"You should have gone with them Remus." Tonks told him in a frail voice from where she was propped up on a fort of pillows in the center of the bed. He covered her with her favorite duvet, mindful of her injured leg. "I can be left alone for few hours. Besides Molly and Poppy are here if I would have needed someone."

He took off his shoes and crawled towards her. Slipping inside the covers, he hugged her to his side. "I'd rather be with you."

"I feel bad that you are stuck with me." She mumbled as she leaned her head on his chest.

"Don't be silly. I am in no mood for a party." He replied kissing top of her head. She had been finally discharged just yesterday, after being kept at the hospital for about two weeks. For days she had been in tremendous pain and had to rely on numbing potions which mostly left her feeling befuddled. Initially her recovery had been slow but now she was recuperating fast. Satisfied with her recovery, healers had given in her pleas to allow her to return home. There were still five days for Hogwarts to re-open so they had come here, to his quarters. Though what they'd do once the school reopened, they hadn't decided on that yet.

In the past two weeks, he had only left her side to shower or to do his daily chores. He had kept a track of her every movement and every aching muscle. Healers and others have been impressed with his dedication in nursing her back to health.

They hadn't talked much about their relationship though; other than exchange of occasional 'I love you' and kisses. She wasn't in shape to do anything much else. And Remus agreed that there would be time to sort things later. Right now, his priority was her health. No matter how it appeared, not everything had immediately been fixed. It would take time.

"Can't you take me outside?" She hugged his waist and spoke in the skin of his collarbone. "I am really tired Remus… tired of being on one bed to another." She looked ready to cry and he could very well understand her frustration. She liked to be thick in the action and this was not an ideal situation for her.

"Dora, you are weak love, your immune system is weak. Outside is not a good idea. And it's just a matter of few days." He whispered soothingly, brushing her hair away from her forehead.

"But you can go outside." He sighed. Tonight the boys had gone out for drinking to Three Broomsticks and she had been insistent about him attending but leaving her simply was not an option for him.

Instead of replying to that, he said: "I can take you to the balcony though, want to?"

She sighed. "Okay." He made her wear his warmest jacket which was difficult because of her injured arm. He then wrapped her shoulders with a blanket which made her frown. She didn't like being dependent on other's for such mundane tasks but knew she had no other choice. Before carrying her to the balcony, he conjured a mattress on the floor for them to sit.

After few minutes she was snuggled cozily in to his side. The night was young and silent except for the rustle of a gentle breeze in the aspen trees.

"What have you decided about our living arrangements?" She asked, placing her head on his shoulder.

"I thought you could stay at Shrieking Shack… like that I can be with you during free periods and once the classes will be done for the day. Thanks to you, it's perfectly habitable now. During full moons you can stay here, at my quarters. Once you are well, then we'll decide on some permanent arrangement. Is it okay with you?" He looked at her with a soft gaze.

She smiled gently at him. "Yes but… I can stay with you on full moons."

He instantly shook his head. "Wolfsbane stopped working once. It might do so again. I won't risk hurting you or anyone."

She made a face but reluctantly agreed knowing how important it was for him. "I'll argue about it later."

He kissed her forehead as they slipped back into silence. Picking up her hand placed on his thigh, he started playing with her fingers. She has lost weight, he thought with a frown.

"Remus… what will happen when I resume my duty at Auror office? How will we cope? With you here and… me there… I don't think I can go back to the routine of seeing you just at weekends."

She sounded worried, something which had been on his mind as well. Kissing her fingers, he replied: "We'll think of something. Portkey or we'll get a direct floo connection. We'll manage Dora. Leave it to me, okay?"

He felt her nodding on his shoulder. She shivered and he pulled her closer but not before he frowned and asked, "Cold? Do you want to go back? I know I shouldn't have brought you out here."

"Remus please," she sounded agitated. "It's just breeze, I won't die because of-"

He winced at her wording and without thinking covered her mouth with his palm. His heart was hammering and as he looked into her eyes he saw she was giving him an odd stare. Looking away, he conjured another blanket wordlessly and covered her with it. He almost forced her head back on his shoulder to avoid her penetrating gaze.

"Tell me one thing Remus." She spoke when he once again had resumed playing with her fingers.

"Hmm?"

"Before that, thanks for being there for me… during the past few weeks."

Surprised, he asked, "Did you expect anything else for me?"

"No, not really… but you have barely left my side and you are still looking out for me."

"And I won't stop ever; I'll always look out for you."

"Yes but… you were always there, making sure I ate on time, had all my potions, that I was comfortable, that there's no stress… but there's one thing missing you know?"

"What's that?" he peered into her eyes as she raised her head from his shoulder.

"You don't smile…or laugh. Not even with me, not even at my jokes. And if there's one thing I remember you doing was-that you always smiled whenever I smiled. But ever since my accident… no matter if I am rolling on the floor laughing, you barely crack a smile." He looked down at his lap as her words sunk in. "I mean, believe me I tell the truth when I say that I am thankful this happened- this accident, of course I am not glad about the pain- but it made you realize that you can't always protect me and made you accept that our love won't ever just go away… but I don't want to be a burden on you Remus, I don't want you to commit to me, to us out of a guilty conscience. If it makes you unhappy… I do not doubt your love, I know you love me the most but…"

She trailed off into silence and stared at him expectantly, waiting for his answer. He tried to answer but realized that his throat was clogged. Releasing an anguished sigh, he closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the wall.

When he felt her trembling fingers near his eyelashes, he realized that they were wet. "Remus? What is it? Please tell me?"

"I-I can't smile because," he started, blinking back his tears. "because it-it keeps flashing up in my head, the memory of you getting hurt, colored in your own blood," he shuddered. "It just won't go away. I can't sleep properly because it haunts me. I always wake up from a nightmare in which you-you never survive. I am unable to smile because every time you smile, I realize that how close I came to never seeing that smile… that one and a half day I spent in hospital in uncertainty, they continue to haunt me…"

He felt her cupping the side of his face as she placed tiny comforting kisses on his cheek. "But I am okay… and I am here for you."

"I know just… I am not able to forget it." He sniffled and wiped his nose on the back of his sleeve, taking in a ragged breath.

"It will get fine with time, I promise."

"I hope so." He agreed quietly as she leaned her forehead against his temple.

Caressing his stubble, she asked haltingly. "What…what would you have done… had I-I not survived?"

He shuddered at her question as his heart clenched painfully. "Then I would have died too."

"Remus!" She cried out, looking at him in astonishment. "How-you-but-"

"What would have I done without you?" he looked at her with a pained expression.

"Gone on with your life."

"If you think I'd have a life without you then you underestimate my love."

"I don't because I feel equally for you but Remus- one of us is going to outlive the other one day, it might be after fifty years or two days but it will happen."

"Yes it will but how do you think I would have felt had you gone… knowing that I could have made you happy, how would have I felt knowing that you died doubting my love?"

She sighed. "Remus… I don't want to be your weakness."

He smiled grimly. "You are my greatest strength Dora and sometimes… coincidentally greatest strength is also our biggest weakness."

She shook her head. "You scare me sometimes… you have survived so many ordeals, you have seen so many of your friends die in front of you… you haven't lived so far only to be defeated by me."

He palmed her beautiful face in his hands and gazed at her softly. "It's not a defeat. I love you so much… the heart of the matter is that I wouldn't have been able to gone on with the guilt that I never gave you the happiness that I was capable of giving you, happiness that I really wanted to give you."

She hugged him then, seemingly touched with his words. "And I love you too. So much, too much."

Her lips met with his and they kissed with vigor, trying to erase all the painful memories, trying to make things right. He carefully adjusted her position on his lap as their hands roamed over each other's body, trying to memorize every nook and corner that they might have forgotten with time, trying to live each moment to its fullest. Yes that's what he wanted now- he wanted to live every moment so that even if in far future, something did happen then at least he'd have one less thing to regret.

"I want you…" she whimpered as he placed open mouthed kisses on her neck. "It's been so long."

It was with these words and his growing desire that he reluctantly pulled back. "Dora, not yet love. You are hurt."

"I am not asking you to like bang me or something; we can do it slowly-"

He laughed at her blunt words and dropped his forehead on her collarbone. "I am afraid my sweetheart that doing it slowly is not on the cards as well. Your healer cornered me and told me in explicit terms that you weren't ready for any kind of strenuous activity and I don't think he meant about you rope skipping."

"Sadists, the lot of them."

"What's the hurry?" he brushed his lips to hers. "Just wait for few weeks and then I am all yours."

"That sounds like a promise. I might take a month's extra leave from the office once I am healed only to wear you out and make for all those lost years." She wiggled in his lap, making his breath catch in his throat.

"You have a deal my love." He carefully lowered her on the mattress to show with his kisses just how much he loved her.

A/N: One more chapter to go...