that he could catch his balance. However, thanks to the wooziness, I lost mine and sloppily fell to the floor.

"Ow! Son of a bitch!" My leg twisted at an odd angle, causing pain to shoot all the way up to my shoulder.

"What's the matter with you?" demanded Dimitri, obsidian eyes searing my face. He snatched several paper towels from the dispenser and dabbed at his bleeding nose. God, why did he have to be so beautiful? Even when injured. It made it very hard to stay mad at him when all I wanted to do was wrap my arms around his large body and fill that aching void I currently felt inside.

"What's the matter with me? What's the matter with me? What's the matter with you!" I yelled. "I trusted you with everything in me. And you just threw it away, like it meant nothing! How could you lie to me?"

"I didn't lie to you," Was that shame that flashed in his gaze? At least the asshole had some decency. "I kept certain details from you only to protect you."

I laughed with incredulity, a sharp, harsh sound that sounded vicious even to my own ears. "That's the same damn thing as lying, you asshole."

"It was in your best interests."

I massaged my throbbing leg, muttering, "Me kicking your ass is in my best interests."

Dimitri gave me a dry look.

The anger dissolved from me. Hurt and distrust followed tenfold. "I still don't understand how you could do such a thing to me…I try to think of the why's, or reasons for justifying what you did, and it is just beyond me." I said, tears burning in my throat.

"Don't ever doubt me, Rose."

"You give me plenty of reason to."

"You really think me telling you would have made a difference?" Dimitri crouched down, eye level with me.

"Yes." I said, breathless.

"You're right. It does make a difference. It makes the world of a difference. Want to know why?" he paused, but didn't wait for my response. "Because you deserve peace of mind. Although Abe is alive and breathing right this very moment, he's as dead to you as can be. He will never see you again. He will never touch you again. He will never be near you again."

Despite myself, I felt more relaxed as his words continued to reassure me little by little, because I knew Dimitri meant every single one of them with his life.

"The only reason I didn't tell you," he grabbed my hands, and when I tried to yank them away, only tightened his iron hold. After a moment, I quit struggling. "Is because I was doing my best to protect you—"

"You sugarcoated this entire situation. You decided to treat me like a child because you didn't believe I could handle it. Because you didn't think I was strong enough."

"You are the strongest woman I know," He interrupted, dead serious. "The only reason you've been healing these past few months is because you believed him to be dead. How do you think you will handle it now that you know the truth? You don't think your nightmares and panic attacks will come back, do you? Let me till you something - they are going to come back worse than you ever imagined. It eats me alive when I see you like that, Roza. And I am so afraid that I might lose you—"

My voice cracked when I said in a half-dead voice, "You already have."

Those bottomless eyes turned haunted. For the longest time, the chilling silence crawled like spiders over my skin. "You don't mean that."

"I can never forgive you."

"You only say that now."

"You all lied to me. Everyone I know and love lied to me—is lying to me." I corrected, and remained hushed for several heavy moments. "But even knowing that, for some reason, it doesn't hurt half as much as knowing you lied to me, Dimitri. I always thought you would be the one to give me the truth, no matter how brutal it was. I…I just need some time think. Away from you."

A dozen emotions swirled in his eyes, too complicated and intense for me to decipher a specific one. But then he put a lock on his feelings, and slipped on that totally-in-control mask I despised. "I understand." said Dimitri, voice gravelly yet indifferent. "I'll take you to your mother."

"I don't know if I can stand by myself. My leg is killing me."

He leaned down and ever so gently picked me up, then effortlessly carried me to the SUV as if I weighed nothing.

On the twenty minute drive to my parents—now solely Janine's—home, I had plenty of time and quiet to think. That kind of time alone with my own head wasn't always good. Confusion and disbelief flooded me. How had Abe not died? He'd been beaten brutally, stabbed, and shot in the chest.

That disgusting, ominous feeling that had hovered over me for nearly a year after my escape returned. The one that had controlled my entire life, had dictated who I hung out with, what I did, where I went.

"Hell no," I gritted my teeth, nails digging into my palm. Bloody crescents formed. "We're not going through this. Please God, no, no, no. Don't let this happen to me again."

"Rose? We are here." said Dimitri, beside me. I hadn't even noticed the parked vehicle or him exiting it and coming over to my side. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, just frickin' bubbly."

"Come on, I'll help you inside." He went to pick me up, but I stopped him with a firm squeeze to his shoulder.

"I don't need you, okay? I can do this by all by myself—" I fell flat on my face, on the sharp gravel, and slid a few feet down the small hill. "Ow, ow, ow, ow! Son of a mother!"

Dimitri stared down at me, his colossal shadow blocking the sun.

I groaned, "Fine, help me!"

He didn't move.

"Oh, my god! Okay! Okay! Okay!" I threw my achy hands up in surrender. "Please help me!"

He scooped me up and headed for the front door, knocking four times when he reached it.

As we waited, I voiced aloud, "It's weird. A part of me still expects my father to answer the door, calling me Kiz, telling me how excited he was about what my mother was baking for dessert. It's just…yeah, nothing will ever be the same."

"I'm so sorry." said Dimitri, because really, what else could he have said?

Janine opened the door a moment later, completely unrecognizable compared to the well-groomed woman I used to know. She'd aged a good twenty-five years in just two months. Her signature red curls were carelessly tied into a pony-tail. She wore an outfit she normally would, a plum-colored blouse and beige slacks, but everything was wrinkled and hanging from her body, indicating she'd lost a significant amount of weight off her already very petite body.

She looked as if she'd seen a ghost.

"Hey mom," I said. Dimitri carefully set me on the ground, still supporting the majority of my weight with the arm wrapped around my waist.

"Rose?" Hers eyes welled, becoming glossy. "Can I give you a—oh, to hell with that! Come here!"

She rushed forward and threw her arms around me. Despite being the most awkward embrace thanks to the fact that I had to be partially held up by Dimitri, it was also one of the most comforting moments of my life.

Up until the day I had been kidnapped, I believed I had been blessed with a good life. I'd lived in the same home since the day I was born. I'd had parents with a successful, seemingly perfect, longlasting marriage. I'd gone to great schools, had childhood friends, and home cooked meals every night. The American dream, it had seemed. But I'd always felt disconnected from my mother, and as silly as it sounded, wondered at times if I had been switched at birth or perhaps adopted.

It felt so much different right now, though. It was hard to explain. When she trapped me in her bonecrushing hold and repeatedly told me she loved me, for the first time ever, I actually believed what she was saying.

And then she said, in a voice that ate me alive, "I had no idea about him, Rose. Please believe me, baby girl."

My limbs turned to ice.

"I am so, so sorry. I'll do anything to make this better. Anything. Please...Rose? Say something..."

Heart feeling like it was going to explode from emotion, I stuffed my face in her curls and sobbed, "I love you, and I forgive you."

I may have lost my father, but I'd gained my mother. God worked in funny ways.

I limped into the living room and collapsed on the couch. "I'm still mad at you."

Dimitri shrugged and did a brief check of the apartment, set his keys and coat down, and headed for the kitchen. He retrieved a bottle of water from the fridge and downed the entire thing. "Fine. I cannot change how you feel."

"Is that all you have to say?"

"Yes."

"I need more than that."

"What do you want me to do, Rose?" He asked, exasperated. "I'm sorry that you had to find out the way you did, but to be honest, I don't regret it. If I had to do it again, I would."

"You would lie to me again."

"If it was for your better good, yes. I wouldn't hesistate."

I threw my hands up, drained of energy and anger. The sting of hurt and betrayal still ran strong in my chest, but for some reason, I couldn't find it in me to stay mad at him. I probably would have done the exact same thing if I was him.

"Do you think I'll get those god awful night terrors and panic attacks again?" I stood up and walked over to him, frowning. I flinched when he touched his thumb to my lips to smooth it out, and something dangerous flashed in his gaze.

"Don't ever do that again."

"Don't ever lie to me again."

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, as if he had a pounding headache. "Fine, deal. God, you've got to be the most stubborn woman I've ever met."

"But that's what you love about me."

Dimitri made a doubtful noise. "I could take it or leave it."

"You're an asshole." I said, not able to help the huge smile on my face. "Now I'm not going to allow you to penetrate me."

"Yes, you will." He said.

"You're pretty confident about that, buddy, aren't you?"

"Yes, because I'm the boss."

"Excuse me?" I asked, laughing. "I don't think so. I'm the one who wears the pants in this relationship, and we all know that."

Dimitri pressed his hard body against mine, and every inch of me came alive. There was no other choice but to surrender to him, body, heart, and soul—it was purely instinctive. In a very deep, accented voice that lit me on fire, he said, "I'm dominant, and you like that…a lot. When I want something, I take it."

My IQ had not only dropped into the single digits, it was fast heading towards negative numbers. A strangled sound escaped my throat, the noise pure desire and desperation.

That dark head leaned down to my neck. His silky hair fanned over my skin, as soft as his fingertips were on the erratic pulse of my throat. Goosebumps tightened all over when he whispered in my ear, "I will have you where I want you, and when I want you."

"And when will that be, big boy?" I somehow managed to say.

"Right here," Dimitri lifted me on top of the kitchen counter. I gasped when he yanked my jeans down. "Right now."

Then his mouth was on mine, rough and controlling and demanding. All of our problems and differences melted away, along with the rest of the world. It was just the two of us, and right now, that was exactly what I needed.