Anna

She can hardly stand up straight any more. Her feet are killing her and the baby is kicking as if it was practicing for the Olympics. But she won't say anything, she swore to herself to be there for Mary until the day she gave birth. She is so thankful to her for not firing her and to her ladyship and his lordship who employed and paid for an array of lawyers.

"Hello Anna. You look dead on your feet. Sit down, please."

"No, Mary, I said I would help you and," but Mary shakes her head and insists on her sitting down.

"Anna, I can get myself ready for bed, it is not that complicated. But you stay here and rest. Tell me about your day if you like. Or anything else really."

"My mother has finally written to me. She is coming for the wedding although she said that she did not approve of what we have done."

"But she is coming. That must be a good sign."

"Thank you so much for your help. It must have cost so much money." She feels bad about all the money that his lordship, the family really, must have put into John's divorce.

"Think nothing of it, Anna. My father does not mind paying for it. And sit down and put your feet up." She smiles at Mary's command, but does as Mary says. Mary then sits down at her vanity and takes her hair apart herself.

"So, have you decided on a name yet?"

"No. How about you?"

Mary smiles and nods and then says "Matthew and I decide on the names of our first two sons and first two daughters before we were married. But I won't tell you, because I don't want you to steal the names." She has to laugh out loud as this and so does Mary. The wall that had always been between them, that had stopped them from being best friends, they have always been close friends, the wall that had always been there because Anna was the family's employee, fell when Mary found out that she was pregnant again. Being pregnant at the same time somehow changed things between them. The formalities between them had all but vanished when Anna who was plagued by morning sickness until almost the afternoon almost every day threw up into Mary's waste bin. Mary did not flinch but held her hair back and then made her lie down on her bed and cooled her forehead.

"Thank you my lady," Anna said to her and Mary looked at her and then said "After this, I think the time for you calling me 'my lady' has passed. Call me Mary, at least while we are alone."

"Are you looking forward to the wedding?"

"Yes. But I will be glad when it will be over. I hate being notorious and I hate dragging you and your family into the mud."

"You aren't dragging us into the mud and I hope that you won't be notorious. Not when they see that we all attend the wedding." Once she told Mary about the wedding date, Mary decided to come to the wedding and then told her a day later that her mother, her sisters and her mother-in-law were all going to come to watch her get married too.

Carson

He doesn't really know what to think. He likes Anna and Mr. Bates, he likes them very much even, they are good employees, good and honest workers, they are good people, or so he thought until about half a year ago when he found out that Anna was pregnant. He wishes the girl had just said 'no'. Men will always be men, even someone as honorable as Mr. Bates will reach a point at which he can't really control himself anymore, but the women should just say no. He wonders what is so difficult about it. Lady Mary wasn't able to say 'no' either, but she at least said 'yes' only after the wedding date had been set and the baby was early but not too much. Master George should have been born about seven and half months after the wedding, something the family could easily have dealt with, but the boy was in a hurry and came along almost four weeks earlier, something that did start some gossip, especially in the village, although Lady Mary's subsequent fight for her life somehow put a damper on the gossiping.

Anna and Mr. Bates have of course caused a lot more gossip than Lady Mary and Mr. Matthew, although the family is to blame for at least half the unkind things said about all of them. How could they allow Anna and Mr. Bates to stay on? He did not object because he suspects his lordship's agreement to her ladyship's plan was a peace offering and it worked, but really. He would not have minded if the family had quietly supported Anna and Mr. Bates, but keeping them on, paying a small fortune for an array of lawyers, it is just not what he would have done. When he very, very carefully broached the subject to his lordship, not to object, just to caution, his lordship replied "I think it is time that Downton took care of its own." He could only shake his head at that, to which his lordship in quite a jovial mood said "oh cheer up, Carson, enter the modern world." His lordship sounded like her ladyship then.

He looks to his right and his eyes fall on Mrs. Hughes and he wonders if he would sound like her if they were more than people who worked together and shared a glass of wine at the end of most days. He has often wondered whether he should not try his luck with Mrs. Hughes, but he chose a different path in life and he should stick to it. He is a butler and a butler is not to be married. But neither are a lady's maid and a valet to be married, and here they are at the wedding of a lady's maid and a valet, with the family they are working for in attendance.

The ceremony is short and to the point and of course not in church and he is glad when it is over. He had not wanted to go, but Mrs. Hughes told him that he couldn't very well stay away when her ladyship was going and she was right. He just doesn't want people to think that he approves of what Anna and Mr. Bates have done. Although he supposes that now that they are married it is not that bad anymore.

Mrs. Hughes and he walk back downstairs once they are at the house again because the family promised Anna and Mr. Bates could have a small celebration and the finishing touches need to be put onto it now.

"How many weddings has this house seen?" Mrs. Hughes asks him and he is utterly taken aback by the question.

"I don't know. Many I suppose. All the earls got married here and many of their children as well."

"And how many of these marriages were happy?"

"Oh, I don't know Mrs. Hughes. Some. His lordship and her ladyship are happy and so are Lady Mary and Mr. Matthew. The Dowager was happily married and so was Lady Rosamund.

"But not all of these marriages were looked upon with approval."

"No. That of Lady Mary and Mr. Matthew is the first marriage of that kind in quite a long time. And even there was some opposition. The Dowager wasn't happy about either one of her children's marriages and in turn her mother-in-law did not approve of the Dowager marrying into this family."

"No?"

"No. At least that is what I have been told. But it does not surprise me. I knew his lordship's grandmother and she did not approve of the Dowager. But I suppose it is understandable. The younger daughter of a penniless baron is not exactly an ideal match for a future earl. But he married her because he loved her. And she loved him too. They were quite different from his lordship and her ladyship, a lot more careful with showing their affection for one another, but it was there and it was obvious."

"Did they share a room too?" It is an impertinent question, but they are alone and they sometimes talk about such things.

"Not very often. Only when he fell asleep there and that hardly ever happened. No. Sharing a room is something that our current Earl and Countess introduced to this house. And they did so right after their wedding night. It caused quite a lot of gossip when Lord Downton was found in his wife's bed the day after the wedding." Mrs. Hughes now laughs heartily.

"What a scandal. A man spends the wedding night in his wife's bed and is found there the next morning. How very inappropriate." He has to laugh too now. At the time he thought it rather strange of the then Lady Downton to have made her husband sleep in her room, everyone was sure that it was upon her insistence, but not anymore. He is infinitely glad to work for a family that runs on love.

"So am I to understand that if you ever were to marry, you would expect your husband to share a bed with you?" He doesn't know why he asks this question. He shouldn't ask it. But he wants to know, it will be stuff for his dreams.

"Yes Mr. Carson. That is what I would expect from my husband." He wishes he could be that husband that will probably, hopefully, never exist. Because if she were to marry, it would certainly not be to him and that would shatter his heart.

Edith

"This one's for you." Her mother hands her a letter. They are having breakfast and ever since they have turned their home into a convalescent home, her mother has gotten up for breakfast almost every day. She always sits in her father chair and although she does not vanish behind a newspaper, she does many things exactly the same way. And the handing out the letters is one of those things.

"Are you alright?" Her mother sounds quite concerned and she supposes she has gone as white as a sheet. This is the worst letter she has ever received.

Dear Lady Edith,

You do not know me, but you may have heard of me. My name is Mrs. Chetwood, I am the older sister of Sir Anthony Strallan, whom you know quite well, I assume. Maybe my brother has talked about me, I don't know.

I am writing to you with rather grave news. My brother has been injured at war and has been brought to a hospital in London. He will in all likelihood survive, but he is not unscathed. I thought that you should now this.

With kind regards

S. Chetwood

There is a post scriptum that tells her which hospital Anthony is in and she decides to go there right away. She tells her mother where she is going and why and her mother looks at her with her eyes full of pity. "Oh my poor darling," she say but lets her go.

On the train ride to London she thinks about her relationship to Anthony and about how complicated it is. First he wanted to marry her but she wasn't sure whether she should marry him before the end of the war because seeing Mary suffer scared the hell out of her. When she finally decided that she wanted to marry Anthony, he had changed his mind, telling her that he could not risk turning her into a war widow. So they left it at that, she was not able to convince him. And now he has been hurt and is in London and if his sister hadn't been very kind to her, she would not even know this. She envies her parents. She envies them their easy relationship. They met, got engaged and then married within the space of six months when her father had been eighteen and her mother nineteen. And they have been happy ever since. But her relationship to Anthony is complicated, so difficult. She does not mind the age gap, but he does, he is afraid of making her unhappy when she knows that he will make her very happy. She asked him why he proposed in the first place, why he even started to court her, why even came to that dinner at which he was supposed to woo Mary. "Because sometimes I forget how old I am" he said when she asked him.

She takes a taxi to the hospital and is admitted and shown to Anthony immediately, which she supposes she should thank his sister for, although she has never met the woman.

Anthony is sitting upright in his bed and he looks perfectly normal except for a few bruises in his face and his arm in a sling.

"Edith," he says and his face breaks into a smile. But he gets his emotions back under control only a second later and looks at her rather solemnly.

"How are you?"

"Considering how many others are, I am well."

"Good. I am so glad to see you again." She walks to him now and gives him a hug and a kiss, but he pushes her away.

"No. That is over. It must be over." She can't believe her ears. Anthony cannot seriously have told her that it was over between them.

"Why?"

"Because my arm will stay like that. I took a bullet in the wrong place."

"But surely"

"No. There is nothing that can be done. I have to accept the fact that my arm will remain useless."

"I am so sorry for you."

"That is of course why I have to ask you to leave. I can't expect you to live as my nurse maid." That is not what she wants, she does not want to be his nurse and he does not need a nurse. He needs a wife.

"No. But I thought you wanted me to be your wife."

"No. I don't want that any longer. Leave. Please." He closes his eyes. She begs him not to shut her out, but he only shakes his head.

So she leaves but breaks down in tears when she does. A gentle hand is placed on her shoulder then. "You must be Lady Edith." She looks up and nods.

"I am , Sir Anthony's sister." The woman is kind and elderly, at least 15 years older than her mother. Maybe Anthony was some sort of surprise for his parents, just like Nicholas was for hers.

"Thank you for the letter."

"You are welcome."

"He sent me away."

"I'll talk to him. He loves you very much. But he needs time." She nods and decides to not go back to Downton. She will stay with her aunt and keep visiting Anthony.

Sybil

She needs to tell someone about her and Tom because it feels wrong to keep it a secret. She loves him and he wants to marry her now, she knows that, but he also knows that she does not want to cause an uproar with her father and brother-in-law at war. So he told her he'd be patient. He is such a wonderful man and quite besides the fact that she has the feeling that she is betraying her family, she also feels as if she wasn't really true to him if she kept their relationship a secret much longer. So she decides to talk to Mary. Mary once told her that the first person she told about her rather untimely pregnancy was Nicholas and Sybil briefly considered telling her brother, but when Mary told him about being pregnant, their baby brother had only been a few hours old. He is almost two now and rather intelligent, he speaks in two or three word sentences sometimes and she is afraid that he will unwittingly tell their mother. He might say something like 'Sybil Tom love' and that would be enough for her mother or her sisters or grandmother come to think of it, to understand what it means. But Mary can keep a secret and Mary has become very nice, so she might even understand.

When she tells Mary, her eldest sister looks at her flabbergasted, she quite looks like their father then, but at least she does not rage the way their father certainly would have done.

"Sybil. The chauffeur. Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am sure. I know the consequences, I know I won't be received at court, or invited to any sort of parties during the season, but that is not what I want, that is not important to me. But I'd like to remain friends with everyone here."

"That might prove rather difficult. I'll be on your side and I dare say that so will Edith. Matthew will surely support you but about the rest of the family I could not make any predictions." This is exactly what she thought, but she also thinks that having Mary's and Matthew's approval might help with her parents.

"I know. That is what I thought. But I love Tom and I can't give him up. I have thought about it very carefully and I will get married to him even if some people are against it." Mary now actually smiles.

"Isobel and Aunt Rosamund did not want me to marry Matthew either and still our marriage has turned out to be very happy, so I would not put too much emphasis on what other people think. But you do that a lot less than me in any case. But Sybil, I advise not to keep this from Mama for too long. It would not be fair to her and she might be prevailed upon a lot easier than Papa. And we both know that once Mama has given her approval to something, she will be able to bring Papa around rather sooner than later."

"That is true. Oh, I am so glad I am not Cousin Rose. Her parents disagree on everything, just for the sake of disagreeing and her brother and sister are at odd ends with both of their parents. I don't know how they can stand it." Mary now gets up and wraps her arms around her. She thinks it is fascinating how much more emotional women seem to get when they are pregnant. It was noticeable in their mother but it is far more pronounced in Mary, although that might be due to the fact that in general, Mary is a lot less open with her emotions.

"Would you like to feel the baby kick?" She nods and Mary takes her hand. She is fascinated by this. She of course felt her brother kick, but somehow her sister allowing her to do this, especially since she did not offer this once during her first pregnancy, has a different quality.

"That is your future too, little sister," Mary says and smiles. She hopes that Mary is right. She would like to have children very much and so would Tom.

O'Brien

She takes the telegram from Mr. Carson who looks at her apprehensively.

"It's from the War Office," he says. "You better give it to her now."

She usually does not appreciate being talked to like that, but she and Mr. Carson are afraid of the same thing and it just wouldn't do to argue now.

"Very well, Mr. Carson."

"Miss O'Brien," he calls after her and she turns around again. "Please let us know, if there is anything we need to know. "

"Yes Mr. Carson."

She is scared. She may not like his lordship very much, but both his lordship and her ladyship are good employers and she would feel terribly sorry if. But she can't finish the thought. She knows that her ladyship will be in the nursery now, she always goes there before the dressing gong.

"No matter how much work I have to do here, Lord Downton deserves some of my time every day," she once said to her.

The door is only half closed and she can hear her ladyship talking to the Viscount. She looks into the room and her ladyship is sitting cross-legged on the floor, the boy on her lap. She is usually appalled by her ladyship doing something like that, but not today. Today it breaks her heart.

"Well, Nicholas, your Papa sent a letter to you, shall we read it?" Her ladyship holds the letter out to her son and the boy smiles. She is sure he does not understand that it is from his father, but he likes being read to, and his mother holding out a letter means being read to, she is sure the child knows that. So far she has found it ridiculous that his lordship now sends so many letters. He used to not write at all and now he sends letters to her ladyship at least twice a week and letters to his children once a week, including letters to a two year old boy.

"My dear boy, I hope you are well. I am as well as I can be when I am not home. I miss you and your mother and sisters terribly much and although I don't know when I will be home again, I am looking forward to seeing you again more than anything. I met Matthew a few days ago and he is doing quite well. He asked a lot of questions about you, he likes you very much. I showed him the picture that Mary had taken of George and you and he said that you two looked like two little rascals about to steal the biscuits. I told him that's what you were probably thinking about. Don't cause too much trouble for your Mama. I love you, Papa" Her ladyship now stops speaking and gives her son a kiss on the head and then looks up.

"O'Brien! How can I help?" She can't say anything because she has trouble fighting the tears that threating to run down her face.

"Are you alright?" She nods and shakes her head almost simultaneously and then hands the telegram to her ladyship.

"This came for you. It is from the war office." Her ladyship takes the telegram, gets up, puts her child into his bed and then opens the telegram. The young lord is eerily quiet, as if he knew that something was not right.

"Oh dear God," her ladyship says and holds onto her son's bed.

"What is it?" she asks with more fear than she has ever felt before.

"His lordship and William are lost. For some reason they needed to go to the front and now they are lost."

AN: The sentence "I think it is time that Downton took care of its own" has been 'stolen' from the TV version of Death Comes to Pemberley. Mr. Darcy says something very similar about the illegitimate child of one of his servants, and since I already took the title of this story from DCtP, I thought I just might give another nod to it.

Thank you for all the reviews on this story, Just Us For Lunch and Because I Love You!

Also, thank you for the many ideas on further stories!

Quite a few of you have asked about something in the Playing With Fire universe, but I am not sure about it. I lost faith in the story before I had finished it, so I don't really know how to go on with it.

the guest who asked about a fic that includes Robert and Cora dying at the same time: If you haven't read it yet, read The Beginnings. But that is as far as I will go. I agree with you, it would be very interesting to see what would happened if Robert and Cora were dead and Mary and Tom were in charge, but I am not the person to write that story. I'd be crying my eyes out the whole time.

the two guests who asked for the same plot twist considering 5.03: I am working on it and I should be able to put it up either today or tomorrow.

Have a great day everyone,

Kat

P.S.: Let me know what you think about this one please!