The Heart of a Villain (a Tom Hiddleston fanfiction)

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[Rose]

Rose is awakened by a thud.

She's not sure where it came from or if she even heard it. Her sleep has not been deep or comforting, just superficial and enough to take the edge off the exhaustion.

She lies awake, listening. She remembers very quickly where she is, why she's here. She never forgot, not even in her sleep.

Then she hears the shattering. It causes one wall of the house to vibrate. She sits up, her heartbeat suddenly going wild.

Tom knows. No, Tom can't know. She was so careful...

He's Tom. He knows. You knew he was going to find out eventually.

Rose gets out of bed and goes to the door. As Hadley said, it opened from the inside. She leaves it half-open as she steps into the hallway. She will need somewhere to flee if what has happened is what she thinks has happened.

The hallway is not entirely dark. Hadley always keeps some lights on, at Tom's instructions. It is never to appear as if no one is there, but she knows people work around the clock in this home. Someone is doing something somewhere, and they are probably all freaking out at the racket just like she is. But only she can come look. The rest would put their heads down and ignore it, waiting for it to pass.

She reaches the top of the main staircase and carefully descends it, her feet bare and making no noise. She forgot to grab a robe or anything – not that she even wants to take a closer look at the closet and see the fine clothes Tom has bought her while she was gone – that hasn't even fully sunk in yet – so she is bare shouldered and wearing a skirt that flutters like a ballgown, only much more sheer.

As she rounds the banister, she catches more sounds, and hears Tom's voice. She rarely ever heard his voice raised in anger. Yes he was often angry, but his rage was expressed in the slow, simmering way...

Suddenly Hadley is there. He came from the other hallway, looking at the door with real worry on his face. He doesn't see her.

Until one particularly ugly, loud, long, drawn out series of expletives rumbles through the door and something hits it. Hadley jumps, Rose jumps and gasps. Hadley hear it, turns, sees her and immediately rushes over to her.

"Go back to your room, miss," he orders, real fear on his face. This makes it worse, not better.

She just stands there, staring. Frozen.

"Go!"

She turns and flees. The door is still open as she left it and she shuts it, hoping Hadley was right about it being locked from the outside. The twisted thought that Tom hadn't meant to lock her in, but keep others out, fills her head and she can't register it, she can't get her feet under her, she didn't sleep enough, her head is unclear and she stumbles backwards until the backs of her knees hit the bed and she ends up on her backside. At least it was on the mattress, she thinks.

She sits there, trying to breathe, trying to calm herself. It could be something else, she tells herself. It could be any number of things. She knows what Tom is now, no matter how much she tried to ignore it or deny it. She knows he's done terrible things, knows somewhat what he's capable of. She knows this life and why she left it, so there is no absolute reason to think that he's discovered what she's been hiding and is rightfully infuriated over it.

But what if it is? What is he doing to do?

Because when it comes to her, Tom stopped having rational reactions a long time ago. She can't fathom how far he's fallen from that first time – but she's sure that wasn't the first time.