Sitting at ease around the dining table, Sybil reflected that to an incoming stranger, they may appear like any other family – dressed up and splashing out on an elaborate celebration for their matriarch's special day. Akin to other families, they had their divisions and disputes, irritations and frustrations. Yet they were also united by love, affection and loyalty, brought together for today's occasion at their ancestral seat, where generations before had also sat in comparable cohesion.

Sybil reached across to squeeze Tom's hand. He appeared once again entirely relaxed, untroubled by the occasion's formality and additional family introductions. She felt the light brush of his thumb across the back of her knuckles before he leant forward to catch her grandmother's attention.

"I haven't had an opportunity to wish you a very Happy Birthday, Lady Grantham" he said in a friendly tone. "Many congratulations."

Violet tipped her head in appreciation, her mouth twisting into an introspective smile. "Thank you. Although I'm afraid that at my age, it's less of a celebration and more of a commemoration."

"Still…" Tom pressed on without any apparent unease. "…it must be lovely to have an occasion to bring all your family home together."

Violet glanced around the room, her eyes coming to rest on George who was pushing a toy train around the tray of his high chair and making appropriate chugging noises, while nearby Edith rapidly shovelled a mustard coloured puree into the mouth of an audibly enthusiastic Esmé.

"Yes" she replied slowly, her nose wrinkling fractionally with implied distaste. "Although I'm not certain that it's entirely necessary to have everyone together for the luncheon. When Robert and Rosamund were young, we wouldn't have even entertained the idea of bringing them into the dining room until they could at least manage to feed themselves – tidily."

"Oh come on now, Mother!" Her son intercepted brightly. "Times are changing. It's very common for children to attend these types of lunches nowadays. We have a whole host of highchairs available for the functions we hold here. Events aren't usually as formal when it's a family celebration."

"But I don't see why!" Violet met her son's gaze firmly. "I fail to see who going to benefit from this arrangement. The parents will be preoccupied with meeting their offspring's needs, the children are burdened with the misguided hope that they will behave in a manner which is entirely unrealistic for their age, conversation will be constantly interrupted until nobody can remember why it commenced in the first place. Far better that they are comfortably fed with Nanny and then brought downstairs when the meal is finished."

Mary smiled sweetly, although Sybil could sense the burgeoning annoyance which lay beneath. "But Granny, neither Edith nor I employ a Nanny. Would you prefer the children to be left on their own, or for two of the parents to be absent from the table?"

"You are an Event Organiser, Mary. I'm sure you can come up with an appropriate solution."

Sybil stifled a smile at her sister's subtle eye-roll while she adjusted the napkin on her lap.

Matthew's mother Isobel, who had arrived earlier in the day, beamed at the two young mothers. "Well I think that Tom's essentially right. It is wonderful to see everyone here together!"

Violet's lips formed a compressed line of evident irritation. "Yes, well you would."

"Anyway!" Robert brought his hands together in a hearty effort to divert the conversation from deteriorating further. "Before Carson serves the first course, I would just like to thank you all for making the effort to come to Downton this weekend and take the opportunity to wish Mother, Violet, Granny or however you habitually greet her, a very Happy 85th Birthday! We wish you good health, happiness and many more similar occasions to come."

A murmur of accompanying salutations concurred before soup was served and the meal commenced without any additional dispute.

"Sorry about that" Sybil murmured as an aside to Tom. "Granny's from another era. She forgets that her grandchildren and even her children live quite different lives nowadays."

Tom gave an unconcerned shrug. "That's the prerogative of age isn't it?" He flashed a fleeting grin. "I look forward to being so resolute in my convictions one day!"

From across the table, Isobel made eye contact and offered an enthusiastic smile. "So Tom, how are you enjoying being back in Yorkshire after so many years?"

"It's grand!" He leant back in his chair and gave an accompanying nod. "I was very happy here as a teenager and I've always looked back on it with great affection."

"You'll have to forgive me for being out of the loop, so to speak…" Isobel circled her knife in the air. "…but were you and Sybil, um…how should I express it?...sweet on each other then? Or were you just friendly classmates in those days?"

Sybil felt her face instinctively break into a smile, watching Tom's expression soon replicate hers. "I was definitely very sweet on her…" he replied "…but neither of us realised that the other was equally smitten until right at the very end."

"Well I won't ask what happened then!" Isobel replied with a grin, recommencing with her meal until Mary interrupted.

"I remember walking the length of Ripon with a distraught Sybil, trying to find Tom's Irish address which she'd lost on the way home."

Sybil turned in her seat to offer a triumphant grin. "See! I wasn't making it up!"

"Didn't you have a brother in Edith's class?" Mary continued evenly and Sybil's eyes were instinctively drawn towards her middle sister, who was steadfastly wiping her daughter's face and avoiding any other eye contact.

"Yes that's right, Kieran." Tom replied.

"And were you friendly with him, Edith?" Mary had not witnessed Edith's unexpected reaction to the mention of Tom's brother the previous evening and for once, Sybil felt certain that no deliberate mischief was intended.

"Not really, no." Edith's voice was even in pitch although Sybil spotted an escalating flush cross her neck and cheeks and made a silent resolution to try at some point to decipher exactly what was causing such unexpected agitation.

It was Tom who diverted the conversation elsewhere, seemingly sensitive towards Edith's ongoing expression of unease. "So, Sybil's going to take me into Ripon tomorrow before we leave so that I can revisit some of my old haunts."

"Anything in particular on the agenda?" asked Matthew, lifting his head from the game of trains he was playing along the table with his son.

"Well I'd like to see my old house, the park, rugby club, school, that kind of thing. I expect everything will appear small and insignificant nowadays, that's always the way, but it'll be interesting nonetheless."

"Tell us about your son. Josh, am I right?" Rosamund's voice rang out distinctly across the table and Sybil spotted the high-spirited glint in her eye while she spoke. With no children of her own, her aunt both cherished and indulged herself with her nieces' lives. She enjoyed a privileged lifestyle provided by the inheritance from her late husband and while she occupied herself with a number of worthy causes and travelled widely with friends, Sybil always felt that she craved the purpose and contentment held by her brother. She could be a dependable ally in times of need, but in a trait inherited from her mother, meddlesome if she felt that information was being unreasonably withheld.

Tom shifted marginally in his seat, his back straightening and Sybil wondered if he had picked up on the first stirrings of tension within the room.

"Well…" he began with an earnest smile. "…he'll be six in August. He's a bright boy, very enthusiastic about all sorts of things – football, super heroes, space, dinosaurs…" Tom gave a nod in George's direction. "…still likes his trains. A typical boy of that age, I guess."

"And what is your relationship with his mother?" Rosamund asked bluntly.

"Very amicable" Tom replied and confidently met her gaze head on. "I mean we've not been together from the start…"

Violet interrupted sharply. "Well presumably you were together at the start, or he wouldn't be here?"

Tom flashed a terse smile. "Of course, but he…um, began at the very end of our relationship. So by the time we discovered that he was on the way, we were no longer together."

"So he wasn't planned, you mean?" Robert asked and Sybil guessed that her father was secretly delighted to have been handed an opportunity to contribute to a topic she presumed was highly prevalent on each of her parents' minds.

Tom cleared his throat. "No, but once the surprise was upon us, he was very much wanted. By both of us. And we're wholeheartedly united when it comes to his upbringing and welfare."

"How very modern, I congratulate you!" Rosamund declared, sitting back with a triumphant smile, her intention complete and the conversation now underway.

"Have you met her, Sybil?" Cora asked. "I'm sorry, I don't know the lady's name."

"Eddie and no I haven't." She paused, aware that an encounter must certainly be marked high on the list of intimidating situations yet to be experienced along her future path with Tom. "Not yet."

"I tend to be the one who does the travelling." Tom explained. "They're based in Ireland and although Josh is starting to come over to Wales in the school holidays, I fetch him and take him home again." He gave a little shrug of embellishment. "I'm the one who chose to work away from Ireland, so it's only fair."

"So why did you choose to move to Wales?" Robert asked with a frown. "It seems an unusual decision for a committed father."

Sybil watched Tom nod his head and felt silent irritation at her father's provocative line of questioning. She watched him intently, loath to generate a dispute on her grandmother's birthday but determined not to allow him to try and intimidate Tom.

"The job in Swansea offered a jump up to the next level for me. I'm responsible for the MA programme and there was no similar opportunity at the time within Ireland. Also there was more research funding available from the Welsh Assembly than at home, so professionally it was a very exciting prospect. But you know, although I'm crossing the sea each fortnight, I'm logistically not much further away from Josh than I was previously. I was in Cork and he's in Kilkenny so I've never actually lived in the same town as him. I'd like to be of course, but with my line of work, it's not going to be likely."

"So you're on the move rather a lot." Robert pressed.

"Well yes, every other weekend."

"So your time for Sybil must be fairly limited."

"Dad…" Sybil gave her first note of warning and Robert raised his hands aloft in a form of defence.

"What? It's not acceptable to want to know where my daughter stands?"

"She stands very highly." Tom said firmly. "But as a father you'll understand that children are the first priority. Sybil knows that, I was very clear from the beginning that Josh has to come first."

'Not quite at the beginning' Sybil thought with a wry smile, making a silent resolution never to entirely divulge the sequence of events which had marked the beginning of their relationship.

"You see this is the unfortunate consequence of someone in your position." Robert declared, his self-righteous expression borne from the custom of oratory to the previously converted. "Someone who has a child with one partner and then moves on to another."

Cora and Sybil spoke up in verbal unity, each determined that the conversation should be brought to an immediate end. "Robert!"

"Dad!"

"That is quite enough!" Cora added quietly before turning towards Tom with her most hospitable smile.

"Please excuse us Tom, we're being too inquisitive about your life. I'm sure you appreciate that as parents we instinctively worry about Sybil, in fact about all of our children, but we would never want to pry or pass judgement on you. It sounds to me as if you have a very positive and touching relationship with both of them. I'm sure it can't be easy but you seem to be doing a marvellous job."

Sybil's heart continued to thump heavily with a combination of fury and embarrassment and she reached out to place her hand on Tom's thigh in silent support, gratified when he responded by squeezing her palm. A similar division in her younger years would have caused her to indignantly chastise her father. However she was conscious that Tom's life should not be the focus of discussion on her grandmother's birthday and that a public display of anger would only serve to reiterate her father's pre-existing views.

"I realise it isn't the type of conventional arrangement that you're maybe used to." Tom said evenly, only the throbbing pulse in his cheek giving any hint of internal anguish. Violet once again interjected.

"Well Sybil is never one to be attracted to convention."

By now Sybil was heartily tired of presumptions about either of their lives forming the main topic of conversation. "By that, Granny I presume you mean that I've never been afraid of unconventionality, rather than being explicitly drawn towards it."

Her grandmother gave her the benefit of a steely gaze. "No dear, that is not what I meant at all."

ooOoo

The conversation may have moved on to less controversial subjects for the remainder of the meal, but it came as no surprise to Sybil that her father considered the matter unfinished, regardless of Tom's subsequent contribution. The weather proved mainly fine; a short shower while they were drinking coffee was soon replaced by intermittent sunshine and a pleasant springtime temperature. Carson opened the doors which led from the library into the garden and grateful young parents marched immediately outdoors with their offspring, enabling them to explore without fear of damaging any venerable Downton artefacts in the process.

Tom and Sybil joined them, relieved to be in a position to discard the habitual formality created by a Crawley family meal in the dining room. Tom accompanied Matthew in friendly discussion as they followed George who strode bow-legged around the lawn, finding various objects of incessant fascination. Esmé was making desperate attempts to crawl, tipping on to her hands and knees before performing a movement resembling a 1980s body popper and concluding with her face down in the grass, gurgling at her first efforts at independent mobility. Sybil crouched down, fighting the urge to assist her niece and offering a gentle voice of encouragement while Edith beamed proudly beside her.

"Sybil, have you seen the new walkway by the lake?" Robert appeared silently behind them and Sybil turned, shielding her face from the sun with a hand in an effort to see him more clearly.

"No, but you told me that you were going to have it done. Does it look good?"

"Come and take a look" her father coaxed and Sybil was only ten paces along before she realised that she had been duped into an extension of their earlier discussion.

"I hope you weren't offended by me asking Tom about his personal circumstances." Robert said in a genial manner, looking immediately slighted when Sybil made her displeasure abundantly clear.

"I thought you were pretty rude actually, considering he's a guest here and my boyfriend."

"Well I think Tom probably understood where I was coming from at least, from one parent to another."

"He's too polite to indicate otherwise, that's for sure." She felt further stirrings of irritation by her father's presumption that discourtesy was forgivable simply by playing the parent card.

Robert sighed, coming to a halt and turning to face his daughter with another mask of affability. "Darling girl, I'm not belittling your choices…"

"…well that's what it sounds like!"

"I simply don't want you to feel that you have to accept second best."

"What did you just say?" Sybil was incensed by his implication and Robert made an effort to restrain any further outburst with a gentle hand upon her arm.

"It's only that you've had several boyfriends over the years and I can understand that you've reached an age when you would like to settle down. But I'm certain that there's someone quite perfect for you out there, you don't need to stoop to second pickings."

Sybil raised her palms aloft. "Stop right now!" she declared. "Can you actually hear yourself? Second pickings? Because it's clear that Tom had a relationship with someone else before he met me? What does that make me with my several boyfriends then, seventh or eighth pickings?"

"Sybil please…"

"Look Dad, I realise that you're worried that Tom's not going to have enough time to devote to me because of Josh. Thank you for your concern, but we have talked about it! I'm not going into this with my eyes closed and neither is he. It's a big deal, but you know what? He's a big deal and I think he's worth it!"

Robert's expression clouded with concern. "I only worry that you'll get hurt, my darling."

"I know." Sybil softened her stance, torn between gratitude for her father's enduring affections and an ongoing irritation at his narrow minded viewpoint. "But that's a risk everyone takes with love." Even as she spoke, she couldn't help but wryly discern that her first implication of that word had been expressed to her father, rather than directly to Tom.

"And although Tom comes across as a very pleasant chap indeed, I just can't help but worry if there's an underlying moral frailty…"

When she later reflected, Sybil couldn't be certain whether the final two words had simply tipped her over the edge or whether in isolation, they would have caused a similar emission.

"Why, does it make you reflect on your own?" She spoke calmly, but the accompanying fury and indignation were palpable in her expression.

Robert paused, his face grave. "That was below the belt, Sybil."

"No it wasn't! Not when you're questioning the very core of Tom's character. What did you and Mum always tell me? People who live in glass houses, shouldn't throw stones? How can you even begin to criticize him after what you did?"

"That was a very different situation…"

"Too right it was - you were married! Tom's experience is essentially a non-story. Single man meets single woman. They have sex. They split up. Nobody else is involved. She's pregnant. He supports her. They stay friends. I can't see that the papers would be very interested in that one!"

"I made a terrible mistake, I know that and I regret it, but I don't think that now's the time to start raking over it again…"

"Then stop judging Tom! Eddie fell pregnant, well aren't you lucky that the same thing didn't happen to you?" For the first time in the conversation, Sybil felt the first visible stirrings of emotion taking battle alongside her anger - long deflected memories of her mother's distress as well as personal disenchantment brought to the surface once again. She took a deep breath, pausing temporarily until composure had once again been seized.

"She was thirty five, Dad. She could easily have fallen pregnant. You're in no position to be passing moral judgment on anyone."

His admonishment complete, Robert nodded silently, staring with unseen intent at the lawn alongside his daughter, dark shadows under his eyes displaying an evidence of strain.

"You're right of course. If he makes you happy then I'll say no more. But it won't be easy when there's a child involved."

"I know" Sybil said firmly and, unwilling to display any evidence of her own insecurities and anxieties about the future, she turned around and made her way back towards Tom.

ooOoo

Sybil padded quietly along the corridor, cautiously opening the door and stepping silently into Tom's room. A deft flick of her shoulders discarded her dressing gown to the floor and she lifted the bedcovers, slipping swiftly in beside him and shuffling to his side.

"Wha…uh…oh you're naked!" Tom's sleepy rambling was curtailed by Sybil's lips on his, her hands sliding down his body, her intentions distinct. His arms curled enthusiastically around her back and she felt the gentle trace of fingers curve along her spine.

"I want to feel you inside me" she whispered and by consequence found herself instantly on her back, Tom pushing down his boxer shorts with a clumsy eagerness before she had even concluded her sentence. It was fast and inelegant, silent save for an intermittent gasp or grunt while they found a contented rhythm. Rotating her hips, Sybil found her own release, holding his shoulders tightly while their shudders ceased and satisfaction was expelled in a sequence of low moans and lips lightly brushed across skin.

"Where did that come from?" he finally asked, lifting his head, eyes sparkling through the gloom. "I'm not complaining, by the way!"

"I couldn't sleep" she replied truthfully, although once again omitting the cause of her agitation. She had made no mention to Tom of the further dispute with her father, unwilling to press displaced feelings of guilt or discomfort upon his shoulders. Neither had she discussed the issue with either of her sisters, feeling reluctant to be the cause of any further contentious debate on a rare weekend all together. Her anger was concealed but still burned within; she couldn't simply disregard it entirely.

"So I was lying there, thinking about you and then all the things I like you doing to me and so, I just thought that I'd come and give you an opportunity to do them again." She gave a satisfied grin, craning her neck to bestow a soft kiss on his shoulder.

"But what about your father?"

"I don't care" she replied and in part wished it was universally true.

"I don't think he's very impressed with me." It was his first reference to their earlier conversation in the dining room although she couldn't gauge his expression.

"He doesn't know you yet. Don't take any notice."

Tom's brushed an index finger gently across her cheek. "I suppose that now you've had your wicked way with me, you're just going to disappear back to your ivory tower?"

"No" she replied, pushing him gently away and stretching to reach for his phone on the nearby cabinet. "I'm going to set your alarm for five o'clock."

He gave a contented smile. "And then…" she continued playfully "…I might just have my wicked way with you again!"

Sybil was as good as her word. Tom was still squinting at the device and attempting to curtail its aggravating sound when she slipped wordlessly under the covers, licking, kissing and sucking with practiced ease until Tom came loudly with a triumphant roar.

"Shhh…" she giggled, re-emerging to restrain him with her lips. "I think that might have been heard in the next county, never mind the next corridor."

"God, you're amazing" he muttered, his hands spanning her head and gazing at her with unconcealed admiration.

"Amazing at blow jobs, or just amazing per se?" she asked with a smirk.

"Just…amazing at everything."

Sybil wriggled her body until she was lying comfortably on her side, one palm resting against his chest. "Well that's not true, I can't sing to save my life, for a start."

Regardless of the circumstances and previously bestowed compliments, she didn't anticipate his declaration. It took her entirely by surprise.

"I think I'm falling in love with you, Sybil."

It felt in some way symbolic that Tom had chosen this weekend to express the full extent of his growing feelings, coming within hours of a quarrel with her father. As if it served as a transfer of her affections, although in her heart Sybil knew that parental love would never be substituted, only temporarily displaced until her pride had healed.

Even through the dismal light, she could read his hesitation, a fear that he had overstepped the mark and spoken too soon. Her hand reached for his underneath the covers and as their fingers weaved together, she relieved him with her reply.

"Good, because I think I'm already there."

A/N: I've taken the plunge and joined tumblr. In an effort to improve my writing skills, I want to try my hand at something other than Sybil/Tom and fanfiction, but don't really have the time with two stories currently on the go. So I thought that some short blogs might pave the way in the meantime. I don't intend to post much about fanfiction; instead it might be things that I like, topics on my mind, possibly the occasional rant. So there might be something that interests you and probably lots which won't. If the title of my first post - Our Athletic Trampoline - whets your appetite, then you can find me on welshmama dot tumblr dot com