All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Sitting by the window, Tom read the book attentively while sipping on a cup of coffee. The sky was starting to brighten up as the train made it's way to the English capital. He had been on a trip to York visiting an old high school friend. The week had flown by quickly and soon came Monday which meant he had to return to his normal life. He had to audition for a movie role on the following Thursday and didn't want to be hungover or over exhausted on said date. A woman and her two children in front of him caught his attention. From where he was seated, he faced the mother who wore sunglasses that were most certainly not appropriate inside a train and spoke in a low but audible tone to the two boys in front of her.
"Mommy, can we have some french fries?" said the one who appeared to be the eldest
"I'm sorry baby, eat your grilled cheese, will you? As soon as we get to aunt Grace's house I promise you can have as many fries as you want." she smiled at him and Tom heard the boy sigh in annoyance
"But why does Harry get to have half of my sandwich? And why aren't you eating anything?"
"You know you wouldn't eat the whole thing, Randy. Mommy is not hungry. Are you sleepy, baby?" she caressed the other boy's hair and he mumbled something in response "Why don't you two finish your food and nap a little bit? I promise to wake you up as soon as we get to London."
"Will daddy be there?" the boy inquired
"Not yet. But I'm sure he will meet us later." she smiled again
Tom took in her features, she appeared to be young, her long brown hair draped on her shoulders and her clothes as well as the boys' were very fine. They were dressed elegantly and were not for the sunglasses covering her face, he would have said she was really pretty. There was something off about her, he thought to himself looking away as to not pry. His stomach growled so he decided to go to the train's restaurant. As he walked past the woman and her children, he noticed that she was counting out the money she had in her wallet and sighed a little after finishing the task. At the restaurant, he ordered some muffins, another cup of coffee and decided to do something completely unusual after eyeing an item on the menu.
Brenda looked at her children huddled on the train seat and sighed. She had left in such a hurry that the money she had taken was barely enough to get them to London without starving to death on the way. The right side of her face hurt a little, especially when she blinked for too long and the memories brought back by the pain made tears swell up in her eyes. Before she knew what she was doing, she sobbed as quietly as humanly possible, shaking her shoulders while doing so and covering her lips with one of her hands. How did she let things get that far? How could she have been so blind for so long? The questions popped up on her mind as she tried her best to wipe away the tears that were quickly followed up by others. 'It is all over' she said to herself knowing that wasn't true. It was all only just begining and the nightmare would not be over anytime soon. A shadow stood over by her side and she nearly screamed, looking upwards she realized that the shadow didn't belong to the person responsible for all of her nightmares. A man, appearing to be around her age if not a couple of years older, looked at her with uncertanty. His bright blue eyes were one of the prettiest things she had ever seen thus far, his hair was a mess of gold curls and he was at least six inches taller than her.
"Excuse me," his voice was friendly and soothing "I don't mean to intrude. I was just down by the restaurant eating and ended up not finishing my french fries. I heard one of your boys speaking of those so I figured I would give them to you instead of just throwing them away." he smiled lightly and it took her a few minutes to truly understand the words that came out of his mouth
"Oh, you didn't have to." her voice was slightly hoarse from the crying
"It's no problem. My mother always told me I shouldn't get something if I weren't a hundred percent sure I would eat everything, I guess I never learn." they laughed a little and he put the french fries on the table "My name is Tom. Tom Hiddleston." he stretched out one of his hands
"Brenda McIntyre. Would you like to sit?" she offered a polite smile
"I don't want to disturb you."
"You wouldn't be, trust me. If I wanted you away you would be out of this train by now." at that he laughed out loud and one of the boys, the blonde haired one, moved a little
"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake him up."
"Oh he moves a lot in his sleep, but sleeps like a rock."
"Well then, if that's the case I will have a seat." she moved to the side so he could sit beside her "Are you English? Your accent sounds a little different from what I am used to hearing."
"No, I grew up in the States."
"Oh! So you're American."
"Pretty much."
"What brings you to London?" at that she stiffened a little
"I'm moving in with a childhood friend."
"That's wonderful. Your sons will love the city, there's plenty of things for young boys to do out there."
"I am sure there are."
"Where did you live before? York?"
"Oh no, even farther, we lived in Newcastle."
"Haven't been there yet. How did you like it?"
"It was okay, nothing too impressive."
"Would you mind if I asked the reason for the move?"
"I am getting divorced. So I thought it would be good to start out new in a different place."
"You're right. And bringing your children with you was a wise decision. Children are the ones who suffer the most in these situations." his eyes emitted a certain sadness which she noticed
"You speak from personal experience?"
"Yes, my parents divorced when I was growing into teenagehood so they decided to send me to a boarding school. It was really distressing and confusing."
"I'm sorry to hear that." as she said that her sunglasses moved downwards and, before she could quickly pull them up again, Tom had a glimpse of her brown eyes and the yellowing bruise around one of them. At that he felt his breath being taken away as if someone had just punched him in the stomach, his reaction must have been visible to the woman because she turned slightly away from him instantly. Her expression of embarassment hurt him to the core.
"I'm sorry." he mumbled and went back to his seat
The rest of the trip went by rather quietly. Mondays were not a typical day for traveling so the train was nearly empty. Tom went back to reading his book, he thought he heard Brenda sniffle every now and then, but did not dare look up. He wanted to ask what had happened to her, how he could be of any help and offer assistance to her family but decided that there was no way he could do that without sounding too intruding. The boys woke up a couple of hours after that and he could hear the happiness on their laughter as they ate the french fries he had left on the table. That warmed him on the inside. Every now and then he felt as he was being watched, but whenever he looked towards the three people in the booth in front of his own, his eyes never met anyone else's. Once again, he got up and headed towards the restaurant. As he walked by the booth, he saw its three occupants curled up in one of the seats. The woman no longer wore the sunglasses, and the late afternoon light showed him that the damage was far worse than he had initially thought. Not only she had a black eye, but the right side of her face seemed to be swollen and if he looked closely he could see a small cut on the corner of her lips. He felt a weird pain inside his own chest that was followed by an unknown rage. How could someone have done that to her?
King's Cross station had not changed much since she had last been here over two years ago. Though it wasn't as busy as it usually would be, it was slightly crowded so she held the boys close to her as she made her way to a phonebooth.
"Hold on to your brother's hand and hold the strap of my bag with the other one. Don't move okay? If someone approaches you, call me." the grey eyed boy agreed as she turned towards the payphone and dialed the number she knew all too well
"Hello?" the voice on the other side appeared exasperated
"Grace, it's me. We just arrived at King's Cross. Give me your address so I can take a cab over there."
"Brenda, are you sure you don't want me to pick you up?"
"No, I want to be out of here as soon as possible. I would have had you pick me up, but I had no cell so I couldn't call you on the train."
"Alright, write it down." she wrote down the address and turned towards the boys, grabbing the bag on the bench and securing the straps of their little backpacks on their bodies
"How much is a ride to this address?" she asked the cab driver
"About seventy pounds, miss." the old man responded and she shook her head turning to the boys who waited behind her. She only had forty pounds on her, how the hell was she supposed to come up with another thirty pounds? The longer they stood at the station the worse it would be, they could be found out at any minute and taken away.
"Want to share a cab ride?" that soothing voice from earlier startled her
"Are you going near Camberwell?"
"Yes! My mother lives right around that area. Shall we go?" he opened the door to them and after hesitating for a few seconds she decided to get into the car
"Thank you." she said after they were all sitting
"Don't mention it. What's your name?" he asked the boy sitting on her right. He looked a lot like his mother, though his eyes were grey and his hair a lighter shade of brown. He must have been around five or six years old.
"Randall Lee McIntyre, but if you're nice to me you can call me Randy."
"Well, I think I'm pretty nice."
"Then you can call me Randy. What's your name?"
"Thomas William Hiddleston. But I like to be called Tom." they smiled at each other "And you, what is your name?" the other boy was smaller, maybe two years old. He had big blue eyes and hair as blonde as Tom's used to be when he was around that age. The man assumed he looked like his father as he couldn't see much of Brenda on the boy.
"Harry!" he responded sleepy
"Well, now that we're all acquainted, who wants some candy?" he smiled mischieviously showing off the candy on one of his hands
"Can we, mommy?" Randy questioned
"Sure." they reached out and grabbed some of it with their tiny little fingers "What do you say when people give you something?"
"Thank you!"
"You're welcome."
The cab ride to Grace's house was quite extensive, so Brenda and Tom chatted and got to know a little more about each other on the way. He learned that she worked as a librarian at a local university, though her dream job involved non-profit organizations around the world. She was almost twenty six years old and had been living in England for about six years. Tom told her a little bit about his career as an actor and about the audition he had on a few days for a movie called Midnight in Paris and also how excited he was to be part of a big production set to start filming in a couple of weeks. The movie was Thor and he was fascinated to see how interested she was in Norse mithology. Every now and then one of the boys would get involved in the conversation making the adults laugh, except for when they asked about their father and Tom had to distract them from the subject as he saw the expression on the woman's eyes. Soon, they were parked in front of a red bricked house which was the destination of the three.
"Thank you so much for sharing this ride with us, Tom." she said sincerely smiling at him
"It's no problem at all."
"Let's go, boys. Go on and ring the bell. I'll be right out with you." she opened the door and they ran up the stairs ringing the house bell excitedly "Well, I guess I'll see you aroun then."
"Here," he took a piece of paper out of his bag and wrote something in it "this is my cell number. Don't hesitate to call if you need something."
"I would give you mine, but I don't have a cell. So I guess you can come around if you need my help"
"Certainly."
"Good bye."
"Good bye." he watched her carry the bags out of the car and move towards the door being greeted by a red haired woman whose tears could be seen all the way from the cab
"Where shall I take you, mister?"
"Westminster, please."