I'm sorry for my prolonged absence, lovelies, but I'm back now, and without further ado, here's the latest installment of the story. Enjoy!
PS-If my writing or grammar is rusty, I apologize in advance. Sorry.

"..and he stood up and grabbed a knife", Vika gestured with her hands, describing her brother's reaction when she'd 'innocently' suggested the probability of his soon-to-be-born could-be daughter getting intimate with a could-be boyfriend in future. "I swear to you I've never seen Dimka look so murderous"

Rose laughed right along with others, a hand resting comfortingly over her swollen tummy. This was her long-anticipated baby shower and Lissa (after a lot of persuasion and maybe some waterworks) had agreed with Rose's request and kept the entire affair low-key. But obviously, being the queen and the best best friend ever, she had Dimitri's entire family flown in for the shower (sans Yeva, who declared she was too old for air-travel and would rather stay back and terrorize the Baians with mysterious prophecies; and also except Paul and his sister, who were both in the Academy for the school year).

Rose watched happily, munching on butter-soft cupcakes, as her female friends and her family….err, Dimitri's family aka the Belikova contingency shared anecdotes about her and Dimitri's childhood, and their reactions to the pregnancy announcement.

At eight and a half months, she resembled a balloon more than a human and she was always tired, grumpy or in desperate need to pee. Dimitri did the best he could, rubbing her feet, shoulders and back whenever she wanted and sacrificing his sleep to take care of him, but Rose had a feeling he was just counting down the days (and hours) till she'd pop out the kid and he could get a good night's rest. He'd never admit it, but she knew, she could see it in the way his eyes flicked towards the calendar first thing each morning, and how he pinched his nose and muttered in an undertone when she was being especially 'difficult'. She was getting tired too, of the burning sensation around her upper abdomen, of fidgeting so much and of the baby's kicking. And would you believe it, she couldn't see her own two feet anymore!

Olena, as expected, was absolutely indispensible, with her help and advice and mental support and the hot water-bags she kept magically providing to Rose, that always managed to put her to sleep. The Belikovas had flown in a couple of days ago, and the first thing out of Vika's mouth had been 'Wow, look at that belly on you', which-unsurprisingly-had made Rose start crying and declaring that she'd become fat like a cow, and she wasn't beautiful anymore, and that Dimitri would leave her for someone more beautiful.
This of course had earned Vika twin basilisk glares from both her mother and brother, who had then shushed her protests about how she meant it in a good way, and worked together to soothe Rose. Oh, and had I mentioned this all took place in the runway strip?

Anyway, since then, Vika had become wary of Rose's unpredictable hormones and had thought and rethought everything she'd said to Rose 10 times before uttering it, in fear of giving offence. (Christian understood her predicament well; after all he had been banned from his own breakfast table for around three weeks the last month after he'd make one tiny comment about how much Rose had been peeing recently).

And that brings us back to last night, when the Belikov clan (and Rose) had been having dinner together with Liss, Christian and the rest of the gang, most of who had been come over early, in order to attend the baby-shower and meet the miracle child when it took birth. Things had been going on well, and everyone had been happy, including Rose, who was happily filling her stomach with Olena's dinner offerings. Not to mention Vika and Christian, who were both happy Adrian was getting the stink-eye from Rose, Olena, Lissa and even Sydney.

In his defense, his intentions were legit. Rose had been having trouble getting off the couch on her own, and Dimitri was across the room, talking with Eddie and Jill, so being the wonderful person that he was, Adrian offered his hand to Rose. What he hadn't expected was for her to have such a strong grip, or to weigh that mu-let me rephrase-or to have such a strong centre of gravity, which kinda resulted in him falling on the couch beside her with a yelp and asking her whether she had metal fillings recently. The room had dropped silent, as Rose's lower lip jutted out and started trembling, and only Christian's arrival, bearing some of his famous 'meatloaf', had prevented a crisis-level melt-down.

So, there they were having dinner together, and sharing stories, and ribbing one another, when the question of whether Rose and Dimitri would be having a boy or girl had arisen. Lissa didn't want to discuss it then, because she had a game prepared for the wedding shower, but the others were undeterred. From Karo saying that Paul had basically demanded that uncle Dimka's baby be a boy, because there were far too many females in the house, to Jill hoping it was a girl, so she could be cool Aunt Jill, who'd shower the kiddie with Barbie houses and princess dresses and tiaras, everyone had an opinion. When asked their opinion, Rose declined to comment, with her version of a Mona Lisa smile, claiming she already knew (call or spidey-senses, or maternal-instincts, but she believed she knew what gender her baby was).

Dimitri also didn't want to comment, but Rose laughingly outed him as wanting a baby boy, because he would go prematurely grey worrying about a baby daughter, who'd grow up far too fast for his liking.

Vika, hit with a diabolical plan, immediately jumped on, speculating that…suppose Dimitri had a daughter, and that then, she became a teenager. Owing to her parents' good looks (well more Roza's good looks, because Dimka was more rugged than cute, and a girl didn't need that face), the kid would obviously end up with good genes and knockout looks.
And she'd obviously have boys running around her like bees swarming over honey. So, suppose, she falls for some cutie some day, just about 13-14 years from here on, and she goes out to date the boy. What if she falls in love with the alleged boy, and who knows, even gets 'intimate' with him, what did Dimitri suppose he'd do then?

By this time, almost the entire table had stopped eating to listen to Vika's mischievous speculations, and had begun observing Dimitri. At first he'd listened non-plussed, cutting his chicken and chewing it, but slowly, he stopped eating and his face became pale. Then he became agitated. By the end of Vika's suppositions, she'd become still. Deathly still. Eyes wide, lips pursed, imagining a not-so-distant future, rife with the possibility his sister had painted out. No! His mind rebelled. Over his head body!

Only when Rose wound one hand around his and had pulled it down did he realize that he had stood up, wearing a murderous look on his face, and brandishing his knife towards the table's other-slightly scared-occupants. As soon as he was seated again, he groaned and demanded that Rose not have a daughter, for the sake of his sanity. Immediately, the tension was dispelled, and everyone had started laughing, going back to their delicious home-cooked food, and more innocuous conversations.

(Parenthetically, it should be mentioned that Dimitri never truly recovered from that conversation and spent had spent half the night pacing their room before Rose had made him stop by throwing a pillow at his head).

And that incident was what Vika had decided to share at the baby shower, which had most of their companions laughing uproariously. After Vika ended, with a toast of her sparkling cider towards Rose, hoping for her older brother's sake that the family was blessed with a baby boy, Mia took her turn and recounted how one fine night she had gone to the grocery store on Court to find some of her favorite cold-drink, and had bumped into a hassled-looking Dimitri who was staring very confusedly at his phone, in front of the check-out counter. Of course, she had gone up to greet him, and asked him what was happening, to which he replied that Rose had sent him on a midnight—ice-cream-run for some maple-and-walnut flavored icy goodness. And right before he had made it to the counter to check out his purchases, she had just called him and asked him to buy some jalapeno peppers too, because she wanted to have them, stuffed with ice-cream and cookie dough.

As expected, that sent the room into a volley of ewws and utterances of 'gross', which only stopped when the Sonya Belikova defended her sister-in-law-in-every-way-except-on-paper by revealing that Roza's pregnancy craving wasn't really that bad, because during her own pregnancy, she had once had a craving for having pickled fish with raspberry jam, and that for the better part of two months.

And so the story telling went on and on, along with some fun-themed games, for about half an hour more till Rose couldn't stop fidgeting. When Olena-who had noticed her uncomfortable wiggling-asked what was wrong, Rose sheepishly admitted that she needed to pee. So, helped by Vika and Mia, both of whom were brash enough that Rose didn't suffer from any embarrassment at the thought of them hearing her peeing, Rose made her way over to the washroom. But once there, Rose elected to fix her hair and text Dimitri before peeing. After Dimitri didn't text back, even after 5 whole minutes, Rose theorized that he must be comatose with sleep, what after his late night pacing last night, and his general lack of sleeping in the last few months.

Shaking her head, she rejoined her two friends, and they walked slowly back to the hallroom, talking together about the shower, the decorations and the food. As they entered the room, Jill's eyes lit up with a smile, and she asked a question that somehow everyone had forgotten to ask Rose in the last eight and a half months. "Hey Rose", she said, brushing some cookie crumbs off her skirt. "Have you decided on what to call the baby when he or she is born?"

Rose smiled slowly, and replied that she had a few names on her mind, but she needed to confirm with Dimitri first. Immediately, Lissa piped up, hoping for everyone's sake that they didn't name the kid Vladimir or Alexandra, because she had had enough of being compared to the two iconic Moroi, and she wouldn't wish it on someone else. Rose winked and promised to keep that in mind, before sitting down beside her mother in law and announcing that she was hungry and demanded to be fed.

Over a sumptuous dinner, everyone bantered and Rose took this opportunity to hold a private conversation with Olena. When she relayed the name she hoped to give the kid if it was a boy, Olena's eyes filled with tears. When Rose asked if Olena liked the name, the older woman could only nod with tear-stained eyes before clasping Rose's hand and squeezing it with approval.

Later that night, when they were dropped home Rose bid goodnight to the others and slowly waddled over to their room, where a freshly showered Dimitri was sitting on the bed, reading one of his favorite westerns. As soon as he saw her, he dropped the book and came over to greet her with a kiss and smile. "Had a good day?", he asked her, between kisses.

"Mmhmm", Rose exhaled happily, settling into his embrace. "You?"

"I spent most of the day sleeping", he replied, semi-guiltily.

"You deserved it", she declared, walking towards the bed. "So I was wondering…", she paused, motioning for him to settle down beside him. "What do you want to name the kid?"

"I'm guessing you have something special on your mind?", Dimitri teased as he leaned against the headboard beside her. "But just so you know, we're not calling the baby Waldo or Bozo"

"Not even if I say pretty please?", Rose shot back, fluttering her eyes comically.

"No", he answered deadpan, before succumbing to a grin. "So, what did you have in mind?"

"Well, I was thinking that if it's a boy", she paused, taking his hand in hers. "What do you think of Mason-Ivan?"

Dimitri remained silent and motionless for two whole minutes, and Rose started to panic. "I don't want to dishonor either of their memories, but they both were really important, and our first great losses, so I thought this would be a second chance, to do right by them and us. Like a happy ending, and your mom lik-"

Dimitri interrupted her tirade by pulling her into a crushing hug. "Thank you, Roza", he murmured into her hair, his voice clogged with emotions. "I..I love it. It's beautiful. And if it's a girl?"

"Well, I was hoping you'd have some input, so that when she becomes a teenager and hates her name, I can blame you with a clear conscience", she replied cheekily.

"Glad to know you have my back", he returned sarcastically, elbowing her jokingly.

"Hey, if she inherits the Hathaway attitude, I'd do anything I can to stay on her good side", Rose shot back, making Dimitri laugh and declare 'don't' I know it'.

"Okay", he replied more seriously. "I like the name Anya Maria. What do you think?"

"Anya Maria", Rose tried out the words. "I like it. It sounds wonderful!"

"So, Mason-Ivan and Anya Maria?", Dimitri asked, brushing some hair off her forehead.

"Definitely", she piped up, beaming at him. "And I don't mean to be a party-pooper or anything, but I seriously need to pee again. Help me up?"

Dimitri did just that, and he watched as she waddled over to their washroom to change. "Mason-Ivan Belikov", he pronounced, looking out of the window into the starry sky. "Hear that, Ivan? My son's gonna be named after you. And if he ends up becoming half the considerate, loving person that you were, I'll consider myself to have won at parenting". He smiled, shaking his head at his slightly-sappy behavior and walked to the kitchen to get a hot-water bag for his Roza.

So what did you guys think of the chapter? And the names? Also, did anyone get the reference of Bozo? Hit me with your thoughts, critique and suggestions in the reviews (and you just might be entitled to a slice of Christian's cholesterol-raising meatloaf). Also, as usual, you're more than welcome to drop a suggestion for the chapter's name, so if that seems like something you wanna do, review!
Cheers!