When Giovanna walks in almost three months after McFly arrived, and Tom isn't in his room, that worries her, because he's only vanished on her twice. Once when he broke down when he couldn't see the others, and the other time for a joke to try and scare her, but this time he's not calling out, or giggling, and that's not good.
"Tom?" she half calls into the room, because it's not that big, but she needs to know where he is, needs a response.
There's nothing though. Not a greeting. Not a sound.
"Can I see you, please, Tom?" she says, and moves forward into the room, her hand coming away from the doorframe. As she reaches the middle of the room, she thinks she hears something coming from behind her, near the door, but when she turns he's not there. The room seems totally empty.
**In the corridor**
Tom breathes deeply, trying to keep quiet and calm. He got out of his room after Gio moved out of the way of the door, but that was the easy part. He regrets having to sneak past her, and she'll probably get in trouble for it, but he wants out of there and he needs to find the others. It's only been a few days since he last saw Harry, and they had established then that they couldn't get out together, because there was too much security around the training room, but individually they might be able to sneak off...
They could have stayed, and try to cooperate with whatever James Bourne and the government wanted to use them for, but, honestly, it doesn't feel right. He needs to be free again, and be able to argue with Harry about irrelevant things that don't really matter, and watch all of the Star Wars films again with Dougie, because it's been almost a year since they did that last, and he needs to laugh at the stupid stuff Danny comes out with sometimes, and tease him just because he can. It's been too long, and he hasn't even seen the sun for a quarter of a year for god's sake!
He had a fairly good idea of how to get to Harry's room, as they had given each other directions. Tom flattens himself against the wall to let a woman in a lab coat walk past, holding his breath in case she hears him.
He only has a few minutes at most before Giovanna realises what's happened and they come after him. He takes a left at the end of the corridor and jogs along the bland white corridor that looks so much like all the others in this basement they're stuck in. He knows that his shoes are squeaking on the plastic flooring, and he should care, but there are priorities, and the time limit is top of his list right now.
Right then, a siren starts sounding, and it sounds like the fire drill they did at school. Tom knows that he has two turns left until he reaches Harry's room though, and he runs faster, skidding and almost falling over on the second-to-last corner, pushing back against the wall to stay up, and he can see the end, and he's so close, if only –
But there's something happening and it makes Tom's heart stop and a horrible taste of metal fill his mouth. There's bars, lowering down at the end, and even as he goes as fast as he can, he knows that there's no way he can reach Harry's corridor in time.
The metal hits the floor with a clang, just as Tom collides with it, gripping the bars with hands that shimmer not only with invisibility, but tears too now. So close. So close.
He turns and slumps against the wall, shuddering with sobs that he doesn't bother holding back.
Two men appear from the other end of the corridor, and start moving forward, hands out to stop him getting past. They're wearing some weird goggles, and if he didn't feel so awful, Tom would laugh at how huge they are. As they grab him, though, he doesn't make any effort to resist. He doesn't turn visible though. He doesn't want to give them the satisfaction.