FOR THE ONE WHO STAYED ─ A peaky blinders fanfiction
━ IN WHICH, Elizabeth Shelby has to come to terms with the fact that sharing a name does not necessarily mean family.
━ AND IN WHICH, a father and daughter must learn how to find each other again...
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End of 1918
Effy was laying on her bed, head falling as she hung from the edge, her long hair reached the ground like a black waterfall.
She was studying the little pocket watch Jane had stolen for her because Charlie Chaplin was on it. It was the only time Jane'd ever stolen and it was all for Effy.
The aggressive knocking on the window made Effy crawl out of bed, leaving the pocket watch on her bed. She saw Fred as she approached the window. His expression left Effy frozen. She never saw him cry. Not even when he was a little boy, not even after a fight. He was cold, cold in a way that Effy loved, never minding the freezing touch of him. But now, she didn't want that cold over her skin, she wanted warmth he could never give.
"What's goin' on?" She asked the breathless boy, her eyes jumping on his features.
"Jane" Fred blurted out trying to keep his tears at bay. "Jane..she-.. she's gone"
"What the fuck are you on about Fred?" Effy stuck out her chin, confused and terrified. "Where is she gone?"
His whole body was in pain now, holding onto the gutter made his hands ache and the realization hitting him was enough for him to finally break down.
"Gone! Fucking dead, Effy!" He shouted almost, but a sob caught his throat. "She- she swallowed a bunch of fucking pills from the pharmacy, and- and she was sent to Edgebaston and then she-...she"
The words didn't quite reach her mind, as she just stared into those mesmerizing blue eyes Freddie had. Maybe it was the clear glass she saw her reflection in, that made her realize something was terribly wrong.
"No, no Fred you're jokin'" She was shaking her head in denial, not wanting to accept the disgusting truth that was hanging in the back of her brain, creating an aching lump in her throat.
But he was silent, then. Eyes full of tears, with the delicate features of that one memory Effy had of him, when he was sad, when his mother had fallen ill years ago. That's what she saw, and she utterly knew, that he was not jokin'.
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