Maybe this Time (a Tom Hiddleston fanfiction)

Chapter One

Diana Servaes and Mary Betham had been best friends since they were in primary school, and had always lived in Suffolk, until Diana got married to a physical chemist from Greenock - Dr James Hiddleston - and moved to Westminster, where she had her first child, Sarah, of whom Mary was the godmother. Mary, on the other hand, moved to Oxford because of her job - she was a French teacher at Oxford University - and met her husband, one year later : Michael Kingsley, a very rich, nearly a billionaire, owner of many five stars hotels, and a benefactor of the university where Mary Betham was working. The story of how they met really was the sweetest, but our story here is not about them. All we have to know is that they met and fell madly in love, and after a year of learning to know each other, they got engaged and quickly got married.  When Sarah was two years old, her mother was pregnant again, and Mary was getting married. Sarah was a little bridesmaid for her godmother's wedding, to Diana's delight, and it helped the relationship between the two women grow even stronger than before. Whilst Diana had her second child, Thomas, Mary and her husband were struggling to have kids. They suffered like that for five years : they went to several doctors, the best ones, tried a few therapies, even got tested, for they were wondering if something was wrong. But nothing seemed to work, and there were no fertility problems... Mary felt desperate, for she dearly wished to have a child of her own.  She loved Sarah and Thomas, they were both adorable children, especially Thomas, who, as the years went by, revealed himself to be a charming, affectionate and very well educated little boy; but they were not her children. James and Diana were always there to support their two friends, despite the distance, and Michael and Mary kept sticking together, no matter what. It helped a lot but the pain got even worse when Diana announced her third pregnancy, and moved to Wimbledon, and Michael and Mary nearly gave up on trying. To support their friends, the Hiddlestons decided to finally move to Oxford to be closer to them, which really felt like a relief to the Kingsleys, especially Michael who was working a lot and dreaded leaving his wife alone. But soon enough, Michael and Mary's efforts were rewarded when five years after Thomas' birth, Mary found herself being two weeks late on her cycle. She guessed why, but she didn't want to get her hopes up : she had to do a pregnancy test to be sure.

As Michael Kingsley came back from work that day, he found his wife in tears, sitting on the bed, holding an object in her hands. When she spotted her husband, looking puzzled and about to come up to her and comfort her, she got up and threw herself in Michael's arms.

"Honey," he said, worried, "honey, what is it? Tell me, is something wrong?"

"Oh Michael!" Mary cried out. "Nothing is wrong!"

"Wha--... I don't understand, tell me..."

She held the object in front of her husband's eyes.

"We're having a baby!" she announced smiling through her tears her husband realised to be tears of joy.

Michael's eyes opened wide with shock and happiness.

"Are you... are you sure?" he asked as he felt his eyes becoming watery and his sight blurry.

"Yes, yes I'm sure! This is the third or fourth test, I'm sure!" his wife laughed as she nodded vigorously.

Their joy was indescribable, and the words joy and happiness were too weak to express what they felt at that moment. James and Diana rejoiced with the beyond happy couple who finally got their deepest wish come true. Four months after the Kingsleys had announced their joyful event, Emma Hiddleston was born. During her pregnancy, Mary enjoyed the attention, the carefulness of her husband and her friends. But what she loved most, was little Thomas coming up to her, his big blue eyes riveted on Mary's big belly, as he shyly advanced a hand towards it to feel the baby kick. When he felt it, he would step back and shake his blond curls, making Mary laugh.