Peaky Girl (Peaky Blinders ABO Omegaverse Smut Fanfiction)

Twenty-Six

Two weeks later, I had healed enough to move freely, although not without pain. My bruises faded to yellow and green, my bones mended together, and my cuts shrank and faded, but I did not forget what had been done to me or what I had done in return. The memories haunted me whether I was awake or asleep, and only the opium made the remembrance easier. I was thankful for my alphas, who spent every free moment by my side, because when they were gone I forgot how to smile. Tommy brought me news from the business, and he listened when I spoke. Arthur brought me the books to work on, and they kept my mind busy on the nights I couldn't sleep. John brought me gifts, pillows and blankets, soft rugs for the floor, darkened drapes that let only little rays of light into the room. At nighttime, we all slept together in the big nest, and every so often, a night would pass when I didn't think once about the men I had killed.

Tonight was not one of those nights. Polly had cooked, and the family – Finn, Arthur, John, Tommy, Polly, and I – sat around the table. There was a plate of shepherd's pie in front of me, but I couldn't eat. As I drew a cigarette to my lips, all I could see was the invisible red staining my hands. I lit the end of the cigarette and inhaled the smoke as if I was accepting hell's flames into my lungs. The table was rowdy around me, Polly talking to Tommy across the table, John and Arthur ruffling Finn's hair and piling more pie onto his plate.

I was the only one who heard the knock at the door. I rose quietly, setting my cigarette in the ashtray, and opened up the front door of Watery Lane.

Ada Thorne stood on the threshold, doubled over and holding her round stomach in her hands. She was wearing a crumpled white dress that touched the top of her knees, and a wet stain had turned her white stockings grey with liquid. Her white coat hung open, and I could see where the amniotic fluid had burst across the thighs of her dress beneath her belly.

"Ru! Ru, the baby's coming, the baby's coming –"

I scooped Ada in my arms, slamming the door shut with my foot. "Polly!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, so loud Ada winced.

Polly rushed into the room, running her hands across the solid print of her dress. Her dark brown eyes blew wide when she saw Ada. The boys hovered behind her in the kitchen doorway.

"Bloody hell, Ada, you've got some timing," John exhaled, and he looked at his brothers like he didn't know what to do.

Arthur clapped him on the back, grinning. "We gonna have a little nephew, eh? It's off to The Garrison, then."

"Fuck off, then," Ada snapped, and she let out a low moan and clutched her stomach in her arms.

Tommy shifted his hands in his pockets. "Not much we men can do now, brothers." He looked back at John and Arthur, glanced down at Finn. "Let's go get drunk, eh?"

"Right," Arthur said, smiling.

The Shelby brothers walked through the living room and out the front door as Polly reached Ada's other side, taking her weight from my injured shoulders.

I started to help my sister up the stairs, but Polly shook her head at me, piercing me with a look so deep and dark that there was no mistaking the gypsy queen in her. "One man should be here."

"Freddie?" Ada said suddenly, lifting her head with a brow pinched with pain. "Freddie's coming?"

Polly turned her attention back to Ada, helping her up the stairs, saying, "One at a time, that's it, up the stairs, Ada."

Polly glanced back at me, and I nodded to her. "I'll get him here."

I opened up the front door of Watery Lane and ran out into the street, barefoot, leaving the door hanging open behind me. Finn was already in the front seat of the family car parked in the street, but Tommy heard me or smelled me because he paused with his hand on the door to the driver's side, and I reached him in a hurry, panting for breath.