𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐊𝐄𝐘 & 𝐒𝐌𝐎𝐊𝐄 𝐈𝐈 | 𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐘 𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐒

Standoff

A week passed, and Cliona had told Thomas Shelby nothing about what Polly Gray had spoke of. At first she thought, perhaps maybe the woman was wrong, but Polly was never wrong, and a trip to the doctors confirmed that. Cliona Burgess was 31 years old, and when it came down to it, wanted a child more than anything, but she never imagined it to be like this. But, that was the last of her worries, on that drizzly Friday morning in Birmingham. The sky darkened, as if the devil himself was watching from above, as the girl ran down the cobbled street, the noise of her hard leather boots, echoing off the walls of the tenement houses. A burnt orange cloth was tied in her natural curly hair, it now bouncing at the movement of the woman. Upon arriving in a square of houses, her skinny hand rose to her head tugging the cloth from her head, violently waving it in the air, her breath about to giveaway. Movement from above, caught her eye, and she took off again up the stairs, two at a time, plummeting across the balcony of a row of houses before rushing through one of the open blue doors, someone closing and locking the door in her wake. Her breath heaved out, the woman's hands going to her knees as she bent over, then back up to meet the gaze of Thomas Shelby. A small cut on the side of her forehead, trickled a dark red downwards, before his gloved hand gently wiped it away. 

"He's coming, Tommy just like Polly said" She spoke quietly, remembering 30 minutes previous, when she was walking down the canal path to collect more ammo only to meet eyes with Luca himself. He quickly took her hand moving her away from the window, closing the blinds with his other hand cautiously. She pulled out a box of ammunition and her silver pistol placing them upon the table beside a variety of other weapons. 

"I should be doing this alone" He coughed loading his shotgun, clicking it strapping it over his shoulder. Cliona let out a small laugh, mainly because of her tense stomach, shaking her head. 

"You do that too much...Tommy I need to tell you something..in case anything happens" Her face fell as his eyes remained on her. 

"We Shelby's don't think like that" But Cliona wasn't a Shelby, she was a Burgess, and she did think about death as a possibility. Fear was her will power, but when too much tension came her way, it became unbalanced, and it wasn't enough anymore. 

"But just in case-" She went to talk again but he turned on her sharply, and instead of yelling, he hissed into her ear which if it had been anyone else, probably would give a startle. 

"There is no fucking what if" Cliona's eyes darkened her fists clenching continuously 

"Tommy I'm pregnant" Cliona fired quickly with her own acid tongue looking up at him her heart beat speeding up even more, if it were possible. The man closed his eyes for a second, then opened them. 

"You've given me another motive to kill that man, Cliona. No other child of mine, is to live in a world where Luca Changretta walks" His voice was grave, but his icy eyes comforted just a little, and then a gun from outside clicked.

Burgundy material danced in the wind, one brunette woman running down the flimsy wooden hallway of the tenement houses. 

"Everyone inside. Now!" She yelled pushing past curious inhabitants, that had heard the ruckus. "By order of the Peaky Blinders!" As if on cue, gun shots fired, from above making the woman look upwards briefly, then head to the stairs. Upon reaching the badly built set of thin steps, her eyes met an unfamiliar man, that held a gun, much bigger than the silver pistol in her hand. But big gun or not, the woman was faster. The man was dead, before his finger tugged on the trigger, and the woman stepped over him, unfazed at that moment. Cliona plummeted across the balcony, going under white sheets of washing, making things drop from the line as she went. She'd only pulled a bedsheet over her when her eyes met with Thomas Shelby who held a machine gun, ready to fire, which he immediately lowered. 

"How many?" He lifted his head up, his cap not covering his eyes no more. 

"One" He nodded upon her words, his eyes behind her ready to shoot if he even seen the man or his men. 

"That makes three" They'd killed three of Changretta's men, which was better than nothing, the woman supposed. 

"I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees, Thomas Shelby" His eyes fell to hers 

"You and me both, eh? You and me both." They had little more to speak, however, as a bullet spiraled through the sheet, flying past them, and then several more were let off. Thomas cocked the gun, firing back, in response.

The man and woman headed onto the street not even 10 minutes later, Cliona leading him behind a stack of wooden boxes, deaths door in pursuit. 

"Hey, I know you own the cops in this dirty fucking town, but you'll be dead before they get here!" Luca yelled in his thick accent, letting off a round that obliterated another identical set of boxes parallel to them. 

"Come on. Me and you, Tommy, come on! Leave your bitch out of it." He let out another yell. Thomas rose from behind the box walking forward his shotgun ready in his hands. He stood opposite the man, he wanted dead, more than most things in the world. Before any of the two men could take the first shots, footsteps bounced off the street. The police, it so happened, had turned up after all, fully armed. Cliona was pulled from her feet, her hands rising as she struggled against the policeman's grip. 

"You hold me one second longer, and that's a violation of a woman's body.!" She milked her way into the man letting her go. She watched as Luca Changretta disappeared into the distance, her fist clenching for the man that got away. He was not to die today, but the day was coming close. Very close.