DPOV
I guess I really should follow orders, much as I wanted to return to my family. So, nearly robotically, I showered, changed into fresh clothes and went to the guardian café for food. Of course, I still got many stares from people who looked my way and I had to work extra hard at keeping my control when I heard what they were saying about Rose. It was far from pretty, just like the sight of my hands would be if I had to keep digging my nails into my palms.
I wouldn't normally buy such an unhealthy breakfast... or whatever meal I was up to, but I simply couldn't leave a chocolate donut off my order. Heaven help us if Annabella had her mother's appetite and taste buds. Thinking of my daughter brought a smile to my face, one I was in no way willing to hide. The public didn't just need to see controlled me, they needed to see happy me too. That said, happy me was hard to find with Rose in ICU and framed for murder, with my little girl in NICU. Still, she made me smile because she was an adorable little fighter, she had my looks and her mother's strength, resilience, bravery. How could I not smile at her having that, having those most precious Rose-qualities?
"Hey, Dimka," Tasha smiled as she approached where I sat in the corner. What was she smiling about?
"Hey, Tasha." Please don't kill me, Roza, Annabella; I'm just being a polite friend! "Do you want to join me?" I placed Annabella's photo between the pages of my novel again, shut the book and sat it on the table before gesturing to the chair opposite.
"Thanks. Where have you been?" The look in her eye and shape of her smile was off, as was the sweetness in her tone. Was she trying to flirt with me? When the love of my life was accused of murder? Or did she seriously not know?
"At the hospital with Rose and Annabella." See what I mean? I simply can't mention one without the other.
"Annabella? And why is Rose in the hospital, I thought she had been arrested?"
The smile broadened at the mention of my daughter. "Annabella is my daughter. As for Rose?" My smile fell away at how vulnerable she was and then my jaw set in anger at whoever framed her. "She's in ICU. Under heavy surveillance," I bit out the second part.
"Oh. I'm so sorry about Rose, Dimka, I know you cared for her."
"She's not dead," I growled, "and I don't just care, Tasha, I love her. I'm in love with her." It felt so good saying it out loud to someone else.
"Then... whose daughter is Anna?"
I groaned. This would be a life-long question, I realised, one we'd always be facing and it was one I was already sick of. "Ours. It's Annabella, and she's both mine and Rose's."
"Dimitri," groaned Tasha. "You didn't... did you? Please tell me you didn't sleep with a minor!"
I shrugged my shoulders. "She wanted it just as much and consented. Besides, if anyone does decide to press charges she's worth it... not that I ever want Annabella in anyone's care bar mine and Rose's." It was tough enough leaving her with the NICU staff while I was by her mother's side.
"Dimitri! You do realise how much trouble that could get you in, don't you?"
Again, I shrugged. "Yeah. I knew that the second I realised I was falling for her. And I don't think I could be in as much trouble as being Strigoi and having Rose nearly kill me... three times."
"If you knew the risks, then why did you do it? That's just not like you."
It's exactly like me, and Rose Hathaway damn-well knows it. "I did it because I love her. If I had the chance to go back to that night I would do it again." A million and one times I would do it again and so many more.
Tasha shook her head. Whether it was in exasperation, disbelief or amusement I didn't know. Maybe she was shaking away a pang of heartbreak. I couldn't know for sure. Tasha was strong and brave and beautiful, but she had nothing on my Roza, absolutely nothing. She could hide from me like I could hide from her, unlike Rose and I. I can't believe how I could see the impossibility of hiding from Rose as a bad thing. Not when my heart ached to see her too-shrewd eyes again, too see them full of life and love once more.
Her face dropped before she spoke again. "I'm guessing you know what she did?" Attempted suicide? Yes. Attempted murder? That's a false accusation.
"What everyone's saying she did, you mean? Yes, I heard," I spat in disgust. Honestly, how could anyone think Rose was capable of high treason, of killing the queen? Was I the only person who knew her and believed in her? "I also know she was in ICU and supervised all night and most of yesterday."
Tasha'sPOV
I'd never seen Dimka so defensive and protective. Or so exhausted.
I couldn't stand the thought of him leaving me again. He was supposed to have children with me, not that little slut. That wasn't even possible, but whatever made him happy... Though I'd never have him if there was a baby in the picture, and as long as said baby was hers then I didn't stand a chance of him ever looking my way again.
"They say the evidence is pretty solid and damning..."
His brown eyes flared dangerously with an inferno of boiling emotions. If I didn't love him I would be scared. "So I've heard, and I don't wish to hear it again. Someone dared to frame a dying woman- my dying woman- and they aren't going to get away with it, not for as long as I live, not for as long as Annabella lives. My daughter will not grow up without her mother!"
I reached out to reassuringly touch his shaking fist. "Of course she won't." My hand was swatted away.
"She's my only child, Tasha, a miracle. I won't let her grow up without her mother. I won't live without Rose in my life. I don't know how, Tasha, I don't know how to live without her." His hands moved to cover his face as tears escaped. His shuddering shoulders were the only clue to others he was actually sobbing.
"You can't let one girl destroy you, Dimka," I soothed. "There's plenty more out there."
Brown eyes snapped up to meet mine. "Like who?" he sneered, "Please enlighten me, because if she dies then so do I. How am I supposed to not let her 'destroy me' when she's my reason to live, when she completes a part of me I didn't know was missing until she entered my life?" He stood abruptly and even more eyes turned our way.
Goddamn it. Only she could cause him to create a scene, and I had no idea how she'd gotten her hooks so deep in him. I didn't understand what she had that I didn't. Why was it that she could make him risk everything and lose all control?
"I'll see you later, Tasha. I'm going to see Annabella and Roza." He snatched his book up from the table, turned sharply and practically ran out of the café. Well don't I just feel so loved?
"Did you have to set him off?" Ethan asked as he took the chair next to me.
"I didn't know he was going to react like that," I defended.
"Rose's life is hanging by a loose thread as is, and the Royal Guard cuffing her caused her to bleed and her heart to fail. If she wasn't in ICU and Vasilisa's friend they wouldn't have tried reviving her."
"Do I have a chance to see the baby?"
Ethan shook his head. "No. Only Vasilisa, Belikov, Rose, and Rose's parents are allowed in... and even then..."
I should have known, it was NICU after all...