'Remus.' Tonks stared and stared. She felt calm and accepting, as if it was the most expected thing in the world to have Remus Lupin appear on her doorstep that night, and yet another part of her knew she was so placid precisely because she didn't believe this was real. She was convinced that she was dreaming, and she hardly felt like this apparition deserved an actual response. In fact, she started, not angrily, just absent-mindedly, to close the door in his face, when he smiled sadly and repeated 'Nymphadora. I truly am sorry…' That's when her heart stopped. Something in his smile told her she was not dreaming. 'Remus…' she whispered, and though her expression did not change, and though she uttered no sound, silent tears began pouring down her face in fierce, salty torrents. 'Oh. Remus,' she sighed, as if to herself, quieter still. 'I know. Dora. I will explain everything. May I come in?' Tonks stepped aside, and let him pass. He stepped in, shyly, apologetically.

Tonks continued to cry silently and without expression on her face. She kept staring. Remus began to look around awkwardly. 'Nymphadora.' He took a tentative step closer, searching her face. 'Didn't…didn't Alastor tell you?' 'No. No, he didn't. Tell me what?' 'That I was…here.' 'No. He didn't.' 'Oh. I'm so sorry. He told me he would tell you today.' 'He didn't.' 'I'm sorry.' They stared at each other.

Suddenly, Tonks whirled around so that her back was to him. She whipped around to face him just as suddenly. 'REMUS LUPIN!' He straightened up, wincing slightly, but wearing his usual mask of receptive calm. 'It's been so long, Lupin! And you just disappear! And you just just just…you just show up! At my door! As if nothing has happened — what ARE you doing here, no, why are, no, I, oh, I…OH!' 'Nymphadora, I truly did believe Moody had already told you of my arrival. I believed you had been expecting me. This is a misunderstanding. The last thing I want to do is to upset you, and I could —' But Tonks had thrown herself into his arms, almost knocking him over, giving herself over to a release she hadn't felt…since before the war…when her need for release had never been as great as it was just then. 'Oh, Remus,' she whispered, 'you were my best friend…my best friend…' 'I know, Dora. I…I'm sorry.' 'I'm sorry too. I never even —' Tonks halted, for she felt something warm in between them. Warm, sticky, red. Blood.

'Merlin's beard, Remus, you are bleeding!' She looked up at him in alarm, and saw too that he was blanching. 'I know…I'm sorry…I headed here earlier than I would've' — Tonks was moving him carefully to her couch, conjuring her Healer's kit — 'I was going to check with Moody, I would've, to make sure you heard, but…I got into a mess…' 'Shhh…lie down.'

Her face deliberately glazed over with professional intent, she quietly and swiftly undid his button-down shirt to find the source of his wound. There were three terrible gashes running from his left abdomen to his rib cage, several shards of glass sticking out, and a few less serious scratches on his right side. 'Holy shit, Remus, this should have been the first thing you showed me. Typical.' She snorted sarcastically, in feigned indignation. She was dead scared, but didn't want him to see. It had been a long time since she had tended to wounds this bad, but she was trained very well, and had kept up with her Healing practices, developing them even further past her Auror requirements because she worked with werewolf children, who were extremely prone to violently wrought, sometimes self-inflicted, wounds.

Remus was fading into unconsciousness, but struggling against it, searching her face for…something. Working her wand over his wounds, she first withdraw all the glass shards, extra gently (he barely acknowledged the pain, just kept studying her face, as his own eyes drifted in and out of focus). She then proceeded to rub disinfectant salve in his wounds, soaking them as she simultaneously prepared a healing, wound-shrinkage ointment, and her specialty, a high calorie, high in sugar chocolate malt shake, to combat the weakness from loss of blood. His injuries were very serious from the standpoint of Muggle medicine; but now that he was in the hands of an experienced Auror with extensive Healer experience, he would be as good as new come morning, Tonks thought, as she relaxed. She truly hated the sight of blood, especially on someone as dear to her as Remus, though she successfully suppressed that reaction.

After administering the ointment, she helped Remus sit up to sip the shake. 'You'll like it. It's chocolate.' He managed a weak grin. 'I can hardly sip, let alone…' 'Too bad. Drink.' He obeyed, and instantly his complexion turned a couple shades away from bloodless. 'Good boy.' Good boy? Apparently, Tonks was feeling something she hadn't felt in a very long time. Cheeky. Silly. Even flirtatious. 'Watch yourself, woman,' Tonks warned herself, 'you barely have a grip on the reality of this situation. You very well might still wake up from—'

'It's really…good to see you, Nymphadora.' 'Remus…It's Tonks.' 'I never called you Tonks. Except, I suppose, when I was annoyed with you.' 'But you were NEVER annoyed with me.' 'No. Not in any deep way. Well. Sometimes I was.' 'DRINK, Remus.' Remus took another somewhat less belabored sip.

'Thank you. I don't deserve this. I am very fortunate.' 'That's bullshit, Remus. Cut it. You know my door has always been open to you. You've just never stepped through it before.' She looked at him curiously. 'Well…we have a lot to catch up on. If that's conducive to your plans…' he trailed off. 'Yes. I'd like that. But for now, let's see how you're doing.' She rolled her eyes. In the past it was cute to her, how Remus self-abnegated to the point of his own annihilation almost; he'd put courtesy to her above his bleeding wounds; it was absurd and, years and years ago she had thought, downright charming. By the end of the war, however, she came to understand that these were not just some adorable character traits there for her amusement. Remus was not a cartoon character, the stuff of fantasy and teenaged crushes; he was a real person and the reasons why he put himself last, his very survival sometimes taking the backseat to someone else's mere momentary comfort, were because he was deeply damaged for reasons specific to his complex, pained biography. She was no longer charmed by his deflection of help; she took it in stride. And it concerned her, at least insofar as she was for now his Healer…and, maybe…soon…It didn't matter. Focus. Tonks re-focused her attention on what there was at present. Nothing more than this.

She ran cool but soft hands over his exposed flesh. She felt something tingle inside of her, and chided herself once more, noticing but choosing to do nothing about her response to the contact. Remus's wounds had stopped bleeding, but it would take a day or so of solid rest to have his skin return to normal, she noted, clinically.

'You're not looking bad. Not bad at all. You got here just in time, and of course you got yourself to the very best 'here'. I've been doing a lot of healing lately, you know…' Now it was Tonks who trailed off. She looked down into his eyes, as he struggled to prop himself up against the back end of the couch. That was a mistake. Her attention to reality seemed to shift again. 'No, Remus, don't move. Down boy.' It was that damned flirtatiousness again. How strange. Remus was squarely from her past, from the worst of it, yet he made her feel already so…normal. As if the worst hadn't happen. As if anything could still be possible. As if she really were still that fresh young girl stomping around carefree in her bright pink combat boots.

Remus was watching her with something that seemed a mixture of admiration and wonder. A chill traveled down Tonks's spine, and she looked away, resolute to keep her wits about her until she could process this all alone. After she slapped Mad Eye silly.
'What have you been doing, Nymphadora?' His voice was hoarse but also, unusually for him, there was a trace of longing in it. Probably from the loss of blood. 'Drink, Lupin. Drink. Keep drinking.' He took a deep sip of the shake and coughed. 'It's quite good for something that's supposed to bring you back from the brink of death, or worse.' 'I put in a special ingredient just for you.' 'You did?' 'No! How would I have? You just show up here. I don't have anything lying around for you…like I used to…' She meant it in a lighthearted way, but it came out a little colder than she expected it to. 'Yes, well…really, Dora. What have you been doing? I want to know.' 'No, Remus, not now. First, get some rest. In the morning, I'll force all necessary information from you.'