The accident & the snowstorm (A VA fanfic)

Seventeen

RPOV
"How long have you waited to call me a guardian?" I teased as he supported me down the stairs and off-stage. "And did the first time have to be while proposing?"
"Yes, it did," he tapped my nose. "And I've been waiting from the moment I met you. So, all year."
We stepped onto the floor and I pulled him into another kiss.
"We're breaking protocol, you know?" Dimitri teased.
"You can speak. You lengthened graduation to propose."
"So worth it but, Mommy."
"Oh, definitely worth it, Daddy. Definitely worth it." I nuzzled my nose against his before kissing him again.
"Oh god, Roza, I love you."
"We love you too, Daddy." We broke into grins at the parental term. There was no doubt in our minds that we were going to be a family. Nothing would get in our way of being a family and doing our jobs.

The novice graduation wasn't the only one with a marriage proposal. But this one I'd had to approve of. And I did, if only to get even with Queen Bitch. Christian made Lissa happy and was the father of her unborn little Dragomir. He balanced her in the way Dimitri balanced me. If anyone had to be my brother in law and the no-longer-last Dragomir's husband, then I only approved of fire-lighter, smart-ass, and sarcastic Christian Ozera.

Lissa squealed and hugged me excitedly when she got offstage. I eyed Ozera and nodded as he trailed only a quarter step behind her. "Nice one, Ozera," I said honestly. "I'm impressed."
"Nothing compared to Guardian Badass God Daddy, theres." He nodded to where Dimitri was sitting beside me. "Didn't know you had it in you, Belikov."
"Watch it, Christian. He's the father of James, he has it in him."
"Wha...? Oh- eww! Rose!"
I smirked. "At least one of you's a man."
"Roza!" Dimitri chastised playfully in embarrassment.
I shrugged. "It's true. You're much more of-"
"Not here!" exclaimed Lissa, Christian, Dimitri, Adrian, Mason and Eddie. "Rose, no one wants your awkward- and honestly, extremely biased- opinion on that," Lissa said.
I smirked then winked at Dimitri. He blushed.

Dimitri drove me to Court since I couldn't fly. We had a challenge and a deadline, so unfortunately we didn't stretch it out to a week long road-trip, much as we desired. We took shifts racing against the clock, it was a good 34 to 42 hour drive, and we had to make it in 28 to 30.
We were extremely lucky to be given the chance to leave straight after the Moroi gradation, which gave us the time to race the roads into Billings, five hours away... if an over-zealous me wasn't behind the wheel. We left the Academy at one in the morning, and arrived in Billings by four; three hours and one car later. Dimitri took back control of his precious steering wheel, made me sleep in the passenger seat after a Macca's stop, and then pressed forward at a much less productive speed on the I-90E. We stopped at around eight in the morning to get gas, again some food (and donuts much as they should be off the list) and switched divers again.

"Please be more cautious this time, Roza. For James' sake."
"And I hope you didn't lose us the two hours I shaved." I didn't mean to snap. Damn hormones and stress. "I'm sorry, Comrade. I'm stressed, that's all. And the only way to get rid of it is getting to Court on time. I love you. I'm worried about James too, that's why I want to get to Court, the anxiety could be killing him and that fact's only adding to it. I want him safe and safely behind wards."

Dimitri nodded his understanding and went to sleep holding my hand. I went easily 30 mph over the limit for a good eight hours. Of course I had to stop more often than desired due to James and the pressure he put on my organs. Dimitri slept the entire time, thank god. Until I woke him to switch another hour later.
We'd been on the road for 18 hours and were only beating our ticking time bomb by an hour. I slept awkwardly and barely while Dimitri raced our ticking time bomb for the next 6 hours. We'd now been on the road for 24 hours and had 4 to 6 hours to get to Court. We would struggle to get there in 10 hours if I didn't take over. So I did, much to Dimitri's dismay and disapproval. We made it in 6 and a quarter hours as a result.