First, apologies for the cliff hanger from previous chapter. I am writing something completely different and writing two things at once keeps me from getting writers block... - anyway, after I posted Chapter 1, I realized I really did leave everyone hanging.

I wasn't planning on posting this so soon, but after I realized how I left Chapter 1, I wrote this up quicker than expected with the insistence of my twin. This continues from Anna's point of view. FYI- The next possible chapter would not be posted until mid December…

Apologies in advance for any spellings errors or typos. Thank you.

Chapter 2- Continues fill-in for episode s5e6. Anna/Bates. Warning this is mature content for mature readers. Purely amusing myself with Mr. Fellowes' characters. No profit is gained.

Relief

Anna could barely breathe. It had been weeks since he had kissed her this way. She had wanted him since she had set eyes on him and that had not changed until that horrible night. Thank God she had had John this past year. He had gotten her back to this point. Now, he held her up against the wall, his hands everywhere. She would never have believed it two years ago to be here, wanting him again, not being afraid and with complete honesty between them.

"Anna," she heard him whisper her name. She sensed his question and his hesitation.

"John, please stop," Anna grabbed his hands.

"Ann...," leaning up, she stilled him from speaking with her lips.

Letting his hands go, Anna moved to place her hands along his face, reluctantly pulling her mouth away. "John, you have to stop hesitating, stop controlling every word, every kiss."

Anna couldn't resist pushing her left hand through his soft hair, "You are my husband and I want to make you happy."

John looked confused, "What do you mean? I am very happy. I couldn't bare this cottage without you when you left me. I would be nothing if it weren't for you. You are..."

"For the past year, you have done everything for me and I have done little for you." Anna interrupted him again, "You think only of what you can do for me. You have lived through all of my bad days and nightmares."

Anna sighed, "You must let me take care of you some of the time."

"Anna, I have to take care of you, I love you and you do take care me. You are the best wife a man could ask for." John smiled at her, lifting his right hand to grab hers and brought it to his lips.

"You don't understand, ...before when we would be ...hmmm...intimate you use to act differently, you never were thinking all the time," Anna smiled back softly whispering, "Mr. Bates, you are brooding in our bed and it will have to stop."

"Must it?" John grinned at her, he loved it when she called him Mr. Bates in that husky tone outside the Abbey and she knew it."It is true, I do like to brood," John grinned again and leaned to the right side of her against the wall, "so, Mrs. Bates, how do you propose we solve the situation."

"Yes, it must," Anna affirmed and smiled back at him "Let me show you."

Anna removed her sweater, and then she started to unbutton her black dress. Keeping her eyes on him, she watched as his eyes followed her progress. She had arrived home an hour before John and had decided to confront him after she had a bath. She hadn't bothered with shoes or any under garments, she had planned on falling into bed after confronting him. Anna had only dressed in her black dress, so she wasn't at a disadvantage. She had never seen John so upset with her and she wasn't going to talk about Lady Mary in her nightgown. After their conversation in the boot room, she never dreamt that John would be watching her underdress eight hours later. She was enjoying him watch her, but she felt more exposed as her dress fell and John had yet to move or remove any article of clothing.

Anna step away from the fallen dress, moving towards John, her hands making their way up to his open collar. She could tell the wheels were still turning in his mind. He wanted her but wasn't going to do anything about it until she took the initiative. For a brief moment Anna felt extremely sorry for her husband for what she was about to do. She was going to keep John to his promise of trying to start to come back to where they had been two years ago. She wanted the brooding gone, so she planned to keep John from thinking at all. She was not sure how long she could last not having him, but she was going to do her best not to crumble with want. John was going to lose control first, she vowed as her hand reached to tug his jacket from his shoulders. She let her body push up against his front. She did it intentionally and slowly. Letting the jacket drop carelessly to the floor, she continued to undress him starting with the buttons of his vest.

"Mr. Bates, you are far too formally dressed for what we are doing," Anna smiled at him. Moving the chain and watch from his vest she deliberately and slowly took it and eased it into his front pocket. Anne made sure her palm ran smoothly and deeply into his pocket, gently placing the watch at the bottom. Anna let her palm caress all the way back up his thigh. She unbuttoned the three buttons on the vest even slower. As she repeated her previous action of dropping his vest on top of his coat, it was hard for her to not to go faster, but clearly he wasn't going to help, still he smiled at the way she slowly leaned up against him, so she must be getting to him in some way.

She truly just wanted to drag him to bed, but that would not accomplish a thing. She continued now with his already open shirt. The buttons were small and she exaggerated the difficulty in slipping them from their holes. Anna got halfway through and couldn't help placing her mouth along his neck, trailing a path down the center of his chest. He was beautifully large and wide, she pulled away to prevent herself from tearing at the rest of the buttons on his shirt.

Instead of continuing with the shirt, she ran her hands up along John's skin at his neck and lifting herself up on tiptoes, she angled her head to kiss him along his cheek. It would have been a chaste kiss had it not been for how her hips pushed up against his, and she let out a slow quiet groan. She heard his answering growl as John's head moved to her neck.

'John,' Anna whispered in his ear, 'I want you."

'Anna,' John eased away from kissing her neck to capture her mouth. His tongue slipped easily between her lips as she kissed him back fervently.

Anna remembered just in time her resolve. John was proving to be quite a distraction and she reluctantly eased her mouth away from him and ran her hands through the thick mat of smooth hair inside his shirt. She sighed contentedly and pulled at his shirt to tug the tails from his slacks. At the same time she forced herself to lean back against the wall. John straightened himself up against the wall with his two hands placed on either side of her arms.

Anna just look at John as he eyed her up and down. The plan was for her to drive him out of his mind, not the other way round. Anna took stock of her position and keeping to her aim, Anna looked at him from head to toe .

Anna smiled and worked her way up to the middle part of John's shirt where there were more buttons to undo. Each release of all the buttons revealed more of him to her. Finally undoing the last of the buttons, Anna ran her hands all along his chest. She delighted in how John sucked in a deep breathe as her fingers reached down and ran along the seam at his waist.

John dipped his head to capture her mouth leaning into her naked body. The skin to skin contact made them both groan out loud.

'Anna … Anna,' John broke away from her lips and caught her eyes. His eyes seeking permission. Anna gazed back blankly. He was such a dear, kind and honorable man. Always so brilliantly galant; John had always been so considerate of her, but most especially the pass two years.

It killed her not to just beg him to end this excruciating build up of want. She didn't think she had ever desired her husband more then she did now. Still she leaned in, not breaking eye contact and whispered, 'John, stop asking permission. I won't give it tonight.'

'Anna…' John said her name with the combination of question and reluctant disbelieve. Then shaking his head and with a tone of torture, whispered back 'Anna, you must.'

John eased his hands off the wall to stroke his hands along her shoulder and back, easing her against him. Anna closed her eyes letting the flow of his hands seep into her. She could only think of one word for this feeling his hands generated; the word that came to mind was glorious. His mouth trailed a path along her neck and shoulder. She bent her head giving him full access, letting him seduce her, just as she groaned her hands worked on the rest of his clothes tugging at his belt.

She only loosened the belt buckle and undid the top button, slipping her arms over his shoulders and ran her hands to the back of his head. She drew his head away from her neck to her lips. She kissed him, then drew back, only to reclaim his lips all the while pressing her hips against him. She wrapped a leg half way around his good leg.

She felt and heard him crumble with a groan as his hands left her body and tore at the remainder of fastens along his pants. Without breaking their kiss, his hands cupped her, lifting her and he took her.

He felt perfect, and she finished wrapping her legs around his waist, finally breaking the kiss, she whispered, 'More, John'.

It was as much permission she'd give that night, as she lost herself in the demands of husband of old. There was no hesitation, as he took her, with just kisses, his hands running along her sides and hips as he set his own pace. Their release was mostly erratic and they both moved together grasping at relief.

As Anna moved along with whatever pace he set, her eyes watched him under half closed eyelids. She watched as his eyes rolled back and then she lost eye contact when his closed as he groaned her name.

With that her eyes closed as well, pushing herself forward, she moved with him. She wanted it to last for hours, this utopia of the mind, but the final relief came and she let it wash over her. As she fell back to earth, she realized John, who had finished minutes before her, was watching and she smiled at him as she opened her eyes lazily.

'Are you quite done, my dear?" John mocked. She noted how genuinely happy he looked. She could tell he was quite pleased with himself. She had missed that look the last two years. He hadn't looked this pleased for a very long time.

Anna reached in to kiss the smirk off his mouth. She lingered against his mouth thinking how delightful this feeling, this joining was. She finally let his lips go and in a serious tone replied, 'Yes, for now I am quite done, Mr. Bates."

Bates' laughter may have shook the cottage as he leisurely ran his palms along her legs and thighs, and eased her feet to the floor, "Come along, Mrs. Bates, perhaps you can continue to teach me to be completely unhesitating in a little while from now."

Tbc