Anna [J.Shelby]

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

It felt like deja-vu as Anna walked towards the betting shop after taking the kids to school.

Two men approached her, grabbing her arms and dragging her back into the alley as she struggled against them.

"Get off me" Anna spat, kicking at the men, struggling in their arms.

They threw her against a wall, causing her to groan quietly, not loud enough to give them the satisfaction.

"We're here to send a message to the Shelby's, and what a better way then the wife of a Shelby herself" A thick Irish accent fell out of one of the mens mouths.

The men glanced between eachother as one struck a punch to her face, another striking her stomach as she yelled, a hand going over her mouth, a knife slipping against her cheek, a crimson river dripping down her face.

"Oi!" A voice shouted, distracting the men as Anna stumbled for the knife, she plunged it into one of her assaulters' abdomen, he spluttered before falling.

Shaking, she stood unblinking at the man whose eyes fluttered as blood spilled out of him.

John and Arthur took on the last attacker viciously, slicing at his face with their caps, delivering blows to the ribs, arms, legs and head.

"By Order of the Peaky Fuckin' Blinders" John screamed in the mans face.

John let Arthur finish him, before approaching her, turning her head took look at him, her eyes wild.

"I-is he dead?" John shushed her.

"He fuckin' deserved it, y' dont mess with a Blinder's wife, right?" Anna breathed as John spoke those words, pulling her into his chest, blood from her face staining his white shirt.

"Go to Aunt Poll, she'll sort you out. We'll clean up."

So Anna stumbled with her head down, flinging the door open to find Polly sitting there, closed off and not quite there, staring into an abyss.

The door startled Polly as she glanced up, her brows raising as Anna flung herself into a chair, her stomach hurting more than she cared to admit.

"What the fuck happened to you?" Polly asked her, reaching into a cupboard for alcohol and a first aid kit- handy when it came to the Shelby boys.

Polly poured alcohol onto a piece of cotton, holding it against the large slash across Anna's cheekbone, making her hiss.

"Some men cornered me down the fuckin' alley" Anna breathed.

"And they beat you up? Nobody, and I mean nobody messes with a fuckin' Shelby."

"Exactly, Arthur and John came down just as they struck my face and my stomach. Arthur and John took one, I stabbed the other." Polly stilled, glancing over Anna.

The words that came out of Anna's mouth scared her, more than she cared to admit. She thought, 2 years ago this innocent barmaid came along, with a miserable past but still a highly respectable women. They took her in, married her to one of their own and becoming a Shelby had changed her. No longer was she an innocent barmaid, she was a wife, a mother, a Shelby, and now, she had been dragged into the violence, the illegal side of things. It nerved Polly that to some, their family was toxic, a disaster waiting to happen.

Polly snapped out of it as Anna spoke the two words she had feared.

"He's dead."

Polly cleared her throat, "it's not your fault-"

"I know. It's the fuckin' men who dare mess with the Shelby's"

Polly cleared her throat again, her movements almost robotic, "that's right."

It wasn't that Anna had became numb to her actions, her actions were very much haunting her, and they always would. She had been pulled in to the very thing John had always feared for her. But it was a split second, an instinct, and she knew that if she hadn't of done that, it would have been her that's dead.

Or maybe she was overthinking it, she's a Shelby now, even if by blood she's a Smith, a respectable church-goer once upon a time.

"Right, take it easy if your stomach starts to hurt more, they may have cracked a rib or two" Polly told her after cleaning up the cuts on her face, Anna could already feel the ugly and angry bruises forming.

They moved to the betting den, Esmé sat quietly, not glancing up at Polly due to what had recently occured between them.

The Shelby Brothers soon joined them after cleaning up the mess that was made. John glanced over Anna in guilt, after all, it was his last name that had brought this on.

"Who were they, Anna?" Tommy spoke abruptly.

"I don't fuckin' know" Anna snapped.

"Right, well there's nothing we can do about it then" Tommy stated.

Polly scoffed, "John's wife gets dragged and beaten down a fuckin' alley and there's nothing we can do about it"

"John sorted them out an'," Tommy lit a cigarette, "an' Anna sorted the other, am I right, Anna?"

Anna stiffened, John looking at his brother with a look of annoyance.

"Look, all I know is they were Irish. That's all I know"

Something clicked between Polly and Tommy as they glanced at eachother.

"Right, now we've gotta fuckin' go" Tommy turned to his brothers.

"Well, where the hell are you going?"

"I told you, London" John replied, Anna snorting as he threw his coat on.

"No you didn't fuckin' tell me"

"Right, well I'm tellin' you now"

"Oh yeah, leave me with 4 kids, a baby. I tell you somethin' John Shelby, you can sleep on the sofa for the next year. Or even better, Arthur just leave him in fuckin' London for me will you" Arthur and Tommy looked amused.

"Fuckin' Shelby's" Anna cursed under her breath.

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*unedited*
Ooh, Birmingham really is changing Anna! But is that a good or bad thing? If she's going to be married to a Shelby, I think she knows it's not all rainbows and sunshine...

What are your hopes for this fanfic? For Anna as an oc, for Anna and Johns relationship? I'm interested to hear them compared to the direction I have roughly sketched out!

Remember- constructive criticism is welcome too!