Well, here's the continuation of the mild cliffhanger and you'll have to see what happened to Sirius and Dany's little grape!
Read and Review!
Love, Essie
I found a love for me
Darling, just dive right in and follow my lead
Well, I found a girl, beautiful and sweet
Oh, I never knew you were the someone waiting for me
'Cause we were just kids when we fell in love
Not knowing what it was
I will not give you up this time
But darling, just kiss me slow, your heart is all I own
And in your eyes you're holding mine
~Perfect, Ed Sheeran
"Michelle, tell me my child's okay." She didn't say anything and Dany felt tears welling up. "Tell me." Dany looked at Sirius. He looked much older than 27.
"Now that you're awake, we need to run further tests to be sure, but the damage done to your body could have harmed bothof you." Michelle said. "You should know that the preliminaries we did when you were still comatose weren't…promising." She nodded and fought the urge to throw up.
"Do what you have to." She said and Michelle drew her blood and said she'd be back. Dany looked over at Sirius. "Sirius…" She said gently and he didn't move.
"I never knew what you meant when you said that it was hell…I had no idea how bad it was for you when your dad was laid up." He said.
"What are you talking about? You lived it, you were there." She said and he shook his head.
"I thought I did, but he wasn't mine. I had nothing to lose then. This time I had everything to lose…they didn't think you were going to wake up. Michelle told me that I'd likely lost both of you. You wouldn't wake up. No matter how many times I asked you to, you wouldn't come back." He said. She felt herself starting to cry.
"Love, can you look at me? Please." She said and he looked at her. There was pain all over his face to the point of tears; it was the worst kind of pain: grief. He was certain that they had lost their baby. "I'm not going anywhere and our grape is probably as stubborn as we are. It's going to be okay. And I'll always come back to you…eventually." She said softly. He rolled his eyes, smiling a little, despite himself.
"You're in a hospital bed, you just woke up from a coma, and you're telling me that it's going to be okay? I should be telling you that." Dany touched his face gently.
"We all need someone to lean on, Sirius. It's okay. I haven't lived what you and Harry have. I'd rather be in my position than yours right now." She said softly.
"I thought I was going to lose everything because of some psychos in the Potters' old house." He said and she took his hand and squeezed gently, which was all of the strength her muscles really had at the moment. He squeezed back.
"You didn't lose everything…even if we did lose the baby, we'll still have Harry and you'll still have me." She said quietly and he kissed her gently. "You'll always have me." She whispered and suddenly Michelle walked into the room.
"I'm going to be completely honest: every test indicated that you had miscarried, Danilynn." She said and Dany closed her eyes as the tears dripped. That hurt more than the chest wound. She had lost the baby—no, she had killed the baby by being stupid enough to go into the field pregnant. This was her fault. Her mistake had killed her child before it was born and was causing the devastation on Sirius' face. "But, it appears that genes play a part in defeating the odds." She added on and both of them looked up. "Baby's still alive and kicking." Dany started to laugh through the tears that had just been falling. Sirius grinned and kissed her.
"Bless you and your resilient body." He said and she laughed.
"Michelle, how big is Baby?" Dany asked. Michelle started feeling around between her hips, pulling her sheets back and hospital gown up to do so.
"Probably about three or four centimeters long. You're ten weeks, so I'd say you're going to start showing soon. I can feel some swelling between your pelvic bones already; you just need to feel around a bit." She said and Dany tried to feel it immediately. Michelle guided her hand and pressed her fingers down a little. Sure enough, something was starting to swell underneath the skin. "That's your uterus starting to expand to accommodate the baby. It'll be about the size of a watermelon when you deliver. It's the size of a grapefruit now." Dany smiled and motioned to Sirius and he gave her his hand. She pressed his hand to her skin, just between her hips. He apparently felt the almost imperceptible bump because his eyes widened.
"Baby just got a thousand times more real." He said and Dany smiled at him.
"I'm going to keep you here for a while; you're mostly back up to snuff and I'd be willing to release you to your husband tomorrow or the day after, but I want to keep an eye on the baby for a bit. He or she took a real hit; despite that, it appears that Baby is just as tough as Mom is." Michelle said before walking out of the room. Sirius gingerly helped her back under the covers and she relaxed back into the bed.
"So…how did we survive?" She asked and Sirius immediately looked like someone had made him swallow a lemon.
"A bloody miracle, that's how. Our talkative buddy got away though, which is unfortunate because it seemed like he was running the show. I was trying to get you to stay awake and wasn't paying much attention to anything else." He said and Dany had a sudden mental image of Sirius' face right up in hers, one hand cupping her face; she remembered him trying to stop the blood with his free hand.
"I remember that. Sort of." She said and he looked like he would rather her forget. "Well, I remember you trying to stop the blood." She said and he nodded.
"As soon as they were all dead or gone, I Apparated you straight here. Michelle took you immediately and got you stable after a blood transfusion and a ton of potions. You started to wake up once or twice but Michelle wanted to keep you out once you started to wake up on your own. She didn't want you draining energy on staying awake." He said and she nodded. Something crossed her mind for the first time since she had woken up and spoken to Michelle.
"The seizures…were you there?" She asked quietly and he nodded.
"For one of them; I had taken Harry get something to eat when the other happened. When the first happened, Harry had gone to the bathroom and no one would let him in the room once we knew what was happening, so he didn't see either of them. We were both there for the heart attack." He said and she nodded.
"I'm sorry you had to see that…I can't even imagine." She said and he nodded. "Harry saw me have a heart attack. Should we put him in therapy?" She asked and Sirius smiled a little, rather humorlessly.
"I might need therapy after seeing my wife almost choke on her own tongue." He said, staring at his feet. She touched his face.
"Sirius…" She said softly and he looked up at her. He took her hand and kissed her palm. He kept staring at her face like he was trying to memorize her.
"I thought that I'd never see those eyes again. I thought the last time that I'd ever see those eyes was that day." He said and she had nothing to say to that.
"One of the times I woke up, were you talking to Michelle?" He nodded.
"Yeah. She was telling me that you might have miscarried. Why?"
"I only remember seeing you talking." She said, trying to remember.
"That's weird. Michelle thought that you wouldn't remember anything at all."
"I remember seeing you sitting there," she gestured to where he was currently sitting, "It almost looked like you were praying, with the clasped hands and bowed head and all." She said.
"That could have been any time in the past two weeks. I spent a lot of my time trying to bargain with God." He said. Dany raised her eyebrows.
"Were you actually praying?" She asked incredulously. He shrugged. "You're not religious. Since when do you believe in God?" She asked skeptically.
"Desperate men do strange things." He said. "Harry was convinced that you were going to die and he was going to be stuck with me." Dany snorted.
"He loves you, you know that. He said that he was glad I was going to be okay because I was the only mom he had." She said softly and Sirius smiled.
"Of course you are. He's probably going to start calling you 'Mom' soon. He's already slipped up a few times since we've been here. You might want to talk about it with him." He said and Dany smiled and wiped a few tears off of her cheek.
"You sent him to sit with Rhaegar?" She asked and he nodded. "He's here?"
"Everyone's here. Harry and me haven't left the room almost at all. Mason and Lynn stay with Shay in the waiting room during the day and they all go home at night; the nurses have taken to them famously, unsurprisingly. Rhaegar has taken a temporary leave of absence from the Ministry and has been in the waiting room all the time. He said he couldn't stand to be in the room with you—said that you looked too dead." Dany nodded, surprised. The only time her father ever had taken one was when his children had been born. If he had left the Ministry in control of someone else, she must have been pretty fucked up. More than she already knew she was.
"I'll be sure to thank him for that assessment." Dany said dryly.
"He was right, Dan; you looked dead. You were barely breathing—how you supported another life is beyond me." He said and she tapped him on the nose.
"Kids come first, love. I'm sure that our grape was getting first dibs on everything I had; it's probably why I took so long to wake up."
"You should probably also know that Kingsley, Parker, and Simmons have been in and out. They all feel pretty bad about not being able to stop, well, this." He said and gestured around in general. "Also, we told Moody that you were pregnant."
"It's not their fault. Especially Simmons. He had been held captive. Shit happens and people get hurt. None of you are to blame for what happened to me." Sirius nodded. "That includes you, love. This isn't your fault." She added on gently.
"If I had been watching you like I should have, maybe this wouldn't have—"
"Sirius, look at me." She said and stared at him. "You're not at fault."
"Maybe if I hadn't gotten you—" He stopped abruptly and of his own accord.
"If you hadn't gotten me pregnant? I asked you to. I want to be pregnant with your child and you want that too. Don't lie about it either—I saw your face when we heard that heartbeat for the first time." She said and he nodded.
"It's just…this entire thing was to get to our baby. What does our kid have that no one else does?" He asked and Dany grinned.
"Fantastic looking parents, obviously." She said and inspected her husband. "I hope Baby gets your eyes." She said and ran a thumb over one of his cheekbones. "I always loved your eyes; even when we were little kids." He continued to stare at her.
"The grape's probably going to have Mommy's white hair and baby blue eyes. And I'm okay with that." He said and kissed her nose. "I'm going to go bring Harry back, okay?" He said and she nodded as he walked out of the room. Dany was alone for the first time since she had woken up.
She had lied. She remembered what he had said to her as she had been bleeding out. She remembered it with odd clarity and it rose up in front of her eyes before she could stop it.
Sirius had managed to get to her before she had hit the floor and had lowered her down to the ground gently, softening any impact and putting her head in his lap. He had put a hand over the wound, trying to slow the blood, and had been talking to her with increasing panic when she didn't respond. He hadn't bothered to defend himself. It hadn't crossed his mind that trying to help her could get him killed.
"Dany? Dany! Look at me, baby. Look at me. Just stay with me, love." He had been touching her face and her hair with his free hand and tears were starting to drip from his eyes. "You've got to stay with me. You can't leave me. I just got you back; I can't lose you again, not after all those years apart. Come on, Dan. Just stay with me, just stay awake for me, baby. Oh God…no, no, no. Please no, not her. Anyone but her. Take anyone but her. Take everyone but her. Just not her. Please not her."
Dany was pretty sure that someone had told him to Apparate her to St. Mungo's after that. Suddenly, Harry ran back in and Dany motioned over so he climbed up into her hospital bed, curling up next to her on her good side so he didn't disturb her bandages or hurt her arm.
"You know me and Padfoot have been reading to you?" He asked and she shook her head. She saw Sirius smile a little.
"What have my boys been reading me?" She asked both of them. Sirius handed her a book from the bedside table and she grinned. "This book will never stop being relevant, will it?" Sirius shrugged.
"Alphard knew what he was doing when he gifted you a book of fairytales. Harry absolutely loves the thing and I figured that I owed you from when I was in the Hospital Wing with a cracked skull Fifth Year." He said and Dany smiled.
"Well, I have to say that I enjoy the book too." Harry smiled back.
"It's Padfoot's turn to read." He said and Dany raised an eyebrow.
"Is it now?" She said and gave him the book. "Read to your wife, son, and unborn child. We all like your voice."
"How about instead of reading, I go get the family that's biting their nails out in the waiting room to see you?" He said and put the book down. Dany smirked.
"Alright. But don't think you're off the hook. Harry and I expect a bedtime story tonight." She said and he didn't even complain as he left the room, after kissing his wife's lips and son's forehead.
"Are we really going to get a bedtime story?" Harry asked and Dany snickered a little.
"I don't know. Maybe if I can get the pregnant-wife tears going. Harry, you should probably get off the bed for when Mason and Lynn are in here. We don't want for them to feel left out." She said and Harry smiled a little and got off the bed. Seconds later, Rhaegar, Shay, Mason, and Lynn came into the room.
"Aunt Dany!" Mason and Lynn both yelled and ran over to the bed. She smiled and kissed both their cheeks. Shay hugged her lightly too and said she was happy to see her up and was wiping her eyes a bit.
"Hey, you two." She said and they both started asking rapid-fire questions.
"Are you going to be okay?" "Is the baby okay?" "Are you going to have an arm chopped?" "How much longer are you going to be in here?" "Why were you asleep for so long?" "Can I see it?" His father smacked Mason over the head for that one and the questions were shut down pretty quick after that.
"Enough, you two. Maybe she can answer some of those if you stop talking for a second." Shay said, looking amused.
"Thank you, Shay. Me and the baby are going to be okay, I'm not having an arm chopped, I'm going to be here for a bit because Michelle wants to watch the baby, and I was asleep to make sure that I was using all of my energy to heal for a while, and no you can't see it…until it's healed. Then you can see it. It's not very interesting right now—just a bunch of bandages." She said and Mason cheered. Rhaegar rolled his eyes.
"You enable them." He said dryly and she shrugged, but winced.
"I'm their aunt. It's my job." She said. "It's good to see you, Rae." She said with a small smile and he gently hugged his sister. Rhaegar's hugs had always made her feel like a little girl again.
"I thought I told you to be safe." He said into her hair and she smiled a little.
"I tried. It doesn't always work." She said and he rolled his eyes.
"I don't know how you don't lock her in a padded room, Sirius." He said and Sirius laughed.
"I think I might after this, mate. I think she's managed to shave a decade off my life." Dany noticed that the two men were closer than before. Probably due to the fact that—other than Harry—they were the only people that were here nonstop.
"I'll pretend that it's not happening from a legal standpoint." He said. Dany inspected her brother.
"A leave of absence, huh? That's pretty heavy duty." She said. He shrugged.
"My little sister, who happens to be pregnant, was stabbed in the chest because there's a freaky group of people who want her child's blood for an unknown spell. I think it's called for. Besides, we're in peacetime—it's not like Dad's time, Dan. I could afford to." Dany nodded a little. It really wasn't the same as their dad's time. A nurse walked in and said something to Sirius. Dany heard him say, "Ask her". The nurse looked over and was clearly surprised to see the woman in the bed awake.
"Mrs. Black. We're all very glad to see you awake. There are a few more people here to see you." She said and Dany tilted her head. "They say they're Aurors. One of them is Alastor Moody." Dany nodded.
"Let them in. Moody would probably just barge in, even if you denied him access." She said with a small smile and the nurse smiled back before leaving.
"We'll wait out in the waiting room. I have a feeling there's going to be some classified information being discussed." Rae said and clapped Sirius on the back before he led his family and Harry out of the room. A few minutes later, Moody walked in, trailed by Parker, Simmons, and Kingsley. They didn't notice that she was awake at first. They just looked at Sirius.
"Hey guys." Sirius said and they all half-heartedly smiled. "I assume you're here to wallow in your guilt." He said and they all nodded.
"I told her that she needed to be more vigilant…just like bloody Daniel. Those two never knew when to call it quits. Now, it's probably cost her life." Moody said and shook his head. "I told her father that I'd protect her and I couldn't keep her safe from her job. I'm sorry, Black…and with a baby on the way…" Sirius looked alarmed.
"Moody, it's fine. Really." He said. They all looked at him like he was crazy.
"Did you just say that 'it's okay'?" Parker asked disbelievingly. Sirius started to smile a bit.
"Yeah, I did. You probably should have bothered to look over at my dear and infirmed wife when you walked in." He said and they all looked over and she waved.
"Hey boys." She said and they all grinned.
"Holy shit. You shouldn't be alive." Kingsley said and hugged her quickly. "I'm damn glad you are though." She smiled as Parker and Simmons both hugged her, something that took her by surprise. Moody hugged her tightly, as tight as he was comfortable with her wound.
"Mommy and Baby are both fine so I think you can lay off the self-inflicted guilt, all of you." She said and they all looked shocked as she put a hand on her stomach absently.
"The baby's okay? Are you lot impossible to kill?" Simmons asked.
"Maybe a little. Honestly, I think that good medical care is highly underrated. People don't give healers nearly enough credit for what they do." Dany said and they all took seats around her bed.
"Well I'm never doubting it again after this. Between you and Lizzie, we're a department full of medical miracles." Kingsley said and Dany looked at him, curious.
"Lizzie's okay?" She asked and he nodded.
"She's fine. She was discharged a few days after she was admitted. Everyone's been damn worried about you though. Someone saw Sirius Apparate into the lobby with you and told the press so we had to do a press release saying that you were injured in the line of duty and were in critical condition, yet to wake up. Supposedly people have been holding vigils all over the country for the Minister's sister. The people in the lobby have actually been getting in the way of the people that work here." Moody said. She remembered the Wizarding Community's reaction when her parents had been killed: it had been similar.
"Yeah, Harry and me have been swamped with letters wishing you well." Sirius said and she smiled a little.
"Really?" She asked and he nodded.
"Yeah. Most of them are really nice." He said and she nodded. "We got a pretty touching one from a little girl whose mom had been in a coma for a few months. She wanted to tell Harry that he's not alone and that moms can still love you when they're sleeping." He said and Dany felt her throat tighten.
"Oh, that's really sweet. That poor girl." She said softly. Sirius nodded.
"Yeah, I've got to say that the people in the lobby are incorrigible. I mean honestly, if they knew you were pregnant to boot, it would be impossible to get anything done around here. Thanks for telling us all that, by the way." Parker added and Simmons nodded in agreement.
"They're really all down in the lobby?" She asked and they nodded. "How many are there?" She asked curiously and they all shrugged.
"When we walked through there were about twenty. Thirty, maybe." Moody said and the other three newly arrived Aurors nodded in agreement.
"There about, I'd reckon." Kingsley confirmed.
"How long have they been there?" She asked and Sirius narrowed his eyes.
"Dany, no way I'm going to let you do what I know you're thinking." He said and she ignored him.
"How long?" She asked and Moody thought for a second.
"I recognized some of them from the first time I was here, a day after you were admitted. Some have been here for over a week, I'm sure about that much."
"Danilynn, I will tie you down to that bed, don't think I won't." Sirius said warningly and she looked at him evenly.
"Bring me Rhaegar." She said and he looked like he was going to protest but nodded and left instead. Moments later, Rhaegar walked into the room with Sirius.
"Yeah, Dan?" Her brother asked warily.
"Your sister wants to go down to the lobby to say hello to the people." Sirius said blandly and Rhaegar raised an eyebrow.
"Seriously? It took you this long to want to do that? Dad would tell you to be more mindful of these things." He said and suppressed a smile.
"You're agreeing with her? Rhaegar, she almost died. She just woke up from a coma and you want her to go chat with random people?" Sirius asked disbelievingly.
"I don't particularly care for it, but I'm not going to stop her. Our dad did something very similar when we were kids. If she wants to, I'll help her down." He said with a shrug. "Moody knows what I'm talking about." Alastor nodded.
"Damn Masters blood is unstoppable. Thank Merlin that you didn't get quite the dose your sister did, Rhaegar. It wouldn't be good for peacetime; that addiction to adrenaline they all have is good for war, but it needs a thrill to feel alive and you'd be bored stiff if you had all that blood pumping in your veins." He grumbled and Dany protested. Rhaegar shook his head in disagreement with his sister.
"No, he's right. Dan, if you had the good sense of Mom's family, would have married James Potter and gotten on with it. But you didn't. You married the one that made you feel every emotion on the spectrum. No offense Sirius, but you weren't stable at sixteen. You had been used and abused for years and that had left a mark." Rhaegar said. Parker, Kingsley, and Simmons all looked at Sirius. This was probably the first mention of his childhood or adolescence any of them had ever heard.
"None taken." Sirius said dryly. "It's nothing but the truth."
"Dan, I'm just saying that you didn't pick what was logical. He challenged you and made you laugh and cry and scream and swear and he drove you crazy. And that's what you wanted. I rest my case." Rhaegar said and Dany shrugged.
"Yeah, yeah. Say what you want, Rhaegar." She said. Sirius raised an eyebrow.
"Really? You wanted her to marry James?" He asked. Rhaegar shrugged.
"It made sense. James was a good guy and he was a nice, safe choice. She didn't talk about him like a drug addict talks about their next hit. But she didn't want James. She doesn't like nice, safe choices." He said and Dany rolled her eyes.
"Now you're just being melodramatic, Rae." She said.
"If you insist. Now back to the original topic: I think she should be able to go where she wants, as long as Michelle clears her." He said and Sirius looked like he was going to protest again. Rhaegar looked out the door and flagged someone down. A minute later, Michelle walked in.
"Let me guess. Someone told her about the people in the lobby and she wants to go talk to them." She said. "Oh, but Sirius doesn't want her to leave her bed. But Rhaegar thinks that she can do what she wants and Moody is slowly but surely being driven mad by this family." Everyone nodded. "You want clearance to go downstairs." It wasn't a question. Michelle tapped her head with a wand. "Yes well, it looks like you're quite stable and I have no reason to worry about another seizure or heart attack so if that's what she wants, it's her choice. But you have to stay in the hospital, Danilynn. You will be physically restrained from leaving the building." She said and Dany nodded. "Sirius, why don't you and Harry both go with her? It would be good for you two to see something other than this room. I'd put some real clothes on first, dear." She said before smiling and leaving.
Sirius thought that this was a horrible idea. Absolutely dismal. But he was being overruled and Rhaegar—the most cautious man to ever grace this planet—thought it would be okay. Michelle had cleared it. Dany was hell-bent and Sirius couldn't really deny her anything. Not since she had opened her eyes this afternoon. So Rhaegar went to go talk to Shay about getting Dany some clothes and the couple cut a deal: Dany would go down with Sirius and Harry and because of Sirius' protective tendencies, Kingsley, Parker, and Simmons would come with them (Moody hated being in the public eye). Rhaegar walked back in, about half an hour later, with a bag of clothes and Harry. Harry smiled and waved to everyone in the room. Dany gratefully took the clothes and slowly stood up.
"Black, help your wife up." Moody said, amused. Sirius rolled his eyes but did help her out of bed. She leaned on him heavily until she put her feet on the ground. She slowly let go of him and once she realized that she wasn't going to fall over, she relaxed and started to walk slowly. Sirius followed her cautiously towards the bathroom. She walked in, closing the door behind her. They all exchanged looks.
"A year ago she was our permanently pissed off boss who never did anything more than yell that we were horrible at our jobs." Parker said.
"People don't think about other people's backstories unless they have to." Sirius said with a shrug and suddenly, Dany spoke from inside the bathroom.
"Uh, Sirius?" She said.
"Yeah?" He said warily.
"Can you come in here?" She asked.
"Yeah, is the door locked?" He asked and she responded with a no. They all grinned at him, except for Rhaegar and Moody, who seemed grossed out at even the remote mention of her sex life. "Oh shut up." He hissed at them and opened the door.
Dany had pulled on pants and shoes and that was about it. Sirius realized that moving her arms to put on a bra or shirt probably hurt like a bitch. There was no way that she could raise her arms above her head with that injury—not without straining it, which was something that he had done on many occasions when he had still lived with his parents. It was also something that he was eager for her to avoid. "Oh. Well, at least you got the pants on." He said optimistically and she scowled. He was trying really hard to not laugh at his normally adamantly self-sufficient wife.
"Shut up and help me." She said and tossed him her bra. He winked and she rolled her eyes.
"It's usually more fun when you give me your bra." He teased and she laughed, despite being obviously pissed that she was now severely dependent on other people, particularly her husband.
"Yeah, it's kind of a let down, right? But seriously, help." She said and he walked towards her he helped her into her bra and then figured out a way to pull the oversized sweater on over her head. She held her hand out for his wand. He hesitantly handed it to her, only for her to tap her head. She wanted clean hair. She also tapped his face and grinned. "You look weird with a beard." She said and he rolled his eyes. "And seriously, I think it's time for a haircut." She said and inspected his hair as he opened the door.
"I'll keep that in mind, Dan. My hair is really at the forefront of my mind right now." He said and she shrugged as she handed him his wand back.
"It should be…oh, when we were kids, you babied your hair so badly. I showered in your room once in Fifth Year and did you really use French shampoo?" She teased and everyone in the room snickered. He didn't even really care that he was being made fun of because it put some of the light back in her eyes and he honestly had thought that no one was ever going to tease him about much ever again. Except she was very much alive and so was their grape.
"Oh laugh it up, Dan. Ha-ha." He said and she kissed his cheek.
"I'm just playing, love." She said softly. He smiled at her. She looked a thousand times better than she had before she had changed into the jeans and sweater and had cleaned her hair. He knew why she had insisted on removing his facial hair, which he hadn't really noticed until she mentioned it: there were going to be cameras. Rhaegar inspected her.
"You look like a beacon of recuperation, Danilynn." He said approvingly. "Sirius, you look terrible. At least wash your hair." He said and waved his wand.
"Why is everyone up my ass about my hair?" He asked and Dany laughed and even Harry snickered at that.
"You ready to go meet some people? All of these people have been waiting here so we know that they're thinking of us." She asked him and he nodded. Sirius loved watching her with Harry, way more than he remembered liking it when he had first been released from Azkaban. Sirius recalled when he had left the room for the bathroom and he had overheard Harry talking to unconscious Dany. He had called her Mom. He had done it a couple of other times, to his face. He would say, "Do you think that Mom—er, Dany is going to wake up today?" He would correct himself quickly, as if it was a forbidden word.
"It's nice for them to wait for you, Dan." Harry said and she nodded.
"It really is. We're going to go say hello, so they know that we know what they've been doing." She said and he nodded.
"You, me, and Padfoot?" He asked and she nodded.
"Yeah. Kingsley, Parker, and Simmons are coming too, just to make sure that we're safe." Sirius said and both of them looked at him. Harry nodded.
"Alright, let's go." She said and Sirius kept an arm around her and had his other hand in Harry's. Parker, Simmons, and Kingsley all followed them down silently. They used the lift and the door opened out into the lobby. Sure enough, there were people sitting everywhere. They all looked up and fell silent. One by one, they all stood up and immediately zoned in on Dany. Sirius realized that at least seven different Aurors were here, not for security but out of concern for their friend and boss. They were definitely safe around here. An old woman approached them and Sirius immediately become wary of someone, anyone, approaching his wife or his children, unborn or otherwise. Dany smiled and didn't seem to share his hesitations. Typical. Sure, people she didn't know almost just killed her, but apparently strangers are still her friends, he thought to himself. The woman grasped her hands.
"Hello, dear." She said and Dany smiled kindly. "You remind me of Lucy. So much like Lucy it's unnerving." She said and Dany grasped her hand back.
"Thank you…but how do you know about Lucy?" She said quietly and the old woman smiled, apparently delighted by the question.
"My grandmother was employed by the crown when she was alive. She was Lucy's lady-in-waiting when she was at court." She said and Dany nodded. "It was her great joy to serve Miss Lucy. Even in her oldest years, she spoke fondly of Lovely Lucy Masters." She said and Dany smiled and nodded.
"There's so much history that it's hard to get through, honestly." Dany said with a smile and the woman shook her hand again.
"Look into Lucy. You look just like her, dear." She said and kissed Dany's forehead. A man immediately distracted Dany that started talking to her; Sirius and Harry wandered a bit.
"Padfoot? Can I go see Dany?" He asked and Sirius nodded.
"Be careful on your way over there; we don't need you to get lost in all of these people…Parker, can you walk Harry over to his mother?" He said and Parker nodded before guiding Harry to where Dany was talking to a man about her age.
Someone distracted Sirius. It was another man about his age.
"We're glad she's okay. We need this family a great deal. We need all of you." He said and glanced over at where Dany was now kneeled down and speaking to a young girl. "She's my daughter. She idolizes your wife—absolutely adores her. But then again, most people are in agreement on that." Sirius smiled a bit.
"Yeah, I kind of like her too." He said wryly and the man laughed.
"So, how far along is she?" He asked and Sirius looked at him sharply. How everyone knew that she was pregnant was beyond him.
"What do you mean?" He asked and the man smiled a little.
"It's all over both of you. She's pregnant." He said. It wasn't a question. "She reminds me of when Lanie was pregnant—that's my wife." He clarified. "She keeps gravitating towards the kids in the room and you keep looking to see if she's safe—looking at her face and then her stomach."
Sure enough, Dany and Harry now had a group of kids encompassing them, where she was sitting on the floor of the lobby. The girls were touching Dany's hair and chattering at her as the boys were talking to Harry mostly, while hesitantly looking at his mother, who was having her hair braided by at least five different girls. She glanced up and saw him looking she smiled and waved with a laugh as she felt the horrendous braiding job that one of them was doing. He saw her say, "it's lovely" to the girl. He hadn't noticed that he would check her stomach when he looked to make sure she was okay, but he realized that he had been doing just that.
"She's 10 weeks." He said and the other man nodded.
"She's going to start showing soon. Wait until you feel the first kicks. It gets much more real when you feel your little person moving." He said and it made Sirius feel queasy to think about it that way.
"I'll keep that in mind." He said and Dany had started to gently braiding one of the girls' hair (she had taken down all of the braids in her own hair). The girl gently hugged her before Dany moved onto the next one. Sirius spoke to a few people who said the same thing that the first man had said, minus the pregnant bit.
He finally saw Dany and Harry again. Dany was still with one of the girls, being watched over by Kingsley. Harry had apparently struck up conversations with some friendly-looking adults in the room and Sirius noticed Parker not far away at all. Simmons had been subtly trailing Sirius the entire time. Harry caught his eye and Sirius migrated over.
"Harry, we should probably get your mom back to Michelle. I bet she needs her checkup." He said and Harry nodded, apparently sick of these particular adults.
"I think that's a good idea. Besides, I think Uncle Rae might go crazy if she's out of her room much longer." He said and Sirius nodded; the kid wasn't lying.
"I'm sorry to steal him from you all, but we really have to go find my wife." He said to the group of people. They all smiled.
"It's not a worry. It was a pleasure to speak to young Harry. Tell her that we're all glad she's well." One of the women said and Sirius nodded. Harry and Sirius finally made their way over to where Dany was speaking to the girl.
"…But he's really funny and he's nice to me. I like him." The girl was saying and looked oddly ashamed. "I don't think I should like him. My friends don't like him and my mom says that he's mean. But I don't think he's mean. He's only ever mean to bullies. I think he's…he's different." Dany sighed and thought about it.
"I'd use your best judgment and keep an open mind. Sometimes we don't even know that we're biased. I'm not saying that your mom or friends are, but some people are and so it's usually best to listen to what's in here." She said and poked the little girl's chest, over her heart, lightly. Sirius hoped the girl didn't try to reciprocate the touch. The little girl nodded and suddenly looked up at Sirius with big eyes. Dany looked up with a smile. Sirius helped her up gently. "See, my mom and brother didn't like Sirius much, but I think that if you asked Rhaegar now though, he'd take that back. People can be wrong, Lauren. All people." She said quietly and the girl hugged her around the waist, she probably was no older than seven. Dany put her hand on top of her head softly and ran a hand through the girl's hair.
"Thank you." She said before running off to—presumably—find her parents.
"Wow, are you giving relationship advice now? You could start a column in the Prophet." Sirius said and Harry laughed.
"Oh, could you imagine the scandal? No, she just seemed upset is all. I asked her what was wrong and she that she likes a boy that her family doesn't like. I told her that I could relate." She said and Sirius smiled a little bit. "I want to tell them, all of them. About the baby, I mean." She said.
Sirius wasn't surprised at all and Harry looked excited; he had been dying to tell people that he was going to be a big brother. No one knew outside of Dany, Sirius, Rhaegar, Shay, Mason, Lynn, him, and a few Aurors; if healers were counted there were a couple more but the number definitely wasn't higher than twenty. Just before they left for the lift, Dany paused. Everyone in the lobby noticed that she had stopped. Even as a young girl, she had drawn attention and respect. It was just who she was. Rhaegar was the same way.
"I just thought that you all should know that I'm not the only one that you've been staying here for." She said. "Because I'm pregnant." She said and talking broke out. A pregnancy in the Minister's family was a big deal, or so Sirius had been told. He had never actually been alive for one. "So thank you." She said quietly and people started coming forward and Parker, Simmons, Kingsley, and Sirius started pushing people away from her and Harry. They reached the lift and Sirius looked at her.
"What did you just do?" Harry asked and she laughed.
"The grape just made his or her first public appearance." She said and Sirius rolled his eyes and kissed the top of her head. They reached the floor that Dany's room was on and she winced. "Damn, I'm way more tired than I should be." She said and Sirius was momentarily concerned that she was going to hit the floor as she yawned. "Everything hurts, but I'm glad I did it." She said and Sirius nodded.
"I know you are…you wouldn't be you if you didn't insist on doing things that make me anxious." He said and she laughed a little as they entered the room. Rhaegar and Moody were still there, talking.
"How did it go?" He asked and she shrugged.
"Okay…I told them I was pregnant." She said quietly. They looked intrigued.
"Once we know just how big of a deal that's going to be, I think the Auror Department should release details of how Dan was injured. If people are as excited as they were when Mom was pregnant with us, they'll be outraged when they hear that it was a targeted attack on the baby." Rhaegar said. Moody nodded.
"That's strategic. I like it." He said.
"They were all waiting here for me." Dany said quietly and Rhaegar and Moody both stopped talking.
"What?" Rhaegar said.
"They were waiting for me and I have no idea why…I don't know what I did to deserve that." She said.
"It's an honor, girl." Moody said. She nodded.
"I know. I—I just don't know what I did to deserve all of that concern." She said and Sirius helped her back into her bed, jeans and all. He sat in a chair by her and Harry crawled up onto his lap.
"You're what this family is supposed to be. You're strong, brave, smart, just, and fearless. A little bit righteous too. You can't be a real Masters unless you're a tad righteous." Rhaegar said and tapped her on the nose with a grin.
"The only kind of righteous you are is self-righteous, Rae." She muttered and he laughed and flicked her on the ear. Sirius wondered why her brother flicking her set him on edge the way it did. Then he figured it out: no one was allowed to cause her even mild discomfort ever again. Not after this.
"Always giving me a hard time…Dad would be so happy, Dan." He said.
"I know. I hope he'd be proud." She said and Rhaegar nodded.
"He'd be so proud of you. He was always so proud of his baby girl." He said and Dany suddenly looked like she was on the verge of tears. She missed her father like you'd miss a limb and sometimes it became so painfully obvious that it hurt just to watch. "He had every reason to be proud of you." He said and Dany blinked quickly, obviously trying not to cry. Everyone looked away, trying to give the siblings privacy. "I'm going to go home tonight, okay? I think Mason, Lynn, and Shay would appreciate having me home with them." He said and she nodded.
"Thank you for staying with me, Rae; even though I'm just your shithead little sister." She said and he smiled and hugged her one more time.
"Love you, Dan." He said.
"I love you too." She said quietly and he left. Sirius checked the time. It was almost nine at night. Moody cleared his throat.
"Well, I'm damn glad to see you up and about, Dan. I need to be going. Got an early morning tomorrow." He said and hugged her. Moody left and Kingsley and Parker grinned and told her that they were looking forward to being barked around by her. She laughed and hugged them both. Simmons lingered for a minute later.
"Dany…I just—I want to thank you for coming to get me. And I also want to apologize for not listening to you like I should have all these years. I almost got you killed because I wasn't on my guard and got caught. I'm really, sorry for all of this." He said and she smiled. Sirius was shocked by this announcement. "And I'm glad the baby's okay." She stood up and hugged him before sitting back down.
"It's not your fault. You have nothing to be sorry for, Simmons. You're a good person and you're good at your job. The first real job is the worst, I promise. But thank you." She said. He looked at Sirius.
"I'm damn sorry, Sirius. You've lived in hell for almost two weeks because I was stupid enough to get caught…and Harry, you almost lost your mom. I'm sorry." He said and Sirius thought that Dany must have been wearing off on him because he didn't have it in him to hold it against Simmons. He just didn't.
"We'll call it an intense learning experience." Sirius said. Harry nodded.
"It's not your fault. You didn't try and kill her." Harry said and Simmons nodded before quickly leaving. They were finally alone again.
"Well, it's been quite the day." Dany said to no one in particular as she leaned against her pillows. Sirius sat down next to her on her good side, her right side, and she pressed closer to him, wiggling around so she was under his arm and her head was on his shoulder. Dany yawned and Sirius saw her eyelids start to droop a little.
"Dan, we should probably get you out of those clothes. I know you don't like the hospital clothes, but Shay probably packed you something more comfortable." He said and she nodded. Sirius got up and tried to move her as little as possible. He looked in the bag and sure enough, one of his favorite t-shirts and some sweatpants were packed in there. "Come on, let's get you out of jeans and into sweatpants." He said and helped her up. "Harry, get your pajamas on too." Harry nodded.
"Okay, Padfoot." He said and started to rummage through the bag that Shay had brought when she had dropped him off at the hospital. Sirius helped Dany into the bathroom and started to pull her top off gently. She winced a little.
"It's usually much more fun when you take my clothes off." Dany said idly and he laughed and kissed her back, between her shoulder blades, and put his hands on her hips, letting them rest there as he started to run his fingers over her hipbones gently. Even though she was injured, she shivered and her hips shifted around.
"I love getting that reaction. It's always so flattering." He said in her ear.
"Okay, well now that you've made your point, would you mind taking my bra off?" She asked and he undid her bra carefully before pulling the shirt over her head and letting it fall over her body. She looked normal with his shirt on, hiding her injuries.
"Well, I think you better get used to me taking off and putting on your clothes in a totally non-fun way for a little while." He said and she laughed. He took the time to kiss down the back of one of her thighs when he was helping her with her jeans. She managed to wiggle into the sweatpants on her own before kissing him. It was different than normal. It was usually just quick kisses during the day and hungry kisses at night. This was vulnerable and sweet. It reminded him of the innocent way she had kissed him when she was still a virgin—untouched by sex. She broke off the kiss and looked at his face. Her eyes were so beautiful.
"I remember what you said." She said quietly and Sirius felt his stomach drop. He had been inconsolable and the three others that had been there swore to never talk about it again. He owed those three guys for that.
"You do?" He asked and she nodded. He hoped she was just kidding.
"You never call me baby." She said. Damn, she really did remember. He kissed her. She kissed him back and he put his arms around her waist.
"It's just what came out. I was barely coherent, let alone thinking about what I was saying." He said and it was true. He hadn't really been able to string a sentence together once he had Apparated to St. Mungo's and the adrenaline had worn off.
"What you said, about taking everyone from you…" She trailed off and he nodded. He knew what she was talking about.
"What about it?"
"It probably sounds really stupid, but…did you mean that?" She asked quietly and he was surprised, but he still nodded.
"Yeah, I meant it. The world can take anyone but you. Hell, the world can take everyone butyou and I'll be okay. I could deal. But I can't do this, any of it, without you." He said and she nodded.
"I was just curious." She said before opening the bathroom door to see Harry sitting cross-legged at the foot of her hospital bed with the book of Grimm's fairytales in his lap. Dany started laughing. Sirius had hoped that they both would have forgotten about that. Harry hopped off the bed and handed the book to Sirius. Dany crawled into bed and motioned for Harry to come up with her. He lay down next to her and she wrapped her good arm around him and slowly and repetitively ran a hand through his hair.
"Padfoot, we want a story." Harry said, looking completely serious from his position next to Dany.
"You've got to be joking, you two." He said and they both shook their heads. "I don't know…" He trailed off and Harry looked like someone had told him that they were selling his puppy and Dany looked at him with giant eyes that said that she had just been cheated of some great joy. He looked at them, his hurt and pregnant wife with their Godson curled into her side; he was in no position to tell them no. "Alright, alright. What do you want to hear?" He said and sat down in the chair he had essentially been living in. The duo exchanged looks.
"The one about the elves and the shoemaker." Harry said decisively. Dany nodded in agreement.
"Again?" He asked Harry, who nodded. He must have read that one at least ten times to Harry.
"I'll make you read 'Briar Rose' if you complain, Sirius Black. Don't think I won't." Dany said.
"Padfoot wouldn't read it when you were sleeping." Harry said and Dany raised an eyebrow. "He wouldn't say why."
"Really? We'll have to revisit that tomorrow night. Now, onwards." She said and gestured at her husband. He flipped through the book and found the story they were talking about. He looked up at them one more time, as if to make sure that they were really sure about this and they were both staring at him expectantly. Damn.
"So, there was once a shoemaker…" He started and quietly read through the story. He looked up at the end and they were both asleep. Dany was sleeping on her back and Harry's back was pressed up against her side. It wasn't like when she had been comatose; she was breathing deeply and her eyelids would occasionally move a little. Sirius put the book down and carefully picked Harry up off of the bed and put him on the couch that he had been sleeping on for eleven nights now. Harry didn't wake up, just shifted around a bit. Sirius sat down in the chair and just before he could flick the light off with his wand, Dany's eyes opened halfway.
"Sirius?" She asked blearily.
"Yeah, Dan?" He asked and she smiled a little.
"I love you." She said drowsily before falling back asleep. He smiled a little and fell asleep too.
Sirius woke up and gasped. He hadn't had the nightmares in years. Even Azkaban hadn't been enough to bring his recurring teenage nightmares back but they had decided to reappear tonight. He looked around and there was a candle dimly burning at the foot of Dany's bed. He saw her profile in the moonlight from the window. He could see her chest slowly moving and she turned away from where he was sitting in her sleep. What the man had said stuck in his mind as he saw the gentle curve of his wife's neck and the silhouette of her hips and waist. "You won't get to touch that pretty body ever again…"
He had almost been right. He had almost lost her. Maybe that's why the nightmares were coming back, because he had almost lost her for real this time. Harry shifted around and snored momentarily before rolling onto his stomach and quieting again. He had been so close to never running his hands through her hair—so close to never feeling her shiver when he touched her. But she had survived. If there was one thing that the Masters family was good at, it was defying the odds.
He looked at her now and she looked peaceful except that Sirius knew that there was a wad of bandages covering her chest underneath his favorite t-shirt and that she couldn't move the top half of her body very well at all. It stung to know she had been so injured that she couldn't even really put her own clothes on. He knew that that fact in and of itself had to be a blow to her pride.
He got up and did something he hardly ever did anymore: he shifted into his Animagus form. He jumped up on her bed and she opened her eyes at the movement before she fell right back asleep. They'd be okay. It sucked, but they'd all endure.