Standing in the living room, Anna and Bates had begun sprucing up their little cottage with a fresh coat of paint.

"Why are you bothering with Thomas? He's going. Good riddance." Bates stopped painting, thinking about her question.

"I don't know. Something he said." Bates turned looking at Anna, his brush hanging mid air. "I feel funny taking his job." He stated simply, starting a new stroke of paint.

"You haven't taken his job." Anna dipped her brush in the bucket shaking her head. "He filled in for you while you were away. That's all."

"Hmm." Bates paused again. "I might ask Mrs. Hughes, she usually knows what's going on." Moving to make another stroke, Bates grunted as paint splattered him in the eye. Looking over, Anna started to laugh at her husband.

"Which is more than you do" she put forward sympathetically. Using the knuckle of his thumb he tried to rub the paint out of the creases around his eyes. Bates' smiled, his hair falling forward giving him a boyish look. Gently pulling back the bristles of his brush, trying not to catch Anna's attention as she went back to painting, he raised the brush releasing the bristles. Small specks of paint flew between them.

Gasping at the sudden spray, Anna lifted her hand to her cheek. Wiping off the paint she found there, Anna turned slowly towards Bates a glimmer of a smile visible on her lips.

"So it's going to be like that, is it Mr. Bates?" Anna said dipping her brush back into the bucket with a calculated slowness. Lifting it out of the bucket she gave it a quick underhanded flick, just as Bates took two steps closing the distance between them. Pausing for a moment Bates looked down at his chest where the paint hit him in a thick line.

Growling, Bates' hand snapped out to grab Anna before she could duck away, pulling her into a crushing hug. Wiggling the two of them, Bates tried to get as much paint as possible from his chest onto Anna.

"Why you-!" Anna couldn't help laughing as she finally stopped fighting to get away.

"I think we are even my dear Mrs. Bates" His eyes twinkled as he moved in for a kiss, smiling into it as he felt Anna shift for a better angle. Breaking apart Bates saw a glimpse of movement, just as Anna brought her brush slowly down the side of Bates' face. Bates stood there staring at his wife, who was currently laughing at his dumbfound expression. It wasn't often that Anna got to take Bates by surprise, it wasn't very often anyone took Bates by surprise.

"Did I not tell you? Fight fire with fire. That's what my mum says."