Tom decided to stay a few more days. A few days became a week. A week became three. And he was still there.

Not that Reese was complaining; it make housework much easier, and it was nice to have someone to remind her to feed her father's four cats. They went on runs every other morning, Tom dragging her out of bed way too early because he refused to go out with her in the evenings.

To her despair, Reese hadn't once heard from Emily since she'd slipped out weeks ago, and she never answered her phone. After a while, she just stopped trying and accepted the fact that she'd have to start looking for another caretaker as soon as possible.

Alex stayed as well, mostly keeping to himself in his room upstairs. He wasn't as much of a pain in the ass as Reese expected him to be, even helping cook meals every-once-in-a-while.

The four of them fell into a sort of routine after the first couple weeks, and for the first time since she'd arrived, Reese started thinking about getting a job.

"We really do need the money," she said to Tom that night at dinner. "But I'm afraid, if I did find something, it would be permanent. I mean, this whole living situation is just temporary, only I can find someone else to watch my dad." Tom picked thoughtfully at his salad.

"It really is a dilemma." He paused, looking as if he wanted to say something, then shook his head and pressed his lips together. Reese tilted her head.

"What?"

"Hm, nothing."

She huffed and scooted close to him, resting her chin in her hand. "Tell me," she insisted. "I'll take any advice I can get my hands on."

Tom still looked unsure. "Maybe... maybe you could write from home?" he said quietly, glancing up after a moment when Reese didn't answer. She hadn't even thought about that.

"I mean, you're a writer, right? You could probably find some online magazine or something to write for, even if it's only a little cash."

"That's actually not a bad idea," she muttered, more to herself than Tom. Tom smiled and shoved a bite of lettuce into his mouth.

The house as silent, apart from the steady drum of rain on the metal roof. Reese's father was asleep in his room, and Alex had finally gone out job hunting, leaving her and Tom to lounge lazily about the house with leftover salad from their pizza the night before (another reason Reese had to find a job. They never had enough money to cook a proper meal, and she was beginning to worry about how much weight she'd put on since they started eating pizza three times a week).

Tom brought his mug to his lips and took a long swig, the steam swirling around his glasses and fogging them up. Reese had never seen him wear glasses before, and quite frankly, had no clue he even needed them.

They both jumped as the front door burst open, and in walked Alex, dripping wet and stumbling. Tom set his tea down so hard it sloshed all over the table.

"Alex!" Reese squeaked, scrambling to her feet, heart still hammering in her chest. "God, you scared us." As he moved closer, she could see with a sinking feeling his eyes were glazed over, and he had a ridiculous smile on his face.

"S-sorry, Reeese," he slurred, bumping into the edge of the kitchen table. "Won't happen again."

Reese clenched her fists. "Are you drunk?" she hissed. Surprisingly, Alex's vision cleared for a moment, just enough time for him to flash her a scared look.

"I... ah, stopped at a pub on the way home for a few drinks," he mumbled, barely above a whisper. "I'm a little.... A little..." he paused, searching for the word, "tipsy."

Seething, Reese took another step toward him, then felt a hand on her shoulder. Tom stared down at her sternly, then leaned down to whisper, "I'll take care of it, darling. You go up to bed." She tried to ignore the pleasant tingle his breath sent down her neck.

In any other situation, Reese would have argued. She would have denied his offer and dealt with Alex herself, but she was exhausted, and Tom's reassuring smile pushed any worry she had to the back of her head. It was like mind control.

"Okay," she said quietly, moving back toward the stairs. "Alright, I'll..." she didn't finish, just turned her back and marched up to her room.

She hopped in the shower to keep herself from listening intensely to their conversation down below. Tom said he could handle it, and she trusted him. She really did.

Twenty minutes later, the house was silent, and Reese slipped into bed, molding around a fat orange tabby curled up in the center. He shot her a dirty look, spun around a few times, and curled up at her feet.

Just as she was drifting off, her bedroom door creaked open, and Tom stuck his head in.

"Reese?" he whispered. "You awake?"

She grunted, which Tom must have taken to mean yes, because he slipped inside and walked to the other side of her bed, letting the door fall shut behind him. "Alex is all taken care of," he murmured into her ear. "I got him up to bed. He'll have a hell of a hangover tomorrow, which I think is punishment enough."

Reese rolled over to face him, stifling a yawn. "Thanks, darling."

Tom snorted. "What?"

She laughed, eyes still closed. "What, you can use it on me, but I can't on you? How's that fair?"

"It was sarcastic," he muttered.

"Well, sarcasm doesn't suit you, Hiddleston. Don't try to be something you're not."

A calm silence settled over them, and Reese could feel herself sinking back into sleep, the sound of rain turning sort of fuzzy, and out of focus. She was wrapped in warmth, and Tom was breathing steadily beside her.

She sunk into blackness, and let sleep consume her entirely.

She woke the next morning to sunlight filtering through the thin curtains at the window above her bed. In complete bliss, she rolled over and pulled the covers higher up over her head, curling her legs up to her chest.

"Oh, God, did we fall asleep?" a gravely voice mumbled beside her, and Reese's eyes shot open. Tom lay next to her, still fully dressed, and looking thoroughly confused.

"I thought you left after I went to sleep," she laughed, brushing off how cute he looked, still groggy with sleep.

"I guess I conked out right after you."

"Well... it's a comfortable bed, is it not?"

"Yes," Tom chuckled. "That it is."

Silence.

"We should get up," Tom said after a moment, and Reese felt the mattress shift as he rolled off and onto his feet. "C'mon, things to do, people to see."

She waved him off and stuck her head under a pillow. "I've got nothing to do," she said, voice muffled by the covers.

"You've got to find a caretaker for your dad," Tom said pointedly.

"Eh, I'll do that tomorrow."

"If you keep saying that, you'll end up living in this house forever. What about your home in LA?"

Reese forced herself into a sitting position, propping herself up with a pillow. Tom was buttoning up his dress shirt and slipping his shoes on. "I don't have anything there," she said quietly. "I've lived there for ten years, and haven't once moved on with screenwriting. I don't want to work in a bar all my life."

"Reese..." He walked back over and sat on the edge of the bed, bringing up a hand to rest on her head. "I'm sure you're a great writer, you've just got to motivate yourself."

Reese nodded, mind suddenly blank. She felt a sudden urge to reach up and grab his hand, instead shoving him off and getting to her feet. "Yeah, yeah, whatever," she grumbled, feeling her face flush. "Get out, I've got to change."

On his way out the door, Tom paused. "We could put up an ad on Craigslist," he said. "For a caretaker."

Reese shrugged, wanting to think about anything but spending her entire day interviewing people for the job. "Sure."

She dressed slowly and deliberately, thinking maybe if she took long enough, Tom would forget about her and she could go back to bed. After milking maybe ten extra minutes, she gave up and trudged downstairs, moving into the kitchen when she was met with an empty living room.

To her surprise, she found him at the stove, cooking.

"Tom?"

"Ah, you're finally up," he said brightly, spinning around. Reese had to make a mental note not to comment on the apron he had tied around his waist.

"What... are you doing?" she asked slowly, slipping into a chair at the table.

"Making waffles," he hummed and gestured to the waffle maker to his right.

"Ah, right. Why?"

"Because," Tom said, back to her, "I felt like it, and I figured you needed a pick-me-up after last night."

"Oh, well, thanks," Reese mumbled, setting her head in her hands. On top of planning on spending the day trying to find a decent contender for the caretaker job, she'd completely forgotten about Alex, and his drunken entrance the night before. "How's Alex?" she asked suddenly, and she saw Tom's shoulders sag a little.

"Hm," he cleared his throat. "He's alright. I guess he went out and couldn't find any jobs anywhere, so he stopped at a bar... and, well... somehow stumbled home and had to have me tuck him into bed like a toddler."

"I should just kick the moron out," Reese sighed, silently accepting the cup of coffee Tom handed her.

"But you won't," he chuckled.

Reese took a sip and sat back in her chair. "Probably not. I don't have the guts."

"So you're not as pissed off at him as you were that first night? I thought you wouldn't even let him stay one evening."

She shrugged. "Most of my anger's melted away. I'm worried about so much right now, I've reduced to pulling my own hair out. That's what it's been replaced with: dead hair, and any free time I have for the next two days."

Tom poured a cup of batter into the waffle iron, grabbed a mug, and sat down across from Reese, crossing his legs. "Let me put up an ad," he said. "We can at least narrow it down better that way."

"Craigslist is, like, eighty percent creepy old guys who take up ads purely out of boredom -- you don't know who you're gonna find on there."

"Yeah, or, we'll find the hidden gem, and they'll be absolutely perfect." Tom grinned and sipped his coffee. "You never know."

Reese wrinkled her nose and took another swig. "Yeah, you never know."

Later that morning, Reese let Tom drag her out on an early run. Grudgingly, she shoved on her sneakers, tugged on a sweatshirt, and was shoved briskly out the door. By the time they were almost home, her face was bright pink with cold, and she was sure her nose had frozen solid and fallen off her face.

"Why did I let you do that?" Reese hissed as they burst inside. "It's freezing out there."

Tom stepped in beside her, slipping off his gloves and shutting the door behind him. "C'mon, it was fun," he said. "Good for the bones."

"How is freezing my ass off good for my bones?" she snapped, tearing her running shoes off and tossing them under the entryway.

"Well, it woke you up. Go take a shower, and then maybe we can see about putting an ad up?"

Reese stuck out her tongue childishly and stomped up the stairs, trying in vain the entire way to pull her jacket over her head. The hot water was a blessing, and after a good fifteen minutes, she could start to feel it thaw her body, which felt like a huge block of ice.

She dried and pulled on some PJ's, opting to just put her hair in a bun on top of her head rather than waste time drying it, and went back downstairs.

Tom sat in a big armchair in the living room, hunched over his laptop, Reese's father enveloped in a second chair (it seemed to be eating him, the man was so frail), staring out the window at what seemed to be a hail rain mix.

Reese moved past them and into the kitchen, Tom calling out, "I made some tea if you want any!"

"You're too British for your own good!" she called back, but grabbed a mug and a tea bag off the table and poured over hot water. She walked back and plopped down next to Tom on a stool, holding the steaming mug in her lap. "You ready to do the ad now?" she asked, taking a careful sip.

"Hm, yeah, yeah," he said, not taking his eyes off the screen. Reese leaned forward to take a look, and he jerked back like the action had burned him. "Just give me a sec."

"What're you looking at?" she asked scooting even closer. Tom sighed, shut the laptop, and turned to face her.

"I need you not to freak out," he said slowly. Reese raised an eyebrow.

"Well, that doesn't sound good."

Tom shook his head. "It's not the end of the world, and it'll pass pretty quickly, so just... remember it's not a big dead, okay?" Reese felt a little pang of concern as she recognized the sincerity in his voice.

"Right, yeah, okay. Not a big deal."

Slowly, Tom opened the computer and turned the screen toward her. It was a gossip website, plastered with pictures of various celebrities, a headshot of Tom in the very center.

"What's this?" she asked, pulling it closer.

"The, um, the Paparazzi saw us... while we were running," he said quietly. "And it's already up everywhere-"

"What?"

The page open was an article about some Mystery Girl, and scattered about it were pictures of them on their run. Reese shoved the computer back toward him and pulled her legs up to her chest.

"I'm so sorry Reese," he mumbled. "I hadn't thought about-"

"What's it say?" she asked carefully. Tom sighed.

"Just something about how I've got a new girlfriend no one knows about, and they just make some assumptions about you -- that of course aren't true -- you've just gotta learn to ignore this stuff. As long as I don't say anything, they'll get bored within a week, trust me."

"We didn't even see them," she said. "They must have been hiding and taking pictures because I didn't see anyone."

"Reese-"

She stood up suddenly, almost losing a grip on her mug, and began pacing around the room. "That's an invasion of privacy. They shouldn't be allowed to do that."

"Just calm down-"

"Is it just on that website?"

"What?"

"Or did they put them other places?" she asked.

Tom's shoulders sagged, and he took off his glasses to rub his eyes. "They, er, might be on a few other websites."

"Oh, God Tom."

Tom pushed himself to his feet, his glasses flying off his lap and skidding across the floor. "Why are you making such a big a big deal about it?" he grumbled, leaning over to pick them up.

"Why are you not?" Reese snapped.

"Okay, Reese, calm down, it'll pass."

"That's not the point. We're not together, what gives them permission to put it up everywhere?"

"Please-"

"What am I gonna do?" she groaned, leaning against the armrest of Tom's chair. Tom was quiet for a moment. Reese looked over at her father, now slumped over and sound asleep in his seat.

"Would it really be that bad?"

Reese's head shot up. "What did you say?"

"Why are you making such a big deal about it? Even if we were together, I wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, right?"

"I... I..." Reese's mind went blank. "I'm... gonna take a walk."

With that, she snatched her coat off the coat rack and marched out the door.