Remus' confusion over her scent was both amusing and annoying. Amusing because that scrunched up frown was always going to be something she found adorable on him and it was rare that he was confused about something. Annoyed because he kept on randomly sniffing her. Like, getting close to her and taking very deliberate sniffs. It was very off-putting. He kept on making her think that she smelled awful or something even though she knew she didn't. Most of the time anyway.

"I'm going to dump a whole vial of the most horrid perfume over me," she threatened after he sniffed her for the fourth time that day. At it wasn't even the evening yet! "Or I'll rub myself all over with lavender!"

He hated the smell of lavender. Hated it. It made him sneeze. Uncontrollably. That had been an hilarious thing to find out.

"You wouldn't!"

"I would!"

Okay, maybe she wouldn't take it that far but still! He was really pushing it. Look, she understood, as much as she could without being a werewolf herself, her change in scent was confusing to him. It confused her as well and she couldn't even smell her own scent! But all this sniffing had to go. Or at least calm down a little.

Remus sighed and gave in. Ha!

"You really would, wouldn't you?" He said in fond exasperation.

"Damn right I would."

She was all ready to feel all smug about getting one over him when suddenly her stomach rolled. That, that was not a good thing.

She dove for the sink in the kitchen and just in time because she threw up. Violently. Immediately he was behind her, holding her hair back from her face. That's what she hated about being sick, she could never hold what she had shifted herself into. Of course, she also hated the throwing up part of being sick but she was pretty sure that everyone hated that.

It was an agonising few minutes as she emptied her stomach. And another few before she felt well enough to weakly push away. Remus ran the tap to start to clean it out and got her a glass of water, a worried look on his face.

She took carefully sips, pausing between them and felt incredibly grateful that those stayed down. Actually, they made her feel a bit better. Remus offered her a damp cloth to wipe her face down and that helped as well. Ahh.

"You're sick," Remus said with a worried look on his face.

"Maybe that's what you smelled?" Tonks said. "That I really was getting sick? You said you can smell that, can't you?"

Remus frowned in thought. "Yes, I can. But I can normally tell that someone is going to get ill. I couldn't with you."

"I don't think I've been sick around you," she pointed out. "So surely that means you wouldn't know that that scent change was because I was getting sick."

"Maybe," he acquiesced though he didn't look too convinced by that. "Do you want to call your parents?"

They were supposed to be going over to them for dinner and just a bit of a catch up. A check in, more like.

She hadn't visited her parents since Fleur and Bill's wedding. Which had only been a month ago, wow so much had happened in only a month. Normally her not seeing her parents for a month was nothing out of the ordinary. They all were working demanding jobs, that was pretty normal. But ever since last year, Tonks had been trying to make an effort to see them more often. She felt like she needed to.

"No. I'll be fine."

Remus looked doubtful at that but thankfully he didn't fuss.

"Just give yourself a few minutes before trying to apparate," he recommended.

Now that was a good idea.

[xxxxxx]

"Maybe I should have waited a bit longer," she admitted as they landed on her parents' garden.

Thankfully she didn't throw up or feel like she needed to. But she did feel very, very dizzy.

"Dora, Remus," Andromeda greeted and then frowned as she saw Tonks lean heavily against Remus. "Are you okay?"

"Had a bit of a dicky tummy," she replied carelessly. "I'm fine now."

Andromeda pursed her lips but didn't say anything as she ushered them in.

"It's like certain things throw me off," Dora said as she walked along the Hall and then she blanched.

Bad choice of words. Bad choice of words. She sprinted up the stairs for the toilet.

Eurgh. Disgusting. Being sick was awful. Apparating after being sick was awful.

"Do you have any Stomach Settler or Soother?" Remus asked, biting his lower lip. "That should help, shouldn't it?"

"The cupboard over the kitchen sink," Andromeda told him. "There should be some there."

"Yuck. This is almost as bad as being sick in the morning."

"Have you been throwing up in the morning as well?" Andromeda asked.

"Sometimes," Tonks replied with a shrugged and then noticed the look 8n her mother's eyes. "What?"

"You get sick in the morning?"

Andromeda's voice had taken on a weird tone. Something Tonks did not appreciate.

"Yeah. I have been. Like I said. What of it?"

Why couldn't people just talk straight to her? Was it really that hard? There was an awful lot of cloak and dagger work going on in the outside world. They really didn't need to add to it.

"You don't have any," Remus said, choosing this moment to reappear. He had his cloak in his hands. "Would you like me to get some?"

"Please? Or Ted can get it."

"If Dora is okay with me going, I can do it. I know what Apothecary does the good ones."

The two of them turned to her.

"Get it, please," she said, her stomach still rolling. A Soother would be great. Fantastic even."

And, yes, Remus' presence would be more calming than her parents but a good Soother was not something she wanted to pass up.

There was a brief argument as her mother tried to insist on giving Remus the money for it but he refused. It was ridiculous but for some reason it made her smile.

She was soon left alone with her parents, Ted clucking anxiously over her.

"No fever," he muttered. "Eyes are fine. How are you feeling?"

"Okay," Tonks replied. "Stomach feels weird."

"Do you feel like you're going to throw up again?"

She shook her head. Wait. That was a bad idea.

"O don't even know why 9m throwing up," she complained. "Except for my stomach I feel fine."

"No other symptoms? Headaches? Muscles aches?"

"None of that, dad."

"Hmm." Ted frowned but nodded his acceptance.

"Would you get Dora a cup of milky tea," Andromeda gently directed. "And maybe a glass of water as well."

Ted looked between the two women before deciding it was not worth it to question anything.

"Water would be nice," Tonks said even though she felt a sense of foreboding with how her mother was acting.

When Ted was safely out of the way, Andromeda leaned against the sink and crossed her arms.

"Well, let's look at this logically then," Andromeda said, leaning against the kitchen counter. "You get sick sometimes. You feel fine otherwise. And you have no other symptoms and it doesn't last all day?

"We've just been over this. Yes. Yes. No and yes."

That just got her a sharp look.

"Have you missed any of your monthlies?"

"Periods, mum," Tonks said with an eye roll. "You know people call them periods."

Andromeda sniffed. "Monthlies make far more sense. They happen each month. What on earth does a period mean?"

Tonks sighed. She was not going to have this conversation with her mother. She just wasn't.

"And no. We're not going down this road."

She didn't want to think about what talking about periods meant. No.

"We need to think of all the possibilities, Nymphadora."

And there it was with her full name again. Great. It was better just to focus on the conversation. Now, her periods. She counted backwards. No, she hadn't had last months but that made sense. Hers were very much affected by workload and stress levels and her stress levels had definitely not been healthy. No one's had.

"Whatever. And yeah, I've missed last months."

Andromeda's eyebrows shot up her forehead and Tonks shook her head, knowing what she was thinking.

"That's normal for me mum. I've been so stressed. It happened last year as well when I got stressed."

Andromeda frowned at the reminder of what she was like last year. Yeah, Tonks didn't like to think too much about it either. But it happened. She couldn't pretend that it didn't. And that was the truth about her periods too. It sucked but she couldn't help herself being affected by stress. Thays just how her body worked. Right?

Tonks chewed her lip and then looked up at her mother. Huh. She was still on the floor.

"Should we check?"