A/N: As I'm sure all of you are now aware, the Downton sequel is confirmed and filming is underway! I can't wait to get back to Downton and to Banna and see what's going to happen in the sequel, but until then I've decided to do this little series of one-shots to keep me busy until then. I don't think I'm going to have a set schedule as I'm working on my other fics (I know some of you have asked me to update and I really do want to, I'm just working on finding motivation and also getting out of writer's block with them) but I'll update as often as I can! I also know that there's a chance Banna won't have more children in the sequel, but a girl can dream! Anyway, please enjoy x
Lowering her daughter into the Moses basket beside the bed so that she could lie next to her sister who had already fallen asleep, Anna shushed her and traced the curve of her cheek with the back of her palm when she whimpered before a sigh of relief escaped her when she settled at last and cuddled up to her sister to share her warmth. Even now, several hours after she had held them both in her arms for the first time she was still finding it hard to believe that she had twins. Her bump had been so small and even though she had been more tired throughout this pregnancy than her previous one she had just put that down to her having had more on her plate this time. She and John had opened their bed and breakfast hotel two weeks before they had found out that she had been pregnant and business had boomed, much to their surprise, and so they had had that to see to at the same time as raising their son and working at Downton.
Her chronic exhaustion, in her mind at least, had made perfect sense.
She had never even considered the possibility that she could have been having twins.
When Doctor Clarkson had told her that he had been able to hear another unmistakable heartbeat when she had been holding her first daughter in her arms she hadn't fully believed him, but then the contractions had begun again and she had been in left in no doubt. It had all happened so much faster the second time and she had only had to push for a couple of minutes before her second daughter had arrived, but she had been lifeless thanks to the cord having been twisted tight around her neck. She had felt sick to her stomach and so useless as she had sat and watched Doctor Clarkson attempt to revive her baby, each second feeling more like an hour as she had held her breath until her daughter had let out her first weak wail. That cry had been the most perfect sound in all the world to her, honestly.
As she sat and watched over the two of them now, thinking back to the ordeal the three of them had been through, she was unable to find the words to accurately describe how incredible it felt to know that she had two beautiful little girls who were healthy and content.
The creak of the bedroom door prompted her to turn her head in that direction a couple of minutes later and she felt her heart race as she watched her husband enter the room with their son, the love she had for them both deepening as he approached the bed with him. Even though he had been the one to call for his father from the bedroom beside theirs it was clear to her that it hadn't been long since Johnny had woken up. His blonde curls were all tussled and there was the rosiest tint to his cheeks, but what told her that he was still tired was the way that he was sucking his thumb. At three-and-a-half, he was always insisting that he was no longer a baby, but he still sucked his thumb and he still loved to sleep in her arms and that reassured her that he would be her baby boy for quite some time yet.
'Hello, you…' She whispered as he crawled towards her once John had set him down on the bed.
'Hello, mummy,' He rubbed at his eye with the back of his hand while settling himself in her lap atop the quilt. 'You look tired.'
She was unable to keep herself from laughing at his remark as she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him on the forehead, her eyes falling closed as she breathed in his natural scent before pulling back to look at him again. 'Mummy is tired, sweetheart, mummy's feeling very tired but it's a good tired. Did daddy tell you that we have a special surprise for you when he came to get you?' She asked.
'Yes, but he wouldn't tell me what it is because he said that I need to see it.' He admitted.
'Well, would you like to see your surprise?' She smiled while running a hand up and down his back through his nightshirt.
He nodded, the excitement unmistakable in his beautiful blue eyes. 'Yes please, mummy, yes please!'
'You need to be quiet and you can't cuddle them at the moment because I want them to be able to rest, but take a look in the basket,' She used her head to gesture towards the Moses basket before he removed himself from her lap and kneeled down in the space beside her on the bed, she and John sharing a soft smile when they heard him gasp as he peered into the Moses basket at his two little sisters. The two of them watched him stare at his sisters in silence for a time before he looked over his shoulder at them again and Anna drew the back of her hand down his cheek. 'I think you might have wished a little too hard for a baby sister, darling, because you have two!'
Johnny laughed at that and it caused her stomach to fill with butterflies. 'What are their names?'
'Daddy and I aren't too sure what to name them at the minute,' She told him. 'What do you think their names should be?'
He tapped his chin as he thought for a moment before it hit him. 'Faith and Hope.'
Whatever she had been expecting him to come out with, she knew for a fact that it hadn't been that.
'What made you think of those names?' She heard John ask as he slipped an arm around her shoulders.
Johnny gave them a shrug of his shoulders. 'You said it before.'
John and Anna looked at each other for a time after that, somewhat confused, before she slowly started to realize what he had meant.
Around the time Johnny had turned two, the two of them had decided that they had wanted to have a second child because they had missed his baby days and they had wanted him to have someone he could play with while away from Downton. For months they had tried, making sure to keep track of all her cycles on the calendar, but despite their best efforts she hadn't succeeded in falling pregnant. Her hope had dwindled more and more with each failed attempt and she had started to believe that it was because of her age, but John had disagreed and reminded her constantly that she had needed to stop worrying so much about it and continue having faith and hope.
Their beautiful little girls were the undeniable proof that she had persevered and continued having faith and hope even though she had felt like throwing in the towel. Faith and Hope were the most perfect and suitable name for their daughters and nothing would change her mind about that. 'You did, he's right…' She whispered to her husband, her hand stroking his bad knee through his pyjama trousers before she turned her attention back to their son. 'You know; I think Faith and Hope are the loveliest names for these two, sweetheart.'
'Really? Do you think so too, daddy?' He looked over at his father with hope in his eyes.
'I do,' John reassured him. 'Two beautiful names for our two beautiful girls.'
Satisfied with their responses, Johnny turned back to his sisters and smiled as he watched Faith cuddle against Hope in her sleep with a sigh. He could tell which one was Faith and which one was Hope because Faith had a little birthmark next to her eye and Hope didn't, that was the only difference between them and he loved it. Reaching into their Moses basket, he stroked Faith's cheek with his fingers because she was the closest to him and laughed when she shivered and her nose twitched in response. He didn't know what the two of them were going to be like in the future and he didn't know if they would take his toys or not, but there was one thing he was sure of.
It was going to be so fun.
A/N: Thank you for taking the time to read this first chapter and I hope that you liked it! Please let me know what you thought with a review, please be kind and I'll see you all soon x