TROUBLE - peaky blinders

48. play with fire, bound to get burned

"You seem to have everything you need in that bag of yours," John gritted,

"Oh, for god's sake!" Clara cried out, her hands thrown into the air. "I have files hidden beneath the seats. Very important files, may I add. So, either you drive me there or I jump out of this car right now."

"You're not in the bloody position to be making demands."

"John! Why are you so caught up about this?" Clara raised her voice as she spoke. Desperation flooded her words. "You've always done so much worse! Why are you acting like I've killed the King?!"

"Because somebody has gotta be the bloody Tommy to your Clara!" John yelled, his shoulders slowly loosening up at his confession.

Clara paused and moved back, her face scrunched up in confusion. "The what to my what now?" She questioned, her lips parted as she tried to work out what he was exactly he was implying.

"The Tommy to your Clara," John huffed, his eyes straight ahead of him. "It's so simple to understand, even I do."

"Well, do tell if it's 'so simple'," she mocked

"The only one who can ever really shut you up is Tommy and even that's with a struggle, the rest of us have given up even trying to get you to stop!" John rolled his eyes. "You two are the only people in the family— hell the world, who can seem to put each other in your rightful places."

Clara bit her lip to contain a smile at his outburst. She thought it nice that her family had little control over what she did or said. She did hold a little bit of a grudge at the fact Tommy was her chosen mediator, especially given the ever-rocky and unstable relationship between them.

"I'd argue that I usually shut up when Pol tells me to," Clara pondered aloud after a few seconds of silence.

"but that's different, everyone shuts up when Pol says to." John allowed a small smile to creep across his face. There was a moment of silence before her brother broke it. "I can't believe I just had to bail you out...you were supposed to be the good one"

"I don't think anyone in our family could be a 'good one'," Clara joked, "It's not in our blood."

"I mean," John drawled, "You were made to be better."

"I am better,"

"Because you were made like that,"

"What on earth are you talking about?" Clara tilted her head towards her brother as he drove through London.

"Thomas made sure you were kept in school and educated–bloody hell, if you were to drop out, I would have given you a place in the den in seconds. But he wanted you to get educated and work on creating the legal side of things."

"And Pol, she made sure you learned how to stand up for yourself amongst us idiots, and no matter how hard I tried to break that bloody habit, you still argued back and with actual knowledge, which got very dull eventually." John joked, glancing at his sister. "What I'm saying is that you were raised different...nothing 'gainst you, but it's true. Look at Finn, boy's dropped out already, stopped going when he was young."

"I tried to get him to go back," Clara recalled, "He refused." John nodded his head.

"Because he didn't have to go back. He could come work with us." John supplied, "You had the brains, you always did. Used to run rings around everyone, even when you were up to my kneecaps. Worse than my lot you were!"

"I think that's impossible," Clara faintly smiled,

"You might be right there...It's true though, you were a nightmare of a child. Me and Ada tried to throw you down a flight of stairs this one time in a cardboard box." John laughed as Clara's mouth fell open slightly.