Anna swirled her drink and downed the rest of the liquid in her glass before fanning herself. She leaned over to the dark-haired woman next to her. "You'd think they could've managed to crack a window."

"It's raining."

"It's blistering in here Mary." Anna scanned the room as she rose from the table. "I'm getting air before I faint. Water's not doing me any good anymore."

"Are you really getting air or just trying to get something from Bates?" Anna stopped, leaning back to eye the taller woman as she continued. "I don't have to tell you what a mistake it is to have an inter-office relationship."

"You don't have a relationship with Matthew." Anna waved her hand toward a blonde man dancing with a redheaded woman on the other side of the room. "You shagged him once and then dumped him."

"I didn't-" Mary huffed, "It was a mistake. Which is exactly why I'm telling you not to do what I did."

"I heard how you treated him and even if there was a worry about a relationship between Mr. Bates and I, I wouldn't do that to him."

"No?"

"No." Anna tugged at her dress, "Because there's no risk of a relationship between John and I."

"You're sure?"

"Absolutely."

"But you've obviously shagged him." Mary pointed at Anna, "Just this morning, if I had to guess."

Anna shrugged, "Shagging someone isn't a relationship."

"It still brings feelings."

Anna rolled her eyes. "You sound like my mother when she warned me away from boys too early."

"Maybe she was right."

"Maybe she was but," Anna held up a hand to stop Mary's inevitable retort. "Could you not throw shade right now? I've heard that those living in glass houses should save their stones."

"You think I live in a glass house?"

"I think that you're clutching that glass a little too tightly for it to be anything but of passing interest that Matthew Crawley is dancing with someone who's not you." Anna nodded in that direction, "But you tell me I'm wrong."

"Go have fun with your boy toy then." Mary waved a hand, finishing her drink with the other. "Don't let me stop me."

"Wasn't planning on letting that happen either way." Anna paused before taking the seat right next to Mary again. "Look, whatever may've happened between you two, you owe it to yourselves to work it out."

"Do we?"

"Of course you do. You're obviously miserable without him and he's not exactly himself with whatever new girlfriend he's got." Anna sighed, "Good men aren't like buses Mary, you can't guarantee another one'll be along in ten minutes."

"So I should break up him and his girlfriend?"

"I think you should tell him how you feel. It'll be awkward and a bit horrible but he deserves to make the best informed choice he can, no matter the consequences of how it looks socially." Anna stood again, "We owe it to ourselves to be honest."

"Like you're being honest with how you say you don't feel about Mr. Bates?" Mary swirled her empty glass. "Because that's honesty?"

"It is when I don't know how I feel about him." Anna shook her head, catching John's eye from the other end of the ballroom. "And I don't know how he feels about me. For now it's… We're feeling it out. Whatever 'it' is."

"I guess we're both a little drunk if we're being honest with one another." Mary stood as well, her gaze immediately following Matthew. "They say in vino veritas… Maybe it works with champagne too."

"Here's to hoping." Anna put a hand on Mary's shoulder before pushing off. "I'm going to find someplace that doesn't feel like I'm roasting in a sauna."

Anna grabbed for her things and wove between the partygoers to reach the corridor outside. The Crawley house boasted a grand array of lights and Anna blinked past their brightness as she aimed for the doors to exit. Before she could get there, her phone buzzed and she stopped to answer it.

"Anna Smith."

"I hear you're looking for me." Anna stopped, keeping the phone to her ear as she searched for a room.

"I didn't realize you were so keen on us meeting."

"I wasn't but my case officer said it would be in both of our interests." Anna opened the door to the coat room and walked until the dull throb of the noise from the ballroom no longer overpowered the voice on the other end of the line. "There's someone who might have information on your case who'll be willing to talk to you about it… Provided a few amenities."

"Those being?"

"Not the kind I can give over the phone." Anna waited through the sound of fingers meeting a phone screen. "I just sent you an address and a time. Meet me there and we'll discuss next steps."

"Am I to come alone as well or is this cloak-and-dagger business the kind of thing you're playing up for theatrics, Mr. Blake?"

"It's for the safety of both parties. Run an SDR before you show up, if you'd be so kind as to not blow my cover."

"I'll keep that in mind." Anna ended the call and pivoted to almost run into John. Her hand went to her chest for a second as she tried to apply pressure and lower her heart rate. "You scared the life out of me."

"Apologies." John pointed at the phone. "Your contact getting back to you?"

"The source, actually." Anna tucked the phone away after showing John the address and time. "If you'd like to meet Mr. Blake again."

"Not sure he'd be excited about seeing me."

"Considering you think he's a traitor?" Anna shrugged, "He's used to it. Working the way one does in the branch of government that pays his bills, it can get a little stale but it's the life you signed up to endure."

"Sounds terrible."

"Well it's not the life I chose so I guess to each their own." Anna flexed her jaw a second, "Mary thinks we're in a relationship."

"In a way we are." John shoved his hands into his pockets, leaving his suit jacket to hang open. "It's one with benefits and no strings but-"

"But there are strings." Anna clarified, "Whatever lie we're telling ourselves, there are strings to what we're doing. Be they professional or personal we'd be lying to ourselves if we thought we could start and stop this like flipping a switch."

"I'm not saying we could."

"But I was. If only to myself." Anna sighed, leaning back against the wall. "I've not allowed myself to have a… To even consider a real relationship before now. And I'm not saying we've got a relationship now but if we did…"

"It scares you." John nodded, "I'm not immune to that feeling."

"No?"

"My wife betrayed me and everything I do for a living." John put his hand to his chest. "Do you think it's easy for me to think about having a relationship where I'd have to trust someone again?"

"Fair." Anna let out another breath, "I think we need to be more honest with ourselves. To be honest about what we might want from this."

"What do you want from it?"

"For now?" Anna put her head back against the wall for a second before turning to John. "For now I think we go as we are. I'm enjoying it and… And I hope you are too."

"I'm certainly enjoying it." John moved closer to her, "And since we've got a bit of time before we have to go and see your friend, I'd like to show you how much I'm enjoying it… If you're willing."

"I believe I was promised a chance to ruin this dress with a groomsman." Anna let her back flatten against the wall as John put his hands on her hips. "Although, I'll have to ask you not tear anything. We're due at a professional meeting in a bit and we've got to appear professional."

"I'll take care of your dress." John's fingers moved over the silky skirt. "For now, anyway."

"For now." Anna agreed as she pulled John's mouth to hers.

John's hands shifted lower down Anna's hips and when his fingers dug just under her ass she jumped onto her toes. His hands slid along her skirt to hold along her thighs as Anna wrapped her legs around John's hips. Within a single shift their hips collided and Anna moaned into John's mouth.

Turning her face, Anna slanted her mouth over John's to let her tongue tangle with his. He made his own approving noise in response and gripped her hips harder as he ground into her. It forced her arms around his shoulders to keep herself steady and gyrate her hips in response to the steady thrusts John used to bring them closer and closer together.

With her hand flailing slightly, Anna caught the edge of her skirt and dragged it up her thigh. John's hands moved swiftly to hold onto her skin instead and they only separated their kiss for a second as they adjusted. And once again when Anna's knickers proved more difficult to manage than John was ready to handle.

His fingers caught on them, tugging for a second, and Anna broke their kiss to stop him tearing them. "I need these for later."

"But-"

She yanked them to the side as John's belt rubbed against the inside of her thigh. "Just do it."

Her fingers tightened in the material of his loose suit jacket as John thrust forward. They paused only for a moment, breathing hard against one another so the heat from John's mouth raised the hairs on her neck. Tugging at his jacket gave Anna a second of leverage to tilt her hips and take John a fraction deeper. Deep enough to leave him grunting into her skin before he thrust in earnest.

Hitching her legs higher up on his body, Anna rocked against John with each piston of his hips. Her shoulders pressed harder against the wall behind her as Anna's fingers found their place at John's collar and in his hair. It took all of her strength to stop from ruining his carefully combed hair so she satisfied herself digging her nails into the back of his neck as John's fingers helped bring her over the edge just after he released.

"We should go." Anna managed to gasp out, her fingers loosening on John's neck to stroke over his jacket.

"Yeah." John's breath continued to blow hot against her shoulder as he nodded into her skin. "Yeah, we should."

They settled, breathing hard and slipping slightly as they held to skin coated with a light sheen of sweat, and John lowered Anna to the floor. Taking a moment to rearrange themselves, Anna gratefully using the offered handkerchief to clean over herself, John peeked into the corridor. When he nodded back to her, Anna grabbed her coat and followed John out to his car.

"Think they'll miss us?" John jerked his thumb back toward the ballroom as he handed the ticket to the valet. "I'd hate for them to assume the worst."

"Let them think what they want." Anna pulled out her phone as she shivered in her coat. "We've got work to do and that's all that matters."

"Not our little interlude in the coat room?"

Anna paused, her fingers hovering above her phone screen. "Priorities."

"So what we talked about-"

"John," Anna put up a hand to stop him. "I'm not negating what happened. Or the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed it. But I've got a one-track mind. And right now the track for my mind is on the meeting we're about to have."

"Did you even give yourself a second to-"

"Appreciate?" Anna smiled at John as the car stopped in front of them. "Of course I did. And I'll appreciate it all more later, when we've got a chance to do it properly… If you're still interested in that."

"Very much so."

"Then the sooner this is off my mind, the sooner that can be on it." Anna accepted the open door and slide into the passenger seat as John got behind the wheel. "But, to be clear, you're not going into this meeting with any kind of divided focus are you?"

"Not about what's between us, if that's what you're asking."

"Any grudges?"

John shrugged a shoulder as he drove a circuitous route from the house and into the warren of Dublin streets. "I might be more than a little… Divided."

"You do realize that what Blake did to you was-"

"Was under orders, I know. I just…" He sighed, steering them through a series of traffic lights before doubling back. "I wish he'd trusted me enough to give me some warning."

"You feel like he left you out."

"It's like knowing that everyone else in a room is in one a joke but you. Like you're the only one no one wanted to tell. Or, worse, that everyone forgot to tell you." John shook his head, guiding them toward their destination with a few more double-backs. "It just hurts to know that the people you thought you could trust don't trust you in return."

"If I said that I trust you, would that salve this wound?"

"You weren't the one who burned me when I really needed a win." John let out a breath. "Not that what happened with my wife was Blake's fault or anything but… It still stung."

"The risk of realizing we're all a mess of scars and not everyone remembers where they came from or why we have them." Anna nodded, "I know a little bit about that too."

They arrived at their destination and Anna waited for John to open the door for her. She bundled the coat tighter around herself, shivering again. "I think deciding to do this in a dress was a mistake."

"We should've changed." John agreed, dropping back to let Anna take the lead into the pub. "But we weren't followed."

"You ran a decent SDR there." Anna gave John the side-eye. "You're not holding back on me in regard to the details of your day job are you?"

"I took the course, for the overtime pay, and I figured we'd need one for a meeting like this." John shook himself out as Anna reached for the door handle. "I'm ready for this."

"I hope so."

They entered the pub and Anna almost immediately shed her coat. The combined crush of bodies mixed with the sounds of a central heating system spitting out its highest temperature left Anna sweating almost as badly as she had at the reception. Even worse, the heat mixed rather poorly with the smells of fermented and pickled food options that covered all the tables.

"Russian food." John shook his head, leaning close to Anna. "Never liked it myself but it's a thing here."

"I can smell it." Anna almost covered her nose and mouth with her hand, coughing through it as a particularly sour scent wafted toward her with a vodka laced belch. "And I don't like it."

"I figured as much." A man with dark hair slipped out of a booth and pointed John and Anna into a tight corridor. "Got us a private room."

The three of them shuffled through the crush and up a rickety set of tight stairs to a room that whistled with a broken window. But the slight drop in temperature allowed Anna to breathe easier as she took a chair at the round table. "Thank you. I thought I was going to faint down there."

"You get used to it." The man took the chair opposite her before kicking another in John's direction. "I'm sure you'd like to sit down John. Unless you're afraid I've strapped a bomb to the seat."

"I'm not that suspicious Charles." John gingerly sat on the edge of it. "Just enough to know that you've got your own agenda."

"I most certainly do." Blake turned to Anna. "You risked a lot to my cover, forcing this meeting."

"I'm sure whatever you're doing here is important, and I don't doubt that, but stopping a serial killer is a little more critical to Her Majesty's Service at the moment." Anna took a breath, trying to forget the smells from the pub below. "We're here about the connection you had to Ethel Parks."

"She was a CI. An on the ground girl I used because she worked as a…" Blake paused, measuring John a moment. "A prostitute. It got her into places I couldn't and around people I needed to get close to. She was a good girl… If a little too attached to the powdered payment Mr. Mason gave out."

"That's how he controlled them?"

Blake nodded. "It's a bad business but it's how we'll get it dismantled. We take out one piece at a time and then all the girls go home to families who miss them." He sighed, sagging a bit in his chair. "That's the aim, anyway. It's taking longer than we expected but we're still trying."

"We're not here about your trafficking case. We're here about serial killer." Anna tapped the table between them. "At least four of the victims were prostitutes. And, if I understood your file right, all the prostitutes in Dublin fall under the control of your Mr. Mason."

"Most, yeah."

"Then we need to meet with him."

Blake choked on a laugh before letting it shake his whole body. "You can't be serious. You want a meeting with Albert Mason, the leader of the division I'm trying to take down?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

"No." Blake shook his head. "You'd burn me and the whole operation. It'd take less than a moment and I'll be hanging by my thumbs in a slaughterhouse."

"Then you'll tell them that someone was willing to fall on his sword to beg your help." John's voice split the ice between Anna and Blake, forcing them both to turn and look at him. "Because we need to stop this psycho before he kills more people. And if the only way to do that is to crawl on my belly for your help then that's what I'll do."

"You'd sell that story?"

"I'd make it a page-turner." John shrugged at Blake, "You'd lose nothing except to convince your bosses that you've got a Guard like me to be your bitch and that shouldn't be hard. You buggered me good and proper last time so who's to say you've not done it again?"

Blake pursed his lips for a moment. "You do realize you'd have to give something to us in return yeah? Something to prove to them this isn't some kind of game I'm playing."

"I'm sure there are reasonable concessions that Her Majesty's government-"

"No," Blake raised a finger to stop Anna speaking and pointed it at John. "It's got to come from him."

John chewed on his tongue a moment before nodding. "I'd give you the files on Vera's operation. You can make a war of it if you want."

"You'd do that?"

"If it stops a killer I'd even take you to Vera myself." John nodded at Blake. "Have we got a deal?"

Blake's fingers drummed the table a moment before he nodded. "We do."

"I guess if it helps the cause then it's all just in the end, yes?" Anna went to stand. "You've got my contact information so don't hesitate to call when you've arranged the meeting, yes?"

"Of course." Blake stood as well, shaking Anna's hand. "And don't mistake me when I say, Albert Mason's a complicated man. Horrible and cruel when he needs to be but it isn't as if he's heartless. He's lost people in this too."

"Products, you mean?" John stood, shaking his head. "Careful there Blake. You're starting to sound like you've gone native."

"In this we've all got a common enemy." Blake shrugged, "Anything to get a deranged killer off the streets."

"Instead of giving them membership tattoos?" John led Anna out of the pub and back out onto the street where they both took deep breaths to clear the smell of the pub from their nostrils.

"Thank you." Anna waited until John turned back to her before continuing. "You didn't have to offer him what you did."

"It's almost a non-starter for me to give it to him." John shrugged, "The file's been closed on Vera."

"I thought she was still at-large or something."

"Was. She worked out a deal and wormed her way out of prison for a stint of probation and house arrest." John shook his head. "She always had a way of getting exactly what she wanted from people."

"I'd almost admire her if I didn't know what kind of person she was."

"You don't even know her."

"I'd suspect that, in her case, to not know her is to know her well." Anna waved her hand in front of her face. "Too much forest for the trees with that one."

"You really do know her well." John opened the car. "But I guess we all get a little better with age."

"I know a few things I'm better at with age." Anna got into her seat, winking at John as she did.

"Was that an invitation, Ms. Smith?"

"Maybe." Anna pulled her door closed, forcing John to get into his seat before the conversation could continue. "There was talk that you wanted to tear this dress a little and I did have plans to discuss that thought further when we were finished with the other items on our docket for the evening."

"It's almost morning now."

"I guess Blake had to wait until they were all soused enough they wouldn't notice us over the smell of vodka." Anna checked her phone. "And no one's missed us from the party so I guess we've got a bit of time."

"Then, as a gentleman, I'd best drive you back to your hotel."

"I'm staying at the Crawley house for the next few days." Anna shook her head. "Bit of an issue with my permanent stay at a hotel that refused to replace the broken heater. Especially with as cold as it's been."

"So we get to sneak back into a party we snuck out of?"

"About like that." Anna checked the mirrors, "But we're not being followed so you don't have to draw patterns on the road before we get back there."

"Noted." When John finally parked, the lights in the house still bright enough to show the shadows of dancers and revelers, he turned to Anna. "I could just walk you to your borrowed door and bid you goodnight."

"Like you're supposed to?"

"Like I'm supposed to."

"Or," Anna danced her fingers up John's arm to curl them around the back of his neck. "You could come up with me. It's not like anyone would hear us."

"Thinking like that'll get you into trouble."

"Or let us have a whole lot of fun." Anna nodded toward the house. "There's a big bed with comfortable pillows and-"

"And I think I'd like us to not risk everyone knowing that we're…"

"Together?"

"That we are whatever we are." John put his hand over Anna's, moving it to kiss her palm. "I still want to tear that dress from you but-"

"No time like the present." Anna's other hand practically flew to his jaw and brought him to her for a kiss.

He almost struggled for a half second before they fumbled together. The speed at which John dropped his seat back and shoved it to its maximum length almost had Anna worried for the runners and whatever spring-loaded mechanism operated it. But when John urged her over him she could not care less.

And when his fingers accidently tore at one of the straps of her dress, Anna only grinned back at him and took his mouth in another plundering kiss. The kind that left them both breathless and hungry for more. So hungry that John did tear her knickers from her this time.

The car wobbled a bit, the shocks of the wheels taking the bouncing motion of them coming together in the front seat. And despite Anna's diminutive stature, she forced herself to almost lay over John so as to not rub her hair into a mess on the ceiling of the car. But with John's hands running through it the way hers were his it was only a matter of time before they were both a ruined mess.

But a wholly satisfied pair of ruined messes as they sagged against one another in the front seat of John's car. And it was a lovely moment for them until John sat up before Anna was ready to move. Her back hit his steering wheel and the horn honked loudly enough to disturbed six other cars parked around them. A sight that allowed the occupants of the six cars to all realize their equivalent participation in their illicit activities.

Anna winced and turned slowly to John. "Do you mind coming up to my room now? Since we've ruined this place."

John nodded, "Might as well."