medicine (finn shelby.)

twenty four.

♤

Two days. That was all it took. In two days, Penny had been discharged from hospital, she'd moved in with Finn and finally left the brothel. Two days was all it took for Tommy to track down Francis Renton, like an alleycat after it had caught the scent of a mouse. Two days, and it was front page news.

Her physical scars were healing, but her mental ones were only deteriorating. It didn't matter to her that Francis was dead, she could still feel his fingertips all over her skin and his presence behind her whenever she closed her eyes. She feared even going to the bathroom alone, just in case someone dived in through the window or emerged out of the sink like a creature from a gothic novel.

Finn had spent the previous two nights rocking her back and forth to sleep, waiting as the hours ticked by to make sure she was properly asleep before he could drift off. He understood how her mind worked, and he could sympathise with not being able to shake the fear from it. Finn had even begun talking to her when she was asleep, hearing somewhere that it would slip into her subconscious, telling her that she was safe. He wasn't sure it was working, but he wouldn't let it go just in case.

They lay in bed together, Finn sat up on the headboard with Penny lying half on his chest. She was absentmindedly playing with the tips of his fingers, staring off into the distance as she wallowed in her ideas.

"Evie's asleep." He whispered into her neck, pushing her gently onto the bed.

"I know." Penny shrugged, not exactly giving the reaction he was looking for.

It was going to take a long time to get her to trust people again, and Francis had come at the precise moment she was finally opening up. Rather than pursuing anything she wasn't interested in, he simply pecked her on the temple before getting up out of bed and leaving her there.

As he went into the kitchen, that he expected to be empty, he was greeted by Everly sat at the table sipping tea and reading the newspaper. She wouldn't look out of place in Buckingham Palace.

"How old are you now Evie? Is it eleven?" He asked her, a little bemused.

"Indeed." Everly nodded.

"You might want to think about wising up."

Finn threw on a shirt from the washing pile to cover his bare freckled chest and began making a cup of tea for both himself and for Penny.

"I've had an idea." Everly announced.

"And what would that be?" Finn asked, placing down the cups on the table before sitting opposite the young girl.

"But first I have a question." Everly halted him forcefully. "Is a 'fucking housewife' different to a normal housewife? Because she said she really didn't want to be one of them and I was just wondering what makes it so bad."

"You fry my head sometimes kid, you know that." Finn sighed with a chuckle. "What's the plan then?"

"Penny's really good at embroidering things. You know, sewing patterns into shirts and stuff. I was thinking, why not get her a shop or something and she can make some money from it." Everly suggested.

"For a weird kid you have some good ideas." Finn scratched them back of his neck as he thought, earning a slap on the arm from Everly. "Ooh, go on then hard man, take me down." He teased.