Author's Note: Enjoy!

Warning: chronic illness; hospital setting; talk of death

At this point in her life, with work injuries and the occasional full moon mishap, Tonks should be used to hospitals by now; she was normally. When the doctors at St. Mungo's knew what the problem was; and not when the problem was something only a muggle hospital had the means to fix. When neither of those things happen, Tonks was no better than a child who has to get their shots.

She sat, cross legged, in one of the chairs in the examination room, shaking her foot that hovered above the pristine, white floor. The floor she had been staring at since she had sat in that room, watching the unchanging reflection of the fluorescent light.

"Please stop that."

Tonks looked up from the spot on the floor to her mother who sat on the examination table, "stop what?"

"You know what I mean," responded Andromeda. Once it became evident that Tonks did, in fact, not know what she was speaking of, she continued. "Stop shaking your foot like that. You've always done it when you were nervous or excited."

"Well- I'm currently waiting for some rather important test results with you, so please excuse my nervousness," Tonks retorted sarcastically.

"I mean to stop being nervous for me," said Andromeda with a sigh. "Whatever happens with this happens; we can't do anything to change it."

"So you're not the least bit scared then," asked Tonks.

"Of course I'm scared, Nymphadora," said Andromeda. "But no matter how much you try, you cannot plan your death. There's no stopping it once it starts."

"You're not dying," said Tonks, through gritted teeth.

"Dora, you and I both know that I may be," said Andromeda. "If you really didn't think I was, you wouldn't be so nervous now, would you?"

Tonks huffed, not knowing how to rebut that. She was right. The possibility of this sickness- whatever it was- being terminal was projected to be very high by the muggle doctor that had been running tests on Andromeda for weeks. Her health had been deteriorating very quickly in such a short span of time. Much quicker than was normal for an average elder. But then again, Andromeda wasn't that old. She was barely into her sixties.

Tonks sighed, "I thought the benefit of having young parents was being able to age with them. That didn't work out well for me."

"Merlin- you're going to make yourself depressed by thinking of the what-ifs," scoffed Andromeda. "You need to cherish the moments we've had, that you and your Father shared. Hopefully your children will do the same with you one day."

"How are you so accepting of this," asked Tonks.

"As I recall you were quite accepting of your own possible death many years ago," Andromeda pointed out. Tonks huffed in annoyance. "With everything that my sister had brought into our house towards the end of Hogwarts, I'm probably lucky to have made it to my twenties. I consider myself lucky, Dora. With everything that could have gone so different, I'm incredibly lucky to have gotten where I am, to have had your father, to have you."

The tears Tonks had been holding in all morning began to roll down her face. Andromeda placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, and Tonks looked her mother in the eyes for the first time that morning. She looked so, so sick.

"Please, Dora, if anything, please don't worry about me. I've had much more happiness than I could have thought possible." Tonks wiped the tears from her face and nodded.

"I promise."

wc: 595

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