𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑𝟓

"What do you mean?" Maeve hissed in a panic, pacing the office that John sat in.  "I mean that what you've done probably isn't going to go down well with Tommy or Aunt Pol. I'm just saying," he said, looking down at a newspaper.

She held the bridge of her nose and sighed. "It's not my fault, alright?"

"I'm not saying it is your fault- incoming." He warned, nodding toward Polly who was heading for the office. Maeve leaned against the wall behind John's chair.

He put his feet on the table. "Did we run Kempton yesterday or not?" He asked, trying to avoid the topic of what Maeve had done. "Danny Lee got drunk," Polly glared at Maeve, "injected the horses with cocaine and then decided to share it with his cousins."

"Jesus Christ." John whispered.

"It's your brother in law. Tell Esme to speak to him about it." She paused, "look, before I start- I don't want either of you to do anything about this."

"About what?" John asked.

Polly looked at him. "You can get out. This is about Maeve an i'm not having you try and justify her actions."

"John stays." Maeve said quickly, afraid to be alone with her Aunt. John shrugged, "she's saying that i stay, what Maeve wants, i'll do. That's how it's always been."

Polly raised her eyebrows. "Seriously? Okay you're being serious. Vincent Changretta's son. The one Lizzie was stepping out with."

John blew smoke from his cigar, "what, Angel?"

"John i'm talking to Maeve." Polly reminded him. He shrugged, "and i'm talking to you?" He said, waiting for her to continue. "He's no bigger than two pence worth of change," Maeve said to them both.

"We'll he heard you threatened him directly to shoot him in the knees and now he's going round Nechells telling everybody he's gonna kill ya." Polly stated, "this is Lizzie's fault to start with. Tommys for leaving it up to you lot."

"What're you talking about? We run London, alright we run the North and the whole fucking country. What do we care about some Nechells Green eye-ties?" John questioned.

"We don't need to be getting involved in all these little piss pots."

"What does dad say?" Maeve finally spoke, crossing her arms. Polly looked at her, "that's why i'm here and not him. If he said it, there'd be a fight. He says, apologise."

John stopped writing and stared at the desk in confusion. Maeve pushed herself off the wall. "He fucking said what?"

"We own the city but we don't need to rub everybody's noses in it. If the old man decides to make a stand he might get Sabini feeling sentimental."

"Sabini is done." Maeve said, "they're all done. They all pay up. But we don't want rebellions." Polly leaned forward.

John let out a breath. "Right..what does Tommy say?"

"Tommys busy, he left me in charge." Polly said. Maeve grew frustrated, "and what did you say?" She asked. Polly leaned back, "compromise." Her words caused both of them to snigger.

"God, you two are like twins- i've asked Lizzie to do it for you, a he's going to meet him, breaking up with him for good. Apologise for any inconvenience, say it's all her fault."

Maeve pushed a chair over, pulling at her hair. "Fucks sake!" She shouted, "you know, you know what all this is? This is dads fucking missus. Turn the other fucking cheek! We'll be handing out bibles in the fucking bull ring with her cousins!"

"Maeve you don't have to do anything. Lizzie will do it for you. Then it'll all calm down and nobody will lose face."

She pulled the door open and turned, "i'll take his fucking face how about that?" She shouted, slamming the door.

"Maeve- do nothing.." Polly trailed off, glancing at John who leaned back in his chair. "I thought we established quite a while ago that Maeve does as she pleases." He reminded her.

"Yeah, we did." Polly huffed.

-

Maeve hovered behind a row of suits. "This way, Mr Changretta." A man spoke. She clutched her peaky cap in her hand and shifted her weight from one foot to another.

There was no going back now.

Just as the shadows appeared at her feet, she pulled apart the suits and lunged forward, sending her fist into Angel's face. She kept hold of his jacket before shoving him to the floor.

"Ay you wanna kill me?" She hissed, kneeling down and punching him over and over, "stay away from Lizzie and my fucking family!" Maeve shouted before taking her cap and shoving it into his eyes, watching the blood pour and screams leave his mouth.

"By order of the peaky blinders!"

-

"Arthur wants you at the house," Finn said sheepishly as he approached the Shelby girl who sat under the canal bridge. She looked up.

"How d'ya know where i was?" She asked. Finn shrugged, "took a wild guess. I think you forget we grew up together, used to always come here with you." He reminded her, hands in pockets.

Maeve hummed. "So are you coming or should I go back and tell him I couldn't find ya?" He asked.

She bit the inside of her cheek and forced herself to stand. "I'll come." She said, finally walking past him, only to be stopped because he grabbed her arm. "What're you doing?" Her eyes were wide as he pulled her into a hug.

"I know you don't mean to do the things you do," he said, hugging her tightly, "and i know how it feels to feel..different." Finn hesitated, "to have them not understand you."

Maeve didn't know what to do but she gave in and hugged him back. "You've grown tall, Finny." She whispered, unsure what to say.

Finn smiled softly and leaned his head on hers. "As much as i'm enjoying the fact you're hugging me and not trying to rip my eyes out, we really have to go back to the house."

"God, way to ruin it." She rolled her eyes.

-

Maeve entered the room, laying her eyes on Polly and Arthur. "Alright thanks for coming Finn, fuck off." Arthur grumbled.

"Finn, you can stay." Tommy said as he walked from the betting den. Her heart pounded as they all stared at her like some animal. "Sit down, Maeve. Sit down."

She cautiously sat and felt John's hands rest on her shoulders in a reassuring way.

"Maeve you cut Angel Changretta."

"I know what I did." She hissed, scowling at him. John squeezed her shoulder slightly. "Even though Arthur told you to apologise and Polly told you to compromise."

Arthur hummed in agreement.

"You chose not to listen to Mr Apologise or Mrs Compromise. And now i've got an Italian walking round my backyard saying he's gonna kill my niece. So what do we do, Maeve? Do we apologise or do we compromise?"

She looked down, ignoring him.

"Oh it was just something Maeve said as a joke." John defended. "Yeah well she's your niece as well, John." Tommy shrugged. "Yeah and I didn't want to start a war over something she said without meaning it." John added. 

"So should she apologise in Italian or in English? Or should we ask them which fucking language they'd prefer, i'm not clear." Tommy spat.

"You said whilst this business was going on in London you wanted peace at home." Polly began. Tommy looked up, "and the only way to guarantee peace is by making the prospect of war seem hopeless. If you apologise once, they do it again and again and again. Like takin bringing bricks out the fucking walls of your house." He paused.

"Do you want to bring the fucking house down, Arthur? If you're soft on rebellion, it'll grow."

"Bloody soft on rebellion." Arthur mocked, standing from his chair.

"You do the right thing Maeve. Now we go on the offensive, we take two of the Changretta pubs and we take them tonight. That's it." Tommy spun on his heels.

"Oh, right for christ sake why?" Polly called out. "Eh?" Tommy asked. "Why?" Polly spoke up. "Because we fucking can! Because we fucking can and if we can, we do. And if we lift our heel off their necks now they'll just come at us. Remember these are the bastards that wanted Danny WhizzBang dead. You're getting soft, brother. Soft and weak." He stared at Arthur.

"Yeah, how about we save the bibles for Sunday, eh?" Maeve chimed in, not daring to look up from the table.

"Finn, i need to ge to Hockley then home. It's been a long day." Tommy said. "You take the Rexhem, you take the Five Bells and you get them signed over to us in the morning. Make sure the coppers are out of the way. Don't use the fucking phones. All right? There's someone listening." Tommy said before walking off.

"Well done." Arthur said sarcastically to her, walking off.

Polly slurped her tea and Maeve stared at her. "Piss off, Aunt Pol."

-

Arthur stood at the door of Maeve's room, saying nothing. "Are ya just gonna stand there or are you going to say something?" She asked.

Arthur cleared his throat. "I hope you understand the severity of your actions."

"Oh here we fucking go," she scoffed, looking away, "scolding me for something you'd do yourself!" Maeve shouted, standing. There was a sudden shift in her eyes. "Do you ever listen to yourself talk? Cause you sound fucking ridiculous!"

"Maeve."

"You just got lucky! Lucky that none of the boys you killed in sport had connections like Angel Changretta! Just because i've done this doesn't make me as bad as you are." She pointed a finger at him.

"You have started a war." He huffed.

"No, i've gained our fucking place in the war! Before this, we were fighting over fuck all. Fighting over who owned what bars in London- or i don't know, who got payed more in the whiskey industry!" Maeve ranted, "but this- my actions, have given us an excuse to continue fighting. So stop acting like i've ruined everything because it was already ruined."

Arthur looked at her angrily. "Stop caring what Tommy thinks so much, dad. Because one of these days you'll wish you listened to me. I might have lost my mind but at least i know what i'm talking about."

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