Long time no see ... My fault, not yours. Terrible sorry it's taken so long, but school's been wicked. Hope you'll enjoy! I'll talk to you in the end of this chapter. :)

"I understand if you did it", Dimitri replied after several moments, avoiding answering the question. "You and I will never have a baby, Rose, because … we're dhampirs. I want kids, believe me, but I love you so much I can give that up. If you want them so bad you considered cheating, I just wished you had told me first so we could end this", he made a wide gesture, and I think it included us, the apartment, everything that was us, "before you had to."

I sat silent for a moment. I can't believe he would think I had cheated on him? He was the love of my life, the only one for me. We had been dating for five years now, including the year at the academy.

"I didn't do it", I whispered. I wasn't an easy crier, but a few tears started rolling down my cheeks. "I'm not pregnant, and I didn't cheat. You have to trust me, Dimitri. Trust your instincts."

He nodded, and I saw that he was crying too. "Come here." He leaned closer to me, and I kissed him, trying to put all of my love in to that one kiss. He responded quickly, and the reaction was amazing. Sparks flew as he leaned closer and his tears fell on my cheeks instead of his.

Dimitri broke it, but stayed within an inch. "It was a stupid thing to say, I'm sorry." He kissed my lightly, just brushing my lips with his. "But you are pregnant. See this?" He placed my hand on the lower parts of my stomach. Despite all the lost weight, I was slightly bigger just there. A tiny bump, but you could feel it.

His brown eyes met mine as I shocked looked at him. "No way."

"Only one way. To find out, I mean." I looked at him questioning, and he raised an eyebrow. "Go to the doctor."

Seeing as I desperately wanted to convince Dimitri that I hadn't cheated on him – and really, I haven't – I agreed to seeing a doctor. I didn't know when, where or how that would happen, just that Dimitri had said he would find something that worked for all of us.

Now, I didn't know what he meant about 'all of us' either, but I had stopped questioning him a long time ago. There were no use.

My nausea didn't come back as often and I could slowly get food back in my system. I had a long way to go to gain back my muscles, but I was prepared to do anything. I didn't throw up nearly as often as a week ago, even though it occasionally happened.

One morning, when I was in the bed watching bad reality TV there was a knock on the door. I was surprised, because Dimitri was off guarding Christian at a conference, and I had no clue about Lissa now since the bond disappeared.

When I didn't get up right away there was another knock before someone simply unlocked the door. That was my lead – only four people in this world had a key to our apartment. Me and Dimitri, of course, and then Lissa and Christian.

"Liss! I'm in the bed", I called and didn't even attempt to get up. I really should stand up and bow, but seeing as I'm her best friend and normally one of the twelve guards in her squad, I didn't think I had to. Neither did she, although she scowled when she saw me sprawled out all over the bed.

"You're not ready, Rose?" Lissa eyed my pajamas with discontent, and I eyed her with curiosity. She was dressed very proper, of course, being the queen and all, but didn't wear a crown. She only wore a crown to big feast or when she travelled the world, meeting with her people.

Now it was a light blue dress suit with a knee long skirt, pumps and merely pearls for jewellery. She was and would forever be a classic beauty, one I would from time to time envy for her light colours.

"Ready for what?"

"I thought Dimitri told you. We're going to the medical centre. Doctor Dashkov."

Dashkov? Although Victor now is long gone, every time I heard his last name it sent a chill down my spine. It wasn't fair to all the other Dashkovs out there, especially not the new prince.

Doctor Dashkov wasn't the new prince though. He was the court doctor, taking care of small or big issues that involved all the biggest royals. He was specifically responsible for the ruling family's health, and since Lissa only had Jill, they'd included Christian in the deal.

However, I wasn't included in the deal as far as I knew, and after all, I was a dhampir. We had our own physicians to go to if we had problems. Some dhampirs didn't go if the realized they had problems keeping up with the job, seeing as they would have to retire. None of us wanted to retire.

"Doctor Dashkov?" I wasn't as sceptic as it may sound, just surprised that he would be taking care of my medical issues.

"Yes, he squeezed you in to his tight schedule since he owns the queen a favour", Lissa replied with a slight hint of a smile. "But you're going to miss the appointment if you don't hurry. Dimitri and Christian's already there."

I jumped out of bed and quickly undressed. I heard Lissa gasp out of shock, but if we were in that much of a hurry as she implied, I couldn't deal with her seeing my body the first time since I lost weight.

Running around half naked didn't bother me. It was only her and me – no doubt the squad was right out side, though – and we grew up together for Gods sake. We'd seen each other more or less naked loads of times.

When she finally addressed me – I had a t-shirt on and was trying to jump into my jeans – it wasn't to say something about my weight loss. (And really, I had gained some pounds back during this last week.)

"You have a baby bump."

I nearly fell to the ground when I heard her say that. I thought it was barely visible! No one was supposed to know. Especially since I still didn't believe I was pregnant. But if Lissa saw it … Who didn't?

Her next mention startled me.

"Your aura has a new shine", she continued. I didn't know how often she would open her senses and peek at my aura, but she rarely mentioned doing so. "You have the same glow Sonya had last year."

Oh shit. I mean, Sonya and Mikhail having a baby girl last year is amazing, especially since they made the same journey me and Dimitri have, but if I really had the same glow Sonya had had, that had to mean something.

Seeing as the last time I lied about something to Lissa (about my relationship with Dimitri) it didn't work out that well, I decided I should tell her everything. As quickly as possible of course, so we didn't miss the precious appointment.

I explained how I didn't think I was pregnant because I had only ever been with Dimitri and why I hadn't been guarding her for weeks. When I told her all this she would occasionally nod, and her eyes would flick from my face to right above my head – clearly looking at my aura – and then back again. To my chagrin, I could feel my eyes tearing up. Ridiculous.

"So that's why Dimitri said it was urgent."

So he had been talking to her? I just thought she made the appointment because I hadn't been coming to work. Ah, well.

"Let's leave then", Lissa said, with a small smug. "I can't believe you're pregnant! Who would have thought that you would become a mother before me or even at all?"

I was too exhausted by spilling my life's story to correct her about pretty much everything in that sentence. We left the apartment with her full squad. She told me that she didn't want to attract attention and the best way of that was to act normal. That included me walking as if I wasn't working.

We talked about usual things on the way to the medical centre, such as all the meetings that had passed since we last talked. The defence classes were going so well they had to look for new teachers all the time to create advanced groups to further the education. The upcoming travels for Lissa through-out the country, visiting important moroi-spots and schools. It seemed we had too much to talk about in so little time, that we rushed through everything to make it in time.

When we entered the centre we were rushed to a private waiting room where we found Dimitri and Christian anxiously waiting. When Lissa had mentioned us meeting them here, I hadn't fully understood that we would.

"You were suppose to be at a conference!" I exclaimed, but leaned closer to Dimitri and smelled his aftershave. Even if I had been smelling that for years now, I never got tired of that smell. It was a great comfort.

"It got cancelled", Christian said with a wry smile, one hand in his pocket and the other around Lissa.

The guardians of Lissa's squad – my colleagues, really – had spaced out and now pretended not to see or hear anything but potential danger. The room itself was a bit more fancy than ordinary waiting rooms, with comfy sofas instead of plastic seats and a coffee machine to assist it's guest.

We had just sat down, me and Dimitri in one couch and Lissa and Christian in the other, when a nurse came through a white door with frosted glass.

"Guardian Hathaway, doctor Dashkov will see you in a minute. You are welcome to get comfortable in the examination room until then." She smiled and opened another door to let me and Dimitri in. Lissa and Christian was promptly held outside, with the argument that they were neither family or lovers.

They were as good as – family, I mean – but we didn't contradict the nurse.

I weighed in, as I was suppose to, before I sat down at the examination table and nervously twisted my hands in my lap. I heard rather than saw Dimitri sitting down at one of those spinning chairs you loved when you were a child.

He slid across the floor in the spacious room and took my hands in his. "Roza", he said and stayed silent for a second longer than needed. My pulse raced and I felt as if I were supposed to run a marathon or something, and Dimitri's seriousness didn't help.

"I've been doing a lot of thinking." He swallowed before continuing. "I will love and cherise whatever's in you. I will raise him or her as my own and we wont take a paternity test, because as far as I'm concerned I'm her dad."

His speech was so heart warming I felt my eyes tear up again. (What's up with that anyways? I never cry.) My heart must've skipped a beat when he said he was the father, even though there was no baby and never would be one.

I kissed him gently to show my gratitude and felt the familiar tastes of Dimitri, and I could have gone a lot longer if we weren't interrupted just then.

I felt a bit ashamed as Doctor Dashkov entered the room, but he smiled politely as he sat down at another chair. He too pulled his chair closer to me so that we could have a little chit-chat about my condition.

He was a long, slender moroi in his forties, the same age as my mother maybe. He had brown hair and the jade green eyes common for Dragomir and Dashkov. Instead of reminding me of Lissa, as they should, I came to think of Victor. I quickly brushed that away from my mind.

"Rosemarie Hathaway, I assume?" I nodded to confirm the fact that it was my full, horrid name. "Age?"

"Twenty-one and a half", I replied.

He smiled at my remark, but continued. "And you are Dimitri Belikov? Aged twenty-eight? Any halves or quarters you would like to add?"

Dimitri confirmed those statements but declined to add any 'halves or quarters' and Dashkov continued. "You are here because of your frightening weight loss, Rosemarie. Are you very concerned of your body image?"

I opened my mouth to give him a reply, but quickly closed it again. Was I? I mean, sure, I always wanted to be fit and all that, but I wasn't overly attached to my weight, was I? It had been scary to lose all those pounds. I'm not even going to deny it, because I freaked out. Mostly because all those pounds were muscles.

"No." I looked at Dimitri to see if he agreed with me, and he actually looked like he did. "And Rose will do."

Doctor Dashkov replied with a small smile. "As comforting that is, Rose, you have lost a lot of weight." He held up a small note with my current weight, but I didn't want to see it. "Have we considered that you might endure severe eating disorder?"

Dimitri cut me off before I got a chance to answer, and that might have been for the better.

"We- I think that Rose might be pregnant."

Struggling to keep his face straight, Dr. Dashkov eyed my curiously. It was the same glance Lissa had given me – when they doubted Dimitri was the father. I knew now that Lissa didn't doubt anymore, but that didn't stop the doctor from doing it.

"I took a pregnancy test some weeks ago", I admitted. "It was positive. But it can't be, because- because I've only ever been with Dimitri. You have to trust me on my word."

"We'll have to do a check then", replied Dashkov, back to professional mode. "When was the first day in your last period?"

"August eight." I had been going over this so much since then that the date was etched in my mind.

"It certainly seems as it's possible you are pregnant, but we'll see about the father."

He didn't mean anything bad about it, it was simply a fact. Dhampir plus dhampir didn't work. At least not when it came to reproducing. I was asked to undress my stomach as much as possible and then lie down.

I took Dimitri's hand in mine, not sure what would happen next. The doctor put a cold click of some gel on my stomach and then pulled a computer screen closer to the bed.

"Now, it may be too early for you to see anything, but I want to check that everything's going alright despite your weight loss", Dashkov said and placed an instrument on me. I couldn't get a feel for what to call it, but he drove around like it was a car.

Every now and then the screen would change from one picture in black and white to another, and when Dr. Dashkov found what he had been looking for he paused. "This, right here Rose, is your baby's head. This is his or hers heart."

My breathing stopped. A heart. Our baby has a heart. I can't believe it myself yet, but I started tearing up again. Looking at Dimitri, I saw him doing the same. We connected looks for a split of a second, and were then all over the screen again.

It was still so unbelievable. I had a life inside of me. A baby.

I know, I know. I really should trust doctor Dashkov telling my I was pregnant. But I simply couldn't comprehend and wanted to make sure that wasn't a trick.

I shouldn't be a trick since I had the "same glow" as Sonya had, but hell. I needed to know for sure.

When we got home I slipped away to the bathroom, leaving Dimitri to serve Lissa and Christian coffee or tea.

I didn't tell them that I did it. I felt a bit ashamed that I still didn't believe it. It wasn't easy waiting for two minutes. It felt as though I would break of nervousness and impatience.

And then, my phone rang. Two minutes had passed. I took a deep breath before looking down at my third test.

Two lines.

For the first time, I believed it.

It's official - Rose is pregnant!

Other things that are official: a) The actual movie starts filming TODAY. That's totally awesome, b) I finish school next week! Summer vacation, here I come 3 lots of time to wrap this fanfiction up, to finish writing the rough version of my next and hopefully start publishing something new.

Lots of love to all the reviewers! You know I love you.