Modern AU: John Bates is a football coach, an injury forcing him to retire from playing football at an early age. A visit from an old friend changes his life forever. Has John finally found something more important than football?

After going through a bitter divorce, the last thing John Bates is looking for is love. Upon arriving back in Downton to work with his old friend, Robert Crawley, John meets and falls for a lovely waitress named, Anna Smith. Anna is a single mother trying to escape and forget a troubled past. Will the two finally find the happy ending they are both searching for?

Anna Smith is 16 years old and has just been signed up for an arranged marriage. John Bates is an soldier who needs a wife to tend his home while he's off at war. Anna has always wanted to marry for love and it's love at first sight when she meet's John. But it's been reduced to a business transaction. When her husband comes home wounded is this Anna's chance to make him love her?

Following a change at Downton, the Bates decide to turn their dreams of owning an inn and starting a family into a reality. They've had over a decade to iron out the details in their plans, but are all their goals within reach? Meanwhile, young Sybbie and George take saving the estate into their own hands, and Thomas discovers his future may not be as lonely as he's always dreaded.

Bates and Anna couldn't have known where that first handshake would lead them: short vignettes covering on- and off-screen scenes in their romance.

"Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light." - Helen Keller :: The worlds of Anna Smith and John Bates become unexpectedly entwined, as they both question everything they've based their lives upon. :: Modern A/U

Anna and John's first Christmas together after his release! John remember a request Anna made in a letter to him, and is only too happy to make all her wishes come true. *shameless smut and fluff because we need it*

What if John's reaction was the opposite when Anna admitted, 'I'd live in sin with you.'

I had the idea for this story after making a fan video to the song "Love Will Always Win." Basically no matter what obstacles Anna and Bates go through, in the end they will always be together. This is my first attempt at fan fiction in years, so I hope you enjoy it. I plan to update several times a week. Please leave a review.

An early night beckons for Anna, but like so many before this one, she finds that rest isn't coming so easily to her. But then it occurs to her that being wide awake in the middle of the night isn't a new problem...a series of some of Anna's sleepless nights, from DA Series 1 to an imagined S3. [Winner of 2013 Highclere Award - characterisation of Anna, characterisation of Bates]