It was common knowledge that you didn't bug the owner of the Garrison when it wasn't opening times if you wanted to walk yourself home without a bullet hole in your foot. Everyone in Small Heath knew this because Penelope Towers had shot all of the men in the foot at least once when they had come knocking on the Garrison's doors before six in the evening. Each of the Shelby boys had been shot a lot more than once for this exact reason. 

Under the very familiar 'CLOSED' sign on the doors was another sign that had definitely never been put up before the war. At least not to Tommy's knowledge and he was very familiar with the workings of the Garrison. However, since the war had begun, it was put up on the doors every morning once final call was announced and it didn't come down until the evening when the Garrison opened its doors to the general public. It was a simple sign, only two sentences on it, but those two sentences were enough to stop people. The sign read:

Finn Shelby, go the fuck to school before I tell Polly you're grounded!
Everyone else, fuck off until 6 o'clock.

Tommy made his way in to the Garrison anyway, using the key that Penny had left with Polly in case she needed anything. He wasn't that surprised to see Penny mumbling to herself as she cleaned up from the night before and anything that she felt just needed to be done anyway. It was the early hours of the morning. Most of Small Heath was fast asleep, either from the exhaustion from the day before or because they were so drunk out of their minds that they had barely made it home. The other portion of the public was making their way to work even after a long night out. The majority of the men in Small Heath had made it back from the war by now but there was only one specific family that Penny had been waiting to see walk down the street.

Tommy, John and Arthur had only made it back that morning, maybe an hour prior to when Tommy found himself on the doorstep of the Garrison. John and Arthur had instantly made their way home and gone to bed, John with his kids and Arthur on his own, but Tommy had decided before they had even arrived that he had more important things to attend to. That he had better priorities than a comfy bed and home.

He had a woman that he needed to see.

"Stupid fucking Shelbys. Leaving me in charge of Finn and John's lot while Polly runs the bloody business and Ada does God knows what," Penny mumbled herself, sighing as she moved the stools off of the bar so she could clean them.

"I know John's lot can be annoying and that Finn is a rascal but I doubt it's that bad," Tommy said softly, an amused smile on his face as he leaned against the pillar in the room.

Penny froze, her back to Tommy and a bar stool in her hands. It had been so long since she had seen him and she had hoped that she'd see him again after he got off the train. Tommy had made sure that no one told Penny when he was coming home, wanting it to be a surprise for her. What he had forgotten was that Penny wasn't exactly one to love surprises, especially when it came to the Shelbys.

Tommy made his way over to her and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, kissing her shoulder lightly as she started to clean the bar. "Harry's already been by telling me that he's taking the bar. It's my fucking bar, Tommy, I'm not selling it to him." She said lightly as she leaned in to him and poured him a drink.

"I don't see why he thinks that will be an easy thing to convince you to do," Tommy told her as he sipped the drink she handed to him. He sighed contently and kept her close to him but not enough to restrict her movement so she could still clean up the bar. "You don't happen to have some smokes in your apron, do you? I can straight here."

Penny reached in to her pocket and handed her pack over to him, moving out of his arms to continue sorting out the bar for that evening. She then sighed and looked over at him. "I'm glad that you're okay, Tommy. How are the others?"

"They're okay. Physically, anyway. Mentally a bit different."

"Well, Arthur's never really been right in the head, has he?"

Tommy chuckled softly and kissed her forehead. "No. No he hasn't."