DPOV
The first thing was a call to the Headmistress. The phone conversation ran like a Ping Pong match. Most of the sets were about Kirova coming to us, or the other way around. It went on so long, my family fell asleep in my arms. Alberta noticed this, and used it as leverage.
The Headmistress hung up and came charging in within three minutes. Pulling her closer to my chest, I covered my Roza's ears just before Kirova exploded through the door.
"What's going on?" the bird like Moroi woman hissed at me, then shot daggers between us three dhampirs. As if she didn't hate Rose enough as it stood...
"I'm resigning from the mentorship of Rose, and she is dropping her extra hours." I calmly replied despite boiling internally.
"Then she can drop out of school. Extra hours are a required part of her probationary stay."
"No. That's not happening, she has more than served that punishment- a hundred times over. She no longer requires extra hours." Far from it.
"At least explain why." she icily demanded.
It was ironic, I thought, that the Guardian business is populated by men. Yet, it's two dhampir woman who rule my life. And that a female Moroi rules all three of our lives. That being said, I was used to growing up in a houseful of women. It was likely Bubby was also going to be a girl, so I'd better get used to it- again.
"Because she's pregnant." That caused the older Moroi woman to gape. "With my child." I confidently concluded. I was scared shitless of what this woman could do to me and my career, but I refused to let that stop me from being the proud expectant dad I was.
"That's not possible." she finally recovered. But hadn't yet snapped.
"You said the same thing about the bond." I calmly retorted.
"Headmistress, there is proof." Alberta intervened and handed over the folder. Kirova grudgingly took it from Petrov's grasp and read through it.
"All this proves is that she is pregnant. It doesn't prove whose, or that it is even the impossible you are claiming." Oh, she was getting on my nerves. I was beginning to fully understand Roza's attitude towards Kirova- the one I hadn't fully grasped the first time I defended my woman. My control started crumbling when Kirova added, "we all know what a bloodwhore she is."
"She is not." I seethed. "She is the farthest thing from it."
"Guardian Belikov! You are out of line." The bird-woman barked.
"I am not." Okay, even I knew I was out of line for a subordinate Guardian. But my woman had just been insulted, and I refused to be a bystander to the injustice. "You are, for falsely accusing my woman."
"Your woman?!" I was sneered and scoffed at three times. "She's your student, Belikov!"
Ugh. Yuk! Rose should never have gone near trying to officially play that role- she wasn't supposed to be.
"She's an adult." Petrov piped up. "It's legal. They're legal. Not ideal, but legal. If you want, make her do a DNA test." Petrov proposed. "They are legal enough- and she needs him."
"You believe? And side with them?" Kirova was gobsmacked.
"I don't see how Rose has had the time to be with anyone else. So, yes. I believe. You forget, she shouldn't be alive. I'm trying to remain neutral, Headmistress. But I will- if you make me choose a side- choose theirs." Wow. Thank you, Petrov- from all three of us. "You've seen how well he's trained her, you've seen how well he can calm her and reign her in."
"I'm keeping her sane." I elaborated, after flashing back to just before the attack. That was not a sight I wanted to behold again, because it was a state I never wanted her to have to experience again.
That caused Kirova to wage a mental battle. And I'm sure her internal debate was playing out like a Ping Pong match- since she kept looking between me, my Roza, and Petrov. Eventually she sighed. "Fine. But I want Hathaway here to have a prenatal DNA test done- first thing tomorrow morning. Got that Belikov?" I nodded. "Petrov, drop his 'mentor' status. And, backdate it to her birthday. I can be kind to Hathaway, occasionally. Especially if this baby is so unique and as dangerous as either supposed parent. Belikov- get her to bed, and I don't care whose dorm. I can't stand that sickly sweet sight of you two right now." I nodded, thanked Kirova and Alberta, carefully perched Rose on my hip and beelined for the dhampir dorms.
When I entered the Guardian wing's lobby, I was greeted with "aww. It's about time you manned up, Belikov." from Yuri.
"Not funny, Yuri. You have no clue just how much I've manned up." God, I was beginning to sound like my Roza. She was also beginning to sound a little like me. Yes, we were clueless as to the effect we had on the other.
"Huh?"
"She's mine." I smiled adoringly at my miracle's mother. "She's mine, alright."
"You don't mean in the traditional sense, do you?"
"I might mean exactly that. And I may have forgotten she's not so normal..."
"Belikov, what are you getting at?"
"She's giving me a family, our own family."
"Surely not?"
"Don't go there. I snapped at her with the same thought. It basically had her running for the door and threatening to take my family from me." I still didn't understand how she loved me when all I could do half the time was hurt her.
"She really is pregnant? With your dangerous child?"
"Yes, she is."
"Woah. But, what about?"
"Not happening. I've resigned from being her mentor, and she's dropping her extra hours. Petrov's handling her normal class adjustments."
"And dorms?"
"That's undecided, as yet."
"I wish you the best of luck- dealing with a hormonal Rose Hathaway, that is. Congratulations, Belikov; we all know how family oriented you are."
"I eventually learned, I didn't want a family if it wasn't with Her."
"Your Rose. We all heard the deeper meaning whenever you said anything close to 'she's mine'. We all saw the eye daggers you shot Ivashkov's. And the protective looks that seeped through your mask every time her name was brought up. How you fooled Rose, and yourself, into thinking Tasha could take you away is beyond me. "
"Does, does Janine suspect?"
"Not a single crumb. She's blind, though. Remember?"
"When it comes to Rose? Yes, she is."
"Whose blind when it comes to my daughter, Belikov?" the five-nothing, Scottish dhampir woman interrupted. Yuri took off- clearly not wanting to be in the middle of a family dispute.
