Soft rock music drifted through the living room as Tonks sat cross-legged on her favourite shaggy yellow rug, flicking through old photo albums. Teddy lay on his stomach beside her, his arm outstretched as he examined the image of a giraffe he was creating on his bicep.

'I couldn't take you anywhere Muggle until you were three,' she said, smiling down at a picture of Teddy at one year old, his nose growing and shrinking rapidly as his skin went from pale to orange to blue.

'Hmm.' He tilted his head. 'Do you think its neck should be longer?'

She glanced over at the giraffe. It looked stumpy. 'Yes.'

Nodding, he focused on the image. It started distorting as his skin responded to his new instructions.

Since she'd returned from her mission, she'd been spending as much time with her son as possible, savouring every second until he had to leave for Hogwarts for the last time.

It was a few weeks after the fateful incident in New York. At first, she'd planned to return to work after her mandatory week off, but when it came to it, she couldn't bring herself to go back. Instead, she'd used some of her accumulated holiday leave to extend it for another fortnight, hoping the extra time would give her more perspective.

Unfortunately, while her break would be over in three more days, her inner turmoil felt nowhere near resolved.

Teddy was spending so much time with his Muggle friends that news of the destruction of Sokovia had reached her in almost real-time. Tonks had contacted Gina immediately to alert her, but her response had been the same as ever.

It wasn't their decision to make. The ICW would act if they thought it was necessary.

Tonks had worked in law enforcement long enough to understand that was how bureaucracy worked, but it didn't make it feel any less wrong.

A hundred and seventy-seven people had died, and the only reason the death count wasn't higher was the quick thinking of the Avengers. One of Teddy's friends, who was studying geoscience at uni, had spent hours detailing how close Ultron had come to committing global genocide.

All human life, wiped out in an instant.

Even extinction-level events weren't enough to make the ICW act.

If Tonks had helped, Ultron might have been defeated sooner. At the very least, she might have been able to save some of those people. By ordering her to stand down, Gina had made her complicit in Sokovia's destruction.

That was the part that was hardest to reconcile herself with.

She wasn't some idealistic seventeen-year-old fresh out of school, convinced that she would get through her career without casualties. Every mission had an element of risk, and any operation could go south faster than a transatlantic Portkey. There were times when she'd had to act even though everything in her was screaming for her to stay home with Teddy, and there were times when she'd had to stay home even though her blood called for her to go.

But something about this was different. She'd known they should act, and she had compromised, choosing her orders over her morals. And when she'd spoken to Gina afterwards, the woman had been entirely unfazed.

'It was a Muggle problem, and it needed a Muggle solution,' she'd said. 'It may not have been an elegant one, but it was their job to deal with it, not ours.'

Tonks had swallowed her reply, and when Gina had asked about her return date, she'd requested the extra time off.

'What are you looking at?' Teddy asked, shuffling over to peer at the photos. 'You haven't turned the page in a while.'

Tonks sighed. 'Sometimes, I wonder what I'm doing at the department.'

Teddy sat up, frowning. 'That last mission really got to you, didn't it? What happened out there? And don't tell me it's confidential like last time.'

'It's not not confidential,' she said with a slight smile before sobering. 'Do you ever wish you could tell your mates about magic?'

'Every now and then.' From his searching gaze, she could tell he was still trying to find her train of thought. 'I like how normal it feels to hang out with them, but I wish I didn't have to keep such a large part of my life hidden.'

Hippogriff screeches filled the room, and Teddy pushed himself up. 'I'll see who it is.'

Tonks looked back down at the album. The next photograph was of Teddy with her mother, walking hand-in-hand down a path. Autumn leaves dotted the grass on either side, and they were snug in coats and brightly coloured scarves. As she watched, Teddy pointed up at something just out of view and her mum lifted him up to see it.

Life had been simpler then. Harder, yes, because Remus' death had been so fresh, but also smaller and more focused. Back then, there had been no doubt in her mind that she was doing the right thing.

'How do you know my mum?' Teddy's voice asked as footsteps padded down the hallway.

'Would you believe me if I said I don't know?'

Humour tinged the words, but that wasn't what made Tonks freeze. It was the voice — familiar, American, and utterly out of place here.

Slowly, she raised her eyes. Tony Stark was standing beside her son in the doorway. His eyes were shadowed as if he hadn't been sleeping, but his gaze darted around the room, alert and observing.

She shut the album, grateful more than ever that the first floor of the terrace house was Muggle-friendly. Setting it aside, she rose to her feet, making an effort not to fidget. 'Tony Stark, what an honour to meet you.'

'Hmm.' His razor focus settled on her. 'Bold colour choice. I like it.'

Tonks instinctively raised a hand to touch the end of her hair.

Fortunately, she hadn't done anything outlandish that morning, opting for her natural appearance except for the bright purple ombré she'd added to her tips. She wouldn't look that different from the photos Tony had found of her as a child — not that he should be able to remember them.

'What are you doing here? How do you even know who I am?' She kept her voice excited, trying to sound like a fan who was stunned their favourite celebrity had noticed them.

'This is a conversation best had in private,' he said, glancing at Teddy meaningfully. 'Can your mum and I have some time alone?'

Teddy glanced at Tonks, who nodded. In case this went poorly and she had to call for backup, she wanted Teddy to be as far from the scene as possible. 'Why don't you visit Victoire? I'm sure she misses you.'

'If you're sure,' he said uncertainly, but he gave her a quick hug and left.

'Good kid.'

'I think so.' Tonks crossed her arms. 'Are you going to answer my question?'

'My tower has more security cameras than a high-security prison, and yes, I know that isn't the most flattering comparison. J.A.R.V.I.S.'s death means if I want to go through anything, I have to do it manually… but it's still accessible.'

Tonks let out a slow breath. She didn't have the energy, or the inclination, to play this game of conversational chess any longer. 'You saw what happened.'

Tony nodded. 'There were a few things about that night that weren't adding up. I don't like it when equations don't work.'

'And now?'

'Now, the working-out is murkier than ever.' He met her gaze squarely. 'Just so you know, if I don't contact my friend within a few hours, he's going to release the video to the world. So don't try to wipe my memory again — however it is your friends did that.'

He might not know everything, but he knew enough. 'What do you want from this?'

'Answers, mostly. From there, we'll see.'

It would break the most important, most fundamental, law her people had. Every rung of their society was structured around the principle of keeping their existence secret. Their government, their schooling, their residences, their law enforcement… It underlay everything they did.

But it was a law she didn't agree with anymore. While there had been a time when it was in their people's best interests to secret themselves away, that time had been and gone, leaving nothing but smoke behind. People were still claiming there was a fire, but they were looking in the wrong place.

The Muggles were no longer their enemy; the aliens were. By upholding the Statute centuries too late, they were fighting the people who should be their allies and leaving their flank open to the real threat.

'I'll make you a deal,' Tonks said. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. 'I will answer what I can, and I will help you prepare for the upcoming fight. But everything you learn, directly or indirectly, has to remain between you and me.'

He held out his hand. 'I can do that.'

'Are you sure? Not even your team can know. You can't go on live television and broadcast it to the world.'

'Iron Man was a special case. If I weren't capable of keeping my mouth shut about industry secrets, Stark Industries wouldn't be such a powerhouse.'

That was a valid argument. Still, she hesitated. 'Why didn't you turn me over to Fury?'

'Since I can't remember that night, I don't know for sure,' he said immediately, lowering his hand, 'but knowing me, I would have been too intrigued. If you were really Maria Hill, I would have let them deal with it internally and then hacked into their system to find my answers. But even when I first watched the recording, something about you was niggling at me.'

'What was it?' Tonks asked. Where had she gone wrong? Had it been her accent? Her speech patterns? Her words themselves?

Tony stared at her for a long moment before sighing. 'This is a test, isn't it? If I pass, you'll talk to me, and if I don't…'

'If you tell the truth, you won't fail.'

She was more interested in making sure this was a two-way partnership than anything else. If he lied, or if he said something that implied this was all a manipulation tactic, she wasn't sure there would be a way forward.

'I don't like feeling like I'm being tested,' he said. 'I'm the scientist, not the lab rat… But fine. There was a spark. It wasn't enough to make me suspicious, but it was enough to make me notice. When strange things then started happening…'

'You were already looking.'

'That, and I'm good at seeing things others don't.'

Sometimes, all it took was a feeling. 'Then hopefully, we'll be able to find a way to handle this threat.'

This time, Tonks was the one who raised her hand first.

His handshake was firm and warm.

'Everyone calls me Tonks — or Dora.' She moved towards the kitchen. 'Would you like some tea? This is going to take a while.'

-x-

"A while" turned out to be an understatement.

It had taken over an hour to convince Tony that magic was real. Ultimately, she'd had to demonstrate several spells, giving him the chance to test each one for tricks or sleights of hand, before he accepted what she was saying.

Even after that, Tonks hadn't taken into account how many questions a genius like Tony would have. She'd ordered lunch from a fish and chips shop around the corner, and by the time she got back from picking it up, he'd had a new barrage of questions for her.

By the time she'd answered everything she could — within reason; there were some things she refused to divulge — it was well into the afternoon.

'This could revolutionise everything, in the lab and the field,' he said, his eyes bright with the thrill of a new idea. 'Even with the constraint of keeping magic secret, the things we could change…'

Theoretically, the possibilities were limitless. But in reality, there was a snag that she doubted he was taking into account.

'Technology doesn't react well around magic,' she reminded him. 'It's why the suits and lights shorted out after I tried to stun Ultron. They're fundamentally incompatible.'

'They are now. Inventions don't work until they do; puzzles can't be worked out until they are. Given enough time and thought — '

'People have tried before.'

'I haven't.'

No, he hadn't. And wasn't that why she had found it so difficult to leave the tower in the first place? He had the ability to achieve things others never even dared to dream about.

'That's true,' she said, starting to smile. 'Besides, I suppose the people who are trying would be coming at it from a magical angle. They wouldn't have specialist knowledge of how technology works or what it is that their magic is shorting out.'

Tony nodded and pulled out his phone. As he fiddled with it, he said, 'It's going to be hard to observe how technology reacts to magic when anything we might use to analyse the technology will react as well. We're going to have to do a lot of smaller experiments with subcomponents. The tower won't work, but I'm sending the order for one of the London warehouses to be emptied. We can bring things in one at a time and try them.'

'I'll track down some books on the nature of magic as a starting point.'

'It'll take time — even after we isolate the cause of the reaction, we'll still have to make new prototypes for everything. But from there, we can make my suits virtually indestructible. It won't matter if they still need pilots when the threat arrives; the people wearing them will be as protected as scientifically and magically feasible.'

'While you focus on the prototypes, I'll draft a list of modifications we can make,' Tonks said. Invisibility had come up earlier when he was asking about the wizarding world, but there was also weightlessness, imperviousness to the elements, portability…

If she could contact Luna Lovegood without alerting anyone, the spellcrafter might even be able to alter the Muggle-Repelling Charm to repel anyone whose essence hadn't been pre-approved.

'Then that's our first step. The next step is to get you out into the field without any of your people recognising you as one of theirs. Do you need to be holding your wand to cast a spell, or does any bodily contact suffice?'

'Some witches and wizards can cast magic wandlessly, so in theory, it should be possible. But even with practice, I'm not sure whether I would have the same strength or range.'

'And you said you can cast spells silently.'

'Yes. It's one of the things we were assessed on in basic training.' In the heat of the moment, Aurors often defaulted to saying incantations aloud, both out of habit and to put more strength into the spell. But they were expected to be adept at wordless casting.

'If I make a suit of armour with a decoy blaster, you could hide your wand inside it so anything you cast looks like it's coming from the blaster,' he said, eyes alight with almost childlike excitement. 'If you want a more natural look, we could hide it in a jacket… Now that word has gotten out about the twins from Sokovia, nobody will doubt us if we say you came about your powers the same way.'

His enthusiasm was infectious. A broad smile spread across Tonks' face. They could do this. 'If you can create a fake identity for me, I change my appearance whenever we're in the field to make sure no one recognises me. My people will realise I'm a witch, but if we make them think I don't realise it, they may decide it's safer to leave me be.'

Quitting her job without attracting unwanted attention might be difficult, but if there was enough of a gap between her leaving and this mysterious persona appearing, the Aurors shouldn't connect the two.

She would have to go back to work for a while first, though. Otherwise, it would be easy for them to link her departure to the Avengers and follow it to its natural conclusion.

And she would have to leave England so the Ministry couldn't track her comings and goings. Perhaps she could move to somewhere in Asia, at least at first, and then move on from there after some time had passed.

And she would have to tell Teddy the truth. But he was used to keeping information about whether she was at home or on a mission secret; they could work something out.

'We can do this,' Tony said. 'We can make this work.'

They were standing on a precipice, staring over the edge of a vast canyon as they prepared to leap. But instead of fear, all Tonks felt was anticipation. There was a chance they'd fall, but it was much more likely that they were going to soar.

'Not "can",' she said. 'Will.'