Series One, Episode One
Title: Series One, Episode One
Author: tehkandrewfan
Rating: K
Characters/Pairings: Anna Smith, John Bates; Anna/Bates (though mostly friendship this time around).
Warnings: Based on a deleted scene from the series one script book. Dialogue belongs to Fellowes, and the stage directions have been incorporated too.
Word Count: 294.
It has been a long couple of weeks. Everything he does has been watched carefully, catalogued and stored away, no doubt to be spoken about in hushed voices when he isn’t around. He tries not to notice, and he tries not to care. He doesn’t manage either very well.
Now he is struggling to open the door with the boots and the mending materials in one hand and his cane in the other. He curses in his head. If he doesn’t watch out, he’ll end up dropping everything all over the floor, and then that will be the second time that he’s humiliated himself tonight.
“Let me.”
At the sound of the voice, John jumps, wheeling around to face the person who has caught him struggling. His heart rate relaxes just a fraction when he realises that it’s only Anna.
“There’s no need,” he tells her, turning away, though he tries to soften his words with a smile before he does so. He expects her to linger for a moment longer before slipping away, the message received, but she surprises him.
“Mr. Bates, anyone can have their hands full,” she says. He feels his heart beginning to warm at the fact that she isn’t tiptoeing around him as though he is some invalid. She reaches out for the cupboard door handle and pulls it forward. For once, he lowers his guard, smiling at her openly. In the end, he can only formulate two words.
“Thank you.”
He doesn’t seem to need to say any more, because the wide grin that she throws back at him tells him that she knows exactly what he’d meant in that one phrase.
By now, Anna is definitely a friend. And, John muses, he’s never known a finer one.
Author: tehkandrewfan
Rating: K
Characters/Pairings: Anna Smith, John Bates; Anna/Bates (though mostly friendship this time around).
Warnings: Based on a deleted scene from the series one script book. Dialogue belongs to Fellowes, and the stage directions have been incorporated too.
Word Count: 294.
It has been a long couple of weeks. Everything he does has been watched carefully, catalogued and stored away, no doubt to be spoken about in hushed voices when he isn’t around. He tries not to notice, and he tries not to care. He doesn’t manage either very well.
Now he is struggling to open the door with the boots and the mending materials in one hand and his cane in the other. He curses in his head. If he doesn’t watch out, he’ll end up dropping everything all over the floor, and then that will be the second time that he’s humiliated himself tonight.
“Let me.”
At the sound of the voice, John jumps, wheeling around to face the person who has caught him struggling. His heart rate relaxes just a fraction when he realises that it’s only Anna.
“There’s no need,” he tells her, turning away, though he tries to soften his words with a smile before he does so. He expects her to linger for a moment longer before slipping away, the message received, but she surprises him.
“Mr. Bates, anyone can have their hands full,” she says. He feels his heart beginning to warm at the fact that she isn’t tiptoeing around him as though he is some invalid. She reaches out for the cupboard door handle and pulls it forward. For once, he lowers his guard, smiling at her openly. In the end, he can only formulate two words.
“Thank you.”
He doesn’t seem to need to say any more, because the wide grin that she throws back at him tells him that she knows exactly what he’d meant in that one phrase.
By now, Anna is definitely a friend. And, John muses, he’s never known a finer one.