Three weeks had passed since the day Dimitri left and Rose hadn't receive so much as a word from him. Abe tried to contact the Director, but mum's was the word.

Rose was sure if something were to happen to Dimitri, her Aunt Ellen would have the decency to let her know. She took comfort in that fact. Maybe radio silence was a good thing.

On the bright side, Abe had finally retired. He and Rose, along with Pavel and Alberta, has settled into to Abe's new penthouse overlooking Central Park. The ex-mobster bought an apartment in the same building for Lissa and Christian as an early wedding gift and a thank you for the part they played at the manor. Abe also bought an apparent for Rose and Dimitri, but he was keeping that a surprise until Dimitri's return. For the time being, he enjoyed living with his daughter. In the event that Dimitri didn't return and Rose was ready to live on her own, Abe would give her the apartment without a second thought, but for now he liked having her close by.

Lissa continued to care for Abe. Monitoring his condition and making sure he took his meds. Abe had turned his life around. No more mobster life, no more drinking and smoking. He started eating healthy. He'd even go for an occasional walk in the park. Rose was elated that her father had begun taking care of himself at last.

Rose continued to train. She'd run 5 mile in the park every morning. There were always additional guards around the apartment, ready to escort Rose where ever she went. (Abe may have been retired, but he still had enemies). Of course, Rose was having none of that.

The first morning Rose went for a run a guard wanted to tag along to keep an eye on her. Her immediate response was, "Sure, if you can keep up with me, you can run with me". Needless to say he didn't keep up with her. At all.

Rose's night terrors never came back. After a few nights without Dimitri Rose got suspicious and video taped herself sleeping. Her sleep was not peaceful, no doubt plagued with dreams of her Russian God. But there were no night terrors. She half expected to find Dimitri sneaking in to comfort her, as he did when they were broken up after Vegas. Later she realized that she overcame the night terrors all by herself. Sure, her with relationship with Dimitri made her stronger, but Rose was strong all on her own too. Maybe pumping round after round into Lazar and his men made her grow a pair of big brass balls. She just wished Dimitri would come home to her, already.

That's what Rose thought about every morning on her runs, Dimitri coming home to her. She'd imagine walking into the penthouse and finding him lounging on the sofa in the front room, waiting to surprise her when she came back from a run. She'd envision how they'd be when he'd return. She'd remember the way he smelled. She loved his scent, it was the smell of his aftershave mixed with something completely Dimitri. As her feet would pound the pavement she would pretend that he was running beside her. Sometimes he'd chase her and she'd run a little faster.

Somedays, Rose thought she actually saw Dimitri. One time, she chased a man who had the same cologne, another time she ran after a man who was taller than the crowd and had a pony tail. Neither of them were Dimitri, of course. As time went on she learned to ignore her mind playing tricks on her.

After hearing about the ordeal Rose and her family went through, and that Dimitri was essentially taken away, Adrian and Sydney came for a short visit in New York. The wanted to be there for Rose.

Surrounded by Adrian, Sydney, Lissa and Christian, Rose was the happiest she'd let herself be without Dimitri. She missed him terribly. The pain of his absence hurt a little less with her other loved ones around. But Adrian and Syd couldn't stay forever. They had a life in Vegas to get back too.

Before leaving Adrian told Rose, "He'll come back. I know he will".

"How do you know?", Rose asked.

"I'm a pretty good judge of character", Adrian declared, Rose nodded. "You know reading people is my superpower", he stated matter of factly, causing Rose to chuckle. "I can tell you he's fearless, relentless. The perfect hunting machine. Rose, he was lost before he met you. You're his center of gravity." Rose remained quite, wondering how true Adrian's words were or if he was just trying to make her feel better by exaggerating. "I saw the way he looked at you. He would burn down the world to get to you". Rose smiled, Adrian was getting through to her. "I never got the chance to tell you this, but while you guys were at the club I grilled Dimitri about his intentions with you. I asked him what you were to him. Care to guess what he said?" Adrian asked.

Rose shrugged. "What did he say?"

"Everything. You're his everything. So you see, he has to come back to you in one piece".

When Adrian and Sydney went back to Vegas Rose was filled with new found hope. She knew Adrian would never lie to her and his words were the exact pick me up she needed.

As the days passed, Rose continue with the routine she had built for herself. Five mile run every morning. Before going up to the penthouse she'd stop by the coffee shop and get a hot chocolate to go. The barista would always hit on her and she'd alway say she wasn't interested. Rose was considering getting her hot chocolate somewhere else just to avoid the hassle but decided against it. She was a grown ass woman and she could handle herself in any situation.

After hot chocolate came weights training. Some days Rose would spar with Pavel. Other days she'd force Christian to learn new moves in hand to hand combat. If she was really in a mood, Rose would convince Lissa to train with her, insisting that she needed to know at least basic self defense.

Later came lunch time. Usually Rose had lunch by herself in her room. She'd always made sure to clean up her dishes. Afternoons, Rose would cook dinner with Alberta for everyone. She was really getting the hang of cooking a full meal. And it wasn't bad tasting either, despite what Chris said. After dinner, Rose would play cards with her father, (He was teaching her how to hustle at Texas hold 'em, stating it was a craft every young woman should know), or what a movie with Lissa and Christian. She even tried reading a book. A western Dimitri left behind.

Pretty soon days became weeks, and weeks became a month and a half and still Rose hadn't heard from Dimitri.

On a morning 7 weeks after the incident at the manor, Rose had the worst run since moving to New York. She woke up from a dream about her and Dimitri in bed. It wasn't even a sex dream, which she had plenty of and would need to bring her drawerful of dildo's and vibrators back from retirement. God, she missed sex. All the toys in the world wouldn't replace the man of her dreams. The dream that morning was just about them being lazy in bed together. Granted they were both naked but that's beside the point. Rose woke up feeling cold and lousy and missing Dimitri more than she ever had before.

On her run Rose imagined how she would have liked to have woken up with Dimitri by her side. How she wanted to press her naked body to his, how she wanted his hands on her, his lips on hers.

She ran five miles in 35 minutes. It was the longest time she clocked in a run since she met Dimitri. It was a testament to how bad she was feeling and how she wasn't coping with his loss very well, especially considering she knew in her heart it was only temporary. He's coming back, she told herself.

Done with her run, Rose lazily made her was to the corner coffee shop for her morning hot chocolate.

"Hello gorgeous!" Even though it was the barista's usual greeting, that Rose thoroughly disliked despite his English accent, she was caught off guard (completely stuck in her own head thinking of Dimitri) and smiled. "Hot chocolate to go?" He asked.

"Yes".

As she was waiting, the barista tried to engage her in a conversation. "So you come in here every morning, order a hot chocolate and leave completely impervious to my charms". Rose had to admit he was cute and quite charming. His persistence didn't bother her too much either. "I find myself wondering why that is", the barista continued. "I know you're not gay. I have excellent gaydar. I have never flirted with a member of the opposite sex who was interested in the opposite sex", he smiled at his own wit.

"So what do you think is the reason I'm unaffected by you?" Rose played along, figuring he'd guess she had a bo.

"I don't think you are unaffected, love. I think you're playing hard to get". He smirked.

Rose rolled her eyes in irritation. Other than that fact that he didn't know shit, she hated that this guy thought he could give her pet names. "Maybe you're just not my type". Rose crossed her arms over her chest, wanting her drink to be ready. She wanted him to know that she wasn't interested because he wasn't interesting, not because her heart already belonged to another.

"What is your type then?" the barista asked.

Rose knew exactly what her type was. "Tall, really tall. Like six foot seven tall. Built like an Adonis. Slight Russian accent. Silky shoulder length brown hair. Chocolate brown eyes. A smile that could light up the room. The most beautiful man you would ever see". Rose got a dreamy look in her eyes as she described Dimitri.

Then Rose noticed that the barista suddenly paled and started making a fish face (mouth opening and closing but no sounds coming out). Rose turned to see what had him so frightened, silently cursing herself for leaving the penthouse without her gun.

Rose gasped as she turned into a massive wall behind her. Only it wasn't a wall. Looking up Rose was met with such beauty it almost hurt her.

"Are you really here?" She asked, voice shaking, not trusting her own eyes.

Dimitri gently placed his hands on her waist. "Yes, Roza".

Rose was lost in those beautiful brown orbs shining brightly at her. "Are you back? For good?" she asked tentatively.

"You're stuck with me, milaya, for always and forever". Dimitri smiled, a bit apprehensive as to how Rose was going to react to him being back and more importantly to him being away for so long. His worry was short-lived.

Overjoyed that Dimitri was finally home, Rose jump into his arms. Dimitri caught Rose around the waist as she wrapped her legs around him, right there in the middle of the coffee shop. She planted a kiss on Dimitri that blew away the barista's mind.

"How did you find me, comrade?"

"I'll always find you, Roza". He cupped her cheek with his palm.

Dimitri and Rose kissed some more, until someone cleared their throat alerting the love birds to their audience. "That's three fifty for the hot chocolate", the barista said dejectedly.

Reluctantly Dimitri set Rose down. He pulled a five from his wallet and placed in on the counter. "Keep the change". He took the take away cup from the barista, handed it to Rose and picked her up bridal style.

Rose giggled and wrapped an arm around Dimitri's neck as he made his way out the coffee shop. "I can walk, comrade. Besides, you should set me down. I'm sweaty and gross".

"I don't care, Roza, I'm never letting you go of again".

A/N:

Alrighty folks, next chapter will be my last and I'm probably going to have a short epilog afterwards.

I'll spare you a lengthy A/N. Please review!

Last time's quote was from Knight and Day. Loved that movie!

And this time's quote:

Look Max I'm you're friend OK, and as your friend I gotta be honest with you I don't care about you or your problems.

Helper quotes:

Ok, he's too stupid to talk and too ugly to eat.

The revolution has begun. Liberated forever, domesticated never!

The password is don't ever ask the leader for the password!

Death is coming to Brooklyn and it's got buck teeth and a cottontail!

We are the flushed pets, abandoned by our owners and now we're out for revenge.

Katie is a dog person and dog persons do inexplicable things like get dogs instead of cats.

Take your best guess!

Kooki