Author's note: italicized dialogue showcased later in the part is taken from the series.
———
"What all do you know about Tommy Shelby and his family?"
(Y/N)'s brows furrowed in confusion as she processed the blonde-woman's question. "Why would you be asking me this?" she finally responded with a question of her own, hoping to gain more clarity on the situation.
Unfortunately, that clarity didn't come. "Because you work with them, and well I thought..."
"You work at the same place, Grace," (Y/N) cut her off to point out, her confusion growing by the second.
"They've not told you anything pertaining to the business they're conducting?" she asked another question, ignoring the statement (Y/N) had just made.
"No, they haven't," (Y/N) answered definitively, "I work in the stockroom. They wouldn't have any reason to fill me in on something if I had no business knowing it in the first place." She paused a moment before posing a question of her own: "why do you even want to know this?"
Grace looked at her with wide eyes and a slightly opened mouth. It was almost as if she didn't know what to say, and it now looked like she was trying to think of a cover up. "Wouldn't you like to know what business your bosses are conducting within the place you work at?" she asked, trying to make it seem like this question was on her mind the entire time. (Y/N) was able to see right through it, she just didn't know why the other woman was scrambling for words.
"No. I just want to do my job and go home at the end of the day," (Y/N) stayed steadfast on her position. She didn't want to get mixed up in the 'other' business that Grace was questioning her on. All she wanted to do was live like she was a normal member of society. "Like I'd like to do right now," she then added, her eyebrows raised as she hoped the other woman got the hint that she no longer wanted to be talking to her.
"You can go," Grace said then, a defeated expression on her face. It became obvious to (Y/N) that the other woman hadn't got the desired outcome from this conversation. She didn't know what more she could do though...she truly didn't know anything about the business that the Shelby family was conducting.
"Thank you," (Y/N) stayed polite as she walked to the door of the apartment. "Goodnight, Grace," she then bid goodbye to the blonde woman, a slight smile on her face as she opened the door and exited the apartment.
(Y/N) took a deep breath and exhaled it as she entered her apartment. She was confused by the sudden questioning she'd just gone through. It seemed so out of left field, and she wondered why Grace would even be worried about such a thing. It was late now though, and she had had a long day, so over-analyzing what she just went through could wait until tomorrow.
——
(Y/N) was in the process of stocking the shelves behind the bar's main counter. It was a slow time at the moment, so Harry had asked her to come out and complete the task before things picked up again. In the few weeks that passed since that confusing night, Grace didn't speak a word of the cryptic question she'd asked. It made (Y/N) even more confused as to why it was brought up in the first place. She tried to let by-gones be by-gones though.
She was in the midst of lining up bottles on the upper shelf when a woman spoke from behind her, "you're (Y/N), right?" It was a voice she'd never heard before, so she turned around with caution. If anything, this could have been another attempt by her brothers to force her into returning home. But Matthew was outside, so the fact that this woman was still able to enter was something that calmed her down.
When she turned, she came face to face with a younger woman who had brown hair that curled slightly upwards at the end and stopped just below her ears. Her eyes were a deeper blue, and she had a slight smile on her lips. "I am," (Y/N) answered, still slightly cautious of this woman's motives.
Before she could ask the woman for her name, she was speaking again: "do you ever do anything for fun around here, (Y/N)?" This question took (Y/N) by surprise. She didn't expect this random person to come out of nowhere and start questioning her. In fact, she'd had enough questioning these past few weeks to last her at least five years. "I'm taking your lack of answer as a no," the woman stated after a few moments of silence passed, "come on then."
"Excuse me?" (Y/N) asked, her brows furrowed in confusion as she watched the younger woman stand from the barstool she was previously sitting on.
"I'm taking you to do something fun," was all she said as she began walking towards the doors. She stopped and turned to look back at (Y/N), who hadn't moved an inch, when she got to them. "Are you coming?" she asked with an expectant look on her face.
"I...I have work," (Y/N) stammered out, still trying to decide if she should go along with what this woman was suggesting, or if she should ignore her and continue with her tasks.
"They won't miss you," her concerns were brushed off.
Still, she was hesitant. "I'm not sure...my bosses wouldn't like me leaving mid-shift."
"They won't care about you being gone for a few hours," the woman assured her. (Y/N) still didn't look swayed. The woman let out a sigh at this, her shoulders dropping as she looked away from the person she was talking to for a moment. "I'm Ada Shelby. Whatever my brothers try to pull against you will be challenged by my asking of you to come with me," the newly named Ada stated.
"Oh..." was all (Y/N) was able to say. How many Shelbys are there?, she thought to herself.
"Are you coming?" Ada asked after a few beats of silence had passed.
"I...uh, I..."
"(Y/N)? Where're you going?" Harry's voice came from the opposite side of the bar, cutting off her stammered response and making her turn to look at him. At this point, she was already walking towards the door as she was stumbling over her words, so it was pretty obvious what she was doing.
"She's coming with me, Harry," Ada stepped in before (Y/N) could even think of what to say, "I'll only have her for a short time though."
"Ok, Miss Shelby. Just make sure you return here to finish your duties when you're finished, (Y/N)," Harry insisted, sending the woman a pointed look.
"Will do, Harry," (Y/N) assured him, nodding her head slightly before she then moved over to Ada's side.
"Come on," the brunette smiled, happy that she'd managed to find someone to spend time with. (Y/N) couldn't help but smile back, also happy that she'd now found a new possible friend. The two women walked out of the Garrison, and immediately, Ada looked over at Matthew. "No need to follow, Mason. We're just going to do some women's business," she told the young man as she began walking away from the tavern. Matthew nodded and tipped his cap at the ladies in response, not moving from where he was perched up against the wall. (Y/N), not knowing what else to add, sent a smile in his direction before she followed Ada onto the cobblestones.
After walking a few blocks, the women arrived at the picture house. Ada paid for two tickets to the showing of a romance film starring Roudolph Valentino that had apparently been the buzz around town. (Y/N) wouldn't have known because she was too busy to be paying attention to things like that. She didn't mind it though, she was just excited to have some company. They sat in one of the middle rows of seats. Each woman had a bag of popcorn that they were slowly eating as they waited for the picture to start. Soon enough it did, sucking them into its fabricated world and bringing them a period of release from their everyday lives.
That period didn't last long. About a quarter of the way into the movie, the door to the showing room opened rather forcefully. Both Ada and (Y/N) turned to look at who the intruder was, and while (Y/N) was trying to slow her heart rate after realizing it wasn't a threat, Ada simply let out a sigh. The unexpected visitor was Tommy Shelby, and he was walking down the aisle in quick strides.
He dropped down into the empty seat next to Ada once he got to the row the two women were occupying. (Y/N) kept her eyes hooked onto him while the two Shelby siblings stared straight ahead. She knew she shouldn't have been staring, but she couldn't help but be shocked by his sudden arrival. Whatever it was that he came to talk to his sister about, he certainly wasn't happy to be there.
"Tell me the man's name, Ada," he demanded as he kept his gaze on the screen ahead of them.
"Roudolph Valentino," Ada said without much pause, her voice monotone. She, too, didn't bother to look at her brother as he spoke.
(Y/N)'s eyes kept darting between the both of them, wondering what would happen next. The tension between them was almost palpable. Nothing else was said as Tommy stood up, almost as quickly as he sat down, so that he could storm his way back up to the top of the viewing room. Ada finally glanced in the direction he went before she looked back to the screen with a sigh. Seconds later, the picture cut out; the music then coming to a halt. Ada rolled her eyes and looked to (Y/N), who was confused as to what was happening.
The audience began expressing their confusion before a commanding voice addressed them all: "get out! All of you! Go on, now!" Tommy had re-entered the viewing room and was striding back down to where Ada and (Y/N) was sitting. Ada stayed in her spot, but (Y/N) began to stand, assuming that he also wanted her to leave. "No, you stay, (Y/N)," Tommy told her once he got to the row the women were sitting in. (Y/N) only nodded and dropped back into her seat, not wanting to step into the line of fire. She then looked straight ahead at the black screen as Tommy directed his attention back on his sister. "I said tell me his fucking name," he demanded her again, his voice lower now.
Ada kept her gaze straight ahead still, her expression unfazed. (Y/N) wondered how she could appear as such. She'd had her fair share of talkings-to from her older brothers, and even though she'd gotten used to them, she still couldn't completely get through them without her façade cracking. Her emotions always overcame her at some point.
(Y/N) held her breath as Ada then looked over at Tommy. This is it, she thought to herself, it's all going down now. Ada took a deep breath before responding, making sure to enunciate each word that she said: "Freddie. Fucking. Thorne!" she answered in a rather loud voice. (Y/N) was able to see the change in Tommy's expression from the corner of her eyes as it went from anger to shock in a matter of seconds. Ada wasn't finished though. "Yeah. Your best mate since school. The man who saved your life in France. So go on...go on, cut him!" her words got louder as Tommy turned on his heel and quickly began walking back up to the doors. "Cut him up and chuck him in the Cut!" she yelled after him, frustration clear in her voice now.
Tommy didn't stop to respond to her. Instead he pushed the doors open and continued out of the room, leaving the two women in silence.
Ada stood from her chair then and twisted back to the control room. "Oi! I'm a Shelby too, you know. Put my fucking film back on!" she yelled to the employees before dropping down into her seat with a huff.
The room went dark and the picture resumed within seconds, but (Y/N) couldn't seem to shake the feeling of tension that still filled the air. "Are you ok, Ada?" she dared to ask, feeling slightly awkward. She met this woman not even an hour ago, and now she'd been thrust into the middle of what seemed to be a rather large familial problem.
"I'm fine," Ada responded, her eyes stuck on the screen as she continued eating her popcorn. The tone of her voice signalled to (Y/N) that she was most certainly not fine, but she left the conversation at that and turned her attention back to the screen. She figured she'd allow the other woman to enjoy the movie she'd intended on watching before she checked on her again.
—
The picture ended, and the two women left the theater without much of a word. "Will you come with me?" Ada asked in a soft voice once they were out on the streets.
(Y/N) paused for a second before answering. Her mind first went to her job and how she promised Harry that she'd be back to finish her shift. But then it went to what had happened in the midst of the film, and how Ada's mood had been drastically changed for the remainder of it. Her decision came pretty easily. "I'll come with you," she agreed, a soft smile on her face as she nodded her head. Ada sent a ghost of a smile in return before the ladies began walking down the streets of Small Heath.
A short while later, they were walking up the steps in a dingy looking building. (Y/N) couldn't comment though...her place wasn't much better. "Sorry about the size of it all," Ada commented as she opened the door to the very small apartment, "it's Freddie's place," she added before setting her bag down on the couch. She then sat next to it before motioning to (Y/N) that she could sit also.
(Y/N) listened, and the two women sat in silence then. "Would you want to talk about what happened earlier?" (Y/N) asked, testing the waters. She regretted speaking up almost immediately though...here she was, asking a woman she barely knew to open up to her. She'd find the question outrageous if she was on the receiving side of it.
Silence hung in the air for a few moments before, surprisingly to (Y/N), Ada responded: "I didn't mean for it to happen, it just...did," she said, her voice low like she was admitting a secret. Well, essentially she was.
"What happened?" (Y/N) dared to ask, wanting to dig deeper into her vague response.
"I got pregnant," Ada came out and said it, "and it's not like Freddie and I aren't in love, it's just that..." she trailed off, exhaling a sigh.
"That you didn't want to cause a rift in your family?" (Y/N) tried, her eyebrows raised slightly as she tried to help her find the words.
"No," Ada shook her head, "it's not quite that, it's..." she trailed off again, letting out a slight grunt of frustration as she tried to think of the right words, "it's that I knew he was going to react like this even though he has no right to because it's really none of his fucking business."
(Y/N) sent a sympathetic look as her initial response to Ada's statement. She knew full well what it felt like to have siblings, brothers specifically, respond in ways that only seemed to help their viewpoint of the situation while completely disregarding the other side. "He doesn't understand what your feelings towards the situation are," she mused, seeing Ada nod her head in agreement, "and he thinks that if he expresses his discontent with the circumstances you'll fall in line and change them so that they meet his expectations again."
"Everything's got to be up to Tommy's expectations," Ada mumbled then, more to herself than anything.
"You said that Freddie was his friend," (Y/N) slightly switched topics then, hoping that Ada would elaborate on her basic statement.
With a nod, she did. "Yeah. They've been friends since school. The war changed them though; they came back different from it."
"Wars'll do that," (Y/N) agreed with her statement. She'd seen firsthand in her family what the war does to people. "Is Freddie here now?"
"He had to leave. There's an inspector in town that's cracking down on certain groups of people, and Freddie happens to be a head of one of them," she explained before glancing in (Y/N)'s direction. "He's part of the communist party," she added, feeling the need to clarify her previous statement.
(Y/N) only nodded as she heard what the other woman had to say. "Do you think he'll come back?" she asked hesitantly then.
"He will," Ada said definitively, "if Tommy doesn't kill him before he's able to," she added in a begrudging tone. (Y/N) only sent her a look of understanding in response.
——
"I was starting to think you got lost," Matthew stated as (Y/N) approached the Garrison later that evening.
"You've been here this entire time?" (Y/N) asked him, her eyes widening slightly. She'd been gone for at least three hours.
"I take my job seriously, (Y/N)," he told her, wearing a serious expression to match his statement.
"I feel honored," (Y/N) smiled at him, giggling as his serious expression dissolved into a smile. "Did Harry leave?" she asked then.
"I didn't see him," Matthew responded. (Y/N) nodded before opening the doors to the establishment.
"The next time I come out, we'll be able to go," she told him.
"I'll be waiting," he winked at her, flashing a smile that made her heart skip a beat. She smiled back at him before entering the tavern and getting right back into completing the jobs she'd been assigned.
Some time later, after unpacking the latest shipment and stocking the backroom, (Y/N) moved out to the bar again and resumed stocking the shelves. The tavern had just closed for the night, so she was finally able to finish the task that she'd stopped earlier that day.
She was working in silence until the doors to the establishment opened. A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed that the visitor was one of her guesses. "Good evening, Mr. Shelby," she greeted Tommy as he slowly approached the bar.
"Good evening, (Y/N)," he greeted her in a similar fashion as he took off his peaked cap and sat it on the counter. "Grace around?" he asked then, taking another look around the room.
"I don't know," she responded as she went back to what she was doing, "I've been in the backroom until now."
"You're here late."
"I promised Harry I'd come back after I was finished with Ada," she explained, tensing slightly as she mentioned Ada, as it made her remember what had happened earlier. Tommy didn't comment on it though, and the room fell silent.
"Can you pour us a whiskey?" he asked then after the silence had extended for several minutes.
(Y/N) froze at the request. "I don't, I'm not a barmaid, I..."
"It's just whiskey," he cut off her babbling statement. She wanted to facepalm for sounding so stupid. You don't need to be a barmaid to pour a drink, (Y/N).
She only nodded before grabbing a bottle off of the shelf. She then grabbed a glass and brought them both over to where Tommy was standing at the counter. Feeling his gaze on her, she quickly poured him a drink before setting the bottle on the bar and looking up at him.
"Pour one for yourself too, love," he told her then, "you've had a hard day too."
(Y/N) smiled softly at his statement before she moved back to the shelves to grab another glass. "You'd approve of me drinking while I'm on the job, Mr. Shelby?" she asked him while going about the motions of sitting the glass on the counter and grabbing the bottle again.
"Fuck do I care, eh?" he answered honestly before he grabbed his glass and knocked back the majority of its contents in one go. (Y/N) heeded to his response and poured herself a glass.
Silence fell between the two again as (Y/N) watched Tommy toy with the glass. She bit the inside of her cheek, knowing what must've been going through his mind at the moment. "She has valid reasoning behind the way she responded to you," she finally decided to speak up about the elephant in the room.
"Yeah?" Tommy answered as he glanced over at her, his single word question beckoning her to continue.
"Yeah," she nodded before continuing, "she loves him..."
"He'll ruin her life," he cut her off, a tinge of bitterness in his voice.
"He may not," she refuted his statement, "no one knows the future until it's five seconds behind us. And she's not a child anymore. She chose to be with him on her own, and there's surely a reason behind it."
"Yeah, she did so as a way to fuck her entire family over," the bitterness still prevailed.
"Did she?" she flipped his statement back onto him, "she told me that he was your best mate."
"Yeah, he was," Tommy answered in a voice just above a whisper.
"People fall in love with people they know; with people they've been around and feel comfortable with. Odds are that Ada took a liking to Freddie when the two of you were friends...before you were at odds with each other, and his agenda didn't line up with your own."
Tommy looked at (Y/N) for a few moments. She made some good points, he had to give her that. But it didn't change the fact that he saw red whenever he thought of Freddie Thorne being anywhere close to his sister. "My sister and Freddie Thorne are not in love," he said then, his disgust for the situation coming through in his words, "and even if they are, he makes no money from going out and preaching his party's bullshit...I have no possible grounds to take in another mouth to feed when things are spread thin as is."
(Y/N) sent him a sad smile. "I'm sure you've got much on your plate at the moment, Mr. Shelby, but I hope that you're still able to take Ada's feelings into consideration with this. I've seen families ruined over such things," she told him, her eyes locked with his as she said what she had to. "I must finish what I'm doing now...it's getting late," she said then, tipping back what was left of her whiskey before she moved back over to the shelves and continued with stocking them.
Silence filled the room for the remainder of the time. The air felt heavy, filled with unspoken words and suppressed emotions. As she continued working, she was able to feel Tommy's eyes on her. It was a strange feeling that she couldn't quite shake.
After stocking the shelves, she moved back to the stockroom and made sure everything had been finished for the night. Deeming it was, she shut off the lights and returned to the main room of the bar. Tommy was still at the counter, nursing another glass of whiskey. (Y/N) said her goodbyes to him, and he responded with his own before she exited the tavern. She then met up with Matthew, who took her home so that she would be able to finally decompress after a rather event-filled day.
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Comments and feedback are always appreciated! :)