Too complicated

Too complicated: Part 11

Tom POV:

The heartache this was causing me to watch, the sheer pain emptying out my heart as if someone took hold of it, squeezing out the strength in me. She was so...broken. Is all I could describe it as. Like the very foundations keeping her together were disintegrating as we speak. And I desperately tried to steady her so she wouldn't collapse and fall. I gave her as much time as she needed, the minutes of waiting in worry playing cruel stories in my mind.

Y/n: I lost him.

She had no chance to explain as the tears and cries bombarded her once more, now clinging onto me for dear life.

Tom: Lost who?

She couldn't bring herself to speak just yet. And I was angry. Not as her, god no. At the fucking universe for hurting someone as precious as Y/n, the last person who deserves any kind of misery in her heart. Let me take this away from you. Please I just want to fix this. Her eyes drifted to the photo frame still standing on the desk, surprisingly not flung across the room like all of the other things that laid masking the floors and furniture. A picture of herself in her usual over sized denim jacket, wearing a distressed graphic T-shirt paired with black skinny jeans. She looked so happy, so full of life as she sat in an arcade, her arm wrapped so tightly around...Oh god. Oh god no. It can't be true.

Tom: Y/n where's Noah?

She just shut her eyes again, the almost formed tears dropping so swiftly down her cheeks as she sniffled and shook her head.

Y/n: They took him. My baby brother, they took him.

My eyes kept firm on the frame, my mind not realising my feet were bringing me closer to it. I took it in my hand and examined it properly. Noah's messy curls reminded me very much of my own, his beaming brown eyes and innocent wide smile narrowed its way into my heart along with his big sister. I hadn't heard her approaching from behind and it took me by surprise when her timid voice came from so close.

Y/n: I loved that day.

Tom: Y/n where is he?

Y/n: That was his birthday. When he turned seven.

I turned to fully face her. She wasn't normally like this, so distant, so distracted by her own thoughts in her head. She was always so assertive. I stepped closer and placed my hands carefully on her shoulders as she flinches at my touch. She was so fragile, like a house of cards waiting to be blown over by the slightest breath. But I don't let go. Quite frankly I'm scared she'll collapse if I did.

Tom: Y/n...I need you to tell me where he is.

Y/n: Apparently I'm not fit enough. Apparently he deserves to be in a more stable home.

Tom: What?

Y/n: Child services. They think Noah would be better suited going back to our uncle's place. So they took him. Just like that.

Her eyes were as if they were drowning. And they didn't seem like they wanted to fight anymore. She was hopeless, defeated, so not like herself. I couldn't bare it. I hated seeing her like this. I pulled her into a hug, her melting into my arms, letting me be the only thing that's stopping her from breaking. She sniffled and sighed and pulled away. I gently wipe the tears from her face, pushing the hair from her cheeks to behind her ear and rested my hand on her neck, steadying her to speak.

Y/n: I thought it was over when I won the first time. I thought they'd leave us alone. Why are people like this Tom?

She asked me so pleadingly like she was depending on my answer for her life. Her eyes searched mine and I stood trying to formulate words but my brain had it all beaten down to a mush and I just looked at her, speechless like an idiot. So instead I pulled her in for another hug, her arms held on more loosely around my body.

Y/n: The monsters your parents tell you about when you're little, they're real. Except they don't live under your bed, they live amongst us. Everywhere you go, monsters are everywhere. They just don't look like what you'd expect. And that's the dangerous part, because they can trick you into believing their lies so easily. That's what my uncle did. Made the council, the social workers, every judge and jury I went to pleading to get Noah and I out of there believe that he was some saint. That we were safe in his care. And now Noah's back there and...oh god.

She moved away and paced the crowded floors of her bedroom, running one hand through her hair as the over laid blanketed over her mouth.

Y/n: What if I can't get him back?

Tom: We will. I promise you, we'll do whatever we have to to make sure he comes home. You just need to be strong for him, he needs you to be strong right now. Don't worry, we'll get him back.

She looked down at my hands which had taken hers, and guided her eyes back to mine as I tried to fill them with confidence.

Y/n: We?

Tom: Yes. We. I'm not leaving your side.

I had called my manager to inform them I wouldn't be at work for a few days. I couldn't leave her here alone, encaged in her own mind thinking the worst of scenarios as she thought all day about Noah. We sat in her kitchen next to each other on the kitchen stools as we went over our plans, what we would talk to her uncle about before bringing in the higher people, the people that would make this a hell of a lot harder.

Y/n: He usually leaves the house around this time.

She told me as she dropped the bulky black house phone in her hands, alternating them as she stared at the swiftness of the thing slamming onto her palm as she controlled the movements. I looked up at her and she placed the phone down in front of arms, crossing them and turning her head to me.

Y/n: I can try calling the house. Noah would recognise the number, he'd know it's me.

Tom: Isn't it a bit risky?

She sighed and contemplated my words only to pick up the phone in her hand and begin dialling.

Y/n: I need to hear his voice. What more do I have to lose?

She slowly inputted the numbers, closing her eyes as if to visualise dialling it before from memory. Maybe she was. She sat the phone in front of us as it sounded it's excruciatingly slow rings. Y/n's eyes were bolted shut only to be pried open as the line cut and a voice spoke.

Noah: Y/n?