DPOV
I dropped my girls at school/ work. Rose was a teacher at our daughter's school. On the way to a storage supply store I used Rose's SUV's hands-free system to ring Lissa.
"What's the news, Dimitri?" Despite being Headmistress and Queen she was adamant to be informal with me. I still tended to be formal more often than not.
"All three of us are coming back. We should be at the Academy by human midnight on Friday. And we're enrolling Johanna in second grade." She should technically be in third grade but she had catching up to do about our world in general.
"Rose? What are we to do with her?"
"She's currently teaching at Johanna's school."
Lissa laughed regally. "I can't see her doing that."
I grinned and chuckled as I turned right at the lights. "Johanna's changed Rose. And everyone's going to love that little girl."
"I guess I can give Rose a teaching position somewhere on elementary campus. Please tell me her daughter isn't her all over again."
"Not entirely. She takes after her father rather a lot." Pride pulsed through me and my heart swelled with love for my hidden daughter. She wasn't going to stay hidden much longer.
"I'll email you the forms shall I?"
"Please, Your Majesty. And thank you." I pulled into the carpark of the store I needed. "I have to go, Lissa, Rose has tasked me with packing the house and I need to get the storage slash moving boxes."
Lissa laughed once more. "Thank you for getting her to come home. We'll see you all soon." She hung up before I could respond.

This was bound to be an interesting task. I entered and was almost overwhelmed. I hadn't a clue how much stuff Rose had around the house despite being there for a fortnight, but I'm sure she had quite a bit between her work stuff and Johanna's school stuff, academic awards, and sports awards. Photos were everywhere. Then there was the two TVs, the crystal collection, and the DVD and book collections. Clothes, Rose had warned me both of them had plenty of clothes. Yeah, there was a lot to pack. And Janine and Abe weren't going to be helping because they'd returned to the other side of the world.

"Hi, Sir. How may I help you?" asked a boy little over twenty. He had cropped sandy blond hair and stood only about four inches taller than Rose. He was human but clearly spent time in a gym. Instinct and training told me he was harmless enough.
"Hi, my family and I are moving. I was wondering how many cardboard boxes was typically needed to pack a two story family home?"
"Let me show you what we usually sell for a family of four to move."
I smiled slightly and nodded. "Thank you."
He led me to their wall of flat-pack boxes. "We usually sell six jumbo size cardboard boxes- one for Mom, one for Dad, and one for each of two children and two for the kitchen. Well, that's the cost effective and practical ratio the boss worked out after a number of moves himself and from customer feedback."
"As for the other sizes?" I prompted. I didn't have time to waste here. Rose was pulling Johanna out of school this afternoon and we would be on the road by dinner time. I had to have the house packed before I picked them up from school at 4:30. It was only about 7:15 in the [human] morning right now but I would be pushing it for time.
"The large is usually used for a home office and similar, so six of them is the standard. Then the medium, small, and extra-small are usually miscellaneous- kids toys, cutlery, et cetera- so we usually bundle in two medium, two small, and four extra-small."
"How much is that bundle?" I had to be frugal here. Guardians didn't make much, even Royal Guards were poorly paid. True, Rose had made me stop by an ATM earlier and had withdrawn some cash from each of the accounts she could access. It was more than I could contribute but she'd made sure the activity didn't seem suspicious.
"With all the bits and pieces, it's $274. We have a stocktake sale on currently, which means it's $164.40 at the moment." That was a price Rose and I could handle. They were a discount store in the first place and I had noticed the 'up to 40 percent off' sale sign out the front as I drove in.
"What else is included?"
"Come this way." I was led to an aisle of packing stuff. There was a range of rolls of packing paper and bubble wrap, and bags of the beanbag type, finger-shaped filling things.
"What of these will I need?"
"We include a range in the bundle you're looking at. For the packing paper we usually include four 35 meter rolls. Then with the bubble wrap, three 40 meter rolls are included. And for the foam-fingers we include two of the medium bags."
"Are there any separate bundles for extra bubble wrap and packing paper?" With the photos, trophies and crystal we'd need more.
"How much extra were you looking for?"
I took it into consideration. "Two 40 meter rolls of bubble wrap and easily three of the 35 meter rolls of packing paper."
"We have a bundle of any four of the two for $35 and the fifth roll of either is $5 instead of $9. Then for this stocktake sale we also throw in a small bag of the foam-fingers for $2." Hmmm. An extra $42. I guess we could afford $210.
"I'll have to ring my girlfriend. What else is included?"
I was guided to the next aisle over. It was filled with packing duct tape on the rollers and refills. "We include three rollers each with a long-roll of tape, and six standard length refills with the family moving package you're looking at."
"What about extra refills?"
"At the moment we're offering two extra-long rolls for $8."
"And extra boxes?"
"Any four for $12."
We were now looking at $62 on top of the $165 bundle. I'll have to ring Rose. $230 was under our expectations but still more than we wanted to budget. "It is good value and we'll likely take it. Mind if I step outside and ring my girlfriend for a few minutes?"
"No problems, Sir." His sincerity and manners struck me for his age. I wanted to bite purely on the excellent customer service at this time of day and from someone so young.

"Hey, Comrade! What's up? I was about to start line-up." She was high in the ranks- say, Vice-Principal- of the school she taught at. A small, prestigious elementary age academy for hard working gifted and talented kids with an affinity for academics, the arts, and sport. Just like our baby girl. It started at 7:45am and ran until 4:15pm.
"I just wanted to check if you were happy to spend about $230 on packing gear?"
"What's included?"
I explained the main bundle and the three extras I thought we needed for all the trophies and crystal.
"Just get it. We don't have the time to go hunting for anything cheaper. Besides, I trust their quality and value- one of the parents is the owner of that franchise."
I chuckled. "Okay. I love you."
"I love you, too, Dimitri. See you this afternoon."
"I can't wait to bring you home. See you this afternoon." We disconnected and I returned to the otherwise empty store. "We'll take the family moving bundle and the three extra offers."
"Of course, Sir. It won't take long to gather for you." He stepped out the back and returned with a teammate helping him bring out the collection of items I was purchasing. His teammate was older, possibly the franchisee Rose had spoken of.
"Hi, I'm Jason, the owner. Nice to know our early hours are appreciated." He smiled and offered his hand for me to shake.
"I'm Dimitri, nice to meet you." I shook his hand. "My girlfriend and I are grateful for you opening this early."
"You don't happen to be related to St Peter's Academy's VP's daughter, do you? One, Johanna Hathaway? You look very alike."
I grinned. "I do. I'm her father."
"Well then," Jason chuckled, "such a promising girl's father should be entitled to the staff discount, Cale."
"Thank you."
"She's my youngest's best friend. Annabelle and Johanna are almost inseparable."
I sighed. "I gathered by the fuss Johanna made this morning over the move."
"How are they?"
"Recovering, but Rose's mother wants her home, so that's where we're going." Not the entire truth, but enough of it. I split the $199.24 total as we talked. I paid $130.24 on my card. And Rose contributed the remaining $69 in cash. I was responsible for uprooting both mother and child so I felt it only right and fair to foot most of the bill. Rose may be earning more than me, but it didn't mean I was going to let her pay for nearly everything.

The first thing I did when I returned to the house was put the dishwasher on then stripped the beds to throw the sheets in the in the wash. I collected the dirty clothes hampers and threw being-used towels in the ensuite's hamper too. Then I returned to Rose's SUV for the jumbo boxes. One of the six went in the master bedroom. The next one in Johanna's room. Another was placed in Rose's office. The fourth and fifth in the kitchen, and the last went in the dining room. Logic and efficiency. That was the only way to get through this in time. Especially on my own.

Or at least I thought I was on my own. When I returned to Rose's SUV to collect the extra rolls of tape a car reversed into the driveway beside me... and out popped Guardian Eddie Castile.
"Hey, man," he greeted with a bro-shake and man-hug. Yeah, I'd gotten used to my guarding partner's friendly ways over the years. Anything to stay close to Rose.
"Hey, Eddie. What brings you here?"
"Liss figured you'd need an extra pair of hands and an extra vehicle. So here I am and here it is!" he grinned. I guess when you're the queen you can make anything happen. "What do you want me to help Rose with first?"
"I'll pack Zhannochka's room if you want to start on the kitchen? On the prep bench there's a couple of extra-small small storage boxes above the drawers where Rose keeps the cutlery and such."
"Zhan... what?"
I laughed and shoved a spare roll of tape in his chest. "Johanna's room."
"Rose's daughter?"
"You could say she's Rose's..."
Eddie studied me until his mouth dropped when he stepped in the kitchen. "No. Fucking. Way! You'd never... would you? And it's ROSE! What were you thinking!" Well, the cat's out of the bag, so to speak.
"At the risk of sounding sappy and cliché, she stole my heart. And how were we meant to know?"
"That is cliché, Belikov. And sappy, sickly sappy. So, you've got a daughter, huh? With your ex-student. Was she ever just your student?"
I blushed. "No. Not really. It wasn't like we were all over-"
"Stop right there, Dimitri, just, stop. You two were nearly always having eye sex, now I think about it. Man! I never thought... after Spokane... it was you all along. Wasn't it? She was seeing you behind closed doors, when our backs were turned. Actually, don't answer that. I don't want to know what you two got up to."
"Rest assured, Castile, it was all business."
"Baby-making business!"
"Once, Eddie. Once."
"I don't wanna know. Go pack your daughter's room; I'll get to work in the kitchen."
"Just the cutlery drawers for now. Call up the stairs when you're done."

In Johanna's room I started with packing her tiny desk. I gathered there was a system in place- so like me- so I tried my best not to disturb it. From her desk I progressed to packing up her five-tier bookshelf. Or should we call it a bookcase? I just barely started removing the first handful of novels from the top shelf when Eddie called from Johanna's doorway.
"What next, Belikov? And her room's cute. Rose did a good job."
"Yeah, she did. Do you mind moving on to the condiments and pantry? Oh, and take the rubbish out? Thanks."
"Easy," he grinned. "Our training makes this rush packing easier, the stamina'll keep us going."
"True. But we do need to be out of the state by sundown." Being summer that meant about nine tonight. Still. I didn't want Johanna exposed to Strigoi threats. She was my only baby, after all.
"Yeah, Lissa wants Rose home in 24 hours if it were even possible."
"I wanted her home the minute before I learned she left."
Eddie left after he nodded, ignoring my lovesick boy moment.
I returned to packing the bookshelf away. I had just finished adding the extra-small box of Johanna's desk's contents when Rose rang.
"Hey, Roza."
"Hey, Comrade." I could just see her bright smile and radiating chocolate-brown eyes. "How's it going?"
"Better since Lissa managed to get Eddie to turn up with an extra SUV about an hour ago."
"Please tell me he isn't packing anything he shouldn't."
"No. He's tasked with certain non-breakable things in the kitchen."
"Control freak," she coughed.
"I heard that. It's not that I don't trust him-"
"Doesn't matter. As long as he doesn't get into my private stuff or Joie's room."
"Exactly. And the plan is still to pick you two up and run?"
"More or less. And don't forget to eat! I gotta go. I'll check in at lunch and afternoon tea." With that she ended the call. Eddie was standing in the doorway again.
"Do want me to get food? Or use what's in the fridge?"
"Is there any paper plates and throw-away plastic cutlery?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Leave it out and let's eat what's in the fridge as long as it doesn't require any prep more than microwaving."
"Deal. How we going for time?" A concealed stress radiated around him. The same pressure I was operating under.
"We've got six and a bit hours until we need to pick Rose and Johanna up."
"Okay. I'll let you keep working."