medicine (finn shelby.)

twenty five.

♤

Despite every bone in her body telling her not to do it, Penny drew a large cross in the box next to the name of Finn's older brother as he ran for a member of parliament for the Labour party. It wasn't that she didn't support that party, if anything she couldn't be more of a Labour supporter if she tried, she just objected to having to support Tommy. However she pushed that aside for a moment, and repaid him for getting rid of Francis for her.

The let out a deep sigh before dropping the ballot paper into the box and leaving the voting room. Polly and Ada were hot on her heels, ready to make their collective way over to where the results would be announced.

"So, what did you go for?" Ada teased, placing her hand on the small of Penny's back as she surprised her from behind.

"As tempting as voting the tories into power was, I decided to go for Tommy." Penny smiled.

Ada squealed as she clutched her arm. "Imagine our Tom, a bloody politician."

"Yes, that did confuse me when you think about how he's spent practically all his post-war life fighting authority."

"Who bloody knows with him, that man gives me whiplash sometimes." Polly jumped in, appearing on the other side of Penny. "Penny where's that sister of yours?"

"She said she'll be waiting in the hall, but it's like herding sheep looking after her." Penny rolled her eyes.

"You sound just like a mother."

The three women took their seats in the grand hall's gallery, in which the results were to be announced in a few hours time. They could see Tommy talking to some prestigious men as they leant over the balcony and looking down below at where the business was taking place. Hidden over in a corner away from anyone he could cause an argument with was Arthur, alongside Michael trying to keep him in check.

"Penny!" Everly came skipping down some steps to see the women. "Finn says he needs to see you urgently."

"Where is he?" Penny sighed and stood up, brushing her skirt down.

"Down in the reception-y area thing." Everly shrugged before sitting down in Penny's barely cold seat between Ada and Polly. The two women adored Everly, finally grateful to have a girl to care for in the family instead of the stress of looking after boys.

"Next time it would be more helpful if you could be even more vague than you just were." Penny sarcastically quipped before heading off into the correct direction.

Her fear of being alone was starting to subside. She was becoming braver in situations, but she still felt better knowing she was surrounded by her family. That's how she saw the Shelbys now, she saw them as family. Polly, Ada, Michael, Arthur, and to a certain extent, Tommy felt like people she could trust and love. Family was never bonded by blood in her eyes anyway.

Once she had barged through hoards of elderly and politically elite men, she finally found herself in the lobby area. Searching around, she couldn't see Finn to save her life. Finally she spotted a little glimpse of ginger hair, and quickly sifted her way through the crowd over to him.

"What's the emergency?" She asked with a hand on his shoulder, trying desperately to mask she was chronically out of breath.

Finn handed her a scrap of paper with what appeared to be an address scribbled on it.

"Right?" She spoke, not knowing what to say.

"That's your new shop."

"Excuse me?" Penny exclaimed, her eyes almost bulging out of her skull as the gentry around her eyed her up with disapproval. "You really meant it?"

"Of course I did." He smiled, which quickly faded. "Do you not like it?"

"I fucking love it!" she threw her arms around him. "I fucking love you!"

"I love you too really I do, but maybe tone down the swearing yeah?" He told her discreetly, feeling the burning glares of the high class gentlemen around them.

"I don't care." She told him, sighing with utter joy.

They remained in their embrace for what felt like hours. It took Tommy's aggressive taps on Finn's shoulder to finally bring them back into the real world.

"What's going on?" He asked subtly.

"That shop I bought Tom, it's Penny's new tailoring company." Finn proudly pushed her forward as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

"Good for you Penny." He hele his hand out for her to shake, which she did so dutifully.

"Thank you." She blushed, not one for being able to handle compliments. "Oh, I never got to thank you for the whole Francis thing."

"No need." Tommy held his hand up to pause her. "Family's family. If Finn loves you, we all do."

Tommy was the final level of acceptance into the Shelby family. She understood he had to do things for the good of his own family sometimes, and he appreciated that it was hard for her to watch. Perhaps they had finally reached a middle ground, of which they could both understand each other.

"I'll see you both in there." Tommy told them, rearranging his small glasses on his nose, a hint of anxiety popping up.

"Good luck Tom, you'll smash it." Finn told him as Tommy walked off into the hall. "Fuck the tories!"

That was the final straw for the rich clamour of people in the lobby. Even Tommy glanced back to give them a flashing glare of disapproval.

"Finn!" Penny slapped his chest with a hiss, seeing they were now drawing angry comments from those around them.

"We're gonna have to leg it." He pulled her out of the crowds.

"Don't make me run, I've got kitten heels on!"

Finn led her up a spiral staircase that led up to an even higher section of the gallery, looking down on the scene below.

"What you got me up here for?" She asked, the both of them leaning over the balcony as she rested her head on his shoulder.

"Dunno. Peace?" He sighed. "More distance from the conservatives?"

Silence and serenity washed over the two of them as the quiet chatter down below blurred into white noise. Penny let her mind drift through the cherished memories of the time Finn had been in her life, from that first night where he payed her enough cash to keep her fed for weeks, to the time he sat and waited whilst she aborted another man's child, to when he sat by her hospital bed when she recovered from the attack. He had never left her side, not for a second. Even when they disagreed on something and argued, he would never leave her.

"What do you see in me?" The self doubting demon that resided on her shoulder piped up out of the blue as she stared off at the ornate architecture of the hall ceiling.

Finn pressed a gentle kiss to her scalp, being greeted by the smell of lavender soap.

"The fucking world Penny. The absolute fucking world."

♤

a/n: i'm back! x