Elizabeth was relieved when they were able to bring Tommy back to Birmingham. She had set everything up in their bedroom so that he didn't have to move far. He was on bed rest for a long time and Elizabeth intended to make sure he stayed that way. She knew Tommy. He was not one to stay resting, but he had no choice and she had her eye on him constantly.

Charlotte was with Pol, the Aunt having moved into the mansion while Tommy recovered. Charlotte had been good as gold and Elizabeth was so proud of her when she discovered that she had learned how to walk a couple of steps. She was still trying to speak, her words garbled and incoherent. But ever since she had found out how to crawl, she was everywhere, constantly on the move. Pol was the one to keep her eye on her.

"What are the chances of him coming here?" Elizabeth asked from her husband as she tugged at the curtains in their bedroom, pulling them open so that Tommy could see some of the daylight.

He knew who she was speaking of. "Father Hughes will not be bothering us," he promised her. He had told Elizabeth everything about the Economic League working with the Georgians to get hold of the tanks. He told her how the Economic League intended to let the robbery act as the catalyst for the British to abandon the Soviets.

"How can you be so sure?" she asked from Tommy. "I saw what he did to you, Tommy. You were in that bed for God knows how long…unconscious…a fractured skull…Tommy."

"Come 'ere," Tommy urged from his wife as he saw her hands move over her mouth and she tried to stop herself from crying. She moved over to the bed and allowed Tommy to wrap his arm around her waist, pulling her closer against his body as she let her head rest on his shoulder. "Nothin' will 'appen. I'll make sure of it, eh? I'll make sure of it."

"How?" Elizabeth wondered from him. "You are on bed rest for months now, Tommy."

"Usually I'd complain about that," Tommy grunted, reaching over Elizabeth for his cigarettes on the bedside table. "But sounds quite relaxin' for now."

"And should you really be smoking?" she wondered as she saw him light up a cigarette and he moved to place it in his mouth, letting it dangle there as she watched him, an unimpressed look upon her face as she did so.

"Probably not if I'm guessin' by the looks on yer face," he said. "Then again, I shouldn't 'ave done a lot of things."

"Such as?"

"Well," Tommy drawled. "I maybe shouldn't 'ave married you. We both know that Kimbers and Shelbys aren't supposed to mix, eh?"

"Yes, well," Elizabeth said, unable to resist smiling against his shoulder. "How could you say no to me?"

"Couldn't, could I?" Tommy chuckled, letting out a breath of smoke before closing his eyes for a moment. "But I know one thin' now."

"And what is that?" Elizabeth enquired, knowing that she should dress for the day and go and find some breakfast for Tommy. He had to keep his strength up somehow and he was taking quite a high dosage of morphine daily.

"That I need yer and Charlotte to go somewhere else when the times comes for me to finish this," he said and Elizabeth sat up then and Tommy waited for the barrage of questions to come his way. He was used to them now. Keeping silent, he smoked the rest of his cigarette as Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"I'll bite," she told him. "What is going on?"

"The Georgians can't pay me for the job I'm doin'. They're playin' me, Liz."

She frowned. "And what can we do about that?"

"We can do nothin'," Tommy informed her with a firm shake of his head. "What yer can do is hide while I deal with it. I'm goin' to take what I'm owed with a little help from an old friend."

"And who would that be?" she asked him.

"Alfie Solomons," he said.

"Alfie?" she echoed back to him. "Tommy, how on earth do you intend to do all of this?"

Tommy took another drag on his cigarette before nodding his head and stubbing it out. "I'll 'ave some of my men dig a tunnel to their vault and get someone to work inside their house. I'll find out what they're up to all of the time."

"And if they discover this plan?" Elizabeth enquired and he shook his head.

"They won't," he responded. "And Father Hughes won't be a problem either."

She frowned at hearing him then, her lips pursed as she folded her arms over her chest and shook her head before speaking in a low voice to him.

"Again, I'll bite," she informed him. "Why will he not be a problem?"

"Because Michael is goin' to be the one to kill him."

Tommy watched on as his wife looked shocked. She stood up from the bed then and Tommy was almost prepared for another argument on the matter, but instead all he got was silence as her hands went through her hair, her mind wondering if Pol knew what Tommy was going to have her son do.

"Father Hughes abused him," Tommy declared to her and she felt a shift in her feelings, her hands going to her hips as she looked at him, her face a mixture of horror and disgust at what she was hearing from Tommy. "When he was younger…he…he didn't say what he did, but he 'urt 'im. We can't let 'im get away with that, Liz. Michael doesn't want to."

Sitting back down on the edge of the bed, Elizabeth laced her fingers together. "That poor boy," she whispered in a soft tone and Tommy nodded in agreement with her. "How could he do that? How could anyone do that to a child?"

Tommy shrugged. "It's sick," he agreed, "and he needs to pay."

Elizabeth nodded in agreement. "I know," she said, "but is this the right way, Tommy? Michael might be a man and part of the business, but Pol is his mother."

"Aye, she is," Tommy nodded. "But yer also right when yer say that he is a man. He makes his own decisions."

Elizabeth arched a brow. "And would you be happy if Charlotte grew up and decided that she wanted to murder someone?"

"Don't be daft," Tommy demanded from Elizabeth. "Charlotte will never go through what Michael went through."

"Perhaps not," Elizabeth agreed. "But that does not mean that you would be comfortable with the idea of her killing someone. Just as I am sure Pol will not be."

It took a moment before Tommy fought off the urge to roll his eyes at hearing her. "Pol doesn't need to know, and even if she does know then nothin' will deter Michael. He wants to do this, Liz."

Letting out a huff, she looked to Tommy with annoyance before holding her hands up. "We will discuss this when we need to," she informed him. "Until then we're not discussing anything to do with your work. You need to recover."

"But-"

"-No buts," she interrupted Tommy, keeping her hands held up before she moved to take hold of Tommy by the hands, holding them tightly in her grip before she looked into his eyes. "I'm serious, Tommy. You're going to rest."

"Fine," Tommy muttered. "But we're goin' to discuss this sooner or later."

"Then it will be later," she responded. "Besides, I am tired of arguing over everything, Thomas. It seems to be all we do."

He shook his head at her, almost looking amused as he spoke. "Thomas?" he asked from her. "I must be in trouble."

"Be quiet," she responded in a whisper, a small smile forming on her face despite herself as she felt Tommy drop her hand from his grip, but he moved his fingers up to rest against her cheeks. She said nothing as she felt his fingers continue to trace her cheekbones.

"You don't smile enough," Tommy whispered and Elizabeth opened her eyes once more, arching a brow in his direction as he spoke.

"There hasn't been much to smile about," she told him. "My husband was beaten and almost died."

"I know," Tommy responded. "But I'll be alright now, I promise yer that."

She smiled once again and moved to press her lips against his, kissing him chastely before she felt him move his hand from her cheek to the back of her head, pressing her lips tightly against his after she had tried to move off. She laughed into the motion, her teeth clashing against his as she did so and Tommy let his lips quirk despite himself.

"That is more than enough excitement for you, Mr Shelby," Elizabeth said once she had managed to free herself from his grip, her forehead pressing against his.

"Yer know that when I got back from the war all I could think of was getting' yer back," Tommy changed the subject, taking a deep breath. "But I didn't know 'ow so I did the next best thin'. I went after yer brother."

Elizabeth kept silent as she felt his fingers brush down her arm.

"There's a lot of things I'd change, Liz, but you ain't one of 'em."

Her face remained stoic before she wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him tightly as his arms went around her waist, his fingers curling into the bottom of her hair as he felt her forehead go to his shoulder and he ran his fingers up and down her hair, content with holding her for the time being.

"I love you, Thomas Shelby," she whispered into his ear. "And I might argue with you and nag you and not agree with you about everything, but I love you so much."

"I love yer too, Liz," he spoke. "'Ave done ever since yer walked into Small Heath."

Tommy was recovering slowly. There would be times when Elizabeth would see him wince in pain when he tried too much. He had managed to move from bed, but Elizabeth wouldn't let him go far. She would go out to walk with him around the garden, her arm inside of his as she supported him. He tried to tell her that he was fine, but she was persistent.

She was fussing around him and he was in no position to argue with his wife. Besides, he enjoyed a part of it. He enjoyed being close to his wife. He felt as though they hadn't been like this in such a long time. For a while their marriage had been strained. They had been arguing and bickering. They had been curt and rude. But now, with Tommy too ill to go back to work, it was like the old time. The times when it was just him and his wife. But now they had their daughter too.

"I swear that if she says daddy before mummy then I am going to be so unhappy," Elizabeth complained to her husband as she carried Charlotte through the gardens.

"She keeps on crawlin' a lot, eh?" Tommy said, noticing how she was wriggling around in Elizabeth's grip.

"She is quite the squirmier," Elizabeth agreed with her husband. "She should be speaking soon. Can you imagine how much trouble she is going to be when she grows up?"

Tommy shook his head, pulling out a cigarette. "She's not goin' to get old."

"Oh, she is," Elizabeth said, bending down to kiss her daughter on top of her head. "She isn't going to be this young forever, Tommy. She's going to be stunning."

"That she is," Tommy agreed, looking down to Charlotte as he placed his cigarette into his mouth and then moved to run his hand down his daughter's head. "She's everythin' to us now. All that matters."

"That she is," Elizabeth concurred.

The pair of them went silent as Tommy took a seat on the bench, drawing a deep breath in before he went back to exhaling the smoke from his cigarette. Elizabeth perched on the edge of the bench, resting Charlotte in her lap as she pulled at the coat she wore, making sure it was tight around the little girl's body.

"I received a letter from Alfie this mornin'," Tommy informed his wife.

"And?" she prompted him.

"And," Tommy drawled, "he's travellin' up to Birmingham in two weeks. Says he's willin' to work with us."

"I see," Elizabeth responded, unsure of what more Tommy wanted her to say. She refused to argue with him on the matter. She needed to believe that he knew what he was doing. She wanted to believe that. The alternative did not bear thinking of. She trusted Tommy, of course she did. She knew he was clever. She just worried that might not be enough one day.

"It'll be fine," Tommy promised her, sensing her hesitation.

"I just do not want you anywhere near Father Hughes," Elizabeth continued, moving one hand to rest on the top of Tommy's head where it was bandaged still. Moving to brush her fingers through his hair, she rested her forehead against his. "A man like him deserves to be punished, Tommy, but after what he did…what he has done to those children…to Michael…I just worry."

"Father Hughes will get nowhere near me again," Tommy promised his wife, his hand going to rest on top of hers. "This will soon be over, Liz, I promise yer."

Nodding against his forehead, Elizabeth said nothing, moving instead to peck him gently on the cheek before closing her eyes and resting her head on his shoulder, her grip tight on Charlotte. She believed Tommy. She just didn't know how devious Father Hughes could be.