i found you .. and you found me // Thomas Shelby

62 - snow in california

"Just make it snow in California, I'll even settle for rain ... don't want him to go tomorrow morning, give him something to make him stay," Ariana Grande-Butera

"Have you and Thomas thought about names yet?" Polly pondered as the two women sat in the ladies toilet avoiding Bonnie Gold getting beaten to a pulp. 

"No," Gia shrugged, "I would need to know what I'm having first." 

Just as Polly was about to inform Giorgia of her unborn child, Ada waltzed in having clearly had enough of Bonnie losing. "Pol, this fight is fixed, right? Gipsy boy's getting battered out there." 

"Ada," Polly cursed, "shut up a minute."

Doing as she was told and silencing herself with a cigarette between her lips, perched on the countertop, Ada shut herself up and allowed Polly to work her magic. 

But, then it dawned on Giorgia. Did she want to know what she was having? Or did she want it to be a surprise? Did she want the whole of Birmingham to know about her baby? 

"Wait," Gia announced, startling Polly. "I don't know if I want to know, you know?" 

"Giorgia," Polly scolded, "you're panicking because you already know your reality." 

Taking a shaky breath, Gia looked at Polly. "It's a girl, isn't it?" 

"See," Polly smiled, "not just me who works magic, my girl." 

"Congratulations," Ada hollered from behind the women, engulfing Giorgia. "You and your girls, hm?" 

"Well, Alicia always wanted sisters," Gia smiled.

"Call her Ruby," Polly announced, "Ruby Shelby. She'll have your hair and your eyes, but Tommy's devilment. Be careful with that one." 

"Why thank you, Pol," Giorgia scoffed, "is there anything else about my future you want to inform me of?"

"I could go on for hours," Polly told her, fixing her liptstick. "But I won't ruin it for you. Exciting times ahead for you."

Laughing at Polly, she looped her arm through both of the Shelby women as they proceeded to enter back into the match. "Just tell me, anymore kids?" 

"A boy, few years on," Polly told her, "but you already knew that." 

Leaving it at that, Gia smiled to herself as the women sat back down, but Gia's smile didn't linger for too long once she saw her husband and brother in law get out of their seat and leave. Her eyes watched as the two Shelby brothers left and her stomach danced in nerves as she watched their silhouette disappear. 

As she picked at the skin on her finger, Giorgia fidgeted until she excused herself from the ladies and walked over to the direction that her husband disappeared, but suddenly froze when she heard the gunshot. Running as fast as her seven inch heels could take her, Giorgia was met with Tommy, Finn and Isaiah punching the life out of a man who was slumped on the floor. There was no Arthur. 

"Tom?" 

"Arthur's dead." 

And as if her world hadn't already flipped upside down in recent months, it sure did now. Her stomach bottomed out as those words rang through her ears. First John, now Arthur. She remembered the conversation she had with Finn after John's passing, and how distraught he was; she wasn't willing to have another conversation like that with him again. Ever. 

Giorgia hadn't said anything, and Tommy just stood in front of her until he realised no words would be leaving her lips in that moment. She was frozen, and she was no use to Tommy at that point, so he instead skirted around her and made his way back to the ring where the fight had stopped. With multiple gunshots firing through the air, Giorgia didn't even flinch as she stood in the same position. 

"Close the doors," Tommy ordered, gun in the air. "No one fucking leaves. My brother is dead. Do you hear me? My brother is dead!" 

Giorgia was confused. No, she was upset. But she had questions. She had suspicions. Who had killed him? Who fired the gun? Where was Arthur? 

Fuck, she was overwhelmed. She was scared. She knew this would happen. From the day she received the black hand she knew this would happen. First John, now Arthur. Was Finn next? Or her Charlie? Fuck, she didn't know, but it scared the hell out of her. She had no plan, she was out of options. She was out of her depth, and Giorgia was never out of her depth.

She considered ringing her father. Would he be of any use? Probably not. All the man did was snort cocaine until sunrise and murder people who looked at him the wrong way. Arguably very similar to Arthur, but Arthur was kind. Her father was a man who had no limits, knew no limits. He was slowly becoming a man she didn't recognise, and before she knew it, he would be rotting in a prison cell in downtown Chicago. 

Oh, if only she knew. 

"Giorgia?" Ada called, interrupting Giorgia's thoughts. Turning around to face the Shelby girl that had lost two brothers in the space of a few months, Giorgia truly felt sorry for her. She knew how reliant she was upon her brothers - though she would never admit that - and how much she valued them. All three of them, like her father growing up. Playing more of a fatherly figure than her actual fucking father did. Bastard. 

"Ada-"

"We need your help," she pleaded. "No, I need your help. Please. For me?" 

Ada rarely cried. She rarely showed any form of emotion, too hardwired to the cause of reality like her fucking brother. But, Gia could spot the watery eyes under the lights. She'd lost one brother in the war, one to the Russians, and now she'd lost the two boys she considered more like family than she did to those who were fucking blood kin. 

Taking her trembling hand, the two Shelby women gave a light smile to one another before they walked out into the open of what once was the Boxing match. Tommy was nowhere to be seen, and Gia found Finn at the side of the ring, on his own. 

There was something about Finn that had her heart breaking. Maybe it was the fact he was an innocent kid who had been chucked into the deepest depth of the Shelby life, or maybe it was because she knew he never really had any stability or structure growing up. He was a kind, loving child, and Giorgia would have hated for him to change his ways because of the world that seemed to be falling around his ears. 

Instinctively, she pulled Finn into her embrace and held him as he sobbed. The scenario was all to similar with breaking the news of John's death, and she watched her Finn crumble once more, just as he was starting to build himself back up again. She let him cry for as long as he needed too, pressing numerous kisses to the side of his head. 

In times like these, desperate, pleading, heart-wrenching times, a boy needed his mother. But he never knew her. Never had the luxury of knowing her. So, Giorgia would have to make do. She'd loved him like a son for years, but now she knew she had to step up and become a woman he looked up too like a mother. 

Tommy was past the point of no return, and Gia knew that, especially given the reality of the day that just unfolded. But Finn had a precious, young life, one that needed to be lived in a way he wanted too, and in a way he seemed fit. She would give him that, and she would walk him down any path he wanted too. Because she was a mother, she was a wife. 

But, she was also going to the be the woman to end this fucking shit. Because anyone that hurt her Shelby boys, hurt her; and no one, no one, would try her otherwise.