Thank you all for all of the love for this story! Not to be super political, but with everything going on today, I figured an early update wouldn't hurt and might make some people's days better :) Please enjoy!

The glass slipped from my hand, shattering against the floor. The sound startled me, and I tore my gaze away from Dimitri. I slid out of the chair, crouching down to pick up the glass. I heard Dimitri's family realize he was there and looked up in time to see Viktoria throw herself into his arms. He caught her effortlessly, and I realized that his gaze was still on me, even as Viktoria chattered away in Russian.

A stab of pain went through me, and I realized that I was clutching a piece of glass in my hand so hard that it had sliced into the skin of my palm. The blood welled up immediately, and I stood, careful not to spill any. I didn't want there to be any other messes to clean up. I walked to the kitchen to rinse it, and Lissa followed me.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "He wasn't supposed to be here."

My eyes pricked with tears again as I threw the glass away, having pulled it out of the cut. But I could barely feel that over the pain in my chest. Lissa spotted my bloody hand and reached out for it. I yanked it back, not wanting her to waste her healing on me. I crossed to the kitchen sink and ran the water, rinsing the cut. As the blood washed away, I saw that the cut was worse than I had expected, and I sighed as Lissa reached for my hand again. I knew I wouldn't be able to stop her a second time, and the hot and cold flashes went through me as the cut disappeared. I turned off the kitchen sink but didn't turn around.

"What happened?" I whispered. "Why is he here?"

"I think that's a better question for you to answer," Dimitri said from behind us. I whipped around, not having heard him enter the kitchen. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm going to go make sure the glass is all cleaned up," Lissa said, slipping around Dimitri. I stared daggers at her back, slightly pissed that she was leaving me alone.

"Rose?" Dimitri pulled my attention back to him. "What is going on?"

"I don't know what you want me to say," I said, crossing my arms as if to protect myself. I realized as I crossed them that I was also protecting my stomach. I didn't miss the way Dimitri's gaze tracked the movement.

"I want you to explain what's happening here," he said. "You disappear from Court, and I find you here? Have you been here the entire time?"

"Yes," I said. It was all that I could bring myself to say at the moment.

"Why?" he asked, and I could tell from his tone that he was starting to get exasperated with the lack of answers.

"Why does it matter?" I asked. "If you're just going to shove me away again, then I'd rather you not be here at all."

"You're in my family's house and want to tell me I shouldn't be here?" His tone was incredulous.

I sighed, rubbing at my face. "Look, I don't want to argue."

"And you think I do?" Dimitri asked. "I just want to understand. Help me understand."

"Why?" I said. "I don't owe you anything. Hans knows where I am, and he approved me to be here."

"You're right," he said. "You don't owe me anything. But that doesn't mean that I'm not going to ask questions. You're with my family, and I don't know why."

"I came here after you told me your love had faded," I said finally. "I couldn't be at Court. I asked Hans to send me to the communes to train dhampirs. That's what I've been doing, and I've sent a handful of dhampirs his way."

"But why here?" Dimitri said. "If you needed to leave, you could have gone anywhere."

I didn't answer, not ready to say the words aloud to him, even though we both knew he knew and was only trying to get me to say the words.

"There are communes in the United States," he added when I didn't speak.

"Why not here?" I said, trying to distract him. "Your family was very welcoming when I was here earlier this year."

He gave me a look. "Somehow, I doubt Russia was at the top of your bucket list to come back to."

I flinched at his words. He wasn't wrong. I wouldn't have come back without a good reason. I looked away. I was out of excuses.

He gestured to the living room where the rest of his family was waiting, tired of beating around the bush. "Is this all for you? Are you pregnant?"

He had to force the words out, and even with his guardian face on, I could see that he was dreading my answer, my confirmation. We both knew what it would be.

"Yes," I said finally. There was no use in denying it or lying to him about it. "Just over four months."

I lifted the loose shirt I was wearing, showing Dimitri the small bump that I had been hiding. My thermal was tight against me and properly showed off my stomach. His fingers twitched, and I knew he was fighting the urge to reach out.

"Four months?" he repeated. I could see him doing the math in his head. "Who's the father?"

I thought about lying and opened my mouth to do so, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. "I tried to tell you," I said instead, my voice strained.

"What?"

"I tried to tell you," I repeated. "In the church."

I could tell that he was thinking back to our last conversation, and his eyes went wide again. "The consequences?"

I nodded.

"Roza," he said, his voice cracking. "I'm the father?"

"Yes, the baby's yours," I said. I took a step forward and grabbed his hand, placing it on my stomach. "I haven't felt them move yet, but it's fun to pretend sometimes."

A look of wonder crossed his face as he looked down at me. His palm covered most of my stomach, and his touch sent heat waves through me. "How? You and I can't have children."

"I don't know. Spirit, probably. Adrian thinks it's because you're restored, and I'm shadow-kissed," I said.

"Adrian knows?"

Part of me thought I detected a hint of jealousy, but I brushed the thought off. Dimitri couldn't be jealous considering that he didn't have feelings for me anymore.

"He's the one who told me, actually. Lissa was having trouble reading my aura when I was sick before I left Court. She couldn't heal me, so we went to Adrian. Turned out the sickness couldn't be healed because it wasn't really an illness," I said. "Christian knows too, but I think that's it outside of the group here."

"You and Adrian—?"

I shook my head, cutting him off. "No. We never slept together. It's only ever been you."

He stared down at me, and part of me knew that the logical side of his brain was saying that dhampirs couldn't have children together. Still, as I looked at him, I could see that he was choosing to believe me over the logical side of his brain.

"You tried to tell me, and I shoved you away," he said. "Rose, I'm sorry. I can't say that enough. I should have been there for you."

He murmured something in Russian that was too low for me to catch, but something about his tone told me that whatever he said was self-deprecating. I found myself reaching out to him.

"It's not entirely your fault. I didn't actually say the words," I said. "And you were – are – going through a lot."

"I should have given you a chance," he whispered. "I wish I could put into words what the last couple of months have been like. I wish I could have been here for you."

"Me too," I said quietly. I thought about my past appointments and couldn't help but think that Dimitri should have been there, that he should have gotten the chance to experience it.

"Wait, none of this explains why you're here, why you're in Russia," Dimitri said.

I bit my lip. "I can't be a mom, Dimitri. Not at eighteen. I'm not equipped to handle that, and especially not alone. I came here because I knew your family would be able to help. Until I can be the mom that I always wanted, at least. The baby deserves to know your family, and so I came here. It got me out of Court and gives the baby a stable home."

"You won't be alone, Roza," Dimitri murmured. "I'll do everything I can to support you. I can't make up for the last four months that I haven't been there, and it won't make up everything I've done, but it's a start."

"You just got your guardian title back," I said. "I can't take that away from you."

Dimitri frowned. "It doesn't have to. You can come back to Court. You don't have to hide anymore."

I shook my head. "No, I can't. The second people realize this baby is the product of two dhampirs, people are going to want to conduct science experiments. Lissa and Oksana have both noticed gold in my aura that wasn't there before. Only spirit users have gold in their auras."

"I have gold in mine," Dimitri said after a moment. "Lissa's mentioned it a few times."

"Probably from the restoration," I said. "And that's probably where our baby gets it from."

"There's a lot that we need to talk about," Dimitri said. "If I had known I'd find you here, I would have come sooner."

"What are you doing here? Lissa mentioned that she had given you time off to keep you from coming here with her," I said.

"I had considered waiting until Christmas to come back, but I decided I needed to see my family sooner, even if it was just for a day or two," Dimitri said. "And Lissa was acting weird. When I saw the flight details of her coming to Russia, I decided to follow. I was just a bit delayed since I was avoiding detection. Lissa flew out here from Omsk in a helicopter, and I had to make the drive."

I shook my head, not surprised. Dimitri was right; we had a lot to talk about. I turned, grabbed two glasses from the cabinet, and looked back at Dimitri.

"We can talk later," I said, holding out my free hand. Dimitri took it after a moment. "Let's go find out if we're having a boy or a girl."

Next chapter we'll finally find out if Rose is having a boy or a girl, so make your final guesses!