𝐀𝐂𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐄 — 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐍𝐄

BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND 1919

Florence Hastings arrived in Birmingham a few days earlier, she was running away from things, from her past, trying to run away from herself, the person she feared she would become, she refused to turn into the monster that dared to call himself her father, Charles Hastings.

That's how she found herself wandering the streets of Birmingham, using the little money she had with her to stay at different places for the night.

She was trying to find the one person who might be able to do something to get her away from that awful place for good, her father, Thomas Shelby.

She had been walking around for a few days, simply because everytime somebody said he was at one place, he wasn't there when she had arrived, it wasn't until now that she had gotten the actual address of where he lived, so there she was standing in front of the door.

Standing in front of that door made her uneasy in a way, she had dreamt of knocking on this door for years, to get away from her past, but actually standing there was very different from her dreams.

"what are you doing here, girl?" She heard someone speak, she turned around coming face to face with a man.

"oh um.. I'm just looking for somebody." She spoke, the man looked at her a bit confused.

"Right, I don't know who you're looking for and why, but it isn't here, now excuse me." The man spoke walking toward the door.

"wait! Are you Thomas Shelby?" She asked as he walked toward the door.

"no, I'm Arthur, what do you want with Thomas?" He asked as he turned around to face her.

"I'm sorry sir, but that isn't really your business is it?" She immediately wanted to slap herself across the face for that response, she didn't mean to sound mean, but she was hungry, thirsty and utterly exhausted, she had been trying to find Thomas Shelby for days.

Arthur seemed to had noticed.

"Alright, I'll show ya where you can find him, but if this is some kind of set-up and he gets hurt, I'll kill ya myself, understood?" She nodded immidietly, part of Arthur regretted this decision, but part of him also wondering what a kid could possibly want with Thomas, so he walked her to just about outside of the pub, Thomas was in, he pointed at it.

"You can find him in here." And with that he walked away, leaving just the girl.

"It's now or never." She whispered to herself before walking in.

She walked up to the bar, asked for Thomas Shelby.

"Thomas!" The man at the bar yelled, a man walked up to the bar, somehow he looked nothing like Florence had expected but it just perfect at the same time.

"What is it?" Thomas asked. "That girl was asking for ya." The man spoke as he pointed to Florence.

"Yeah? and what brings you here?" Thomas asked turning to her.

"I just need a moment of your time if that's alright." She spoke, Thomas pointed to a room asking if anybody was in there, when he knew no one was, he said to follow him and she did, the too of them walked in, Florence closed the door behind her, it got a little quieter which made her let out a sigh of relief, loud places wasn't her favorite, Thomas sat down and looked at her.

"So?" He began, he offered her to sit which she did, he gave her a look that pretty much told her to start talking.

"So you're Thomas Shelby, correct?" she asked.

"Correct."

"Ruby Cameron. Do you know her?" Ruby Cameron, Thomas knew exactly who that was, she was in a relationship with a guy, Charles, when her and Thomas met, things happened between Ruby and Thomas.

"Yeah, she have anything to do with you being here?" He asked, he didn't know how she could have anything to do with the little girl that he was talking to, who was she, what did she want.

"yeah, she does. I'm uh.. I'm her daughter Florence Hastings."

"So?" He asked, the fact that she had a kid with another man hurt him, he was involve with Ruby.

"I came here because, I needed to get away from Charles, her husband. so I thought why not find my dad." She spoke, she saw his expression change from nothing to confusion and shock.

"wait a second." He said leaning forward. "are you saying that.. I'm your father? I thought Charles was."

"Charles, raised me, but he's not my dad, you are." She said. "please, I can't go back there to him.. he's an awful man, please don't turn me away." She begged, she didn't want to beg, but she didn't want to go back either.

Thomas thought for a second before looking up at her.

"okay."

•••

Florence had been introduced to Finn, the youngest Shelby, she had been told by Tommy to wait with Finn as the rest were having a family meeting.

"Finn." She whispered, Finn was currently at the door, listening to them.

After a little while Finn jumped back from the door as a yell was heard.

"Florence!" It was Thomas.

Florence got up and opened the doors walking in, everyone turned to her.

"you." Arthur, the guy from earlier said as he pointed at her. "this is the girl I saw earlier." He announced to everybody.

"oh I actually thought he was joking when he said a kid had come looking for Tommy." A younger woman said, followed by laughter from some of the others.

"yeah, yeah, Florence." Thomas said, signaling for her to come to him, as she reached him he turned her around to face the group, who were waiting to know who she was.

"Alright everybody, I want you to listen. No one laughs or starts yelling. This is Florence and she is my daughter." As soon as he said that last bit, almost everybody did as he had asked them not to, they laughed and they yelled, Florence started backing up from the yelling, she hated it so much.

"Alright, stop it! quiet down!" An older woman yelled standing up, everybody became quiet. "You guys are scaring the poor girl." She spoke. "You sure, Tommy?" She asked.

"Yes, Polly I'm sure. She's Ruby's, Ruby would never say anything but the truth.

The elder woman, Polly, nodded at that, it was true, everybody knew it, Ruby basically had no secrets so after sleeping with Tommy for the first time, she completely broke down, telling him that she had a boyfriend and that she felt bad. But the thing about no secrets wasn't true anymore, the Hastings had too many secrets.

•••

Florence had been introduced to everybody, Polly, Ada, Arthur, John, she had been given the choice of taking Tommy's room and bed until they figured something out, but she refused, she took the couch, neither Polly or Tommy were happy with that but nothing could make the girl change her mind, so the couch it was.

•••

Author's note!

Well hello! I'm not sure how to feel about this chapter, but I mean it's okay, I hate first chapters so much not to mention the whole introduction thing, I hate it so so much, that's why I have been pushing writing the first chapter for so long, I just couldn't do it because I (obvi) hate it so much.

Opinions?

Anything that seemed too weird or cringe or absolutely just sucked?

Also was the whole talk with Tommy okay or was it too short or weird? the introduction to the others, how was that?

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