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Nancy woke up to Vinny tugging on her arm, calling her to open her eyes for the first time that morning.

Sun was peaking through the lace curtains in a room that made Nancy take a couple of moments to recognise and remember where she had slept that previous night.

"Morning Vin, did you sleep okay?"

She kissed his head and cuddle him, playing with his hair as he lay on her chest curled up like he did when he was small.

"Yes," he began, "Will we go home to Dad now?"

Nancy sighed and looked at her son. He was gazing up at her with such an inquisitive stare, breaking her heart at the fact his question was genuine. She desperately wanted her son to grow up with a father, but she was ashamed at the one she'd given him.

"Let's get dressed, alright?"

Avoiding his question, Nancy and Vinny pulled on their clothes from last night and cleaned their faces using some fresh water. Nancy ran a brush she'd found on top of a dresser through her hair, combing Vincent's blond curls to the side afterwards.

The two of them eventually ventured downstairs to the main room of The Garrison. Arthur had been kind enough to offer the two of them the spare bedroom they had above the pub after helping them last night, making sure they were both patched up and not in too much pain before showing them their bed for the evening.

The sound of Nancy's heels on the wooden floor made Arthur look up from his newspaper and cup of tea. He smiled as he saw her, the bandage still wrapped around her arm and a smaller one over her son's burns.

"Good m-"

"Oh my goodness, thank God you're alright!"

Arthur's greeting was cut short by Esme running across the pub and hugging Nancy tightly, holding her face in her hands as she spoke.

"I only got the news early this morning from our John, I've been waiting here for you to wake up, thank God you're both safe."

"Yes," Nancy smiled weakly and sat down beside Esme at a table, "We're fine, thanks to Arthur."

Arthur looked over to them as he heard his name being spoken. He blushed as Nancy smiled at him from across the room, holding his gaze only for him to look back down at his newspaper after feeling his cheeks heat up.

"So Pol was right?"

"Unfortunately," Nancy said quietly, squeezing her son's hand at the horrible thought of him not being here with her that morning entered her mind, "But luckily we're both safe and well. Though I'm not sure what to do now."

Nancy let out a worried chuckle and sipped on a fresh cup of tea Esme had just poured for her. She had been in so much pain and stress from the night before that her plan of action for today hadn't been given a single second of thought yet.

Part of her thought about returning home to Henry. She thought perhaps he would change after seeing what his drunken rage had done to their son, though seeing what it had done to her in the past was never enough of a motive for him to fix his bad habits.

"You can't go back, Nancy, please tell me you aren't thinking about going back to him?"

Esme sighed when Nancy just said nothing and looked at her like a lost child. She knew all to well how difficult it would be for her friend to leave her husband, abandon their family unit and their home, but she wasn't safe, nor was she happy.

"I won't have that. You and Vincent can stay with us. John and the kids won't mind, just till you get back on your feet."

"Oh Esme, that's so kind of you but-"

"No, I won't have any objections. My boys can sleep downstairs and you and your boy can have the second bedroom, it's only small but you'll be comfortable there, and safe."

Nancy felt tears well in her eyes at the generosity of her new friend. A woman she'd known less than a day was offering out her arms to her in her greatest hour of need, it was more than anybody had done for her in her entire life.

"Thank you," Nancy whispered, hugging Esme, "Thank you so much."

"It's not a problem, I'll send John and the boys round to your home later to collect anything you need, I won't have you going back there anytime soon."

***

Later that afternoon Arthur found himself following John and Thomas to Nancy's house that was just a few streets away from his own.

Esme had given John strict instructions to take everything they could find that looked like it belonged to Nancy or Vincent, and leave everything else behind. Arthur wasn't sure how he felt about sifting through another woman's clothes and underwear, but he didn't question his sister in law when she asked him and Tommy to help John that afternoon.

John knocked on the front door, stepping back and peering in through the window as he waited for an answer. Arthur looked through the glass, seeing ash from the fire staining the floor and broken glass scattered across the room.

The door swung open and The Garrison regular Henry Lewis stood before the three brothers, a cut on his chin and bruising on his neck.

"What the bloody hell do you want?"

He was a tall, broad man with light brown hair and grazed knuckles. He was dressed in a vest and suit trousers, suspenders hanging down his legs, looking as if he was halfway through getting dressed.

"We're here to pick up some stuff." John said, hands behind his back as he spoke.

"Stuff?" Henry raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. Your wife and your little lad, their stuff, all of it."

Henry chuckled and shook his head, spitting on the ground beside John's feet.

"You can fuck off," he said, narrowing his eyes at John before turning his attention to Tommy and Arthur, "And so can you, all three of you for that matter. And if you see my wife, tell her to get herself back home before I drag her here myself."

Arthur wasn't sure what happened, or why he suddenly slammed his fist into the side of Henry Lewis' face, sending him flying backwards spitting blood, but before he could even register what he was doing, he found himself with his fist holding the neck of his vest and his foot against his chest.

"You're a fucking disgrace, you know that?"

John and Tommy stepped over Henry and headed up the stairs to gather Nancy and Vinny's belongings into bags.

"What makes you say that, eh?" Henry laughed, blood staining his teeth and his lips that made Arthur's stomach turn and his blood boil.

"Think hitting women makes you a proper man do ya? Think hurting your own boy makes you hard? Fucking scum." Arthur landed another punch to the side of Henry's face as he leaned over him, panting loudly as he stared into the eyes of the man that so easily harmed his wife and his child.

Arthur held Henry to the ground while his brother's finished gathering all the belongings they could find from upstairs, jumping back over Henry's body on their way out of the house while Arthur still had his foot firmly on his chest.

Henry looked up at Arthur through swollen, blood-stained eyes, barely breathing.

"Arthur come on!"

He took his foot from Henry's chest, watching as the man took in a huge breath and rolled his eyes, coughing and spluttering as he tried to get air back into his lungs.

"If I ever see you in my pub again, you'll have no fuckin' eyes left in them sockets."

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