Polly stared down in amazement at her six month old child. Michael Gray- a sight to behold. Polly could not place the feeling in her heart. What was that feeling? Love. Motherly love. She had to protect him. Polly aborted her first child, an unnamed child, because she had no means to support it. But now, she could care for this child. Her beautiful Michael made her smile for the first time in ages. He was a right brat when it came to feeding from her tits. They hurt right like a bitch, but he was worth it. He was worth every bit of pain she went through to have him. Tommy and the boys had come to meet their newest cousin and already started roughhousing with him. As much as she desired to spare her child from the life of violence that defined the Peaky Blinders, she had no choice. She could not leave the gang and abandon her niece and nephews to the idiot Arthur Shelby Sr., nor could she send her son away. Polly had to keep him close to her side for he brought joy to her life. She would protect him.
A few years later, she felt the same pull with Anna when her daughter came into this world. Polly now had two children to protect. Anna seemed delicate, for more fragile than Michael was when he was her age. Anna smiled and cooed and gurgled at every feeding but the moment Polly stopped, Anna screamed bloody murder. Bloody hell! At least Polly reassured herself that she had equipped her daughter with a set of powerful lungs. Her children, nieces, and nephews gave her meaning. For the first time in years, Polly let herself feel.
But all too soon, it came to an end. She knew her life as a Peaky Blinder would catch up to her, but she could not bear to see her children taken away. Not them. She had no say in anything because she was weak and the coppers had the right to take her babies away. Fuck them. She would find her children and bring them home. Poly sobbed and wailed and yelled in the streets for her angels to come home; she cursed the coppers and the Almighty for letting this happen. Her babies, her little nudgers were gone. All thanks to her foolishness and the jealousy of another woman. Gone. Taken from the parish as if they were mere objects.
She had to be strong. Tommy and her other nephews needed her now. She would do whatever was necessary to provide for the family she had left. Even if that meant whoring herself out in the streets, even if that meant forgoing a few meals herself, she would make it through. For Tommy, for Arthur, for little John and Ada. For Michael. For Anna. For when she found her son and daughter she would make sure that her family would be better than what they were now.