DISCLAIMER: It's all JKR's except my own character. Everything else is hers and I curse that fact daily. That applies to all chapters. In addition, I make no money from this. All hail the great JKR...

They stared at her limp body that they had placed on the couch as they whispered to each other. Neither knew why they were whispering. It wasn't as if she could hear them. She couldn't even move.

"It can't be." said Lucius, "It just can't be. She's dead. She's been dead for eleven years. There's no way. She just can't…" He trailed off. He didn't know how to finish that thought. This girl lying there, just by lying there in his house, was a living negation of everything he had known over the last eleven years, and his mind balked at that. She just couldn't be…could she?

"Oh, Lucius don't be stupid. She couldn't be wearing the chain and not be Laylani." Lucius gaped. Narcissa hadn't talked back to him like that in years. "You know how the union symbols work; you wore your own for twelve years!"

Lucius had to concede that to his wife. He knew the chain could not be removed until they were married, nor could anyone else wear it. The chain would simply vanish.

Narcissa took her eyes away from the girl to look at her husband. "Lucius," she said softly. "Please go send for the mediwizard." He turned on his heel and made for the fireplace in the room across the hall. He had never been an intuitive husband, but somehow he knew his wife needed to be alone with the girl.

Narcissa approached the girl's sleeping form and dropped down to her knees. She brushed stray hairs out of the girls face and tucked them behind her ear. She could see it now. She didn't know how she could have missed it. The hair, the bone structure; she looked exactly like Layla. Narcissa sat on her heels and couldn't help but remember…

The afternoon Layla announced she was pregnant, two weeks after Narcissa's own revelation.

"Oh, 'Rissa, wouldn't it be lovely to have two girls?" Layla wondered aloud. "They could be best friends just like us. We could dress them up and take them out for tea. It would be like our own little club!" Narcissa had smiled at the thought. "Or," she continued, "We could have a boy and a girl and they could get married! Wouldn't it be lovely, to have someone to love you your whole life long?".

"What if we had two boys?" Narcissa had asked. There was moment of silence, and then the two women had dissolved into a fit of giggles.

The day Laylani was born, she had been in the delivery room for support, clutching one of Layla's hands as Jonathan held the other. God, how Layla had screamed. But Narcissa knew it had all been worth it when the mediwitch announced it was a girl.

"A girl," cooed Layla as they put her in her mother's arms. She was beautiful. If Narcissa hadn't known better she would have sworn she saw that baby smile.

"Have you chosen a name?" asked the mediwitch.

"Laylani," said Jonathan as he beamed at his new family with pride.

"Laylani Rissa Stanners." said Layla.

Or the first night Laylani had spent at her house. Earlier in the day she had let she and Draco play on the lawn while she read on the porch. Suddenly Laylani let out a wail. Narcissa's feet took wings at the first sound of that girl in pain. By the time she had reached them, Draco was already holding her hand and patting her back giving her childish babbles of assurances. It seemed Laylani had been crawling and scraped her knee on a rock. Narcissa had performed a quick healing spell and kissed it better. Laylani had laughed. Later that night, Narcissa tucked the children in. She gave Laylani a kiss on the forehead and whispered

"You've had such a big day. Sleep well, Lani, and tell me all your dreams in the morning."

And now here she was before her, unconscious on Narcissa's couch. During the last eleven years, that dear little girl had somehow become this young woman, underfed, dirty and not even conscious. Laylani had probably been through unspeakable hells. But she had come back to them. Alive.

Narcissa was pulled back to the present as Lucius cleared his throat from behind her. She rose and nodded towards the mediwizard. He moved closer to Laylani's limp form and began to unpack his bag of books and potions. Lucius put his arm around his wife.

"Come Narcissa; let's give him space to work." He led her to the study for a cup of tea.

It was nearly a full hour until the mediwizard emerged from the room. He took a deep breath and began to speak. "It's not a coma, technically. She is, however, in a very deep sleep." He went on to explain. "From what I've seen, her body was already in a horrible state of malnutrition and quite weak. Somehow, something scared her enough to shock her into a spontaneous apparition. That drained what little energy she had left. She's exhausted physically, mentally and magically." They were silent for a moment

Finally Lucius spoke. "Will she be alright?"

"Physically, yes." said the mediwizard, "She will sleep soundly for a day or two, and will be tired and fragile for a few weeks after that but nothing to worry about. Emotionally, I don't know. From the trauma I've observed on her body she's been through things not mentioned in polite company."

Narcissa choked on a sob. "How could she 'spontaneously' apparate? It takes months of training and great concentration to do, let alone do it properly."

"It's actually more common then you'd think," replied the mediwizard, "Spontaneous apparition is just another kind of the body's fight-or-flight response. Most likely, she was faced with a situation where she felt immediate and extreme danger that she felt she could not overpower, and the tremendous fear sent her body into spontaneous apparition. From what Lucius has told me, she probably has limited control over her magic, and when she would be faced with intense emotion, her magic would be controlled by instinct rather than conscious thought. The strange thing is most spontaneous apparitions appear at St. Mungo's, a muggle hospital or with the police. A place where they feel like they will be safe. For some reason, hers is here."

The mediwizard gave them instructions on her care and told them to send for him immediately when she awoke. Lucius and his wife stood at the door. "Well, now what?" he said. Lucius had always been in control of everything, always in command of the situation. And now he felt useless in the face of one unconscious girl.

"Get the house elves." said Narcissa quietly. "Have them clean and set up her old room. I'll put her into something more comfortable to sleep in." Lucius nodded dumbly and headed for the kitchen. Narcissa levitated the girl's body to her own room.

She began to search through her numerous sleeping garments. She looked once to the girl then back to the rows upon rows of just her nightclothes, and felt so guilty she began to cry. She hadn't once looked for her. Narcissa had spent the last eleven years in the lap of luxury, getting everything her heart desired, and the girl she had loved so much didn't even have her health. Narcissa hastily dressed Laylani in a white silk full-length nightgown.

As she lay on the bed, Narcissa performed a few cleaning spells on Laylani's hair and skin. The change in appearance was remarkable. When clean and with most of the marks and bruises having been removed from her body, it was easy to see that this was no ordinary girl. She was beautiful, angelic with her brown hair spread out around her head like a halo, her pale skin practically shone. Beautiful.

Narcissa moved the limp body to Laylani's room. She hesitated outside the door. This would be her first time back in that room since Laylani had disappeared. At the time they couldn't bear to be in it, nor bear to change it. They had simply left it empty under minimal care. Narcissa took a step forward into the lilac colored room. She smiled, even amidst her tears. She was in the room she had not seen for eleven years, and didn't feel the heart-wrenching sadness of having lost her all those years ago. She felt the joy of having her returned alive to them.

Narcissa drew back the covers and gently set Laylani down. As she tucked the girl in, she pressed a light kiss to her forehead.

"You've had such a big day. Sleep well, Lani, and tell me all your dreams in the morning."