A./N.: Hello everyone. Warning, you might feel the urge to kill me after reading this chapter. Please don't do so before the next one is posted ;) Just keep in mind I love them as much as you do. Please leave a review. Thank you.

CHAPTER 36

Matthew Crawley was not easily impressed and emotionally moved, but he had to admit that his little niece's ability to calm their dear housekeeper was uncanny. In the blink of an eye Mrs Hughes' anger at her sister had vanished, the rosy colour in her cheeks lessened and her eyes returned to their tranquil, blue depths. Even Mr Carson couldn't drag his eyes away from the almost Madonna-like picture the older woman and small child painted before them. The butler's great eyebrows were once more relaxed and a shy smile graced his lips. One of his big hands still lay on Mrs Hughes' shoulder while the other big hand gently stroked the child's head. He was completely at ease, it would seem, and it was the first time Matthew had seen him like that.

Sybbie, still securely ensconced in Mrs Hughes' loving arms, yawned widely and rubbed her eyes tiredly. Now that her pain had finally been alleviated, the pull of her exhaustion was too overpowering to fight. She burrowed deeper into Elsie's chest and closed her eyes. In mere seconds she was fast asleep, sucking on her thumb for further comfort. Elsie smiled down onto the sleeping child and stroked her flyaway hair from her forehead. Clumsily she tried to reach the blanket with one arm while still holding Sybbie close to her chest without waking her through her movements.

"Here let me help you," Charles murmured quietly. Reluctantly he withdrew his hands and stepped nearer the foot of the bed. "You must be tired yourself, so why don't you have a lie down as well?" he cajoled Elsie with a soft voice.

Elsie hated to be made to feel like a child. "I'm not tired," she said haughtily. She threw a mutinous glare at Charles for good measure and tried valiantly to look alert, although she couldn't deny that her eyelids drooped a little and she had to fight a yawn. To counterpoint her traitorous body, she sat up a little straighter. Sybbie, jolted by her sudden move, mumbled something unintelligently and tightened her small fists around the sheet covering Elsie. Immediately Elsie herself settled down and rocked the babe a little in her arms. It all came naturally to her and seemed to do the trick. Sybbie sighed deeply and her body went limp again, falling deeper into Morpheus' arms. Now even Elsie couldn't fight sleep anymore and she rested her cheek tiredly against the crown of Sybbie's head.

Matthew's hand came up to hide his grin behind and he only managed to stifle his chuckle by biting on his tongue. It wouldn't do to anger Mrs Hughes and her famous temper. One shouting Scot was quiet enough for one day. Silently he observed Mr Carson's gentle care of their beloved housekeeper.

Charles, too, had to smile at his darling lass and her stubbornness, but he could see clearly that she was exhausted after their exciting morning. She was still recovering after all and needed her rest. He drew the blanket up around her and quietly talked to her, "Here, love, just slide down a little and lie back. The little one won't go anywhere and you can keep her safe within your arms." His soft words spoken in that wonderful baritone of his voice worked in tandem to make her drowsy, but still she refused to succumb to sleep.

"I don't want to," she replied mulishly and quite childishly. Over the last days she hadn't been lucid and in control of anything. Now she took an almost perverse pleasure in calling the shots – and something else was nagging her at the back of her mind, in the shadows of her sub conscience.

She knew her sister well, almost too well. Glenna was able to make her words come true. She didn't want to be asleep when her sister would come back to the hospital and make decisions for her without even deigning to discuss them with her. Miss Glenna-I-Know-Better-Than-You had never let anything as small and insignificant as Elsie's opinion stand in her way, not where it had concerned Mr Burns and certainly not where it had concerned her position as Downton Abbey's housekeeper.

"What if you're not here when I wake," Elsie admitted very quietly, tears leaking from her eyes onto Sybbie's soft brown curls.

Matthew felt more than saw Mary and his mother both melting where they stood. His wife, emotionally high-strung due to her pregnancy, surprised him even more when her own tears started to stream down her face and a soft sigh escaping her lips. Predictably it was his mother, who had the common sense and dignity to touch his arm and then nod towards the door, indicating in no uncertain terms that they should leave the couple alone. Looking around, Matthew saw Dr Clarkson already standing by the door and Tom silently backing out of the cubicle. He smiled down at his mother and nodded. Then he carefully wrapped an arm around Mary's waist and drew her into his side, whispering in her ear, "I think we should give them a moment, don't you?"

Mary couldn't speak around the lump in her throat. She and her sisters had always fantasised about a romance between housekeeper and butler, even going so far as to send both of them separately into the village on some errand or other and then following them to see if they would meet up for a clandestine rendez-vous. It had never happened, of course, much to the girls' chagrin and they had given up. To now see proof that Sybil had been right all along when she had sagely said, "They'll not be forced into anything. They are the two most stubborn people in the entire Empire. In the end they'll have to work it out for themselves. We're more of a hindrance than help, I wager." Mary slowly turned around and made her way out of the women's ward, leaning onto Matthew's arm. Once outside, she drew Matthew's face down to her own and kissed him fiercely.

"We can't let Mrs Murray take her away," she said hoarsely but fiercely. "It would break Carson's heart and I won't have that!"

Matthew sighed, but had to agree with his wife. They were in for a fight of wills of gargantuan proportions.

Inside the ward Charles leaned over the bed and pressed a fervent kiss onto Elsie's lips. His heart ached seeing Elsie this weak and insecure, but he relished the chance to reassure her. "I won't go anywhere, my darling, and well you know it," he teased softly. "When you wake I will be right beside you."

A shy smile from his beloved answered him and she extended one hand to gently stroke his cheek. Her thumb traced his lips, that had so tenderly caressed hers, and then her fingers wove into his salt-and-pepper hair, stroking that incorrigible curl out of his eyes. "I love you," she murmured, overcome by her emotions.

Charles closed his eyes at her gentle touch and exhaled with a sigh at her sincere words. "I love you too, Elsie, as God is my witness," he whispered back fiercely, "and that is why I have to let you go with your sister."