Author's note -

Thank you so much to everyone who has read/followed/reviewed/favourited this collection so far! I really love to hear from you - please do keep telling me what you think. :)

A Sybil x Tom Rock the Easter AU ficlet - sometimes, only Bransons fluff will do! Dedicating this to the lovely mimijag - a great friend and fellow S/T author.

Hidden treasures

"Oh, Aislín, not again, my sweetheart."

Sybil sighed as she cleaned up after her daughter. Tom had been called urgently into work to write the lead article on a breaking scandal in the Dáil, and she had spent most of Easter Saturday evening alone with a grizzly six month old who had just thrown up for the second time.

The doctor in her knew that Aislín only had a little fever, soon cured with some baby paracetamol, but even so she had been tempted to call her husband and ask him to come home. She had resisted picking up the phone so far, reasoning that the sooner he finished work, the sooner he could be with his family.

She walked over to the bedroom cupboard to try and find some clean linens, reaching up to the top shelf where she could see some towels had been shoved in. As she pulled, they all tumbled down on top of her, and something hard in the pile of towels bounced off her head and onto the floor.

Rubbing her head, she looked down and saw a box tied with a ribbon. She picked it up and put it on the table before lifting the baby from her cradle and wrapping her in a soft, fresh towel.

"Is that better, darling?" Aislín opened her tear-filled eyes and looked at her mother. "Let's go and look at the box, shall we?"

Sybil sat down, holding her daughter in the crook of her arm and rocking her a little as she untied the bow that held the box closed and lifted its lid. Inside was what seemed at first glance to be a random collection of objects, but on closer inspection each little item was revealed to be rich in meaning.

A smile bloomed on her face as she picked up two ticket stubs for "Sherlock Holmes", the first movie she and Tom had seen together. There was a coaster from the Lamb and Flag, the pub in Central London where they had first met, with her phone number scribbled on the back in eyeliner. A folded photo caught her eye from their first weekend away, of herself with wind-ruffled hair, looking out over the railing of Brighton Pier. I didn't know he took this!

Digging deeper into the box, she found a CD of The Suburbs that she had burned for him after an Arcade Fire concert they both remembered as one of the best gigs of their lives, not just for the music but also because Tom had proposed to her during "No Cars Go". A silk gardenia she had worn in her hair when she had been a bridesmaid for her sister Mary lay beside a match book from a restaurant on the Place des Vosges, where they had eaten a memorable dinner during their babymoon in Paris just before Aislín's birth.

Still more treasures were revealed - a boarding pass from the flight they had taken when moving to Dublin, an order of service from their wedding in the local parish church a few months later. At the bottom of the box, she found a sheet of hospital notepaper with their daughter's first footprints on it, which made tears pour in earnest down her cheeks.

A key turned in the front door lock. "Sybil? I'm home. Where are you?"

She didn't answer, cuddling a now sleeping Aislín in her arms. He came into the bedroom and found them.

"Darling, what is it? What's wrong?" He leaned down to kiss her. "What have you got... oh, I see."

"Sweetheart, I've been crying like a baby, like our baby, looking through it."

Tom shrugged off his jacket and took Sybil's hand. Leading her to their bed, he lay back against the headboard and pulled them both gently into his embrace. He ran one finger down her cheek, pushing a stray curl behind her ear.

"I'm glad you found it – I made it for you as an anniversary present, but today's just as good. Do you like it?"

"It's just perfect, thank you, I love it! All those wonderful memories..."

Their eyes met and locked as he slid his finger under her chin, bringing her face closer to his. At the movement, their daughter stirred between them and began to whimper, hungry for her supper.

Tom helped Sybil unfasten her shirt and bra before shifting his position slightly, curving his arms around them both so that she could rest against him while she nursed their child. The young mother cradled Aislín's head in her hand as she started to suckle, the expression on her face making him catch his breath.

"Isn't she beautiful, darling?"

"Of course - she takes after her mother."

She smiled and blushed a little at his words, then settled back against his chest. For a while the room was silent except for their baby's gentle snuffling as she fed.

Reaching into his shirt pocket, Tom pulled out something small, slowly bringing it into Sybil's field of vision as she switched Aislín to her other breast.

"What... oh, Tom, a mini gold bunny! My favourite."

He unwrapped it with one hand and popped it into her mouth. "Happy Easter, Sybil - it's nearly midnight so I think it counts."

Her lips tasted of chocolate as he kissed her. He closed his eyes and tightened his arms around his wife and child - Every waking minute, my love...

A/N -

The Dáil is the Irish Republic's name for the lower house of their Parliament.

I was partly inspired by one of my fave movies, "Amelie", for this story, remembering how she finds the treasure box in her bathroom wall and sets out to find the owner.