Here's the epilogue, answering a few of those questions left at the end of it all. Thanks again to everyone for reading! And again, thanks to mimijag for the prompt! Happy Holidays!

Epilogue

August, 1924
Seven Years Later…

The boy stared at the plaque, his finger tracing the various names etched in copper. He paused when he reached one name in particular:

PVT WILLIAM MASON

He read the name several times, even murmured it out loud, and turned his head when he felt a hand touch his shoulder.

"Is that…?"

The man beside him nodded his head. "Aye," Tom answered, kneeling down until he was at his son's height. "That's the man you're named after."

Little William Branson (Billy, as he was typically called) looked at the name again, his fingers still running over the letters. "Why did you name me after him, Da?"

Tom smiled and put his arm around his son. "Well, William was a good friend of mine; we used to work together, and he and I would talk quite a bit."

"He wrote for a newspaper too?"

Tom shook his head. "No, William worked with me in service, at Downton Abbey."

Billy's eyes grew wide at the mention of the grand estate. "Mam's old house?"

Tom couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Aye, that's the place."

Billy chewed on his bottom lip. "It's scary; is it haunted?"

"No," he shook his head. "It's just a big place."

"Are you sure it isn't haunted?" Billy asked with some skepticism.

Tom's chuckle grew. "In the time I worked there, I never saw a ghost. And if you don't believe me, ask your mam."

"Ask me what?"

Tom and Billy turned then to look up at Sybil, who was trying to adjust a squirming two-year-old in her arms. Tom rose back to his feet and held his arms out, Sybil grateful for the gesture, and handed their daughter to him. She was dressed in her nurse's uniform, while he wore his army uniform. Today was a big day, as it marked the tenth anniversary of when the War began, as well as the completion of a special memorial, for all the men who served…and lost their lives, in the War.

"Mam, is Downton Abbey haunted?" Billy asked, looking up at his mother with big eyes.

Sybil smiled but quickly shook her head. "No, no ghosts," she assured the boy, before giving his forehead a kiss and smoothing his hair, which was a bit wild and unkempt, much like her own.

Billy still looked a little unsure. This would be his first night staying at the big house; he had visited it once before, but they had never stayed in it overnight. He much preferred their brownstone back in Dublin.

"I'll show you the garage where Mam always came to bother me," Tom teased, winking at his wife who rolled her eyes. This did seem to lift Billy's spirits a little, as the boy had developed Tom's talent and fondness for cars. "And tomorrow we'll take a drive to see Uncle Marcus," he promised, which really brought a smile to Billy's face. Last year, the Bransons had come back to Yorkshire for the first time since Tom and Sybil's marriage, to celebrate another wedding, between Marcus and his sweetheart, Judith. That was also the visit when Sybil decided it was time to accept the olive branch her father kept offering, and let her children finally see the place where their mother had come from…and the place that she had left so she could be with their father.

It wasn't easy, that first time back. Old memories, painful ones, quickly returned upon the sight of Downton's towers over the horizon. Memories of how Robert had purposefully been withholding Tom's letters from Sybil, and confiscating hers to him, so that they would each think the other had fallen out of love, (or worse; have Sybil believe Tom was dead), and thus break the deal he had once made with the former chauffeur. And a rift had certainly been created between her father and mother after Tom returned, Cora Crawley more upset that she had been left in the dark, than at the prospect of her daughter marrying a former servant. Mary had questioned why the "deal" had to be honored, but she was not aware to how deeply in love Sybil was with Tom, and soon held her tongue on the matter. By the end of the week, Tom and Sybil had left Downton and traveled to Ireland, where she met his family, lived with his mother while the banns were read, and by the end of the month, they were married at last. He found work through a cousin who owned a garage, and who eventually made him his partner. And by 1920, with Sybil's help and encouragement, he finally found a means to aid Ireland in her pursuit for freedom by writing for a Republican newspaper, just a month after Billy's birth.

It was Christmas of that year, when Tom and Sybil received their first letter from the Earl of Grantham. And every month that followed, he would write again and again. Sybil ignored the letters at first, but eventually, with Tom's gentle persuasion, she opened them and read her father's apologies, his pleas for forgiveness, saying first that her mother and sisters were devastated by her silence, until finally he admitted that he missed her, and wanted to make things right.

No, it hadn't been easy, for any of them. But perhaps, like Tom's "miraculous" recovery from his injury…or the miraculous discovery of his heart murmur…a fragile peace was being built.

Tom liked to think William was somehow behind that too.

"What about angels?"

Tom looked down at his son with surprise. "What did you say?"

"What about angels?" he repeated. "You said there are no ghosts…but are their angels at Downton Abbey?"

"Indeed there are," Sybil answered him. "And their names are Anna and Mrs. Hughes."

Tom chuckled at that, but was struck by Billy's question. Why had he asked that? Upon noticing her husband's confused expression, Sybil leaned in to explain, "He asked your mother just before we left Dublin what happened at a 'memorial service', and she said 'angels names are read'."

"Tom…"

Tom's head lifted at the whisper and turned to look over his shoulder…but no one was there.

"Tom? Darling, are you alright?"

Tom swallowed and nodded his head, before moving closer to Sybil and wrapping his right arm around her, while he held their daughter in his left. The wind moved over them and Tom followed the breeze with his eyes to a tree, which seemed to shake and rustle, letting the sun shine through the branches, reminding him in many ways of a cathedral window.

"Tom…"

He smiled, and while gazing at the tree, gave a bow of his head, knowing in his heart that his friend was there, watching over him and Sybil and their children in that moment, continuing to guide them as they took their next steps forward.

THE END