Notes: This story exists in my headcanon that Mary's baby is a girl named Violet (the older Violet died while Mary was pregnant), and that Violet and Cora have a really strong bond and close relationship. This is my first fanfic!
"Are you staying for much longer?" Her grandmother interrupted the silence as their hands laid clasped together on the middle of her bed. It had been two weeks now, and this was the forth time Violet went to bed in Granny's room. In the wrong side though, in her side.
On the first night her mother and aunt Edith had slept with their mother, "Just like she did when Matthew and Michael Gregson died", Mary told her. On the second night, Cora asked to be left alone and Violet, knowing when to push and when to not, had stayed away. It was only on the third night that her grandmother had let herself be held by her and cried.
"I'm not quite sure." Violet knew that she was supposed to leave soon, she had responsibilities as a mother, as a wife and as a Baroness after all. Her husband had already left, he couldn't leave the estate for too long, and so had the children, needing to go back to school. She, however, couldn't make herself leave Downton. Or Granny. She never really could.
Granny, after a couple of weeks, was as well as expected. Lots of moments were of great sadness or moments of just silence and feeling lost, but there were also moments of normalcy, when she would just have a bit of conversation, give a little smile and be glad that all of her family was around. But something always seemed a bit off, as everything from now on would. Her eyes, the same ones as her granddaughter's, didn't hold the same light as it once did.
"What about you?" Violet's question held a tone of sad sincerity, and Cora knew what she meant. Years of being each others confidants, of being pried by the younger one to let go of her learned english ways and to open up about her thoughts and feelings, had given Cora the ability to know exactly what she meant. As she closed her eyes, all she saw were flashes of Robert's smile, of his eyes, of his voice, of all the parts of him that were also parts of her. All of her parts that had already left this Earth. And she could only be honest.
"No. I don't think so." She said simply. Her words were delicate and didn't have any sadness or heaviness in it, but she half expected Violet to hold tightly onto her clothes and plead her to stay, just as she used to do when she was just a little girl who preferred nothing in the world to the company of Granny. However, in the present, the grip on her hand was only tightened a bit.
"I understand." Her voice was strained but resolute, her eyes unfocused and her brown lightly frowned. "Though I would like you to stay forever." She completed with a small smile, for her words were a repetition of the ones over a decade ago, when Cora had stayed with her for a few weeks on the occasion that Violet's husband was at war and left her alone with a small child and pregnant. She had needed to go back to Downton, not being able to leave Robert for too long, not being able to be without him for too long. The same was true now.
Just as Cora had responded then, she rolled on the bed to face her granddaughter, placed her other hand on the face that was so much like her own and left a small kiss on her forehead, "Oh, my little darling, even if I cannot stay, I'll never leave you."
Thank you for reading! As I said: this is my first fanfic, so if you coulf leave a review critiquing or giving me any pointers I would appreciate it very much! (or just anything so I feel like this wasn't a total rubbish)