Epilogue
It was hard to believe how true the saying was, time flies when you're having fun. In 5 short weeks since Dimitri's return, Rose and Dimitri had flown to Vegas to attend a wedding, gone back home, flew to Russia for 2.5 weeks and were back home in time to celebrate Christian's birthday.
Rose and Dimitri along with Lissa and Christian, flew to Las Vegas on Abe's private jet, for Adrian and Sydney wedding. Sydney had a blow out with her family and in the heat of that argument decided she wanted to elope, which is pretty easy when you reside in Sin City. They closed club XS on a Wednesday, invited their closest friends and family and tied the knot. Sydney's parents were a no show.
The groups spent several days, before and after the nuptials, making plans, celebrating and partying. The ceremony was small, but Adrian and Sydney didn't need anything else. Adrian looked dashing in his tuxedo. Sydney was a true vision in a simple yet elegant ivory dress. She was a sight to behold. The couple flew out to Hawaii for their honey moon the following week.
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A mere 2 weeks after their return from vegas, Rose and Dimitri flew to Russia. Rose fell in love with country immediately. She was enchanted by the architecture and the cuisine. And the language. She nearly soaked through her panties when Dimitri engaged in conversation with an elderly couple who asked for directions in the airport.
Rose was nervous about meeting Dimitri's family. "What if they don't like me?" Rose asked as they drove from Novosibirsk to Baia.
"They'll love you".
"Even your grandmother?" Rose questioned. When Dimitri didn't respond, Rose said "Your silence is staggering".
Dimitri chuckled. "My grandmother doesn't like anyone. And before I forget, she only pretends she can't speak English".
Rose's jaw dropped as she looked at him in horror. "You're kidding!"
"No. She actually kicked out one of my sister's boyfriends for something he said that he thought she wouldn't understand", Dimitri explained laughing.
The time Rose and Dimitri spent with his family was like a whirlwind. Dimitri's family took Rose in as if she were one of their own. Olena loved Rose instantly for making Dimitri so happy. Rose and Vika, Dimitri's youngest sister, bonded over the girliest things - clothes, shoes, jewelry. Dimitri's niece and nephew inducted Rose into the family as Aunt Roza. Dimitri couldn't help but notice how good she was with the kids despite having claimed that children generally disliked her. Even Sonya's baby was calm in Rose's embrace, and she was a baby who hated strangers.
Dimitri was thrilled being back in his childhood home. He loved Rose and seeing her with his family made him happier than he'd ever been. Dimitri thought back to the dream he had months ago about him and Rose waking together in his old bedroom, having breakfast with his family. It bore an eery, yet delightful, resemblance to their current mornings, even down to his mama teaching Rose how to make black bread. The only difference was that Rose was actually quite proficient in the kitchen.
Even Yeva took a liking to Rose. Rose's no non-sense fiery attitude reminded Yeva of herself when she was young.
One of the last things they did before coming home was visit Ivan's grave. Dimitri clutched Rose's hand tightly as they made their way through the cemetery. When they reached Ivan's plot, Rose laid flowers next to the headstone. Dimitri set a small rock on the headstone.
Dimitri said some words in Russian Rose didn't understand. She didn't ask about it, giving Dimitri the privacy he needed.
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Their two weeks in Russia breezed by and before they knew it Dimitri and Rose were back in their New York apartment. Rose was sad to leave the house she quickly thought of as a second home and a family who she accepted into her heart without a moment's hesitation. She promised they'd visit again soon. Dimitri had other plans though. He intended to fly his entire family out to New York for an extended vacation for the holidays in a few month's time.
Rose and Dimitri arrived home just in time for Christian's 23rd birthday. They celebrated at Wolfgang's Steakhouse because nothing says love like a big stake.
Seeing as things calmed, Lissa and Christian set a wedding date. As soon as Christian heard Dimitri's family was coming for the holiday's it suddenly became very important to him that they attend his wedding. Sadly, Dimitri's family was the closest thing to family Chris had. So he and Lissa decided to get hitched right before christmas, with all the Belikov's in attendance. The forecast was snowy so they'd have a white wedding. Sydney and Adrian flew out for the festivities as well.
Lissa looked like an angel in her wedding dress. Rose was the maid of honor and Dimitri, the best man. Since Lissa's family passed when she was little, Abe asked for the honor of walking her down the isle. Rose and Lissa were moved to tears by the gesture. Of course he insisted on paying for the wedding as well, and wouldn't take no for an answer.
Lissa and Christian honeymooned in Thailand. They were gone for an entire month. Rose missed Lissa despite their frequent phone calls. She even missed Christian.
And yet she enjoyed the quite time she had with Dimitri. Not that they were ever really quite. Their very active sex life got them many complaints from the neighbors over the past months. Mostly from Christian. Not that he minded really, it was just fun to mess with Dimitri.
Rose and Dimitri had been living in New York together for a little over six months. From time to time Rose wondered why Dimitri hadn't proposed to her yet. She hated being that girl. The one obsessed with wedding and marriage, the one waiting idly for her man to propose. But it was Dimitri's own fault for fake proposing to her all those months ago before taking down Lazar. She had said no back then and was grateful when Dimitri didn't propose as soon as he returned, because she wanted to just be with Dimitri in the moment without all the fuss of dealing with the future. But now, after living blissfully with him for six months, though she didn't really feel older or wiser, she felt ready to start her life with him.
She thought that maybe at Sydrian's wedding he'd broach the subject, but was grateful he didn't. It was their time to shine.
She thought he'd bring it up while they were helping Lissa and Christian plan their wedding, or when they got married, or when left for their honeymoon. But that didn't happen either.
Dimitri had never brought it up. In fact, they never even really discussed the future or made long term plans. And that was what really bugged Rose. So she decided it was time to put on her big girl panties and have a chat with Comrade Belikov. There was nothing special about the moment. She just made up her mind and went with it.
"Hey comrade", Rose greeted Dimitri as he returned from a lunch date with Christian. Yes, their bromance was in full swing.
"Hey, Roza", he leaned in and kissed her chastely.
"I wanted to talk to you", Rose lead him to the sofa where they sat together, each tucking a leg underneath themselves and draping an elbow over the back of the sofa, facing each other.
"Sure, what about?"
"About us", Rose said tentatively. Dimitri tensed. "We never talk about the future and I'm just wondering why that is".
"We talk about the future all the time", he answered confused.
"I don't mean when we plan to visit Baia, or where our next vacation will be. I mean us. Where are we headed?"
"Roza, I thought that was obvious", Dimitri answered, fighting a shudder at not knowing where Rose was going with this. "I love you. I want us together. Forever". He looked at Rose. "I thought that was what you wanted too".
"It is", Rose answered quickly. "I was just thinking. We never really discuss our plans for the future. I mean before we left the manor, you were talking about the whole package or whatever and now you never even bring it up".
Dimitri smiled. "I never bring it up because I know you. You don't want this. You're not ready for marriage and children yet. And that's ok. Do I want to marry you? Very much. Do I want to have children with you? Of course. But I'm waiting for you to want those things as much as I want them. Luckily, I'm an incredibly patient man who loves you very much. Honestly, I don't bring it up because I don't want you to feel pressured".
"So, you think about it a lot then?" Rose asked incredulously.
"All the time, Roza".
"Okay, so when do you envision us getting married?"
"Maybe in a year or two".
"What kind of wedding do you want? Where would we even get married?" Rose bombarded Ditmiri with questions.
Dimitri brushed her cheek with is thumb. "I don't care as long as I'm the groom, you're the bride and our family and friends are with us. I would marry you anywhere you would have me,milaya". It was statements like that that made Rose think sometimes Dimitri got his lines from a script.
"When do you want kids?"
"Maybe a year or two after. Whenever you're ready". Dimitri made it sound as if he were already ready.
"How many do you want?"
"As many as you'll have with me, my love", Dimitri answered calmly. He was trying not to freak Rose out with his answers. "Where's all this coming from?"
Rose huffed and fiddled with her fingernails. "You asked me to marry you eight months ago. I said no and you were supposed to ask again, but you never did. Don't get me wrong, I really wasn't ready and I'm thankful you didn't ask me again that day. But I'm ready now". Dimitri nodded, stunned at what he was hearing, stuffing his hand in his pocket.
"Dimitri, I love you with all my heart, with every fiber of my existence. I know I had a difficult time saying that to you when we first got together, but I do love you. There will never be anyone other than you. You're the first person I want to see when I wake up and the last person I want to feel before I fall asleep. I didn't know what I was missing in my life until you came along and completed me. I want to spend every day I have on this earth with you. So I guess what I'm saying is, Dimitri," Rose slid down from the couch to the floor and got on one knee, "will you marry me?" she asked as she bit her lip. Her proposal was spontaneous, but all Dimitri's talk about wanting to marry her and have children with her, sparked something in Rose. Suddenly she couldn't get to that future fast enough.
Dimitri stared at Rose, not quite sure what to say. So he did the only thing he could do. He got down on one knee as well, pulled out the red velvet box he had in pocket, turned it towards Rose and opened it. "Yes", he said, answering Rose's question.
Rose gasped. She was not expecting this. Not by a long shot. Dimitri took Rose's left hand and places the ring on her finger. The ring was beautiful. It was a round cut, 2 carat diamond in a square white gold setting.
When Rose was too stunned to say anything Dimitri explained. "Roza, we met one year ago tomorrow. I was planning to take you out to dinner. Then we would take a walk, and as we'd pass Rockefeller Center I'd suggest we go up to the observation deck. I had planned to propose to you there tomorrow night".
"I ruined your proposal!" Rose was upset. That's the proposal she really wanted, not her impromptu half assed "will you marry me?" in their own living room.
"You didn't ruin anything, milaya", Dimitri gathered Rose into his arms. "We can still do that. Only instead of proposing we can celebrate our engagement". He laced his fingers with Rose's, brought their hands to his lips where he kissed her new ring and then her hand.
"I didn't get you anything", Rose said nearly above a whisper.
"All I need and want is you, my Roza".
"You have me, comrade. Always and forever".
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A/N:
So that was my story. I'm so sad that it ended mainly because as I was working on it I fell in love with it. When I first started writing NJAMP, I wrote just to write and get this story line out of my system, but I only had the very beginning and the very end of it mapped out in my head. And I ended up changing the ending anyway so…
When I first started, Dimitri was supposed to find out that Rose was Abe's daughter only in the end. But I got a lot of feedback from readers that they wanted the cat of the bag already. There was supposed to be a big shoot out at the end of the story where Abe gets shot, says his goodbye to Rose and only then does she call him dad and Dimitri is made aware of their kinship.
After I rerouted this discovery and Dimitri finds out the truth about Rose and Abe, I had still intended to kill off Abe at some point. Even as I was writing the epilog, I wanted to kill Abe in a flash forward to 5 years into the future where Rose is standing over his grave with flowers, telling him about her 4 year old daughter who misses her Grappa Abe, as she so affectionately called him, unable to say grandpa.
But I didn't do any of those things. We have enough heartache and deal with enough death in our day to day. Why mourn our beloved fictional characters as well? I just couldn't bring myself to do that to the readers. Especially not at the very end of the story.
For those of you wondering, the middle of the story, pretty much from chapter 2 onwards, I was writing by the seat of my pants, so to say. I had no idea when I started out that Dimitri was going to be an agent, despite his stellar background. I don't even know how the trip to vegas popped into my head.
As I stated earlier, the epilog was meant to go a little differently. Then I thought about adding another epilog (epilog 2) but decided against that. I knew that if I went down that road, I'd surely kill Abe and I didn't want that.
Had there been another epilog I would have written about Rose and Lissa's kids growing up together. About how Dimitri and Chris would open a security consulting company. About how Rose starts a school for woman to learn selfdefense.
After the longest A/N in documented human history (this time I really mean it), I say goodbye for the last time of the story.
Thank you to everyone who read. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed and favorited!
I loved the feedback and the encouragement (said the reviews whore). Sometimes, knowing someone was out there waiting for me to post another chapter was all that kept this story alive. And other times I had an absolute blast writing and didn't even care if anyone read or not, I was writing for me.
In the end the last chapter finished with over three hundred reviews in total, over 170 followers and just under 120 favorites. All in all, I pretty damn proud of myself. But I couldn't have done this without you guys to read, so thank you, thank you, thank you!
As many of you have read, I just started working again and have zero free time. I hope I have time to continue writing sometime in the near future. I'll probably do some one shots before I try writing a longer story as I don't want to have too much of a gap between updates.
It's very late for me right now so I apologize for any gibberish I may have written. I literally falling asleep on my MAC.
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Before I forget: Quotes game - last chapter the quotes were from Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the black pearl. Everyone who guessed was correct, of course.
Thank you to anyone who played with me (that's doesn't sound right, does it?" and thanks to all those who challenged me.
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Please comment/review. Give me some sugar one last time for this story.
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This has been Not Just Another Mafia Princess and I have been Kooki!
Thank you, I love you, good-bye.