I'll begin by thanking you all for the kind words and reviews for the first chapter. Y'all rock!
Also, once again, a hundred thanks to Roza-Dimka-Reader, who in spite of her hectic schedule, is taking time to beta this story for me…and basically making it more palatable, so thank you so so much!
And now, without further ado, I present to you Part 2 of You and Me make 3. Enjoy!
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"Let me get this straight", Christian said slowly. "You're pregnant?"
"Yep", Rose replied, popping the 'p'.
"With Belikov's kid", Christian said, fixing his eyes on Rose's lower abdomen.
"Yes", Dimitri confirmed with a grin.
"How?", Christian asked, perplexed.
"Well, you see", Rose began in a mock-sage voice. "Sometimes when a male and a female love each other, they like spending time together. After a certain…say courtship period, what they do is that they start spending time in bed and having se-"
"Rose, be serious!", Lissa chided, recovering enough to speak for the first time since her best friend had dropped this bombshell on her. Rose sobered up and turned to face her best friend instantly.
Today was a rare afternoon-off that Lissa had been enjoying just spending some time with Christian, when Rose and Dimitri had made their appearance at her quarters. When they'd revealed that they had come from a doctor's appointment, Lissa had insisted to know why….which is when Rose had delivered her news, causing both Lissa and Christian to collapse onto a chaise-lounge in their living room, shocked and unable to comprehend what Rose was saying.
"In that case, I don't really know", Rose sighed, plopping down on a sofa and gesturing her boyfriend to take the seat next to her.
"Both of you are dhampirs", Christian persisted. "Having a kid together is biologically impossible."
"Thank you for pointing that out, Captain Obvious", Rose quipped with an eye-roll. "My doctor's perplexed too, but this kid is 100% ours"
"Don't take this the wrong way Rose", Christian continued, holding his hands palms-up towards her. "But aren't you the least bit skeptic, Dimitri?"
"I had a DNA test done, just in case he didn't believe me. But he accepted it, without any proof", Rose replied, thinking back to how she had hidden the news from Dimitri, having had been so sure that he wouldn't believe her.
"Not to mention, Yeva had foretold it", Dimitri said, reaching for Rose's hand and squeezing it comfortingly. Hearing his pronouncement, both Christian and Lissa relaxed. They'd met Yeva and seen too many of her prophecies reach fruition to doubt the old woman's words.
Yes, even Lissa had doubted. She loved Rose to bits, but a dhampir-dhampir baby….seemed preposterous. Then again, Rose was all for breaking the ways of biology, what with being shadow-kissed, and resurrecting strigoi and the like.
"So how far along are you?", Lissa asked Rose, leaning forwards in her chair.
"12 weeks, give or take a couple of days at this point", Rose replied. "And before you ask, I'm going to a really good Ob/Gyn at the clinic, and Dimitri has already grilled him to an inch of his life regarding my pregnancy, so don't you start!"
Lissa pouted a bit at Rose's warning, but otherwise was unperturbed. "But I'm going with you on your next appointment, and that's final."
"Whatever makes you happy, Your Highness", Rose teased with twinkling eyes.
"And I'll be pulling you off-duty, too", Lissa said, but Rose shook her head vehemently. "You're not doing that, Liss. The doctor said it's okay if I continue duty 'til the 8th month or so. No buts! The doctor said regular physical exercise is good for both me and the baby, so there!", Rose concluded with a glare, when Lissa opened her mouth to interject.
"Fine", Lissa conceded. "But you're not going on any more raids."
"Of course not!", Rose scoffed. There was no way she'd put her baby in danger…and raids were the very epitome of danger. "Trust me, Dimitri will suffer a heart attack or probably throttle me if I do", she continued drily.
"There's no use unnecessarily putting yourself or the baby at harm, Roza", Dimitri defended himself. "And I could never strangle you, no matter how much you infuriate me or get on my nerves, or haven't you learned that by now?"
Rose smirked, thinking of the many times she had taken him to the edge of his tolerance, and how each time they had ended up the same way….getting lost in each other…in various Not PG-rated ways.
Christian coughed, made uncomfortable by the way his guardian and (don't tell Rose he said this) one of his best friends were making googly-eyes at one another. "Sorry to be the party-pooper here, but how are you planning to convince the rest of our world that you two conceived a baby together?"
"It's enough if our loved ones know, and believe the truth. Besides, everyone knows how hard we've fought to be together, so how can they even think that the baby is someone else's?", Dimitri sighed, having pondered on this question for some time.
"And if they don't believe…" Rose supplied. "Well, people will just have to deal."
"Have you thought of any names yet?" Lissa asked and then brightened immediately when hit by a very brilliant idea.
"No, it's too early", Rose replied, studying her best friend's glowing face. "Why are you suddenly so happy, Liss?"
"Am I not your best friend and family, Rose?", Lissa unleashed puppy-dog eyes at her bestie. When Rose nodded cautiously, she continued. "You know that I love you and will do anything for you, right?"
"What are you getting at?", Rose replied warily, already knowing she'd succumb to whatever Lissa would ask of her. Damn puppy-dog eyes. And damn pregnancy hormones that made her a sucker for puppy-dog eyes.
"Your baby shower!", Lissa grinned triumphantly. "Say you'll let me host it!"
"Fine", Rose acceded, already bracing herself for the extravagant affair. Lissa squealed in delight and hugged her tightly, promising to make it an event Rose would never be able to forget. The others could only laugh at her enthusiasm, while Rose patted her back awkwardly, saying she had no doubt Lissa would do just that.
The foursome spent another two hours chatting (while Lissa mentally started planning Rose's baby-shower), after which Rose and Dimitri took their leave to go and announce their news to their family and other friends.
Everyone had the typical 'Are you sure' or 'You must be joking' reaction, and most of the men did ask Dimitri if he was sure the child was his or whether he believed Rose, but when he reassured them that he absolutely believed her and was with her, they were reassured.
Abe was a glaring example. When faced with the reality that his daughter was not only sleeping with that boy, but was carrying his child, he first refused to believe it…I mean what father would willingly like to hear the results of his daughter's sexual exploits? But when Rose had marginally calmed him down (I mean, really? What did Abe think Rose and Dimitri were sharing an apartment for? Sleepovers and splitting bills?), Abe made sure Dimitri knew exactly how he expected Rose to be treated if he valued his easily end-able life.
Janine on the other hand, remained stunned for a full five minutes at the news, and after ensuring that Rose wasn't pranking her, she unleashed an abundance of helpful advice for Rose and even shed a few tears while reminiscing about her own pregnancy. She told Rose and Dimitri to forget any thoughts of sleeping if their baby turned out anything like her own daughter. Oh, and to stock food, always, in order to evade hunger-tantrums at all hours of the day. Raising baby Rose had taught her that…
The St. Vlad's guardians set up a bet about the gender of the baby and whom it would emulate more-fiery Rose or preternaturally-calm Dimitri-and had quite a few good laughs when Alberta shared anecdotes about Rose's childhood, much to Rose's mortification.
The Palm Springs gang took it in stride, and Eddie believed the pregnancy news without questioning because he knew Rose well enough to know that she'd never cheat on Dimitri. Jill believed because she had faith in miracles and she loved fairytales. She was happy that Rose and Dimitri were getting their happy ending.
Adrian laughed hysterically and wished Dimitri best of luck dealing with a hormonal Rose, and soon a mini-version of her. Sydney, on the other hand, was a vat of surprise.
"It's not the first case of dhampir-dhampir fertility that's been recorded, you know", she informed them matter-of-factly. "In fact, there's been quite a few cases of such pregnancies over the centuries. Alchemists have records of that, last time I checked."
After dropping the info, Sydney had helpfully suggested food that she knew were medically proven healthy for pregnant women and delivered a list of dos and don'ts that had Dimitri scribbling furiously in a notepad. Rose could only watch with glazed eyes as Dimitri and Sydney conducted a highly technical discussion about her pregnancy for the better part of half-an-hour. It was also the first time she learned that Dimitri had been reading up on Pregnancy guides in his free-time on his smartphone and computer over the last 3 weeks.
The call to Baia was picked up by Yeva, who immediately replied with a snarky 'I told you so' in perfect English that had Rose instinctively pick a fight with her. Vika had squealed in delight when she heard, happy to become an aunt again and Olena had burst into happy tears, and promised to throw a communal dinner in honor of having her little boy become a father. The Baians were easy to convince because in those regions, they still believed in superstitions and miracles.
Olena also shared tidbits about Dimitri's childhood, and what a mischievous, clever boy he was and before hanging up, she promised to send some knitted goods and food for the couple. When Rose asked her to come to Court and stay with her for the last month of her pregnancy, Olena became so choked up, she almost fainted with happiness.
Emil, whom Rose knew Dimitri was quite close to, was the last call of the day and after sharing the pregnancy news, which Emil accepted at face value because Dimitri had announced it so surely, the two men caught up while Rose prepared dinner. Prepared, not cooked, mind you, because Dimitri still didn't trust her in the kitchen alone, and for good reason…
After the horde of calls - all of which Rose had insisted on attending despite Dimitri's protestations that she should get some rest - the duo sat through dinner, mulling over the day. The danger-period of the pregnancy - the first trimester - was over, and they had shared their news with all their loved ones, who gave their full support and heartfelt congratulations.
By now, enough time had passed that Dimitri didn't treat Rose as if she were made of glass - a shouting match two weeks ago might have helped there - but he did his best to ensure she ate more fresh vegetables and milk and less junk food. Rose wasn't any more temperamental than usual, but Dimitri had her doing some meditative exercises to control her temper…just in case she did get hormonal. Or you know, burst into tears or screamed at him. Or tried ending his life prematurely…
They worked as a team, happy and in love, as they did the dishes that night and chitchatted over the events of the day, and a carefree Dimitri even twirled Rose around when a favorite Beatles track of his played on the radio.
Before getting into bed, Rose changed into one of Dimitri's tees while Dimitri made sure the door to the bathroom was ajar and a bottle of water was placed on Rose's bed stand and another one on the bathroom sink; all in preparation for her morning sickness. Afterwards he climbed into bed and caressed her little baby bump, which had only become noticeable just but a few days ago, while crooning softly in Rose's ear and lulling her to sleep.
Life was good, Dimitri thought as he succumbed to sleep, still wrapped protectively around his Roza and their unborn child. And he prayed that it'd only get better.
As for dealing with the rest of their world (whom Dimitri considered skeptics, whereas Rose branded them nosy assholes), they'd take it one day at a time….together, as always…
Thank you for reading!
Don't forget to leave a review! Or even suggestions, if you want to.
Cheers!
PS-I suck at naming things, so feel free to suggest a chapter name for this if you wanna!
