Three painful weeks had gone by.

"Hang on. Don't move." Sirius's said sternly, his bare feet running across the cellar floor. Remus's mind was so foggy he couldn't tell what was hurting where. All he knew was that there was an intolerable pain in his stomach and shooting up his chest. "Don't move! Please stop, don't move, it doesn't look good."

Remus tried to find his breath, but the feeling that his lungs were collapsing in on themselves was a strong deterrent. His body sunk further and further into the concrete floor as his head began to spin. He was too busy fighting the urge to throw up to put any effort into any sort of thinking. He could barely remember to suck in air and let it back out properly.

"Christ, you look awful-"

"I'm fine-" Remus said instinctively.

"Bloody hell you're not!" Sirius shouted. Sirius was fairly strong, especially next to Remus, but he was lifting him off the ground on pure adrenaline. "You're bleeding out all over the place-" He grunted, sitting him back up. "Hold still, I'm going to get help."

Remus's hand ran down his side, trying to judge where to blood stopped and the wound started. He couldn't quite envision how large it was, only that it was going to leave a nasty jagged scar. His thoughts became distant as the pain worsened, rapidly consuming his mind with nothing but pain. He tried to think of anything but the pain. He replayed the night before in his head

"Oh dear," Molly Weasley murmured. "Sirius, could you go get me a wet cloth? I can't see anything with this mess..." the chaos of everything around here was too many noises to process at once.

Remus frantically tried to conceal himself, but she swiftly moved his arm out of the way to start cleaning up the blood. "I'm sorry." He said, his face burning hot.

Molly scoffed. "Stop it, and let me work before you... go into shock in the bottom of the cellar. I don't think Sirius would be too happy about that." She cleaned up the wound, washing it over with dittany before using some type of serum to seal the wound together. She also applied a tiny amount of ointment she had acquired from Snape that was supposed to deaden the pain for a while. Only when she was amidst taping down a large cotton bandage did Sirius return with a towel, offering to help Remus cover himself up.

"I hate you." Remus mumbled, hoping he was out of earshot as Sirius helped him get dressed into his pajamas with his limited range of motion.

"Hate you more, love." Sirius coyly remarked, helping him up the steps. There was a tired, disembodied voice griping from somewhere within the cellar.

"Was Kretcher watching all of that?" Remus asked, a bit disgusted.

"Nah, don't worry, he didn't see your ass." Sirius teased. "He's not too happy about the mess, but you didn't lose that much blood."

"Did I break anything?"

Sirius shook his head. "You were a nervous wreck last night. I was too. Harry's got me all worried about him. Did the potion work alright?"

"It worked fine, my nerves were just bad, I suppose." Remus shook his head, not wanting to keep talking.

Remus's ears felt like they were full of cotton. His entire head was pounding with pain with each beat of his heart. The potion was seeping into his cut deep enough now that his entire left side was growing numb. He was still unsettled from all of the excitement that happened downstairs. Sirius helped him lay down in bed with the promise he would be back in a few hours to check on him.

He and Tonks hadn't spoken a word in three weeks.

And they were almost good at not speaking. Tonks came across impressively to Remus with her ability to pretend she didn't know anything had ever happened. She could be politely offer him food or a hand with chores, smiling and saying hello when she passed by him with perfect dignity. She felt no shame nor embarassment over anything and she acted like none of it had ever happened. It brought him back to when they first kissed, how she could go about her day and let it all go. Remus didn't quite know if that meant she cared more or less about him.

Remus hadn't been asleep long when his bedroom door opened slowly, creaking loudly. Low light flooded in. "Hey, Remus? You awake?" A weak voice asked. "Hey. Good morning."

"Morning..." Remus grumbled, forcing the words up.

"I brought some breakfast for the others. Coffee, muffins, juice... I don't know if you're up for eating anything." Tonks said. "You had a hard night last night, didn't you?"

"Mmm." Remus squeezed his eyes shut, turning onto his good side so her voice became muffled.

"You took your potion, right?" Weight sunk into the mattress as she sat down.

"I did." Remus said. He tucked his chin into his neck.

"It was still bad." Tonks said disheartened. "I thought it wasn't supposed to be this bad with your potion... I'm so sorry."

He shook his head. "Don't be."

"If you're feeling better later, will you please go eat some food?"

"Mmhmm."

"I guess I should rephrase that as 'when' you're feeling better later." She gave a little laugh. "Are you hurting?"

Remus shook his head again. "Mmphh, no."

"Molly got you all glued back together, yeah?"

"Mmhmm."

"Do you mind?" Her voice was a little bit softer. She didn't give Remus the chance to protest. Tonks's limbs were wobbly, flailing as she hobbled onto the bed beside him. She sprawled our on top of the covers, carefully wrapping her arm around his middle, very aware of the cotton padding on his side. He tucked up his legs giving her more room closer to him. Her head rested in the middle of his back. They didn't move or say anything else after that.

Remus eventually forgot that he was in pain and rolled over onto his left side to face her. He let out a brief disgruntlement, losing his breath within the sharp stab in his ribs. Tonks clung on to a handful of his shirt, her head resting against his chest. She let him run his fingers through her hair. It was a bit longer today than he expected, and he tried to imagine what colour it was today.

"Are you okay?" She whispered.

"Mm, yeah... I think so." Remus nodded, patting his hand over the gauzy bandage on his middle to assure it was still in its place.

Her head nodded up. "You're burning up."

"No, I'm just a bit more warm natured than most." Remus replied. "Something or another about... my body trying to fight off my infection. Doesn't seem to realize it's here for the long run."

"Do you feel sick?"

"No." Remus assured. "I feel fine." He couldn't deny that he liked the cold feel of her hands on his face.

"Do you want to get some sleep?" She asked.

"I don't know if I could." Remus said earnestly.

"Do you have dreams?" Tonks wondered, resting her head a bit more comfortably on his chest.

"Of course I do." He replied. He felt sick thinking of his nightmares.

"What do you dream about?"

"A lot of things." Remus sighed.

"Like what?" Her voice pestered.

"Like... I dream about seeing my mother sometimes. She died several years ago. And I dream about getting to see Sirius. Sometimes I think I see you."

"Would you be disappointed if you got to seee in real life?"

"I worry about that a lot." Remus confessed, stroking her hair.

"If you could have your eyes back for a day," Tonks asked. "what would you want to see?"

Remus had to ponder the question. "Do I get to choose which day I get to see?"

"Say you just wake up one morning and you have eyes for that entire day."

"I would... I would look for my old photographs. I would want to see James and Lily... Peter, to some extent I think. I would want to see photos of my parents-" He realized he was repeating himself. "I would want to see the ocean again. I can't quite picture it in my mind anymore. Just an endlessness of water reaching the horizon. I don't remember what it looks like. I think I would want to see the sunset. Be able to see the stars again... But I would want to be out in the middle of nowhere where there weren't any lights."

"Would you want to see me?"

"I don't suppose Sirius would be the one carrying me all over the place on my day with eyes, would he?" He said hopefully.

She squeezed him, forgetting that he was still hurt. "I'm sorry-"

"I'm fine, Dora." He insisted.

She caught him off guard, stretching up to kiss him. Her skin felt tight and dry, her kiss not being as inviting as usual. It was still electrifying to him. He felt a new sense of wakefulness throughout his entire body that made him want more of her. Her body pulled back slightly, and Remus had no idea what to think. He tried to figure out her expression, but her mind felt a million miles away from his. "What was that for?" He demanded in a voice that was a bit too rough.

"I'm... sorry." Tonks murmured. "I forgot. The break."

"Don't be..." Remus took a laboured breath. "But you shouldn't have done that." He had a surge of false confidence in his ability to pass off a lie like that.

"You're a bad liar, did you know that?" Tonks was quick to point out. "You think you don't have any left in your face but you forget that you still move your eyes." Her thumb dragged across his brow. She let out a little laugh. "Sometimes I think you forget you have any expression at all."

"But I'm right." He stood his ground.

"Yeah." She sighed. "But you're a liar. Lying to yourself at least."

"I don't understand you, Nymphadora." Remus said, taking the opportunity to use her first name as a pressure point. "I can't read you at all. When this whole mess started, you could just go about your day as if nothing had changed between us, and you're doing it now. How do you do it?"

"Why does it bother you?" Tonks muttered softly.

"I don't know."

She kissed him again. "Does it make you angry?"

"Are you trying to make me angry?"

Her lips upturned. "You've got to learn to get over yourself."

"You-" He didn't have any words left for her. He didn't even feel that upset at her, but he wanted to find a reason to. It get slightly more justified to be angry at her than to let her carry on the way she was. "You're irritating."

"Okay." Tonks said. "Then I'm going to sleep."

"Fine."

"Fine!" She exclaimed. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight then!" Remus shot back. She rolled over onto her back, but she didn't stay that way long, rolling back to curl up against his chest.

xxxxx

"Remus? Remus, hey, wake up, please-" Tonks's voice was urgent.

"What? What's wrong?" Remus said. He tried to sit up but was shot down with pain, sending his head spinning. Every movement caused him a new fluctuation of pain and all he could do was try and apply pressure to the spot. He felt down the front of his shirt. The two of them had managed to become stuck together with something cold and wet. "Is this blood?" He quickly answered his own question when he touched the bandage and it was soaked through. He couldn't quite tell, but it felt pretty bad, and she would have had a large bloodstain on herself.

"Please stay still, I'll go find Molly-" Tonks insisted, ripping herself away from him, bounding off of the bed and running to the hallway. The door flew open and light came in the room.

"TONKS!" A man loudly exclaimed with shock.

"It's not my blood!" She said defensively. Then they began taking quieter. Rushed footsteps came back to the bedroom.

"Molly's not here, she's gone out to run errands." Arthur's voice said. "What happened? Why are you bleeding?"

"It's... it's from last night." Remus panted. He rolled onto his back, pulling up his shirt. The wound was searing with pain. "The skin must have just been broken, I don't know, I didn't realize... it was bleeding."

"Hold still, Tonks, can you help him get his shirt off? I'll go get the bandages." Arthur said, hurrying back out the door.

Tonks didn't wait for Remus to help her and started yanking it off of him. Her hands were shaking. "It's okay, you're okay." She repeated to him. She didn't really know what to do with herself and opted to standing over him, letting him grip onto her hand. Remus felt he might hurt her, but every time he inhaled, there was a new, overwhelming surge of pain. "Everything's going to be fine."

"It just looks like a lot." Remus reminded her. "It isn't a lot."

"I know." She said shakily.

"What's going on? Remus?" Sirius's voice said. "Tonks, that's not your blood, is it?"

"His wound came undone." Tonks explained.

"Where's Mo-"

"She's gone! Arthur's going to help me get him cleaned up..." Now she sounded like she was crying. His suspicions were confirmed when he felt wet droplets fell onto him.

"You can't hold him down." Sirius said. "The dittany's going to hurt worse before it feels better."

"Please calm down, both of you." Remus said, he closed his eyes, trying to hide his face behind his hand. "Please stop crying."

"I know, I-"

"He's going to be okay, Tonks, it looks worse than it is." Sirius said calmly. "You can hold onto his hand, but you know that potion's going to really make him hurt. If you need to step out-"

"I know what I'm doing." She said firmly. She sat at the head of the bed, continuing to hold his hand.

"Stop suffocating him, you two." Arthur sighed. He was forceful pulling up the gauze, but it had been put very well in place. There wasn't much relief in the cool cloth Arthur was wiping the blood away with. Just as Sirius claimed, the dittany only made his insides feel worse, like his entire torso was being set on fire and he needed someone to keep him from straining himself. Remus tried to focus on something, anything, but his mind was bouncing around the room. The growing feeling that hot coals were resting inside of him, the sound he suspected to be Tonks's sniffles, Sirius's pacing...

"Tonks, I'm okay, I promise." Remus huffed painfully and Arthur resecured a new bandage.

"I know, I know," she insisted. Her voice nearly sounded hysterical.

"I'm... it's not that bad." He lied.

Her lips were cool on his sweaty forehead. "I know." Her voice broke. "I hate seeing you hurt-"

"I'm better." Remus took deep, restricted breaths. Arthur has been a bit more right about keeping down the gauze. "You can step out. It was just some blood. I'm alive. The pain's... it feels like it's already fading."

"I'm so sorry." Tonks whispered right next to his ear. Her eyes were still watering with tears. "I'm sorry. I..."

"I'm better now, do you hear me?" Remus persisted. "You didn't hurt me."

"I know... I..." She couldn't quite manage what she wanted to say.