DPOV
Actions have repercussions.
I knew that something bad would come due to sleeping with Rose. I just hadn't expected this... Hell, no one could have expected this. It was unprecedented and I didn't know how to feel. I should be feeling ecstatic, but there were too many other aspects and emotions. If I was this lost, I couldn't begin to imagine how she was feeling.
"Wh-what?"
"You heard me," Rose snapped, and she glared at me in the process. Her brown eyes were swimming with emotion. Fear was the dominant one. "Positive. It came back positive. FOUR. TIMES!"
I suddenly had the urge to take the Pilot and Rose and keep on driving as far past Billings as I could get. "I- this changes everything."
"No kidding, Sherlock!"
"Rose, calm down..."
Her jaw clenched and unclenched five times before she sighed. "I'm all for the field trip, but why are we going to them?"
"You're just going to a him. And since he's doing us a favour, we're making the drive."
Rose curled back into the seat with her hands absentmindedly resting on her lower abdomen, around her bellybutton. Where the baby was growing, her baby, my baby. Our baby. "He? Who?"
I smiled broadly. Art would approve of her, I knew it. "Art Schoenberg."
"Who!" she squeaked.
"Art Schoenberg." Out of the corner of my eye I noticed her shaking with nerves. "Settle, Roza. Besides, if he sees the good in your record outweighing the bad- and I suspect he will- it's a good recommendation to have."
"But what about...?" Her arms tightened around her torso, pointedly and protectively.
"Rose," I warned. "A number of female guardians-"
"Don't you dare! I won't be my mother all over again!"
"Of course you won't, Rose. I was going to say he'll be understanding and supportive."
"If he approves in the first place!"
"Stop doubting your potential," I murmured. My right hand left the wheel and found it breaking through Rose's defence to rest where her hands had been before. Gently, I rubbed her tummy. "All this stress isn't healthy."
We had time pressing on us, but when Rose demanded we stop at a 24 hour diner I couldn't refuse. The stress was bad enough; I wouldn't let her forego food, let alone encourage it. I was going to support her however possible. If she was willing to leave Lissa's side then I follow her around the world a thousand times over.
When we reached the Badica's residence it was familiar. I had only been here once, but it was familiar to me nonetheless. Time for Rose to shine. We locked eyes, smiled, nodded, then stepped out of the Pilot. The doors shut in unison and I pressed to remote locking's lock button while Rose moved to my side.
Halfway down the path to the door, Rose slipped and my hand instinctively reached out. My heart-rate slowed back down to its normal pace after spiking with the terrifying thought of Rose miscarrying. I would never let harm come to either Rose or our baby.
"Thanks." Rose's smile at me turned into a glare at the path. "Don't they know about salt!"
Then I freaked. I snapped into guardian mode and surveyed the details of my surroundings. The layer of untouched snow was too thick and unbroken. The path was icy when the best guardian would never forget to use salt on it. There was no smoke from the chimney. There was no laughing from the resident kids. The door didn't appear properly closed, even from here. The atmosphere was suddenly eerie.
"Go back to the car," I ordered, looking into Rose's eyes pointedly. "Don't get out for anything."
"But-"
"Not. For. Anything." I wanted to press my hand against her abdomen but if they were still around I didn't want them knowing my novice was pregnant, it made her weak in their eyes, a perfect target. I wouldn't allow that- I COULDN'T allow that. "Now go."
Without further argument, she returned to the car after I unlocked it. Once she was in, I locked it again. Hopefully she'll stay put, though I doubted it as I slowly approached the door with my hand on my stake.
I surveyed the house once, the bodies and the entry points. By the time I returned to the living room Rose was standing there, with a hand over her mouth and looking as though she wanted to vomit. I soon enough realised that was extremely likely, because of the hormones. I hurried to her side and scooped her up then carried her outside and sat her on the outside dining table.
"What were you thinking?"
Her shocked and disbelieving eyes searched mine. Tears pooled. "I-"
"Shh." I hadn't meant to add guilt to her hurricane of emotions. "I know, curiosity got the better of you."
My eyes raked over her, stopping when they registered she was holding a stake.
After I called the SWAT team in, Rose and I waited in the car. Rose was still in shock, but as her eyes repetitively fell on her stomach, I knew she was going to distract herself. She had been handed two shocks in a small handful of hours today.
"What are we going to do?" she asked absentmindedly.
"The best possible."
"But WE can't!" Rose exclaimed, the tears were beginning to gather again. I couldn't stand the thought of them falling.
"We will," I said resolutely and took her hand in mine. "We have to, Rose."
"Then tell me how," she demanded, "tell me how we will!"
"By taking it one step at a time. No matter what it takes." I would stop at nothing to protect them. There was falling in love illegally and in the most challenging situation. Then there was accidentally starting a family when it was supposed to be genetically impossible. Others were bound to say I'd raped her if they knew, charm in play or no, but it hadn't been. We had made love, and started our family. I wouldn't abandon them- I emotionally and psychologically couldn't. We may be Lissa's guardians, but we had a baby to look after, nurture, raise.
"Thanks, Comrade. That really helps."
"I swear, Rose, we will get to be a family. I will stop at nothing, absolutely nothing, to figure out how we will balance it all." My eyes bore into hers. There had to be a way to ensure those brown eyes- and, oh god! That hair- were the first things I saw in the morning.
"I won't leave Lissa."
"I know, and I wouldn't dare dream of ever making you."
Her smile lit up the car and she tugged her shirt up before bringing my hands her still flat stomach. "Are you sure you can cope with him or her turn me into a whale?"
I laughed and smiled in spite of myself. "Of course, Roza. That's my child, you do realise that, don't you?"
Now Rose laughed. "Yes, Comrade. I realise this is your doing," she teased.
"Hey! Ours, Rose, our doing."
When the SWAT team turned up I decided she should see this, if she could handle it with her over-sensitive gag-reflex. She nodded and trailed me inside. If I thought Rose was innocent, the miracle inside her was so much more so.
Tamara'sPOV
Dimitri's novice- Janine Hathaway's daughter- followed our every move with a studious focus. Though I registered she did look a little unwell. This was tough on every guardian so it had be even harder on a senior novice.
I bent down over Art's body and sighed. He had been such a great mentor. I don't think I'd be half as equipped and skilled if I hadn't been taught by him.
"I never thought I'd see the day."
"How can they do that?" the dark-haired girl blurted.
I went on to explain the basic facts, that none of us are untouchable. She struggled with it. Until Dimitri spoke.
"You've seen the evidence, Rose. You tell us how it happened." His tone was strict but simultaneously gentle. It was as if he flipped a switch; she closed her eyelids, inhaled, and snapped her eyelids open again and exhaled. Her skin still looked paler than it ought to, but there was a focus and resolution present about her now. She had, with one request, changed from a scared and shocked novice to a professional guardian. Whatever was making her uneasy was clearly out of her thoughts as she logically drew the same conclusion as us. Dimitri's lips twitched and his eyes shone with pride for just a moment before leading us through the house again.
"She's brilliant, Dimitri," I whispered when I believed she wasn't listening.
The pride returned. "Oh, trust me, Tamara, I know. I've always known."
"I think we can all vouch for her on this one. This is a Qualifier if ever there were one and she's excelled."
"Of course she has. She's my student after all; she's Rose Hathaway and no one will mess with her when the time comes."
There was a nearly possessive look in his eyes as he followed her every move from the corner of his eye.
I nodded my agreement when we came to a bathroom where one Moroi was dead. The stench of rotting flesh was intense. Too intense for Rose to handle apparently because she bolted from the room with one hand over her mouth and the other on her stomach. Dimitri immediately chased after her.
None of my teammates missed the distinct sound of vomiting. Our eyes all met questioningly. Then I considered... Hand on stomach, her skin's paleness, eyes trained on the slaughtered children more than any other body aside from Art's. Now the vomiting. There could only be one answer. "She's got to be pregnant," I whispered.
"How can you be so sure? This is confronting for any novice..." said Henry, my more frequent side-kick.
I smiled tightly. "I'm a girl, I know these things. She doesn't seem the type to have a weak gag-reflex- she's Hathaway's daughter, remember."
"So, if that's true, where does that leave her regarding her Qualifier?"
"I say she still gets high recommendations. She's handled this extremely professionally, regardless of potentially being pregnant."
Normally, a pregnant novice would immediately be turned out of an Academy and quietly guided in another direction. But Rose Hathaway had all the markers of potentially carrying on her mother's reputation, pregnant or not. Not even the best female guardians could ignore the pregnancy-hormone-heightened sensitivity to smell and the like. I somehow didn't doubt Janine had needed vomit at some point during an investigation while pregnant with Rose.