Hello, friends! Hope you enjoy the next installment. I know it's a bit slow for now, but the plot will pick up again!

The click of her knitting needles was going to drive him mad!

He'd bought them for her at a small thrift shop in Diagon Alley along with several balls of the softest yarn he could find in order to give her something else to do while she was trapped in the house. He knew she'd been bored with everything and that was causing her mind to dwell on unpleasantness and worries that couldn't be good for her or the baby.

But the knitting needles were the wrong way to go. He cringed now whenever he heard the constant metallic clicking. Severus was a man of silence. The slight constant irritant was grating on his nerves.

He had not commented on it, of course, because she seemed to find so much joy in it. She'd already knitted several pairs of tiny socks and bonnets for the baby that would be along in just three months. She looked properly pregnant now and every time Severus looked her way he could not help but feel his heart swell with pride. He wrote Regulus often describing her progress and even Reg thought she was coming along well.

They still did not speak often, he and Lily, but she did not avoid him as she once did. The fear in her eyes when he would grumble angrily over a botched potion subsided over time, to his relief. He hated seeing her so frightened and knowing he was to blame for it.

When he was younger, Lily had been the first girl he'd ever thought he might like to kiss. She was the first, later, that he saw behind closed eyes during many heavy and sexually frustrated wank sessions. He remembered how entranced he'd been with the mere smattering of freckles along her nose that always were so much more pronounced in the summer sun. The way she smirked at him when he was grumbling over homework or the Marauders or anything, really, that bothered him. She always knew how to stop his grumbling, how to make him feel the light in his heart again, how to stop help him to worrying and simply be.

He wanted more than anything to be that same person for her now. He could see the heaviness in her sagging shoulders. She did not glow as Lorna did, rather her stomach sagged and seemed to weigh on her body and soul. It was all too obvious she did not want this baby. She did not want to be here. She did not want to rekindle any kind of friendship with him.

Severus was not particularly skilled at showing her his feelings. Or anyone, for that matter. He was a quiet, introverted soul and always had been. But now… He couldn't help but feel she needed someone very unlike himself at the present moment. Unfortunately, he was her only company. Lorna had been bedridden for the past week as her baby had tried coming early.

Something needed to change in their present relationship. If that meant he risked embarrassment, he knew he needed to accept that.

"Lily?" he called out from the kitchen. Dinner was nearly ready and he heard her knitting needles stop their clicking.

"Yes?" came her reply a moment later, and he detected a hint of unease in her tone.

"Would you mind joining me in the kitchen?"

Another pause, a groan, and a shuffle of feet. Lily's head poked into the kitchen and stared at him, unsure of what was happening. He took a deep breath.

"Go on. Sit down, then. I'd hate for your feet to swell anymore." His voice was kind but she looked increasingly suspicious, her hands resting protectively against her stomach. He turned and smiled a little at her as he approached.

"I was just wondering if you might allow me to touch your stomach? I…" his face was beet red "I read it's good for babies to hear and feel both of us." She stared at him, wide eyed, and surprisingly nodded rather quickly, immediately taking her hands away from her stomach.

He stepped forward and knelt down, looking into her eyes and smiling softly to try and dispel any fear she may have. Lily hitched up her shirt, revealing the tightening skin beneath where the child they'd conceived now grew. It surprised him, her seeming ease with his request. He'd thought she'd been far more frightened. He had been willing to provide her… comfort.

To his shock, however, he felt her grip his hand and pull it to her stomach.

His hand rested there for a moment when he felt a small bump collide with his palm. He let out a shocked breath and his eyes widened.

"There she is." Lily whispered and that was when he noticed she was crying. He looked up at her and his brow furrowed. Why should she be crying?

"I don't understand, Lily." He said softly and she buried her face in her hands, shaking as she cried. It was seldom he'd ever see her cry and it always set him on unease. He took his hand away from her skin reluctantly and was about to speak again when she started first.

"Of course you don't understand! But you do care! You do!" she let out a choked sob and continued, "I- I thought you w-were just going to use the b-baby to make him happy. I thought.. I thought…"

He was shocked. After all his planning with Lucius, after everything he did for her and the baby, she still thought her being pregnant was simply a way to rise through the ranks? It would have offended him, had he not known how broken she already was on the inside. He knew she was frightened and insecure and didn't really trust him. It hurt, but he understood.

"No." He said simply and watched as she wiped her tears and looked at him, waiting for him to say more. When he didn't, she took a deep breath.

"When are we leaving, then? The baby's going to b-be here soon."

"I know. I'm working on it."

"But…"

"I'm working on it. That's all I can say." He spoke quietly, pulling her shirt down to cover her stomach again. "With my dying breath I will keep you and the baby safe from harm. I swear to that."

She went quiet and stared at him, her fingers trembling as she fixed the hem of her shirt.

"And what of after we're safe?"

"That's for you to decide."

"I can leave?" she whispered in amazement and stared out the window.

"Yes. With or without the child." He managed to get out, the words sticking in his throat. If he got her far enough away, she could slip unnoticed away. He may never see her, them, again.

"I can leave the baby? You'd raise it?" She asked and for a moment he was surprised she seemed tempted to do so. Lily loved children. She always had. To his horror, he realized it must be that she just couldn't stomach the thought of raising a child with him. He nodded stiffly, then went back to dinner, putting the finishing spices on precisely.

It was quiet for several minutes, nothing but the sound of the casserole bubbling to fill the room.

Severus nearly burnt himself when he felt her small arms wrap around his waist. He stopped what he was doing immediately and without thinking turned himself around and wrapped his arms around her in return. Suddenly, he just couldn't hold back, his voice so desperate it shook, "I'm here. I'm here." His body trembled and his face was buried in her neck, not knowing why he felt so compelled to reassure her of his presence. Merlin, how he'd missed her companionship, her soft warmth, the gleam of mischief that thankfully had never left her eyes. To live without her again would be a torture he knew he could not willingly bear. She was shaking her head, her arms tight around him.

"I'm not leaving." His heart thumped wildly in his chest with the joy and overwhelming relief that filled him as he heard those words. She wasn't afraid of him, not anymore. He nodded.

"I'm not feeding our baby to the Dark Lord." He affirmed and felt her tuck her head against his chest. Things had to go better now. They just had to.

He needed to speak to Lucius.

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