Pearl had tossed and turned all night, fretting that by morning everyone would know who she was and the Peaky Blinders would oust her from the city. For a brief moment, around three-thirty, she contemplated silencing Grace forever but quickly passed on that idea, thinking it would cause her more trouble than it was worth.

By the time dawn broke, miraculously, no one had broken into her room and cut her a smile. Pearl couldn't get back to sleep so decided she might as well get up. She dressed quickly and decided she would go early to set up The Garrison so started to head downstairs.

She opened the front door and greeted the morning frost, pulling her shawl slightly tighter over her arms. She stepped out of her door and walked down the empty street watching as the morning light cast blue and pink shadows across the houses.

And then it all went black. She felt leather-bound hands cover her eyes and mouth and drag her backwards. She stumbled against the loose stones on the street and tried to pry the hands off of her face before hearing a gun cock and felt the barrel press against her temple.

Tommy knows. That was the last thought she had before she was knocked out cold.

~ God knows how much longer ~

The chill hit Pearl before anything else. Goosebumps were covering her arms and neck. She tried to rub her arms to create some warmth but on trying to move her hands she felt rope rub around her wrists. Pearl's heavy eyes half opened and her vision focused on her ankles which were tied together beneath her. She also spotted her shawl discarded across the floor just beside her feet. Then a large boot was swinging towards the leg of the chair that Pearl was tied to.

"Wake up!" The boot made contact with the chair and Pearl was sent jolting back.

She finally raised her head and saw two men standing before her; one wide and burly and the other somewhat smaller. Pearl blinked until her vision was fully focused and she realised she was sitting in a cramped, dark room with no windows and a singular lamp turned on in the corner.

There was a silhouette standing in front of the light and she watched as smoke bellowed towards her. Then the silhouette moved closer and she made out Chief Inspector Campbell.

"I told you we'd talk again soon" she could hear the smirk on his lips. "And don't think you can shoot your way out of this, we've already confiscated your weapons" he motioned to her gun sitting atop the table.

"What do you want?" Pearl breathed.

He bent his knees so that he was eye to eye with Pearl. "I know you're caught up in this"

Pearl practically rolled her eyes. When was he going to give this up? Surely he had more important things to do than detaining her.

"Grace already tried this on me yesterday. So i'll ask you, with what fucking proof?" As Pearl spoke her breath was disturbing the strands of hair that fell in front of her face.

Campbell straightened his back and clasped his hands behind his back, "We don't need proof. We need a confession"

He nodded towards the men standing on either side of Pearl. She looked to the side and noticed a knife within the grasp of the burly one and a gun holstered in both their belts.

"You have nothing on me. You have, however, unlawfully detained me - I wonder what the 'Birmingham Evening Dispatch' would have to say about that. A poor, innocent civilian tied up and tortured by the big, bad Inspector Campbell" she seethed, leaning forwards towards Campbell.

"You will say nothing of the sort, if you want your secret identity to remain a secret"

Pearl stared at him blankly, "Why haven't you told anyone yet?"

"It's not in my best interest but once you're no longer of use to me, don't you worry, i'll let everyone know exactly who you are" Once again he had a devilish smirk sat upon his lips, it made Pearl's stomach churn.

"That is before Grace goes blabbing," she murmured.

His smirk turned sour as he paced, "Unfortunately, Miss Burgess has fled the city. It seems her cover was blown and the Peaky Blinders have chased her out"

Pearl took a minute to connect the dots. A small smile formulating as they did.

"He listened," she breathed.

Campbell turned on his heel on his heel, "What?"

"Tommy bloody Shelby listened to me. I told him Grace was bent and he listened to me, you bastard!" Pearl rattled the chair in elation.

Campbell nodded quickly, "It was you?". Without a second thought he raised his hand and swung it down to Pearl's cheek curling in his fingers to form a fist at the last second and knocking the air out of her on impact.

Pearl stayed looking to the side for a moment, her chest heaving and her hair splayed across her face. She brought out her tongue and licked the blood off of her newly split lip before turning back to him. "You'll have to try a lot harder than that, Inspector"

He brought his face close to hers once more and she recoiled from the smell of his breath wafting past her nostril. "So you're sleeping with the enemy? You're a filthy whore, just like your mother"

Before she could register her own reaction Pearl had spat into Campbell's eye and started thrashing about in her chair in an attempt to grab him, "How dare you talk about her! Don't you ever, ever mention my mother!"

"Detain her" Campbell spoke to one of the men before a knife sliced across Pearl's arm, forming a deep cut. "It seems you're not in a co-operative mood. When you are I'll return"

Pearl hissed through her teeth as the knife carved into her skin.

Campbell turned to the two men, "Try and get her to speak, use any force necessary"

Campbell then placed his hat on his head and left the room. The door to the room was clearly metal as an astounding clang rang through the air as it shut.

Pearl was left breathing heavily as she looked down at her left arm which was bleeding profusely and dripping onto her shawl below her. She scrunched her eyes and winced in pain before looking at the two men.

"So tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee. You got anything else to add?"

The knife-clad man leant down and grabbed her face, squishing her cheeks together, "Watch it missy, we've got all the power here"

"Yeah, well you're not gonna have much power once i've bled to death" Pearl motioned to her arm which blood was still oozing out of.

"Oh, yes, of course sorry about that" he removed his fingers from her face and put his hand over her cut. Pearl watched him with wide, weary eyes. He then splayed his fingers and forced one into the gash, which caused Pearl to take a sharp intake of breath and shut her eyes. She bit her tongue refusing, to give them the satisfaction of screaming, "Now tell us, what does Grenfeld want with those guns"

Pearl shook her head fervently, "No. I'm not working for Grenfeld- AH-'' she was cut off as the man put more pressure onto the wound, "Please- please. I have no connections with Grenfeld"

The smaller man who'd been observing the ordeal stepped forward, a concerned expression obvious by the crease in his brow, "Maybe we should be gentler, she's just a young lady"

The man removed his finger from Pearl's arm and brought it in front of her face, "She's no lady. She's got her daddy's blood running through her veins. Don't you sweetheart?"

All Pearl could do was glare at him. She was too busy trying to steady her heavy breaths as she started to sweat profusely from the pain.

Her foot slid slightly across the floor and she felt something small poking out of the chair. Pearl flicked her eyes down to her ankle and noticed a rather large splinter sticking out. She subtly slid her feet until they were either side of the splinter and started to move her feet back and forth.

The man grabbed Pearl's face once more and wiped her own blood onto her cheek. He chuckled darkly as he stepped away and used a cloth to remove the remnants from his hand.

"Since when did the police start using such violent interrogation tactics? I must have missed the memo" Pearl panted as she tried to distract the men from her feet.

"Since the daughter of a notorious London gangster started roaming the streets and giving up our operatives to the Peaky Blinders" the man said as he placed the cloth down.

Once again the mention of her father lit a spark inside Pearl and with the energy she had she started to thrash against her restraints once more cursing out the men as she did. However, what they failed to notice was that during the outburst she managed to significantly wear down the rope around her ankles.

The burly man turned to the smaller, "Sort her out"

He was quick to rush forward and place a blade just beneath Pearl's chin. She stopped instantly and side eyed the man with a knife to her neck, "and here I was thinking you were the good one"

He only grimaced in response. Pearl felt the rope around her ankle getting weaker and it would only take a few more motions until it snapped. She sat back in the chair and took a breath, trying to regain some strength and distract herself from the gash on her arm. The man stepped back and she noted that the hand holding the knife was trembling.

He wasn't cut out for this.

Almost a second later Pearl felt the restraints around her ankle snap. She watched the two men; one was still stood holding his knife and the other was checking through some files on top of a table in the corner. Pearl thought it good that the more burly of the two was distracted because she had to time this right.

"Fine. I'm ready to confess" her voice was small, but her words clear. They both turned to her eager to hear what she said next, "but only to Inspector Campbell. I want him to hear it from me directly"

"Okay. I'll go fetch him" The burly man scowled. He pointed to the smaller, "You. Watch her"

He then proceeded to leave the room. Once the door slammed shut Pearl turned to the only man left in the room.

"Hey! Could you please do something about this" she nodded to the cut on her arm, "I feel faint and I don't think Campbell would be happy if I'd blacked out completely before he got here"

He stepped forward slightly.

"God, I don't bite. Honestly, grow a pair." she beckoned him closer.

The man stepped forward and went to grab her shawl off of the floor to wrap around her wound. She gave him a small smile, "Thank you for making this so easy"

She pulled her head back and then swung it forward, smashing it directly into his. He stumbled back clutching his forehead in pain whilst Pearl stood up, the chair coming up with her. She then jumped into the air and went back into a sitting position. When the chair made contact with the ground it split into fragmented pieces and Pearl landed on the ground with a harsh smack. She groaned at the impact before pushing herself up off of the ground. She then took a deep breath and jumped high into the air, bringing her knees to her chest and swinging her still restrained arms underneath her legs so that they were tied in front of her body, rather than behind.

Pearl smiled at her handy work and walked to the man who still had his eyes scrunched shut and was coddling his forehead. She intertwined her fingers and tensed her hands, swinging them up so they smashed the man from the nose upwards - whose head proceeded to fly back and hit the wall behind him, his eyes were wide and frantic as he looked around the room trying to stop the blood pouring from his nose. He made no move to stop Pearl, too consumed by his own injuries.

She bent down and took the knife from his pocket and held it between her teeth, beginning to cut the rope around her hands.

Once freed Pearl walked back to the broken chair and picked up her shawl from beside it, tying it tightly around the cut on her arm. She knew it would need stitches but this was all she could do for now to stop herself passing out from loss of blood.

Pearl walked towards the metal door and looked through the small, square pane of glass at the top. She was in some kind of abandoned warehouse but she couldn't see Campbell or the burly man. Pearl went over to the table and retrieved her gun before leaving the room and stepping out to the large, empty inside of the warehouse.

The warehouse had too large doors open on the other side and she could see the night sky glittering outside. She started to make her way around the edge, keeping close to the walls and hiding behind metal pillars that were holding up the steel frameworks of the warehouse.

As Pearl made her way along the wall she reached an open doorway and she bent forward slightly to take a look down.

Campbell and the burly man were discussing something half way down the hall. Pearl whipped her head back and stood still against the wall, panting heavily. She didn't see any way across without crossing the path of the doorway so counted down from three in her head and then darted across to the other side.

She stopped briefly and listened, it didn't sound as though the two men had spotted her. Pearl was now only a few metres from the large doors and noticed a large red button beside them with the words 'OPEN' and 'CLOSE' on a sign nearby. She made to sprint to the door but heard footsteps approaching as she did.

In a hurry she whirled around on the spot and in her shock Pearl's arm accidentally swiped across some pieces of scrap metal, sending them clambering to the floor.

Pearl didn't waste any time in sprinting to the door as soon as the metal fell. She pressed the large red button as she passed it and the doors started to close. She ran outside and turned at the last second.

As the doors closed she saw Campbell rushing towards her, clutching a gun in his outstretched hand. Pearl was just about to turn and run from the doors when she heard a shot ring out. The next thing she saw were the stars above her as her head collided with the ground.

She winced and groaned on the floor as she looked down and noticed blood gathering on the far left of her torso.

Pearl dragged herself off of the floor and scrambled away from the warehouse, running purely on adrenaline. There was a grassy knoll before her and she made her way down stopping as she reached the edge of the Cut. She decided to half-run, half-limp along the edge until she could find somewhere to patch herself up. Not that she had any of the tools possible to do that.

The night was dark and Pearl lost the men, hiding within the shadows. She continued on.

Pearl didn't know how long she'd been moving for when she reached a scrap yard. She was getting dizzier by the second and the pain in her torso was becoming increasingly unbearable as she could feel the bullet still somewhere inside her.

She walked through the yard and rested against a metal pole, starting to assess the damage.

With both the cut on her arm and the hole in her stomach she was sure she didn't have long until she bled to death. She felt around for her gun and realised she must have dropped it in the rush. Pearl lifted up her shirt and put her fingers near the bullet wound deciding she'd have to fish it out herself. The second she attempted to remove the bullet she cried out in pain.

A man ran round from behind a pile of metal and Pearl instinctively tried to scramble backwards. He put his hands out to try and calm her.

"Miss, miss calm down. I don't wanna hurt ya- hang aren't you the barmaid from The Garrison?" he paused, looking over at her. Pearl said nothing as she stared at him with wide eyes, "Bloody hell. Tom! She's 'ere!"

Just as he shouted out Tommy appeared from around the corner. His eyes were shielded by his cap and his face was unreadable, as always. He took in the state of her face before moving to her side. Pearl was in too much pain to do anything other than blink like a deer in headlights. She could honestly say Tommy Shelby was the last person she wanted to see her like this.

"What did he do- Come with me" he gripped her arm and pulled her forward. Pearl took one step and felt her knees buckle as she whimpered in pain. In the dark Tommy hadn't noticed the gunshot wound in her abdomen but once he did he removed the handkerchief from his coat pocket and pressed it against the wound. "Hold this here"

Tommy waited until Pearl was clutching the handkerchief herself before lifting her into his arms. Her vision was starting to blur and she could feel herself drifting in and out of consciousness. Tommy placed her in the passenger seat of his car and hopped into the other side, starting to race through the streets of Small Heath. Everytime Tommy drove round a sharp corner Pearl rolled to the side and felt like her mind was flying out of her body, she felt increasingly disorientated as her vision went out.

The car finally stopped and Tommy picked her up once more, carrying her through the door of a house. Pearl heard a mirage of voices shouting out around her and watched as indistinct bodies rushed in and out of her eyeline.

"Oh my god" "Get her on the table" "What happened?" "Watch her head!"

Pearl was placed flat on the kitchen table and her head lolled to the side. She felt a set of delicate fingers touch her cheek and she half-opened her eyes to see Polly staring down at her.

"You need...stay... awake'' Pearl could only hear bits and pieces of what she was saying as she watched Polly phase in and out of her eye line.

Pearl moved her head and noticed that the whole Shelby clan was standing around the table. John was grabbing cloths and towels to soak up the blood, Ada was fetching first aid supplies for Polly and Arthur was grabbing a bottle of whiskey.

Then there was Tommy, holding down on the gunshot wound staring mindlessly at the blood, too consumed by his own thoughts.

John came forward and placed a cloth into Pearl's mouth. "You're gonna need this"

Before Pearl had time to oppose Polly was picking the bullet out of Pearl's torso with something small, metal and painfully sharp. She let out the most inhumane shriek and started to squirm, her eyes clenched shut and tears starting to spill out of the side.

Tommy was quick to kneel at the edge of the table, behind Pearl's head, and place his hands either side of her face. He rested his forehead atop of hers and started to shush her, in an attempt at soothing.

Pearl continued to scream until the bullet was out. She heard the distinct clink of the bullet hitting the inside of a bowl and she spat the cloth out of her mouth. Tommy raised his head slightly and his bright blue eyes were boring into hers. He looked almost... remorseful?

"Tommy, please. Make it stop"

He clenched his jaw but said nothing. Then Arthur was pouring the whiskey into the wound to disinfect it and Pearl was once again clamping her eyes shut and cursing out everyone in the room.

The next few minutes were a blur as Polly stitched up her arm and abdomen. She was carried onto one of the sofas and looked upon the family who were all watching her with worried eyes. Tommy shoved through the group and walked out of the house without a second look at Pearl.

"Oh, well he's a great help" Ada exclaimed crossing her arms, "We need to bathe her, she's covered in blood!"

John lightly whacked her arm, "Don't be stupid, she's barely awake"

Polly knelt down and brushed the hair from Pearl's face, "We need to let her rest. Ada go and grab a bowl and fill it with warm water"

"Aunt Pol, we need to do somethin'. Look at her',' Arthur said as he stepped forward.

Polly still didn't look away from Pearl, "Didn't you hear Tommy? This was Campbell, it's too delicate to do anything right now"

Ada returned with the bowl and Polly started to wash the blood off of Pearl's face and lip. After a while the family decided to move her and as they presumed Tommy would be gone the rest of the night they placed her in his bed. Ada changed Pearl into some of her own nightclothes before leaving her to rest.

However, Pearl was restless that night; dreaming of knives, guns and lots of blood.

She awoke with a jerk and noticed it was still dark outside of the window. She roughly rubbed her eyes and noticed she wasn't in her own room, when it dawned on her only a few hours prior. She scanned the room and noticed a dark shadow sitting in the corner.

The shadow stood up and started to move closer, she made a frantic grab for her gun before realising it was nowhere nearby. However, it wasn't a shadow figure.

"Tommy?"

He moved to sit on the bedside and lit a cigarette, "How are you feeling?"

"Rough as shit" she absentmindedly touched the sewn up gunshot wound.

"You took quite a beating. Thought you wouldn't pull through" He passed the cigarette to Pearl and she gratefully took it, taking a long inhale. "I've had men out looking for you all day"

Pearl spluttered on her inhale, "Why?"

"Because you told me about Grace and I didn't believe you. I think Campbell took Grace's leaving personally"

Pearl nodded. Tommy thought this was purely about her ratting out Grace. I suppose why would he think otherwise?

"You found the body then?", she handed the cigarette back to him.

"I found the body. Should've listened to you yesterday", he averted his eyes as he spoke. Pearl assumed that was his way of apologising.

"Yes. You should have." He looked up at her vaguely shocked, "but you don't need to blame yourself for all of this. It wasn't your fault" He gave her a look as if to say of course it was my fault but he never spoke those words aloud. "So what happens now?"

Tommy took a long drag of his cigarette and expelled the smoke towards Pearl.

"You're one of us now." he said with a shrug, "Turns out your knowledge is indispensable"

Pearl couldn't stop her eyebrows from shooting up, "You want me to actually work for you?"

"Yes, Pearl. I want you actually to work for me" he placed his hand on top of hers, "For a few reasons"

He started to stroke his thumb along the top of her hand. They both looked down at their intertwined fingers.

"Why?"

She spotted that in the dim light of the room he almost smiled.

"You ask a lot of questions. We'll work out the finer points of your role later. I don't know why but I think I need-" he took a breath, "I need you."

I need you. Pearl felt a warm feeling settle into her stomach and then panic at that feeling. She gave Tommy's hand a squeeze before letting go and placing her hand on her lap.

"I should go. I've taken up too much of you and your family's time and hospitality" when she tried to press up off the bed she hissed in pain once more.

Tommy stood up from the bed and looked down at her. "No, you need to rest. You can stay here for the night, I'll sleep downstairs"

Pearl gave him a grateful smile, although he probably couldn't see it within the darkness of the room. Then without another word Tommy left.

Pearl put her head in her hands and took a few deep breaths, replaying what had just transpired between the two. She then lay back and closed her eyes, thinking despite all that she'd suffered today she was so much closer to those guns.