With An Addition (VA Fanfic)

Christmas drama

RPOV
I decided that Christian's ass-hounding could wait. Sure, I was pissed at him and Lissa knew he was well-and-truly out of my favor when it came to being near Jen in small gatherings.
"I get what he did, but he's seriously worried about what you're going to do him."
I grinned almost evilly while we helped wrap the presents both she and I had gotten for Jenée. Dimitri had her trike already wrapped and hiding in his wardrobe. He was on babysitting duty tonight and Jenée hadn't stopped babbling on in Russian from the time I told her she was getting to stay over with Papa.
"That's the point, Lissa. That fear should teach him nearly as much as any actual punishment. Sure, I'll follow through with it- I already know from Jenée that punishments need to be enforced if you're going to resort to them, but I guess we can consider this a punishment of its own. Besides, I have to handle Jen's obsession with the stuff first."
Lissa laughed. Her understanding and sympathy rushed through her and reached out to me through the bond. "Then why is she with Dimitri tonight?"
Now it was my time to laugh. "Why? Because he may actually get through to her sometime soon..." I trailed off, remembering the agreement he and I had come to yesterday regarding our baby girl. "We... talked about her yesterday..."
Hope surged in her. "You finally told him?"
I shook my head. "I hate it. But I can't. Not with every other hoop she's already throwing our way. But, we made a choice about where she'll be until she has to come here for Kindy."
Confusion ran through Lissa's veins. If Jen wasn't staying here, then wasn't she coming with us? "What- what did you choose? Where will my niece be next year?"
I stopped wrapping up the Russian kids CD and book I was wrapping on Dimitri's behalf. I looked Lissa straight in the eyes and smiled, letting out the happiness I harboured and hid from myself. "Russia. Jenée will be with the Belikovas until she has to return for school. We want her somewhere remote, somewhere hidden so she'll be forgotten about for a while, while she also receives a relatively drama-free pre-school childhood. We want her around her Russian family."
As I suspected she would be, Lissa was hurt. Sending Jen to Russia was also creating six thousand miles separation between them. But she laughed at the tiny bit of humour she found in my words. "Are you sure they don't know?"
"200 percent positive."

The next day Mom was waiting outside Alto's classroom again.
"Where's Jenée?"
My jaw honest-to-god fell to the floor. No 'Hi Rose, how are you? How's Jenée?' Just straight up, 'Where's my granddaughter?'
"Thanks for worrying about me. Hi Mom and I'm fine, thanks. As for Jen, Alberta's got her for a double."
Janine Hathaway's eyes shone with the exasperation she was working hard to hide. "Hi Rose. How are you? Really. I heard about the Badica attack, clearly." She gestured to where we currently stood. There was still an awkward and uncertain tension between us.
"So your charge is coming on the ski trip?" It was almost a case of what royal- and even some common- Moroi weren't coming with us to the ski lodge in Idaho. The news of the attack had travelled fast despite efforts to keep it under-wraps. Stupid Moroi knew how to exercise their tongues and gossip wheels.
Mom nodded. "Of course. Rose, how are you coping? I know the details, of course. You've dished out three kills in two weeks."
A look broke through Mom's tightly enforced guardian mask that looked extremely suspiciously like compassion and understanding. I wasn't sure what to make of it.
"I'm coping. I've got Jen and Lissa to worry about. And Christmas. It's incredibly challenging to hide Jenée's presents from her right now. Wrapped or otherwise, it's nearly impossible. Though I do hope she gets a lot of use from the trike Dimitri and I bought her."
Mom's eyes bulged in surprise. "You and Belikov bought her a trike?" she asked in utter disbelief.
"We still haven't decided if that's going to be her present from Santa or not, but yeah, we bought her a Little Mermaid trike." I laughed at the thought of her ripping open the wrapping then her reaction once Dimitri assembled it. Such a Daddy's girl. She'd give him all the credit whether it came from us both or from Santa just because he put it together for her. And I was more than fine with that. I loved how important he'd become in her life.
"What's funny?"
I laughed again. "Just the thought of her excited face as she rips open the wrapping. How she'll hand Dimitri all the credit because he would assemble it for her and she'll demand he plays with her with it all day, non-stop until she falls asleep."
A ghost of a smile played on Mom's lips. "You make them sound like father and daughter."
I shrugged. "They are, in their eyes he's filled in that role of her father and she's never been happier. I'm almost jealous. Almost. She still loves me unconditionally."
"Does that mean Belikov's going to be some odd kind of son-in-law of mine?"
I almost couldn't stop myself from laughing at the innocent way she thought Dimitri and I may end up co-parenting. Yup. She still knew shit-all about me and how to interpret me. "I think you're getting ahead of yourself there, Mom."
"It's not unheard of for relationships or at least close friendships to happen because one already has a child and the child sees the other person as their second parent."
Now I laughed. Oh, that was so far from the truth of this situation it was hilarious. "Mom, seriously, let's just come back to the subject of Jenée later. I do have class right now."
Mom laughed and she looked a little younger, a little more her age when she did so. "I told Guardian Alto I'd be taking you out of class did the first few minutes."