The Falling Man

Chapter 4

Ethel's POV

Me and Francis sat and chatted to John Shelby and his fellow soldiers for the remainder of our lunch. John is quite funny he reminds me of my younger brother Fred. Fred was always getting into trouble growing up. Our Father was constantly scolding him for his dumb decisions. The dumbest of them all had to be a tie. It's between him getting trampled by a horse after purposely trying to spook it or when he robbed a local pub at the age of 15. Fred was always up to something but he was funny and very likeable. John seems the same.

"I'm going to head back to the medical hut, make sure everything's still going alright" I state to the group. "I'll come with you." Frances says. I like Frances. She reminds me of myself. From the conversation we had with the men over lunch, she seems witty and like she doesn't take shit. "I'll come with you!" John states loudly. "Don't want to be left out the party!" He says as he jumps down off the bed off the truck. "Besides I should probably check on how my brothers are doing." The three say goodbye to the other men on the truck and head off. "You said your brothers are here with you?" Ethel asks John after a moment of walking. "Yeaah...We hit a trip wire late last night, early this mornin." Ethel didn't know how to respond. The fact these men were going through this on a daily basis was horrible and terrifying. "I'm sorry I can't imagine how scary that must've been." She decides to go with. "It is." John states. She found out during lunch John was a clay kicker. They dug tunnels under enemy lines. It was high up on the list of the worst jobs you could have while serving. "Seeing your brothers covered in blood and..." John pauses and does a big sniff through his nose not in the way he's crying more to stop himself from getting to that point. "It's hell in that mud."

The trio head to the front of hut 5. "Ah there's my Tommy!" John states before they walk into the hut. Ethel and Frances head to the doctors to ask if there's anything specific they can do at this moment. Luckily all the men seem pretty stable around them. The doctors state to just check up on the patients at this time.

As I turn around I see John leaving someone's side. I assume it's one of his brothers. I decide to go over and check on him. As I get close to the side of his bed his line of vision goes from John to me. I have to stop myself from stopping in my tracks. It was the same blue eyed man I had made eye contact with when he was being carried in. I could recognize his bright eyes. He had a pretty bandaged up head but his face was clean from the blood and mud and now I saw he was actually really fucking handsome. If god existed he took extra time sculpting and chiseling this man's face. I was filled with some sort of weird feeling that I couldn't describe. As I approach closer he keeps on looking at me while puffing on his cigarette. I go to the end of his bed and grab the clipboard hanging there. Thomas Shelby. So this was indeed John's brother. God their family had good fucking genetics. As I quickly read through his lists of injuries he keeps on staring at me and puffing smoke. I decide to bite the bullet and look up at him. As we make eye contact my voice gets caught in my throat for a second. Pull yourself together I quickly tell myself. I take a short breath and say "Hello Mr. Shelby." He takes a brief moment almost looking like he's considering his answer to my statement of saying hi. "Hello." He says in a deep gravely slow voice. "Is John your brother?" I ask while pointing behind me, even though I already know the answer to the question, I somewhat panicked and said the first thing that popped into my head. He doesn't answer the question instead just keeps staring at me. In this time I take in the rest of his appearance and notice a tattoo on his chest. Fuck he's hotttt, I think in my head.

-Tommy POV-

While pondering how the pretty nurse knows my brother, I watch her look me up and down until her eyes meet mine again. I notice from her accent she's Irish.
"Hey! Tommyyy!!!" Arthur yells from across the room. Causing her to turn her attention behind her. I roll my eyes. Fucking Arthur. Johns attention is also turned now to me and the nurse and he starts strutting over in true John Shelby fashion. Arthur grumbles and complains he is being left on his own side of the hut. "Hey Tommy! This is Ethel, she's very nice, she told me she would take good care of ya." John states while slinging his arm around the small woman; who I now know is named Ethel. "Take good care of me yeah?" I state, without thinking, looking up at the now seemingly flustered nurse who I know probably said nothing of the sort. I'm flirting with her. I think in my head about how long it's been since I actually flirted with a woman.

Before the war I had a girlfriend who I believed was the love of my life. She was Italian and sweet and I won over her family. We dated for a very long time. She ended up getting extremely sick and I sat by her bedside everyday for four months while she died. Shortly after she passed, I was sent to war.

"I hope you take good care of that annoying bastard over there too." I state trying to lighten the girls nerves. As we look over to Arthur we see him negotiating with a nurse to take his leg restraints off and how he solemnly swears he won't run off again. "See Tommy here" John states to the nurse, still with his arm around her while pointing at me "is very picky about his nurses." It's obvious John is trying to wind me up. It's his favorite past time. "He is. Is he?" Ethel speaks for the first time in a little while in a somewhat sassy tone. I like it. "No I'm not." I state while shaking my head. "You, Ethel, seem just fine it's not to worry."

We hold eachothers stare for a moment. She has very big brown eyes that I find I don't want to look away from. "Can you go?" I say turning my attention to John. "Didn't realize my company wasn't wanted." John tuts. "I'll just say goodbye to Arthur then I'll be off immediatly okay?" He says in a snarky tone to me. She's still staring at me. It seems we have switched positions and now she is the more confident one in the situation. "Mm-hmm" I say to John while reaching to pull another cigarette out of my case. She turns back to her clipboard while John walks back to Arthur. I clear my throat and light my cigarette. She looks back up from her clipboard at me but doesn't say anything. We make eye contact again. Clearly both of us are trying to figure the other out. "Do you want some more morphine?" She asks me again in somewhat of a sassy tone. "No..No thank you." I tell her while blowing out smoke and shaking my head. "Your wounds should be better healed tommorow. You should be back up on your feet as early as the morning." She says to me. "I'll be up on my feet by tonight." I say to her. She looks back down to her clip board. I can tell she's not actually looking at anything rather just avoiding eye contact. I'm back in control. "Yeah" I say while clearing my throat and taking another puff off my cigarette. "Got any booze?" I ask her quite bluntly. She snaps her eyes up to me and considers my question. "Any of that whisky your people are famous for?" I ask after no reply. "Are you an alcoholic?" She asks clearly wanting to play the game. I ponder why she hasn't left yet and moved on to the next patient. I chuckle at her remark and look to my left while quickly thinking of what to reply with. "I've got a whole bottle." She states while looking into my eyes and sticking her tongue to the inside of her cheek. "Ah. Your gonna drink it all by yourself are ya?" I ask her. "You probably would." She states to me. "Yeah...Well..." I say while sighing "Your better than me then." "I'm better than everyone" She states quite as matter factly. "Ah well you don't know how to amputate an arm. So, clearly not here you aren't." She licks her lips while considering her answer to me. "Maybe you should give me lessons, Mr. Shelby." In a sarcastic sexy tone. Fuck she's hot. I can feel myself getting harder under the sheets of the hospital bed. I find myself actually quite flustered at her statement which I'm not used to being. I chuckle and bring my cigarette up to my mouth before breaking eye contact and looking to my left again. After breathing out the smoke I open my mouth slightly and lick my bottom lip. I can see her eyes on me from my peripheral vision before she looks once more at her clipboard. I turn my eyes back to her. After a moment, she slowly looks up at me through her eyelashes. "See ya later Tommy boy!" John shouts at me while giving me a wave. "Yeah." I say while cleaning my throat once again and giving him a wave back. "Uh.." I say while turning my attention back to Ethel. I'm about to say something before she turns to the walking John and says "It was nice to meet you John!" They give eachother a wave. "Tell Francis I'll be joining you lasses for lunch again tommorow!" John shouts back before leaving the hut. So that's how they know eachother. When I go to turn my attention back to her she's already put my clipboard back and walked away to another patient. I follow her with my eyes for a second my mouth slightly ajar from the unspoken words that were about to leave my mouth, before sighing and looking over to Arthur who's just laughing in my direction. Fucking hell. I'm interested in a girl and he knows it too which means I will never hear the end of this for the rest of my life. Tommy Shelby flirting with a nurse. Jesus Christ.