midwife » michael gray. [completed]

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE.

    → CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE; HANGOVERS AND A PROPOSAL.   

[okay so i believe i have sorted the timelines out so it is currently december 1925 lmao like lets just go with that]

There was something special about the Shelby family. No-one quite new what it was exactly, but there was something about them. Despite all of the stuff that life (and Tommy Shelby) threw at them, they always came back bigger and better. Nothing could knock them down for too long, and if it did, then they kept it to themselves and dealt with it privately. No-one needed to know about their struggles, it would only show weakness and the Shelby brothers, extended family and employees were not about to put that type of emotion of display to the world. It would only make them a target to current, and future, enemies.

Tommy had made no effort to come and see his family after having them released from prison. Esme had been told by Lizzie that he was down in London and would not be back home until Christmas Eve, giving everyone a chance to cool off and see if they could find forgiveness. Just by looking at John and Arthur, Hannah could tell that they had forgiven Tommy, the two of them not being able to stay mad at their brother. It was understandable, they had been through a lot together and they were a lot more forgiving when it came to Tommy and the stunts that he had pulled. They didn't look at the negatives, they just focused on the fact that Tommy had got him released from prison, even if he was the one that put them there in the first place. Michael didn't know how to feel about Tommy - he resented him for ruining his wedding day and keeping him away from Hannah but he was thankful that he had got him out. It was a tricky situation for him to be in. Michael looked up to Tommy for some odd reason and even though it would be hard to forgive him, he would do eventually.

The women, on the other hand, were a completely different story. Throughout Linda's birth, she had expressed her hatred for Tommy but that wasn't a surprise, there had always been tension between the two of them. Esme had once seen a bit of herself in Tommy, believing that the two of them were more alike than they believed but those feelings were gone. Hannah could remember going around to Esme's when the boys were in prison to help her out and she could see how Tommy's actions had affected her and the kids. There were bags around her eyes, the house was messy and the kids were missing their father. Polly didn't even mention Tommy's name once - the only time she would forgive him was if it was completely necessary.

Hannah was sat in the backroom, along with the Shelby's and a couple of trusted employees, but her mind was somewhere else. She couldn't help but notice Michael's disappearing acts that occurred every hour, him claiming that he needed the toilet. She knew that something deeper was going on but she wasn't going to start an argument, especially on Michael's first night of freedom.

If it was something awful, then she hoped that Michael would come and tell her. Hannah believed that Michael struggled to lie to her, they had made a promise to tell each other everything so a part of her wanted to believe that nothing shady was going on but she knew deep down that something was. A part of her didn't want to know because she didn't want it to affect their relationship.

"How has life been without us then, Hannah?" Arthur asked as he downed his drink, ignoring the disapproving stare from Linda who was already dreading taking Arthur home. He was more drunk than Michael and that was saying something.

"Very boring," she replied, taking a sip of her own drink in the process. "But also very quiet."

Arthur chuckled and pointed straight over at Hannah. "Admit it, you've missed us."

Hannah chuckled and nodded her head. She had missed everything about the Shelby's, even if they had caused a whole lot of hassle. Michael was the one person she had missed the most out of everybody, of course, and as much as she loved being around all of the brothers, she couldn't wait to be alone with him again. It wasn't even about the sex, it was more the intimacy of just being with him. They could spend quality time together like they used to do, tucked up in bed or down at the cinema watching some film that wasn't even that good. It was just the time spent together that she wanted to catch up on and it was what she had missed the most.