Tom's P.O.V

Every inch of Tom's body felt numb, his eyes red and puffy, and his head aching from crying as he remained sat next to the bed that Y/N was lying in with her hand cupped tightly into his. He was afraid that if he let go even for a second, she'd slip away from him, and he'd die too if that happened. He flicked his gaze back up to look at her pale and yet still gorgeous face, his eyes wavering as hers were still closed, and her lips were still parted slightly. It had now been three days since Y/N had taken Tom's bullet for him, and they had been the worst days of his life. She was still alive, just, which Tom guessed was something, but she'd slipped into a coma because of the trauma that her body had sustained. The boy had all of his personal doctors and nurses working around the clock to try and save her, or at least make her as comfortable as humanly possible if this was it for her, which his doctors warned was the more likely outcome by this point. And that broke Tom's fucking heart. He squeezed his eyes shut, more tears streaming down his face as he pressed his lips to Y/N's hand in a weak attempt to muffle his chokes. This wasn't fair, this wasn't how things were supposed to end for the two of them. Tom had no idea what he'd done in a past life to warrant a child spy being sent when they were kids and him falling in love with her, only for her to return a decade later to kill him, only for them then to actually fall in love and then her be this close to death. It didn't feel fair, but right now Tom was painfully aware of the fact that he couldn't do anything about it. He'd never be able to do anything about it. Well...apart from one thing.

"Boss." Tom's eyes opened, a small sigh leaving his lips as he broke them off from Y/N's hand before looking over his shoulder to see Harrison stood there.

"Sorry to interrupt, mate." His best friend nodded. Tom sighed again and shook his head as he stood up. He looked at Y/N once more, everything in him wanting her to just open her beautiful eyes and smile at him again as he gently let her hand go.

"It's okay, Haz, there aren't any new changes anyway. What have you got for me?" He asked as he turned to face him.

"Steve reckons that he's strong enough now to take another round without it being fatal." Harrison nodded. Tom returned it and clenched his jaw, seething anger starting to flow through him purely at the thought of this asshole.

"Brilliant." He mumbled before walking past Harrison, his right-hand man following him as they left the medical suite, and started to head along the corridor. Both of the men's shoes clicked against the hardwood floors, the sound also bouncing off of the walls as they headed down the stairs and towards their destination. As they got gradually closer, the sounds of cries and yells of pain started to be audible, eventually getting louder until Tom and Harrison were at the door. Tom clenched his jaw, the boy using every inch of willpower that he possessed not to end it now and put a bullet in this guy's head as he strolled into the room that held the prisoner. That held Y/N's old employer. Tom stuck his hands into his trouser pockets and strolled in purposefully nonchalantly, his mind knowing that him being so seemingly calm and unbothered freaked this asshole out. And Tom would play mind games with him as much as possible for what he did to Y/N. After he had shot her, Tom's men had managed to kill all of this guy's minions before successfully capturing the man himself. He'd been in one of the mansion's cells ever since, taking regularly beatings and bouts of torture as Tom was determined to inflict as much physical pain onto him as he'd inflicted onto Tom mentally. But he wasn't killing him yet, oh no. That privilege was reserved for Y/N. When...she woke up.

"Anything new today, boys? Any new apologies?" Tom mumbled, the boy looking down as he dug his carton of cigarettes and his lighter out of his trouser pockets.

"New apologies for what-."

"For what, that's cute, that's cute." Tom chuckled and nodded as he put the cigarette in between his lips and put the carton back away before raising the lighter. He cupped the flame with his hand so that he could light the cigarette, smoke filling his lungs within seconds as he put the lighter away too. He removed the cigarette and looked at the man as he blew the smoke out, the prisoner coughing and spluttering as Tom blew the cigarette smoke right into his face.

"There's a list, really. Starting with the fact that you took Y/N as a child, and forced her to be a killer. How about the fact that she's also fighting for her life right now, because you came here to kill me, and she took that bullet instead. Also, how about the fact that you robbed the love of my life of her life, and have potentially robbed us of our life together?" Tom spat as he leant down and placed his hands on the arms of the chairs that the prisoner was sitting on so that he could stare right into his sickly eyes.

"I stand by everything that I've done-."

"Wrong answer, asshole." Tom snapped before harshly pressing the butt of his cigarette into the man's leg. Immediately he started to yell and squirm in pain, his arms and legs being tied to the chair meaning that he couldn't at all escape from what Tom was inflicting on him as the boy burned him harshly with his cigarette.

"You better hope that Y/N wakes up, because this pain won't end until she does. And then, when she does wake up, only then will I allow your fucking pathetic self the last courtesy of death. Not like you deserve it." He hissed into the man's face, his jaw clenched and his heart racing in raw anger for this man before he stood up straight and turned to walk back out of the cell without another word.

Y/N's P.O.V

Pain flowed steadily through my body, quiet cries and whimpers leaving my lips as I slowly but surely started to wake up.

"Darling? That's it, love, come back to me." A distant voice seemed to echo, but I immediately recognised it as Tom's.

"What-." I whispered and furrowed my eyebrows, my eyelids still too heavy to flutter open as I became increasingly aware of my surroundings. Aware of the tight feeling of the bandages that hugged my waist in order to let my wound heal, but more importantly...the simply perfect feeling of my hand being held in his.

"Come on, sweetheart, I know that you can do this, keep pushing, come on." My weak heart fluttered as I felt his other hand cup my cheek softly, the warmth of his skin feeling incredible against my cold face as he gently moved his thumb against my skin. I forced my eyes to start peeling open, the pain rushing through me like nothing ever had before as a blurred face started to come into my vision. But the outline of the perfectly messy curls was more than enough to tell me who was by my side. My vision focused again, a quiet breath leaving my lips as Tom looked down at me.

"Love?" He gulped as his beautiful chocolate eyes flicked frantically over my face.

"Hey." I whispered, my body still too weak to be any louder as I spoke.

"Oh my god." He choked and shook his head, his eyes immediately wavering as he leant down and tightly hugged me. I lay there and just let him, my body too fragile to return the hug as Tom gently pressed his lips to my cheek.

"I thought that I'd lost you, sweetheart. Oh my god, I thought that you were gone." He choked and shook his head as he pulled back so that I could see him again.

"I'm okay, Tommy. I'm in pain, but I'm okay. I'm alive." I nodded in reassurance.

"And we can do something about the pain, I'll get the doctor to up the morphine. But first, I have something to show you." He nodded before standing up and outstretching his hands. I took a deep breath, my mind immediately knowing what he was suggesting with the gesture as I put my hands flat on the mattress on either side of my body. I started to push myself up, my eyes squeezing shut and cries of pain leaving my lips as my back slowly but surely left the pillows.

"That's it, darling, you're doing so well." Tom cooed in reassurance as he wrapped his arm around my waist and held my hand with his spare one as he helped me up. After an agonising few moments, my feet finally touched the floor, making me sigh out in relief as my eyes fluttered shut.

"Come on, my love, you're going to love this." He nodded, making me give him a small smile as we started to walk. Tom's arm stayed securely around my waist, the boy helping me to walk at my own doable speed as I tightly gripped his spare hand for support. After what felt like forever, we got down into his basement, the yells and cries of whoever was being kept there ringing out through the concrete corridor as we walked to the one open door. As soon as I looked in, my heart stopped. My eyes wavered, a choke leaving my lips as Tom gently guided me into the room that my former boss was being beaten and tortured in. The pathetic excuse for a man looked up at me through his blood-soaked hair as we appeared, a wretched scowl curling onto his lips as he saw me.

"Shit. I thought that I'd actually succeeded in doing you the favour of ending your good-for-nothing waste of a life." He spat harshly. My eyes wavered, tears starting to roll down my face as I stared at the man who had mistreated me since the day that my parents had sold me to him. All of the beatings, all of the twenty-hour training days that were forced onto me as a child, all of the hours denying me food and water in an attempt to make me tough. I resented him for it, of course I did, and so I was seeing nothing but red as I started to realise that his fate was in my hands.

"He needs to die, love. And so, if you want to...it's you who will pull the trigger." Tom mumbled into my ear, the boy having stayed right behind me so that I felt protected as we both stared at the man. I gulped harshly, my heart jumping in my chest as Tom's hand slipped the gun into mine before gently holding my waist for support again. A small part of me was telling me to be better than this asshole, to not do to him what he'd done to me for the last two decades. But then the rest of me, the significantly larger part of me, was remembering every single time that he'd beaten me, that he'd deprived me of basic essentials, that he'd had me convinced that I was going to die long before my time. And of course, that bit of me won. My eyes wavered, a serene numbness starting to creep over me as I raised the gun. I couldn't lie, I had expected to be shaky, I had expected to not be able to aim properly with my tremors of nerves at the idea of finally killing him. But no. My hand was completely still, telling me that this was right as I was able to aim the gun straight for the space in between his eyes.

"You won't be able to do it. You're too fucking weak." He spat harshly. I nodded and gave him a small smile.

"You want to bet?" I cooed before pulling the trigger. His head flew back as the bullet ripped through it, his body immediately going limp in the chair as it did. My eyes wavered, a choke leaving my lips as I dropped my hand before dropping the gun in turn.

"Darling, are you okay?" Tom asked gently as he took my hand into his. I looked over my shoulder at him before fully turning around, the boy's eyes flicking worriedly over my face as he clearly tried to figure out what I was thinking.

"Thank you." I choked and shook my head before tightly hugging him. He returned it, his face burying itself into my hair as his arms gently held me so that he wouldn't accidentally hurt me. He leant down and swiped my legs from underneath me, the boy picking me up bridal style, and me letting him as he started to carry me back to my room with our faces still buried in each other's necks.

I sat on my bed, my mind wandering as I just stared out of the huge windows that allowed me to look out onto the front gardens of Tom's mansion. For the first time since I'd been sent here, two and a half months ago now, I felt completely at peace. I was no longer Tom's prisoner, we were in an amazing place, and the literal source of all of my problems was dead. At my hands, too. I had to admit that it felt good. I looked over my shoulder as my door opened, my lips giving Tom a small smile as he slipped into my room and shut the door behind him.

"Hey, darling. How are you feeling?" He asked as he immediately sat down next to me and curled his arm gently around my waist.

"It hurts, but I'm alive, and that's something." I chuckled, making him return it and nod as he bit his lip. But instead of our gazes moving away like they normally did...they stayed on each other. My smile dipped, my heart starting to pound more harshly as Tom's gaze travelled between my eyes and my lips, like they'd done a couple of times before. This time, I was just hoping that he'd act on it. And...he did. Tom leant in and pressed our lips together, me immediately returning the kiss as my eyes fluttered shut, and my hand raised to hold his face. He pulled me closer, his hands holding my waist as softly as he could because of my wound as we finally had the intimate moment that we'd literally waited since childhood to have. And it was beyond perfect. Tom's lips felt beautiful and soft against mine, our mouths moulding together as if they were made to kiss each other. He broke it after a while, our foreheads pressing together as we sat there and just held each other. My eyes fluttered open, my heart fluttering in my chest as the boy's gorgeous chocolate eyes were already looking straight at me. He gave me a small smile and bit his lip.

"That was definitely worth the fourteen-year wait." He teased, making me laugh and curl my hand around to the back of his neck to hold him close.

"Good, because it'll happen so much more now. Because...I'm not leaving." I whispered and shook my head. Tom's eyes wavered, his lips parting at my words.

"What? You're staying?" He choked. I nodded and gave him a small smile.

"Tommy, you're the only love that I've ever known. You protect me, you make me feel loved and safe, you make me feel cared for. I'm truly in love with you, I was this whole time. And so, I can think of nothing better than to stay here with you." I admitted.

"Good. Because neither can I." He smiled, making me return it as he leant in and kissed me again. Mine and Tom's love story had been fourteen years in the making, and it was more than fair to say that it had plenty of bumps in the road along the way. But we were finally here, finally both alive and happy together. In love and blissful. And ultimately, that was all that mattered.