Aurelia Cruz is a well respected club owner and madame in London, but she has things she holds very sacred and sacred things that hold her.
Thomas Shelby is a Birmingham gangster making his way up in the business world, and is trying to expand busin...
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Thomas' subconscious was once again in the tunnels his men behind him all of them covered in mud, sweat, and blood. The sound of shovels started against the wall Thomas was certain he was in hell now, doomed to relive this moment for eternity. Thomas was so fucking sure he was dead. But why is his heart pounding in his ears? "I'm dead." He says to himself. He's dead, but why is the panic rising in his throat? "I'm dead." He repeats to himself the shovels get closer with each passing second. Louder and louder, they pound at the dirt wall. "I'm dead." He's dead. "I'm dead." He's dead until the soldiers break through, and his eyes force themselves open. Thomas Shelby realizes that he is alive, in a hospital, and he doesn't know if he should be relieved or not.
Aurelia's dreams didn't fair her any better. She was in that damned house in Liverpool that plagued her to no end. This time her mind didn't feed on creativity but on memory, horrid memory. It was moments after what Aurelia guesses was the night of Marianna's conception. At this point in the 'relationship' between Steven and Aurelia, she had given up all her pride and was forced far away from her innocence. He took what he wanted from her and at some point, she thought that maybe if she gave in, stopped fighting, acted like she wanted it too then he would treat her better. Maybe he could love her, but he only got worse. She was in the tub scrubbing vigorously at her skin just as she did after every time he was finished. Steven however was still awake and sober enough to have the strength to stand. He dragged himself to the bathroom where he saw Aurelia in the tub. She stiffened at the sounds of his steps behind her begging he didn't want more from her.
He stopped right next to the tub and crouched down to eye level with her. He reached out his hand and she flinched as the hand came to caress her cheek. For a split-second poor Aurelia thought a switch had flipped in him, but she was soon proven a fool when he harshly dug his nails into her cheeks and turned her face to his own making her whimper in pain. "You're just a poor Spanish girl. My own personal whore, nothing more you hear me?" He spits at her angrily. Angry, he had always been angry. "Please wake up." Aurelia begs out loud, begs her mind for mercy. He pushed her under the water, and she thrashed, she tried to scream but her screams were smothered by water that filled her mouth. He suddenly pulls her out and she gasps for air coughing up water. He throws her out of the tub and onto the floor with little to no regard. "Please, wake up!" She pleads with herself screaming at her own mind. Just as the moonlight glistened on the gold wedding ring as his fist was rapidly moving toward Aurelia's face as she kept screaming out for her brain to awaken. Her mind allowed her mercy.
"Plea-." She stopped mid cry when she recognized that she no longer was back there. She remembers the rest of that night well. He had landed his punch and it was so hard that it had blurred Aurelia's senses for a minute or two while he called her names and spat on her shivering and crying naked form. He landed one last punch, his wedding ring cutting her cheek before leaving. "Going to the pub." He threw out to the room before finally walking out. Aurelia remembers how she crawled on the floor to the nearest wall and used it to support herself as she sobbed. She walked along the wall until her vision stopped moving on its own and her balance seemed to improve the slightest, she threw on the closest night gown and crawled in her bed. Her head was pounding from the force of Steven's fist and the lack of oxygen she began to feel tired and so she closed her eyes and that night she hoped she died in her sleep. She remembers that she never made that special tea she had always made after Steven had his way with her, the tea that kept her from bearing his child, the tea he never knew she drank it to keep from carrying a child born of such a horrid man.
Aurelia doesn't regret not drinking the tea that night, she got her beautiful daughter. She only wishes Marianna was born from love and had a loving father. Aurelia got up from her bed and walked to her daughter's room finding her light fast asleep, no signs of worry on her child's innocent face. She sighed in relief before turning and going back to her own room where she sat and smoked until the sun rose. When it became morning, she got dressed and started on breakfast waiting until it was time to wake Marianna for school. Aurelia was angry with herself. She had become so strong since she left Liverpool and left Steven, but the memories still debilitate her as if she was still that scared little girl she was then. She has her own business, she's created her own community within the walls of The Haven, she learned to defend herself and she became a mother. But still in the depths of her mind she was the Spanish gypsy girl that travelled from Spain to England for her widowed father and married a hellish man to make her father happy. She was still the abused little wife in that haunting house in Liverpool.
Thomas was dealing with his own past; one he wishes was left in the past and will only cause further pains. Chester Campbell was currently strutting around Thomas' hospital room the clicking of his cane on the floor as he talked becoming as much of a nuisance as Chester himself. Thomas' mind was elsewhere, first he really wanted a cigarette that was on that table just out of reach from him. Second, he couldn't stop wondering to Aurelia the woman he's supposed to see after his business with Alfie in a little over four days' time. His meeting was another thing, he had to be prepared for what Alfie could do. Alfie was rumored to be fucking insane, almost a psychopath, then again so was Thomas. "Every time you lean on that stick, I bet you see her face." Thomas jabbed at the limping man. He was tired of Campbell's shit and wants to just shoot him where he stands but that will happen at the right time. With a last note to Thomas that Chester will "...be in touch the moment I hear you can piss standing up..." the leech fucking left, and Thomas needed to do the same.
His mind was working faster than his banged-up body could keep up with. He had worked out that Sabini must not have only come after him, he wanted to really hurt Thomas Shelby he must go after Thomas' family and the easiest target for Darby Sabini to go after is his little sister Ada. He needed to get to London without the chance of running into more trouble, though the word followed Thomas around like a lost puppy. He limped his way to the docs catching his uncle Charlie's boat, his cousin Curly happy to help Thomas out while Charlie was calling Thomas every word for crazy, he could think of. "Thomas that shite's for 'orses." Charlie warned when Thomas asked for poultice for his injuries. "I am a horse." Thomas replied.
