Ch 11- Welcome Home, Part I

"Hello my sweet babies, hello." Elsie soothed, looking down at her newborn twins. "Mummy certainly didn't expect for there to be two of you. How could she have gone eight months without knowing you were two and not one? Isn't that silly of your Mummy?"

The baby boy twin, Charlie, yawned deeply as he looked up at his mother, his tiny blue eyes straining to see her. His sister, Charlotte was half asleep again. Truthfully, it wasn't Elsie's fault that she didn't know to expect twins it was Dr. Clarkson's, who was not highly skilled at noticing little things like that, something that no one but Isobel Crawley had gathered and no one would ever speak of.

"What beautiful babies you are." She giggled, tears in her eyes.

It was snowing outside and the family of four were back in their cottage after three long days at Downton. Charlie and Elsie were eager to settle into the house with the twins they hadn't known they were expecting. Two instead of one made it more overwhelming in everyway but it also made the miracle even greater. The Carson's felt wholly and of course, doubly blessed.

Elsie was in the kitchen with the babies, and Carson was outside, getting more firewood out of their cellar.

"I hope it's not too cold for my baby lad and my baby lass." She said peering down at the twins who lay cuddled up in a basket together. "Mummy loves you so much my sweet little darlings."

"Everything alright in here?" Carson asked. Elsie looked over at the open door, wrapping the twin's blanket tighter around them as the cold air came in.

"Yes, but please, hurry with the fire Charlie I don't want them to freeze to death."

Because they were a little premature, Isobel had emphasized the importance of keeping them especially warm before she sent them home, Carson thought his wife was a bit paranoid about it. Charlie paused, looking over her shoulder at the babies and smiled deeply.

"Well would you look at that." He laughed. "They sleep better when they're together, just like you and I!"

"Of course they do, until a few days ago they only knew each other."

For varying reasons, Elsie had felt lonely for much of her life and wondered what it might be like to have a relationship that was wired into you in this way that you were born with. She delighted in the fact that her children were close already, seeming to thrive in each other's presence.

"What do you say we get the three of you off to bed to rest…." Carson began. He'd been worried about having Elsie on her feet for so long.

"I am a bit tired." She confessed.

"Are you sure they can be in the one cradle…" This suggestion of Isobel's, of having them sleep together unnerved him. He didn't think it was safe.

'Yes. They shared my insides until two days ago they can share a cot. Besides, I'm sure they'll give you more trouble than it's worth if you separate them anyway."

"But it…"

She sighed. "She says it'll keep them warm, and happy and help them grow its natural for them..."

"Fine." He sighed. "But if one rolls over on the other, separate sleeping arrangements it is."

"Charlie they're too little to roll!'

Elsie giggled when he walked away to build the fire, turning to her wide-awake newborn son. "I think you'll find your Daddy loves you very much and is quite a bit overprotective."

Charlotte woke up in that moment, yawning so much it seemed to overpower her little body.

"My little Charlotte, are you a dream?" Elsie asked, smiling brightly. "Because you're surely what they're made of."

Lord and Lady Grantham had done the unprecedented thing of giving Elsie and Carson a considerable amount of time off after the babies were born. Carson would have three weeks off and Elsie a little over a month, after which time, Charlotte and Charlie would join Benjamin in Downton's nursery. No one knew how Downton would run without Charles and Elsie, and for certain no one was more panicked about it than Mrs. Patmore who'd pledged not only to help with their work while they were gone but also bring them dinner every night.

Cora and Robert had invited the Carson's to stay at Downton for as long as they liked, insisting that they be waited on hand and foot. It was something that all new parents should have, according to Lady Grantham. Elsie wasn't completely comfortable with the notion. Having watched her mother go back to work barely days after her sister Becky was born, she didn't find it necessary to convalesce for that long. Nonetheless, she and Carson decided to accept the privilege extended to them and stayed for several days until she felt well enough to make the journey home.

Now the twins were three days old and a little more alert than they'd been at birth. The Carson's had planned on walking home but Cora wouldn't have it and sent them home in a car driven by Branson, with several baskets full of baby things, blankets and food. Mrs. Patmore had had an awful time before they'd gone and for a moment refused to let twins, who she'd grown quite attached to, go.

Carson and Elsie, on the other hand, were secretly ecstatic to take their children home. It had been the thing they were most looking forward to because it made the whole surreal thing seem so new all over again, and more than that, it marked their first time sharing their home life with them, rather than their life at Downton. They were supposed to have been born at home, after all.

"It's just the four of us now my loves, you and me and Daddy. That's your family." She soothed, reaching into the basket to take one of each of her children's bitty feet. She leaned down and kissed them. "We waited a long time to make a family, and you both make it extra, extra special, did you know that?"

Charlotte looked back at her Mother with bright brown eyes, able to see her a bit better now than she could at birth. Charlie lay back, sucking on his tiny hand, gnawing on it with toothless little gums Elsie found just adorable.

"My miracles." She laughed, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I want to show you around, but I'm waiting until Daddy finishes the fire." She whispered. "It's a smaller house than Downton, but it's your home with a Mummy and Daddy who adore you more than the world and your very own room, how many little lads and lass' can say that?"

Truthfully, Elsie felt bad that they had to share, but she figured it would be fine for now. The twins were just babies and it would be many years before they were too old to share. Moreover, Elsie intended to raise children who liked each other and had decided she wouldn't put up with the rivalry that commanded many sibling relationships, Lady Mary and Lady Edith, for example.

"Thank you for the fire, Daddy." Elsie said gently.

He said nothing and smiled, coming to his wife's side and placing his arm around her. Together, they looked down, smiling at their newborn baby twins.

"They're perfect Mrs. Carson." He kissed her cheek.

"They are, Mr. Carson."

The two said nothing for a moment, staring back at the twins. Charlie continued to suck on his own hand and Charlotte was beginning to drift off again.

"Would you like to take a nap, my darling?" He asked her.

"No, no I think I'd like a bath actually."

"A bath?" He was surprised.

"Yes. I think it'd be just the right thing to soothe all the places I ache." He felt terrible when she said that. "And the two of you can stay with your Daddy." She smiled.

…..

Elsie hadn't really wanted him to come. She felt awful and very ugly. She certainly didn't want to be seen fully unclothed, even by her husband of so many years…. well maybe especially by her husband of so many years.

Baby Charlie seemed to watch as his father took the cloth he was holding and began to rub his mother's back and neck ever so softly. Elsie didn't know how she felt about his insistence that he help her wash, or that he rub her back. At the same time, her back still ached badly and she found that the kind gesture was helping.

"Soon we're going to wash Charlie and Charlotte." She remarked.

"Oh?" He wasn't sure he was ready for this.

Not only was he overprotective of both her and the twins, but he was secretly very worried he'd make a mistake while caring for one of them.

"Yes, they're three days old it's time for a bath I think."

"Do you feel any better?" He asked anxiously, changing the subject.

"Hmmm. A little." She smiled, looking down into her husband's arms.

He held Charlie who was wide-awake and looked up at her with big clear blue eyes. Charlotte was fast asleep in the basket they'd brought upstairs with them.

"Oh my handsome men." She smiled, reaching out to caress the baby boy's chin. "My very handsome men."

"He has your eyes." He smiled, enchanted. He thought it was his favorite thing about his son.

"And she yours." She smiled back.

"You may have handsome men but I have beautiful girls." He beamed, looking down into the basket beside him where Charlotte slept. "And I don't know about you, but I'm in love with both my girls, and with a newborn boy far more handsome than I."

"I'm over the moon." She promised.

"You knew about this, didn't you?" He asked of the fact that their children were twins.

"I certainly did not!"

"You made a blue blanket and a pink blanket." He laughed, not believing her.

"For my boy and your girl." She said as he continued to rub her back and she started to wash her hair.

"I'd say that speaks of knowing Mrs. Carson."

"Get away with you." She teased. He leaned down and brushed her lips softly with a kiss when Charlie began to fuss. "Umm he's hungry I think."

"Alright come on my boy. Let's get you a bottle before you wake up your sister."

"Charlie I can nurse him…"

"No, no you need time to relax, Charlotte's asleep so I'll leave her with you."

"Alright that's fair enough." She agreed.

Elsie sighed and leaned back against the tub, closing her eyes as she sunk deeper into the water. She submerged herself all the way to her neck and sighed, the warm water quickly soothing her most sore places.

…

"Well I never expected this I must say." He smiled, looking down at his son as he took to his bottle. "You know, your Mummy was still young enough to have a baby." Carson began.

Well, actually she wasn't really young enough to have a baby either. Just young enough to still get pregnant: there was a difference.

"But me…I'm afraid I'm quite old for it. So your father asks for your forgiveness, if he's ever too slow or too anything else. He's an old father, but so happy to be your father nonetheless."

Carson was…well … ancient for a first time father, especially in 1915. But it didn't matter to him one bit. He smiled, looking into his son's tiny eyes. The twin's eyes had been repeatedly changing in color since their birth. Today it was settling into bright blue eyes for Charlie and brown for Charlotte. His and hers eyes. It would stay that way.

Carson looked down at his son, observing how much of his wife was obviously present in him. Like his sister, he'd inherited his mother's reddish auburn hair, and in his case, her blue eyes. He marveled over how both babies had so much Elsie in them and yet there was still a lot of him there too.

"I'm so happy you have your mother's beautiful eyes." He whispered.

Carson thought back to the holiday he and his wife had taken eight months earlier, he never would've thought so much would come of it. They'd planned for the trip to be relaxing, private time where they could enjoy each other freely, without having to hide the true nature of their relationship. Both had relished the trip, even many months after. But certainly neither of them ever would've expected they'd finally get pregnant, so many years after giving up on it.

"Truthfully; I never expected a son. I spent the whole eight months wanting your sister and expecting her." He laughed. Charlie blinked, looking up at his Dad. Carson felt his whole soul smile. "Little boy I gave up on you almost a lifetime ago."

Charlie sighed, continuing to have his bottle. At one time Carson had been looking forward to having a son, perhaps even two of them, and he'd idealized the idea of having a little girl... But he let go of the idea of children altogether, it becoming too painful for him once it became apparent that Elsie was not going to get pregnant. And for some reason, once she did, he'd thought only of life with a daughter.

"You're the best surprise I've ever gotten." He laughed, rocking him in his arms.

For several days, Carson had been thinking carefully about his own boyhood. His father had been a hard, callous man who'd rarely if ever shown him love, let alone mercy. He'd known, for a long time, how he planned to parent a daughter. He thought it would be easy for him, and had decided to love and cherish her just as he did his wife and his mother, except with a little girl of his own, he could be there to dote on her, make her feel confident and loved, teach her what a good man was like, to make time for a tea party with her when she asked…. and so many other things that seemed almost inherent to him. But for a boy…he didn't know how to begin loving a boy or parenting him, only that he did love him very much. In the end, Carson decided the best thing to do was to love him. Unconditionally and just as he'd once wanted to be loved by his own father.

"I will do for you what I longed for my father to do for me: I will cherish you, and your sister, and make you the center of my life little Charlie."

Carson was an old father and so he decided he'd do the thing his father had refused to do for him and his mother: make happy memories. Ones that his children would cherish and hold in their hearts, as they grew into their own and he faded away.