A/N: Originally I'd only intended for this little storyline to encompass the two chapters already posted, but people are enjoying it and want to see more of Lucius and the grandkids, so a third chapter ties quite neatly into that! Apologies for the wait! I do still have the request list saved in my drafts folder that I add to anytime people let me know what they want to see more of, so I promise nothing has been forgotten about!

"All right, I added an extra pillow to your side of the bed, but I could always get a fourth for you, I just wasn't sure if you'd need it-"

"Any more and I'll be folded in two by them, darling."

His point was illustrated by the fact that once he reclined on the bed, he was propped entirely upright by the pillows she'd loaded up onto his side of the bed. Marilyn nodded her satisfaction.

"Okay, I changed the duvet to the lightest one we have so we'll see if it aggravates your burns, and if it does we can switch it with a blanket, or even just a sheet I suppose."

"In which case I may die of hypothermia, but at least it'll take the bite out of the injuries."

Well, now she was exceedingly glad he'd insisted that they spring for a fireplace in the bedroom - something she'd previously only seen in period dramas. Okay, she'd seen a few in real life, but they were always old and disused - a feature of old victorian terraced houses like the one she'd lived in with Sarah and Taylor, but were long past the point of being actually functional unless the house was really fancy.

"I can run down to the cellar and get firewood, I'm sure there's always some down there. Where's my lighter? I was lighting candles last night, it should still be here somewhere…"

She was cut off from her deliberations by Draco's fingers wrapping gently around her wrist, while his other hand took up his wand. One wave of it had a fire burning merrily in the hearth.

"Oh," she blushed and then sighed, shaking her head "Do you want anything to eat?"

"Not particularly."

Using the grasp he had on her wrist, he pulled her closer but she ignored the silent invitation to sit down. There was too much to do for that. He wasn't hungry now, but she should at least make something for when he was so they could eat right away, and his potions - they'd left his potions by the door, she should go and fetch them so they'd be to hand. Then there was the other bedroom to deal with, and the absence of the children meant that this would be a good chance to tidy their bedrooms. Draco usually took care of the whole thing with a wave of his wand, or the nanny did before they returned home, but it would keep her distracted.

"Okay. I'll go and set up the bed in the guest room."

"Am I to be banished there for my foolishness in the hospital?" He asked drily.

"Don't be daft. I plan to sit on that resentment and let it fester for a good decade until it begins to show itself in strange and unusual ways - passive aggressive Christmas presents, snide comments just as you're drifting off to sleep for the night, that sort of thing."

Her threats drew a tired but fond smile from him, and she knew whatever he'd been given for the pain was working because the smile didn't even prompt a wince.

"You really are a Malfoy now. Why the bed, then?"

"I was going to sleep in there so you don't end up getting disturbed or jostled or something."

"Don't you dare."

The look that accompanied his response left no room for argument.

"Was that an order?" she teased.

"Absolutely. Sit."

"Talk to me like I'm your dog again and see where it gets you."

She did sit, though, mostly griping to take any whiff of subservience out of her concession, and he slid his hand down from her wrist to her fingers, entwining them with his own.

Draco grinned "There's the woman I married."

"Was it my abrasive nature that enticed you?"

"Mm. That, and your legs."

Straightening one, still clad in her white practise tights that she'd yet to change out of, she hummed as if she could see his point.

"Impressive, considering one was utterly useless at the time."

"Ornamental," he corrected "Not useless. You do realise that we have a night - perhaps more - entirely to ourselves now?"

"You're in no state for what I think you're getting at," she smirked "Not unless I do all the work."

She wasn't particularly opposed to that, but if she was worried that sleeping beside him would aggravate his injuries, sex was absolutely out of the question.

"Well, in an effort to escape our combined wrath, Mullett loaded me up with a litany of very pleasant potions that mean I can't really feel much of anything from head to toe."

"Is that an argument for or against what I just said?"

"Stop being so perverted, I wasn't talking about sex at all."

"I can't help it, you bring it out in me."

"Is that an argument for or against my being in no state for it?" he echoed her own words back at her with a smirk, his thumb stroking the back of her hand.

"What were you getting at, then?" she asked before they could get much more side-tracked.

After so many years together, they'd gotten pretty good at forcing themselves back on track from their nonsensical, bickersome little tangents. Most of the time.

"Do you remember when we first started spending time together? Not long after we first met?"

"Vividly. It was a very eventful couple of years, wasn't it? And I'm pretty sure we watched every film known to man amidst it all - which surprised me, considering you didn't really seem like the type to sit about watching films all the time. I later discovered I was right, and being hermits was a safety thing, but y'know."

"You were only right because I didn't even know what a film was," he pointed out.

"I still win via technicality."

"You're being terribly combative for somebody who's meant to be playing the role of doting wife at the moment, you know?"

"From what I hear, my very lovely legs mean I can get away with it."

"Yes they do," he sighed regretfully "So, how about it? Some nostalgia? It seems only right I should be able to enjoy the technology my adaptors have made available to our world every now and then, and given the state I'm in, I'm pretty much forced to take a break."

It was a trait they had in common - loathing to take a break from their work unless given no choice in the matter. It spoke volumes about the importance in which they held their little family that they weren't absentee parents, never seeing their children or each other at all. Marilyn nodded - shedding her panic and her need to do in favour of considering what it was he was proposing. As she did so, she finally relaxed - properly sitting on the bed now, her muscles no longer all tensed and poised for action. The more she thought about his idea, the more she liked it.

"All right. Yeah. I'd like that. Make a list of films and I'll go fetch them, and snacks. Wine? Are you allowed alcohol?"

"Shall I phone my mother and ask?"

"I meant with your potions, you prat."

"It's not like Muggle medicine, it's fine. Perhaps we can even phone Sarah - for the nostalgia, I mean, so that she might insult me. Just to really capture the atmosphere of the old days."

"Nah, she doesn't hate you half as much now as she did back then."

She didn't hate him at all, in fact. She hadn't done for a while, not since his heroic display at the opening night of Phantom. Now it was just sort of a bit they'd committed to - pretending to dislike each other, but with none of the bite that it might've once held. It wasn't too unlike the strange sort of testy friendship he had with the likes of Hermione or Harry.

"I'm confident in my ability to change that fairly quickly. It's a talent of mine," he said.

"You severely overestimate your ability to be unlikeable."

"I should hope not, it's one of my favourite pastimes. A talent. A calling."

Marilyn laughed, shaking her head with a fond grin.

"Face it, Draco, you've mellowed out in recent years. You've been demoted from main antagonist to grouchy but loveable uncle. It happens to the best of us."

His lip curled in disgust at being told that he was not, in fact, a totally irredeemable prick.

"Any more of that and I'll be phoning Potter to pick a fight just to prove a point."

"That's basically your love language at this point-"

"Only where you're concerned."

"Stop flirting with me. No, you should phone him and politely ask him how his day was - he'll crap himself, he'll have no idea what's going on."

"I mean it, I'll do it."

"I don't doubt it love. Oh - but make sure I'm in the room if you do. You get twice as posh when you're having a go at somebody, which isn't something I'd ever think I'd find attractive, but somehow you make it work."

"Never let Sarah hear you admit that, then she really will start despising me again."

She grinned "I make no promises. I do have one request to make, though, if we're going for a nostalgic theme tonight."

"Oh?"

Leaning closer to him until she was supported by one of her elbows on the bed, she brought the hand still entwined with hers and pressed the back of it to her lips before she spoke.

"Call me Baxter. Just once. For old time's sake."

"Malfoy suits you more," he smirked.

"Don't make me add Stardust to the film roster."

"So I can sit and watch you drool over a man who looks like my old Head of House for two hours? That would be adding insult to injury, Baxter."

Marilyn grinned. She did prefer Malfoy - sure, maybe not the whole history behind the name, but she'd never been particularly attached to her own surname, and she liked her new one as far as it concerned Draco specifically. Funny, really, considering the amount of women out there who'd have killed for the name whether Draco came with it or not.

"Thank you, Malfoy," she returned, closing the gap between them and kissing him softly before murmuring quietly "I'm so, so glad you're okay."

He caught her before she could pull away, encouraging her closer for another kiss - one that lingered for twice as long, despite their full knowledge that he truly wasn't up to more, pain-free or not.

"So am I," he murmured.

Narcissa exited the fireplace into the entrance hall of Malfoy Manor with her husband and two grandchildren - something she'd never entirely dared hope might happen, even if Draco and his wife were present. Although in this particular case, she had to be fair and admit that were it to never happen at all, it would be Lucius' doing as much as anybody else's.

Caelum was a shy boy, Merlin knew he didn't get that from his father, and thanks to his grandfather's presence he had to be carried, his face buried in Narcissa's neck all the while. Every now and then she felt his face shift so that he might peek at Lucius through his hair, but he remained silent. Evelyn appeared to share in none of her brother's reservations, walking alongside them without so much as holding Narcissa's hand, regarding Lucius with a furrowed brow and blue eyes narrowed in curiosity as they slowed to a halt in the middle of the hall.

"Gran?" she asked decisively after a moment.

"Yes, darling?"

"Who's this?"

The question stung - a pang streaking through Narcissa's chest at that being a question Evelyn would even find herself asking. Had things been different, had things been proper, Lucius would have been just as much of a fixture in their lives as Narcissa herself was. An introduction would never have been a necessity. Not a formal one. It would not have been something either grandchild would remember, as they should have been newborns at the time. While her love for her grandchildren had drastically dulled any regret she had over the years of the turn their lives had taken when Draco met his now-wife - for while she could regret many things, she could not regret their existence - she would never be satisfied with the state of things as they now stood. But the Muggle - Marilyn - had surprised her in St. Mungo's. In a multitude of ways, but most of all with the tentative offer of peace she'd made at the end.

A momentary change of heart never to be repeated, a permanent armistice, or even just a test to see how things might play out - a trial-run - whichever it was, Narcissa was determined to seize upon it. To make the most of it. To make sure this would be the new way of things; another thing she could no longer regret.

"This is your grandfather," she answered.

"Oh," Evelyn blinked, mulled over that fact for a moment before tilting her head up at him "How do you do?"

Lucius blinked in surprise at the girl, and Narcissa beamed, their upsets at the question forgotten in an instant. While the source of Caelum's shy and reserved nature remained a mystery, Evelyn was all Draco. All Malfoy. Caelum would come into his own, of that Narcissa had no doubt, but she'd known for some time that if she could just get them in the same room, Evelyn would bowl Lucius over. Judging by the smirk her husband was desperately trying to keep from his face, she'd done so with a simple greeting.

"How do you do?" he returned with an incline of his head, adjusting his grip on the handle of his cane.

"I like your hair."

"Thank you."

"It's like mine."

"Yes," he cast his gaze over the girl's Malfoy-blonde hair "I suppose it is."

"Daddy grows his long sometimes, but he always cuts it after. Mummy tells him he looks like a Beatle when he does."

"A musician," Narcissa clarified quickly.

This story was a favourite of Evelyn's, and Draco had been forced to go through great pains to clarify that his wife had not, in fact, compared him to an insect once his hair began to brush his collar.

"I see," Lucius said.

"What shall I call you, then?"

Narcissa continued to smile as Lucius faltered - apparently not having expected such an onslaught so early on. Perhaps he would have preferred it if both of them were as shy as Caelum was proving to be. Even the boy's shyness, however, was fading thanks to his sister's precociousness, lifting his head to observe his grandfather more openly now that his sister was proving it was indeed safe to interact with him.

"Grandfather, I imagine?" he suggested after a moment.

The look on Evelyn's face suggested that she didn't much like that, and Narcissa had to concede that she had a point - it was rather a mouthful, and similar reasons were behind the fact that she was "gran" and not "grandmother". She'd put her foot down in the beginning about not being granny. For all of her confidence, though, the girl was not a brat, and so she nodded and said nothing of the matter.

A shared glance with her husband told Narcissa that Lucius could see they'd somehow taken a half-step back, but what delighted her more was how displeased he appeared to be by that fact. Were things not going well, he'd have resolved that the girl could simply like it or lump it and sweep off.

"How about grandpa?" Narcissa suggested "Do you like grandpa, Caelum?"

The boy pressed his lips together and continued to regard Lucius, but didn't respond - not even to give a nod or a shake of his head.

"Do you like grandpa?" Evelyn asked Lucius, frowning up at him as though convening on a matter of great importance.

"I suppose it will suffice," he said, and then when she blinked in confusion he clarified "Yes, I do."

"Okay. Good," she said decisively with a nod.

"That's that settled, then," Narcissa said "Come now, I think it's time we all had a proper meal, yes?"

Part of her had feared that Lucius would flee then - that he'd mutter some excuse about taking a tray in his study, or that he wasn't hungry at all, and take that moment to disappear from any potential discomfort, or perhaps resolving to still cling to his disapproval as if that broom had not already long taken flight and departed.

But he did not. How could he, with Evelyn grasping his free hand and nominating him to lead her to the dining room?

A/N: I think we could get even one more chapter out of this scenario if people are really enjoying it! Let me know what you think. Can also confirm that Narcissa is a bit of an unreliable narrator on this score, viewing Evelyn's confidence as being entirely down to Draco and discounting Marilyn, but I do think that would be a very Narcissa take to have, so it is what it is.

I realised in this chapter how much I've really missed writing Draco and Marilyn's back and forths. I don't know what it is about them, it's not even remotely difficult to write, they just do it. Hopefully you guys enjoyed the return of it as much as I did! I do feel like it's the sort of thing that their children would be like "ugh, gross" about once they got to that stage in age where they're mortified by everything. Maybe I'll need to feature that in a chapter at a later date!