Are you following me Mr Hiddleston? (A Tom Hiddleston Fanfiction)

Chapter 21

Tuesday 16th March 2021

Tom arrived in Essex during the very early hours of the morning. It is his first official day of shooting The Essex Serpent. A project he had debated about taking on for a while, but he decided to take on the role in the end, thinking it might do him the world of good. After all he has some time in between going to South Sudan, and he thought about all the upcoming Loki promotional work, that was just around the corner. Although most promos and interviews weren't yet finalised, as Luke was still in talks with people. Also, he had been given time off on April 11th to attend to the EE BATFAS to present an award, which he was looking forward to a lot. Especially because he has a few friends who are nominated.

Tom received a text from Owen Wilson late morning about an inside joke. Which made Tom chuckle and he texted back a witty comment. Then Owen's follow up said "one of us is showing off their big ego again." The texts stopped soon after not for any bad reason, it simply was the fact Tom had work to do. Although, he did enjoy the quick Loki promo video he did with Owen the other day too. Which he found lots fun to do, as he got to show off his mischievous side, and banter back and forth with Owen again. Also he did a '30 seconds' recap on Loki on the same day, with a couple of other quick promo videos, which were planned to be later releases compared to the one with Owen. However, Tom's ego still felt broken that was his issue despite not letting anyone know. At least not officially. His friends have their suppositions, well more that Sophie, Chris and Elsa do. Ben seems to dismiss their suppositions, as he believes Tom isn't as bad as they say. He's admitted there is a change in him since New York, they all know that. He says "even though it didn't work with Kristen, it didn't mean Tom couldn't move on." Tom has even stopped updating Chris and Ben about everything. He knew he would feel ashamed if he told them, especially as he had once thought he'd grown out of this stage of his life. The part about sleeping around with different women on the regular. Right now though all he knew he had to think about was work. Regardless of his hesitations he knew the role of William Ransome, (a reverend in the Essex village of Aldwinter), was a role he thought would undoubtably be a good move to make. He'd read the book when it was published back in 2016, so he knew the material already before reading the script and an opportunity to have some sort of break. A break from the women he's been sleeping with. 

Furthermore, after filming Loki Tom was reminded again of how much he enjoyed adventuring back to the small screen. Just like when he did The Night Manager. Bobby didn't make this trip as Diana offered to take him for a while. Tom didn't want to bother her with Bobby's over the top energy but she insisted, adding if she needed help she would ask Emma. Luke on the other hand was going to be with Tom, however as he had to deal with business matters besides organising promos, interviews and photoshoots, meant they were keep him in London right now. So he told Tom he would join him when he could.

While on set Tom couldn't stop thinking about Margot, about how scared she looked, and her sobbing her eyes out while being curled up on the sofa before he left. It just kept replaying over and over in his mind. He was at least thankful that none of these people had ever worked with him before, therefore, they had no idea how to dedicate his moods. Especially, compared to those who know him too well, and would pick it up in an instant. Not only was he thankful about that aspect, but he was also thankful for the fresh air, as well as keeping busy with work.

The confirmation of Tom's role went out publicly later on, along with his confirmed co-star Claire Danes, serval hours before the start of the new day. It was all sent over to Luke first via email, he wanted everything forwarded to him in the meantime. And the confirmation of his trip to South Sudan with Susan Kobayashi followed soon after. Usually Tom would avoid reading about himself, most of the time anyway. As travelling down a rabbit hole such as that can certainly weigh heavily on someone. However, for some unknown reason Tom found himself searching himself, while he lay in bed after a long day. Most of his searches were to do with The Essex Serpent, but he did find a loop hole, accidentally. Which lead him into the depths of the internet of some rare images from Charlie's party. He was drawn to one in particular after spotting himself in the background. As he focused in on what the image version of himself was looking at, he wondered how it hadn't become a popular image. Especially as the image version of himself seemed to be staring at Margot dancing with Charlie. Not just staring but full on looking as though he wanted to pull them apart. Seeing the look on his face stunned him. He certainly at the time hadn't realised he looked that way towards them. He even face palmed himself for discovering the photo, and for the way he looked back then too. He thought it was strange, due to all inside photos where only taken by guests. Yet, the photo was linked to a Tumblr account. He simply thought it may have been taken from else where, as it was the only explanation he could think of. Besides, seeing the web address underneath was far enough, as he knew it would be too dangerous to go any further. With that thought he decided it was time for bed.