Lily and James appeared, still holding hands, in the middle of the woods. They stood still, facing one another, palms interlocked, both looking about warily.

"Perhaps this is where the Safe House is?" James asked.

Lily's eyes were full of tears that hadn't yet fallen.

"Evans," James said, "Hey, we're going to find him... Perhaps we just need to try again. I think... maybe I thought of the forest and messed us up, or -"

"No this is it," Lily breathed, and she broke her hands away from his, walking as though dazed through the trees.

James trotted after her, his wand drawn, peering through the shadowy distance.

Lily followed a path that broke through the brush, which curved ever westward until it broke through the treeline and into a rock ledge that over hanged the sea, all teal blue under the stars.

"Evans."

Lily turned around. James was holding up a wand - not his own. She hurried back to him, her heart in he throat.

"Is that his?" James asked, nervousness in his voice.

Lily took it in her hands and she gasped, nodding.

James looked around the ground, his eyes wide as Lily clutched the wand. "James - if he doesn't have his wand - if they took him -"

"I know, Evans..."

"He's helpless without his wand."

"I know."

Lily closed her eyes, and the tears started falling even as James walked in slow circles, searching the ground. "There's no evidence of a struggle or anything..." he murmured.

Lily turned and looked at the sea.

"I don't think he was attacked - if he was, there wasn't any fight to it..."

Lily inched onto the stone precipice, holding Regulus's wand in her fist tightly.

"Perhaps we should bring it to Frank and have him do a priori...?" James asked, and he looked up to see Lily on the stones ledge. "Oi. Careful Evans!" he moved quickly up behind her and caught her hand and pulled her back from the edge. "Goes straight down that does... You'd be crushed on impact... I dunno the math, but Remus does, if you asked him, he'd tell it to you."

Lily stretched at the length of both their arms, trying to see down the cliffside.

"What?" James's fingers were twice as tight on hers.

"Well what if he --" Lily nodded at the cliff.

James frowned.

"Have you got your broomstick?"

"No... I'm not Sirius, I don't carry flying vehicles in my pockets," James said.

Lily leaned as far as she possibly dared; even knowing James has her hands, the cliffside was still intimidating. But it was enough.

"Oh no. Oh no. James! James he's - he's down there." Lily pointed.

James took a breath and peered over. Laying on a rock, still, limbs splayed, was Regulus Black.

He turned and rushed 'round to where the ground went down in a slope, a narrow clutch of ground to balance on. Lily followed, coming after him, and they threaded their way down on the impossibly narrow path. At the bottom, the water crashed against the stone wall of the cliff, washing in and out over huge boulders that lined where the sea met the land in the sharp, solid wall.

James motioned for Lily to stay put at a particular spot, and he went on, picking his way across the rocks, his trainers slipping on algae and slick spots as he clambered over them.

"Oh be careful!" Lily cried as James slid down the far side of one of the stones, landing in a pool of water between a cluster of the rocks. He ripped his trousers at the knee and the skin was scraped underneath. He crawled over the next rock a bit more carefully, and finally reached the rock where Regulus lay.

James slid across it to Regulus's side, his hand flying to Regulus's jugular to feel for the pulse.

He was relieved to feel it.

It was weak but there.

"James!"

"He's alive Evans!"

"Oh gods." She sounded relieved, and he glanced back to see she had sank against the cliffwall, still clutching onto Regulus's wand like a talisman.

James shook Regulus, but he didn't move aside from the roll of his head to one side.

"Hey, Reg, wake up," he murmured, trying a second time. When there was still no response, he raised his wand and touched it to Regulus's chest. "Ennevate!"

Regulus awoke with a start, his eyes flashing, and he sat up very suddenly, knocking James back off his haunches, and then twisted and promptly threw up a good deal of water. He had particles of grey-brown beach sand stuck to his cheek - where it had come from, there was no telling. There was no sand there on the rocks, only thick algae that covered one side of the stones like moss on trees. Regulus gasped in lungfuls of air, and his hands grappled against the stone.

"Sirius - Sirius - where's Sirius?!"

"He's back at the flat, mate. He's alright."

"No he was - he - he was in the water with me! He --"

James looked at the water, then at Regulus doubtfully. "Reg, mate..." then, deciding better of it, he said, "Let's you get out of here alright. We'll talk at home." He held out his palm to Regulus.

"Evans?"

She looked up. "Meet at home?"

"Alright!"

"Come on, Reg," James urged him. Regulus took James's hand, and with a nod to Lily, Regulus and James disappeared.

Lily watched them go, then started to go herself, but hesitated. She looked out at the sea - so bright teal - and she felt a twinge. The sea so teal, the stars so bright... She closed her eyes, her mind still turning over the words the runes had said.

Lily thought, If love doesn't pass away, if love is forever, then when a person passes away, their love lives on. And if the love lives on, then so, too, does the person - at least in some small way, at very least.

The sea raged, but there in the cleft of the rocks at the base of the cliff it was safe... and love had carried her and James precisely where they needed to be to find Regulus... Lily's eyes were still closed, but the world was so teal there that she could almost see the color through closed eyelids.

She could feel the love that was there - it was like it was electricity that was crackling in the air, strong and alive.

"Maryrose?" Lily whispered. "I dunno if you can hear me. But if you can... if you are there... there just out of sight, out of reach... I just want you to know that James and I will take care of him for you. We'll take care of him and see to it that he is okay. I promise."

The wind blew, and with it a caress came to Lily's cheek, and she smiled and drew a deep breath, opening her eyes and with one last, long stare at the teal of everything around her, Lily disapparated.

James was just getting to the door of the flat when Lily appeared at the foot of the stair. He had his wand clenched in his teeth, and was carrying Regulus, who was passed back out again. Regulus's head lay against James's shoulder, looking like a child that fell asleep on the long car ride home.

Lily ran up the steps and opened the door for James, who mumbled a thank you around his wand.

The flat was quiet, just as they'd left it with one minor change - Peter was back on the couch, none the wiser that he'd ever been gone. The blankets were tugged to his chin.

Lily whispered, "Take him to our room. I'll get some food in case he wakes up hungry."

James nodded and headed to the hallway, then whispered, "Evans!"

She looked 'round at him as she headed to the kitchen.

"Rescue missions really take it out of a lad."

"Two sandwiches coming up."

"And crisps Evans."

"And crisps."

James carried Regulus into their bedroom and set him on the foot of the bed, and bent to take off Regulus's shoes. They were full of beach sand, just like the sand that was been stuck to his face and his clothes. "What in the world?" James whispered, confused. There was no sand where they'd found Regulus - only sharp cliff face and rocks at the bottom, not even a proper shore.

Furthermore, as James used magic to quickly change Regulus's clothes for the extra pair of his own pyjamas, he found that Regulus's clothes had a stiff, salty feeling to them as though he'd been swimming. It was more than just getting washed over by some waves on the rock would've done - the clothes had dried stiff and gross, and the bits the tide had got at were still damp in comparison.

When he was all changed - and still out - James carefully lifted him up and lay him back down again in the proper place on the bed, carefully tucking him in. He waved his wand for his desk chair to fly over and he sat down beside the bed, staring in concern at Regulus, his mouth twisted with puzzlement.

Lily came in with two plates, handed one to James and put the other on the night stand. She carried her chair over and sank down beside James. He already had the first half of his sandwich in his mouth. Lily reached over and took a crisp from his pile. "You gave him your pyjamas," she noticed.

James nodded, "Cuhhdnt puhhd hmm tuh bhhhd nn tuh whhhd kwohhhz." Lily raised an eyebrow as James swallowed his food roughly. "I couldn't put him to bed in the wet clothes."

"How do you think he got down there? You don't think he fell?"

"Couldn't have fallen, he would've died on impact," James said. "Even if it was water he landed on it would've been a lot more messy. Remus will tell you the math of it," James repeated, thinking of Remus's panic the summer James and Sirius had taken up bridge diving as a hobby. The cliffside was at least twice the height off the surface as that train bridge had been. He shook his head. "What doesn't make sense to me is he's covered with beach sand."

"How? There was no beach there."

James shook his head.

Lily took another crisp and James ate more of his sandwich. They were both quiet.

Lily was thinking about how she's felt Maryrose there. She wondered if she ought to mention it to James.

James was thinking about how Regulus had said Sirius has been there in the water with him. James stood up, putting the plate onto the desk, "Be right back," he said.

He ducked into the hall, crossed the corridor, and pushed opened Remus and Sirius's door. They were asleep, tangled up limbs and blankets, and it was hard to tell exactly where one ended and the other began.

James stared for a long moment as though convincing himself of what he was seeing, and closed the door. He went back to the bedroom and found Lily bent forward, crying, holding Regulus's hand.

"Evans?" he asked quietly, coming over and sitting back down, putting his hand on her back. "Why's it I find you sitting alone and blubbering so much? Talk to me love."

"He's been through so much," she whispered.

"I know."

"No, it's so much more than you know, James." Tears were pouring down her face. "He has so much on him. He's just a kid... it isn't fair..."

James leaned over and held her as she held Regulus's hand. She cried into James's arm, pressing her face into his bicep.

"Shhh, Evans, it's alright," James whispered. "It's alright... he's home now."