I'm back! This is the first update of To Forgive and Forget. As always, be sure to review and let me know what you think! Also, if you have any ideas or if there is anything you want to read, feel free to share with me and I'll see what I can do.

Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Academy, Bloodlines, or any of its characters. All rights go to Richelle Mead.

Dimitri –

Plane rides make me uneasy. Something about being sealed into an airtight metal canister as it shoots across the sky, 30,000 feet above the ground just doesn't sit right with me. Driving is my preferred method of traveling; I would take the open roads over the open skies any day. Of course driving to Palm Springs, California from Pennsylvania would have been an inefficient use of time and resources, so I had accepted that my journey would start with a plane ride.

My stomach sank a little as the cabin shook. The pilot hadn't turned off the fasten seat-belts sign once since our ascension, and we had experienced a fair bit of turbulence. If this was any indication of what the next few months had to offer me, then I was less than excited. Thinking about one of the last times I had ridden in an airplane didn't help to calm my nerves any. I had watched Rose suffer a complete mental breakdown. I hadn't been able to help her then, and now I was leaving her.

The words of the novel clutched in my hands blurred over at the thought of my Roza. Despite the fact that it had been more than 12 hours since I had watched her climb into that black SUV, the one that had taken her away from me, my lips still tingled with the feel of her skin. I fought the urge to brush my fingers over them, knowing that it wouldn't be the same. Instead, I felt the ghost of a smile spread over my face as I thought about my last night with her.

I didnt think I would ever get used to knowing that she was mine. I had wanted her for so long, dreamt about her, fought for her, and now we were together – something I had never thought would happen. It was something I hadn't even known I'd wanted until she had come along. She had burst into my life at such a strange time, she was everything beautiful and passionate and good in this world. Roza was everything I hadn't known I'd needed.

I thought about the way her cheeks had flushed and the way she had bit her lip when I had told her these things last night. I wanted to make sure she knew what she meant to me. Maybe she had already known, but when I had looked down at her; naked and vulnerable, and regarding me with so much love, I couldn't help but remind her.

Some one cleared their throat, jarring me from my thoughts of Roza.

It was Abe.

Panic seized me, and I suddenly found myself wondering if there was anyway he had known that I was thinking about his daughter: the way she looked beneath me, the way her hair fell in curls all around her and framed her head like a delicate crown, the way she moaned my name...

Stop it, Dimitri. I told myself.

I concentrated on the page of my novel, telling myself that Abe was a lot of things – powerful, rich - Rose was even convinced he was some kind of gangster pirate, but he wasn't a mind reader. He eyed me suspiciously. He and Janine knew better than to give Rose a hard time about our relationship, their own relationship with their only daughter was already strained. Still, I had caught him staring at me with an almost wicked smile on his tanned features a number of times, like he was daring me to hurt his daughter. I stared even harder at the page, making sure my expression didn't betray my thoughts.

"You haven't turned the page once since you opened that book," the voice that had spoken was laced with a thick southern accent, and sounded mildly critical.

I glanced up at where Angeline sat across the aisle from me. She stared at me with wide eyes. Her auburn hair fell in a tangled heap down her shoulder and her hands rested in her lap. She was wringing them together so tightly, I feared she would rub her skin raw. It dawned on me that she was probably nervous, this only being her second time on an airplane. Actually, when I considered what a sheltered life she had led up until this point, she was behaving more calmly than one would expect.

I chuckled softly as I closed the book and turned it over to examine it. The cover was well worn and the pages were soft and curled at the edge from being turned over and over again. The title read Lonesome Dove in block letters, it was one of my favorites. I leaned over the aisle and held it out to Angeline.

"You should give it a try," I told her. "You might enjoy it."

Angeline took it from me gingerly and ran her fingers over its spine delicately.

"What's it about?"

I pondered her question before answering, "Cowboys."

I decided to keep my answer simple. In reality, it was so much more than that – it was about brotherhood and justice, it was everything I thought about when I pictured the Old West.

She shrugged her shoulders and flipped it open to the first page. I wondered if I would ever get Rose to crack open a book.

As if sensing my thoughts, Angeline looked up to ask me a question, "Does your girlfriend like this cowboy stuff?"

"My girlfriend?"

I didn't mean to demean my relationship with Rose by questioning Angeline's use of the word girlfriend, but we had never actually defined our relationship. We were together, we were in love, and we were loyal to one another. I suppose that did make Rose my girlfriend, even if we had never formally established those roles for each other, we had played those parts anyways.

"Do you mean Rose?" I asked her thoughtfully.

Angeline scrunched up her face a little at the mention of Rose.

"Yeah, she's your girlfriend, right? I could tell, y'all were always starin' at each other all gooey-eyed, and she turned down my brother. All the girls back home couldn't believe it."

I couldn't help but laugh at the mention of our time with the Keepers, it had been an interesting experience to say the least.

"Rose and I have different tastes when it comes to forms of entertainment."

That was an understatement, I thought to myself as I remembered a time when her and Vasilisa and holed themselves up in our apartment and watched reality television for six hours straight.

"How is Rose liking Lehigh?" Sonya had turned around in her seat and peered over at me from the row in front of mine.

A quick glance in Abe's direction told me he was listening to our conversation, which unnerved me a little bit.

"I think she would like it more if Lissa's schedule included a few combat courses," I said jokingly.

Sonya laughed, "I only ask because she was never very fond of her classes when I was her teacher, I think she preferred sleeping."

This was a sentiment I was all too familiar with, but instead of commenting on Rose's sleeping habits in front her father, I merely nodded along. I didn't think bringing up our time at the academy together would win me any points with Abe.

The pilot's voice crackled over the speakers just then, announcing that we would be beginning our descent into Palm Springs soon. The cabin fell silent, and everyone tensed just a little.

Abe's voice sliced through the air like a knife, "We will be landing in a tiny airfield outside of the city where a rental car will be waiting for us," he said in a thick Turkish accent. "From there we will meet up with Adrian and Sydney."

Thoughts of what my participation in the upcoming spirit experiments could mean for the Moroi world had consumed most of my time since I had found out about them. I had almost forgotten that it meant spending a great deal of time with Adrian Ivashkov. From what Rose had told me about their last conversation, he hadn't taken things very well. The guilt of what Rose and I had done to him lingered in the back of my mind and I wondered how he would react to my arrival, or if he even knew I was coming.

The rest of our plane ride was silent, but I felt myself breathe a sigh of relief when the wheels touched down onto the solid ground. We all gathered our luggage from the overhead compartments and disembarked. The hot air of Palm Springs hit me like a slap in the face, I was surprised it didn't immediately sap the energy out of me. Beads of sweat began to form on everyone's brow almost immediately, and I realized my duster probably wasn't the best wardrobe choice.

We piled into the rental car. Abe, unlike his daughter, had no qualms with me offering to drive. He gave me directions over my shoulder as I maneuvered the vehicle down streets lined with palm trees until we arrived outside of an apartment. I did my best to memorize the turns we had taken and the names of all the streets we had driven past. It was difficult to commit the buildings to memory though, most of them were identical and differed only in the amount of stucco that covered each one.

Angeline stuck her head out the window and let out a whistle.

"Who lives here?" she asked.

"Adrian Ivashkov," said Abe. "Why don't you come with me my dear, I'll introduce you. Belikov, would you mind parking the car?"

He was again sporting an expression that dared me to defy him.

"Not at all," I said as pleasantly as possible.

Sonya turned from the passenger seat and smiled at me, "I'll come with you."

I was grateful for her company. Not just in parking the car, I had a feeling she was going to be one of my only companions with whom I talked regularly. Though we had more in common with each other than either of us liked to discuss; we were both here for the same reasons, and we had both left the ones we loved back in Pennsylvania. I wondered if Mikhail had been as understanding as Rose had. Her willingness to let me go had surprised me, she would probably never cease to surprise me. I could just picture her, fifty years down the road - still cracking jokes and pulling stunts, still finding new ways to express her love.

I found a spot about a block away from Adrian's apartment and managed an effortless parallel parking job. Sonya and I strolled down a smooth and well maintained sidewalk toward Adrian's She walked with her eyes closed for a brief moment, her face lifted toward the sun. Most Moroi wouldn't have been so keen to soak in the harsh rays of the sun, but I knew what it meant for Sonya. We walked up the steps, but I found myself hesitating. Sonya didn't though, she knocked on the door and Abe opened it a few moments later. She walked in as casually as if she herself lived there. I decided to hang back and watched as she smiled at everyone who stood in the living room. She hugged Adrian fondly, and was beginning to make her way over to Sydney when I noticed that they were both staring at me. Adrian had gone rigid, and the way he stared at me told me that no one had bothered to tell him about my arrival.

These next few months were going to be interesting.