Author's Note; Well, here we are again! I decided that since my Tom and Ruby drabbles keep increasing in number, they deserved their own story here on as well. I'd like to thank, as always, lala-kate, miscreantrose, and gazelle-legs for encouraging me and inspiring me to keep writing these drabbles! I can't wait to see where these two characters take me!
He seems to be taking it remarkably well, Ruby observes as she watches the man in front of her with interest. She's not sure how she would react if she suddenly tumbled into a portal and found herself in a whole other realm she had no idea existed, which appears to be just what has happened. Now that the man she found unconscious while wandering through the forest on her way home to Granny's has awakened, Ruby has been able to coax him into speaking with her, to try to make some sense of him and his strange clothes and manner of speaking. She knows that his name is Tom, that he comes from a place far away (Downton Abbey, he says—to her it sounds as fantastical as her explanation of her land no doubt did to him), but other than that, she can coax no more from him just yet. She tends to the nasty bump on his head the best that she can, offering to bring him home for Granny to look at, but he seems reluctant to trust her. Ruby recognizes the guarded look in his eyes, the way his gaze seems haunted at times as he fingers the wedding band on his left hand. She eyes it curiously but does not ask.
"I'm sorry," she says softly, making him look up at her. "It must be difficult. Being so far away from home."
She thinks she sees the faintest hint of a smile, but it is tinged with sadness and gone in the blink of an eye. "Maybe not as hard as you might think. Downton…it was always her home. I don't think it's really become mine yet. I never felt like I fit in there, really. Not that I was made to feel unwelcome—not all the time, anyway. Just rather like I didn't belong in their world."
"I know how that feels," Ruby says softly. Now Tom does look over at her, noticing the way she fingers the scarlet fabric of the cloak she hasn't taken off once despite the rising temperature. He almost smiles again, the sight of her reminding him of one of the illustrations from Sybbie's storybook. A sudden thought strikes him…No…it can't be…
"Do you?" he asks.
She nods, shrugging it off as if it means nothing to her. "Story of my life."