RPOV
"Oh Dimitri, she's perfect," I sighed. I had our newborn miracle daughter cradled in my arms and was leaning back in to my other half. His arms wrapped around me, his right hand gentle stroked our daughter's forearm and his chin was on my right shoulder. "I hurt like hell. You're the only thing keeping me somewhat upright."
"You'll feel worse tomorrow!" he chuckled echoing one of the first conversations we'd had. The one when I'd asked for the first training off.
"Daddy!" I whisper-yelled a playful chastisement. "This is a million and one times worse. How I haven't dropped her yet is a miracle itself. That 36 hour labor was like that battle with twenty times more Strigoi, no magic to help, and lasting three days. It was worse than escaping Galina's mansion and running all the way to Novosibirsk. Consider her the only child you're getting." I yawned at the end.
"Rose, I've heard that screamed at me on and off for nine months. And I know you actually do want more. I saw the wistful look you had when playing with Paul, Zoya and Rosa. That was without Denya around. And before we had conceived her. You, my love, are as family oriented as me. Even if you won't admit it to yourself."
"Comrade, how do you do that? Read me to the point of knowing me better than I do?"
"You're never dropping that heart-stopping nickname, are you?"
"Nope. You love it as much as I do. It would be like you dropping 'Roza'. I know it holds the same power. It always has, and always will."
"How is it only three years since I caught you in Portland and dragged your arse back to the Academy, then risked mine to save yours?"
"Hmmm. I really don't know. We lived a lifetime in our first year. We, dear boyfriend and baby daddy, were an item before we realised it. From that first session. If not Kirova's office. I hope you realise, no other teacher could have made me deflate with a simple staring competition. Especially where Kirova was involved. Ugh! And speaking of Academies-"
Academies in our world took children in at age four, and were required to have them by age six. And the enrolment process lasted about three years to get a spot secured for a child's entire academic life.
"She's not going to St Vlad's. Am I right?"
"Nor is she going to Alder."
"Not St Basil's either?"
"Why are you asking about that?"
"Because it's system is better than America's. It's the same system I used to catch you up and then some. But, with Mama and Babushka's attitude she'd graduate but not swear."
"And you want her sworn like me? You don't want our lethal miracle tied to the kitchen sink?"
"I don't necessarily want her tied to a Moroi either, but if she ends up with a friendship similar to you and Liss pre-bond and post-Russia, then I want her sworn."
"The best of both worlds. In every sense. So, why not send her to an American Academy and you mentor her? We could both ask for reassignment." That caused Dimitri to chuckle.
"Rose logic that works. You really don't want to leave her. You're not going to make the same mistakes your so-called mother made."
"Now you take my side."
"You weren't allowed on that hunting trip. I swear I ended up grilling her more than the other way around. Her inability to answer half my questions, how little she knew you or even knew of you, had me on the edge of losing it. Even Abe knew more of you."
"Let me guess. He had spies within Academy walls?"
"Yes. He did. Alberta was one. Alto was another."
"Alberta and Alto? Why them? Their attitudes towards me were polar opposites."
"He didn't say why. Just that. Alberta may not have outed us to the authorities-"
"But she did tell Daddy dearest."
"It was one reason why he wanted you out of Baia, out of Russia. He had eyes on me too. He knew you risked what ended up occurring. And what didn't."
"He knew I could very well have accepted being turned because it meant some false semblance of freedom to be with you, to be free together?"
"Nice choice of words. You really do have an understanding of how life-and-death and good-and-evil interplay that no one else does."
"Unsurprising. I've returned from death twice, lived in a Strigoi mob headquarters, and accumulated a kill count higher than most others will ever see. Oh. And there is one other who comprehends how life-and-death and good-and-evil interplay like I do. And he's currently wrapped around me. You understood in the same way I did right back when we first met."
"Yes. I did."
"I hope she does. I hope she understands the way we do, but has your control."
"Roza? Who said I had control? We've ended up with her for a reason." That just caused me to sigh. "Here. Let me put her in the crib and we'll try and get some sleep."
"Thanks. I just hope Adrian doesn't turn up."
My man unwrapped from me, took our daughter before I collapsed from exhaustion, and placed her in the hospital crib.
"Has he recently? Since Sydney?" My daughter's daddy asked as he joined me on the bed.
"She's had him check up on me since we found out about doing the impossible. Again. So usually they're both there."
"That's not so bad."
"True."
"Sleep, my love. Thank you. For safely giving me the impossible. I love you, both of you, more than you could imagine." Dimitri pecked me on my cheek then pulled me to his chest.
"We love you too Daddy," I yawned out before crashing into a dreamless sleep.