Lissa's face looked really concerned as she got off the phone with Christian. Once she was off the phone, she kind of stared down at it for a second.

"What's going on, is he okay?" I asked her. She nodded.

"He's alright. He's upset. I need to go to him. You don't mind, do you?" She asked.

"I want to go with you." I said.

"Rose, I don't think he needs to be around-." I cut her off.

"Lissa, regardless of everything… Christian is one of my best friends." I told her. She stared at me for a second, and smiled.

"I think that's the first time you've ever referred to him as anything other than fire boy or a pain-in-your-ass." She said. I laughed.

"Yeah, don't get used to it." I told her. We got everything together, and I followed her out onto the back deck, which I guess was where he was. When I needed fresh air, this was where I came too, so I understood. He was standing at the railing, staring off into the distance. I could only imagine what seeing Tasha down there had done to him. I knew what it did to Lissa seeing me down there, so I could only imagine it was ten times worse for him since Tasha was basically the only family he had left.

"Christian…" Lissa murmured. The moment he turned around, I had to fight back tears. I'd known Christian for a while, but I never thought that I would ever see him cry. He met my eyes for less than as second before wrapping his arms around Lissa, and burying his face into her collar bone. She just kept assuring him that it would be alright, and ran her hands through his hair. It was almost as if we had the bond again. I could see the sympathy and sorry radiating off Lissa. I knew she wished there was something she could do, but knew there was nothing to be done. When she released him, she took her face in his hands and kissed him. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry you have to do this, but we'll get through it. We'll survive, like we always do." She promised him. He just nodded, obviously afraid to speak. His eyes finally left her, and fell on me.

"Lissa, can I talk to Christian alone for a minute?" I asked. She turned around and gave me a strange look. I hadn't been expecting it either, but I had something I wanted to say without her around to argue my case. I knew that wouldn't make it any better anyway. She looked at him.

"Are you gonna be okay?" He just nodded again. "I'll be in the room. Come up when you're ready, okay." She told him, before kissing him again, and walking inside. When the door closed behind her, I looked up at Christian who was already looking down.

"You know, out of our entire crew, you were the last person I ever thought I'd see cry." I said. He half-ass smirked. I smiled and walked over to him, taking his face in my hands, and wiping the tears with my thumbs. "We're going to get you through this, Christian. Just like you've helped us all get through everything else."

"She's..." He stopped, and took a deep breath. "She's all I have left, Rose. I know she doesn't deserve sympathy, but she's the last of my blood. It's not going to be easy to just let her die." He said.

"I know that. I know. You're talking to the girl that trekked half-way across the world to hunt down and kill the man she loved. I know what it's like to have to let someone go like that. You wanna know how I got through it?"

"How?" He asked.

"He wasn't the same person when I went after him, and Christian, Tasha is not the same person she once was. Something dark has risen within her. I don't know why, or what it is, but it's bad." I told him.

"I know. She still thinks she's right. It would have been so much easier if I would have went down there and she would have been sorry and crying, and so upset for what she'd done, but she wasn't. Atleast then, I'd have a reason to sympathize for her, but she wasn't upset. She still believes she was in the right, and she did what had to be done for change. Now the only reason I feel bad is because she really is all I have left." He said, looking at the ground.

"No, she isn't." I said, pulling his face up to look at me. "You've got Lissa, and me, and Dimitri, and… Regardless of everything, if he ever returns, you've got Adrian. Christian, don't you ever think for a second that you're alone in anything, because you're not. We may not be blood, but we'll damn sure be here forever." I told him. I looked down. "I'm sorry."

"What are you apologizing for?"

"I was free, Christian. I was out of this place; they would have never found us where we were. I was a free woman when we escaped, but I came back, I had to clear my name. I had to be noble, when the world might have been better off not knowing. You would have been better off not knowing."

"Rose, do not apologize for doing what's right. She framed you. I wouldn't ever ask you to live your life away from everything you love just to keep my Aunt around." He said.

"I still feel like this part of it all could have been avoided." I said. He shook his head.

"No… You did the right thing. As bad as I feel, she deserves what she's getting. It'll be hard to let her go, but it's all I can do. I love her, but not enough to break her out and take the chance on her killing someone else." He told me. "She asked me to help her escape."

"You told her no." I stated. He nodded.

"She argued that I helped you escape, so I could help her too. I wouldn't." He said. "She's not innocent like you were."

"I think we all would have been better off in the dark." I told him.

"No, Rose…stop it. If you wouldn't have come back and told the truth, you would have had to live your life on the run. You would never have been truly happy. You would have given up Lissa and Adrian just to keep from outing Tasha. That's not right. That would have been so selfish of me to let you do that."

"If I wouldn't have come back, Lissa wouldn't have been elected queen, I wouldn't have been shot, we would still have the bond, and someone else would have been elected for the throne… and none of us would have to deal with it." I said. He grabbed my shoulders, and met my eyes.

"No… I know that after you outted her, it caused quite a stir, and it definitely was a hard time for everyone, but none of us would be as strong as we are today had you not. Look at all of us… Lissa's finally doing her family name justice. I'm actually proving that Ozera isn't such a bad name to carry after all, regardless of everything else; I believe I represent my family… the good part of my family better than anyone. You and Dimitri are together and happy, we've all grown stronger. It's shaped us more as people. I wouldn't change it." He said, honestly. I smiled.

"This may not mean much coming from me, but I'm so proud of the man you've become. You have earned your title, Lord Ozera." I said, bowing slightly. He nodded at me once.

"It does mean a lot coming from you, Rose." I wrapped my arms around him, and hugged him tight.

"I love you Christian. You're like the brother I never had, and I'm always going to be here for you."

"Love you too, Rose." He said. When we broke our embrace, I smiled.

"Now go upstairs to Lissa, who I'm sure is freaking out over why I asked to talk to you alone." I said.

"You knew she'd argue your case for you." He said. I nodded.

"We know that better than anyone." I said. He smiled.

"I'll see you later, Rose." He said, walking around me and inside. I stood there for a second, staring out over the mountains. The sun was starting to set, so I headed inside, hoping Dimitri was back. When I reached our room, I found it empty. I was slightly disappointed. I sat down at the counter, looking at a magazine when about thirty minutes later, the door opened. I looked up to find Dimitri in one piece as he walked in. I was extremely happy. He looked slightly uneasy though.

"How'd it go?"

"It went good for the most part." He said. Of course it couldn't have went great and that been the end of it. He laid his bag down by the door, and kicked off his boots since they were caked in mud and what looked like blood as well.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine… I'm just tired." He said. The moment the words left his lips, I knew he was lying. I could see he was tired, but there was more than that.

"Dimitri, what happened?" I asked him, standing up. I was becoming extremely concerned. He shook his head.

"Nothing happened, Roza. I'm tired. It's been a long day, chasing down everything your father shot." He told me. I smiled.

"You didn't shoot anything?" I asked.

"I shot a buck, but he wasn't as big as the ones your father shot." He said, simply. His replies were clipped and short, and I could tell something was bothering him. I wondered what had been said, or what happened out there that he wasn't telling me. I walked around the counter, and over to hug him.

"I'm nasty. I've been in the woods all day." He warned. I rolled my eyes.

"I don't care. I've missed you." I said, simply. I wrapped my arms around his waist. He pressed a kiss to the top of my head.

"I missed you too." He whispered into my hair. "I'm going to go get a shower, okay?"

"Okay." I said. He leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to my lips before releasing me. I just nodded and let him go. He walked into the bedroom, grabbing a change of clothes and heading into the bathroom. I sighed and walked into our room, sitting down on our bed. I was going over all the possible things that could have happened today, but they were all very reasonable, so I wasn't able to exactly guess. When he got out and walked out in his athletic shorts and soaking wet hair, I sighed. He truly was beautiful in all aspects of the word. He threw his dirty clothes in the hamper, and stood at the end of the bed.

"So, now that you're clean… do you wanna tell me what's bothering you?" I asked.

"Roza, nothing is bothering me. I'm fine. I told you, I'm-."

"Look me in the eye and tell me something isn't bothering you." I said, simply. He looked up and met my gaze, but sighed. "See… I can't help if I don't know."

"You can't help. It's all me." He said.

"Tell me? Let me try to make it better?" I asked, patting the space next to me on the bed. He crawled in and laid his head in my lap like a small child would do to their mother at story time. I ran a hand through his damp hair as he spoke.

"I just had to talk about a lot of things today, that I don't really feel comfortable discussing, things only you knew about me. Like you said, I couldn't lie to them though. I told them the truth, about everything they asked."

"Things like what?" I asked.

"When I was a strigoi, what happened with me and my father when I was sixteen, what happened with Adrian, why I pushed you away after I was restored. Talking about it all today just made it weigh on me." He said.

"Dimitri, all of that stuff is unimportant now. Everything is fine, none of that matters anymore."

"Not all of it has been made right, Rose." He said. Automatically, I knew which one he was referring too. Adrian. I sighed.

"There's nothing we can do for him. He's gone." I stated simply.

"I feel horrible about it, Rose."

"We both do. I tried to make it right before he left. He wouldn't let me. I don't blame him." I finally admitted. "Lissa and I talked about him today too, but I pushed it outta my mind. I had more important things to deal with."

"He'll forgive you. It's me he'll never forgive." Dimitri said. In that moment, I could see how important Adrian's forgiveness was to him. We knew what we were getting into when it happened though, but unfortunately we didn't think of the consequences and the people we'd hurt until after. I sighed.

"He's not going to forgive me. I don't know why you all think that." I said.

"Because he loves you." He said, simply.

"I love him, but not in the same way. He needs to understand that." I said.

"That doesn't make what happened, right." He said. I shook my head.

"No… God no. I know it doesn't." I sighed. "I don't deserve his forgiveness."

"Neither of us does." He said. I nodded. "How'd things go with Lissa today?" He was trying to lighten the mood.

"Good until Christian called."

"What happened?" He asked, rolling over to look up at me.

"He was a little broken up about his aunt. I talked to him a little bit, and assured him that we were always here if he needed us, and how much we loved him, and that we'd help him through this." I explained.

"Losing her won't be easy on him." He said, looking back down now.

"It won't be easy on you either." I whispered.

"What?"

"Regardless of everything, she was a close friend of yours… maybe even more at one point. You know you don't want her to die." I said. He sighed.

"She almost took you away from me. She killed an innocent and sent our entire world into a frenzy due to her stupidity. It will be a sad day, yes… but I will never forgive her for what she's done." He told me. I smiled and twined my fingers into his hair.

"I love you." I whispered.

"I love you too, Roza." He said. I laid down and snuggled up into his arms. This time, we'd both made it out unscathed. I guess we were a little more bulletproof than we thought.

A/N: Alright guys, this story is done. You wanted me to continue to when Dimitri got home from the trip, so I did. I hope you liked it. I really enjoyed writing the ChristianXRose bonding moment. Anywho… Thanks for reading. REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! I love all of you, and check out my current Fan-Fic, Walk on Water or Drown. 3