Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"He's smiling again." Ada announced herself to the room as she walked in to join Polly, Arthur and Finn.
The only noise bouncing off of the walls was that of Karl playing with his younger sibling as well as Charlie and Ruby all at the other side of the room, showing them the train set that he had built.
"Tom doesn't smile." Arthur grumbled, smoking his cigarette. "Don't remember the last time he did."
"Go sit in that dining room with them two and you'll come back with a changed opinion, Arthur."
Meanwhile, Tommy and Lucille were both in the dining room, sitting next to each other at the table and sharing a bottle of gin together.
"So," Lucille mumbled her words and hesitated before she decided just to spit out what was on her mind. "Did you sort everything out yet or do we have to stay here longer?"
Tommy sighed. He had somewhat sorted things out; there were only a few things that he had to do before the family and Lucille was safe again until the next scandal came to light.
"Almost, Scotland." She nodded and continued sipping from her glass of gin. "Why? Is it really so bad living with us?"
"I enjoy your families company. It's just living with you that I hate."
When Tommy turned his head to give her an unimpressed glare, he was met with a smirk and teasing eyes.
He wasn't quite used to this Lucille yet. He was still used to the angry, feisty, smart mouthed Lucille.
She still was that Lucille, just more comfortable around him hence the flirting and the joking she often done with him.
"Alright smart arse." Was his chuckled reply.
"Jesus christ Ada, you're right y'know." Arthur had returned from peeping around the dining room door frame with another cigarette ready to be lit in his hand. "He's really smiling in there."
"She brings out the old Thomas. That girls good for him." Polly was sitting quietly but listening in to the conversation as she over looked the children at the other end of the room before she spoke. "I like her but I don't want her in this family; we're all cursed."
"We're not cursed, Pol." Arthur had tried to shrug it off but he knew deep down that the chances of them being cursed were higher than the clouds that were in the sky.
"Can we go outside to the garden? We're bored in 'ere." Karl had begged his mother until she eventually groaned and agreed.
Baby Shelby-Younger was sat in Ada's lap before the three older kids ran to play outside in the garden with Polly's watchful eye looking over them from the window.
Thomas and Lucille were still in the dining room except now they were two bottles of gin and countless amounts of cigarettes deep.
"Do you want kids one day?" Tommy had decided to ask her when he heard the sound of the Shelby kids screaming and laughing outside.
He felt that he knew Lucille and trusted her enough to be able to ask her more intimate things that he wanted to know about her.
Luckily she felt the same and was comfortable enough with him to answer them.
"I'd love to have my own kids, yeah. I just want to have them with the right person. I don't want to fuck my own family up; especially because of how my own family has turned out, y'know?" Tommy nodded. " What about you? Would you like to have any more?"
The thought of having anymore kids scared Thomas to death. He didn't want to bring another life into this world when he was still involved in so much bad business. Protecting Charlie and Ruby was stressful and terrifying enough and he knew it wouldn't be safe nor fair to bring another child into his world; not unless he were done entirely with that side of business.
"No." For some reason, his blunt reply made her heart sink to the pit of her stomach and she muttered a quiet 'oh'. "What?"
Tommy watched her with an intense stare, looking her up and down and then focusing on her facial features to see if he could work out what was wrong and why she was suddenly so quiet.
She just shrugged her shoulders and smiled at him.
"Nothing."
"Are you pregnant or something?"
"Do I fucking look pregnant, Thomas?" He opened his mouth to answer but she very quickly and abruptly cut him off. "Do not fucking answer that."
"Scotland,"
She cut him off again.
"I'm going to bed. Good night."
She wasn't going to bed; that was a little white lie to get Tommy to leave her alone. She was actually headed outside to play with the kids for she knew that she could clear her mind or at least preoccupy it for a while.
Lucille was beyond pissed off with Thomas. She couldn't believe he had the audacity to ask her that. You never ask a woman if she is pregnant; it's just plain rude.
So, Tommy was stood at the window, looking out and watching Lucille run around the garden with his nephew and his kids with a adoring smile on his face.
'Well done, Tommy. You pissed her off.' Grace was here.
Thomas turned his head to see his wife leaning against the other side of the window, arms crossed over her chest and an annoyed expression painted on her yet she still looked as graceful as ever.
"I didn't mean to, Grace." He sighed, lighting a cigarette and taking a long drag. "Forgot me manners for a second."
'You got divorced.' Thomas just nodded his head. 'Why?'
"I can't deal with her anymore. She doesn't even care about the kids, Grace. Luce cares more about them kids than Lizzie does."
As he spoke his free hand was angrily flailing around and pointing outside at Lucille and the kids whilst his other hand held the lit cigarette.
'Luce? Do you like her, Tommy?' She knew he did.
Grace was always with him and always watching, even when she didn't appear to him physically. She felt what he felt and she knew for a fact that her husband did indeed like the Blonde Scot that he had befriended.
"Yeah."
It was finally out.
Now that he had admitted to his feelings he felt a wave of relief wash over him and he sighed happily, shoulders sinking as he relaxed them now that the metaphorical weight was lifted from them.
'Then make it work.'
"How?"
"How what?" Polly was the voice who replied to him and when he looked to where Grace was once stood; she was gone again.
