Soulmates

An AU novella featuring Tom Branson, Sybil Crawley and other incarnations of them

Downton Abbey and the characters who live there belong to Julian Fellowes and ITV

I'm just borrowing some of the characters for a little while and adding a few of my own to write this story

I am not making any money from this; it's just to freeshare with my ff friends.


Chapter One: Mike and Emma


...

The only reason that Mike went to the party which changed his life, was because his flatmate, Stu, had insisted. All he had wanted to do was to go down to the pub, watch the footie on the plasma screen, and get quietly drunk.

It had been one hell of a week at work. He worked as a computer tech at a large online retail company and everybody seemed to be having problems that week. He had had viruses and malware and network conflicts coming out of his ears! He had worked overtime every night since Monday and by the time he'd got to Saturday, which incidentally should have been a day off, he was ready for some quiet downtime after work.

But then Stu had reminded him about the party and that he'd promised to accompany him. Stu was quite a shy person, and Mike knew that he wouldn't go alone, so he had sighed and resigned himself to loud conversation and even louder music. Maybe he could get a drink and then hide in a corner, he had thought.

But the corner had been occupied already by another reluctant guest, and as they had quietly conversed and commiserated with each other, he had realised that actually he was very glad to be there, because the other reluctant guest was a dark haired beauty named Emma, with beguiling eyes, a sexily husky voice and a wicked sense of humour.

A few hours later the two of them had realised that both of the friends they had separately accompanied to the party had become very busy with other people, and so Mike and Emma had quietly slipped away to Emma's flat, where they had discovered that their bodies enjoyed each other's company every bit as much as their minds had done. The moment they had kissed, Mike had felt like he was finally 'home' after years of searching. For the first time the words of Savage Garden's 'I knew I loved you before I met you' made perfect sense to him and no longer sounded cheesy and predictable.

That night had changed everything for them both, and from that point on in their separate lives, they had become totally inseparable. Within a year they were living together, planning their wedding and looking forward to a united future. Their whole existence together had seemed to be perfect and charmed. Neither of them had ever had any doubts of a long assured future, and on their wedding day barely eighteen months after they had met, they declared a total commitment to each other for eternity.

On that day, though, they had not had any idea of what that eternity actually meant, and it would be another little while before they did eventually find out.

They had continued to enjoy a happy, carefree life for another couple of years after their wedding, finding a delightful old cottage which they had fixed up together, affording it on their modest wages by doing most of the work themselves. Mike had enjoyed turning his time to painting and plumbing, building something of their own, instead of spending his off time watching sport, drinking and socialising down the pub. He was perfectly complimented by Emma in this as well as with all other aspects of their lives. Emma was a nurse and a very practical person, but she was also extremely creative, and combining the two meant that she could turn her hand to sewing and crafting beautiful accessories, which turned their small house into a home.

They had it all: the company of another being perfectly in tune with each other, a delightful home they had created together and the icing on the cake came when Emma fell pregnant.

But then six months into the pregnancy, their charmed existence started to show a few cracks as Mike began to have disturbing dreams. Dreams which would eventually lead Emma and Mike to discover the true meaning of 'eternity'


AN: A HUGE thank you to LadyDunla for beta reading, and generally correcting this work. Any remaining mistakes are mine!

Please review and let me know what you think. All constructive criticism is welcomed as the only way to improve is to take on board other people's comments. I hope you will enjoy the reading journey as much as I am enjoying the writing one.