━━━━━━ ༻ 018 ༺ ━━━━━━
" A Callback to France "

          "JACKIE," GENE PUFFED, STRUGGLING to be faster than his sister once she stormed out of the room in which they deserted both Lester and Balthasar, despite the latter having been the one to bring the dreadful news in the dead of night. "Jackie, please be smart about this and—"

"Smart about this?!" She shouted back outraged, hands shaking while she shrugged on her coat. How long did it take? She couldn't help that thought's loudness over the havoc wrecked of her mind by the news. One day. They've been back in Birmingham for only a couple of hours as an engaged couple and she already got news that proved her unreasonable fear the world was out to get her before she could have her happiness. "They left my husband in a blood puddle on the street, Gene!"

"And what are you going to do about it?" He shouted right back, knowing being the more reasonable one would do nothing but take his right to have a say in this sort of conversation. "You don't know who got the jump on him and the police are already taking him to the hospital so the place will surely be under surveillance—"

"Well, I'm a fucking nurse," she cut him off again and turned away. "I'd pity whoever in that hospital tries to tell me tonight that I am not."

And after all, bribing a couple people in that hospital was one of the more tamer things Jackie Alloways has done to reach Tommy. It's been what felt like a lifetime since last she wore a nurse uniform. This time around, her dress was at least a size too big for her, smelling heavily of the naphthalene-filled home the woman she paid probably had. Off the information she paid to receive, she ran towards the emergency room in which they had carried Thomas Shelby. There were two young nurses on the whole floor and one of them was washing the blood off of his face.

Oh, dear Lord! Jackie's mind cleared of any other thoughts, but that. All that blood — what have they done to him?

Within a single blink she was besides the nurse, taking the cloth from her hand, "Move. I'll handle this patient from here."

"But...," there was sign of protest from the younger girl.

"I said move along, damn it!" There was something murderous in Jackie's gaze at the time that had startled the young nurse away almost stumbling through her own rushed steps; yet another one of the many things Jackie would thoughtlessly do to be left alone with Tommy, at whom she now looked. A knot formed in her throat and she could not swallow it down from how bitter it turned with the memories of war resurfacing past it with an undesirable freshness right in the front of her mind.

Images blended before her eyes: was she back in France cleaning Tommy of blood unknowing of how much she will grow to love him or was she still in Birmingham, trying her best not to cry while she assessed and cared for each of his many wounds.

It got harder to ignore the nuance of rage burning in her chest too, once she started realizing the state he was into could have never been the doing of just one lucky bastard. He must have been beaten up ruthlessly by at least three, if not even more men, given how many broken bones he managed to gain out of the altercation. A mere passing assessment of his hands told Jackie that he had little fighting chance against whover jumped him too.

Tommy's consciousness faded in and out on the waves of groaned aches and little agonies, amidst which it was fair of him to think Jackie's presence was only a merciful dream, not a reality. That was a belief he had embraced fully, at least until he opened his eyes properly to morning daylight bathing the saloon bed in which he found himself regaining senses of himself. Every inch of his body burned with pain and his memory screamed at him the backlash of what he had done with his brothers at the Eden Club, Sabini's club.

"I'm here," a cold hand pressed on his forehead and Tommy turned his head to the side. Though he recognized her voice right away, he had to see her to really believe.

"Jackie...," he muttered her name, feeling sound scratch the insides of his throat. Nonetheless, even as his right eye managed to focus very little, the majority of grimace was to blame for his sight of Jackie's bloodshot eyes. Not only has she been lacking sleep, but she's been crying too.

"I'll get you some water," she nodded, quickly standing up from a chair she had placed on the right side of his bed, so not to block the sunlight from the left from reaching him. "Don't stand up. You've got broken ribs that need you to remain still for a while."

"What are you doing here?" was the pitiful question Thomas could spare realizing Jackie was wearing nurse attire.

"What do you think?" She retorted instantly. "I hear my husband to be is dragged from a pool of blood in an alley by policemen and carried to a hospital, of course I would be right besides him to nurse him back to health, not sit at home and think of what flowers to buy to put on his grave. What kind of question even is that, Tommy?" She returned besides him with a glass of water and helped him lift his head from the pillow to drink some. Afterwards, as he was rendered silently compliant by both his fresh consciousness regaining and her words, Jackie helped prop him up on a second pillow she took from the second bed in the saloon, paid for to be left empty.

"What happened?" Jackie couldn't help but ask after her sigh sounded her returning to her seat.

"Just business," Tommy closed his eyes, still shifting his posture to find that way to lay in which nothing hurt. Eventually, he would come to realize he had no chances at such a luxury for now, regardless of how good of a work Jackie did taking care of him. He turned his head towards her, "It's just a risk I should have seen coming, but didn't measure properly. Nothing you need to worry about."

"Tommy, do you have any idea how close you came to death?" Jackie did not shy away from cold bluntness. There was very little left of her more subtle side after yawns have overstayed their welcome for two days in a row and now, they even dared turned scarce as her fatigue grew into irritation and a permanent frown. Even so, she did not yell, nor shout. She spoke calmly, with accents deep of care falling on her words. "Who did this to you?"

Tommy remained silent at first, doing as much as even looking away, at the ceiling, at the wall ahead of him too, just not at Jackie. Of course, his mind was warming up to a fire a thousand of overlapping thoughts which helped in no way his headache: he loathed having to explain himself to people his whole life, especially family, because oftentimes than not, they would end up either not understanding entirely what he was thinking and saying, or simply mess things up by knowing too much and thus helping him in no way whatsoever. But didn't he feel only the other day that Jackie was his first true equal ally? Shouldn't the bare minimum be confiding in her now, when she asks?

Jackie was just about to assume his silence was final, but before she could remind him herself of the vow of trust between them, Tommy sighed out and nodded towards her. "Close the door," his voice broke in a deep, wounded tone. Hearing his request first, Jackie resorted to yet another sigh. By the time she sat back down, her impatience had grown a visible amount, so Tommy did not wait any longer to start talking. "I told you I am trying to get a deal with Solomons in Camden Town."

"Right," she nodded along, eager to get him talking a little faster.

"He's been at war with the Italians for six months now. Sabini," Tommy didn't even have to focus his sight to know Jackie was looking at him with growing worry. "I thought I'd hit two birds with the same stone the night you arrived in London. It was Newmarket day, so Sabini was out of town. Before I came to the docks, me and my brothers caused trouble in Sabini's club downtown. Trouble loud enough for news to reach Alfie in Camden Town that the Peaky Blinders have declared war to the Italians as well."

Jackie bit her tongue in order to keep her immediate exclamation to herself. Instead of speaking before her thoughts have filtered her reactions, she pursed her lips together and leant back in her chair. Her elbow propped on the arm rest and her hand reached for her temple, where she rubbed through her assessment of the situation. "So it was this guy... Sabini and his men that got you."

"Keep quiet about it," Tommy quickly added over his nod. "I have a plan."

"Which is?" Jackie inquired instantly, reaching forward to place her hand over his own.

Before Thomas could build himself up to answer her, a knock on the door interrupted them, taking Jackie away from his side. She quickly regained her compsure before cracking the door open and hardening her glare on another nurse, "What?"

"Mr. Shelby has a visitor."

"His condition is critical," Jackie decided on the spot that she wasn't exactly in the mood to step aside and let someone else talk with Tommy, not just yet. "He cannot see any visitors right now."

"Well, is he awake?" A masculine voice, thick with the usual Irish accent spoke from the side, forcing Jackie to open the door a little further and leant forward to see who the visitor really was. She was met by the crooked smile of an old man with a moustache and a walking cane.

"Yes, he is," she responded shortly, knowing the other nurse could see past her in the saloon and tell if she were to choose a comfortable lie instead.

"Then he can receive a visitor," the man nodded slowly, his smile's kindness stretched out too far for it to be entirely well meant.

"As his nurse," Jackie kept her composure and did not move an inch out of his way, "I must insist that he cannot."

"Madame," the man sighed, stopping before her, "I am here on the King's orders, so I'm afraid I must also insist."

Thomas recognized the voice right away from the moment he started talking and since he doubted too significantly Jackie's current temper in order to gamble on letting her handle the situation on her own, he called from his bed instead of waiting. "Come on in, Mr. Campbell." Risking to put Jackie in the line of fire of that crazy man was far more undesirable than he himself, amidst his most vulnerable position, being targeted by the detective's malice.

It was precisely for the sake of his vulnerable position that Jackie's jaw tightened. Her cordial smile towards Mr. Campbell turned out far too stiff to also count as believable, but regardless of her absolute refusal of the situation, she had nothing else to do but move aside and then out of the saloon altogether. Closing the door behind herself and actually letting go of the handle was perhaps the hardest Jackie had ever bit down on her own impulses, cutting them short for the sake of being reasonable, calculated — what was the alternative? She couldn't just shoot the guy, nor stab him, nor cause a scene with another nurse as a witness.

Her paranoia got the best of her and in fear that the man was there to harm Thomas, she pressed her back to the wall, right next to the door and slowed her breath until it made no sound. She wanted to listen, be alert and as weird as it had been for the other nurse to see that she wasn't leaving the close proximity of the saloon, at long last Jackie was left alone to her "odd antics". That's when the waiting begun and her head started pulsing with a terrible ache. It so seemed the past two years have turned waiting into the one activity which she would prefer avoiding at all costs.

The tension in her jaw had climbed into her temples and seeded into her exhausted mind an irritatingly strong headache that warped the passage of time such that it felt like only second but also an eternity until the soor of the saloon was pushed open. In horror, Jackie had realized then: the headache had stopped her from hearing anything of what had happened inside.

Her instinct was to rush back inside and check on Tommy, but Mr. Campbell had other plans. Upon exiting the saloon, the first thing he noticed was her, the surprisingly interested nurse waiting besides the door with her lost gaze immediately filling with a sort of truly concerned panic. "Nurse," he grabbed hold of her arm before she could move past him, voice quiet. "I understand you abide by your sworn duty to tend to any patient as if they deserved it," he avoided looking Jackie in the eyes, though to be fair she wasn't seeking that sight either, given how her right hand tightening into a fist was definitely a subsiding anger building up so flaring her eyes surely would hold that dangerous spark too.

"But allow me to give you a piece of advice, as a fellow dutiful man," Mr. Campbell continued slowly. "Mr. Shelby is not a man to deserve your utmost concern and it would be better that you stay as far away from a direct involvement with him as possible. I am not asking you not to do your job, but rather... do it cautiously. Too few people here are not aware of how dangerous he really is, I am certain."

"Would that be all?" Jackie spoke with a bluntness seeking to come off as emotionless, when in fact, held all the spikes of irritation flagrantly visible. She moved her gaze down at his hand and watched him remove it. "Mr. Campbell–"

Before she even had the chance to finish his name and the polite nod that she wanted to speak it through to mark the end of their conversation, Mr. Campbell cut in, "Your name eludes me right now."

"It's Sarah, sir," Jackie lied without a single second of hesitation, stepping inside the saloon. "Good day," she nodded towards Mr. Campbell and closed the door. Her demeanour flipped a switch as soon as she was alone with Tommy once more, but it wasn't until she sat down next to his bed again that she asked the first question that's been pressing her further into concern, "Who was that man?"

"Bad news. A cop," Tommy sighed. "In the same way Alfie shouldn't know you're alive, this man shouldn't know how much you matter to me either, so pleasez just stay away from him."

"Well, what does he want from you?" However, just as she asked her question, Jackie watched baffled how Tommy attempted to sit up. Instantly, her hands raised and stopped his shoulders from lifting any further, "What do you think you're doing? You're not getting up alone in the state you're into."

"I need to get out of here, Jackie...," he groaned in response. "There's business to attend, stuff that cannot wait."

"If you think I am going to let you get out of the hospital with that many broken bones, I'm afraid I'll havr to let you know you've lost your senses too," Jackie shook her head and was firmly stanced to stop him from getting up, should he try again. "Whatever business you must attend, let me know and I will handle it for you, for God's sake."

"You can't," Thomas disapproved of her idea. "You cannot meet with Alfie Solomons in my stead and the meeting cannot be delayed, not when there's a possibility that Sabini is not done with us yet. So please, help me get up and patch me up so it lasts until I get to London–"

"I'm going with you," Jackie interrupted.

"Jackie...," he sighed, warning of sensibility cautioned in his tone; of course, he was aware that even she knew that going with him to Camden Town was perhaps the dumbest choice they could ever make given Alfie's possible antipathy for her and her family. "The way you can help me right now is by remaining here. With Polly and the others. Knowing you safe is all I need right now."

"Damn you," Jackie mumbled. Damn you, world, is what she really meant — for pushing her into a corner, leaving her with no other choice but the most cruel one. "You do well and come back to me in one piece, you hear me?"

"Yes, ma'am."