The Queen Of Small Heath

It's Over, Grace.

"Isaiah, take her to the Garrison." I command and he nods at me and I reluctantly let Aurora go. "Scudboat, Lovelock. Get Danny." Arthur says, before me, him and John start to walk to the Garrison.

******

"Where is she, Harry?" I ask. "In the snug, Mr Shelby." He replies. "Curly, go get Polly." Arthur orders and Curly nods, running out of the pub. We walk into the snug, seeing Aurora laying on the table, her shoulder bleeding out. "Baby, you okay?" I ask as I rush over to her.

"Oh, I'm amazing." She says sarcastically as Isaiah helps her take her jacket off. "Fucking hell, Rory." Arthur mumbles as Ada and Polly rushes into the snug. "Alright, top off. Let me see." Polly demands. "I'm wearing a dress, Pol." Aurora deadpans.

"So? Take it off." Polly tells her and Aurora rolls her eyes as she climbs off the table and pulls her dress off with my help. "I see you still didn't get changed." Arthur says as he nods his head at her black silk nightie. "Couldn't be bothered." She says, getting back on the table.

"Straps down. I need to go straight to the wound." Polly says and Aurora lowers her straps, holding the nightie to her chest. "Pol, her chest is about to fall out." I say groaning as Polly rolls her eyes. "Thomas, stop being ridiculous. I need to get to her wound. She isn't naked and besides, you see her naked every night so what's the problem?" She says shrugging.

Ada hands her a pair of tweezers. "Hold her." Polly commands as Arthur moves to one side and John moves to the other, holding down her arms. I move behind her head. "Just get on with it, Polly." Aurora says gritting her teeth as Polly embeds the tweezers into her bullet wound, wiggling them around to try and find the bullet.

"Fuck!" Aurora yells in pain. "You've got this, doll." Arthur says. "Pol, hurry up." I say as Polly finally retrieves the bullet, dropping it into an empty glass. "Isaiah." Polly beckons and he nods, opening a bottle of whiskey with his teeth.

"Deep breath." He tells Aurora, pouring it into her wound as she thrashes against John and Arthur. I snatch the bottle from Isaiah. "Drink." I order, tipping her head back, and bringing the bottle to her lips, letting it stream down her throat. "You did good. It's done, love. It's over." I whisper to her as John and Arthur let go.

"Now that's done. What the fuck were you thinking, Ada?" Polly says. "I had to stop it and Aurora was there as well." Ada argues. "Aurora is a Peaky Blinder and has been doing stupid shit with these lot since she was a kid." Polly argues back. "I told you to stay away." I say to Ada.

"I couldn't let Freddie get hurt." She defends. "And no one got hurt." She adds as we all look at Aurora who's frowning, getting bandaged up by Polly. "Uh, hello? What do you call this then, a fucking day out?" Aurora says sarcastically making us all smirk at her sarcasm. "Sorry, I didn't mean you. I meant all the men." Ada says as Aurora rolls her eyes.

"I heard another gunshot." Aurora says looking between us. "Yeah, uh, Danny." I tell her as she sighs, shaking her head, standing up. I take of my blazer and wrap it around her as her dress is soaked with her blood. "Thanks." She says lowly.

******

We walk out into the main bar area, where Danny's body lay across a table. Blinders on either side making way for us. "Now we can bury him properly. In the grave we dig for him." John says looking at our fellow veteran. "Yeah. It's on high hill. He'd like that." I say, as Isaiah helps Aurora sit down beside the bar.

"To Danny Whizzbang." Arthur toasts, opening a bottle of whiskey. "To Danny." I say raising my glass. "Danny." The others follow me as they raise their glasses too. "May we all die twice." I say downing my glass. "The day's ours. Let's celebrate, eh." Arthur says rubbing his hands together. "Scudboat, Curly. Can you take Danny and let him rest in peace? Not in a noisy pub." I say and they nod, lifting his body and head towards the back door, where the van is parked.