What if a squire was married to just a regular person, and then for whatever reason they found out about the DH world their spouse was apart of? This was the question my obnoxious muse kept hitting me over the head with. I finally gave in and wrote this. So to make things a little more interesting (hopefully) I used a squire we were all familiar with, Otto.

DISCLAIMER: (I forgot to add this, and had to take to this down and put it in.)I don't own Otto, Kyl, the squires or anything to do with the DH world. Basically I do not own anything.

WHITE LIES

She'd found out. There had been an incident last night that Marie had got caught in the middle of, and she knew. Kyl had called him while he was doing some work in New York, to tell him. She hadn't taken it too well Kyl had said. When he tried to call home or her cell phone he only got voice mail. It was enough to drive him insane. Otto couldn't seem to get back to New Orleans fast enough. Unsure of what he'd find when he got to their home.

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The bag was half packed lying open on the bed. Half the cash from his safe was sitting next to it. She'd stopped half way through fleeing, realizing she was only halfway prepared to leave him. Marie sat down on the floor in front of their bed and put her face in her hands. She wasn't certain of anything any more.

The door slammed below, announcing he was home, quickly followed by feet pounding up the stairs. There was no way she was going to be able to just leave now. She'd wanted to avoid a confrontation. She wasn't sure she could look at him after learning the truth.

The door pushed wide, bouncing back against the wall from the force used to open it. She looked up at Otto. He pulled the sunglasses off his face, but didn't move further as he looked at the suit case, clothes, and money lying on the bed.

"Your leaving." Not a question. His jaw clenched and unclenched.

Marie stared hard at the tattoo on his knuckles, one she never new had a meaning until last night. "I don't know." She wondered if he'd try to stop her.

Otto took that as he still had a chance. He looked down at her from where he stood in the door way to their bedroom. There where bandages on the right side of her throat from her attack, and a bruise on the left side of her face. Otto saw red. If Jean-Luc hadn't gotten to her in time…he didn't even want to contemplate it. If she'd died he would have gone insane. And if she left him now, he knew it would kill him. He clenched his fist, and fought back the rage, trying to figure out the right thing to say.

He came up short. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what Otto?" She glared at him, trying to cover up the fear that had bubbled up. Never in her life did she think she'd actually be frightened of her own husband. But standing in the door way, in his dark clothes and with his dark Italian looks, it was like seeing him for the first time. She realized just how menacing he appeared.

It was a quietly voiced question, but it felt like a loaded gun placed at his temple. One wrong word and it was all over. "Marie, I should have been here." He started. "This shouldn't have happen to you." He took a step into the room, but froze when she visibly flinched. His blood turned to ice as he watch her give his tattooed hand a fearful glance. His heart sank. Was she afraid of him?

"So, you're sorry that I got attacked?" That wasn't what had her wanting to leave town because of the humiliation and hurt. The betrayal was. Otto hadn't been honest with her from the very beginning. He'd played her for a fool. Marie traded up the fear for an emotion she could use, anger. "But you're not sorry for not telling me about what it is you do? You're not sorry for having let me love you and marry you without knowing who you really are? You're not sorry for that?" She pushed herself to her feet, refusing the tears that wanted to spill. "We've known each other our entire lives, and you couldn't find the time to tell me you work for the undead? That you protect them? That you're a part of an organization scarier than the mafia?"

He swallowed, and said evenly. "I took an oath of secrecy." He was pissed that someone had told her so much before he'd had a chance to explain himself. When he found out who it had been, there was going to be hell to pay.

"And that's more important then us?" What she really wanted to know was there even really an 'us', but couldn't scrape up enough courage for that question.

'No. Nothing was.' Otto surprised himself with the how much force was in that desperate thought. Instead of answering with that, he settled for saying, "I was protecting you."

"Does this look like protecting me?" She waved a hand at her bandaged throat.

Guilt clenched Otto's stomach. How was he going to fix this? How do you make up for something like this? He wasn't even sure what she was trying to get from him. An apology? Admission to guilt? Hadn't he already tried that?

A very tense stretch of time passed, neither saying anything. Marie watched as his unshaved jaw clench again. It was the only thing he gave away, standing there looking very controlled, while she was a complete mess of raw nerves and questions. Did it even matter to him that she might leave? Was their whole marriage some sort of cover up for him? She loved him so much she wasn't sure how she'd get the strength to leave if that was the case.

"Was everything a lie?" She hated how vulnerable she sounded and for the tears that slipped out. She quickly scrubbed them away. "Do you even love me?"

The sight of her looking so uncertain and vulnerable, asking that question nearly broke him. Did he even love her? More than anything else; she was his heart. And if she didn't know that then he had failed on so many levels.

"No." He choked out. Otto cleared his throat, fighting for composer. "It wasn't a lie. If you want to leave I won't stop you, but before you go you need to know I do love you. I always have and I always will. Nothing will ever change that."

It wasn't the words that convinced her, it was the indescribable look in his eyes. There was a vulnerability she'd never seen in him before. It assured her that their whole life together wasn't some lie that she'd been stupid enough to fall for. That there was a real love shared by both of them. That was what she needed to know, that was what really mattered. The rest could be figured out later.

Marie went to him and wrapped her arms around him. His embrace was the safest place in the world. Otto leaned in and didn't give her time to change her mind before he was kissing her with a desperation she felt all the way to her soul.

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Hours later, when the exhaustion from their love making made her sleep, Otto held her. Brushing dark tresses from her face he silently promised to spend the rest of his life making this up and was grateful for the chance to do it. He sent up a pray of thanks to whatever god listening for having a woman better than most, before drifting off to sleep himself.

Alrighty then. I hoped you enjoyed this, now please leave me a review. THANKS!!!