George paced up and down the hall outside of Angelina's room at St. Mungo's. The Healers had refused to let him come in — not that it mattered all that much since Freddy was with him. The little boy in question was sitting on one of the chairs lined up against the wall, coloring in a book George had brought along with him. Thank fuck, he was entertained because George couldn't deal with a squalling three-year-old right now.

It was May. Angelina wasn't due for another month and a half, but she'd been having sharp pains in her stomach since early that morning. Not that she had bothered to tell George that because she assumed that they were Braxton Hicks. By the time George had known there was anything wrong, Angelina had clear liquid running down her leg and was bent in half with pain. George tried, unsuccessfully, to get a hold of his mother. With no time to send an owl, he had rushed both Angelina and Freddy to St. Mungo's. Before they'd taken her back, Angelina told him that it was Katie's day off and to just have her come get Freddy. So, he'd had one of the Healers send an owl to the blonde. His hands were shaking too badly to write by that point.

Now that they'd taken Angelina, he couldn't figure out what exactly was going on in that room. All the rooms in St. Mungo's had strong silencing wards around them, no doubt to ensure maximum privacy. No one had entered or exited the room either, so there was no one he could ply for information.

"George!"

He spun around to see Katie hurrying down the hallway toward him. Oliver was behind her, their two blonde boys pumping their little legs fast to keep up. They must have hurried over here, George thought, because bits of Katie's hair were falling out of her top knot, Oliver looked half asleep, and Hunter's shirt was on inside out. Little Jack seemed to be the only one put together.

"What happened?" Katie asked when she reached him.

He shook his head. "I don't know."

Katie crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, what have the Healers said? Did they tell you why they thought that she went into labor early?"

"No," George said. "They haven't told me anything."

"Well, have you talked to the front desk?" she said.

"Yes," he ground out. "No one has left that room since we got here."

Determination flashed in Katie's eyes and she turned to a passing Healer. "Dana! How are you?"

"Katie?" the woman said, slowing down. "I almost didn't recognize you without your Healer robes. How are you?"

"I'm alright," she said. "How are Jenny and Aline?"

George stared at her in disbelief as she continued to make small talk with this random Healer while his wife, her best friend, was no doubt suffering right now. Who cared if Jenny was about to start walking soon? Oliver looked just as confused, his brow knit together and his mouth slightly agape.

"I don't mean to pry," Katie said, leaning forward conspiratorially. "But my friend is in that room and, well, I was hoping for an update on her."

The Healer looked at the door and winced. "No good news, I'm afraid. Baby was in the wrong position and she's a month and a half early. They're trying to get it in the right position now, and working real fast to do it. She'd been in labor for a while before she came in."

George felt the color drain from his face as she finished. Katie thanked the Healer while he slumped back against the wall completely boneless. There was a faint ringing in his ears, like the ringing after he found out Fred was gone. Except when Fred had died, he'd felt anger and pain so sharp in chest that he couldn't breathe properly. Now he was just numb.

He didn't realize he was on the floor until he saw Katie kneeling in front of him, concern sparkling in her blue eyes.

"It's gonna be ok," she said. "She's gonna be ok."

"I can't loose her, too," he whispered brokenly.

And he wanted to scream with the unfairness of it. The world had already split his heart down the middle when it took his twin. Now it wanted to take the only good thing in his life.

"You won't," she said. "Healer Minos is working tonight, and Angelina is in good hands. I promise." Katie glanced out of the corner of her before focusing on George again. Then her eyes widened and she whipped around. "Boys! Stop jumping on those chairs!"

Wearily, George followed her line of sight, and sure enough, her boys were jumping up and Freddy with them.

Freddy. During these past few minutes, he'd completely forgotten about Freddy. What was he going to tell him if something happened to Angelina?

"Alright, get down," Oliver said sternly as he started toward the trio. Freddy and Jack both plopped down, but Hunter just started to hop away from him chair by chair. Oliver caught him easily and picked up the squirming boy. With Hunter in hand, he came back over to George and Katie. "I'll take them home. Let me know when you have an update."

"Mama," Hunter said loudly reaching for Katie.

"No, baby, you have to go with Daddy," Katie said.

"Mama," he repeated stubbornly.

"Do you want ice cream?" Katie said.

"Yes."

"Alright, well, go home and Daddy will get you some ice cream."

"We're getting ice cream?" Jack said suddenly popping up next to Oliver.

Clearly ice cream was the magic word.

"I want ice cream," Freddy said excitedly.

Oliver just closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Alright, let's go."

Katie and George both watched him leave.

"Oliver won't survive the three of them on a sugar high," George said.

"He captains a professional Quidditch team," Katie said. "He'll be fine."

"I think I'd take the professional Quidditch team."

They lapsed into silence after that, both of them leaning against the wall shoulder to shoulder. George wanted to bang his head against the wall. Despite Katie's reassurance that Ange was going to be ok, he couldn't stop himself from picturing her eyes completely empty like Fred's had been on the day of the battle.

"You remember when we were in school, and Ron hit me in the face with the Quaffle?" Katie said. When George nodded, she continued, "Fred gave me that pill to stop the bleeding, but it only made it worse."

George smiled softly. "He felt really bad about that."

"I wouldn't have known," she said. "He never mentioned it to me."

"He wouldn't have, but he was feeling guilty days after it happened."

Katie chuckled. "I remember Ange was really mad about it. Said that if you two weren't the best Beater she'd ever seen, she would have thrown your asses off the pitch for that nonsense."

A genuine smile overtook his face. That was something Angelina would say.

"It makes me wonder if back then, she saw herself here," Katie said. "Like, I never thought I'd be married to Oliver or have two boys. I always wanted a girl."

"Guess you got fucked over there, huh?"

"Shut up. I just . . . I wonder if our teenage selves would have ever thought they'd be in our shoes one day."

"No," George said. "I don't think they did."

He certainly hadn't. If you'd have asked seventeen-year-old George were he was going to be when he was thirty, he'd have said something along the lines of rolling in a shit-ton of money with a different girl on his arm every week. Certainly not in a hospital hoping that his wife was going to live through the rest of the night.

"I hope they would be proud of us."

"They would."

The door to Angelina's room opened, and both George and Katie scrambled up from the floor. Healer Minos stepped out, her hair in the same slicked back bun that George remembered from hours ago.

"Hello, George." Her eyes flitted to the right. "Katie?"

"Hi," she said. "I'm keeping George company."

"Right." The Healer turned back to him. "Well, Angelina is going to be ok." George could feel the tension leave his body; so much so that he had to lean against the wall for support because his knees felt like jelly. "She did really well, all things considered, but she does need rest. We've taken the baby back to check her lungs and make sure everything is working well. We'll want to keep her until at least the thirty-seven week mark just to make sure there are no complications."

"She's . . . she's ok?" George croaked.

"She's stable," Minos said. "But we should know more within the next few hours." She nodded toward the door. "You can go in now if you like."

George glanced over at Katie.

"Well go on," she said. "I'll check in on you all in the morning."

Spinning on his heel, George marched into the room.

Angelina was sitting the bed looking tired and rung out. A bunch of the staff was swarming around her, running their wands over her to check her vitals. Her hair was dark with sweat, and there were tear stains on her cheeks. She looked . . . fragile. In all the years he'd known her, that was never a word he'd used to describe her. Fierce, brave, talented, but never fragile. She looked like a ghost of herself. Gently, George sat down on the edge of the bed, finding her hand and interlacing thier fingers.

"Hey," he said.

"Where's Freddy?" she asked. Her voice was so soft, almost weak. Nothing like her usual timber.

"With Oliver," George said. "Katie's outside, but I'm sure she'll head home soon."

"No doubt, after she integrates the Healer."

George smiled slightly. "Yeah. How you feelin'?"

"Exhausted," Angelina said. "What'd they say about the baby?"

He shrugged. "They think she's ok, but they'll know more in a few hours." He wound his fingers into her thick hair, gently messaging the nape of her neck. A few months ago, she'd taken the braids out and she'd never put them back in. Angelina was particular about her hair. She didn't like for other people to do it, and George suspected she was too miserably pregnant to put it back up herself. "You need to rest. That's what they told me."

"Well, I don't think I'll be trying to run laps around the floor any time soon."

George gave a watery laugh.

"I thought I was going to loose you, Angelina."

She turned sad eyes on him then. When she started to press her hands into the bed to sit up straighter, George panicked. She couldn't be moving around yet. His hands found her upper arms, trying to steady her. Angelina took his face in her hands.

"I am not going anywhere, George," she said firmly. And there she was — his Angelina. "And you are never going to loose me."

Throat clogged with emotion, he rested his forehead against her own. The nurse found them like that when she came back in the room, their foreheads pressed together and Angelina leaning heavily on him.

"Here's the little bundle of joy," she said cheerfully. "She's a squaller, this one, but everything has checked out alright. We'll need to keep her here for several weeks to make sure she's developing alright, but for now, I'll let you have some alone time with her."

When she cheerfully offered the little bundle to him, George recoiled slightly, his eyes widening. Angelina held out her arms instead. They were silent as the nurse walked around the room humming. When she finally left, George glanced over at Angelina.

"She's so small," he whispered.

She couldn't have been more than a few pounds. As he peaked over the blankets, he saw that she had little tuffs of curly hair stuck to her head, so unlike Freddy, who came out with a head full of thick black hair. She had Angelina's pretty face shape and George's sharp nose. Her skin was a few shades lighter than Freddy's was now, but George suspected that would change with time.

"She's perfect," Angelina said, running her finger down the side of her check. She yawned and blinked her eyes open. They were same light hazel as his own. "Don't you want to hold her?"

"I . . ."

His throat bobbed as he considered. A part of him did want to hold his daughter, but she looked so tiny, fragile like Angelina had moments ago. George didn't want to break her.

"Here," Angelina said gently, lifting the baby towards him. Automatically, his arms came up to take her. This was habit, born out of being an uncle eight times over. The breath rushed out of his lungs as he smiled down at the baby.

"Hello, Roxanne," he said shakily.

Angelina had picked out the name. She said she wanted something bright and happy. It fit the light girl in his arms perfectly. George ran his finger down her cheek, the skin soft under his callouses. The same joy that filled him when he'd first seen Freddy came rushing at him again. It embraced him sharply, a balm to the previous turmoil he'd been feeling. Gently, he raised her up, resting his forehead against hers.

"Hello, sweet girl."

A/N: I promise this is as angsty as it will get! But all the fluff was starting to make my teeth rot XD

Seriously though, I've always thought Roxanne was a premie and that Angelina had complications when she delivered her. This always feels like an important moment to me so there was no way I could skip over it. Hope you enjoyed!