Hello you beautiful people! Well, here we are again, most beautiful time of the year and all that jazz and if you can't tell I have 0 holiday spirit this year. But I'm going to attempt to find some while I write these for y'all so wish me luck and please drop me some prompts that you'd like me to write for you! If you do, I'll see if I can write you something every day until Christmas! I'm totally gamed to try!

Anyway, I know Thanksgiving is over but here's a Thanksgiving one shot for you anyway. I started this before the holiday, but I got distracted and I hope you enjoy it nevertheless!

Summary: After a year of heartbreak, Rose is struggling with her grief and trying to put the pieces of her shattered life back together. She's convinced she has nothing to be Thankful for and has no interest in celebrating, but with Dimitri and some close friends by her side, they take a new approach to this Holiday. Can they make it a Thanksgiving to remember?

I don't own VA!

Thanksgiving to remember.

"Well, I'm leaving," My newly appointed assistant said as she stood in my doorway. "I'll see you on Monday." I waved and offered up as genuine of a smile as I could, but she stood there staring at me for a full minute with no intension it seemed to actually leave.

"What is it?" I asked looking up at her. Mrs. Goodheart, or Trinity as she now insisted I called her, which, given the fact that she had worked for my father for years, filling the role of nanny when I was little and then his assistant when I was older, was kind of weird, looked at me for about 30 seconds more before she spoke.

"I hope you enjoy the holiday dear," she said gently. "Even if it's different this year."

"I'll try Mrs. Goodheart," I said with a sigh, clearly unable to break the habit of calling her anything but that. And I didn't say it but I knew full well that I would certainly not be trying to enjoy the holiday. Because yes, she was right about that. The Thanksgiving holiday was going to be different this year. In fact, it was going to be different every year now. The magic of the whole damn holiday season was never going to hold the same warm fuzzy feelings of happiness and love to me ever again, and, I wasn't really looking forward to it. In all honesty, this whole fucking year had been such shit I was ready for it to be dead and buried. Like my dad. Like my mom. Like my god damn dreams of becoming a mother.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come to the house tomorrow, Rose?" She asked for what honestly had to be the 10th time, dragging me back from the dark road my thoughts were determined to head down. Like every time before, I shook my head. Not that I blamed her for asking or anything seeing as how tomorrow was Thanksgiving and for my whole 26 years of life she and her family had been a part of every single one of my family's celebrations. Hell, the Goodheart's were practically an extension of my family, her girls were just as much my friends as Lissa and Lissa was practically my sister.

"You know we're not really celebrating," I said quietly. "I'm probably just going to sleep in till the afternoon anyway."

"Well, you know," she said offering up one of those warm motherly smiles I remembered so well from my childhood. "That would actually not be such a bad thing. You do deserve the rest darling. You've been working too hard lately." I smiled and waved again as she left, not telling her that my work was one of the only things still keeping me sane or well at least keeping me out of the psych ward, because God only knew there were some days when I didn't even know how I got myself out of my bed.

…

Everyone had long since left by the time I finally packed up my stuff and grabbed my keys to follow suit. I could have stayed longer, but a text from Dimitri, the one man who had been the love of my life for as long as I could remember, high school sweetheart and husband of 2 years, had finally convinced me to step away from the work I really didn't have to be doing at 6:30 P.M on the day before a holiday that was all about family gatherings. According to him, he was waiting for me outside and had a surprise. I hope by a surprise you mean a caramel Frappuccino from Starbucks and the deliciousness that is a chocolate fudge brownie, I texted back as I got to my feet and started heading out of the building. I got a little suspicious when my phone didn't immediately buzz with a reply, but when I made it to the car, I understood why.

"Oh my god," I squealed, flinging myself into the arms of Olena, Dimitri's mother. I know most women complained about their mothers-in-law, but I had been blessed with the best one of them all. Olena had never treated me any differently than she treated her own daughters and I loved her for it.

"Roza," she said with a smile hugging me tightly and kissing my cheeks. "Oh, sweetie is Dimka not feeding you? You've lost weight. But no matter, I'm here now. We'll fatten you up." I hugged her tighter, caught between wanting to giggle because Olena always wanted to feed everybody, and wanting to burst into tears because of course Dimitri had been trying to feed me. He had inherited his mother's nurturing nature after all, but there were some days when food tasted like nothing to me and it took him a ridiculous amount of coaxing to get me to eat. And that was just sad as fuck, because before all of this I used to adore food. There was a time not so long ago when nothing and no one could keep me away from my food. Not so much anymore, but Dimitri was always able to get me to eat for him.

I didn't know what it was about this man, but he made a point of never giving up on me, even when all I ate was just a little bit of food off of his plate. Even on the days when I locked myself in my room and refused to talk to anyone, or the nights when all I wanted to do was cuss and scream about how unfair this entire thing was, he would hold me tight and just let me rant, which more often than not ended in me bursting into tears and sobs that shook my entire body. But Dimitri would just hold me through it until I was all cried out. Sometimes he would even cry with me, reminding me that he was still grieving too, and on those nights, I held him a little tighter, loved him a little deeper. And I made a point to deny him nothing. How could I when he had seen me at my best and at my worst and still stood firmly by my side?

There were days when I wanted to run and literally did, disappearing for hours on end in the woods around our house. I knew he worried whenever I did that and I hated making him worry, but there were days when I just needed to escape reality for a little while. Tearing through the familiar trail I'd memorized in the woods ages ago with music blasting in my ears at such a furious pace that my legs ached and lungs burned was the only way I knew how. But when I was ready to return to reality, Dimitri was always there waiting for me with a bottle of water, a soft smile and strong open arms.

He was my one constant, my safe space in all the chaos and mayhem and God, I loved him so much for it. I made a point of reminding him of that every single day because without him I didn't know how or even if I would have gotten through this year. Dimitri grounded me better than anyone else ever had, and he knew that no matter where I ran or how far, I would always return home to his arms. It was, after all, the one place in this entire world where I felt the safest. One of the few places I could let my walls down entirely and just be.

"I've missed you Olena," I said softly, bringing myself out of my revery. It didn't matter that I'd seen her a couple months ago. I had definitely missed her in that time. There was just something comforting and soothing about having her nearby.

"Hey what about the rest of us?" Viktoria called from in the car. "Did you just miss mama then?" She and her sister Sonya waved at me and as they both got out to wrap me up in their arms, for just that moment, the ever-present ache that lived in my chest now eased just a little.

"I've missed every single one of you." I said adamantly and we all climbed back into the car, Olena getting in the back with her girls so I could ride up front with Dimitri. He flashed me one of those very soft, very sweet smiles that made his eyes light up in that way they did whenever the Belikovs came to town. It made my heart do a crazy flippy thing and had an automatic smile sliding onto my face as well.

"But what are you guys doing here? Why didn't you tell me they were coming?"" I asked reaching over to take Dimitri's hand in mine while shooting him an accusatory look. He squeezed my hand gently and laced our fingers together as he drove. "And where are Karolina and Yeva? The kids?"

"First of all," Dimitri said with a chuckle. "Don't blame me for not telling you. They made me promise not to tell you they were coming." I turned to fix the Belikova women with a half ass glare and all 3 of them rolled their eyes at me.

"Hey," Sonya said. "We wanted to surprise you Roza."

"And it looks like we were successful," Viktoria said with a grin. "Or she wouldn't be so pissy otherwise."

"Leave her alone," Olena said looking between her children sternly and then back to me with a soft smile. "Karolina is at the house with the kids and mama. The rest of us just couldn't wait to see you so we insisted on coming to bring you home." I smiled at that, thinking that maybe Thanksgiving wouldn't be so unbearable after all.

…

"Aunt Roza!" Paul shrieked the second Dimitri opened the front door, hurling himself right into my arms. I hugged him back just as tightly, hit as I always was by how much he resembled a younger version of his uncle.

"Hey there Paul," I said ruffling his hair and making him huff at me for it. That only made me chuckle, because the huge smile he had going on told me he didn't really mind so much. I hugged Karolina and Yeva, Dimitri's oldest sister and grandmother, being careful of the sleeping baby Yeva was cradling.

Lissa and Christian showed up with Adrian and Sydney soon after we did, bringing pizza and a bottle of Vodka. The Vodka I was sure, was curtesy of Adrian, and suddenly I was surrounded by all of the people I loved the most in this world. My parents' absence made my chest hurt, but I knew they wouldn't want me to be sad. So, as we settled down in the living room eating pizza straight out the box with some Christmas movie playing on the TV, I made the effort to join in the conversations happening around me.

"Hey Rose?" Lissa called trying to get my attention. I was currently snuggled up between Paul and Dimitri, Zoya perched in my lap, but I extracted myself and placed the baby in her uncle's arms as Lissa gestured me over.

"So, I know you said you didn't want to celebrate," She started as I sat next to her and my eyes narrowed into a glare. "So, I came up with another idea." She said quickly and raised her voice to catch everyone's attention. "Tomorrow morning we're all going down to the orphanage to bring breakfast to the kids who live there."

I sighed, really, really wanting to argue, to tell her that I didn't want to do anything except for sleep. This year had taken away almost everything I had that I was thankful for and I didn't want to give this stupid day of Thanksgiving any damn attention. But then I looked around at everyone else. They all looked like they were already on board with this idea. So, I sighed again and nodded my head.

when the next morning rolled around, I found that I was actually looking forward to doing this. Because if I was being honest, I did still have things to be thankful for. I had all of these amazing people who had all spent the night with Dimitri and I and were now gathered around us making a whole array of dishes fit for a party. They loved me unconditionally and every single one of them had supported me through one of the darkest and most difficult points in my life. Hell, they still were. My parents were gone now, but they had given me a great childhood. I knew what it was like to be doted on by parents who loved me. By parents who wanted me. Those kids did not. And so, if I could bring just a little bit of cheer to them, I would take that over sleeping the day away. Only thing was, I hadn't planned on it being a Thanksgiving to remember forever.

There will be a part 2 to this one, set closer to Christmas and showing exactly why this was a Thanksgiving that she'll remember forever. Maybe you'll also get some answers on what happened to Abe and Janine and Rose's chances of becoming a mother. I've already got part of it written, and hopefully it'll be done and posted soon. But until then, please drop me your thoughts and ideas in the reviews! I'll be looking forward to hearing what you thought and you never know, maybe reviews are exactly what I need to motivate me to get the other part done and to get myself in the holiday spirit! Until next time my lovelies.

XXX

Roza