Harrogate, Present Day

Anna looked up as her office door opened and smiled, "What are you doing here?"

"I thought," John took one of the chairs opposite her desk, "That I could surprise my wife with lunch."

"How thoughtful of you." Anna pointed to the pile of papers on her desk. "That's the only lunch date I had planned."

"Doesn't seem like the type to put out."

"He's not." Anna wrote a final note on one and closed the folder, adding it to the abysmally small 'out' pile. "But I'm getting through the slog and it's alright."

"Is this what promotion gets you?"

"You'd know." Anna pulled another form toward her. "What kind of lunch did you have in mind?"

"Something a bit more interesting that this."

Anna paused, frowning, and looked up. "What's got you so cryptic?"

"Well," John got out of his chair, coming around the desk to shift the files away from the center, and pushed Anna's chair back slightly. "I'm going to tell you all about where we're going on our honeymoon."

"You're finally caving?"

"Since we're leaving tomorrow I thought it'd be terribly bad form not to tell you." John tugged Anna's hands so she stood between his legs as he leaned back on the desk. "What kind of husband would I be if I kept that from you now?"

"You've kept it from me for a few months already." Anna looped her hands around his neck. "I am impressed you kept it to yourself this long."

"I had good motivation." John turned his head to look at the door. "Does that door lock?"

"Yes." Anna drew her finger down the line of his jaw. "And the blinds close too."

"Perfect."

"Why?" Anan tightened her hold around him, keeping John in place a moment as he went to move.

"Just curious."

"You've got a plan and it's not for lunch." Anna teethed her lip, "Oh for the days when it simply meant sharing a sandwich with one another."

"Would you rather a sandwich?"

"Since I've got about twice as much blood coursing through my system now, no, I'd not rather we get a sandwich." Anna kissed him hard and pulled back. "Lock the door John."

He snuck another kiss before slipping to the door. The lock flipped and the blinds flapped against the window as John hurried to secure them in the space. A moment later he was back, standing behind Anna and holding around her waist so his hands could rub over her abdomen.

"You don't mind if-"

"I'm rather enjoying this." Anna giggled when he ran his nose just under her jaw, kissing around her neck and the exposed parts of her shoulder. "It's like having an illicit affair with my husband."

"Imagine what we could do with that." John trilled against her skin, the hum of his voice vibrating through her to set the tiny hairs all over her body on end.

"I'm sure you've already thought of it." Anna tried to laugh but her voice caught when John's hands ran down her sides and back up to mold her breasts. "Why don't you tell me about it?"

"First it starts with things like this." John continued kissing the back of her neck, careful of her tied back hair. "We arrange clandestine meetings at your work, or mine, and try not to be seen."

"A bit more difficult at your work." Anna sighed, letting her head fall back toward his shoulder as the deep massage to her skin thoroughly relaxed her in his arms. "All those cramped cubicles."

"But I could squeeze under one, have you in my desk chair, and eat you out." John suggested and Anna jumped when his words timed perfectly to the fingers he slipped under the elastic of her knickers. "Or I could do that here. Whichever you prefer."

"Go on." Anna's hand grabbed the desk, digging into it for support as John's fingers played over her.

"Or we'd find the seediest restroom and-"

"Clean restrooms only." Anna shook her head, forcing her eyes closed. "I'm not getting staph or anything else that comes from a surface. I refuse."

"Okay, clean restrooms only." His other hand helped shimmy her scrub bottoms and knickers down her legs to leave her exposed to him. She gasped when one of his hands kneaded at her ass. "And nothing kinky, I promise."

"You're touching my ass."

"It's the nicest ass I think I've ever seen."

"You have to say that." Anna managed a little laugh, "You married me."

"I don't." John moved his fingers farther inside her before shifting slightly. A creak of wheels put him in her chair so his efforts resumed with great intensity. "I could compliment any part of your anatomy. I don't have to say nice things about your ass."

"But you do like it?"

"Now you're just fishing for compliments."

"And you're not finished telling me what the rest of this illicit affair would mean." Anna turned over her shoulder to look at John but bent over at the waist to support herself in a plank position on the desk when his tongue worked on her. "Bloody hell."

"It'd be a bit like this." John's next words were lost in the damp suck of his lips over hers.

Anna's elbows dug into the desk, trying to find enough friction to stop herself sliding over the shiny surface, and her forehead landed on a pile of files. They shifted and moved as she responded to John's efforts until she finally gave over to it. Her exclamation of ecstasy muffled in the files but before she could recover her ears pricked at the sound of John's belt buckle.

"And mostly, it'd be this." Her legs widened slightly, constrained a bit by her knickers and scrubs at her ankles, as John ran himself along her. "Whenever you want it, however you want it."

"You're going to be my sex slave?"

"Like I said," John pulled back, "I'm progressive."

He thrust forward and Anna let her head hang down. "This doesn't have to be progressive."

"Perfect." John leaned his head forward, dotting kisses along her cheek each time he drove forward. "Because I want to tell you about the surprise."

"The honeymoon?"

"That's right," John drew to the edge, "We're going to Scotland."

"What?" Anna shifted to pull his lips to hers. "We've finally going to Scotland?"

"That's right." John quickened their pace, holding Anna's hips with one hand and using the other palm to press on her clit and stroke her between his strokes. "We've got two weeks at an estate in the Highlands. It'll just be us and the green outdoors."

"You spoil me."

"I'm your sex slave, remember?"

"I thought we were having an affair."

'Same thing." John sent Anna over the edge again and followed her. His arms wrapped over her and pulled them both back to sit on her chair. Anna kicked off her trousers and knickers to swivel in the chair and face him so her fingers could brush back his hair.

"You amaze me."

"Because I take you from behind?"

"Because you take me on honeymoons to Scotland." Anna kissed him, holding his face with her hands. "How could I not love someone who always puts me first?"

"We both know that you put me first." John took a few strands of her hair and tucked them under pins to keep them out of her face and away from her neck "If you didn't then you wouldn't let me do what I just did."

"That was all for me." Anna reached a hand down, massaging and squeezing John slowly. "This, is for you."

"See, you put me first." John let his head lean back on the leather of her chair. "You treat me far too well."

"I do try," Anna slipped her legs back, "And I think I want to try again."

"What?"

Instead of answering, Anna leaned over him to take John in her mouth. Her tongue slipped over him, working slowly to coax him harder. John's fingers dug into the armrests of the chair and Anna wished he could card them through her hair. The scalp massage he gave her as a side effect of her actions always brought her libido right up. Of course, she smiled around him before dragged the tips of her teeth over him to leave John groaning, she did not need much of that lately with her second trimester dawning. Fertility proved its own libido.

She took a final drag, fondling his sack for good measure, and climbed back onto his lap to sink herself down on him. John's eyes, already rolled back in his head, roved under his lids but it only made Anna smile. Her fingers moved through his hair and she used the leverage of her grip to lean herself forward enough to kiss him deeply. A kiss he returned with liberal use of his tongue until his fingers finally found their way to her hips.

The rolling chair thumped against the back wall, breaking their kiss, but after a moment of shared giggles they crashed together again. It was all Anna could do to keep her hands off her husband and everything in his actions told him he had no desire for her to do anything less than hold him. They rolled together, the sounds of their joining both a distant memory and the loudest echo in either of their ears, and continued moving until John finally came. Anna, with a little work, followed him.

Her head rested on his shoulder, breathing in time with the rise and fall of his chest until her heartbeat was no longer thundering in her ears. She pushed herself up to look at him and smiled before planting a kiss on his lips. It proved enough to have him move and even gave her a bit of a grin when he groaned as she slipped away.

"But I wasn't finished."

"All evidence to the contrary." Anna ducked into her desk, fishing out the wet wipes and using a few gently on John and then herself. "I think you finished rather well, actually."

"Minx."

"Seductor." Anna tossed the cloths away and hurried back into her knickers and scrubs. "I've still got all that to finish before we can make our merry way to Scotland, you realize, and if I don't-"

"Then I'll whisk you away anyway." John grabbed her hand, kissing the back of it before pushing out of her chair. "I'm not letting you blow off the honeymoon."

"Don't be daft." Anna pointed to the 'in' tray. "But that's already huge. I don't want it twice that high when I get back."

"Only about that high?"

"Now you're getting it." Anna pulled him down for another kiss, "Now, you'd better right yourself and get back to work before they notice you're missing."

"Probably already do."

"I'm sure your sex hair's not going to help you much either." Anna tried to pat it down but the hairs stubbornly remained standing straight up. "I'm sorry about that."

"I'm not." John bent to look himself over in the small mirror on her wall, a lopsided grin hanging over his face. "I think I look rather dashing."

"You look ravished."

"I like that better." John put himself in order and bent over the desk to pick up a sack to hand to Anna. "And there was a sandwich."

"Charmer." She pulled it from the sack and pushed up her bottom lip at him. "You packed me a whole lunch?"

"I worked from home today." John took his original seat back to face her.

"On?"

"The rest of that story."

"The other John's story?" John nodded and Anna sat back in her chair, winking at John as she shifted to get comfortable and still absorbed the residual heat from his adventure there. "What about it?"

"I found out that he left Berlin in forty-five and kept up a correspondence with a Major Jack Ross from the United States Military for some time after the war. Also with a few agents from more… clandestine agencies of our government."

"To what end?"

"Operation Paperclip but all the information was still classified so portions of their letters were redacted." John shrugged, "I even acquired permission to see some of the old OSS files from the US and all they said was that Captain John Bates was integral to helping them finish a case involving the rescue and recruitment of some German scientists."

"But nothing else about the woman he married?"

"I found traces of a marriage she had to an SS officer, Alexander Grün, and a child named Johann but otherwise…" John flailed around with his hand a moment. "I thought about just publishing it as is and hoping that someone out there could volunteer the rest of the information to fill in the gaps for me."

"Like that reporter from London did?" Anna closed her eyes, tapping her forehead with her finger. "He was looking for a woman to try and connect her back with her family after sixty years or something. Published a whole children's book about it."

"Something like that." John snorted, "Funnily enough that man's name is John too."

"It's a common name." Anna frowned, "I don't claim to speak German well but isn't Johann the German version of 'John'?"

"I think so." John's eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"Because why would Anna Schmidt marry John Bates and then marry and SS officer but name the child of that marriage after her first husband?"

John grinned at her, shaking a finger, "You think she hid the child under the marriage to another man."

"It wasn't uncommon back then. I heard of a woman in Liverpool who fell in love with an American officer during the war. Her parents opposed the match so her father got the man transferred to Germany and her mother intercepted all the letters he wrote to her. The girl finds out she's pregnant and marries her sweetheart from secondary school to keep the child legitimate while the man goes back to America. There he marries another woman, has children, and passes away without ever realizing what happened to his first love."

"How'd you know she was his first love?" John shrugged, "I'm a sucker for romance but it's not always about love."

"From personal experience with you," Anna ran her tongue over her lips so John swallowed hard. "So do I."

"Anyway…" John urged her forward. "What's the end of the story?"

"It's like a BBC miniseries, to be honest, because the child of that little WWII romance grows up and applies for a passport only to find he's got two birth certificates. So he does a little digging into the name he doesn't recognize on the one and hires and agency who contacts the children of the family in America. They identify the man as their father and do a little digging of their own while he confronts his mother about it."

"Sounds frightening for her."

"Poor woman burst into tears and said he was her first and greatest love. Claimed she never knew what happened to him and tried to move on. Family in America finds an old photograph their father kept of the two of them, asks their mother about it, and all she knows is the side of the story where the woman never returned any letters and that he was crushed but tried to move on with his life."

"Obviously did, since he married someone else."

"True." Anna shrugged, "The families met and the woman from Liverpool got a copy of the photograph that basically told her that she never left his thoughts either."

"But tragic, for the other halves of that pair."

"True love isn't the only love you need to have a successful relationship."

"Good thing we have it then."

Anna grinned at John, "It is a good thing."

"Then, in the name of true love," John pushed out of his chair. "I better finish what I've got about our little WWII romance then."

"You'd better." Anna pointed after him, finding the file where she left off. "I want to know how it ends."

"You and me both." John cringed at the door, lifting the blinds and clicking the lock back. "Well, three counting my editor."

"Good luck." Anna called and turned to her packed lunch to keep her company through the rest of the files.

Scotland, Present Day

Anna opened her eyes and then immediately covered her mouth with both hands. John stepped to the side, beaming from ear to ear at her expression. "I'll take that to mean you like it."

"It's… It's like something out of a show." Anna tipped her head back to take in the scope of it. "How'd you ever afford to get us booked here?"

"I know someone." John winced, "Covered an obituary for a member of the family awhile back and they told me I'd have a free holiday here whenever I wanted to claim it."

"For an obituary?"

"It was a well-written one." John defended, pulling their bags from the boot to carry toward the house as the valet drove their car to the sheds. "The eldest sister in the family passed and she'd… She was a remarkable woman. I got to write about her extensively when I did two feature pieces on her back in the nineties."

"And there you go again, commenting on your age."

"I am wiser than I look." John laughed with her, "But no, in reality it was because she was my mother's cousin. Margaret Bates was one fine lady."

"And a hell of a shot." Anna and John looked up as an older man shuffled toward them, gripping tightly to a walker as it bumped and jostled down the cobbles toward them. "My father insisted she learn how to hold a rifle in her hands."

"Did he insist the same for you, sir?" Anna shivered slightly, pulling her coat tighter around herself.

"He insisted we all know how to use a gun but I never liked them." The man shuddered, "There was an… incident, when I was a boy, where I watched a man get shot right in front of me."

"That must've been terrible."

"It caused a stir of mixed emotions." He risked a hand away from his walker to wave them toward the house. "Come, Daisy'll have your rooms all ready and my earnest grandson will have finally finished with the repairs to the back gazebo."

They trailed him into the house, Anna gaping at the high roof of the interior and falling slowly behind as she tried to look everywhere at once. When she could stand it no longer, she directed her questions toward the older gentleman. "Did you grow up here?"

"After I was seven. My father's uncle owned the estate and, having no children of his own, left the entirety of it to him."

"Generous."

"Necessary." He sighed, "It's been one of my hard lessons that I learned just what loneliness can be when you're the only one left in a house of this size."

"I thought you said your grandson-"

"Oh, he and his new wife- she's been a widow you understand- moved here because he didn't want to take to city life any longer." He moved a bony shoulder under his over large cardigan. "And I think it's for her health as well. She's had some trouble conceiving and they're hoping the air here'll help them finally start their family."

"It can't hurt." Anna smiled at the man before pausing, "I've an odd question, if you're open to indulging me."

"I can only guess it's got something to do with my rather peculiar accent." The man laughed, "I was raised in Germany until I was seven. Spent my formative years in Berlin during the second World War."

"You survived in Berlin during that time?"

"My… father was a very influential man with the Reich." The man shuddered, "He was an SS officer with a few too many reputations for his work."

"Is he the one who taught you to shoot?"

"Heavens no. He died when my mother and I escaped Germany." The man waved off Anna's next question. "Get yourselves settled and we'll speak more over dinner unless…"

"Unless?" John finally spoke, frowning.

"Unless you had other plans." The man let out a toothy grin, "You made the reservation under the stipulation it was for your honeymoon."

"That we did but we'd like the company for dinner." Anna waited a moment, "From what I hear we're the only guests here."

"It's the season. We fill up for the hunting, the summers, and winter holidays for foreigners looking to celebrate Christmas like Scotsmen." The man shuddered, "All of them are watching far too much television. No one wears kilts anymore."

"Did you wear a kilt?"

"My father insisted. His uncle's wife was a Hughes, from Argyle, and his mother's grandfather was a Keith." The man opened his cardigan enough to show them the scarves wrapped there. "Scottish wool is the best."

"It's probably warmer than what I'm wearing." Anna tugged at her coat and then turned to John. "Fancy getting Scottish wool darling?"

"I think you just want me in a kilt."

"I could go for that too." Anna leaned toward John kissing his cheek and whispering in his ear. "Easier access."

"Later darling." John returned her kiss, and faced the man. "Thank you for letting us come."

"It was a pleasure. You did a favor for our family the way you covered dear Maggie's life and those articles… We were ever so proud of her." He paused, eyeing the hallway. "Actually… She was born in that room there."

"She was born in this house?"

"She and my three other sisters." He huffed, "Wanted a brother and got three sisters. What will you ever do?"

"Not much." Anna put a hand over her abdomen, "We're happy this one's a girl."

"Congratulations to you." He leaned forward on his walker. "If you're amenable to suggestions you could always use my mother's name."

"What was your mother's name?" Anna noted John put the bags down, gently massaging his hands to restore blood flow.

"Anna."

Anna blinked and pointed to herself, "That's my name."

"It's a good name." The man sighed, "She named me for my father, which is the tradition when you want to keep a name going in a family I guess."

"And what's that?"

"Johann, although my father's name was John because he was an Irish-Englishman. His father was German, however, so the family did not stray far from the Fatherland."

"I'm sorry," John put up a hand, "This'll be an even more odd question, but was your father a reporter, by any chance?"

Johann blinked at them, "Yes he was. He worked for-"

"The Manchester Guardian."

Johann's eyes narrowed, "How do you-"

"We've been researching your parents for a story I've been writing for a long time." John dug into his briefcase to show Johann a copy of the notes he gathered. "I'd gotten everything about him up to a mission he performed with the United States military in Berlin to free some German scientists."

"That was the mission that killed my German father." Johann shuddered, "I saw him get shot right in front of me."

"I'm so sorry." Anna started but Johann shook his head.

"There's no reason to be sorry for him. My stepfather, although he had no idea that was what he was, worked for the SS and specialized in killing Jews. He later kept those scientists hostage… as well as doing other things to them." Johann shook his head firmly, "Do not feel any pity for that man. I certainly do not."

"But your parents," John turned the subject back quickly. "Whatever happened to them?"

"What do you want to know?"

"How they came to be here. Why is the grave stone for John Bates in Manchester but there's no one else there? Why wasn't he buried in Scotland? What happened to him and your mother?"

"They lived their lives in peace here." Johann motioned around them. "My father, according to his final wishes, wanted to be laid to rest near his mother's grave in Manchester so she would not be alone as his father was buried in Germany. My mother desired to return one last time to her home in Berlin and be laid to rest with her mother and father there."

"They were alright being separated in in death?"

"Mrs. Bates, those who are dead are not separated." Johann gave a little laugh, "Although when my sister died, in Manchester, I laid her to rest with our father and had my father's casket moved to Berlin to be with my mother."

"But the stone-"

"Is still in Manchester since it represents the part of my father that will always be in the city that enabled him to meet my mother." Johann's lips twitched to a smile. "But my parents…. They aren't cold in the ground in Manchester or in Berlin. They're here, in this house, where they had the happiest times of their lives together. Where they raised us. They're in the old building where my parents met, the flats they shared, the places where they made their memories."

Johann waited but neither Anna nor John said a word. "The dead are not where their bodies lie but where their spirits reside and I doubt they're spending eternity in the cold ground."

"That's a very… interesting perspective." Anna looked around, "But we've kept you long enough Mr. Johann and-"

"Please, Papa Johann. You're young enough to be my grandchildren and that's what they call me."

Anna leaned forward to kiss his cheek. "Then, Papa Johann, thank you for helping us find the end to this story."

"Stories like this are only just beginning." He winked at them, "And you have my permission to tell my parents' stories, Mr. Bates. The world needs to know that love like theirs exists."

"Yes it does." John shook Papa Johann's hand. "And we'll be down for dinner, if the offer's still open."

"Of course it is. I don't want to dine alone." Papa Johann redirected his walker to the stairs. "And we can talk about more of what you learned about my parents. Perhaps I'll even set the record straight for you."

"I'd like that." John faced Anna, "What a coincidence."

"It couldn't have worked so perfectly if you'd planned it." She reached for a case but John beat her to it. "I'm pregnant, not an invalid."

"All the same." He nodded at the door, "Grab that?"

Anna opened the door and took her tour of the bedroom before sitting on the edge of the bed as John arranged their luggage. "Could do with a fire."

"Do you need a little ambiance, Mrs. Bates?" John trilled at her and Anna laughed.

"No, I need to stop bloody freezing."

"There's a thermostat right over there."

Anna pushed herself off the bed and turned the controls as high as she wanted them before removing her coat to hang in the closet. "It's cozy, otherwise. It'd be a balm in summer."

"Maybe next year I'll try and book us in the busy season."

"I'd rather you not." Anna shook her head, "I prefer my holidays as uncrowded as possible."

"Must rule out all the fun locations."

"We met in Bangkok so tell me again about ruling out fun locations." Anna laid back down on the bed. "The mattress here, however, is far more comfortable than the ones we had in Bangkok."

"Really." John kicked off his shoes and took the spot next to her. "You're right."

"It's like being on a cloud John." Anna rolled toward him, moving some of his hair from his eyes. "Thank you for this."

"It's my pleasure." He surged up to kiss her, rolling her onto her back and kissing down her body while removing her clothes. "Now let me see to yours."

By the time her last piece of clothing hit the floor, Anna was already leaving her voice to echo over the room. Her fingers could barely open John's buttons or manage any of the finger points of dexterity that would leave him exposed to her. Instead, he had to leave her quivering body in the afterglow of orgasm while he rendered himself as naked as she was.

Then, with a kiss to her abdomen, John entered her. They moved together, floating among the clouds as the bed enveloped them, until Anna's nails dug into his back. Almost with as much determination as he showed to leave her trembling under the slow assault, John abandoned it in favor of a frenzied pace that lodged himself as deeply inside her as he could manage. Each motion and movement struck where she needed and a tilt of her hips had Anna crying out toward the ceiling again.

John's fingers played over her until she crashed, leaving her high for the welcoming embrace of hazy climax, and he joined her soon afterward. They lay together, his breath hot and ragged against her ear, until he rolled them to their sides. After a few moments, when they stopped breathing so heavily, John spoke.

"The world deserves to know our story too."

"What?"

"Our story." John carefully placed a loose piece of hair behind Anna's ear. "Papa Johann was talking about how the world deserves to know his parents' story and I was thinking that it deserves to know our story too."

"Why?"

"Because, for all the chances and coincidences, and horrible experience we're still here." John kissed her forehead, pulling her closer as his hands wandered over her back. "We made it this far and we'll make it farther."

"The world doesn't have to know our story." Anna pushed some of John's hair back, shivering when one of his hands tempted to touch at her breasts.

"Why not?"

"Because we know it. And one day our little girl'll know it too." Anna let her foot flide up John's calf as his touches at her breasts turned more insistent. "Those are the only people who matter."

"You think so?"

"I know so." Anna pressed her lips to John's, teasing with her tongue until his joined with hers. "And I'll prove it to you."

Then it was Anna's turn.

Her turn to set the punishingly slow pace. Her turn to leave John clutching at the pillows when her walls clung around him. And her turn to watch him fall over the edge before she could join him. With her leg still hitched high on his hip and her abdomen forcing them apart in a way it had not in similar situations, Anna held her husband close.

"Would you want to share that with the world?"

"No."

"Then there are some things we'll just keep to ourselves." Anna grinned against his skin. "And try not to look too embarrassed about when we go down for dinner."

"You naughty girl."