Epilogue: Five Years Later

I cannot tell you how sorry I am for leaving you hanging without the epilogue for so long. All I can say is that I got caught up in my other story and then real life started kicking my ass. I hope you like the way I ended this. I always like to have a happy ending=)

RPOV

"Mom do I have to stay with you guys the whole time?" Lexie whined as we approached the gates to the Magic Kingdom. It had been a little over five years since Dimitri and I got married in which a million and one things had happened to prevent us from going on our honeymoon.

The first of which was the birth of our son Ivan. He was the least fussy of the three and had been a breeze during the first year of his life; however as his one year check up approached I began to notice that something wasn't right. He had begun to keep to himself more than usual and had stopped making his cute little baby noises. At first I thought he was just being shy, but when the fire alarm went off after Sparky used too much fire magic in the house and he didn't blink an eye while Katya and Lissa's infant daughter Rosie screamed bloody murder. We took him in and it was as I had begun to suspect. He had nearly seventy-percent hearing loss in his left ear and one hundred percent in his right.

Dimitri held me as I cried myself to sleep that night realizing my baby boy was going to have a really hard time in life. He wouldn't be considered as a guardian if we couldn't do something to fix his hearing. If he wasn't a guardian, I didn't know what life would have to offer for him. Things had begun progressing in the moroi world, but it was still atypical for a male to choose an alternative to guardian lifestyle. Just ask Ambrose.

Lissa had given birth to their second child via invetro fertilization treatments nearly two years after they'd begun trying. She'd had a very difficult second pregnancy and had been put on bed rest after she'd begun to bleed in her fifth month. Christian was a mess and I was doing everything I could with a one year old and a newborn to care for as well as a ten year old.

As we'd discussed I'd resigned as Lissa's official guardian and when Ivan was two returned to work teaching upper level guardian combat classes to the students who studied here at court. Lexie continued her studies at St. Vladimir's but when Katya turned four we decided against sending her away and enrolled her here in the court pre-school as we did with Ivan last year.

Lexie had taken after her father in most ways, but when I received a call from Headmistress Kirova that she'd been booted out of Guardian Alto's class I wasn't at all surprised that she had a little bit of myself in her as well. Since then she'd gotten into some minor trouble, mostly for fighting, but nothing too serious. Her rebellious side had begun to show shortly after she turned thirteen.

Dimitri had taken over as head court guardian and ran a tight ship. He had morning shifts during the day while the kids were at day care and while I was teaching and then we were home together at night to spend time as a family.

Adrian had proposed to Viktoria the spring after our wedding, but she'd declined feeling it would be too awkward to be a guardian and married to a royal moroi. Adrian was hurt at first, but after she gave birth to their son Alexandr he realized that it didn't matter if they were legally married or not. They were a family and very happy and in the end that was all that mattered.

Adrian was still one of my best friends and very close with Lexie. Since Ivan and Alexandr were close in age they often played together and went to school together. Ivan's speech was late to develop due to his hearing loss and it was nice that Adrian spent time with him and was able to interpret his moods from his aura.

Andree joined Lexie at St. Vladimir's the year he turned five and she was all too happy to take him under her wing. If anyone messed with him, she was first in line to protect him. She wanted so badly to be his guardian someday.

We all ended up learning sign language together from an instructor hired by none other than Queen Tatiana herself. She had stepped down at the end of twenty-twelve and true to form Lissa had won the elections after passing her trials with flying colors thanks to Tatiana's coaching.

No one was really that surprised that Lissa became Queen. We all knew what Tatiana was doing when she made her attend all of those royal conferences and functions. Tatiana had retired to a private island with Ambrose and Lissa had taken the throne in August twenty-thirteen.

It was hard at first because she hated being away from her baby girl for such long periods of time, but she found ways to bring what she needed to her and left the wards only when necessary those first two years. It was hard for me not to guard her, but in the end it worked out for the best. Mikhail and Eddie were promoted to the royal guard and I could think of no two better guardians for the job well besides Dimitri and me, but we were unavailable.

Six months after Lissa was crowned Queen she created a new position on the council that was to be filled by a dhampir who would represent the interests of all of the guardians. They had nominations and somehow I ended up being elected to the position. I still taught part time, but majority of my duties involved making things better and fighting for equality for the dhampir population.

Last year Ivan underwent an experimental procedure that helped him regain up to fifty percent hearing in both ears. We cried tears of joy as he was able to hear our voices for the first time with the aid of two very expensive hearing aids that Abe had so graciously funded.

"Yes, you have to stay with us the whole time," Dimitri answered for me as I was busy presenting our tickets to the man at the gates.

She was now fourteen and had grown taller than me. She'd had a major growth spurt last year that had put her just shy of six feet tall rivaling Lissa's height.

Katya was six and Ivan was nearly five and we'd finally made it on our honeymoon.

"What do you want to do first?" I asked Ivan and Katya still signing along with my words as it had become habit.

"It's a small world," they both chorused happily causing Lexie to roll her eyes.

"You can pick the next one," I told her ruffling her long thick hair. I understood that it was hard for her sometimes being so much older than her siblings, but she usually handled her duties as the older sister with great pride. She also liked bossing them about, which she claimed was every oldest sibling's given right.

She huffed, but agreed pulling out her phone more than likely sending Andree an annoyed text.

Over the next several days we spent time in each of the four theme parks and even Lexie who claimed to be too old to have fun at Disney ended up with a big smile plastered across her face at the end of the day.

"I'm so glad we got adjoining rooms," Dimitri whispered in my ear huskily planting a kiss right under my right earlobe as he ran his hands down my body.

"Me too," I groaned melting into his touch. With three children and all of our other duties it was difficult to find time for just the two of us.

"Do you ever think about having another one?" Dimitri asked as we lay wrapped up in each other's arms watching as the sun rose from our balcony.

"Hell no!" I said punching him playfully. "Three is plenty, besides aren't you too old for that?" I asked jokingly. He was just shy of turning forty, but you would never know it. He was still as strong and virile as the day I met him.

"I'll never be too old to keep up with you my love," he responded rolling over so he was on top of me his beautiful eyes boring into mine as he hovered over me.

"Good, I'm going to hold you to that Comrade," I told him running my finger tips over the tattoo he'd gotten for me and Lexie all those years ago. I no longer needed the reminder of what it represented, but it was always there and so was he, just like he promised.

THE END=) Thanks to everyone who has stuck with me this far. I hope you'll all look for the sequel to my other story "The Search for Rosemarie Mazur" I will be posting it shortly after Thanksgiving and definitely by December 1st. It will be titled "Being Rosemarie Mazur" and will take Rose through the next ten years of her life and all the trials she faces after moving to Turkey, going to college, dealing with her past and her future with Dimitri. I will post an attention to my other story when it is available. Thanks again for reading and have a blessed Thanksgiving Holiday=)