AN: So, I was going to attach the beginning to the last chapter, but it would have made it a bit long for my tastes, but the two parts were a bit short to let stand alone.

When she woke up, the left side of the bed was empty. She reached out to touch the rumpled sheets and found that they were cold. Clenching the sheets, she rolled onto her side and saw a note on the night stand. I'm so sorry that I left you, but there was an emergency and I didn't want to wake you. Much love, James.

Crumpling the note she curled into a ball and squeezed her eyes shut. It had been two days, James had promised to stay with her until she was ready...or at the very least let her know when she was leaving. Getting to her feet she pulled the sheet off the bed and wrapped it around her. The apartment was a bit chilly, that meant James must have left pretty early if he didn't use a heating charm. They always used one when they woke up in the morning to fend off the autumnal chill, but it drained their energy to keep one going continuously.

In the kitchen she put the kettle on and rummaged through the cupboards to find food. As usual they were pretty barren: boxes of biscuits, tea bags, instant coffee, cans of soup and boxes of pasta. She grabbed the biscuits and dumped half of what was left on a small plate. As she poured the hot water into the cup and added the tea bag there was a knock on the door. Flattening her hair, she dropped the sheet and gripped her wand tightly. "Who is it?" She called out, her hand resting on the door knob, expecting to hear one of the Prewett twin's or Alice.

"James?" The voice was male and clearly confused. "Uh, it's Luke Fisher, I was…"

"Go away," she said. "I have no idea who you are and if you don't leave in ten seconds I will hex you." Lily counted to thirty before looking through the peephole, then opening the door to peek into the hallway, he was gone.

With a sigh of relief she headed to the kitchen, wrapped the sheet around herself again and plucked the tea bag out of the water. Taking a tentative she winced at the bitterness, she shouldn't have tried to do it the muggle way. She pocketed her wand and she grabbed the plate and headed into the living room where she plopped on the couch.

Once she downed half her tea, masking the taste with an overly sweet biscuit before accioing a spell book. The Order's best defense was creative usages of rarely used spells, it took Death Eaters by surprise and gave them an advantage. A few pages in there was another knock, but this was a recognizable voice. "Lily, it's me Frank. Can we talk? I think there was a misunderstanding."

Lifting her hand, she muttered a few words and the door flew open. She hid a smirk behind her book, glad that she was able to do that again. Her small lived victory was ruined when the door shut and he walked in. "Merlin, are you alright?" he questioned, sitting on the coffee table in front of her. "It's freezing in here, did you forget the heating charm?"

"James been doing it." She pulled the sheet tighter around her as she crossed her legs. "And I'm fine."

"You look like a mess."

"That's what every girl wants to hear."

"Lily, seriously are you alright? If you need anything Alice and I are just down the hall." He reached over to pat her knee.

In return Lily rolled her eyes and brought her knees to her chest. "Thanks for your concern, but I'm a big girl. I've dealt with-"

"Worse? It gets tricky when you start comparing pain. Telling yourself that you don't have a right to be hurt because you've been through worse is pretty dangerous."

"Thank you Frank."

"Hey, what happened to the Lily I know? She just so happens to like me and finds my protectiveness endearing."

"Because I just had a strange man knock on my door and now you're here questioning my well-being."

"James really didn't tell you about Luke?"

Lily shook her head as she leaned back on the couch, winding her hands around fistfuls of blanket.

"He was in Bulgaria, near Durmstrang, but Voldemort's getting more powerful so he came to England, but he needs a place to stay. James offered the spare room, but that was before...everything."

"You can say the word," she muttered. "And I'm still upset that he didn't at least put it on the note."

"It was at about two in the morning, Fabian needed some backup and James volunteered."

"Of course he did." Lily rolled her eyes. "Why did I go and marry such a nice guy?"

Frank laughed, patted her knee again before getting to his feet. "Well, Alice should be done practicing interrogation on Luke, I'll go over there and stall long enough for you to get dressed."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That Lily Potter doesn't usually like to be seen by strangers in her pyjamas. In fact there was a time that you wouldn't let me in the door if your sweater didn't match your trousers."

"You and Alice are married, that makes us practically family." Lily smiled. "And thanks for worrying about me."

Frank passed her a smile in response, she got up and wrapped him in a hug. When she pulled away he left without another word and she went into her bedroom, digging around it for clean clothes. She took out a tank top and her a pair of ancient jeans before throwing one of James' jumpers on top. After washing her teeth she threw her hair in a top knot and went to sit on the sofa.

A considerable amount of time had passed, she was now into chapter two of the spell book, when there was a knock at the door. Using her wand she flung it open and didn't move her eyes from the page. "Hello?" a cautious voice called out.

"Walk forward about eight metres," Lily yelled.

"Sorry for the misunderstanding, I assumed James would have told you."

"Never assume anything." She set the book down and got to her feet. "My husband left early this morning and didn't want to wake me. Besides, things around here have been...strained to say the least" She took a deep breath and bit her lip. "Why don't I show you the bedroom? We recently transfigured some furniture and added some odds and ends to make it look habitable. However, the only person that stays here is our good friend Remus on occasion." Like after a full moon, when all of the Marauders have a reunion after traipsing around in the remote woods.

"Thanks so much for this, you're doing me a huge a favor. I promise I'll try to find my own flat as soon as possible."

Lily crossed her arms over her chest, leaning against the doorway as she watched the man set down the satchel he was carrying and use his wand to expand it. In a few moments he is unpacked, turning to look at her. He has the same glint in his eyes James and Sirius used to have. His hair is silky and blonde, eyes the color of of sea glass. He wore a jumper with linen trousers, but somehow makes it look completely casual.

"Why did you really come?"

"Excuse me?" he asked. "Are you going to interrogate me to? Frank promised me that Alice just did that because she was in Auror training."

"What did my husband say to you?"

"Uh, I really don't-"

"I know James, I know him very well. Now, tell me what he asked you to do."

"I wasn't supposed to come for another week, but my job in Bulgaria was finished. I got an owl two days ago late at night asking me if I could come early. He didn't say why, just-"

Lily face turned into a mask of anger as she her fists balled up. "Pardon me, just…" Her hands went to her head as she walked to her bedroom. Tearing off James' jumper, her wand clattered to the ground. She cursed as she picked it up and along with the sweater, holding it to her chest. Luke probably thought she was mental after seeing that episode, but she really didn't care at this moment in time. She had to have a discussion with James. It was one thing to ask Frank or Alice or Sirius or Remus or Marlene or even Peter, but to ask a complete stranger to come and live in their spare room so he could watch her. She was a grown woman!

Lily sunk to the ground, her back leaning against the bed. Had James really seen her as that damn fragile? She thought about the hospital, how when she came out his hand lingered on her elbow. Maybe he took her asking him to leave when she got dressed...She rested a hand on her stomach, knowing there was nothing in their anymore. James avoided the topic, like he had done with Agatha's death. She wondered how long before he would snap this time?

Composing herself got to her feet and walked back out. Luke was in his room, unpacking things a bit tidier. Taking a deep breath, she channeled her three years of Prefect trainining. "Sorry, I just had to do something real quick. I would offer you a tour but this isn't exactly Potter Manor. The bathroom's just next door, kitchen's down the small hallway. You can help yourself to anything in the kitchen, but there's not much. James is rubbish at cooking and I can't manage anything more difficult than scrambled eggs or tea."

"Duly noted." He nodded his head, as his eyes looked over her quickly. A smirk caught on the edges of his mouth. "You know, you're not what I imagined at all."

"Oh?" Lily wrapped her arms around herself, feeling self-conscious when she realized she was standing in front of him in only a tank top.

"Yeah, I've only talked with James a handful of times, but he's so serious. When I heard he was married I imagined, well, I imagined someone different."

Lily furrowed her eyebrows. "Are we talking about the same man?" She let out a laugh, shaking her head. "James isn't serious." When she realized the play on words, she let out an even louder laugh.

"I don't understand what's funny. I mean, James is all business especially compared to Black."

A smile played on Lily's lips. "One of the reasons I married James is that he always helps me keep my mind off of things. He uses humor like it's a weapon. Quite honestly it's frustrating."

"Are you sure?"

"He's changed a lot, things have happened…" Lily lets her voice drift, wondering when was the last time she truly heard him laugh. Searching for the last time he tried to make her laugh or came up behind her when she was busy. "I need some air. If you have any questions while I'm gone, Sirius should be home by now and he spends most of his free time here…"

"Alright, should-"

Before he could even open his mouth Lily had turned around and a split second later he heard the door shut.

It was a weeks before James and Lily were left alone. They threw themselves into the Order, the both of them assigned to missions abroad. At times it felt like they were still at Hogwarts, stealing moments to be alone and taking delight in silencing and locking spells. Other times it felt like they had gotten back to the routine after graduation and before Lily had gotten pregnant.

In this moment, though, they felt like adults, not teenagers pretending to be. Granted, eating take out on their sofa in their pyjamas didn't exactly scream grown-up, but Lily was glad that they were actually together. She leaned against James, nestled underneath his arm as he balanced a plate on his knee, awkwardly trying to eat with one hand.

She thought back to Luke's comment about him being so serious. At that time she hadn't seen it, but after spending weeks with him it was clear to her now. He wasn't the same boy she met first year who broke the rules about flying on the brooms, or the boy third year that broke the detention record or the boy fifth year that thought sending her dozens of love notes during class was a brilliant idea...he wasn't even the same person who married her on Christmas eve. He, however, was still James and Lily knew she had changed too. After the things they both went through, they were lucky to have each other. Although, deep down she knew that they were both to stubborn to give up on marriage.

"Are you done?" she asked, forcing herself away from her thoughts.

"Yeah, but it's my turn for dishes, Lil." James leaned forward ever so slightly, tensing his arm to keep her from sliding as he grabbed her empty plate and set it down on the coffee table.

Lily quirked her lips up a bit. "That wasn't why I was asking." She shifted herself on the couch so she could face him.

"Lil, I'm-"

"Don't you dare say tired." She leaned forward and planted a kiss on his lips. It was sort of awful, both their mouths greasy from the Chinese take out, but she ignored it. "It's been three weeks, you don't still think-"

"No, Lily, I just wasn't sure you wanted…" He let his hands drift to her hips. She smirked, taking it as a hint, and moved one leg on each side until she was straddling his lap. "You just haven't been straightforward lately, so I never know-"

"Not this again." She pushed off of him and leaned back on the couch. "I thought we were past this."

"We don't just get over what happened, please-"

"Since when are you the rational one?" she muttered.

"Lily…" He reached putting an arm around her to pull her close. "I didn't want to do anything wrong. I was scared-"

"The great James Potter scared?" she mocked.

"Were you always this cheeky?" He tightened his grip and kissed her on the cheek. "I thought the girl I married was the sweet thing that-"

Lily cut him off with another kiss, her hand going to the neck of his shirt to pull him close. They would be alone all night, this was an opportunity not to be wasted. Through her actions she tried to make that clear to him, loosening her hands she placed one flat on his chest, the other running it's way through his messy hair. It was harder now that he was getting it cut shorter, but she loved the way it felt.

"Merlin…" he said when they the stopped for air. "I knew there was a reason I married you. Let's go." He got to his feet and Lily held out her arms. Her arms went around his neck when he bent over, her legs encircling his waist.

As he walked he stumbled a bit and Lily just laughed. When she met his eyes she saw they were filled with joy, a smile crossing her lips. Maybe, just maybe her James wasn't completely gone after all.