Heaven On Hold | Peaky Blinders

The Birthday Present

"Not really a honorable dead if you ask me. Jesus." We both laughed a bit and drank up the whole bottle of whiskey until we noticed the sun slowly rising and the sky lit up by its bright lights. We had arrived.

"Hey, Tommy! What kind of beautiful lady did you brought with ya?!"

"Rioney, meet your uncle." Thomas whispered.

~~~

"Charlie, how are you doing?"

"Good, I think, but-...." Thomas cut off the man known as Charlie, my uncle, who still looked very confused.

"Meet your niece, Rioney Gray!"

The two men kept screaming at each other to have a conversation from the boat to land and I just sat there wondering how big my family actually was while the boat came closer to the side of the docks in Small Heath. Charlie, my uncle, held out his hand and I wanted to piss of Thomas so I took the hand he offered me. Thomas then looked unbelievable disgusted towards me for taking my uncle's hand, but not his hand when we were back in Camden Town and I just sweetly smiled at him before stepping onto the docks. "So you are me lovely niece, Polly would be happier than a little child buying candy." The man laughed.

"I can believe that me mother would." My eyes met Thomas' eyes and he smiled slightly.

"You must speak to her very soon, it's her birthday after all and meeting ya again is, I think, the best birthday she would ever have."

"It's her birthday?"

"Yes, my plan was to introduce you to all colleagues and family members at work before your mom comes walking in." Thomas confirmed and I froze in place. I guess that was why Thomas wanted to hurry up.

"So, uncle Charlie, you should be there too." I suggested and gazed at him once more.

"I probably will."

He patted me on the shoulder and afterwards pulled me into a hug. I wasn't really used to hugs or any form of affection, but I had to prepare for what was about to come if I wanted to be open to my mother. We said goodbye to my uncle and walked away on the uneven ground made of mud. Everything looked pretty destroyed and abandoned, yet, the streets were full of different kinds of people. Mothers were playing with their children, men with different jobs were in hurry; everything was put together and abandoned in one neighborhood. Yes, I had often been in the poverty streets of London, but it was a while ago when I had seen something like this and it was different from London. Thomas motioned to a well-maintained building and I was pushed inside when I started hesitating to enter the building.

The building was busy and most of the conversations were about horse races and gambling. The people were so caught up them that no one even realized we had stepped foot inside the building. It was a pretty building for the street it was build in and even though they were the Peaky Blinders they looked good for well known gangsters. Without even noticing anything, a tall man, slightly older than Thomas, made its way to us, but before he could speak to us, another man had called for him to sign a contract. I could understand that his name was Arthur and he was probably a Shelby as well.

"Do there work more people than only Shelby's?"

"Yes, a lot of people that work here are close friends, like him over there." Thomas pointed to a middle aged man with a stern, but also friendly face expression.

"His name is Johnny Dogs."

"Old friend of the family?"

"Indeed." The man with the name Arthur had finally signed the paper and shouted through the whole building to get our attention.

"TOMMY, WHO IS THAT FINE LADY!" Arthur shouted and Tommy had let his hands rest in his pockets.

"Oh, I will definitely call ya like that from now on, Tommy." Tommy grabbed his gun, making me very tensed up and ready to attack, though, he hadn't grabbed the pistol to kill anybody, but to just fire it into the ceiling. A waste of your beautiful building.

"Now I have everyone's attention, I can tell you all that this is our lost cousin! Rioney Gray! Daughter of Polly! Don't think you can fuck around with her, she is good at defending herself!"

"Very sweet to say that, but I can do more than just defend myself." I chuckled and winked to Tommy before three men interrupted me, tossing two glasses to Tommy.

"Rioney Gray! What do you drink, sweet niece of ours?"

"Whiskey."

"The heavy stuff?"

"Yes." All three of them raised their eyebrows and crossed their arms.

"I don't think yo-..."

"Fine then I will get it myself, gentlemen." I narrowed my eyes at them before pulling at a drawer that was a bit stuck because of the weight in it. While opening the drawer, a bottle of whiskey was rolling into my sight and I tossed it over to Tommy because he had the glasses after all.

"How did you know it was in that drawer?"

"Secret job, you see." I winked playfully and they all laughed.

"Rioney, meet Arthur, John and Finn." I glanced at Arthur first. He appeared to be older than the rest so he was probably the eldest brother of the Shelby family. Next to him stood John. John looked younger than both Arthur and Tommy which made him the second youngest and beside him stood Finn who was clearly the youngest of the 4 brothers.

"Nice to meet you all." I stated and before I knew it all three enveloped me into a hug while they were screaming enthusiastic.

"OUR LITTLE COUSIN IS BACK EVERYBODY!!!"

"What is going on here? Everybody go back to work!!"

A woman's voice echoed through the room we all were standing in and Tommy pushed his way through the crowd towards the woman that was standing in the doorway. Arthur had in the meantime placed his hands on both my shoulders to hold me in front of him and I tried to stretch my arm out to grab the glass of whiskey Tommy had forgotten to hand over to me. I took a small sip as I saw them talking and I broke out into a sweat when I heard the woman's name. With wide eyes my mother stared at me as Tommy whispered something in her ear and Arthur had let go of me, smiling as he did so.

"Mom? I guess it's been awhile." I waved with my hand low and smiled weakly while I tried to act as normal as possible. I was used to all the attention because of the famous life I lived, but somehow this was totally different and it made me incredibly nervous. Without her saying anything she ran faster than I had ever seen anyone do while approaching me. She nuzzled her face into the crook of my neck while hugging me closely and I could silently hear her cry. However that stopped a short time so she could whisper something for me to hear.

"My little Rioney, Welcome home!"