Yorkshire, England – Present Day

The quiet of the room almost stopped his heart as John's eyes opened. He blinked in the dark and tried to see in the grayish hue of the room as the slight morning light peeked through the high set window. For a moment the shapes he could make out only registered as strange shadows and his heart sped from stopped to almost racing as his breathing sped up to try and ready him for an escape from this foreign environment.

But a moment later he remembered where he was and the shapes reoriented. Instead of his room it was Anna's and he recalled slipping into bed with Anna the night before. As the events fit into place he reached out for Anna, with hopes that her presence would soothe his slowing but not steadied heart. Instead his hand handed on the empty space in the bed next to him.

John frowned and shifted to raise himself up to look over the room for Anna. But a weight on his chest stopped his progress and John blinked again. His vision did not clear any more than it had minutes ago but he noticed the shape perched on his chest. A shape he barely identified in the dark as Anna.

For a moment John relaxed. The weight of Anna on his chest, despite the momentary discomfort of the position, explained part of the difficulty in John's breathing but also solved the mystery of Anna's location. Unfortunately for him, the part of his brain capable of rational thought had not realized why Anna would be in that position until Anna's fingers stroked up the length of John's morning arousal.

John struggled to stifle a groan at the sensation, biting into his lip as the thought of possibly waking the baby in the bassinet just steps from the bed forced him to silence. If Michael woke then whatever Anna had planned would be for naught and everything in John wanted Anna to continue.

Her fingers stroked up the length of John's arousal again and he groaned, sending the vibration through his chest as he tried to stifle his sounds. Teething into the back of his hand while the other gripped the bedsheets, John huffed against his skin as Anna's weight shifted on his lower abdomen. In the gray light he made out the shape of Anna turning to look at him.

There was almost no way to make out the nuances of Anna's expression but given the little snort of laughter she offered in the darkness, John suspected a sly smile waited there. And when she turned back to her efforts, her hand squeezing to distract John's focus, John muffled another moan. A moan that had him biting into his hand when Anna's tongue joined the work of her fingers.

As her work continued, John considered the consequences of possibly gnawing through his hand in an attempt to keep himself quiet. And as he weighed the pros and cons of that particular thought, considering if the risk was worth the price, John noticed Anna's shift in weight again. Now she slipped toward him, sliding over the sheets and notching one of her feet under his arm where his other hand still clung desperately to the bedsheets.

But the movement allowed John a half second of thought. A thought he latched onto as he released his grip on the bedsheets and surrendered all attempts to muffle his sounds with his hand. Instead he slid his hands over Anna's now accessible legs and moved to where the line of her knickers covered her from view. A view he exposed when he pulled the gusset away with one hand and used the fingers of the other to run through her folds.

Anna bucked against him, giving a groan of her own that vibrated back up his body where her lips locked around his erection, and encouraged John forward. With an adjustment he knew was unsustainable in the long run, and perhaps a bit unwise in the way it might crick his neck or spine, John leaned up to run his tongue over Anna's folds. She bucked again and John continued until Anna lifted herself from off his chest.

The pause stopped John's heart. For a moment he feared he pressed his actions too far and sent Anna running. But, instead, he half-saw Anna's maneuver in the dark to make out the vague throw of her knickers and whatever shirt she wore for her pajamas to the floor. Then, with a bit more contortion on her end, John felt Anna's knees impact his shoulders. Perhaps a bit harder than she intended but the result she accomplished proved beneficial to them both.

In Anna's new position John could move his mouth over her folds with abandon. The same kind of abandon she used in the application of her fingers and tongue over his erection. But the race to the finish proved to be in John's favor as Anna's work only riled him to move faster, to suck harder, to sink deeper, and eventually use his fingers in a careful crook inside her to find the spot that left Anna shuddering and crying out against the skin of John's thigh.

The momentary reprieve it offered John barely granted him sufficient breath. Especially when Anna's weight rested, even for a second, back on his chest. But she shifted forward, her hands digging into John's thighs to keep herself steady as her legs continued to quiver against John's sides, and used her leverage to rise above John. Rise enough to position herself above his waiting erection and slide down the length of him.

With the slickness she provided from John's efforts on her and all the attention she already showed him, the slide proved smooth. John's hands returned to grasping at the sheets and found his previous holds like comforting friends. But his grip there proved insufficient as Anna set a punishing pace in how she rode him. Rode him with her nails digging into the flesh of his thighs that had John reaching for Anna's hips to try and respond in kind with thrusts of his own.

Thrusts that were simply contributors to Anna's efforts. Well-intentioned and well-aimed but simply tools for Anna to chase the high her body craved. A high she reached with a high note that fell off as John's fingers, blind in the dark and from their awkward position reaching up and over from behind her hips, tried to coax her clit with her finish.

But she continued her motions, relishing in the finish at the grasp and cling of her vaginal walls over John's aching erection. His fingers dug into Anna's hips and he thrust with more force but less finesse as Anna's fingers surrendered their grip on his skin to stroke and taunt instead. It took him almost no time at all to join in Anna's high and try to lay back on the bed and gasp for air.

Anna slipped free, rising on shaking legs in the gray of the morning to find something on the floor. John followed her path almost lazily but jerked when a chill cloth landed in his hand. With a grunt, and a shift to bring himself to sit up, John wiped himself down and recovered his pants from where Anna slid them down to hang from his ankle.

"That was unexpected." He whispered in the dark as Anna returned, her hair tied to the top of her head in a bun of sorts and wearing the large shirt from the floor.

"Which part?"

"All of it." John took the cloth and hopped to his prosthetic, clicking it into place to walk the cloth to the hamper. "I've not been woken up like that… Ever?"

"You don't know for sure?"

"If I have then I forgot the experience."

"It wasn't good for you?" Anna sat cross-legged on the end of the bed as John returned to stand before her.

"If it was any good then it wasn't good enough to remember."

"And now?"

John knelt carefully before Anna and took her hands with his. Kissing the backs of them, he smiled up at her. "It was lovely. Expected but lovely."

"As was your… contribution." Anna grinned at him, more visible now that a hint of light glinted in the window. "I don't think I've ever been sixty-nined before."

"I have and this time was definitely better than before."

"Was it?"

"Youth holds no candle to experience." John took his turn to grin up at Anna. As his eyes flicked down he noticed the shirt on her pulled tight at her hips and no panty-line showed. A thought sparked and his grin turned sly. "Speaking of experience… I think I'd like to give us another one."

"And which one-"

John did not give Anna a second to finish her question as he decided to answer it with actions. His hands settled on her legs and slid to just behind her knees to uncross them and bring Anna to the edge of the bed. In a moment one of her legs went over his shoulder and John slotted himself at an angle to put his mouth back on Anna's folds.

The slight scent of them still lingered there, suppressed as it was by whatever perfunctory attention Anna showed with post-coital routine. But John did not care about that. Instead he focused on bringing Anna to the edge again. And with her leg on his shoulder and one of his arms resting over her hips, to provide both leverage and a fulcrum to keep her hips from bucking too hard against his face, all John had to do was continue working his tongue over her folds and clit until Anna trembled and shivered around him.

A thought tempted John, adjusting his position to prevent his flesh and blood leg from falling asleep from an awkward position as he slowly stroked his tongue through Anna's quivering folds, and he let a smile take over his mouth as he drew back slightly to dot kisses over Anna's hips and thighs as he breath returned to her. Returned enough for her to cry out when John went back to work with his tongue and fingers.

It was somewhere after the third orgasm, Anna's fingers digging hard enough into John's hair to threaten losing huge chunks of it to the grip of her fingers, that John's adjustment had less to do with his legs falling asleep and more to do with a tightening in his groin. Despite shifting to relieve unexpected pressure there, and even trying to shift his leg to ease the ache, John surrendered his hold on Anna's hips to try and address the rising issue in his pants.

But when Anna let out a soft whimper, her fourth climax rolling through her with a flutter of his heel against his shoulder, John could not ignore the need any longer. He pressed a final kiss to the inside of Anna's thigh and drew back while ducking under Anna's leg. When he took the moment to try and stand, his intention to help Anna to a more comfortable position on the bed, her knee notched over John's hip and her hand found the elastic band of his pants.

"Anna-"

This time she did not let him finish his question. In a second his pants where around his ankles and Anna's legs wrapped around his hips. Her shift toward him put the onus of positioning them on John and he managed it as carefully as he could from the odd angle their relative positions forced them to.

So, instead, John risked the momentary delay to unlatch his prosthetic and slide onto the bed. Using the remains of his right leg for leverage, John thrust forward and listened to Anna's relieved sigh. Her fingers moved to hold his biceps and shoulders, sliding over his skin until she found a position to hold herself steady, and her hips bucked to bring them closer. John tried to muffle his sounds in Anna's shoulder but failed miserably.

He gave over to it. Gave over to the urging, half-mumbled phrases Anna managed to speak as he thrust without grace or finesse until they both sighed and struggled toward their high. Shifts and adjustments as they came together had them seeking out the places that left them gasping and grasping until John released to the sounds of Anna hitting her climax again.

With his head pressed to her shoulder, John tried to find his breath. Anna's chest, still covered in the overlarge shirt, pressed to his and John almost recoiled at the scratch of the material on his skin. His entire body seemed to vibrate with an increased sensitivity in his post-coital haze but he managed to come to himself enough to save Anna from the threat of his weight crushing her.

Pulling back, and rescuing his pants from around his ankle again, John moved to his side and watched Anna's chest slow as she breathed more normally. The increase in the light of the room allowed John to see the relaxed smile that had Anna almost tranquil next to him. And given the way her breathing continued to slow he would have guessed that sleep sought to claim her again. A tempting prospect that John found he could surrender to as well.

If not for the soft cry from the corner of the room. Both of them froze and then sighed together as the whining cry from Michael had the two of them raising themselves up from the bed to try and see over the edge of Michael's cot. But when Anna sighed and went to stand, John put out an arm.

"May I?"

"What?"

"May I see to him?" John shrugged at Anna's frow. "If it's just a nappy change I can manage that."

"And if he needs a feed?"

"I think you've got some milk in the fridge." John shrugged. "I mean…"

"Do you want to?"

"It'd let you sleep a little more."

"I wouldn't mind that." Anna's lips pursed and she took another minute to think before nodding. "If you're sure."

"I'm sure." John bent down to find his pants on the floor and reattached his prosthetic before finding some of the baby wipes for himself. Wiping off the remains of his more exciting morning, John disposed of the wipes before dipping down to retrieve Michael from his cot. "How about it little man? Think we can manage this ourselves for a bit? Give your mama some rest?"

Michael whimpered and snuffled against John's shoulder before whining into his skin as he tried to snuggle against his chest. John waited a moment before shrugging. "I'll take that as a yes then."

Turning back to Anna, John noticed her eyes already closed as she lay back on the bed. "I think we'll be fine."

"If you need me, just call."

"I will." John moved to the door and used his hip to open it, holding the still squirming Michael to his shoulder. He spared another look to where Anna lay, eyes closed and her breathing evening, on the bed and smiled. Keeping his voice low as he used his foot to bring the door almost closed, John whispered to Michael, "I think I wore her out little man."

London, England – 1816

Light had John squinting as he finally cracked his eyes open. Blinded for a moment, he continued blinking until the vague outlines of furniture took on more definite edges. When the light contorted to give definition to the rest of the room, John tried to lift himself on his pillows.

Hands immediately landed on his arms and shoulders as voices crowded in his ears. John tried to bat them away, his brain struggling to make sense of the words, It took a moment, the voices hushing at the contortion of John's expression, but he finally made out the recognizable figures of Anna and Spratt as well as two other individuals he did not know.

"What's going on?" John tried to move again but Anna's hands landed on his arm and one of the strangers, a man with a white mustache, extended his own hand as if to stop John with telekinesis.

"I wouldn't move, Your Grace."

"And why's that?" John frowned and turned to Anna before noting her worry and the way her fingers continued to scrunch in the fabric of his shirt. "What's wrong? Anna?"

She sniffed, wiping at her eyes, and took his hand in hers. Kissing the back of it before she met his eyes, "When Green fell on your leg… The break was bad."

"How bad?" John looked from Anna to the other man. "And who are you?"

"I'm the doctor that's seen to you these…" He flicked his gaze to Anna, who nodded, and he cleared his throat before continuing. "Three weeks."

"Three weeks?" John almost choked. "I've… Three weeks?"

"You've been in and out." The doctor shuffled in place. "And there were times you almost… Times we almost lost you, Your Grace. But given the extent of your injuries, and in order to save your life, we… We had to take your leg."

"Take my leg?" John tried to clear his throat again but found he could not clear whatever blocked his speech. "Take my…"

He turned to Anna and she took a breath, her fingers shaking on his hand where she did not cease to hold him. She kissed hard on the back of his hand again before wetting her lips to speak. "The break was bad, John. The bone had shattered and the flesh was going necrotic. I…" She glanced toward the doctor who took his turn to nod back at her. "It was my decision. They couldn't guarantee saving your life if they saved your leg but they could save your life if they took their leg so… So I told them to take your leg."

John finally lifted himself, ignoring the hands outstretched toward him and the noises that told him he should keep himself prone. When he could lift himself enough to see his lower body, John noticed the way the blankets did not fold or bunch lower than his right knee. A sound escaped his throat and he slipped back as the strength in arms gave out.

In a second Anna was by his side, her hands on his face and behind his neck to hold him so he did not hit the pillow. Her fingers slid over his face and she pressed her cheek to his and her lips graced over his skin before pulling back. John's hand shook as it rested over hers and Anna interlaced their fingers there.

"Anna…" John blinked as tears threatened at the corners of his eyes. "Anna… Please… Have them leave."

She nodded against his cheek and pulled back, bringing his hand with her as she shifted to sit on the mattress with him. Addressing everyone else in the room, as John turned his head into the pillow to allow his tears to leak into the material, Anna's voice only cracked slightly as she spoke. "Please, everyone leave us. His Grace is tired but seems well enough to be alone for the moment."

"Your Grace, I think-" The doctor's voice tried to argue with her but Anna stood, John's hand still clutched in hers.

"If we need you, I'll ask for you. If you'll all please leave." John clung to Anna's hand as her voice firmed. "If you need to, wait outside the door but His Grace and I will be alone for now."

The room emptied in time with the footsteps that echoed over the floor. And when the door finally shut, John shifted with the return of Anna's weight on the mattress and met her eyes. Her fingers still interlaced with his and she used their grip to drag herself closer to him. With the fingers with her other hand she wiped the tears from John's eyes.

"I'm so sorry." Her tears fell onto his hand as she kissed it repeatedly. "I'm sorry that you woke up to this. But I… I couldn't lose you. And you wouldn't wake up so I… I had to choose. I chose you."

"I…" John shook his head and used his other hand, the one not caught in Anna's grip, and tried to wipe at her tears. His fingers shook against her skin but he managed to remove enough of the tears before Anna pressed her free hand over his. Holding his hand to her cheek she turned into it and kissed over his palm. "I can't… I can't express what… I can't express what I feel."

"I'm sorry you-"

"No." John interrupted her, taking her hand in his grip and squeezing it. "You made the right choice, the impossible choice. "

"It… I couldn't…" Anna shook her head, kissing again at John's hand in her grip. "I couldn't lose you."

"I know." John took a breath and nodded toward his leg. "If I… Help me sit up? Please help me sit up."

Anna shifted forward and moved the pillows behind John's back to support him. In a moment he sat upright and had a better view of the disparity in the folding contortions of the blankets over him. With a shuddering sigh, he inhaled.

"It's different."

"We'll make it work." Anna tried to smile but it caught in tears. "We'll… There are ways we can make this work."

"Of course." John leaned back against the pillows and sighed. "What happened to Green? After he shattered my leg."

"He suffered a hemorrhage." John's eyebrows rose and Anna nodded. "When he struck his head it caused a bleed in his brain, or so the doctor said. He died a few days after you fell unconscious. He never woke up. And I feared…"

Her voice caught and John ran his thumb over the back of her hand still in his grip. John took a breath, "You feared I would be like him. That I would never wake up and you'd… You'd be a widow."

"I feared I'd be alone." Anna moved closer to John, her hand dropping his so her fingers could stroke through the hairs at his temple. "I feared I'd lose you."

"But now you've only half a husband." John tried to laugh but Anna's tears rained down on his neck as she buried her face there. She shook against him as her hand gripped the back of his neck and her hand in his squeezed hard enough to crack bone. His other hand came up to run over her back, trying to soothe her sobs with gentle touches over her back.

"Anna?"

"Don't say it." Her head moved against his neck, as if shaking in response to his comment and giving her opposition with motion. "Don't say that."

"I was-"

"No." Anna sat up, shaking her head and wiping furiously at the tears still coming from her eyes. "Don't joke about it. Don't toy with me about it."

"I didn't… I didn't mean it."

"But you did. Part of you did mean it and I can't…" Anna shook her head. "I couldn't have you thinking that I think any less of you. That you might believe that you're less than you are because your body is less than it was."

She took a shuddering breath, "I won't have you believing that because I don't believe it. And I won't…" She swallowed. "I won't have you thinking that because then you might have our child believing it."

John gaped at her. "Our… Our child?"

"Yes." Anna took his hand, the one that still held hers, and moved it to her abdomen. "I… I wanted you to wake to discover it for yourself. I couldn't… I couldn't lose you because then… Then what would I tell our child? How could I tell them even a fraction of the scope of you? I needed you alive to tell them everything about you."

"But with me as I am…" John motioned toward his missing leg. "I can't… We can't… I don't know…"

"I'd rather have a part of you than none at all." Anna held his hand to her. "And we're not without our resources."

"You think any of our mercantile efforts won't suffer with the change in my appearance or status?"

"Then we'll just have to tell them all the truth that I'm the one who's the genius behind all of our efforts and see what they say to that." Anna snorted, wiping at her eyes again and sniffed slightly. "They'll accept your appearance if the alternative is that I'm the one running things."

"Perhaps they'll prefer you."

"Then we'll have to make do with that." Anna shrugged, "Maybe I'll be the one to leave our house to work and you'll be the one to watch our child."

"I'm sure I would like that until the child grew both legs long enough to run circles around me."

"Then we'll simply have to get you another leg to match." Anna took both of John's hands in hers again. "We'll make this work, you know."

"We will?"

"Of course." Anna smiled at him. "We came together because you made it work. Because you were willing to accept my demands."

She shrugged, "I don't see how this is different."

"Are you making demands of me again, Your Grace?" John managed a smile of his own and returned the kiss Anna pressed to his lips.

"Yes, I am."

"Then, Your Grace," John kissed the backs of Anna's hands now. "I find the terms acceptable and I agree to follow them."

"Good." Anna gave him another kiss. "Then I'll let the doctor back in so he doesn't render himself apoplectic in the corridor."

"You know best."

"And don't forget it." Anna's fingers carded through John's hair again, pausing to scratch gently at his temples. "I love you, John. Every part of you I can keep."

"And I you." John squeezed her hands. "With every part of me left and even those parts I don't have anymore."

"In sickness and in health, I believe was the phrase." Anna stood. "As long as we both shall live."

"As long as we both shall live." John agreed.

Yorkshire, England – Present Day

"There we go." John pulled Michael free of the carrier and carefully laid the sleeping boy in his cot. "I wore you right out didn't I?"

"You've a habit of that." John pivoted to where Anna leaned in the doorway. "Every time you take him out with you he falls right to sleep."

"I guess it's the steady rhythm of the work." John unbuckled the carrier from his chest and massaged at his shoulders. "Can't say my body always likes it."

"You don't have to do it you know." Anna closed the distance between them. "You could leave him in here with me."

"You've got work to do and it's nothing to take him out for a few hours." John ran his fingers through Michael's hair, pushing some of the strands away from his forehead. "And it gives you some time to yourself."

"You're too generous."

"No." John shook his head, keeping his voice low as he withdrew from the side of Michael's cot. "But I've been thinking."

"About?"

"About what you're planning to do after all this is over." John rolled his shoulders back. "Once the case is closed and Vera's in prison and… And after it all."

"I've tried not to think too hard about it." Anna shrugged, "I'd hate to get my hopes up that everything'll turn out okay."

"But if it does?"

Anna took a breath, held it a moment, and then released in a way that emptied her lungs but left all the tension in her body. "I don't know if I could afford to think like that."

"Alright then, let me put it this way." John took a breath of his own. "What if, when all this shakes out, I offer that you continue to live here with me."

"What?"

"I know it's not… Ideal. And I'll eventually have to get back to work with the people who actually hired me but…" John swallowed, "I'd like you both to stay here."

"With you?"

"It doesn't have to be with me. You could live here, be the official caretaker of the place, and I'd only check in as an obligation because it's in my name and-" John stopped as Anna's fingers landed on his lips.

"I'd only stay here if you're staying here too." Anna withdrew her fingers but John caught them with his. "It's not worth staying here if you're not here to stay for."

"Then you'll stay?"

Anna nodded, "I want to stay. I want to stay with you."

John went to say something else but a buzzer sounded in the distance. He held up a finger to pause Anna and slipped away from her into the corridor. Within a few moments he stood at the bank of computers and looked for the one denoting the front gate.

Depressing a button, John spoke into the microphone. "No tours today."

"It's me John." John blinked at the tone in the voice. "I need you to open up. It's urgent."

"Henry?" John glanced over his shoulder as Anna joined him. "Why are you here? Aren't you busy with work?"

"I decided to take a holiday and visit you."

John turned to Anna, "Henry never takes holidays."

"Is it a code word?"

"It's not any of the ones we've used." John chewed the inside of his cheek. "If he's not using distress words then it's because he's either not in distress or he can't use them."

"Because someone knows?"

"Because whoever's with him knows what distress words are." John took a breath, "Go to Michael and-"

The door in the corridor burst open and John only had time to skid into the space to see three figures standing there, another held roughly by the scruff of his neck. That figure tumbled forward down the stairs, bouncing and striking them as he went before groaning on the floor. John almost ran to him, the light finally making Henry's features clear, but stopped at the sound of a hammer clicking back on a gun.

"Good to see you Johnny. Nice to know you're well."

"Vera?" John moved instinctively to shield Anna from view as Vera came down the stairs and stepped over Henry's body.

"In the flesh." She winked at him before nudging Henry with her foot. "Would've been here sooner if he hadn't made it so bloody difficult to find you. But it's amazing what you can do with some people on your side."

John heard the catch in Anna's breath as the other two figures came into clearer view. One was a man, roughly John's height, and perfect hair and a glove over one hand. The other was a woman with an expression like a storm cloud and a permanent sneer to her body language.

"Friends of yours?"

"They're from the PM's office." Anna whispered in undertone to John as Vera gave her own answer.

"In a sense. They're the ones who worked out that your friend here," Vera used her heel to force Henry onto his back, "Was keeping you off my radar and had hidden Little Miss Blonde from me."

"He did his job well."

"Well enough, for awhile." Vera took a breath. "But now it's time to get rid of the three of you."

"Isn't that bridge well and truly burned by now?"

"I was always too smart to trust in one method of escape John, you knew that." Vera nodded at him before pointing at Anna. "It's her word that would put me away and, well, I can't have that. Once she's gone then there goes her evidence and I'm in the clear to go off into the world and do as I please."

"You think it'll be that easy?"

"I got here didn't I?" Vera smiled but it immediately shrank into a stony expression. "And now I'm going to finish what I should've ended myself in Nepal."