Chapter Twenty-Two

Mycroft Unmasked

Jacqueline saw quite an improvement over the next few days; the most remarkable part happening in her own home. Mark no longer mentioned her taking her pills and didn't comment on the full bottles. Even the day pills were getting missed now and again, only remembered when the headaches hit her, but not taken with every meal as before. Best of all, Mark didn't seem to be trying to be the boyfriend figure any more, contenting himself by acting on her lead. He still looked for things the two of them to do together away from the television set and finally met success when he took out an old jigsaw puzzle of the Hudson Bay. She watched him for a little while, and then started pointing out pieces she had noticed. Before she knew it, the two of them were both working actively on it in the mornings before he went to work, and sometimes a few minutes after she got home.

Lunch, of course, was always spent at the grocer's deli with Mycroft talking about books or other interests; usually with her doing most of the talking. Then of course there was work, where Mycroft often came to sit at the bar for hours with a cup in hand, even braving a meal now and again. Everyone that Jacqueline knew was in good spirits… everyone except Erascus.

He was pacing his office with a paper in his hand when Jacqueline came in for her appointment, and she warily watched him from the doorway until he noticed her and put it down.

"And how have you been sleeping?" he asked.

"Much better," Jacqueline said truthfully. "No more tossing and turning, thank you."

"Good. How did your date go with Mark last weekend? Are you getting along better?"

"Yes, actually. The date wasn't all that great, but we had a long talk afterwards," Jacqueline said, sitting down. "You know, I think I'm finally starting to get used to him. We even found something we like to do together, and I was finally brave enough to tell him just how much I hate his coffee."

"Yes," Erascus said, studying her warily. "Good. Strange that Mark hasn't stopped by the office then to tell me."

"I don't know, we've been busy working on puzzles," Jacqueline said. "He said he's going to stop and get some glue and more puzzles today since we finished the one we're working on."

"I see," Erascus said. "And is he still talking to you about your past, helping you remember things?"

"Well, not exactly," Jacqueline said carefully. "You see, that was part of our talk. I know I'm never going to be the same again, and there's no use pretending any different. In fact, despite the ache of not remembering and not knowing what I've lost, I think I could live my life the way I am. I have a job and friends to support me when I need someone to talk to. Now I just need my life back, and I think I'm ready to face that on my own now."

"Are you a psychiatrist?" Erascus said coldly.

"No," Jacqueline said. "But what does that have to do with it?"

"I will be the one to determine when you are ready. No one else!" Erascus snarled at her. "Not you, and not that fool boyfriend of yours!"

"If you're speaking of Mark, he's not my boyfriend but he is a friend, a real friend, I see that now. I just haven't quite figured out what you are yet."

"What do you mean if I am speaking of Mark? Whom else would I be speaking of?" Erascus demanded dangerously, a flash of fury in his eyes.

"I don't know, you tell me," she challenged him. "There was someone else in my life, wasn't there? Someone before all of this... someone besides Mark, I'm sure of it!"

"You'll not turn this on me this time, woman," he snarled.

Grabbing her arm, Erascus dragged her out of his office and next door, bursting into the café as everyone looked up in surprise.

"I want to know whom Jacqueline is seeing, and I want to know it now," he snapped.

"Hm. You?" Sally said.

"Not as in seeing professionally! Personally!" he said furiously.

"Oh! Mark Ghent," Sally said. Emma agreed enthusiastically over the counter.

"And he's such a nice boy, too, isn't he, Jacqueline?" Emma agreed. Jacqueline nodded with a tense grin on her face.

"I didn't mean Mark, either," Erascus said acidly.

"Really?" Tony said, taking a bite of his sandwich and turning around with surprise. "You're dating someone else without telling us? That's not like you."

"If she was actually dating someone else, I'm sure she would have told us, Tony. You aren't dating anyone else, are you, dear?" Emma said.

"Hey Jacqueline," Rob said, coming out from the kitchen. "Why don't you clock in early? We're going to clean the big freezer today."

"I wasn't finished!" Erascus snarled.

"You are now," Rob said. "Jacqueline, work. Doc, if you don't get your hand off my employee right now, I'm calling the cops."

"Kingler, you have no idea who you're dealing with," Erascus said warningly, his other hand in his pocket.

"I don't care if you're the President, nobody manhandles my employees," Rob said back, one hand out of view. "Now I suggest you get the hell out of my place before we see who's got the best cards."

"Fine, but I will be watching your every move," Erascus said, staring coldly at Jacqueline as he let her go. "And if you are lying to me, you will find out what happens when my patience finally wears thin." Sally protectively got between Erascus and Jacqueline as she hurried to the back room, everyone with their eyes on Erascus until he finally headed out the door.

"You alright, Jackie?" Rob asked calmly, taking out his other hand from under the counter and folding his arms.

"Thank you," Jacqueline said, coming back out, "All of you. I've really done it this time, haven't I?"

"What happened? What started all this?" Sally asked.

"I don't know, one minute I was telling him everything was fine and in the next I found myself shouting at him," Jacqueline said. She glanced up to see Mycroft standing in the hallway to the bathrooms, feeling a lump in her throat. "What are you doing here?"

"I've been here," Mycroft said, nodding to the table where his tea sat. He walked over to the bar. "Are you all right?"

"I think so," Jacqueline said. "I'm frightened, but all right. I'm afraid I slipped up and he knows I've been da-… I mean, he knows I've been spending time with someone other than Mark, and for some reason, that's made him absolutely furious."

"How is it his business anyhow? Why would he care who you're with?" Sally asked.

"Maybe because Mark is paying him and Mark is easily manipulated into letting Erascus do what he wants?" Jacqueline said. "As long as Mark's in the picture, Erascus probably thinks he has job security. But I think I've just made up my mind. I'm not going back to see him, even if he does threaten to put me away. It's not as if I can be much more of a prisoner than I already am."

"Finally she comes to her senses!" Rob declared. "You don't have anything to fear from Erascus. All you really need is a good lawyer."

"I know one who would happily rise to the occasion," Mycroft said, taking out a card and writing on the back of it. "Although I would be cautious in believing that this is the only means that Erascus may try. He's very dangerous, and I would highly suggest that you get some protections in place before announcing to anyone, especially Erascus himself, your intentions until you are safely out of his reach."

"That'd be easy, you just have to be around when I do it," Jacqueline said, gazing at Mycroft. "I always feel safe when I'm around you." Mycroft blinked, momentarily at a loss for words.

"Do you know, I don't think you've ever told me that before," Mycroft said at last, too lost in her eyes to notice everyone else around them moving to give them some room. "You're always so determined to be independent."

"Can't I be independent and feel safer around someone else too?" Jacqueline asked softly.

"Yes," Mycroft said, his eyes never leaving hers. Sally cleared her throat.

"Your tea is getting cold, Professor," she said.

"If it is, it's the only thing in here that is," Emma teased. Jacqueline turned bright red, quickly getting Mycroft a fresh cup.

"You remind me of a neighbor of mine back home," Mycroft said dryly to Emma, holding the card out to Jacqueline. "Here. If you need help, call the number on the back. It's Lunette Vallid's private line."

"Lunette Vallid?" Sally repeated in shock. "Are you serious? You know Judge Vallid?"

"A friend of the family, my wife's especially," Mycroft nodded.

"Oh, I couldn't possibly obligate anyone…"

"Jackie, shut up and take the card! Vallid used to be the most famous lawyer in the country," Rob insisted. "It'd make me feel a lot better if you had it. That's a 'Get out of Jail Free' card he's giving you."

"I'm not quite sure what you mean by that," Jacqueline said but took it anyhow. "Thank you."

"Just promise me that you won't try confronting Erascus again on your own," Mycroft said seriously. "I don't want anything to happen to you."

"I promise," Jacqueline said. "If you'll try not to worry."

"Trying is one thing, succeeding is something else," Mycroft admitted softly.

"Hey, am I paying you to pour coffee or be a side show?" Rob barked.

Jacqueline looked back around to notice that everyone had had their eyes glued on the two of them again, except for Rob who was pointing at the elderly couple waiting by the door. Apologizing quickly, Jacqueline hurried back to work with one quick glance at Mycroft who gazed at her reactions with apparent amusement as he reached for his tea.

That night Jacqueline arrived to find Mark leaning over the puzzle, staring at it as if not really seeing it. In fact, he didn't even seem to notice her until she sat down.

"You haven't gotten much done tonight, huh?" Jacqueline asked him.

"Erascus came by after I got off work," Mark said, his voice sounding strange. "He seems to think you're seeing someone else. Are you?"

"Erascus wears his suit too tight," Jacqueline said. "And even if he wasn't full of it, I don't think it's his business."

"Who was it that was in the apartment the other day? The person you were really making the drink for?" Mark asked. "I thought we were at least friends, Jackie."

"We are," Jackie said.

"Then tell me who he is! You can't expect me to cover for you with Erascus if I don't know what's going on!" Mark yelled at her, getting up to refill his drink. "At least tell me what he does, even if you don't want to tell me his name. At least you could tell me how long this has been going on!"

"Are you jealous?" Jacqueline asked with surprise.

"Do you blame me?" Mark replied. "I've been spending months just getting so we can be civil to one another in the same room and this guy comes in and takes you away out from under my feet."

"Mark," Jacqueline began sternly. "I was never yours to have been taken away from. Not since the accident, at least. And as far as the Professor is concerned, he's only a friend!" Mark spun around on his heals, his face draining of all color.

"Professor? There's a professor here?"

"Yes, if you must know, but he's just a friend. In fact, he's the one who found me and brought me home on Friday."

"He looks like the man in the paper doesn't he?" Mark demanded. Jacqueline stared at him.

"How did you know about that?" Jacqueline murmured in confusion.

"I'm dead. No really, I'm dead. Especially when Erascus finds out. Oh God, but what's going to happen to you now?" he asked with an open look of fear on his face.

"Mark, what are you talking about?" she asked.

"Jackie, you can't see him. I mean it, this isn't about me anymore," Mark said. "Look, if Erascus realizes it's him, it's over for all of us. I don't want to see anything bad happen to you."

"Nothing is going to happen to me," Jacqueline insisted. "Are you trying to tell me that Erascus and the Professor know each other?"

Mark was pacing the floor and didn't answer, trying to think of a solution. Suddenly he turned and went over to her, holding her shoulders and looking her in the eye.

"Do you believe I'm on your side, Jacqueline?" Mark asked seriously. Jacqueline looked at him searchingly then nodded slowly. "Good, then I want you to pack a couple bags, throw in whatever you want. I need to get you out of here."

"What?" Jacqueline said.

"It's the only way I can be sure you'll get out of here in one piece," Mark said.

"And just leave the Professor without even saying goodbye?" Jackie asked.

"If he was able to find you here, he'll be able to catch up with us no matter where we go," Mark said. "Come on, right now let's just get you somewhere safe, and we can worry about relationship logistics later," he said insistently.

"Somewhere safe," Jacqueline repeated as Mark walked towards the bedroom, pausing at the door.

"Please, Jacqueline," Mark said. She gazed at him, knowing from his face that his concern was genuine.

"Let me just grab some of my books," she said slowly, turning towards the bookshelf.

"Just a couple, we can always get new ones wherever we end up," Mark said, heading to the bedroom and into the closet to pull down some bags. But as he turned to throw them on the bed he heard the front door shut.

"Jackie?" Mark shouted, untangling himself from the bag straps and over to the balcony, pushing over the door in time to see her slip in the door next to the café. "Oh, God. Why doesn't she ever listen?" He hit himself in exasperation trying to think, and then ran for the phone.

Mycroft was more than a bit surprised to hear a knock at his door, putting down his book and peering out to see Jacqueline. Quickly he let her in, a bit alarmed when she hugged him tightly.

"What is it, what's wrong?" he asked, pushing the door closed with one hand, the other around her.

"Mark wants to take me away somewhere. He says I'm in danger here," Jacqueline said, gazing up at him. "He's afraid of Erascus but I don't want to go."

"Where is he planning on taking you?" Mycroft asked sharply.

"I don't know, but he seemed to think that wherever we go, you'll find us. Why is that?" Jacqueline asked.

"If he knows me," Mycroft said quietly, "then he knows I'll follow you to the ends of the earth if necessary to find you." Jacqueline stared him in complete surprise for a moment, recognizing a fierce passion in his eyes that she had been longing to see without even realizing it.

Suddenly she reached up and pulled his head down, kissing him with the same passion she had seen in his face and with desperation to capture whatever had been haunting her. Eagerly he returned it despite his surprise at its intensity, carried away in the moment until he became aware of her wandering hands and attempted to back away. He managed only to lift his head, torn between desire and his better judgment, her kisses landing coaxingly upon his chin.

"We can't do this. Not now," he finally got out, forcing his arms to relax a bit.

"Mycroft, don't you want to be with me?" Jacqueline said alluringly.

"Oh, yes," Mycroft admitted, closing his eyes briefly before forcing her shoulders back a bit. "And I'll admit that this sudden initiative of yours is nothing short of intriguing…" he said as she tried to lean into him, forcing himself to gently nudge her away. "You're making this very difficult, Jacqueline."

"That's not the wording I would have chosen," she said wickedly. He quickly captured her wandering hands, drawing them together and kissing them gently.

"This is not the time. It isn't right, and I cannot possibly allow it," Mycroft whispered, stabbed by the hurt look in her eyes when she finally stopped.

"Was I wrong, then? Do you really not love me after all?" Jacqueline asked.

"The fact that I love you is exactly the reason that I cannot. I couldn't be true to myself and continue," Severus said, taking off his glasses and tossing them aside. He wasn't going to pretend any longer.

"It's your wife, isn't it? That's why," Jacqueline said after a moment, her voice a bit off as she looked at him searchingly.

"It is about Jennifer, yes, but not in the way that you may be thinking," Severus said softly. Jacqueline felt a strange sensation when he said her name. But the strangest thing of all to her was that the passion that had been in his dark eyes before had not lessened despite his resolve.

"Let me stay with you, or flee with you, just don't send me away," Jacqueline pleaded. "Nothing seems real in my life, nothing except for you. You're the answer to all the questions I've been asking myself. Somehow I know that's true, and if I lose you, I lose everything."

He studied her with intense scrutiny until at last look of relief crossed Severus' face. He gathered her back into his arms, holding her tightly and kissing her forehead.

"You'll never lose me, Jacqueline. As long as you want me around, I will be," Severus said.

"Then I want you around forever," Jacqueline said, burying her head in his chest.

Severus held her more tightly and probably would have held her all night just like that if he could have. But a sudden prickling on his neck and the sound of Ratfly banging against the window outside alerted him that something was amiss.

Severus turned and pushed Jacqueline back against the bed as a flash of light blasted against the door, knocking it completely off its hinges by the force of the blast and onto the floor as Erascus stepped in. Immediately Severus' wand was in his hand and he was poised for a fight. He backed cautiously away from the door.

"So, the snake has been here all along, has he?" Erascus said as he stepped over the threshold, his wand still dimly glowing from his last spell. "Greetings, Snape, or whatever you're calling yourself these days."

"Erascus, or whoever you truly are," Severus said calmly back.

"I see you've found my patient. I don't suppose you're prepared to return her? No?" Erascus said mockingly, stepping up a bit. "She's of no use to you, you know. Jennifer is dead, and Jacqueline isn't capable of replacing her. She's just a young Muggle café waitress with a deadbeat boyfriend who gets paid way too much for his pathetic babysitting services."

"Jacqueline can make her own decisions," Severus said evenly. "You, Erascus, have yet to pay for yours."

"If anyone's going to be paying today, it's you, Snape," Erascus snarled, gesturing with his wand. But Severus had been waiting for that movement, immediately casting at the door below Erascus' feet and tossing him to the floor, the door smashing into pieces against the ceiling.

"Get down, Jacqueline!" Severus barked as Erascus rolled out of the way. A flash of pink light came towards Severus and he leapt out of the way.

Quickly Jacqueline scrambled underneath the bed as another blast of light shot across the room towards a lamp and darkness fell with the sound of shattered glass. Only the flashes of the spells themselves and a dim light in the hall lit the room now. But for some reason, the presence of magic in the room didn't frighten her, only the fact that there was no one coming out of any of the other rooms to stop what was happening around her. It was, she realized, going to continue to the end, no matter what that end was going to be.

The barrage of spells seemed more to keep Severus busy than do any real harm, Severus realized, wondering what Erascus was up to as he quickly parried a sleep spell and hurdled over the bed to get into a position to blast him with a wave of projectiles made from the debris on the floor. Several of them grazed Erascus and he cried out in mixed pain and fury, flicking his wand. The chair flew out of the corner towards Severus, making him jump to one side. But just then the bottom of the broken lamp came at him from behind, hitting Severus on the back of the head and sending him to the floor. A wave of dizziness and nausea hit him then, and he realized that his wand was not in his hand.

Erascus laughed then, stepping on Severus' right hand to prevent him from trying to call it back, digging the heel of his boot in while standing with his own wand pointed at Severus' head.

"Not too clever, Snape, didn't you play Quidditch in school? When a Bludger comes to the front, a Chaser watches his back. It really is too bad I can't kill you, considering how many would be so happy to see the recreant meet his end," he said, grinding his heal some more.

"Recreant," Snape rasped. "You're a Death Eater…"

"No," Erascus was. "But my father was. Not that he was a Death Eater long, of course. He was snuffed out in cold blood as if he were a common animal, and who else but by one of our own kind…the man who makes your pathetic attempts at betrayal shallow in comparison. Thomas Craw killed my father, and now he sits in Azkaban hotel, waiting for the day that the families of the dead have no appeals left and he walks out of there revered as a hero for his massacre. Ever hear the phrase eye for and eye and a hand for a hand, Snape?" he said nastily, his wand waving in warning when Severus' other hand flinched as if to try and free the first when Erascus ground it into the floor even more. "In this case, it's family for family. How could I resist, when someone offered me Jennifer on a bed of blank memories? She is dead without bloodshed, dead for all accounts except left with a live body to torment those that cared for her in knowing that she can be nothing but a shell of what she was. And now, it seems, that you are about to join her in oblivion. I can't profess to be half the charmer that destroyed Jennifer, but I'm sure once you're under control, the potion I've concocted will do the trick. How ironic that you were the one that taught it to me."

"Baylor…" Severus said at last. "Destroying us won't bring Levus back, Roger."

"So, you do remember, do you?" Erascus said with a cold nod. "Yes, that was me, fifteen years ago, and you were the one to tell me my father was dead. But time doesn't heal all wounds, Snape, no matter how you want them to. Only the satisfaction of knowing the one that did the crime is receiving proper punishment will soothe it. How crushed he's going to be when you're both gone. How crushed the world will be… well, perhaps not the entire world. Goodbye, Severus. I'll be seeing you soon, but you won't remember a bit of it. Pity that. Obli-"

"Morte acidium!" Jacqueline shouted from behind him, her hand gripped tightly around Severus' wand as a cloud came out of the wand and descended upon Baylor, a complex chant coming out of her mouth as the Acidic Eulogy began to eat at its victim. Baylor began to scream in intense pain, his skin getting redder and blistery as the chant continued and he fell to the ground, crippled with pain as his skin began to peel.

"No! Jacqueline!" Severus shouted. "Stop! Stop the chant!"

Jacqueline didn't remember stopping. In fact, she hardly remembered casting. As silence fell, she found herself shaking with Severus' wand pointed at the injured figure in front of her, barely recognizable now. Numbly she dropped the wand, unsure of what had just happened, standing in complete shock.

"I'm sorry," she said, bursting in tears.

Severus was still holding her when Mark burst in a moment later with the police, immediately paling in terror when he saw Erascus.

"What is this? What's going on here?" one of the police barked, checking Baylor. "This man needs medical attention right away!"

"Send him to Valley," ordered a woman's voice from the other side of the doorway. Vallid stepped into the room, a phone open in hand. "I'll have someone waiting there for him on arrival. You all right, Severus?" she asked with a frown, looking over his battered form.

"I will tell you in a little while," Severus said, having no intention of letting the clinging woman in his arms go. He was letting her cry herself out, oblivious, yes, but only to the chaos going on around them.
"How could I do that? Who was I that I could do that?" she asked at last, still trembling.

"Would you believe me if I told you that you were once my wife?" Severus said quietly. Jacqueline's glassy eyes gazed up at him, her heart skipping a beat as she realized that it was the first thing that had made perfect sense to her since she woke up all those months ago.

"But who am I now?" she asked slowly.

"Whoever you decide you are," Severus said. "But whoever that turns out to be, I will still love you."

"Promise?" Jacqueline said softly.

"A promise I couldn't break it even if I wanted to," Severus assured her, hugging her tightly.