chapter five / season one episode two.
OLIVIA WAS MAKING THE MOST OF HER LAST WEEK OF SUSPENSION.
Yesterday, had been Monday, a day in which she usually hated but instead had loved! Olivia had spent the whole day outside the house and instead patrolled the streets of Small Heath, like a real blinder, and demanded that the sweet shops give her a large bag of blue bon bons just because she was a Shelby.
She smiled devilishly at the old women who stood in the road when she passed, just so that they didn't have to be near the Shelby scum, laughed quietly when she saw James McGuire limping down the streets and had hummed happily when she'd heard the drunken murmurs of some men.
Some men who clearly had nothing better to do than drink at eleven o'clock in the morning.
But, then again, the war ruined many men.
Saying the men had been murmuring would be an understatement, really the men had been talking quite loudly. Loudly enough that Olivia didn't even have to stand within a foot of them to hear what they had been saying.
And what they had been saying...
Oh, had it been beautiful.
It was quite possibly everything Olivia had ever desired to hear. (That was a tad dramatic as Olivia did have a list of things she wanted said to her... but that was for another day)
The one drunken lad had his hat on sideways, a cigarette in between his fingers, it had been lit a while ago but was somehow still burning; the cigarette had lost all interest during the conversation.
"Did ya hear?" He'd said.
The other man had furrowed his eyebrows, "Hear what?"
The first man had looked to his left, and to his right, he had missed little miss Olivia Shelby stood behind a lamppost. "The guns."
"What guns?"
Yes, random man, what guns?
The first man had sighed, "My great nephew down at the factories said they've lost 25 machine guns, 10,000 rounds of ammunition and some pistols!"
The second man's jaw fell to the floor, "No bloody way! Imagine what we could do with them..."
Oh, yes random man, imagine you were Thomas Shelby and you'd stolen all those guns, all that ammunition.
And imagine your little sister had just found out, and had been walking around with a knowing smile ever since.
Olivia didn't have to imagine it.
And Polly certainly hadn't either.
When Olivia had strode into the kitchen late last night, the Aunt had given her the once over (checking the girl hadn't gotten into a scrap) and faced her niece with a puzzled expression. "What'd you know?"
"Nothin'." Olivia had responded, throwing herself down onto her wooden chair at the table, right opposite Finn and giving him a kick on the shin. "'M just happy."
"Really happy."
Polly had rolled her eyes, "Well, I'm glad someone in this house is. Look, Arthur's feeding yous tonight, so brace yourselves and don't get into trouble."
Olivia had nearly scoffed at the warning.
If Arthur was in charge she'd be getting into bloody murder and not a single soul would know come tomorrow morning.
"Where you goin'?" Finn had had the smarts to ask.
"Out."
Olivia caught on very quickly that the Shelby / Gray family replied with 'out' very often, and had only done so when they were acting shady. (That's why Tommy said it so often) (Sorry, Thomas, not Tommy)
"Where's out?"
Olivia laughed into her hands and covered it up with a cough when Polly glared at her.
"Women's business." Polly had changed her answer and tugged her coat on.
"Can I join?" Finn asked, innocently and ever-so-foolishly - in Olivia's opinion.
Polly stared at him.
"Are you a woman?"
"No." He had responded.
"There's your answer."
Finn went to open his mouth, but a shrill shriek from Polly sounded causing both the kids to cover their ears with their hands, "Ada! We've got to get going, not got bloody all night!"
Olivia's eyes widened at her aunt, "See if that were me, I'd be getting scalped for shouting inside the house."
Finn nodded in agreement, "You threatened to throw me out on the streets once for shouting Liv down the stairs."
Polly didn't appreciate that the one night she was doing shady business that Olivia and Finn had decided to be friends and gang up on their poor aunt. "I'm the adult here."
Olivia's face screwed up.
Polly held her finger up in warning as footsteps sounded down the stairs, "Olivia Ruby Shelby if you even dare to give some smart answer I will—"
"C'mon then, what are we waiting for?" Ada asked, tugging her coat tighter around her stomach when she felt the beady eyes of her sister.
Polly looked at her incredulously, "You—!"
The aunt had then shook her head, "No, never-mind. Let's just get this over with."
While Polly had seemed like she wanted last night over with within two hours of the sun setting, Arthur, Olivia and Finn were having the times of their lives. The two younger ones had shoved Arthur into the cupboard under the stairs, and had turned the light off before shutting the door. (He had screamed like a little girl)
And had then started playing tag around the kitchen, which may or may not have caused a vase to fall off of the side table but...
Well, Arthur had had to clean it up while Olivia threw bon bons at him and then forced Finn to eat the ones off the floor.
The end of the night had resulted in Finn feeling violently ill, Arthur's hand cut up from the shards of glass, Olivia falling asleep on the sofa with a smile on her face and the eldest of the three wondering where Olivia Shelby got the nerve from.
Arthur - probably - wouldn't change it from the world, but it did concern him. Maybe he'd just been too drunk to notice it before, but Olivia had a whole company waiting for her when she got older, his littlest sister was probably going to get a bigger cut then him at some point. He didn't like the fact it would happen.
And that wasn't because of jealously. (A little part of it might be) but it was mainly because this was his little sister, who would grow up one day and look back on the childhood she didn't have because Tommy was too busy conditioning her to run the company.
Arthur wished it wouldn't happen, and that by some miracle Tommy would trust him enough to run the company.
But he wasn't that stupid to be wishing for a miracle that size.
Arthur had however been stupid enough to fall asleep on the settee with two children clinging to his arms the night before, so he woke up with chronic pins and needle and no feeling in his left thigh from where Finn's big head had been resting all night.
When he had first woke up to the sun poking through the curtains his first reaction had been shock. Olivia had never looked so peaceful, and Finn had never looked so uncomfortable. The girl was cuddled around Arthur's arm, clutching it tightly and looking as if she'd never let go with the remnants of her smile still on her face. While Finn... his face was smushed against Arthur's thigh, his legs kicked over the back of the settee, occasionally spasming and kicking Arthur's arm, with his arms buried somewhere under his small body.
Arthur had never seen someone sleep in such an uncomfortable position.
Even if it did look particularly rough, Arthur wished he had a camera of some sort just to savor the moment. It wasn't often it was Arthur left with the kids (for many reasons) but whenever he did get the opportunity, he snatched it up. Because he never knew how many more opportunities like this he'd get and he'd already missed out on four years with his little siblings.
He didn't want to miss anymore.
Olivia woke with a groan, snuggling her head further into Arthur's arm.
The older brother fought to wince.
"What time is it?"
Arthur thought she was bloomin' mad for asking him. His watch had been broken ever since he'd gotten back, he'd have to fix that before Tommy noticed.
Arthur shrugged, her head falling from his arm, "Dunno."
"Don't move." She groaned, and forced her head to go back to its rightful place; resting on Arthur's arm.
Arthur chuckled quietly, mindful of Finn, "Sorry."
"It's okay." Olivia muttered, her eyes falling shut again, although she did not fall asleep again. The slither of light that invaded the room was too much. "What you doin' today?"
"Nothin'."
Olivia's eyebrows furrowed, "Nothin? You're a Shelby and you're doing nothin? I find that very hard to believe."
"Did you take a holiday? Do you even get holidays as a blinder?"
Arthur frowned, "Dunno. Haven't taken one to know."
Olivia smiled, "We should take one and we can go down by the beach, we could build sandcastles and throw Finn in the sea."
Arthur laughed quietly. "That sounds good." It would never happen. Arthur believed Olivia to be too groggy to realize that the Shelbys would never have holiday.
"And get a chippy. The chippys round 'ere aren't as good. Nora said there was a good one down on the west coast. But, she also said that it were windy, and that might mess up your hair." She paused to laugh quietly, "So, we shouldn't go."
That's not the only reason why you won't be going on holiday.
"Do you know how long this hair takes? I'm not letting no wind ruin it, nutter."
"Yeah, we know." She whispered, "Every five seconds you're flicking it to the left, flicking it to the right."
"Make your bloody mind up!" She teased.
He laughed louder than intended.
Olivia wished she could bottle sound up and never forget it.
Arthur doesn't laugh much. Not now. It feels like every-time she hears him laugh she has to repeat it over and over again so she'll never forget it. She never wanted to forget it.
Finn groaned at the loud noise that had woken him up and rolled over to face the pillows of the sofa, "Shut up."
Arthur winced at Finn's big head that rolled over on his thigh. "Watch it! I got bloody kicked there yesterday."
Olivia snickered, "Gettin' into fights were ya?" Arthur rolled his eyes, "And you lot wonder where I get it from."
She was joking. Of course she was. But, Arthur couldn't help but wonder what parts of him were in her. He hoped none.
G-d, he hoped none.
"Shut your mouth, Olivia." Finn warned, trying to fall back asleep.
Olivia scoffed, "You're not the boss of me."
Arthur rolled his eyes, "Children, children, please. Shut up."
"I'm not a child," oh boy, Arthur couldn't wait for this. "I'm a teenager!"
Arthur laughed along with her, but there was that ache in his chest that longed for Olivia to stay little forever. Their Livvie; with the big, chubby cheeks and that little laugh and the pink gums that were always on show when she were little, her failure in pronouncing Arthur's name right.
He supposed she wasn't so little now.
Olivia didn't have the big, chubby cheeks, her laugh was boisterous now and she had a full set of teeth, she could scream his name now in anger.
She wasn't little now.
And Arthur wondered where all the time went.
And he wondered how he could get it back.
"You don't act like one." Finn grumbled into Arthur's spare arm.
It didn't matter if it had been muffled, Olivia had ears like Dumbo and had heard him word for word. Any drowsiness or sleep vacated her body and she shot up, glaring at the boy, "Don't make me hit you this early in the morning, Finny boy."
"I dare ya."
Arthur rolled his eyes and put his arm out to stop Olivia from crawling over him and no doubt attacking her little brother, "Orright, I dare you both to shut up and go back to being peaceful little angels."
Olivia awed, "You think I'm an angel?"
"He's the only one." Ada remarked as she came into the living room, all three of her siblings looking at her in shock that she was fully dressed and ready for the day already.
Olivia rubbed her eyes to check if she was seeing things. "Why you dressed?"
"'Cause it's a Tuesday."
Arthur turned his head to look at his sister in confusion, "Yeah. What's that gotta do with it?"
"I'm going to the pictures." Ada responded as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Olivia scoffed, "And you didn't invite me?!" She shrieked.
Arthur covered his ears. "Bloody hell, teenager."
"Olivia!" Finn scolded as if he was her mother, "Shut up!"
Ada rolled her eyes, even if deep down she did want some company to the pictures. (Maybe then she'd get less of a mouthful from Tommy) "Go on then, go get dressed and look presentable."
"Why can't I go in my pajamas?"
"Because," (sadly), "you're a Shelby. Now go! Or we'll be late and I'll have to cut through thousands of people to get to the front and get the best seats."
Olivia hummed, "Or, I could just pull out a cheeky razor—"
"Go!" It seemed to be the shouts of Ada and Finn, but Olivia could never be fully sure.
Olivia rolled her eyes.
She then kissed Arthur on his cheek, "Thanks for a great night!" She exclaimed before running up the stairs to go and make herself presentable.
Arthur smiled. And his sisters left the house for the picture house, while Finn still clung to his arm.
❋
"This film is so fucking shite." Olivia commented.
Ada had heard this insult, in the last half an hour, at least sixty times. And if this film didn't help her with her raging hormones and life decisions she had to make in the coming days, she would've slapped her sister front and centre in this picture house.
"Will you shut your mouth?" Ada scoffed, shoving another handful of popcorn into her mouth afterwards.
Olivia rolled her eyes and reached over to the packet, only to have her hand smacked away. "Look, if I'd of known that we were going to watch some shite-y romance film and not be allowed to eat any popcorn, I wouldn't of come with ya."
An old woman shushed them from the row behind.
Ada and Olivia turned to face her with the same unimpressed looks on their faces.
"Do you know—"
Ada pulled her younger sister to face back around before she could start a scene at the pictures, "Calm your tits."
"Speaking of how are your tits—?"
Ada's eyes widened in alarm, she was not about to get felt up by Olivia at the pictures was she? Ada had already had to have her breasts cupped by Polly.
Oh no. The aunt hadn't spilt the secret had she?
"You know?"
Olivia's face screwed up in confusion, "What you chattin' about?"
"Polly told you didn't she?" Ada queried, the popcorn bag now placed on the floor as she swiveled in her seat to face her sister, "I swear I were gonna tell you soon, Livvie, I just wanted to take you to the pictures first and then we'd get some sweets and I'd say something like; 'I can't wait for the day I take you and my baby down to the sweet shops, and you hold their hand' and blah blah blah."
Baby.
Not another one.
The last thing this planet needed was another Shelby.
Oh goodness.
And at least John's children had their mother in them! This Shelby offspring was destined to cause havoc being a direct descendant of Freddie-fucking-Thorne.
Olivia's face blanched at the babysitting she'd have to do. Forget John's football team that nearly broken every plate and vase in the kitchen, Olivia'll have to run down the streets to catch this one!
Ada paused after having noticed her sister had completely stilled, and for a moment her heart dropped. Ada was already in trouble with Polly, would be in trouble with Tommy, the oldest sister couldn't stomach being in trouble with her younger sister.
While Olivia had an internal conundrum about babysitting, the corners of her lips upturned. Her sister. Who you might've thought to lack any maternal bone in her body, but Olivia knew better. Her sister; who had, at times, had to play the role of ma. Who had to scold her sister, and even separate her from Finn in the kitchen one too many times.
Ada who had held her little sister in her arms and promised that the birth of Finn would change nothing.
Ada who could tell a beautiful bedtime story. (Which was really just a rendition of the town gossip, but it still worked)
Her sister. A mother.
Maybe the child would cause a little bit of chaos, but it was always going to have a loving mother who was not afraid to scold them, or tell them that she loved them.
Maybe this kid stood a chance.
Maybe Ada would keep them far away from the family business.
Ada watched the corners of Olivia's lips upturn and before she knew it there was a pair of arms wrapped around her neck. "You had me worried then, nutter." Ada whispered.
Olivia laughed quietly, before pulling away, "I think this is great, Ada. This baby is real lucky to have you to inhabit...?"
Ada's shoulders shook with laughter, "You've never congratulated a pregnant woman before have you?"
"Obviously not. Martha would just come in with the big belly and start pushin' the kids out so..."
"Lovely."
"Ain't that gonna hurt though?" Olivia's head titled to the side, "Like, the journey the baby has to take to come out, it's not gonna be easy, yeah?"
Ada's head slowly turned to her sister, her eyebrows furrowed slightly, "Are you trying to convince me to not have this baby...?"
"No!"
A shush sounded from behind them from the same old lady.
Olivia rolled her eyes and twisted in her uncomfortable seat, "Shut your mouth, we're celebrating."
"I'm trynna watch me film!"
"Watch it somewhere else then, lady!" Olivia huffed before coming back to face her sister. "Some people, am I right?"
Ada nodded slowly, "Totally..."
"I am really happy for you, Ada, if this is what you want, obviously. As long as the baby don't look like Freddie." Olivia sniggered as Ada hit her on the back of her head.
"I think he's quite handsome." Ada admitted, shyly.
Olivia snorted, "Of course you do! Or else you wouldn't be having his baby. What did he say? Has he got into contact yet?"
Freddie had to up and leave after the raids, much like many other communists (Like Eleanora's uncle, thank heavens) and didn't even know of his baby yet! Ada could only hope he'd be over the moon.
Olivia would not learn of that answer, yet, as the doors to the cinema slammed open and in walked the one and only: Thomas Shelby.
What a way to ruin sister day.
Ada and Olivia, simultaneously, sunk in their seats. "Bloody hell."
"One day of peace, that's all I ask." Ada muttered.
Olivia laughed under her breath, "I think that's pretty difficult when you're knocked up."
Ada smacked her on the back of the head, "Don't say it like that."
Olivia muttered an apology as Thomas sat down on the row behind them, taking the seat the noisy old lady had once occupied before getting up and leaving the picture house. Which Olivia found quite humorous in the fact that two noisy pillocks had decided to sit behind them.
"Tell me the man's name, Ada." He demanded.
"Rudolf Valentino."
Olivia thought that was an odd way to say Freddie Thorne.
But, Thomas up and left after receiving his answer and Olivia thought that to be too easy. Surely not.
And clearly it was too easy when the film stopped playing and the lights in the showing room turned on, and those doors were nearly swung off their hinges again, "Get out! All of you! Go on! Now!"
Olivia rolled her eyes, "I don't think he's ever heard of the word please."
Ada might've laughed if this picture house hadn't just turned into her confessional.
"I said, tell me his fucking name." Thomas demanded.
Olivia turned to look at her brother, there was a smirk on her face as they made eye contact for what seemed to be the first times in weeks (it had been the burning of the King's pictures since they had last even looked at each other) "Would a 'please' kill you?"
Thomas raised his eyebrows and pointed at her, "You, keep out of it."
Olivia huffed and crossed her arms.
Ada had had enough! Enough of Thomas and his demands, enough of Thomas and his attitude and most of all, everyone up in her business! So, there was really no better time than now to rip the bandaid off, "Freddie fucking Thorne!"
If Thomas had any reaction, he hadn't shown it.
There was just an awful silence that settled for a few moments, but his silence had spoken volumes.
"Yeah. Your best mate since school. The man who saved your life in France!" Ada shouted at him, "So go on! Go on, cut him! Cut him up and throw him in the Cut!"
Half way through the shouting Thomas had stopped listening and stormed out of the doors.
Ada stood up, "Oi! I'm a Shelby, too, you know. Put our fucking film back on!"
The film came back on. And Olivia found her hand reaching out for Ada's.
The pregnant woman whispered, "I'm sorry."
Olivia looked at her sister in confusion, "For what?"
"For shouting."
"Ada," Olivia said, causing her sister to finally look at her since their brother left, "don't apologize when he deserved every second of that, every second."
Maybe she had deserved it too. A bastard baby. Maybe she deserved everything little thing that was going to come her. Maybe she wouldn't deserve her sister sat next to her in this picture house squeezing her hand and slandering Thomas' name, and even buying her a large bag of bons bons.
It was almost unexpected of Olivia to reach into her own pockets and pay for them.
But, G-d, had it warmed Ada's heart and made her realize that maybe Thomas is going to shout at her, cut Freddie Thorne up, but she had Liv.
And that was her saving grace for the time being.
❋
Olivia was whistling when she walked into the den at the exact moment her aunt was storming out of it.
Ada had gone to the shops to fetch what they were going to share for tea tonight, but Olivia had promised to go home first to test the waters and get the warning ready for if coming home was really safe.
Within two seconds of being in the house, Olivia realized they were far from safe.
Olivia stood with wide eyes in the den, observing her brother who stood by the lit fire with a lit cigarette.
"Good day?" She asked, humorously. Aside from the usual Thomas troubles, Olivia had had a pretty spectacular day: she'd ate so many bon bons and then taken a nice stroll down by the canal with Ada as they discussed baby names and then discussed what they were having for tea.
It had been a lovely day.
Thomas didn't look like he was a having a good day, or a good week, or a good year, and he justified that in his response, "Don't you fucking start."
Olivia faked offense, "Me? I'm just minding my business, trotting along."
She clicked her fingers and leant against the edge of one of the tables, "Actually, I heard something pretty interesting yesterday, do you wanna hear it?"
"If you're gonna waste my time, then fuck off."
Olivia laughed, quietly.
Thomas had nearly forgotten what it sounded like.
"See, I were just walking about near this pub, alright? You with me?" Thomas didn't respond. Olivia continued, anyway. "And they're talking, and they're talking about useless shite, and then I hear them talking about some robbery."
Olivia was not wasting his time. Thomas had quickly realized that and stilled, avoiding all eye contact with his sister.
"Now, I'm usually not nosey," absolute fucking lie, "But, these two drunken sods really did sound interesting. Talking about all this ammunition, machine guns and even pistols. I mean, it's just crazy that something like that happened in Small Heath?"
"Isn't it?"
Thomas didn't say anything. Olivia was unsure if he was even still alive considered how still he stood.
Olivia decided to make a move to stand opposite her brother, where her aunt had stood scolding him only ten minutes ago, "And it's just so crazy that the Inspector beats Arthur black and blue over this robbery, but Arthur, he's got no bloody clue!"
She smiled.
She fucking smiled.
"But you do, Thomas."
Olivia smiled so much like Tommy.
"You have every fucking clue about this robbery. How many rounds of ammunition was it?"
Thomas had no response. He knew it was coming, Olivia was always going to find out, but somehow in all the chaos he had neglected to prepare himself for a reaction.
Wasn't this what he wanted though? A smart, young brain, ready to play a part in the business? That's what Olivia had been prepared to be her whole life. And before the war, it had been a thing that excites Thomas. He had never just made her sit in the seat beside him and watch him count coins for nothing, he did everything with reason.
Because he wanted his sister to stand by his side as the Shelby's rose through the ranks.
And Thomas couldn't tell if he was annoyed at his sister for figuring everything out when he wanted her miles away from the Inspector, or proud of her.
"Since you don't want to answer, I'll tell you. It was 10,000 rounds of ammunition, 25 machine guns and a handful of pistols."
"That's bloody mental!" Olivia exclaimed, a sickly smile on her face as she stared at her brother, "I mean, I understand why the Insecptor is 'ere now because if they went missing then..." she lowly whistled.
Thomas wanted to agree with her.
He wanted to lay it out straight and discuss the plan with her, because Olivia Shelby was the future.
But, but, then Olivia would win.
Thomas knew to never let anyone win, other than himself. Even if they're your sister.
Could he let her win just this once?
"And that's not the only thing." She laughed lowly, "I mean, with this grounding I got 'cause I beat up James McGuire because he decided to get mouthy about our Ma, I've had all the time in the world to just listen."
Surprisingly, Thomas looked up from the floor at this.
Olivia found it funny that he cared more about his little fairground punch about than he did the guns.
"And I were listening to Finn, for once in me life, and he was real shaken up. Talking about our Ma, and this fight that came up."
Thomas realized he didn't need to let his sister win.
She'd won all by herself.
"And, apparently, you," she pointed at him, "you threw the first punch." She faked a laugh, "I mean, how bizarre is that? Especially, after you tried to have my head on a stick for doin' the exact same thing!"
"And you wanna know the best part?" She laughed, for real this time, and it made the hairs on Thomas' arms stand up, "You thought you could get away with it. You thought I wouldn't find out. You thought you could hide it from me."
"Me!"
"All this, you tried to hide from me."
He found it funny she thought she had an obligation to know all this.
A bitter laugh fell from her lips, "You and I, Tommy, we're the same. The quicker you realize that, the quicker you realize you can't lie to me and then I can help. You need somewhere to hide some ammunition, I've got a loose floorboard or a place to go."
Maybe.
Maybe one day.
But, she had to be clean. Olivia was the future of this business, she couldn't be dirty, she had to be smart, a clean record. She didn't seem to understand that yet.
Thomas understood. He'd always understood.
"What was it I told you?" She frowned trying to remember her own words, words she'd been quite proud of only a mere few days ago.
Olivia clicked her fingers, "We're made from the same cloth, you and I."
"And you can't pretend yours is better no-more."
He could try. Thomas could always try, but Olivia would always see through him, G-d it was annoying her ability to do that.
Or, he didn't have to pretend. Thomas could simply agree and keep Olivia under control.
But, keeping Olivia under control was a very different situation.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
she's so crazy I LOVE HER
she's the perfect button pusher for tommy