Sorry the update took so long, if you read my Dimitri POV, you'll know the story of how I lost all my chapters.

Anyway, I realised I made an error in the last chapter, it's been about three months since Dimitri and Tasha left the second time ;)

WIWR xx ;)

Disclaimer: VA and it's character are not mine.

-Chapter 4-

Dimitri's back. And he's sitting in my living room—with her—talking to Lissa and Christian like nothing's happened.

But I can hear it in their voices, especially Lissa's, that the two of them are not okay with what he did. I leaned against a wall in the hallway and wrapped my arms around myself.

I was scared.

I'd faced and killed six Strigoi, stared in the face of death, watched my best friend come horribly close to death herself, over the years built some form of a relationship with my scary-ass mother, and even made some limited attempts to work out who my father was, and just the thought of knowing who he was, was enough to make me shiver. But Dimitri was the one thing in the entire world who scared me more then all of those things combined.

I put up my guardian mask, the one Dimitri had taught me so well, and I walked through the lounge room to the kitchen. Dimitri had his back to me and didn't notice my entrance, but when Lissa's head shot up at me, he definitely noticed.

"Rose," Lissa said, surprised to see me downstairs at all, let alone in the lounge room.

"Morning, Liss," I said with a smile.

I slipped into her head for a moment so I could see Dimitri's expression. He was clearly debating whether or not he should say something.

"Hi, Rose, how are you?" said Tasha from beside Dimitri.

"Fine, thank you, Tasha," I said, smiling at her. At this point, I had already stopped and faced them. Christian sat kind of awkwardly next to Lissa. I kept on my way, not expecting anything from Dimitri.

"Hello, Rose," Dimitri said formally, before turning around to see me. He seemed to have stopped in his tracks as he sat sideways on the couch and he finally saw me.

He was in shock at the sight of me.

"Rose . . ." he said.

"Hi, Dimitri," I replied politely. "It's good to see you again. I hope you enjoy your stay at court."

Then I continued into the kitchen. But I kept going out the back door and I went outside. It was quite chilly, but I had to be out of the house.

"Rose," said that sweet Russian voice behind me. "Aren't you cold?"

All I wore was a singlet and boxer shorts and my slippers, which were designed like thongs. (I think Americans call them flip flops? Just to clarify.) I shook my head. "I'm fine." He still tried to give me his jacket. "I said I was fine, Dimitri," I sort of snapped. He put his jacket back on.

"A lot's changed since I left," he said after a minute or two.

"Yeah, Lissa's pregnant. Did she tell you?" He shook his head. "Yeah, about fifteen weeks. She's so excited. Already got ten baby names lined up." I didn't dare look at him.

"Wow, Christian's going to be a dad. I'm glad. He deserves it after everything he's been through." I had to bite my tongue when he said that. "That's not all that's changed."

"Mm."

"You cut off your hair," he stated. He wasn't wrong there. After what he did, I had a crazy moment and hacked off my once long hair. I thought about how much he liked it long and cut it, just to spite him. It turned out I really liked it short, so I kept it that way—with some professional help after that though.

"Yup."

"I liked it long."

"I know."

I think he got the idea after that.

"Rose, would you like to go to lunch with me today?"

"Umm, I can't. I've got other plans." I kept my neutral face. "Maybe some other time."

I went inside and called Eddie.

"Rose!" Eddie called across the cafe. I waved back and he joined me at my table after ordering a coffee. We decided we had to have a very late lunch because Eddie was in the middle of a shift when I rang earlier.

"It's so good to see you," he said as he embraced me.

"You too," I replied.

"Sorry about the short notice, but I had this sudden whim to catch up with you—it's been so long."

He stared at me in an odd way. Then his expression and tone went gentle as he reached across the table and took my hand comfortingly. "Rose, I know Dimitri's back at court."

I hung my head to hide my sadness. "I'm sorry. I really did want to catch up though," I pleaded.

Eddie smiled at me. "It's okay, I'm happy to see you."

"I'm happy to see you too."

After a small comfortable silence, Eddie asked, "How far along is Tasha?"

"Seven months or so. They came back to have the baby at court."

"Why come back now? That's just torturing you for longer. Why not come back closer to the date?"

"If they left it any later, she wouldn't have been able to fly."

"That would have been better." I laughed at Eddie. "Rose, are you sure you're okay?"

I looked down at my hands now in my lap. I shook my head and burst into tears. Eddie came around to me and hugged me as I cried into his chest. I grabbed his shirt and crumpled the fabric. "He's come back and treating me like last time never happened! It's killing me. I can't keep this up much longer."

"C'mon, let's get you out of here," he said softly.

We went back to his apartment. Eddie had become a court guardian after his last charge died—of old age—and he was just waiting for a new assignment, which always took a while. I sat on the couch while Eddie went into the kitchen.

He came back with two glasses of wine. For hours we just sat and talked. There was lots of laughing and we even talked about Mason.

"Remember, that time in seventh-grade, when that nine-grade Moroi asked you on a date and Mason hit him across the face," Eddie said.

"Mason did what?" I hadn't known about that.

"Yeah, when Mason found out that afternoon he assumed because the guy was older, he wanted to use you. So Mase found him and hit him across the face. But the Moroi never said anything because Mason was right." We both fell into fits of laughter.

That's what made Eddie decide I was drunk. "I should get you home," he said as he calmed down.

My laughter stopped dead. "I don't want to go home," I protested shaking my head. "They're staying with us, and I just can't live under the same roof as them. Please don't make me go back."

Eddie just looked at me for ages. Finally, he nodded. "Okay, you can stay here tonight and we'll sort something out in the morning.

After a lot of protest on my behalf, Eddie slept on the couch and I slept in the bedroom.

Crawling under Eddie's covers was so nice. I felt safe, guarded—better than I'd felt in so long. I don't know if it was the alcohol, or the security that helped, but I fell asleep fast, and slept right through the night—no nightmares, no waking in cold sweats, just a peaceful sleep.

Okay, so Rose's new haircut looks sort of like Rose's from the Vampire Diaries. And for those who don't watch, look it up if you would like :P

Every reviewer gets a shout out this time :)

Guardian Robson x, Mordanyes, talkygirl, lissa94, .Delerium, SWEmicca, hannah, Emmett's Babe, MaggieChauvin, soon2be-Guardian, CandiGal, baseballshoppingmomma, snowgoose, UnderworldVampirePrincess, VAMPGIRL, BehindGlassHouses,vampirepailaii, BahroZa, jemily23

I notice that a lot of you have reviewd my other stories as well, which is just so awesome, and you have no idea how good that feels to know you guys like me that much :)

Ttfn xx