Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the show so please don't sue.
A/N: Eek! Couldn't believe how long this chapter turned out, it's actually longer than some of my one-shots! Oh well, hope it was worth the wait!
Summerlovin9191: I did my best with updating quickly, but it seems the chapter just ran away from me.
Popping Corn: Glad to know your rant is over! The summary was about the fourth attempt, but at your request I spent another half hour changing it! Hope its better now anyway! I'm glad you're enjoying the story, just hope I can keep it up to people's expectations!
Theo Darkstar: I'm really enjoying the relationship between Sirius and James, I feel there are far too few fics that mostly look at their friendship.
Wincing as his feet touched the carpet; James steadied himself using the bed as he got up, his knee still not able to support his weight, no matter how tightly it was strapped. Still dressed only in his boxers, he stumbled over to the sofa where his clothes were, managing to pull on his glasses, and allowing the room to come back into focus. Gently lowering himself onto the sofa, he downed the tablets that had been left there, before jumping as a voice spoke from the doorway.
'Prongsie! You're up!' Sirius' bouncy voice startled him.
'Don't you ever knock? I could have been naked or something!' Potter scolded his friend while giving a very ineffective glare; Sirius simply snorted and smiled more as he walked over, shutting the door behind him before pulling a chair over and sitting in front of the scruffy teen.
'Like you're one to worry about modesty? The person who stripped naked on his first night at Hogwarts when he went to bed!' Sirius reminded him with amusement; James merely shrugged.
'It's the principle!' was his friend's response.
'Of course it is,' Sirius mockingly agreed before studying his friend a bit more, the bruises, stitches and bandages a lot more noticeable when he wasn't wearing clothing over the top of them. James shivered under the scrutiny, as well as the cool draft that all large houses seemed to have. A look of guilt and sorrow seemed to come over Sirius' face as he stared, James remained silent, allowing his friend to see all the injuries for a few minutes before deciding the boy had dwelled on it for far too long. Gently reaching over, he lifted Sirius's chin upwards so their eyes met, allowing James to see all the guilt his brother felt.
'It wasn't your fault.' James reminded him as he lowered his good arm, it was too much of a strain on his ribs to keep it there too long.
'And it wasn't yours either.' Sirius told him, equally as forcefully before changing the subject. 'When was the last time you bathed?'
'What?' Potter looked stunned and slightly confused at the sudden change of subject.
'Bathing, in other words taking a shower or bath, using water to make yourself clean and generally less smelly.'
'Ha ha, you really are a prat you know that?' Prongs retorted sarcastically. 'I meant where did that come from?'
'Well,' he dragged the word out as he sat up slightly in he chair so as not to fall off as he slumped down, 'either you really need to wash as you'll stink out the hopstal, or Lily helped you, in which case, details please!'
'Lily did not help me!' James exclaimed causing Sirius to give a fake pout in disappointment. 'And you're right, I would like to shower,' he added, resignedly.
'I think you'll probably have to make do with a bath, unless your knee has miraculously fixed itself and you've become able to run a marathon overnight!' James snorted in amusement.
'I think I'd settle for being able to stand up on it,' Prongs muttered, somewhat despondently. He was far too active to enjoy any type of injury, but his legs were something he relied on most as he enjoyed running as well as Quidditch; although that was most arms as he was a chaser. Just one more reason to be bitter about his broken arm and sprained wrist he mused darkly, glaring at the cast and strappings.
'Oh no you don't! Stop that line of thought right there or I get Mum to help you with your bath, or worse still; Lily!' Spotting the familiar signs of a dark mood coming on, Sirius headed it off effectively with a usual threat, causing Potter to jerk out of his thoughts, his face twisted in disgust at the very thought of that!
'So: a bath then?' Prongs brought the conversation back to the original question; Sirius nodded.
'D'you need a hand?' James raised his eyebrows.
'Washing myself? I think I have the hang of it by now Padfoot.' Sirius rolled his eyes.
'I meant getting upstairs and running the bath.'
'Oh,' unable to meet his brother's eyes, James nodded. Being a normally independent person, he hated people waiting on him, preferring to do all that was possible himself, another way of his to burn off some of the extra energy he normally found himself with.
'James, there are times in everyone's lives when we need help. You don't have to be ashamed, it isn't weakness, in fact it's a strength sometimes. It show's you're mature enough to let others help instead of foolishly thinking you can do everything on your own.' Black for one of the few occasions lived up to his name, repeating the same actions James had done earlier, forcing the other teen to meet his grey eyes. 'I leant on you quite a lot that summer I ran away from home, now lean on me, let me return the gesture.'
'You don't have to-' James started to protest but was cut off swiftly.
'I want to.' Those three words stopped all protests that had been lined up.
After handing over a simple robe Sirius had brought into the room with him, the two of them made their way up one flight of stairs, albeit very slowly, to the bathroom. Sitting the injured boy down on the toilet lid, Sirius began to run the bath, adding in a vast quantity of bubbles much to James' amusement.
'Got enough bubbles in there?' He teased the grey eyed boy, who decided to settle the argument maturely; he stuck out his tongue. When the bath was finished, he turned off the taps before speaking and casting a spell over all of the bandages, the cast and stitches to make sure they repelled water, so it wouldn't get wet.
'Do you need any help getting in?' Padfoot asked, eyeing up how high the sides of the bath was, and there was nothing on the wall for him to hang onto.
'I'll be fine, just sit on the side, swing my legs over and in, now go, have some breakfast,' came the exasperated retort. Sirius didn't look convinced, but went as James made shooing signs with his hands.
'I'll be outside, just holler if you need anything.'
'Some privacy and a pee.' James muttered under his breath; that was unfortunately heard by his friend, who gave a barking laugh as he left the room, shutting the door behind him.
The warm water soothed his tense and aching muscles and bruises, but all too soon it seemed to him the water was turning cold, there weren't any bubbles left and his fingers were like prunes. Looking over at the small clock on the shelf across the room, he realised he'd been there for the best part of an hour. Giving a sigh, he realised he'd better get out, he was slightly hungry now as it was getting on towards nine o clock, the time his mother normally had breakfast ready by, and so would be yelling for her two boys any time soon.
Grabbing hold of the edge of the bath, he gently began to lift himself out using his one good arm, before gasping in pain at the pressure it put on his ribs and knee, forcing him to drop back into the tub with a splash.
Gritting his teeth, he turned slightly so his back was towards the wall before trying again, this time using the wall to help him slide up, but once again his knee wouldn't hold causing him to fall once more, only this time causing him to land a little harder, forcing a yelp out of him. Taking in deep breaths, he blinked away the tears that threatened, instead slapping the water in frustration.
'James? You alright mate?' Sirius' worried voice came through the door.
'I'm fine, just go and have breakfast; I'll be there in a minute.' James called back, he refused to be forced to ask his friend to help him out of the bath, that was just one humiliating situation too many. There was a deep sigh from his friend telling him Sirius knew he was lying. The two of them never could lie to one another; there was always something n their expression that told the other they weren't telling the truth, it had just never occurred to him it stretched to when they couldn't see each other.
'James, just tell me the truth, are you alright?' Padfoot asked him wearily, he knew how much James hated others to wait on him, but he needed to realise when to accept help Sirius thought to himself, doing his best not to get angry at being lied to.
Curling up to the side of the bath, facing away from the door, he wrapped his arms around his body and closed his eyes before answering. 'I can't get out of the bath.' James replied dully. The door opened a few minutes later and his dark haired friend stepped into the bathroom.
Placing the clean tee shirt, jeans and boxers onto the floor, he grabbed one of the large fluffy towels from the rack by the door before opening it out.
'James,' Padfoot called gently, but his stubborn friend refused to look at him. 'James, look at me, remember what we talked about this morning about accepting help, this is one of those times.' The grey eyed teen sighed as James didn't seem to move, and so walked over, with the towel still in his hand and sat on the edge of the bath before carefully pulling him away from the wall and forcing him to meet his gaze.
'It's such a simple task, just getting out of a bath, but I can't even manage that on my own,' James complained bitterly, furiously wiping away a tear that escaped.
'Oh James,' Sirius sighed once again, loosing count of how many times he had done that this morning as he hugged his wet brother, not caring that he was naked nor causing him to get wet. 'You'll get better, it's not as though it's permanent. Look at it this way; this is the only time you will ever get me to wait on you hand and foot, so enjoy it while you can.' This got a laugh from the shivering boy as he lent into the warmth of his friend as he reluctantly nodded.
'Alright, now help me out, I'm frozen!' James finally agreed, pulling back as Sirius got up and returned with the towel before sizing up the situation. Raising an eyebrow, James watched the intense look on his friends face, blushing slightly as he realised he was completely naked and so tried to cover himself.
'I think after you stripping in the dorm for the last 6 years as well as us being the same gender means you really have nothing I haven't seen before!' Sirius told him with a smirk at his friend's attempts before placing the towel onto the sink, which fortunately was dry, before placing one arm around James' waist and the other against the wall to brace himself. Together, the two of them managed to stand up before Sirius allowed James to lean heavily on him as he stepped out of the tub and over to the sink where he could rest his weight. Wrapping the towel around himself, James gave a grateful smile.
'Thanks Paddy,' James told him affectionately before making shooing signs with his hands, 'now scat so I can get dressed!' Laughing, Sirius did as he was told.
'You know where I'll be!' Was all Sirius said, before chuckling again as he could have sworn he heard the phrase over-protective mangy mutt being muttered.
Finally dressed, although not without a few muttered curses, James finally walked out of the bathroom, his walking stick still by his side; Sirius smiled, a true smile, not a smirk or his usual mischievous you-know-I'm-up-to-something smile but a true one that Prongs had done so much on his own.
'Shall we?' Sirius offered an arm as though they were about to go to a ball or fancy party, getting a grin from the other boy who allowed his bad arm to rest on top of Sirius' outstretched one.
Walking into the kitchen, they separated and sat next to one another, digging into the scrambled eggs and sausages.
'Morning boys, had a good nights sleep?' Carla greeted them with a smile as she watched them starting on her cooking. Although she could have had a house elf, she'd decided she wanted to do the cooking and cleaning herself when James was younger so she could keep busy. After her husband died, the habits never died and so she still cooked breakfast whenever she could, which wasn't as often as she wanted to, as well as the evening meal, leaving it up to James and Sirius to make themselves something whenever they felt hungry at lunchtime.
'Yeah, I slept fine.' Sirius told her in between mouthfuls.
'Me too, don't even feel too bad this morning either.' James added, leaving out some of the difficulties he'd had, but it was true, he did feel slightly better. He looked back at the plate and his sausages, he'd managed to eat the eggs without any problems, but he had no idea how he was going to cut them up. Before he said a word, Sirius had switched plates with him, the only difference being the sausages on his plate were already cut up. Giving him a grateful smile, James finished off his breakfast while Carla tried to keep the smile off her face at how well her two boys were coping with the situation.
'Hey, where's Lily?' James suddenly realised he hadn't seen the red head at all that morning.
'She had to go home, something about bridesmaid dress shopping but she'll be back this afternoon to help when we go to the hopstal.' Sirius explained as he cleared up the plates and put them in the sink where the scrubbing brush washed them and flung them into the correct cupboards. James smiled at the thought of seeing the girl he loved later, but quickly covered it up before getting up, little knowing Carla had already seen the grin and was immediately mentally making plans for the wedding.
Heading back into the livingroom, Sirius once more sat in front of the bike, most of it already finished leaving only a few bits left to fix. Sitting beside the dark haired boy, James picked up a different piece, only to have it swiftly removed from his fingers.
'Oh no you don't Jim; you are not touching this bike for quite a while.' Padfoot scolded him, causing James to instantly look down into his lap, keeping his eyes lowered. He'd lost Sirius' trust; stupid! His mind shouted scathingly, of course he isn't going to trust you with his precious bike; you broke it once so who says you won't mess it up again? Seeing the dejected look on Prong's face, Sirius instantly berated himself for his stupidity in how he phrased it. 'James, I trust you, okay, I just want you to get well, not messing about with the bike. I'll be fine doing it on my own, Lily and I got quite a bit done yesterday so really there isn't a lot left to do. C'mon, I'll do it tomorrow.' Black helped James to his feet and guided him over to his bed before the two of them sat in the middle of it, preparing to talk.
'You really mean it, you trust me, even after all of-' Sirius cut James off, seeing where the argument was going.
'James Aristide Potter, you did nothing wrong so get over this guilt trip! You did nothing wrong and you never lost my trust, believe me, when you have, you'll know about it.' Was the exasperated argument shot back at the injured boy, causing him to give a small smile.
'Thanks Paddy, that means a lot to me,' James told him softly before a disgusted face graced his features 'but could you please stop using that dreadful name! It's bad enough you guys know it, imagine if Lily or the school found out!' Sirius cleared his throat at this.
'Er…Lily may have heard me shouting it yesterday when I first got back.' Sirius replied sheepishly, James groaned, placing his head in his hands.
'May have heard or did hear?'
'Did hear; but I did explain later nearly all purebloods have unusual names, you were just lucky it was your middle name, not both of your names,' Black casually stated, thinking of his own names, Sirius Orion, not exactly the most common of names that was for sure.
'Suppose, now,' the usual James Potter mischievous grin spread over his face, 'please do tell me about this conversation you had with Lily, tell me everything, including full stops, commas and exclamation points! Especially since you now seem to be calling her Lily instead of Evans.' The two of them lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling above them as the chatted, going over the conversation Sirius and Lily had shared before moving onto other topics.
All too soon, the two boys had finished the lunch Carla had brought through and the doorbell was ringing. Staying as they had all morning, lying on the bed, the waited until the door to the livingroom was opened and a familiar voice reached their ears.
'I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised to see you haven't moved from where your mum said you'd be, but you two lying still all day, that's something I'm sure Remus would like to see more often.'
'Nice to see you too Lily!' Sirius commented as he sat up before helping James to do the same. Lily rolled her eyes at the sarcasm.
'Thank you Sirius, glad to know you think so too,' the red head deliberately ignored the sarcasm with a grin on her face causing Sirius to roll his eyes.
'I'm taking it you're here to help us to the hopstal?' James asked, ignoring the banter between his two friends. Sirius had explained about them trying to get along, so figured it would be best not to irritate either one of them, nor mock their fights in case it all fell to pieces. Lily gave a small sigh at them getting the names wrong, again before nodding.
'I believe you said your appointment was for in two hours, so if figured it may be good to get their slightly early.'
'You just want to get out of trying on brides maids dresses!' James teased her, smirking along with Sirius when she blushed slightly and shrugged her shoulders in a casual way, trying not to reveal too much.
'Is your Mum coming?' Lily changed the subject, not wishing to relieve the horrors she'd been forced to endure that morning.
'I think so, yeah, part of her I think wants to see how muggles heal people and the other part is because she's too worried to let me out of the house without her.' James explained, not that he could blame his mum for her over protectiveness of him, after all, she was her only biological son, even if she did now have Sirius as another child. Lily nodded in understanding while Sirius placed a hand on James' shoulder in support, he could see how hard the rest of the holidays were going to be if Carla was going to be that over protective of him.
'Oh good, you're all ready to go,' Carla exclaimed as she bustled into the living room, handing out floo powder to everyone, much to their amusement.
'Erm, Mrs Potter, it's a muggle hospital so we can't floo in.' Lily told the older lady awkwardly, uneasy correcting a lady she barely knew. Carla looked surprised for a moment before blushing slightly at her mistake as she passed around a pot to return the powder. 'I was thinking maybe we could take the Knight Bus since it should be able to drop us off nearby,' the red head suggested timidly, not too sure how Mrs Potter was going to react being told what to do by a 17 year old. To her surprise, Carla nodded.
'That sounds like an excellent idea,' Mrs Potter congratulated her before herding them out of the door, admittedly slowly due to James, but still making good time.
This was a mistake Lily realised as the three of them entered the lift. Trying to get the purebloods to enter a small box that took deposited people onto another floor took a lot of convincing, but after seeing the 'magic', Sirius and James had begged to ride it again and again and again… Fortunately Carla had put her foot down after the third floor they arrived on as their appointment was very soon.
The appointment itself went quite well luckily, if you ignored the fact the three of them stared at all the different machines that were around, asking questions about everything from a stethoscope to a defibrillator.
'Okay Mr Potter, lets have a look at your knee then,' the old Doctor asked as he pulled back James' trousers and examining it. 'Hmm, probably another 7 weeks before I'd recommend physiotherapy for it to regain its strength, but until then use it moderately. Your ribs will be very painful for quite a while yet, I would say about a month before they're mostly healed but there may still be pain for a while after. Your arm is doing well, the cast should come off in about 6 weeks so all in all, a good assessment Mr Potter,' the Doctor concluded after finishing removing the stitches. James looked slightly relieved that as soon as he went back to Hogwarts he could take the potions that would have most of his injuries fixed in seconds, but unfortunately, until then he was stuck on the medication from the hospital.
'That's lovely Doctor,' Carla commented, 'the boarding school James goes to will be able to sort out the physiotherapy and keep an eye on him for pain and things.' She added, only stumbling slightly over the unfamiliar terms but fortunately got them correct. It would have been very difficult to explain why they knew nothing about the terms he'd just spoken, and instead having to guess that physiotherapy was something that would help his knee.
The Doctor nodded before writing out another prescription for the pain medication. 'I'd like to see you again when we take off the cast, just to check that everything has healed correctly, so if you could come back on the 30th August we can sort everything out. The prescription I've given you will be sufficient to last you until then.' Getting off the bed, James took the piece of paper, looking at it curiously while taking his stick from Sirius who had been holding it for the examination. There had been the option for everyone to wait outside while he was being examined, but James refused on the grounds Carla wanted to see what was being done to her son and Lily was there for translations as his knowledge of the Muggle world was limited at the best of times, but medicine was even worse. Sirius had managed to come in as James decided it wasn't fair that everyone else came in and he didn't, not to mention at least then everyone could keep an eye on him causing trouble instead of being left unsupervised.
Standing outside the room where James had just been examined, Lily studied the prescription to see what they would need.
'So Lily, what exactly does this piece of paper do?' James asked as he, Carla and Sirius looked at it from different angles as though the drugs were going to pop out of it at any second.
'It's a prescription. You take it along to the pharmacy, hand it over and in return they give you the tablets written on here.' She explained, trying to remind herself they had never seen one before.
'Wow!' Sirius looked amazed at this while the Potters looked quite impressed. 'A little piece of paper does all that? So if I wrote what I wanted onto a piece of paper they would give me anything that was written on it?' Lily sighed; of course Sirius had make things more complicated.
'No, it has to be written by the Doctor and they only store certain types of drugs, nothing else.' Sirius looked disappointed.
'Well that sucks, I was really hoping for some Chocolate Frogs.' There really was no answer to that the red head decided as she followed the signs to the pharmacy; James on the other hand simply rolled his eyes at his friend's obliviousness.
'So are these drugs free then?' James asked as they got neared to their destination; Lily nodded.
'You're under 18 and in full time education so they're free but if it was your Mum who was hurt then it would cost money, unless of course it she was going to be on them for the rest of her life, I think that was it anyway.' She seemed to be doing a lot of explaining today Lily realised, maybe she ought to go into teaching she mused, certainly do well in Muggle Studies!
Going over to the counter, James handed over the prescription while he and Sirius took note of every action the Pharmacist took in getting the tablets, enjoying every second much to Lily and Carla's amazement at how they could enjoy such an everyday task.
The ride back to the manor was more subdued as James fell asleep onto Sirius' shoulder, the events of the day catching up with him, not to mention it was evening already. The bus made one extra stop to allow Lily off at home since she was needed there, before finally arriving back at their home.
Sirius gently shook the sleeping boy. A groan escaped James' lips as he slowly awoke, and the pain from his ribs flared slightly; must be almost time for another dose he realised as he tried to focus on what was going on around him. 'Wha'?' He managed to get out as he blindly looked around; finally remembering he was on the Knight Bus.
'We're home.' Sirius reminded him as his friend lifted his head from his shoulder; Sirius instantly rolled his shoulder in an attempt to get rid of the stiffness, causing James to give an apologetic smile when he realised he'd created the problem.
'Sorry 'bout that,' James ducked his head in embarrassment as he got up and limped his way to the front of the bus with the rest of his family, remembering to thank the drivers.
'Hey, don't worry about it, if I minded playing pillow I'd have knocked you off hours ago!' Sirius told him mock seriously causing James to laugh before smiling at how lucky he was to have a friend like Sirius.
Stepping into the Manor, Carla forced the two boys onto the livingroom while she made dinner for them, making it easier on James as he would have to do far less walking and moving. Sitting down on the bed, a sudden thought struck Sirius.
'Hey Jim, have you owled Peter or Remus about what happened?' James shook his head and instantly felt guilty he hadn't thought of doing so beforehand.
'Pete's in Switzerland with his parents so it may take Porky a few days to get there, but Remus is home.' James remembered, listing where each of them were for the summer holidays. 'Damn, I should have thought of it earlier, but then that would have only worried them and-' Sirius cut off James' ramble with a roll of his eyes.
'James, don't worry about it, it's not as though there's been much time to write. Tell you what, I'll write and tell them later tonight and send your Owl to Remus and mine to Peter.' Padfoot offered. His Owl, Sparky was a lot faster than James' (Porky) so it would halve the time the owl would be away as well as get the message there quicker. Prongs nodded reluctantly, the small nap on the bus hadn't really helped much, leaving him feeling very tired. He would probably drop off immediately after he'd eaten and so the letters would still not get written to another day.
Looking over at his sleeping friend, Sirius began the letters, one to each of the Marauders explaining everything that had happened over the previous few days, leaving out the bath incident but remembering to include the parts about Lily. He knew Remus would definitely be interested in those parts seeing how he was friends with the red head already.
Finally finishing a while later, he gave the instructions to each owl before going to bed himself, deciding it would be best to stay in the same room as James for another night. Closing his eyes, he wondered what tomorrow could possibly bring that would measure up to the events of the previous few days. He just hoped it was something good, there was no way he could cope with another scare like the one James had given him when he first got home; although one good point was becoming better friends with Lily, Remus was right, as usual, she wasn't too bad.