Chapter One- A Fresh Start

April 1931

"Simon, no climbing the fence!" Baxter warned from her place on her knees.

"Awe!"

She heard the four-year-old groan as he dismounted from the wooden fencepost, returning to the game he'd grown tired of playing with his sister. Phyllis laughed, shaking her head and wiping her brow with the back of her wrist. Tending to the garden was hard work, but it brought her joy. Moreover, it was something more she could do to stash a bit of money away. It wasn't that they needed it badly: Molesley was a teacher now and made decent money, and she was still Lady Grantham's lady's maid. But upon becoming a father, Molesley had blindly decided that his children would, without question, attend college. Phyllis found her husband's decision somewhat unreasonable but noble and obliged with it because she wanted to support him in whatever he desired. After all, he'd believed in her when she still had no hope for herself.

"Mummy!" Simon called. "Mummy when do I get to go to school with Daddy?"

"In a few more months." She promised, hurriedly tossing a few more carrots into the basket she'd brought out with them.

Phyllis had taken the day off from her work at the Abbey to prepare an elaborate feast for her husband's birthday. She was making his favorite; complete with a roast and a cake and knew he'd be floored by the gesture. She'd even spent too much money on a gift: it was the least she could do. It'd been nine years since she'd first met her now husband and knew she'd never be able to thank him enough for how he'd transformed her life in that time. He'd changed her world.

Molesley had been the one to help her put her past behind her and mitigate the emotional damage left behind by Coyle and his schemes. He'd filled a hole in her heart and proved to her that she was worthy of being loved again, of loving herself again. Phyllis closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting the fresh, country air fill her lungs. Sometimes, even after a decade of freedom, fresh air still felt overwhelming to her. She found herself grateful for it today in a way she could not convey: it was merely a feeling.

Baxter sighed, watching her children play as she surveyed the cottage and lush garden. It was a beautiful, quaint little cottage, just big enough for the four of them and surrounded by a white picket fence on all four sides. She looked at it with fresh, grateful eyes everyday and today, in particular it was like a dream. She'd planted the garden several years earlier out of nothing and took great pride in the fact that it was in full bloom, the food rich and the roses exuberant (tended to partially by her very elderly, and award winning rose enthusiast father-in-law). She never would've imagined she could have a new life, with much of anything in it, let alone wonderful husband, home or children. It was nothing like the family life she'd had as a child and certainly, nothing like the life she'd fallen into before she'd come to Downton. Phyllis felt fulfilled because this: this is who she really was and always had been.

Five and a half years earlier, Molseley had fulfilled his own lifelong dream of becoming a teacher. When she first heard the news of his job she never would've known that it would mean total transformation for her too. At first, it had been very bitter sweet for her. She was proud of and happy for him, but quickly grew sad about the idea of not seeing him daily and worried that he'd forget her.

By then she was attached to him, and he to her only neither had admitted it. He'd helped her start to recover, and she'd encouraged him to finally pursue his dream, something that had fused a deep but unacknowledged bond between the two. They had fallen into a relationship built on encouragement and caring not to mention an underlying flirtation that both of them secretly wished could be more.

Fate intervened one day when they took a walk together, Lord Grantham's dog at their heals, and Molesley was informed that he was to get this wonderful little cottage to live in, in addition to his job. The news was exciting and at once made the two of them blush, sparking an idea in each of their heads: he would propose and she would let go of the past and finally allow herself to move on fully. He'd changed her world and she his.

Baxter and Molesley married that spring, not long after Lady Edith's wedding, and nine months later, at Christmas time their son Simon was born, followed quickly by his sister Penelope the next autumn. The couple had never discussed children, the thought never having even crossed their minds before it happened. Simon and Penelope had ensured a total transformation for their parents; two people who until then had been left out by life and who deeply loved everything about their newfound chances, especially their children.

"Mama." Three-year-old Penelope whispered, shoving the flower she'd picked in her mother's face.

"It's beautiful Penny." She whispered. "Did you pick it for Daddy?" The child nodded swiftly, proud of the present she'd chosen for her Dad. "Go get four more, can you do that?"

Penelope giggled, pleased by her mother's request and ran off to pick more flowers.

"Ooh." Baxter winced, trying to straighten her back.

The youngest Molesley, who almost no one knew about, yet, was taking a toll on its mother despite being very tiny and barely showing. Only a handful of people (Molesley, Cora, Anna, Mrs. Carson and her sixteen year old daughter Charlotte) had any idea she was expecting a third time. Even Simon and Penelope didn't really understand the concept just yet.

Baxter looked up, startled when she heard a bicycle chime. A neighbor sped by quickly and she just stared, not really knowing what she'd been expecting. She paused, rubbing her side in little circles not knowing what to think about how much that had startled her. Suddenly she felt something wet on her nose and looked up, noting it was beginning to rain again.

"Ha! It's raining!" Baxter got on her feet as fast as she could, picking up the little basket of vegetables. "First one inside gets a cookie!" She encouraged.

She'd never tell her children to hurry inside for any other reason, otherwise they always insisted it was fun to stay out and get wet.

"Silly mummy there are no cookies!" Penelope burst.

"Then we'll make some." She promised.

"Mummy don't forget the other contest!" Simon cried, rushing toward the house, Penelope at his heals. Both children stared straight up giggling, their tongues sticking out as they tried to catch the falling rain on their tongues. Phyllis laughed, following her children as the gentle mist of rain began to turn into a spring storm.

"In with you two!" She giggled, following them up the steps.

Baxter went inside with the children, smiling to herself and hoping her husband would like his birthday surprises. It wasn't so much, she realized, that he'd changed her world it was that he'd given her a new one. She closed the door behind her, never noticing the dark figure watching from across the road.

…..

"Ahhh!" Baxter cried, sitting up in bed.

Molesley jumped, panicked and scrambling to turn on the light a mere instant after he awoke from a dead sleep.

"What? What is it?" He asked, his wife still panting. "It's just a dream." He soothed, swallowing hard as he began to rub her back, his own heart continuing to race. "It's just a dream my love, I'm here and…"

"No…." She shook her head, beginning to tear up.

"Yes." He whispered, placing his forehead against hers and taking her cheek in his hand.

"It was so real, are you sure it was a…." She bit her lip.

"Yes, yes it is. I promise. You know you always get these dreams when you're expecting, you…" He protested, tucking her hair behind her ear, she gulped, shaking her head no.

In a way she was right. Baxter always had these dreams. They had been so difficult for Moseley to get used to after he married her. Usually they were manageable but when she was pregnant they became intense and she unreasonable when she was half asleep. Often, he found there was nothing he could do to comfort her.

"Shhhh." He soothed.

Phyllis swallowed hard, clinging to his arms. This particular dream and been vivid and real in a way most of them weren't, as though Coyle were there with them and although she'd woken and her eyes were open, the images haunted her.

"I've got you." He whispered, starting to rock her gently. "There is no going back Mrs. Molesley."

"Mrs. Molesley that sounds so nice." She giggled through her tears.

Most people didn't think of Molesley as a particularly strong man, but to Baxter, he possessed the greatest kindness and strength in all the world. No one comforted her like he did or ever would. Molesley knew this, but he hated that this man still had such a hold on his wife's mind and soul in the depth of the night when nobody knew. She'd grown past it, and forgiven herself, but Coyle often came out of the shadows. So much of him wanted to act on the matter, but he knew not how. All he knew was that he wanted to bring her justice and at the end of the day, make sure she was his and his alone in the depth of the night.

"It sounds perfectly lovely to me." He smiled deeply. He'd always wanted someone to love but never imagined there being a Mrs. Molesley, not until her. "And I promise, there's no going back, only much to look forward to." She sighed as he cupped her still mostly flat belly in his hand.

"There's nothing more I look forward to than life with you." She whispered, leaning into kiss him in the hopes that his embrace would drown out the monsters screaming inside her head.