AN: Thank you to all of you who requested this. It turned out rather fluffy, but sometimes fluff is what we need and I wish this had actually happened on the show.

Let me know what you think. And let's hope that something like this will really happen on the show rather sooner than later.

Kat

"I am sorry Mr. Bricker, but my sister-in-law insists on me having dinner with her. Apparently there is something urgent she wants to talk about." She sees the disappointment in his face and it flatters her. She is disappointed too, she would have enjoyed to have dinner with him. But she can't put off Rosamund like that.

"Are you sure you can't just deny her?"

"I am sure." Rosamund would call her mother if she did not show up for dinner and the Dowager Countess would give her quite a dressing down. And rightly so. She is Rosamund's guest and her sister-in-law has had her heart set on them having dinner together.

"Might I escort you home?" She would like to say yes, by Rosamund had been adamant at not bringing Bricker along. She though it was a pity, because after Rosamund had told her to come home, she had thought that she could just bring Bricker along, she thought that Mr. Bricker and Rosamund might get along rather well. He is good at flirting and her sister-in-law deserves a man who flirts with her. She has been alone for too long, far too long, but Rosamund said 'No. I want to have dinner with you and just you. Please Cora'. She had given in then, she and Rosamund might not be the very best of friends but they do get along and Rosamund has always been on her side.

"I'd like to say yes. But no. I am sorry."

"Might I see you again? Take you out to dinner some other time?" This is something else she wants to say yes to, but she knows better than that. If she had gone to the Ritz with him today, it would have been spontaneous and thus acceptable. But planning to have dinner with him alone would go a step to far. She likes Mr. Bricker very much, or rather she likes the way he flirts with her and is interested in her, but she also has a duty to Robert.

"I doubt it. It would not be a very good idea."

"Because you are married."

"Because I am very happily married."

"Are you?" Mr. Bricker looks at her questioningly and she knows why someone who has only seen Robert and her together over the course of the last two months or so might doubt their happiness.

"Yes." On the whole, she thinks. Robert is going through one of his phases again. Sometimes that happens when things don't go his way. He starts to take her for granted then, stops really taking care of her, is not interested in what she has to say anymore. And he keeps saying 'it's nothing to bother you with', whenever she asks him something about the estate or business or other things that he gets upset about. But on her way to London she decided that the next time he said 'it's nothing to bother you with' she would tell him that that bothered her very much. She would make him talk to her. It is about time that she helped him snap out of this phase. He sometimes comes out of these phases alone and he sometimes needs her help and he now needs her help.

"Pity." This makes her laugh and causes butterflies to fly in her stomach, but she tries to ignore that particular sensation.

"I'll take that as a compliment. Goodbye Mr. Bricker."

"Goodbye." She doesn't turn around once she is inside the taxi, she is afraid that she might regret what she has just done.

The butler lets her in and then points her to the drawing room and she calls out for Rosamund. "Rosamund? I'm back. I just need to change and then," she stops in her tracks when she sees who is waiting for her.

"Robert!" she exclaims, almost shrieks, and she knows that she has a very stupid grin plastered across her face. She did not expect this, not at all. He looks at her a little questioningly and doesn't say anything. Maybe he was shocked by how high-pitched her voice had suddenly gone. She does feel rather stupid now, like a lovesick school girl, but she is just so happy that Robert is here.

"What are you doing here?" she asks him and takes a few steps towards him and then realizes that he has not gotten up.

"I wanted to surprise you."

"Well, that you certainly have." He still doesn't get up, something that is not at all typical for him.

"The question that remains to be answered is whether this is a good surprise."

"Of course it is. I asked you to come with me four times. And now you are here. It's the best surprise I have had in a long time."

"If you are sure," he says and finally gets up. "Only, Rosamund said that you wanted to have dinner with that Mr. Bricker."

"Well, he invited me, but Rosamund told me to come here and I could kiss her for that."

"Really?"

"Well, I'd much rather kiss you to be honest."

And then he finally walks towards her and he does kiss her. And then lifts her up swings her around once and kisses her again. She shrieks again but this time he laughs about that and doesn't look annoyed at it.

"Sorry," she says nonetheless. "I am just so very happy that you are here."

"Well, I am glad I came. Mary cautioned me, she told me surprises could go horribly wrong. I am glad I did not listen to her."

"Mary is too much of a pragmatist. I wonder where she gets that from."

"Life, I suppose," Robert says and shakes his head as if he wanted to end this particular part of the conversation and she knows that that might be better. "I thought I'd take you out tonight. Go to dinner and then dancing. If that is what you want." Dinner and dancing. They haven't done that for a very long time.

"Just us?" she asks disbelievingly.

"Just us," he says and smiles at her. He has still got his arms around her waist and her hands are resting on his shoulders. It is so easy to kiss him now. And she does.

"I would like that very much." She kisses him again. "But what about Rosamund?"

"What about her?"

"Can we just ignore her? You two haven't seen each other in ages."

"She told me that we should ignore her. After I promised that we would both have breakfast with her tomorrow morning before we leave."

"I already got up for breakfast today."

"I know. And it was very nice to see you that early in the morning before we both had to leave." This makes her go weak in the knees. He hasn't said anything like that to her in months.

"Well, I suppose it is a fair trade-off. I did promise your sister a good round of family gossip."

"What were you going to gossip about?"

"You," she says. It isn't true, she had actually decided on not saying much about Robert at all because she did not want to alert Rosamund to Robert's problems, but the way he asked her just made her give that answer.

"Well, I suppose my dear sister will have to wait for you dishing about me a little longer then." There is a boyish twinkle in his eyes that hasn't been there for a long time and she has to laugh out loud.

"I am not one to kiss and tell in any case," she says to him and as if on cue he gives her a very brief kiss on the lips.

"Good. Because that is really not my sister's business. But now we both have to get changed or we will be late." They walk up the stairs hand in hand and she is only able to let go off him once they have reached the door to her room because she knows that the evening will be much better if they do go out and not spend it in bed. Not the whole evening in any case.

"I can't believe he is here," she says to Baxter without thinking and her lady's maid smiles a sad smile at her. She wishes Baxter was more open. A little like Anna is with Mary. But those two have known each other for longer than half their lives and are as thick as thieves. Thief.

"Baxter, I have decided that you can stay. You do your work very well and everyone deserves a second chance."

"Thank you mi'lady." She briefly wonders how much this decision has been influenced by her giddiness about Robert having come to London, but she dismisses the thought. She does not miss any jewels and she really believes that everyone deserves a second chance.

"You look very pretty," Robert says and smiles at her in the mirror.

"Thank you." She wonders what has gotten into him, but maybe he is just snapping out of his phase.

So they go to dinner and she can't remember when they had a dinner as nice as this one. They talk about everything and nothing and they both drink a little more than they probably should and Robert becomes rather uninhibited. It feels a little like it did when he courted her, although now she knows that he actually loves her. When she can't decide between two choices of desert, he orders the one she did not order and lets her have three quarters of it.

"You know Robert, if I wasn't already married, I'd seriously consider marrying you," she says to him when he tells her that she can finish his desert without feeling bad about it.

"I am very glad to hear that," he says and squeezes her hand.

They really do go dancing afterwards and Robert holds her a lot closer than would be appropriate, but that is something he has always done, he already did that when they danced together for the second time. She unabashedly told him that she liked how he was holding her and she thinks the smile he gave her then was what made her fall in love with him.

Once they sit down he moves his chair so that he is actually sitting next to her.

"Robert, people will gossip," she says to him, although she is rather happy about having him so close to her.

"I don't care. Considering the fact that our eldest daughter has most likely spent the week in the company of Tony Gillingham doing God knows what, I think I should be allowed to sit next to you."

"So you don't believe in that sketching trip either?" That somehow relieves her because she had been afraid of having to keep another one of Mary's secrets from Robert for years.

"Not for a single second. Our Mary going on a sketching trip. That was a bigger lie than the one she told when she claimed that it had been my dog who had stolen the cake, eaten half of it and smeared the other half on her dress."

"She was only six then."

"Yes. And in the 27 years that followed she hasn't really improved her lying skills." This makes her laugh so hard that she nearly spits her drink across the table. Robert hits her on the back but then does not take his hand away. She leans towards him and they kiss, really kiss. Not just a peck on the cheek or the lips, it is a deep kiss, that sort of kiss they have never given each other in public before. And it exhilarates her.

"Robert," she says and nothing else and he just smirks at her. In fact he seems rather pleased with himself. "That will be in the gossip pages tomorrow."

"I don't know. I am not sure we were seen. But even if that was the case, what could they write? Earl of Grantham kisses his wife. What a scandal." He leaves her a short while later for a few minutes and she hopes that no one will ask her to dance while Robert isn't there.

"Would you dance with me?" She looks up and almost drops the glass she had been holding.

"Mr. Bricker. What are you doing here?"

"Trying to drown my sorrows." He sits down without her having invited him.

"In a place like this."

"Yes."

"Shouldn't you better go to a pub? Or home?" She does not like Mr. Bricker sitting in Robert's chair, sitting so close to her, so she moves her own chair away from him.

"Maybe. But I am glad I came here. Why did you lie to me?"

"I did not lie to you. I really thought my sister-in-law wanted to have dinner with me. She did not tell me that my husband was waiting for me."

"Would you still have refused dinner with me? If you had known that it was your husband waiting for you?" She wishes he would leave. He has become a little too familiar with her. She knows she encouraged it, too much probably, but this is going too far.

"I told you that I was very happily married. That was not a lie. So yes, I would have left in an instant had I known that it was my husband who was waiting for me."

"But you two have nothing in common." He is fighting tooth and nail for her now and in a weird way it flatters her, but it also does not feel right.

"We have a 35 year history, three children, two grandchildren. A house, an estate. And love. Mutual deep love for one another. It may not have looked like that to you, but that is the way it is."

"Cora,"

"No. Don't call me that. I am sorry Mr. Bricker, I do like you and I thank you again for showing me around the national gallery and for your interest in my family's art. But that is all. There won't ever be more because I gave my heart away 35 years ago and what I got in return was wonderful marriage. So I have to ask you to leave now."

"But"

"She asked you to leave." Robert has returned and looks as if he was about to hit Mr. Bricker who again says

"But"

"She asked you to leave and you will leave now. You have no right to flirt with her or take her out to dinner or do with her what I am almost sure you want to do with her."

"Mr. Bricker," she says "please. I want you to leave." He doesn't move, but Robert does. For a second she thinks that he is about to hit Mr. Bricker, but instead he grabs her and pulls her onto the dance floor.

"I thought you were going to hit him."

"I considered it. But I'd rather not get in a fight. I am not sure I would win."

"You'd win any fight for me, Robert." They keep on dancing and once they return to their table Simon Bricker has gone.

They decide to walk home because it isn't that far and the night is beautiful. Without conscious thought she holds onto Robert's arm, something that seems to please him terribly.

"Robert?"

"Yes?"

"What are we going to do about Mary?" She regrets the question once she has asked it. They had such a nice evening, they should have left their troubles behind.

"Nothing."

"So you aren't mad at her?"

"I am not impressed. But Cora, she is 33 years old, she lost a husband she loved very much. It is not as if she was a 19 year old who had no idea what she was doing."

"Like I was."

"What?"

"I was a 19 year old who had no idea what she was doing when I came here, in search of a husband with a title. I had been in the school room only a few months before and had no idea how to act at those balls that my mother forced me to attend. And I was scared because I knew I wasn't doing things right."

"No. But you were something different. You were very interesting. Half of London was in love with you."

"Robert, you flatter me. And you know it isn't true. But I thank you for the compliment."

"Don't you remember how many names you collected on your dance cards? Because I remember it." He looks a little put out now and it makes her chuckle and she thinks that if she hadn't fallen for him 35 years ago, she'd certainly fall for him now.

"Well, hardly any of those men really wanted to marry me. Only the fortune hunters did." This is still a sore point for Robert. She couldn't care less if he was a fortune hunter, but he still gets upset over it from time to time. But she likes to tease him and she won't take it too far.

"Which had nothing to do with your personality. Or your looks. Or your other charming qualities."

"And it had everything to do with the fact that I was new money from America. So I should thank your mother profusely for making your father fall in love with her and marry her although she did not have a single penny."

"What?"

"If your mother had brought enough money into her marriage, you would not have had to marry a rich American. And I am very glad that you had to do exactly that." Robert now frees his arm from her grasp and puts it around her shoulder. She puts an arm around his waist and what they are doing is completely inappropriate, even for a night in London, but Robert is right. Even if they were seen and gossiped about, what would the gossip be? Earl and Countess of Grantham still in love with one another. There are worse reasons to be gossiped about.

"Rosamund laughed about me today when I came to her house. She knew why I was coming and when I came into her sitting room she laughed about me. She called me a romantic fool. And then she said that she loved me for it because she has been able to say 'I told you so' to Mama for over three decades now."

"What?"

"Rosamund thinks that I would have married you regardless of our need for money. She says she knew I'd fall for you when she us dance together for the first time. And she told Mama. You know how Mama was against this marriage. But Rosamund told her to accept it because it was a love match. Of course Mama dismissed that and told Rosamund that I'd be unhappy for the rest of my life. And you can bet on her calling Mama tomorrow morning as soon as if we have left and telling her all about tonight. And ending her monologue by saying 'I told you so'."

"I think it is Rosamund who is the romantic fool. But we were very lucky. Considering how young we were when we tied ourselves to each other for life. We were still children and we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, no idea whatsoever. This could have gone horribly wrong. We could have ended up hating each other. Who would have known that we'd still be behaving like lovesick teenagers three and half decades later?" They have almost reached Rosamund's house now and Robert stops them and turns her towards him.

"Cora, I am sorry. For behaving the way I did. I know I haven't been a very good husband lately." She does not want to have this conversation, not right now. And she does not need to hear him say that he is sorry. They will have to talk about him treating her like a child, but not now, not tonight.

"You've been a wonderful husband tonight. And I am sure that you will be for the rest of the night." He gives her another kiss that is completely inappropriate outside of their bedroom and she can hear a passing woman say "Why can they never behave?"

She has no idea whether 'they' was supposed to mean 'people like them' or whether they have actually been recognized. But she does not care.

"This was a wonderful evening, you are right about that. We should do it again."

"Definitely."

"Should we walk around the square once more?"

"Not if sleeping is not the only thing you want to do in bed tonight."

"Sleeping, my darling wife, is the last thing on my mind right now."

Much later that night, when they are wrapped around one another without any clothes on, the smell of lovemaking surrounding them, he finally says to her what she has been waiting to hear for months now. "I love you."

She frees one of her arms and smoothes a lose strand of his hair.

"I love you too, my darling."

He wakes up when his alarm rings and instinctively looks to his right. Cora is lying next to him, halfway on his side on the bed, her head on his pillow. She always does this, no matter what happened the night before. When he snapped at her that she should tell Mr. Bricker to stop flirting with Isis, she had been mad at him and fallen asleep turned away from him, but when he woke in the middle of the night, she had been lying next to him exactly the way she is now. Only now she isn't wearing any clothes.

"Cora, darling, wake up." She mumbles something and he has no idea what she said, although he would not be surprised if it was supposed to mean 'go away'. Because that is what she says when she does not want to be woken. She hates being woken. He kisses her cheek now, which makes her open one eye and smile a little at him.

"I love you but I am still asleep," she says and turns her head away from him. This makes him laugh. She is so cute in the mornings. He rubs her back now and again says "Darling, you have to get up."

"No. It's your fault I am still tired." That is true, he cannot deny that. He was the one to insist on a second, well, he should not think about that right now or they won't be down for breakfast on time. As a precaution, he also rings for Baxter.

"Get up darling. Baxter will be here soon."

"If you had not rung we could have,"

"No. We promised Rosamund." Quite beside the fact that he does not like to break promises, he has also been looking forward to spending at least some time with his sister. Cora was right, Rosamund and he have not seen each other for too long.

"You look tired. Both of you," Rosamund says by way of greeting them when they join her for breakfast. He only raises his eyebrows at his sister who smirks at him but then changes the topic of the conversation. She apparently has an inside scoop on the marriage of Shrimpie and Susan and he hopes that it is not true that they are both having extra-marital affairs in Bombay, although he can very well imagine it.

"Let's not tell Rose. She knows her parents don't get along well, but she does not need to know this."

"Robert, she is 22 years old. I think she could handle it." He looks at Cora in surprise and is even more surprised when Rosamund agrees with Cora and says "It is your decision to tell her not, but don't keep it from her to protect her." This comes from women's rights he thinks and then realizes how stupid that thought is. Both his wife and sister and come to think of it, his daughters are rather outspoken, he should not doubt that women can deal with things like that, he should probably drop his notion that women's minds are more delicate than that of men. But that is what he has been raised to believe. Which seems rather funny, considering his mother's outspokenness.

"You are not wearing your hat." He doesn't think he has ever seen Cora leaving the house with her hat in her hands instead of on her head.

"I want to sleep in the car and the hat would only get crumbled. And bother you." He wonders what she means until they get into the car and Cora puts her head on his shoulder. She was right, the hat would have bothered him. He puts an arm around her shoulder to make her more comfortable and then dozes off himself.

He wakes up when they have travelled half of the way and because Cora is still asleep, he decides to attend to a business matter. He looks at the documents Tom has given to him concerning building 50 houses on the estate. He does not like the idea, not at all, but Mary and Tom insist that it is a very good deal.

"What has you so worried?" Cora looks at him very concernedly. He had hoped she wouldn't wake up, but he jostled her awake.

"Nothing to bother you with."

She now sits up straight and looks at him rather angrily.

"Robert, there is nothing that bothers me more than that sentence."

"What?"

"Robert, you keep saying that to me and you are treating me like a child that way. It is as if you didn't trust me. As if you did not value my opinion." She actually looks hurt.

"Cora, there is no one in the world that I trust more than I trust you." How could she think that he did not trust her? But she looks truly taken aback now. "Did you really not now that?"

"Well, you hardly ever show it to me. You never talk to me about important things. Not about the estate, not about our finances, not about anything really." There are tears in her eyes now and he wonders what he has done wrong.

"Cora, all I want to do is to protect you, to make you happy. I don't want you to have to worry about anything." She takes his hand now and then looks up at him.

"That is very sweet of you, but not helpful. Robert, you are treating me like a child in many ways. And it does not make me feel very appreciated." How can she think that?

"Cora, I appreciate you very much. I am so thankful for you. I'd be devastated and lost without you." She chuckles at this but it is not a very happy chuckle.

"Darling, I am glad you see it that way, but that is not how you act."

"Cora," he doesn't know what else to say. He has a dawning suspicion that she is right. And he is exceedingly sorry for having made her feel as if she was a child.

"Bother me Robert. I know you are struggling with many things right now. And the world is rapidly changing. Please Robert, talk to me. I might be able to help you. I talk to Mary and Tom. I read the newspaper. It is not as if I knew nothing. You used to take me with you when you went about the estate. Do that again. Don't turn me into an accessory."

"Cora that is rubbish. You are much more than," but he stops when she sees the look that she is giving him.

"You are doing it again, Robert. I think that sometimes you don't realize what you are doing and I am not saying that you are doing it on purpose or that your motives weren't honorable. But you can be a little condescending towards me." He can't believe what he is hearing.

"Well, I am sorry that I have been such a bad husband."

"Robert," Cora says in an exasperated manner that is driving him mad. "Don't be such a child. I never said that you were a bad husband. I'd never say anything like that because it would be an utter lie. I just think that you would make both our lives much easier if you talked to me more about what is troubling you. Or what makes you happy." He doesn't really understand why she would want that.

"Why would you want me to bother you?"

"Because I am your wife. I love you. I want to help you. And I just generally like to be involved." She smiles at him now, a smile that seems somehow subdued but still takes his breath away. He strokes her cheek and it seems to please her. And that is all he wants. So maybe he should just do what she asks.

"I'll bother you then. I promise." Her smile now turns from subdued to brilliant.

"Thank you," she says and then puts her head on his shoulder again and without realizing it, he puts her arm around her again.

"Cora?"

"Hm?"

"What are we going to do about Tom?"

"Tell him that we want him to stay. Not just Sybbie. Him too. Tell him how much we'd miss him."

"And the teacher?" He is afraid that he will have a falling out about that teacher with Tom.

"If he is serious about her, I'll talk to her. I'll try to make her understand that she can't insult our guests. She has a lot to learn, but she is intelligent. I'll guide her through the next dinners. She might be more open towards me. I am an outsider too, after all."

"Cora," he can't believe she still sees herself at that.

"It is not a bad thing Robert." She smiles at him again and he realizes what he has in her and once again becomes painfully aware of what she gave up for him. He wants to tell her that but she has fallen asleep again. After over 34 years of marriage, his darling wife still falls asleep in his arms.

"I love you," he whispers and then falls asleep again himself, holding her to him as close as possible.