Coming Home [Tom Hiddleston]

First Day Of Filming

Chapter 4

Warning- Ad Astra Movie Spoilers

"Aaannndd- CUT!!" The producer, James Gray yelled. "Great job guys. We'll continue filming in 20 minutes." "You were great." I smiled at Brad. "I'm surprised. I haven't filmed a movie since I played Claire Standish in The Breakfast Club back in 2014 with Emilio Estévez." (Emilio Estévez in the book right now is 28, Brad Pitt is 27, and Alara and Tom are 26.)

"I never knew that you were the one that played Claire." "Yup. The one and only Alara Drake." I motioned my hands across my body showing it off as I said that. "C'mon guys, James wants us back." Ruth Negga had said to us. We started filming and it was a scene with Brad. This was the scene where the space shuttle was blowing up. "Control I'm seeing a power surge on seapost. You getting that- Control we got a lot of people up there, -over." At 2am we all went home to get some rest for the next day of filming.

I told Tom not to make dinner for me tonight so I went to get some subway on my way home. I ate in the car and when I got home I went straight to bed after taking a shower.

The next day we filmed more and more up until 1am and I fell asleep at set. I woke up in a bed that wasn't mine and started to freak out. Brad walked in and I calmed down a bit. "I need to call Tom! Oh my God he's probably worried sick!!" "It's fine. I took care of it." "How did you get his number." "Easy. While you were asleep I found your phone, took your thumb and unlocked your phone." "Thank you." I started to get up and find some clothes. "What are you doing?" "We have filming to do today." "No we don't. I called James and told him we both couldn't come in today. Plus now you can tell me the story about your arm." "There isn't much to tell. In the war an Afghan threw a grenade at me and it blew up my side and arm."

"That can't be all. Behind every story is an even bigger one. Now tell me what really happened."

"I was 18 and loved learning about wars. When I was little I always knew that I was going to be in the military. Me at 18 got into the military and like everybody else started out as a private. About 5 months after I was in the military we went to war with Afganistan. I was always a pretty good fighter from my dad teaching me. I actually was undefeated in boxing up until I was 17 when I stopped. Anyway I fought and fought in the war. Seeing almost every single one of my best buddies die right in front of my eyes. I had to be strong unless I wanted to be 6 feet under too. After I lost everyone I cared about at that time I became ruthless. I soon kept moving up in rank and am now a sniper. Two years after the war started I was able to go home for a while. That's when I met Tom and he helped me through everything. I was able to get into a movie pretty quick since I've been in many movies before. That was when we filmed The Breakfast Club. After that I was deployed back to the war. This time I had something to go back to so I fought harder. I had been through many traumatic things during them two years but Tom was in my head every single day. I was in a tank explosion and inch from my life yet all I thought about was Tom. Him being in my head made me fight threw it. I was close to being paralyzed by how many times I had been shot in the legs." "How many times were you?"

"Thirteen times. Seven times in the chest. Tom was the one that helped me through it all. Even though he doesn't know it he has helped me a lot. He was there for me even though he wasn't physically there. When I got hit with the grenade I was in a coma for 3 months. When I woke back up I somehow slipped back into one for another month. When I finally woke up after that I had realized how fast life could actually be taken away from somebody. When I was able to walk around again I went and got tattoos to honor my friends." I showed Brad the tattoos. "The top one is for my buddy Marcus. The next one is for Lucas and the one under his is for his wife Mila. Under that one is for Josh and under his is for Andrew."

I sighed as I began to remember them. Their smiles, their hugs, and their laughs. I let a tear slide down my face.

"There was a point in there where I wanted to die. I couldn't take all the pain that was being thrown in my path. I didn't know why I deserved it. It felt like everyone's life mistakes were being thrown right onto me. They were suffocating. I remembered then how many chances I was given. Time after time of being gifted another chance at life I decided to push those thoughts out if my head. God must be giving me more chances for a reason. I knew it wasn't my time to go yet. I still had things to do and accomplish before my time was done. So these scars on my body don't embarrass me anymore. It just shows how tough I am. It shows that I was able to make it through all the shit that was thrown in my direction. That I am alive and doing what I always dreamed of. Now I wear these scars with honor and integrity instead of beating myself up about how they make me look. I see how they actually make me look now."

"And how is that?"

"They make me look- no actually, they show I can get through anything and that I am meant to be here, alive and well today as I am breathing the air into my lungs every second of every day. I feel alive and I am so glad from how far I have come. I came from this broken 18 year old private in the military to a 26 year old sniper that had been reborn and couldn't be happier." "I'm glad that you've come this far too." I smiled at Brad and soon we both feel asleep.