Friendship Has Its Limits

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters you recognize as J. K. Rowling's, obviously.

Hurriedly James yelled for help, and a team of nurses and a doctor came rushing in the room. He looked at Lily, whose colour had drainer from her face, standing by the bed, still holding her father's hand. The doctors tried to push her out of the way, but she wouldn't budge.

"Don't leave me, Daddy," she was saying in a rush. "You're all I have left! You can't leave me yet. I'm only seventeen! I still need you! Don't leave me, please don't leave me." James tried to get her out of the way, but she wouldn't move. "Please don't abandon me like Mum did. I don't think I can take it! I can't live without you!"

"Miss, you need to get out of the way now!"

"Lily! Come on! You're in the way. You're going to kill your dad if you don't get out of the way!" That caused her to turn and look at him in shock. James took advantage of the moment, grabbed Lily around the waist, and pulled her out of the way. As soon as she was out of the way, the doctor took over her spot, shouting orders to the nurses around him.

This time James did have to physically pick Lily up to get her away from her father. He grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her over his shoulder, which wasn't a very difficult thing to do, since Lily weighed next to nothing. Surprisingly she didn't struggle to get out of his arms, but when he finally set her down back in the waiting room, which was completely empty apart from them, she pushed him away from her and went pacing around the room frantically.

"Lily…" James started tentatively. She didn't even cast a glance his way, just kept pacing. "Lily, there's something you need to know, something the doctor told me---˝

She turned toward him, looking panicked. "I've got to tell Petunia. She doesn't know…and Veronica. I don't think she was in the house at the time, but she needs to know, needs to be here with him. Petunia needs to know. She'll be angry if I don't tell her."

She was babbling, he knew. It was probably part of the whole post-traumatic stress thing. Wordlessly he pointed in the general direction of the phones, and she instantly followed his finger to the phone to call her sister. As soon as she was out of sight, James collapsed into a chair and shoved a hand through his hair. He wasn't sure how to handle this kind of situation, and he sure as heck wasn't used to seeing strong, seemingly invincible Lily torn and broken like she was, left helpless to watch as her father's life slowly ebbed away from him. There was nothing magically that he could do for her now; all that was left was emotional support.

Lily inserted a coin into the payphone and dialled the number of Petunia's new flat, which she shared with Vernon. She let it ring, and ring, and ring, and ring some more before she finally hung up the phone, convinced that her sister was the only one in the entire world without an answering machine. Unsure of what to do next, she stood there in the middle of the hall for a few long minutes until finally she forced her legs to carry her back to the waiting room.

She resumed her pacing as soon as she was back. From time to time she'd cast a glance at James, who was still seated in the plastic chair with his head in his hands. For over half an hour they stayed like that, each lost in their own thoughts, until Alexa, Sirius, Ruby and Remus finally arrived. The instant the four other teens arrived James jumped up from the chair and went to greet them. Lily, however, continued to pace, unaware that more people had entered the room. James caught the newcomers up to speed with what was going on, and grimly motioned toward the pacing Lily when Sirius asked how she was doing.

All of a sudden, Lily fell heavily into a chair behind her, her hands at her temples. The others quickly hurried over to her, but Alexa reached her first, crouching on her knees in front of Lily's chair. She reached up and smoothed the redhead's hair out of her face.

"I don't think I can deal with this." Lily's soft, whispered voice echoed off the hospital walls. "I can't, Alexa, I can't watch another parent die. It's not fair!" Her voice went from whispered to yelling in no time at all.

"Oh, Lily…I wish you didn't have to do this either," Alexa replied, her voice obviously pained. "It isn't fair, not in the least little bit. My mum and dad want you to stay with us, at our house, until you get back on your feet."

Lily shoved her face in her hands and moaned. It was a long, sorrowful note, full of pain and exhaustion, but it didn't even begin to describe how she was feeling. The emotions inside her were too raw to express through speaking or other sounds. She just wanted this---all this, the pain, the sadness, the anger---everything to just go away. She wanted the whole entire world to disappear, taking her with it. Why did she have to do this again? Wasn't watching her mum die enough? Wasn't loosing one parent enough? Apparently not.

She stood up and started pacing again, but Ruby grabbed her arm, forcing the redhead to look at her. "Lily, babe, I know this is hard, but you don't have to go through this alone. You have us, your friends. We're here for you."

"I don't know how I'm expected to go through this," Lily whispered, her voice desperate sounding. "And I know you guys shouldn't have to be here with me, but…I just, I don't know how anyone is supposed to do this kind of thing. I don't know what to do."

"Like Ruby said, we are your friends, Evans, whether you like it or not," Sirius told her firmly, rewarded with a small snort of laughter from Lily. "Friends are supposed to be there when something's going wrong. That's what they're practically expected to do, you know. It's part of the job description, to stick around even when things are looking dark."

Just then the doctor came out, and Lily rushed up to him, hope shining brightly in her eyes. "Miraculously we were able to get your father stabilized. He's breathing again, though with the help of a machine. However, I must tell you that his chances for ever coming off the machine are very slim."

"But he's going to be okay?" she asked, obviously not caring about her father being hooked up to machines or not. "He'll be okay, right?"

The doctor glanced over Lily's shoulder at her friends, who stared back with solemn faces. Clearly he was hoping to get an easy way out of this by having her friends distract her with something, but it wasn't going to come. "His chances of survival don't look good right now," he said finally. "But there is a small possibility that he'll make it."

"Thank you, so much!" she said, a smile creeping over her face as her entire body relaxed. "Thank you for saving my father, doctor. You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that!"

"I'll need a number where to reach you at in case there is any changes over the night," the doctor continued. "I'm afraid you can't really stay here."

Alexa came forward and recited her phone number to the doctor. "Of course she isn't going to stay here! She's coming home with us, where she should be. Thank you for your help, doctor." She looped her arm through Lily's and walked back to the others. "Come on, Lily. Let's get you out of here."

"Hang on. I want to see my dad before we go," she replied, looking over her shoulder at the place where the doctor had been standing. "I'll only be a minute."

"Of course," said Ruby, smiling. Lily gave her a small smile in return before walking away.

"That guy was lying to her, wasn't he?" James asked roughly as soon as the redhead was out of sight. "Her dad probably isn't going to make it, is he? I bet that doctors are required to try and make the families of patients feel better by lying to them."

No one answered him, but it was clear that they were all thinking the same thing: Mr. Evans probably wasn't going to make it, and there wasn't nothing any of them could do, other than maybe help Lily get through it. Maybe.

A/N: Another long chapter, eh? A lot of my chapters have been getting longer lately, which isn't a problem for the readers out there, I'm sure. Anyway, I know the last few chapters have been depressing, and let me tell you now that the next few ones will be, too. It'll get better eventually though, but I'm not going to get into that now.