A/N: Originally posted on my tumblr back in Dec. Link in my profile. This is my current escape from 3x05.

Rating: K+

Disclaimer: Not mine. All Downton Abbey characters belong to Julian Fellowes and ITV. I'm just playing with them.

Christmas Tree

If they had nothing else, Sybil wanted a huge tree with lights for their flat at Christmas even though they would be spending Christmas morning at Downton with her family. She and Tom had married three years before on impulse while on holiday and they had welcomed their surprise little girl into the world just over two years before. While Lily had been too young the two previous years to appreciate a tree, Sybil knew that she would just love it now at the ripe old age of two years and a month.

So the Saturday before Christmas, she and Tom dropped Lily off with Mary and Matthew for the morning to play with her cousin while they hunted for the biggest tree they could find and it was hidden on the balcony until her nap time. As soon as she was asleep, they trimmed it with white lights just like the tree at Downton and a mixture of ornaments from Tom's childhood and ones they picked up on the way home. They had just enough time to put it together before Lily woke up.

Once she awoke, they had an early dinner and Tom gave her a bath to keep her from seeing the tree while Sybil pulled out a few presents from the stash and quickly boxed or wrapped them.

"My darling Lily, could you please stop wiggling so I can dry you?" Tom struggled with a wet toddler, who resented getting out of the bath.

"Da, bath!" Lily insisted, pointing at the tub still filled with water.

"Yes, my darling." Tom was now struggling to put her in her nappy now that she was dried. "I know you want to keep playing but you've been in there for a half hour. Your fingers are prunes already." Speaking a little louder so Sybil could hear, "Don't you want to see the tree, Lily?"

"Two more minutes, Tom," Sybil yelled from their bedroom, scrambling to wrap one more present.

"Tree, Da?" asked Lily, putting her own arms through the pyjama top. Tom's mother had sent a cute pair of red flannel Christmas pyjamas the previous week that Lily loved so much she refused to wear another pair and Sybil had to wash them one day during the week while Lily was at the montessori school that her parents insisted Lily attend two days a week.

"Yes, the Christmas tree, darling." Tom smiled at his little girl who had Sybil's wild curls and his colouring. She looked adorable in those gingerbread house pyjamas with feet. "But we need to brush your hair first."

Just as Tom was almost done brushing out the curls, Sybil called out from the front room. "The lights are on. I think she'll love it."

"Do we want to see the tree now, darling?" Tom nodded to prompt Lily, who nodded in agreement while flashing him a smile. So he picked her up in his arms and whisked her to the front room.

When Lily spotted the lit tree, her eyes went wide and her little mouth formed a perfect O. Tom crouched down and put her down on carpet. Sybil knelt beside him.

"Do you like it, darling?" asked Tom. Lily looked from him to the tree and back.

"Would you like to hang this on the tree?" asked Sybil, handing Lily a small plastic ornament she had saved for her.

Lily took the ornament and nodded at her mother, mouth open, still unable to speak.

"Go on, then." Sybil smiled at her little girl to encourage her.

Lily padded over to the tree and reached as high as she could. Tom took out his smartphone and snapped a picture. Looking at it, he knew it was one he was going to treasure.

After hanging her ornament, Lily sat down and smiled at the tree while Tom snapped a few more pictures. When the pretty presents caught her interest underneath, Sybil went over to Lily and picked her up to show her the other ornaments, telling her all the stories that Tom told her in the years before, while Tom continue to take pictures of his best girls.

When the ornaments stopped keeping her interest, Sybil sat down with Lily on the rocking chair on the other side of the fireplace and read her the story of Father Christmas, like they had done each night for all of December. Before long, Lily's eyelids were too heavy to keep open, so Sybil carefully lifted her and put her to bed. When she came out of Lily's room after tucking her in, Tom had finished cleaning the kitchen and even made some tea for the two of them.

Sitting down on the sofa to admire the tree, Sybil leaned into Tom who had his arms about her shoulders. Kissing the top of Sybil's head, Tom asked, "Was her reaction all you hoped for?"

Looking up at him, Sybil smiled. "Wasn't it precious? Can I see the pictures you took?"

Tom reached into his pocket to pull out his phone and Sybil took it from him immediately to go through the pictures. "I'm sending this one and this one to everyone." Sybil clicked a few things on the phone and pressed send. She then turned it off and threw it on the coffee table.

Looking at his powered off phone, Tom asked non-chalantly, "I guess you didn't want us to be disturbed?"

Sybil wagged one of her eyebrows at him while she slipped her hand under his jumper. She then flashed a seductive smile at him. "Not until I'm done with you."

Original A/N from Tumblr: When I saw this pic on Friday morning, my first reaction was this is little Miss Branson and this was Sybil and Tom's flat. So I had to write something for it. My contribution to a Branson Christmas fic. My first venture into a modern AU with Tom and Sybil. I hope you like!