"Coming!" was called from inside and Dimitri smiled as he recognised the voice.
"That's Mama. You will love her Roza. They will all love you simply because I do." He pulled me into a kiss just before the door opened.
"Dimka?" His stunned mother pulled us back into reality.
"Mama. I would like you to meet my girlfriend, Roza. Roza, this is my mama, Olena."
"Get in here you two!" Olena laughed as she opened the door and ushered us in. "Welcome home baby. Welcome to the family Roza." The middle-aged woman engulfed us in hugs.
"Careful with her mama. She's delicate."
"She's a guardian isn't she?" Olena asked in confusion. Some Russian came from another room and recognition lit her eyes. "Oh! Oh, my son! You are lucky, so lucky. Thank you Roza, for doing the impossible. Congratulations you two. You must be ecstatic Dimka." She led us through to the lounge room.
"I'm scared Mama, ecstatic certainly, but scared. We're not sure what's going to happen. I'm not sure if I'm going to be good enough. Then there's duty. I've put love first, I'll put my family first, but we're both duty oriented too. There's so many uncertainties and I won't chain Rose to the kitchen sink, I won't have her throw away her skill or the work involved in getting her promised."
"You couldn't chain me anywhere comrade. Our baby could, you couldn't."
"Rose! That doesn't help!" He teased. "I'm involved in creating our baby."
"Dimitri. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Got it?" I stared my Belikov baby's daddy down until he relented and relaxed. Didn't take long.
"Oh, she's got you whipped son." Olena laughed.
"You don't know just how whipped Mama. I've been powerless against her since the minute I met her."
"Oh? Then how come I didn't take you out in Portland?"
"You know why." My badass chuckled.
"Dimka? Who's this?" A girl around my age, Vika I assumed, asked as she entered the room with a little two year old I guessed to be Zoya, Karo's daughter, on her hip. She was soon joined by Karo and the ten year old Paul.
"Vika? How have you grown so much? I hardly recognise you little sister. And that's Zoya?"
"Uncle Dimka!" Paul exclaimed as he ran up to Dimitri and Dimitri lifted him like he weighed nothing.
Dimitri said "hey Paul. You've grown more than your Aunty Vika," while ruffling the child's hair.
"Humph. And you think you're not going to be a good dad?" I rolled my eyes and chuckled in amusement. "You'll be excellent!" I kissed my boyfriend on his cheek and he shrunk in embarrassment.
"Says the one who freaks out at the idea of being a mother, when all you do is mother your best friend!" he recovered.
"Watch it! I do not mother Liss." I huffed indigently.
"You do too. You call it being a sister, the reality is you mother her. Enough said." Dimitri beamed.
"Yeah, yeah, sure, whatever you say papa." That caused him to outright laugh.
"I got that echo Rose!" He was grinning from ear-to-ear.
"Brother? Who is she? And what are you two going on about?" Karo interrupted and told Paul to get off Dimitri.
"She, sister, is my girlfriend and soulmate. And we were just talking about how freaked out we are by becoming parents. Karo, Paul, Vika, Zoya I would like you to meet my Roza. Roza, this is my older sister Karo, her son Paul, my little sister Vika- she's a year younger than you- and Karo's daughter Zoya."
"Did you say she's only a year older than Vika?" Karo asked, almost accusingly.
"Don't start Karo. We don't get a say in our soul-mate's. She's mine. Just barely graduated and been eighteen for months, but mine. I love her more than anything. She's Rose Hathaway and she's mine."
"Oh, bother. I'm sorry. You really do love her don't you?"
"Yes. I really do. She has me totally whipped. Scares me senseless with how she can read me- forcing me to be open and vulnerable, but I love her dearly."
Sonya eventually came home and we had a family dinner. The month passed peacefully, well, as peacefully as possible with Sonya's first baby and Vika revealing she was also pregnant. She was three months in, to the same guy that had gotten Sonya pregnant. Dimitri had had a good go at them because the guy, Rolan Kislyak, was more of a player than Jesse Zeklos and did another deal with Abe- this time Abe did it on goodwill as Dimitri was considered family. It was interesting to be in a house with so many different life stages in it for a month. I learned so much by helping with Zoya, Paul, Denis (Sonya's newborn), and a pregnant Vika. I knew what was in store for me with my own Bubby Belikov.
The biggest thing to happen to me directly was Dimitri proposing. It had been after Sunday mass on our second last day and he led me to the steps up to the alter. "I'm not worthy of you but only say the word and my soul shall be healed," whispered he in my ear before dropping to one knee and producing a ring. "I love you my Roza. Marry me?"
"Yes," I accepted through tears of joy. "I bloody love you Dimitri Belikov, yes." The ring was slid onto my finger and kissed before he rose to kiss me.
Russian realities
Start from the beginning
