I went up to Becca’s office and expected to see her in there sitting at her desk, when I found the room completely dark. This was quite surprising, especially when I found the door locked. Unlocking the door I stepped in and called for her looking around the office before heading for the work areas when I looked down seeing her wand on the floor. Fear gripped me then at that moment. I knew something was wrong, she wouldn’t have left her wand! Whatever had happened couldn’t have been good. Swallowing hard, I shot off patronuses to all the department heads, our aurors and finally to Warren. I knew that if something had ever happened to Becca, I would need to send for the man. I didn’t even know who he was but my pug patronus soared away with the message that there was an immediate meeting in her office. I sat down in her chair trying to remain calm, maybe for some reason she had dropped it accidentally. No, I was positive something was wrong, because her office wasn’t able to be locked without a wand, I knew that much. So whomever had been there had locked it with their wand and not Becca’s. I searched the office as I waited for people to arrive. I feared she was kidnapped and what they might be doing to her. I needed to remain calm though, for if I didn’t, I’d be of no help to anyone. Ed and Isaac arrived almost immediately as did a few department heads, and was grateful for that. I was in the middle of specifics of what I knew when Warren appeared. The first thing he did was accuse me of kidnapping her myself and doing something to Becca. I stared at the man, unsure what to even think. Was he serious? I had kidnapped my own girlfriend, to accomplish what exactly? I immediately put him in his place, and told him that there was no way I had done that, considering I cared for her and would give my life for her. Okay well I didn’t exactly say it quite like that, but there was no way I was going to let this pompous man tell me I’d kidnapped and hid Becca away. Who the hell was he anyway?

I then did the one thing that probably took more guts than anything else, considering I could have hurt the man and not regretted it one bit. I found Brian. I went to his parent’s house and pounded on the door until he answered the door, and told him he needed to hide. That he needed to take the kids and go and get them to safety. I knew that if it were Becca, she’d have done the same thing, not giving a damn about Brian’s safety but wanting to make sure the kids were safe. God I wanted to tell that man off and give him a piece of my mind. But he just stared at me like I was losing my mind. So instead I told him that he knew Becca would want them safe, and if the Becca and I had found him, the cult would as well. I didn’t just leave at that, but turned to face him fully and told him that she needed the kids, and for him to imagine how hard it would be for her. To rip her heart to pieces, and for me to come and try to put those pieces back together. Without waiting for a reply I left. I headed immediately for Azkaban, where Ed was supposed to go to keep an eye on Orlando, who had been left by the cult for some reason or other.

It took doing but we found Becca and managed to save her, she was in bad condition. God it hurt seeing her in so much pain and hurt so bad. To see her in that condition broke my heart, and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it! Isaac was down, Nell was down, Alex was brilliant, using her Veela power over the leader of the group. And I sat dueling Lucien. God that man irritated me, he got free and apparated away after nicking me with the tip of his sword. I still want to catch that man. I can’t fathom how I’d let him go, and it still gets to me some nights, when I’m trying to sleep. Trying not to picture the man, whom I had let get away. Sonya had turned sides and I asked one condition, and that was when Becca was back on her feet, that she would come. I don’t know why I did it, but I did, I willingly let her go free. Trusting that she would come when called. We got Becca and Isaac back to St. Mungo’s where the healer’s started fixing them up. Isaac was in bad condition. The information we’d found before Becca’s kidnapping was that the cult was after something we had locked in the department of mysteries, and when Isaac had fetched it and then was summoned to the castle where the fight broke out, he had it in his possession and the vial broke. I still have nightmares from that night, and see Isaac dead so many times since then in those dreams. I was the one who had sent him to fetch that necklace, and had nearly killed him in the end. It was really hard seeing her so tired to the point that she couldn’t sleep, not just because of how tired she was but also because she didn’t want to see the memories of what she had been through. God I couldn’t imagine! I didn’t blame her for being unable to sleep. I knew she wanted sleep though and she showed me what happened to her in the pensieve a few days after the kidnapping. Those memories broke my heart seeing her go through that. She’s the strongest person I know and I was surprised even then that they didn’t break her completely with what they did to her.

It was a few weeks later, when Becca and I were in Muggle London taking care of some magical rubbish bins that were going haywire, when out of the corner of my eye I saw movement. I went towards the movement wanting to ensure if it were a Muggle, they were alright and didn’t need obliviating after seeing the rubbish bins acting weird. I called out I was with the police when suddenly I felt myself flying backwards and hitting the ground, a burning sensation in my chest. It was hard to breathe and I looked up at Becca who had a frantic look on her face, but was trying to remain calm for me. I remember wincing at the pressure she was putting on my chest, or maybe that was the pain of the gunshot wound, but I fought to remain conscious as she kept pleading with me to stay with her. I remember telling her I loved her and her telling me over and over I was going to be fine. She apparated us to St. Mungo’s but that was the last thing I remember. Within moments I was out and there wasn’t anything I could say or do. I was in limbo, a few times I wonder what was going on, I’d start to wake and suddenly pain would take me away and I’d fade and bits of me would sense as if I was surrounded by my sister and mum. It was an odd feeling, standing there seeing them but something kept drawing me back. I’d see Becca standing there and somehow feel as if I was there but not there. I was lying on a table with someone working on me. Then everything would fade again and I would see my sister or even Maree. It scared me. I never told anyone this because I didn’t want Becca to realize how close I had truly come from dying and leaving her forever.

I finally told Becca that I loved her, and I had seen how she froze when I said it but I assured her I didn’t expect anything in return, I wanted her to know I loved her. I couldn’t lie to myself anymore let alone her. I wanted her to know that I loved her, that accident and New Years had been just too close to losing one another and I wanted her to know that I loved her. I didn’t want something to happen to one of us without her knowing how I felt about her! The day she told me that she loved me, was probably the best day of my life. I hadn’t cared if she ever said it but it pulled at my hear when she said she loved me, and meant so much to me that she did. I hadn’t heard those three little words in so many years that it made my heart ache hearing it, and touched me so incredibly much. Who knew that those words could mean the world to someone so much.

In February I had been doing quite a bit of work around the local establishments, trying to uncover a ring of people who were selling magical items to Muggles, when I came across a ring. I saw the ring and I knew that it was Becca’s, I didn’t want just a diamond, but the blue stone in it caught my eye, because it was the same colour as Becca’s eyes, I kept telling myself that I couldn’t. I’d mentioned marriage once and she’d become really quiet and then asked for time. I had said in a year I’d ask, I’d give her even more if she needed it but I wouldn’t mentioned marriage again until then. But it was the ring, I knew that with my heart. I finally went back and bought the ring and put it deep in the pocket of my robes before heading to her office. I hadn’t had time to run home and put it away and had just gone to her office, thinking it was safe there. Somehow I ended up dropping the box on the floor of her office without noticing and she saw it. I tried to act as if it were just something I’d forgotten was in my pocket, but I knew she knew what it was. I finally admitted that the answer to her question that it was a ring. But I told her I wasn’t asking, she had wanted to wait a year and I was more than willing to wait as long as she needed. Hell, I wasn’t completely sure that it was a bright idea to propose already! But I knew in my heart where I wanted things to go, but I was willing to wait forever for her. She’d been hurt so badly that I was afraid somehow I might hurt her as well. I didn’t blame her for wanting to wait, or being nervous that perhaps I might do the same thing to her. She told me to ask when I was ready but I might not get the answer I wanted. My heart did a jump at those words but I shook my head and told her as softly and gently as I could that I was waiting for her to be ready, I also said I was ready though those words scared the hell out of me, I knew that if someone asked me if I was ready to spend my life with her, my answer would be yes and I wouldn’t hesitate in saying so. She left the office briefly that day after I told her I would wait forever if needed. It didn’t bother me one bit that she wasn’t ready and I knew damn well nothing would change my mind. I wondered though if I should leave it for her to decide. I put the ring in her desk with a note saying, when she was ready to just bring me the box and I would know. She didn’t even need to give it to me. Just have it appear where I would see it. She returned to the office and I know she’d seen it inside the top of her desk, but she wasn’t saying a word.

The argument that we had quite often happened again that day, that I believed that she should see her children and not push them away. I told her about how I had gone on New Years to warn Brian, and left him with the words that he was killing her a little at a time, not letting her see her children. Brian had owled him saying to tell her that she could see her kids, and she’d know where they were. When she said that she should just tell Brian to tell the kids that she was dead, I finally lost it. How could she say such a thing, and let her kids believe it to be true? With tears in my eyes I told her I’d lost my mother when I was young, and it still hurt right then to not have her in my life, I couldn’t see how she could so easily just decide not to see her kids. It was killing her that she couldn’t see those kids and I knew it! I finally had to go or I’d lose it right there in her office, and break down. I left her office to get some air, and I was going to go back when I was more under control. I was fighting tears as I left the office with a soft apology. I had barely taken a few steps when I felt her hand on my arm and her saying it was now or never. Turning around I saw her with the box in her hands and I remember putting my arms around her holding her close. I hadn’t meant for her to think I was leaving! I remember saying it was always now. It would always be now, not never. I told her I wasn’t leaving, and I hadn’t meant for her to think I was. I will never forget the words she said to me that day ‘You swear to me, here and now, that you'll never leave, you'll always put me in my place when I need it and that we'll always be okay at the end of the day, and I'll be absolutely honest about how I feel so you know.’ Those words were the most memorable of the entire time of our relationship. I haven’t forgotten those words. Tears were in both of our eyes that night, and I held her in my arms gazing into her beautiful blue eyes that were brimming and overflowing with tears. A lump in my throat as I stood there I spoke finally and I’ll never forget what I said either ‘I swear with all my heart I will never leave you ever for any reason. I will put you in your place if you need it but I also hope you will do the same for me. And I swear that we will ALWAYS be fine at the end of every single day for the rest of our lives.’ It still brings a smile to my lips when I think of what she said next, about how I was still talking and not offering her that ring. I proposed that day and to this day I have never forgotten her face nor her words. Each thing that has happened between us, has become more and more memorable, but there are just certain things that I won’t forget. It might have happened sooner than we planned, it might not have been the way most proposal’s happen, but it was ours. And she meant the world to me.

It felt like my entire heart was light now, our lives were entwined forever, and the two of us both felt a change in them. We were both happy, and somehow the worries and fears of us being separated never came into our thoughts any longer. For the first time since I was a kid, I felt like I had a life again, and one that I was happy with and didn’t want to change.

In late February of 2080, Becca and I were called to a residence by a small child, he said his mummy was hurt and we needed to help. Becca and I both went, me taking care of getting the child ready and able to come with us. Jordan had gotten his mother to St. Mungo’s. Becca had gotten his father into custody and after grabbing some clothes and his Mr. Bear I got Torie back to Becca’s office with me. The poor kid was just over 4 years old and was already dealing with an abusive father. How anyone could be such an **** to his own family was beyond me. It happened way too often for my taste. You would think in a wizarding world we wouldn’t have to deal with stupid people like that. We kept Torie with us, for a few days and let him see his mum at the hospital twice a day until she was able to return home. The poor child kept asking about his father, and why he was mean to him and his mum. Hopefully with the time in jail and meeting with Becca and a few threats, he’d come around and be able to rehabilitate and deal with his anger issues.

Unfortunately in April we got another call, from a crying Torie, Becca and I both left immediately and called for another auror to come and Jordan as well to meet us there. We found Torie and I scooped him up into my arms I apparated back to the ministry with him, right to my office, and knew that Becca and Ed were getting the man in custody and Jordan was caring for the body. I sent word for Isaac to assign someone to go down and collect everything he could of Torie’s from his home so that Torie wouldn’t have to return to the house and I didn’t have to leave him with a stranger. It took months for the poor kid to finally start trusting me, Becca and I took him into our home, hoping to find relatives that would take him in, but there were none. We had a sad little boy who had lost both of his parents in the same day, and all we could do was try and stem his tears. Hold him and cuddle him, assuring him we weren’t going anywhere. I had lost my own family as had Becca, but not so young. It was hard to see him crying out for mummy and not being able to do anything but hug him and assure him he was safe. I’d never wish this on another child, but he eventually started seeing us as his own family. It took months before he called me daddy, but he had definitely taken to Becca which brought a smile to my face. She hadn’t expected it and nor had I. But I think it was out of need at first at least that he did. But you could see as his entire being changed as he found he did have a mummy and even later a daddy there, that he could trust and know we would never hurt him.

During that time I found what the biggest fear I had was finding Becca hurt or unconscious and not being able to do anything about it. I walked into level 2 and found her lying on the floor just inside the training room when Isaac sent for me and dropped by her side. Hearing the pain she was in tore at me and hurt deeply. We reached Jordan and got her to St. Mungo’s, Jordan said she had internal bleeding and there were only a few choices we had. We had talked about if we’d ever have a child or not together. I would have loved to have a child, but knew how Becca felt about it, not to mention she had 2 of her own and we had Torie as well. But hearing what Jordan said about either attempting to have a baby, and hope it heals the inside of her uterus, from the tears, and possibly lose the baby or removing the uterus to stop the bleeding completely, was the hardest decision the two of us had to make. I asked her what she wanted, and she didn’t want to make the decision for us. I knew what the easiest route was, but I knew it was making the both of us cry inside to feel that kind of pain of knowing it was make a decision to have a baby right now or never have that option. It was really hard to make that decision, I knew how Becca felt about it but I also knew she knew how I felt about it as well. We finally were all set to just let it all be done and over with. To decide not to have a child together, knowing it was the best option. But he couldn’t just let it be, I finally spoke and said I just, couldn’t and didn’t want it. We both decided to soon after to let it be, and not have the surgery but to let Jordan try and heal her and the tears inside. We made the right decision, Jordan told us that it wasn’t as bad as he had expected but she still needed to take it easy, god that was going to be hard for the both of us. But we were willing to give it a chance. I know Becca was climbing walls by the time she was finally free of the injuries and not having to worry about injuring herself more but she did it so one day we might choose to decide to have a baby.

Early that summer, we had an epidemic that coursed through Italy, hitting the school as well as Diagon Alley and even the ministry. It started as a cold/flulike symptoms that people started getting, and little by little got worse, until the person fell unconscious. I was hit with it and Torie got sick soon after. Dan had gotten it just before me, and I had gone to the Leaky Cauldron, hoping that Torie and Becca wouldn’t get it, but Becca found me unconscious in my room on the floor. That was a scary disease that I wouldn’t ever want to go through again. After I became conscious again I started having visions of being back in the time with Voldemort, and afraid everyone around me were death eaters. Even Becca, who somehow managed to get me to see that she wasn’t, and that I had to trust her. I remember waking up with Torie laying against me completely unaware of who anyone was, and was seeing visions of things that weren’t actually happening. I was doing magic uncontrollably and that was a really bad thing, and it took everything I had not to hurt someone. I had a small child with me and had to remember that he thought of me as his daddy, even if I didn’t remember it, I still had to remember that he was just a child. I finally fell into unconsciousness and unable to be woken, I was in a deep sleep that kept me from contacting anyone or even responding. When the illness was finally broken by the compilation of all the healers, I woke and found myself looking around wondering what in merlin’s name had happened. When I saw Becca again it was a relief to see her there safe and just fine standing there. I held Torie in my arms stroking his head, remembering every single thing that had happened to me in that nightmare of an illness. It’s not easy seeing your past becoming your present and it scared the hell out of me.

Within a few days it was obvious Becca wasn’t doing well, and sure enough she fell into her own illness that she ended up with. It was called Recrudescitis, it was when everything that was bad that ever happened to you physically or even emotionally returned, and reoccurred during a period of time, in the order they happened in. I stayed by her side from the time it began til ended for the most part. Willow and Dan took Torie so we wouldn’t have to worry about it. I saw her relive her injuries growing up, losing her parents and sister, her training in becoming an auror, and even having James and Norah. God it was weird seeing her in labour and even delivering a baby that wasn’t there. But seeing and hearing the breaking of bones over those 4 days was really painful! I was more than thankful though that I never went through that. It might not have been a whole lot of injuries but the pain I went through and the fighting my brother, and losing people not to mention the accident would have been really hard to go through a second time. A lot happened in those 4 days, things that I recalled like New Years and the injury to her abdomen. The worst I was sure was when she was fighting Orlando, but maybe that was because she thought I was him…or he was me? Something like that. But we made it through, just as we had everything else. It was a relief for the both of us to be done with that.

It wasn’t long after that that Becca really was hit hard with not having James and Norah there. Stef and Warren contacted her saying the baby was on the way and Becca left to head to St. Mungo’s, she got home late that night and seemed really down and upset about something. After a time I finally got her to talk and she told me what they had named their son. James Matthew, which I knew finally what had gotten to her. She was hurt and thinking on her little boy, and I finally said that was it, I was going to talk to Brian and we were going to get those two kids and they were going to be a part of our lives. We were to be married in a little over a month but we were going to have those two little ones in our home as well. No more pushing them away. She nodded in agreement that night and I just held her close and started planning what I was going to do come morning. That next morning I went into the office and started making calls and also got in touch with Dan. He and I started making plans with what would happen if Brian wasn’t willing to work with us. I met with Brian and had it settled that I would drive them to my house and park on the street, and bring them through the Fidelius Charm. From there Brian would apparate away once they were safely inside. Pulling up in front of the house I looked up towards the house and the driveway to see if I could see Becca but didn’t. I picked up Norah and Jay’s bags and took Jay’s hand as we headed across the street and up the drive. Entering the house, I put the bags down and called Becca’s name, it took some time but she finally appeared and I could feel Jay’s tension in his shoulders that my hand was on and knelt down beside him, watching as the two of them saw each other for the first time in over a year. Seeing the tears on both their faces was enough to make tears form in my eyes as I watched them. Seeing mother and son reunite was enough to put tears in anyone’s eyes. It was the most touching thing I’d seen in my life seeing how much Becca had needed this, and knowing how much it meant to her that Jay was there. Letting go of Jay as he ran towards her, I just sat back on my heels watching the two of them, hugging. A smile appeared on my face as she looked over at me, I knew that I had done the right thing. Just wished I had done it sooner. We went out to see Norah, who was clinging to Brian, looking at Becca and probably wondering who she was. God she looked so much like her mother. It took some time but soon Becca was holding her daughter close in her arms, stroking her hair with tears in her eyes. The three of them were reunited once again and there was no way in hell I was ever going to let it go back to how it had been. I knew that it was going to take a lot of doing and working things out but I knew everything would be okay. The hard part would be letting them go for a day or so on Monday so that they could collect the things they needed for a week. But soon we were all together again and Torie was there as well. Torie and Jay knew each other in school, and the three kids became close friends very quickly. Planning the wedding for the following month was now including Jay and Norah in the plans as well now, and as Torie said we now had two ‘ring bears’.

The day came, and I felt knots and butterflies in my stomach. I helped get Torie and Jay ready, both of them tugging at their collars and ties, and standing around awkwardly. Dan and I had planned that that night we would be a full family. Torie’s dad had given his parental rights up, and as of that night Becca and I would not only be husband and wife, but we also would be adopting Torie. I sent Torie and Jay to line up with the bridal party with Stef and Dan and I went to the front of the hall with the minister. I watched as Stef came up the aisle and then Torie and Jay, followed by Norah in her beautiful dress and little tiara on her head. Throwing her flower petals, along the way as she made her way towards the front. I stood there watching as Becca stood at the back with Warren with tears in my eyes, swallowing hard amazed that this was actually happening. All fears and worries gone, watching as my bride made her way towards me. I had eyes only for her, no one else in the room mattered. Watching as she came close, I took her hands in mine, giving her a smile that probably reached from ear to ear, the tears still glistening in my eyes. Watching as her own eyes sparkled I couldn’t take my eyes off hers, and even as I said my vows, and heard hers, that was the one day that has always sat in my mind. Nothing can take that from me. I love her with all I have and she will always be first and foremost in my mind.