A/N: Thank you, Cobertfan1, for the awesome prompt!

Grantham Properties is in financial distress and Cora comes in to help assess the damage and find solutions. Robert realizes, during Cora's time working in his office, how extremely sexy in charge business/office Cora is and can't seem to focus on anything.

Cora strode into the office with a briefcase slung over her shoulder and baby Mary seated happily in the carrier strapped to her chest. She wore a purposeful expression, along with a dark colored skirt and blouse, but smiled happily at her husband as she entered his office. The desk was a mess of papers, empty Starbucks cups and various other items cluttered around him. He looked unshaven, having not had a proper shower in at least two days, and rather exhausted at that.

Raising an eyebrow as she requested the room, waiting until his two assistants removed themselves, he asked, "Cora, darling, what are you two doing here?" as he stood and crossed the room to greet her and his baby daughter.

"I've come to take over for the duration of the tax preparation," she explained simply, and as though the answer was an obvious one. And then, glancing once more at the desk, she rounded up all his papers and removed them to the file cabinet, replacing the mess of documents with her briefcase before unclasping Mary from her carrier. "I'll need you to watch the baby—" she added, hastily handing the cooing bundle to him.

"You…what?" Robert gazed at her confusedly, trying to stop Mary from pulling on his tie as he frowned at his wife. "Cora—what are you doing?" he asked, after receiving no response.

She looked up and smiled, organizing the stacks of paper that she'd already removed from her briefcase. "I told you. I'm going to finish off the tax preparations."

"But, why?"

"Well, after I woke up and fed Mary her breakfast, I realized that you hadn't been home last night—"

"—Cora, I assure you I was here all—"

She rolled her eyes and held up a hand, quieting him before continuing, "—darling, I know you were here. But it has been two weeks now, and I've not seen my husband properly in that span of time. I know you think the job should be yours, though I hasten to remind you it was your mother who fired the last two tax consultants, but this is obviously not your strong suit. I've managed this sort of thing in the past with my parents' company, and I'm going to finish all this so we can have some proper time together."

Robert frowned, as if weighing his possible responses. Mary, though, was already quite a handful, and screeched loudly, interrupting his thoughts. "Cora—"

She didn't look up this time, and instead gestured to the door with a handful of paperwork. "Darling, I can't concentrate with Mary here. You should take her to the park. Come back in a few hours and we'll all have lunch together.

"But I—"

Mary squealed once more, having successfully latched onto his tie, and then hit his shoulder several times with her tiny balled up fist. Sighing in defeat he nodded at his daughter, who had no idea what her parents were discussing, and said, "alright then, my little darling, to the park we go."

Father and daughter left to the sounds of Cora calling out for a secretary and the two assistants to help her "sort through the rubble."

Robert stood in front of the swing, pushing Mary back and forth. Her little face glowed with excitement each time he pushed her just a bit higher, or made a silly face at her. Standing out in the fresh air, focusing only on Mary, the weariness that had hung over him began to loosen its grip.

It wasn't that he minded Cora helping out in the office. He was very glad each time she offered to host client dinners or office parties; those sorts of things were certainly not his forte and she always pulled them off with ease. But something like this was supposed to be easy for him. He had, after all, been groomed for the job. So for Cora to sweep in and dismiss him without much explanation upset him more than he was necessarily willing to admit. What bothered him most, though, was that she was entirely right to do so. He had been pouring over the tax materials for weeks now to no avail. After unceremoniously dismissing two assistants hired for the very job, his mother had insisted he do it himself so that it would not be botched. He couldn't seem to admit to her either, though, that it was far beyond his capabilities. Management he could do. Meeting with clients to assess issues and complaints was a particular strength of his. But all the intricacies of the numbers and documents were often lost on him.

"Pa-pa!"

Mary's elated voice interrupted his thoughts, and he realized the swing had slowed to a near stop. Picking up his wiggling daughter, Robert pressed a kiss to her forehead and then deftly strapped her back into the carrier that had been loosely hanging from his chest. She cooed loudly and kicked her feet happily, turning up to grin at him.

"Hello, my little darling," he answered conversationally. "Do you think your Papa is useless too?"

She nodded happily in reply, exclaiming, "Pa-pa!" once more before turning her attention to the little dog being walked past the entrance of the park.

Robert had intended to be back to the office by lunchtime to return Mary to her mother and insist that Cora let him finish his work. But after taking what was supposed to be a quick detour home with Mary, it was late afternoon by the time the elevator opened onto the floor where Grantham Property Management resided.

Mary wore a fresh romper after an unfortunate incident back at the house. Robert had learned the hard way that his little darling no longer enjoyed strained peaches, carrots or any form of yogurt. But she did, much like her Papa, rather enjoy tea biscuits. It had, unfortunately, taken roughly three hours for this discovery to be made, however, and almost half as long to re-dress Mary in fresh clothing—something he discovered to be even more of a Sisyphean task than feeding her had been.

All his time alone with Mary had only conspired to make Robert feel more inept. Not only could he not perform his duties at work, he could not properly care for his daughter without hours of leeway either. So by the time he and Mary—who had yet again nearly removed his tie—approached his office door, Robert could feel his annoyance about to bubble over.

But then, of course, as was her habit, Cora managed to knock all the fight out of him with just one smile. She looked utterly perfect, stooped over his desk as she chewed thoughtfully on a pencil and glanced at a spreadsheet before her. Her long dark hair had been pulled away from her face and hung gracefully down her back. Turning to the assistant beside her, she gave a few short assertive directions before the sound of Mary's coos alerted her to their presence in her doorway.

"My darlings!" she exclaimed, dropping the papers onto the desk and quickly walking over to greet them both with a kiss. "I expected you both sooner, but to be honest I lost track of time." Cora removed Mary from her carrier and set her down on the floor, handing her a small stuffed toy that Robert always kept on his desk for Mary's visits. She gurgled happily and set about chewing on the little rabbit right away.

"Did you?" Robert managed a smile, though he was more focused on the curve of Cora's waist in her skirt as she sauntered back toward the desk and picked her papers back up. He cleared his throat and them smiled kindly at the assistant who left them in peace a moment later, offering to make the copies Cora needed.

Watching as she sat down behind his desk, Robert suddenly felt rather warm. Cora hummed in thought as she flipped through what looked like that last few pages of a report before looking back up and offering him another dazzling smile as he took the seat at the opposite side of the desk.

"You know, darling, I had forgotten how much I enjoyed doing this sort of thing. It's been so long since I've been out of the house properly. And now that Mary's nearly a year old, perhaps I can come in and help more."

Robert nodded dumbly, only half-listening to his wife. For, midway through her sentence she had leaned back and was now reclined against his chair, an expression of utter contentment written across her face. He couldn't help the flashes of imaginings that suddenly seemed to take hold: Cora directing him around the office, Cora reclined in his chair, Cora loosening his tie, Cora…and his desk. Suddenly it was more than boiling in the office.

"Well, perhaps you could come in tomorrow—" Robert managed, suddenly rather excited at the prospect of sharing his office with Cora for an entire day. "—We could get the babysitter for Mary."

"That sounds lovely, darling, but I'm nearly finished with all the tax paperwork."

"…Finished?"

Cora nodded proudly, handing him a manila envelope filled neatly with paperwork. "Here's the final report. It'll be entirely finished once I get those copies."

"Oh. Well, I suppose I won't be needing your services tomorrow," Robert joked, flipping through the file as images of his wife lying atop his desk flipped through his mind.

Cora only smiled. "Darling, you look rather flushed," she ventured after a pause.

"Do I?"

"Mhmm, you do."

Robert only shrugged, and was quickly pulled out of his reverie by a tug on his trouser leg.

"Pa-pa, up," Mary insisted, holding two chubby arms out at him.

Begrudging his tiny daughter's insistent request, he scooped her up and pressed a kiss to her cheek, sighing almost imperceptibly.

"Well, since you're almost done, would you like to go out to dinner? Just you, me…and Mary?" Robert smiled at his wife and tried to stop Mary from her attempts at climbing over to her Mama.

"That sounds lovely, darling. Let's call it a celebratory dinner." She rolled her eyes indulgently at Mary and reached out to take her.

"—If you want to celebrate properly, I could take Mary for the night," came a voice from behind him. Robert turned, meeting the mirthful expression of his sister who leaned against the doorframe with a stack of paperwork in her arms.

"Rosamund! Whatever are you doing here?" Robert stood to greet his sister who pecked him on both cheeks and then handed Cora the large pile of work.

"—I called for reinforcements," Cora interrupted, and Rosamund nodded in agreement.

"You know I am quite good with numbers, brother dear." Rosamund grinned and turned her attention to her baby niece, extracting her from Cora's arms and bouncing her up and down, much to Mary's delight.

"That you are," he allowed. "But are you sure you want to take Mary? She can be a handful at bedtime."

"Quite sure. Go enjoy yourselves. I'm meeting Mama for lunch and I can drop her back home on my way tomorrow." Rosamund smiled once more at the baby, dropping kisses onto her little forehead and hugging her close.

"Well, if you're offering, we certainly won't refuse," Cora answered happily. She snapped the file folder closed and reached onto the floor for her briefcase, before reaching for her husband's arm. "Shall we, then?"

Robert nodded and smiled, mouthing a "thank you" to his sister as both he and Cora kissed Mary goodnight and managed to leave the office without any sort of tantrum from their little darling.

"Do we have time to go home and change before you take me out to celebrate my brilliance?" Cora asked, leaning just a bit closer to him as they rode the elevator down to the bottom floor.

As the elevator dinged open, though, and she walked out before him, her hips still swaying most alluringly in her work ensemble, Robert shook his head and grinned impishly, catching up to her and stealing a quick kiss. "Leave them on," he replied. "I rather like the new look."