Stolen Time

Come To Realize

xxxxxx

Tonks woke up, lifting her head as if it weighed a hundred pounds. She was curled on the sofa in the sitting room of her parents' house. I don't remember coming back here, she thought. Maybe I was knocked silly and Remus brought me back here... Carefully, Tonks swung her feet to the floor and pushed herself to her feet. I need to go feed Teddy, she thought, staggering toward the stairs, rubbing a hand over her face to clear her head, as she began to ascend the stairs. Tonks stopped halfway up, unable to shake the sensation something was amiss. After the months and weeks of recognition of the signals her body sent her, she felt something was wrong. Her hand rose and pressed against her breast. The ever-present feeling of heaviness wasn't there. Tonks glanced down. She was wearing her favorite jeans. I wasn't wearing those when I left the house... And I haven't been able to fit into them since my third month... 'I can't have been unconscious for that long...' Tonks continued up the stairs and dashed into Teddy's room.

It was empty. No cot, no small stuffed bunny, no rocking chair.

Feeling her heart still, Tonks turned into the bedroom she shared with Remus. The cradle wasn't next to the bed. 'Mum? Teddy?' She dashed down the stairs into the back garden. It was completely unfamiliar. 'Mum? Mum?' Shaking, Tonks sank to the dewy grass. Where the bloody hell am I?

xxxxxx

As he faded from Harry's view, Remus turned to James, Lily, and Sirius. 'So now what?' he asked in bemusement. Before the others could answer, he heard a familiar echo vibrating through his bones. Without thinking, he turned and ran toward it.

Remus pelted through the valley, coming to a sudden stop at the sight of Tonks huddled on the grass. 'What in Godric's name are you doing here?' he blurted.

Tonks lifted her face from her drawn-up knees. 'I'd tell you if I knew exactly where "here" was,' she retorted tartly.

'I told you to stay home with Teddy!'

Tonks sprang to her feet. 'Where are we?' she shouted.

'You... you don't know?' Remus was visibly taken aback.

'Clearly.'

'Dora... You're... We're dead...'

'No...' she whispered, anguished.

'Why didn't you stay home with Teddy?' Remus asked harshly.

'I'm a bloody Auror,' she snapped. 'D'you honestly believe that I was just going to sit at home?' Tonks wrapped her arms around her ribcage. 'I wasn't going to let you fight this alone,' she ground out as she struck out for the edge of the valley. 'Don't you think I was thinking about Teddy when I joined you?' she spat.

'Dora...' Remus reached for her.

'Don't touch me.'

xxxxxx

Lily chewed her lower lip. She didn't feel it was her place to interfere, but Tonks had been sitting on a ridge that Lily had favored when Harry was still a baby for days. Not that time had any meaning here, but Tonks hadn't so much as moved since she arrived. Lily flipped her hair over her shoulder and strode to Tonks. She settled next to the younger woman and wrapped an arm around Tonks' trembling shoulders. 'I know it's difficult,' she began.

'I'm a terrible mother,' Tonks whispered raggedly.

'No. You're not.'

'You didn't abandon your baby.'

Lily sighed, and smoothed the tumbled hair from Tonks' face. 'No, I didn't. But if I'd had a real choice, I wouldn't be here, and Harry wouldn't have been raised by my sister.' She heard the grass behind her rustle and felt Remus' arm slip around his wife. Lily gently pulled her arm away from Tonks and stood up, breathing a sigh of relief as Tonks leaned into Remus.

'I'm sorry,' Remus murmured.

'I couldn't stay home,' Tonks wailed softly. 'I couldn't not do anything. I couldn't let them win and make Teddy's life miserable. Or my life.'

Remus shifted guiltily. If the other side had won, she and Teddy would never have been able to live normal lives, because of him. 'I know...' Remus' hand tangled in Tonks' tumbled hair. 'I asked Harry to be his godfather,' he said tentatively. 'I meant to tell you earlier, but in the excitement of the moment, I forgot to say something.'

Tonks swiped a sleeve over her face. 'Why?'

Remus smiled a little grimly. 'If anyone would understand what this would be like for Teddy, it would be Harry.' He gently thumbed a tear from Tonks' face. 'Between your mum and Harry, Teddy will know what it's like to be loved. And if I know Harry, he won't ever let Teddy forget about us...'

xxxxxx

Tonks' hand traced over Remus' back. There was something different that she couldn't put her finger on. She propped herself on one elbow, and spread her hand over his skin. She should have felt a web of old and faded scars laced under newer ones. But her fingers glided over smooth skin stretched over his shoulders. She pushed the hair that fell into Remus' face away, the silky strands slipping through her fingers. It had been heavily threaded with grey before, but not now. It was the color of the tuft of hair that graced Teddy's head, before it began to change. Frowning, she examined his face closely under the faint light of the stars. It was unscarred and unlined, save for a few lines around his eyes. He looked like the thirty-eight year-old man he should have been. 'What are you doing?'

The rumble of Remus' voice startled Tonks. She thought he had been sleeping. 'Have you noticed anything? Anything odd?'

Remus turned over on his back, enjoying the feel of the cool grass on his bare skin. 'Not particularly.'

Tonks lifted one of his hands, so the back was inches from his eyes. 'See anything out of the ordinary?' she demanded.

Remus pried his hand from Tonks' grasp, sitting up slowly. He held his hands up, turning them over. 'No scars...' He scrambled to his feet, twisting and turning, trying to see every possible inch of skin he could. 'No scars... anywhere...'