Disclaimer; I don't own the wizarding world of Harry Potter or any of the characters in it. I wish I did. But I don't.

Cover Image by anxiouspineapples. Absoloutly my favourite artist for James and Lily! :) Check out her stuff.

This is just a moment, a one-shot that I thought was sweet and felt like writing the other day. It coincides with the characters and plot lines from my uber long James and Lily story which I shall be posting soon as it's almost finished! Eek!

I'm not the best with spelling and grammar but I've done my best.

Hope you enjoy it!

With tears brimming in her eyes, Lily apparated to the only place she was sure James wouldn't find her. She hadn't spoken to Hestia Jones in a couple of years, having not seen her since her wedding. But she was hoping that, considering the state she was in, she wouldn't turn her away.

She arrived at her old best friend's apartment in the middle of her living room. She held onto the sofa to steady herself from the apparation and breathed deeply, rubbing her stomach to calm herself down. It didn't work. She was still in a state and now her tears were rolling heavily down her cheeks. She called out for Hestia.

'Hestia? Hestia?' she said loudly through her tears, gulping back sobs.

Upon hearing a voice which she recognised, Hestia Jones came out of her bedroom and stood at the door looking at her old best friend with a puzzled frown. 'Lily?' she said, making sure it was her, 'Hi. What are-' It was then Hestia noticed the obvious difference in her old best friend. 'Oh good Merlin! You're pregnant!'

And indeed she was. Lily was around seven months pregnant and her stomach had swollen out with the growth of a baby.

'Well spotted Einstein!' Lily snapped at Hestia, her tears subsiding for just a moment, her hormones raging. She marched past Hestia into her bedroom and collapsed on her bed. She breathed deeply again in an attempt to calm herself down. Her head was dizzy from the apparation and the baby inside of her kicking having not liked the feeling of being squeezed through a tight tube and swirling around from one place to another. Lily thought it was a tad ironic.

'Ok…' Hestia said slowly, deciding to let that go so that she could find out what Lily was actually doing at her apartment. 'What's wrong? Why are you here?'

'James doesn't want to be with me anymore.' Lily said soundly before bursting into a fresh flood of tears. She hated being pregnant. Her hormones were all over the place and James wanting to leave her didn't help. She didn't know whether she wanted to be mad at him or upset but it seemed that her body was settling for hysterical. She didn't like it.

'What?' Hestia questioned, not believing this at all. When she knew them, James was infatuated with Lily. She didn't think that could change in only a couple of years. She went to sit down on her bed next to her old sobbing, pregnant friend.

'It's because I'm pregnant.' Lily said through a rack of sobs, 'He says I can't be with him.'

'Are you sure?' Hestia pressed on, still not believing what Lily was telling her, 'That doesn't sound righ-'

'I think I know my own husband thank you Hestia!' Lily cut back, once again, her tears disappearing for a quick moment whilst she snapped madly.

'Ok…' Hestia said slowly again. Lily was obviously in a delicate situation. Hestia had heard about the mood swings pregnancy can bring. She stayed silent whilst Lily returned to her fit of sobs.

'He said that I can't be with him.' she cried, 'He's leaving Hestia. He's leaving me.'

'Are you-'

'Yes I'm bloody sure Hestia!' Lily snapped again. Her hormones really were all over the place and they weren't helped when she and Hestia heard the familiar crack of apparation and then James Potter's voice filling the apartment.

'Jones! Hestia! I need your help.' they heard him call from the living room.

Hestia heard the note of panic in his voice, the panic which only a husband could have for his wife. She looked to Lily who was shaking her head determinedly at Hestia, her eyes pleading with her to just leave James and stay with her.

'Don't tell him I'm here.' she begged her in a quiet whisper.

Hestia looked at Lily one last time before standing up and walking out of her bedroom into her living room where James Potter was stood. He was leaning on the back of the sofa muttering to himself. His clothes looked a bit dishevelled from one to many apparitions, his glasses were slightly wonky and his hair was even more of a mess than usual. He had an extremely worried look etched across his face.

'Potter.' Hestia said, alerting James to her presence, 'What are you doing here?'

'I'm looking for Lily and I've looked everywhere. I know we haven't talked in a couple years but I can't think of anywhere else where she would go. I've been to Sirius', I've been to Remus', Peter's, Alice and Frank's, Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, Hogwarts even and I can't find her anywhere, no one's seen her. Please, I'm so worried about her. I know it's a long shot but is she here?' James said quickly and desperately, a question which Hestia could only answer honestly.

'Yes-'

'Hestia!' Lily shouted at her old best friend through her open bedroom door.

'Well he deserves to know Lily!' Hestia yelled back.

'Where is she?' James asked Hestia who replied immediately.

'In my bedroom. She's very upset-'

'Lily.' James called anxiously, pushing past Hestia, not letting her finish her sentence at all, too determined to find his wife.

He walked into Hestia's bedroom to find her, pregnant and sat on the bed. He sighed in relief when he saw her, something which she didn't fail to hear.

'Go away.' she said huffily, not looking at him at all.

'No.' James replied immediately walking into Hestia's bedroom and kneeling down in front of Lily. He swept some of her deep red hair out of her face which she flinched away from before taking her hands in his. That she allowed. 'What were you thinking?' he asked her, trying to get her to look into his eyes, 'The healer said you shouldn't apparate when you're pregnant.'

'I needed to get away from you.' Lily snapped, avoiding his eyes at all costs. She looked towards the door where Hestia was watching their exchange and let her hands go limp in James'. She had a couple of tears still rolling down her cheeks but her eyes showed no sign that anymore would make an appearance. Now she just looked annoyed. Damn hormones.

'Why?' James said, gently wiping away the tear that was still falling slowly down her face leaving a glistening wet trail with his thumb, 'I was only trying to say goodbye to you and you disapparated. You had me worried sick!'

'Well get used to it!' Lily snapped at him, taking her hands out of his now and folding them over the top over her protruding belly. She glanced down at him briefly before definitively turning her head to face the wall, away from Hestia and James. 'If you don't want me to be with you-' she started again.

'What?' James interrupted her, a hurt tone in his voice along with clear disbelief.

Lily gave and annoyed sigh and forced herself to look at him now. 'You said you didn't want me to be with you.' she said. To her surprise, James laughed slightly and broke into a small amused smile.

'I said you couldn't come with me.' he said, kneeling up and tucking her hair behind her ear again affectionately, keeping his hand resting on her soft cheek so that she would continue to look at him, 'Not that I didn't want you to be with me.'

'What?' Hestia asked from the door, reminding James that she was there. She was confused. Where was James going? He shouldn't be leaving his wife when she was pregnant. Case and point was how emotional she had become. Of course, Hestia knew nothing about the Order of the Phoenix or what Lily and James were involved in. So James' next statement made no sense to her.

'I've got to go do something and Lily can't come because it's too dangerous.' James explained simply to Hestia, glancing at her briefly out of the corner of his eyes before looking back towards Lily and brushing his thumb over her cheek as he looked into her eyes adoringly.

'Too dangerous?' Hestia queried, a query which both Lily and James ignored for they knew she couldn't know. Instead, James asked for privacy.

'Can you give us a moment please Hestia?' he asked her. He still never looked at her properly. He was too focused on Lily.

Hestia sighed a moment and said, 'Sure. I've got to go to work anyway. Take as long as you need and…I'll see you when I see you.'

'Thank you Hestia.' James said to her as she nodded her head and left her bedroom to go to work. She left James and Lily alone in her apartment.

James looked back at Lily who had rested her head into his hand and was breathing in his beech wood scent. She loved his hands and how her cheeks just managed to fit perfectly into them. She looked down to her pregnant stomach and unfolded her arms to place one hand on her belly and the other on James' forearm. She would have like to stay like that, with James kneeling in front of her and her arms connecting their family together but James reminded her of why she had ran from him in the first place.

'Lils,' he began gently, 'I have to go. I can't leave Sirius to handle this alone.'

'I can come-'

'No you can't Lily!' he told her, 'It's too dangerous.'

'I don't care James.' Lily said harshly, pushing his hand away from her face before folding her arms to rest on her swelling belly again. She looked away from him once more, her nose in the air like a teenager in a strop which, in all honesty, she wasn't far from being. She was only twenty after all.

'Lily, you're pregnant-' James began placing his hands on her stomach and immediately feeling a kick. The baby always kicked when he touched her. He hoped that wasn't a bad sign.

'Well done Einstein!' Lily interrupted, mirroring her baby's actions and pushing James' hands away from her. She didn't want him touching her at the minute. Once again she lifted her nose in the air and turned her head away from him. She was breathing deeply in irritation at him now, her tears from before completely forgotten.

'Lils I've told you that reference doesn't work on me.' James chuckled, not respecting her action of pushing his hands away and placing one of them back on her belly, the excitement of feeling his unborn child kick again too tempting to pass up. He placed his other hand on her cheek again and gently but forcefully turned her head to look at him. Her eyes were closed. 'I have no idea who Einstein is!' James continued.

'Well I-' Lily started indignantly.

'Lily.' James cut her off, smirking at her childishness and brushing a thumb under her left eye which was shut tight in an attempt to get it to flicker open. He was unsuccessful. 'Look at me.' he said, his entertained smile clear to hear in his voice.

Lily just closed her eyes firmly, scrunching them up.

'Lily, look at me.' James said raising his eyebrows in amusement and giving out a chuckle. 'Look at me Lily.'

'No.' Lily stated, before adding with a pout, 'You have stupid eyes.'

James laughed at her immature statement and her childlike voice. He took his hand down off of her face and brought it up in a loose fist to his mouth to try and cover his chuckle.

'Don't laugh at me.' she whined.

James laughed again and smiled at her, love in his eyes. He took his hand off of her belly and stood up, sitting next to her on Hestia's bed. He put his arm around her shoulders, hugging her to him and kissing her head through her hair. She instinctively buried her face into his shoulder where it fit perfectly as it always did. When he leaned his head onto hers and began to rub her shoulder soothingly. She opened her eyes, knowing that he was no longer waiting for her to do so, and stared straight ahead, just happy to have more time with him before he had to go.

James sat with Lily's head on his shoulder for a few minutes, not thinking of the inconvenience he was causing Sirius and Dumbledore who were waiting for him to go out on assignment. He didn't really care if he was honest with himself. All he cared about was calming Lily down and taking her home so that she was safe. All he ever cared about was Lily. Lily and the unborn child she was carrying. His child. So he sat with her until he felt he could test the waters and talk again.

'Lily.' he said, lifting his head off of hers and kissing her hair again, 'Come home.'

'No.' Lily said unconvincingly with a sniff.

James sighed. 'Please?' he asked her.

'No.' Lily repeated, slight conviction in her voice now as she thought of why she had left him in the first place. It was because he was going to do the same to her. 'You're still going to leave me.' she went on, her bottom lip beginning to quiver as her hormones rocketed in the other direction again. Damn hormones.

'I'll be back tomorrow.' James said in an attempt to placate her. It didn't work.

Lily began to cry again but this time, instead of disapparating away from him as she had done in their own home when he had first told her Dumbledore was sending him out with Sirius on assignment, she threw her arms around him and held him tightly, sobbing into his shoulder instead of resting on it. 'I don't want you to go.' she said, her voice muffled as her face pressed into him. She was soaking his shirt with her tears but she wasn't too fussed about that at the minute.

James hated to see her cry. He hated it when she was upset because it broke his heart. He encircled his arms around her and rocked her gently in his protective hold, stroking her hair and rubbing her back. He closed his eyes and breathed in her flowery scent. 'Lils-' he began desperately.

'I know.' Lily sniffed, 'You have to go. Doesn't mean I have to like it.'

James stayed silent, still swaying slightly with her in his arms. He didn't want to leave her like this but Dumbledore had asked him to go with Sirius and check out a suspected muggle under the imperius curse. He couldn't let Dumbledore down. But Lily was his wife and, no matter how much he wanted to help the wizarding world and the muggle world she came first. She had to come first. She was his main priority, keeping her happy and calm especially whilst she was pregnant. There was no question about it now.

'Ok.' he said, kissing her hair for the third time as she cried, 'How about this?' he continued, allowing Lily's sobs to subside slightly before he told her what he was going to do, 'I take you home. I talk to Pete and Remus and see if one of them will go in my place and I'll cook you your favourite meal.'

Lily sniffed into his shoulder. 'You can't cook.' she said.

'Ok.' James chuckled, changing his last statement, 'I'll buy you your favourite meal from the café down the street.'

'They don't do take away.' Lily responded petulantly.

'Then I'll steal it.' James smirked.

'Then you'll go to prison and leave me all over again.' Lily said, finally taking her face out of his shoulder and looking up at him through her eyelashes, a vulnerable expression written across her face. Her cheeks were once again tearstained.

'You're making this really difficult Lils.' James smiled at her with a single laugh, looking into her emerald green eyes and wiping her cheeks with the soft sleeve of his shirt.

'Good.' Lily said.

'Come on.' James tried again in a quiet but desperate whisper, 'Come home.'

Lily looked back at him into his hazel eyes behind his glasses which always seemed to be filled with love and adoration, a look which he reserved only for her. 'Fine.' she said eventually, a note of stroppiness still coming in through her voice. 'But you still have stupid eyes.' she went on as she took herself out of his hold and just sat next to him feeling defeated, the baby inside of her turning over.

'Ok.' James smirked again in fondness of his wife's stubbornness. He stood up and then helped her up, knowing it was harder for her because she was seven months pregnant. When she was up he pulled her into a reassuring hug.

'If you've given this kid your stupid eyes I'll kill you.' she said against his chest.

James laughed. 'If that kid knows what's good for it it'll have your eyes.'

Thanks for reading! That's given you a taster of my writing style so if you like what you've read keep an eye out for my James and Lily story which is called Five Minutes.

Reviews are not necessary but always welcome!

Thanks for reading!

Galindaba