Promises Not Kept

43

           After delivering the news about Ben Younger's death, Leah sat in the car. She stared ahead in a daze. How much more could they lose? The deaths just kept getting closer and closer to them. When would it be her turn? Would she die at the hands of her husband's work? What if Tommy was killed? Leah would be left pregnant and alone just like Ada. Three kids and no father.

It made her stomach turn just thinking about it.

Tommy got in the driver's seat and paused for a moment to take a breath. He didn't speak for a long moment. The silence settled over in the car as he lifted his hand to turn the key in the ignition.

Leah glanced over at him when she didn't hear the car engine start. Her husband was staring in the rearview mirror, his face flushed and his hand on the key shaking. "Tommy."

Grace reached from the backseat and touched his shoulder. "Come home to me, Tommy." She whispered. "Turn the key and come home."

"Tommy."

Jonah sat beside Grace and leaned forward. "Bring her home to me, Tom. Be a man and bring her home, let me hold her again." He coaxed.

"Tommy." Leah was growing more concerned as her husband's eyes didn't move from the mirror.

"Come home." Grace pled softly.

"You'll be doing the right thing, mate." Jonah agreed. "Let me hold my Lee again."

As if driven by an unnatural force, Tommy turned the key and braced himself. But the fiery arms of an explosion never met him.

Instead, he was left sitting in a car chugging to life. The ghosts in the backseat disappeared. Only Leah was left behind. Staring at him with immense concern.

"You're ill." She whispered. "Tommy, you're really ill. I know you are, just please tell me." She begged. "Tell me and I promise we'll get you help. I'll be with you every step of the way." She reached for his hand. Trying to pull him back to the world of the living.

But Tommy was so content with one foot in the grave. His body tensed up when she touched him. "I've been seeing Grace." He wiped a hand over his face. His skin felt numb. So numb.

"What?" She whispered in disbelief. "What are you talking about? You mean you see people who look like her?"

"No." He shook his head adamantly. Continuing to pull away from her. "I hear her. She was just sitting in the back seat. Sitting with Jonah."

The sound of her late husband's name alarmed her a great deal. But hearing him describe his hallucinations was even more alarming. Leah knew there was no one in the backseat but she still looked over her shoulder just to confirm that she wasn't the crazy one. "Tommy, you know that's not real. They're just visions. You're under stress, maybe that's causing-"

Tommy laid all his cards on the table. He reached into his coat and showed her the vial.

Angry tears formed in her eyes when she recognized it. "No...God, no."

"I'm sorry."

"No, you said...you promised!" Leah frantically grabbed at his arms in a daze. Her rage controlled her muscles, snatching the bottle away from him and tearing at the sleeves of his coat.

"I'm in pain, Leah!" Tommy rose his voice and tried to push her off. "What else can I do? I'm trying to keep this family together on me own! It doesn't matter what I'm taking!"

Suffocated in the tight space of the car, she ripped open the door and stumbled out into the street. "You promised me! You said you wouldn't take it anymore!" Her fist tightened around the vial, threatening to shatter it. Instead, she threw it to the ground and stomped on it with her heel. The blue-green glass crunching helplessly, the liquid flowing across the crevices of the cobblestones. The cracking sound released something inside Leah. The things broke since the very start of their relationship. Everything was so broken and she thought she could just hold him tightly and keep the cracks from showing. But Tommy Shelby would always be Tommy Shelby.

He got out of the running car and came to her. "I'm sorry. I don't know what else I can say apologize." Even he knew the apology was weak. How many times had he apologized over their relationship?

"You promised." Leah was sobbing uncontrollably at that point, her knees giving in from the crippling grief and anger coursing through her veins. "You promised me, Tommy!" She screamed. "You promised me everything and you just...you just break everything. You break everything! You've never kept a promise, never, never, never." She resulted in nothing but repetitive rambling. The stress seizing her, gripping onto her and refusing to let go.

Tommy caught her before she fell to the ground. The explosion, the death of Ben and the young boy. Everything overwhelmed him. She was right. He broke everything. It was about high time he broke Oswald Mosley.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"Mumma, where are we going again?" Johanna had woken up from her nap in the backseat. Charlie was peacefully watching the scenery pass by the window. Cyril was wedged between the two children, panting happily.

"A little holiday, won't that be fun, love?" Leah asked from the front seat. Tommy drove beside her, driving down the winding roads to the destination he'd once been before.

"There's the ocean!" Charlie exclaimed. Cyril barked happily when he began to recognize his surroundings. His tail began to wag and he pawed at the seat in front of him.

"Alright, alright, calm down." Tommy hushed the large dog. "You're gonna flip the car over." He pulled down the long driveway to the large manor on the ocean.

"Now, this isn't our house so we have to be on our best behavior," Leah said gently as she opened the door to let the kids and Cyril out. The bullmastiff ran right for the front door that opened once the car pulled up the drive. 

"Hello, Alfie."