Author's Note: I'm loving all the hero!Sarah fics that have popped up in the last week :) This is something that came to me last weekend whilst listening to my collection of Doctor Who Soundtrack CD's. One-sided Sarah/Cora.
Sarah O'Brien lifted the teacup to her lips and as she attempted to take a sip of the heavenly brew she violently shivered. She gasped with the shock of it and spilled a little of her tea in the process. Something akin to fear gripped at her heart and for a moment she could have almost sworn she was having a heart attack. Carson looked at her sharply and then curiously as the fear seemed to have embedded itself in her eyes.
"Miss O'Brien, are you quite well?" The Lady's Maid looked in the direction of his voice, but her eyes were unseeing and she remained distracted by her thoughts. Thomas nudged her with a sharp kick against her leg with his foot and Sarah nudged him back once her distraction had been broken.
"I just 'ad the most awful feeling of someone walking over me grave." Thomas burst into a snigger.
"You don't seriously believe any of that nonsense do yer?" Sarah looked at him with her best 'don't mock me' glare and the footman kept any further thoughts to himself.
"I'm sure it was just a draught Miss O'Brien, nothing at all to worry about," the Butler said in the most reassuring tone he could muster.
"Perhaps yer right Mr Carson. I'll not dwell any more on it," but for the rest of the morning Sarah couldn't shake the sense of foreboding that had settled itself inside of her.
A young housemaid had been the first to alert them and had come screaming down the stairs shouting 'smoke, smoke' in a panic. She was shortly followed by Anna who confirmed the sighting of smoke coming from somewhere upstairs. Carson quickly took charge and ordered everyone out into the yard and led them round to the front of the house. Thomas and Sarah dutifully followed as their fag break had been rudely interrupted by the ensuing chaos. The servants met with Lord Grantham, Cousins Matthew and Isobel and Lady Mary on the lawn in front of the house. Edith and Sybil had popped into the village with Branson on a shopping trip earlier that morning and were not expected back for hours yet.
Sarah scanned the crowd of gathered Downton inhabitants, both downstairs and upstairs, and with a feeling of dread she pushed her way towards Lord Grantham and inquired into Her Ladyship's whereabouts. The second his face fell Sarah knew the Countess was still somewhere inside. She was most likely in her bedchamber where Sarah had left her just over an hour before. Her earlier sense of foreboding came back in force as it became apparent the fire seemed to be coming from the upstairs bedrooms and not simply the living areas as originally thought. Smoke billowed out from a window on the second floor and Sarah ran straight for the house without a second thought. Both His Lordship and Thomas called out after her but it was Thomas who actually made some movement in her direction.
"Yer not going in after her like a bloody fool are yer?" The footman yelled at his friend as they reached the main door.
"I ain't leaving 'er in there to perish! I owe 'er that much." Thomas looked back to the gathered crowd and stopped at Lord Grantham watching them.
"Even 'is Lordship doesn't seem quite as distressed as you. Come on Sarah, she ain't worth getting yerself killed over." Sarah saw rage and a fire like no other burned within her.
"She's everythingto me! If yer hadn't worked that one out before then yer more of a fool than I first thought. Now get out of me way and let me open the bloody door!" The two friends had a brief scuffle before they burst through the door and thick, grey smoke poured from the new escape route. Despite both servants being heavy smokers, the sudden lungful of tainted air caused them to choke and splutter. Sarah rushed over to the foot of the stairs and began to make her way up them. Thomas could see they were heading towards the origin of the fire as the smoke became denser and it stung at his eyes.
"Sarah! This is foolish!" The Lady's Maid paused on the stairs and looked meaningfully at her friend.
"Then either turn back now or help me. The choice is yours; I'll not hold it against you." Thomas saw the anguish in Sarah's eyes. He knew the daft spinster was fond of her Mistress and she often went soft around her, he just hadn't counted on her feeling quite so strongly for the privileged woman. How he had spent more than ten years being the closest thing to a friend the Lady's Maid had and he hadn't realised this about her he didn't know. Especially since she'd had him sussed from almost the day they had met.
"Alright, I'll 'elp yer." There had been no other choice really.
Sarah and Thomas reached the landing and were overwhelmed by the roaring flames that came lapping at them from what seemed like all sides.
"We've got to turn back, there's no way we can get through!" Thomas yelled at Sarah through the roaring of the fire and crackle of objects being caught alight and burned. The footman tugged at Sarah's elbow.
"I won't leave 'er Thomas...I can't be without 'er." Sarah shrugged off her overcoat and held it in front of her face as a shield against the flames. She surged forward and grabbed hold of the doorknob to Her Ladyship's bedchamber through the material. The Countess was asleep on her bed and a book lay fallen on the floor beside her. Sarah called out to her but she did not stir. Thomas yelled impatiently through the doorway that the flames were coming ever closer and they hadn't much time to get Lady Grantham to safety. Sarah slapped Her Ladyship's cheeks firmly to rouse her. The Countess moaned and her eyelids fluttered open briefly but she was barely lucid. Sarah surmised that the smoke must have gone to her head and did the only thing she could think of to protect the woman she had loved from afar for so many years. Sarah picked her up and cradled her in her arms. She turned the Countess's face towards her chest to protect her from breathing in any more smoke and then covered the woman with her overcoat. Thomas guided his friend and her delicate burden through the flames outside the bedchamber to the top of the landing. Just as they began to descend the stairs a flaming beam fell from above them and separated the two servants. Initially there were a few moments of panic as neither Thomas nor Sarah could see or hear the other, presuming the worst in regards to their fate before finally hearing their shouts across the burning obstacle on the stairs.
"Sarah! Are you both alright?" Thomas had found a small space along the beam that was not yet alight. He couldn't climb over it but he could just about poke his head through to catch a glimpse of his friend.
"Fine, we've got to get 'er Ladyship out. She's awfully grey and she still won't wake up." Thomas took a moment to think.
"Can you see me? This gap here? If you could lift Lady G up and pass her through I could catch her and take her outside. I could then come back and pull you through." Sarah looked behind her, at the flames licking their way down the stairs and to the mostly burning beam in front of her. There was no other choice and Cora's safety was her most important priority.
"Alright." Sarah manoeuvred her way over to the edge of the stairs and to where Thomas's face appeared through the smoke.
"I'll lift 'er up and pass 'er through 'ead first. Yer ready?" Sarah jostled Cora in her arms until she had enough leverage and strength to lift her up and over the beam. Sarah saw Thomas lift his arms out ready to catch her and within moments she felt her burden lessen with his additional grip. Sarah held on for as long as she could, but somewhere around Her Ladyship's knees her arms could reach over no more.
"I have to let go now, you got her?" Sarah asked her friend anxiously.
"Yeah, she don't weigh a thing, you'd never think she were a fully grown woman!" Thomas took the whole of Cora's weight himself and Sarah sank back a little in relief.
"I'll be sure to get 'er fed once we're through this. Now keep good 'old of 'er and get her owt of this damned house sharpish!" Sarah put a hand to her chest, over her racing heart, and prayed to a god she didn't believe in to keep Cora safe.
"You're really sweet on 'er ain't yer? The dour Sarah O'Brien, I never would 'ave believed it!"
"Don't go round tellin' everybody, I'd never 'ear the end of it!" They both chuckled but it was a moot point. Sarah could never tell a living soul besides Thomas that she was in love with the Countess and besides, it depended on everyone coming out of this unscathed and Her Ladyship didn't look too clever at the moment.
Thomas was as good as his word and carried Lady Grantham through the thick smoke and out of the house to where she was relatively safe. Isobel was the first to come to his aid as she saw his burden and ran over to help. She was soon followed by the master of the house as he was roused from his stupor by Mary crying out for her Mama. The rest of the gathered crowd gasped and twittered in shock at the sight of Thomas carrying the swaddled bundle out if the house. He set Cora on the ground as gently as he could and unwrapped her from Sarah's overcoat. The Countess couldn't open her eyes with the grit and stinging of the smoke but she roused briefly to call for Sarah. Whether it was because she remembered her maid had helped her to safety or the fact that she had been draped in the woman's overcoat Thomas didn't know.
"O'Brien?" Her lips were parched and her voice was as rough as a smoker's.
"She carried you like a babe in arms Milady, nowt but the tenderest of care." Isobel knelt on the floor beside her cousin and looked up at the footman. She nodded with a gentle and grateful smile.
"I've got to go back in and help Sarah through. Mrs Crawley is here to look after you now." Isobel clutched his shoulder in a gesture of support and he went back inside to get Sarah just as Lord Grantham arrived at his wife's side.
Sarah had been trying to get herself free from the upstairs landing in the few minutes Thomas had been gone. She couldn't turn back and she felt the heat of the fire closer than ever now. The beam across the stairs in front of her was still very much alight and the gap that wasn't was now shrinking quicker than she'd hoped. She didn't have enough strength or leverage to lift herself over the beam and needed Thomas to help pull her through. The smoke was getting to her now and her lungs hurt from coughing so much. Her eyes stung and watered of their own free will and the salty tears stained her sooty cheeks in streaks.
Sarah looked at the doorway to Her Ladyship's bedchamber and shivered at the sight of the room in flames. The bed on which the Countess had been asleep mere minutes before was alight and it could so easily have been the woman herself. Sarah had no idea what His Lordship was playing at, but he'd better have a damned good reason for not rescuing Cora himself. He'd never deserved the Countess, neither did she thinking about it, but she had made an enormous effort these past few years to make up for it. There was no one she had loved as strongly or as completely as Cora, and she would make a point of letting the American woman know once they were through this the other side. Obviously not quite in the way she longed for but it was enough that Cora would know she was loved.
"Sarah!" The Lady's Maid heard her friend from somewhere beyond the burning beam in front of her. The fire still roared around her and her ears had become foggy over the sound, so she couldn't pinpoint where the Footman was exactly. She positioned herself in front of the gap they had pulled Cora through moments before and waited for Thomas to appear. Sarah heard an almighty creak and a whoosh of air as she caught a glimpse of another flaming beam fall from the ceiling.
Then the world suddenly went black.