The next few to several days were a blur for Sirius as he came in and out of consciousness. Finally, after some days later (or what felt like a hellacious eternity) the fever broke. Truth be told, he wasn't sure if the voice he'd heard had actually been Lily or some figment of his fever-induced imagination. It wouldn't surprise him if it had been some hallucination but Merlin he hoped not.

Slowly, Sirius roused and slowly opened his eyes, and squinted at the woman sitting near his bed. For a second, he almost didn't recognize the figure... something wasn't right until. "Merlin fuck, what happened to your hair," he asked, though there were undoubtedly words that didn't fully form due to his voice being unused for any length of time.

"Who do I have to curse?"

And although his first phrase wasn't some epic confession, he was thrilled to see that Lily had been here. Was still here.

Had stayed with him.