When Lily managed to get Sirius up and able to walk, they followed Harry's example, flooing to St Mungos and going straight to the emergency room, fussing over Harry. Lily discreetly left with Crosby to wait outside. Sirius mean while, ran to Harry's side, trying to take his hand and being beaten off.
Unsurprisingly, the healers asked him to leave because he was stressing the patient. One took him outside, explaining that they could let the babies be delivered now or cast a spell that would stop labour. Sirius, after thinking for a while that he would like to be with Harry, not chased out of the room, when they were born, told them to stop it.
The healer nodded and rushed off again to tell the others. Sirius walked out to the waiting room, where he plunked himself into a chair next to Lily, burying his hands in his hair.
"I've really fucked up this time." He said quietly.
"He'll forgive you, just tell him what you told me." Sirius was silent for a moment.
"You know, I had to propose three times. Three times before he said yes and agreed to marry me."
"Really?"
"Yeah. The first was a week after Crosby was born, right before they came out of hospital. Told me he didn't want me to do it just because I was felt 'obligated' to."
"Obligated?"
"He said that I was doing it just for Crosbyand that it wouldn't be right for him to accept."
"Was it just for Crosby?" Lily asked raising an eyebrow.
"No! I mean, I thought it would be better for Crosby, but I did it because I wanted to show him I was serious about it this time round." Sirius protested.
"And the second time was when?" Lily asked, feeling slightly more unsure of this relationship.
"Christmas Eve, after Remus had left. He said no again, said he could stand his boyfriend being with someone else, but not his fiancé."
"And after two rejections, didn't it occur to you that maybe he didn't want to marry you?"
"It did, ok. But I asked him. He said he did, but he didn't want to make a formal commitment just yet." He shot Lily a glare. "The third time was after we got back from the abortion clinic."
"Abortion clinic!"
"Yeah, after he decided he didn't want to get rid of it, well, we know now it's them. I was sure he was going to reject me again, but then he said yes, told me I'd let him make his own choice to keep it or not. And I promised to look after him and Crosby and the new one, and now I've gone and ruined it all." Lily was surprised to hear a small sob come from Sirius. She'd never seen Sirius cry once in her life. Maybe married life had changed him…
Crosby gave a yawn from Lily's arms, finally waking up. He looked at her and then to Sirius curiously.
"Daddy?" He said as Lily passed him to Sirius. "Why are you here?"
"Why wouldn't I be, Crosby?"
"Mummy said you left."
"Oh really?" Crosby nodded
"He said you weren't coming back and he didn't know if you loved us anymore. Do you?"
"Of course baby, I love you and mummy very much."
"And the new ones?"
"And your brothers or sisters too." Crosby, deciding he'd asked Sirius enough questions, lay back against him, looking around. Lily looked at him in amazement
"Wow, we knew from when Harry brought him home that he was going to be intelligent, but if he remembers all of that from one conversation, you're raising a child prodigy there!" Sirius gave a knowing smirk.
"Of course he's intelligent, look at his gene pool." He said smugly and there was a few more moments of silence, which were broken by Crosby.
"Where's mummy?" Lily stood up.
"Let's go find out if we can see him."
"Excuse me?"
"Yes?"
"I'm looking for someone booked in under the name Pot-" Noticing Sirius now behind her, Lily changed her sentence, mid-word. "Black. Bookedunder the name Black." The witch looked through her list and then shook her head.
"Nope, no one here under Black. Any other names they could have checked in under?"
"Potter, check under Potter."
"Which one do you want?"
"Which one?"
"Potter, J.C, checked in about a half hour ago after a pub brawl. Potter, H.J, checked in an hour ago for premature labour." Lily put her head in her hand as Sirius sniggered behind her.
"Give me both of their room numbers."
"And you would be who?"
"Mother to one, wife to other." As they left, the witch gave Lily a sympathetic look and shook her head.
"It's time like this I wonder which one's thirty five and which one's eighteen." Lily said exasperated as Sirius continued laughed behind his hand. They reached the door to the room and Sirius bit his lip nervously and wrung his hands.
"I don't think he'll want to see me…"
"I'll go in first and talk to him, calm him down a bit so he doesn't end up screaming himself into labour again." She said and Sirius nodded and sat down in one of the chairs outside, trying to think up an apology for Harry. Lily put Crosby down and opened the door to the room. He ran inside and she watched Harry pick him up while Crosby babbled on hurriedly. While Lily didn't understand this, Harry hugged him tightly, whispering back to him calmingly.
She decided that it was the right moment to intervene and as she walked up to the bed, Crosby laid a hand on Harry's stomach. She noticed then that he was still pregnant.
"They said you were in premature labour." She noted.
"Someone told them to stop it." The tone of his voice told her he knew exactly who someone was. "Stupid bastard. It's not his decision to make."
"They are his children too, and he's thinking what's best for them."
"Correction, they were his children until a few days ago. Now, he's never going to know them and they're never going to even see him." He said, a strange malicious smile on his face. Crosby had fallen asleep cuddled up to his mother. Harry stroked a hand through his son's hair. "Crosby will forget, give it about six months, and he won't know him either. And to think, a week ago he was so excited, talking to them and everything. A punishment suitable for his crimes."
"That's a bit of a cruel punishment, don't you think? To deny him his children." He laughed nastily.
"And what he did wasn't cruel? Telling me he loved me then running straight back, backto everything and everyone he begged me to leave to be with him and sending divorce papers, the very next night. Christmas eve to be exact."
"He's sorry for that, and in my opinion, it sounds genuine."
"And if I take him back, he'll just change his mind again six months from now! And I won't have that! He can mess with my mind and heart, but he won't mess with theirs!" he said almost hysterically, tears running down his cheeks. "I won't let him!"
"Just give him one more chance." He slumped down against his pillows, looking at her.
"What if I don't want to?" Lily sighed.
"Is there any other reason you don't want him that I don't know?" She said suspiciously and Harry would have been glad to tell give up and admit to her how he'd been hit and shouted at for no reason a few weeks ago, but, and he would regret this decision for the rest of his life, he merely shook his head.
"No, I'll give him another chance."
"Good. If anything happens, come to me and I will personally skin him alive… I'll tell him he can come in. But while you two work things out, I have to go see your father in his room on the next floor?"
"What?"
"Apparently he got into a fight in the place we were going to spend New Year's Eve. Honestly, some things never change, no matter how old you get."
Hints to future somewhere in this chapter! Thanks to all who reviewed, I thanked every signed onepersonally already.
Next chapter: The problems don't stop just because Sirius is back. In fact, they just continue to worsen and a set of new friends in a similar situation appear on the horizon...
