Disclaimer: I own nothing copyrighted by anybody with a lot of money who isn't really interested in what I write to amuse myself.

Author Note: I'm back! Yay! (better note at bottom) Thank you so much to my beta Steph (username: Nymphean on fanfiction. Check out her amazing stuff!) for helping me with this chapter (yes, I used your suggestions.)

CHAPTER 3

'Oh, Healer Evans! Thank Merlin you're here!' A nurse ran at her as soon as she stepped away from the Apparition point.

'What? What is it? Where's the emergency?' Lily quickly looked around, suddenly professional.

'Oh no!' The nurse waved her off. 'Nothing serious like that. It's just about that new patient of yours, Mr. Smith. He has been completely insufferable all day. Whenever anyone enters his room to give him anything or check on him, he asks for you. And when we remind him that you aren't here, he gets all petulant and cranky. He's awfully cute, but he's also being an over-grown child right now.'

'Thank-you, Nurse Rexdale. I'll check on him first,' Lily replied.

As soon as she had hung up her jacket and grabbed her lab coat, Lily headed down to J's room and walked in to find him reading that day's edition of the Daily Prophet.

When Lily entered the room, James straightened up and smiled. 'Hey V!'

'Don't you hey V me.'

The smile quickly dropped off James' face. 'What did I do?'

'I heard that you weren't the nicest to any of my nurses or the other healers when they came into your room today. In fact, one nurse described you as an over-grown child. Everyone here is just trying to help you get better, J!'

'I'm sorry V. I really am, but I'm kind of picky about the people I let get close to me. I'm used to you know and I like you. Plus, I don't know those people. What if they had been here to kill me?'

Lily just laughed. 'Now that's a rational thought if I've ever heard one. I've only ever met one person who's that paranoid, and that's Alastor Moody. You must hang around him a lot. But every person on this ward has high-security clearance so you don't need to worry.' She took a seat on the side of James' bed, and checked the rapidly healing cuts on his face. 'Actually sounds like you missed me, and not just for my medical expertise.'

A flush crept up James' neck. 'You really need to stop that,' he stammered, 'or I'm going to think you're flirting with me, and isn't that against some oath you take or something?'

'If I'm flirting with you, it's hardly intentional. And it's Muggle doctors who take the Hippocratic Oath, not us Healers. I just find that I'm very comfortable around you, like I've know you a long time.' Having checked his vitals, Lily got up and smoothed down the bed blankets.

'I feel the same way!' James exclaimed.

An awkward silence followed.

'Umm, your vitals are great, and your wounds are healing well, so that's good.'

James settled back against his pillows. "Ah, the injury status sum-up. I assume that means you'll be leaving soon.'

Lily couldn't stop the smile from appearing on her face. 'Actually I was going to just go do my rounds, which shouldn't take long. After that, I'm free unless an emergency comes up. If you want, I can bring some work in here and keep you company if you'd like.'

'Could you?'

There was no way that Lily was going to be able to resist the boyish smile that popped up on his face. 'I'll be back in an hour.'

James watched his healer leave the room, her beautiful red hair swaying against her back. He fell back on his pillows with a sigh, but then winced as he aggravated the gash on his stomach. V had been right, he had missed her. She had only been his healer for a few days, but he had become oddly accustomed to seeing her pretty face whenever he woke up. And there he went entertaining thoughts about V that were not appropriate for a healer. The scariest part of his stay at St. Mungo's so far was growing this quick attachment to V; he knew that if he let himself, he could fall for her. James hadn't felt those kinds of feelings since at least Hogwarts. (A/N: tee hee hee.)

Shaking his head, James resolved not to think about his healer until she came back. 10 minutes into this resolution, he realized how futile it was.

He was dozing an hour later when Lily returned, a thick sheaf of parchment in hand. She settled down into the chair beside the bed and started to write.


James woke later to the sound of a quill scratching. Lily smiled at his tousled appearance. 'Do you do anything but sleep?' she smirked.

'Do you actually do any work around here?' he jokingly shot back. 'I mean, you're always in my room, it's like you never leave. I hate to think that the treatment of your other patients is lacking in length or quality just because you can't get past your mounting attraction to me.'

Putting the parchment down, Lily prepared herself for some verbal sparring, her favourite extracurricular activity. 'Mounting attraction? Hardly!' she snorted. 'I find you mildly decent-looking at best.'

'But these scars will give me that rakish, dangerous look that all women find irresistible, and then I'll have to beat you off with a stick.'

'And by rakish, dangerous look, you mean ugly and goofy, right? But it's no matter; you'll have no scars on that face if I have anything to say about it.'

James ran a hand along his cheek as if to feel the bone. 'I knew you'd never let anything happen to this perfect bone structure.'

'Whatever,' Lily muttered, indeed trying to tear her attention away from the aforementioned perfect bone structure. It had occurred to her the night before that J was a very attractive man and she begun to develop a bit of a crush on him. Part of Lily tried to talk her out of it, especially as he was a patient, but the other half of her tried to justify it, saying that it was so easy to feel comfortable around him and he had been such a good listener.

'Ugh! Stop it!' Lily said sharply, shaking her head. It wasn't until she looked up to see James looking at her strangely that she realized she had been talking out loud. "Sorry. I was thinking something I shouldn't have been thinking."

'About how my body's naked under this loose robe?' James winked.

'Now who's the one flirting with whom? And no way, Romeo.' Lily was about to continue when another healer stuck his head in the room. 'V, we need you at the front. Incoming 8, all male. Apparently a brawl in a pub downtown over a Quidditch match got very violent, and we're short staffed.'

'I'll be right there.' Lily turned to James. 'You'll be fine without me, and please be polite to whoever comes in here to help you.'

'Even if it's my manager?' he queried.

'Alright, there's one exception to the rules. Besides, it's past your bedtime.' Smiling, she turned and briskly walked out of the room to go and take care of the Quidditch hooligans.


It took a long time to stitch the fans up, and by the time Lily got back to James' room, he was out for the night. Crossing the room to grab her parchment, she saw that James was sleeping restlessly, limbs twitching sometimes as he muttered under his breath. Lily also noticed that he had kicked one blanket to the floor, and picking it up, she spread it over him, tucking in the sides.

Not noticing that James had woken up, she turned to leave and was startled when he grabbed her hand. Quickly turning back, Lily noticed his grey eyes looking sleepily back at her.

'Stay with me,' he whispered.

Lily had no choice as she could no longer deny the eyes anything that were currently sending unwanted shivers down her spine. Never letting go of his hand, she pulled up a chair.

'Thanks,' he mumbled and quickly drifted back to sleep, although he now slept peacefully, anchored firmly by Lily's warm grasp.


For the next few days, Lily spent a lot of free time in James' room, finishing up paperwork and working on research. While they chatted lightly, they also often sat in comfortable silence.

James often caught himself staring at his healer, transfixed by the ruby hair that fell across her cheek. But after a few minutes, he always caught himself and turned his attention back to his magazine. There was something so agonizingly familiar about V, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

Meanwhile, Lily found herself doing the same thing. When J ran his hand through his hair while reading, it brought a smile to her face which was hard to wipe off.

'Evans, get a hold of yourself!' she thought. 'Do not get a crush on this man. Yes, he is quite attractive but he's also a patient and he'll be gone soon. It's not like you to start getting all gaga over a guy you don't even know the real name of.' Lily turned back to her parchment, trying to focus on the words in front of her, but every so often her eyes would flick to her patient and a blush would creep up her neck.

'Oh Evans, ' she thought, 'you're in trouble now.'


About a week after James arrived at St. Mungo's, Lily popped in to check on him before she left for the night.

James was oddly silent as she checked his machines and stomach wound. But as Lily tucked his blankets in, he cleared his throat.

'V?'

'Yes?' she asked, looking up, amused at his hesitant tone.

'Umm, when I get out of the hospital, would you...I mean, if you're not busy...you don't have to...'

Lily smiled. 'J just spit it out. I promise I'll keep an open mind about whatever you're going to ask me. And I'll keep the hexes to a minimum.'

James grinned, glad that she had lightened the atmosphere, taking away some of his tension. 'Okay...when I get out of the hospital, would you come and watch one of my Quidditch games?'

'Will I know your name by then?'

'I promise I'll be able to tell you before then.'

Lily took a seat on the bed. Don't commit to too much, she reminded herself, then promptly threw that reminder away. 'Then I promise that I'll go to one of your games...when and if you get medical clearance to play.'

The huge smile on James' face dropped as he heard her last words. 'You always have to sneak in that last negative stuff, don't you?'

Lily shook her head. 'No, I don't need to, but I'm just trying to look out for you. As soon as you're healthy and fit enough to play, I will be in the stands, cheering as loud as I can.'

'Ooh, my very own little cheering section,' James waggled his eyebrows. 'Sounds promising.'

'I doubt that I'll be your first cheerleader, oh Mr. Heartthrob of the Quidditch Pitch.'

'How cute! You've already given me a little nickname.'

'J, you are absolutely horrible, and I am leaving.' Lily got up and when she reached the door, turned back. 'I'll be back tomorrow morning. Please be nice to anyone who tries to help you. Someone will be in later to give you a potion to help you sleep. I'll see you tomorrow.'

'Bye V.'

James sighed after she left. He couldn't believe how much of an idiot he'd been. It sounded like he had never asked out a girl before. But something about V just made him tongue-tied whenever she was in a 5 foot-radius of him. He'd have to watch himself from now on.

But his thoughts were interrupted by another healer bustling into his room. 'Where's Evans?' she asked, looking about in confusion.

James was equally puzzled. 'Who?'

'You know, your healer?'

'You mean V?'

The healer nodded, getting closer to the bed. 'Yeah, where is she? Lately she's always been in here, so I came here first and I really need her to sign some papers.'

James wanted his questions answered before he helped her with hers. 'What did you call her?'

'Evans.'

'Why?'

The healer looked at him like he was stupid. 'Because that's her name.'

'It is?'

'You mean, you don't know your healer's name?'

James shook his head. 'No. She just told me to call her V, to make it fair because for privacy's sake, I can't tell her my real name.'

'So you don't know that your healer is the Lily Evans?'

'Lily Evans?' He started forward at the name. No wonder she had been so familiar.

'Yeah, she only found the cure for Sense Noir, and is only the most sought after healer of celebrities. I totally thought you knew.'

'I had no idea.'

'Well, you're a lucky man. She'll cure whatever you have. But can you tell me where she is?'

James shook himself out of his daze. 'Oh, she left for home about 20 minutes ago.'

'Shit, I guess I'm going to have to owl this to her house. Thank-you!' the healer called over her shoulder as she left.

'Lily Evans?' he said out loud. He couldn't believe that he hadn't recognized her, especially after the huge crush he'd had on her at Hogwarts. She had even been all over the news a while back and still popped up from time to time. James' head must've been even more messed up than he thought. Bu then he grinned to himself. 'This is going to be interesting.'

A/N: uh-oh, James knows! What will happen next? Tune in and review to find out.

I was originally going to make this story a bit longer (i.e. 6-10 chapters) but I find that I can wrap it up in 5-6. I know this chapter is a bit short, but a lot happened in it and I have a politics essay to write so I'll leave it here for now. And sorry for the lack of updates lately, but being a frosh at university takes up all of my time right now. I love fics, but I also don't want to fail out. You're going to have a few chapters of all stories up soon (after this week) because I'll have nothing due for a while and can take time out to write. Love you all!