Little Pink Plus Sign

It was no accident

"Roza?" Dimitri's voice shook me from my sleep. Groggily, I moaned and stretched my arms. My hands rested on my stomach as I gathered the energy to sit up.

"Need some help with that?" Dimitri smirked at me. His steady hand supported my back as he helped me to my feet.

"What time is it? Are we late?" I mumbled, remembering the doctor's appointment we had this afternoon.

"No, but training ran late, so we will be if we don't leave now." Grabbing my bag, he slung it over his shoulder and guided me toward the door. I was still pretty dazed, but soon, the twins started kicking again which did quite a bit to wake me up.

"Training already," I whispered.

Smiling, Dimitri stopped and rested his hand on my belly. "That must've been one heck of a nap."

I sighed. "It really was. This was the first time in a while that they haven't woken me up...and that I haven't had to get up to pee." Almost immediately after the words left my mouth, I regretted them. "Dimitri..."

Sighing, he unlocked the door and let me back inside. Thankfully, he was used to my overactive bladder and treated it as a necessary evil of our new everyday lives.

Quite a few adjustments had been made lately. Weekly doctor appointments, hourly potty breaks, minimal work hours...it was a wonder Dimitri and I hadn't gone mad. Both of us longed to get back to work, but as the days passed, it became clearer and clearer that our lives would never go back to the way they were.

Once the twins were born, we'd have a full time job raising them. Who knew when I'd finally get back to guardianship? My heart was torn, so my current solution was to completely ignore the problem until I absolutely had to deal with it. Sure it wasn't the best plan, but damn it was effective.

I found Dimitri patiently waiting outside the suite. "All set?" he asked. Nodding once, I took his hand and we set off for the doctor.

We knew this path far too well at this point. Luckily, aside from the one panicked trip, every doctor's visit was strictly routine. I felt my heart fly into my throat when I remembered what today's visit entailed.

"What are you hoping for?" I asked, curiously glancing up at him.

Scoffing, he shrugged. "Roza, we've having babies – our own babies – I could care less what the genders are as long as the three of you are healthy."

"Indulge me," I urged.

"Okay..." Tilting his head sideways, he said, "Well, I've been thinking of them as one boy and one girl. What about you?"

"Boys," I said as one of them kicked my bladder pretty hard. "Little warriors ready for battle." I walked in silence for a bit, the next question resting on the tip of my tongue. "Have you thought about names?"

At this, his eyebrows raised. "I hadn't thought that much about it." He opened the door to the clinic for me, shrugged, and said simply, "Guess we'll have to start thinking about that."

Something in his tone told me he had been thinking about it and that he had names in mind. Strangely though, I understood why he was holding back. I'd thought about names for hours on end and never discussed it with him. With how high risk everything about this pregnancy was, I didn't want to risk naming the twins yet. That made it too real, far too impossible to let them go should anything...

"Guardians Belikov," the nurse greeted genially. "How is everything?"

"Great," Dimitri responded immediately. "The twins have started kicking!" He sounded like a little boy who had just won his first baseball game. The pride and enthusiasm in his voice almost brought tears to my eyes.

"Have they??" She stood up and peeked over the counter at my little swollen belly. "May I?"

Nodding, I directed her hand to where the twins where currently kicking the hell out of me. I'm not sure what they were trying to accomplish, but damn they were working hard at it.

"Oh my!" she exclaimed. "They're quite active." Smiling at me, she added, "Like they're parents, I'm sure. How much longer do you have?"

"They're due the end of December so four more months," I replied.

Sitting back down, she smiled widely at both of us and finished checking us in. "Well, I wish you both the best of luck."

With a giddy smile, Dimitri said, "спасибо."

Laughing quietly at the nurse's confused face, I said, "He means thank you. Sorry, when he gets too excited, he slips into Russian."

Four bottles of water later, the doctor finally called us back. He was apologizing for the wait because of something with the sonogram equipment being messed up. Honestly, I didn't care what his excuse was. All I knew was that I was about to pee on the floor and it was going to be his fault and responsibility to clean up.

When he started pressing on my stomach, I thought for sure my stomach was going to explode. I was about three seconds from cussing him out when I saw the twins up on the screen. Every part of my body softened as I watched them. One was sucking its little thumb and the other was punching away at the sonogram wand. I couldn't help but laugh.

"That one takes after you," Dimitri said gently.

The doctor nodded, staring at the screen. "Little fighter just like her mother."

"Her??" I perked up at the word.

His head bobbed once. "Little girls, both of them." He pointed out the evidence on the screen.

My heart swelled. When I glanced excitedly at Dimitri, I noticed tears in his eyes. He quickly wiped them away. "Aделаида."

"What does that mean?" I laughed. I'd never heard him use that word before.

Shaking his head, he explained. "It's a name, an old Russian name that my mother always loved. I grew fond of it myself growing up."

"Adelaida," I tested the word on my lips. It was quite beautiful. "Adelaida and...Evanna." Dimitri's eyebrow raised at that last bit, so I explained, "Mom mentioned once or twice that her mother's name was Evanna. I never learned much about her, only that she was a guardian that put even my mother to shame with her battle prowess."

"Evanna and Adelaida," Dimitri said softly. "I love it." He planted a small kiss to my cheek before turning his attention back to the screen.

When the doctor managed to pry us from the screen, he wiped my stomach clean and sent us back to the front to make our next appointment. It was then that I noticed two Moroi men. They looked to be about fifty, but I knew they were probably much older. Both of them had their eyes locked on my stomach.

One of them, the shorter one, made eye contact with me as we passed. I flinched as his glare cut into me.

"What's wrong?" Dimitri asked, noticing the small movement.

"Nothing," I lied, pushing him toward the front desk in hopes of a quick escape.

The taller of the two began speaking. It was too loud to ignore, too clear as it sliced through the air to be misheard. "I heard she cheated on him...yeah with none other than Lord Ozera."

Before I could blink, Dimitri had left my side. He picked the guy up out of his chair and threw him to the ground. I watched wide-eyed as fists flew. Then, suddenly felt myself knocked off balance. I grabbed desperately for something to hold myself up, but found nothing nearby. The last thing I saw before hitting the ground was the cold glare of the shorter Moroi man that was too pointed to be misunderstood. He towered over me, smiling maliciously.

This hadn't been an accident.