If I Can't Have you

(13) Kimbers Arrival

"Did you want whiskey as well?" Grace asks as she enters the snug with a bucket of beer.

"Yes," Jemima says enthusiastically, already half way to passing out from the intensity at which she'd been drinking.

"No, just beer." Tommy states, "she's plastered, don't listen to her."

"Why no whiskey?" Jemima asks.

"Because you're fucking drunk enough as it is, and we really don't want to carry you home." Tommy says.

"You wouldn't have to, I'll sleep here." Jemima says.

"You're not sleeping in the pub, Jem." John states.

"We expecting trouble?" Arthur queries, as lights outside shine through the window.

"No, now just play the bloody hands." Tommy replies, his eyes following Grace as she walks out of the room.

"Where's Max?" Jemima questions.

"Oh fucking hell, why?" Tommy sighs.

"I'm not talking to you," Jemima says, "fuck off."

"He's out with his dad and sister," John tells her, "Tommy, stop being an arse."

"It's fine, I'll go." Jemima states, pushing herself off the chair.

"You can't stand, just sit down." Tommy says.

"Don't tell me what to do." Jemima replies, holding onto the window sill as she walks towards the door.

"Morrigan, just sit down for fucks sake." Tommy tells her.

"Mimi, come on, lovely, sit down." Arthur sighs and she shakes her head, "he's an arse, who is irritated by my presence, you two are playing cards, and I want my bed."

"I'll get Daniels then, he can take you home." Tommy says, standing to open the window between the snug and the bar.

"No," Jemima shakes her head, "not him. Anyone but him."

"Not your boyfriend?" Arthur says slowly.

"We broke up a couple days back, do not get him. I don't want to see him." Jemima states.

"Right, well let us finish this game, then I'll walk you home. How about that?" John suggests.

"No, I'm fine. I can get home, Johnny." Jemima says.

"You could barely walk from the chair to the door," Tommy scoffs.

"I'll be okay; it's an easy walk home." Jemima replies, brushing off their comments, as lights shine through the window.

"Coppers?" Arthur asks, and Tommy shakes his head, "no."

"Woah, that's way too much oil," Jemima laughs, watching as a man with extremely oily slicked back hair enters the pub.

"Mimi, come on. Just sit down." Arthur says, as a loud voice speaks from the main floor, "is there any man here named Shelby?"

Tommy stubs out his cigarette, standing from his chair. Jemima was standing in the doorway between the brothers and this other man.

Tommy places his hands on her waist, pulling her towards him back into the snug, and turning her to face him, "listen very clearly, you stay in here, you stay quiet and you do not move from this room until myself, John or Arthur comes to get you. Understood?"

Jemima was very distracted by his hands on her waist, and their close proximity. They were chest to chest, and she had to physically upturn her head to look at him.