A/N: Thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter. Many thanks to my patient betas, Tripp3235 and mswainwright.

Disclaimer: Not mine. All Downton Abbey characters belong to Julian Fellowes and ITV. I'm just playing with them.

Chapter 3

The next afternoon, Sybil walked into the garage while Tom was installing new brakes for the car. The clicking of her heels on the garage floor reached him before he was able to see her. Putting the tool he was using aside, Tom walked over to the bench where he kept a cloth and wiped his hands. By the time he wiped the grime off, Sybil was at his side and she gave him a quick kiss. Tom so wanted to put his arms around her, but he was not going to put his dirty hands on her fine clothes.

"Here I am," said Sybil while Tom put down his cloth. "As I thought, I have the rest of the afternoon free as Mama is discussing the details of the wedding with Mrs. Hughes, Mary is helping get Matthew packed and moved back to Crawley House and Edith is out with Granny visiting."

"Alas, I'm not quite yet," said Tom. "The car needs to be ready to pick up the Dowager Countess, Mrs. Crawley and Miss Swire for dinner at six. The rear brakes started to make noise after church, so I have to replace them. I have another half hour of work to do. Why don't we talk while I finish and then I can clean up and we can have tea in the cottage?"

Sybil stared at him. The only time she had been in his cottage was the night of the elopement. The image of Tom changing came to the forefront of her mind.

Tom sensed her hesitation. "If you prefer, I can make the tea after I'm done and bring it here."

"No," said Sybil, firming her resolve. If she was going to marry Tom, she might as well be able to go about his abode and be comfortable with it. "We can talk and I can make us tea when you're almost finished."

Tom smiled at the thought of her making his tea. Glancing at her, he said, "I would like that." He then turned back to the job at hand. "How has your day been?"

Sybil leaned against the workbench to watch him. "Thank goodness Mama is so busy with the refugees and that Matthew and Lavinia's wedding is coming up in April. Otherwise, I'm certain that she would be setting up dinner parties with various friends and neighbours who just might have a son for Edith or me. Papa even asked me today at luncheon about my plans?"

Tom tightened one of the nuts to secure the wheel back on the car. "What did you tell him?"

"I told him that I was considering continuing with nursing," said Sybil. After a pause for effect, she continued with a smile, "Though I didn't mention that I was planning to continue it in Dublin."

"What did he say?" Tom gently prodded.

"That it wasn't for young ladies like me," said Sybil with a sigh. "Why does he not understand my need to be useful?"

"He is merely a product of his time and station," Tom explained. "The war has changed all that. I'm sure you're not the only daughter of a peer who wants to do something more than just have dinner parties."

"Did you know that my grandmother worked until she was thirty-five when my grandfather made his fortune?" said Sybil, crossing her arms in front of her.

"Surely you are not talking about the dowager?" asked Tom.

"No, my mother's mother and father, Grandmama and Grandpapa Levinson," said Sybil, looking around the dusty garage. "I've met them twice. Once when they visited us here and the second time when we went to America to visit them. Mary hated America, she found it boring, but Edith and I enjoyed ourselves. I'd like for us to visit there some day."

"I'm certain that we can plan for that," said Tom while he started to lower the car back to the floor of the garage.

"Are you almost finished?" asked Sybil. "Should I start on the tea?"

"No, not yet," said Tom, surveying his work. "I still have the other rear brake to replace. Wait until I have the wheel off the car before starting on the tea. Tell me more about your mother's family. They sound intriguing."

"Well, my grandfather originally owned a dried goods store in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he and my grandmother worked," said Sybil. "He found an efficient way to transport dried goods and was able to expand westward with the growth in America in the last century. He made his fortune by the time he was forty.

"The family moved to New York after that and my mother and grandmother came to London when Mama was twenty to find someone with a title to marry. She met Papa in her first season and married him soon there after."

"So your American grandparents are self-made people?" said Tom while he started jacking up the other side of the rear end of the car to remove the wheel. "I never would have thought."

"Well, Downton needed the money and Grandmama wanted Mama to have a title," said Sybil. "Papa and Mama learned to love each other eventually, so it all worked out."

"Well, I have neither," said Tom, putting some muscle behind the tire iron to loosened the nuts on the wheel in front of him.

"But don't you see, none of that matters to me," said Sybil, rather animate. "I don't want to be presented at Court. I don't want to host society dinners or attend them. I want to be useful and I want to be with you. Otherwise, why am I here now? It's certainly not for the dust or the essence of motor oil."

"Could you pass me the spanner on the bench?" asked Tom. "I need to take the old brake off."

Sybil looked at the bench and saw only one tool there. "This thing?"

"Yes. Thank you," said Tom. While he removed the old brake from the car, he asked "So do you have any more ideas on how to make me a journalist?"

"Yes, in fact, I do," said Sybil, watching him with interest. "Where is the newspaper you had yesterday?"

"It's in the cottage on the table," said Tom, tossing the old brake on the floor with the other discarded one and reached for the new brake on the floor. "If you want to use the inner doors, it's that one behind the car," said Tom, pointing to a door in the rear of the garage.

"I'll start the water boiling then and get the tea things together since you are almost done," said Sybil. "We can discuss my ideas after you're done."

Tom nodded his confirmation while he refocused on the work remaining.

Sybil then made her way carefully through the garage to the door leading to the cottage. The inside was as neat and tidy as it was two days ago. Sybil found the kettle and set it over the glowing embers, then she had to add a small log and started it burning by stoking. After setting out the tea things, she looked at the table on the other side of the room and spotted the newspaper exactly where he told her it was going to be.

While she waited for the water to boil, she flipped through the other articles she had not read yesterday and wondered why Papa never let her read this type of paper. So engrossed, she didn't notice the passage of time until Tom came in.

Getting up to make the tea, Sybil asked, "Are you done now?"

From the wash basin where he was cleaning his hands and forearms after taking off the dirty boiler suit, Tom said, "I'm done installing the new brakes, but I still have to do one last wipe down of the inside, but that can wait until I'm almost ready to go."

With the bed in the range of vision while she watched Tom clean up, she asked him, "Did you manage to catch up on some sleep last night?" Sybil still felt guilty about being the cause of his lack of sleep the night before.

Tom looked over to her quizzically. "Some. The nap did help and I caught another nap after picking up Mrs. Crawley and Miss Swire yesterday. Why do you ask?"

"No particular reason. I was just wondering and I'm glad that you did get more sleep though." Changing the subject, Sybil said, "In any case, I was looking at the paper yesterday and noticed some job advertisements in the classifieds section. I also saw in the paper that you can write to the editor. I wonder if you could inquire about an opening at any of the ones published in Ireland? Perhaps you could ask your mother to obtain addresses of the papers in Ireland. If you'd like my help, I could compose the letters or look over the letters you compose."

After he wiped his hand dry and rehung the towel, Tom walked over to the table where the tea things were laid out. Sybil poured out a cup for Tom, but didn't know what he liked in his tea. Looking up at him, Sybil asked, "How do you take your tea?"

"Two sugars and milk," said Tom. "You?"

"Just milk and sugar," said Sybil, preparing his tea and then handed it to him.

Tom took the cup and saucer from Sybil and sat down in front of the fire. When Sybil made her way over to the other chair, Tom put his tea on a small side table beside his chair and reached out for her. "Come and sit on my lap. Now that I'm clean, I want to hold you."

She laid her tea beside his and sat in his lap as he instructed. She had missed the physical closeness, too, but was too shy to ask or make the first move. She placed her arms about his neck to steady herself. He pulled her closer by her waist and looked into her eyes. God he loved her so. He raised his free hand to stroke her cheek. "You are so beautiful. I still can't believe you're mine."

Sybil looked down in modesty, a blush creeping upon her cheek at the intensity of his love. Not one to share her feelings, she struggled a bit before whispering, "I am yours." Tom then lifted her chin with his free hand and leaned in to kiss her. The kiss between them intensified by the moment, but knowing that it can go no further until they are married, Tom's hand merely roamed her back to pull her against him. Her fingers in turn caressed his neck and played with the hairs on the back of his head.

After what seemed like forever, Tom pulled away from the kiss reluctantly. Sybil then put her head down to his shoulder to savour the moment. She had not felt so secure and safe since she was a little girl. Tom then took her hand from his other shoulder and intertwined her fingers with his as his thumb caressed her hand.

Looking at their hands, Tom spoke first, "So it sounds like we both have something to do the next few weeks if I am to procure work before we leave."

"If you could get your mother or some other relative to find the addresses for the newspapers, that would be a good start," said Sybil. "I can then look at the papers at the house for other job openings in Dublin."

"I think it best, if I were to write my mother," said Tom. "Since Gretna Green is no longer an option, where did you want to be married?"

"We can't be sure that anyone from my family will want to be there," said Sybil wistfully. "Did you want your family to be present?"

"Given a choice, I'm sure my sisters would never forgive me if I married and they were not able to attend," said Tom, smiling.

Sybil lifted her head up to look at Tom. "How many sisters do you have?"

"Three," said Tom, looking at Sybil. "Two older and one younger. My oldest sister, Mairin, is married with children of her own. My older sister, Niamh, is in service near Athlone. My younger sister, Cathleen, is just out of school and working in a factory in Dublin."

"You must have brothers as well," said Sybil, straightening up.

"I have two," said Tom. "My older brother is Ciaran. He works in the docks of Dublin just like my Da did. He married a few years ago and has a young daughter. My younger brother, Connor, is still in school."

"That settles it," said Sybil. "If we can, we should be married in Dublin, even if it's as bad as that article about the attack depicts."

"It's not that bad everywhere. Remember, you're reading a biased view from a Yorkshire newspaper," explained Tom. "There are raids by Irish nationalists and retaliations by the British Army at targeted locations and riots every so often in certain parts of the city, but it's been like that since well before the Rising. My brother and sister wouldn't be raising their families there, if it was like that all over Dublin. My point in asking you to read the article was to ensure that you knew that it wasn't like the Yorkshire countryside. There is fighting going on though you wouldn't be able to tell if we avoided certain parts of Dublin."

There was a slight pause while Sybil considered what Tom said. Finally she looked up at Tom and said, "As I said yesterday, my happiness lies with you and I've kept you away from the fight for Ireland's freedom for long enough. To ensure that at least some of our family attends the wedding, we should marry in Dublin."

"In that case, I'm sure that my mother can arrange for the banns to be read as soon as we get there," said Tom. "Let me write her tonight about us. I've already told her about you as a girl that I want to bring home and marry but I didn't mention that you were the daughter of my employer. I'm not certain how she will think of us, but if we want to be married in Dublin, I will need to tell her now. Did you want to include a note for my mother in the letter?"

"Yes, I'd like that," said Sybil said with a smile.

"If you can provide the note tomorrow," said Tom. "I will include it in my letter and send it off the next time I'm in the village."

Looking at Sybil on his lap, it was the happiest Tom had been in a long time. It was still hard to believe that she was his. After drinking their now cold tea, Tom pulled out his pocket watch to see the time and said, "I need to do a final cleaning of the car before going into the village. I'll go out first and let you know when the coast is clear to leave."

"I'll clean up our tea things," said Sybil.

After one last kiss, Sybil got up from his lap and started to clean up their tea things, while Tom went to comb his hair in front of the mirror and put on his uniform jacket.

A/N2: So our team of two each have a letter to write to Mrs. Branson in Dublin. What do you think should be in those letters?