A/N: The final chapter! I hope you'll enjoy. Thank you all so much for standing by this crack!fic, I really appreciate your follows, favourites, reviews and encouragement in them and on Tumblr. So much love for all of you!


part 1

Lily understands Mrs Hughes is tired. That between feedings and nappy changes and crying for no apparent reason Mrs Hughes has not had a decent night's sleep. She seems calm under it, utterly in love with her newborn daughter. According to Anna, Lily's confidante and advisor in all things 'species related', it will be weeks before things are a bit less frantic, before they'll all be used to it. Or months. So Lily and Anna take care of most things related to the running of the house between them, allowing Mrs Hughes to rest when the baby sleeps and to spend time with her newborn daughter.

Mr Carson tiptoes around his new family. He brings flowers from the garden, tries to comfort Christina when she fusses and he is at Mrs Hughes' beck and call. According to Anna that is just how it's supposed to be. Lily doesn't know, has not said anything about it. She has no experience at all - here babies are little miracles, not something you can order at the laboratory. Lily does know Mrs Hughes is still poorly, her body recuperating from the trauma that is birth. That every little help is needed and wanted.

Seeing Mr Carson cradling his little girl in his big hands, supporting Mrs Hughes down the stairs the first day she is up from her 'confinement', the way he shushes his staff when they are rowdy and it shows such a different side of him, the side that so far only Mrs Hughes has seen in private and perhaps Lady Mary (on occasion), it all adds to Lily's education on the planet and her wish to remain just a little bit longer.

part 2

She is cleaning Mrs Hughes' sitting room while the Housekeeper is having her weekly conference with Lady Grantham. It's been six weeks since Lily has helped bring Christina into the world and the little bundle is in her crib in the corner next to the desk, looking around her with big, blue eyes. Lily is singing a song Jimmy has taught her - unwittingly, of course, Lily would never admit to lurking near the piano when it's being played - and dusting the shelves, the framed photographs on the wall.

When Christina starts to whimper, she puts down her cloth and steps down the little stepladder she needs to reach the top of the cupboard (she tries to be thorough to please Mrs Hughes, though no-one would ever see if there's any dust on a wardrobe or top shelves). She hovers over the crib, touches the baby's soft cheek.

"What's the matter, huh?" She croons. "Your mother will be back soon. Don't worry, pet." She uses terms of endearment she has picked up along the way - in church, shops, even in these halls and she uses them only when she is with Christina.

Christina starts crying softly first and again Lily touches her cheek, her brow. She is wearing a little knitted cap and Lily wonders if maybe it itches or is too hot, but the baby doesn't feel warm and when she pushes back the cap to check, there is no sign of irritation. Christina however starts wailing in earnest.

Lily turns around, hoping to see Mrs Hughes, Mr Carson, Anna, anyone, but she is alone with the crying child and she takes a deep breath before picking Christina up, and holding her close. She shushes in the manner she has seen Mrs Hughes do and rocks her a bit like Anna does and thankfully the wailing subsides and Christina falls asleep in her arms.

Now what? She almost panics. How do I get her back in the crib? Do I stand here like this until Mrs Hughes comes back? What do I do? There has been no information on this very practical side of things in her books and reports, only articles on development, on anatomy, on neurology and she is feeling as helpless as Christina must have felt just now before being picked up. Lily paces up and down the small room, gently rocking the baby, from time to time she plants a small kiss on top of the knitted cap and she understands how this is a normal thing: if you have big feelings about someone, you might want to kiss them.

Christina weighs next to nothing still, but the slightly cramped way Lily holds her, makes her arms and shoulders ache and she sits down on the high backed chair, resting the arm that supports Christina's head on the arm rest.

"Lucky little baby..." She whispers to the child. "Having a loving mother and father who wanted you so much they didn't even know it themselves..." She pulls at the blanket, making sure the cold can't get Christina as she sleeps.

part 3

"I ought to tell you to get back to work, but I don't want to wake her." Lily is startled by the voice of Mrs Hughes coming from the doorway.

"I'm sorry, Mrs Hughes, but she was crying and..."

"You picked her up and settled her. That's quite alright." The Housekeeper steps over the threshold and closes the door behind her before sitting down across from Lily. They sit in silence, both of them looking at Christina, who is unaware of anything, still sleeping contentedly in Lily's arms.

"Best put her back in the crib, you won't be able to move if you keep sitting like this." Mrs Hughes says with a smile.

Lily looks around to the crib.

"I don't know how to do it without waking her..." She admits.

"Just gently. It will be fine." Six weeks of motherhood and Mrs Hughes is as confident as she is with linen rotas, with dishing out reprimands or speaking to the family.

Carefully Lily stands and walks over to the crib, awkwardly turning Christina and putting her down. She holds her breath when the baby squirms before settling again. Mrs Hughes' hand on her shoulder doesn't startle her as it might have done before, but they have been through a life altering situation together, know they can trust each other.

"You've been a busy little bee, lately." Mrs Hughes says quietly as not to disturb Christina.

"We must all do what we can, I think and I have been trying to do my best to do that." She replies.

"It's been noticed." Mrs Hughes' hand slides off Lily's shoulder and they turn to each other. Lily nods.

"Thank you."

"I also noticed something else." Mrs Hughes adds and Lily's heart starts hammering, a rush of blood to the head burning her cheeks.

"Oh? Did I do something wrong?" She probes, trying to hide her fear of being caught, of being found out and turned to the street without a reference (which is a silly notion, she'll just be transported back to the ship and her superior will be both annoyed and pleased because he won't have to deal with her constant requests for extending her stay and her being dishonourably dismissed from service).

"Not at all. No... but... Sit down." Lily sits as indicated, she'd never deliberately go against one of Mrs Hughes demands.

"You said you grew up in an orphanage, so I have been wondering how you know so little about little children, but you have managed me with... well. That morning."

Lily shrugs. "I read up on it, there's a book in the library." She lies easily.

Mrs Hughes isn't convinced.

"Did you find the little metal aid there too?"

Epilogue

In the end Lily got granted her honourable discharge and remained planetside. Mrs Hughes married Mr Carson and after some shuffling with rooms and space they set up house together in the servants' quarters in the attics. Anna and Mr Bates provided Christina with two little playmates.

Besides Mrs Hughes, nobody ever found out Lily's true nature and she lived her life in relative peace and comfort, her body adapting to the planet as the years went by, her knowledge of the people and their dynamics becoming as much part of her as her past aboard ship.

Though no longer in regular contact with the ship, she did receive regular updates on her medikit, which was helpful, since Lily had become an authority on childbirth in the village of Downton. She brought both Anna's children into the world without a single complication.

Thanks to her little 'metal aid'.

Yes. In the end, the Connection had given Lily something she had never expected to have:

a home and a place in the world.

Forever.