Returning Home: Baia Bound (a Vampire Academy Fanfic)

A call from Mom (3 weeks later)

It was the middle of the night when my phone rang. What the hell! I checked CID- Mom apparently. I sat against the headboard. Well, I tried to without waking Dimitri.
"Rose here!" I quietly snapped. Who rang in the middle of the night?!
"Rosemarie! What's with the attitude?"
"You woke me up- in the middle of the bloody night! And a good dream at that," I sighed.
"Roza? What's up? Who is it?" Dimitri asked, both curiously and worriedly. I put the phone against my shoulder before answering.
"My darling mother."
"Uh oh."
"Tell me about it!" I teased.
"I just did!" he teased back before leaning in and smothering me in kisses. The last one was a soft, loving one on my lips. I sighed, perfectly content. Until I heard my screeching phone. I brought it back to my ear.
"Was that Guardian Belikov I heard in the background?" she practically yelled in my ear- and it bloody hurt.
"'Dimitri', Mother. It's 'Dimitri'. And yeah, you did."
"I wish you'd use titles. Show some respect."
"Mom. If I call Dimitri 'Dimitri' it's the highest form of respect."
"I like 'Comrade' better, Roza," he whispered in my ear and I chuckled after staring at him in shock. I knew he actually loved the nickname but I had never expected him to admit to it. Let alone admit to preferring it.
"Rose? What are you laughing at?" my mother asked.
"Just something Dimitri said. And his expression when he saw mine."
"What did he say?" she sounded almost offended that he could get me to laugh.
"You wouldn't get it, Mom. It's sorta an inside and running joke, which just got turned on its head." Hadn't it ever!
"A personal joke with your mentor?!" Goof god! She was more by-the-book than Dimitri.
"He's not my mentor anymore, Mom." I started dropping the bombshell on her. And he'd never been my mentor. Not really, it had been impossible to be purely professional from the moment we'd met.
"What?!" she screeched.
"You heard me. Not. My. Mentor. Mom."
"But-"
"Mom," I sighed. "Do you have any clue where I am?"
"No. You should be at school." Oh! She was still so oblivious.
"Mom. I dropped out three weeks ago. I'm on the other side of the globe."
"You what?!"
"I dropped out. I couldn't do it Mom, I couldn't graduate. I can't do it, I can't put them first. I can't put the Moroi first- it's just not safe. Not when my heart belongs elsewhere." I let that sink in before continuing. "I have other priorities now, Mom. Liss and the group understands. Alberta is happy, and Kirova is fine, with my choice. Dad too."
"You know your father?" she asked, clearly dumbfounded.
"Yes. He's been quite the help. He loves me to bits. He's happy enough with my decision."
"How, how'd you meet him?"
"Dimitri. Ironically enough. He's one of Dimitri's contacts."
"So. Belikov is with you? Wherever the hell you are," her tone was incredulous.
"Yes. He is." I let the smile and all my affection and love for him ring in my voice.
"Why?" It was an accusation and I didn't appreciate the tone.
"Because he wanted to come. He won't let me out of his sight." He really didn't even like letting me out of his arms for longer than two seconds. That and all the long-overdue PDAs had actually caused Karo and Sonya to fake gag.
"You're nothing but a dropout novice. Why would he follow you?"
"Tell her," Dimitri whispered huskily in my ear. "We've got Abe's blessing." My man kissed my cheek and I sighed. It was a resigned and totally contented sigh.
"Because he loves me, Mom. He followed me because he loves me. He put me first, I put him first. I always will. I love him and he loves me. You're going to have to accept it because we have Abe's blessing."
"You what! He did what!" Oh god. Wait until we tell her about Bubby.
"We left, Mom. Something came up, something changed, and there was no hope in hell of us ever being able to put any Moroi life first. I love him; he's my other half. He comes first. It works in reverse."
"What!" Was that all I was going to get, all call? My ear really was hurting from all the yelling and screeching she was sending my way.
"Have you not heard the rumours?" I rolled my eyes. She either had and didn't believe them, or hadn't even noticed there was new rumours about me going around.
"Yes. I was hoping you'd disconfirm them."
"No can do there. They're true; I am pregnant and I am in a relationship with Dimitri. I am- as impossible as it's supposed to be- I am pregnant with Dimitri's child. Our child." I let the bombshell completely explode.
"Put him on!" she growled. Uh oh. I handed the phone over and a look of determination and resolution crossed his face. As he'd said after the cabin, I was clearly worth whatever she was about to hurl at him.

DPOV
"How dare you, Belikov! How dare you spoil my daughter!" Janine yelled through the phone. How could she think now was the time to start acting all parental? She'd handed custody of my woman over to the Academy the second the law said she could, then completely ignored my precious Roza until after my love's first kills. And even after that, things hadn't really improved. Nor had they improved after the school was attacked and Janine was a part of the rescue party. She had no right to try and step up and intervene now, when Rose was carrying my child. I sighed before responding.
"If you were a real mother, Janine," there was no way she was getting a title out of me after all Rose had revealed, and her attitude right now. "You'd let Rose be happy. If you paid any attention to her, like a real mother, you would have noticed earlier." My words were judgemental, but not my tone- it was a fact. I now truly understood why my Roza hated, or at least resented, her mother.
"What right do you have to judge!" Ouch! Referring to my mama was a low blow.
"Janine, she's not a child. She hasn't been for years." It was true. "She's not a bloodwhore. She's my soulmate. I can't imagine life without her. I don't want a life without her in it." I was totally lovesick, so I had to add, "a life without her simply wouldn't be worth living."
"She's your student!" Not true. It had never been possible to be in those roles. The woman had changed my life the second I'd laid eyes on her.
"She was never, never, my student. She's my soulmate, my partner, and my equal." And she'd be my fiancé by the end of this. That ring should have been hers weeks ago. Months ago, really.
"Still. She was underage." Like I didn't know, like I hadn't taken that into account. I simply hadn't gotten a say. Rose hadn't left me with a choice. I didn't get a say, I didn't get an option and didn't get to choose her. "I would have thought you had better control." Ha! Control?! Me? Me having any control around the woman who knew me better than I did?! As if! If only she knew.
"My control is about as strong as Rose's." Translation: weak, extremely weak, like almost-nonexistent weak. At least around my Roza.
"Comrade!" That woman was clueless to the effect that nickname had on me. "As if!" she laughed beside me. I stifled said laugh with a kiss. How could she possibly think I had any control when I'd hardly let her out of my arms since we'd arrived? After all the PDAs?
"Now, do you believe me, my love?" I asked against her lips."
"Yeah. Now I do," she breathed out.
"What's going on, Belikov?" Uh oh. I'd forgotten the call. The world seriously didn't exist when I was with my beauty.
"You don't want to know."
"Where are you two?"
"Why? Why do you want to know?"
"So I can visit. Know she's safe." Visit! She had to be kidding. She'd almost never visited the Academy. So why start now? I turned to Rose.
She sighed. "Fine."
"Russia. We're in Russia."
"Where?"
"Baia."
"With your family?" Where else?
"Yes. We're back home."
"I'll be there in a month." She promptly hung up.
"Okay then. Not weird at all," I commented as I handed Rose her phone back.
"What is? The wake up call? Or the attitude?"
"Both. And the fact she's visiting in a month. She apparently doesn't trust me."
"I trust you," my woman pulled me into a kiss after speaking against my lips.