A/N For Laurel...a true hero.
It is one of their rare half days and Anna is in her kitchen making a pie for tea. She smiles as she looks out the window and sees her husband flex his back. He stands and wipes his hands on his trousers. He has just planted the new rose bush Mr. Moseley the elder sent them because he overheard Anna saying how much she admired it.
Her husband saunters into the kitchen and Anna goes a bit weak in the knees as he brushes his one unruly lock of hair back. HIs hand leaves a streak of mud across his forehead.
"Can you spare a glass of water for you're poor hard working husband, Mrs. Bates?" he grins.
"I suppose I can," she smiles back. She wipes her own hands, covered in flour, on her apron and fetches him a glass and the pitcher of water, then goes back to work.
He drinks it in one go, sighs, and places the glass into the sink, using the opportunity to wrap his arms around his wife and nuzzle her neck.
"What else have you got for your husband, Mrs. Bates?" he purrs.
Anna giggles but doesn't turn, "That kind of talk is beneath you, Mr. Bates."
John chuckles and steps back, "You keep saying that. You'd think over the years I would have convinced you otherwise."
"I have great faith in you," Anna teases, "unwavering in fact."
"No doubt of that," her husband agrees readily, "you've proven it time and time again."
He's back at her neck now and whispers, "Alone at last."
"Not so very alone. His majesty is just in the other room."
"I can be quick. I'll have to be if there's ever going to be another little prince or princess running around the Bates home. He's never far away."
As if on cue, both John and Anna hear a ruckus from the sitting room consisting of both rhythmic thuds and a series of grunts.
"Can you go see what your son is up to before he breaks anything?" Anna pleads.
As John moves toward the other room he asks, "Why is he always my son when we suspect he's making mischief?"
"I would think you'd be able to figure that out for yourself, John" she laughs.
John enters the sitting room and watches his son attack the settee with his father's cane.
"What are you doing there Son?" John smiles.
"I'm fighting pigs so I can be a hero," Robbie Bates answers, never easing off from his labors.
"Fighting pigs? And what is that?" John asks, indicating the cane, "Is it your sword? A rifle?"
His son turns to him with an incredulous look on his face, "It's your cane, silly."
"I know what it is, but what are you pretending it to be?"
"I'm not pretending it's anything. I'm fighting pigs so I can be a hero."
"Allll-riiiiight," John loves his son's flights of fantasy and usually can be counted on to join in, but he has to admit that this one has him stumped.
"And why would fighting pigs with my cane make you a hero, Robbie?"
"Because I'm saving Lord Grantham's life."
"You're saving Lord Grantham's life…"
"Yes."
"From the pigs…"
"Yes. In Africa. Just like you did."
John could barely contain his laughter now, "I saved Lord Grantham's life by fighting…" Just then the penny dropped. "Do you mean that you're fighting the Boers?"
"Yes," Robbie seems very relieved. His father is usually much more clever than this. "I'm a hero because I'm saving Lord Grantham from the pigs…"
"Boers…"
"Boars with my cane."
"And where did you get this idea from, Son?"
"Mum says you got your cane and fought theeee…"
"Boers."
"...boers in Africa and that you're a hero cuz you saved Lord Grantham's life."
"I think what Mummy said was that I got my cane by fighting the Boers in Africa. That's where I got hurt and that's why I need my cane. And I'm not really a hero son. Mummy was just being silly."
"John," Anna calls from the kitchen, "Can I see you for a moment please?"
From the tone of her voice John knows he is about to be scolded, "Well by all means, carry on Son. Seems I have a battle of my own to engage in."
John peeks his head into the kitchen, "Yes, my darling?"
Anna takes a bit of his shirt and pulls him further into the kitchen, "I don't like you telling our son that I'm being silly when I'm not. You did fight the Boers and you did save Lord Grantham's life. You are a hero."
"Anna, you know how I feel about that word."
"Yes, and you know how I feel. I'm proud of you. I'm proud to be your wife and Robbie is proud of you too. I'll not apologize for that. Besides, I didn't bring it up. Robbie asked me. He said Lord Grantham told him. I just confirmed it. So if you'd like to take this up with anyone, you'll have to take it up with His Lordship."
John knows he has lost this argument, both with his wife and with his employer.
"Well," he brushes the compliment away with a flail, "I may have saved His Lordship's life, but it's not as if I had to fight off a drove of pigs to do it!"
He grins and both he and Anna fall into a fit of laughter.