Another installment for you all! Hope you enjoy!
Thanks to Downton Lover for giving me the little push I needed to finish this tonight ; )

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Kate

When I woke the next morning I momentarily forgot where I was. Then my eyes opened and looked down at the curly dark hair of my bed partner and I remembered. My body protested as I shifted in the bed, making me regret the night of sleeping in the constricted position that I had, but I still couldn't deny that it had felt good to sleep in an actual bed. Four nights of little to no sleep in the rocking chair had probably been enough for my poor body. I probably could have slept more soundly on a stone floor and still been comfortable so long as I was lying down.

I turned, blinking the sleep away from my eyes and suddenly noticed the figure in the chair next to me. When my eyes finally focused it was Tom's loving face that was staring back at me. Shocked I sat up quickly. "Tom, you're here!"

He replied with a somber smile and leaned forward to take me in his arms. I clutched to him tightly, feeling as a dream had come true. "Thank God." I whispered into his warm shoulder.

"No," he said. "Thank God for you." He pulled back and placed a soft hand against my cheek. "You've been here with her the whole time?"

Strangely, up until that moment, I hadn't seen my being here with Sybbie as anything but…well typical. However the way Tom was looking at me, amazed, I had a feeling I had surprised him. "Of course. Where else would I have been?" I asked.

He smiled, the faint glimmer of moisture in his eyes and leaned forward to press a kiss to my lips. A sweet, tender and gentle kiss. "I am so lucky to have you." He then whispered against them. I smiled, feeling at peace for the first time in days, but just as I began to find comfort in the moment, everything that I'd had to deal with while he was gone came rushing back at me in a harsh wave. Gulping, I pulled away, trying to decide if this was the right moment to tell him about my…condition.

From the doorway someone cleared their throat making the decision for me. I turned and saw Dr. Taylor, the doctor who had been presiding over Sybbie since that night at Lady Rosamund's, standing just inside the room.

"Good morning," he said with a smile on Tom and I. "I presume you're Mr. Branson?"

Nodding, Tom rose to his feet to shake hands with the kindly doctor. I stood too, renewing the aches in my back from the night spent on Sybbie's small bed. I listened as the two of them spoke, Dr. Taylor informing Tom of all that had happened since Sybbie had been brought here. I was glad for that. I felt like I had forgotten many of the details in my exhaustion. Tom listened with a grave expression.

"Despite the way things might look at this moment, she's made great progress since being brought here." Dr. Taylor told him. "And Mrs. Branson is to thank for much of that." He smiled over at me, "A child never had a more dutiful nurse."

They spoke more, Tom voicing his fears over the lasting effects of the fever and Dr. Taylor calmly assuring him that it was too early to think of such things. He then shooed Tom and I out of the room so that he could examine Sybbie. A nurse came in as we were leaving the room and shut the door behind us.

"Mrs. Branson?" Tom asked as soon as we were alone in the corridor.

I almost smiled. "It was Edith's idea, not mine."

"I see you took to it easily." He nearly teased. It was clear he wasn't mad, just attempting to distract himself from the worry. I smiled and went to him, wrapping my arms around him. Habitually his arms came around my waist and held me close.

"I am so scared." I admitted into the embrace.

"Me too."

Tom

The twenty or so minutes that the doctor was in with Sybbie were the twenty longest minutes of my life. The only moment I could think of that was worse was the night she had been born. Kate, who had no doubt played the waiting game multiple times already, stayed close to me in the hall. The vigilant presence she had kept at my daughter's bedside for the last four days was written all over her. I wanted to tell her to go home and rest, but I knew she'd refuse the suggestion just as certainly as I knew that I would do the same.

Finally the door to her room opened and Dr. Taylor emerged. I was quick to go to him. "Well?"

"Her fever has dropped considerably from yesterday."

"And that's good?" I asked.

"Yes, very." He replied. "The swelling in her throat also seems to have improved."

Kate stepped forward, her arms crossed against her chest, "Why isn't she awake yet?"

"Between the medication we've given her and her body fighting off the infection, I expect her to sleep."

"So you're saying things have improved, but that we're not out of the woods yet." I then said.

"Yes…" he began, but he trailed off as Kate suddenly turned away from the two of us and walked back into Sybbie's room. I watched her too, not failing to notice the despondency in her movements. "She must be exhausted." Dr. Taylor said after a moment. "Now that you're here, perhaps you could convince her to go home and get a decent night's sleep."

I nodded realizing that was probably a good idea. When I came back into Sybbie's room a moment later I found Kate back at my daughter's side, smoothing the dark curls back away from her face. She sat on the bed, so I took the chair and put a comforting hand into her spare one and squeezed.

"You have to be tired." I said quietly.

She nodded her head.

"You haven't even left to work?"

I watched as her gaze pulled from Sybbie and went to me. Her expression was distressed and I immediately felt as if I had said the wrong thing. "No, I haven't." she then paused. "Mr. Gregson let me go."

"What?" I was shocked. When had this happened?

"The day you left." She answered, knowing the question I had asked without even having to hear it. "He called me into his office and told me, for the good of the paper, he had to let me go." She shook her head. "Even if hadn't happened I would still have been here though."

"I don't understand why he would-"and then I knew. "George." I said and she nodded affirmatively. "I'll kill him. I swear to God I will." My fists clenched in anger as I spoke the words.

She shook her head. "It isn't worth it."

"Kate, he—"

"There are more important things that I need to concern myself with at the moment." She interrupted, "I won't give George the pleasure of knowing that his actions have affected me, not yet anyway. Sybbie is what's important right now. I swore I would see her through this and I refuse to devote any of my time or energy to anything else until I do." Her brown eyes pleaded towards me, "Please, for right now, don't even speak his name."

Defeated, I nodded and agreed to her request. She gave me a small smile before turning back to Sybbie. For the next two hours or so the two of us sat in relative silence, keeping a vigil over my daughter. It was hard not to notice the way that Kate tended to Sybbie. She hardly took her eyes off of her. It gave me an enormous amount of comfort to know that ever since she had been brought here, Sybbie had hardly spent a moment alone. Kate had treated Sybbie as if she were her own. For the first time in my daughter's life, I felt like I wasn't shouldering the parenting on my own.

A nurse came in around ten o'clock and as I stood to greet her I realized she was the one I had met in the corridor the night before.

"How are we this morning?" she asked the room before going to Sybbie and producing a thermometer from her apron. "She looks better today, doesn't she?" she said before popping it into Sybbie's mouth.

Kate nodded. "She does."

Realizing I had nothing to compare my daughters insipid pallor to, the nurse suddenly looked at me and said. "She was very pale when she first came in and the rash was much worse the day before yesterday. She certainly seems to be improving."

"She just hasn't woken up yet." Kate mumbled.

Smiling sadly, the nurse turned to Kate. "She will mum. I'm sure of it." She then took the thermometer from Sybbie's mouth and checked it. "Ninety-nine degrees." She beamed.

I hadn't realized I had been holding in my breath until I sighed in relief at her words.

The nurse smiled at me and chuckled. "It's a miracle. It truly is. I'll see to her breakfast now. Perhaps we'll get lucky and she'll wake up for it." She then swept from the room, shutting the door softly behind her.

Kate turned to look at me. "She's been here since the first night. I don't even know her name, but she's been wonderful."

I smiled and sat back down in the chair, my eyes resting on my daughter. "Sybil was a nurse during the war, did I tell you that?"

"I think I had heard that." She replied, her expression thoughtful.

"She was just like that. Always helping, treating every patient as if they were the only one in the world. I remember being in awe of her compassion. Officer, enlisted, it didn't matter to her. Every person was just as deserving as the next." I stopped then, feeling my eyes begin to mist at the memory. Kate, ever attentive, saw and leaned over to place a kiss on my cheek. I chuckled through my sadness. "You are some woman putting up with this; me crying over someone else."

"I'd be some woman if I didn't." she replied. "You loved her. You still love her. And I love you. That's all that matters to me."

I cracked a smile. "And you love my daughter."

"I do." She answered softly. "Very much."

I took advantage of our nearness and closed in the distance by putting a kiss to her lips. "I am beyond lucky to have you."

Her eyes, clearly so tired and strained, warmed at my words and gave off that familiar twinkle that I loved so much. I was leaning in for a second kiss when we both stopped, hearing the door knob turn. Thinking it was the nurse with breakfast, we fell quickly back into our positions at Sybbie's bedside. Only it wasn't the nurse. It was Robert.

He walked into the room without his usual air of confidence. I'm sure he felt completely out of place in the children's hospital, but that fact that he had even come was promising. I stood to greet him.

"You came." I said.

"Well, I did say I would." He stopped then, looking over at Kate who stood next to me. A long awkward moment followed or perhaps it only felt that way in my mind, whichever way it was, it seemed several minutes went by before he finally gave her a polite nod. "Lady Wyatt, it is nice to see you again."

Kate was shocked. That much was obvious. Her eyes widened and her lips pressed together so tightly they nearly disappeared. I half expected her to voice her surprise, but she didn't. In fact, she managed to bring back her composure within an instant and give Robert a polite nod of her own. "Lord Grantham."

Satisfied with the exchange Robert walked around both of us to see his granddaughter in the bed. "My God." He observed. "The poor thing. What does the doctor say?"

"That she's improved much since she was brought here." I answered.

He nodded. "Matthew is bringing Cora and Mary to London. I spoke with him just before I left the house this morning. They should be here this evening."

I nodded, glad to know Sybbie would have more of her family near her. We spoke more about Sybbie then. I told him everything that doctor had told me earlier and that since I had been here she hadn't woken, but that we were hopeful it would be soon. "Kate has been here with her since she was brought in." I then said and his attention moved back to my fiancée.

"Have you? I thank you for that, Lady Wyatt."

"My Lord, I couldn't leave her alone. And please, call me Kate." She had asked him to do that before, I was sure, but it was months ago, before any of us had any idea of who she really was.

He nodded at her request. "Very well, Kate, thank you."

"You're welcome." She smiled politely, but then turned to me, "May I speak to you outside?"

I looked from her to Robert. Things were going well despite Sybbie's condition, I didn't want to do something wrong that would upset either one of them. However, my father-in-law nodded and waved me off. "I'll stay with her."

Kate

Once I had Tom out in the corridor and the door to Sybbie's room was shut behind us, I stood in front of him and said, "You told him?"

He nodded in a prideful like way. "I did. I went to tell him and I did. Did you think I wouldn't?"

"No, that's not it." And it wasn't. Still, I was shocked. "I think hearing him call me that…just threw me."

"Well, it is your name, Kate."

I nodded. Obviously it was. "I know…" God, I was feeling strange. My head was spinning and I felt weak. Reaching out I put a hand on Tom's arm and closed my eyes to right myself. It was a stupid move. When I opened my eyes again he was staring down at me as if I was as ill as his daughter.

"What is it?" he asked, his voice laden with concern.

"Nothing." I quickly lied. "I am just, very very tied."

"Do you want me to take you back to Alec's so you can rest?"

I shook my head, but oh, then my head began to throb and I immediately regretted doing so. Before Tom could say anything however, footsteps came behind me in the corridor and in a moment the nurse was beside us, Sybbie's breakfast tray in hand.

"Is everything all right?" she asked, lingering. The tray of runny porridge and bland toast was directly in my line of sight and the smell…Oh God…

Quickly I nodded and motioned for her to take it in to the room and luckily for me she did. Another second longer and I surely would have lost my bearings completely…and the contents of my stomach. I turned back to Tom, feeling only slightly better, but knowing I had to get out of here before another moment had passed. "Actually I think I will go back to Alec's."

He looked completely disordered, but nodded anyway. "Let me get my things and I'll take you."

"No, you need to stay with Sybbie. You came all this way to see her get better. I'll be fine. I know the way." I replied lightly, though I felt anything but. I went to the hook on the wall that had held my hat and jacket for so long and put them on with unsteady hands. When I turned back to him, he was still staring at me befuddled. "Tom, I'll be fine. Go be with your daughter."

After a pause he nodded. "If she wakes while you're gone, I'll call."

I thanked him and rose on my toes to kiss him on the cheek. Once he was back in the room, I moved as fast as I could down the hall and to the same water closet from the night before and threw up just as the door had latched behind me.

Later, I did in fact make it back to Alec's. He appeared in the front hall just as a footman was closing the door behind me.

"Good God, Kate, you look like death." He said as he took in my appearance. "Get upstairs and right yourself before I call in reinforcements!"

I said nothing, but followed his directions and dragged my feet all the way up to my room, shutting the door behind me before I collapsed on the bed and fell asleep.