chapter ten.

               FELICITY WOODS DESPISED BEING left in the dark, but as of right now, there was little she could do to prevent such a thing from occurring.

With a man such as Thomas Shelby in your life, you had little say in whether or not the secrets of his business were or were not told to you - even if the secrets themselves involved your direct family. He was stubbornly refusing to reveal anything to the blonde, and from the way that she hardly saw him nowadays, Felicity was beginning to assume that he was avoiding her in order to escape from the consistent demand that he should spill whatever he was holding back from her.

And after seven long days of pestering the gangster for even the smallest hint as to what he was up to, Felicity had finally given up. She now simply assumed that if he had any future plans on alerting her to the oh-so-fool-proof plan of his, he would do so whenever he was ready.

Considering exactly who she was talking about, though, Felicity did not have very high hopes of that happening any time soon.

The girl found herself simply sighing and bringing her arms to her head, so to pull her long blonde locks up and out of her face, so that it hung in a limp ponytail.

"I'm going out," Felicity declared as she shrugged her arms through the sleeves of her jacket. Not a soul replied and so she merely pursed her lips together in a pleased, slight smile with the thought of escaping from the stifling home.

She was bored: that was the simplest way to put it.

The girl made her way towards the pub with a gentle hum on her lips and for once, her mind was as clear as a summer night sky. She didn't have any wishes other than getting back to the Garrison and simply sinking back into the life that she had been forced to discard for the past week, on Thomas' wishes that she simply stayed out of harm's way for even a short amount of time. Not wanting to argue with the man, she had quietly agreed and thus spent most of her days alongside the eleven-year-old Finn, of whom she had grown to adore. He was quietly shy at first and yet as the girl spent more and more time alongside him - whether or not it was to avoid Thomas, she wouldn't admit - Finn grew closer to Felicity. She kept him amused whilst the rest of the family were dead set on arguing over whatever they saw fit. Despite growing closer to the Shelby siblings and their aunt, Felicity was still quietly apprehensive of whenever any of them were in a bad mood.

Harry glanced up from the bar with a glimmer of a welcoming smile spreading across his lips as Felicity walked into the Garrison. He finished pouring the pint and pushed it in the direction of the man who awaited it - he only took it with a mumbled thanks and staggered off towards a table further towards the back.

"'Afternoon," Felicity greeted the barman as she made her way behind the bar, pushing away idle attempts to grope at her and shooting the men a disbelieving frown as she did so.

Her gaze fell on the men that had taken up stools or chairs around the pub, with their drinks in hand and lazy conversations passing their lips as they drained their glasses with the hopes of draining their lives of their problems at the same time.

The door swung open and in walked Ada, with a tight expression on her lips as she snaked her way to the bar. She was bundled up in a coat and as her dress curved with more than just a hint of maternity, Felicity wondered why on earth she could be arsed to jostle through the crowded building when she could just as easily be at home, as it was clear it would not be long before she was due into labour.

"Ada?" She gasped, glancing at the girl's face with concern.

"Felicity!" She breathed a sigh of relief as she caught sight of the blonde, "Oh God, am I glad you're here."

At this, the blonde's breath hitched in her throat, wondering if anything had happened for her to say such a thing, but she only gave her friend a reassuring smile and led her towards the private booth, in the hope that no one would enter and she would have enough time to see whether or not the paling girl was more okay than she was coming across to be.

Ada sat down with a heavy sigh at one end and Felicity followed, crossing her legs and wriggling into a more comfortable position, so that they were pulled up against her chest.

"Is everything alright?" Felicity asked gently, after a moment or two of hesitant silence.

She nodded, then shook her head with a devastating change of emotion that occurred in a mere split second.

"Has anything happened?"

"Nothing. . . bad," Ada confirmed after a prolonged beat.

"Then. . .?"

The brunette pressed her lips together. "It's Tommy," she murmured. "And Freddie."

Felicity had come across the latter man on more than one occasion yet on those few times when she had served him at the Garrison, he had hardly uttered a word to her, and the same could be said about her to him. To the blonde, Freddie Thorne seemed perfectly pleasant despite his obvious annoyance towards Thomas Shelby - not to mention the gangster's obvious begrudging emotions towards the esteemed Communist.

"What's happened between those two?" Felicity sighed, silently praying that they had not sparked up some deeper childish hatred towards one another.

She knew that Ada deserved the peace and quiet that so obviously was not occurring right now, and so Felicity decided that if Thomas had picked a war with the very man that his sister had recently married.

Felicity wondered whether or not any of these recent events came into his seemingly diabolical plan, and made a mental note to continue her insistent pestering when she returned to the Shelby residence, just in case Ada revealed that he had stupidly sparked conflict with Freddie Thorne.

"Nothing out of the ordinary," Ada continued. "They're always at each other's necks, though, and I swear to God, it's going to be the thing that drives me mad."

"Of course," Felicity grimaced, "it's Tommy Shelby against the world, reigning over the streets one fight at a time."

The other girl smiled with gentle amusement and said nothing.

"Are you sure you're okay, though?" Felicity continued. "You know. . . with the baby and all?"

At this, Ada nodded. "I just needed to get away," she clarified with a wobbly laugh.

Felicity's lips spread into a comforting smile as she understood - although not well, due to the fact that she most likely would never know just what ran through the Shelby siblings' minds when it came to one another and the rest of their family - the need to get away from relatives, especially when they had a dangerous habit of insisting they knew best when it came to their wellbeing or future.

"Do you want anything to drink?" Felicity offered after a moment. 

Ada returned the smile. "Can I just have water?" she asked.

Felicity confirmed that water was fine and so she left the brunette and went to fetch her a glass. With one hand clasping the rounded sides and the other urging water to trickle down from the tap, she pressed her lips together in a gentle hum as a bid to pass the minutes. She didn't even notice the man that had approached the bar, not until the bitter aroma of smoke from a cigarette that was noticeably closer than the rest snaked towards her.

"My, has the King of Birmingham decided to say something to all the rest of us?" Felicity remarked as she glanced up for a mere second.

The sigh that left his lips in a rush of cool air alerted the blonde to his distinct impatience.

"I'm not the King, Felicity, you know that," Thomas returned. "Not until I've dealt with all this, at least."

This sparked the girl's interest and so she looked up once again, to question the meaning behind the vagueness of his words.

"Care to explain?" She hummed, trying to appear unamused and yet most likely failing miserably.

He only drew his hand to take yet another quick drag of his cigarette, and not a word was uttered from his lips as the smoke dispersed into the air. Around the pair, voices merged together as tankards and chipped glasses met with either one another or with the scratched wood of the tables. Not a soul paid attention to the two that stood at the bar, impatient tension radiating from the blonde as she awaited his response, yet he appeared to have ideas that did anything that matched hers.

Without a word, he dropped the now-stubbed cigarette in the ashtray that resided at the end of the bar before straightening.

"Meet me at the house tomorrow morning," Thomas declared to her, turning away before she had a chance to object to his words, and thus calling over his shoulder. "Wear a nice dress."

It was all Felicity could do to not watch as he made his way through the crowd once again, not bothering to make idle small talk with those that he passed. Yet she found her hazel irises meeting his as he looked back for a mere half a moment and as his figure disappeared out of the door, Felicity couldn't repress the sigh that left her lips.

⎯

               It was barely nine o'clock when the girl found herself at the front of the Shelby residence. Without the slightest of ideas as to what was going on, she knocked on the dark wood of the door, soon to be met with Thomas' face as he opened it in return.

"Morning," Felicity greeted.

Thomas only took a step to the side and let her through the threshold. After closing the door, he caught up with the girl, who had taken an awkward stance by the fireplace.

"What's going on?"

He only met her question with silence, to which Felicity couldn't help but bristle in return to.

"Thomas, one of these days, you're going to have to tell me something," Felicity snapped.

"On the contrary," he regarded her with the smallest hint of annoyance creeping into his tone. "I don't have to tell you shit."

"I've been forced into more situations than I could care for!" She returned and she did not even bother trying to stop the built up wall of anger from showing itself, although she found herself balling her hands into curled-up fists in an attempt to prevent any hand gestures from creeping in alongside her emotions.

"Everyone makes deals in their lifetime. Think of this as one of them."

Her jaw dropped open and she turned to gape at him. "Thomas Shelby, if you see this as a deal then you're delusional! It might as well have been a fucking sacrifice. . . of which I hadn't a single say in!"

The girl regarded the man in front of her with hot anger radiating from her being, and as she did so, he found he could only meet her gaze for a moment before sighing and awkwardly shoving his hands into the pockets of his trousers.

"There's going to be a wedding at noon," Thomas eventually clarified shortly. "John's, and one of the Lee girls. It's to build a bridge across the two families, try and prevent a war from breaking out once more."

"Will it work?"

He shrugged. "They've given their word."

"But have you given yours?"

Thomas shot her a frown of disbelief as he answered. "I'm an honest man."

"If I ever believed that then believe me, it would be me who was the delusional one."

He set his jaw grimly in return. "I've given my word," he confirmed for her and with that, he left the girl to follow after him with little more than an 'o' shape forming on her lips and a weary apprehensiveness building inside of her as she could not help but wonder what was happening.

⎯

               "Why am I here?" Felicity hissed to the gangster, as she tried to keep up alongside him as he led her and Arthur up towards the car, where John was standing with confusion lacing his lips and a rough estimate of eight or so men surrounding him.

"Got to keep the façade up, Lis," Thomas responded with a low tone of amusement, snaking an arm around her waist before she slapped his hand away. "We're fiancé and fiancée, aren't we?"

"Figures," was all she grumbled in return.

The three of them neared the car and it was only when she caught sight of John, with the toothpick jaunting out from between his teeth and the unsheathed blade in his hand, that she realised he hadn't the slightest clue as to just what his brother had got him into. To the younger Shelby sibling, he was unaware of how the day's events were about to play out for him.

"Ready, boys?" Thomas broke away from Arthur and Felicity.

They all nodded.

"John, ready?" He continued.

His brother nodded, still oblivious to just how big his part in this day actually was. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Have a drink."

John took the flask from the eldest Shelby brother and downed its contents before handing it back and noticing the men that surrounded him. "What?" He snapped accusingly. "What are you all staring at me for?"

Felicity repressed a sigh and watched as Thomas brought a cigarette to his lips.

"What?" John continued to press, his annoyance clear.

It was then that Thomas took a final long look at his brother before turning away, back the way that they had come. "Good, let's go," he asserted. "

Arthur fell back to walk behind the man and the others followed, with John still demanding from them why they were still acting strangely. The blonde girl fell in step alongside the raven-haired gangster and she didn't even bother uttering any words as they walked, and so she allowed her eyes to roam the landscape around them. Surrounded by crumbling, beige stone walls, the group made their way through the Lee territory in silence until John began to grumble angrily under his breath once again.

"Tommy, what you playing at?" He hissed. "We're in shotgun range."

"John," his brother turned around, lowering his voice as he did so.

"Before you go to battle, there's something you're going to need."

With that, the men around him each pulled a single cream flower from the breast of their jackets and held them out towards the younger Shelby, with Arthur clapping his brother on the back with a rough show of affection. Thomas was the first to fasten a stem to the fabric of his sibling's jacket and with this, the slow dawn of realisation began to show in John's eyes.

"What are you bloody doing, Tommy?" He murmured, and if Felicity was a fool, she would have thought that there was a glimmer of fear in the man's voice and eyes.

His brother clasped his face in between his hands and met his gaze with his own. "Smile, John, it's a wedding," Thomas ordered gently.

"Who's bloody wedding?"

"If we told you, you wouldn't have come."

Felicity rolled her eyes at this and took her place beside Thomas. "There's a girl in the Lee family," she took over from the man without any questioning as to whether she should, thinking that she would have more of a sympathetic stance towards man who's voice was beginning to shake ever so slightly. 

"She's gone a bit wild, and she needs marrying off," Thomas jutted back in, unwilling to pass the reigns to her and lose what dominance he had left. 

John shook himself away from his brother at this and there was a scramble as he tried to break through the group and they refrained him all from doing so. "Fuck off!" He declared hotly. 

"Wait, wait!" Thomas eventually broke through the group's attempts to withhold his brother. With a shout, he took John's shoulders and braced as the man continued to struggle. "John! Shhh, listen to me. Listen to me."

John stumbled backwards. "You have no bloody right, Tommy."

"Listen to me," he demanded once more. "There's a girl who needs a husband, and a man who needs a wife."

"Tom, I'm not bloody marrying some fucking mushroom-picker!" John spat. His eldest brother tried to shush him once more as Thomas didn't move an inch away.

"Listen," he hissed. "I've already betrothed you. If you back out now, there's going to be one fucking mighty war breaking out here that's going to make the Somme. . . it's going to make the Somme look like a fucking tea party."

Felicity held her breath as he spoke, still trying to convince John that what he was about to do would be for the good for the entire family. 

"If you marry her, though, our family and the Lee family will be united forever." It didn't take an idiot to hear the emphasis on 'forever' and at this, John softened, just barely. "This war will be over - it's up to you, John. D'you want war. . . or peace?"

All that occurred was a sigh escaped from the younger man's lips in return, and as he shrugged off the men that still restrained him by his shoulders, he spat out a demand for them to let go of him before turning back to Thomas. Without another word, the group moved away, down the hillside, towards the very place that John would be married. 

Felicity's heart pounded in her chest as she kept by the side of Thomas. "You're a fucking idiot," she murmured. 

"So I've been told."

After a moment of silence, her voice returned, yet it came out hesitant. "D'you really think it'll keep the peace, though?" She asked. 

"They've given their word, I've given mine. There isn't anything else I could do to be more sure of it."

Felicity sighed. "I hope you're right."

"Come on, Mrs Shelby," he sighed after a minute. "There's a wedding to see to." 

The blonde scrunched her nose up in distaste. "Call me that one more time and the Somme will be a fucking tea party," she told him warningly. 

He laughed, and took her hand in his. Before she could object - although, surprisingly, she didn't find herself coming anywhere near to doing such a thing - he interrupted. "It's just for today," he murmured. "There'll no doubt be guests that your family have connections with, and I'm not taking any chances that word could get back to them that this is all a hoax."

He didn't have the slightest of ideas as to what was whirring around her brain and in all honesty, neither did she.

As the group passed caravans and clusters of relatives, Felicity couldn't help but feel as though they shouldn't be there. Accusatory glares stared out from underneath caps yet no one stopped them from snaking through caravans and towards one where a woman stood, dressed in black and gold with dark ringlets falling down around her face. 

Thomas broke away from the blonde and nodded to the woman, then motioning to John. "Will he do?" 

Silence descended for a matter of hardly a minute as she regarded him. After what felt like an age, a begrudging smile passed her lips as she nodded. "He'll do."

Cheers rang out and the fleeting flash of white caught Felicity's eye, alerting her to the woman that neared them. "Here she is," Felicity muttered, to which the groan that escaped John's lips was muffled by his brother as he cleared his throat. 

"She'd better be under fifty," John told him under his breath. 

Thomas only smiled and plucked the toothpick from between John's lips, discarding it on the ground beside them. "Go one," he said instead, turning him away.

As John took his place at the altar beside his new bride, Felicity didn't say a word as she stood and watched them next to Thomas. It was then that Ada slipped beside the blonde, bundled in a coat. Felicity offered her a small smile, of which the brunette returned. 

The ceremony was short, with only a few sentences being uttered before her veil was lifted and Felicity caught the glance of relief that John threw backwards towards his brothers. They took one another as husband and wife and it was all that Felicity could do to avoid hearing the conversation between Ada and her brother. She, instead, focussed her attention on Esme Lee - now Shelby, she supposed - who had a radiant smile as she took John's hand in her own. 

Hours later, the tension that had once befallen the Shelby and Lee group had dispersed as the air was filled with a sense of merriment and amber light was thrown from lanterns. Felicity had left the others to dance alongside Ada and Aunt Polly, who had laughter bubbling up from their lungs and into the night air. Fireworks lit the sky. 

It wasn't long before Polly stepped away, saying how she needed to sit down, and how it would be best for Ada to follow her as well. She had refused and had instead taken Felicity in her arms, whirring around and around until all of the lights blurred into one and laughter merged together. 

Felicity couldn't help but wish that this night could last forever, yet she knew that was wishful thinking, and quickly scolded herself.

"Ada!" Thomas' voice soon rang out loud and clear throughout the laughter as he came towards the two with an outstretched arm. "Ada, come on, have a rest."

The girl stumbled away from her brother instead, throwing a hand to Thomas and another to Esme. "Come and look at the family you've joined!" she babbled. "Come and look at the man who runs it, why don't you? He chooses his brothers' wives for them. . ."

Felicity felt her breath hitch in her throat and she attempted to take the girl's arm and lead her away. "Ada," she whispered softly. "Ada, let's go."

". . . he puts his own sister down like a. . . like a rat! And he tries to kill his own brother in law!" Ada continued, suddenly more angry than the blonde had ever seen before as she struggled against her friend. "And. . . and now, he won't even let me have a fucking dance! Not even at a fucking wedding!"

The other girl led her away, whispering calm words in an attempt to soothe her and get her away from the impatience of the brothers. "Ada, come on," she soothed. "Let's sit down, eh?"

It wasn't until she heard the outraged cry from John that she even indicated that something had happened. "Bloody hell, Ada, you do pick your times!" he cursed, and a flash occurred as they pulled jackets over the girl and pulled her away from the rest of the dancing. 

"Tommy?" Felicity whispered, as the other girl was helped away. "What's happened?"

Thomas turned away from his sister and back towards the blonde. "Her water's broken," he explained tiredly, before taking her hand in his and following the rest of the family. "Come on."

As the wariness in his voice shone through, mixed with deep levels of concern, it finally hit the girl that he actually cared, despite everything that indicated he didn't. No matter what words spewed from Ada's lips about how he ran his business, he had an annoying habit of caring for those close to him. 

And so she decided that any remaining anger that she held against him would disperse. It was, after all, the least she could do to help the man she had grown to care about.

AUTHOR'S NOTE
i was writing this and thinking
i'd have to reorder some events
but i don't because my dumbass
mixed ep4 and ep3 around. . .
basically, you don't need to worry
because everything is fINE and i
am a pROFESSIONAL. i love you
all so much omg