A/N: Okay, sooooo I was going to move on to Shadow Kiss but I was told I simply must do this part before I move on... so this is set between Life Lessons and The Spell.

This is my Christmas present to you all!

OH! And before I forget... I totally need a Beta... I don't know the whole protocol for gettin' one but if it's all laid back and 'pick me, pick me' then let me know if you are interested. cuz guys.... my computer doesn't understand when sentences don't make sense... it is just like "uhhhh.... sure....?" so yeah. I am really tired too!

Again thank you thank you THANK YOU for all the kind words on the other four one shots I have. MAN! I was not expecting to wake up to 10 comments after I posted The Lie. that was probably the best thing ever! And the story was uploaded wrong and you guys were totally being nice with the "it was great" comments... I was confused just trying to figure out what it cut out! But it is fixed soooo if you haven't read the fixed version GO READ IT! It makes WAY more sense! I PROMISE!

ONWARD TO THE FIC!

(Characters and most dialog are Richelle's .... Dialog you didn't read in the book, and our main man's thoughts are mine!)

"Belikov!"

I looked up at the sound of my name. I hadn't noticed one of the other guardians, Ben, approach me. Shit, I needed to be paying more attention. Stan and Spiridon were standing back, keeping an eye on everyone who moved around our group. Ben and I were positioned a bit closer, our eyes on the four Moroi in the group.

Well, that was the plan, anyway. I had caught myself on a few occasions watching Rose. And now, Ben had as well. I noticed his expression, which told me he had been expecting an answer.

"Yeah?"

"Look," he sighed, "I understand that you have taken Zecklos' death hard. I am more understanding than a lot of the others, Alto especially. But you are slipping, Belikov. I know you don't want to ever lose another person that way but you are watching the princess so closely that you aren't paying attention to anything else."

Okay, maybe he hadn't caught me. He was right regardless; I was letting the rest of the world slip out of my focus. I nodded to the other guardian indicating that I understood and would focus. I turned my attention back to the two girls, still maintaining my focus on our surroundings.

I watched as Lissa picked up a low cut top and handed it to Rose. She studied the shirt for a moment, a look of longing flashing across her features. She looked up at me, and in that instant of eye contact she made up her mind. She shook her head and handed the top back to Lissa, saying something about winter.

I watched her half heartedly converse with her best friend and in that moment I wanted to be in her head. She had been so distant the entire trip, ever since the topic of Sonya Karp had come up. I pulled my focus back to neutral as I remembered the earlier conversation.

"If I became Strigoi… I'd want someone to kill me."

She had been so sure, so resolute in her answer that I knew she had meant it. And I had agreed. The thought of turning into an empty shell of a being made me sick. To be walking in my body and no longer be me. To have all my memories and no higher authority to stop me from using it against the people around me. I couldn't imagine a fate worse. Death would be humane in a situation such as that.

As we passed the makeup stand that the girls had been eyeing I quickly purchased the Lip gloss that Rose had talked about on many occasions, most likely just making an offhand comment and not expecting me to have been paying attention. I was ignoring the voice in my head telling me that keeping a professional distance was not purchasing gifts for one's student. To hell with it, I was a masochist. As we neared the girls on our third "browse" of the clothing section of the store, I noticed a black dress that Lissa had pulled off the clothing rack.

"This is the dress you were born for. I don't care how practical you are now." She said cheerily.

"That is my dress." Rose looked at the dress as if it alone held the answers to all of life's most difficult questions. And to be honest, the thought of Rose wearing that dress was starting to raise difficult questions for me. Like, why was I suddenly turning into a 17-year-old boy? The mental image that the dress supplied was enough to make me want to buy the dress for her myself.

"Try it on." The princess said.

She shook her head, and my mood dropped a bit as I watched her move to put the dress back on the rack. "I can't. It would compromise you. One dress isn't worth your grisly death."

I fought the smile that was playing at my lips. The Rose from a few weeks ago would have dove at the opportunity to try on the dress that fantasies are made of. But the new, focused Rose knew better. The guardian Rose knew better.

"Then we'll just get it without you trying it on." Lissa quickly bought the black dress.

"I call dress code." Ben muttered to me from where he stood. I just chuckled.

The drive home was quiet due to the regular sleep schedules of the students being flipped for this particular outing. Rose sat next to me in a sleepy silence. She arched back against the seat as she yawned. A completely innocent gesture that lent to a good view of her curves. I kept my view foreword, but was hyperaware of the fact that our arms were touching. I ignored the attraction that always seemed to burn in any type of contact with this girl.

"So, I can't ever try on clothes again?" she asked, barely above a whisper, knowing the three other girls had long since fallen asleep.

"When you aren't on duty, you can. You can do it during your time off."

"I don't ever want time off. I want to always take care of Lissa," she said. I smiled at her statement. She and I had a lot in common. She yawned again and changed the subject. "Did you see that dress?"

"I saw the dress." This was not a conversation I wanted to have in front of three guardians and Moroi royalty.

"Did you like it?"

I stayed silent. I loved the dress. I loved it to the point of hating it, for what it turned me into. I was a fool because of that damn dress.

She went on regardless of my silence. "Am I going to endanger my reputation if I wear it to the dance?"

It took me several moments to think of something to respond with. I decided on honestly, though I was very quiet when I said, "You'll endanger the school." I chanced a glance down at her just in time to see her smile and close her eyes.

She slowly rested her head on my shoulder as she fell asleep next to me, and in that moment there wasn't seven other people in the car. There wasn't another soul on the planet, it was just me and Rose, together. As she sighed deeply in her sleep she shivered a bit and I took my coat from the seat beside me and covered her with it. I tried not to dwell on how my body reacted to the sight of her draped in my coat.

The ride back to the school seemed to only last moments. As we drove through the gates, Rose started to stir. By the time we had stopped she was fully awake and I was sad to see her pulling my coat off of her. As everyone shuffled out into the semi-cold day, Rose's attitude had seemed to change drastically. She walked in stride with Lissa talking with her as Stan Alto caught stride next to me.

"Belikov," he said in a way of greeting.

"Alto."

"Hathaway has always been thoughtless, reckless, and too opinionated for her own good."

I raised my eyebrows slightly confused. "So, I've read." Where was he going with this?

"Since you have been training her one on one, she has seemed to buckle down. She pays attention enough in class to pass. And the way she acted today… well. Good job. I suspect she may have a chance come time for field." He was referring to the field experience that Rose had been dangerously close to not being educated enough to participate in.

"Thank you Guardian Alto, but with all due respect. The one thing I have not had to teach Miss Hathaway is the importance of being responsible. She is one hundred percent dedicated to keeping the Princess safe."

We both glanced at Rose who was walking along a bench, keeping in step with Lissa.

"Hey," Spiridon yelled from two feet in front of me. "You're still on duty. No fun allowed up there."

"No fun here," Rose threw over her shoulder, not missing a beat. "I swear-shit." We all watched as Rose's body continued forward, though her foot remained in it's place on the bench.

Her body fell sideways, toward the ground, as her foot remained held in place by the apparently rotted wood. As her body made contact with the sidewalk she let out an animalistic scream, and from the direction her body fell I knew her ankle had snapped.

Lissa was the first to her aid trying to pull her foot out of the rotted bench, but giving up quickly, and resorting to talking calmly over Rose's screams. By the time the rest of us had caught up to her Rose was in a bad state, cursing loudly and trying to pull her foot from the bench. I collected her in my arms and turned quickly toward the clinic. I looked briefly at Alto, who nodded once and began steering the rest of the group back toward the school entrance.

Three and a half hours later Rose began to move in the bed. I sat up straighter ready for her to start shouting again. She seemed to just stare at the ceiling for several long moments.

"Rose."

She turned her head slowly as if she was waking up to a new life completely. She looked at me for a few short moments as if trying to decide on whether I was really there or not.

"Hey," she said finally, her voice cracking sleepily.

"How do you feel?"

"Weird. Kind of groggy."

"Dr. Olendzki gave you something for the pain- you seemed pretty bad when they brought you in," I said slowly.

"I don't remember that… How long have I been out?"

"A few hours."

She frowned slightly. "Must have been strong. Must still be strong." She seemed to withdraw into herself for a few moments while she tried to recall the recent incident. Slowly she began moving her toes. "I don't hurt at all."

I shook my head. "No. Because you weren't seriously injured."

This seemed to startle her a bit. "Are you sure? I remember… the way it bent. No. Something must be broken." She sat up unsteadily, looking down at her ankle. "Or at least sprained."

I leaned forward and stopped any further investigation of her ankle. "Be careful. Your ankle might be fine, but you're probably still a little out of it."

She moved to the edge of the bed and pulled her leg out from under the covers. She studied her ankle with a look of astonishment.

"God, I got lucky. If I'd hurt it, it would have put me out of practice for a while."

I smiled, sitting back and remembering her panicked face looking up at me as I carried her to the clinic. "I know. You kept telling me that while I was carrying you. You were very upset."

She looked up at me. "You… you carried me here?"

"After we broke the bench apart and freed your foot."

She seemed lost in thought for a bit before she groaned, "I was taken down by a bench."

I fought to hide my amusement. "What?"

"I survived a whole day guarding Lissa, and you guys said I did a good job. Then, I get back here and meet my downfall in the form of a bench. Do you know how embarrassing that is? And all those guys saw, too."

"It wasn't your fault," I said trying to appease her. "No one knew the bench was rotted. It looked fine."

"Still. I should have just stuck to the sidewalk like a normal person. The other novices are going to give me shit when I get beck." Her gorgeous frown was set in what was almost a pout.

I held back the urge to smile again. "Maybe presents will cheer you up."

It seemed to. "Presents?" she asked in a newly found better mood, sitting up straighter.

I handed her the small box that Victor Dashkov had dropped off, right after she had fallen asleep. "This is from Prince Victor."

She opened the card first, reading the note, then said, "That was nice of him." she opened the small box and her eyes widened, "Whoa. Very nice." She lifted the necklace up, looping its chain over her hand so the diamond covered rose hung free.

"This is pretty extreme for a get-well present," she said examining the necklace.

"He actually bought it in honor of you doing so well on your first day as an official guardian. He saw you and Lissa looking at it." I said repeating what had been relayed to me, in the Prince's quick visit.

"Wow," she said. "I don't think I did that good of a job."

"I do." I immediately cursed myself for letting those two words slip out. I was beginning to forget my place with Rose.

She smiled and placed the necklace back into its box. "You did say 'presents' right? Like more than one?"

I laughed, despite myself. Ah, Roza, I thought as I pulled the second item out of my pocket. "This is from me."

She took the small plain bag with a mix or puzzlement and excitement. She opened it quickly and stared at the lip gloss in shock. "How'd you manage to buy this? I saw you the whole time at the mall."

"Guardian secrets." I said with a mysterious tone.

"What's this for? For my first day?"

"No," I said with total honesty. "Because I thought it would make you happy."

She leaned forward and hugged me, simply saying, "Thank you."

The hug had caught me be surprise, but I found myself warming to her touch almost instantly and I returned the hug. This embrace stirred that longing inside yet again. I tried to ignore it.

"I'm glad you're better," I said, turning my face toward her breathing in the scent of her hair. "When I saw you fall…"

"You thought, 'Wow, she's a loser.'"

"That's not what I thought." I thought of how much I wanted to save you. To keep you from danger. I am falling way too hard, Roza.

I pulled back slightly so I could see her better, but I couldn't say a word. How could Stan Alto, not see how close to perfection this girl was? Sure, she was rough around the edges but she was magnificent from her mind to her body to her soul. Before I knew what I was doing I reached out and traced the edge of her cheekbone with my fingers, moving up the side of her face. I wound a lock of her hair around my finger, much like I had in the gym.

I was lost deep in the thought of kissing her, feeling her lips against mine. Feeling her needing me and wanting me as much as I needed and wanted her. My mind was fogged over with the thought of closing the distance between us, that the slight knock at the door shocked me back into reality.

Rose quickly leaned back in bed as Dr. Olendzki poked her head in the room. "I thought I heard you talking. How do you feel?"

After a conversation about the fall and Rose's reaction, the doctor wrote her off with a clean bill of health. I brought Rose's shoes and coat over to her after the doctor had exited the room. She seemed to study me for a while before she began slipping on her shoes.

"You have a guardian angel." I said as she slipped her other shoe on.

"I don't believe in angels," she said matter-of-factly. "I believe in what I can do for myself."

"Well then, you have an amazing body." She looked up at me questioningly. Shit! "For healing, I mean. I heard about the accident…" I didn't elaborate any further on which accident, as it was common knowledge.

She looked distant. "Everyone said I shouldn't have survived. Because of where I sat and the way the car hit the tree. Lissa was really the only one in a secure spot. She and I walked away with only a few scratches."

I was in awe. "And you don't believe in angels or miracles."

"Nope. I-" suddenly her face changed as if she had just figured out the meaning of life…

I decided not to keep going into the look on her face as she is all up in Lissa's head and stuff cuz that would have been boring....

I feel like this one has a different all around feel to it, seeing as how it wasn't one I originally had in mind... Do ya'll feel that too? Lemme know cuz it was odd to me in some way!

Again let me know if/where there are any mistakes or spelling issues...