So sorry it took so long!

The first part of this chapter was really a pain in my ass, but then suddenly I had 2000+ words, and then there was the ending. Enjoy reading it!

XIX

They bury Sahila in the woods surrounding the village. Many a tear is shed. The dwarves sing a slow, sad song about loss and love, and Snow holds Eric's hand all the way through. She is relieved all of this is behind her, but she is upset that it all had to go this way. If only she could have done something more, if only she could have saved Sahila, if only...

"Goodbye, Sahila. I know that you have told me lies from the day I came to live with you. But I forgive you. I understand why. I just wish it could have gone differently. Wherever you are now, I hope you have found peace, after your long life." Eric and Snow are the only ones left at the grave, and he is kneeling at the pile of earth, the only sign left of the fact that this woman actually existed. Snow stands behind him, her head bowed, and tears silently streaming her cheeks. Intending on giving him some time alone, she turns away. "Snow." he whispers, and she looks back. "Stay. I need you here." His voice is so soft, so full of hurt. It hurts Snow to hear him like that. She kneels next to him, and puts an arm around his shoulders. "Why does it hurt so much, Snow? Every time? I have lost so many people in my life, you would think I would be used to the pain by now." He takes her hand in his and presses it to his face.

"Hurt and loss...they are very difficult emotions. It hurts every time because you get attached every time. Which is a good thing. Hurt and loss is good, Eric. It means that you cared." She presses her lips to his temple and he closes his eyes.

He wraps his arm around her waist and pulls her close. "I am so glad you are here with me." He kisses her cheek and leans his forehead to her temple. "I love you." Her stomach turns as he says that and she wraps her arms around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder.

"I will always be here, Eric. I love you."

He turns to her and takes her in his arms. She looks up to him, her heart beating a mile per minute as his eyes bored into hers. "I cannot believe you chose me. The choice between the Duke and the Huntsman, and you choose me?" His hand caresses her face, his other hand brushes aside her hair and he stares into the very depths of her soul. She has never felt more loved and treasured.

She takes the hand resting on her cheek and leans into it. "I love you, Eric. I should have realized so much sooner." Her other hand caresses his cheek, brushes his long hair out of his face with a look of pure love and admiration in her eyes. She knows he sees it, she knows he is not accustomed to it. And she loves how baffles he looks every time he spares a glance at her. "But I have realized now. I love you so much, Eric."

He takes her face in between both his hands, and pulls her close, startling her a bit, before his lips crush on hers passionately. He presses himself to her desperately, his hands holding her firmly, as if he is afraid she will disappear. Her arms instinctively wrap around his neck and she presses her body up against him, a kind of hunger coming over her she has never felt before. A slow burning in the pit of her stomach, slowly spreading to the rest of her body, making her breath quicken, her heart race, her head pound. She does not know what this man is doing to her, but she likes it. A lot. "I am going to take you home, Snow. I am going to take care of you. I promise. I will be the man that you deserve." he whispers when they break apart, and Snow's head is still spinning.

"I know." she whispers back.

"You saved me." His lips are on her forehead, her cheeks, her eyes, her nose and eventually her mouth. "I owe you my life. I will give you all of the love I can. I will, I really will."

Snow touches his face and smiles. "So will I."

He leans his head on her shoulder and she holds his head between her hand and her shoulder. His arm snakes under her arm and around her waist. They sit together in front of Sahila's grave. "Why me? Snow, why would you choose me?"

Snow looks up. He has asked that before, but she has not thought about it. "I do not know, really. Just a feeling. My stomach just convulses in a good way when you are around. My heart starts pounding like crazy." She leans in and kisses her Huntsman softly. "I just know that I love you."

"And I love you."

"My Queen? Huntsman?" Both of them turn at the familiar voice behind them, finding Beith standing behind them. "We have to leave. Your kingdom is in need of you, milady."

Snow wipes her eyes and rises from the ground, pulling Eric up with her. "I understand."

"The dwarves and myself have prepared the horses. Elijah is coming with us." Beith looks a little bit shaken. It is likely that Muir has just told the entire history of the past two days. It would shake the best warrior to the core.

Eric takes her hand and looks at her. "Together?"

"Together." They walk back with Beith, and the six dwarves, William and Elijah are already mounted on their horses, all set and ready to go. William's eyes still reflect hurt when he sees their clasped hands, and Snow almost pulls away. William slowly shakes his head and smiles at her, telling her it is all good. That she should do what makes her feel right. She smiles back gratefully, and Eric bows his head in thanks, having seen the exchange between them. He helps her on her horse and mounts his own. Elijah looks at the forest with a rueful look one last time, and then they drive off. Back to the castle. They decided that they should not go after the rebels, but let the official new Royal Ambassador take care of that. Namely Elijah. Halfway through the forest, they say their goodbyes and Snow promises to send some guards after him the moment they arrive at the castle. Eric and Elijah share a familiar hug and Eric stares at him until he is out of sight. Snow leans over to take his hand.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes." He smiles, squeezing her hand and then straightening up. "He is my great-great-great-grandfather. That is so strange to think about."

Snow looks down at the ground with a smile. "Yes, I have a difficult time accepting that story, as well. True Immortality? Is that even possible?"

They ride at the back of the group, secluded from the rest, in their private little world. Eric shrugs. "I believe it is. Ravenna did it, only it was not True. I have heard rumours, in my days as a Huntsman. About Immortals, roaming the earth, with death in their wake. I only believed half of them. But it sounded quite possible." Snow cannot help but notice the sad look on his face, and she reaches over to take his hand again. He looks sideways, smiles, steers his horse closer and pulls her closer. She squeals, but his lips prevent the sound from going farther than her lips. "I am so glad you are here with me, Snow. To see me through this. I should not even burden you with this. Not after what you went through."

Snow averts her eyes. Since that day, they had not discussed what happened to her at all. Every time anyone tried to talk to her about it, she deftly manoeuvred around the subject. But she knows she has to talk about it eventually. It has been two weeks. If she is going to discuss it, it is best that it is with him. "I am here for you, Eric. Always."

"I know." Before she knows what is happening, he is hauling her off her horse and onto his, making her squeal again, and the horse whinny. He wraps the reigns around his and the horse quiets down again. Now she is sitting in front of him, her back to him, and his strong arms wrapped around her waist. She likes this position. She leans back against his chest and he rests his chin on her shoulder. "What do I owe this to?"

"Loving me. I want to hold you forever, Snow." He kisses her neck, making her shiver. Her stomach turns at the unfamiliarity of the feelings that he invokes inside her. "And now we can talk so softly that only we can hear, and talk about a subject you are extremely uncomfortable with."

Naturally, there is an ulterior motive. She sighs. "I find it very hard to even think about it, Eric." she says, and she hears how distant and cold her own voice is. She hopes he does not take it personally, she simply does not like this subject and really wishes not to talk about it.

"I know, love. I know. But we have to. What you went through is traumatizing. Do not think for a second that I do not notice your nightmares." He hugs her tighter. "Have you any idea how much it hurts to hear you scream in terror every night? To see you in so much pain and fear, and yet being unable to do anything about it, because you do not wake up? I am always awake, Snow, my love, and I can always hear you."

The nightmares. He knows about the nightmares. She had not expected that. She thought nobody knew, but apparently somebody does. Of course he does, he sleeps right next to her every night. She simply wasn't aware that she was screaming every night. "Eric..."

"Tell me about them, Snow. Please, I want to help you."

Snow closes her eyes and shakes her head shakily. At day, she tries really hard to forget about those nightmares, to store them in a part of her brain that she cannot and will not access. And now he is asking her to willingly open the part up for him. She is not sure she can handle that much pain and horror. "I cannot."

"I am here, I will hold you, I will remind you of what is real if you lose your grasp. But I want to help you. I cannot bare to see you in pain. I have to help you if you are." He kisses her neck again, softly, lovingly, and she is amazed at how quickly he has learned all her weak spots in mere weeks.

She gives in. After all, he does deserve to know. "Alright." She takes a deep breath, slowly opening up the part with her nightmare. She winces as they come dripping back to the surface. "I am in that room." she starts. "Finn is there. And you. Just moments before he was going to take me. I see your face, consorted in anger and fear and hurt and love. He undoes his pants. I am so scared, I try to call for help, but he has gagged me. You are forced to watch. This time, nobody comes to save us. Nobody comes. Except for him. I scream and scream and beg, while he laughs and takes me brutally, over and over again, until my body is numb and my soul is shattered." She sobs softly as she recounts the images she sees in her mind, her latest nightmare. "You scream and struggle, begging him to stop, threatening him, but you cannot move. All you can do is watch how my body and my soul slowly start to whither."

"Snow, you do not have to..."

But she continues. It has gone too far to stop now. "And when he finally stops, after hours and hours of that torture and hell, he rises to his feet, smirks down at me and says, 'You liked that, did you not? You were screaming your head off most of the time. It is my understanding girls do that when performing their duties towards men.' And it pisses me off. I am so angry, that everything boils inside. But I cannot move, because not only my soul is broken, but my body is used, spent and broken. All I can do is take that torture every day of my entire life, to feel his disgusting body move on top of me, to feel his...his...his..." Snow gasps and opens her eyes, yelling out her utter fear and disgust. Everybody turns around, as she bends forward and tries to bury her face in the manes of Eric's horse. He does not let her, however. He pulls her back up against his chest, turning her towards him and holding her close in his strong, warm arms as she cries. The images were too much, the nightmare was too strong. She will never get rid of that.

She hears Eric say above her head, "Just keep going, we will be right behind you." William protests a little, but the dwarves tell him to stop and go. That this is something Eric needs to do. And they are right. Because as soon as everyone else is gone, Eric takes her face in his hands and lifts her head. "Snow, my dear, brave, wonderful Snow. I know how frightening that nightmare is. Hearing you recount it, and hearing your absolute terror, was enough for my heart to break. I cannot imagine the terror you must go through every night." He kisses her eyes, then her nose and her cheeks, her jaw, her earlobes and then her lips. "I know this is not going to be much help at this moment, but it never happened. It never happened and that is something you need to keep in mind, to prevent the nightmare from becoming your reality."

"But...but...what if you ever want children?" she says, sobbing softly, looking up at him, revealing her greatest fear of all.

"What has that got to do with any of it?"

"I do not want to...do that." She hopes he understands what she means. "Not ever. I do not even want to try it. I can never give you children." Her voice breaks again. She has always wanted children. Always. But she refuses to go through the act that will conceive them.

He sighs deeply, and kisses her again. "Do you (50,000 words!) honestly think that I care about the fact that you can or cannot give me children? I have you, which is more than I have ever asked for. If having you means never having children, I am perfectly alright with that choice. I will always support you, and I will always respect your choices. You are an independent, free woman. You have your own choice and especially when it comes to your own body." His hand runs through her black hair as if it is something precious that might break in his hold, while he smiles softly at her. "Alright?"

Her heart feels lighter instantly. He does not hate her for not wanting to do...that. He is giving her a choice, her choice. That is how she knows that he is the right man for her. That is how she knows that she will always live a happy and safe life with him.

That is how she knows he is her soul mate.

And she will love him forever.

Don't fret, this is not an ending. I plan on writing at least a very fluffy one, maybe a little smut at some point, and some other idea's I'm trying to figure out.

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