|24|
PART THREE
THE EVERLASTING WIND that greets concrete and skin just the same, flowed through Small Heath like the currents of the ocean. It howled in pain. A foreshadowing. The once clear atmosphere was now foggy, the clouds that sat in the heavens were now seated on earth, blurring visions.
It was a grey sky today.
The only thing you could see in such a mist was The Garrison.
Tommy stood on the platform outside the metal factory, looking at the place he called home. Not just Small Health, but the Peaky Blinder men that listened to him from the ground.
"All right." Tommy's voice echoes through the street. "You all were mostly in the war, so you know that battle plans will always change and get fucked up."
He takes a deep breath, and the volume in his voice raises. "Well here it is lads, the plan has changed."
Arthur nods, picking up his gun and looking at Tommy reassuringly.
"We fight them here. Today. Alone." Tommy announces. "Now, they will come for the pub. They're going to try break us up for good."
John huffs with a persevering spirit. He had two large guns in his hand, more than ever, he was ready to take them on.
"And we'll have no help from the law today!" Tommy adds, louder.
With a handgun in his hand, Tommy points at the pub they knew so well. "That pub there is The Garrison. The centre of everything. Well now, The Garrison really is one."
He looks the men in the eyes, determined. "And it belongs to us! Right!?"
"Right!" They all shout back, raising their weapons.
"How many are there?!" Arthur asks, still loud.
"Jeremiah says two Riley vans. We're outnumbered three to one, I reckon." Tommy answers.
"Fuck." Arthur mutters, feeling instantly defeated.
"But it's us, boys. It's us! The Small Heath Rifles!" Tommy encourages. "Haven't lost a fight yet, have we?"
"No!" They respond, looking at each other proudly.
This was really it, the in-between of an end or beginning. The scariest place to be next to hell. A real life purgatory of all your fears and hopes, racing to a finish line.
Tommy turns to Jeremiah, Isaac's dad. "Alright Jeremiah. You vowed to God to never pick up a weapon again, I know that. But can you ask Him, from me, if you can help us today?"
The wind howls again, sweeping in silence and raising the strands of brunette hair on Tommy's head.
Jeremiah salutes. "God says he don't deal with Small Heath, sir."
The men around him smile at his unwavering loyalty, and John hands him a gun, nodding.
"Listen, Arthur, Scudboat, you take the flanks. Just like at St Marie." Tommy orders. "Danny, will be back soon."
Danny Owen, also known to them as Danny Whizz-Bang, is a friend and part of the Peaky Blinders. A man that fought with Tommy in the war. He had been sent to go get Isaac Jesus and bring him back to Birmingham, Tommy's orders.
With a complete change of expression, Tommy turns to Curly, readjusting his peaky cap. "Curly. If any Shelby man dies here today, you bury us side by side."
With that, Tommy steps down from the platform, his hands in his coat pockets. "All right. We have ten minutes boys, make your peace with whoever."
•••
Cigarette in hand. Whiskey on the table. Tommy looked up at the ancient roof of The Garrison. This was what could be a last supper. A last commitment.
He hears a door handle twist as he pours another drink.
"She's in surgery now. She's fighting."
Tommy immediately looks up to see Harry Kimber, who had just came back quickly from the hospital.
His eyes were bloodshot, ghostly looking and exhausted.
"She's fighting harder than any of us will in the next few minutes." Harry was now on the other side of the counter, opposite Tommy.
"What have the doctors said?" His gaze was on his morphed reflection that stared back at him on the shiny counter.
Tommy was more concerned than he showcased.
"They say she's losing a lot of blood." You could sense the deep pain in Harry's voice despite the strong front he was putting on. "You know, everyone's talking. Talking about my sister like they know her. They're saying that this is a punishment for getting involved with the Peaky Blinders, that bad things happen when you're around them."
Tommy didn't respond, he wasn't even looking at Harry. "Yet, it's funny to me that they think that, because everyone round here still wants you to win this battle."
Tommy blew sweet smoke into the cool air, gripping his cigarette.
"I think, what it is..." Harry starts, thinking to himself. "You're bad men, but you're our bad men."
Silence again, as smoke escapes Thomas Shelby's mouth.
"Where's Daisy, then? Will you go deal with her?" Harry questions, getting angry at the thought of her.
Tommy shakes his head slowly. "No one wants to be around a person walking to their death. She isn't my concern anymore."
"Then what is your concern Tommy?"
He looks down at his golden pocket watch in his hand. "That one minute. The soldier's minute. In a battle, that's all you get."
His mind travels back to the war. Explosion. Guns. Silence.
"One minute of everything at once. And anything before, is nothing."
Vivid flashbacks of him and Rose, together, in each other's embrace, runs through his mind.
"Everything after...nothing. Nothing in comparison... to that one minute."
He could see it, Rose turned to him as they both laid in bed, gazing into each other's eyes.
"No time is ever enough, right?" Harry replies, as Tommy continued to stare into the distance.
"That's the thing, I suppose."
The pub doors burst open and Finn comes running in, "Tommy, they're here!"
No time like the present that told the future.
As he walked out The Garrison doors, Tommy took his gun out, getting ready.
And like a careless rapture, an army of men in all black come walking from the other side of the street with one person in front.
Kimber and his men.
Unafraid, Tommy walks steadily towards him and the Peaky Blinder men join him by his side. Weapons in hands and faces of fierceness. They might have had their top hats but they had their peaky caps and it was them that owned Small Heath.
They were the Peaky Blinders.
"What do we do now, Tommy?" Arthur asks as they halt. Both sides opposite each other. "Just give us the order, we'll follow."
Tommy stared at the wicked man that proved time and time again to be heartless. Billy looked proud, as if he had something to be proud of.
"It doesn't have to be like this, Kimber!" Tommy shouts.
Billy scoffs. "Too late for that, Tommo boy."
Billy's eyes move to Harry, who was beside John, holding a gun of his own.
"Traitor." He spits, then his eyes go back to Tommy. "You've bit off more than you can chew, you little toe-rag. My Rosie is—"
"Don't fucking call her that. My Rosie? You don't give a shit!" Harry interrupts with rage.
"My Rosie," Billy repeats again, stubbornly, "is rotting in hospital because of you. You're a fucking curse Thomas Shelby. And now I'm going to take over this shithole."
"Is that so?" Tommy asks sarcastically, unbothered. "If we have to use guns..." Tommy begins. "Let's use proper guns!"
Danny Owen and Isaac come marching out the factory. In Danny's hand was a hand gun, whilst Isaac held a gun that they had stolen from the crate going to the American army base. A colossal gun that you could find no where else in England; it was a murder weapon.
"Sergeant J reporting for duty, sir." Isaac stands by Tommy's side.
"I think you were saying something about being out-gunned?" Tommy shrugs proudly.
The Peaky Blinders all aim their guns at Kimber and his men, and they immediately do the same back.
All they had to do was shoot and it would start the whole thing, sound a bloody battle.
"Move!" A voice demands, pushing through Kimber's men.
A baby cries as they all move to the side, to reveal Ada.
She was dressed in all black with a pram, as if it were a funeral. With, a black veil falling from her hat.
"This is no mans land, I believe? Isn't that what you boys call it?" She shouts, stopping in the middle of both sides.
"Ada!?" Isaac was shocked to see her but even more shocked to see her, here.
"Just shut up and listen!" Ada yells back.
"Have you lost your mind, what the—"
"I said, shut up!" She stomps, cutting Isaac off.
Billy looks back at his crew, just as confused as everyone else. Didn't Ada know she could get herself killed? She had brought her and her child to a whole war zone.
"Most of you were in France." She begins to walk around. "So you know what happens next."
Tommy remained silent.
"I've got brothers here and a husband. But you," Ada turns to Kimbers side, "you've all got somebody, your person, waiting for you."
She sighs, tired.
"You know what wars end with. You know the people that get left behind, the damage it does." Ada takes off her hat, looking at Isaac directly. "Now, I'm wearing black in preparation."
Isaac's eyes go back and forth between his wife and the men stood behind her.
"I want you to look at me." Ada demands.
Isaac stares at her as Karl cries from his pram.
"Who will be wearing black for you?" Ada yells, looking at all of them. "I want you to think about them. Think about them right now."
Silence clouds the air, as Ada's words, even after being said long ago, still ring.
"Fight if you want to, but that baby ain't moving anywhere." Ada gestures to the pram she had left in the middle, between the two gangs.
Karl cries from inside.
Everyone exchanges looks of surprise and hesitation.
"And neither am I."
Billy looks at everyone. "She's right, you know."
He shuffles around. "I don't get it. Why should all you men die?"
A change of heart?
"It should just be them who's caused it!"
Without warning, Billy pulls out a handgun from his inner coat pocket, aiming it at Tommy. A bullet pierces through the air with an almighty cracking sound, punching it's way into Tommy's chest.
Then in a second, Danny Whizz-Bang, jumps in front of Tommy, screaming from the flashbacks.
Shell shock.
Mercilessly, Kimber aims his gun at Danny, letting another crack of thunder sound the air.
Tommy's hand touches his own bullet wound as he watches Danny's pale face fall onto the floor in slow motion.
Danny was gone.
Screams.
Cries.
It was all drowned out.
Tommy wasn't there anymore.
Arthur shouts, "Hold your guns up!"
Tommy snaps back into the present,
he didn't even know when it happened but he had his gun pointing at Kimber.
Billy wasn't looking, he was turned around, laughing with his men at the tragedy he had just caused.
Then, he turns back around,
and Tommy shoots with no hesitations.
Blood spews out of Billy's head and he drops onto the cold concrete floor.
Billy Kimber was dead.
"Enough!" Tommy voice bellows.
It had only occurred to him now how weak a gang looked without it's leader, Kimber's men were shaking with guns still pointed at him.
"Kimber and me, we fought this battle one on one."
They put their guns down.
"It's over." Tommy announces. "Go. Go home and be with your families."
Somewhere between mortification and shock, Harry watches the men he once worked with, pick up his dead father and begin to drag him away.
For Harry, it was the end of everything as he knew it and the beginning of a life that screamed uncertain.
Yet, he felt relieved.
"Pick him up, boys." Tommy gestures to Danny, on the floor. "We'll bury him on a hill, he always said he wanted that."
Ada walks up to Isaac who was by the pram slowly, she kisses his cheek and he embraces her.
•••
"I still have the knack!" Jeremiah chuckles, putting the bullet he had just pulled out of Tommy's chest into a glass with water.
Arthur, who was tending to Tommy's wound, gives him a bottle.
"Have a drink."
Tommy chugs as much as he can down.
"All right." Arthur takes the bottle off Tommy and presses the mouth of it on his bullet wound, letting the liquid seep into his torn flesh and sting.
"Argh!" Tommy groans, in pain.
"It's done." Arthur says, pulling it away and patting him on the back.
Jeremiah puts dressing on the wound and Tommy immediately gets off the table, putting on his shirt.
"Where are you going?"
"The hospital, Arthur. I need to see Rose." Tommy answers, still out of breath.
"You've just had a bullet taken out of you, at least rest."
"No. I can't." He puts on his coat, leaving.
•••
The smell of heavy chemicals filled Tommy's nostrils as he waited outside the room, with a cigarette in hand. Two nurses rush past with a doctor, pushing a stretcher frantically. There was blood on their uniforms and you could almost see the intestines of the man that laid on the stretcher .
Tommy was used to seeing men die now. The war did that.
"You must be Mr Shelby?" A doctor comes out the room up to him. "We managed to finish surgery on her. She did wake up and recovery looked steady..."
With a face of concern, Tommy asks eagerly, "and?"
Stressed, he pauses, about to light another cigarette.
"We ask that you do not smoke in here, please."
Reluctantly obeying, Tommy puts the cigarette back into the packet and into his pocket with the matches.
"We'll pay for any bills, just send them straight to the Peaky Blinders." Tommy pats the doctors shoulder. "Thank you for helping her. How long will she be on bed rest before she can be back on her feet?"
The doctor looks at him, sympathetically and reluctant to speak. "I'm sorry."
Tommy shakes his head, confused.
"She's just lost too much blood." The doctor sighs. "She won't be waking up. Her aunt has already agreed with what to do with her belongings."
"No..." Tommy starts, glaring at the old man in front of him. "No."
"I'm sorry, w—"
He pushes past him and into the room, Charging towards the bed Rose was laid onto. She didn't look like Rosella, her eyes were closed and skin washed out.
Panicking, Tommy rips the blanket that covered Rose off, trying to perform CPR on her chest.
Rose's hospital gown was bloody and the surgical tools were still on a table next to her.
He pushes down on her chest rhythmically, over and over again; this was a repeated action that would last continuously as doctors and nurses walked past.
Tears drop onto Rose's face.
Tommy's tears.
He stops the CPR and places the oxygen bag next to Rose to her mouth.
"Please..."
He pushes down on her chest once more.
It was hopeless.
He knew that but he continued.
"Come on Rose, wake up." He holds her face, her skin was so cold, so pale.
"Wake up!" His hands were aching now, veins popping through the surface of his skin. "Don't die, Rose. Come on now. Stop it." Tommy pleads.
Tears splash onto her face again, and Tommy quickly wipes them.
His hands touch the ruby necklace that he had given Rose, it was still on her neck.
"I've failed you." Tommy's hand was shaking as he put it over Rose's.
Today, he stood between life and death, he was about to lose everything he had ever had, and through it all, the only person Thomas Shelby was thinking about, was Rosella Kimber.
"It wasn't meant to be like this." He whispers, broken. "I was meant to open a club, we'd dance like we used to. You were going to write books...we were so close."
Tommy rips away, absolutely heart-wrenched. "We were so fucking close!"
Tommy takes a deep breath, his hand over his face, trying his hardest not to sob.
Then, once gaining his composure again, he joins Rose's side, kneeling by the bed.
Tommy runs his hands through her golden blonde hair. Sniffing, he takes off one of his signet rings. It was the one that meant the world to him, he didn't dare give it to anyone. It had been with him through it all.
Now it was for her.
He slips it onto what would be her ring finger, placing her hand onto her stomach.
Tommy looks at her sorrowfully, he nods. Accepting fate. Exhausted, he lays his head onto her stomach, looking at the ring on her Rose's hand.
"I love you." Tommy holds her hand tight and closes his eyes.
For a split second, he feels her hand twitch in his.
Immediately, he gets up, stunned.
Like a lunatic, Tommy feels every inch of her arm, trying to find a pulse.
And, he finds it.
"Doctor! Someone!" Tommy yells, looking at the door.
"Rose? Rose?" He taps her cheek repeatedly.
A doctor rushes in, blocking Tommy's view of Rose. He readjusts his glasses, urgently placing his hand on her neck.
Nodding his head, he looks up at Tommy. "A miracle."
Tommy sighs in relief, falling onto the chair behind him.
It was a second chance he knew he didn't deserve.
•••
thank you all for reading! let me know what you thought of this chapter. It was so sad writing some parts :( but I'm glad rose made it!
stay tuned because the next chapter is the final one for the season 1 part of the book <3
auroras