Hey I'm sorry I've updated so late again hehe hope this is worth the wait! Thanks for all the reviews I do love you all so much :D this chapter should be happier and make up for the horrible cliffhanger of the past chapter. So go! Read!

Tom - Part 10

And as his last breath escaped him, Tom opened her eyes letting the flames in, turning them as black as her pupils and giving herself up to the fire of burning injustice... It was over and so was he...

He was a coward... He couldn't save his team...

"No..." Aneisha whispered as the heart monitor went dead. "No... No..." she repeated like a mantra. Dan held her close, wide eyed, disbelieving. Keri stared straight into space and Frank did the same, only stopping to catch Stella, who's legs were threatening to give way from underneath her.

He may be a coward, but he could try... Try...

He had gone. Tom had gone... Tom was-

Try- And then there was pain, worse than the fire and the guilt but bringing him back, planting him firmly in the real world...

"Dan you owe me fifty quid y'know,"

BEEP-BEEP BEEP-BEEP BEEP-BEEP

"Tom?" Dan whispered looking up from Aneisha's shoulder. Stella suddenly cried out, putting a shaky hand over her mouth as Frank started on, mouth open, Keri beaming and Aneisha running to Tom's bewildered side.

"Right... I have no idea what's happening so I'm just going to go with it..." he said throughly confused.

"Tom your alive," Stella cried, walking over to touch his hand, making sure she wasn't making things up... She wasn't. Tom was defiantly alive...

"Yay!?" Tom said, now really worried about his boss' behaviour. She even laughed at his joke then making Tom realise that something had defiantly happened... "Look this is going to sound a bit weird but I'm going to guess that something's been going on around here?" he asked smiling nervously.

"Do you want to tell him or shall I?" Keri laughed.

Xoxo

"So I nearly died?" Tom asked after he'd been told the events of the previous day. It was now two o'clock in the morning but the team had never been more awake. The many doctors and nurses had been bustling in and out of the room doing tests and checks that Tom found extremely exhausting and tedious. Especially as everything had come back clear, as expected, or not considering the situation!

"Correction Tupper, you did die!" Keri corrected. "Briefly anyway," she added.

"Yeah you were cutting it close in there Tom," Dan agreed grinning and tucking into a chocolate bar from one of the nearby vending machines.

"What do remember?" Frank asked sitting beside the bed where Tom was now sitting up, his hair in it's usually position and dry, the colour coming back to his cheeks.

"What, about earlier? Or yesterday?" he replied.

"Yesterday when you fell ill," Frank answered as Tom nodded, thinking back.

"I don't know... I think I just thought it was just a headache at first and then I felt sick but I thought it was just a passing thing, I don't know, I was tired and then everything felt fussy but I remember waking up and being worried, like I knew I had to do something. I did do something right? I didn't just mumble rubbish into the communicator did I?" Tom started to explain before turning to Dan who had screwed up his chocolate bar wrapper and proceeded to throw it so it landed in the bin.

"No, you saved our lives Tom," Aneisha assured him kindly as Dan turned to his best mate, smiling.

"Good! That would have been awful if I'd just been sounding like an idiot..." he muttered.

"It was me who was being an idiot. I didn't believe you were ill in the first place and I snapped at you... I was a rubbish mate," Dan said sadly as Tom smiled at him.

"To be honest, I didn't even notice," he replied. "And I don't think it would have made much of a different if I had done,"

The look of relief on Dan's face was imminent as Tom grinned. It was a nice feeling having everyone fussing around him. Back at home he didn't get much attention, although that was probably due to the amount of Blade Quest he played... He wasn't going to tell anyone about the nightmares though... He didn't want anyone knowing that. He knew he could trust them but. No. Just not yet...

One thing that was weird though was Stella being nice to him. To be honest it sort of freaked him out slightly! As if she'd read his mind, Stella waked through the door smiling unnaturally.

"Tom how are you feeling?" she asked as he nodded.

"As fine as I was when I woke up. It's like nothing's happened. I'm tried but that's about it. It honestly feel like I've run a marathon," Tom said.

"Sounds like it to," Stella noted, pointing out his raspy voice. "Drink of water?"

"Errr yes please?" Tom replied, Frank smirking at his worried face. She handed him a plastic cup full of water before crossing her arms.

"Ok why are all of you giving me odd looks?" she asked as the four burst into laughter.

"Well Stella your being very..." Frank tried before laughing himself.

"I'm being very what Frank?" Stella asked in her usual stern tone.

"And she's back to normal!" Keri smiled.

"Thank God I thought KORPS had brainwashed her for a moment!" Dan joked, getting up.

"Nah you see KORPS wouldn't be that obvious!" Tom laughed.

"Very true!" Aneisha agreed grinning as Stella watched, confused.

"What are you talking about?" she asked slightly worried now.

"Well Stella," Frank started getting up and standing close to her to whisper in her ear. "You're being nice, very nice, which is good! Just-"

"Is that what this is about?!" she cried. "I can be nice you know!"

"We know!" Dan said backtracking slightly.

"It's just kinda creepy..." Keri said honestly as Dan and Aneisha put their heads in their hands, Tom and Frank looking to the ground. "Oh... Whoops," Keri said when she realised what she'd just done.

Stella looked at Keri and then round at the teams sheepish faces not being able to contain a smile. The look of relief on their faces was enough to make the smile wider as she shook her head.

"You know it may surprise you to know that I am a real human being not a weird witch!" she said amused as the spies smiled back. Suddenly there was a knock at the door as a doctor came though carrying a clipboard. Tom's test results.

"Agent Tupper," he said smiling slightly. "How are you?"

"I'm good," Tom smiled back, trying not to seem nervous about the results. Aneisha had clocked on soon enough though, holding his hand again. He like her holding his hand...

"Well as you know you had many tests done to determine weather the poison was still in your system or had left some lasting damage. Well I'm glad to say Agent Tupper that you seem to be clear," the doctor said as Tom breathed a sigh of relief with the rest of the room, loosening his tight grip on Aneisha's hand. They shared a smile as the doctor continued. "The poison seems to have completely gone and there's no lasting side effects apart from that you should be quite tired, physically and mentally in the next week or so. So no active duty I'm afraid!"

"Sorry active duty? What's active duty?" Tom smiled as the team grinned.

"We will keep you in for now but you should be discharged later today. We can get you some food now the tests are over," the doctor finished.

"Yes! Thank goodness! Please just give me-" Tom started.

"Biscuits!" the team finished as Tom smirked sheepishly.