Forget-Me-Not (A Tom Hiddleston Fanfiction)

(48) Revelation

"Okay, so this website seems to think I'm Tom's PA..." Nina was now just looking through the tamer gossip sites, although she didn't really have a good reason for why she was doing so. She did often like to know what people thought of her, despite the fact that she used to be so timid that she'd do absolutely nothing about it.

"I saw one earlier that claimed you were his maid!" Molly raised an eyebrow. "You're not really, are you?"

"No, I make him do all the cleaning." Nina laughed softly. Tom smiled, quite uncharacteristically quiet as he drank. He was contemplating an awful lot, but one thing had become clear to him.

He'd realised that he wanted Nina to be his girlfriend.

Everything that she did, starting as of a little while back, intrigued him immensely, to the point where he found himself thinking about here during most of his free time. Even little things like the way she held her mug, her little finger sticking out at an odd angle. Tom was beginning to compare himself to a slightly lovesick teenager, and god, what an odd comparison it was.

"So what is it that scares you so much about fame?" Annie asked suddenly, and Nina and Molly seemed to freeze. "Sorry... bad question?"

"No, no..." Nina put the phone down on the table and sighed quietly. It was bound to come up some day, she thought, staring for a moment into the bottom of her coffee mug before bringing her head up. "Okay, so we're talking a good few years back..."

*****

"Mum, we're going out to visit Tanya!" Molly yelled across the house, not knowing where her mother was so she made sure that the whole house - and the whole street - could hear her. "She got back from America a week ago and we haven't seen her yet!"

"Alright, girls, but if she's not up to visitors, come straight back!" Their mother yelled back. "Nina, you're responsible, look after your sister!"

"Of course!" Nina called back, her long hair bouncing around her shoulders as she hurried out of the door after a very eager Molly. They made the fifteen minute walk to Tanya's end up as what felt like an hours walk, with Molly stopping every two minutes to send Tanya yet another text which, uncharacteristically, Tanya didn't reply to.

When they at last reached her house, they were surprised to find that the door swung open as they knocked on it. Nina was the first to go into the house, and she called out. "Hello? Tanya, it's Nina and Molly, are you here?"

Molly went into the house after Nina but went past her and into the living room, where Nina heard her sister gasp loudly. Expecting the worst, Nina rushed in to find Molly staring horrified at an entire wall of newspaper and magazine clippings about Tanya.

"Is Tanya connected to her fathers drug business?"

"Rising star losing her light?"

"Tanya Blake worried as jealous ex sends threats that could cost her her entire reputation."

Nina leaned closer, reading the article beneath, disgusted yet curious at the same time. She read aloud, so that Molly, looking at the rest of the headlines, could also hear what the media had been gossiping about.

"Tanya Blake's ex fiancée, who refuses to have his identity revealed for unknown reasons, has threatened the release of some photos that could prove very damaging for the star's career. Tanya, 22, is a role model to a large audience, especially those of a more impressionable age, and the surfacing of these photos could lose her a lot of fans - and a lot of money."

Nina stopped reading, disgusted with what she saw. Tanya had never done anything bad to the press to deserve this, she'd only been working her socks off at her dream career, so why was she getting so much bad press coverage? Neither Molly nor Nina knew why.

Tanya Blake was an up and coming pop artist, and a very good one at that. The reason she'd been in America was because she'd gone to work with a producer on a demo that she hoped to release to the world soon. Ever since the Ferguson girls had known Tanya - which had been a long time, since they were all small - she had had her heart set on being a singer.

Unfortunately, Tanya seemed to have a lot of bad luck with the press and the wall in front of them seemed to condense everything bad that had ever been written about her into one room. There were clippings about her dad, who was a known drug dealer, and her ex-fiancée, who, after their messy break-up due to his various habits and addictions, claimed he had all sorts of compromising photos of Tanya, which of course didn't exist, but after one newspaper had sewn the seed of doubt about Tanya's claims, all the other gossip magazines and other papers had been all over the story. Tanya had always said it would never get to her.

But as Nina and Molly were about to find out, apparently, it did.

*****

"She was in her bathtub, fully clothed. There wasn't even any water in the tub, she was just..." Nina gulped softly, unable to finish that particular sentence, and stared down at the table. "The funeral was about a week after. All of a sudden, the press adored her."

"That's awful." Annie looked a little gobsmacked if anything.

"This is why I don't want to be famous, because it really messes with your head. I could never deal with fame by myself, like Tanya had to..." Tom had been listening closely to Nina's story. She'd been hinting at a reason for disliking fame ever since he'd met her and he didn't want to pressure her to tell him anything but he'd just heard it all and he was as shocked as Annie appeared to be.

He reached out, taking Nina's dainty hand in his, and smiled at her reassuringly, his eyes seeming to convey two simple words; I'm here. Nina smiled too, not being able to stop herself from doing so, and thankfully, the conversation moved on quickly.

"Did Mum call you about visiting, Nina?" Molly sat folding a napkin childishly into various shapes to entertain herself. Sometimes she was really a six year old stuck in an adults body.

"Yeah, she said about 'Ann' and you."

"Ann? Oh, well. Close enough." Molly chuckled, finishing her masterpiece; a small lopsided hat now sat in front of her on the table. "I still can't believe about James though, can you?"

The smile dropped straight off of Nina's face. "What about James?"

"She didn't tell you?"

"Well, obviously not!" Nina snapped back, losing all politeness in her sudden concern.

"He's going to a residential care home for people with mental illnesses. He's gotten worse, and he's gotten ill, and she can't look after him anymore."

Nina's jaw dropped slightly. "But she promised she'd never do that! Molly, she said she wouldn't!"

"Well, she has." Molly sniffed. "She sent me the visiting times earlier."

[A/N] and at last, we have a backstory on nina's dislike for fame! drop a vote if you enjoyed, and comments/feedback would be great too.
yours truly :) x