Note: I know I said I wasn't going to finish it, but now four years later I've changed my mind. It's probably not going to sound the same since it's been so long, but I'm going to do my best to finally give Lily, James, and Celeste an ending. It will probably just be this chapter, another, and probably an epilogue or something.

Lily knew two things: She was not interested in Aidan, and she needed James to help her get Celeste back. A little part also reminded her she hadn't seen that confident, charming grin of his in years, but she also told herself that wasn't the real reason she took control of the situation.

"James," she called brightly. "I didn't know you were going to pick me up from work today!"

Aidan turned to see who Lily was looking at, but didn't get up from his casual perch on Lily's desk. While he seemed slightly surprised at James' appearance, he didn't seem to make the connection between the two of them. Then again, why would he? She wasn't wearing a ring and skipped her chance to mention her husband when Aidan asked her if there was a relationship between them. James, on the other hand, instantly took in smooth way Aidan was leaning toward her.

"It was meant to be a surprise," James said, approaching her desk. "I thought we'd hit the bakery for a snack before going to our lessons tonight."

Lily stopped breathing for a moment when James leaned against the other side of her desk, sandwiching her between the two men.

"Hello, I'm Aidan Cartwright, owner of Obscura," Aidan said with a curious half-smile, reaching out his hand to James. The two men shook hands direct in front of Lily's nose.

"James Potter, Lily's husband."

"I was under the impression you were married to the blond Mediwitch."

"So was I, temporarily, but Lily and I have always been married, haven't we darling?" James asked, and Lily saw a gleam of pure wickedness in his hazel eyes. She murmured her consent, and James continued. "We're actually taking cooking lessons tonight. Together. So if you'll excuse us, we'll be going now."

"Of course," Aidan said, and Lily could feel his eyes on her face, but she didn't look at either man. Instead, in a clumsy ruckus, she grabbed her coat and handbag, clattering to her feet and rushing toward the door.

"James, I'm quite hungry. I think we should go now."

James strolled up behind her with one hand in his pocket, the other holding the door open for her. He winked at Henrietta, sending a look of shock across her sour face, and nodded to Aidan. Once out the door, he took Lily's elbow politely, walked approximately five steps, and said, "You'll need to submit your letter of resignation tomorrow."

"I will do no such thing," Lily snapped. She jerked her elbow from his grasp and sailed down the pavement.

"Cartwright has a plan in his mind to seduce you, and he was getting ready to enact Step 1 when I walked in the door."

"There is absolutely no way you could know that. You are so misguided. You just look for problems. When you can't find one, you make something up." Lily knew she was probably just a touch away from overreacting, but the last thing she needed was James acting territorial and applying the full force of his alpha maleness. Really, all she needed was him to behave so she could get Celeste back and get him out of her house before she did something stupid like fall in love with him again.

"Of course I know that. As a man with a similar plan to seduce you, I can most certainly recognize it in someone else."

"I don't care. Even if he is planning on seducing me, you aren't some defender of my virtue. It's my decision to make. You can't stop me."

"You're my wife. Besides, we're not going to be able to adopt Celeste if you're having an affair, now are we? I don't know why you're being so difficult about this whole thing. It's not as if you could have a career there. That's the sort of job teenagers get for the summers home from Hogwarts. Or Squibs. Lily, you were Head Girl for crying out loud. You're a brilliant witch. You can charm anything, you're a solid Legilmens. You were a Hit Witch who escaped the Dark Lord. You're funny and beautiful. You weren't born to sit in a dusty office typing checks and running errands."

Lily stopped on the pavement and turned to face him. "Since you know so much, James, what was I born to do? Was I born to be kidnapped and tortured? Was I born to have my family die and my sister hate me? Was I born to lose my baby and have the daughter I love taken away? For that matter, what were you born to do? What were any of us born to do? Was Remus born to be a werewolf?

James put a hand to her face and looked down to see the tears in her eyes. He knew she wouldn't let them fall in front of him again. "I don't know about the others, Lily. I only know that I was born to fall in love with you, just as you were born to fall in love with me. That's really all that matters. All the other stuff is just extra. We were made to have each other."

"That's ridiculous," she scoffed, looking down, away from his eyes. It would be so easy just to let him reel her in. But if she did, it would make things hurt again that hadn't hurt in a long time. "It would have been so easy for us to never talk, to have never been anything more than acquaintances."

"It would have been easy, but it didn't happen. I think the reason I had such a terrible childhood is that that way, I could never overlook you. You were the opposite of everything I had ever known, and you made my life wonderful. Maybe the reason you were taken away from me was to give me the chance to be everything you needed. To make your life wonderful."

"Being a prisoner hardly made things rosy, James."

"No, it was terrible," he agreed. "I would give anything to make sure it had never happened. I wish I could take away your pain, but I know I can't. But I would replace it with happiness if you would just let me."

The first drops of rain began falling, landing in their hair, dropping down their faces, infusing their clothes with a bitter coldness, but neither of them moved. Lily looked up into his face, and the look she saw there was hard to doubt, but she had to ask, "What if we're too different now?"

"We're different, but not too different," he promised. "We were just kids when we got married. We were growing up together. Remember, before you were taken, things were getting difficult between us. We were scared. We weren't ready. Maybe we're still not ready, but we're not kids anymore. We know we can live without each other, but we don't want to. Just admit it, Lily, you want to be with me. You want to go to sleep with me each night and wake up next to me in the morning. You want to eat Wednesday morning breakfast at the cafe across the street. You want me to make you potions when you're sick. You want me to help you put up the Christmas tree. You want me to be the one with you when you find your first gray hair. I want all those things too. Just let me."

Lily looked up to his face, and it all seemed so easy when he was making those brave declarations to her. She could see he believed it, and part of her wanted to too. How could she turn away the boy that she feel in love with at Hogwarts, with his wonderful heart and tortured soul filled with the pain of an uncaring family.

She looked down to her feet, and she felt the tears leave her eyes, mingling with the cold rain that was pouring down on them both. Finally, James took his hand from her face and took shrunken umbrella from his pocket that he easily enlarged to shelter them both.

And suddenly, she remembered another time when they stood under an umbrella in the rain together. She had snuck into Hogsmeade to meet him. It had seemed so difficult then, going against her friends and keeping secrets, but that had turned out alright in the end.

Maybe the Lily that had stood under that umbrella was a little bit different than the one that stood under this one, and maybe that James wasn't entirely the same either, but just maybe there was enough left. Enough of that happy girl in love for the very first time. Enough of that sad boy that needed her more than anything.

Lily looked up into James's eyes and saw the uncertainty and the fear that she would turn him away. He was braced for her rejection, just like all those years ago. There was enough of him left, but the real question was whether there was enough of her.