𝐔𝐏𝐓𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋. ᵗʰᵒᵐᵃˢ ˢʰᵉˡᵇʸ

❥ ¹²the aftermath.. ꩜

TW: this chapter contains death
and eating disorders.

MAGGIE REFUSED TO LEAVE HER FATHER on the dirty streets of Small Heath. It was the least she could do now that he was gone. Maggie remembered her father always saying that if he were to die, he wanted to be buried in Ireland.

It was as if all the life, happiness and joy had been sucked out of her. Her face had that same expression on as if she wasn't in the moment. Maggie didn't know how, but she ended up at the Garrison.

Tommy, sat in a chair beside where she stood, holding her hand in his. She would have snatched her hand away but she was still in shock that her father was dead.

"Right, hold him down." Arthur nodded at a few men then at Tommy. "Here, have a mouthful." Arthur indicated the bottle of rum to his brother. Tommy accepted the bottle and took a swig from it.

Every few minutes he would look up at Maggie to check on her, but every time she would still have that same expression on her face as if she wasn't aware of what was going on around her.

She never looked back at him. Instead she kept her eyes trained on the wall in front of her.

Arthur put the top of the bottle to Tommy' wound, making him yell out in agony considering how deep the bullet was. "Jeremiah." Arthur gave a nod to the preacher who had a pair of tweezers in his hand. If Maggie was looking, she would have been sick.

Jeremiah dug the tweezers into the bullet wound, making Tommy yell out in pain again. "Take it, Tommy. Take it." Arthur mumbled as he also held him down. Tommy's hand clamped around Maggie's, squeezing it as if to squeeze the pain out of him.

Tommy tried to thrash and squirm at the pain but due to the amount of hands holding him down, he could only move his neck. His chest was heaving up and down violently as Jeremiah dug deeper for the bullet, making his cries of agony louder.

"Hold him still!" Jeremiah ordered the men hold down Tommy, "There! I still have the knack!" Jeremiah announced, holding the bullet up between the tweezers a few seconds later , dropping it into a glass of water. "Have a drink." Arthur passed to Tommy the bottle again.

"Alright, deep breath." Arthur said before pressing the top of the bottle to the wound again.

"That's it! it's done!" Arthur said once the bottle had emptied (although there wasn't much to empty due to the fact Tommy drank most of it.) Tommy's chest rising as he breathed in harshly, sweat dripping down his chest.

Danny Whizzbang was laid in the middle of the table inside the snug. Tommy and his brothers, Polly and Ada, Maggie, Finn and a few Peaky boys were all crowded into the snug.

Maggie was still in denial of her fathers death, she constantly told herself it was a dream and that when she would wake up, her father would be downstairs making tea and when she did — she would give him the biggest hug ever. But that wasn't going to happen.

"Come on. The day is ours, let's celebrate." Tommy spoke to them all, putting his arm around Maggie and leading her out of the room. But Maggie didn't celebrate with everyone else, instead she let Tommy walk her home.

She would rather seek the comfort of an animal than celebrate with others, because in this moment — she needed comfort. Maggie was too numb to have a go at Tommy, to yell and scream at him, to partially blame him for the death of her father.

If he hadn't of told Grace that he was planning to betray Billy Kimber, Grace wouldn't of had anything to snitch about, Kimber and his men wouldn't of came to Small Heath and her father wouldn't of been shot.