The Jail

To say I was in trouble would be putting it mildly. In fact, it would be a vast understatement. And to say I wasn't worried would be a big fat lie.

I'd been in trouble loads of times before, sure, but this was different. I couldn't simply talk my way out of it. My mere existence was going to be in other peoples' hands and the idea was making more than a little nervous.

"We're going to figure out a way to clear this mess up, okay?" Lissa said anxiously. "Just don't lose hope."

I looked around tiny little jail cell that had become my home away from home and resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Right. Things looked so awesome for me right now. But I couldn't say that to Lissa's face. I had to keep my own game face on. She worried about me enough.

"It's kind of hard when all the odds are stacked against me."

She gave me a stern look and placed her hands on her hips. "You've had the odds stacked against you before. Look at you and Dimitri."

I grimaced. "Not exactly the best comparison source, Lissa. In case you've forgotten, Dimitri and I didn't exactly work out, did we?"

"You will, though."

Her green eyes were determined and I suddenly wanted to smile. Ever since she got over the shock of finding out that he was the love of my life, she'd been completely supportive. She'd even brought him back from the undead for me. Not that I was thrilled about how she'd done it. But still. I was grateful to her, despite the spurts of jealousy I sometimes got at Dimitri's unwavering awe of her.

I gave her a hug and didn't bother telling her that Dimitri hadn't even come to visit, which, I supposed made the ban I'd placed on him pretty pointless since he'd evidently banned himself. But whatever. I wasn't going to rain on her parade. "If you say so."

The guard came and gave me a sympathetic look. A good chunk of the guardians believed in my innocence, which I was grateful for as well. At least some of my colleagues believed in me. I could be volatile at the best of times, but I was no killer. And I'll be the first to admit that Queen Tatiana hadn't exactly been my favorite person—I'd called her a sanctimonious bitch in front of a room full of people for crying out loud. But I would have protected her with my last breath if I had to. There was no way I'd done the dirty deed myself!

He gave a small bow to Lissa. "Princess." He looked back up, face still sympathetic. "I'm sorry, but time's up."

Lissa sighed, but nodded nonetheless. "Thanks. I appreciate you bending the rules for me." She turned back to me and gave me a tight hug. "I promise, we'll figure a way out of this. Adrian's already working with Abe to come up with something."

"I'm sure Lady Ivashkov is pleased about that."

She most likely wasn't so fond of me anymore. I couldn't help but remember the way she'd gone out on a limb for me and had gotten me one of the best lawyers out there for my hearing. But I hadn't been able to accept the offer, not when Zmey had stepped up to the plate.

"Just keep your chin up, Rose. They'll find something. I know they will."

I couldn't tell her anything that would contradict those words, so I simply nodded instead and attempted my best optimistic face.

After Lissa reluctantly left the holding cell, I walked over to the bed and sank onto it. The urge to give in and cry overwhelmed me, but I fought against it. If I broke down and cried, I was afraid I would give up. My best friend told me not to give up hope, but it was so hard. What good was hope when there was a mountain of planted evidence against you? Somebody had framed me and they'd done a damn good job of it. Plus my own personality wasn't doing me many favors.

I brought my knees to my chest and turned around so I faced the back wall of the cell. I lost count of how many times I'd counted the individual gray blocks and it wasn't so amusing anymore, so I stared instead. I stared and tried not to think about anything else.

It started to work, too.

My mind was becoming a perfect blank . . .

"Rose."

I froze. I didn't even breathe. Oh hell, what was he doing here? Hadn't I placed a ban on him? Okay, I was going to ignore the twisted irony in this situation. Role reversal at its finest here. If God did exist somewhere out there in the Universe, He sure did have a crappy sense of humor.

I shouldn't have been surprised, yet I was. Hearing him threw me completely off kilter and I didn't know what to make of this.

On the one hand, I was elated that he was standing on the other side of those bars. That showed more of the old Dimitri coming to life, more than he'd probably admit. It showed that he hadn't given up on me like he'd said that day in the church. This could be added to his one-man army skills he'd used in defense of me.

On the other hand, though, I wanted more than anything for him to go away. I couldn't face him. It wasn't like I had anything to be ashamed about—I was innocent, after all; I knew that. But I couldn't bear disappointing him, even now after everything. I tried not to allow myself to care what he thought, but I would always care. Just like I would always love him, no matter what the world threw at us.

He'd worked so hard to teach me the value of control and how important it was. It was a lesson I'd never learned. If I'd heeded his advice, I would have controlled my temper that day and wouldn't have called Tatiana a sanctimonious bitch, at least not to her face, anyway. Those words would never have left my mouth in a room full of people and I wouldn't have condemned myself and become the perfect target to be framed.

I'd failed one of his most important lessons.

And that's why I stayed turned toward the back wall, hoping he didn't notice how stiff my posture became. I forced myself to relax and tried not to let the sound of his voice have that much effect on me.

"Roza," he repeated with a sigh. "Will you look at me?"

"I banned you from visits. They weren't supposed to let you in," I said, ignoring his question.

He let out a soft grunt. "Yeah. Well I kind of found a workaround."

I gritted my teeth together and scowled. "Oh, so now you're throwing my words back in my face. Nice." I took a deep breath and tried to calm my jitters. "What do you want, Dimitri?"

"What do you think? I needed to know how you were holding up. I had to see if you were okay."

I clutched my knees tighter, remembering the first time I'd gone to visit him in this very cell all too well. I swallowed roughly, fighting back tears. "I'm sure Lissa's updated you."

"You know that I meant I had to see for myself. And all I see is your back."

"Frustrating, isn't it?"

"Same old Rose. Some things really do never change. Why won't you look at me?"

I shut my eyes and continued the battle against the waterworks. I did not want a breakdown in front of Dimitri. I wouldn't do it. "Why didn't you?"

"Our situations are entirely different!"

"They aren't, though. I'm being accused of committing a heinous act, aren't I?"

He let out a mangled sound and I resisted the urge to turn around, just so I could see his exasperated expression that was sure to be present. "It's not the same! You're only being accused; you're innocent. I wasn't. I'd actually done all the horrible things that . . . well, I wasn't innocent."

I ignored his annoying train of logic. That was Dimitri. Always logical. "I don't want to see you."

"That's too bad. You pushed me before, now I'm going to push you. I won't let you give up, not when you should fight back!"

"And how am I supposed to do that from a cell? It's their word against mine, Dimitri! Somebody worked very hard to make sure that I ended up here and their plan has worked brilliantly! I'll be lucky if I ever see the sun again."

Zmey's last words to me ran through my head: "Besides, they don't even send royal traitors to prison, Rose. Everyone knows that . . . they execute traitors."

I shivered at the thought. If I went to trial, chances were that I was going to be found guilty. Things were looking bleaker and bleaker for me and I couldn't even fall back on my, "everything would be okay" attitude. It was time for me to be realistic.

I was most likely going to die. At age 18, I was going to be executed.

It was becoming harder and harder to fight the onslaught of tears and I was grateful that I was not facing Dimitri. Seeing him would just allow those tears to freefall.

"Don't talk like that. We're going to get you out of here. You didn't do this, I know you didn't! You're innocent."

I sighed, still not facing him. He still had that amazing faith in me. I tried not to let his words mess with my head, though. I couldn't allow myself to have hope where Dimitri was concerned. He'd made his feelings about me clear. He may believe that I was innocent, but I doubted it changed anything else. "That's nice, comrade. But have you found a way to make the rest of them believe that?"

"I . . ." That would be a 'no'. "I'm not giving up."

His words brought a painful tightening to my chest and I couldn't fight the bitterness that ate at me. For so long, I'd pushed and pushed. I wouldn't allow him to give up on us or walk away. And now that I actually wanted him to, he did the opposite. It figured. That would be my luck. "That's funny. I thought you already had."

If I expected him to argue that point, I would have been sorely disappointed. He offered no words to refute what I just said and I knew that I was right. He was doing this because he felt obligated. Nothing more.

"Rose, look at me, please."

"No."

"Rose, quit being so stubborn and let me see you."

Why? Why did I have zero willpower when it came to refusing him? I thought I'd done a pretty good job at ignoring him so far. But the longer the conversation went on, the more he sounded so close to my instructor, my lover, my friend . . . it was too tempting to resist.

"Roza," he repeated. This time, his voice was stern and commanding. That one word managed to send shivers down my spine.

I took a deep breath and finally turned around to face him. I didn't even bother to try and put a mask on. With him, there was no point. He'd see right through it.

When I finally faced him for the first time since the hearing, my heart fluttered rapidly in my chest. Oh, he was a sight for sore eyes. His tall frame pushed against the bars, his hands gripping the metal cylinders so tightly that his knuckles were white. His eyes backed up his words—I could see he believed I didn't do this. While most people had their doubts, he had none.

Along with unwavering faith, there was also pain and sadness in those beautiful chocolate eyes. "Oh, Roza. I promise I'm going to get you out of here."

Such dangerous words. His determination was giving me a spark of hope, a pointless, ridiculous spark. I quickly shoved the feeling aside and thought about the larger picture. If he did what he said he was going to do, he would be in a large amount of trouble. Anybody who helped me would. I couldn't let that happen.

"You can't," I whispered. "You've already jeopardized your chances of becoming a guardian again for me once. I won't let you do it again."

He raised an eyebrow at me. "You won't let me? I wasn't aware you had a say in what I do with my life. And as I've said before, it's unlikely they'll let me ever become a guardian again. You know that."

The thought angered me and I shook my head. "But you're the best. Any one of those Moroi would be lucky to have you!"

"Roza, I would love to become a guardian again. I would. I've accepted that it won't happen, though. I can't change that. But I can change things for you." He leaned closer and motioned me forward. Reluctantly, I met him at the bars, careful not to touch him. It was hard—being so close and not being able to feel him like I wanted. But he had issues with skin-to-skin contact and I didn't want to make him uncomfortable. "Abe is devising a plan, as I'm sure Lissa's told you already. He and Adrian are fleshing out the details right now. It's risky—but it will work."

"Dimitri . . ."

"You don't deserve this." His voice was angry, determined. "Not you. I promise you that I'll play my part when the time comes."

I had an idea of what role that would be. And I didn't like it.

"And what part is that?" The tears I'd been fighting against for so long finally started to fall. "You're going to take on an army of guardians all by yourself? You're going to get yourself killed!"

"I won't, though. You saw me back at the café. I—"

"Yes, and I wasn't the only who saw it, either! You can't keep . . . you have to be as normal as possible. You have to make them see that you're not dangerous. Don't you get that? Taking on an army of royal guardians is not normal!"

"And neither am I! I'm not, Rose. I'm far from normal. Ever since I got turned back, I've been fighting against that dark part that still lingers in me. I've been trying to deny that it exists. But if it will help you out of here and get you to safety, I'll embrace it."

"No you won't."

"Try and stop me from here." He looked like he wanted to reach through the bars and touch me. It was evident he was struggling with himself to not do it. He sighed and leaned his head back. "I promised to protect you and I'm going to keep that promise. If it's the last thing I do."

With that, he turned and walked away and the tears continued slipping down my cheeks. I dropped to the floor, hugged my knees to my chest once more, and placed my forehead on them.

After the tears started to slow, I looked back up and stared in the direction Dimitri had gone. "That's what I'm afraid of."

Hola!

So this was my latest VA idea that I had pop up. It's a one-shot, obviously, but ever since I read the ending of SB, I've had this scene going through my head and I wanted to desperately get it out of my system. I think it would be awesome if the roles were reversed and Dimitri had to fight for Rose. *sigh*

Anyway, thanks in advance to anyone who might review under the anonymous function or does not have their PM feature enabled. I won't be able to reply to you guys, so if you want a reply back, be sure to sign in! :)

I hope this was okay. I only scanned it a couple times for mistakes and it is unbeta'd, which is most likely evident. Lol. I hope you guys enjoy it and let me know what you think!