A cute feel good leading up to the holidays! Not sure how long it will be, but we'll see it goes! :)

There are some sensitive themes in this fic.

I was starting to think I needed to change my phone number. My phone had been buzzing non-stop since I left New York, and I was tired of trying to deal with it all.

Nothing about walking in on your fiancée a month before your wedding with two other women in your bed was okay. And there was nothing anyone could say to make me un-call off the wedding.

My former almost mother-in-law was trying to save face for her trust-fund, nepotism son because being labelled a cheater was the worst thing that could happen to her baby in her mind. But the worst thing in my mind was marrying a man who didn't know how to commit and respect the woman in his life. Marrying a man that didn't respect me. If it was the base of our marriage, he would expect me to discard any other stupid thing he did.

Not only was his mother calling me constantly, but so was my 'best friend' who was in our bed.

I sighed heavily as my phone buzzed against the table and I picked it up, turned it off and slammed it back onto the table with a grunt.

"Rough day, Ms. Hathaway?"

I had a nasty retort on my lips as I looked up, but I stopped, the comment dying on my lips.

"Dimitri Belikov?" I asked almost in a whisper. My favourite high school teacher was standing before me with a coffee cup in his hand.

"I think you're allowed to call me Dimitri in public now," he said with a chuckle.

"Then I think 'Ms. Hathaway' is redundant," I said with a smile. All of my high school teachers thought that I was just going to end up working at a fast-food restaurant. But Mr. Belikov didn't. He knew that I had a passion for architecture and never let me down. He pushed me, and now I am an architecture engineer for one of the greatest real estate developers in the US. And all it really got me was into this mess with Adrian.

I gestured for Dimitri to sit down, and I smiled tightly at him as I sipped my coffee.

"I can only guess why you are gracing Montana with your presence," he said and I nodded.

"You've read the papers," I said with a scoff.

"I did. I'm sorry, that must have been a hard decision to make," he said and I shrugged.

"I've had a lot of people tell me that I gave up too easy," I said with a shake of my head, "I'm surprised my parents let me move back home as quickly as I did."

"You didn't give up, he did," he pointed out and I nodded to myself. I had forgotten just how easily that man was able to read my mind. Even as his student, there was an understanding; a relationship we shared that nobody understood.

Ever heard of the phrase 'right man, wrong time'? That was Dimitri. Every girl in our physics class loved him. His Russian accent, his panty-dropping smile, the shoulder-length hair, the muscles. The man was a walking Greek God and yet, he was teaching high school physics in the middle of butt-fuck-nowhere.

And I was the girl that did the worst thing. I was the student that slept with the teacher. I was the idiot that slept with the hot teacher and got away with it. And it wasn't just a one-time thing – it was a multiple-time thing. In the car in a parking lot by the outlook, in the staff bathroom. And for a while, it was no strings attached and then after a while, there were strings.

Strings that resulted in a fight, and a traumatizing stay in the hospital. But after that, we pretended that nothing ever happened. Except when I bolted out of the class when the severity of what had happened became too real to me.

"I heard you got married a few years back. How's that?" I asked.

Dimitri's smile faded and he cleared his throat.

"It was good. But she died a few years ago; in childbirth."

I felt my heart drop into my stomach in a way that was all too familiar.

"And the-the baby?"

"She's three and perfect," he said, the smile returning to his face as he pulled his phone out of his duster.

"OH! Show me!" I enthused as I leaned forward on the table. Dimitri pulled up a picture and turned the phone towards me and I awed quietly. She was a spitting image of him with wavy brown hair and big blue eyes.

"She's beautiful," I whispered, and he smiled to himself as he looked at the photo.

"She is."

I smiled and leaned back in my chair.

"Thanks for that," I said.

"For what?"

"Making me not think about why I'm hiding out in Montana," I said as I crossed my arms over my chest.

"I'm glad it worked," he said before he fell silent, a thought crossing his eyes that I knew was something I had already thought about the moment he said he had a child.

"Are you still teaching?"

"Yes, but none of my students are as disruptive as you were," he retorted and I rolled my eyes.

"Oh, you loved it. I kept you on your toes," I teased, and he shook his head at me. He glanced at the watch on his wrist and frowned.

"I'm sorry to cut this short; I have an after-hours study class to monitor. We should have coffee again before you leave," he said as he stood up. I stood up too and nodded.

"That would be great. I'm staying through the holiday, and I won't be leaving until the end of February. I don't want to be anywhere near New York, or my life until after my previous wedding date," I said as I crossed my arms over my chest.

Dimitri shook his head. "Avoiding the problem and then trying to cover it with a normal, valid reason. You haven't changed, Roza," he said as he stepped out of the coffee show. I smiled to myself as I sat back down, reminiscing on the times I heard my nickname.

I let my heels drum against the bed as I waited for the doctor to come in. I needed a doctor to sign off on a refill of my prescription, but because I hadn't been their patient before, they needed to evaluate me. It was stupid because a general practitioner didn't have time to run all the tests to confirm my diagnosis. I had had mild epilepsy before a car accident I was in my last semester of high school. The trauma I sustained made it worse.

"You're a sight for sore eyes."

I looked up at smiled at the one face I was genuinely happy to see in this town.

"Hey," I said quietly.

Lissa Dragomir, my childhood best friend closed the door behind her as she set the clipboard on the counter.

"I didn't even read the name on the file when I came in. I should have," she chuckled as she came to a stop in front of me.

"And you call yourself a doctor," I said with a roll of my eyes.

Lissa giggled quietly and came towards me.

"You need a refill?"

"Yeah, I left my bottle in New York and didn't have many left in my emergency stash."

Lissa nodded and palpated my neck, moving up to the base of my neck and then down to my shoulders.

"How often are you having the myoclonic seizures?"

I shrugged. "It really depends on what's happening in my day-to-day life. If I'm stressed out it happens more, but as long as I take my meds it's not too bad. It's mostly the hiccups that are a pain. They happen mostly at night. I had a camera set up in my room to monitor if I was having myoclonic seizures in my sleep," I explained.

Lissa nodded. "No tonic-clonic or absence seizures recently?"

"Not since my internship," I said before I corrected myself, "No. I had a tonic-clonic seizure a few months ago. I had a really bad flu and my fever spiked."

Lissa nodded and turned back to the clipboard.

"Have you had a myoclonic seizure since being here? I mean in town."

"I had one this morning, but it was minor. I dropped a plastic cup."

Lissa chuckled as she ripped the prescription off the pad and handed it to me.

"Living the life of plastic plates and cups still, I see," she teased.

"Yes, always. Anything that was his was glass and anything of mine was plastic. I didn't like the idea of possibly breaking it," I said with a chuckle and took the prescription from her.

"In light of the crappy break-up, dinner at my place tonight? I will provide cab sav and make sure you don't drink too much while making mac and cheese and we will end the night with lactose-free gelato," Lissa said as she leaned against the counter, crossing her ankles and arms.

"That is the best idea I've heard in a long time. I could use some tried and true best friend time," I said as I stood up, tucking the prescription into my purse. While we didn't see each other like we used to, we talked once a month. She was still the person who knew me best.

"Perfect. I'm in the same place as I was last time," she said as she stood up. I nodded and leaned towards her, pulling her into a hug. I wasn't a hugger by any means, but I needed one. She wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tightly.

"By the end of the night, you won't remember what that asshole did to you," she whispered in my ear. I nodded and sniffed before standing up straight.

"Great," I said as I left the room, smiling at her as I left.

I narrowed my eyes at Oscar as his tail flicked against my leg. I never liked cats, but this one, in particular, loved me.

"Why do you like me so much?" I asked as I took another sip of my wine.

"I don't know. He just likes you," Lissa said with a laugh and wiggled her toes with her ankles crossed.

I rolled my eyes and finished off my glass, extending the glass to Lissa.

"What is Belikov's deal these days?"

Lissa smirked. "Of course, you asked about him," she mused as she filled my glass.

"I ran into him the day after I arrived here," I said with a roll of my eyes and took my glass back.

"He married Tasha a few years after you left. They were married for all of a year before she died," she explained and I choked on my wine.

"Wait! Tasha like your sister-in-law Tasha!?"

Lissa nodded. "Yeah. Could you imagine hating your sister-in-law and then her dropping dead three months after your wedding? Almost made me feel bad for letting you dump wine on her," she said with a sigh.

"'Kay, she showed up at your wedding in white. Speaking of, where is my not-so-fun, snarky, partner in crime?" I asked, referring to her husband Christian. We loved to hate each other in high school, but when it came to Lissa, we compromised. We were civil for Lissa's sake, but we were friends despite the bickering.

"He's at work still. He heard you were coming and decided that we need 'our time'" she said with a smile.

"Good man. No, Belikov?"

Lissa shrugged. "He has his hands full with Leena, but she's a good kid. He still teaches physics, and he still wears that duster. He asks about you every once in a while. I work as a part-time nurse/doctor at the high school," she explained as she ran her fingers through her hair.

I nodded and took a sip of my wine.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?" Lissa asked after a few minutes and I sighed.

"I don't know. It seems easier to ignore it," I said quietly, "I can't believe I was stupid enough to not see it coming."

Lissa looked at me with sympathy.

"He had a lot of people fooled, Rose. And the fact that Brittney was sneaking around behind your back with him is worse than him sleeping around," she said with a shake of her head, "I knew she was bad news."

"Yes, I'm aware, Mom," I drawled and picked up my phone, gingerly looking at it before putting it down.

"Who is it this time?"

"The man of the hour," I sighed. Lissa leaned forward and snatched the phone off the table, putting it to her ear.

"What?" she snapped into the phone.

"No, you can't talk to her," Lissa continued. I stood up and sighed as I walked into the kitchen, looking for the mac and cheese that was left. Sorry, Christian. I needed it more than you do.

I scooped some into a bowl and put it into the microwave. I crossed my arms over my chest and tried to block Lissa out. I was a complete coward, but a part of me was glad that she was taking the call and chewing him out.

I took the bowl out of the microwave and leaned against the counter as I ate. I wasn't sure how long she was going to take, but I was okay with it.

There was a knock on the door, and I walked towards it, gesturing to Lissa that I was going to get it. I turned the lock and opened the door, my brows furrowing as I looked at the man on the other side.

"Hi?"

"Hi. Is Lissa here?" Dimitri asked, turning back to look at the car.

"She's on the phone," I said and turned to look in her direction, "Did you need something?"

"Leena left her doll here earlier this week. I've been able to get her to sleep without it most of the week, but she's fighting it tonight," he said. I nodded and stepped back into the house, stopping for a moment to figure out where a doll would be.

Lissa leaned her head to the side and stood up, continuing her tirade as she walked through the house.

"I've never heard her talk like that before," Dimitri mused.

"Yeah. Adrian called me and she answered the phone, and now is reading him the riot act," I said as I ran my fingers through my hair and leaned against the door jam.

"It's been two weeks?"

"He still thinks he can win me back," I said with a shake of my head, "It would be understandable if he was trying because he actually loved me. But he only wants me back because it'll make him look better."

"I'm sorry," he whispered and I nodded.

"No, you are going to lose her number. You are going to send her half the money back in deposits, you will tell your mother to leave her alone, and if you don't, I'll be more than happy to tell Rose's father the true reason why she called off the wedding. Rose may have told Janine the truth, but she was being a gracious person when she didn't tell Abe. Have I made myself clear?" Lissa snarled into the phone as she came back into the front hall, handing the doll to Dimitri. She listened to Adrian talk on the phone as she stepped out to see Leena in the car, giving Dimitri a thumbs up when she came back.

I cocked my head at her, but she tilted her head to the side and mimicked being out cold. I nodded and watched her walk back to the couch and hung up the phone.

"Apparently driving still makes her fall asleep," as she put my phone down on the coffee and looked at Dimitri.

"That's good to hear," Dimitri said with a chuckle, looking at the doll between his hands, "I should get her home."

"Good night," I said quietly with a smile.

"Good night," he said as he walked down the steps to his car. I smiled to myself as I watched him get in and drive away. I shut the door and locked it before looking at Lissa.

"I take it that went well?"

"I think he's still scared of me," Lissa said with a smile, "Now, I could either paint your nails, or I can lend you a bathing suit and we can go chill in the hot tub."

I groaned. "I already brought my bathing suit in anticipation," I grinned.

Why Lissa asked me to do this, I wouldn't understand. She found a few other things that were Leena's that was left at the house from when they babysat, and she asked me to bring them to Dimitri.

I pointed out that she worked at the high school part-time, but she said that it would give me another reason to talk to him. I didn't want to point out that she was right, but she was.

It felt like a trip walking down these halls. I recognized the murals on the wall, the off-key tune following from the music hall. The only issue was I wasn't sure which science room he was in and didn't want to walk into all of them.

I went to the main office and stood at the main desk, waiting patiently for the secretary to finish on the phone. She was newer, well, since I graduated.

"Can I help you?"

"What room is Dimitri Belikov teaching in?" I asked.

"Why?"

"I have some things of his that I need to drop off."

"You can leave them here," she said and I shrugged.

"I really don't mind giving them to him personally. I have a few things I wanted to discuss with him too," I said and the secretary looked like she sucked on a lemon when someone spoke from around the desk.

"Is that my favourite troublemaker?" a woman asked and I smiled.

"Alberta!" I said with a smile, moving away from the front desk to hug her. She hugged me tightly and squeezed my shoulders.

"Oh, you are just as beautiful as the last time I saw you," she said and I rolled my eyes.

"You always say that," I chuckled and she shrugged.

"I'm your aunt, I'm always going to say it," she said as she stepped back, "You're looking for your favourite former teacher?"

"Lissa sent me on an errand, but I think she has ulterior motives," I said with a blush, gesturing to the bag.

Alberta smirked and went to the main desk, fishing a visitors' badge from the top drawer and handed it to me.

"Third floor, room three-twelve," she said.

"Thanks," I said as I clipped the badge to my pants and left the office, climbing the stairs to the third floor. I found the classroom I was looking for and knocked on the open door, poking my head in. The class was quiet, working on a quiz when a few heads popped up. I bit my lip and looked for Dimitri but didn't see him. I eased out of the room, but the door adjoining the physics room and chem lab opened, and Dimitri stepped out.

"Rose?"

"Hi, sorry. I forgot what time the classes started, I thought it was the in-between period," I said sheepishly, blushing despite my wishes.

"It's fine," Dimitri said as he came closer to the door, chuckling at the bag in my hands.

"Thanks," he said and gestured for me to come into the room. My shoes clicked against the floor, and I sat down behind the counter at the front, looking down at the textbook that corresponded with the day's lesson. Matter-Energy Interface.

I sat quietly as I watched the students flip their pages over as they finished, waiting for everyone else to finish before Dimitri collected the quizzes. He brought them back to the counter and set them in front of me with a wink.

"I think you'd be able to grade these without a testing card," he said and I laughed with a shake of my head. There were a few people who looked at me curiously and I peaked at the quizzes, noticing that it was something that I was very familiar with.

I looked at Dimitri and gestured to them before picking up a pen that was in the cup beside the textbook. He started his lesson, and I breezed over the quizzes, nodding to myself as I reviewed the questions. I was impressed with the questions and the details of the answers. By the time he finished the initial introduction, I finished the quizzes and set them on the counter again.

There was a pretty blonde who sat in the front, and she watched me curiously when a young man raised his hand.

"Yes?" Dimitri asked.

"Who's the babe?"

The blonde beside him rolled her eyes at him. "Probably one of the smartest people in the room. She's an architectural engineer," she returned with a shake of her head, "And she's an alumni. I've seen her picture in the graduate hall."

"You know that I'm an engineer?"

"You look like the girl that interned for my uncle a few summers back. Rose, right?"

I nodded. "Barry VanTrown is your uncle," I mused with a small nod of my head. She nodded and I winked at her before turning my attention back to Dimitri, signalling to the rest of his class to pay attention to him.

Dimitri continued on with his lesson, drawing diagrams on the board as a visual aid for the class. I twirled a pen between my fingers as I listened, smiling softly to myself as I reminisced about my days as his student. I could be led into meditation by the sound of his voice.

"If you're an engineer, why are you here?"

I raised my brows and chuckled. "I'm taking a small hiatus and visiting my family for the holiday. Pay attention," I said as I looked at my phone, trying to keep the shock off my face when I saw the bank notification. I quickly put my phone down and stared at the quizzes, sighing when the bell finally rang.

The blonde girl who spoke before came up to the counter and folded her hands primly on the counter as her classmates filed out of the class.

"I'm really sorry about your wedding," she said quietly, "But if it means anything, you still have something to your name. He doesn't," she said. I smiled at her.

"I remember you know. You used to follow your uncle around at the tower," I said. The main building where I did my internship was nicknamed the Tower because it looked similar to the space needle, except not as tall.

"Yes. My uncle had a lot of good things to say about you," she said before slipping out of the class to go to lunch. Dimitri came to stop beside me and smirked at me.

"I almost told you to put your phone away," he chuckled and looked over the quizzes, nodding to himself as he looked them over.

"If only you wrote tests that fast in high school," he joked.

I rolled my eyes and sighed.

"Yeah, well I almost dropped my phone. Adrian e-transferred me almost two thousand dollars. Must be what Lissa threatened him into last night," I said as I ran my fingers through my hair.

"At least he sent it to you," he said as he crossed his arms over his chest, "What brought you here?"

I gestured to the bag my feet that clearly belonged to a child with the pink vibrancy and the rainbow unicorns.

Dimitri nodded and picked up the bag.

"So it's not to see me?"

"Oh no, it was to see you too. Thought we could relive some old memories," I said before I blushed and backtracked, "That came out wrong."

Dimitri chuckled and smiled. "I take it you mean coffee and the park?"

"Yes."

"Not the hot hook-ups in the backseat?"

I licked my lips and stood up, clearing my throat as I glanced at my phone.

"I know that it may be a touchy subject, but, how are you? I know that I was distant after what happened."

I leaned against the counter and shrugged.

"I barely knew before I lost it. I had other things to be worried about," I said as I licked my lips, "I needed to take care of Lissa. She just lost her parents. She never even knew I was pregnant. The only person who did was you, and that was only for twelve hours."

Dimitri nodded and looked conflicted, but I put my hand on his arm.

"Don't stress about it, comrade. From what the doctors said, I was already in the process of miscarrying before the car hit ours. It was meant to be that way," I said softly.

Dimitri nodded and let out a deep breath.

"I wanted to approach you about it so many times, but your father had found out about us after the accident-"

"I knew that you cared. The nurse told me that you came by," I said with a soft look, "And even when you were distant at school, I could see it with how you watched me."

Dimitri sat down on the stool and rested his elbow on the counter, his cheek pressed against his fist.

"I thought about it a lot when Leena was born."

"I bet," I said with a smile, "She's beautiful. I'm sorry about Tasha. I didn't know about the connection until last night. She was a nice lady."

Dimitri snorted a laugh.

"She was the mother of my child, but I married her partially out of obligation. She told me was pregnant before and then found out it was a false positive. And then we found out about Leena. And you hated her."

I nodded and laced my fingers together as I sat down on the stool, hooking my heels over the rung.

"Are we going to keep the heavy conversation in the physics lab, or are we going to get out of here?" I asked, changing the subject.

Dimitri nodded, understanding where I was going.

"Let's get out of here. I only teach two classes."