A/N: Well, here it is. The final chapter of my little engine that could. And somehow, did.

Thank you all for reading and for those of you who reviewed, so much love!

Song: On The Other Side - Augustana

It wasn't easy, but it was worth it. Tom and Sybil were sure that everything they did could be summed up in a similar notion, even now that they were officially allowed to call Dublin home. The first year was rocky, to say the least. It was marked with job changes for Sybil and long work hours for Tom. There were nights when they barely saw each other, when his bedtime coincided with the hour right before she was to get up with the children and ready them for the day. They made it though, and then one year became three as hours became more steady and Sybil found a permanent job in a new children's hospital right near their house.

Robert and Cora never came to visit, but Mary and Matthew and the kids did. Edith spent a weekend in Dublin once, saying she needed to get out of London, but later revealing to Tom that she missed her sister and their children and even him. All of them were always greeted with such a warm hospitality, and then fed by Sybil, and were delighted to find that her meals were not only edible but rather delicious. Then they'd watch her and Tom go through their nightly routine of bathing the children and putting them to bed before they were allowed to treat themselves to a pot of coffee or tea. It was usually both, with Tom not having a preference, but Sybil drank coffee now, usually black, but always piping hot.

They were all so amused by this behavior, but even Mary found comfort in her little sister's happiness. It was so natural and raw and all the more evident when Tom and her were not forced to hide behind or within a castle that once fostered it. Their views on them and the world would never change, but they had softened considerably, even if Sybil's parents were not here to actually see it. None of this came as a shock to either Tom or Sybil. They knew better than to expect things from her family, especially when such things were so much less important now with a family of their own.

Tom and Sybil would return to Downton for every other Christmas and for a week in the summer, but they did their best not to stay long. Dublin was home now, just as much as it had always been.

Sybil and Tom wanted their children to grow up understanding the world without blinders on. They protected and adored their children but not once did they ever want them ignorant to the way life and love and happiness all worked. It was easier for Tom and Sybil to know and be all of those things in Ireland. And while they wished it wasn't true, they knew that this was a decision they made for themselves and their family, and as they watched Madeleine and Rian grow up, they knew it was the right decision.

Settling back into the city was much easier than they had originally guessed it would be. After three years of being back, it amazed them that such a thing was once seen as a feat. Sybil quickly fell in love with the cottage Tom had picked out, and within a week, Tom was back to work. Sybil worked too, stopping only recently when her morning's were plagued with nausea and achey muscles. She was pregnant again, this time with twins. They both remembered laughing when the doctor told them this; it was finally settled whether they'd have three children or four, leaving both parents happy that the decision had been made for them.

It was Easter now, and a cause for celebration on many fronts. Tom had been promoted to main page editor, and Katherine had just announced she was expecting her second child. After mass that morning, they went downtown to watch the parade, and then returned to Tom and Sybil's cottage on the edge of the city for an afternoon picnic.

Helen remembered when Sybil had asked her if it were okay if she took on the tradition this year to give her some time off, and the older woman, still with so much pride for the relationship between Sybil and her son, willingly gave in. She remembered when this girl had appeared on her doorstep, and she remembered the last time she saw her off. Sybil carried a suitcase both times, but the contents within it were as different as the girl she would soon be both before and after her departure.

That seemed like light years ago, both occurrences changing who Sybil was while at the same time reminding her of the girl she had always been. Yes, she was English, but now she had other defining characteristics, her two favorite being that of a wife and mother, and it was these tasks that erased nationality and made returning to Dublin that much easier.

As their family got ready to play a game of gaelic football, Tom and Sybil sat on a flannel blanket off to the side, promising to keep score. They blamed their lack of participation on Sybil's swollen stomach, but everyone, including them, understood that it was sometimes easier to choose to stand by and watch after years of running in circles.

With a pretty white hat atop her head, matching the pale green maternity dress she wore, Sybil smiled and closed her eyes, savoring each time Tom kissed her. As the sun continued to beat down and brighten the field where everyone threw the ball around, she was sure there wasn't an inch of her face that had yet to be touched his lips today. She'd give in, pressing a kiss to his lips when the family ran to the other end of the pitch and Sybil could pull down her hat to create a wall between her and Tom and the rest of the family.

"You look beautiful, m'love," he muttered before pressing a kiss to her neck. It was just one, but it made Sybil laugh, and she was suddenly glad that the brim of her hat was so wide, for it covered the obvious blush staining her skin.

"Tom!" She pushed him away, or at least tried to. Elizabeth looked over from where she was picking up her own children and setting their feet back on the ground. She stopped smile, only to see her brother and his wife. She shot Sybil a glare and Sybil's face grew serious. "Your family can see you!"

She turned to Tom and pushed him further away, still never one to feel completely comfortable to be herself in front of Tom's family. To them she would always be the naive English girl whose politics and good looks had kept Tom away for so many years. It was these same things that brought him back, then and now, but they'd never see it that way.

The Branson's would admit they were happy to have them living in Dublin again, and they'd joke with Tom that they hoped he could keep himself in line long enough to make it permanent, but they always knew that with Tom and Sybil, it was not up to anyone else how they lived. They had gotten rid of that expectation long ago when they left Downton to elope.

Tom smirked before he kissed further down Sybil's neck. "Can they?" Both his words and his lips were teasing as he placed another kiss to the freckles on her shoulder.

All of this subsided as Sybil began to clap. It was her idea for the game to be boys versus girls this year, and she was ecstatic as she watched Madeleine's cousins pick the young child up after she scored a goal.

"Lovely job, Mads!" Sybil called out, receiving a smile from her proud daughter. It was a far distance from the girl who arrived here with them all those years ago.

Madeleine was a tomboy now, forfeiting her little mary janes for work boots. The sight even made Tom shudder when he originally saw it, but now, he wouldn't have it any other way, and he was proud of his daughter for being able to wear a pretty lace dress and a pair of leather boots that laced up past her ankle.

The Sunday after they first returned back, Maddie had made a scene at mass, proclaiming quite loudly to the entire congregation standing outside of the church that she was a princess and she wished to go back to her castle. Tom and Sybil swore they'd never lay a finger on their children so they bit their tongues and hung their heads low. They gave a sleeping Rian to his grandmother and took their daughter on a walk through the park to explain to her why she was out of line. She cried, and then they cried with her, but by the time they returned home for brunch, all was resolved.

It took Madeleine awhile, but it was evident to them how much this place was growing on her, and they cherished that fact so dearly. The next time they were in church after the incident she proudly walked up to the priest and apologized for what she had said the week prior. He forgave her, and she smiled before skipping back to where her family was sitting in a pew.

Now, at almost seven, Maddie called Dublin home, and her accent resembled her father's much more than her mother's. Apart from her aristocratic roots, she was no different from the other Irish girls in their village.

For Rian who had just turned three, the opposite problem existed. He was awfully close to his mother, and he hated the long trips back to Downton for holiday. Between him and his sister, it was a balancing act, one that would only be complicated by the two little lives Tom and Sybil would soon bring into the world. It would work though, and they'd never stop telling their children the importance of each of the places they come from.

Dublin was home, Sybil would assure Tom, but he knew her heart would sometimes find itself wandering, back to Downton and the place that raised her. Like they'd tell their children, Tom would tell Sybil that it was okay for her to miss it. And then, when she was just beginning to drift off, he'd whisper to her that sometimes he missed it too.

The years hadn't always been so kind, but they were worth it, with Tom just past thirty, and Sybil not too far behind. In a few month's, each child would have another birthday, and then a month later, it would be Tom and Sybil's seventh wedding anniversary. They were set to take a trip to London soon, but with the babies on the way, or at that point, possibly already here, Sybil had her apprehensions. Tom shared in them with her, but then tickled her ear with the same story she once told him of the cafe and the girl and the boy and all the freedom she once witnessed as a teenager. Hidden beneath their duvet like children telling ghost stories, Sybil revealed to him how she had once run away from the chauffeur in London. He laughed and asked her where she was planning to go.

"Away," she replied. "I was scared."

"Scared of what?"

"Never making it out."

"You made it out, I'd say."

"I did." And then: "Thank you."

It was a joke now, something that Tom used to tease Sybil with when she was being stubborn. It always made her think though. It was a constant thought she had about where she used to be and how far she had come since then. The idea seemed silly now, and she blushed to think how ridiculous she looked running away from a private car into the crowded streets of London. The more Sybil thought of it the more she was fond of the movement, of her feet picking her up and bringing her to the places she needed to be, only to set her down in the one place she'd always love, wherever that was, with Tom.

She had run to York during the war, to the garage all those nights to see a friend and then finally to Dublin when that friend had become so much more. Her feet brought her away from places both foreign and new but sometimes they'd bring her back. Sitting on the grass with her belly swollen and her children playing at her feet, Sybil felt still and sweet like the late Spring day they were all so clearly lost in. She had stopped running a long time ago.

Fin!