"Sirius, you're bleeding all over the place…." James muttered as he set Remus down gently on the couch.

"Ah damn…" Sirius's hand went straight to his head trying to stop the bleeding, though it didn't do much good.

Sirius went to the bathroom sink and grabbed a towel. He tried his best to stifle his head. It wasn't horrible, but it wouldn't stop.

"Hey, James?" Sirius said from the bathroom.

"Yeah?"

"You wouldn't happen to know one of those stitching spells your wife is so good at, would you?"

James came down the hall. "I could give it a try. I mean your face can't get any uglier as it is…." For this comment he received a towel to the face.

"Oh come on Siri!" James laughed.

"No. I change my mind. I don't want your help." He closed the door, chuckling despite his efforts to pretend to be hurt but James's words. Sirius held the door closed as James tried to pry it open.

"Okay, Padfoot, come on. I won't disfigure your face… I promise…"

"You can't promise that…"

"If I do… we'll get Lils to fix it."

Finally Sirius sighed and let James focus his wand on the spot where his head was bleeding. Sirius wanted to laugh out loud at how stupid James looked when he was concentrating…. No wonder he didn't do it often.

"Epsikey." James muttered. The tip of James's wand glowed blue. There was a snapping sound and Sirius swore loudly. Apparently, James had not succeeded. He seemed to have made it worse.

"Oh shit, I think that one was for broken bones!" James said.

"No shit!" Sirius said loudly, clearly angry. His hand was at his head again. James handed him the towel he had been using before. Sirius was cursing now under his breath. That obviously hadn't felt very good.

"Okay…. Er… Uh… Just keep the towel there. I'm going to go check on Remus and then we'll go back to the house and Lily can fix you up."

"Yeah, and how exactly do you plan on telling your wife what happened?"

"I'll make something up…." James said dismissing it was a wave of his hand and left Sirius in the bathroom to try and clean up.

Remus was still out on the couch, fortunately. James had been afraid that their arguing down the hall would have woken him. James felt horrible for Remus; he always did after the night runs. So many times, he and Sirius had discussed trying to hunt down the monster that did this to Remus… but both of them knew that it was virtually impossible and incredibly stupid. It was one thing to joke around and work to control a werewolf, but hunting one down and killing… well that was a different story. Especially considering that that particular werewolf was just short of a heartless, ruthless killer.

James sighed, knowing they'd be back later to check up on him.

"Come on, Black. Let's get you fixed up." James said and opened the door for him.

Sirius looked like he had a sarcastic pun to go with that, but he held his tongue; possibly because his head too badly to do so, or possibly because he knew getting James angry was not going to help his odds.

Sirius and James walked through the front entrance. Sirius went straight down the hall to the kitchen while James called up the stairs softly, "Lily?"

When he got no reply, he went after Sirius into the kitchen to see what he was doing. He was trying to unstopper a bottle that had been on top of the cabinet for the sole purpose of being out of his reach; fire whiskey.

"Sirius, come on- it's six in the morning." James laughed taking the bottle from him.

"Actually, only about five thirty…." Sirius said looking at his watch.

James laughed a little harder and looked at the bottle; he bit his lip then whispered to Sirius, "Maybe later…."

"All this being responsible shit isn't working for you, Prongs…." Sirius muttered, replacing the bottle and putting the towel back to his head.

James just shook his head and went upstairs to wake Lily. As he went up, though, he called back down to Sirius, "Do not burn down my house, Padfoot; I'll only be a minute."

He left Sirius to laugh at this and continued up the stairs.

When he entered the bedroom he forgot why he had come up; Lily was sleeping peacefully. Her eyebrows quivered slightly, as if she was dreaming. James just watched her for a moment then went and knelt by her side of the bed, on the floor. He lightly kissed her forehead and pushed her hair from her face. Her eyelids fluttered and she looked at him. She smiled at him sleepily.

"Good morning, my love…." He said kissing her again.

"What are you doing home?" She said blearily, trying to wake herself up.

"Erm… there was a bit of an accident-."

"What? Who's hurt? Are you alright? Where's Sirius? Is it Remus? What hap-?"

James put a finger to her lips and shushed her.

"It's nothing Lils, Sirius was an idiot. No surprises there…." His joking seemed to settle her nerves a bit.

"Is he alright?" She asked, pushing herself into seating position and looking around for her robe.

"Yeah… we just need your help to stitch him up…. I may have…. Possibly… messed up and… erm… made it worse…."

"Again… not surprises there…" Lily muttered, smirking at him. She was now looking around for her wand, which she found on the dresser. She turned to her husband as they walked from the room, "Go check on Harry, would you? Just for a moment; He didn't wake up all night. I want to be sure he's alright."

"I'm sure he's just fine…" James muttered, but he still went down the hall to his son's room while she walked lightly down the steps.

Harry was sleeping soundly in his crib in the half light of the chilly morning. James leaned over the crib to watch him. He wanted to pick him up and hold him, but he was just so peaceful in his dreamless sleep that James didn't want to disturb him.

So he just watched him, with a smile upon his face and love in his eyes.

Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by voices from downstairs:

"Ouch! Shit, Lils; that hurts!"

"Oh, stop complaining! My child whines less than you do!"

James chuckled and left Harry to stretch and yawn and continue to sleep.

"What's going on down here?" James smirked, seeing Sirius sitting in a kitchen chair and Lily holding a small needle.

"Nothing, just your wife's trying to kill me is all!" Sirius said glaring at Lily as he did so.

"Oh stop it; you're such a child, Sirius…." Lily said, but James saw her holding back a laugh.

"Would you do that to your own child?" Sirius asked incredulously.

"Okay, anyone want to clear this up for me?" James asked, confused as to what they were talking about.

"The damage you did is pretty deep… I didn't want to risk doing it by magic- just for the sake that Padfoot can't sit still long enough to let me do so…" She glared at Sirius, "Anyway, so I'm just stitching it up… It's a muggle method…"

"Oh…" James nodded.

"What do you mean, 'Oh'? She's trying to stick that thing in me!" Sirius was being comical now, but still obviously not secure with the idea of her stitching him up manually.

"Fine, Padfoot. I'll do it." James moved towards Lily and put his hand out for the needle. This had done the trick, Sirius sat up straight and still and said, "No… no Lily, you do it…."

"That's better…." Lily smiled and went to work.

A couple hours later, James was sitting in the kitchen, reading while Lily did the dishes from breakfast. The radio was on and a song started to play. James looked up at her, recognizing their wedding song. She seemed to have noticed, and she smiled, but kept her eyes on the dishes in front of her.

James stood and crossed the room to where she stood. He stroked her thick hair which curtained her face. He put his arms around her from behind and started to sing along lightly with the words. Lily stopped with the dishes and leaned into him, letting him kiss her neck and cheek. He turned her around and she rested her head on his shoulder. James swayed with the music and they danced.

"The long and winding road… that leads to your door…." James continued to sing in her ear. He kissed her ear and she suppressed a giggle.

"So, how was the run last night?" She asked softly as they continued to sway in time.

"Um… same as always…." He lied quickly.

"Potter, you'd better tell me the truth." She teased, covering up her concern.

"Nothing too special, really; Sirius was an idiot and got himself banged up, but it's no big deal…. Remus flipped though." James smirked slightly, "He kept saying that we shouldn't do this anymore. That it's too dangerous, and that now I'm a father and I can't be doing stuff like this anymore…. Lily?"

She had stopped dancing and looking up at him with frightened eyes.

"Maybe he's right, James…."

"What?" he smiled. Surely she was joking.

"Maybe… maybe you shouldn't go out with the marauders anymore…."

"Well… it was only us three, Peter wasn't there…."

"Well… he had the right idea I guess."

James stopped dancing too.

"Lily… what do you mean?"

"I only mean that I'm scared. I get scared every time you go out with Sirius and Remus like that! It scares me to think that something could happen to you- any of you!"

"So, what am I supposed to do? Leave Remus to deal with this shit himself? Well, I'm not doing that! He's too good a guy to have to go through this alone!" James raised his voice over the song. He couldn't believe she was even considering it as a possibility.

"James, please be reasonable! You know I would never want anything bad for Remus, you know I care about him! This has nothing to do with that!"

"Than what is it! Tell me, I'd really like to know!" James said angrily.

"I just think that it's time for the boys to grow up….Just think about your son, James. Think about me."

"Don't you think I already do? Every single moment I'm thinking about you and Harry. I'm scared that he's growing up in the world we live in! But I'm going to teach him that it doesn't have to be all bad! I'm scared to death that I might come home and… and… you…" James couldn't bring himself to finish.

"James…" Lily said softly, putting a hand on his shoulder, but he pulled away, not meeting her eyes.

"I'll be back later…" He said, walking towards the door.

"Where are you going?" She asked softly.

James paused with his hand on the knob. "I don't know…. I'll only be a little while. I promise."

"Wait! James!" Lily rushed down the hall and grabbed his hand as he was halfway out the door. She leaned in and kissed him.

"I love you." She said.

James's eyes were red and he wouldn't meet her gaze. Evidently, he had been pondering on the subject they had just discussed for a while and he was genuinely scared. He couldn't help but think that maybe Remus was right. James pushed the thought from his mind. He nodded and said, "Me too..."