Here's chapter 10! Enjoy!

Anna groaned as she raised her head. Something was beeping and the sound was pounding like an anvil on her head. Her alarm was going off and she winced as she moved to turn it off. "Last night has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever done." Anna said, her mouth was dry and she stumbled as she made her way to the kitchen. Glancing at the time she realized that her date with John was in less than six hours. Plenty of time to pull herself together, right? She tripped over thin air as she made her way to the trash can, barely making it to the bin before she retched.

"Oh god, I'm never drinking again." Anna vowed. She went to the sink and got some water. After rinsing her mouth out, she drank some, making a mental list of what to do to get sober. "Eat donuts, take cold shower, drink coffee."

The doorbell ringing made her groan again. She stumbled to the door. She looked through the peephole and stared for a moment, was that John? Only when the doorbell rang again did she pull back, shake her head and open the door.

"Hello Mr. Bates." She tried to smile but the sunlight made her screw her eyes in shut in pain.

"You look like you've been hit with a ball of wet concrete." John said he was raising an eyebrow at her.

"Can we turn off the sun?" she asked.

"How about I come in and we close the door?" John suggested.

"Did we re-schedule our date for earlier?" Anna asked, "I don't remember..."

"I actually had some business in the area, I hope I'm not being pushy by coming by, but I do something to talk to you about..."

"What?" Anna asked, she motioned for him to follow her and led the way into the kitchen, she started getting some coffee ready, but John took the coffee out of her hands.

"I'll do this, you look about ready to faint."

"I don't know how much of a conversation I can have right now." Anna replied honestly. "It might be best if you talked and I listened."

"How much did you have to drink last night?"

"It's in the green bin." Anna said, she wracked her brain, "I don't remember much after my 2nd bottle of wine. My head's too heavy, I'm going to lay it down." She lay her head on the table. The cool wood felt good against her skin.

"Shit Anna, you've got 3 empty bottles in here. I'm surprised you're not in the hospital."

"I spilled some. I remember that much." There was silence between the two while the smell of coffee filled the kitchen. "But still, almost 3 isn't that much." Anna closed her eyes, sleeping sounded really good, but she hurt to much to sleep.

John's scoff was quiet but Anna heard it. "For someone of your body type it's a lot." Anna's only response was a groan.

"Are you hungry?"

"I think there's some scones in the fridge." Anna said, she pointed in the general direction of the fridge, as if John couldn't see it for himself.

"Scones?" John moved something around in the fridge, "Yeah right Anna."

She could hear him scurrying around the kitchen but didn't look up or open her eyes. Maybe she could fall asleep here, her hand was a pretty good pillow. She could hear and smell something cooking but she hurt to much to open her eyes.

"Anna." She could hear John placing a plate in front of her. Something else was set down and she opened her eyes to find a mug of coffee, a small plate of eggs and a large glass of water were sitting in front of her. "Where's your Tylenol?"

"Bathroom." Anna took a tiny bite of egg. "I'm never drinking again."

"How many times have you told yourself that?" Anna didn't have a chance to respond to John's question as he walked out of the kitchen. She took a sip of water then a sip of coffee. The moment the coffee hit her stomach she knew it was a bad idea. She jumped from her chair and moved to the trash bin in a move any ballet teacher would have been proud of. As she retched, she could feel someone kneeling beside her, moving her hair. The touch was unexpected and she moved from it sharply. "No!"

"Just me." Anna could see John through the tears that had come to her eyes.

"Sorry." she said. "I wasn't expecting you to touch me."

"It's all right, I know that it's tough to be touched during a hangover." John's voice was quiet and soothing. "I should have asked."

Anna wiped her eyes and moved so she was sitting properly on the floor. "Do you think you can take a shower?" John asked. "It might help."

"That might help." Anna tried to get up but winced as her head kept pounding. Everything hurt so much!

"I'll help you to the bathroom, but you're on your own once you're in the shower."

"Thank you." Anna said, they made it to the bathroom and she closed the door. "Do you want me to get you some clothes to change into?" She could hear John's voice from behind the door.

"No, I can get to my bedroom from here, there's a doorway." Anna said. "I can get them."

"All right." John moved back down the hallway and she could hear dishes moving around in the kitchen. As she turned the shower on, she suddenly remembered that she hadn't done dishes. Shaking her head, she stepped under the flow.

Less then half an hour later, she excited her room, her head still hurt but it felt clearer then it had before. She had changed into new pajamas and entered the kitchen to find the dishwasher was running, the trash had been taken out and the table had been cleared off.

"Thank you." Anna said, she slid into a chair and looked over at John carefully, he was turned away from her and he spoke.

"You're welcome." He continued to work in the kitchen, somehow managing to keep from turning to her. There was a knock on the front door and Anna took the opportunity to go and answer it. To her surprise, Edith Crawley stood there.

"Edith, what are you doing here?"

"You don't remember?" Edith invited herself in, she looked worried as Anna shook her head.

"No, I woke up less then an hour ago, I drank so much last night I don't remember anything past midnight."

"Good God Anna, I'm surprised you're not in the hospital."

"I didn't drink far past midnight." Anna defended herself. "What happened, I thought you were I Germany looking for Micheal."

"I was, but when you send me a text saying you think it would be easier if he'd just..." Edit broke off as there was a sound from the kitchen. Her eyes widened and she lowered her voice to a whisper, "Anna who is here?"

"John, he's helping me get sober." Anna said, "He's the parent of one of my students."

"Please don't tell me that you asked the parent of a student..."

"Of course I didn't ask him over, he invited himself over." Anna said.

"I thought this couldn't get worse." Edith said, she moved past Anna to the kitchen and spoke to John.

"Excuse me sir, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave..." Her mouth dropped open and she stared at John. Edith's sudden surprise surprised Anna, and the words that came out of the red head's mouth next, made Anna's head spin.

"Uncle John, what are you doing here?"

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