A/N: This is a first for me - a modern AU fic (it seems to be the season for those at the moment).

The title of this fic was inspired by this quote from Tumblr: 'The point of fics set in alternate universes are to show that no matter what setting or circumstance, these two people will always find each other. I will find you. Every me loves every you.'

Thanks to olehistorian for her beta duties!

Chapter 1

"Mummy, mummy! Uncle Charlie is here!" Five year old Grace Hughes runs down the stairs, shouting to her mother. She had been sitting in the bay window of the master bedroom for the past half an hour waiting for the familiar black Audi to pull up outside.

"I'll have to go," Elsie says into the phone.

"So I heard," her friend Beryl replies. "Is Charles coming for dinner again? That's three times this week."

"We're very busy at the moment and it's easier to work from here in the evenings rather than finding a babysitter for Grace so I can go into the office."

"Well, you know my feelings on the matter. He's a nice man, Elsie. A good man. You could do a whole lot worse! If you ever do want time alone with him then I'm happy to have Grace so you can-"

"Goodbye Beryl!" Elsie snaps the receiver hung up with a thud. She does wish her friend would stop going on about how she and Charles would make a good couple. They are friends, best friends and nothing more.

They had met ten years ago when she began working for Crawley's Wine Merchants. He was the head buyer and she joined as client manager; their working relationship was rocky at first. She had wanted to make some changes, modernise the business, but Charles had resisted, keen to stick with old ways, the ways he knew. They had argued from petty little things about whose turn it was to buy the milk for the staff fridge, to more important things like becoming a paperless environment. Sometime she had given in for the sake of a quiet life, but not when it was something she had really believed in like allowing their staff to work a full week over four extended days.

Over time Charles had begun to see that modernising wasn't as bad as he had thought, although he still preferred hand written notes to emails and wore a three-piece suit to work every day; none of this casual Friday nonsense! Once they had overcome that hurdle they worked well together and a strong friendship had blossomed. They had supported each other through some tough times but he had never given the slightest inkling that he wanted anything more from her than friendship. She had once entertained thoughts of there being something more between them, but that was before Grace; before her life was changed forever.

"Mummy, come on!" Grace implores, impatient now; she wants her mother to open the door and let their visitor in.

"Don't shout Grace!" chastises Elsie, immediately regretting it as Grace's face falls. It isn't her daughter's fault that Beryl has put her in this mood.

"I'm sorry Mummy. I'm just excited to see Uncle Charlie." She likes it when he visits, he captivates her with magic and circus tricks, makes her laugh.

"I know," Elsie replies and opens the door just as Charles is about to knock. "Come in Charles," she greets with a weak smile. "If you'll excuse me I need to check on dinner. You know where to hang your coat." And now she is taking her bad mood out on him, but she just can't help herself.

After hanging his coat and catching Grace in his arms as she hurls herself at him, he follows Elsie into the kitchen, Grace balanced on his hip. Elsie is bending down, checking on the pasta bake in the oven.

"Is anything the matter?" he asks diplomatically, having noticed her dark mood.

"Nothing you need to concern yourself with," she answers sharply.

He puts Grace down and sends her off into the sitting room with a promise he will come and look at her new reading book with her in a few moments.

"Elsie, I know you and I know when something is bothering you. Won't you tell me? I'm on your side remember."

"I've just had a bit of a to-do with Beryl, that's all."

Charles nods knowingly. He should have known; the two of them are often at odds. "For someone who claims to be your best friend, she certainly knows how to wind you up."

"It's nothing." Charles raises an eyebrow. "Oh, very well. She thinks I need a man in my life and it's becoming a constant topic of conversation. She's rather insistent about it."

"Ah. I see. Well if it's any consolation, Robert feels the same about me," he chuckles.

"He thinks you need a man in your life?" Elsie teases, with a small smile.

"You know what I mean. So, does Beryl have a particular suitor in mind?" He doesn't really want to know the answer, doesn't want to think of her with anyone else. He won't tell her of course, she thinks of him as a friend and that's all, despite what Robert might say.

"She does, but it's a waste of time." Elsie huffs as she plays her friends words over and over in her mind. She takes her frustrations out on the dishes as she tries to get a head start on some of the washing up; scrubbing madly. "Do you know what really bothers me? It's the implication that I need a man at all. That somehow my life is incomplete without one. I've managed perfectly well so far."

"Perhaps she feels Grace needs a father?" he suggests, regretting it as soon as the words leave his mouth.

Elsie bites down the scathing retort that comes to mind first, instead saying, "Grace has plenty of father figures in her life, as you and Beryl well know."

"Then perhaps it is you Beryl is concerned for. Not that you need a man in your life, but that you are missing out on something rather nice by not being open to the possibility of a relationship."

Elsie's hands still. "I'm fine Charles. I have Grace, I have good friends and a good job. I don't need anything else," she asserts in a tone that brokers no room for discussion.

He excuses himself to go and read to Grace as promised and she sighs, dropping the cloth into the sink.

It's not his fault, or Beryl's. She knows they both mean well, that they want what's best for her, but they don't know what it feels like. To have fought not just to exist but to live, to show the world that she isn't altered by what has happened to her, but deep down she knows it's a lie.

She would once have welcomed Beryl's match-making. She almost did. Six years ago…

Beryl had arranged for the three of them to have dinner in a posh London hotel to discuss the catering for the Crawley's upcoming function, but then had dropped out at the last minute, claiming illness but insisting that Charles and Elsie go anyway and not let the reservation go to waste. Elsie had been suspicious but in the end had decided it wouldn't hurt to go along with her friend's scheme. At the very least she'd have a nice dinner and maybe, this would be the beginning of something more between her and Charles. He'd offered to pick her up but she'd had some errands to run and so had arranged to meet him there. She never made it though. She had been running late so had taken a short cut through the local park when someone had grabbed her arm and pulled her into the bushes. She never made it to the hotel.

That was the night she had been forced to give up hope of anything more than friendship with Charles Carson. That was the night Grace had been conceived.