Tonks walked up the familiar front path, took the stairs two at a time to avoid the creaking third step, and knocked on the now faded and chipped front door. She remembered playing in the yard as a child, and falling down these very steps almost everyday, and she smiled. She had been smiling more often lately, the dark cloud over her had shifted a little and she felt more like herself than she had since Remus' sudden disappearance from her life. She heard the familiar shuffling of her dad's footsteps as he came to answer the door, and for a moment she worried about what her father might say to her about her absence, or about her husband. She was in a better mood, but she still felt as though she was breaking every time someone mentioned his name, every time someone would get mad on her behalf she felt as though guilt and sadness would take her over again. She bit her lip slightly and waited as she heard the several locks clicking, and finally the door opening, to reveal her fathers smiling face and open arms.

"Dora!" His voice boomed cheerfully and he pulled her into a tight hug. She tripped a little as he pulled her through the doorway, and the both of them would have fallen to the ground if he hadn't been so steady on his feet.

"Wotcher, Dad." She said warmly, and pulled out of his embrace. "How've things been?"

"Not too bad," He said rubbing his chin as he spoke, "But we've missed having you around, not much to do around here without you breaking things every few minutes." He had a mischievous glint in his eye, and a smile wider than Tonks could ever remember seeing. He was relieved to see her, and even more relieved to see that she was looking almost well.

"Well, I'm here now." She replied, "So what needs breaking?" Her hand was resting on her stomach and his eyes were immediately drawn there, seeing her rounded belly for the first time.

"Aren't you getting fat!" He laughed and rubbed her stomach, he was excited that he was going to become a grandfather, and it showed plain on his face.

"I know, I'm practically a hippo." She was joking with him like they did when she was younger, always making fun of themselves and each other. "Soon I'll be as big as you, old man."

"You're not wrong there, young lady." He rubbed his own stomach now, and tried to suck it in for comical effect.

"Are you going to invite me in," She questioned jokingly, "Or are you going to make your pregnant daughter stand in the hall all day?"

"Ah, I guess you better come sit then." He began to lead her to the kitchen, even though he knew that she knew how to get there.

There were pictures of their family all along the walls, photos of everything from Andromeda and Ted's wedding to Nymphadora's first day at school to her graduation from Auror training. She smiled again, it was nice that some things never changed. She sat down at the same kitchen table she had been made to eat dinner at every night, in the chair that was her designated chair. "Where's Mum?" She looked around, expecting to see her mother making them a pot of tea and serving some biscuits.

"She's out in the garden, I suspect she's lost track of time out there again." He smiled and looked out the window, Tonks' gaze followed his and found her mother in the back of the garden, tending to her plants and singing to herself happily- she was always happy in the garden. "I'll get her." He started to get up.

"No, it's okay. Leave her for a while." Tonks was reluctant to let anyone intrude on any moments of happiness, they were so few and far between these days.

Ted nodded, seeming to understand what his daughter was thinking and got up to put the kettle on. "Tea? Coffee?" He asked absentmindedly as he fetched the mugs from the cupboard.

"Tea, thanks. I can't have coffee anymore." She reminded him, besides she was generally more fond of tea, and used to only drink coffee after a hard night in the Order or at work.

He made the tea and carried it to her, before sitting down and taking a sip out of his own cup. They sat in contented silence for a few minutes, sipping their tea. He was enjoying having his daughter safe at home, and she was enjoying the familiarity of it all. He stood and walked into the other room, she could hear him shuffling about and looking for something, he was never very good at staying still.

"Oh, Dora, hello." The door to the back garden had swung open, Andromeda was standing with her a basket filled with vegetables, and ingredients for potions that she had grown herself. She seemed surprised to see her daughter, "I wasn't expecting you to come so early." She explained as she put the basket on the kitchen bench and moved to hug Tonks.

"That's okay, me and dad have been catching up." She motioned towards the other room, where the mumbling and rustling was coming from. "I think he's gone to find something to show me."

Andromeda smiled, he was knocking about in the room that was dedicated to his mess. She had always liked to keep a clean house, he had always had trouble keeping everything tidy and so to save themselves the fights she had given him a room that he could do whatever he wanted with. She was always laughing at him for losing one thing or another in there. "He'll be a while if he's trying to find anything. That room has only gotten worse lately."

"How are you, anyway?" She asked her mother.

"Oh, you know. Things are hard, and they're only going to get harder, you understand that. But we'll live, we always do." She smiled at her daughter, and for a moment her worry lines almost disappeared. "How about you? I hear you've been doing a little better?" She probed hopefully, she hated seeing her daughter so unwell.

"Yeah, I've been feeling a lot better. I can keep most of my food down now, which is a nice change." She knew that her mother was asking how she was doing on her own, but wanted to avoid the subject. She was coping better than she was a few weeks ago, although she still didn't like to dwell on it. "And I've started to show a lot more." She pulled her shirt tighter against her now rounded stomach.

"That's good," She was smiling even wider now, seeing the her daughters bump. She was excited to have a baby to hold again, and she knew Ted would just love to be a grandfather. "Do you know what you're having yet?" She had been asking Tonks to find out the sex of the baby for weeks, but Tonks hadn't been interested.

"No, and I'm not going to find out." At first she was waiting to find out until Remus came back, so that they could find out together, but now she quite enjoyed the thrill of not knowing.

Before Andromeda could argue her husband came bounding out of his room, "I found it! I knew it was in there somewhere." He placed a small photo album down on the table, "I thought you might like a copy of this now that you've got your own house and your own family."

Tonks picked it up and opened it to the first page, it was an album of her baby photos. The first page had her mother, looking worn out and completely in love, holding her at Saint Mungo's. "Thanks dad," She smiled, "This is so lovely." She flicked through a few more pages until her father laughed.

"Do you remember this?" He was pointing at a picture of her throwing a tantrum on the kitchen floor. She shook her head, she would have only been a few years old in this picture, but there was something off about the photo. "You had just started to be able to control your morphing, and you decided you wanted a biscuit off of the shelf. Your mother and I were in the other room and when we came in to check what you were doing-" He was properly laughing now, unable to finish the story.

"You had made yourself huge," Andromeda continued for him after a moment. "We came in and you'd eaten all the biscuits, but you couldn't figure out how to make yourself small again. Your father insisted on taking a photo, and by the time he had gotten back with the camera you were crying. It took you about six hours to calm down enough to change back. It wasn't very funny at the time, but looking back-" She laughed a little to herself.

Tonks looked at the photo again, realising how big she looked compared to the kitchen around her, and laughed a little at her younger self. They continued to flick through the book, occasionally making an odd remark about a memory, before they landed on the last few pages which were blank, which seemed odd considering the amount of photos her father had taken through her life. She looked up at him quizzically.

"We were saving the last pages for your wedding photos." He smiled sadly at his daughter, and she could feel her heart sink in her chest. She didn't want to think about her wedding, or her husband, she wanted to stay thinking about her happy childhood.

"But we weren't invited." Andromeda looked disappointedly at her daughter, she had made no secret of the fact that she was not happy about her daughter eloping.

"No one was," Tonks was eager to change the subject, she had fought enough with her mother over this, and was desperate to change the subject. "It wasn't safe. Or legal." She remembered the day as though it were yesterday, it hadn't been long ago that they had gotten married after all, and her heart felt as though it was about to break into a million pieces when she remembered how happy she was, and how happy he was, event though they couldn't have their friends or family there they had each other, and that was enough. She remembered the feeling of kissing him as her husband for the first time, and how they laughed and drank and danced the night away at the small pub in the North of Scotland. That was the happiest she had ever been, and it hurt to think she may never feel like that again.

Ted wasn't usually the most observant of wizards, though he noticed his daughter bite her lip, and go quiet, he understood that her marriage was a touchy subject. He wanted to make everything okay for her, he wanted to magic Remus back here, and make them forgive each other and move on. But he couldn't, and his heart broke for his daughter. "Now I s'pose we have room in there to put the first photos of you and your little one." He changed the subject, it was the most he could do.

Her attention was snapped back to the present at the sound of her dad's voice, and she made herself smile and nod. She was hit with a wave of fatigue, and wanted nothing more than to crawl into her bed and go to sleep, and that made her worry that perhaps she wasn't doing any better after all.

She stayed for dinner, and the conversation awkwardly flowed until it was time to leave. Her mood had impacted on what was supposed to be a good night, and she felt immensely guilty, it was enough that her parents had been so worried about her the past few months and this dinner was supposed to reassure them, but by the end of it she couldn't keep her head in the conversation long enough to reply to their questions and they ended looking more worried than when she arrived. "Well, I'd better be off." She stood to leave, hugging her parents goodbye.

"Wait," Ted was grabbing his jacket and putting it on, "I'll come with you. It's getting late and I don't like the idea of you going anywhere alone, especially at night." He held out his arm to his daughter, and she reluctantly took it, knowing he was going to escort her home whether she liked it or not.

"I'll see you soon." Andromeda spoke, and it was a command, not a question.

"Okay, bye mum. Love you." She nodded as she spoke, understanding that her mother wasn't going to let it be long between visits.

She made her way home with her dad, mostly in silence, and though she wouldn't admit it she was glad to have the company. He wouldn't be much help if they were attacked, and she was trained to defend herself, but still it was nice to have someone walk her home, his presence took the edge off of the nerves she usually had about travelling at night. By the time they arrived at her doorstep they had only exchanged a few words, and she was ready to hug him goodbye and go inside to bed.

"Do you mind if I come inside?" He asked as she got out her keys and unlocked the door. "I'm busting to use the loo." He hopped from one foot to the other for dramatic effect.

"Of course," She opened the door and let him inside, he hurried down the hall and up the stairs to the bathroom. She took her coat off and hung it by the door, pulled out her wand and started her nightly ritual of checking all the perimeter spells. Satisfied that her house was safe, she sat down in the lounge room and a moment later she heard him make his way back down the stairs.

"You know you really need to fix this carpet on the stairs," He called, and she begrudgingly stood and made her way to where she knew he was. "It's a real hazard. Especially for someone so easily effected by gravity."

"Okay dad, I'll get right on it." She rolled her eyes, the carpet had always been like that and she hadn't had an issue with it yet.

"I can quickly go home and grab something to fix this for you, it's no trouble." He was inspecting the loose carpet closely, mentally picking out the tools and supplies to fix it.

"No thanks, dad." She didn't want to be rude to him, but she did want him to leave so she could go to sleep and him fixing the carpet would mean she would have to be up for a few more hours. "I'll fix it first thing tomorrow." She promised, not intending to follow through with it at all.

Ted looked at her, and thought for a minute. "Okay well, if it's not fixed next time I come over-"

"It will be, don't worry." She cut off his threat.

"Okay," He seemed to believe her, and moved to the door. "Goodnight Dora, remember we're here if you need anything."

"I love you too, dad." She smiled back at him.

"And for the love of Merlin, please remember to-"

"Fix the stairs, I will. Goodnight dad." She gave him one last hug and he left. She locked the doors and went straight upstairs and fell into bed kicking her shoes off, not bothering to change into pyjamas. She turned out the light with her wand, and lay in the darkness for a few minutes.

She was lucky to have a dad who was so kind, she thought to herself as she settled in to sleep. He had always done whatever he could to make her happy, and she was grateful for everything her parents had done for her. Her hands found their way to her stomach and she wondered whether she was cut out to be a mum, she had never really planned on having kids, and though she vowed time and time again to try her best and to keep the child safe she doubted herself. Remus would have made an excellent father, the thought popped into her head before she could stop it. It was true though, Remus always knew what to do, and he was so gentle and kind, and so loving. She felt tears spring to her eyes, she missed him and more than anything she was heartbroken that their child would grow up without knowing their father.

A/N: I meant to have this up a few days ago but I'm sick, so sorry about the delay. Please review if you enjoyed it!