n// sorry for the little update spam i've been doing but i just love this story so much and i love where it's going and i can't wait until i get it to the part i'm
most excited about so! here you go! i hope you enjoy it, and thank you all for showing this book so much support and love!
Dread. That's all Sybil felt as she woke up: nothing but dread. What was she dreading? Well, the answer to that was simple. Sybil Day was dreading everything. She dreaded getting out of bed, she dreaded getting ready, she dreaded going to work, and most of all, she dreaded even the slightest possibility of running into Archibald Hayes. She dreaded it all, and so she decided that for once, she was going to give into that dread. She called into her work, feigning illness, and as soon as she had gotten that sorted, she went back to bed. And there she stayed, staring at the walls, so deep in thought that nothing could pull her out of her own head. It was there where she lost all track of time, lost all sense of feeling, and lost herself.
Tommy Shelby, on the other hand, was slowly growing manic. Inspector Campbell was still looking for Freddie and Ada, his business was just a step from becoming legitimate, that same business had just been done over by the Lee Family, and on top of that, his little brother had almost been blown to bloody smithereens while pretending to be him. Which, naturally, all lead Tommy to where he was at the moment: making his way over to Sybil Day's home as quickly as he could with Finn in tow. He was going to sort things out with the Lee family, and there wasn't a chance in hell that he wasn't going to make sure that Finn was in the safest place he knew of. A place where Finn could maybe forget about what'd happened for a minute and be a regular kid.
Arriving at her door, he kept one hand placed protectively on his little brother's back and used the other to knock on the door. But when no one answered, he began to grow worried. He'd already called the school to ask if she was in, and they'd said that she sounded awful and that she was home with an illness, so he knew that she couldn't have been anywhere else. So, he knocked again, and again, and again, until he grew tired of knocking, and began searching for a key.
"Maybe she's not home, Tommy..." Finn muttered, watching his brother look under flower pots and above the door frame.
"She's home, Finn," Tommy responded, gripping the key that had been stashed under the doormat. "I know she is."
Tommy wasted no time in unlocking the door, stepping inside the familiar home slowly and quietly, looking around. But he was soon to find that the home he'd become accustomed to didn't feel like a home. It felt cold. The blinds had been drawn, there were no lights on, and most importantly, his Sybil was nowhere to be found.
At the sights — or lack thereof — he began to worry. He'd managed to keep his cool exterior for everything else that had happened, but this was the end of that. If the Lee family were bold enough to try and blow him and his betting shoppe up, what was stopping them from going after the woman he loved? Or had the Inspector gotten to her? What if he was using her to get to him in some sort of sick ploy to get his guns back? He'd obviously shown an interest in her before, and he knew better than anyone that he wasn't going to just forget about her that quickly. Either way, the possibilities were endless as to what and who could have gotten to his Sybil, and if he wasn't panicked before, he sure was now.
"Stay here, Finn." Tommy instructed quietly, closing the door behind him, slowly making his way around the small area, looking to see any signs that may have given any indication as to where she was.
But as his heavy shoes made contact with the floor, he heard it. The soft, fearful whimpering that he swore he never wanted to hear again after the night in the alley.
Sybil.
Not even thinking nor hesitating, Tommy rushed down to her room and threw the door open, where he was met with a soul-crushing sight.
Sybil, his Sybil, was tucked away in the furthest corner of her room, wielding some sort of curling rod (which Tommy had assumed was the quickest and most effective thing to be used as a weapon in short notice). Her room was just as dark as the rest of the house, but he could still make out the glimmer of fear in her dark brown eyes as she looked up at him, clenching her teeth. At the sight, his heart broke, but he approached the woman slowly anyways.
"Sybil," he spoke soothingly, holding his hands up slightly. "Sybil, it's me, Thomas. Are you alright?"
Sybil, realising that it wasn't her stalker, but instead the man she grew to trust more than most any other man she had ever known, softened her features.
"Tommy?"
At the recognition and her visibly more relaxed disposition, he stepped closer.
"Yeah," he nodded. "It's me, Sybbie."
Sighing a sigh of nothing but pure relief, the young woman tossed the curling rod to the side and dashed over to the man, tackling him in a hug. And without missing a beat, he welcomed it, cradling her head with one hand whilst the other rested on the small of her back. Although the embrace was more than appreciated and reciprocated, he was still perplexed as to why she was hugging him like so. Nevertheless, he held her close for as long as she needed, and was there for her, just as he always would be.
After a while, Billie took a deep breath and pulled away from the man's warm embrace. She didn't want to, seeing as in his arms she felt the safest, but she knew that she had to. She could only imagine how suspect she looked at the moment, and she didn't want to do anything else to further deem herself as suspicious to Tommy.
"Why are you here?" she asked breathlessly, trying her hardest to come back down from her adrenaline rush. "H-How did you get in?"
"There was a key under the mat," Tommy answered, looking down at the woman with concern. "There's business I need to take care of, and right now, I need Finn to be safe."
At the mention of the young boy, Sybil's feelings of intimidation were replaced by a different type of fear.
"Finn? What's happened with Finn? Why wouldn't he be safe?"
Tommy sighed, running a hand over his face before walking over to the door and shutting it.
"The betting shoppe was done over," he informed. "And the people that did it over, they tried to kill me. Put a bomb in my car, Sybil. Attached it to the door, so that if anyone opened it, it'd blow."
Sybil felt her heart sink further and further into the pit of her stomach at his words, beginning to panic all over again.
"What's this have to do with Finn?! Is he alright?!"
Sensing her overwhelming panic, Tommy was quick to ease her worries.
"Finn's alright, Sybbie. I promise you, he's alright."
Sybil let out a sigh of relief, clutching her hand over her heart. And although some of her panic had been alleviated, she was still at the point of ripping her hair out due to stress.
"Then what the devil happened?!"
"Finn was playing in my car when I found it. Climbed through the roof, he said. He was... Finn was pretending to be me."
Tommy laughed bitterly and shook his head, looking down at the floor before looking up at Sybil once more.
"Learned his lesson, didn't he?"
Sybil sighed and shook her head, feeling empathetic toward the man. She knew not of his business, and she knew that it was none of her own. But what she did know was that he was a damn fine brother.
"Finn was pretending to be you because he looks up to you," she spoke, surprising the man. "He's not looking up to you as a businessman, Tommy. He's looking up to you as the only father figure he's ever had. He's looking up to you and pretending to be you because he sees all of your admirable qualities and wants to emulate them. He's not trying to be whatever version of yourself that you see in the mirror — he's trying to be the version of you that he sees."
The sincerity in her voice was enough to make his knees buckle. He'd never been around a woman (or anyone, for that matter) who'd brought him as much comfort as she did. Tommy knew that she meant every single word she said, and that meant the world to him. But because he was Tommy, he didn't do much to show it. In fact, he changed the subject entirely.
"What's all this about, eh?" he asked instead, gesturing to the state of her home. "What's going on?"
Sybil knew that not telling him was the right thing. She knew next to nothing about his livelihood, but she knew that getting done over and almost blown up were probably taking up most of the room on his list of priorities, and for that, she was glad. The last thing he needed at the moment was another worry to add to the growing pile that he'd already accumulated and lose focus on what really mattered. So, she kept to her lie, telling the man the first thing that came to her mind in the most convincing way she could.
"I've not been feeling too well," she brought up, using the excuse she gave the school. "The light was hurting my eyes."
"And the hiding in the corner?"
"I didn't know who was at the door, and when I heard it open, I panicked."
That part, although missing some details, was true. She thought it was Archibald coming to exact his revenge or something of the rather, not Tommy Shelby needing her to watch his little brother.
Tommy, however, wasn't quite convinced, and she could tell.
"I've been having some trouble sleeping..." she muttered. "I'll be fine, Tommy. I promise."
But of that, she wasn't quite sure.
"Lavender under your pillow and chamomile tea before bed."
At his statement, Sybil smiled, and nodded, happy that he'd bought her little fib.
"I will."
Tommy stayed silent at that, opening the door and walking out leaving Sybil to follow to where she assumed that Finn was waiting. And, as suspected, she was right. She placed a smile on her face and opened her arms, to which the boy ran into without hesitation.
"Miss Day!" he grinned, hugging her stomach. "Is everything alright?"
"Of course, Finn. I was just having a bit of a nap, wasn't I?"
Tommy watched the way she interacted with his little brother, and no matter how much it warmed his heart, he couldn't seem to let it show. He knew Sybil was hiding something — he could just feel it. But he couldn't tell what, nor did she have any intentions of telling him at the moment.
"Polly'll be back tonight to get you, lad." he spoke, interrupting their little chat. "Be good, yeah?"
"I will, Tommy."
"Good man."
Looking up at the brown haired woman of which he loved, however, his message was slightly different.
"I meant it, Sybil."
At his cryptic message, Billie furrowed her brows and tilted her head to the side.
"I'm sorry?"
"I meant it when I said that you could call me if you ever needed anything. Remember?"
Sybil nodded, thinking back on his previous message to her.
"Anything you need, at any time at all. Bear that in mind."
"I will."
Nodding once to himself, he took out a cigarette and stuck it in between his teeth, lit it, and then retrieved the key he'd put in his pocket.
"Keep it," she insisted, seeing that he was about to put it back under the mat on his way out. "I feel better knowing that you have it."
"Alright." he muttered, putting it back in his pocket, trying to hide the little tingling he felt in his chest. "I'll see you later, Sybil."
"Goodbye, Thomas."
But as he reached for the door handle, Sybil felt the bubbling need to get one more thing off of her chest before he left.
"Thomas!"
Turning around, Tommy's strikingly cold blue eyes met Billie's impeccably warm brown ones.
"Yes?"
"Nothing, it's just..." she trailed off, watching his eyes soften at the sight of her. "I'm glad you're okay."
Tommy smiled a little bit, taking a drag of his cigarette, shaking his head. He hadn't been okay in a long time. Not since before he was shipped off to France.
"One day, Sybbie." he chuckled, exiting her home. "One day."
"'One day' what?"
"One day I will be."