A Different Ending
Lauren was pleased in some ways to be back on campus. It had been a long mission, made shorter only by Tom's presence. She was desperate to have a long bath, to see her friends, and even to see her brother. After a bath, and a good nights sleep in a bed that wasn't lumpy, she went to see her brother in his room. She walked in on him watching TV by himself.
'Hey bro.' she said, waltzing over and giving him a hug. His face was slimmer and his shoulders wider. His glanced at her and hugged her back.
'Nice to see you. Oh Lauren... you're wanted in the mission preparation building, like, now.'
'Alright. I best be off then. Bye!' she said, as she went out the door. She wondered why she was wanted.
Her mission controller, Chloe Blake, grabbed her as soon as she entered the building.
'Lauren, I've got news.' Chloe began, before they even had a chance to sit down. 'Tom isn't coping well in his new home, he appears to be, well, depressed. He is frequently harming himself and we're worried that if it gets any worse, he may try to kill himself.' Lauren was shocked, but managed to keep herself together. 'We want you to go and see him, explain your disappearance, maybe keep in touch with him. As quickly as possible, we don't want him to hurt himself anymore.'
'Course I will, Chloe, I'll do anything that can help.' Lauren said. 'Can we go now then?' she asked. It was selfish, but she was pleased that she'd been given an excuse to see Tom again. The poor guy was probably just lonely.
'He'll probably be at the beach if you go there. We've been keeping an eye on him. He's been spending a lot of time there.' Chloe told her.
'Ok, great.' Lauren said, and began to leave.
'One more thing Lauren.'
'Hmmm?' She wondered.
'Will you take your brother with you? I'll drive you down, but I want someone with you. You can say he's your cousin.'
'Sure.' Lauren said. She was a bit annoyed of course, her brother would ridicule her when he saw her with a boyfriend, but any negative feelings were overridden with the knowledge that she would soon see Tom.
She packed an overnight bag, and explained everything to her brother, reminding him to be nice to Tom. They set off in the car with Chloe a little before 1 O'clock, and made the 3 hour journey to the coast. They left their bags at the house where Chloe and Lauren had been staying previously, and jogged round the corner to Tom's children's home. He wasn't there. Lauren and James took Chloe's advice and left for the beach, a 20 minute walk away. It was growing gradually colder, windier and wetter. Lauren and James could think of places in the world they'd love to be, and a windswept beach in Liverpool wasn't one of them. They could see a tiny, dark haired figure perched on top of a sand dune. It wasn't sure to be Tom, but it looked likely. In order to get to the sand dune, they had to walk across about 500m of damp sand. They were against the wind. Salty rain and flecks of sand slapped them in the face and stuck in their eyes. Lauren hoped her hair didn't look too messy. She was excited, in a sick twisted way, even though she knew he would be feeling awful. They arrived at the figure, which they could see was Tom, and climbed up the dune. He recognised Lauren through the sea's spray, and his eyes lit up. His face was horrifically pale. Even though it was freezing, Tom wore only a thin t-shirt and jeans. His feet were bare. His arms were covered in scratches and cuts, and were red and patchy with wind burn. His dark hair was greasy and an unkempt mess. His eyes were damp and pink, with purple bruise like rings under them. None of that compared to the scar- a huge brown line down the side of his face. Despite all this, Lauren was attracted to him hugely. She felt a rush like never before as she ran over and kissed him.
'Wait... Lauren... who's this?' Tom asked, gesturing at James and stroking Lauren's cheek. 'You... got a new boyfriend. You came to tell me didn't you? To ruin everything! Oh god no...'
'Don't worry, Tom.' Lauren said, trying to be calm, collected and patient. 'This is my cousin, James. He's cool.' She explained, not once looking away from Tom's eyes. She knew that he had gone completely crazy in the last few days. He had changed so much, and Lauren, although still fancying him, didn't feel comfortable around him. He worried her. She was only acting so close to him because she didn't want to send him over his mental edge. She pressed her lips to his once more. James was disgusted. Lauren sure had guts. This guy was clearly a total nutcase, and she was willingly commencing in lip lock with him. He looked away before he made himself sick.
'So... Tom...' Lauren said, attempting to breach the difficult subject. 'Are you... Ok?
'Yes. I'm fine. You?' he said innocently.
'You sure about that, I mean, your not cold or hungry or hurt or anything? Look, have this.' Lauren tossed him a Galaxy bar from her pocket. He bit down on it, clearly relishing the calories. He looked to be enjoying it very much. 'D'you want to come and stay with us for the night? I mean, at our house?'
'I'd love to. You see, I'm not happy. I'm lonely without you Lauren. Please stay.'
'I'll try. But I can't for long.' She said. Lauren hated making promises she couldn't keep. She and James helped Tom up. He was limping. Lauren winced when she saw the open cuts on his arm. Some had become slightly infected and were tinted a green colour. They looked excruciatingly painful. They all walked back to the tiny house where Chloe was waiting for them. The three of them cleaned up Tom's wounds and sprayed them with antiseptic. He had a hot bath, while Lauren, James and Chloe sat in the living room discussing Tom's future. Lauren, of course, was dead set on him becoming an agent, he had the perfect criteria, but he was simply too old to start now. He came down, dressed in clean clothes, and beaming. He was so much happier now he was with Lauren.
There was nothing to do for the rest of the night, so they all sat down on the tiny sofa and watched 'About a Boy' on DVD. Tom had never seen it before, and found it hilarious. Lauren was so happy, snuggled up next to Tom. She tried to concentrate on the movie, but that was impossible when she could feel his lips on her hair. It was blissful.
She had saved Tom.