Bloodsport ; tommy shelby

𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒚 - the past is the past

Iris had been trying desperately to ignore the paranoia that had edged up her throat all of her first day working for Winston Churchill's offices. In the past, she would have packed her bags, changed her name and started all over again, but everything had changed. She had a child, her mother, and a proper job.

Frustrated, she cursed herself for being so weak all those years ago. Meeting Tommy had broken her forever. She was sentimental when she couldn't afford to be, and she had made the mistake of setting down roots in another place again when she should have stayed running. Not only that, but she could only bring herself to let go of half of the self she had been in Small Heath. She was still Iris, only she was Iris Ripley.

Iris left Winston Churchill's offices that afternoon with a sour combination of frustration with herself and paranoia. Sbe wracked her brains with what to do as she made her way home through the streets of Whitechapel. It was cold and she smoked while she walked, exhaling into the misty air.

Looking over her shoulder, Iris unlocked the front door to her house, shutting it behind her and letting out a deep sigh, briefly exhaling the rising dread in her throat. "Mama, are you home?" She called as she put her bag down, heading into the kitchen.

As she walked in, her heart ran cold. Her mother was putting down a tray of teacups and a teapot, her face still and icy. Willow stood behind her. Across from her was Ada, and beside Ada stood Tommy. Iris gulped. Tommy.

He was there, in the flesh. He looked older, more rugged. He was no longer the street fighting man of Small Heath, Birmingham, but a man. Flecks of silver in his close shaven hair and an expensive suit with Italian shoes. Iris was suddenly aware of how much time had passed since she'd stared directly into those ice blue eyes. That stare she knew so well, that bore through her soul and could see things in her she had kept so hidden for so long. She had always felt so naked when he looked at her. So vulnerable.

"Thomas," she felt the word slip out on her breath against her will.

Tommy didn't say anything, but continued to stare at her.

"Hello Iris," Ada said.

"He came to the school, Iris," her mother said, standing up. "He made me take him back here."

Iris looked to Ada, and back to Thomas, then suddenly remembered Willow was there. She stood, the same icy blue stare in her eyes with a slight timidness in the child's wide blue eyes that Iris didn't recognise in the girl.

"He says... he says he's—" her mother began, but Iris cut her off.

"Mama," she snapped. "Take Willow upstairs."

Her mother pursed her lips and sighed, but obliged, taking the girl's hand and heading upstairs in a huff. Iris gulped, reminding herself that Tommy had never replied to her letters, including the one in which she'd told him she was pregnant.

"She isn't yours," she said as soon as she heard a door shut upstairs.

"Really?" Tommy said.

"Yes," Iris snapped back quickly.

"Then why did you tell me you were her nanny?" Ada said, looking a little nervous.

Iris said nothing, her eyes flicking between Ada and Tommy.

"Go and wait in the car, Ada," Tommy said, his eyes remaining on Iris'.

"It's fucking freezing, Tommy," Ada sighed. "Oh for fuck's sake, I knew I shouldn't have let you talk me into this," she said with a sigh, before storming off down the hall.

"Ada," Iris called after her. "The front room's on the left. You can sit in there."

"Thanks," Ada mumbled, leaving down the hall.

Tommy and Iris exchanged a long look, before Iris looked away quickly. "Tea?" She offered, sitting down at the table where her mother had laid the tray down.

"Why not," Tommy said, sitting down across from her.

They sat there in silence for a moment, their eyes locked. There were a million things Iris wanted to say, but she had no idea where to start.

"Why are you here, Tommy?" She asked, her voice softening.

"Ada told me she saw you," he said, his face betraying no emotion. "I wanted to see for myself."

"Well you see me now," Iris said. "Now what?"

Tommy said nothing for a moment, slowly pouring himself a cup of tea.

"I want to know about the child," he said. "And I want to know why you left."

Iris furrowed her brow, scanning his face. "Why now?" She asked. "After all these years?"

"I don't know why you're surprised, Iris," he said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. "You disappeared without a word and now I find out you've had a child this whole time?"

Iris sighed, shutting her eyes for a moment. "Polly didn't give you my letter, did she?"

"Letter?" He said.

"I wrote you a letter before I left," Iris explained, a lump rising in her throat. "I said I had a lot to explain and if you still wanted to know then you should meet me in London. And then I wrote you another one when I found out I was pregnant, but you never replied."

Tommy's face stayed very still for a long moment. "That still doesn't explain why you left."

"I said in the letter," Iris said. "I was in trouble."

"What kind of trouble?" He asked.

"Does it matter now?" She sighed.

"After all these years," Tommy said. "You still don't trust me."

"It isn't going to change anything, Thomas," she sighed, blinking back tears. "The past is the past, we can't go back."

"If you want me to move on, you have to tell me," Thomas said. "It's the only way to put an end to this."

"And then what?" Iris gulped. "What happens after I tell you?"

"Then I figure out what to do," he sighed.

Iris swallowed, trying to force the lump back down her throat. "Fine, I'll tell you," she said.

"From the beginning," Tommy said.

"From the beginning."