HUMBLE BEGINNINGS || T. SHELBY (1)

TWENTY-FIVE (EDITED)

The secretary turned to a nurse walking by and told her to come over. "Please take Mrs Shelby to Mr Shelby's room."

The nurse nodded nervously before leading Tabitha down two long hallways. The gypsy woman followed behind until they reached a hospital room in the middle of the third hall they went down. The nurse knocked and slowly opened the door.

"Your wife is here to see you, Mr Shelby," she said, then moving from the doorway.

She then left, leaving Tabitha to look and gasp at Thomas in the hospital bed. His face was all battered and bruised, his lip busted, and eyes that he was barely able to open. Sweat coated his entire forehead and his hair was damp. It was hard for Tabitha to look at him in such a state, but she also couldn't look away.

Tabitha closed the door behind her, standing in front of it with her arms cross. Her expression was stoic, wondering whether she wanted to cry or hit her husband in the back of the head.

"I don't want you to see me like this," Thomas said, trying to speak.

"For better or worse, for sickness and in health. Those were the vows we made each other," Tabitha said. The anger finally reached her voice when she continued, giving the look. "Are you finally going to tell me what the bloody fuck is going on now?! And why you didn't you tell me you hired that whore Lizzie Stark as your fucking secretary?"

"Tab, it's nothing for you to worry about-"

"No, it is something for me to worry about, Tommy! I'm your wife! And honestly, there's a vacancy on your ass and my foot is looking for a room." The look was growing stronger, and Thomas silently shuddered from it and his wife's fury.

"Tab-"

"I've been nice, tried not to push you, but now this has gotten out of hand. If your face wasn't already bruised, I'd be beating the shit out of you right now." She was not going to stop her from speaking. "You're going to tell everything that happened at the Black, London, and with Sabini right now or else..."

Tabitha trailed off, wondering what was going to be at the end of that or else. A light bulb went off in her brain, knowing the exact that always made Thomas talk. She called down a little bit, but anger was still in her voice when she finished.

"Or else...no sex for a month."

Thomas' eyes widened from the threat. Deciding between telling his wife everything or no sex for a month. No sex for a month was not an option.

"You wouldn't..." Thomas said in disbelief.

"Oh, I would," Tabitha hissed, giving a sneer. "Start talking."

Thomas sighed in defeat, and Tabitha pulled up a chair and say beside his bed. Thomas had told her everything that happened down at the Black Lion, the people who told him to murder a man, burying the body in the way to London. He told her about going to the Eden Club and getting in a fight, everything that led up to getting attacked by Sabini and his men. Tabitha's eyes watered when he finished, upset and sad from what Thomas went through those last three days.

"Those were the people who wanted to hurt you, the Irish, Sabini," Thomas said, trying to hold his tears back. "Sabini said things that made me want to gut him like a fish. Said him and his men were gonna take turns with you and then put you out of your misery."

"I don't care," Tabitha said, nodding her head. "Let Sabini come, I'll kill that bastard like I killed Kimber."

"Tab, he threatened to hurt you to get to me. I can't let..."

"I don't care about that, Tommy, I care about you," Tabitha repeated, her fingers gently removing a stand of hair from his face. "I already told you that I am not going anywhere. You're stuck with me until we're old and gray and barely able to walk."