Crown of a Prince (Finn Shelby)

8.

She looked up for a second, looking into Finn's eyes that were glassing over slightly from the booze and he had a crazy smile on his face from the adrenaline. The thoughts that raced through her head about Finn, her feelings for him and what she felt like around him, stopped as he just nodded at her, urging her to do it. Taking a deep breath she pushed the needle into his skin, literally putting him back together as if she hadn't done it ever before.

*

Finn somehow dozed off a few minutes after Ailbhe had finished the last stitch. John said it was normal, after all that adrenaline and pain. He gave him some morphine to help him sleep and with Ailbhe's help they got him onto the sofa in the living room where he could sleep for the night. Ailbhe sat on the floor beside him, just keeping an eye on him.

"We better go get the kids or Charlie will have them on the boat to London with the other cargo" John spoke softly, his own adrenaline long worn off too.

Esme had put some ice on his cuts and bandaged the others carefully. He had sat and let his wife help him as he watched how Ailbhe was with Finn. How she couldn't do anything for long without turning and checking he was alright. How she looked at him while he slept. John was a gambling man and he'd have happily put his house on it that those two had something more than a little friendship as they claimed.

"Alright... I might stay in Polly's room tonight. Just in case he wakes" She told them, keeping her voice low but Finn slept on.

"Night Alv, I'll stop by yours and tell Niall where you are" John said as he passed her, his hand resting on her shoulder for a moment before putting Esme's coat around her shoulders.

Esme leaned down, kissing the top of Ailbhe's head as she sat there quietly. She looked up at her and smiled tiredly.

Hearing the door shut and the lock slide into place Ailbhe took a sigh of relief. Finn was fast asleep, his face relaxed and calm, free from pain thanks to the morphine and whiskey. He looked almost innocent while he slept. Ailbhe sat on the floor beside the sofa where he was laid up. Her arms propped up on the sofa and her chin resting on her hands she was mere inches away from his face while he slept. Her hands took a mind of their own and reached out. She let her fingers trace his hair line, down his neck and across his jaw.

His lips were parted ever so slightly while he slept, his breaths steady. She felt herself lean in for just a second and press her lips to his, remembering what it felt like.

But she hadn't expected his eyes to start moving, his lids to blink and his eyes open to look at her.

"Alv..." he murmured, his speech slurred and his eyes bleary from the morphine and booze.

"Hey, you're okay just go to sleep" she whispered, noticing his eyelids grow heavy again but not before he reached out his hand for hers. She obliged, placing her hand into his that was always warm and inviting, like him.

She watched as his eyes closed and he struggled to find the words, his lips moving but the word wasn't clear at first. Just as she felt him slipping back into sleep, she understood what word he was trying to say

"Stay"

                                                                                     *

"Well, isn't this sweet?"

These were the words Ailbhe woke up to the next morning.

Polly Gray had walked in through the den, not even wondering who she would bump into. She expected that Finn would still be asleep but she most certainly had not expected that he would be asleep on the couch, his chest covered in bandages and that Ailbhe would be asleep on the floor beside him, her hand still clutched in his.

Ailbhe started to wake first, her head turning around and her body getting tangled in the garments over her. The fire had been burning all night and she had laid a blanket beneath her, Finn's coat over her and she had been plenty warm, wrapped in the smell of smoke and cologne that clung to Finn's coat.

Opening her eyes, she saw Polly standing by the fire and putting on a pot of tea. Sitting up, Ailbhe pulled her hand out of Finn's, hoping Polly hadn't seen but it was most certainly too late for that.

"Did he sleep through?" Polly asked, nodding her head at Finn whose face was a little pinched in pain. The morphine and booze were certainly wearing off and he was beginning to feel it again.

Ailbhe nodded, pulling herself up off the floor and helping herself to a cup of tea. Luckily, Finn had slept all the way through the night and been able to rest properly. She had been worried he would toss and turn in his sleep and possibly rip his stitches but luckily, he hadn't.

"He just needs rest I think" Ailbhe whispered, hoping he would stay asleep a little longer.

Nodding in agreement and trying not to smile at the way Ailbhe looked at Finn, Polly added

"We're going to London today, you and I. We need to tell Ada about... well about her father and I'm not leaving Ada alone in the house after that. You have business to carry out for Tommy, yes?"

Polly spoke in hushed tones, rushing through her sentence and pulling a drag from the cigarette in her hand.

Polly was right, she had business to carry out from Tommy's lists that included smuggling private, government documents out of official buildings. The buildings were in London and Ailbhe would need an excuse to be in London as well Ada's scholar's pass to get into some of the restricted areas.

"Why do I need to come? She won't be alone if you're there?" Ailbhe asked, finishing her tea and searching for her coat and handbag. Ailbhe had planned to go to London the following weekend with Finn since Tommy had asked him to go as well. She had been looking forward to it.

Polly went quiet, looking guilty all of a sudden. Ailbhe realised Polly's real plans for her time in London and a smile came over her.

"It's not Ada's you're planning on spending the night is it Aunt Pol?" Ailbhe laughed, buttoning up her coat.

"I'm just visiting a friend Ailbhe" She retorted, not being overly convincing. Casting her eyes over to Finn who was still fast asleep and Ailbhe who was crouched beside him, leaving a note explaining where they had gone.

"You're not the only one who's got some secrets sweetheart" Polly sniped jokingly making Ailbhe roll her eyes and link arms with her, pulling her out the door.