rescue me [thomas shelby]

v.

Ada slowly stirs her cup of tea as she vaguely glances around Frances' small apartment. "It's so good to be away from the little bunker Freddie's found us, I think I would've imploded if I stayed there any longer." Frances lets out a little hum to show she's listening.

"You've made this place look nice," Ada says to the other woman, who's making them some pastries on the small worktop of the kitchen area. Frances had asked Agnes to borrow some cooking ingredients, so she could make some snacks at home.

"I tried my best," Frances says, glancing at her friend with a smile. The room does look a lot nicer; the flowers had spruced up the room, and now that she's lived in it for a little over a month it's begun to look a lot more like a home, with her knick-knacks spread across the surfaces neatly.

"Did you buy these flowers?" Ada says, fingering a daisy from the bouquet sitting in front of her. "They're lovely." Tommy and Frances' outing had only been the day before, so the flowers are still lively and pretty scattered around the room.

Frances pauses at her friends' words, debating telling the truth. "Uh, no I didn't buy them."

Ada seems to smile at this, turning more in her chair to face the other woman. She's clearly looking for some gossip and Frances tries not to appear too shaken as she returns to cooking. "Already found yourself a man then, Frances?" She says in a teasing voice.

"Well, I wouldn't say that. He simply took me to get some new flowers," Frances replies.

"Who was it?"

"Uh-" Frances drops the stick of lard she was about to spread across the tray in front of her. As she bends to pick it up, she turns to her friend. "It was, uh, your brother." It comes out as more of a question, and the shocked look that crosses Ada's face tells her all she needs to know. The Shelby girl clearly knows which brother she means.

"You mean – Tommy? Like, Thomas Shelby?"

"Um, yes," Frances licks her lips nervously, holding eye contact with her friend. The town had quickly spread the rumour of Tommy walking down the street with a woman – something he apparently hadn't done since before France, unless it was Ada or another woman from his family.

She wouldn't say that she hated being part of the rumours, but she also didn't enjoy having others discuss her behind her back, even if they didn't know it was her. Most people hadn't intended any harm by the gossiping, even Agnes had mentioned it to her that morning in passing, but still, she wished others didn't find it more interesting.

"You're the woman in the rumours?"

"Yes." Ada raises her mouth to speak at this, but Frances continues before she can say anything. "But there's nothing between us! I swear, it was a one-time thing."

Ada rises to her feet, teacup in hand as she crosses to stand in front of the other woman. Frances feels her gut clench, nervous that she'll be angry at her. "Frances, I'm not judging you. Tommy's a – uh, complicated person, to put it lightly, but he's not a bad one. You'll do him good if it does become something more, okay?"

Frances nods her head shyly. "You should know, though," Ada continues, giving her a warm smile. "If you can't cope with what he does – with who he is and why he does it all, then you should get out now. Don't make him one of your mistakes, okay?"

"I – yeah, I get what you mean," Frances says, and thinks she does, to some extent. What he does isn't good – he's a murderer and a liar – and she should be aware of all of this before making her decision on the man. On the other hand, she doesn't understand at all. Ada and Tommy obviously have a complicated relationship, so she can't help it when she asks, "Are you doing this for me or for him?"