The War to End All Wars

Chapter 11 - They don't hate you Tommy, they just dislike you

"Tommy, he's differen-" Arthur piped up, but he was cut off by Tommy.

"Shut up." Lillian slapped his chest lightly, shaking her head as she went over to Arthur, giving him a smile.

"It's alright son. Arthur Shelby never stays where he's not welcome." Arthur Sr. said, picking his jacket up before turning to Polly. "Quite something you've become." he then looked over at Lillian. "Nice meeting you miss." Lillian nodded politely, putting her hand on Arthur's shoulder, giving it a squeeze. "Bye Son." He ruffled Finn's hair before leaving, Finn watching him go before John nudged his shoulder, making him stop looking. The room was silent until Arthur Sr. left with a slam of the door.

"He's our dad." Arthur stated as he looked at the table, knowing Tommy wouldn't like his opinion and he was right as he scoffed.

"He's a selfish bastard."

"You calling someone a selfish bastard, that's a bit rich Tommy." Arthur said, and he shook his head. "I mean, thanks to you, we're already down a bloody sister." Lillian slapped the back of his head.

"That's not helping." She hissed into his ear and Tommy took a step forward.

"You want to see him, Arthur?" He asked, pointing towards the door. "You want see him? You go with him." It was silent as we let Arthur decide not that it mattered to Lillian what he chose, he got abruptly going over to Tommy who just stared blankly at him and Arthur made his decision as he stormed out the house.

"You were wrong about Arthur it seems." Tommy told her, and she rolled her eyes.

"Yes, well you were acting like a complete prat, I'm not surprised he went with his dad." She replied, and he scoffed, storming out the room.

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"Tommy it's late, the bar's closed and I'm tired." She stated as she unlocked the door to him only for Tommy to ignore her. She sighed in defeat going to lock the door only for Tommy to stop her.

"Leave that open." He went to the back, locking the door and Lillian looked at him confused at what he was doing.

"Tommy, what's wrong? Are you expecting trouble?" She asked softly as she made her way towards him as he set the table, taking his cap off and running his hands through his hair which Lillian noticed that he only did that when he was nervous or panicking. Which rarely ever happened.

"Yeah."

"At this hour?"

"Midnight is as good and hour as any." He told her, checking his gun for bullets before putting it on the bar.

"What the hell is going on?"

"When the St. Andrews bell strikes midnight, two IRA men are going to come through that door. When they have what they want, they plan to kill me. It's your job to stop that from happening." He explained, and Lillian shook her head.

"You could have given me some warning Tommy." She said as he loaded another gun.

"I just got the message myself and you were in the army Lillian, you don't need time, we never had time out there." He said, and Lillian nodded. "They want to meet here alone."

"And barmaids don't count?" If it was under any other circumstances she would have been offended but with Tommy being killed tonight she put her pride herself.

"No. Barmaids don't count. Now you're going to be in the back room and I'm going to be sitting there. When I make a toast, you're going to come out with that thing raised. You don't shoot, just point, I'll do the rest."