A/N:This is what happens when you have a sick child on vacation, and you spend the mornings drinking tea and looking off the balcony at the most beautiful water you've ever seen (and you've seen a lot of blue). Will be about 15-20 thousand words, I think. Probably inspired a little by "Snape's Oceans" by Theolyn and "Post Tenebras, Lux" by Loten, kinda sorta.

(Still not mine, and no money made)

Apprentice – Healing Waters

"Together we can face any challenges as deep as the ocean and as high as the sky."
Sonia Gandhi

I.

Severus watched her from the shore. Ginny had waded out into the turquoise water far enough for her swollen belly to be partially covered by the lazy waves that didn't as much crash as they did wander up to the sand. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, vividly red and shining against the blue of the surf and the sky beyond her.

He sighed and shifted in the uncomfortable chair on the veranda. He loved to watch his wife move, even now, when her movements were slowed a little by the weight of the life growing within her.

When she first came to him, after the War and other events had taken the life from her, she walked with an elegant ease that took his breath away completely. She'd been so fragile then, and the sad thing was he knew it. Oddly enough, he'd found out about her "accident" from a guilt stricken Potter, who he had seen in passing in Diagon Alley shortly after her admission to St. Mungo's. He'd bought the idiot boy a drink at the Leaky to try to calm both of their nerves – he'd expected to hear that Potter and Ginny had gotten married. The news that Ginny had almost bled to death after cutting the inside of her arm when she received Potter and Granger's wedding invitation had infuriated him. He'd wanted to strangle the pair for their sheer stupidity for inviting her in the first place. Severus expected no less from the boy he still held little respect for, but he'd expected more out of Granger.

He spent the first few weeks with her in her Apprenticeship trying to keep from breaking her until he succumbed to his baser instincts and went back to treating her like another Potions student the day she first made Skele-Gro. He'd felt like a degenerate when he heard her cry as she ran out of the room. There was a spare knife in the dungeon, of course, but he was so annoyed that she'd come unprepared that he didn't even consider it to be an option until she was already gone.

Her anger towards him had whispered past when she all but ran out of the door. Somehow, he was attuned to her thoughts and didn't have to use Legilimency to read them. It had been the same when she was a student. He grimaced in the memory of the emotions that rolled off of her whenever he walked past her at meals, or when she was summoned to his office for disciplinary measures when he was Headmaster. Even with her face composed into a serene mask, her hate and disgust always reached him.

Following her out of the dungeons, he'd broken into a faster stride to catch up to her and apologize. When she wasn't in her office he'd flown into her rooms and found her there sitting on her little bed, bleeding from her own hand, using the knife he's scolded her into retrieving. From the looks of her beautiful legs that she kept completely covered in her second hand, over-large garments, it had been going on for years.

He'd hated himself that day.

And yet, he understood her completely. Mimicking the same movement now that he made after she rushed past him and out of her rooms, he rubbed the hidden scars on his chest.

The Cruciatus Curse had been the preferred punishment of the Dark Lord whenever he was especially displeased with any of his Death Eaters. However, in Severus's case, it had been dealt with an especially liberal hand. In the end, after he'd killed Albus and was rewarded with the position as Headmaster, he'd come to welcome it. The complete escape from reality by being so immersed in pain had been … liberating. There were times he thought he would go mad from it, was sure that he would wake up as insane as the Longbottoms. But, he always woke up from it in his own mind, thankful he hadn't had to think about what a horrible excuse for a human being he was at least for a few minutes.

He heard a sound and looked back up at Ginny. She was laughing in the water, rubbing her belly and saying words he couldn't hear to the little life within. Their daughter was a very active baby, according to Poppy, and she often woke Ginny up in the middle of the night with kicks and rolls and other movements that never ceased to make her laugh. Last night, she'd woken him up when she found a shape that looked remarkably like a foot pushing against her hand.

Against his trembling hand.

Not for the first time, he felt the burn against his eyes and fought against them.

He stood up and removed his shirt, grimacing at how thin he was. Food and eating had never been a priority to him, and since he found out he was going to be a father his worry had translated into many picked over meals and others that had just been skipped. He knew Ginny was worried about him, almost to the point where she had tried to dictate his meals as he still dictated hers. When he'd merely glared at her and instructed her to eat an extra bowl of ice cream after supper she left it alone, though her eyes still nervously watched him.

As he walked out to the shoreline, she came into better focus. The white of her bikini was startling against her freckled skin, which had tanned over the last couple of days into a golden shade that made her look healthy and rested. He, on the other hand, remained pale, though now he had a sun burn on his shoulders and cheeks despite the amount of Sun Potion he took every morning. Thinking back to his youth, he doubted his skin had ever been exposed to this much sunlight, even before he became the dungeon bat in his early twenties.

So much for the rumors that he was secretly a vampire. The thought made him smirk a little despite himself.

She was even better in view now. The curse scars on her shoulder were still present and just barely the color of silver against her tanned skin, and the scars that she made from her own hurting hands were faint and flesh colored. One of the worst days of his life had been the day that she realized that her paste would not completely rid her body from the scars that haunted her. She'd cried in his arms until he thought that she would break again.

She didn't though. Ginny moved forward and made enough improvements over the years to the original formula that the scars were almost gone. It had been a breakthrough for their world that had been so physically damaged by the Wars. Too bad there wasn't a paste or potion that could remove the emotional damage.

She was so beautiful, he mused as his bare feet splashed into the water. The loveliest thing about her was her unawareness of just how bright she shone against a world that could be otherwise so dull to his eyes. Even with her scars, her temper, and her continued fears, she was the most startlingly glorious witch he had ever encountered.

He was almost to her when she turned to greet him. Her hands were still caressing her swollen middle, and she was smiling serenely.

"Hey," she said, reaching a hand out to him. He took it and waded to her side.

"It's beautiful here, isn't it?" he said, marveling at the expanse of sea in front of them.

"Yes," she said, squeezing his hand in hers. "It was an extravagant gift, wasn't it?"

He nodded as he continued to watch the water in front of them.

The holiday had been Minerva's idea, they'd found out. It had been funded by George, Ron, and Potter and gifted by their wives as a "babymoon", whatever that was. The people who knew them well knew that had actually never taken a trip together as a couple, not even a honeymoon after they had married. They were both so devoted to the school and happy just to be with each other that they'd never seen the point with the fuss. Now that they were here in the seclusion of the remote spot, with no other person around them for miles, he understood it. They'd always felt that they had a private paradise every day during their playtime before dinner. But to actually be away, with their sole focus on each other… it was a different kind of paradise he knew they would repeat.

"Severus?" she asked.

He looked over to her, into her eyes which were bluer and clearer than the water around them.

"Can we just stay here forever?"

He smiled at her and replied, "They'll come looking for us if we aren't back for the beginning of term."

"Damn," she said with mock grumpiness. "How much more time do we have left?"

"Around two weeks."

She nodded. "That'll be enough time."

"Time for what?"

She grinned and he felt her lust, clear and strong.

"That?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at her suggestively.

"That," she giggled.

She raised a wet hand to his face, tracing his lips with the tips of her fingers. He licked them, tasting the salt mixed with the sweet natural flavor of her skin. There was mango there as well; she must have had a craving again before she came out into the water. Intrigued, he bent down and kissed her, tasting the fruit on her lips and tongue. It was on her cheeks too, and he followed the trail of sweetness down her neck and to her chest. He sighed and licked his lips thoughtfully as he lowered the top of her bikini to bare her breasts.

The pregnancy had made her natural curves even more irresistible. Her breasts were fuller than they'd ever been now, and her nipples had darkened from a light, rosy pink to a dusky red. He brushed his thumbs over them, watching as they strained out and darkened even more, reminding him of fresh berries. He lowered his mouth and captured one in his mouth. The flavor of mango was here as well, making him wonder just how messy her afternoon snack had been.

"Mrs. Snape?" he asked after releasing the nipple from his mouth with a little smack.

"Yes, Sir?" she answered, gasping.

"Just how much mango juice ran down your perfect little body?" he asked, before continuing to the other side, and finding the flavor there too.

"A little," she said, gasping again as he sucked especially hard.

"How much, Mrs. Snape?" he murmured, giving her a sharp nip to prove his point.

"A lot, Sir," she moaned. She ran her hands through his hair, settling them on his neck.

"Did you do it on purpose?" he asked, licking the valley between the round globes and finding the delicious flavors there too.

"I might have," she sighed.

He smiled as he licked his way down the curve of her abdomen, finding that the flavor of the fruit had disappeared into the waves around them. He frowned with disappointment.

"Too bad you decided to walk out into the waves after your snack, my dear," he said as he let his lips travel back up her body to her mouth. He kissed her again, tangling his tongue with hers before he pulled away.

"I think I may be hungry again, Sir," she said coyly.

"For mangos?" he asked as he pulled her top back into place.

She nodded and her smile held untold secrets. "I want to see what they taste like on you."