Little Pink Plus Sign

Promise me two things

Scooting back towards the wall, I winced in pain. I took a quick inventory of my pain wrapping my right arm around my stomach furiously hoping the twins were alright. Luckily, the pain was coming from my left arm rather than anywhere near my abdomen.

When I glanced over at Dimitri, all I could see was blood and fists. He was going to kill the Moroi, despite the two guardians trying to tear him away. In an attempt to stop him, I called out to him. Finally I got through, and as soon as he saw me on the ground, he jumped up and rushed toward me. With one good punch to the smaller Moroi's face, he leaned down next to me.

"Are you okay?" his voice filled with panic.

"Yeah, it's just my arm. It's killing me," I said as three nurses and two more guardians rushed toward us. They tried to get me up off of the floor, but before I could even move, Dimitri scooped me up in his arms, careful to avoid my left side.

Following the nurse, he carried me back to an exam room where she began to poke and prod and ask me a million times. After listening to the twins, she assured us that they were both fine and that my arm had taken the brunt of the fall. Murmuring something about an x-ray, she practically sprinted out of the room.

Almost as soon as she left, the two guardians were at the door. "Guardian Belikov, we need to speak with you."

"отвяжись," he said curtly. This was met with shocked and disapproving looks. "You heard me!" Dimitri shouted at them. "Your asshole assignments deserved exactly what they got. Honestly, they got off easy. Now get the hell out of our room."

The look on his face gave even me the chills. I couldn't imagine being on the other side of those eyes. Wrapping my fingers around his wrist, I pulled him towards me. "Comrade, stop." His shoulders softened slightly, and I looked up at the guardians. "Please leave."

Looking rather torn, they conceded. As soon as the door closed, Dimitri took me into his arms. Kissing me softly on the forehead, he whispered, "Я извиняюсь, Роза."

"What are you sorry about?" I asked, placing my right hand on the side of his face.

"I'm sorry for everything. I'm sorry that you probably hear these things on a daily basis. I'm sorry I can't protect you from it. I'm sorry, so, so very sorry."

"Stop." I shook my head at him. "This isn't your fault. I knew that this was going to happen eventually. But look, you can't just go beating up people like that. You could've killed him."

With fire in his eyes, he said, "That's the one thing I'm not sorry for. I should've killed him. He deserved it."

"Comrade, if you had, you'd never see Evanna and Adelaida," I said simply, knowing this was the only thing that would get through to him. "They come first. Just because Lissa would side with us doesn't mean we can get away with murder. Literally."

"He could've hurt them," he said blankly. His eyes welled up and he placed his hands on my stomach. Gently, he placed a kiss to both sides before glancing up at me. "How bad is your arm?"

"Broken," I said flatly. No use in dancing around it. Something was definitely broken, but it wasn't the first time and definitely wouldn't be the last.

Seconds later the nurse burst in to lead us for the x-ray. Despite my fervent assurances that I could walk perfectly fine, Dimitri scooped me up once again.

Once the x-rays were taken, we had nothing to do but wait for the doctor. It seemed like that was all we did lately, and even though we'd had plenty of practice, neither of us had gotten any better at it. It wasn't long before Dimitri was pacing the room.