Barrow's Boy - A Downton Abbey Fanfiction

Despondency

     Lady Sybil was due to have her baby any time now. With what seemed the be the beginning of her labour, many of the staff were quite excited to know that there could be a baby in the house later that day. Of course, Teddy knew better. Things like this took time, and it could be tomorrow. Or it could even be a false alarm. Things like this happen, but that didn't stop him from being any less excited.

     He'd had the option of going out to spend the day with his friends, but he'd declined. He wanted to be here when baby Branson was finally born. 

    So Teddy sat downstairs, helping Jimmy and Alfred polish some of the silver, as he found himself with nothing better to do. They were talking, but it seemed to be mostly Jimmy complaining about the job, and Alfred trying to defend Carson, who had told them to do it. 

    Teddy sat silently, just nodding everyone one of them mentioned him, which he didn't realize might cause some problems. 

    "See. Theo agrees with me," Jimmy said, motioning with the spoon in his hand towards Teddy. Jimmy had taken to calling Teddy this instead of his usual nickname and, although he wasn't sure he liked it very much, he didn't really say anything about it. 

    "No. He nodded at me," Alfred replied, turning to him. "Didn't you Theodore?" Teddy wasn't even sure what they were talking about at this point. It seemed that not listening to them had been quite the mistake.

    "That depends." He swallowed, looking back down at what he was polishing. 

    "You should stop teasing Ivy."

    "You act like it's been going on forever. She just got here. I'm allowed to have a little fun."

    "S'long as you both get your work done," Teddy said, glancing up at Jimmy with a smirk on his face.

    "I'm doing my work now, aren't I?" Teddy just shook his head. Quite honestly, between Alfred and Jimmy's bickering, Teddy had actually been the one to polish the most silver. He should really be getting paid for this. 

    Teddy didn't end up replying to Jimmy, and, a few minutes later, Carson appeared at the door.

    "Is this all you've done?" He asked, looking at the pile they still had left. "You two are needed upstairs, and you haven't even finished your first job."

    "I can finish it, Mr. Carson," Teddy said, placing the tray in his hand with the other polished items. 

    "Thank you, Theodore. Alfred, James, upstairs." The two stood up and adjusted their livery as they walked out of the room. Jimmy glanced over his shoulder at Teddy as he walked through the door and mouthed a thank you. Teddy nodded back and looked at the silver again. 

     "How'd you end up doing this?" Thomas asked, watching as his son polished the silver.  Teddy had made great progress without Jimmy and Alfred and was now almost finished. 

    "I offered. I've nothing else to do right now." Thomas took a few steps into the room. 

    "I'd help you with it, but Jimmy's asked me for help with the clocks. I'm about to head up and show him."

     "That's alright. I'm almost done anyway."

    "Why don't you go read some of your medical books when you're done? You like that." Teddy shook his head.

    "I already wish I could help up there. That'll just make me want to do it more."

    "Ah, I see." Thomas turned back around to head out the door. "Try to find something to do though, alright?"