Chapter 13: Recovery
*****
Alinora woke, confused by her surroundings. She couldn't remember what had been going on and certainly didn't remember going to bed.
As she struggled to remember, she looked around the room, finally placing it as George's old room in the Burrow where she'd gotten ready on her wedding day. The weight across her waist was recognized as George's arm from where he was sleeping peacefully beside her.
Studying the room again, still trying to remember what been going on, her eyes fell on two things that looked decidedly out of place among the mementos of Fred and George's childhood- two cribs.
That's when it all came back to her. Colin and Anna, her friends and family, were dead and probably Dennis and his wife as well.
The tears began to fall again and she rolled over on her side to bury her face in the pillow to muffle the sounds of her sobs, but the movement had already woken George.
Gently, he turned her to face him and held her to his chest. Her tears flowed faster now and she held on to him desperately. Distantly she was aware that he cried too and she tried to stop, not wanting them to wake the twins, but it was impossible to dam the flow now.
At last the tears slowed and Alinora pulled back slightly so she could wipe her eyes. George produced a handkerchief from somewhere so she was able to blow her nose.
"How did I get to the Burrow?" she finally asked, her voice rough.
George looked at her quizzically, "You don't remember?" She shook her head no. "The night… of the accident, you sent me to find help while you went to find Colin and Anna. From what we've pieced together, you made it to the accident site, and then went to their home to collect the twins. Camilla said you seemed coherent, but obviously upset. The two of you packed up some of their belongings and you came here. That was probably a better idea than going home, but you scared Mum half to death when you showed up. You appeared out of the fireplace, put Jeffrey and Ariel down and collapsed. None of them had any idea what had happened until Dad and I came looking for you."
"How long have I been asleep?!?"
"About 36 hours now, Katie's been in to check on you a number of times, since we didn't want to move you. Her diagnosis was that it was the shock and stress on top of you barely having recovered from being ill that caused you to pass out. We were to let you sleep as long as you needed it."
Ali looked at him in shock. "I've been asleep for well over a day?!? Wha… what's been going on? What have they found out about…" she stopped talking abruptly and gestured at him in frustration as her eyes again filled with tears.
"From what we can tell, it was just an accident. Something happened to the car and they didn't have time to react." George replied, his face pale.
"Were they all… in there? Dennis and Joanne too?" Ali asked quietly.
He only nodded.
"The Ministry is taking care of the Muggle side of things. Joanne's family has been notified and they're taking care of her and Dennis' funeral arrangements."
"Colin never wanted to have a funeral," Alinora said in a distant voice, remembering a conversation they'd had years earlier when the possibility of dying seemed so much more immediate. "He always said they were too depressing, that he didn't want to be remembered in that way. His friends were to remember him with laughter, not tears."
"That's what Ginny told us too. We're compromising and having a memorial service for the two of them, tonight possibly if you're up to it. We were waiting for you to recover."
"I'm recovered enough for that," she said determinedly, "I'll be there."
Carefully sliding her legs over the side of the bed, Alinora got shakily to her feet. She waited a moment or two to make sure her legs would hold, then carefully made her way over to where the cribs had been set up.
They were obviously ones that had been in the Weasley family for years, perhaps even holding the original twins at some point. The paint, once bright and cheerful, had worn away over the years and the decorative carvings were battered to the point that it was difficult to see what they'd once portrayed. The twins were sleeping within, covered snugly with brightly colored blankets made by Molly Weasley as a gift to the Creevy's after the birth of their children.
Tears stung Alinora's eyes as she stared down at the sleeping infants. Colin and Anna had been so excited about becoming parents. They had been planning for so long for this and it was heartbreaking that it had been so tragically cut short. Ali couldn't help but worry that she and George wouldn't be able to do nearly as good a job raising them as their real parents would have.
"We'll do just fine," George said, coming up behind her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and gave her a kiss on the top of her head before resting his chin there to join her in staring down into the cribs.
"How did you know that's what I was thinking?" she asked softly.
"Because I've been worrying about it too," he said simply. "It makes me nervous, being responsible for the lives of two tiny babies. I don't want to let Colin and Anna down any more than you do and I've certainly never been a father before."
He could hear Alinora snort and mutter something to the effect of, "I should certainly hope not!" and he grinned in response.
"Look, what we both have to keep in mind is that we're not doing this alone. We have our family and friends who are certainly going to be there to help out. Nobody expects us to be perfect, except maybe us, but we certainly aren't the first couple to become parents when we weren't ready for it."
At that, Alinora began laughing and quickly raised a hand to cover her mouth and muffle the noise. Turning in George's arms, she smiled up at him. "Not that I don't completely agree with everything you're saying, but please forgive me if I doubt just where you came up with these words of wisdom." Her eyes were still blue clouded with sadness, but the grin was as full of mischief as it normally was.
George grinned back at her unabashedly. "Well, Mum and Dad did sit me down yesterday, while you were asleep, and give me the exact same pep talk, but that doesn't make any less true."
When Ali didn't reply, simply cocked her head at him and smiled in silence, George gently pulled her away from the cribs. "Come on. You'll feel better after you get cleaned up and I know the family will feel better once they see you up and around doing okay. We've all been really worried you know."
"I'm sorry to have caused more problems for everybody…"
"Not a problem, they're just worried because they care about you. Now if you want a chance to get a shower before it's time to feed these two, I suggest you go now."
With a nod, Ali gathered her stuff and quietly left the room.
As the door closed behind her, George sank to the bed with a sigh. That had gone better than he'd expected. Katie had been quite concerned at her relapse so soon after being so ill and it was a relief to see Ali up and acting somewhat normal. Not that they were surprised at Ali's reaction. She and Colin had been very close and his death had come at a time when they'd all thought they were safe and had only a long, peaceful life ahead of them. To have reality step in so abruptly and prove them all wrong had been painful for them all.
There was a soft sound of rustling from one of the cribs, but when he checked neither baby had woken, though Jeffrey was looking restless. They'd both be awake soon and ready to eat.
The thought of suddenly being a father had George a bit nervous. He and Alinora had talked about having children of their own, but, as they'd just gotten married, they hadn't planned on starting a family for at least another couple years. They'd talked about how great it was that Colin and Anna had had kids first, since now they could learn from them what they should or should not do. The best laid plans…
George sighed silently and returned to the bed. Absentmindedly, he made up the bed before flopping down upon the quilt to stare unseeingly up at the ceiling.
He came out of his trance when he heard the bedroom door open and he watched Alinora reenter the room. She was snuggly wrapped in her green, terrycloth robe and had a towel wrapped around her hair and piled up on top of her head.
She crossed the room silently and sat down at one of the two desks, removed the towel from her head and began to dry her hair with it.
George had always prided himself on being observant- what good practical joker could afford not to be?- but it would've taken someone who was blind not to notice that, while in the shower, Ali had lost close to two feet off the length of her hair.
As he started to chuckle, Ali finally looked up and caught his eye. She smiled rather sheepishly at him and he was relieved to see that her eyes were now more green than blue. Things were improving.
"New hairstyle, luv?"
"I felt the need to exert some control upon my life," she replied in a slightly haughty tone of voice. It would've been more effective had it not been for the mischievous look on her face. "It was either do something drastic to my hair or go shopping, and, as there's a distinctive lack of shops in the Weasley loo, I went with chopping the hair."
"I've noticed the lack of shops myself," George said gravely, doing a commendable job of keeping a straight face. "We will have to speak to Mum and Dad about that straight away as you can't afford to loose much more hair."
They both laughed and, if the laughter was slightly hysterical in relief, neither bothered to mention it. Both were just happy to feel like laughing right now.
"You better go get ready, George," Ali said, rising from her chair to pull him off the bed where he'd been lounging. "They heard me moving about and they'll expect us down soon. I'll finish getting dressed…" She paused as one of the twins, disturbed by their noise, woke up and began to cry. "I'll finish getting ready and see about getting these guys fed," she finished, hurriedly searching for clothes among the bags George had packed for them.
As he hastily made his way out of the room, Alinora had already begun throwing on jeans and a jumper and was murmuring soothingly to the twins, both of whom were now crying. He quickly closed the door behind him and could hear his mum making her way up the stairs to give Ali a hand.
"Thank Merlin I have Alinora," he thought, enjoying the silence of the bathroom, "I can't imagine being able to handle all this on my own, family or not. I don't know what I'd do without her…"
