RPOV

I stared at her. My mouth was open and I just stared. She wouldn't meet my gaze. A surprising gesture for her, clearly indicating her guilt in the matter. Even though Sydney had had reservations about us 'evil creature of the night' she has always stood her ground against us.

But as her words resonated with me, playing over and over in my head, I couldn't speak, I couldn't breathe. Until my brain had found something to focus on.

"This is your fault!"

Her gaze met mine and I saw a mix of the aforementioned guilt and annoyance. She crossed her arms in front of her and frowned.

"There was no possible way I could have known this would happen, Rose. I mean this is…"

I stood up angrily, well mostly shocked and I needed an outlet. And seeing as Sydney was the only one in the room, she was my intended target. Poor Sydney.

"Impossible. The test must be wrong. Do it again."

She sighed as she picked up a pile of paperwork and flipped through the pages.

"I did Rose, three times. On three different vials. So to exclude the possibility that I somehow mixed them up. Not that I could. Most of the tubes of blood are yours. It would be impossible to mix all of them up."

The reality of the situation started to dawn on me.

"We haven't made any progress Rose." I tried to mimic Sydney's voice when we had this conversation about three months ago. "We have been at this for three years and not found anything different about you. I want to try to see if we can exclude all forms of external regulation, maybe it is masking something. What harm could it do?"

Sydney didn't seem to appreciate my impression of her and liked my tone even less.

"Well, how on earth was I supposed to have foreseen this?"

She threw up her hands in the air, clearly not knowing what to do with this information either.

I sat down a little defeated; because I knew it wasn't her fault. It wasn't anybody's fault. I wasn't even sure it was a bad thing. It was just that I had never considered this to be an option. It never crossed my mind, not when I was slotted to be Lissa's guardian and not when I was with Dimitri, but now I would have to think about it.

A small smile pulled at my lips when I thought about Dimitri. I imagined his goofy smile and the happiness and wonder in his eyes. This would be a good thing.

I rubbed my abdomen a little as if I could feel the precious life growing inside of me and as if that life could feel my hand.

"Pregnant. I can't believe I am pregnant."

Sydney sat down next to me. She grabbed my hand.

"On the bright side, we finally found something you are unique in because of your transformation."

She laughed a wry smile.

"Although we can't rule out a dormant Shadow kissed effect there either."

I thought about it. I had been off of birth control pills for about three months now. Sydney having suggested it, so we could monitor some blood values and vital signs, without the influence of hormonal interference. As it turns out, it did interfere with some restored-Strigoi ability. I knew it took a little while to flush the birth control out of my system, so we conceived pretty quickly. Before I became Strigoi and was still Shadow kissed we had been intimate for a while too. And although I knew conception is a mix of timing and luck, I could have conceived before I became Strigoi and I didn't, most likely this was a new ability because of my restoration. Although we couldn't rule out this originated from Dimitri since he was shadow kissed now too.

Sydney squeezed my hands and stood up.

"Let me know if you need anything. I will start looking up some things concerning prenatal care and such."

I nodded gratefully, but now I was alone, and contemplating how I was going to tell Dimitri.

We had been in this house near campus for over three years, and all of us had become close. Lissa and I would be graduating from our bachelors in political science in the summer. Just in time too. I would be heavily pregnant by then, I realized.

We had all fell into an easy rhythm, even Sydney after she finally gave Adrian a chance. We had lived in our own little bubble of happiness for three years and although I knew it would end once we would graduate and go back to court, I think our carefree days would be over a bit sooner.

I walked out towards the lounge. Dimitri and Adrian were on the couch watching some movie. It was one of Adrian's favorites and one Dimitri could tolerate. They were almost comical together. Adrian was pale and had a certain light about him, whereas Dimitri with his tan skin and dark duster represented a form of darkness. They had grown into their role as bond-mates and had come out of it good friends.

Dimitri looked up from the movie and I saw his face contort into concern. I could only imagine what my face looked like.

He stood up and moved towards me, grabbing my hand as I could fall over at any minute, and honestly, I felt like it.

"Roza, are you okay? What happened, what did Sydney want to talk to you about? Did she find anything wrong with you?"

He was going a mile a minute. I was swallowing hard trying to find my voice, trying to tell Dimitri that the impossible had happened. I looked over at the couch and saw Adrian staring at me? He had his eyebrows raised, obviously worried as well.

I grabbed Dimitri's hand and dragged him to our room. I sat him down on the bed, while I was pacing around the room.

"Roza, please, you are scaring me? Did Sydney find anything? Are you… Are you sick?"

I could hear his voice caught in his throat, the pain of losing me evident in his eyes.

"Oh she found something all right, and I will probably be sick. Something to look forward to I guess."

Dimitri was getting paler and paler by the minute. I realized what I just said and sat down next to him and grabbed his hands.

"Dimitri, it is alright, I am alright. I am pregnant."

I noticed that while I said it, my face couldn't stop the smile from tugging at my lips. That despite my initial shock and all my other reservations about this revelation, the small gesture betrayed my true feelings.

Dimitri on the other hand, who I had expected to be over the moon, was deadly silent. He was staring at me like I had been staring at Sydney half an hour ago. I have always been able to read Dimitri. To me, he was an open book even with his guardian mask on. But now I had no idea what he was thinking because I don't think he was thinking at the moment. His face was blank.

"Dimitri? Are you okay?"

No response.

"Sydney asked me to go off birth control a few months ago remember, so she could observe me without the hormones, seeing if there was anything different about me that we missed."

No response.

"And I have been on it birth control pretty much since I had been restored, so we never noticed. Sydney believed that the restoration also made it possible for me to conceive."

No response.

Now I was getting a little annoyed. I knew it was a shock, I hadn't been able to say anything for a bit either, but he had to have some feelings about this. I was getting to the point where I think I preferred him to be angry or upset over this.

I frowned and crossed my arms over my chest. I looked at him annoyed and this seemed to finally draw him out of the bubble he had been in.

"Pregnant."

"Yes."

"You are pregnant?"

"Yes."

He looked at me and finally as it registered, the smile I expected made its way across his face and his eyes let up. He squealed like a little girl as he picked me up, stood up and spun me around. He kissed me deeply and then buried his face in my hair, whispering we were going to be a family over and over again. Then he suddenly stopped and put me down, cleared his throat and sat down again, pulling me down with me.

"How are you feeling about this?"

Sometimes Dimitri forgot there is an age difference between us. He was twenty-seven and I knew for him having a family was something he has wanted for a while, but I was twenty-one and we never discussed this, and he realized that I could have a completely different reaction.

"Scared, overwhelmed, shocked… but happy."

Dimitri got a bit of that sparkle back in his eyes.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I mean I never thought we could have this, and I am overwhelmed, but I get to have your child. I have this living creature growing inside of me, that is part of us both… That doesn't mean I am not freaking out, or that you aren't going to be pampering me for the next eight months or so, so you better be prepared."

He pulled me to him and hugged me tightly. "It would be my pleasure."

"So do you know how far along you are?"

Sydney and I hadn't discussed this. But I had given it some thought in the two seconds I had and had figured out when it probably happened.

"Remember when you were away with Adrian for three weeks doing that art-program? And how we had celebrated your return, you know rewatching a certain video?"

Realization crossed his face and he went pale again.

"So you are telling me, or beautiful miracle baby, was conceived by watching porn where we were the stars?"

I giggled a bit. I guess when you put it like that. That would be an amazing thing to embarrass the child with in their teens. And it was a hot hot video. No need to be embarrassed about that.

"Well, maybe not put that in the birth announcement."

He shook his head but clearly found some form of amusement in my statement.

We were silent for a while. He was rubbing my hands and stroking my leg. Neither one of us knew what to say, or how to go from here. We had many things to discuss. How were we going to combine our work with the baby? How would we sell this at court? Would it be wise to inform the Alchemists and Tatiana of the miraculous origin of our baby? How will the rest respond? So many questions, but right now wasn't the time to ask or even to contemplate this. Because right now we were in some sort of happy baby bubble and refused to get out of it. Not even my fears and abandonment issues could spoil this moment between us.

That was until Sydney came walking in with a very confused Adrian asking a million questions.

Once they were both in the room. Sydney sighed, turned around, placed a manila folder on the nightstand and put her hands on her hips.

"I swear Adrian if you don't stop talking I am going to gag you."

Of course, Adrian's response was a large smile and a wiggle of his eyebrows.

"Oh Sydney, I knew you could be a bit kinky, but gagging is new. I would love to try that."

Sydney gasped and turned beet-red, a reaction that seemed to please Adrian greatly. She composed herself and pointed towards the manila folder.

"I looked a few things up. I have already ordered some vitamins and will see if Dhampirs need a different blend. There are some do's and don'ts in there and if you have any questions, I am here to talk."

Now Adrian looked confused again.

"Can somebody tell me what is going on? What is happening, little Dhampir?"

I looked over to Dimitri and he smiled as he squeezed my hand. I nodded indicating it was his news to share.

"Well, you see Adrian. Rose is pregnant. Sydney ran some test and bloodwork confirming she is pregnant."

Adrian stared at me and then at Dimitri. His mouth was open and I think for the first time in his life Adrian looked like a fool instead of an elegant, charming man. Well, sober that is.

"How?"

Sydney rolled her eyes and gave him some very technical explanation about the number of chromosomes in my reproductive cells having matched up to Dhampir numbers instead of Moroi numbers, more consistent with my own genetic make-up and the number of reproductive cells even carrying this genetic make-up having increased, making reproduction possible. When she was met with a blank stare from Adrian, she started to explain the scientific reason why Dhampirs can't reproduce together by comparing us to mules and hinnies. She even mentioned a few cases of mules being fertile and wondered if there had never been a Dhampir birth anomaly recorded in history, saying that the chance of conception was very unlikely but somewhere somehow someone should have beaten the odds by now. Although seeing as mules giving birth had been considered bad omens in the past, she wouldn't be surprised that it was kept secret.

I didn't understand a word of it and neither did Adrian. Dimitri seemed to follow her logic and was nodding along.

I didn't need to know the specifics, I just needed to know that this was real and that our baby would be fine and normal. Whatever that may be.

"Well, Little Dhampir, Big Guy, I am happy for you two."

He was a little hesitant as he considered his words.

"I mean, this is a good thing right? I know this wasn't planned."

He looked more to me than to Dimitri. Probably because Dimitri couldn't stop smiling. But I had an unmistakable smile on my face too.

"Yes, Adrian, this is a good thing. You're going to be an uncle!"

He laughed.

"I don't mind spoiling the brat or showing him or her some swag, God knows Dimitri won't be able to do it. But don't call for in the middle of the night or to change a dirty diaper. These hands don't do manual labor."

I smiled because it was such an Adrian thing to say.

"You can save that when you have kids of your own. You know Sydney won't allow you to sit there and do nothing."

The prospect of little Dhampir babies between Adrian and Sydney both gave them a little blush on their cheeks.

"Right, we will leave you two alone. If you need anything Rose, let me know." Sydney practically pushed Adrian out of our room, not looking at him and still with a heavy blush on her face.

Once the left, I turned to Dimitri again.

He had returned to his earlier task of stroking my fingers.

"We will have to tell Lissa and Christian too. If she finds out, Adrian and Sydney knew before she did, she will be pissed."

Dimitri nodded.

"We will tell them over dinner. The sooner the better. I also think we are going to need Lissa and her influence to make this work back at court and combine it with our jobs."

I knew he was right but I didn't want to think about our jobs or court right now. There would be plenty of time to think about that.

I laid back on the bed and Dimitri joined me. He kissed me gently before laying his head down. I was facing him a bit and Dimitri's hand moved from my hand towards my stomach.

"I can't believe I am going to be a father."

I smiled as I laid my hand on his hand, letting our child, or more accurately the small lump of cells, know that even if it wasn't planned it was much loved.

This will be the last chapter in Soul Bound. I have written other stories where I talk about the pregnancy and the children.

So I have a reason for writing and posting this chapter. I have been a little negligent with my updates and responding to reviews on my other stories and here is the reason: I am pregnant again, and contrary to my pregnancy with my son, I am much more tired and much more nauseous. I still have a few projects I want to do and finish. And of course all active stories are finished and I simply have to update. But I thought this was a nice way of letting Rose share my experience.