Into the Ether - Complete

Autumn, Reaping What We've Sown: Part 5

True to his word, when we'd got a positive pregnancy test the following May, Dimitri had been over the moon. And he'd held me, and we'd cried together when only a week later I started bleeding. We'd been so busy in Baia the following month it wasn't until my breasts started aching that I dared test again. Nine months later Olena came over to America again - this time for the birth of Anya Dimitrievna Belikov. As anticipated, our gorgeous little girl wrapped her Papa around her finger right from the aft; as did Lydia Dimitrievna Belikov who surprised us when she arrived a mere eleven and a half months after her sister!

With three under three, Dimitri and I made the decision we were done. He talked about extending the cottage so Lydia could have her own room, but the girls were inseparable, so we never bothered.

It was at the Christmas before Lydia turned one that I came up with the idea that changed our lives. Dimitri and I were mucking around and sparring for the amusement of the adults and kids when someone commented that I was back in shape already. I'd laughed and said anyone would be back in shape and fit to work as a Guardian if they had access to training and support like I did.

A couple of hours later, and the idea was born. I wanted to start a program for Dhampir mothers to finish their training or retrain to rejoin the workforce. Celeste, Janine, Alberta and I sat at the kitchen table with a large piece of paper discussing what was needed, Abe, Art and Dimitri making the occasional suggestion. Lissa and Christian weren't with us that year – they'd married and were away on their honeymoon. Lissa was being groomed to become queen, so they'd wanted to marry before it had to be a royal wedding.

They only got back a week before our wedding. I'd finally said yes to becoming Mrs. Belikov, and we wed in a garden ceremony at the property. We'd done a midsummer's night dream theme, with the vows in a shaded bower at the setting of the sun, followed by dancing in a clearing amongst the trees with Russian folk music. The scene was magical with fairy lights wound around the trees, round after round of delicious food, and at the end of the evening fireworks. While we'd intentionally kept it small, by the time all our nearest and dearest were included, it was still quite a bash! Lissa had pitched a fit when I'd described how I wanted our wedding, but in the end, she admitted it was the most romantic wedding she'd ever attended.

I'd used my trust fund to finance the first round of my idea for Dhampir mothers. Run out of St. Vladimir's; it was a two-month intensive held over the summer months. Alberta had put the word out through the head Guardians at the other educational institutions. We'd hoped to get enough interested parties to run a trial group of ten. We'd ended up with over a hundred applicants.

We learned a lot from the first round, but at the end of nine weeks, we had seven qualified female Guardian mothers ready and able to take up positions. While the royal Moroi had largely proven resistant to accepting a Guardian who was a parent, plenty of non-royal Moroi families felt a live-in Guardian with a plus-one was better than no Guardian at all. Another two graduates were helped to re-enrol in their Novice studies, their children now being old enough to attend an Academy, and the one who didn't have what it took to be a Guardian was helped to find suitable employment. So all in all, the project was considered a success.

The second round was more focussed. This time we took fifteen women, all former Guardians or Novices, and our results were even better. We found it helped to have female Guardians, and in particular mothers teaching, and I was stunned by the number of women Guardians who discreetly let us know they were interested in helping. There were a lot more Guardians who were mothers than I'd appreciated. Celeste was the first to volunteer. After that first Christmas at our place, Art had taken a second week of leave and driven to Virginia with Celeste to be introduced to her family. It was a whirlwind romance, but it had stood the test of time. Fifteen years on, and they were still going strong. Stella now knew the truth about her parentage and couldn't be prouder of her sister-mom.