AN: Okay, so I haven't written these two in like forever so this is probably terrible and the ending is probably even worse or probably cheesy or something. This was just something that I threw together overnight.

This was written for "Ashleigh's Monthly Competitions (September) - write about your first OTP.

This was also written for the "OTP Boot Camp Challenge" with the prompt, battered.

She woke up in an unfamiliar room – her gaze foggy and unclear. She slowly blinked her eyes until she could see.

As the room came into focus, she saw that the walls – and almost everything else – were a clear, bright white. There was a window with a white curtain opposite the bed she lay in.

Her brain soon registered that she must be inside St. Mungo's.

It sure would explain all the white.

She turned her head a little to the side and a soft groan escaped her lips. She had a major pain in her head and she felt terribly exhausted. It felt as if her entire body had gone through the rinse cycle.

In the dimly lit room, she could see a figure turn around and glance towards her from his face next to the window.

"I see you're finally awake," a familiar voice said.

"And I feel like shit as well," she replied.

"Well, you did hit your head, Tonks," Remus told her.

"Did my clumsiness strike again?" she asked, trying to make a joke.

Remus gave a small smile and moved to sit in the chair next to the bed. Something in Remus' expression and the way he held himself gave her an uneasy feeling and her auror instincts were telling her that something was off.

"Remus," she said, slowly. "What is it? What happened?"

He glanced away from her and took a deep breath. "Bellatrix knocked you out," Remus started, trailing off.

Tonks raised an eyebrow. "Tell me something I don't know, Lupin," she said, growing impatient.

She glared at him the best she could with her headache. She hated not knowing what was going on and she also hated being out of the loop.

There was a moment before Tonks spoke again. "Just spit it out already like you're ripping off a bandage."

Remus took another deep breath and placed his hands in his lap. "Sirius is…he – he was battling Bellatrix and he—"

"He's dead, isn't he?" Tonks said, sadly.

"I'm afraid so," he replied glancing down at his hands. "He's not coming back."

Tonks gave a slight gasp and went to sit up but Remus gently pushed her back down. He muttered something that sounded like, 'save your strength.'

She felt the grief grab her, swallow her, consume her, drag her into pain and darkness and fear. And even though Remus was right there, he couldn't make this better. Sirius was dead. Gone.

And he wasn't going back.

Tonks felt her hands clench together as anger slowly replaced the grief.

A comforting hand was soon massaging her clenched fists. She glanced over and saw Remus staring at her.

"Let's not do anything rash now," Remus said. "There's nothing you can do. There's not anything anyone can do."

Not anymore…

She was there, she'd been dueling Bellatrix. She could have saved him, could've finished it – but in the end, it didn't matter.

"It's all my fault," she choked on the words as they came out.

"It's not your fault," he told her.

"For most of my life, I've thought that my own cousin was a murderer and a traitor but I've never given up hope that he was innocent," Tonks told him. "And now that I know that he is innocent and we were trying to pick up where we left off – now I can't even have anything type of relationship with Sirius because of Bellatrix."

She took a breath. "I was right there. I could have—should have done something before Bellatrix was able to knock me out…I—I…"

"You need to stop blaming yourself," Remus told her. "It wasn't your fault. You did the best you could trying to keep yourself alive."

Tonks sighed. She knew he was just trying to cheer her up but she didn't care. It didn't matter what Remus – or anyone said – it wouldn't change the way she felt about the situation.

Remus reached over and took both of her hands in his.

"Look Tonks," he said. "It's terrible that he's gone and I'm hurting just as much as you are. But Sirius wouldn't want us to mope over his death."

Tonks gave a small smile. "If he could, he'd yell at us right now, wouldn't he?"

He nodded. "Probably so."

Tonks took a breath. "It's just—"she broke off, glancing up at him.

"I know," Remus stated, rubbing soothing circles over the back of her hands. "It's going to be hard getting over Sirius' death, but I know we can do it – if we help each other."

She was battered and bruised – emotional and physically. But in time, hopefully, that would heal. One way or another, they would survive this.