disclaimer: tom and the guys own themselves. the ideas and other characters are all mine however.

TWENTY-THREE - SUPERTOM!

So baby save me, baby save me like you do
And when you found me I was barely breathing
You take my heart and you make it even
I'll be your strong side, I've grown

I could hear my mobile ringing. It sounded as though it was far away, instead of in my hand, ready to be answered at a moment's notice. I fumbled with it for a few seconds before finally finding the "talk" button and pressing the device to my ear. I said something incoherent to whoever was on the other end of the line.

"Dara? Are you all right?" It was Tom. After I had seen J.P. with the other girl, Tom and I had stayed on the roof of the building until we had both fallen asleep. I had woken sometime around two A.M., when he was still sleeping, and left.

I was about eight blocks away before I realised I probably should have told him goodbye, so sent him a text-message:

Thank you as always. I'm so sorry I ruined your night. And I'm so sorry I left without so much as a single word, but I need some space and

That was when I ran out of characters and never got around to sending a second with the finished message.

I didn't say anything for a while to Tom, causing him to say more: "Dara? Are you there?"

"I'm here," I said, slurring my words a little.

"Are you okay?"

As if on cue, I started crying. "I'm scared, Tom," I told him between sobs.

"I'm coming to get you. Where are you?"

I looked around when I was stood, as if something there would help answer the question that I didn't have an answer to. "I… don't know." I turned around and, as if it had suddenly appeared because I needed to get out of wherever I was, there was a set of doors. I headed for them, not paying any attention to the people I bumped into and knocked out of my way, only focusing on the doors. When I reached them, pushing through to the outside, I started shivering. But, I didn't think it was all that cold.

"Well, can you tell me what's around you?" Tom asked after having giving me a few minutes silence to try and figure out where I might be.

"There are bright lights," I replied slowly, trying to shield my eyes from them with one hand while the other held my phone. "Lots of them," I added. "And lots of cars, too." I paused for a moment while I let my eyes adjust to the surrounding area. In the close distance (it was across the wide street in front of me), I saw a sign and read it to Tom. I didn't know what it meant, but he seemed to because the next thing I knew, he told me that he would be here – wherever that was – as soon as he could.

He arrived in what felt like thirty hours, but was probably more like thirty minutes.

"Dara!" he called, running down the street towards me. "Dara?" he then asked, kneeling over my almost limp body. I had fallen a few minutes before he arrived, and the only movement I have made in the way of getting up had been to roll over so I was on my back. I could feel an ooze near my knee where I guessed I had scraped it and it was now bleeding.

I looked at him, not really having the words to tell him that I was alive, but that I knew I wasn't really fine. "I fell," I said instead before he slowly helped me into a sitting position.

"I'm parked around the corner," he said slowly to make sure that I heard every word, "do you think you can make it?"

"Yes." He got to his feet before he helped me get to mine. But, halfway up, I leaned forward slightly and hurled – right onto his shoes.

I fell back down, tears streaming. "I'm sorry," I said, repeating it over and over as he quickly got what he could off his feet. (This all happened in about three seconds.)

"Adara. Stop apologizing," he told me firmly, but gently. "It's not your fault." He helped me to my feet again, with this time being a success. He helped me walk towards the car, but it was hopeless. In the twenty steps we had taken, I had almost fallen on about sixteen of them.

"Why don't I give you a lift?" he suggested. He bent down in front of me, suggesting that I clamber onto his back, which I obliged to. I loosely linked my arms around his neck, and he headed, more quickly and smoothly, towards his parked car.

The whole time Tom was carrying me, I had my eyes closed. By the time we reached his car, I had almost completely passed out on his back.

"Dara?" he said softly, realising that I was almost out of it. "Dara, please wake up." After saying this a few times, he was finally able to get me out of the little daze I was in long enough to get me down and in the car, where, if he hadn't been quicker, I would have hurled into, too. Lucky for him, he noticed right before he shut the door and got me to lean out of the car just in the nick of time.

I fell asleep shortly after I heard the car door on his side close and he began driving, where to I didn't know. When I awoke, even just the very little that I did, it was because we had arrived and Tom was lifting me out of the car, being careful not to hit my head on the doorframe.

"Tom, the feffer's on fire" I mumbled, not really knowing what I was saying in the moment.

"Shh," he whispered, starting to walk away from the car after having struggled slightly trying to shut the car door, "go back to sleep, Dara."

And I did. Kind of. I knew what was happening, but I didn't know where we were. I knew that we weren't at my house, but that was it. When we stopped, he put me down on a bed, covering me with a blanket.

He left and I knew that I was alone. But I wasn't alone for long, because the next thing I knew, he was at the side of the bed, brushing my hair out of my face as I laid on my side, almost asleep. "Dara, there's a bucket here if you need it. And, please, if you do need it, use it." I faintly heard him place it on the floor before I fell asleep.

song: amazing by hedley.

an: the best superhero, methinks.

ta!