DISCLAIMER: Anything you recognise belongs to JKR.

Warning: Childbirth. I've tried to keep it as non descriptive as possible.

"I SWEAR if you tell me to push one more time I'll hex your mouth shut with a permanent sticking charm!"

"Your wand is in my pocket, I'd like to see you try."

Tonks glared at her mother as another contraction hit her, slamming her fists into the mattress and biting her lip to stop herself crying out. The threat had been a common one during her childhood, one she would undoubtedly use with her own children, if they ever got out of her body.

Her mother had confiscated the wand the moment her waters broke, three decades of healer's experience apparently overruling any objections about the fact that there was a war on. Andromeda Tonks was a difficult woman to argue with, and Healer Tonks was worse.

"Now listen to me Dora," her mother's voice penetrated the mental haze as another run of cramps chased across her abdomen. "You should be able to morph as you push and make it an easy delivery. You just need to concentrate. Can you do that for me?"

Tonks nodded, wrapping her fingers in the sheets as she tried to draw her focus.

"How is she doing?"

Her mother responded to the panicked query by slamming the door with a flick of her wand, but Remus' voice and face provided Tonks with what she needed: a focus.

Closing her eyes, she mentally forced away the pain, replacing it with the image of her and Remus, the child in his arms, his amber eyes staring up from the round face. Or perhaps her grey eyes and the sharp Black cheekbones she had been born with, or maybe even Dad's sky-blue, skipping the generation. Either way the baby would be the most beautiful thing in existence, and it would be her child.

She felt the muscles relax into her control, and took a deep breath as she heard the command.

"Ok, push now."

Her lower body trembled under the strain as she forced her muscles to shift, and she cried out with the strain. A second voice joined her cry and it was all of a sudden over. She forced herself upright to see the boy in her mother's arms being handed to Remus to wash. He had the cheekbones for sure, and a small patch of fine dark waves, damp from the birth. The eyes were definitely his, and the mouth too. She reached out and Remus brought their son close enough for her to touch before pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"Rest now Dora. I'll give him a bath and bring him right back. Our Teddy."

He was beaming as he left the room, and Tonks suddenly felt the drain of the last few hours. She lay back on the suddenly crisp sheets as her mother finished tidying up, wand dancing with the well-practiced spells.

"Take a nap Dora. I'll make sure T-" Mum took a deep breath and blinked several times, "I'll make sure Teddy is fine. Rest now."

She was woken from her doze by a sudden tug on her arm, and she snatched for the wand that wasn't in her pocket. Her abdomen reminded her that she shouldn't be moving so quickly so soon as the excited face of her husband floated into view.

"Dora, his hair! Look at his hair!"

The evening's events suddenly came back to her and she found herself with an armful of sleeping baby, the dark curls now a light ginger. Which was strange, since neither of their families had red-heads, except for her when she morphed…

"Oh. Oh wow. Teddy."

"Yeah."

"I wonder if they'll all be like this," she murmured as she touched her sleeping son's face.

"They'll all be beautiful," Remus replied as he knelt beside the bed to help support the baby's weight.

"After all they are yours."