Timeless // T.H

25// Come in

I'm too tired and lazy to edit the chapters right now so I'll just publish them and I'll go back and edit them later
Love E x

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The second bad thing was the unsurprising attack of the media on Tom's mysterious girlfriend. It was an attack on the stability of her mental and emotion state and it was tough. They had both been expecting the onslaught for a while, but the two months of his being away went peacefully. The pair had found themselves a routine, he'd facetime over breakfast and she would make herself available in whatever way possible. She'd text pictures and send snapchats of Roo and Paddy's latest adventures. The pair had become quick the unlikely duo, their exploits ran both Betty and Nicole mad but it was oddly reassuring to see such a profound friendship blossoming.

Harry was an excellent elder brother figure too and his willingness to bring both younger boys with him wherever he went left  Betty with much more free time on her hands than she had anticipated. She found time to write a screen play, something she'd never even thought of doing before but with Harry and his friends' help she found herself directing a mini move that Harry helped her put on YouTube. She finally had a hobby again that didn't revolve around her son. The time spent apart between Betty and Roo made their time together even more precious. At Halloween Harry and Betty took out Paddy, Roo and the dogs around Kingston. Paddy wore a Spiderman costume and Roo went as Shuri and made Betty wear panther ears and a set of silver claws to be the Black Panther, whereas Harry simply donned a iron man helmet at Paddy's request that he join in.

They facetimed Tom before they left and he laughed for a good five minutes at Harry's displeasure. Betty and the kid's however were loving life, they'd even revived Nana's Barky Barnes costume. Harry refused to let them attach a shield to Stella so she went without a costume. They had a lot of fun that night though whereas Tom had found himself bored for the first time when he went out to a Halloween bash in Hotlanta with some of the crew. He and Seb had sat most of the night off the side without their respective partners to enjoy the evening with; Tom lied the next day when he and Betty caught up again about their nights because she was so happy herself that he was cheering up from talking to her whilst she was so happy.

Less than a fortnight later found Betty and Tom glaring around the monitor at each other over one too many accusatory articles against both of them. Betty had felt more insecure than ever after seeing five consecutive from page articles about Tom being romantically connected with a girl that seemed to be an extra on set and then Zendaya and the extra again then Maisie Williams, and back to Zendaya briefly before going back to the extra again. She was gorgeous with ease and was his age too and definitely did not have a kid. Tom was angry about a number of things: first and foremost was the rumours that she was now with Harry, he was annoyed she hadn't told him about the mini-movie they made, and he was angry she didn't seem to trust him. He was angry that she seemed to cope really well without him whilst he felt as though he was drowning and he was angry that he wasn't going to be back for Christmas.

The second bad thing was the fight they had as a result of the rumours they should have known to be nothing. It was a big one, it lasted a week and it was painful. It began with Tom saying the wrong thing and ended with them not speaking much for the following month:

"So you and my brother huh?" he'd tried to joke but his contempt had crept through the gaps in his words,

"I'm sorry?" she questioned, assuming she had misheard at first. To Tom this appeared as a feign of innocence and it scratched the wound deeper.

"Nothing I just, if I'd known you'd go for my brother than I would have kicked him out before I moved you in." he shrugged childishly

"Are you high?"

"What, no, why?" he reflected defensively

"You're sounding crazy. I was hoping you were high or drunk or something because the Tom I knew would never have accused me of cheating on him with his brother." She frowned, sounding hurt, which for some reason only seemed to push Tom on the attack.

"Hey, a month is a long time, I get it, I just can't believe you went for my brother of all people." He almost spat at her

"A month is not a long time, but if you're struggling already maybe you're not ready for this." She retorted coldly, folding her arms and looking away from the monitor

"Oh fuck off Betty, I told you I loved you, do you think I was lying or something?" he huffed loudly

"I said it back didn't I?" she shot straight back, but it had barely reached him when he scoffed

"Actually you didn't, you're exact words were 'me too' and you haven't exactly said it since!" he yelled

"Neither have you!" she shouted back and they were in silence for a second before Betty ran her hands over her face "I'm not doing this right now, I'll call you later." She muttered

"You're just gonna walk away from this?" he hissed

"No Tom, I have to get my fucking kid to nursery and then go to work." She snapped and ended the call fighting the tears away from her eyes.

That same day Harry was pictured kissing on of the girls who'd been recruited for Betty's mini-movie and she was announced as his girlfriend on his Instagram. Tom didn't make any attempt to apologise to Betty because he was still angry about some of the other things. He knew that it wasn't her fault, any of it, but the whole long distance thing was hard and he was getting scared of her slipping from him. Usually communication with Betty was easy, but the miles between them seemed to put walls between them that he didn't know how to approach and he felt so isolated from her.

The argument had ended a week later with both conceding tiredly, only chaos seemed to win that one.

"I just don't understand why you thought I would cheat on you with Harry?" she'd questioned quietly

"Because he can be there with you, and I'm stuck in Hotlanta."

"Oh Tom," she cried out a tear from exhaustion over the whole affair "You're always with me." Betty had known better than to attempt to refute Tom's arguments with accusations of her own, so many of her question went unanswered but for now that was okay.

It was a lonely month for Tom and Betty as they kept each other at arm's length to rebuilt their trust and redeemed themselves to one another. Betty found herself up late thinking about the memory of Tom walking away from her in the airport, she held on to the knowledge that he had looked back before she would have been completely gone- it was an odd reassurance but it kept her going in the quietest of moments. She also found herself wearing his t-shirts, despite having promised herself that she wasn't going to become that person, still it calmed her to have his scent wrapped around her whilst she slept.

The loneliest night was that one just after the end of their argument, she hadn't forgiven him, but she wasn't angry anymore either. All she wanted was to hold him, to feel his body against hers and be able to reassure herself that he meant what he said, that he was sorry. She needed Tom beside her so they could have crazy make up sex and laugh about it, they needed the proximity to dissolve the stigma, and ease the tense feeling that she got in her shoulders when she thought about what he was doing. If he had been with her, she could have been sure, in that exact moment, that he wasn't with any of the girls he'd been rumoured to have been with.

Betty knew better than to suspect that he was having a fling with Zendaya, mainly because she knew Z wouldn't have stood for that. She doubted that he was with that Maisie girl, she had a busy schedule anyway and she wasn't even aware of them having met before. However the extra from set had her on edge, because it was plausible, Chris had done it, not cheated but he'd got with an extra before he got back together with Seb, but Chris was an adult man, and Tom was arguably a horny teenage boy. He wasn't cheating, he'd got a coffee and the girl had come with him to get away from some mean girls who kept messing with her and Harrison and Tom had lent a hand. Tom hadn't even looked at another girl since Betty had shown up with his dog out of the blue. But how was she supposed to know that?