The fire was still burning when the clock struck 5am. Ada had taken Finn upstairs and put him to bed while Aberama and Kaia stayed sat in silence in the front room, their minds running away with them the longer the seconds ticked by.

Nobody wanted to say out loud what they thought had happened to Tommy, Arthur, John and Bonnie, but like when Finn was missing, everyone was thinking the same thing. It wasn't that they didn't believe the boys could defeat the Italians, because all three of them knew that the brothers were more than capable of doing so, it was the fact that almost two hours had passed since Kaia and Finn returned home safely that was worrying them.

Kaia's mind was with her brother and him only. She was sat on the floor with her back resting against the sofa, still holding her father's hand as he sipped alcohol to help numb the pain. In the back of her mind she know Tommy and his brothers would be fine, but the uncertainty over Bonnie was eating her alive and she knew it was doing the same to Aberama.

From the hazy memory she had of that night, Kaia remembered seeing most of the Italians on the floor, either dead or barely hanging on. She didn't see who shot Tommy, but she had faith that whoever did would've succumbed to the fate of Arthur's gun.

The door burst open, startling Aberama to the point where he spilled the glass of whiskey over his freshly bandaged chest. Kaia let go of her father's hand and jumped to her feet, following Ada out into the hallway to see what was going on.

"Ada! Ada help!"

Kaia's eyes widened in horror as she saw Arthur and John carrying Bonnie into the house, his body limp and his face covered in blood to the point where he was almost unrecognisable.

"What's going on?" A small voice came from the top of the stairs.

"Finn stay in the bedroom, son." John shouted back, the younger brother doing as he was told and running back into the bedroom, slamming the door shut.

The brothers carried Bonnie into the kitchen, Aberama almost choking when he saw the state of his son.

"Bonnie, oh my God, Bonnie..." he tried to stand up but Kaia was quick to rush to his side, restraining him to the settee where he needed to stay if his stitches were to hold until they could get treated properly.

She calmed her father down by stroking his head, knowing that he was going into a state of shock after seeing his son being dragged into the house looking far worse than he had done after any boxing match.

"It's going to be alright, Dad. Ada will take care of him just like she did with you." Kaia smiled weakly at her father, knowing her words were most likely empty lies.

She hadn't expected to see Bonnie again, at least not alive, slowly accepting over the past two hours that her big brother was gone. Though perhaps the pain of not knowing whether he would survive as he lay on the kitchen table was worse than knowing for sure that his heart had stopped for good.

"You alright Aberama? Told you I'd get you out of them woods didn't I?"

John came over and sat beside Aberama, talking to him to distract him from what his son was going through on the table behind him. He gave Kaia a nod and small smile as she went over to the kitchen to see Bonnie.

Seeing her father in such a state was bad enough, but Kaia couldn't imagine anybody being any worse than him without being dead. That was, until she saw Bonnie. The wound in the side of his head was seeping with blood still and he was unconscious but somehow still breathing.

Kaia stood speechless at his side, his eyes closed and his face so beaten and bruised that he didn't even look her brother. It had broken her heart in a way she didn't know was possible, seeing the only two people she had n her life that she could rely on have their lives almost ripped from them in the cruelest way.

Aberama was alive, yes, but Kaia wasn't sure that she could continue living without Bonnie. They weren't twins, but they'd always shared the same connection, each of them being the other's half they needed to get through life. The more she thought about a life without Bonnie, the more Kaia began to feel like it wasn't worth it.

"Are you alright, Kaia? Has anybody even asked you?"

Arthur placed his hand on the small of Kaia's back, forcing her to pull her teary eyes away from Bonnie and look up at him. She had shared very few moments with Arthur Shelby but like the rest of the family, she never felt anything but comfort around him.

She nodded slowly, taking in a deep but shaky breath. Thinking about it, Arthur was right, nobody had asked her how she was. Not Ada, not John, not even her own father. The truth was, even if her body was fine to the naked eye, she wasn't okay at all.

"I'll be fine," she said quietly, not being sure what else to say.

"Tommy's alright, we took him to Charlie's to get the boys to see to the gunshot wound but he'll be fine. He said he'd come straight here as soon as he got cleaned up."

Kaia winced at the mentioning of his name. As much as she told herself she was only thinking about Bonnie, of course there was a small part of her thoughts that were only on Tommy. She resented him, she hated him for what he'd put her through and the way he'd looked at her before pulling the trigger had almost cleared her mind of him completely, only he still lingered.

Another hour passed. Ada had done all she could do patch up Bonnie until they could get him to a hospital first thing in the morning and he lay sleeping on the table. Aberama had drifted off too, either from the pain, exhaustion or too much whiskey. John was asleep in the armchair by the fireplace and Ada had gone upstairs to check on Finn before going to bed herself.

Kaia was awake still, sat on a chair beside Bonnie, watching him as he slept to make sure he didn't stop breathing. Arthur was beside her, both of them together in the present but alone in their thoughts. It was silent apart from the flickering of the fire and the sound of John's snoring and the occasional clink of Arthur's glass on the table. The ticking of the clock was the loudest of them all, though.

The door opened again and Kaia and Arthur both looked at one another before he rose to his feet and walked into the hallway, leaving Kaia alone at Bonnie's side. She knew it had to be Tommy and part of her was relieved to know he was safe and sound, but another part of her wished to never see his face again.

She placed her hand on top of Bonnie's, brushing a strand of hair from his face as he slept. She could hear Tommy and Arthur conversing quietly in the hallway, the low sound of Tommy's voice sent a shiver down Kaia's spine.

"Tom, don't-"

"Kaia."

She turned to look over her shoulder and saw Tommy stood in the doorway with a bandage over his shoulder, his shirt soaked through with blood. He looked like he'd been crying, his eyes red and his skin pale with tear streaks down his cheeks, though all she could think of was the emptiness she saw in him a few hours earlier.

"Leave her, brother." Arthur tugged on Tommy's sleeve when Kaia said nothing, only he didn't move.

She felt compelled to speak to him, like all of a sudden this fire had begun burning inside of her out of nowhere. She'd felt as cold as ice ever since the words had passed John's lips, but now, she could feel herself slowly melting.

Kaia looked back down at Bonnie, thinking back to the time he'd told her 'I know you never will, but if you ever need me for anything, I'm always here.'

Bonnie had been wrong. In that moment, Kaia did need him. He needed her to hold his little sister and remind her just how strong she's always been through everything that the family have had thrown at them, that she was the strongest person he knew and that she could take on the world if she wanted to. Kaia needed all of that, but most of all, she just needed him to tell her what to do. She wanted him to tell her what he thought was the right decision, whether Tommy was worth hearing out or whether she should never look him in the eye again. Bonnie had always given Kaia his opinion, even when she hadn't asked for it, and every single other time, she'd resented him for getting involved in her business. In that moment, however, she wished for nothing more.

"What do I do, Bon?" She whispered, a single tear falling down her cheek as she stroked his knuckles with her thumb, "What do I do?".

an;;
hi!! I know Tommy hasn't been in these chapters too much so sorry if you've hated them lol, I'd really love to know your thoughts on everything right now, if you're still enjoying??

also would anyone be interested in an alfie Solomons fic lol lmk

-champagnepoetry-