We're skipping forward again folks. We are now a few years later, 1990 to be exact. I thought about trying to fill in those five years but in the end this just made more sense. Otherwise this is just going to drag on and possibly get boring. It gets me closer to the canon events as well. Sorry if this chap is a bit slow or doesn't seem to really further anything. It's like a bridge chap I guess. Sorry it took a bit to update, real life drama is getting in the way. So, hope you enjoy this chapter, while I go drown my sorrows in an ice cap and Doctor Who.

The inhabitants of the little village on the coast had not always thought the owners of the last house on the lane odd. In fact when the young couple had first moved in thirty two years ago they had welcomed them into their close community with open arms. Of course that had been when the village was predominately inhabited by those of the magical community.

By the time that the elder Lupins were deceased and their young son and his wife had become the owners of the little house, the number of magical folk had dwindled. Eight years later and a once proud wizarding village was now almost completely Muggle.

And even if the older dwellers of the village didn't think the Lupins odd, the younger not the older, the newer ones certainly did.

Perhaps it was the odd sounds they would here coming from the direction of the house every now and then. Sounds like howling of a lonely animal, calling to be set free. Maybe it was the way that Mrs. Lupin would only laugh when someone would bring it up to her as she picked up that weeks list at the grocers.

"It's only the wind coming off the water," she would say in her London accent, another reason why people found her strange, and smile leaving the sense that she was having a private laugh at them all.

Perhaps it was her appearance. The other young wives of the village would often speculate, deciding it was not proper for a married woman to have oddly coloured hair and dress as she did.

Maybe it was because neither of them seemed to have any discernable way of income and yet never seemed in any strife.

Whatever it may be, the Muggles tended to avoid the very end of the lane and the stretch of beach that lay beyond it. Only those who were wizarding kind ventured down that way, and if they were honest with themselves, the Lupins would not have had it any other way.

So it was strange to see a teenage boy striding down to the end of lane through the early morning spring fog. The boy, Matthew, son of Wendell the grocer, paused outside the small slightly worn down looking house and shifted his weight from foot to foot nervously. It would have been clear to anyone that happened to be passing then that he didn't really want to be at the house, but fear, likely that of reprimand from his parents who liked the Lupin's a great deal, compelled him to be.

He opened the gate, which squeaked as if it was in need of a good oiling, and stepped through and up to the house. Again he paused and then steeling himself he rapped quickly on the door. +++

Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin shifted irritably in her sleep, the dream she had been having fading from her mind as she opened her grey eyes. She glanced at the bedside clock and let out a curse. It was five thirty in the morning and from the sounds of it someone was banging on her door.

It was five thirty in the morning, on her day off and someone was banging on the door. Bloody hell.

She pushed herself up onto her elbows then and gently shifted herself out of the arm and legs that were entwined with hers, trying not to wake the man sleeping soundly beside her. At least one of them should get to sleep until a decent hour.

Rising she ran a hand through her bobbed hair, which was at the moment a deep brown colour due to an undercover Auror operation completed the night before, trying to tame it into some order as she shuffled out of the room.

The knocking, which had ceased briefly, had started again by the time she reached the stairs.

"Yeah, yeah. Keep it up, cause continually banging on my door is really gonna make me come faster." She muttered to herself as she reached the bottom landing and promptly tripped over a bit of raised carpet.

"Bugger!" She grabbed the wall for support and managed not to fall. Taking a calming breath she strode to the door and whipped it open.

"Yeah?"

The young boy on the other side stared at her for a moment, clearly taken aback by her abruptness. She sighed and smiled brightly at him, telling her self it was too early for this.

"Matthew, what is it?" she asked more kindly.

Matthew visibly swallowed and said quickly, "My dad sent me. He got a call on the public phone. It's for Mr. Lupin?" it came out as more of a question than a statement.

Tonks nodded encouragingly. "Who's it then?"

Matthew was relaxing now, and even peering behind her into the house curiously.

"Someone called Dana Hawksley. She said that she's in labour and her bl…I mean her blooming husband is nowhere to be found. She'd like him to come as soon as is possible if it's not too much trouble." he edited. He had listened in on the call and the women on the other end's language had been far from polite. Still, he supposed that when one was in labour good manners went out the window.

He looked at expectantly as she rolled her eyes. "Bloody Mark." She cursed, before smiling at him again, her eyes glittering. Obviously she found the situation amusing.

"Thanks. Would you like a cuppa? I imagine you could probably use it, this early hour being such a lovely time to be up and all."

Matthew heisted, he wasn't sure if he really should, but it would be a good story to tell his friends, how he'd been invited into the eccentric Lupin house. And his mother would tell him off if he said no and she found out.

"Yes mam."

She laughed at his polite address. "Come in then. And call me Tonks everyone does. Besides," she added cheerfully as she strode toward the stairs, "I've known you since you were in diapers Matthew, I think we're on a first name bases."

Leaving him in the living room she ascended the stairs and made her way back into her room.

For a moment she simply stood and looked at the man slumbering peacefully in the middle of the bed.

His once purely brown hair was now threaded through with silver, and there were lines around his eyes and mouth that had not been there five years ago. He looked older than his thirty years, she thought somewhat morosely. Still when he was sleeping and completely unguarded as he was now, she could still see the features of the young man who had stolen her heart that first day in the Hogwarts library. She hated to wake him, but knew there was nothing for it.

"Remus." She shook his shoulder slightly and was rewarded when his beautiful amber and gold eyes opened to peer up at her. He blinked sleepily and stretched.

"What are you doing up?" he inquired, his hoarse voice still sounding slightly raspy from sleep.

"Wendell's kid was just banging on the door. Dana rang the grocery. She's in labour and Mark, the prat, is no where to be found."

"What?" he sat up and she moved back as he quickly threw back the covers and began throwing on the first clothes that came to hand. "Where is he?"

She shook her head. "Probably at the office. I'll pop over in a bit. You go help Dana. Tell her I'll give her husband a slap for her when I find him."

Remus shoved his feet into his shoes and kissed her quickly before heading down the stairs, past a bemused looking Matthew and out the door. Soon a sound like a car backfiring was heard making the teenager jump.

"So." He turned back to the stairs to see Tonks standing there, now fully dressed in a pair of holey jeans and a tight purple jumper. "How bout that cuppa?"+++

"Dana?"

A crash ringing from inside the house was his answer. Quickly he drew his wand and unlocked the door stepping in to the house.

"Dana?" he called again as he closed the door and this time was rewarded with a curse from the kitchen.

"It's about bloody time!" she cried as he entered the kitchen, "Where have you…oh sorry. Wrong man."

She was sitting on the floor, leaning against the floor cabinets, breathing heavily.

Remus dropped down in front of her and smoothed a piece of hair that was stuck to her sweaty forehead back. "You thought I was Mark?"

She rolled her tow tone eyes. "I'm not exactly in the best of mind frames right now. I heard a man's voice and reacted. All I've been thinking about is how I'm going to kill Mark when he finally shows up!" she scrunched her eyes closed and heaved a deep breath grabbing his arm in a death grip.

" Dora's looking for him. How far apart are your contractions?" he asked calmly, shaking his arm when she finally let go.

"Fifteen minutes maybe? I've been trying to keep track but…and I just broke Alma's bowl. As if she didn't disapprove of me enough."

Remus glanced over to where the floor was riddled with shards of glass. Flicking his wand he repaired it and set it to sit on the counter. He turned back to see Dana raising a brow as she panted.

"Show off."

He laughed. "Perhaps you should get off the floor now. We need to get you to the hospital."

He wrapped an arm around her torso and pulled as gently as he could while getting to his own feet.

"OK?"

She leaned against him and he could feel her heart beating a quick rhythm. "Sure. Peachy. Look I'm not going to that, what's it called? That St. Mungos."

He led her into the living room and helped her sit on the sofa.

"No offence to you lot, but I'm having this baby in a Muggle hospital with actual doctors and nurses. And epidurals. Oh a nice numbing epidural, that would be lovely right now."

Remus didn't argue. The wizarding hospital tended to lean toward natural births and was still old fashioned in the way that men, unless they were healers, were not allowed in the room. He knew that despite her ire now, Dana would want Mark with her when this baby came.

"Alright. Do you have a car?"

She nodded. "Mark refuses to drive it, but we have one just in case. You need to get my bag, it's in the corner hall closet upstairs," she added abruptly.

Remus did as she said and returned to find her trying to get up off the sofa.

"Here." He shouldered the bag and helped her to stand.

"Come on," he told her as they headed toward the door, "Where's the nearest hospital?"+++

Tonks stepped into the lift and bounced impatiently. She had not had any luck so far in finding Mark and was now resolving to give him a good cursing.

The grills opened and Kingsley stepped in. "Tonks."

"Wother King." She said automatically and then turned to look at him quickly.

"You seen Mark?"

"Hawksley? Last I saw of him he was heading to talk to Amelia. Why?" he asked in his usual easy voice.

"His wife is havin a baby as we speak and is panicking cause she doesn't know where her husband is."

Their floor was announced and they both stepped off. "Leave enough for his wife after you curse him." He called over his shoulder as she strode in the opposite direction.

"No Promises." She looked over her shoulder and winked at him, causing him to laugh a deep laugh as he entered the Auror offices.

Tonks peered around at all the blue robed figures and ignored the curious looks she was getting as she looked into the cubicles that lined the hall.

"Sorry," she said brightly as one witch gave her an affronted look when she peered into her cubicle. "Just looking for my partner."

She was about to give it up as a bad job and head to the hospital without the wayward Mark when she suddenly spotted him.

"Oi. Hawksley!"

He was nearing the lifts and looked at her quizzically as she jogged up to him.

"Isn't it your day off?"

"Yeah." She said shortly grabbing his arm and dragging him into the lift.

"What…"

"Dana's having the baby. Her and Remus are at St. Thomas's and let me tell you she's not too happy with you right now. I have half a mind to curse you myself, but I'm sure whatever she has in mind is far worse."

She looked at him and was amused to see that he looked slightly nauseated. She never thought she'd see the day when Mark Hawksley was fazed, and it was over a baby of all things.

"She's having the baby?"

She rolled her eyes and guided him out of the lift and to the apparation point. "That's what I just said. Now come on, dad, this kids not gonna wait for you to take your sweet time."+++

"She's beautiful."

Dana beamed. "Isn't she just." She was watching her husband as he held their daughter and looked at her as if he'd never seen a baby before.

"Never thought I'd see the day Mark Hawksley was gob smacked." Tonks said from her position by the window. "Not even in the world twenty minutes and she's already got him wrapped around her finger."

Dana sighed happily and nodded in agreement. "Thank you both so much. I'm sorry if I broke your hand Remus."

"I think I'll manage to survive." He said lightly. "So. What are you going to call her?"

"Rhiannon. Rhiannon Alma Hawksley. The Alma is only to make Mark's mum happy."

"Oh who cares what she thinks." Mark said as he brought the baby back and placed her in her mothers waiting arms. He looked at Remus and Tonks and smiled.

"We thought, that is if your willing, that we'd ask you to be her godparents."

"There's no one else I'd want to trust her to. No one." Dana added, catching Remus gaze as of sensing her friend would object.

"So what do you say?"

Tonks and Remus exchanged a look that held a whole conversation. Then she smiled at her friend and partner.

"Course we'll do it Mark."

Remus nodded and Dana smiled at him.

"Do you want to hold her then?"