Meet Ruby Shelby. Nurse, sister and badass. Because we need some badass women in our lives.
And so, after a lot of time in Belgium and France, I got home with my brothers. I was in a lot of pain and lucky to be alive. I had volunteered for the army when my brothers did, but I signed up because I was a trained nurse and there was a great lack of medical personnel in France.
I was a fine nurse before the war, working in a hospital in Birmingham, but soon I was trained to be an army surgeon. They needed people in the field, doctors in the trenches. And only a few were stupid enough to sign up for that. I was one of those stupid people. I got separated from my brothers to go to Belgium. There were terrible things happening in Ypres.
After Ypres, where I had learned how to amputate limbs and had saved a lot of soldiers, I was sent to France. First Verdun, then the Somme. And that's where I met my brothers again.
I was given a shotgun in case the germans attacked while I was in the trenches. I was given a men's uniform and hat, and had to join the boys in battle. As it turned out, I was a really good shot.
So one day, I was walking with a group of soldiers who were sent back to base camp. Few of them were injured and needed more treatment than I could offer in the mud. So we were walking. We had been for a long time, and luckily it wasn't that far anymore.
We came across a small cave. Somehow I wanted to go in. All the things I had learned from war (Don't go into places you don't know. Don't go into enemy territory without some intel. Don't be stupid and most certainly do not get yourself or your comrades killed.) and decided to move towards the cave.
"Shelby! Get back in line!" My Sergeant-Major yelled. (Something I also learned, do not shout when on the move.)
"I'm just going to check this out, Sir. Something tells me I need to get in." I said as I proceeded to move towards the cave. I cocked my gun, just in case, and pointed it at the darkness before me.
"You Gypsy bastards with your 'feelings'." Sergeant-Major whispered just loud enough for me to hear. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction, so I didn't respond. I walked on, entering the cave.
"Is there anybody in here?" I shouted with a very stern voice.
My voice sounded damp in the cave. There was something in there, I knew it, but it did not make any sound. I decided to try another way to get their attention. "Somebody? I am a field nurse, is there anybody in there that needs medical attention?" I shouted again. I heard some muffled sounds. People. I knew it!
"What army?" A vague yet familiar voice shouted back. It was broken, hoarse.
"English." I said. I walked a little bit closer into the cave. Some of my comrades followed me.
"We too. Tunnelers. No-one is hurt too bad. We're coming your way." Another vague but familiar voice said.
We moved closer in, the stranded soldiers moved towards us. It took me a bit longer than I like to admit because of the darkness, but the faces that were moving towards us were very familiar to me. Muddy, dirty, bruised and battered faces that I saw belonged to my family. All three of my big brothers.
"My goodness, Ruby!" Thomas leaped forward and took me in his arms. "Boys! Oh my fucking god! You're all here! Fucking miracle!" I yelled in happiness.
"You're alive." Arthur whispered. He just stood there, gleam in his eye, watching how John was now hugging both me and Tommy. I could see the other men in the cave over John's shoulder. They were all alive. Freddie, Danny Whizzbang, Jeremiah.
"In the bleak midwinter, my arse." Arthur finally screamed. He wrapped his big arms around all three of us, and hoisted us up in the air. I raised an eyebrow, but Jeremiah was already explaining.
"We were here, sitting ducks, waiting for the Prussian Cavalry to kill us. So I suggested we'd sing In The Bleak Midwinter together. It's a whole story, I'll tell it someday."
"Say, Ruby.. What do you need a gun for? You're a nurse." John eyed the gun that was hanging on my shoulder. "Quite the big gun, too." He added.
"What are you wearing that uniform for anyway?" Danny raised an eyebrow.
"Well, pretty soon after I got to Belgium, I was trained to be a field nurse. There was a shortage of them and I volunteered. They told us that we should wear men's uniforms, and they learned us how to shoot. I turned out to be a great shot."
"That's because we taught you well." Tommy snickered.
"Sure." I replied sarcastically. "Anyway. When we finally got to Ypres, there was a shortage of field surgeons. So they started training again, and I volunteered again, and that is how I learned how to amputate limbs in the trenches, surrounded by mud." I told the story as if it was a usual tuesday for me. All the men in the cave were looking at me the same way: wide eyes, eyebrows up and mouth hanging wide open. "Come again?" Freddie stuttered.
"What? Like women can't do this kind of stuff. All the men ran away." I almost spat the words back at him. For the past two years, I had done everything a man did. I was damn good at my job. And I would get rewarded for it as well. There were a few more girls like me. The girls who volunteered to get themselves killed in the mud while trying to safe the men. It was almost ironic.
"Boys!" Tommy screamed. Still, not the voice I was used to, but better. "She's alive, we're alive, and we are getting out of here. Let's not bitch about anything to Ruby. We haven't seen each other in almost two years. We've missed each other, and by the looks of it, we're all pretty done with this cave. So let's get out."
"Yeah, we're getting out of here." I smiled back. "This is how we're going to do it. Protocol states that my comrades go out first, tell our Sergeant-Major that you are good folk, and then you guys get out without being arrested first thing. After all you boys are out, I'm leaving. So get a go on." I pointed at my comrades, and then to the exit of the cave. To the boys' surprise, my comrades followed my direct order and exited the cave.
"How'd you do that?" Arthur asked in awe.
"Save their life, is what you do."
Arthur went first after the soldiers, then Freddie, Danny, John and Jeremiah. Once they were all in the not so safe-safety of daylight, Tommy decided he could leave the cave too. "Come on, sis, let's go home." He smiled. I checked the space one more time, and followed Tommy to daylight.
My enthusiasm got the better of my balance and I hell hard as I tripped over a stupid boulder. Or at least, I thought it was a boulder. Somehow, maybe it was the Gypsy instinct again, I felt something was wrong. I turned my head slowly to see what caused me to trip. It took me a moment to see. And then all of a sudden it was clear as day. It was some sort of tripwire. Tripwire meant grenade. Grenade meant explosions. And explosions meant death.
"SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT MOVE BOYS GO GO GO GO MOVE SHIT MOVE!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. I tried to stand up, to get out and run away but my boot had gotten stuck on the tripwire. " TOMMY MOVE!" I yelled again as he looked behind him, eyebrows raised as a question for my yelling.
"What's going on?"
"GO THERE'S A GRENADE GO."
Tommy's eyes went wide for only a split second. I managed to get up, pushed Thomas out of the cave just in time before the grenade went boom.
Tommy was safe. So were the rest of the boys.
I wasn't.
I was thrown onto the ground. It was like something I had never felt in my life before. White hot pain shot up my left leg, fast as a bullet that had been fired from a gun. I couldn't breathe. There was blood gushing out of a hole in my upper leg. Black spots clouded my vision. My ears were ringing, probably everyone's ears were ringing. I tried to look around me, tried to look at my leg, but the black spots dancing around made it hard to make something out of my surroundings. I could vaguely make out human forms, John and Arthur were standing up. I recognised them. The forms I believed to be Danny, Freddie and Jeremiah were climbing to their feet as well. I could not find Tommy.
Hell, I was half dying, trying to get some air into my lungs, and still put the needs of my big brother before mine.
"Ruby! Ruby you're going to be fine." Arthur screamed. He sat down next to me, took off his belt and tied my leg off with it. "Need to stop the bleeding, Rubes. I know it hurts, we're gonna get you somewhere safe. You stay with us now." He said more calmly. Like he had switched the same button I did when I was treating wounds in the field. There was less ringing in my ears, but my vision got worse. I could feel that somebody raised my upper body. "I'm here." John said. It sounded like a whisper after the bang from earlier. He took my upper body in his arms and held me tight. "You got hit by some metal." He explained while rocking me a bit. I felt a lot safer with Arthur and John around me. My breathing eased a bit, but it was still harsh and shallow. "Arthur is going to check the wound now, okay? He is going to look if there is any metal left inside, of if it went through. Just try and stay with me. I'm here, you're safe." John continued. It helped me. John was only 11 months older than me, and we had always been really close.
My mind was racing. There was so much going on at the moment. Breathe. Stay awake. Breathe. You're safe. Breathe. Where's Thomas? Breathe.
"Whes T'mmy?" I managed to get out.
"He's fine. He's with Jeremiah. Just a few scratches." Arthur said after a brief pause. I believed him. He sounded honest.
"W'nna Sleep." I whispered while closing my eyes. The pain was wearing me out. It started to feel dull, even though I knew Arthur was poking around in the wound.
"Ruby. Stay awake." John said a bit firmly.
"By order of the Peaky Blinders." I heard Tommy say it. His voice was trembling, but an order was an order.
"M'kay." And I tried. I really tried. But the dancing spots, pain and warm arms of my brothers were trying to get the better of me.
"There is quite the piece of metal in stuck in her leg. It did not go all the way through. I'm no doctor, but I do know that if we don't get it out anytime soon she's not going to survive this." Arthur quietly told Tommy and John. My Sergeant Major was standing next to them, listening closely.
"Can she travel?" He asked.
"She has to. Where were you going?"
"Base camp." I answered.
"She's right. It's not that far and we have a field hospital there. We should get there in about 45 minutes."
That was my cue.
"T'ke me there." I whispered, and then I let myself drown into the very welcoming world of unconsciousness.
When I first opened my eyes, I wished I would've kept hem close. The pain was excruciating.
"Fuck." I managed to get out. I saw a lot of people working around me. I was in the field hospital, I recognized the smell.
"She's awake!" Someone yelled. Another person took this as his cue and before I knew it, I was out cold again.
The second time I opened my eyes, I felt a bit better. The lights didn't hurt as much and the terrible hospital stench was gone. It smelled like.. sea. And there was pain. But if there was pain, that meant I still had two legs!
"Look who's back!" Arthur exclaimed. "Done with your beauty sleep are ya?"
I smiled. If Arthur was joking like this, it meant I would get better.
"Where am I?" I tried to sound like a big girl, but my throat was sore from all the screaming before, and my voice was practically gone.
"We are on a boat. On our way home." Tommy said. He was sitting next to me, holding my hand.
"You've been out cold for three days." John added. He looked happy to see me awake.
"What?! Three days?" I must've sounded like a joke, because all the boys were laughing out loud.
"Calm down. You're fine. They tried to fix up you leg as good as possible. It's going to take a long time to heal, but it should be fine." John said while laughing.
"Kind of fine, Ruby. You'll probably need to learn how to walk again. They cut out quite a bit of muscle to get all the metal out. It's a huge wound. Kinda cool, actually. You'll like it." Tommy said. He had a grin on his face, a different one than I was just to, but this was fine for now.
"I missed you boys so much." I sighed. "And now we're going home. All four of us." I closed my eyes for a moment, took a deep breath and exhaled.
"There is something you should know, Ruby." John started. He got cut of by Arthur. "Not now, John boy. Let's give her some time to heal first."
I looked at the both of them, then at Tommy. "No. I want to hear it." Tommy shook his head. "It's not the best plan, I think. You might hate us."
"Why? Because the grenade that almost blew my leg off, was yours?"
My three brothers looked at each other, then at me, and back at each other. Their faces were priceless, so I chuckled.
"What, you really thought that I didn't know? It was your final defence. If the Prussians would come, you could blow them up." I explained.
"That.. is exactly the truth." John whispered.
"Boys. I was in the same war you guys were. Look. I wasn't underground. I was not fighting with my bare hands. But I lived in the trenches, I shot people and saved a ton more. I know war. It's okay." I could see tears welling up in Arthur's eyes as I was speaking.
"No big deal?" Thomas asked.
"No big deal." I replied.
I do not own Peaky Blinders. All I own are my OCs.
I do not have a Beta reader, and English is not my first language.
Please review!
x K.
