(with mentions of baby taisia belikova)
CW for death in childbirth | complete narrative
Rose didn’t like taking time off, but she knew Dimitri didn’t see his family as often as he would like and she missed them, too. She might crack a lot of jokes about Siberia, about Dimitri’s choices in music and reading material, but when it came right down to it, Rose really loved the village her husband had grown up in. She loved his family, too. From the moment she’d met the Belikov family, they had welcomed her as one of their own. That had been a time when she thought - they all thought - Dimitri was lost to them forever, before he’d been brought back thanks to a prison break and a fairy tale. Now, she was officially a part of the family and she loved the all too infrequent trips to visit them.
They’d only been there a few days already, enough time to settle in and adjust to the time change. It helped that they’d both been on a nocturnal schedule at Court. With the time change, that made adapting to the regular human schedule in Baia a little easier.
Dimitri’s mother was something of a medic for the little village and it wasn’t that surprising when a call came in about one of her patients. It was a young dhampir girl who had gone into labor. Childbirth wasn’t really Rose’s idea of a good time, but when Olena asked them to go along and assist, she couldn’t tell her mother-in-law no. As kind as Olena Belikova had been to her, carrying some hot water or whatever else seemed like the least she could do.
Unfortunately, all did not go smoothly. There were complications following the birth and the mother bled out right in front of them. There had been nothing anyone could do to save her. Rose saw death regularly. She dealt it enough that her neck was covered in molnija marks. This was different, though. Rose had a hard time dragging her eyes off the body even as she heard Olena speaking. She was saying something about the father being long gone, about the girl, herself not having any real family. They’d have to find a family to take the child in, but first there was a memorial service to plan.
Rose forced herself to pull her gaze away from the girl, the blood, all of it and automatically she sought out Dimitri. Her gaze locked with his and she saw the sadness she was feeling mirrored in his eyes. There was a quiet pleading in them, too. Something about it led her to shift her gaze down a little and in the next instant she saw the infant cradled in his arms.
“Roza, please,” he whispered. He’d been bugging her about adopting another child for months now. Over a year, actually. Rose had waffled back and forth on the topic. Taking care of Grace was tough enough when they both had their Guardian duties. How much harder would it be with two? With a baby. Looking at Dimitri now, Rose was more confused than ever. A part of her wanted to give in, to agree and take this baby home with them, but an equal part of her just wasn’t sure.
Grace had changed their lives and while it was busy and sometimes frustrating, Dimitri loved being a father and despite what she might think, Rose was a great mother. Seeing this poor baby broke his heart, she needed a home, a good home with people who would understand her and he knew they could give her that. “She doesn’t have anyone else,” he said softly. “We can take care of her, she needs us, Roza.”
It was cheating, Rose couldn’t help thinking, that he knew her so well. He knew exactly what to say to tug at her heartstrings, whether he was doing in intentionally or not. He was using her own words from two years ago against her now. It was knowing that Grace wouldn’t have anyone else that had driven her to adopt their now almost four year-old daughter. If Rose had a weak spot, it was her desire not to let a child grow up feeling as abandoned as she had.
“Can we take care of her?” she countered, voicing her doubts in a low voice. “We already have our hands full balancing Grace and our guardian duties and she was a toddler when we found her. This is a newborn!”
She knew what he was getting at. At part of her even agreed with him, but she wasn’t sure they really could do it, despite his confidence.
“I’m sure my mother would be willing to come and stay with us for a little while, to help us get adjusted.” he ran a hand through his hair and looked toward the people standing around the baby. “It won’t be easy but what about our lives has ever been easy? We’ve been through a lot but we made it and I believe that we can do this together. It’s just...she deserves a good life and we can give her one. It won’t be perfect but whose life is?”
It would be amusing, Dimitri being the idealistic one while she was being so pragmatic about this, if the situation wasn’t so serious. She was haunted by the scene they’d just witnessed and she knew what he was suggesting was the right thing to do. Maybe. Probably. There was a chance, she knew, that someone in Baia would have been willing to take the baby in and that she would have a good life here, but it would be different from the world she would know at Court. Rose had grown to appreciate both of those worlds, but she couldn’t help her bias towards the life of a guardian. She also knew that Lissa would help as much as she had with Grace. If she let Dimitri have his way in this, both girls would have a sister. It was something else she’d kind of wished for as a kid that she would hopefully never actually have, although with Abe, who knew. She probably had about a dozen secret siblings out there, knowing her old man.
“Do I have to decide right now?” she asked after a moment. She was considering it, she knew she was probably going to give in eventually, because it was damn hard to refuse this man anything he wanted so badly, but it was a big decision and she didn’t want to rush in, for once.
He tried not to let the smile show too much because he knew that wa a good as a yes. “I don’t think so. They’ll want to watch her for a day or two to make sure she’s healthy before she can travel. We’ll be here though so we’ll be able to spend time with her and help even if we don’t adopt her.” Dimitri knew he was playing a bit dirty but he also knew that Rose was much more soft hearted than she might like to let on.
Rose shot him a dirty look, because she knew exactly what he was doing. She had half a mind to smack him and possibly Yeva for suggesting to Olena that she take them along on this venture. Well, maybe not really Yeva. That little old lady scared the crap out of her sometimes. Even if she refused to believe Dimitri’s grandmother was really a witch.
“You can wipe that little smile off your face right now, Belikov,” she grumbled while glaring at him. “I haven’t agreed to anything.”
“Of course not. I know that. You aren’t even considering it,” he said, somehow managing to keep a straight face.
Reaching over, she smacked him on the arm. “I’ll make all the jokes around here, comrade,” she retorted. Straight face or not, she knew when he was teasing her. Glancing briefly back over at Olena with the baby, she gestured toward the door. “I’m going to get some air.”
Dimitri nodded. “Do you want company or not?” If she said that she didn’t, it wouldn’t bother him. They’d been together long enough that Dimitri understood that sometimes she needed space, just as he did. This was a huge decision and while he believed it was the right one, he also would never force her to go along with it if she had misgivings. Not when there was a child involved. They both had to be one hundred percent on board.
Rather than answering his question out loud, Rose reached for his hand, pulling him along with her. Truthfully, she just wanted to get out of the house and away from the scene in here for a moment.That was what she wanted a little space from, not him, and it didn’t seem like Olena needed them at the moment.
He followed her without question, knowing that if she wanted to be alone, she’d tell him. It was one thing he loved about Rose. She didn’t play games, she was brutally honest sometimes but you always knew where you stood with her and he enjoyed that.
Letting the door close softly behind them, Rose moved to the edge of the small porch. She rested her hands lightly on the rail as she looked out at the countryside around them. It was quiet out here. Peaceful. It felt better, being away from the scents they’d left behind inside and she sucked in a deep breath as she stood there, uncharacteristically quiet. Normally, Rose felt the need to fill every silence, but she was processing everything that has just happened and somehow the silence was never uncomfortable when she was with Dimitri.
This too was her way sometimes and Dimitri loved that as well. As impulsive as she could be sometimes, she also took her time with big decisions when needed. This was a big decision. They had one daughter and they both loved her very much but the life of a Guardian wasn’t easy and sometimes Dimitri was afraid that he didn’t give enough to Grace. There was no doubt in his mind though that they should take this baby though. It was as if someone was telling him to do it, his grandmother would no doubt say it was magic but he wasn’t so sure about that. For all he knew it might be Yeva herself telling him to take the child, he knew half the people in Baia believed she was a witch although a good one.
Rose was quiet - at least compared to normal - as they went about the rest of their day. She was sure Dimitri and his family probably noticed and she caught Yeva giving her pointed looks more than once over dinner. She was grateful when they were finally able to slip upstairs to Dimitri’s bedroom.
They were lying there together, Dimitri with one of his beloved westerns in his hand while Rose pretended to be interested in the world of social media. After several moments, like that, she put her phone away and rolled onto her side, facing him.
“Okay,” she said finally.
He put down the book and turned his head to look at her. “Are you sure? Because there’s no going back if you’re not. I want us both to be sure, Roza.” He was surprised at how much he had started to hope that she’d say yes. There was something about that tiny baby that had reached out and grabbed his heart and he knew they could give her a good life.
Rose propped her head up on her hand as she looked at him. “I don’t know,” she admitted. She didn’t want to lie to him. She rarely did, if you didn’t count sometimes just leaving things out. “I think you’re right, though,” she added. “We can give her a different life than the one she’d have here. Maybe your mom would find some other family to take her in, but there are no guarantees. If we take her back with us, we know she’ll be taken care of. Maybe we can make something good come out of [...] what happened today.” That was all true, but no way was she admitting that maybe Yeva had gotten to her a little, too.
“There are never guarantees with anything. Except for the fact that I love you more than I can say and you are a good mother to Grace and you’ll be a good mother to this baby too. Who doesn’t have a name but I guess we should wait until we’ve officially decided and taken care of whatever we need to do before we name her.”
Rose nodded. “We should ask your mom if she knows whether the mother had a name picked out already,” she suggested quietly. The little girl had no real family now. They should give her something of her mother if they could, even if it wasn’t much more than a name.
“Maybe she did. That’s a good idea and we could tell her where the name came from when she’s old enough.”
“She probably had other things for her, too,” she added, thinking aloud. “Blankets or clothes or something. We should go back and look.”
Dimitri hadn’t thought of that but of course she would need those things. “Hopefully she has some things but if she didn’t you know everyone in the village will help.” The people of Baia always stuck together. They were like family and a lot of them were family and he had always felt blessed to come from these people.
“I know,” she agreed. Baia might not seem like her kind of place, but she’d fallen in love with it years ago during her first visit. She knew they wouldn’t have any trouble getting everything they might need. There was a part of her that was still anxious about how they were going to find time for a baby once they got back to Court, but she knew they would have help there, too, just like they did with Grace, and like Dimitri, she had already fallen in love with this little girl.