A/N: I am changing the rating of this story to Mature. I have known this was going to happen since day one but did not want to exclude readers right off the bat. This particular chapter is not necessarily Mature but Sybil is an engaged woman now…

Random Thought: Does anyone make banners and want to make me one for this story? I'm not at all cool enough or deserving of one, I just thought it would be nice…

Timeline: Somewhere after 2x07 and before 2x08. C'mon...are we all supposed to believe Sybil and Tom just stopped talking after their interrupted elopement? I think not. I could write pages upon pages about these two sneaking around at the Grantham Arms. Hell, if it were up to me they would have been sneaking around (like REALLY sneaking around) at Downton long before their engagement. No seriously though...might write a fanfic about that someday...

Song: They Weren't There - Missy Higgins

It was a routine now: leave work, change into a more suitable dress, grab a hat and coat, and then head off into town. Sybil thanked herself that Tom had put in his resignation nearly a week ago, leaving the house without a chauffeur for the time being. It was easier now to explain away her constant walks in and out of town. "The end of the war has left me restless, Papa," she'd tell her father.

She was restless, though not in a way she would ever discuss with her parents. Sybil blushed, hiding her head behind her scarf as she walked toward the inn and grabbed for the door. Just the night before she had spent several stolen moments under the light of a street lamp, pressed against Tom as he nipped at her neck. She was giggling then, and the same bubbling excitement presented itself to her as she entered the establishment and let the dimly lit room wash over her.

He was in the back, the way he always was. She took off her hat only after she passed the bar. Sybil couldn't imagine what the locals would say if she, the daughter of the Earl of Grantham, was seen sneaking around a local eatery with the family's chauffeur. She didn't care, that much she was certain about. In a few days time they would all know and they could laugh and chide her as much as they pleased. What mattered then, almost as much as it mattered now, was that she was finally honest with herself and the world. She loved this man. Was she saying it enough? She needed him to believe it as much as she felt it with her heart practically beating out of her chest at just the mere sight of him.

"Hi, love." He kissed her cheek before helping her out of her coat. "You look beautiful."

They were sitting now, Sybil and Tom leaning into one another as they shared stories of their day. Sybil told him about work and how she had officially had her last day. She discussed how she would miss it, but when he tried to mollify her concerns she reminded him that she could always get a job in Dublin. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that…"

Sybil sipped at the tea Tom had ordered for her. She had tried his coffee last week in the garage but couldn't bring herself to actually enjoy it. It got cold far too quickly and she knew, although she'd never admit it, it would be so much better if he put cream and sugar in it. "About my job in Dublin?"

Tom shook his head, swallowing his coffee down. He placed his mug back on the table. "About my job in Dublin," he corrected. "I got a job…"

Sybil smiled, leaning in to him to kiss him full on the mouth. It was loud and sloppy and she could not have been more proud of this man she was soon to call her husband. "Tom! That's phenomenal!"

"It's an assistant editor position for a newspaper that's up and running. Independent, but they do discuss politics and things of the like…"

"Are you happy with it?"

Tom looked at her from over his coffee mug. "Sybil, I don't care what I'm doing. I care that you have a roof over your head and food on the table. You make me happy, okay? I'll find a job that I like eventually but right now there are more important things."

Sybil sipped at her tea. The cup was empty now, though she didn't want to set it down. "Are you mad?"

Tom reached out and touched a hand to hers. She allowed him to take her hand in his own, rubbing at the place where he hoped he would soon put a ring. "Love, I'm not mad." He paused. "I'm sorry...I just want you to know that we'll be okay."

Now it was Sybil's turn to hold on. She melted at the thought that the same boy that had watched her grow into the woman she was now was also a man himself. Had she watched him mature too? "Tom, I know we're going to be okay. I'm okay now, alright? And we will be...always...as long as we're together."

Tom kissed her nose. "God, you are perfect."

Sybil giggled, sitting back in her chair. She had forgotten to put her corset back on after work and she was beginning to wonder what she looked like to him now, so relaxed and at ease. "Have you looked at apartments?"

"I have, lots actually. I brought a paper, if you wanted to-" But he couldn't finish. His fiance had already grabbed for the pamphlet he placed on the table, searching its contents for the pages where he had circled possible housing options.

Sybil looked up. "Are you sure your mother doesn't mind us living with her when we first arrive? I know she wasn't too thrilled when you told her that you resigned and were returning to Dublin...with a girl nonetheless, all in the same letter."

"She doesn't know the girl is you, Syb," he reminded. "But she will, eventually. I can't make her disown me all at once." Sybil straightened, suddenly scared by Tom's words. He noticed, working quickly to correct himself. "She's not going to disown me and I swear she will love you, alright? She's just always wanted what's best for me and I know she's going to think I've ruined you or-"

"You haven't, you know...ruined me."

"Aye," Tom sat back, his elbow over the wooden back of the chair as he sipped at the last bit of coffee in his mug. He was watching her now, this girl he had supposedly not ruined. She was just as beautiful now as she was that first day in the library, maybe even more so. She walked taller and was more confident with herself. She had held a job and stood up to her family. She did all of these things while he stood by her side. Surely a man that had ruined her would have not allowed her to grow in the way that she did. These last five years, no matter how aching, were necessary, he reminded himself.

"What about this one?" Tom was brought out of his reverie as a barmaid refilled his mug. Thankfully Sybil was leant over the paper, staring intently at a listing he had not circled. "Why didn't you circle this one?" He noticed her smile at the bartender, hating her kindness even when they were supposed to be discrete.

Tom jokingly snatched the paper away from her, causing her to give him a sly look. He laughed, then roared when she stuck her tongue out at him. No, he had definitely not ruined her. "We're not living there."

"And why not?"

Tom didn't have to look up to see that her hands were most likely on her hips. "It's too far from work and it's only one bedroom."

"Are you to have me pregnant before the year is up? I think we can manage with one bedroom for now…"

"It's an open flat, Sybil…" he pointed, placing the newspaper back on the paper to show her. He was lying if he said he hadn't pictured her pregnant, big and round and so perfect. Doing so only made him realize that she was averting his gaze, picturing the same thing. They hadn't discussed it, but it was clear now that they didn't need to.

Sybil read the words he had only just spoken, waiting for them to compute. As she remained silent, Tom explained: "It means it's one giant room. That's why it's so cheap. The bedroom is only separated from the kitchen by a partition…"

"And the loo?"

Tom dropped his head back laughing. "That's a separate room."

"So it's a two room apartment. A loo and then everything else?" Tom nodded. "It's cheap. I just thought…"

"I've worked out the finances, love. We have plenty to get us comfortably through the first year. And that was before I had a job. I wasn't lying when I said I had been saving."

"Fine," Sybil huffed, if only to tease Tom. "What about this one?," she asked, pointing to another listing.

Tom looked at the paper, reading the listing she was referring to. "That's actually my favorite."

"Because it's furthest from your mother? Your chicken scratch is telling…"

Tom shook his head with a laugh. "Because it's close to work. There's also a hospital a few blocks over," he added with a raised eyebrow.

"You're so caring," she whispered, wanting to do so much more than the table separating them would allow. As she took in his features, Sybil realized how handsome he looked and how, as she had wondered about before, his hair wasn't gelled back but instead quaffed in the front creating a small fringe. "You look handsome…" Her voice trailed off. He responded in the only way he knew how to when he realized she was his and always would be: he picked up her hand and kissed her knuckles. Anything more would have been in poor taste.

"Are you sure this is the one? Do you want to see it?"

"No!" Sybil sat up straight, composing herself. She had never sounded so eager and she hoped Tom wasn't turned off. "No," she repeated. "I'm sure it's great. I just want to move in."

"After the wedding," he reminded with a sip to his coffee.

Sybil's eyes widened. "I'm to stay at your mother's until the wedding?"

"Sybil, we're Catholic. We can't-"

"Without you?"

"Well when you put it like that-"

"I don't know if I can manage that."

"You've managed it for the past five years, love…"

Sybil smiled, throwing her crumpled up napkin at him. "We'll see." She leaned back in her chair. "I'm a modern woman, Tom." Was she being suggestive? Sybil kinked her eyebrow. Dear god, his fiance, his Sybil, was being suggestive.

"Yeah, yeah," he said with a laugh, almost as if he was promising not to give it too much thought. "We will see." Soon enough he was standing, causing Sybil to stare at him in wonder. "C'mon, we've got to go."

Sybil joined him on her feet. She leaned into him, using his broad frame to hold up her body weight. She hadn't eaten yet and now she was wondering if she should have ordered a meal while they chatted. In a way that always seemed to be true, practical matters evaporated when she was with him. "Can I see your room?"

Tom smiled into her shoulder. "Syb, not today, Bates and Anna-" He couldn't finish his sentence. The people he was referring to were headed straight for the room they were in. Tom threw a couple bills down on the table, more than enough to cover their tab, before grabbing for Sybil's hand. "Follow me, okay?" They would have to go up to his room. The only other option was to leave through the main exit, something that would create a path right by where Anna and Bates were now being seated.

"Tom?"

He was silenced again by the sound of Anna calling for Sybil. His shoulders dropped; they had been caught.

"Anna!" Sybil croaked out causing Tom to laugh. It would earn him a definite jab to the ribs later, Sybil thought. "Hi Bates." Tom couldn't get over how she spoke as if he, the former chauffeur wasn't standing next to her holding her hand. He quickly dropped it as she walked to the pair on the far side of the room. Tom followed, if only to not draw more attention to their unlikely predicament.

"Lady Sybil," they both smiled.

"Lady Sybil, your..." Anna continued slowly, thinking about how to phrase her next sentence. She was there that night in Gretna Green, in the car and then in Sybil's room when Mary and Edith ensured that their baby sister was returned to Downton. The maid was now torn between remembering her duty to the household and her duty to this girl she had watched grow up into a woman that was now so clearly in love. Mary and Edith may have not wanted to see it but it was clear to Anna in the way that perhaps it could only be clear to another woman who had found the same thing. Who was she to keep Lady Sybil from such a wonderful feeling?

"I had let Tom borrow a book from father's library and he forgot to return it. I ran into him on my way home from work and we were just picking it up…"

"Right, a book…" Bates chimed in. Branson was suddenly reminded of their interaction outside the main house not even a month ago. "Why don't you head back for dinner and Mr. Branson can give me the book to bring back to Lord Grantham?"

"Oh, I couldn't possibly have you do that." Sybil's ears were burning now. It was a habit she had, for her body to react warmly when she was nervous. Tom noticed it first when she was in the garage that first night thanking him for his actions during the count. He saw it many times since then, both in the house and out. "Really Bates, it's no imposition on my part. You two enjoy your meal. I'll see you both back at the house."

"Of course, milady," was all Anna was able to mutter. She watched, just as Bates did, the two of them disappear up the stairs; the former chauffeur and the lady. Sybil turned back right before she disappeared, giving a look to the both of them. For as kind of a person as she always was, she was suddenly made cold by the one thing in the world she was kept from. If ever there was a time she used her position in society to remind others that she was intelligent and more importantly, in control, it was with Tom.

Leaving Tom's room with nothing more than a kiss, she exited the Grantham Arms through a back entrance. The entire walk back to Downton she was fuming, wondering why two people of Tom's status were so disapproving of her relationship with the chauffeur. She had called it so because it was and she was sure that both Anna and Bates had acknowledged its existence. Tom had told her of that night he had dropped her off. He had promised her he'd go unseen and he had broken that promise unwillingly. She couldn't get mad at him. This would all be over soon; part of her was just waiting to get caught.

Back inside the Grantham arms, Bates was stirring his tea while Anna walked back from the bar with the plates of food they had ordered.

"Didn't you find that odd?" He asked as she approached their table.

Anna sat down now, placing her husband's plate in front of him. "I find most things in this house odd. In this town, for that matter…" She was avoiding his gaze, using the pads of her fingers to squeeze a lemon into her tea.

"Anna…"

"Please stop staring at me in that way, John. I don't know anything...and Sybil is a smart girl!" She offered. It was as if Sybil was someone that didn't need to be explained. People often discussed Mary downstairs, and even Edith, but Sybil went without words spoken about her. Her profession and the heart she wore made her one of them. And now, this boy she was with drew the final line, connecting it all into a single shape.

"I just thought you would have stopped her. I know they're friends. She came to the kitchen once to give him a newspaper he had let her borrow. Only I was there but I promised the boy I wouldn't say anything-"

"And you didn't?" Anna choked out, quickly wanting to cover her lips after she had done so. Were her words as hurried and stressed as she hoped Sybil was, somewhere off with Tom?

"It was a newspaper and this was back during the war. But I saw them again a week or so ago. It was a book this time. Apparently Lady Sybil had left a book in the cab of the Renault and he was just returning it to her." He paused. "Am I to believe these two are friends? I mean, how can they be?"

Anna stiffened as she sat up. "I'm friends with Lady Mary, and you with the Earl," she explained, wanting nothing more than for this particular conversation to stop. She smattered a bit of butter on her toast before biting into the contents.

"As men can be friends with men and women with women," he wrote off with a laugh. "Not ladies and drivers. Boys and girls are not meant to be together in that way, not even if he was a gentleman."

Anna thought back to Gretna Green and how Mary had disclosed to her how Tom was planning to sleep in the chair next to Sybil's bed. Mary, of course, dismissed the action as a joke, still unable to process the love her baby sister had for someone Anna thought to be such a standup man. "He is a gentleman, though, not one any of them in the house would ever approve of but…"

"Exactly. Now, we will speak no more on this. If Lord Grantham hears I saw his youngest daughter going up to the chauffeur's room, he'll have me hung."

"He won't know. None of them will. Leave the girl alone, and the boy too, alright? They're young and they're just friends…" Anna lied. She lied for herself and the two lovers that were somewhere above her, no doubt stealing only the most chaste of kisses. Her heart swelled, remembering meeting, falling in love with and then marrying John, who now saw across her disapprovingly. He must have heard it, the tone in her voice telling him to drop the conversation completely. What he didn't hear was the guilt settling into his wife's shoulders as she so clearly lied to him. Sybil was smart but Anna knew far more than she told. What she didn't know was why it was so difficult to be honest with him. Surely, as Valet, Bates would disclose such a thing to Lord Grantham. Anna understood all too well the bond between the family at Downton and those who helped them get dressed each morning and before each meal.

Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU to all of my lovely readers and especially those of you who review. Specifically I'd like to thank piperholmes and gothamgirl28 for recommending my story on tumblr. Really ladies, I was so happy to see that and it was such a compliment coming from the both of you! And big ups to for favorite-ing and reading since I posted the first chapter.

Just a minute to extend my gratitude because I can't tell you how much I appreciate the people that have followed and are continuing to follow this story. Considering I wrote this so selfishly to help myself get over the unmentionables from S3, I'm glad it has grown to be so much more than that.

Thank you all again!

x. Elle