A/N: This is for the Banna Celebration on Tumblr. Obvious Series 5 spoilers here, although a lot of it is speculation (and hopeful longings) but nevertheless, if you're going into Series 5 spoiler-free please avoid this story for now.

A lot of the situations in this fic will not happen in the series, that is apparent now. But as this is fan fiction, I'm going to overlook that. I already changed some of it since we've had more info about the episode from what I'd written originally.

The prompt was 'On the night of the fire in Downton, Anna and John are working late. John saves Anna's life, fulfilling his promise that no harm will come to her again'. I tried to make it a little more vague in the story summary to avoid spoiling it for anyone.

This will be three chapters long, and should all be posted within several days of each other. I'm going to try and get them all posted before I head back to Uni next Wednesday, they're almost all edited now.

Disclaimer: As with all of my Downton Abbey stories, I do not own any of the characters. Those sadly belong to Julian Fellowes.

The Spring to Follow the Winter

It was just another ordinary morning. Well, almost ordinary. John awoke earlier that morning than he usually would, having had another night where sleep had mostly eluded him. He was no stranger to insomnia, but recently his lack of sleep had been for entirely different reasons to those he had suffered in and after Africa and prison. He had managed an hour or so here and there last night, but that was all. He had lain awake for a long time watching her – Anna – as she slept: the way her face looked so utterly at peace, the steady rise and fall of her chest and the way small strands of hair would fall free from the ribbon and across her forehead.

His wife was beautiful. He had known that ever since he had first laid eyes on her, the first time he had come to the Abbey as a new, hopeful valet looking for honest work. She had captivated him from the start – not just through her looks, it was that appreciation that came to him more as time passed by – through the way she would be gentle and compassionate to all, and how in a sea of prejudice she had come to his aid more than once, defending his right to work. She had been the one to greet him with a warm smile upon his swift return after it had been feared he would leave. From then he knew they would become close friends.

As John watched his wife sleep, he was reminded once more of their wedding night. He had undertaken a similar ritual that night, watching her sleep as his eyes attempted to store these sights to memory, not being sure when the newly married couple would be given this privilege again. Earlier that day after leaving the register office in Ripon, both of them had thought even this was a bridge too far. But they had been happily proved wrong after Lady Mary had organised them such a thoughtful gift. Anna had shifted that night from lying in his arms to having flipped onto her stomach, one hand underneath the pillow. He had noticed how her breasts were crushed against the mattress, and he had swallowed in order to suppress his desire for her, something which he knew would not be abated for a while to come. Instead, he focused on the plains of her back, the vast expanse of pale, milky skin which was on display as the duvet had been pushed down during the night.

As John remembered the memory he smiled to himself, noticing now how Anna slept in his arms and nowhere else. For a long time after the concert, the two had slept on their own sides of the bed, but once Anna was comfortable again, John welcomed her into his arms at night and there she had stayed. It had become once more a comfort of sorts to both of them. One of the few that the pair had been allowed to enjoy after that monster had taken so much of the joy from their lives for such a long time. Their marital relations had resumed a few months ago – both had been beyond nervous, but had taken it in their stride. He allowed Anna to set the pace now for all of their love-making, and as he reminded her often, he could live without this side to their relationship if she thought she might never be ready again.

But Anna had been insistent. She wanted to resume that part of their lives again. It would be the perfect revenge to carry on with their lives as if they had not been completely destroyed by that night. And he could tell she was telling him the truth. The scars may have healed on her skin, but he could always tell through her eyes. This time there was no doubt.

Not for the first time John admired the strength of his wife. She had come through so much in life, not unscathed but stronger, and surely that was the most important thing. Scars came as part of the package in life, but the manner in which a person can come through the darkness and into the light spoke testament to their character. Their lives were not entirely free of clouds now, there was no eternal sunlight. It was only the night before last that Anna had suffered another nightmare, waking John as she thrashed around and attempted to escape her fears. They had both come to the conclusion that the current house party, albeit a small one, might have set off unwanted memories. John knew these would never go away, and that they would creep upon them unawares. It had been like this with his nightmares about Africa, and it could have been set off by anything. The clinking of cutlery up at the Abbey could sometimes bear resemblance to the artillery fire and would send John into an uncomfortable sweat, and more than once he had needed to leave at a mealtime to stand outside and get some fresh air.

No. No one could ever escape their past, but they could begin to leave it behind and pave a way for their future.

John liked to imagine he and Anna were doing that now. They had spoken about their future together, if a little vaguely, and the little hotel had been mentioned, as well as the prospect of a little family. It was still a lifelong dream of theirs. A dream that the pair were slowly making their way towards. One step and one day at a time.

John smiled to himself at the thought, never having imagined he would have been lucky enough to even consider the prospect of a family, never mind a wife as perfect as Anna.

Speaking of, John felt her rouse in his arms, groaning lightly as she was prone to do in a morning, covering her eyes with her hands as if to shield the sunlight and allow herself just a few more minutes to sleep.

"Good morning," John greeted her, his voice still thick with sleep.

Anna mumbled something about it being too early to constitute a good morning, and John chuckled. Anna stretched, pulling away from his arms momentarily, lifting her arms above her head as her back clicked, a loud sigh being released from her lips.

"How did you sleep?" John asked once Anna had risen to a sitting position in bed, the sheets having fallen and pooled around her waist. She stretched her arms once moved, covered by her nightgown, and turned to smile at her husband.

"Better," was her simple response. It was all the confirmation John needed.

He smiled and reached across to sweep a stray strand of hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear.

"Perhaps," Anna continued, the tone of her voice lifting as she leaned slightly towards him. "I can show you just how much better I feel."

John noticed that her eyes had darkened slightly, and suddenly those words had an entirely different meaning. He shuddered at the thought, and helplessly nodded as her lips leaned across and captured his in a searing kiss.

He was helpless as Anna took the initiative and straddled his waist, her nightgown bunching up around her waist. Her hands were everywhere, her fingers were numbly opening the buttons of his night shirt and her lips were against his neck. He blindly moved his hands up and down her sides, and after being given permission he lifted the hem of her nightgown up and over her head, revealing the perfect expanse of her body. He let out a moan, as he seemed to always do at the sight of her body, and he leaned his head up as far as he could to pepper her chest with kisses. Anna leaned down to help him, all the while attempting to remove his clothing.

Neither could find it in themselves to care about the time right now, both too wrapped up in each other. Time stopped for no one in life, and both Anna and John had vowed to make the most of every minute from here on in.

As it happened, they were only a little late for work. They hurried through the back door around half an hour after they usually would arrive and managed to remove their coats and enter the hall without detection.

However, as Anna reached for a piece of almost-cold toast from the table, Thomas entered the hall behind them, alongside Mrs Hughes, Jimmy, two maids and a couple of the hall boys.

"Blimey, this is late for you two. What took you so long?" Thomas asked indignantly, although both could tell he hardly cared. The under-butler took a seat in the rocking chair and opened the paper, watching them for a response expectantly.

"Misplaced the house key."

"The alarm didn't go off."

Anna and John responded at the same time, and once they had realised their mistake, blushed. Mrs Hughes seemed to understand immediately too, as did Thomas and Jimmy, the latter who snickered whilst Thomas simply shook his head and muttered something under his breath about the joys of married bliss.

In order to avoid further embarrassment, Anna turned to Mrs Hughes and promptly changed the subject, "Have they rung yet?"

"Lady Mary just now. I was about to go up for you." Mrs Hughes explained. "No sign of His Lordship yet. No doubt tired out from last night."

Both of them nodded at the observation of the housekeeper, and Anna hurried off to tend to Lady Mary.

Mrs Hughes was right. The family were currently hosting a small house party to celebrate the upcoming thirty-fifth wedding anniversary of Lord and Lady Grantham. A few of their friends had been invited, along with Charles Blake at the request of Mary, and a surprise had come in the shape of a friend of Lady Rose's from London. Lord Grantham and Lady Grantham had been up after dinner for as long as usual, if not a little longer because of their guests, but the servants could assume that they had remained awake for a while longer after retiring the previous night...

Bates took a seat at the table, fixing himself a cup of tea as Miss Baxter entered the hall and sat across from him. She smiled and greeted the valet, immediately enquiring as to whether he was all right. Bates smiled and indulged the lady's maid in the conversation, Miss Baxter was nice and both he and Anna were fond of her – at least more than they had been with Miss O'Brien and Edna. Although she seemed to be under the thumb of Thomas, and both husband and wife were eager to discover why, both felt comfortable talking to her.

It was not long after that until Lord and Lady Grantham rung, sending both of the servants upstairs.

The day passed in a flurry – nothing out of the ordinary happening – although Bates had not managed to catch Anna for more than a few minutes at luncheon. Lady Mary had decided to go out for a walk with Charles and baby George – although he was quickly growing, no longer a baby – which meant that Anna had to find the right clothes and boots. They also arrived back earlier than expected after an unexpected shower of rain, and then Anna had to take the clothes to the laundry room straight away to ensure that none of them stained.

It was approaching nightfall and the dinner when John could finally have a conversation with his wife. She sat at the table beside him and asked about his day. He replied that Lord Grantham had simply had a quiet day with friends, whereas Anna sighed and regaled the tales of her day.

"Take it easy for a while." John recommended, reaching across to take her cup and add some more sugar to her tea. He knew she liked it sweeter when she needed to calm down and rest.

John watched as Anna smiled, realising that she had a moment to sit down and take her cup of tea. But then he watched as her features changed, realisation suddenly dawning upon her.

"I forgot, I left some of her stockings upstairs. And some of her laundry. I needed to mend them."

"Can't it wait?" John asked, concerned.

Anna shook her head. "I was in a rush to come back down," she explained briefly. "She wanted the new nightgown too. Better to do it now. Then we can leave earlier later." She turned and smiled at him, hoping that he would understand.

He did, of course. But he still worried about her.

John resigned himself to a nod of the head and watched as she left to go back upstairs. He sighed quietly, contemplating that Anna really needed to slacken her work load soon. It would do her no good to be getting increasingly tired and overworked. Perhaps he could speak to Mrs Hughes about it, she usually understood and actively persuaded Anna with these matters. She would only make herself ill if she carried on this way. But hopefully things would lessen up after this week and everything got back to usual.

Mr Carson then entered the room, flustered, and called out, "Madge, Lady Edith has retired early. Could you go and see to her?"

"Why could you not have sent Jimmy down to tell us that?" Mrs Hughes asked from her seat after everyone else had sat down too, evidently the housekeeper being concerned with the bright red face of the butler.

Mr Carson fixed the housekeeper with a look before turning on his heel and heading back upstairs to regulate the dinner himself.

"That will be all, thank you, Madge."

Edith Crawley let out a large sigh as the maid left her bedroom. She flung herself down onto her bed, and slowly let the tears begin to fall.

Her heart ached for her daughter. Marigold was only at the farm close by, but somehow being so close to her daughter felt like she was further away. The weight of the secret was beginning to show in her eyes, and Tom had asked more than once about her welfare, including her mother and father asking themselves.

But she could not reveal her secret. How could she? To reveal that her bastard child – although she shivered at even the thought of calling her daughter by that label, although that would be her name if word got out in the village and amongst upper society – was living with a local farmer, that she had lied to her parents and gone abroad with Aunt Rosamund to deliver the child, and only because she had slept with Michael in London, to which he had then disappeared in Germany whilst hoping to ascertain citizenship so he could divorce his lunatic wife and marry her.

It all sounded like a mad Brontë novel.

Edith was surprised that her grandmother knew all about it, and supported her through it. In the past, she would have thought that Granny would have been the least supportive of them all.

Edith picked up her current book from the nightstand and began to open to her latest page, despite being blinded by her tears.

But despite all of it, Edith could never regret her choices. She had a daughter whom she loved, and even if she could only manage snatches of moments with her whilst Mrs Drew was out, she would still take them in a heartbeat.

She just wished she could tell her family. She still wished things could be different – that Marigold could live here, with her two cousins Sybil and George, where her family could surround her and love her. She could imagine a perfect life. And then that perfect life could be made even better if Michael would return, and then the three of them could be a proper family. They could go away somewhere nobody knew them and start again with their daughter.

But the thought of what seemed to be the impossible only threw Edith into another fit of tears.

Distraught, Edith threw the book to her side and away from the bed, letting her head fall into her hands as she sobbed in anguish.

But as the book flew away from the bed, it landed part inside the fireplace on top of the grate, and part off. The edge of the book caught fire, the weight then tipping it forward and onto the floor.

The slight noise did not alarm Edith just yet.

It was only when the flames from the book caught the chair situated beside the fireplace, and consequently began to spread that Edith looked up.

Anna sighed and flung the new nightgown over the furnished chair that Lady Mary kept near her fire, letting it warm before she would come back upstairs from dinner. Anna had no clue when she would be back upstairs, and although she was not entirely meant to and would usually do it downstairs, she began to take out the stockings that needed mending, and in the meantime searched for the rest, and started to mend them there, having brought her things up with her.

Whilst she yearned for a rest, she knew that going back downstairs would only mean being distracted, either by the conversations happening in the hall or by John. Not that she minded his distractions. But she would rather have more time to themselves later that night, and also in the near future, which could be achieved if she started and finished most of this now. She was usually organised and meticulous with her work, but recently her head had been everywhere but her work.

Anna could feel her head begin to ache slightly now, probably from the rushing around that day, but she pushed it aside and continued to work. She could get a powder for it later. She became entirely focused on her work, losing herself into her own little world. She perched herself by the window, ensuring that there was no one outside to see her and continued to mend the stockings, unaware of the dangers growing close by.

Coming up: The alarm is raised and an evacuation begins, but amongst the panic Bates realises that Anna is still missing.

A/N (2): I also have no idea where Edith's room is in relation to Mary, but for the purposes of this story they are close by. I hope you enjoyed it! Please let me know what you think.