Falling For You [Tom Hiddleston]

12

Claire's POV

Fires put out for now, I walked into Kara's office to drop off the blueberry muffin and fru-fru coffee she'd requested yesterday just as she got in for the day.

"Perfect timing," she sighed happily, giving me a grateful smile. "You have no idea how badly I needed this today."

"Rough morning?"

"James FaceTimed the bairns last night and told them he wasn't going to be home for at least a fortnight yet."

I winced. "Got them all worked up, didn't he?"

I felt sympathy for her; having personally witnessed the chaos that resulted from that kind of news when James was on his last tour it probably didn't go very well at all.

"I know it's just because they miss their Da - but I miss him, too," she sighed heavily. "So how was the rest of your day yesterday?"

I took that as a hint she was done talking about it for now. "Good. My meds kicked in by the time I got home to my real home, so I got a few things done before rewarding myself with a nap and a nice hot bath."

"If there was something you needed from Richmond you should've told me," Kara said, looking concerned.

"I know - and I appreciate all that you've done for me already, but this wasn't one of those kind of things this time, Kara."

"You know, we're long overdue for a girl's night," she reminded me as she sipped her coffee. "And I haven't heard hardly anything about your Tom lately. What are your plans for the weekend?"

"I'll check with Caleb and find out," I promised, finding myself looking forward to spending a little girl time with Kara; I really missed her and my godkids when I did long cases like this.

"I've got Ben and Jerry's and a couple new movies I've been dying to watch-"

"And a couple bottles of wine with our names on them?" I teased, knowing the answer already.

"You know it - I'm still working through the assortment you gave me for my birthday."

"Don't worry - I'm sure I'll find a couple more to try by the next holiday," I grinned. "And Tom was great yesterday, by the way."

"Wait, what? When did you see him?"

"I didn't say I took my nap or bath at my house," I grinned, watching her jaw drop with shock. "Tom has a Jacuzzi in his master bath...that fits two. I'll leave the rest up to your imagination."

Kara's eyes got huge. "I don't care what you have to tell Caleb to stay over at mine tomorrow. Bring Tom too; I still want to meet him!"

"It's not girl's night if I bring a guy, Kara," I pointed out with a giggle.

"He's on my list - I'll make an exception for him."

I couldn't help but laugh at her heartfelt statement. "I'll see what I can do - but no promises; he's a busy man these days."

*    *

Since I wasn't able to get to Tom's as often as I'd like, I wanted to make sure officers were either walking or driving past his place several more times daily than than they already did. Luckily, I'd done a huge favor for John a while back - which led to a huge promotion as a result, conveniently putting him in charge of scheduling all the patrols in Tom's borough.

Increased patrols might make this letter writer back down for a while - at least I hoped they would. I still thought Luke should just come clean with Tom, but he was still adamant that Tom didn't need to know about this yet. Therefore, I needed to buy myself enough time to wrap up my other case to give this one my undivided attention.