Gun metal and Daisies (Thomas Shelby)

"You shouldn't be here."

The thing with broken clocks is
You can always tell
exactly
When they stopped ticking.

With people it isn't so easy
And sometimes
You can't even tell
They're broken.

Thomas had been driving for hours. His new car grunted and spluttered in protest as the roads became less like roads and more like a path in a field that didn't do its job right.

It wasn't hard to find them. The moment one of his blinders reported that there was a female baker who handed out sympathies and sweets for low prices- he knew it was her.

The city faded into villages; and the villages faded into lavish mansions; and the lavish mansions faded into expansive fields; and the expansive fields faded into villages and farmers markets- and Thomas had reached his destination.

——

The house stood detached in the middle of a lone field. Thomas saw the ivy that creeped up the side of the wooden gallows; he saw the red door; he looked further and saw a black and brown horse grazing in the fields; and finally, he saw smoke coming from the cobbled chimney.

The house looked like the picture perfect painting of freedom. "She always said she wanted freedom." For a brief moment, Thomas wondered if him turning up here ruined her dream- but he reminded himself that he didn't care. Selfish bastard.

He was broken from his thoughts by the sound of small feet and childish giggles. His head snapped up, only for his eyes to meet possibly the happiest image he'd seen in a year.

Two girls, he recognised them both, but was shocked all the same. Tammy and Leah.

A true sight for sore fucking eyes. They were chasing each other around the house and hiding in bushes and the brush. Leah shouted the loudest. She hadn't changed a bit, only slightly taller now. Her once stringy locks looked fuller and more healthy. A good sign that things were going well.

He then shifted on to Tammy, who was running faster than an engine. Thomas was in awe of how much the girl had grown up. It had only been a year. Fuck. It had been a whole year. Thomas heard himself gasp when Tammy shouted, "can't catch me Lele!"
Her voice was soft and highly pitched with squeals and giggles. She had a ragged teddy bear in one hand while her other waved around wildly.

He flinched from his awe when Tammy fell down. The silence that followed was close to that of the brief moment when you realise you lost your footing on the stairs, but couldn't do anything about it as you were too far in the motion. It was like that with kids. You never knew if they were going to burst into wailing tears or get up and shimmy the dirt off themselves.

Tammy, thankfully, became distracted by something in the distance. That thing though, was Thomas' car.

She ran over and Leah soon after. Thomas quickly vacated the car and leant against the bonnet.

"Hello Mister!" Tammy shouted, "you here to buy sweets? Dotty in the house!" Though her speech was gurgled and clumsy, Thomas was amazed at how well she spoke.

He was going to reply 'no', but was shortly interrupted by a loud gasp and his knees getting attacked, shortly followed by a thudding sound.

Thomas steadied himself on the car bonnet, as the feeling of his shins being clutched didn't let up. "Prince! Tommy! You're here! I've missed you!" Leah tightened her surprisingly hard grip around Thomas's knees. Thomas now noticed the gap in her two front teeth and the slight lisp she had.

"'Ello Leah. 'Ow'er you. I haven't seen you in a while." Thomas leaned down and patted her head, hoping she'd let go of her iron grip.

"I'm good! Tams' good. Tilda's good. Theo's amazing. Miss Darcy is kind. Dotty don't smile as much, but she treats us well good, Tom. Well good."

Thomas was about to ask what she meant, but a coughing sound shook him from his thoughts. Tammy looked ok bewildered by this strange man with a loud clunky machine.

"Ah. Tammy. You're all grown up." He smiled kindly.

"Who are you?"

Thomas chuckled at her bluntness. He could certainly tell that Darcy had rubbed off on the small girl.

Thomas was once again about to answer but was interrupted, again.
"Why're you here?"

Thomas looked up and met eyes with the eldest, Matilda. "Hello Matilda. You've grown up. You must be, what? Twelve now?"

"Thirteen actually- and you shouldn't be here." She raised a brow.

"What's wrong with me being here? Did I do something?" It was a stupid question and he knew it.

"No, Thomas." She snarled his name. "You didn't do anything and that's the problem."

"Well I'm back. I'm here to... make amends." His excuses were pathetic. He had no real reason to be there except selfish desire.

Matilda shook her head, "no. You can't just do that. No amount of guilt can change the past. You weren't there. Right?" She was thirteen and she spoke with the maturity of a woman his age. Kids always grew up too fast. "I get... that you were grieving- I get that we all grieve in different ways. But you can't just walk out like that. You Shelby's are all about family, eh? Well what fucking happened to our family?" Matilda felt like she was near tears and she wasn't finished yet. She had so much she needed to say to this treasonous man.

"Things are better now. She doesn't need you and your violent life fucking everything up again. She's fragile, orright? We all are. But she lost nearly everything. And where were you? I figured your life was bleak and grey, Tom. But the way you acted showed your fucking colours and your selfishness shone through like a bloody yellow sun." She spat and her hands shook. She spent so long thinking of what she was going to say to this man, but now he was here, she couldn't help but forgive him. He was a selfish bastard and she wouldn't accept him back into their lives- but he looked like he practically lost his life in the past year. As if death caught up with him.

Thomas was startled by her words- but he wasn't nearly as startled when a petite figure with a tea towel on their shoulder, stepped out of the cozy home. "Tilda! I need help with the Billion dollar Bubs. I jus-"

Icy blue eyes met stormy grey ones- and suddenly, the world felt like it finally fell apart.

Dorothy opened her mouth, and what came out, Thomas thought, was not too different from the sound of a distant star being born.

——

Oof. These chapters are short and I'm sorry for that! Despite everything going on at the moment, the world still somehow manages to fill my plate full!

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See ya next time!