The Hanging Noose

Forty-Five

Dottie had given birth prematurely, once more. She had given birth to a healthy baby. The baby had screamed whilst being taken from their mother. Dottie had also screamed as prison doctors and wardens held her down as they ripped her baby from her. She hadn't even had a chance to name the baby. She didn't even know what gender the baby was, or where the baby was being taken to. All she knew was the panic and the anger.

She had screeched, calling out for her baby.

She hadn't even seen her mum. That was a heavy missing part of her. For after the birth, she was transferred to a mental institution, where she was held in a padded cell twenty four hours a day in a straight jacket. She was forced spoon fed, and had forced liquids shoved down her throat. When she threw up, she cried for someone to help her, however no help was there, so instead she tried to her hardest to move on to her side, facing her vomit.

She loathed Thomas Shelby.

She had no idea what happened to Polly or to Micheal as she laid in the padded cell. She had no idea what happened to her child, her poor baby. She prayed every day that the baby was somehow with Isiah. Her heart ached, it rattled in her chest as she thought of Eliza, suddenly being alone in the world. She prayed to God either Ada or Isiah was comforting her. She couldn't deal with thinking that Eliza was alone with no one familiar.

Her heart ached when she thought of what was happening to her mother and to her brother. Surely she was safe in the institution, but they wouldn't be. They would be hung.

Dottie had begun to grieve. Going in to a state of numbness and muteness, refusing to talk or to cry. She had been assessed by the institutions doctor, who claimed she was being hysterical and difficult to work with. The doctor had tried to make Dottie undergo electric shock therapy to get her to talk, however someone on her side argued against it.

Ada.

Beautiful Ada Thorne.

After everything, Ada was on Dottie's side.

Ada had spent day and night with Tommy to get Dottie out of the mental institution. The pair had gone through every legal procedure to see her, even to speak to her on the phone, however neither of them worked. It was only when the Shelby family were about to be hung, did Tommy's status and history become a clear way to express the innocence of his family.

On the day Dottie was released, a nurse brushed her hair and washed her down, talking to her emptily. Dottie wasn't sure what was happening, she wasn't sure whether it was the meds or the trauma interrupting her brain. The nurse prodded every bone and joint, shining a torch in to Dottie's dilated eyes and dressing her as if she was a child, whilst a guard and an assistant watched.

She refused to talk, allowing the nurse and her assistant to dress her. It was a simple gown, a black gown that hung way too loosely around Dottie. She hated the material, it was scratching and itching against her skin.

The nurse said goodbye to Dottie, allowing the guard and the assistant to walk her out of the institution.

Dottie was greeted by blistering sun. She frowned, squinting as she tried to make out the people in front of her.

Ada Thorne stood there, with a smile on her beautiful face. In her arms is a baby, bundled in blankets.

Beside Ada is Isiah, standing tall in a simple shirt and a flat cap against his head, and in his arms is Eliza, sucking on her thumb against his chest.