A/N: Apparently I suck at writing Anna/Bates. I was SUPER embarrassed after someone mentioned it, but I do appreciate the honesty in reviews! I wasn't one hundred percent (or even, like, fifty percent) confident posting the last chapter. The part with Anna/Bates was an add on after my beta mentioned I should bring the Anna being at Gretna Green storyline and the Bates seeing Branson outside the house storyline full circle. I'm not a huge fan of them as a couple, and I only really enjoy Anna as an individual (sorry, just my opinion!). So basically what I'm saying is I'm sorry if that last bit was distracting because it was so out of character. I tried...now I just know to not try...ever again.

Timeline: Sometime after their announcement in 2x08. You'll see exactly where it falls shortly.

Song: Complete - Austin Gibbs

Reluctantly, Tom had let Sybil come up to his room. It wasn't that he didn't want to see her, or didn't want to hold her the way that he presently was with both of them stuffed on the twin bed against the wall. It was more that he didn't trust himself. In a way he had always thanked the lines that were so clearly drawn at Downton. It kept him from reaching out and kissing her when it was all that he wanted. Now, he wanted those same things, and the allure of knowing that she wanted them too made their kisses deep and all too frequent. Thankfully there was a door on his room and nobody, if she wanted, was to bother them. Certainly not until he had to send her off to get ready for dinner.

"How's your ma-" He stopped himself, unsure of what to call her. Tom settled on the name he knew well, the name he had called her by many times before when opening and closing the door to the Renault was the only time they ever interacted. "...Lady Grantham doing?"

Sybil smiled. She reached up to stroke his cheek. "Much better. Now stop with the pleasantries before I leave you here alone."

"We couldn't have that," he teased back. "You taste too good," he mumbled, seizing her lips against his own. The space she inhabited pressed against him was small, only to be made smaller as she deepened the kiss. She was practically on top of him now. He was sure that if she wasn't in her skirt, each of her legs would have been on either side of him.

With her hands cupping his cheeks, Tom reached around, letting one arm rest on her backside while the other ventured up to hold her head. She seemed to like this position with him in control, his hand cupping her cheek as his fingers delved into the curls that rested behind her ear. She moaned as he pulled her closer. He wanted to ask if she was okay, if this was okay, but it was her tongue that licked at his lips and then found solace against the pressure of his own, minutes later.

When she pulled away, Tom smiled, kissing her forehead as he mumbled something about how beautiful she was, against her skin. "I love you so much, Sybil."

"Mhm," she said, placing a chaste kiss to his nose. "I love you too." She kissed him again and then again, until they were back in their original positions with Sybil curled into Tom's chest. He held her close, making sure she didn't get too far as his arm stroked at her shoulder.

They had almost fallen asleep when a knock sounded at the door. Tom jumped up, waking a still Sybil in the process. She suddenly looked concerned as she draped her sweater around her shoulders. "Are you expecting company?"

Tom shook his head. "Who would I be expecting, love?"

She nodded, buttoning her long cardigan before searching around for her hat and gloves. Both were on his dresser. Another knock. "If they don't go away, I can't go out there. I can't have someone see me leaving your room-" Another knock, then one more.

"Okay! One minute!," Tom yelled over his shoulder in the direction of the door. "The closet," he whispered down to Sybil. "I'll get them to leave and tell you when the coast is clear."

"Promise?" Tom kissed her lips and then guided her into the closet. He shut the door once she was situated sitting in the back corner of the small dusty space.

He would have felt bad if the person knocking at the door wasn't her father. It was though, and Lord Grantham had things to say to Tom that he was sure his daughter would be none too pleased to hear. It only made what Tom said all the more prominent. He stood taller knowing that he was standing up for Sybil, his best friend and soulmate, in a way that he had yet to do in the past. How could the woman that he loved be reduced to such a little girl by the same man that was supposed to be her father? He was sure now that Lord Grantham had never asked Sybil what she thought and now as she sent him on his way, Tom was sure that he never would.

"Syb?" He opened the closet door, seeing Sybil playing with the fingertips of her satin gloves. "Syb, I-"

She jumped up, lunging herself toward Tom. "You were perfect," she lamented before placing a fiery kiss to his lips. "You are perfect," she said, pulling away.

"Isn't this the part where you tell me I don't need to stick up for you? And that a man-"

"But you are a man, Tom. You're my best friend. And I guess all of the other men in my life have all been like my father and have treated me like a child. Growing up I guessed that someday I'd have a husband and he would treat me the same way."

"You're most definitely not a child," Tom mumbled in both defense and wit.

"I am the luckiest girl in the world. I'm marrying my best friend and he doesn't care where I've come from or who my family is. You treat me like an equal and I am so grateful for that." She paused before grabbing his hand to pull him toward the door. "Let's go!"

"What are you talking about, crazy girl?"

"I am crazy! I'm talking about you and me...getting married," she continued. "I'm ready. I want to do it. Right now. You and me for the rest of our lives."

"Sybil, we can't-"

"Why can't forever start today?"

"Because I don't want our forever to happen just to spite your father…"

Sybil sent him a glare. "If I wanted to tell my father where to go, I would be more than happy to do so without you, thank you very much. Besides, don't you just want to leave?" Tom nodded, wanting to say things he couldn't form into sentences. There were no words for what he was feeling.

"Kiss me, crazy girl." It was an order she was all too happy to oblige. She kissed him, and then some, grabbing him by the arms as she pulled her body close to his. Both were lost in the moment, searching for more than the ground below to hold them up.

"I wish he had found me in here," she whispered into his chest.

Tom nudged Sybil's chin upward so that her eyes were set upon his. "Sybil, you really need to stop saying those things."

"Why? Don't you like hearing them?"

"I like hearing them all too much, love, but you're writing a check you can't cash."

"Tom Branson, I can do whatever I please. And if this whole thing between you and me is going to work out," she said, signaling between the both of them, "then I suggest you support me on these things."

"Are you teasing, love?"

"Don't you know it," she said, biting her lip before he kissed her smirk away. She giggled, dropping her head back as he attacked her neck. He left a mark, something she only saw when she pulled off her sweater to change before dinner. When her mother asked her about the mark she ignored her comments, instead stating something about the irritating necklace she had worn into town.

What she wanted, more than anything in the world, was to be back in Tom's room at the Grantham Arms, where her confidence on matters such as these were welcomed and not stunted. She would forever be shadowed here and pushed toward a path that she did not want, a path she would never truly be capable of finding happiness on. She wanted to run but a part of her already felt like she had. This same part of her stilled the thoughts in her head that told her she should slow down and reconsider. She never would and she never did; a week and a half later they were on a boat headed for Dublin.

Thank you for reading! Please review if you feel up to it! I love hearing what you all have to say!

x. Elle