John opened his eyes, smiling at the sight of Anna staring at him. "It's nice to know you stayed."

"It's my bed."

He shrugged, "But you're still here."

"Yes I am." She sighed, digging her hands under her pillow, and scooted toward him. "And I hope you're not in a hurry."

"I've not got any appointment until one.

"Then you've got time."

John smiled, "I've got time."

He raised a hand, using a finger to barely brush a strand of hair from her face. Following it to her back, he let the flow of her skin guide him through dips and valleys to travel the nuances of her skin. But the journey ended where the sheet lay across her lower back. John paused, fingering under the sheet a moment but did not linger, drawing back toward her shoulders instead. His finger tapped from her skin and he left a kiss on the last spot he touched.

They stared at one another a moment before John slid forward. He placed his lips on her forehead, her cheek, and the underside of her jaw. When Anna went to turn, his hand gently flattened on her lower back and kept her in place while his lips moved lower. A flick of his tongue traced the line of her throat to her shoulders and his hand at her back moved to the other side of her.

His form covered her, keeping off her skin so he could find all the places she shivered or trembled under the minutest of touches. The sheets bunched and shifted under him, tangling about his knees and legs and he positioned himself, but he ignored them and only focused on the sheet keeping her skin from view. In the weak light of the morning that peeked between brightly colored shades, John left no placed on her exposed skin unexplored.

One of his knees slipped between her legs, parting them enough to allow him to position himself behind and over her. His lips continued their tactile trek, admiring each undiscovered territory until her muscles quivered under him. A slight adjustment and her legs opened so his shoulders could settle as he massaged the skin of her legs before admiring them with his mouth.

Anna's sighs and gentle moans filled the room until it was all John could hear. There was nothing else, no one else, but her in that moment and the gentle noises escaping her mouth as she luxuriated under his care. Care John tracked back to the spot between her legs. That cry burned into his memory and nothing could tear the pleasure he experienced in the sound of her ecstasy when his mouth was on her.

Pointed flicked and flat laves had her twisted about his head. His shoulders worked lower, giving him the protection from a sudden jerk that might box his ears, and his fingers finally joined the fray. It took only a few more minutes before Anna shattered around him, her cry echoing about the room and ringing in his ears.

John went to pull away but Anna's hand latched onto his wrist. She drew his arm over her body so John draped over her to put his ear near her mouth. Her whisper left all the hairs on his arms standing on end but it only took a minute to oblige. A moment for his other hand to hold her hip so she did not move as he entered her. And even less time than that for them to find a rhythm. A rhythm that rocked his abdomen against her ass while his elbows dug into the mattress to give him the leverage he needed and she wanted with the rise of her hips to meet him.

They came together, sighing at the end of their cries, and maneuvered so John lay on his back. He stared at the ceiling, hand on his chest as if he intended to measure his heartrate, and just breathed. The fingers of his other hand met Anna's as she interlocked them with her own. He turned when she brought them to her lips to place the softest kiss on his knuckles.

"Thank you."

"For what?" He frowned and Anna shrugged up her shoulder, compressing the pillow toward the headboard.

"No one's been as considerate to me as you've been."

"In regards to sex or-"

"Or anything."

"I don't know." John laughed, "I did take you on my desk yesterday so that's not exactly speaking to my decorum."

"It's more than that." Anna focused on his fingers, turning his hand slowly. "It's… You're concerned for me. You came to my performance, you tried to understand it, you let me teach you to dance, and then you made me your concern. That means the world to me."

"I've told you that you mean the world to me."

"What I think you actually said was that you want me for the rest of your life."

John nodded, moving onto his side to see Anna's face better. "I did say that. And you responded that I didn't know what I was saying when I said it."

"You don't."

"Would you explain it to me?"

Anna took a deep breath. "You know about my troubles."

"In broad strokes."

"Then you're aware that there's not much to be done about them unless I'm willing to toss my friend under a very large bus."

"Maybe it would do her good."

Anna shook her head. "It wouldn't free me. And men like Carlisle aren't the kind to give up just because they lost a piece on their board."

"I do hope you're not about to tell me he's one of those pricks that thinks the world is a chess game."

"We all know it's Shits and Ladders."

John raised an eyebrow. "Isn't the game called 'Snakes and Ladders'?"

"Isn't that what I said." Anna grinned and they giggled together a moment. "And no, he's not that full of himself. He is full of himself but he's a realist. It's what you get when you've got someone who built themselves from the ground up. His empire is founded on his blood, sweat, and tears."

"And more than a few contributions from the nameless, faceless hoards I'm sure." John let his fingers trace over Anna's hand. "What would happen if I did want to risk him?"

"He's not really a worry. He runs the studio and the company but as long as I show up for work every day and do my part he's not all that interested in me."

"What about Green?"

"He's the problem." Anna worked herself onto her side. "He… He won't let it go John. If you keep egging him forward, testing his boundaries, one day he'll snap. The chain'll break and it won't matter who he's supposed to work for. He'll come after you and I don't want that."

"I'm not going to be cowed by a smug asshole like him."

"And I'm not asking you to." Anna put a hand on John's face, running her thumb along his cheekbone. "Just don't provoke him. Carlisle won't stop me living my life because he doesn't want me for anything but the company. He'll stop Green taking it too far if we don't give Green any reason to fly into a rage."

"What would happen then?"

Anna shrugged, "I guess Green'd be on his own. He's just supposed to keep an eye on me but after three years I'm sure Richard Carlisle's confident in his rising star. He's not worried about me going anywhere."

"But he'll still keep the information on Mary?"

"I don't know if he even still has it but he's got enough of the facts." Anna flopped onto her back. "And he's got Green so…"

"We're playing a zero-sum-game."

Anna nodded, "That's the long and the short of it."

"What if it didn't have to be that way?" Anna quirked an eyebrow and John extended a hand. "Hear me out. What if we could offer Carlisle a better story than that one?"

"What's better than, son of diplomat overdoses in the presence of equally high Mary Crawley?"

"I've heard more than a few things in my sessions."

Anna sat up, shaking her head. "As much as I'm sure you hate the situation I won't agree to being a part of anything that loses you your license to practice and gets you tossed in jail."

"They'd only have to be rumors."

"People always find the source of their rumors." Anna put up a finger as John moved to sit up, stopping him with his mouth open to speak. "Please, don't do that. Not for me."

"Are you asking me not to risk it all for you?"

"I'm asking you to be sensible." Anna shook her head again, "I won't thank you for tossing yourself into the fire to try and rescue me. The only result is that we'd both burn and then where'd we be?"

"Charred."

"Not funny." Anna's lip quirked to match John's smile. "Okay, maybe a little funny. But I am serious. Don't go jeopardizing everything you built before I came along just to try and get me out of a jam. It's not a bad jam really and I-"

John put a finger over her lips, waiting to speak until their eyes met. "Everything I built before you is worthless without you."

She moved his hand away from her mouth to kiss him. Their fingers interlocked and John submitted when Anna levered him over her with their intertwined fingers. Her leg hooked over his hip and his free hand decided to explore the place that made her writhe and cry out. The places his mouth could not reach when thoroughly occupied with her breasts and her mouth. The places she tried to mimic on him until they both rutted against one another on the point of climax.

A shift and a slide later had John inside her. They kept their pace slow, gentle, and easy as the lights in the room changed. Nothing rushed them and nothing could disturb them as they came together. Tilting hips matched with bent knees while nails raked and teeth nipped. Kisses and sighs mingled with moans and cries until they settled together.

John went to move but Anna's arms tightened around him. Her forehead settled against his shoulder, sinuously slipped around him to keep them as close as their hands. Hands that, when John finally extricated them, cramped his fingers until he could finally stretch them straight.

Anna kissed over his palm, massaging him until his fingers bent normally, and whispered in the silence they made. "I don't want you to lose anything because of me."

"It would be worth it."

"It doesn't matter." John went to speak but Anna shook her head. "I'm not in need of rescuing and I won't appreciate you tossing away everything in a grand gesture."

"Isn't that my choice?"

"It's my choice to accept it and I wouldn't accept that." Anna smiled at him. "It's not as horrible as you imagine."

"And you keep saying that."

"Because I'm hoping you'll believe me." Anna settled. "I… I know we don't know one another really and so we're both reacting out fear because this is new and we're not sure of ourselves and because we feel something we can't describe but that's no reason to abandon reason."

"I feel like I abandoned reason the day I met you."

"Then let's try and put a bit more of it back into… whatever this is and whatever we want this to be."

"Then," John cleared his throat and sat up. "I'd like to take you out on a proper date."

"A proper date?"

"Dinner, some kind of event, and the moment where I take you back to yours and leave you at the door with only a gentlemanly kiss on your hand."

"Bit late for gentlemanly kisses isn't it?" Anna snorted at his expression. "I'd like that, truly."

"You think of a place for after dinner and I'll find an eatery that won't break whatever odd diet you're probably on to keep muscle tone."

"It's healthy, I'll have you know."

"I'm sure it is." John paused, going to swing his legs out of bed. "You are allowed to eat fun things right? Like chocolate or cake or something?"

"All in moderation." Anna laid back on her pillows, watching him move about the bedroom. "I thought you didn't have to be at your office until one."

"I don't." John pointed toward the bathroom, "Mind if I use the shower?"

"Sure." Anna sat up, "Where are you headed off to?"

"I've got to make plans for our evening."

"That's evening. We're barely…" John heard a rustle from the bed, "Barely at eight in the morning."

John stuck his head out of the bathroom, "I've not taken anyone on a date in a long while and I need to get up to speed. That means I need to get to my office and pester my secretary for help with it."

"She's your secretary and she shouldn't have to do that."

"Gwen's my PA. She handles everything and she'll be overjoyed to handle this since she's been trying to get me out to a few places for awhile now." John turned the water on in the shower and scrubbed through the lukewarm spray. When he came out of the shower, reaching blindly for a towel, he saw Anna standing there. "What?"

"Where are you really going?"

"To make plans."

Anna's face twisted to scowl. "I hope you're not getting ready to torpedo your practice for me."

"I promise," John put both of his hands on Anna's cheeks, holding her eyes steady with his. "I'm not going to do anything to harm my career."

"Alright." Anna handed over the towel. "Just… Don't go to extremes for me. I don't need it."

"Then I'll make do with what I've got." John winked at her. "I'd better hurry up and get going or we'll be eating at Nando's."

"It's not a bad place."

"It is for a first date." John wrapped the towel around his waist to forage for his clothes in her sitting room. "I'm trying to make a good impression."

"You've already made quite a few impressions and they've all been good." Anna groaned as her phone buzzed from the other room. "Don't leave yet."

John assembled himself, toweling his hair one final time before using his fingers as a comb to try and keep it flat. Anna's muffled voice sounded from her bedroom, where she took the call, and John kept himself to tidying up the sitting room. He recovered both of his socks, his wrinkled tie, and almost decided to give up on trying to find his other shoe when Anna tapped him on the shoulder with it.

"All good?"

She shook her head, "I may have to postpone that date of ours. We're apparently performing at a private function. Director can't pass up the chance to impress the elite."

"And they need their star." John took the shoe and jammed his foot into it before checking over his things. "Are you gutted?"

"I was looking forward to a date."

"Well we'll just have to postpone." John teased her hand with his fingers. "It'll keep. I'm sure the place Gwen might suggest'll still be when we do get to go there."

"I still feel bad."

"It's fine." John held up his phone, "I've got your number now and I've been to your place so I know you actually exist."

"I'm not some fairy you made up?" Anna stepped closer, her hands sliding up the front of his shirt. "Some fantasy for late, lonely nights."

"My late, lonely nights aside." John covered her hands with his and brought them to his mouth to kiss her fingers. "Definitely not."

"Then I'll find out my schedule and we'll find a time." Anna nodded back toward her bedroom. "I've got a few hours before I'm needed for rehearsals if you wanted to stay. I'll make it worth your while."

"And as tempted as I am to phone in the whole day and stay here with you, I think it'd be best if I didn't." John kissed her and grabbed his jacket. "Let me know."

"I will." Anna waved him out the door and John shut it with a smile on his face.

A smile he quickly turned to focus as he dug his phone out of his pocket in the lift. He pressed the number and held the phone to his ear while weaving between the older women trying to get into the lift on the ground floor. They dodged one another and John escaped into the cool morning air to hail a taxi.

The ringing on the other end of the line finally resulted in a voice as the cab pulled to a stop before him. "Mr. Richard Carlisle's office, how may I direct your call?"

"Yes, this is John Bates. I received an invitation for a sit-down with Mr. Carlisle a few months ago, when Terrance Sampson was chosen for the Shadow Cabinet and I was curious if he still wanted to chat."

"Let me check with him. Won't be a minute."

"Take your time." John eased into the backseat of the cab and covered the microphone on his phone. "Offices of theCarlisle Examinerplease."

The driver nodded and entered the address into her phone before pulling off the side of the street and into traffic.

"Sir?" John turned back to the phone. "Sir, I've got Mr. Carlisle here and he says he'd be willing to meet with you for half an hour if you're wiling."

"Is he available right now?"

"One moment." John waited, focusing on the details of the car about him until the voice came back on the other end of the line. "Mr. Carlisle says that's perfectly fine."

"Then let him know I'll be there shortly. Thank you." John hung up the phone and leaned back into the seat.

"Got yourself a big interview sir?"

"Let's hope it's big." John stroked over the phone, noting the battery level. "Do you have a charger?"

"Plug's back there for you."

"Thanks." John plugged in his phone, noting the blink of green as it edged away from red. "You live around here?"

"No, just drive around here. Usually more than a few people who end up in this area at night need a lift back someplace in the morning." Their eyes met in the rearview mirror. "You're probably the most put-together I've seen lately."

"Thank you." John winced, "I've left my car."

"Did you forget that you drove somewhere?"

"Not exactly. Where I left my car and where I'm coming from this morning are two different places."

"That kind of night?"

"In a good way." John shrugged, "Could I ask a personal question?"

"I'll let you ask and then say whether or not I'll answer."

"You ever thought that you wanted to help someone but they don't need your help? Like, you've got a plan as to how you could help them and you wonder if they'd be alright with it?"

"Guess that depends on how much you trust them and how stupid the plan is." She steered around a corner and eased through the morning rush. "My girlfriend once got it into her head that I needed a deep clean of my flat but I keep telling her it was fine. Then, one day, I get home and it's all spotless."

"Where you upset?"

"It's difficult to explain." They stopped at a light and she risked a look back at him through the mirror. "On the one hand I recognized that she'd done what she thought was a nice thing but on the other I asked her not to and she ignored me."

"So which pissed you off more?"

"That she didn't listen to me. It goes to the idea of trust and respect." The light turned and she worked back into the flow. "Have you got something in mind that might just knock someone on their ass?"

"It's more like a sidestep. Because they shot down my first suggestion and I promised not to do that so I won't."

"But now you're doing something similar but not quite the same?" The driver hissed, sucking air through her teeth. "Not sure they'll appreciate the nuance of that. Splitting hairs isn't really a good angle to take if there's an argument about it later."

"You're not sure?"

"In my experience, if it's a man then you've just insulted their capability and men usually hate that."

"And a woman?"

"She'll be pissed you weren't listening."

John let out a deep breath, "Then let's hope she's not that pissed about it."

A few minutes later the cabbie dropped John outside the towering offices of the Carlisle Examiner, and she whistled. "It's amazing that in this generation of internet news we've still got buildings like this for paper publications."

"Vintage and retro will always be words associated to people who want to feel nostalgic." John dug out his card and swiped it, adding a large time. "For the advice."

"Even though you didn't take it?"

"It'll help me prepare if I need to batten down the hatches in the case of a shitstorm."

"Good luck to you." She waved at him and drove off, leaving John to ascend the stairs to the building.

At the front desk he quickly introduced himself and did not even have time to sit in one of the lobby's chairs before a young woman in a skirt below her knees came through the security gates toward him. Her heels clacked over the floor and when she got closer John realized she was older than he thought from a distance.

"John Bates, yes?" She shook his hand quickly. "I'm Jane Moorsum, Mr. Carlisel's PA. We just spoke on the phone."

"Yes." John returned her shake, "You're not what I was expecting."

"A powerful man running a business doesn't have a blonde with big breasts, a tight shirt, and a tiny skirt?" She laughed with him, "I know. But Mr. Carlisle's rather focused on his work so I doubt he even notices that kind of thing."

"What does he notice?"

"Results." Jane waved him to follow her. "Here, I'll take you up to his office."

"He's not been waiting long has he?"

"Oh he keeps himself busy. People come to him so he works around them."

"He's certainly accommodating to me on such short notice so I'll be sure to thank him."

They rode the lift to the top floor offices and Jane guided John through a large, secondary lobby, past a few glass-walled offices with people diligently typing, phoning, or scribbling away on pads, and to the glass doors at the end of the hall. The glass gauntlet directed John right into the waiting embrace of Richard Carlisle as the man seized his hand and shook firmly.

"I'm so glad you called me Mr. Bates. I was just thinking about that call I made all those months ago and wondering if anything could come of it." He motioned to the seats just off his desk, putting them in matching leather chairs that faced one another. "Jane, could you get Mr. Bates and myself some coffee?"

"I'll actually take tea instead," John leaned over his chair to address Jane. "A Yorkshire brew if you've got it."

"Yorkshire man?" Carlisle swung one leg over the other, steepling his fingers as his elbows rested on the leather armrests of the square seat.

"I'm actually half-Irish but I've always like the taste of northern teas."

"Then coffee for me and tea for Mr. Bates." Carlisle put his hand flat, palm toward the floor, "How do you take your tea, Mr. Bates?"

"Dab of milk'll do me just fine."

"I'll get those for you straight away." Jane smiled at them. "And your calls, Mr. Carlisle?"

"Hold them until the end of the meeting."

"Yes sir." She left the office and John rubbed his hands over his trousers.

"I'm sorry that I've disturbed your morning. I imagine you've got more than enough to do without me bothering you."

"Oh," Carlisle waved off the worry. "I can promise there's nothing I want more, at this moment, than to hear what you've come all this way to tell me."

"Then you won't mind if I tell you there'll be stipulations to what I tell you?"

"I expected no less from the ex-husband of the woman on the arm of Terrance Sampson." Carlisle leaned in to whisper in a conspiratorially low tone. "I'm sure you appreciate that trying to find out what makes a man like Sampson chose a woman… significantly older than him, as his paramour sparks more than a little interest in the tabloids."

"I'll also guess you're not the kind to believe the assumption she's a witch who put a spell over him."

Carlisle laughed. "Women are all witches, Mr. Bates. It's how they ensnare us because, if not, we'd never be smart enough to get one. They're smarter than us and they condescend to notice our existence."

"I couldn't agree more."

"So," Carlisle leaned back in his seat again, "What are you conditions?"

"It'll sound odd so I'll only ask you allow me to finish before speaking." Carlisle nodded and John cleared his throat. "In exchange for what I'll tell you about my ex-wife and Terrance Sampson, I want you to sign a promise that you'll never use what you know about Mary Crawley and that unfortunate overdose in any articles and you'll keep the silence of Mr. Green about it as well."

Carlisle only quirked an eyebrow, holding a level of calm John only recognized at high-stakes poker tables. After a moment his eyes narrowed, "And what, Mr. Bates, do you know about all that?"

"I know that it's how Ms. Anna Smith now works for your dance company." John raised his hand, "I'm not here to put a stop to that or even to the operations you run in that neighborhood."

"And what do you know about that neighborhood?"

"Enough." John hurried to explain, "I work with the clinic there and I manage a cricket team for young kids in the area."

"You're the ambitious patron of the local sports club are you?"

"I wouldn't say that. I'm doing what I can."

"It's admirable work." Carlisle gave a little laugh. "Puts our motives at odds since they don't need me if they've got you."

"I'm not here to deconstruct whatever empire you've got going in there, although I should take more umbrage about it because it's a reprehensible practice."

"But that's not why you're here." Carlisle pursed his lips. "I'll hazard you're here about the debt Ms. Smith's paying on Ms. Crawley's behalf."

"That's right."

"And you want to trade the story I'm sitting on for one you'll tell?"

"That's right."

"And what about Ms. Smith?" Carlisle opened his hands to shrug at John. "Do you want her as your payment as well?"

"She's no one's payment. I'm here so her working for you is her choice, not because you'll ruin Ms. Crawley otherwise."

"Then let me put your mind to rest with the knowledge I never meant to ruin Ms. Crawley." Carlisle nodded at John's wide-eyed expression. "Mr. Green told me the story to get Ms. Smith working for me. I saw an opportunity and signed Mr. Green to silence about his story so I would be the only one to print it."

"So you'll sit on it, indefinitely?"

"I've no reason to print it. All that trauma and scandal isn't really the thing I'm trying to do with my time and talents." Carlisle took a deep breath, "But I'll sign one for you, promising never to print the story and to keep Mr. Green mum about it, in exchange for what you know."

"I'll take that deal."

Carlisle paused, "And you've really nothing to ask on behalf of Ms. Smith?"

"I'd like you to call off your attack dog."

"Oh," Carlisle sighed and rolled his eyes. "He's his own breed in that category. I've nothing to do with that."

"Could you get him away from her?"

"I could but it wouldn't end well for anyone."

"So it's better he continues stalking Ms. Smith?"

"He knows he's not allowed to touch her."

"And if he does?"

Carlisle shrugged, "I'm sure you're aware that a man in my position isn't without some rather disreputable friends who'd help me manage a mad dog."

"Could I get your word on that too?"

"As long as I have your word you won't provoke him. I'm no one's janitor."

John nodded, "From what I've read you left that job far behind."

"And what've you read, Mr. Bates?"

"The building you used to clean at night, to get yourself through school, is the building you now own. There's no limit to what determination can get you." John risked his next comment, "And a few disreputable friends."

Carlisle laughed, "Oh I like you Mr. Bates."

"Enough to sign those forms now?"

"Enough to do you one better." He extended his hand toward John, "The neighborhood's off limits to my people. Keep your cricket team, let them feed the hungry and clothe the naked, and I'll find another place for my operation."

"Deal." John shook Carlisle's hand. "Where should I begin?"

"About your ex-wife?" Carlisle snorted, "I admire your bravery."

"It's not bravery. I'm the scorned man. This is worse than the fired intern giving dirt on their boss."

"That would've been you when I first called. Now… Now it's something else." Carlisle's eyes gazed into a distance only he could see. "Like you've tried to suppress a lie and now it's become too much. The weight is killing you."

"I wouldn't say that but yes, there are things people need to know about one of the most powerful women in the nation at the moment."

Carlisle tapped his fingers on the armrest. "She'll come after you for this. Hard."

"I know."

"I've heard she's rather ruthless in the face of opposition."

John shrugged, "I've faced her before. I can do it again."

"This'll be different. She's a Shadow Cabinet Minister's wife now. She's got more resources."

"She's still the same person and I learned her weaknesses."

"She'll know yours."

John nodded, "It's the risk worth taking."

Carlisle smiled, "I knew Ms. Smith was an incredible dancer but I guess she's a bit more than that."

"She's everything."

"Alright Mr. Bates," Carlisle waved Jane into the room, taking his coffee from her. "Tell me your story."