Peaky Blinders. One shot and imagines

In the Bleak Midwinter - Part 3 - Tommy x Arthur x John x Reader

"Well..............?" Tommy asked, as he looked over the doctor's shoulder.

"We should get her to the hospital............."

"No. You do it here.................."

"But she.............."

"You heard Tommy.............." Arthur growled. The doctor simply nodding, before he reached for his Gladstone bag.

The older Shelby was sure that the doc was right. That she may fair better if they had taken her to the hospital; but it was more than obvious that Tommy wasn't going to see sense. That he had a real bee in his bonnet about this woman and wasn't about to let her out of his sight.

"I'll need some hot water.........and clean towels if you have them. And you should probably both leave. I am going to have to cut off her clothes." The doctor continued. Arthur nodding, before moving the reluctant Tommy from the room.

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John leant against the mantle, looking over at Arthur and Charlie as Tommy just stood at the window, staring out into the dark street. One cigarette quickly followed by another, as they all waited for the doctor to make his way back down the stairs. The rest of the men able to tell that Tommy was somewhere else; and that wherever he was, they couldn't join him. That he didn't want them to join him.

It had felt like hours since they had rushed into the house, Tommy with the lifeless, pale form of the young woman in his arms. Hours since the doctor had told Tommy and Arthur to leave the room. None of them hearing a thing, not even the squeak of the floorboards, as the doctor moved around the room.

Charlie had told John what had happened. He had told him about how they had found themselves ambushed; about how he had discovered the woman that was supposed to be starting work at the Garisson the next evening, bleeding out over the cobblestone street. About how Tommy had seemed to have been affected by her, as soon as he set his eyes on her lying form. Her blooded handprint still on his cheek for all to see. John looking at him again, as Arthur got up from the chair, and poured himself a large drink. John and Charlie nodding, as he looked between them and the other glasses on the table. All three of them aware that all they could do was continue to wait in silence. Wait for the doctor......and wait for Tommy.

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When he had returned to England after the end of the war; one of the millions of men that had spent four years not only fighting the Germans, but also trench foot, starvation, sleep deprivation, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and the rats that tried to nibble at you, when you did manage to close your eyes and escape the hell that was all around you; Tommy was a very different man. But there again, they all were. He had smiled before France; he had laughed. Yet now, all that seemed to be a thing of the past. The war had shaped who he was now. A man that had lost his faith, a man that was numb to violence, to death; even his own. But the woman that he had placed, bleeding onto his bed, had made him feel something. Had made him feel........guilty. Tommy hating the notion that he might be responsible for her death. That an innocent life may be lost because of him. Especially as so many lives had been lost to violence that people had found themselves in the middle of. Violence that was not of their making.

"Tommy..........." A voice came, splitting the heavy silence that had hung over the scene. The four men turning to see the doctor in the doorway, wiping the blood from his hands.

"Well............" Tommy asked, as he surged forward. The doctor stepping back as he got to him. John and Arthur sensing that if the doc hadn't come with good news, then they might just have two bodies to deal with.

"There were two bullets; I managed to dig them both out. Miraculously, neither hit an organ; but she's lost a lot of blood, so it is still touch and go. She'll need a transfusion............"

"You can have my blood............" Tommy replied, as he rolled up the sleeve of his shirt. The doctor nodding, before he made his way back up the stairs with Tommy in tow.

"I fuckin hope this works.............." Arthur said, as he finished his drink and poured himself another.

"Why.............?"

"Because, if it doesn't, then the fuckin shit is gonna hit the fan............." The older Shelby informed his younger brother. Not sure how Tommy would react if it didn't; not sure of the effect that her death might have on his brother. John just nodding, as he finished his own drink. Getting Arthur to pour him another, before he took a seat. He, Arthur and Charlie going back to waiting.

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Tommy looked at the woman, as the blood made its way from his body, through the tubes and into her. She still looked like death. No colour in her face; chest still barely moving. The doctor had placed her under the sheets, doing his best to take away the blooded ones; to make her look as comfortable and at as much peace as possible. The head of the family firm, silently promising that the next day, he would get Ada or Pol to dress her. That he would send them out to buy something appropriate. But for now........for now he and the doc had a long night ahead of them. Tommy slowly and carefully taking her hand; holding it, as he sat next to the bed. His eyes never leaving her face, as she continued to sleep.