Falling For You [Tom Hiddleston]

33

Tom's POV

"It's done," Luke said, setting his mobile down. "One exclusive interview in exchange for not running those pictures - or selling them off. Contracts will be delivered to the agency sometime today."

"Only time will tell." I rested my chin on my steepled hands, staring unseeingly at the man across the table from me and hoping I'd done the right thing. "And so I've made a deal with the devil."

"Unfortunately, it's just part and parcel of your level of fame," he said bluntly, holding my gaze. "I'm sorry, Tom; that's just the way things are."

And as much as I didn't want to hear that, I still appreciated his honesty. Luke had been with me for most of my career; I wouldn't be where I was now without him. "That doesn't make me feel any better about it."

"I never said it should." He laid a thick manila envelope and stack of newspapers on the table in front of me. "But here's the papers you asked for."

"Thank you." I flipped through them, finding them all opened to the relevant articles to save me time. God bless Luke's helpful OCD - his thoroughness was much appreciated.

"You're welcome, but not much has been released yet."

"Duly noted. What's this?" I asked, picking up the thick envelope. I recognized the distinctive flowing hand as Sadie's before I'd even read the return address; it was postmarked a week ago. While I didn't remember her telling me that she was forwarding a script to me, I'd already assured her I'd love to work with her again professionally (outside of Marvel) if she found something she wanted to do together.

"Don't know; it just came today. Maybe she found a project you can do together - make all the Widdles shippers happy." Luke grinned as I snorted and rolled my eyes at him. He knew I found that particular ship name ridiculous - especially since Sadie had eyes for no one other than Sebastian.

"Are you off then?"

"Yeah, mate. Ring me if you need something."

Taking the tea tray along with my new reading material into the sitting room, I was glad to find that Claire was still asleep. I settled back into my spot beside her and skimmed through the broadsheets first, disappointed to find that Luke was right; there really wasn't much information released yet about yesterday's excitement.

Setting the stack of newspapers aside, I turned my attention to the envelope, curious to see what project Sadie had found for us. I was quite puzzled when instead of a script, I pulled out a  standard manila file folder that contained an assortment of old newspaper articles, photos and the like. Stuck on top was a short message scrawled on a brightly colored post-it note from Sadie, asking me to ring her as soon as I received this package.

I glanced at the clock and quickly did the math before picking up my mobile; it was only mid-morning there. With a glance at Claire, I decided I'd better make this call in the kitchen so I didn't wake her prematurely; she needed her rest. I read the headline of the first article while I waited for the call to connect - and then read it again.

*            *           *

Claire's POV

I slowly rose to consciousness, my mind still foggy with sleep and my body unresponsive. I couldn't even get my eyes open before they slid shut again, refusing to cooperate. I was comfortable...and every cell in my body was still exhausted enough that I could've slept for longer if I didn't need to answer the call of nature.

My body was most insistent, so I gave in and began working my way out of my blanket cocoon. Carefully sitting up, I noticed that his scripts had been divided into three piles; it looked like Tom had been quite productive while I was sleeping - at least until he'd fallen asleep himself.