Always…

A married couple lay in bed side by side, and the man suddenly became aware that his wife's eyes were on him. Taking her hand under the sheets and he gave her a smiled but she didn't seem to want it at all.

Getting out of the bed they had so far been sharing just a tender five months, she went out on to the balcony.

Like a dog on a leech he followed her.

"Don't go tomorrow," she asked him. "If I mean any thing to you, you'll stay with me." She said to him fiercely.

"You know that isn't fair Cissy, I do want to stay with you, why wouldn't I, I love you, and I always have. But I can't stay. When our lord calls me out tomorrow I must fight." He said to her.

"Then when you return, you'll find me and this child in my womb gone." She said to him.

"And where will you go?" he spat at her. This was the side of Lucius she did not like so much. The side that made it so hard to talk to him about how she felt inside.

"I'll go to Bella or to Andy if needs be." She said to him confidently. Her and her sisters may not have been as close as they were when they were growing side by side but she liked to think were any if them ever in need the other two would still try to help.

Lucius let out a laugh.

"And they will send you straight back to me. Bella knows your place, here at the Malfoy manor, with your husband," he said dangerously. "You're over lord. And I know very well you would not go to the blood traitor if your life depended on it."

"And yet if you go tomorrow then I may not have an over lord at all!" she insisted ignoring the comment over Andromeda. She refused to let him leave her for a battle he was not going to get back from to her and the child.

"Then you should go to one of your sisters, if that is the case for I will have no longer any use for you." He said spitefully.

"You don't mean that." She said to him.

"Don't I?" he asked turning to face her. "And why my dear wife would I not mean It." he asked.

"Because Lucius, you love me!" she said to him boldly and for a minute he swelled up as if he was going to hit her but then he looked out over the grounds.

"Damn you Cissa." He said simply. "Of course I love you. Haven't I shown that every day since you became Mrs. Malfoy?"

"Yes, and I hope I have shown you in return but if you don't come home then who will love me!" she said to him. "No one." She answered for him. "You think after sleeping with you any one would be as sweet?" she said and he put an arm round her. "And what of the child Lucius? Is he or she to grow up fatherless?"

"Well my dear it is good to see you have so much faith in my battle skills." He said and she sighed in despair.

"I can't do it alone!" she said in raised voice and he knew she was deeply unhappy. She never raised her voice, not to him at least. "I am not strong enough with out you here to hold me together any more! I'd lose the child."

She sat down on the edge and felt a tear trickle down her cheek. If she didn't have him then she was nothing. No she just couldn't do it with out him. She was useless. She had got so wrapped up in him and now…

"I need you."

"No you don't Cissa." He said to her tenderly. "You are stronger than you give yourself credit." He said and pulling her up he took her in his arms.

"Would you leave this war behind if we could, would you run with me and never look back?" she asked staring in to his grey eyes with her own crystal ones.

He replied. "Would you love me if I ran?"

"Always."

He hadn't wanted that reply. It made it harder for him.

"Cissy if I run he will find me and with me you. He'll kill us both. When I go tomorrow I go not to get killed myself, but save you." He said to her. "I promise to you, I will be here this time tomorrow and this time next week I will be here still. When we're old and our son's bringing his kids to see us, I will be here." He said kissing her brow. "I'm not leaving you."

"Then why does it feel every time you go to him I lose just a bit ore of you." She asked.

He had no reply for that.

"Go to bed my love," he said and she looked down shivering with the chill of the night air.

He watched as she did as he said and turned out to the grounds to observe them for a minute before following.

"Would you love me if I died?" he muttered quietly.

"Always…"