Lily shoved her way out from underneath James in the morning in such desperation to make it to the loo on time without having her morning sickness all over the hall that James rolled right off the bed with a thump and a shout.

Sirius was already in the bathroom, lying in the bath tub, a wet wash cloth over his eyes, unlit cigarette hanging from his mouth. "Lilith?" he groaned as she fell to her knees and started retching.

The bathroom door opened a moment later and Sirius moved the cloth from his eyes to see James pulling Lily's hair away from her face gently. "YOU," Sirius groaned. "You are the reason. You and your gods damed penis!" He threw the wet cloth at James.

"You are not my fault," James said. "You brought yours on yourself, rather." He pushed Sirius's arm out of the way and sat on the edge of the tub. Sirius raised an eyebrow at James's bum, smirking, as James leaned forward, the fabric of his pyjamas pulling tight over his rather nicely shaped back end. James bent so his mouth was close to Lily's ear, "I'm here, Love." His palm ran down her back on soft circles as she continued throwing up.

Suddenly Remus was in the door way with a box of soda crackers. "I think you've cleaner Lily and James out of digestives, Sirius, so we'll have to pop by market to get -- Oh you're up."

"Yes, we're up," James said as Sirius held out grabby fingers for the box of soda crackers.

Remus handed Sirius the box, and patted Lily on the back gently.

When Lily had finished, and Sirius had shared his soda crackers with her, James went to change for work while Remus and the other two went downstairs. Spencer wasn't up yet, and Remus say heavily in the chair in the living room while Lily lay on the couch and Sirius, in dog form, climbed up to lay on her legs.

"Thanks again for letting us stay here last night," Remus said, motioning at Sirius and the ceiling.

"Of course. Mum said she was alright staying with Minnie until it's all sorted," Lily replied.

"I wish we had a third room in the flat," Remus lamented. "I'd feel a lot better if I could keep him close, keep an eye on him, and if what Sirius and James said his grandfather's is like - I don't much fancy him being sent off alone. He needs guidance through all this."

"Oh absolutely," Lily nodded. "He doesn't want to be alone, either, he's very afraid of the idea of it. He needs time to settle."

Remus frowned.

"He can stay here until we have to put together the baby's room..."

"Yeah, but I wish he was staying with us."

"Perhaps Peter could come live with us," Lily suggested.

Remus nodded, "That may be an option... But I have no idea how we would approach him with the idea without him thinking Sirius and I don't want him anymore. You know how sensitive he can be."

James came trotting down the stairs then, dressed in his smart grey and purple suit, still finishing his twenty-eight buttons, hair sleekeazied nicely. He nearly tripped on the uneven step, catching himself and cursing, before continuing down the steps to the foyer. He braced himself against the wall with one hand as he pulled and kicked his boots on with the other.

"Come here honey and I'll do your tie before you go," Lily called, motioning for James. He hurried over and flung himself down onto the coffee table and leaned over so she could reach the tie. Lily swept the tie into the windsor knot and tucked it into his vest, smoothing it with her palm. "There you go, my handsome husband."

James grinned, "Thanks, Love." He leaned forward and kissed her.

The dog sighed from Lily's lap and James laughed and mussed the dog's hairy head as he got up. "See you later, Moony," he said as he passed Remus. He was grabbing the floo powder from the mantel when a tapping sounded on the kitchen window.

James put the powder back down and hurried to open the window - a large owl flew in, deposited a letter on the counter, and settled on a chair to rest before leaving again. James got an owl nut from the jar of them and the owl clicked its beak happily, eating its snack. Snuffles had sat up, ears perked, head tilted in question.

"It's from Mr. Underhill," James said, inspecting the letter. He broke the seal open and unrolled the scroll quickly.

"What's he written?" Lily asked with concern, "You were on your way, he couldn't wait just a few seconds?"

James was staring at the scroll, his face unreadable.

Remus turned, wincing, looking over at James, too, as the silence went on, James staring at the parchment. Snuffles looked suddenly at Remus, then back to James, and there was a crack as he leaped over the back of the couch, changing midway, so that he landed on his human feet as he came around into the kitchen, reaching for the parchment.

"James?" Lily sat up.

Sirius had snatched the letter out of his hand and was reading it, back to the living room, glaring down at it.

"Mr. Underhill would like to see Remus at our office," James said.

Remus's face paled. "What? Why?"

"Doesn't say," James said.

"You're not going," Sirius announced, throwing the letter onto the coffee table. "James - go in, just pretend you didn't get the letter. Hold him off, tell him Rey's busy today, tell him whatever. That'll give us 24 hours to get to Costa Rica and change our names. I'll be Jarvier and you can be Rico and --"

"How would he have heard about --" Lily glanced at Remus, then at the ceiling meaningfully. "Nobody outside of this room, apart from Mum, knows what happened."

"Well Em and Marly," James said.

"-- and we'll live off enchiladas and Uncle Alphard's money, and --"

"But Em and Marly wouldn't tell anyone," Lily said.

Remus was shaking. "Oh gods," he gasped.

"-- James whats the translation spell you're using for the deaf girl at Hogwarts? Think it'll modify to translate Costa Rican?"

"Spanish, Sirius, they speak Spanish."

"Whateverthefuck?!"

"Everyone calm down!" Lily said over the confusing amount of voices talking at once. A feeling of tranquility spread around the room, sinking into each of them, and they quieted down. "There we are," Lily murmured.

"That's very impressive," Remus commented, still calm.

James had plucked the letter from the counter. "I don't think it's related to Spencer. I think he may just be researching for the case."

Remus looked scared.

"Don't worry, Remus, obviously, we're not going to let anything happen to you here," Lily said, reaching for Rey's hand. "You're under our roof, so --"

"Didn't stop Frank Longbottom the betraying sodcake from arresting me here," Sirius said darkly.

"Arrest?" Remus asked, eyes wild. He looked at James and Lily in a panic.

There was a creak on the stair and they looked over to see Spencer just coming down the second landing. "They can't arrest him, I'm not pressing charges!" Spencer declared as he entered the room.

Lily squeezed Remus's hand tighter as Remus closed his eyes to gather strength and patience. James could tell by the strained look on Lily's face that the strength gathered was coming directly from Lily herself, from her love magic, and that worried him. It worried him because she was tired from whatever love magic she had performed the day before and because whatever Lily felt now, so did their baby... What if the baby felt the stress she'd lifted off Spencer? Felt the nervousness and the worry she was picking up from Remus?

James stepped forward quickly, breaking the connection of her hand and his. Lily looked up at James and he shook his head at her silently telling her not to reconnect it. Her brows came together, questioning, but she didn't reach for Remus again. James made a mental note to talk to Lily about the love magic and the effects it might have on the baby later, more privately. He didn't want Remus to feel guilty about it if he heard the question - Remus had enough he felt guilty about already.

"If he was arresting Remus, why wouldn't he just send aurors?" Lily asked.

"Because he knows we wouldn't let them in again after what Longbottom did last time," Sirius said.

James shook his head, "No, Lily's right, Sirius, he would've just sent the aurors. This has got to be just research for the Blackburn case. He sent this discreetly - that's not a Ministry bird that's come, that's a personal owl." He looked over to where the owl was preening its wing on the chair still, "See, look, he's awaiting a reply, too, and he hasn't asked for payment. Ministry owls would never. This isn't anything official, which means it's off the record."

Sirius shook his head, "I don't care if it's --"

"Sirius, it's fine," Remus's tone was low and commanding and they all looked at Remus in surprise. Spencer had made his way from the stairs to the other chair in the living room, and Remus was now sitting up a bit straighter, his chin lifted. He pushed himself up from the chair, and shook his wand into a cane to lean upon. "It's alright. I am not afraid of a few questions. Whatever they're about."

Sirius looked upset, "But Moony --"

"I am right, Sirius."

Lily was looking between Remus and Spencer, biting her lips, eyes wide.

Sirius frowned.

But Spencer stared at Remus with a look somewhere between worry and admiration.

James cleared his throat, "Alright, then. Do - do you need to get ready or --"

"I'm ready," Remus said, shrugging. He was wearing his sweat pants and a wrinkled t-shirt over socks and trainers. "I'm tired and sore from the moon, he can take me as I am or else wait for another day if he wants me dressed up."

"Fair enough," James chuckled.

Lily started to get up, "Should we come with you just in case?"

Remus shook his head. "You lot stay here and we'll be back in a jiffy."

James nodded in agreement with Remus.

Remus went and hugged Sirius, running his fingers over Sirius's cheek. "Listen," he said quietly, low enough only Sirius could hear - well, maybe Spencer with the new wolf hearing, "I love you, and I'm fine. It's going to be alright."

"He shouldn't know about your furry little problem at all," muttered Sirius. "It's my fault he does."

Remus stroked Sirius's cheek. "I'll be alright."

"What could he possibly want to know about Blackburn that you could tell him? He's probably one of those racist arseholes that think all werewolves know each other."

Remus kissed Sirius's cheek. "I'll tell you all about it when I'm back; in just a few minutes. Alright?"

Sirius drew a deep breath, then nodded and kissed Remus.

When Remus drew away, he said, "I love you. But don't worry. Things are alright."

Sirius said, "I love you, too. It's my job to worry about you."

Remus drew away and followed James to the floo.

"Ministry for Magic!" James called, throwing his powder down and stepping into the hearth, "Auror Wing!" And with a flash of green, he'd gone.

Spencer stared on in awe.