Do you want me to?', Tommy had asked Evie, his eyes never leaving the street, hands gripping the steering wheel. He had felt her eyes on him for a moment before she turned to face the street as well and let the silence stretch a little longer.

'You're good with the animals.'

What was he supposed to fucking make of that non-answer? He was still thinking about it several hours later, sitting at his desk in the betting shop that was bustling like on every Saturday. Tommy didn't even hear the noise, but he noticed that he'd let his cigarette go out and then he noticed a shadow enter his frame of vision. Polly was watching him like a hawk.

'You're thinking about her, aren't you?', she smiled at him before her face returned to a more neutral expression, smoothing out the crow's feet around her brown eyes. Tommy didn't deny it and just watched Polly, waiting for whatever she had to tell him next. Polly would say her piece regardless of his attitude.

'She reads Norse mythology, Thomas, what is she doing here?', Polly was eyeing him quizzically and he wasn't sure if she was asking him what he was doing with her or what she was doing in Birmingham. Either way, he didn't have an answer for her yet and so he just shrugged, deciding to focus on the second interpretation of the question.

'Johnny Dog's has known her since she was a babe, Pol', Tommy told her. Not sure if he meant to reassure or distract her with that. Either way, it worked, causing Polly to pause mid-step. 'Her mum's a Lowland Traveller, apparently.'

'What clan, Thomas?', Polly's interest was definitely piqued now, steel lacing her sharp voice. Her mind racing through all of her acquaintances, all the family trees that she seemed to know by heart and that spanned the British Isles like spiderwebs with a life of their own.

'Not sure, Pol', Tommy told her finally. 'Grew up in Brodick and has a half-brother, I think.'

'Brodick? That's not Lowland territory, that's Aran Islands', Polly looked at him cautiously as she said it, 'I don't recognize her name either.'

'Well, Pol, this hasn't been helpful but rest assured, you'll be the first to know what clan she belongs to, eh?', Tommy knew that it was decided then, he'd spend the evening with her. If he found out more about her, that really was only in his interest. It would help him focus on work but keep his mind occupied at night, he thought. And with that he went back to studying the papers in front of him, ignoring Polly until she left the room some time later.

'Do you want me to?', Tommy had asked Evie, his eyes never leaving the street, hands gripping the steering wheel. She'd watched him for a moment, then turned her eyes to the same street, unsure of how she should respond.

'You're good with the animals.'

Her own attempt at an answer hadn't helped in solving the original question of whether he would come by in the evening. And so they had driven to the market in silence and she had gotten out of the car, given him a mock-curtsy, watched a small smile appear on his lips and then she'd done her grocery shopping vowing not to wonder what the evening would bring. The truth was that she wasn't sure she wanted him to come by. Their interactions had been best when they'd run into each other unexpectedly but awkward whenever one of them was summoned to the other. And then there was the question of how she really felt about this man.

'He's a criminal', she told Oz later that evening as the cat noisily ate his premium cat food. He was, wasn't he? She remembered all too well the stories that she had heard when she first inquired about Thomas Shelby and the memory of her neighbors' panic when they were caught talking about him was still fresh in her mind. Another reminder then of the man that was capable of making Johnny Dogs become quiet and withdrawn. Now that, she thought, should tell her more than anything else. However, she'd also seen the man that he was in the stable. Not just with Atlas but with any animal they had encountered so far. That had to count for something too, surely?

It didn't matter then, whether he showed up or not, Evie knew he had found his way into her evening one way or another. She knew that she was starting to feel a little more for him than a passing attraction to the way he behaved around animals. It had been so long since she'd been infatuated with someone, but she remembered that it had felt a little bit like this. Of course, the boy back in Scotland had been much less complicated than the man she was dealing with now and Evie felt somewhat out of her depth as she contemplated her lack of experience where love and romance were concerned.

'It's almost not worth thinking about', Evie finally said out loud. Not so much to the cat this time but more to herself, to pull herself out of her own thoughts. She caught sight of the pile of letters resting on her kitchen table. She must have been ignoring her mail for over a week now and with a sigh she decided it was time to change that.

Quickly she divided the big pile into three smaller ones: to be read, to be ignored until later, and to be tossed without opening it. The third pile was not as large as she had hoped it would be and she was about to sigh dramatically despite the lack of an audience when she noticed the handwriting on the letter that she was currently holding.

How had she missed it? She stared at Aleen's distinctive handwriting; the way one letter blurred into the next like the pen simply couldn't release the ink quickly enough for the mind that was guiding it over the heavy paper. Evie smiled - this was a letter she would read immediately although some tea and biscuits couldn't hurt, she decided and set about preparing everything.

Finally, pushing all the other letters out of the way, she opened the envelope carefully and began reading:

My dearest Evie,
As always, it has been too long since our last correspondence. I won't make any excuses or ask your forgiveness as we both know our lives are far too busy to be writing letters. Similarly, I will skip over the niceties and platitudes though I hope this letter finds you safe and well in Birmingham. How are you settling in over there?
On a related note…I fear that since my return from France the situation here in Roscommon is growing more dire by the day. I am now increasingly regarded as decidedly too British and not Irish enough and I fear that this will not be something I can resolve easily. You would think that after two decades of fighting to work in this profession as a woman, after fighting against all the prejudice that has been directed at me, I would not be as surprised as I am now to encounter such hostility in my own home. If I sound bitter, don't take me too seriously, as you know, I will not give up so easily nor will I let them scare me. I have recently purchased a new shotgun to replace the old one that you might remember from France. My hope is that the sight alone will be deterrent enough but in case I am wrong, I have started practicing with it again…

Evie let the letter sink into her lap and laughed. She could just imagine her brave, tall friend standing in the doorway of a house waving a gun at some unlucky bastard that dared to come onto her property in the name of the IRA. Evie had admired the fearlessness that Aleen always displayed in France, the kind of courage that surely had been born as a result of all the obstacles the other woman had faced. As was her habit, Aleen didn't dwell long on the adversity she currently faced, the rest of the letter mostly detailed novel treatments that she was trying out, asking Evie to keep track of any similar cases so that they might compare the success rate of various treatments. Aleen had been like this in France too, there would be a short moment of letting Evie glimpse into her life and then they would quickly move on to their professional lives again. Evie hadn't minded that at all and was still grateful that the other woman had never asked her about her own life either. Every now and then they would offer up a memory or an observation but then they would move on.

In a sense, it was similar to what had happened with Tommy that morning in the stable. A confession would be shared but the meaning, the true significance of that confession, would be left unspoken, each carrying their own interpretation of what had been said away with them.

Before Evie could sink more time into these thoughts, she heard a car approach and then a knock on the door. Since there weren't too many people with cars in Birmingham yet, Evie didn't bother checking who it was, she just opened the door to find Tommy shaking his head at her.

'You know, you should really ask who's there before you open your door', he told her disapprovingly and Evie debated closing the door in his face just to prove that she still could. But she decided the day had been glum enough already, her nightmares were still clinging to her, and she wanted to keep things light, so she just smiled at him until he shook his head one last time and stepped inside the house.

'I'll have Loki soon', Evie told him as she walked back to her kitchen table to fold up Aleen's letter. Tommy watched her as she neatly folded it twice before tucking it back into the envelope. She could feel his eyes burning into her skin and finally looked up to meet his gaze. He looked like he wanted to say something and so she waited until it became clear that he wouldn't say it.

'Do you want to play a card game?', Evie asked him suddenly. It seemed impossible to imagine now that just a week ago they would have silently sat around the table. What had been a comfortable if somewhat disinterest silence had now turned into something awkward. It was exactly what she had dreaded, and Evie decided that maybe with the distraction of a card game they would be able to find a more comfortable silence again.

She taught him a game that she had played with her father when she was a girl and he taught her a game that he claimed the Gypsies played but she had to admit that she'd never heard of it. Tommy had raised his eyebrow at her, but they had continued playing only talking to each other to specify rules or declare a win one way or the other. It was quiet in the house, even Oz was silently lounging on the armrest of the couch, but Tommy's mood had improved. She noticed a glimmer return to his eyes every time that one of them outsmarted the other. If Evie hadn't started yawning around midnight, she was certain that they could have kept playing for the rest of the night.

'I'm going to fall asleep at the table, Tommy', Evie admitted after she suppressed another string of yawns. Her eyes had started itching whenever she rubbed at them and she knew that sooner or later, her body would win over her mind.

'That's alright, I've won this round already', Tommy told her and showed her his hand, the expression on his face was so smug that Evie laughed at him.

'That's alright, Tommy, you just remember that I beat you the last three rounds', she told him, but he seemed unimpressed and so Evie moved to the couch, pulling her favorite blanket out from underneath Oz. The cat protested lazily before settling in her lap where he promptly changed his tune and began purring.

Tommy watched Evelyn pet the black cat for a moment. He could feel how heavy his body felt too, he was always sleep deprived, but it was particularly true tonight and he remembered falling asleep at her table when he'd come over drunk after Grace left. Not wanting to leave her and not wanting a repeat of that either, Tommy eventually moved to the couch too, settling down on the other end of the worn-out thing.

'Oz', he murmured and watched as Evelyn narrowed her eyes at the cat that immediately climbed from her lap into his. Tommy let out a quiet laugh and began giving Oz the belly rubs that the cat seemed to love so much.

'And to think that I feed this traitor', Evelyn threw her hands up in mock-exasperation and leaned over to pat the head of the cat in question gently. Her face was so close to his that Tommy noticed the faint freckles that covered her nose and he wondered if they would become more visible over the summer. Eventually, Evie leaned back and began readjusting the blanket around herself.

'Tommy?', she asked him finally, her voice quiet and her eyes closed. Her head was leaned against the arm rest and her knees propped up between them but from where he was sitting, he could watch her face as she seemed to search for words. Tommy hummed in response but remained quiet otherwise.

'What do you do against…', Evelyn opened her eyes then and tapped the side of her head again, like she had done at the stables in the morning. Tommy looked away first, his gaze dropping to the cat, then searching the room for a moment before he looked back at her and shrugged.

He could have told her about work, about spending time with horses, drinking, smoking, and even about women. Tommy deliberately filled his days with anything that would keep his mind busy and his hands occupied but the truth was that none of it had much of an effect against the nightmares. He didn't feel like he'd found something that was effective and so he had no advice to offer her.

'Me too', Evelyn told him, and he thought she sounded relieved then, almost like she'd hoped that she wasn't alone in trying to make sense of the mess.

'My turn', Tommy told her now, lighting a cigarette and sitting up straighter to look down at her. After Evelyn nodded, he proceeded, 'Why are you in Birmingham alone when you have family in other places?'

The question had almost slipped from his tongue multiple times in the last few days and his conversation with Polly hadn't helped either. He needed to ask it, needed to hear her answer so that he could decide what would happen next.

Evelyn shrugged at him first but then sat up to face him, her head coming up almost at eye level with him when she sat with her legs tucked in underneath her body.

'Did you look into my family?'

Tommy shook his head slowly, not breaking eye contact even when Oz moved form his lap into hers again. He would have Moss check anything she told him but technically, he wasn't lying to her. He hadn't looked into her family yet.

'Why not? You said you would?'

'Johnny Dogs trusts you. I'm just trying to understand why you are here, nothing more and nothing less.'

'You dislike Birmingham that much?', Evelyn asked then, suspicion in her eyes and when he didn't react, she continued, 'The nightmares that aren't from the war, Tommy, they are family. You and your brothers find strength in each other, right? Well, I haven't felt anything remotely like that in…in decades. Except maybe with Johnny but we barely ever see each other, you know how he is...'

As she confessed this to him, Tommy watched her eyes fill with tears, but they never fell. They just swam in her eyes, making them glisten and appear even more green. When he reached out his arms to her, he wasn't sure if she would let him pull her against his chest but after a moment's hesitation, she followed his lead. Her head came to rest against his heart, and he could feel it beat against his ribs before the impact hit her check. Tommy moved his right hand carefully up from her shoulder to cover her head, holding her against his chest, whether for his own benefit or hers he wouldn't have been able to say. All he knew was that the world stilled and the gears in his head stopped grinding for a moment as he listened to her breathing.

After a while Tommy noticed that her breaths were coming steady now and that she had fallen asleep. He moved slightly and caught a glimpse of her face. It looked so much younger when she was sleeping or maybe it was just the vulnerability that she normally hid so well. He watched her through half-closed eyes for another moment, smoking a cigarette and for once not really thinking about anything, just letting all the visual and sensory signals wash over him as she still rested against his chest. Finally, he reached out to pull the blanket up to her shoulders, covering both of them with it and watching Oz settle at Evelyn's feet.

Notes:

So, in this chapter I'm actually introducing a real person - I've been super excited for this! I figured the show has Churchill and Jessie Eden, so I picked Aleen Cust. The first female veterinary surgeon (read 'veterinarian') in the UK and Ireland! (And totally a huge inspiration for this story!) Her biography is really cool, if anyone wants to look into her, this is a good place to start IMO:

/news/2019/5/22/aleen-isabel-cust-first-woman-veterinary-surgeon-in-britain-amp-ireland

Thank you for reading :) and thank you for the reviews!