I don't know why, but they keep getting longer. Still, thank you for your reviews and please continue! They mean a lot to me! Also constructive critisism is very very welcome. And if you see something amiss please tell me :) So here's anoyher one.

A pity, but DA and the characters are not mine because if they were Chelsie and Richobel would be a thing xD

Seeing that look in her wyes something snapped in him. Suddenly he remembered all their disagreements and the strange look in her eyes that appeared after them that he couldn't place. Now he saw the same look again. It was hurt, it was disappointment. Before now he thought that these fights had no importance to her, but seeing her like that now, even without harsh words spoken he knew something was amiss.

She was his friend. Not only a colleague but a friend and probably the only one like that. Now, he thought, was the time to bring their friendship back, or at least try to do that.

"Mrs. Hughes… I know that sometimes I am a crabby old fool, but.." Suddenly the look in her eyes changed. It looked like some kind of understanding dawned on her. Then the teasing look came back.

"Sometimes, Mr. Carson?" Again. The raised eyebrow.

"Well alright. Almost all the time but.." He was interrupted yet again.

"No. Mr. Carson. You are not a fool and certainly not old. Crabby? Sometimes yes, but aren't we all?

"I.."

"Mr. Carson….Charles" Hearing his own name coming from her lips was something he couldn't imagine happening ever again, after his collapse in a dining room during the war. That was the first time she had spoken his name in seventeen years of working together and only when she was very worried about him. But now, here it was again. Somehow this was very different from the last time.

"Yes?" he wasn't intending for his voice to sound so hoarse or hoping but he couldn't help it.

"I know that these times are hard for you. But please try to understand." Somehow she was saying exactly that, what Charles was trying to get out of himself so many times but couldn't. " You can't stand in the same spot for ever. Life goes on and so should you."

"But that's exactly what I can't do. I don't know how. I came into service because it was a stable position. This life was stable." And now everything has changed. He didn't know how to fit in anymore. It looked as if during one night his world overturned itself and became someone else's.

"And that's why we fight, Mr. Carson." Some previous lightness came back to her eyes as she continued. " I moved on. And you try to go back to life that was before the war. It won't happen. It changed. You yourself once said that life changed me as it altered you. Then let it change you some more." He didn't know what to say and the only logical thought in his head was " Will you help me then? Because I don't know how anymore."

"That's what I was trying to do all this time, you daft man." The glint in her eye and smirk found its way to her face and he smiled at that." You take care of the family and everyone around you, and I try to take care of you. Well that's how it should be if you didn't start shouting at me.." She wouldn't be Mrs. Hughes if she haven't done that now, he thought.

"Thank you." That was all he could think at the moment, even if he knew that he wanted to say so much more. She smiled with a real smile this time.

" Now, I think we should go to bed. Don't you think? We still have lots of things to do and arrange tomorrow."

"Yes. Yes, we should. Good night Mrs. Hughes." After taking their cups and putting them in the sink she turned to him and smiled again.

" I really don't know what I'd do without you…Elsie." Her first name sprang from his lips unintentionally, as the whole sentence did, but he understood that he meant what he said.

"Oh I don't know. Maybe you'd still live with a candle light if it wasn't for me. Good night Mr. Carson." With a smirk she turned to climb the stairs to servants rooms.