Guest - I do love the angst! xD
58 Danny's POV
Tom didn't come home at the usual time. He was currently three hours late, and I was starting to go from worried to terrified. Where was he?! Where had he gone? Had something happened? Was he still at Natasha's? But why would he still be there now, hours after his usual appointment time end? If he wasn't, where was he? He couldn't have gone far, could he?
"Right, I'm phoning Natasha's office." Harry picked up his phone, ringing the number that was practically on speed dial at this point, "Hello, sorry it's Harry Judd again. We were wondering if Tom is still with Natasha? He's not home yet."
"Hm, I haven't seen him, let me just check." The receptionist answered, muffled footsteps walking away from the phone.
"He's probably still just in session with Natasha." Harry tried to reassure us.
"Yeah, maybe he needs longer to talk." Dougie sounded more like he was trying to reassure himself with that.
"Hopefully." I hoped he was still there, and that he was okay. Oh God please tell me that he was okay, and wasn't in any sort of trouble!
The footsteps came back, some scuffling on the other end of the line.
"Erm, Natasha has asked if you could possibly come down to pick Tom up. He's... Today's session has taken a lot out of him, and Natasha thinks it's best if you have a chat and take him home." The receptionist explained, he needed what? What the hell happened?!
"Of course, we'll be right there." Harry hung up, the three of us running to the car, racing off to the therapist's office.
The whole way there, my thoughts raced as to what had happened today. What could they have possibly been talking about? Was it related back to Tom's recent distraction? Had Natasha made him realise that he was abused? Had she said something else groundbreaking to him?
Was Tom now panicking? Was he in denial? Had he had a serious reaction to it all? What was he doing right now? Oh God I was worried, what did we do? And what was Natasha going to ask us about? This was getting scary, so, so scary.
We got to the office within twenty minutes, and barely waited to park the car before running into the office.
"Where's Tom?" I called as we ran burst through the front doors.
"Through here, follow me, Natasha will be out soon, she's still in with Tom." The receptionist told us, leading us down to Natasha's office at a ridiculously slow pace. Why wasn't she moving faster? She was going too slow, we had to get to Tom right now!
"What happened?" Harry asked, clearly trying not to walk faster, just like I was.
"Natasha has been slowly leading Tom to realising what his wife has been doing, and I think today was supposed to be getting him at least close to the idea, and he hasn't taken it that well." She explained, "Natasha was going to ring you to explain on Tom's way home, but she's been with him, trying to help him understand." Oh God, oh God, oh God.
"How is he?" I was desperate to know, what was he doing?!
"He's shaken, there were a few tears, and denial, he's still coming to terms with things right now." she explained, "I'm sure Natasha will be able to calm him down soon, she's very good in situations like this. And she will have a long chat with you too, so you know exactly what happened today, and how to support Tom in this."
"Is this how people normally react?" I asked, I wanted to know, I wanted to know that somehow Tom would be okay after this. If others reacted in the same way, and got better, then Tom would too. Surely, he would get better, and he'd recover from this shock, or not be too badly affected by it.
"Everyone reacts differently, it depends on the level of abuse, and a lot of other factors. But in terms of the emotions Tom's going through, it's all fairly, not exactly standard, but it's in the general area." That was good, that was good right?! "That's a good thing, if you weren't sure. It means we know what to do, and how to help him accept things."
"Okay, okay, that's... that's good." I was pretty sure that that was the right reaction.
"He'll be fine, I assure you. Natasha is great with her patients; these things do sometimes take time. She'll be out with you soon, once she's sure Tom's safe to be left alone for a few minutes. Would you like anything while you wait?" Tom, safe and sound, that would be good.
"No, no thank you." Harry shook his head, the receptionist leaving us alone. To wait, for however long for Natasha, and to see Tom, and see what state he was in.