After the lunch with Abe, neither Dimitri nor I returned to the office. When I walked in the next morning, the stares were different. Everyone in the building knew who I was actually married to. It wasn't just the people who worked for Court Publication, but everyone.

As before, the whispers and stares followed me as I walked to my office. But today, I didn't bother dressing 'down'. I wore the nice clothes Dimitri bought me, and the red bottoms that Sydney was so jealous of.

I sipped my coffee as I walked to my office, my ponytail swaying against my back. I kept clearing my throat as I walked. There was a slight tickle in the back of it, and I couldn't get rid of it. That and I felt poor despite having a metaphorical burden lifted off my shoulders. Lying to everyone about my life was a lot more stressful than I thought.

Lissa had gone to an ultrasound first thing in the morning, and I was in awe of the picture she sent me. I could see the baby's cute little nose and lips, and their adorable feet. The baby wasn't even born yet and I had the cutest niece or nephew in the world.

Well, I couldn't exactly say that; I hadn't seen either of my nieces or nephews on Dimitri's side yet. But I had heard some amazing things and seen pictures.

I can't wait until you pop that little sucker out so I can kiss their little nose! ~Rose.

I smiled as I turned into my office, stopping as Kirova walked out, holding my nameplate.

"What 'cha doing with that?" I asked.

"I thought you deserved to have your proper name plate," she said as she looked at the desk. I looked at my desk and saw the new plate there, smiling.

"Did you order that?"

"No, but it's been in the safe for a while. How's your finger?"

I looked down at my hand and grimaced. It was now a brown colour as the bruise faded.

"Disgusting. I wanted to ask you something. You mentioned knowing what it was like to be married to your boss. What did you mean by that?" I asked as I set my purse down on my chair.

She sighed quietly and clasped her hands together.

"He was the editor-in-chief here before Arthur took over," she said, "I met him when he was just an editor. We both started here in our early twenties, and he worked his way up. I enjoyed being an editor, but when he fell ill, I took some time off."

"I didn't realize that your husband was ill," I said, "Is he alright?"

"He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's before you were hired. He lives in a full-time care facility," she said quietly and I felt for her. I couldn't imagine what it would feel like to have your loved one forget you.

"How bad is it? If you don't mind me asking?"

"He remembers me some days. Sometimes he'll tell me I'm very nice, but he's waiting for his wife. He asks about our son, Joey, and I don't have the heart to tell him half the time that Joey's been gone for the last fifteen years," she said with a sigh and a shake of her head, "But, as I said, I know what it's like to be married to the boss. Just don't throw a paperweight at yours like I did with mine."

I snorted a laugh and shook my head before I clued in on something she mentioned.

"Wait. Your son passed?"

"Yes. He was fourteen. Skateboarding accident. He fell and hit his head. He was gone quickly, which I'm thankful for. It was hard not being able to say goodbye, but he barely felt it. That's what kept me going," she said, and I frowned, awkwardly reaching for her hand and squeezing it. Maybe she wasn't a complete vapid bitch and was just good at hiding herself.

"I know it doesn't mean much, but I'm sorry," I said.

"Thank you. I don't tell people that often," she said before almost spinning on her heel and leaving the room. I nodded to myself and put my purse into the bottom drawer of my desk. I took another sip of my coffee as I powered up my laptop, opening my emails.

I reached for my name plaque and traced the letters with a smirk. I didn't mind seeing my new name there.

Rose Belikov Hathaway.

I set it back down and went through my emails, narrowing my eyes at one that came in from Tasha. I skimmed through it before scoffing and forwarding it to Dimitri to see as well.

My phone rang and I picked it up without looking.

"Court Publications, Rose speaking."

"Roza, it's me."

"Hi, what's up?" I asked as I twisted in my chair.

"I meant to give Abe the signed papers last night and it slipped my mind. They're on my desk. Could you bring them to him?" Dimitri asked. I could hear the sound of the car engine in the background. He must have been on his way in.

"Sure, just the two copies?"

"Yes, please. I don't know if Abe signed those. They aren't the contract itself, but just basic documents. If he didn't sign it, could you get his signature and then bring one copy back for our records?"

"I can do that. I'll head out now," I said as I grabbed my purse. I hung up and stopped by Sydney's desk to let her I was stepping out. She nodded and gave me a thumbs-up as I headed for the door. I hoped I could hail a cab quickly, but I had to try a few before I got one. There was no way I was walking ten blocks to get to Nightengale in the rain.

When I got to Nightengale, I made my way to the main lobby desk. I wasn't sure what floor they were on, and I figured I would need to check in to get up to see Abe.

The receptionist was pleasant and got me in quickly, telling me to head for the sixth floor. I headed for the elevator and sighed as I rode it, running my hands through my hair to try and tame it. The rain already made it fluff up.

When I reached the floor I stepped off and headed to the front desk.

"Good morning, is Abe in yet?"

"I think he is; let me check," the receptionist said as he picked up the phone.

"What are you doing here?"

I turned and regarded Tasha with a nod.

"Morning," I said plainly and turned back to the receptionist.

"He's just on his way up, you can wait in his office if you'd like," he said as he stood up.

"If she's here about the contract, you're out of luck. We pulled out last night," she said as she crossed her arms. I sighed and adjusted my bag on my shoulder.

"Right. I think I'll wait in Abe's office," I said to the receptionist.

"It's a waste of your time. He's just going to tell you to leave," Tasha said but I shook my head, the receptionist looking very confused. I heard a clip of shoes on the floor, a sound that I knew and I turned, smiling at Abe.

"Twice in less than twenty-four hours, what did I do to be so lucky?" Abe asked as he took off his hat and handed his briefcase to the receptionist.

"My husband had one too many drinks last night and forgot to give you these," I said gesturing to my briefcase, "And you missed a signature line."

Abe rolled his eyes. "Eagle eye," he chided but wrapped his arm around my shoulders, "I'll get those signed for you right now."

I nodded and looked at Tasha.

"I guess you guys didn't back out," I quipped with a smirk. Abe laughed under his breath as he led me to his office. It was bright and open with a lot of soft earth tones. There were photos on his desk and I moved around to look at them. There was one of me when I was a kid on his desk. It was a trip we had taken to Disney when I was six, and he had me on his shoulders.

"Remember when I puked on Space Mountain?" I asked with a chuckle, looking at the other photos on the desk.

"I remember wearing it," Abe said as he grabbed a pen from his holder. I took the pages out and handed them to him.

"Did you sign the contract because you found out I was Dimitri's wife?" I asked as I crossed my arms over my chest. Abe glanced up at me from the papers as he signed. His lips quirked to the side just enough to notice, and he handed one of the papers back to me.

I knew his tells just as well as my mother did.

"Would you be mad if I said yes?"

"Why?"

"Because I wasn't sure how much the corporation wanted this. But I also know that Belikov has spent a lot of time trying to sway the contract. I just stepped in and as soon as I saw you, my decision was made. Plus, it's a good deal for us," he said as he stroked his goatee.

I narrowed my eyes at him slightly as I put the pages back into my briefcase.

"You're a pain," I grumbled.

"But you love me," he said as he capped the pen and tossed it back on his desk. I rolled my eyes at him.

"How's your mother?" he asked.

I raised my brows. He was asking me how my mother was?

"You probably talk to her more than I do," I pointed out and he shrugged.

"Does she know you're married?"

"Probably."

Abe shook his head and pulled his wallet out of his suit jacket, taking a few bills out of his wallet. He extended them to me.

"You don't need to pay for my ride back, the office will reimburse me," I said but he wouldn't let me decline.

"Let your old man pay for your cab," he said dryly. I started calling him an 'old man' when I was a teenager, mostly to poke fun, but it stuck. Now he was 'Old Man' on my phone. I rolled my eyes at him but took the money, tucking it into my pocket.

"Call your mother, tell her you got married. Hopefully, she doesn't reach through the phone and kill you because she certainly knows," he said as he walked me to the front desk.

"Do I have to?" I whined petulantly, a smirk on my face as I turned to face him. Abe rested his hands on my shoulders softly and smiled warm-heartedly.

"Please?"

I nodded and he kissed my cheek. I smiled to myself but winced at how achy my shoulders were. Now that I thought about it, my whole body ached. I must have slept funny. I smiled at Abe when I pulled back.

"Let me know when you get back to your office?"

"I will," I said as I left, waving at him as I reached the elevator.

I leaned against the couch and scratched Meeko's belly. I felt terrible and breathing made me wheeze. I went to work feeling fine, but after leaving Abe's, I started to feel feverish. Around lunch time Dimitri came over to my desk and put his hand on my forehead.

I jumped because his hand felt cold, but his expression became worried when he realized I was running a fever. He sent me home shortly after that, telling me to take the rest of the day easy. I had chalked the tickle in my throat up to being allergies and the ache was from sleeping weirdly, or my period arriving. But it was clear that I was just getting sick.

My phone vibrated against the coffee table, and I reached for it, coughing heavily as I picked it up.

"Hello?" I asked but started coughing again as soon as I spoke.

"Hi, I just wanted to see how you were feeling," Dimitri said softly, "Any better? The cough is new."

"I feel terrible. Breathing sucks," I said as I got more comfortable on the couch, smiling softly at Meeko when he rested his head on my stomach.

"What are you feeling?" Dimitri asked as I pulled the phone away so I didn't cough in his ear.

"Fever, chills, my chest hurts when I breathe. I sound wheezy. Talking makes me cough, and so does breathing," I explained, "I'm exhausted. Everything hurts. I feel like I got hit by a truck."

Dimitri tsked quietly. "Try running a bath or taking a nap. I'll swing by Nala's and grab some soup on my way home. You sound worse than you did at lunch," Dimitri said, and I nodded to myself.

"If I feel like this tomorrow, I'm going to the doctor," I said as I rubbed my face.

"You should," he said softly, "Really. Try to get some sleep."

I nodded and made a noise of agreeance before I hung up. I put my phone back down and pulled the blanket over me, resting my head on the arm of the couch. There was some rom-com on the TV. and a part of me was so tired that I couldn't be bothered to turn it off. It was a teen movie too, one that I'm sure that Lissa made me watch at someone in high school.

I was about halfway through the movie when my eyes finally dropped and I fell asleep. I woke up when Dimitri got home, but I felt clammy. Dimitri was turning the t.v. off and I blinked up at him.

"Hi."

"Hi, how are you feeling?"

"Not great. Just got home?"

Dimitri shook his head. "No, it's eight. I was going to bring you to bed. Do you feel up to having a bath, or do you want to go back to sleep?"

I slowly pushed myself up, coughing as I took a breath in.

"Is that a good idea?"

"It may help with your chest," Dimitri said softly, taking my hand as I stood up. Dimitri rubbed his hand over my back and got me some soup to eat while the bath ran. The soup was good, and I got the bowl down before Dimitri came back out to say that my bath was ready. I rubbed my face as I walked into the bathroom, stripping my clothes off and dropping them on a pile on the floor. Dimitri's face was pinched as he stood in the doorway, crossing his arms over his chest.

"You don't need to babysit me," I said tiredly as I rested my head against the edge of the tub.

"I want to make sure that you don't fall asleep," he said as he came in and sat on the lid of the toilet, brushing his hand over my hair. I hummed quietly and closed my eyes. The heat felt nice, and breathing in the steam made it a little easier to breathe.

I felt the warm water fall over my hair and opened my eyes, smiling at Dimitri. I sat up enough for him to pour water over the back of my head. I pulled my knees up and leaned against them, resting my chin on them.

"Do you want me to wash your hair?"

I nodded slowly and he stood up to grab my shampoo and conditioner. He poured some shampoo into his hands and then lathered my hair, rubbing his fingers against my scalp, taking care to massage the base of my skull.

"That feels good," I murmured and closed my eyes again, smiling to myself. Dimitri rinsed the shampoo out and then poured a liberal amount into his hands, working it through my curls. I could feel him twisting the curls around his fingers as he worked the conditioner into my hair.

I closed my eyes and sighed quietly. I was exhausted and could barely keep my eyes open. Dimitri's fingers traced over my spine, tracing patterns with the freckles on my skin.

"How was work after I left?"

"Fine, I just went over the first project with the new marketing company," he said as his fingers rested on my back as I breathed.

"Are you still feeling achy?"

"Yeah. I feel like I got hit by a truck," I grumbled. Dimitri made a noise of discontent, and I heard the water slosh. He filled up the cup again and poured it over my hair, washing the conditioner out. he got up after that and went to the counter, taking a bottle of the curl cream I kept there. He worked it into my wet hair and then scrunched it gently to get rid of the excess water. After that he soaped my shoulders and chest down, rinsing me off gently before helping me out of the bath.

I didn't have the energy to sit upright long enough to retwist my curls, so I scrunched it with the towel and then used one of the few silk caps I had. I got dressed in an oversized t-shirt and climbed into bed, curling up on my side.

Dimitri got dressed for bed too and stroked my cheek effectively before getting into bed beside me.

"I love you," he whispered as he kissed my head.

"I love you too," I whispered back, sleep beckoning me into the darkness.

When I opened my eyes there were a lot more people in our bedroom than when we went to sleep.

"Hi, darling. How are you feeling?" a woman asked me as she leaned over me with a mask on. I groaned quietly but it hurt to breathe. My head swivelled on the pillow and my eyes found Dimitri at the end of the bed, his eyes filled with worry and concern.

I tried to sit up, but a woman gently pushed me back down.

"Don't sit up yet. We're going to transport you to the stretcher and then you're going to the hospital. Your fever got worsened and your husband said you were breathing shallowly, and he had difficulty waking you up," the woman said. It took me a moment to realize that she was a paramedic.

Moving felt like I was running through deep water. I could barely lift my arms or move my head, but my eyes stayed on Dimitri as the paramedics moved me onto the stretcher. They didn't let him come in the ambulance with me, but from what I heard from the paramedics as we drove, I wasn't getting enough oxygen. I didn't remember much from the ride over, or being triaged. I could barely keep my eyes open I was so tired.

When I was awake enough to be aware someone was in the room, Dimitri was barely awake. He was practically asleep with his eyes open.

"What happened?" I asked, lifting the oxygen mask off my face. Dimitri rubbed his face and leaned forward on his chair.

"Bacterial Pneumonia. The symptoms can come on suddenly. When I woke up in the middle of the night, Meeko was whining. When I rolled over, you were barely breathing, your lips were blue. You were burning up. When the paramedics got there, your fever had reached one-oh-five," he said tiredly, squeezing my hand gently.

"That's high," I whispered. He nodded and pressed his lips together.

"You'll have to stay here for a few days. Your oxygen level was very low. The doctors put you on antibiotics," Dimitri explained and I nodded tiredly, rolling partially on my side.

"I'm sorry I scared you," I mumbled under the oxygen mask. Dimitri nodded and squeezed my hand.

"It's okay, Roza. I'm just glad that your lips aren't blue anymore. I like them much more pink and plump," he said with a small smirk, adjusting my oxygen mask so that it sat better on my face. I smiled at him and laced my fingers with his.

Sleeping in a hospital bed absolutely sucked, but there wasn't a whole lot I could do about it. I hated missing work, but there was no way that Dimitri was going to allow me to work from the hospital.

I even tried to go to Arthur to see if I could do some basic editing, but he reiterated that I was on sick leave, and not working.

I had been here for three days and was starting to go stir-crazy. There was only so much scrolling on my phone that I could do before I went cross-eyed.

One of the nurses popped her head in the door and looked to see if I was awake.

"Hi," I said tiredly, tossing my phone onto the bed beside me.

"Do you feel like you are up for a visitor?" she asked.

"Is it my mother?" I asked dubiously and the nurse laughed while shaking her head.

"No, it's not your mother," she said before gesturing for whoever was waiting in the hall to come in. Lissa came into the room and I smiled before tensing up.

"Wait! Can you even be in here?!"

Lissa pointed at the mask on her face with a gloved hand.

"Your fever broke and you've been on antibiotics for forty-eight hours, you're considered no longer contagious. But I'm just being cautious," she said as she came into the room and pulled the chair that Dimitri had been spending his evening in closer to the bed.

"I don't feel like I'm going to boil from the inside out anymore, so that's good. My chest is still really tight," I said as I tucked my hair behind my ears. Lissa nodded sympathetically as she crossed her legs.

"Gave Dimitri a scare," she said, and I nodded with a sigh. I did scare the crap out of him, but I didn't mean to.

Trying to carry on a conversation proved to still be difficult, having to stop and cough every few moments. I felt like my ribs were bruised from coughing so much.

"How's that baby treating you?"

I could see the smirk in Lissa's eyes as she rolled them.

"They've discovered how to kick," she mused, "Christian loves it. I pointed out he couldn't feel it yet, but that doesn't seem to matter."

Of course, he would be excited about the idea of the baby kicking. Even if by the time he could feel it, she'd be ready to give that baby an eviction notice. I smiled at her and reached for my cup of water, coughing on it as I swallowed. That was a running battle too, swallowing irritated my throat and made me cough.

"When do the doctors anticipate you will be able to go home?"

"If I can keep my oxygen levels up through the night, tomorrow. They won't release me until they stay elevated," I groaned picking at the blank on the bed.

Lissa squeezed my hand gently, making me look at her.

"You'll be home soon. But, you do have something that you need to take care of when you get released."

"What's that? Helping you paint the nursery?"

"No…Dimitri told your Uncle Abe that you were hospitalized…and he told your mother."

I sighed and covered my face with my hands.

"Why?!" I whined. At least now I knew why she had tried calling me so many times.

"I don't know. But she managed to get her hands on Christian so to speak. He thought you had told her about the husband. I pity you when you speak to her," she said.

"Will you be there? Use the belly as a distraction?"

Lissa smirked but nodded her head in agreeance.

"I guess I can distract her with a conversation about her surrogate granddaughter," she laughed, picking up her phone to show me the video of her ultrasound.

Rough edit. I will probably find errors in a day or two from now lol.

I got sick like this once (not to the point of hospitalization, but it was still pretty bad). I didn't get pneumonia, but I had bronchitis come on suddenly overnight one or two summers ago and I couldn't even breathe without coughing. It got so bad that I actually moved one of my ribs out of place.

And I'm starting my wedding countdown. Only 135 days to go!