prompt: Tom's mother comes to Downton soon after Sybil's death
Mother
She can not make it in time for the funeral, and it pains Tom to think his mother even has to make this journey, but when she stands in the large hall of Downton, as unimpressed by its grandness and treasures as he used to be, he falls into her arms. Finally falls.
Breaks.
Oh my darling boy, she whispers, strongly, the way only mothers could soothe, holding him close and steady.
Ma, he chokes, and it does not matter in this moment that he is a grown man crying against his mother's shoulder. Nothing matters any more.
He remembers his mother's kisses on bruised knees, her arms around him next to a fireplace and a lullaby humming past her lips as sleep washed over him.
This, however, was no pain a mother's love could heal.
As he lets go, his mother's eyes are fixed on him, and he can see that she has given him up, the smiling, foolish young boy he used to be.
Mrs Branson.
Cora walks across the room slowly, the greeting smile on her face such a stark opposite to the black of her dress that makes her look so sickly and pale.
You Ladyship, I'm ever so sorry for your loss, his mother says, politely, but with as much spite as Tom knows so well from his own words.
It seems out of place, the three of them standing in the wide hall, complete silence falling over them, three people so different, united in this darkest hour.
Thank you. And perhaps you could call me Cora. She smiles softly and reaches out her trembling hand, and Tom wishes so, so dearly for an after that allows his darling Sybil to see this. Hands touching, and his mother's mask cracking as the tears begin to flow.
He wants to fall once more, barely has the strength to stand, but he knows it's not the time. It is all down to him now.
