I'M REALLY SORRY ABOUT THE DELAY, ENJOY AND PLEASE REVIEW! :)

D.P.O.V

I had a strange feeling that Rose was hiding something from me, call me paranoid but it was just the small changes in Rose that I began to notice. Normally on her breaks at work she would spend with Lissa or me, now she was nowhere to be found. At home in her spare time she would either find fiery projects to conquer or nap. But lately she would spend time at the library, with Lissa, or asleep with me. There was something else occupying her time and I had no idea what it was, perhaps she was bored of me. I wanted to bring it up with her but I had a strong feeling that Rose would come to me on her own terms and I couldn't force it.

I still had deep worries about Natasha but there was no way I would let some crazy woman like her keep me from Rose, and vice versa. Rose deserves the world and I didn't want my crazy past to ruin that.

I finished my night shift and came home to find Rose asleep on the couch, her arm dangling off the couch and fresh drool coming out of her mouth. My god did I love this woman, wait, love? Where did that come from…

I learnt from Mason what can happen if you attempt to wake up Rose in the wrong way, so I started with feather light kisses beginning from her forehead and working down her beautiful face.

She started to stir as I reached her lips, I felt her begin to kiss back as she wrapped her arms around my neck. Once I knew she had a good grip I lifted her up into my arms, as I pulled her up I heard a thump. I looked down to see a familiar, thick book; "Anatomy and Physiology 12th Edition" I knew that book well since I practically slept with it whilst studying. It was in fact my copy, the creased pages and countless sticky notes attached to each chapter and a few tear stains gave that away.

At this discovery everything slid into place and made sense, her time spent at the library and how increasingly busy and distracted she'd become. She wasn't bored of me, she was studying to sit the medical school entrance exam. Pride swelled into my chest followed by concern, I wondered why she felt that she couldn't tell me. Did she think that I would laugh at her?

I carried Rose to bed and she quickly fell back to sleep as soon as I pulled the covers over her. A gap in the curtain allowed moonlight to shine on her face causing a luminescent glow. It never ceased to amaze me seeing such an animated and energetic person go from that to the peaceful sleeping figure that I was witnessing before me. Sleep was something that I was currently in dire need of, the shift was busy and I was looking forward to a bit of a break. Rose and I agreed that after a crazy few months we both needed a little bit of time off, not necessarily to spend with each other but to also recharge the batteries.

After changing into some boxers I laid down next to the beautiful goddess that is in my bed, I was exhausted but sleep eluded me. I could almost feel the pull of deep slumber when I heard a crash and bang in the kitchen, I shot straight up and ran for the baseball bat that I had stashed behind my bedroom door. Fully aware that I was half naked I quietly sneaked out of my room to face the possible intruder.

However what I witnessed wasn't an intruder but actually Mason roaming around the fridge clearly in an unsteady state.

"Mason, it's 5am do you need to be making such a racket?" I exclaimed.

Mason clearly wasn't expecting someone to approach him because he jumped in fright and dropped some frozen peas to the ground. He turned around and I gasped in shock, his orange locks were covered in flecks of dried blood and he had a cut on his lip and eyebrow. Blood streamed down his face and the evidence of a black eye was starting to form.

"Блядь Mason! What happened?" I dropped the bat and rushed over to him, he wasn't too steady on his feet so I assisted him into a seat at the dining room table.

"I was…I was walking home from my shift at the pub." His voice shook as did the rest of his body.

"…Some bastard jumped me from behind and got a few good hits in before a car drove past and scared them off." He finished in a quick breath and exhaled in pain as I dabbed his wounds with gauze from our first aid kit.

"What's goi- Omg Mason, did you piss off an angry mob of girls again?" The commotion had woken up Rose. She rushed over to assist me with his wounds.

"Did you see their faces?" I urged on with questions as hopefully everything would still be fresh in his mind.

"No, it was too dark. But they were definitely male, no girl can punch like that." Mason half joked half winced as I cleaned the cuts on his face. Normally Rose would have hit him for making a remark like that but I think in this circumstance she let it slide.

"Well the cuts aren't too deep, you'll have a wicked black eye tomorrow. Are you injured anywhere else?" I asked.

"I won't lie, they got a good couple of kicks to my ribs but I don't think anything is broken." He said while rubbing his side.

"Well I'll need to take a look, with your permission of course." I probably would have looked anyway but it was always a good idea to ask for consent.

He lifted his shirt and there was an angry red mark on his right side.

"Are you having any sharp pain in the chest when you take a breath in?" I enquired.

"Well after getting kicked in the abdomen a couple of times thats got to be expected right?" He joked again. I could never fully understand humour as a deflection but everyone dealt with shock and pain in different ways, something you don't really read from a book.

"Dimitri, can I talk to you for a second?" Rose ushered me into the next room.

"…I think we should take him to the hospital to get properly checked out." She looked concerned and worried for Mason.

I had to agree with her, his skin was cool and clammy and his pupils dilated, classic signs of shock.

"Ok, we may have to convince him though." I explained to Rose, Mason's deep fear of hospitals. I quickly recounted the story of how Mason had cut his finger quite bad in the kitchen and I recommended he go to the hospital for stitches. He had a fit and rambled on about how he'd rather loose a finger then step foot in a hospital. As a result I gave him a towel to bite down on and a couple of shots of Russian vodka prior to suturing his finger for him.

"Oh…right. Well, what if we tell him the dangers of not treating a concussion or a broken rib piercing a lung?" Rose whispered dramatically.

"Be my guest, my love." I waggled my eyebrows at her knowing she couldn't refuse a challenge.

However once we returned to the dining area, Mason was gone. We both followed small droplets of blood to the living room where he'd passed out on the couch with frozen peas resting on his head.

We both sighed as we knew one of us would need to stay awake and observe him whilst he slept, at least for the first couple of hours. I used my penlight to observe his pupils, they were no longer wildly dilated which meant he should be safe to sleep.

"I'll take the first hour." Rose sighed as she sat down on the opposite lounge seat while looking around the room for something.

I picked up the book resting on the nightstand.

"Are you looking for this?" I asked.

"Oh ummm, I was just, you know…looking…" Rose was flustered and fidgeted in her chair and sighed.

I raised my eyebrows at her, for some reason this always had more power over her then actual words.

"I'm sorry, I should have told you earlier. I just wasn't sure, I'm not even sure if I'm smart enough but I wanted to try anyway." She looked down in embarrassment.

I knelt down in front of her and took her hands in mine…

"Roza, I think it's amazing that you want to do the exam, I'm sad that you didn't tell me sooner. But I understand."

She went to interrupt me but I put a finger to her lips.

'And before you say anything else I just want you to know that I think you would make an amazing doctor, you are a beautiful and intelligent woman. Your instincts and compassion will take you far, these are the qualities of a great doctor." I finished off there and watched a lone tear fall down her cheek.

"Dimitri I…I don't know what to say." She flung her arms around me and hugged me tight whilst taking a big breath out.

"I don't know why I didn't tell you sooner, I just don't want to fail and let anyone down." She admitted.

"Roza the only way you can let anyone down is by not attempting to reach your full potential, I believe in you and so do your friends, we will all be here to support you as much as we can." I explained.

R.P.O.V

Two hours later Dimitri came out of the bedroom and examined Mason again, after confirming that that he was okay he nodded at me to return back to bed. I was too tired to argue, I tried studying as much as I could in the couple of hours I spent watching over Mason but the information seemed to slip through my mind like sand through water. The additional knowledge that Dimitri believed in me had brought a new fire and determination to pass the exam, however this came with even more anxiety of not passing and making a fool out of myself.

It doesn't take me long to fall back to sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, however unusual dreams circulated my mind. The first thing I dreamt of was people laughing at me whilst I sat in an exam room, the examiner's head was replaced with a giant clock that spoke 'YOU'LL NEVER FINISH ON TIME' and laughed hysterically along with the others. Tasha's face stuck out of the crowd and spoke "He'll leave you if you fail this, he'll know you're not worth his time after all" and she too joined the crowd in hysterics. It wasn't until the Examiner Clock Face started shaking and screaming TIMES UP over and over again before I sat bolt up in bed, covered in sweat and breathing hard.

The bed beside me was empty, but the bedroom door opened. "Rose…your alar…." Dimitri stopped as he took in my appearance.

"Are you okay?" He placed the hot mug of coffee down on the dresser as he sat down on the bed.

"Yeah i…just weird dreams I guess." I said whilst shaking my head and trying to get the echoing laughter out of my mind.

"Is Mason okay?" I asked shaking my head.

"He's going to be fine, I suggested he go to the hospital to get checked out but he outright refused. I convinced him to at least report it to the police and take a couple of days off work to recover." He explained while rubbing his hands over his tired eyes.

"He's lucky to have a kind roommate like you to look out for him." I stated while letting out a huge yawn.

"Why did you set an alarm? It's your day off today isn't it?" Dimitri asked while getting dressed.

I was momentarily struck but his perfectly chiseled body before I remembered that he'd asked me a question.

"Oh ummm"… Trying to unsuccessfully hide the blush that coated my face. "I was going to go and see Lissa, also head to the library to get some more study in. The exam is next month…"

Dimitri snapped his head up suddenly, "Next month?!" His mouth open wide.

"Yes….it was a last minute decision for me to go for the exam and I figured if I didn't go for the next one scheduled then I would never do it." I explained tentatively.

"But Rose…most people spend months studying for that exam…" Exclaimed Dimitri with what I interpreted as doubt.

I sat up suddenly and crossed my arms over my chest in true Hathaway style; "Are you saying I cant do it?" I accused him defiantly.

He crossed the room in two short steps, "No that isn't what I was insinuating, I'm merely worried that you haven't given yourself enough time to study." His eyebrows were scrunched together in trepidation of my incoming reaction.

"Well you can't just say you believe in me one second and then doubt me the next" I said with my head raised high trying to match his height, the dream swirled in my mind again as I heard the echo of laughter and Tasha's voice.

"Rose…no…that isn't what I meant." He went to explain further but I didn't give him much of a chance. I grabbed my clothes for the day and headed for the shower, I needed to wash away this bad mood I'd woken up in before I said something I regretted.

Once I'd showered I felt a lot better, I got out to a sheepish looking Dimitri handing me a hot mug. I gracefully accepted the coffee and brushed a loose hair that had escaped from his hair tie and tucked it behind his ear. A simple gesture that spoke legions between us, sometimes words weren't necessary and he knew by that simple movement that all was forgiven. For the time being that is.

"Oi Rosie!" Mason yelled from the kitchen. I rolled my eyes at the interruption, obviously he did get a big hit to the head last night since he is under the delusion he can call me that and get away with it.

"YOU MUST BE REAL BRAVE CALLING ME THAT GINGER CAUSE PRETTY SOON YOU'LL HAVE LOST ENOUGH BLOOD FOR US TO TEST YOUR BLOOD TYPE" I yelled.

"HAH JOKES ON YOU BECAUSE I ALREADY KNOW IT, IT'S A" He yelled back from the other room.

"ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT?" I yelled, Dimitri was shaking his head as he continued to read the newspaper at the table.

"YES, I'M POSITIVE." And at that terrible joke I spat out my coffee and actually laughed out loud.

Mason entered the room at that point still looking terrible but with some colour in his face,

"But in all seriousness Lissa is on the phone for you." Passing me the phone I sat down opposite Dimitri.

"Hey Liss, whats up?" I had to take the phone away from my face as I heard squeals come through the receiver.

"Rose! I have some great news. Come over ASAP." Before I even get a chance to reply, she hangs up.

I sigh and give Dimitri a kiss, I guess I'm off to Lissa's. He slaps my ass on the way out, I waggle my eyebrows at home in hope he understands that translates too later cowboy.

I wonder what Lissa is so excited about?

xxSEZAxx