I Never Told You I Love You - Complete

Chapter 73 - Affray

"Court-martialled? For affray? You have to be fucking kidding me!" Rose snarled, looking at Alberta as she stood in the middle of the gym mats where their friends were assembled. While almost everyone else in the gym had settled back down, a good proportion had not fallen back to sleep - and certainly none of their group. "Dimitri is one of the most patient men on earth. He has to be – he puts up with me for God's sake," Rose growled. "And Pavel puts up with Abe, and I reckon that's even worse," she said, giving her father a look where he stood beside Alberta. "If the two of them thumped the crap out of two Guardians, I can't believe it's for no reason!"

"I agree," an exasperated Alberta said. "But unless one of them is willing to tell me what happened, I don't have a lot of choices. They assaulted two on-duty Guardians, and I can't allow that to go unpunished," Alberta continued regretfully.

"I've told you – give me ten minutes alone with Pavel and I'll find out what happened," Abe offered.

"I can't let you do that, Abe. You know I can't. Pavel can only be visited by family or his lawyer."

"Good – I'll represent him, then."

"Legal representation is a decision Pavel needs to make, I'm afraid," Alberta sighed.

"Then can someone go and let him know I'm willing to act on his behalf? I'm a qualified member of the bar in good standing," Abe said with a beneficent smile.

Janine looked at Abe with surprise. "You actually qualified?"

Abe smiled proudly back at her. "I always said I would one day, Jeanie, and I did."

"Hang on – you said family can visit Pavel? Does that mean Dimitri can be visited by his family?" Rose interjected.

"Yes," Alberta said cautiously.

"Great! Since I'm his wife, that obviously makes me family. And my parents are his in-laws, so they're family, too. Can we go see him now?" Rose asked winningly.

"Fine," Alberta groaned, wishing this night was already over.

"Rose? Let me talk to Dimitri first without you there darling," Abe requested.

"Like hell!"

"Please sweetheart. There's only one thing I could imagine causing Dimitri and Pavel to both react like that, and that's some sort of threat to you. I think Dimitri might be more likely to talk about it if you're not there."

Thinking it over, Rose appreciated Abe was probably right. Dimitri was nothing if not protective. She couldn't imagine much else would cause him to be so irrationally angry.

"Do you really think Pavel would react violently if someone threatened me?" Rose asked, thinking back to the previous night when he'd insisted on making sure she was ok after being woken by her carnal over-exuberance.

"Rosemarie you were clearly too young to remember, but you've had Pavel wrapped around your finger since you were a baby. He adored you from the moment you were born. When you were tiny and couldn't be settled by anyone else, he could always soothe you. It was the sweetest thing to see – him cuddling you up against his shoulder, having full conversations with you in baby talk," Janine reminisced fondly. "I have no doubt he'd defend you to the utmost of his abilities if there were the need."

"Fine. Baba, you can see Dimitri first, then I'll see him. Lissa? We have to go see Dimitri. Can you make sure no one steals our mats?"

Lissa nodded, and Rose immediately knew they'd be safe. Lissa didn't make a promise and not keep it.