Run To Me

Strangers in the Night

"Ahhhhhh, that's better." Tom leaned back and closed his eyes.  Rome had been, quite simply, wonderful but being home, with his girl, with a decent cuppa, in his joggers in front of the tv?  That, he decided, was heaven. "Pass the biccies love?" he opened an eye and watched as Molly stuffed a whole chocolate HobNob into her mouth at once.  She blushed and started to cough, eyes watering.

Eventually, aided by a few sips of tea, she regained her composure enough to pass him the packet. "Sorry!" she grinned, "I didn't think you'd see that!"

"I'm not sure I wanted to love!" he shook his head and laughed.  "You really aren't expert enough at biscuit munching to attempt a whole Hobnob.  Not like me!" he proceeded to place one in his mouth then have the unending cheek to smile as he munched it happily.  

"Big mouth!" she teased as she snuggled back into the opposite corner of the sofa. 

"Oh just you wait Missy, I'll show you big mouth...." his eyes glittered dangerously and he grinned like a certain trickster he knew she had a soft spot for.  Molly feigned fear but her eyes gave her away.  She hoped her punishment would be thorough - and swift.

On the way home, they had decided that she would stay with Tom for the night and then go home to hers when he left the next morning for his press tour.  He was going to be away for a couple of weeks, promoting his latest series of documentaries he'd done a voiceover for. Not far, only reaching Prague and Vienna but on the way back he stopped off in Paris, where she would join him for the weekend.  Something to look forward to, he'd said when she'd looked sad.

Work was something that was always going to get in the way.  Of them - AND their training.  They had to get that back on track too.  James, efficient as always, had already put together a training plan before he and Tom had met, so it was all there for them.  Now it took on new meaning.  Tom would do it for his children's charity and now so would Molly.  She, however, would run for research into heart disease.  Something, it now appeared, James had for a long time and didn't know.  Apparently healthy in all other respects, it had been a ticking timebomb that nothing could have stopped. 

They watched tv, ate more biscuits and drank more tea.  Anything to slow time.  At last though, it was time for bed.  Tom uncurled himself from the sofa and switched off the tv.  He turned to Molly and held out his hands, "come on little one, time to turn in. " she scrunched her face up.

"Don't want to!" she said, bottom lip sticking out like a small child, but a glint in her eye like the adult she really was. Tom pulled her up and grabbed her.  Before she knew what was happening, she was over his shoulder and being carried, shrieking, to bed.

When she got there, unceremoniously dumped into the middle of the big bed, she scrambled towards the pillows, picking one up as a shield. "Please Loki, my Prince, my Saviour. Please don't tickle me?" she said in a small voice, her face telling him the exact opposite. Loki grinned and crawled up the bed towards her, eyes burning.

"Oh my little Midgardian, tickling is the LEAST of your worries now....."

Morning came all too soon and Molly, as usual, woke first.  She was wrapped in Tom's arms, his breath warm on the back of her neck as he held her close from behind.  His regular breathing and the gentle feel of his breath was better than any lullaby she could have imagined.  It made her feel so safe.  She was going to miss 'safe' but, she reasoned, only for a few weeks and then... Paris!  She'd never been to Paris - well a school trip for four hot, sweaty, boring hours in her teens hardly counted.  This would be different.

She was just going over all the French she knew - which amounted to sod all - when she felt Tom begin to stir. A voice in her ear, low and still husky from sleep, asked her "You ok kitten?  You've been awake a while."