Author's Note: Sorry for the mistake in the last chapter this story is almost over...please enjoy r/r.

Skin of alabaster and ivory, perfectly formed and incredibly gentle. Arms, hands and shoulders, all strong and tense from a life of work and scarred from times she hadn't move fast enough from the oncoming curse. Her left arm was propped over him and he could feel the Dark Mark's scarring on his back. He turned his attention to her black, curly hair that trailed down her back, over her shoulders and around her angelic face. Eyes, closed with sleep, were round and the only hint of her age. Thin wrinkles formed at the corners of her eyes but didn't injure her overall beauty.

Severus looked at the woman next to him and traced her side, from neck to shoulder, to arm to thigh and then to her belly. He studied the woman who had so changed his life so drastically and now lay besides him after making love.

Jacqueline, the woman he loved and hated with the same passion and determination. He stared at her, debating his life and if he even deserved to love her or her him. Did they deserve to love yet alone have the right to live? He took her cheek into his hand and let it linger.

"People like us don't belong out there!" She was saying and she was pointing to the world beyond Voldemort's haven.

Part of him agreed with her but couldn't understand why. "I'm an Auror, Jackie!" It sounded like a stupid excuse and one made by a man who already lost the battle he was waging against himself.

"Leave them!" She pleaded. "You belong with us…with me…"

She kissed him then and for the first time since he had left Melanie, he felt the devotion of another person for him. She offered him the world and more then that, she offered him her love. And at that moment it seemed more important to him then life, legacy or even honor. He wrapped his arms around her. "Alright, I'll go…"

He had barely turned 20 when he had made that choice and now almost 20 years later he was still paying for it. He owed everything in the last years to this woman- if he hadn't of joined her he would have remained unhappily married to a woman, or he would have been killed. He also would have never met Melanie again and in turn Kaiya would have never been born.

And all those people wouldn't have died.

This was the time the nightmares came and so he was a little surprised when none entered his mind. He was even more surprised when the shaking didn't come, or the nausea that he had experienced ever since his return to Hogwarts after starting the war. Those people didn't matter when Jacqueline was near. The dead stayed dead when she was with him and with her, he didn't have to pretend.

With her, he didn't need his mask. He could be the monster that his pristine mask hid just as easily as he could be the tortured human, the man. He could hate her but he couldn't deny he needed her.

Jacqueline was awaken to the man she loved moving besides her to take her into him arms. She felt him against her and smiled to herself. She kissed his shoulder blade and moved her way up to his mouth. "Do you still hate me?"

"Don't talk."

She obeyed. She let the world be drowned out for them, if only for this moment. She closed her eyes and fought back the tears that were welling up. She knew this wouldn't last. He didn't belong to her now.

He belonged to them now. To Albus Dumbledore, Benjamin Laud, Remus Lupin and Kaiya Alchemy; he belonged to their rules, their loyalties, and even their sins. Somewhere over the time she had been away, he had changed.

He was no longer the Dark Prince, not anymore. Now it seemed he was someone, something else. The idea of her Severus being a teacher still amused her immensely but she understood why. He had always wanted a family of his own, he never had to tell her that but she had always known. Being so close to children, watching them grow, protecting them and maybe even helping them grow, helping them become strong; that had been both his penitence and his perdition.

But he still needed her for one thing. She needed to show him he had to be both now; Prince and Potions Master, Death Eater and House Head, he had to be all of that now and more. She had to show him he needed to be it all, and a spy.

Only then would he be free of the demons that haunted him. Then, he would be free of her too. Jacqueline kissed him softly.

She would miss him.