Anna opened her eyes, not sure what woke her. She turned in bed to see John, his back against the headboard, staring at nothing in particular. A touch on his arm roused him and he smiled at her but Anna noted it did not reach his eyes.

"What is it?"

"Just thinking."

"No, you're brooding." Anna climbed vertically, sitting by him. "I know you well enough, Mr. Bates, to know the difference."

"Yes, Mrs. Bates, you do." He opened his arm and she crawled next to him. "I was thinking about Sybil."

"What about her?"

"just…" John shook his head. "I feel like I should've done something more. Been better about protecting her."

"You did the best you could and you brought her home." Anna put a hand to the back of his neck, stroking in the hair near his collar. "You couldn't do more than you did."

"But I can do more. I should do more."

Anna smiled, "Then fight for her. The Crawleys are and we can too."

"I don't want you fighting." John turned his head to kiss her arm.

"I fight, every day, John." Anna nodded toward the cot in the corner, "I fight for him. I want him to grow up in a better world. A world I helped create for him."

"A world we'll create for him." John sighed, holding Anna close. "I just wish I could've helped make it before Tom and little Sybbie had to lose Sybil to it."

"She died doing what mattered to her and that matters to us." Anna shifted, sitting next to John, "Will you let me help you forget?"

"What?" John frowned, "What do you mean?"

"I mean," Anna snuck a hand under his pajama trousers to stroke along him. "I want to help you remember that I'm glad you're alive, that I'm grateful for you, and that you've done all you can do."

"Anna," John rested his head back on the board behind him, voice strangled as her hand wrapped securely around him. "Jack's right over there."

"Then you'll have to keep quiet, won't you Mr. Bates." Anna used her other hand to bring his trousers down his legs. "Wouldn't want to wake our sleeping son."

"You're the worst," He gritted his teeth as Anna took position on his legs, sliding lower. "The absolute worst."

"I know." She licked her lips before licking up him. "But what would you do without me?"

John could not respond, his eyes squeezed shut and hands fisted in the sheets beside him. Anna grinned, kissing a ring around him, and then slipped her tongue over his weeping head. Her hands kneaded in the skin of his hips and stomach before massaging farther down his legs.

When her mouth sucked lightly at him John's hips bucked toward her. Anna waited a moment, countering his actions, and took him as deeply as she could. Working her mouth over him- exchanging long, slow strokes with short, fast ones- Anna gripped harder on his hips. After so many times under his masterful hand she knew how to drive him over the edge: do what he did to her.

His hips bucked harder, the groans caught in his throat and escaping through the teeth biting his lip spurred Anna onward, and he panted in response to his rising pleasure. Slipping her tongue along the slit in his tip, Anna heard before she felt John's climax. Anna sucked it down and swallowed before sitting up.

"Anna," John moaned, leaning forward to kiss her as desperately as he could manage. "You didn't have to do that."

"But I wanted to." Anna gave him a peck on the cheek. "It's what you do when you love someone."

"Help them forget?"

"Show them that you love them." Anna moved off his legs when she heard a cry from the corner. "Like how he wants attention."

"How do you ever manage two needy men?"

"I don't know." Anna lifted Jack out of his cot, patting his back and rocking him back to a sleep. "I think you're both worth whatever attention you need."

"What about your attention?" John got off the bed, making sure his trousers were pulled up before he held out his arms for Jack. "I can take him."

"Don't you have a flight today?" Anna handed Jack over, kissing the boy's dark hair before brushing it back from his forehead.

"I do but it's later." John nodded toward the bed, "Go on, get some sleep. You've got to get up earlier than I do."

"Are you sure?" Anna waited, her fingers still stroking through Jack's hair.

"Yes, I'm sure." John kissed Anna's forehead and then her lips. "It'll be fine."

Anna crawled back into bed, resting on her side to watch John rocking Jack back and forth in his arms. John turned to her and joined her in bed, still holding Jack to him. She closed her eyes with a smile on her face and fell back to sleep.

When Anna woke up again she saw John sleeping with Jack at his side. She hurried to the shower, finishing quickly enough to change into her clothes for the day as Jack started to fuss. Hurrying back over to the bed, Anna picked him up.

"No, no, no, we're not waking up your father." She grabbed a pouch, pressing the button to wrap it around her body before slipping Jack into the holder. "You're coming to work with Mummy today."

Anna leaned over, kissing John's forehead, and grabbed her gas pistol before heading toward the lift. Jack opened his eyes, blinking at her, and Anna lowered her head to kiss him, "Good morning darling."

He gurgled a bit at her and Anna tickled him. They rode down and Anna adjusted him slightly before exiting the lift. The bar was empty and Anna arranged some chairs before bringing Jack out of his pouch.

"Are you hungry?" She arranged Jack to feed him and he immediately latched on.

In the quiet of the room Anna rocked Jack, looking around the bar while the planet around her woke. Something made a sound and Anna turned. She smiled as John took a chair, sitting across from her.

"You're supposed to be sleeping."

"I was but then you left the room and I couldn't sleep." John rubbed at his face, "I don't sleep well without you."

"Where are you going now?" Anna switched sides with Jack and John helped hold him while she adjusted.

"I'm meeting with a few people."

"Who?"

John paused, "Have you heard of the Brothers Krypton?" Anna shook her head and reached out for John to hand Jack back. "They're a group working in the government."

"You're working with the government?"

"Not exactly." John sat back in the chair, taking a deep breath. "They're subversive."

"How so?" Anna winced, adjusting Jack.

"Are you alright?"

"He likes to bite me occasionally." Anna shook her head, "It's nothing unusual and it's not so bad since he doesn't have teeth yet."

"I have teeth." John smirked at her and Anna swatted him with the pouch.

"Mr. Bates that kind of talk is beneath you."

"I stand corrected."

"And you got distracted." Anna nodded at him, "Continue please?"

"They're a group of men who used to work in the government who realized they wanted to change the direction the government has gone."

"So they're doing what you're doing?"

"From the inside, yeah." John sighed, "They've been working at it longer than I have and I think, soon, they might even succeed in toppling the current leadership."

"How much is what you're doing helping them?"

"Elections and popularity." John smiled, "There's not much you can't do when people want change."

"Do you think they're better?"

John sighed, "They're not perfect but they're better and they've got noble goals. Nobler than the current government anyway."

"Then I hope you find them."

"That's the thing," John cringed, "They're coming here and then we're going."

"You're traveling with them?"

"After what I've written so far they want me to see, first hand, what they're doing."

"A kind of day-to-day on their actions?"

John nodded, "If they take over the government then they want the people to trust them instead of destroying them or being apathetic."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"If people take more engagement with government then we prevent the galaxy falling back into the same problems as before."

"Letting them take us over, grind us down, and leave us penniless on the fringes of society?"

John laughed, "About like that."

"Then," Anna pulled Jack away, handing him back to John, and arranging her clothing and the pouch around her chest. "I'd best get ready to meet your friends."

John smiled, "You're the most perfect woman I've ever met. You know that yes?"

"Of course." Anna took Jack back, slipping him into the pouch, "But I married the perfect man."

"Cybernetic limb and all?"

She kissed John, "All of you."

John went back upstairs as Anna started working the bar, arranging chairs and tables for the day. With no one else around Anna spoke to Jack, giggling with him when he tried to respond to her, and occasionally stopped to pull him loose when he tried to bounce in the pouch. She put him down in his cot, letting him move as much as he wanted. "There, now you can move."

Anna picked Jack up, balancing him in her arms, as John slid out from behind the bar to answer the banging at the door. She put Jack on her hip and lifted the bar enough to get out while grabbing John's second bag. Putting it with his first bag Anna stepped back while John allowed three men to enter the bar.

Each one shook John's hand before standing to the side, their eyes darting toward Anna for a moment. She smiled at them, turning it awkward a moment when Jack let out a cry. "Sorry, he knows his father's going somewhere."

The man on the end, the shortest of the three, stepped forward. "May I?"

"If you don't mind, Mister?"

"Blake, Charles Blake." Blake held Jack carefully, bouncing him a moment before making faces at Jack. Jack giggled and Blake turned to John, "He looks like you."

"He should," John folded his arms, "He's mine."

"My daughter looks too much like me, so says my wife." The taller, also dark-haired, man extended a hand toward Anna. "Tony Foyle, Lord Gillingham."

"You're the one who stopped the attack at Prague two years ago."

Gillingham coughed, "I may've had a hand in helping turn the government's direction there but I didn't stop it all."

"But you did your part and that's still something." Anna turned to the last man, "And you?"

"Evelyn Napier, it's a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Bates."

"Though we'll not spread that name around." Blake cut in, nodding at John. "We're aware of the price on Mr. Bates's head and don't really want to put you in danger."

"I'm aware of the danger I could be in and I'm grateful for what you're willing to do for me but it's not necessary." Anna gestured around her, "This place is a dump and no one cares about it."

"You'd be surprised what the government can be made to care about." Napier almost bit his lip a bit, "I've heard Madame Boron and her lackeys, Barrow and O'Brien, made a visit here."

"Have you?" Anna took Jack back from Blake, "I'm surprised I made that big of a splash for her to tell anyone about it."

"She only tells people about the things she plans to continue handling, unfortunately." Gillingham turned to John, "You do know that coming with us on this tour'll make a problem for your family?"

"I'm aware of what this means for us." Anna cut in before John could answer. "And I know that it's worth what he's doing for the chance that three of you could make a better government for the rest of us."

"Mrs. Bates you flatter us." Napier nodded at her, "And I promise that you'll husband'll be as safe with us as we can make him."

"Thank you." Anna turned to John, holding Jack to the side. "Take care of them as well yes?"

"I promise." John bent down, kissing Jack before kissing Anna. "I'll come back to you."

"You need to." Anna waited as the three other men nodded at her, leaving with John.

Standing in the doorway Anna watched them walk away, sighing. Jack let out a cry and Anna held him up. "Do you already miss Daddy?"

"He should." Anna pivoted, letting her face beam a moment before pulling it back. "Don't stop smiling on my account, please."

"Mary, you just lost your sister."

"And you saw how I cried at her funeral so I'm all cried out." Mary pointed to the door, "Are you open?"

"What makes you ask that?"

"You just had three people leave with your husband." Mary jerked her thumb toward the four departing men. "They're not staying here are they?"

"No, they were picking John up for a little tour."

"Tour?" Mary turned over her shoulder, squinting at the departing quartet. "Aren't they government?"

"Yes. John calls them the Brothers Krypton."

"Oh," Mary pushed into the bar, "I guess it's something that he's gone back to hanging out with groups with labels."

"That's not fair."

"It's true." Mary took a stool at the bar. "Though I was hoping to meet John here before he left on another galactic tour."

"What about?" Anna put Jack back down in his cot, grabbing the bottle Mary pointed to behind the bar.

"My father and mother've gotten an idea in their heads that they want to bring the Yorkshire Run out of government control."

"What?"

"I know." Mary swigged, "Surprised me too but they're convinced that the government's only coming down if the Family Crawley tosses their hat into the ring."

"It'd be appreciated I'm sure."

"No doubt." Mary coughed, finishing the bottle, "I think they're looking for somewhere to cast their grief and given that Sybil was the most loved of anyone I've ever met it's not a bad idea."

"But you don't agree?"

"We make most of our living, the living of our workers, on sales to the government. If we rebel then what happens to all of them?"

"They get a chance at a better life."

"But they should've made that decision for themselves." Mary sighed, "At the end of the day it's what we can do and if it does any good then I guess it's for the best."

"You should as convincing as the last man from Plutonium that tried running for the Yorkshire Run seat in government."

"And I think this'll all work as well as that did." Mary stood up, "We're on the fast road to ruin here Anna. No matter what anyone thinks or says, we're not going to survive this. The galaxy'll burn and we'll be in the middle of it all."

Anna turned to Jack, "For his sake, I hope not."