NEW REIGN || Tommy Shelby

IV. REAL FEARS

- REAL FEARS -

The hospital lights were white and flickering as she pushed open the door and ran to the front desk.

"I'm here to see Thomas Shelby," she said, out of breath. "I got a call that he has just been admitted."

"Yes," the nurse sighed. She looked up at Rose, her face slack with boredom. "Only immediate family can see him, he is in critical condition."

"But they just called me! I'm a nurse- please let me see him!"

She felt like she was going to vomit or cry- maybe both.

"I don't know what they said on the phone, but Mr. Shelby is in critical condition. No visitors unless-"

"I'm his wife," she stuttered. Her heart was in her throat and she couldn't keep still, bouncing up and down on her heels. "Please, let me see him. Please."

The nurse looked up at her again slowly and almost rolled her eyes. Rose quickly pulled her hand off the desk and prayed the nurse hadn't seen her ring-less finger.

"Fine," she huffed, waving her hand. "He's in room 215-"

Rose didn't wait until she was finished before running up the staircase. She counted the door numbers under her breath as she sped down the harshly-lit hallway.

When she finally found his room, she paused and took a long, slow breath. She had been in hospitals like this and felt the thundering anxiety of the 'what-if' hundreds of times, but now there was so more on the line. He was on the line.

She pushed open the door and froze on the threshold. He was still as death, his face a mess of cuts and stitches. If she hadn't known what room he was in, or known the shape of him so well, she might not have even recognized the him under the swollen eyes and purple bruises.

A sob that might have been of relief or sorrow burst from her chest. She pulled the chair that was by the door to the head of the small bed and grabbed his hand from the blanket. He stirred, a low mumble coming from his cut lips, but she quieted him as she ran her thumb up and down his hand.

"Shh," she whispered. "It's okay, Tommy."

His eyes opened as much as the swelling would allow and he let out strangled sound that threatened to shatter her heart into a thousand pieces.

His lips were moving, but there was no sound. All she could do was watch as he blinked, his mouth moving to the letters of her name. Rose.

She wiped away the tears that fell down her cheeks. He was safe and alive. She allowed herself another deep breath.

"What happened?"

The words were more like a sob as she leaned towards him as gently as possible.

"I don't know."

His voice was slow and the three words were enough to empty the breath from his lungs. His words were slurred, too, and his lips hung open like...like the inside of his mouth had been cut.

"Who attacked you?"

She knew he needed to rest and that she would get no answers from him now, but she couldn't help herself. Each second that he was in pain was another second that white hot anger boiled up in her chest.

"I don't know," he whispered. "Five men and it was dark and...and-"

She lifted her hand to the side of his face, gingerly stroking down his cheek.

"It's okay," she repeated, a stray tear running down her cheek as she looked at him. She had so many questions, like who had done it and who had brought him to the hospital. She wanted to ask him why they had done it and where she could find them, but she knew he needed to sleep- to rest.