Nurse Smith (A Tommy Shelby Fan Fic) (On Hold)

Chapter 8

Tommy stayed true to his word and at around 9 o'clock in the evening, little Finn came knocking at Emily's front door. "Bring your picture of the king." Was all he said as he waited patiently for Emily to grab the picture. When she finally came back to the door Finn held out his hand for her to pass the picture too him which she did and followed him to where she assumed Tommy was.

Turning down the lane she was met with a crowd of people swarming around what seemed to be a bonfire in the middle of Watery Lane. "What's going on Finn?" Emily asked confused as to why there was a bonfire in the first place.

"We're having a fire." Was all little Finn said, reminding her of Tommy in a way.

"I see Finn got you in time then Em." John shouted as he came to bounding over to walk beside his little brother and friend towards the bonfire, he too was carrying pictures of the king.

"What the bloody hells going on John?" Emily asked to again only receive the same blunt answer.

"We're having a fire." John smirked her way before turning to nod at Tommy who was standing at the front of the chaos. "Tommy's waiting for ya." John smirked slyly and winked her way before going to stand the other side of Tommy along with Finn.

"Tommy." Emily stated as she came to stand beside Tommy not turning away from the fire as she did so.

"Glad you could make it." Tommy replied as he took a sly glance at the blonde beauty standing next to him. "How's your face?" Tommy asked quietly as he lifted his cigarette towards his mouth needing the nicotine kick.

"I've had worse." Emily replied vaguely causing a small spark of concern to erupt from within Tommy. Emily hadn't opened up much about what had happened to her during the war and it was clear that it was still taking its toll on her. "Wanna tell me why you've decided to start burning pictures of the king?" Emily asked as she tried to figure out what was going on behind those icy blues that had managed to ground her.

Tommy only smirked her way much like John had before turning back to the fire. "Chuck them on boys." Tommy said to everyone surrounding him causing more pictures of the king to be thrown onto the fire as the crowd erupted in to loud cheers.

"I hope to God you know what you're doing." Arthur muttered from beside Emily to Tommy as he opened a bottle with his mouth and spat the cork into the flames.

As Emily stood there gazing into the flames her mind couldn't help but drift back to the war. The smell of smoke that would starve your lungs of crucial oxygen. The burns on soldiers from the flames that were left behind from the bombs that fell from the sky. The screams of agony that never seemed to quiet down in the medical tent. Each thing pilling up on top of each other until you were left with no room to move. That exact weight weighed heavily on Emily's shoulders as she stood beside the Shelby brothers trying to hold her composure. The last thing anyone needed right now was the local nurse making a scene. The only person who seemed to notice her internal struggle was surprisingly Arthur. He slowly put his arm around Emily's shoulders and brought her into his side in a brotherly manner. Ever since meeting the young nurse he welcomed her into the family with open arms and treated her like a sister. Arthur passed Emily his bottle of whiskey allowing her to take a few sips before passing it back to him. The gesture was greatly appreciated from the war stricken nurse as she knew that she wasn't going through this alone. Much like Arthur, Emily shut people out and kept up an appearance that everything was fine. But in reality, it was far from that.

"Come on folks, give us a bit of room." Fred, one of Tommy's trusted men, said as he made his way towards Tommy with a posh looking man following behind. "Tommy." He said catching the attention of the leader of the gang causing Tommy to turn away from the fire and face Fred, but not before he caught a glimpse of a saddened Emily tucked under the arm of his older brother as she stared solemnly into the flames. Arthur saw the look his brother gave him and shook his head, silently telling him to deal with the business first.