The couple's conversation was just beginning.

"How's... Teddy doing?"

"We're supposed to get Teddy back on track with other kids his age. Gain weight, socialize, hopefully get his morphing back... He just doesn't know about a lot of stuff. We went out today for the second time in his life. I mean, it was great that he's asking questions and wanting to look at stuff. We finally got him to not run away from the hospital staff, but short of that, he's running from everyone. We have to talk to counselors every week, so hopefully he'll stop being so shy. Sorry, I'm talking a lot-"

"It's okay." He reassured. "Keep talking."

Tonks sighed. "I'm worried he won't be afraid of strangers, you know? I mean, he's already acclamated to Mum and Dad, and you think bad things only happen once in your life, but what if I've made him too open to strangers and something bad happens again?"

"I don't think that would happen. If it did, it wouldn't possibly be because you neglected to teach him." Remus told her. "Would he be afraid of me?"

"I don't think so." Tonks shook her head. "I've told him stories about you. I think he's excited to see you for the first time."

"You told him about me?" He seemed surprised at the thought.

"I think he had the right to know who his real father was." She said. "He was asking questions about things and... he wanted to know more about the outside world. I had to tell him something to keep us going forward."

"Right." Remus couldn't find adequate words to say to her. "How's the investigation? Have they told you anything?"

She sighed. "We'll have aurors staying overnight with us until we get word on... on him." Tonks told him.

"Have you thought about a temporary fidelius charm?"

"Hadn't even considered it, honestly."

"I'd be happy to be your secret keeper if you'd like." Remus offered.

"We would have to see what happens, but I would certainly have peace of mind if he can't find us." She was staring at something off the porch. "I'm going to have to get a wand first."

"I can take you tomorrow, if you'd like." He suggested.

"Can't. I'm supposed to be meeting with the counselor tomorrow with Teddy." She replied. She had finished off her glass. "We'll see how that goes."

"I'm sure it'll go fine." Remus tried to say hopefully. "If you ever need to talk to someone a bit more personal, you know I'm always going to be here, right?"

"Yeah." Tonks's cheeks were already turning a rosy colour.

There was a pause. "It's... nice getting to hear your voice again."

"Thanks." Tonks smiled.

"I need to tell you something, though-" Remus's train of thought was interrupted by a thud on the glass door behind them. They both jumped and turned around to see what was going on. Teddy had his face pressed up against the glass door, his hand trying aggressively to get the doorknob to open. His mother let out a laugh.

"Teddy! I said we would be in in just a minute!" She smiled, opening the door.

"You said I could meet Dad." The boy said.

"He's staying for dinner." She told him. "You've got plenty of time to talk to him."

"But I wanted to see him now." Teddy said.

"Listen to me, though, no jumping on him and getting too excited, you hear me?" Tonks held the door open. "You can come say hello."

"Hello!" Teddy said, waving at Remus, who was still sitting on the steps. "I'm Teddy!"

"Well, hello Teddy." Remus smiled. "I'm Remus, I...I guess I'm Dad."

Teddy looked up to his mother for reassurance. "That's him, that I told you about." Tonks reaffirmed.

The boy cocked his head. "You look different than I imagined." His mother gently slapped his arm. "It's not bad! I thought he'd look more like Mister Greyback or something."

Teddy walked over to him and Remus turned to get a better look at the boy. "You look just like your mother." Remus smiled.

"But I'm a boy." Teddy said, confused.

His father chuckled. "I just meant your face looks a lot like hers, I think."

"Here, do you want to come inside?" Tonks offered. "I don't think Dad'll want to wait much longer. My dad."

Remus nodded and picked himself up. He tried to swiftly pick up the box and set it on the mantelpiece by the door without drawing too much attention from the boy.

"Hi, Remus dear!" Andromeda called from the kitchen. "Can I get you something to drink?"

"Water's fine." He nodded.

"Can you sit by me?" Teddy asked, sitting on his knees in his chair.

His father smiled. "Absolutely, I can." He slid into the seat next to him. "How are you?"

"Good!" Teddy smiled.

"I like your sweater." He remarked. "Is that an elephant?"

"Yep!" Teddy held out his striped sweater out to show him. Sure enough, it had a grey cartoon elephant on it. "They're my favourite."

"I'll have to remember that." Remus said.

"I used to have a book about them, but I left it back at camp." The boy's face turned sad and he looked at his mother. "We really aren't going back, are we?"

Tonks paled. "No." She could tell Remus was looking at her, but she didn't reciprocate. "We're not."

For the first time that night, things actually seemed real to Remus. Talking about Teddy, perhaps part of him could pretend that he was meeting up with a long lost lover or an old friend and the child they had together. Now, at the first mention of the actual camp, Greyback seemed like more than a name. It was a tangible thing, less than anything he wanted to consider human. This wasn't a dinner topic, but some morbid curiosity inside of him wanted to pry into Tonks about everything that had happened.

But he didn't. Not then, and not afterwards.

"Do you plan on going back to be an auror?" Remus asked.

Tonks shook her head. "My certification would've expired last year. The time and effort it would take to get that all sorted out would be a straight nightmare. Besides, I'd rather stick around and be with Teddy, at least for right now."

There wasn't much to do around the house that would interest a five year old boy. Ted showed him how to play checkers and let him win. He was on the verge of teaching him Gobstones before Tonks intervened and another game of checkers began.

Remus gently grabbed Tonks by the arm. "Dora, I need to tell you something." He said, leading her back into the kitchen.

Andromeda was drying her hands off with a dish towel. "Here, I just finished the dishes. I'll get out of your way." She said, sliding past them to moderate the checkers game.

"What's wrong?" Tonks asked. There was suddenly a knock on the front door. "Wait, hold that thought."

He stood with his mouth still open as she went to answer the door. Outside, was a tall dark man in aurors robes. He looked serious and lacked any sort of meaningful expression in his face. "You must be Ms. Tonks." He stated.

Her fingers were instinctively clutching onto the doorframe. "Can I help you?"

"My name is Agent Cole. I'm the auror assigned to be staying in your household for the night." He informed her.

"Oh! Absolutely, come right in," Tonks gestured. "Thank you so much for coming, I-"

"I'm going to be here on Monday's, Wednesday's, and alternating Fridays. There will be two other aurors who will be staying here with your family. Do you mind telling me who lives here?"

"Just... myself, my son, Teddy, and my parents."

The auror looked around. "Do you mind if I have a look around?"

Andromeda got up from her arm chair. "Here, I can show you around. If you'll follow up upstairs..."

Tonks finally retreated back to the kitchen. "So sorry. What were you saying?"

"Dora, I... There's not really any easy way to say this." Remus told her.

"What's going on?" She pressed.

There was a long pause of silence. "Dora, I'm engaged."

Tonks felt like she took a hard kick to her gut. Honestly, she wished she had. A hard kick to the gut might break a rib or two, but not her heart. She wanted to somehow laugh and scream at the same time, yet nothing came out. "That's great." She spat out without even processing what she was saying.

"I'm sorry." He seemed to be spitting out his own words as much as she was. "It-"

"No, it's fine!" Tonks reassured. This is very much not fine. "So, um, who is she? Or, you know-"

"Her name is Cleverly." Remus informed her. "We were in Gryffindor together. She... we met right after your funeral."

"Oh."

"It's not like that, I mean, she just happened to read my name on your obituary and reach out to me and we... we hit it off and..."

"Yeah." Tonks nodded. She could feel her heart pounding against her ribs.

"Dora, I'm so sorry." He repeated. Just as he could before, he could read through her expressions. "I'm so sorry..."

"It's fine." She repeated.

There was another long pause. "If, when this whole mess with Greyback blows over, need a place to go, our house is too big for the two of us. We have an extra bedroom, and you and Teddy need a place to go, we would be happy to keep you." Remus told her. "I'm serious. You aren't alone here, you know that, don't you?"

"I don't think your fiancee's going to be too keen on having your dead ex wife and child romping around her house, but I understand where you're coming from and that's really sweet of you." Tonks said bluntly.

"It was her idea, actually." He confessed. "She's over any hard feelings, I promise. Clary wants to be just as supportive to you as I am."

"So what does that make us then? I mean, we aren't together or picking up where we left off, what are we exactly?" Remus wasn't quite sure. "Look, I don't care. I don't care if you want nothing to do with me or whatever, but... can I at least ask that we figure something out for Teddy? He really likes you and wants you to be apart of his life. He's never had a dad and I can tell already how much he loves you. But I understand that you didn't exactly sign up for this."

"I did too." Remus replied. "I probably wasn't the best husband or father right off the bat, but I had every intention of being apart of his life. We can't dance around the fact that we were going to have a future together. I want to be Teddy's father."

Tonks nodded. "It's... refreshing to hear you say that."

"I'm perfectly fine and content with us being friends." He told her. "As much or as little as you want. But I'm going to be there for Teddy as much as I can."

"He was bitten, you know." She blurted out.

Remus's hand went over his mouth. "Oh my god."

"That's why we had to get out when we did." She explained. "I'm sorry, I just thought you should know."

"How-how many moons have there been?" He asked.

"Just one." She told him. "I couldn't give him any potions at the time, but he's recovered miraculously." She glanced into the living room. I'm just thankful that everything's gone as well as it has."

"Oh my god..." His voice was barely above a whisper. "How's he handling it?"

"He's scared." She lowered her voice. "He's had nightmares, but those have been going on for a while. He has these, like, panic attacks? That's what the hospital called them. Been having them for a while now. When we first got out, that's all he wanted to talk about. He's... the shift he's gone through is..." Tonks looked back to him. "I'm worried these fits are just the beginning."