Author's note:

This one-shot was requested by a reviewer. It is about the period right after Rose and Severus reconciled following Tobias's death. Thank you for the support and suggestions. I really hope you enjoy.

Whole:

"So, are you two back together now?" It was Ephraim who opened the front door to Neville and Hannah's house.

Rose and Severus had apparated to the Longbottom's front steps once the undertaker had come to remove Tobias's body. Severus and Rose were clinging to each other as they reappeared into the exposing night, but they let go almost at once, making eye contact and then quickly looking.

Severus had said he was no longer angry with Rose; he had said he wanted to leave with her, but there was so much left unsaid. What were the boundaries? One thing was perfectly clear by the rapid pounding for Rose's heart and the ridged way Severus moved beside her, things may be forgiven but they definitely were not forgotten.

"We never were not together," Severus told his son stiffly.

"You had a funny way of showing it," Ephraim muttered back.

"You're here." Hannah appeared in the door and pulled Rose into a tight hug. Then she held her out at armlength, examining her colorless face. Rose felt shaky with exhaustion. Hannah's eyes slid over to where Severus stood. Severus's face was unreadable. "We were worried about you."

"We're fine," Rose said, producing a small smile out of nowhere; even she knew that it was not convincing anyone.

"Alright," Hannah said slowly, planning to thoroughly dig later. "Come in for a while?" she asked instead.

"We need to take the children home," Severus answered, before Rose even opened her mouth.

"Neville is with Esme," Hannah said. "I'll get them."

"No need," Neville appeared at the door as well.

"I'm here!" Esme cried, pushing past the many pairs of legs to get to her parents. Once over the threshold, she looked from her mother to her father thoughtfully. "Papa, coming home too?" she asked hopefully.

Severus nodded once.

Esme jumped a couple times on the spot and then ran at her father, wrapping her arms around Severus's legs. Severus closed his eyes briefly and drank in the night air.

"Come here," Severus said gently to his daughter, carefully detaching her from his legs and taking her up into his arms.

"We better be going," Rose said weakly. "Come on, Ephraim."

Ephraim stepped forth at once.

"Thank you both," Rose told Hannah and Neville.

"No problem," Neville said. Rose caught Neville sending a questioning look at Hannah, who shrugged.

"I'm going to come visit you later this week," Hannah said firmly to Rose's back.

Rose turned back briefly and nodded once.

"Come on," Severus told Rose. He couldn't quite make sense of his feelings, but he knew that he wanted to be away from the quizzical eyes of the Longbottoms.

Rose nodded again, allowing herself to be shepherded along with her family. She bumped shoulders with Severus as they walked.

"I'm sorry," she said with polite distance. She took several steps to the side to avoid running into him again.

"It's alright," Severus returned with that same tone of unfamiliarity.

Ephraim quickened his stride to walk alongside his father. "Well?" he asked in a low voice.

"It's finished," Severus said cryptically, glancing down at Esme, who was watching her father and brother carefully.

Ephraim gave a little knowing nod before taking his mother's arm. Rose smiled slightly and more genuinely than she had in front of Hannah. "We're sorry we were away so long," Rose mumbled to Ephraim.

"It's fine," Ephraim shrugged off. "We like Hannah and Neville."

"It's late," Rose commented. She looked at her watch for the first time in hours. It was nearly 10 in the evening. Tobias struggled for over 24 hours to die. "Are you two hungry?"

"Hannah and Neville gave us dinner," Ephraim replied.

"Good," Rose replied guiltily, feeling like she spent more time caring for Tobias than Ephraim and Esme over the last few months.

"Esme, we need to get you into bed," Rose said as the family stepped into their home.

Severus set Esme on her feet, but she immediately reached for his hand, gripping the ends of his long fingers with her tiny fist. "I want Papa to help." She pulled at Severus. "Please Papa."

"Of course," Severus said, letting his toddler drag him along.

"But you have to close your eyes," Esme said firmly. "Okay Papa?"

Severus threw Rose a questioning look. "While she's changing," Rose explained. "She's very into privacy now." Rose felt sick that she had to explain their daughter to him.

"Right," Severus returned awkwardly as Esme pulled him around the corner.

It took nearly an hour for Severus to emerge from Esme's bedroom. Esme insisted on Severus tucking her in just so and wouldn't let him leave until she was under the blankets tightly, but not too tightly. Then she cried until Severus agreed to stay with her until she fell asleep.

Finally, Severus was easing the door shut as to not wake her. The house was silent. He wondered if Rose and Ephraim were asleep, but when he came into his and Rose's bedroom, he saw that she was wide awake. The lights were dimmed, but for a single lamp. She was gazing towards the light, fully dressed, with her knees to her chest.

She turned as he entered and closed them together behind the door.

He hesitated before approaching her and sitting himself on the bed beside her yet leaving a foot between them.

"Hey," she said in a shaky voice. That seemed to be all she could manage before dissolving into tears. She quickly covered her face with her hands, muffling the sobs.

Severus froze and just stared at her. Then uncertainly he reached out to touch her shoulder.

"No," Rose managed, shrugging away his hand. She immediately sat up straighter and took several sharp breaths through her mouth. She quickly wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and back on her husband. "I'm sorry," she said in a voice that she was struggling to keep calm. "I shouldn't be..." she shook her head. "I'm just so tired."

Severus watched her skeptically, a grimace forming on his lips. Dishonestly had never been a factor in their relationship before. Before Rose had been 'overly' open with Severus, but ever since Tobias had encroached upon their marriage, Rose had become secretive and guarded. Severus wondered if this had become her habit, perhaps he was away for too long. Had Rose become accustomed to his absence?

Rose felt wrong crying, like it wasn't her place, not about this. The truth was that she was mourning, mourning the loss of her father-in-law, which despite everything she had grown to care for. But how could she possibly convey that to Severus. With Severus so distant, Rose had found herself craving time with Tobias, wanting to cling to a piece of her husband when she was starved of his affection. But somewhere in the time she spent with Tobias it stopped being just about missing Severus. It was horrible to watch Tobias die in such a messy, drawn out way. Her heart hurt with pity for him, and there was a tiny part of Rose, though she felt guilty to admit it, pitied herself, for once again she was abandoned, abandoned by Tobias when she had clung to him after the rejection of her husband. But perhaps she deserved that.

"Are you alright?" Rose posed in a voice much different from her own.

Severus narrowed his eyes slightly. "Fine," he said coolly.

Rose gave him a sad little smile. "Good," she breathed.

Severus was so near her now, but she felt so lonely. Severus had been her constant, strong, and powerful. He was powerful enough to take away her fear of death, of being left behind, that sinking feeling that filled her heart every second of every day after Tiberius's murder.

Suddenly her body seemed to ache with that fear again and Rose was desperately trying to push it down.

"I think I would like to go to sleep," Rose mumbled at the floor, trying to hide the fresh tears forming in her eyes.

"Ephraim's light is still on in his bedroom," Severus said as he stood up.

"He probably is wondering about what happened," Rose said in a monotone.

"No doubt." Severus moved towards the door.

"Severus," Rose called after him, sounding more like herself.

He turned back to her immediately. "Yes."

"You will sleep in the bed with me, won't you?" A flush formed on her cheeks.

"If that's what you want," Severus answered, giving nothing away.

"I-" Rose cut herself off. It wasn't about what she wanted. She wanted him to want to be with her. "You should do whatever you feel comfortable with," she replied formally.

Severus gave her a short nod and then left the room.

Rose crawled under the covers with her clothes on, curling her knees to her chest.

What seemed like only seconds later, her eyes flit open. She groaned, not wanting to face what the day had in store. Her body was heavy with a fowl mixture of guilt and grief.

"What have you to be so grumpy about. The day hasn't even begun."

Rose sprang into a sitting position and glanced over at the speaker. She jumped back slightly, her heart skipping a beat and her lungs suddenly void of oxygen. "Tiberius," she mouthed. "What-" she glanced around her, they were in the cottage, in hers and Severus's bedroom. "What are you doing here?" she whispered as if they were going to get caught out of bounds.

"Are you alright, baby?" Tiberius said skeptically.

Baby. Rose had almost forgotten how he used to call her that. No one had ever called her that besides him. She used to hate it. 'I'm not a baby,' she used to complain. 'I'm an adult.' Then he would do it just to spite her. How she missed him calling her baby. How she missed him calling her anything.

"Ti?" Rose said questioningly, fear evident in her voice.

Tiberius reached out and stroked Rose's cheek lightly. Rose closed her eyes at his touch, remembering the feel of his fingertips. "Did you have a nightmare?"

Rose opened her eyes again. "I-" her brows knit together. "I guess I did."

"Do you want to talk about it?" he soothed.

"I dreamt you were dead."

He gave her a sad smile.

Rose's eyes widen. "Ti," she uttered, "why are we here? Where's-"

"Mummy!"

Someone collided with Rose's middle and was suddenly clinging to her.

Rose froze as she gazed down at a little boy with white blond hair.

"Be careful with Mummy, Scorpius" Tiberius said, as he ruffled the little boy's locks.

The boy stared up at Rose with big gray eyes and gave her a toothy grin. He mustn't have been older than five and he was beautiful.

"Scorpius," Rose mouthed. "A Malfoy family name."

"Are you feeling okay, Rose?" Tiberius pressed with concern.

Rose stared around the room and then back at Tiberius. "Where are Ephraim and Esme?"

Tiberius tilted his head slightly to get a better look at Rose. "Who?"

"This isn't right," Rose said but still clung to the little boy in her arms. "Where's Severus?"

A frown formed on Tiberius's lips. "Severus Snape?" he asked roughly.

Rose nodded once.

"He's not here," Tiberius said crudely.

"Where did he go?" Rose turned towards the closed door as if expecting Severus to burst in at that very moment.

"Why does it matter?"

Rose sat up straighter. "Why does it matter?" she repeated indignantly. "Because he's my-" she cut herself off catching sight of Tiberius's injured expression.

"But we're here," Tiberius said desperately.

"No." Rose shook her head. "You're not." Tears were suddenly rolling down her cheeks.

"He left you!" Tiberius shouted at Rose in a voice that was colder than she had every heard from him.

Rose jumped and hugged the little boy closer to her chest, but it was then she realized that her arms were empty. "You left me too," she said in a broken voice.

"Not on purpose," Tiberius said sadly.

"But you did," Rose cried. Suddenly horrible anger was rising within her. "You did! You abandoned me! You told our secret to Lucius! You left me alone! You weren't strong enough."

Rose was standing from the bed now. Tiberius jumped up and stood in front of her. He held her tightly by the arms, yet Rose could not feel his touch at all. "And Severus Snape is strong enough?"

"He is strong," Rose shot back. "He survived the snake, he survived Voldemort when you couldn't!"

"You have been holding on to this idea that Severus Snape it permanent somehow, immortal," Tiberius said. "But he is just a man. If anyone abandoned you, it was him. He left willingly. It doesn't matter if he is strong and enduring if he isn't with you."

Rose started breathing heavily and her body began to shake as the weight of grief began to buckle her knees and she fell to the ground.

She remembered the rough feel of tulle risen high on her legs and the cold tile. How long had she laid on that bathroom floor in her white dress, unable to move, paralyzed by debilitating sadness. Rose was suddenly blinded by thick darkness. She reached out for Tiberius but her fingertips only grazed emptiness. She had followed him to England. She had wrapped her life around him, her life had become him. Then suddenly her life was gone, dead, over. She was only surviving, breathing, getting herself from day to day.

The tiniest of flames had burned within her; the war was not won. She could stand to keep herself alive a little longer to heal those who needed her because she knew it was right and it was easier to get wrapped up in others' physical ailments than deal with the cavernous hole inside her that she did not know how to mend.

Rose was back on that cold tiled floor, unable to lift herself up.

"Rose."

Invisible hands were grasping her arms. She felt them like she had not felt Tiberius touch her before. Was he back to lift her from the ground, to hold her against his chest so that she can feel his beating heart?

"Rose."

Rose's eyes sprung open into dim light. She was vaguely aware that she was sitting up. A warm hand was on her cheek.

"Tiberius," she breathed.

The hand fell.

Rose blinked hard. "Severus," she said hurriedly.

Severus's face materialized in front of her. "Yes," he said through gritted teeth He was sitting beside Rose in bed, still in his robes. "Surprised to see me?" he questioned contemptuously.

"Yes," Rose answered instinctively. "No," she amended at once.

Severus's face fell into a deep scowl and then he turned his gaze away from his wife to glower at the far wall.

Rose took in a sharp breath and grabbed hold of Severus's wrist, not lovingly but as if to hold him there in case he was thinking of leaving.

Severus's eyes flicked to his ensnared arm, but he did not pull away.

"I'm sorry," Rose said, her voice heavy. "I was dreaming, and Tiberius was there and a little boy-" she stopped herself as the finer details of the dream came back to her. "Please just forget it."

It was at her words that Severus finally tore out of her grasp. "I came in the room and you were shaking in your sleep."

"I'm fine," she said at once.

"Clearly you are not," he hissed.

"I-" She paused to think. "You don't need to be burdened with that right now." She shook her head. "I don't need to make this about me."

"Well you already have," Severus said disdainfully, "So you might as well try for a bit of honesty."

Rose's face took on a pained expression.

"Well," Severus said impatiently.

"Your father just died," Rose muttered.

Severus made a face like something disgusting was passed under his nose. "It comes back to him. Is he going to haunt us in death?"

Rose shook her head. "Your father just died," she tried again. "It doesn't feel like the right time for me to bring up…" she searched the room. "My-" Rose suddenly looked appalled too. "My abandonment issues."

Severus surveyed her through narrowed eyes but said nothing.

She sighed. "I don't think you know-" she shifted uncomfortably. "You didn't know me when…when…it happened."

Severus knew that she was talking about Tiberius's death. Three years into their marriage, Severus was left to assume things about Rose's relationship with Tiberius Malfoy that had ended so traumatically. He had never sought a confidence with her on this topic. She never appeared to want to talk about her would-be-wedding with Tiberius, though Severus had witnessed on more than one occasion the pain and fear she displayed at the memory. On those occasions, Rose would not just cry but would demonstrate an attachment to Severus that was beyond that of husband and wife. She would follow him around with a desperate need to be close to him. Rose would never talk about what was happening, but it was quite clear. And Severus would tolerate these times.

He wanted Rose to follow closely beside him because of him, not for the love of another man.

"I was," her eyes shimmered with tears, "a complete disaster."

"In that time, you accomplished much in your career," Severus reminded. "You got up, you functioned."

Rose let out a little huff and shook her head. Her eyes where suddenly casted in shadows. "I was dead inside," she said darkly. "I was just surviving, pretending to care that other people were dying and suffering. But I only felt numb to the world. Sometimes it felt like a game, like I was the only nonhuman trying to not get caught for what I really was. I smiled in the right places; looked sad when it was appropriate to be upset. When in reality, I was so numb."

Severus's face was stoic. He knew exactly what that felt like.

"A few things made it possible for me to come back," Rose said softly, "a few people. Just for a little while. Some smiling children and the Lupins." Rose's eyes glossed over at the thought of Remus and Tonks.

Severus had almost forgotten that Rose said she had known them when they were at the Hogwarts ball. The Lupins were the last people he expected to come up now.

"I treated some of Remus's wounds after the full moon," Rose explained. "Then I saw them monthly to give them wolfsbane potion."

'Of course, it would be Rose to do this,' Severus thought bitterly. She showed no reservations in caring for any type of monster. Severus also hadn't realized that her knowing the Lupins was any more than a one chance meeting.

"They were such lovely people," Rose cried, "There was so much unconditional love between them. I thought about them a lot and the idea that I got to help them made me feel…something, if only for a little while. I looked forward to seeing them every month." She grimaced. "I selfishly eagerly anticipated the full moon's arrival so that I could see them again."

"What does this have to do with-"

"What does this have to do with you, Severus?" Rose said in a hard tone. "The Lupins made me realized that I did have a life outside that of what I had with Tiberius, not a particularly good life or a happy one, but a life that was mine." Rose's eyes bore into his. "Then came you, broken and bleeding and barely clinging to life. I learned almost immediately who you were and the things you had done. How you had sacrificed everything for the love of your life." Her voice began to shake. "Not only that, Severus, as injured and weak as you were, I felt an amazing sense of comfort and safety around you, even before you had woken. Here was a man so strong and brave and he was still fighting. I though that if anyone deserved to be alive it was Severus Snape."

Severus's face was unreadable. Rose could not begin to guess what he was thinking. He just stared at her, listening intently.

"You became my obsession," Rose told him. "I was obsessed with healing you, like somehow if you lived that would set the universe right again." To Severus's astonishment, Rose smiled tearfully at him. "Then you woke up and you were so snarky, and you constantly challenged me. You woke me up too." Her smile faded. "It was inevitable that I would fall in love with you." Her voice broke. "And I need you. I need you more than I have ever needed anyone." Her body filled with burning guilty.

Her words were not lost on Severus. He heard the meaning behind them.

Severus had once told her that he thought he would love Lily until the day he died but that she was never his. Rose had never admitted it but as her bond grew stronger with Severus, as they built their family together and shared more together, Tiberius became more and more of a beautiful memory as if from someone else's life.

Severus was a part of Rose now and always. He was not, at times, the better part or the happy part, but he made her whole.

"I can survive without you," she said somberly. "I've proven that I can. But I cannot live without you, Severus."

Severus's face had been resolutely stoic as she spoke but then suddenly, he came at her, fast and forcefully. In surprise Rose let out a little shriek that was muffled by the pressure of Severus's mouth on hers. He pulled her close with a relentless grip. Rose let the shock of his sudden embrace phase her for only a moment before she was kissing and holding him back with the same vigor.

Everything Rose said to Severus matched his feelings. Perhaps they were two people with two independent wills and two beating hearts; they were also two people who had suffered two great losses that had broken them in half.

Their two remaining halves fit together perfectly.

And in this sudden and intense burst of passion, Severus had a need to mend, to be as close to Rose as possible so that they were forced to fit back together again. He held her face as they kissed. He felt her hot tears running down his knuckles.

Severus had been starved for a safe place of his own, where he was accepted and loved above others. That was here with Rose. Though he had always, deep down, known that to be true, he hadn't fully appreciated it until this very moment.

He wanted to be closer still. Rose was still wearing her clothes from the day before, Severus blindly reached for the fasten of her jeans.

Rose pulled away from him slightly. Severus froze. Had she not wanted him to kiss her. She was kissing him back, but he was holding her so tightly, maybe she didn't have a choice but to respond to his advances.

As if reading his mind, Rose gripped Severus's hand and stared up into his eyes. "How am I to know that you will never leave like that again."

Severus stared back at her. His heart ached at her pleading look.

"I know I made you angry. I know I over stepped," Rose whispered. "What if I make you upset with me again? Will you leave again?"

"No," Severus said firmly.

"How do I know that?" Rose cried. "Severus, I don't think I could stand it."

"If my word is not enough," Severus said firmly, keeping her hand in his, "I will have to prove it to you in actions alone because I don't believe I could stand it either."

"But what if-"

"There isn't a what if," Severus said. "I love you, Rose. Never when I was away did I question that fact for a single moment. I shouldn't have left."

"And I shouldn't have gone behind your back," Rose mumbled.

"No," Severus agreed. "But if I had let you explain yourself properly." He pressed his lips together. "If I would have been paying attention properly, not just now, but since the moment we met, I would have known that you are always trying to look after me. To protect me." He gave her the tiniest, tight lipped smile. "I have never had that before. I still don't fully understand it."

Rose was now sobbing silently. "I love you," she managed.

Severus shrugged open his arms and Rose melted into him. He held her tightly against his chest and let her cry into him. He kept his cheek pressed against the top of her head and closed his eyes, savoring the feel of her, savoring the feel of being whole once more.