One week had passed since Blair told Thomas she would give their relationship another shot, promising that she'd return to the place she once called home, and resumed the role as a mother to Charles that really, in her heart, she never stepped down from.

Blair visited her sister that week, taking advantage of the half-term holidays at school which meant she had a week away from work. She told Kiera everything, trying her best to articulate exactly how she'd been feeling over the past five years.

Of course, Kiera was nothing but supportive. The younger O'Hara sister had always known deep down that Blair and Thomas were meant to be together, having faith in the back of her mind that no matter what pulled them apart, their space would ultimately never last.

Kiera had watched her sister fall in love before her very eyes. Blair had never been interested in boys, at least that's the way she acted when they were younger, but Kiera saw the way her sister fell speechless at the sight of a boyish Tommy Shelby, knowing that he had been the one to change her view on men, and he would always simply be the one.

Kiera travelled back to Blair's home with her and helped her pack up half of her belongings, deciding that half was enough for the time being. She would still own the house, just incase, but as Blair packed her clothes into suitcases and photo frames into boxes, she couldn't help but feel like that time, the next place she lived in would be the place she'd die in, too.

Blair and Thomas hadn't seen each other all week, but after five years of waiting, Tommy didn't mind seven days more. The days seemed to drag like weights around his ankles and the nights were sleeplessly long and drawn out, but eventually, the day he'd been waiting for arrived.

It was a mild Saturday morning when Tommy finally saw the hands on the clock reach seven. He'd barely slept, again, but had waited for a glimmer of the sun beginning to rise over the horizon before he allowed himself to start the day.

He hadn't told Charlie that Blair was coming home, knowing it was something she needed to talk to him about herself.

Tommy couldn't remember the last time he felt such eager anticipation in his stomach and chest, perhaps only in the face of death, though even then he managed to find an oddly calm amount of peace from deep in his bones.

That morning was different. There was nothing peaceful about him, nothing calm, nothing placid. Thomas knew that this was the first day of what he hoped would be the rest of his life, knowing that he couldn't put a foot wrong from that day forward, sure now that there would be no more chances after this one.

He showered and dressed in black trousers and a white shirt, fixing a patterned tie around his neck before adding a waistcoat and pocket watch, sliding a ring onto his little finger. His hair was slicked back that day, though a nervous sweat made a dainty handful of strands fall across his forehead no matter how many times he fixed them.

After drinking a cup of tea and reading a few pages of that morning's newspaper that was thrown on the doorstep, Tommy spent an hour tending to the horses in the stables before he finally heard Charlie's voice through the open kitchen window.

He headed back inside to find his son making himself breakfast, smiling as he recalled a time he wasn't even tall enough to reach the countertop.

"Morning, Charlie. Sleep well?"

"Yeah," he nodded, "Want some toast?"

Tommy just shook his head, "Already eaten, thanks son."

He hadn't eaten, but his stomach was twisting and turning so much that he was sure he'd throw up if he had even so much as a bite of food.

They sat together at the table while Tommy drank another cup of tea, listening to Charlie's mindless rambling about a dream he'd had the night before. He tried his best to listen and pay attention but his mind was elsewhere, his eyes watching the seconds on the clock tick by, wondering when he'd hear the knock on the door he was longing for.

"I'm going to see the horses, will you play football with me afterwards?" Charlie said, cleaning his plate and taking a gulp of water.

"Of course, the paper says it's going to rain this afternoon, though, so before then."

Charlie just nodded and disappeared outside, leaving Tommy alone with his thoughts. He finished his tea and cleaned the kitchen before retreating to his office, desperate to find something to distract himself from watching time pass on the clock.

Luckily, work was something that Tommy was never short of and so he found himself with his head buried in stacks of paper and books, his mind filled with numbers and figures instead of stress and anticipation.

He hadn't even noticed that two hours had passed, finding himself lost inside his own head and numb to the rest of the world when Charlie barged into his office, mud on his knees and his cheeks red from Autumn chill.

"Dad," he said, hanging back by the door, "Blair is here."

Thomas froze, swallowing once as he slowly began to hear the sounds of birds outside and wind blowing through the trees.

"She's waiting." Charlie rolled his eyes.

With a nod, Thomas cleared his throat and stood up, pushing back the loose strands of hair and smoothing out his waistcoat, inhaling deeply as he watched Charlie scurry out of the room, hearing his small voice conversing with Blair in the hallway.

His shoes echoed against the floor as he joined them, finding himself having to bite down on the insides of his cheeks to contain an impulsive smile that his soul yearned for at the sight of Blair back where she belonged.

She was stood by the door in a black fur coat and high heels, her blonde hair curled down her back and red staining her lips, her eyes sparkling as she looked away from Charlie and over to him. He noticed the way her lips parted ever so slightly as she quietly gasped, she too reserving a smile that the soul willed her to express, though one that would be saved for later.

"How come you're here, Miss O'Hara?" Charlie said, tilting his head as he looked up at her.

Blair found it hard to look away from Thomas, but she returned her gaze to Charlie with soft eyes, feeling her heart race as she set down her handbag on the sideboard in the hallway.

"I, I wondered if I could talk to you about something, actually, Charlie?"

His face fell into a terrified expression and his eyes widened, a panicked stare that flickered between Blair and Tommy.

"Am I in trouble? Is it because I pushed that boy at school the other week? I only did it because he pushed me first and-"

"You're not in trouble, son, it's alright." Thomas interjected, nodding once to calm his child's nervous energy.

"Th-then what is it?" He replied, furrowing his brows as he fiddled with the buttons on his coat.

Blair could feel Tommy's eyes fixed on her, burning into her skin, but she stayed looking at Charlie. She smiled gently and drew in a long breath.

"Why don't we take a walk outside? While the weather is still dry."

Charlie nodded and fastened up his coat, heading towards the front door and holding it open for Blair. She paused for a moment, looking back over her shoulder at Thomas who stood in the hallway with his hands in his pockets, a small smirk playing on his lips that made her heart race.

Neither of them said anything, but as Blair walked out of the front door with Charlie, she was glad that she'd be able to walk back through it later on.

Side by side, Blair and Charlie walked along the gravel pathway that ran across the perimeter of the grounds of the home. It was silent at first, a gentle breeze blowing in the air tickled their skin and cold bit at their cheeks, their hands both tucked away in pockets.

"Are you sure I'm not in trouble?" Charlie finally spoke up.

They reached the horse stables around the back of the house, a short distance away from the patio they once sat out at on hot summer nights, remembering sharing ice creams and playing games together.

Blair sighed. She'd been driving herself insane wondering how on Earth she could possibly tell Charlie what she and his father had decided to do. It was all well and good for the two of them to make a decision, but ultimately, Blair knew she had to make it right to Charlie, if he wanted her to, that was.

Although he'd grown and almost reached her shoulders by that time, Blair still crouched down to speak to him, taking his small hands inside her own and rubbing her thumbs across the back of his palms, his pale skin just as soft as it always had been.

"Charlie," she said with a shaky breath, looking up from the ground into his blue eyes, "I am, I always have been, deeply in love with your father. I've loved him from the minute I saw him, and I know now that I can't live without him, and that I don't want to live without him. I love him with my entire being, and I wanted to tell you that we, we're going to be together again. For good, this time."

Charlie's gaze softened as he listened to Blair's words, her hands warming his own on the outside and the inside, feeling safe whenever she had a caring hand on him, like she would protect him from whatever the world threw at them.

"You're coming back?" He asked, a blank expression on his face that was hauntingly identical to his fathers.

She swallowed, nodding, "Yes, darling. But there's something I have to ask you first."

"Well, what is it?"

Blair felt her chest tighten as she looked up at the boy. She had loved him since the minute she saw him, just like she had with Tommy. It was an experience she never thought she'd have, knowing unconditional love without even having to try.

She remembered helping him learn to tie his shoe laces and count to thirty, recite the alphabet and learn to read. Blair cleaned his knees when he'd fallen over and grazed them, wiped his tears and cradled him back to sleep when he'd woken up from a bad dream. She had been a mother to him, and could never forgive herself for abandoning that, but hoped that Charlie could find the redemption that she couldn't.

"I have always loved you, Charlie. I've always felt like I was your mother in my heart, and I can never apologise enough for walking away from that when I didn't know how lucky I was to even have the opportunity. I, I wanted to ask you if you'd be OK with giving me a chance at being your mother again? Please?"

Charlie said nothing for a moment. His face was still emotionless and his hands were limp inside her own. Blair felt her entire body freeze as she the silence continued for what felt like forever, watching her words register behind the boy's icy eyes.

With a gentle squeeze of her hands, it was a split second later that Charlie flung himself into Blair's arms, saying nothing yet almost deafening her with wailing cries that soaked through the collar of her coat down to her skin, drawing water from her own eyes as her heart poured five years plus an eternity of love through her body.

Thomas watched from the window, far away enough that neither of them noticed he was there. He'd held his breath the entire time, watching Blair crouch before their son and hold his hands. He never really had any doubt that Charlie would take his mother back into his life with open arms, but the pause before he embraced her felt agonisingly long, long enough to send signals of doubt to the pain receptors in his body, making him shiver at the thought of everything he thought was there for the taking being snatched away from him right in front of his eyes.

However, it worked out just the way he'd wanted it to, just the way it was supposed to.

Charlie sprinted back towards the house with teary eyes and a smile on his face, pushing open the back door and throwing himself into his father's arms with more hysterical sobs.

Thomas cradled his son as he cried, Blair appearing in the doorway just a few moments later.

"We got what we wanted, Dad." Charlie said, holding his father's face in his hands with a quivering bottom lip and bright eyes.

Tommy held back his own tears, placing his son down on the edge of the kitchen table with a kiss on the forehead before finally walking over to Blair.

He didn't hesitate to kiss her, one hand on her waist and the other on the side of her face, allowing himself to shed just a handful of tears as he felt her hands grace his skin again, instantly settling the raging nerves that had been eating away at his soul for the past seven days and nights.

He had always been bound to her. He felt it from the first time he looked at her and the first time their hands touched, the first time he kissed her and the first time she spoke his name out loud. Regardless of where they'd both strayed, they had always come back to each other.

"I love you, Blair." Tommy whispered, unable to stop himself from peppering kisses on her lips every couple of seconds, though wanting to stay looking into her eyes forever.

Blair broke into a smile, her own tears mixed with Thomas' on her cheeks as she clung to him, "And I love you, Tom."

"What about me?"

The two of them turned around, Tommy's arm still holding Blair close to him by the waist, her hand resting against his chest as they both looked across the room at their son.

Tommy cocked his head to the side and Charlie walked towards them, the two adults crouching down in front of him again, each of them taking one of his hands into their own.

"This, right here," Thomas said, licking his lips once as he looked at both of them, "Is everything I will ever need in my life. I won't ever let you down, either of you, and I won't ever let you go."

Charlie hugged both of his parents, their arms squeezing him tightly as they finally came together the way they were supposed to, as a family.

Blair brushed Charlie's dark hair from his face, pressing a kiss to his cheek softly as she blinked back more tears, never knowing it was possible for her heart to feel as full as it did in that moment.

Thomas held Blair still by her waist, his other hand on Charlie's shoulder as the boy looked down at them, smiling wildly at the sight of his wildest dreams for the past five years becoming, finally, a reality once more.

"We can have that paradise again," Thomas said softly, his voice unstable as he felt every piece of his broken heart fix back together inside his chest, slowly beating again now he had his soul's purpose in his hands, "We can have another paradise."

-THE END-

an;; ahhh I'm so sorry this was SO out of the blue but I felt like this was a natural point for this story to end!! I want to say a huge thank you to everybody that's read this book and shared your love in the comments, I appreciate all the support massively and I'm so so grateful honestly. I really hope you enjoyed this story, I absolutely loved writing it and I hope you loved it as much as I do.

If you have any suggestions or requests for future books from me, feel free to leave a comment!! I'm open to writing things outside of Peaky Blinders if you fancy reading something different, just let me know, I'd love to know what you guys like to read!

Again thank you so so so much, I can't say it enough!!

-champagnepoetry-