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Remus knows something has changed the moment he walks into the flat.
The lights are low, the curtains drawn and the only light in the room coming from the multitude of candles that cover every visible surface of their living room and kitchen bar.
In the background, the screen on the TV is dark but provides the basic light as old 80s music fills the air.
He hums quietly, slipping off his shoes by the door and hanging up his messenger bag on the peg in the entryway before moving further into the flat.
Sirius must have been busy today, the smell of bleach and disinfectant paired with the oddly spotless appearance of their usually messy apartment a bit shocking at first glance.
He makes his way into the kitchen, noting that the floors are still drying as he makes quick work of filling a tumbler with ice and water from the fridge. His husband is nowhere to be found, but there are only so many places he could be in the tiny apartment.
Gathering up the water bottle and dampening a washcloth in the sink, Remus finds his eyes sliding over to the random strip of wall that served no other purpose other than holding the silly calendar they had bought back in January, one with dogs wearing hats, and their mail, and a few Polaroids that didn't fit into frames and seemed too valuable to end up on the fridge.
Remus touches the calendar, his fingers tracing down the weeks until he lands on today.
Three days after the big red circle that happened to land on a Tuesday, a day that they had waited on bated breath to come for the last nine months now.
They had tried for years, shots and tests and blood and sweat and tears; each month it hadn't happened Sirius had ripped the page from the calendar and tossed it into the trash, leaving the room in a flourish of anger and sadness that left Remus a bit dazed in his wake.
It had reached the point where a little more than a year ago they had come to a mutual understanding that they wouldn't try anymore.
That sometimes these things just didn't work out, and it was causing more pain than good to keep trying.
And then three months later, just as they had fallen back into any semblance of a regular routine, Sirius got an inkling.
Just a feeling, something so small and fleeting he wasn't even sure it was real.
But there was an unopened pack of tests under the bathroom sink, and it hadn't even taken the full five minutes for that little plus sign to appear in the test window.
And here they were today.
Today.
It was happening today.
He finds his husband in their bedroom, leaning over their bed with his hands fisting into the sheets beside the pile of laundry he was working on.
Remus stands in the doorway, watching in careful silence as Sirius's body tightens in slow increments, his globe of a stomach tightening and shrinking back thematically and his breath coming in soft little puffs as he works his way through it.
"Sirius," He calls softly, waiting for the other man to look up.
It takes a moment, the grips of his current predicament slowly leaving his body as the tension eases from his face and shoulders before looking up.
"Hi, Moons," He hums, a bit breathless as he stands up at his full height and shifts a bit on his feet.
"You're in labour."
There's no need for a preamble, no secrets kept between them. They've been waiting for this moment for so, so long now that Remus can't believe it's finally here.
"Yep, since right after you left for work this morning."
Sirius didn't seem bothered, going right back to folding the laundry as soon as the contraction let go of him completely and he took a deep breath.
"You should have called me,"
"But if I called you who was going to teach those lovely fifth years about the Odyssey?"
Remus chuckled, deep and warm down in his chest as he pushed off the wall and came to stand behind Sirius.
His hands came up, first to gently grip at his hips then up a bit further to hold the solid weight of Sirius's stomach.
The place where their baby had lived, had grown and thrived for the last nine months.
He catches Sirius turning his head, pressing his mouth to the soft stubble on his cheek.
"How far apart?"
"Eight minutes."
Oh.
That was a bit faster than he had thought it would be; based on most of his research first babies were usually slow.
"Did you call Mary?"
Mary McDonald, one of their closest friends, schoolmates, and certified midwife. The only person they trusted with their baby as much as they trusted each other with them.
"She's on her way," Sirius replies, moving back to the laundry.
"Did you call James and Regulus?"
"No."
Now that is a bit odd, considering the borderline gross codependency Sirius has with James Potter. They’ve been the best of friends since they all started at school together at the tender age of eleven. No secrets between them, you never see one without the other. Not to mention that James is married to Sirius's actual brother Regulus.
Sirius seems to sense the peculiar look Remus is giving him without even turning, instead folding another towel to perfection before shrugging slightly.
"We have time to let everyone know later. I just- I want this to just be for us."
Remus nods, pressing another kiss to the crown of his husband's head.
You're right.
We have all the time in the world.
Mary arrives in record time, not even bothering with knocking. She knows where the spare key is, hidden in the same place it had been since her friends had bought this house five years ago when they had moved in together.
She can feel the tingle of anticipation in the air, something her senses have become fine-tuned to pick up on after seven years as a midwife.
Slipping further into the house, she notes the burned-down candles and the fact that the soft music Sirius must have put on earlier had played through and been forgotten, the are you still watching? screen on the TV cutting through the darkness of the living room.
She had always liked The Lupin's house, warm and inviting and full of love. The couch was blue and soft, well-loved and comfortable in a way that takes time to achieve.
You can see straight into the kitchen from the living room, the open walkway shrouded in the old beaded curtains that hang from both ends of the opening to the kitchen.
Sirius is leaning over the kitchen counter, palms flat and shoulders tense as he rocks in Remus's hold. It's been a few weeks since she had seen him with Sirius receiving his checkups from her coworker Agnes, who was a registered OB and handled most of the clinical stuff at their business. His stomach bulged further than the last time they had come to one of the birthing classes she led at the community center.
His porcelain skin shone with a layer of sweat, his stance still squared as he hummed lowly and came forward to rest his head on his folded arms and murmured something unheard to his partner.
Remus glanced up and caught sight of Mary, offering her a bright smile as he grabbed a water bottle from the counter beside them and offered Sirius a drink.
"Mary's here," He whispered to Sirius, who just nodded in response and went back to swaying his hips to and fro.
Mary watches for a moment, taking the time to get a feel for what she's walking into.
They were completely in sync, as they always seemed to be. Two perfect puzzle pieces that fit together, the closest thing to soul mates any of their friends had ever seen.
As soon as the pain starts Remus finds his way to Sirius, hands pressing into the other man's hips or simply just holding his hand as he works his way through the spiral of pain.
There's a strain to his noises, in his shoulders and thighs as Remus keeps his arms locked under the slightly shorter man's arms, keeping him upright as he sways to a mindless tune in his head, the music long forgotten.
Waiting for a clear break in the pain, she moves into the kitchen quietly and stands beside Sirius, who lets out a muffled 'hello' from where he's dropped his head back against the counter.
"Do you need anything right now?"
Sirius blinks slowly, letting his eyes adjust to the light for a moment before turning his head to look at Mary with a soft smile.
"I'm okay."
Mary busies herself around the flat while Remus and Sirius stay in the kitchen, safe in a quiet little bubble of their own creation.
She inflates the pool, skirting around the couple to run the hose from the sink and making sure that the water is warm enough.
And then she waits.
And waits.
And it feels like hours, and it probably hasn't been that long, but time works differently during birth. It slows down, coming to a crawl, and you feel like you're not in your own body but watching from somewhere far above.
As things progress and the contractions get stronger and closer together, Mary stays out of Sirius's way as he meanders around the apartment. She stays close by, watching her friend pacing back and forth in the living room to standing, braced over a kitchen counter, eyes closed with one hand on the counter and the other on the side of his round stomach.
He seems to havr given up on the idea of getting any more housework done about an hour ago and had finally stripped out of his shirt in the hallway after a particularly nasty pain left him sweating and gasping.
Mary takes over for Remus timing the pains while Sirius rides them out. The pain is manageable for now, and Remus keeps seems to be more of a grounding presence to keep Sirius calm and collected more than anything else.
She doesn’t have an exact idea of when each one starts, but she can get a good idea from the noises Sirius makes; low moans and sharp breaths, little whines from the back of his throat.
When they get to three minutes apart, Sirius has stripped down completely and can't talk or move through the pain anymore. He groans, long and low through every pain, pressing his body to Remus's as he wraps his arms around his husband's neck and lets his weight fall onto him.
"Do you want-"
Sirius shakes his head before whatever suggestion he's about to say is even out of Remus's mouth.
Call it instinct, but Sirius feels safe here, in their apartment, with Remus.
Mary keeps an eye on him from her position perched on a kitchen stool, still timing the contractions and waiting for Sirius to call out for her when he needs to.
He’s not reacting to contractions as obviously as he was before, going somewhere deep within himself to cope with it, and Mary can tell things are ramping up.
His labour continues well into the night, the moon outside moving across the sky with practiced ease.
They end up in the bathroom, Remus leaning against the doorway just watching Sirius work his way through labour.
"Do you want to get in the shower?"
Sirius nods desperately, coming back up for air from a pain that had rocked him to his core.
That lasted ten minutes, with Sirius having three more contractions before deciding he couldn’t stand being on his feet anymore and settling on his hands and knees on the bathroom rug.
He grips the fibers of the rug between his fingers, feeling them give as he pulls while riding out contraction after contraction, groaning down in his chest through them now.
It’s a guttural, instinctual noise.
The contractions are getting harder and harder to manage, the gap between them is hardly noticeable now.
Somewhere in the back of Sirius's mind, he thinks he should really get up and get somewhere that isn't the bathroom floor, but he can't bear the thought of actually moving to make that happen.
There’s a terrible pressure in his hips that’s only been growing steadily more intense since he got down on the floor. His mind is fuzzy from labouring through the day and night, and maybe he’s not in his right mind to be making decisions, but the animal part of his brain still feels safe here, with Remus.
No sooner than the thought crosses his mind another contraction comes full force, sucking his breath away and leaving him scrambling to try and catch his breath. There's a pop, he feels it inside of him just as much as he hears it, and Remus's hands freeze where they've been applying counter pressure on his lower back.
He's floundering under the pressure and pain, his head spinning from lack of oxygen as he sinks down further onto his hands and looks down between his legs. They're dripping with fluid, all the way down to his knees and onto the rug below.
Okay.
"Oh," He manages to gasp out when he gets his breath again, shaking and moaning as the pain goes on and on, "Oh fuck Remus, my water broke."
Okay, this is happening.
"Yeah, it did," Remus says quietly as he moves onto one knee beside Sirius, who keeps his head bowed, "Do you want me to get Mary?"
Right now.
“Yeah, yep,” Sirius nods, rocking forward a bit with a low moan that has him clawing at the bath mat, "Yeah, please get her, I think- it's happening soon, oh god Remus, I-I-I-"
Remus can feel the tension in the air, can feel Sirius spiraling under the pain and panic coursing through his body and he moves closer, a hand brushing up and down Sirius's shoulders as he whines his way through another contraction.
“Mary,” Remus calls, a bit tense from the bathroom where he's on his knees beside Sirius, a hand between his shoulders, "Can you-"
Mary looks up from where she’s going over paperwork in the living room, their furniture shoved up against the wall to make space for the pool that she is suddenly suspecting will be going unused.
Something was definitely happening; she could tell from the sudden tensing of Sirius's thighs and the way his lips parted into an ‘O’ of surprise.
She's seen it before countless times in her field of work, but it's a bit different when it's your friends who have been trying and hoping and longing for a baby for so long.
"What are you feeling Sirius?"
"It's- I-" He's shaking again, his eyes wide and feral in the dim light of the room, "I don't know, it's different."
Different.
Yep, things were ramping up. She could sense the tension in Sirius's body, the way the energy in the room had shifted to a final conclusion.
“Okay, Hold on just a second,” Mary hums quietly, turning back to where she'd sat her kit down on the couch to grab the appropriate supplies.
“I’m gonna check to see if you’re dilating, okay?” Mary asks, her gloved fingers cool on the inside of his thigh as she taps gently to get his attention.
"Yeah," Sirius manages to grunt in acknowledgment, his hand coming to reach for Remus's as Mary pushes two fingers into him, causing his hips to jerk a bit at the intrusion.
It’s far from the first time he’s had something up there, but it feels different right now. He’s so sure he’s fully dilated that he can feel the baby slipping through his cervix, the head filling his birth canal right now.
“Can you spread your legs a bit wider for me?”
Sirius does as he’s told, widening his stance to give Mary more room.
Remus runs a hand down his back as he sucks in a sharp breath, a soft keen escaping his throat and he knows, oh God he knows, that things are about to change.
The pressure is different, the slow grinding in his hips and pelvis now sucking in all his attention and he needs this to be over.
Right now.
“Good news, you’re fully dilated love,” Mary says from her kneeling position on the floor.
They can hear the smile in her voice and it’s comforting, but not comforting enough to ease the sharp spike of adrenaline that spikes through Sirius as she comes to stand beside him, a soft smile gracing her face as he leans back into his husband, his arms rigid as another pain jolts through his body.
"How do you want to do this?"
"I don't, ugh-" Sirius stops, panting heavily as the world spins around him. It's all so overwhelming, so primal and he feels like he should be embarrassed by the sounds coming out of him but he can't find it in him to care, "I don't think I can move."
Mary nods, and Remus adjusts his position on the floor to get more comfortable, his stoic presence the most grounding and comforting thing happening right now.
“This wasn’t part of the plan,” Sirius says quietly as he lets out a shaky breath.
Mary drops to one knee with a laugh, pulling on the gloves efficiently with practiced speed.
“Plans change, love." She says, making sure to keep her voice light.
Sirius doesn't answer, instead just groans and rests his forehead against Remus's collarbone as he feels the familiar start of a contraction rolling through his body. He shudders at feeling the baby shift downwards inside of him.
"Remus," He breathes out when the pain slowly recedes, the empty chasm of anxiety and adrenaline coursing through him, and he's so close he can feel it under his skin.
"Hm?" Remus hums back, pressing his nose into Sirius's sweaty hair.
"I'm about to have your baby."
"Yeah, I'd really hope so," Remus snorts despite himself, and it's the most Remus-like thing he's heard since the man had come from work last evening.
He knows there's no other place he would rather be besides right here, on the precipice of giving birth to their baby, in their space, with his husband and one of his closest friends at his side.
He gasps out, suddenly sitting up as his hands locked around Remus's shoulders and the heavy weight of his rounded stomach pressing into Remus's own flat skin. Sirius knows he can feel when the contraction begins, the way Remus's eyes widen a bit and his hands come up to press onto either side of the tightening muscles there below his skin as he blows out a breath and shifts his stance.
They stay like this for the remainder of the contraction, Sirius humming lowly as he rests his head in the crook of Remus's neck and Remus swaying them side to side, the lightest pressure of his fingertips rubbing soothing circles against his distended sides.
He can feel the baby slide down inside of him, forcing his body apart to make room for it, his hips feeling like at any moment they are just going to break apart inside of him.
Somehow, somehow, he manages to shift into a position a bit more comfortable, his knees pressing down into the hard tile and his back arched.
Remus moves and sits cross-legged in front of him, his hands taking Sirius and letting him claw at them until he's sure there will be half-moon scars embedded in the man's skin when it's over.
He doesn't even flinch.
“You are so beautiful,” Remus tells him, completely earnest and awestruck as he brushes a sweaty curl from Sirius's face.
Sirius can’t help the smile that slips onto his lips, but it only lasts a moment as the next contraction hits him like a hurricane, and right then he knows.
This baby is about to come out.
"Ugh, fuck, Mary, I have to push-"
You're good love," Mary says quietly, her hands coming up and giving his hip a squeeze of reassurance, "You just do what you need to do."
"Okay," He says softly, his legs suddenly shaky.
And so Sirius does as his body wishes, bearing down with knees spread open and arms that stay braced there around Remus's neck.
All of him is bared, on display for them to see; the way his stomach clinches and his thighs shake, the tendrils of damp hair that are soaked to his forehead and the red hue his face takes on as he pushes.
And he knows he looks a mess, probably worse than Remus or Mary have ever seen, but they both just take it in and accept the raw image as it is. Remus looks at him with pure adoration, eyes alight with love as he whispers calming words and Mary presses a warm flannel between his legs to ease the beginning of the stretch.
He isn’t given much time to rest as another painful contraction racks his body, with it the urge to push coming on so violently Sirius thinks he may throw up. He pushes hard, not caring about the strained noises leaving his throat. His hands claw at Remus's again, somehow even harder than before as he grits his teeth and squeezes his eyes shut.
"The head is right there Sirius," Mary says, her fingers once again slipping inside of him.
Oh.
Oh God, it's not even out yet?
Another contraction grips him as soon as she pulls her fingers out and he begins to push again, focusing all of his energy into getting this baby out of him. He releases the push with a gasp and takes a deep breath, pushing again before he comes down from it panting.
He can feel where her fingers touch the skin bowing outward there between his legs, how heavy and full he feels in his hips and pelvis and he doesn't understand how the baby's head isn't out yet when it feels so big inside of him.
“Why isn’t it coming out?” he gasps at Mary, turning to look over his shoulder at her.
“It will, you just have to stretch. Keep pushing just like that,” She replies, keeping steady pressure between his legs.
He keeps waiting for the contraction to release so he can breathe, but the moment never comes, and he can feel the tips of Mary's fingers as they apply counter pressure to the stretched skin as the head emerges.
It's another few pushes before the head is well and truly stretching him, a sharp spark of pain that he's never felt before burning within him.
“I think somethings wrong,” Sirius whispers, a sudden rush of uncertainty coursing through him and for a moment he thinks this was a mistake.
That maybe all those years of trying and unanswered wishes were for a reason, that they really weren't meant to have a baby after all.
“Nothing is wrong,” Mary says softly, her hand coming up to rub a circle at his hip, "You're almost crowning."
Sirius nods uncertainly and leans down again as he pushes, suddenly hyper-aware of how little he has accomplished, and how much more there is to go. He can feel the majority of the baby inside him, can feel the head bulge out of him, and push the skin out obscenely.
It moves, but just barely.
And he trusts Mary.
He really does.
Mary is a trained professional.
Mary has delivered hundreds of babies.
The thought should stop him from panicking, but it doesn't.
Because those other babies weren't his baby. He hadn't felt those babies move inside of him, traced the glossy ultrasound photo that Agnes had printed out for them.
He doesn’t know what to do apart from pushing desperately.
Sirius moves as he bears down, letting go of Remus where he had his arms looped around his neck and sinking back down onto his hands and knees, opening his hips wider to allow more room for the head to emerge.
“Remus,” He whines out, looking up as Remus tears his eyes away from where Mary's hands are working to support him, looking down at him with the softest adoration, “I- oh god-”
“I know, baby,” Remus whispers, pressing a soft kiss to his sweaty forehead, “But you’re doing so good, just keep pushing.”
Sirius does as he’s told, feeling the baby force him further open with every push. The pain is indescribable between his contracting stomach to the burn deep inside of him, and there's so much unrelenting pressure on his pelvis.
"Do you want to turn over?"
Sirius nods, somehow managing to straighten up from his position on the floor while trying to keep his legs open as wide as possible to give the baby room.
He manages to turn over somehow, his back resting against Remus's chest and Remus's hands coming back up to hold his. Mary repositions as well, moving to rest on her haunches between his legs.
He braces his hands against his husband's thighs before pushing again as another contraction washes over him, and this time things really move, the burn mounting as more of the head pushes him open and somewhere in the back of his mind he's worried he's going to tear.
Mary is talking to him, voice soft and encouraging even though Sirius can’t make out the words because everything in this moment is narrowed down to this single sensation.
So intense, raw, and wild and it's all he can feel and see and hear, the drumming of his heart in his ears and the feeling of Remus's hands on his, his presence keeping him right here in this moment.
He comes down from it panting, eyes cracking open to see his husband there.
Remus is crying, silent tears streaming down his face as he watches their baby come into the world. But eventually, he feels Sirius's gaze on him and looks down, his smile so big it must hurt.
"I love you,"
Sirius just groans in response as he pushes again, gritting his teeth as the baby's head slowly descends more and more, a sudden sharp whine coming from his throat as he squeezes down on Remus's hands.
Mary's hands are on him again, and she's talking to him but he can't focus on her words as he's sure he's being turned inside out.
"Shit," He lets out a low growl that suddenly turns into a loud wail as the baby's head comes forward, "It's coming out, oh god oh god oh god fucking hell it's coming-"
Remus goes to wrap his arms around him but stops as Sirius shakes his head andtightens his grip on his hands, leaning into the pain that's washing over him with a choked cry.
"Moony," Remus tore his eyes away from where Mary's hands were and looked down at Sirius, "I can't do this,"
And Remus smiled, a bit sad, leaning up and cupping Sirius's face with one hand, looking at him like he hung the moon.
"Hey," He breathed, leaning down and kissing Sirius as if no one else were in the room but the two of them, "I know it's hard. But you are doing amazing, you are so strong and I am in such awe of you right now. I'm so proud of you."
And there was something about hearing Remus say he was proud of him, it resonated somewhere deep in his chest beneath all the unbearable pain rolling through his body.
"I can't, fuck, Remus-"
"You are," he says into Sirius' hair, pressing soft kisses along his scalp and forehead, "You're doing it love."
And then another pain slams into him with incredible force, and Sirius can't help the cry of pain that leaves him as a response. He squeezes his eyes shut, gripping Remus' hand and fighting the urge to curl in on himself.
"You're okay, you're okay. I'm right here, just breathe," His voice is calm but there's an edge to it, like he can sense Sirius's internal panic.
But Sirius doesn't comment on it, the only thing in his head is getting this baby out of him.
He can't see what's going on around the swell of his stomach so he sits up a little further, shifting to get a better grip on the floor and bears down with a resonating cry that brings the head forward with a violent shock that rocks his body.
And the first thing he notices when Mary's hands move to start checking for the cord is that the baby has hair, thick and dark like his.
"Give me your hand," Mary taps at the back of his leg.
Sirius nodded, panting as he waited for the next pain to come.
Mary guides his hand down, and then his fingers brush against the soft, wet tufts of hair on his baby's head.
“I’m touching our baby!” Sirius gasped at Remus, who nodded and let out a choked laugh, somewhere between a sob and a chuckle as he wiped his eyes on the back of his sleeves. “Holy fuck,”
With one hand still cupping the top of their child’s head, he leans back as much as he can and rests against Remus, breathing hard.
“I love you,” Sirius whispers, because he doesn’t know what else to say, “Love you Moons, and this baby so much.”
He gathered his strength and pushed hard, harder than before, harder than he thought he could manage. He shouted and clenched his teeth, tucking his chin to his chest and shoving with all his might.
The contraction was waning but he didn’t stop, bearing down hard until finally he felt the shoulders strain against him for just a moment before they pass through. It's an awful feeling to be stretched again, but then Remus is letting out a startled gasp.
“Its right there,” Remus's voice is cracking, "Oh my god, Sirius-"
And then it's out, and Sirius is sagging back fully in a blissful haze of relief. There's tears on his cheeks, and he knows they're his, but he doesn't care.
Can't be bothered to wipe them away, just lays back against Remus and lets every wave of emotion rack through his body as he lets out a shuddering sob.
There's a pause, not a long pause by any means of the word, but long enough for Sirius to worry.
And then there it is.
There she is.
The baby lets out a wail, loud and indignant and it fills Sir
Ignoring the pain throbbing through his body he sits up on his elbows and looks down at the baby that has suddenly started squalling in Mary's hands.
"Hi," He gasps out quietly, a sudden bursting in his chest as Mary hands the baby up to him and he holds it for the first time, "Oh, hi there little bean."
Sirius turns his head up to look at Remus, who is looking back down with so much love on his eyes that it must hurt.
"It's a girl," Remus whispers, reaching out a finger to touch her little wet fist, which immediately curls around it, "We have a daughter."
Mary lightly covers the baby with a thin blanket when they’re cleaned up and does nothing more.
Theres no rushing to cut the umbilical chord or swaddle her, nothing else in the world matters right now but simply letting nature take its course as Sirius and Remus get acquainted with their baby.
Eventually she manages to persuade Sirius to get up and move to the bedroom, where he finally gives the baby over to Remus to hold while Mary helps him into a pair of pajama pants before he settles in beside Remus and leans against him to look down at the little girl.
“I love you,” he whispers to the baby cradled against his husband's chest, ignoring the pangs of soreness and exhaustion strumming through him, because over top of all of it there is so much love that he thinks he may burst, “I love you so much.”
The baby seems to doze in spells; one moment shes awake and blinking up uo her dads with bleary eyes that are a brilliant cloudy blue, and the next shes asleep again, curled against one of them.
Remus touches her hair, marveling at how much lighter it looks now that it's drying. It's almost blonde, a few shades darker than his own, and curling up on the ends.
Sirius traces the tiny pink shell of a rounded ear, speechless in awe from everything that's happened in the last hour.
They have a baby.
A baby.
A real, living, beautiful little girl that they made.
The best parts of him and the man he loves, and even though she's less than an hour old he knows that he's never loved anything this much.
Would pull the moon and stars from the sky if she ever asked.
Mary makes them both a cup of tea and then retreats back to the living room to finish her paperwork, occasionally glancing up to see Remus and Sirius staring at their daughter.
After she's done and everything checks out, she makes her way back to the bedroom to bid them goodbye. Pausing in the doorway, she watches Remus lean over and take the baby from Sirius, who has leaned back against the pillows and fallen asleep sitting up.
He holds the baby close, her tiny body somehow impossibly tinier in his arms.
And Mary was at their wedding; had endured years of Remus and Sirius's relationship. She had seen the way they looked at each other, the pure love in their eyes.
But nothing compared to how they looked at their baby.
She knocked lightly, leaning against the doorway as the baby started slightly and Remus looked up.
"I'm about to head out," She whispered, "Do you need anything before I go?"
Remus bummed and then shook his head, turning his eyes back to the sleeping baby.
"Do you want me to call James and Regulus for you?"
There was a long pause, Remus blinking slowly before shaking his head again.
"No, I'll call when Sirius wakes up," He traces a finger over the baby's nose, "There's plenty of time."
Right.
They have all the time in the world.