ACT: TWO
CHAPTER xx: ' the nosey cat! '

           Grace was singing when Tommy walked through the door and locked himself in the snug, and she was still singing when Eli entered the bar and joined him. Much to the disappointment of the drunken men, the Galway woman finished her round of songs early to go behind the bar and help Harry serve the few remaining customers — while keeping an ear out for whatever was being discussed in the Shelby snug.

Eli wore an expression he'd never seen on her before when Tommy looked up from his metal case of cigarettes to see who was brave enough to interrupt him. She was white as a sheet, fear and panic hanging onto the delicate curves of her face. Her hands trembled by her sides, desperate in need of a beloved cigarette.

"What's wrong?" Was the first thing he asked, the thoughts of his own troubles and anxieties quickly quieting down so he could replace them with hers.

She inhaled shakily, the heavy static of her mind increasing the difficulty of choosing which thoughts had priority over the others. But it was a mess and before she knew it they were all spilling out at once, "I couldn't find Polly and my da's God knows where and the only friends he has still in the city are practically useless, especially given the circumstances-"

"What circumstances?" He interrupted in confusion.

Her eyes met his again having previously wandered away during her rant, and a new urgency ignited in the bright foaming seas of her irises. But she had no intentions of answering his question, instead proposing a couple of her own; "Tommy, what did Malacki Byrne say to you? What did he want?"

It was his turn to look away. His gaze dropped to the glass of whiskey on the table in front of him and he reached forward to empty it's entire contents between his lips. When he'd swallowed the strong liquor, his eyes returned to hers with a hallowed look in them. "He wanted the guns like you said."

The confirmation did not undo the knot in her stomach. No, it only twisted tighter and tighter the longer she waited for Tommy to elaborate. Although, it became apparent he was ignoring her expectant look in favour of the cigarette in his hand. "What did he say, Tommy? Word for word, what did he say?"

In that moment, Tommy came to the random realisation that this was probably the most serious conversation they'd ever had. The others were an odd conjunction of flirting, teasing and playfulness. Of course, the last conversation they had with one another was also serious, but it didn't compare to the sincerity of this one.

This time was different. This time Eli was frantic, having remained cool and collected in their previous ones. This time Tommy didn't want the chit-chat to never end.

"I'm risking everything," she stressed, almost pleading with him to answer her, "by even being in the same room as you. But it looks like you're my last resort. Tell me everything he fucking said."

He shook his head lightly, avoiding her wide stare and puffing on his cigarette nonchalantly. "It doesn't matter what he said."

She rolled her eyes at him, a bitter scoff leaving her pretty pink painted lips at how useless this visit was turning out to be if he kept giving her incompetent responses. "The little exchange we had yesterday says otherwise, sweetheart."

Tommy blinked and looked back up at her, a dead look in his eyes and a dry smile crawling onto his face. "Whatever he said to you doesn't matter anymore."

"What do you mean it doesn't matter what he said. Of course, it does." The last sentence had barely left her lips when she paused in perplexity, her face flattening and her eyes flashing to accusatory. "Did you kill him?"

He didn't answer. He didn't need to. The look on his face said it all.

"Fuck's sake, Tommy." Eli cursed, bring a hand up to her face. She was starting to think stress was making a habit of making a daily appearance in her life, even more so with the absence of her father. "You just killed a fuckin' IRA brigade commander."

"I know who he was."

"And you killed him anyway?" She retorted, shooting him a look that had him second-guessing if he were deliriously insane or not.

"What did he want with you?" Tommy changed the subject. Her cold laugh that followed had him frowning; he didn't quite like people standing over him asking questions and then laughing at a serious question. "Did I say something funny?"

"Yes." Eli threw back with the ghost of a smirk at how Tommy arched his eyebrow in an unamused manner. "He thought we were too close for comfort and threatened me to spy on you."

"And what did you tell him?"

He cursed himself after the words left his mouth; he remembered back when Polly and him found Eli sitting on the floor of her shop after her run in with Inspector Campbell; he remembered how Polly had asked her the same question then and had somehow dodged any accusatory tone from attaching itself to her words... Tommy hadn't been so fortunate.

"I told him to shove his offer and then he proceeded to call me a traitor. It was great craic so it was." Eli's exaggerated smile and cheery tone had him having to lick his lips to hide the subconscious smile threatening to break free.

"Well," he lifted his glass in celebration even if it was empty, "it's a good thing he's dead then, and can't deliver on any threat he made to you or me."

Eli wore an unreadable expression as she stared down at him with part lips. Perhaps, she was stunned by his level of disrespect for the recently deceased. Perhaps, she was amused by his indifferent behaviour, looking as if it didn't mean anything to him that he'd just bashed the guy's head in until it was scarcely recognisable just the night before in the very same bar they were in now. Perhaps, she didn't know how to feel. But Tommy would never know for sure.

"You're the devil, Tommy Shelby."

He pursed his lips in silent debate, titling his head up to her in brief agreement as a cocky smirk danced it's way across his mouth. "But twice as pretty, or so I'm told."

A small smile danced onto her features and it only grew the more she tried to smother it. Tommy found a small victory in knowing he had been the one to provoke such an aesthetically pleasing reaction from the woman. "Tell Polly to come see me."

"Won't you stay for a drink?" He asked out of habit, a reflex thought as she turned for the door leading back to the rest of the pub.

She twisted the handle but held it closed as she glanced back at him with a smirk. "Nah, I've got kids to get home to, Mister Shelby. I can't keep you busy every night. You'll have to up your price, it takes more than a bottle of whiskey to buy my company."

"Are you saying your company is for sale?" He inquired, a bewildered but amused look lacing his eyes.

"Oh, love," his breath all but left him at the sight of the devious glint in her orbs, "I'm the dearest item on display."

She was wrong. Her smirk was sinister, teasing him and luring him into the depths of Hell itself. Binding his soul to her and tossing away the pen he'd used to sign his name on the contract. Her angelic face with a deceitful tongue. He wasn't the devil, she was and he would gladly damn himself to spend the rest of eternity with her.

Eli left without waiting for him to reply, not that he had one in mind. Even with her departure, she consumed his thoughts and he let her until he'd finished his cigarette and left the sanctuary of the snug to see all the other customers had left.

"I see the way you look at her." Grace's voice called out suddenly through the silence of the pub, all but empty if it weren't for the two of them.

"And how do I look at her?" Tommy retorted curiously, keeping his face impartial as he walked towards her and took a seat at the bar. He pulled out his cigarettes and stuck another between his lips while he patted his jacket down for his matchsticks. "One dry whiskey for the road."

With her hands fetched the bottle, Grace swallowed and forced her head high as she answered, "Like you love her."

Tommy paused in his efforts to blow out his matchstick. Love was certainly a foreign concept to him. He'd never really given too much thought to the way he felt about Eli, never questioned the meaning of how she had the power the drown all his other thoughts with a simple smile. Every time he did, it conjured up an image of Polly poisoning his morning tea and leaving his body out to rot in the cut. He didn't see a possibility of Eli finding love with anyone his aunt didn't approve of and only a fool would think she'd approve of him. "And what if I said I don't know how to love?"

"Love always finds a way, Thomas." Grace handed him his drink, watching him like a hawk for some sort of emotion to leak out of his ice cold fortress. "Doesn't matter if you don't know how to because you already do."

He cocked his head up at her almost mockingly, cigarette smoke clouding the space between them. "Are you jealous then?"

She had the decency to look shy at his abrupt question. "No."

"No?"

"That's what I said." She said sternly even if they both knew she was lying. She fought to change the subject away from herself before he could comment on her lie, "She looks at you the same. Like she loves you too."

"Eli's a difficult person to read," he brushed it off, smiling bitterly at the thought she felt the same way about him as he did her. "I'd be surprised if you found out something before she wanted you to know it."

"Is she apart of your business dealings?" Grace asked boldly, cleaning the glasses to look busy.

Tommy shook his head, letting the alcohol wash down his waiting throat when he parted his lips. "No."

"Who is she to you then, if not a potential lover?"

She suddenly realised she'd gone too far when he looked at her, really looked at her as if he was questioning why he was even speaking with her in the first place. It was a look she was positive would have anyone thinking twice about their safety in the company of a man so terrifying. "You ask a lot of questions."

"I've been told I have a curious soul."

His eyes narrowed, observing her closer than before. "Didn't curiosity kill the cat?"

"But satisfaction brought it back." She retorted.

Tommy brought his cigarette back to his lips with his usual empty expression hiding all his thoughts and secrets away from the pair of eyes keen to unravel them. "Then it will die again and again until it learns not to poke it's nose where it doesn't belong."

Her face dropped, chest rising and falling quickly at the prominent worry she'd blown her cover and was facing the dire consequences of volunteering for such a dangerous occupation. "Is that a threat, Mr. Shelby?"

"Just stating a fact, Grace." He finished his drink in one and turned to leave.

author's note.
ughh this was so shit I'm actually so sorry...
I wrote the the last scene between grace and tommy before I even wrote the first chapter of this story lol it's been sitting in my drafts until i found a place to put it and I think it fits just perfectly here at the end of part ii!

oh and "craic" for those that might not known means banter, for instance Eli said it was good craic, which it means that was good fun (except she said it sarcastically so that was probably a bad example lol)