The Shelby Princess

14

As of Recently,Charlotte had been feeling the best she had felt for as-long as she could remember, she felt things had almost returned to the way they used to be with tommy but also life in general. So as she prepared to leave the garrison after her shift with a small smile on her face, she flung her head towards the door as it flew open. Now it wasn't out of the ordinary for tommy to turn up to the pub after her shifts, infact it happened often, it meant he could make sure she returned home safely and mosts times he accompanied her for the night anyway. However what was out of the ordinary was him frantically walking in as if he was about to be the bearer of some very bad news.
"What's the matter?" she frowned as he descended towards her, however all he done was begin to prepare the table for assumed "guests"
"Tommy?" she slightly raised her voice this time, completely perplexed by his strange behaviour. Clearly snapping him out of his frantic daze, she fought a shudder at the stressed look within his eyes. "are you expecting trouble" she tried a third time her confusion growing rapidly by the seconds.
"yes" he simplistically nodded his head, sliding a gun over to charlotte who stood behind the bar.
Growing slightly agitated at her naivety of the situation, which was becoming immensely obvious to charlotte that it held severity.
"Thomas what is going on?" she sternly but calmly questioned, trying to work out what could possibly be going on by his facial expressions however she was unsuccessful.
Sighing he nodded his head, encouraging himself to continue.
You see, Tommy wasn't afraid, ofcourse he wasn't. However the circumstances of this affair meant that he had extremely little time to one up the enemy, as he always did. This meant that his scheme had to involve charlotte, not drastically however it still did and that alone left him highly unimpressed.
"When the st. andrews bell strikes midnight, two ira men are gonna walk through that door when they have what they want, they plan to kill me." a look of quick but powerful horror took over charlottes face at the last phrase of his "explanation" however it was only for a split second, before she was all ears prepared to do whatever she had to do to prevent it.
"it's your job to stop that from happening" he told her, slight hesitation in his tone. She only nodded her head in reply, it didn't matter who and what walked through that door ,if there planning on inflicting damage on tommy, they both knew she'd do anything she had to.
"and barmaids don't count?" she questioned, intently watching him as he carried on with his frantic antics.
"no barmaids don't count."
"now your gonna be in that back room, i'll be there. when i make a toast you come up with that thing raised, do not shoot and i'll do the rest." breaking the distant between the pair he placed his hand on hers, raising her arm.
"you just point" he emphasised, not impressed at the sight of Charlotte with a gun raised however his thoughts were interrupted by a bell. Squeezing her hand slightly he urged her forward
"trust me Lottie" he nodded earning a slight nod in reply "right go, go"

Wincing slightly at the sound of the men entering the pub, Charlotte wouldn't be surprised if they had heard her heartbeat, to say it was racing would be an understatement however she composed her thoughts with a shaky breath.
"Your gonna need a shovel" she heard tommy voice, frowning slightly at the laughter he got in return
"you thick fucking tinker, you'd think we'd let you live" instinctively charlotte tightened her grip around the gun in her hands, aware a certain toast would be coming very soon.
"make your peace" one of the men snickered "i'll make my peace me own way" tommy nodded raising his glass.
"to barmaids who don't count" revealing charlotte only a matter of milliseconds later.
they plan to kill me they plan to kill me
and...bang
she had shot him.
Charlotte kept her shaky hands round the gun, as tommy engaged in an extremely frantic brawl with the irishmen. Her breath hitched as she watched tommy take the brunt, her thoughts were only interrupted however, when she took a hit to the head sending her towards the floor.
Coming around again, she glanced towards tommy through squinted eyes as he grabbed a bucket, smashing it onto the man's head, over and over and over again until he was completely unresponsive, until he was dead.
"Why did you shoot?" he questioned, just above a whisper as he held her head in his hands.
"Why did you shoot?" he repeated, his eyes intently examining her face.
"i don't know tommy" her voice cracked as realisation succumb her "i thought he was going to kill you" she struggled to get her words out as tommy pulled her into him, tears brimming her eyes.