A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews! I'm sorry to disappoint, but there are no girls for Chelsie in this fic…maybe I'll keep them for another story. I just saw this pairing with boys. Also, I am posting the last chapter at the same time as this one so please READ THIS FIRST.

Another time jump…

"Where to?" Charles looked in the rearview mirror.

"Pizza!"

"Aunt Beryl's!"

"Pi—zz—aaa!" Eddie started low, then worked to a high falsetto. Elsie failed to suppress a snort of laughter.

"Pizza it is, then." She exchanged an amused glance with her husband. He smiled back before looking over his shoulder briefly.

"Alex, are you all right with pizza? We'll go to the restaurant on Sunday," he reminded the twelve-year-old.

"Yeah, it's fine. At least they play music there!" Alex didn't seem to be too bothered, bent over the Ipad.

"Music? It's top-40 trash," Charles muttered. He shook his head. Alex listens to everything.

"Just remember, no one tell Beryl where we went for dinner!" Elsie called to the backseat.

"Don't tell Beryl, don't tell Beryl, don't tell Beryl, don't tell Beryl…" a chorus of repetitive phrases bounced around the car before the boys dissolved in laughter.

"Maybe taking them out to eat after the game wasn't such a good idea," Charles commented under his breath. "We should have just gone home and tied them to the roof instead."

Elsie laughed, the back of her hand against her mouth. "If we did that, they'd start eating the shingles. They're not children, they're more like a horde of locusts." She jumped slightly, and leaned around her chair. "Christopher Thomas Carson! How many times have I told you – don't kick the seat!"

The backseat went silent.

"Sorry, Mam." Elsie gave them one last glare, an eyebrow raised, before turning to the front.

They were quiet until Charles pulled into the parking lot of the chain restaurant. As he got out of the car, he heard Eddie whisper to Alex, "She's scary when she looks like that. How does she do that?"

"How do you think? She's a mother," Alex rolled his eyes at his brother. "I'd rather hear Dad yell."

"Uh-huh."

000000000000

Half of the basketball team was eating pizza, so dinner was almost as noisy as the game had been. Chris's friend Seth spent most of their meal kneeling over the top of the booth trying to talk to the twins. Charles was appalled with his behavior.

"Are we the only parents that teach their children how to sit at the table?" he complained under his breath to Elsie.

"No," she muttered, "they just don't listen all the time. Christopher," she sniffed, "you definitely need to take a shower before bed tonight. Otherwise your room will smell like the gym tomorrow."

"Okay," he crammed the rest of his third piece of pizza in his mouth, making his cheeks balloon like a chipmunk's.

"Chew and swallow your food so you don't choke, please," Charles groaned. "And Eddie, I'm glad to see you eat your salad, but could you use your fork? That's what it's for."

Alex left the table after being excused to join some school friends playing vintage video games. Chris was happy to talk about the details of the game again.

"When I hit that three, I heard all of you, even Alex," he grinned, drumming his knuckles.

"Whaaat?" Charles asked in mock-surprise. "You heard me too?" Chris tilted his head.

"Silly Da, we always hear you."

Elsie squeezed Charles's knee under the table.

0000000000

It was late. The boys were in bed. Elsie flipped off the living room light, plunging the room into semi-darkness. She found Charles folding towels and stacking them on the dryer.

"Clean ones for tomorrow," he said. "Are they asleep?"

"What do you think?" she murmured low, running her hands over his backside. He dropped a towel on the floor.

"Yes?" he said in a strangled voice. She wrapped her arms around his waist and unbuckled his belt without looking. He turned around and kissed her, all mouth, hot and wet. She moaned.

"Definitely yes," she whispered against his lips. "Just promise me one thing, Charles," she rasped as his lips descended her neck.

"Hmmmm?" he smiled against her earlobe.

"Don't wake them up."

0000000000

She lay half-sprawled against him, her head against his chest. His hand caressed a lazy circle on her back. He chuckled.

"'Don't wake them up,'" he quoted. "I thought you were going to wake them up – especially the second time."

"Well, I didn't," her muffled voice was sleepy. "And even if I did-or we did, you weren't exactly quiet yourself-it's not like they'll tell us tomorrow."

"True," he pulled at the curl on his forehead. "They're getting too old to think a monster's in Mam and Da's room." Elsie buried her face in her pillow, shaking with laughter.

"Poor Eddie," she whispered. "How old was he? Four? I'll never forget that. Thank God the lamp was off!" The bed shook as Charles laughed.

"I remember the door banging open and this little voice yelling, 'Da? Are you okay?' And you," he wiped tears away, "frantically grabbing the quilt in the dark, you almost took my eye out!"

They giggled for several minutes before quieting down again. Elsie lay with her back against Charles's chest, his arms around her. She yawned.

He thought about letting her sleep, but knew he should tell her about his recent conversation.

"Alex has been asking questions." He said against her hair.

She breathed deeply, turned to the ceiling. "About-what? Sex?"

"No. After I talked to him about that, he didn't seem eager to bring it up again." He kissed her head. "You know he's good friends with Kylie Moore. She's Judge Travis's granddaughter. At Kylie's birthday last Friday, the judge was there, and asked Alex how we were doing."

"What did he say?" Elsie moved a hair out of her face.

"He told me that he said we were fine. And then he told me Judge Travis told him that our wedding was the most memorable of all the ones she's ever done. She told him she had never seen two people more in love than we were."

"Really?" Elsie asked, linking her fingers through Charles's to feel his wedding band. "That was nice of her. But what did Alex ask you?"

He was silent for a moment, and her heart sank. She turned over to look at him. "What did he say?"

Charles touched her chin with his thumb. "Well he said, and I quote, 'Da, I know you and Mam got married in August. My birthday's in October. I know women are pregnant for nine months, I can do the math." He swallowed. "He asked me when I got divorced. So I told him the truth. Not every detail, of course, but the truth."

Her heart thumped painfully. "What did he say?" she repeated.

"He didn't say anything for a while, then he said that I must have loved you a lot. And I said I did." He kissed her forehead. "I do."

"What must he think of me?" she whispered, a lump in her throat. The thought that her own son might think less of her hurt.

"He said that you must have loved me a lot, too. Don't worry," he smoothed his finger over her brow. "He asked if you had ever been married before, and when I told him no, he snorted and said, 'Well of course she'd get it right the first time!'"

Elsie laughed, letting her tears escape. The pressure in her chest eased somewhat. She kissed his shoulder. "That's my lad!"

He rubbed her face clear. "Mmm-hmmm. He certainly is," he agreed. "Do you think I did the right thing?" he asked. "Should I have told him?"

"Yes, and yes," she said, with emphasis. She snuggled closer to Charles. "He and the twins will all know at some point, and I would much prefer they hear it from us rather than from someone else. Even family."

She drifted off to sleep soon after in his arms. He watched her body rise and fall, felt her heartbeat against his.

He didn't know if he would ever be able to adequately express what he felt for her, even to his own children. Talking to Alex had been something of a lesson. He had forced himself to open up as much as possible and as what was appropriate, to his as-of-yet not teen-aged son.

"I loved her," he said quietly, his hands resting on his knees. "So, so much. I…couldn't imagine living without her." He smiled. "I still can't."

Alex watched him intently. "Did you love your first wife?"

He would ask that.

"Yes," he swallowed, "when I was first married to Alice, I did. But by the time your mother moved here, we had grown apart. We didn't love each other like married people should."

"So you would have gotten a divorce anyway? Even if Mam hadn't moved here?"

Eventually. Either that, or I would have died an early death. It hurt simply thinking of how unhappy he had been. "Yes."

His son scuffed his shoe on the floor, and Charles resisted the urge to tell him not to. "So…you didn't just marry Mam because she was pregnant with me?"

"Oh my boy," he whispered, leaning forward and putting his hands on his shoulders. "No. No. I asked her before I knew she was pregnant. I would have married her even if she hadn't been carrying you. I would have married her if she was sixty years old!" Alex looked up, his eyes wide.

"Wow, you must've loved her a lot!" He sighed. "Was she ever married before?"

Charles shook his head. A grin split Alex's face, and he snorted in laughter. "Of course she'd get it right the first time! Seriously, Da," he wrinkled his nose in a perfect imitation of his mother. "She must've loved you a lot, too."

"She did," Charles said, his hand on his son's face. "She does love me, and I love her. Next to you and your brothers, she's the person I love most."

Alex bit his lip. "Maybe not Chris and Eddie. Well, they're okay, I guess. And you're great, Da." He grinned. "But Mam's my favorite. Don't tell her I said that."

Charles struggled not to cry. "I won't. But promise me YOU will."

Alex promised. On Elsie's next birthday, she came into Charles's office in Downton, crying.

Her oldest son had sent her flowers.