RPOV
"What?!" I screeched. It couldn't be true.
"Rose. The blood tests don't lie." The doctor sighed.
"But. I've only been with a dhampir. It just isn't possible."
"Rose. God knows what Lissa had to heal two years ago, I didn't bother to test that- it was irrelevant and I didn't know just what had happened."
"Ugh. You have a point. Call Dimitri in, he needs to know. This is going to undo all his awesome training." I sighed.
"Rose? He's the dad is he? I ran DNA tests and he came up as the paternal match." My face must have confirmed it. "Really Rose? How on earth did you manage that?"
"I really don't know. I didn't get a say and neither did he. Bloody higher powers."
She chuckled. "You make an interesting match."
"Just call him. I'm late enough for training as is and he won't believe me without an authority or evidence." I had eventually gotten him used to the ghosts and Strigoi sixth-sense but I wanted, needed, him to believe this immediately.
"Of course." She pulled out her phone and, interestingly enough, put it on loudspeaker.
"Belikov." He picked up and I chuckled at the boring as, formulaic greeting. "Rose? Is that you I can hear?"
"Yes comrade."
"Where are you?"
"Did you not check CID?"
"Nope."
"I thought so. It's Dr Olendzki who called. I'm in the clinic and we need to talk to you." I heard the gym door clanging shut on 'Dr Olendzki'.
"I'm on my way."
"So I heard. You do know how loud that gym door is." I laughed.
"Rose." He warned. He walked in the clinic and spotted me, practically running at me with face full of worry. "What's with the grin?" He was wary and I didn't blame him because I hated the clinic.
I was excited, I'd finally accepted what was happening and knew he'd be ecstatic when he accepted the possibility. "Hey Daddy!"
"Rose!" He snapped and looked pointedly and the doctor.
I just laughed. "She knows- ran a DNA test and you came up as the paternal match."
He paled and turned to her. She chuckled. "I'm not reporting you. No one would believe it."
He sighed in relief and some colour returned to his face. He turned to face me. "Mommy?"
I nodded and grinned. "Yes Daddy. It's possible- god knows what Lissa needed to heal in the crash."
He engulfed me in a hug and kissed my forehead, nose, cheeks, then pecked my lips.
"I love you" he whispered in my ear.
"I love you more."
"Talk about cute." The Dr interrupted our moment but Dimitri didn't release his hold on me. "I don't know how no one suspects- in retrospect it's kinda obvious, maybe too obvious. It's sorta like, hmmm, you can see it but your mind refuses to process or take note of it because your reputations precede you. No one's looking for it because you're not expecting to find it, it just doesn't seem possible. Certainly an interesting match."
"Seriously? We're that obvious?"
"Yes. But as I said no one's looking to find it, the idea likely hasn't crossed anyone's mind because it seems impossible thanks to your reputations. You could be all over each other and people would refuse to see it, you two as a pair boggle's the mind."
"Good god." I groaned and Dimitri chuckled, the rumbling in his chest vibrating on my back and I sighed in content.
"That is what I mean, that completely boggles the mind." The dr chuckled. "Adorable yet unbelievable." She continued on giving us advice and instructions which went right over my head but Dimitri understood perfectly and would make sure I followed by the letter. She handed over some vitamins and a copy of the results.
"Come on Roza. Let's go get Alberta to adjust your trainings." He grabbed my bag, slinging it over his shoulder before picking me up off the bed.
"I can walk comrade!" I slapped his chest.
"That may be so but you won't be doing too much of it when I'm around. I'm waiting on you hand and foot whenever possible missy." He kissed my cheek.
"Fine." I huffed.
"Oh, cheer up Rose." He laughed as we walked out the clinic doors. "It's rare so I'm taking every precaution."
"Of course you are." I sighed. "I guess I should be grateful."
He chuckled. "I know you are, even if you won't admit it to yourself."
"Yeah. I am. I just hate others doing things for me."
"Get used to it!" He teased good naturedly.
"Rose?" My mother walked up to us, she hadn't left campus since the attack over two months ago and it had made sneaking around with Dimitri an absolute bitch. "Belikov?" She was staring him down with a glare to rival my own.
"Guardian Hathaway." He nodded out of respect to her but refused to let my down. "What can I do for you? We do have to be somewhere" Dimitri nodded to me.
"Well, for starters, you could put my daughter down- she is more than capable of walking."
"With all due respect- that's just not happening. If you want to know why you'll have to come to Petrov's office with us."
She sighed. "Fine."
We started walking again and I noticed no one was staring. Were they that blind? Or was the doctor right- were we just too unusual for people to notice?
We made it to Alberta's office without incident but what was about to go down would be unpleasant- more so with my mother in the room. "Dimitri? How are we going to do this?"
"Hmmm. Good question."
"Comrade! How do you not have a plan?" I was shocked, the man always had a plan.
"Hey! Speak for yourself." He shook his head.
"Nope. I'm not the one who comes up with plans- you are. I'm the logical one!" I slapped his upper arm.
"Nope. It's the other way around Rose and you know it!"
"Aww, no fair comrade."
"You two do realise you're getting sidetracked bickering like an ol- shit!" My mother interrupted us, realisation hitting her like a ton of bricks. Ugh, if she weren't so easily pissed off I'd say it was about time.
"Yes Mother?" I asked all too sweetly.
"You two?" She was at a loss for words. "No. It can't be. One of you please tell me I'm wrong, please tell me you aren't involved with each other." Oh how I begged to differ.
"Mom, are you sure you want to know?"
She gulped. "Want to? No. Need to? Yes."
"Then you had better brace yourself. You're in for a shock."
She gasped. "Belikov? Seriously? My daughter? Your student?!"
"Hey! It's not all his fault!" I snapped at her.
"Rosemarie?" Ugh! I hated that name!
"I love him Mom. He's my everything, my other half, the reason I've changed." It was all true. He was also the reason I was pregnant and I was glad.
"I love her, it's true. She's just as much my other half, I can't live without her, I won't live without her."
"Belikov? Since when were you the lovesick, sappy romantic type?"
"Ask your daughter. She's just as lovesick and sappy."
"Dimitri! Not. Cool! We're badass'!"
"And completely oblivious to the rest of the world when it's just us."
"Ugh. You and your normal logic!"
He chuckled.
The door opened and Stan walked out, glaring at us.
"What?!" I snapped at him.
"It's true isn't it? You and Belikov, I heard you through the door." He shook his head. "Really Belikov? How'd she do it?"
"Honestly, I don't know Alto."
"Unbelievable." He turned to face my mother "how do you feel Hathaway?"
"Stunned. Shocked. It's something I didn't see coming."
"You don't really see much coming regarding me Mother, we may be on better terms but you still don't know me." She was going to freak over Bubby. It was one thing she had clearly expressed her opinion about, time-and-again.
"I got to go." Alto promptly left. He obviously didn't want to be around if domestics started.
"Come on Rose. We have a job to do." He walked through Alberta's open door.
"Are you going to put me down yet?"
He rolled his eyes, shook his head emphatically and said "you're staying off your feet".
"At least set me in a chair."
My mother shut the door after entering and Dimitri sat down in a chair with me on his lap. He really wasn't going to let me do anything.
"Hathaway, Belikov, Rose. What's going on?" Alberta asked after we had made ourselves comfortable in her office. She seemed slightly amused by the sight in front of her.
"Alberta" I took a steadying breath. "I need my trainings altered."
She raised an eyebrow and my mother stared at me, while Dimitri whispered "tell them milaya, or I will, you should be proud, not scared" in my ear. I sighed. "Only you Dimitri, only you." I shook my head and sighed again. He gripped my hand and stroked it reassuringly with his thumb. I looked back at Alberta, "I'm pregnant."
"Oh!" She gasped.
"Rosemarie Hathaway!" And there's my mother's explosion.
I whipped my head around to face her. "Don't start. I know your opinions like the back of my hand. I don't need to hear them again."
"Shh, settle Roza." Dimitri breathed in my ear before he had a go at her for stressing me out. "You will answer to me Guardian Hathaway if anything happens to this child thanks to added stress you have now put on Rose." He growled at her. Oh boy!
"Comrade" I whispered in his ear. "Watch it. We love you sticking up for us but you should know better than to piss Janine Hathaway off." I pecked his ear before pulling back.
"Oh Rose" he looked me in the eyes and sighed. "You really don't get how precious this is." He was referring to us and our baby.
"I guess you're right." I sighed and collapsed into his embrace.
"Oh, you two are too adorable" Alberta spoke up. "I knew it! I knew it!" She knew?
"You knew?" I asked.
"Yeah. Obvious from day one, I can't believe it's taken this long."
"Alberta we do have a job to do."
"One other thing first Rose." Uh oh. "Is it a Belikov baby? I know it's supposed to be impossible but so was you surviving the crash."
"Yes." Dimitri spoke proudly.
"God knows what it's going to be capable of." She looked simultaneously amused and horrified.
Dimitri and I looked at each other, smirked, then broke out into laughter. We hadn't even thought about the insane level of potential and lethality our child would possess.
"The thought hadn't crossed your minds had it?"
"Nope." We laughed again.
"I'll get it sorted and get back to you. Belikov- keep Rose out of trouble, in other words- don't leave her side." She turned to my mother "and don't kick up a fuss Janine."
My mother simply huffed and left.
"Belikov? You're not going to really let her do anything are you?"
"No. Not really. She needs to train to graduate but I can't say I like the risk. I won't be the reason she doesn't graduate." My man pecked my cheek.
"Go get a room!" she laughed. "I'll reduce your hours with her if that helps."
"No. It doesn't help."
"I'll see what I can do. Seriously though, go home. Preferably to guardian dorms. We all know about you two anyway." That was all it took for Dimitri to carry me out the door after we thanked Alberta profusely.
As we walked through campus we received blank looks, if people even looked our way. Okay, we really were that hard to comprehend and they really weren't looking for it. I guess, despite the rumours of me 'throwing around my body', no one would expect that I'd 'cross that line'. Me and any male student, or even Adrian? Believable. Me and my hot-ass, supposedly antisocial, Russian battle god of a mentor? Incomprehensible. Him and anyone? Unbelievable. Him and 'his student'? Again, incomprehensible. He was too moral and lawful. Although, I had been eighteen for over a month now. "Are we seriously that hard for people to wrap their minds around? Are they that blind?" That caused my other half to laugh.
"Apparently. Reputations huh?"
"Don't bring them up."
"Hey," he gently chastised before kissing my cheek, "I'm not going to anything like they would. And you know it. You know it's not your body I truly want, it's your soul. It's you as a person I love. You know that."
"Yeah. I do. I know you want to show me off as yours. That's the difference, you want to say 'this is the person I love', not 'I've used'."
"Oh. Finally!" all the guardians exclaimed in relief and amusement when we walked into the dorm's lobby.
"Oh, come on," I groaned. "Enough with the 'it's about time's. Can we get no privacy?" They all laughed at that and I cringed. Not. Cool.