In the morning, Severus found himself staring at the beautiful Paige laying next to him. After the revelations from the night before, Severus had a strong desire to watch her sleep. He had gotten a few hours of sleep during the night but then he decided to keep his eyes fixed on her. A part of him felt that if he didn't watch her, she would somehow cease to exist, that she wouldn't be real and just a vague dream. Severus worried about this because his life never seemed simple and good things rarely happened to him.
Since the morning was now brightly shining through the window, Severus leaned towards Paige's ear and whispered into it. "Good morning sleepyhead." He teased since he usually didn't sleep in that late.
Paige moaned and turned to face him. "Good-" She quickly clasped her hand over her mouth before running to the bathroom.
This started Severus so he raced to the bathroom to hear her throw up into the toilet. He kneeled down next to her and held her hair out of her face. He brushed the back of his hand against her cheek gently. "Are you okay?" He asked with concern.
"No." She replied while trying to catch her breath from regurgitating.
"What's wrong?" He asked with eyes that looked half worried.
She finally looked at him while clutching her stomach with one of her arms. "I'm pregnant." Her secret was now out.
Severus wrapped his arms around her carefully so he wouldn't make her even sicker to her stomach. He didn't know how to feel since he thought all hope of having a child of his own was lost. He never found anyone to be with until Paige and he didn't give much thought about having a child since he had gotten older. He wondered if the horrible events in his pasts were now being made up for with wonderful ones.
"I can stay home from work today if you're feeling that sick." He offered to her after he pulled away from the hug.
"You don't have to do that."
"It's no trouble at all." He then picked her up and carried her back to the bedroom. He sat her down on the bed and pulled the comforter over her. "Just rest."
Paige rested for most of the day and in fact, she slept through most of it. When it was dark outside, she finally awoke and could hear noise coming from one of the extra rooms in the house. To discover what the noise was, Paige left the bed and went to the guest room. She found Severus painting the walls a dark blue color with a paint roller and paint supplies were on the floor.
"What are you doing?" She asked curiously, the fumes from the paint slightly bothering her but she tried to ignore it.
Severus turned to face her. He had on a white t-shirt that was covered in paint in several places along with blue jeans that had paint on them too. "You're awake." He stated obviously.
Paige glanced around the room for a moment so Severus answered her question. "I'm painting a nursery for the baby."
"But the baby won't be here for a few months." She explained to him. "And why are you painting the room dark blue? You don't know it's a boy."
"You're right. I don't." He confessed. "I am painting it this color because I'm going to put gold and yellow stars and a sun. Then a blue moon will go on the ceiling too because I want to give my child the universe."
Paige smiled at him. "That's so sweet," she said. "You know, you look really sexy in those clothes with the paint on you."
Severus grinned mischievously. "Are you tempted by me?" He asked in a seductive tone.
"Of course." She grinned but then made a nauseous face. "You should open the window a crack because of the paint fumes. They make me kind of nauseous."
Severus quickly opened a window. "Sorry. Are you feeling any better?" He asked sincerely.
She nodded. "Yes. I'm just kind of hungry now."
"I'll make you something. Just have a seat at the kitchen table." Severus said to her before cleaning up a bit and then heading to the kitchen.
Severus grabbed a couple of frying pans and set them on the stove before turning on the burners. He found some chicken and broccoli that he decided to cook for dinner. He decided to cook the chicken and broccoli in some light oil since he didn't want to cook anything that would be too intense on Paige's stomach. His first concern was her and then the baby. The baby's health concerned him just as much as Paige so he wanted to feed them food that would be remotely healthy.
After he cooked the food, Severus placed it on a couple of plates and gave one to Paige. He grabbed a couple of glasses and filled them with milk. "I hope this is okay. I'm not the greatest cook but I learned some things since I've lived alone for so many years." He explained before joining her at the table.
Paige cut some of the chicken and then shoved it into her mouth. "This is actually pretty good." She complimented before eating some more of the chicken and then trying the broccoli.
Once Severus knew she was pleased with his cooking, he began to eat himself. He couldn't help but feel happiness for once in his life considering he had someone that cared about him and that person was going to be the mother of his child. He never really thought about being with anyone other than Lily, and especially not with someone who was a muggle. If there was one thing Severus learned throughout his life was that it didn't matter if someone was a mudblood, pureblood, halfblood, or even a muggle born. He didn't care about those things anymore, even more so after Lord Voldemort had betrayed him.
After the two finished eating, Severus cleaned up the dishes so Paige wouldn't have to worry about doing any work that might be too stressful for her and the baby. A part of him wanted to help now more than ever. He had been the one in charge and giving orders to people for so long, that he kind of forgot what it was like to actually help people and do stuff for others.
"You don't have to do all of this." Paige stated quietly. "You're going to tire yourself out if you try and do everything."
"I have magic to help me and I don't want too much stress on you or the baby." He explained. "I really don't mind."
Paige stood up from the table and walked over to Severus. She placed a soft kiss on his lips as she watched him finish the dishes by hands, even though he could have easily used magic to do them. She figured he wanted to do some things the muggle way so that she wouldn't feel out of place.
"Why don't you go upstairs and lay down?" Severus questioned. "I'll meet you up there in a few minutes."
Paige nodded and headed upstairs. Severus followed her trail only a few minutes after her. He went to their bedroom and sat down on the bed, leaning his back up against the headboard. Paige was doing the same thing and she had a book in her hand, one of the many from Severus' collection. She placed the book back on the nightstand when Severus came into the room.
Severus seemed to be feeling awkward about something. "I'm not really sure how to go about doing this."
"Doing what?" Paige asked with a confused voice.
He kept being rather cryptic. "I've never been good at these things. I just know that, I want you to marry me." He finally let out.
"Oh." Paige said with a look of shock. It wasn't what she was expecting to hear from him. She didn't know what she really expected his problem to be but this was definitely not what she thought it was.
Pulling a tiny ring out of his jeans, Severus looked at Paige and held the ring in front of her. It was just a simple gold band with a tiny heart shaped diamond on it. "I know it's not a really big diamond, but I figured it would be something you would like."
"It's perfect." Paige smiled at him. "Of course I will marry you."
Snape smiled and gently slid the ring onto Paige's left hand. She held out her hand so she could examine the ring. "It looks perfect too. Thank you." She said before kissing Severus really hard on the lips.
He growled playfully at her. "Don't tempt me woman."
"I thought I always tempted you?" She teased him with a smirk on her face.
"Not when you were throwing up this morning." He joked and gave her a mischievous grin.
Paige slapped him gently on the shoulder before laying down on the bed. Severus looked at her for a moment and then at her belly. "May I touch your stomach?" He asked as if he really needed permission. It was more him being worried about hurting the baby than anything. He knew it was stupid to worry about such a thing, but a part of him felt like he would start to get attached. He just worried that everything was too good to be true.
"Sure." She said softly and watched him with caring eyes.
Severus gently lifted up her shirt to expose her belly before he carefully placed his hand on her smooth skin. He rubbed his hand in circles and then leaned down and kissed her stomach softly. He left his mouth near her stomach and spoke to it. "Hey baby. I'm your father."
Paige snickered at him slightly but thought it was rather cute. Severus laid his head on her stomach and Paige stroked his hair gently. "We're going to be so happy." She stated as she kept doing the rhythmic pattern of stroking his hair. It helped her relax and she closed her eyes slowly.
"I know we are." Severus muttered quietly since his eyes were already closed. He was starting to drift off to sleep and as he did, he felt a calming affect come over him. For once in his life he felt like everything might actually turn out halfway decently. Years of his life had been the same meaningless routines where he would do nothing more than teach the students of Hogwarts and be alone without anyone in his life.
Now, Severus Snape had a purpose for his once meaningless life. He had found someone to share his life with and that was Paige. He never thought he would find anyone yet alone, be happy with that person. He had found what he wanted and soon he would also have a family. These were things he had only dreamed about and never thought would happen to him. Things were definitely starting to turn around and for once in a long time, Severus Snape smiled before he went to bed. He felt at peace and he finally felt whole.
