"Hello, Lily!" Doctor Bodine greeted happily, waltzing into Lily's room. "Where's James? Last minute install of the baby seat?" she grinned knowingly.
Jesus fuck, they hadn't installed the baby seat yet. They were supposed to have more time. James was supposed to land tomorrow and they were supposed to do all the last minute things — like install the bloody car seat. Instead he was in fucking Belgium and she was in labour. Jesus Christ.
"He's in Belgium," Lily gritted through a contraction, her hand squeezing Mary's wrist, surely cutting off the circulation. "You said 'August ninth'!" Lily accused.
"Ow!" Mary yelped and Lily sent daggers at her.
"I did warn that a due date is more of a guideline."
She read through something on her tablet before beginning an examination. Lily liked Doctor Bodine. She really did. But in this moment, she wanted to throttle the cheery disposition out of her. Of course, Lily resisted that particular urge and it was determined that Lily was dilated five centimetres and the baby had a steady heartbeat and was in a good position. That's when her phone lit up with James' name. She answered it quickly, putting it on speaker.
"You better be telling me you're getting on a plane," she said desperately. She just wanted him here even though logically she knew there wasn't much he could do except hold her hand. Well, actually he could be doing the last minute install of the baby seat.
"We just got to the airport and our flight leaves in half an hour," James promised. "We'll be in London at ten-thirty."
"Ten-thirty?" Lily screeched. It had just gone eight-thirty last Lily checked. Oh, Jesus, this could not be happening. Sure it was only two hours away but then taking in the time to actually get out of the airport and to the hospital… "So by the time you get to the hospital it'll be like twelve-thirty?"
"We're landing at London City Airport so hopefully no later than eleven-thirty."
"How on earth did you manage that?"
"Well, we may or may not be using a private plane."
"I — what?"
"Look, all the commercial flights had lay-overs and landed at Heathrow and that just wasn't going to work with the hospital being on the other side of London so I had mum and dad organise a private jet which we don't normally do but, you know, one trip isn't going to singlehandedly destroy the environment and this is an emergency! But enough about that, how are you? Are you at the hospital? Have they given you a room? Is everything okay with the baby?"
"Yes, yes, and yes. Mary and Marls are with me. Doctor Bodine just left and she said I'm at the halfway mark so basically I'm in a lot of — ah, fuck, fuck, fuck," Lily hissed, clutching the side of her stomach with one hand whilst leaning on her other elbow. "Son of a bitch, contractions are fuckers!" she hissed, the contraction still rolling through her body.
"Bet you wish you'd kept your legs shut," Sirius' voice floated through the phone. If he was in the room she'd have thrown something at his head. Probably her phone. She was in enough pain to not care if she broke it.
"I'll kick him in the balls for you," Mary offered, reading Lily's thoughts.
"Now, Mac, what did I ever do to you?"
"It's what you did to me!" Lily cried out, her contraction still pulsing through her, a low groan coming out and Mary rubbed circles into her back.
"Oi, I am not the one who knocked you up — OW!"
"I blame you and your stupid birthday party with all that stupid fucking alcohol and-and that magician that you hired-"
"Oi, leave Steven out of this!" Sirius protested.
"You okay, love?" She could hear the concern in James' voice, which sounded closer. He'd probably taken her off speaker.
"I just … I wish you were here," she said defeatedly.
"I'm coming," he promised. "As fast as I can. In the meantime, my, er, my parents are on the way to the hospital. They don't want to come in the room or anything unless you're comfortable with that," James assured. "They just want to be close by in case … in case I don't make it in time. You know, have a Potter representative nearby."
"I don't — I don't know if I want them to see me like this, James. I'm in pain, cursing like a bloody sailor, and I look gross."
"You could never look gross," James assured. "And like I said, they're not expecting to see you before the baby comes, they just want to be nearby and if you send Marls or Mary to give them updates every hour or so, they'll be happy."
"Okay."
"All right, love, I've gotta hang up the phone so we can board but the plane should have wifi so I'll try FaceTiming and texting you."
Lily nodded. "I love you. Get here safe."
"I will and I love you, too. Also, Lils?"
"Yeah?"
"I can't wait to meet our little alien."
"Me too," she grinned. "I'll see you in a few hours."
"Do your best to still be pregnant, yeah?"
"I'll try."
"I gotta go. I'll text you when I'm in the air."
"Bye, James. Fly safe."
The line went dead. Mary rubbed her arm soothingly.
"He'll get here in time, I can just feel it."
"You think so?"
"I really do," Mary swore.
In an hour, the pain had somehow worsened and Mary and Marlene were attempting to distract her with a hospital room Taylor Swift listening party and it was kind of working and kind of not. Her emotions were running so high she cried through the entirety of All Too Well (10 Minute Version) and it was just a lot, which she then got whiplash with Mr Perfectly Fine. So she was in pain but at least there were things to laugh at, like Marlene and Mary attempting to learn the Look What You Made Me Do dance and doing over-exaggerated hair flips. They even let her film a lot of it.
Then Soon You'll Get Better came on and she was crying hard.
"I want my mum," she told the girls. "I don't know how to do this! I want my mum!"
They hugged her and held her as she cried and eventually they let Euphemia in to see her because, they weren't mothers and had never pushed a baby out of them, and Lily just needed someone who had been through it to tell her it was going to be okay.
"You know, I was in labour with James for seventeen hours," Euphemia told Lily and her eyes widened. Lily could not do another eleven hours of this. "I hated every minute of it, which was a shock because I had wanted a baby for so long that I thought I should accept the pain of it gracefully but I hated it. Then he was born and he was a little blob of a thing with black tufts of hair and, you know, Monty was holding him and we'd yet to put a nappy on him and he pooped all over his dad. It was disgusting."
Lily laughed through her tears.
"Monty's never gotten over it but, Lily, it's going to be okay. You're going to be okay. There will be times when it isn't easy and you'll want to rip your hair out but then to moro sou is going to do something and i kardia sou — your heart will want to burst."
"I'm scared that something bad is going to happen and that James won't be here and they baby will be all alone."
"The baby won't be alone. His aunties are just outside the door and his yiayia and pappou are right here too. And he's going to have the best mama and baba. I know you kai Dimitri haven't been together that long but ixera tin proti stigmi—"
"Stigmi?" Lily asked.
"Moment. Ah … I knew the moment we met that you were it for our Dimitri kai maybe that's why Monty and I weren't so anisychos — worried — when you told us. So you're going to be fine. You, James, kai to moro … tha eisaste entaxei."
"What if he doesn't make it on time?"
"He will," Euphemia promised. "I raised that boy and he has a habit of pulling through even at the very last minute."
And he did. Just. At eleven-forty-seven he appeared in her doorway, his hair somehow more chaotic than usual, his chest rising up and down quickly, and his face flushed.
"James!" Lily sighed in relief as he rushed up to the side of her bed, sinking onto it and leaning forward to kiss her.
"Cutting it fine, Potter," Marlene noted.
"Give the man a break, he looks worse than Lily."
"Oi!" Lily complained. "Pushing a human out of me!"
"You're not pushing yet," Mary reminded her.
"Well, I feel like I need to push!"
"I made it," he said dazedly. "You're still-"
"Still pregnant," she confirmed, before wincing and shifting her position and Mary and Marlene made themselves scarce from the room. "Just," she added. "Last time Doctor Bodine checked I was about nine centimetres."
"Shit, Lily, I'm so sorry you had to go through this alone," he leaned forward, his hand cupping her face. "This was supposed to be something we did together and, I mean, you were always going to do all the work because, you know, I can't push our baby out of me but I was supposed to be here."
"You're here now," Lily smiled just as Doctor Bodine waltzed her way back into Lily's room.
"Ah, James! You made it!" she exclaimed as she settled in the chair at the end of the bed between Lily's legs. "Let's see if it's time, shall we? Lily, I'm going to check your cervix now." Lily and James waited with bated breath — Lily squeezing James' hand tight as another contraction rolled through her body —until Bodine popped her head back out and grinned at Lily. "And that's ten centimetres! It's time to push!"
One hour later, James and Lily sat side by side in the hospital bed, Lily cradling their little baby and her heart so full she thought it could burst at any minute. He was gorgeous with wisps of black hair on his little head and they'd gotten glimpses of his deep green eyes and she was already in love with the way his little mouth stretched into an 'o' when he yawned.
"I told you it was going to be a boy," Lily sighed, resting her head against his shoulder, and his came to rest on her.
"Agamemnon is still off the table."
Lily snorted, her finger lightly tracing their son's cheek. "He's going to look like you."
"Xaralambos," James said softly.
"Hmm?"
"It was my grandfather's name. Mum's side. It's who mum and I look like … and it's — objectively — an awful name in Greek but in English, well, what about, Harry?"
"Harry," Lily repeated, considering their sweet boy. "I like it. And I like that it has a weird Greek name."
"Just so you know, I'll shoot anyone who decides to call him Xaralambos unless it's the priest during the christening."
"Oh, hush, I love it. Harry. Hello, my little Harry," she whispered to the sleeping baby. "Harry James."
"James?"
"Harry James Potter," she confirmed and he kissed the top of her head.
"I love it."
And sitting there, James' arm around her, their baby in her arms, she had the most peculiar feeling and she knew Euphemia was right. Everything was going to be okay.
Five Years Later…
The kids bounced around her at the arrivals gate, pumped with excitement as they watched the gate religiously. They had bought big 'welcome home' balloons from the gift store that each of the kids had tied around their wrists and the balloons bounced around in the air above them as they jumped and ran circles around Lily. Lily couldn't blame them. She'd been counting down the days for his return — with perfect timing a day before Harry's fifth birthday — and her return to sanity at not having to manage three kids under five on her own. She was also glad to get her bug-killer, bed heater, and cook back — she was still as bad a cook as she was when they met and the kids were not happy with her crappy meals. They rejoiced every single time Yiayia Effie brought enough food over to last a week.
"Mama, up!" Evie stretched her little arms up and Lily smiled at her youngest daughter, still a baby at a year and a half old, leaning down to swing Evie up onto her hip without needing to be asked twice. Evie looked the most like Lily out of the three kids. She'd gotten Lily's nose, mouth, and eyes but with James' thick black curls.
"Getting tired, bunny-bug?" Lily asked, bopping her nose and requested, "makia?" with a tap on her cheek. Evie honoured Lily with a kiss, which Lily returned with a big overdone "mwah!" to make the toddler giggle.
"Mummy, when's daddy gonna come out?" Amelia asked for the hundredth time in the twenty minutes they'd been waiting at the gate. Amelia, was the perfect mixture of them with James' eyes, Lily's mouth, James' nose, and Lily's hair.
"Any minute now," Lily assured her eager three year old.
"He has to get his bags," Harry — a spitting image of his father except for his eyes — said, knowingly.
"That's right," Lily nodded, swinging side to side for Evie's benefit. "Then dad and Uncle Sirius are gonna come meet us here."
"Why can't we just go and get them?" Amelia complained. "All this waiting is exhausting."
Lily laughed at a token Mary line coming out of her daughter's mouth. Children really were parrots for everything. She'd never forget when Harry caught onto 'fuck' for an entire week when he was only two and a half because Sirius had let it slip in front of him.
"Because only people getting off flights are allowed in that part of the airport. They'll be out soon," Lily promised. "Then you can tell dad all about how you can count to fifteen now!"
"And I want to tell him about the backpack we bought for school!" Harry said and Lily smiled at her baby who wasn't her baby anymore. Her baby was starting kindergarten in September. Only a month to go. She already knew she was going to cry her eyes out the moment he walked into class.
"He's going to love it!"
"And I want to show Nouno my Pokemon collection! You know, I've got twelve new cards since they left, mama!"
"And I want to show daddy the new stickers on my wall!" Amelia declared. "What do you want to show daddy, mummy?"
Hmm, Lily wanted to show him the new lingerie she was rocking under the sundress she was wearing but that would have to wait until all the little ones were in bed. For Amelia's sake, Lily replied with, "the new suitcases we bought for the trip to Greece."
"Dada," Evie mumbled.
"Hmm?" Lily looked down to see Evie pointing, her head up and alert.
"Dada," she repeated and Lily looked up and grinned.
James and Sirius were walking out, their suitcases trailing beside them as they searched the crowd for Lily and the kids. The sight of James hit her full force and if she wasn't holding Evie she may have just crumpled to the floor. Instead she hugged her baby closer to her and kissed her forehead.
"Look!" Lily told Harry and Amelia, "daddy and Uncle Sirius!"
The two kids gasped and then let out happy cheers as they set off running and Lily knew the moment James saw them running to him. His whole face transformed and he abandoned his suitcase to rush up and catch them in his arms and Lily's heart wanted to burst. Lily followed behind with Evie who was now squirming to be set down. Lily plonked her on the floor, grabbing her chubby hand as they ran — at Evie's pace — to James and Sirius, who was now wheeling both suitcases.
The kids were running their mouths off trying to catch their dad up on everything he missed.
"Hey, what did we say about giving daddy space to breathe?" Lily raised a brow and the kids looked at her guiltily as James looked up at her with a wide grin. With James distracted, they pounced on Sirius.
"There's my beautiful wife and my littlest munchkin!" He swooped in to lift Evie up and into the air over his head getting a squeal of laughter out of her before setting her on his hip and snagging Lily around the waist, pulling her in for a kiss and a hug, squashing Evie between them.
"Hmm, I missed you," Lily murmured.
"I missed you, too," he kissed her forehead. "Were the children terrible?"
"Absolute heathens, all of them. I ought to take a month vacation and leave you with them."
"We can stick them with my parents and run away together for a month of peace," James countered.
Sirius snorted as he dangled Amelia upside down by her ankles, Harry holding her hands — Lily had stopped trying to get him to be civilised with the kids a long time ago. "Knowing the two of you, you'd come back pregnant with a fourth."
"Sirius!" Lily grinned, pulling away from James and leaning over to kiss him on the cheek.
"Noticed me, have you?"
"Oh, hush! We've got your room all set up."
"Oh, yeah? What did the little brats pick out for me this time?"
"It's Tangled," Amelia piped up and Sirius set her down only to swing her back up to his hip.
"How did you know I love Rapunzel?" he asked and Amelia went into a spiel about what characters the quilt featured and Harry began telling James — Evie still clinging to him and looking all comfy like she was about to fall asleep — about the new Marvel movie Marlene had taken him to see a few days ago as an early birthday treat.
"Whose birthday?" James feigned.
"My birthday!"
"Your birthday? Are you sure? When is it?"
"Tomorrow!" Harry declared.
"Tomorrow? That can't be! We just had your birthday last year," James shook his head as though he was puzzled and Harry ate it up.
They started their way out of the airport, the kids still buzzing with excitement — except Evie who had fallen asleep on James — and when they got into the car, it was all obnoxious singing to the kids' favourite songs until they got home.
"Guess what time it is?" James called to the kids as he opened his suitcase on the living room floor.
"PRESENTS!" Amelia and Harry shouted. "Presents! Presents! Presents!"
The next hour was James and Sirius spoiling the kids rotten with gifts from pretty much every city they'd visited — some generic touristy souvenirs and other really pretty jewellery, shoes, clothes, art. James showered her in gifts too which was mostly just really gorgeous jewellery and her mouth dropped at the designer bag he'd bought her from Paris. It was almost midnight by the time they got the kids down — even Evie who'd slept through the car trip rallied once home, determined not to miss out on the fun — and Sirius was settled in the guest bedroom for the night with his Tangled quilt. Then, finally it was just James and Lily.
He groaned, falling onto the bed and pulling Lily on top of him, his arms wrapping around her tightly.
"I've missed this bed so bloody much."
Lily laughed, pressing a kiss to his nose. "Only the bed?"
"I've missed this too," and his hands squeezed her arse lightly. She laughed happily, letting her lips close over his and his hand reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear. "I've missed you."
"Me too," she whispered, leaning her forehead against his just so she could breathe him in. She's missed his warmth, his smell, his touch. She's missed him. "It's not the same when you're gone. The house feels bigger."
He wrapped his arms around her tightly and she buried her face in his neck, one hand on his chest the other in his hair.
"I'm here. No more travelling until next summer — at least no travelling without you and the kids," he amended as he rolled them over and propped himself up on his elbows. "I promise."
Lily sighed blissfully just from knowing that James would be around for almost an entire year uninterrupted. No gigs in Australia or Brazil or LA. No early morning airport drop offs, no weeks apart, no FaceTime calls that just weren't the same as having him here, no late night airport pick-ups. Just this. Them and their kids in their house.
"Your parents photos of Greece look amazing," Lily sighed blissfully once more thinking of the photos Effie had been posting since she and Fleamont had landed in Crete just five days ago. Their imminent yearly trip to Greece couldn't come fast enough. Her, James, and the kids on a beach in Crete. She couldn't wait.
"Only one more week and we'll be joining them," James nuzzled her nose with his. "I don't know what I'm more excited for, the vacation or the twenty-four-seven baby sitting service that is yiayia and pappou."
"Hmm, with that in mind maybe I need to invest in more dirty lingerie."
"More, huh?"
"Oh, didn't I tell you? Under this dress is some pretty dirty, never before seen by you, lingerie. You're welcome home present."
No sooner had she finished her sentence than James' hand went exploring down her side until it found the hem to her dress and then under and up the inside of her thigh and there. She tightened her hold on his shoulders as he watched her.
"James," she called lustfully and his lips closed over hers, then down her neck, sucking and nipping softly in all the right places and the idea of locking them in a room for a week was sounding better and better by the minute. "Clothes off," she requested, pushing at his chest slightly.
He didn't need to be told twice, he got up off the bed, pulling her up with him and then he was pulling her dress off of her and his jaw dropped.
Lily smirked, twirling slowly for his benefit, showing off her black lace and leather lingerie. "What do you think?"
"Minx, you were wearing that the whole time?"
She barely managed a laugh before his mouth was crashing on hers, pushing her against their bathroom door, his hands exploring every inch of her until they gripped her upper thigh and lifted. She wrapped her legs around him expertly, their lips staying connected the whole time.
"Fuck, I've missed this," James groaned as his lips explored her neck and she rolled against him. He spun them around, walking them over to the bed and throwing her onto the mattress, pulled his shirt off and climbed on top of her. "You're as beautiful as the day we first met, you know?"
She pulled him down for a kiss and whispered, "liar."
He began kissing her all over, murmuring "beautiful" against her skin as his hands and mouth lit her on fire from the inside out. He worked his way down her neck, down her chest, down her stomach until he was pushing aside her knickers and his head was buried between her legs with her hands in his hair. His touch drove her just as crazy as it did the very first night and she was putty in his hands.
"James — Jesus, mmm, there," she whimpered and he sucked and licked, her insides coiling and tightening at his every whim. If she let him keep going, she was going to release and she just wanted him, so she tugged on his hair.
He looked up.
"I want you," she said simply. "So come back up here and fuck me."
A smirk on his face and he spurred into action, getting rid of his pants and climbing back on top of her and he thrust into her, his lips hovering over hers to catch her gasp of pleasure. His hands found hers, intertwining their fingers together and placing them by her head as he rocked into her.
It was much, much later into the night when they both lay naked under the covers and wrapped up in each other, talking softly. She filled him in on things the kids did whilst he was gone and how sometimes they'd do something that was just so him that it made her heart ache for him. He told her about the crowds and how he always searched for her. She told him about her latest clients and their crazy demands. He told her about the pranks he and Sirius pulled on each other. She told him of odd quirks she'd discovered about the new house they'd moved into only four months ago. He told her about the elevator in Spain he and Sirius had gotten trapped in for twenty minutes. Eventually, they circled around to them and the years they'd spent together.
"Six years in about a month and Harry's already five," she whispered, her fingers tracing lines on his hands. "Time's flown, hasn't it?"
"Six years, almost four married, and three kids," James murmured. "We did good for a Ted Bundy-esque perv and a girl wearing a bra as a top."
Laughter slipped out of her as her fingers played with his hair. "We did really good for a one-night-stand in Europe and it's all because I followed you to Mykonos."
He kissed her deeply, pressing her body into his, his hand in her hair and this was how she wanted to be held until she was a hundred-and-two.
"I'm so fucking glad you did."
Author's Note: thank you all for reading and your reviews and support during this fic! It's been so much fun writing this one and I can't believe it's over :') Thanks again! Hope you enjoy!