Rosie had been right about the weather, and how quickly it turned. It wasn't quite cold yet, but he bowed his head against the lashing rain as he made his way through the darkness to the garage. Midnight, he'd told Campbell. He was early, which meant he had time to dry off a little, toss his coat across the backseat of the car, make himself look more composed. He took a somewhat relaxed stance, his arms folded, in the back corner, opposite the opening. He could observe from the shadows that way. Could see if anyone approached or walked by, without being seen unless someone came in, was looking.

The rain seemed to intensify as he waited, the storm drawing closer in every sense - and not a soul did approach, or pass. No one of sense would be out in this weather. No, this time, this scene - only things that needed done under the cover of darkness and the din of rain would be done outside tonight. Only his type of work.

His mind went to the redhead and the child, who would be tucked up in their cosy bed at number six right now. He'd set the fire before Rosie had taken Lily up for the night, and fed it again when he'd checked in on her before he'd gone out.

"I'll lock the front, the back's locked already," he'd said under his breath outside the bedroom door, the hall illuminated only by what little of the fire's flickering glow was leaking through the cracks in the doorways that led to Finn's bedroom and Rosie and Lily's.

She'd nodded, and he'd kissed her - she'd kissed him back, hard. He'd told her what he was off to do tonight. Had told her what he was planning.

"I'll wait up for you," she'd said after they'd broken apart, her hand going to his face, her thumb stroking across his cheekbone.

"Don't bother," he'd told her, "S'only Campbell."

"Which means you won't be long, so I'll wait up, hear how it went," she told him, her tone holding a hint of stubbornness.

"At least try and get to sleep, eh?"

She'd simply raised an eyebrow, tip toed up to peck her lips to his, then gone back into the room she and the bab slept in without bothering to reply. They both knew she wouldn't try at all.

She was back to work the next day, she'd be able to keep an ear out, see if it seemed anything had been raised about the missing files with Kenneth Maitland. See if Campbell would let it go or not. He'd know by now that the Peaky Blinders had paid all the fines, would know that they knew Finn and George Shelby's files had been separated from the rest. And if, as a result of knowing what they knew, he'd checked up on the files he'd passed to the council - he'd know they were missing. And he'd suspect they had been involved in retrieving the separated files, but he wouldn't know how. Wouldn't know who. They'd been in with a pile of others for the council to look into, Rosie had said. To cross reference for existing reports on. With any luck, Campbell would think they had never made it in the first place, that they had been put into the file and removed by a police officer on the Shelby's payroll.

He had thought at first that it was Finn's own disobedience that had handed Campbell the opportunity to get a file on him. That it had fallen into his lap. Now Tommy was wondering if the reason the police were wasting their time rounding up kids off the railway and taking them to the station wasn't specifically because Campbell had issued orders that Finn should be watched, followed, specifically waiting for some kind of opportunity like the one that had arisen. It made him sick to think the man would target and use kids like that. It crossed a line. And if he was watching Finn - was he watching Lily too?

He knew people thought of he and his brothers as the Peaky Blinder Devils, but it was Satan's chariot that pulled up outside as far as he was concerned, the cab barely coming to a stop for the Inspector to get out, before pulling off again. Cabbie was probably desperate to escape this part of town. Campbell had probably had to threaten the driver with his own position to even get him to bring him this far into Small Heath at this time of night.

The paper in his inside pocket seemed to heat against his chest, letting him know it was there. He'd offered the address - and he intended to use it. Stanley Chapman was of no consequence to him. But he didn't want it construed as a sweetener, as him offering something for nothing. Or less something for nothing and more offering something and it seeming prompted by what had happened to the kids. Didn't want Campbell to know he was rattled by that.

Campbell came just over the threshold of the garage, barely undercover before he stopped and looked Tommy up and down, "Your message said you have an address for me?"

Tommy unfolded his arms and held up the piece of paper, "Anonymous tip off."

The inspector cocked his head and Tommy expanded, "The address of Stanley Chapman."

"You promised me Freddie Thorne."

He had promised to run Freddie out of town, not deliver him. And alright, he hadn't fucking managed it thanks to Freddie being - well, being Freddie. But he and the Inspector hadn't discussed that, hadn't discussed a change of plan - so Campbell hadn't come tonight thinking the address would be Freddie's. But he had come.

"This is instead of Freddie Thorne."

"No deal," Campbell said, turning, making to leave.

The prick was trying to play hard ball, as if he hadn't come here in the pissing rain at midnight on the promise of an address.

"Inspector," Tommy said - and immediately the man paused, looking at him again.

Yes, this was a game. He was pretending he'd leave. He was prepared to wait. He wanted the information. But he wanted Tommy to give him something more, too.

"Stanley Chapman is a bigger fish than Freddie Thorne," Tommy pointed out, pausing to make sure he had the man's eyes on him before he offered up the something extra he was prepared to - the something that cost him nothing to offer, "He's currently holding two hundred pounds in cash, given to the Communist Party by the Russian Government."

Tommy watched Campbell's face change, and the man walked into the garage, approaching him, his eyes narrowing - hunger in them.

"That's right," he gave a tiny incline of his head, "Chapman has snow on his boots - and all you need is a shovel. If he talks, you'll have proof - you might even get that medal."

That was all he was prepared to offer without securing his own demands.

"Now - before I give you the address," he held it up and Campbell reached up a greedy hand, but Tommy held it tightly as he went on, "I want your word that you will let Freddie Thorne and my sister leave the city."

Campbell's hand danced, itching to have the paper, his movements betraying him more than his steady, emotionless voice as he conceded, "Very well - you have my word."

Tommy didn't let his relief show. He hadn't been able to run Freddie out, but Chapman would give him up under interrogation - so all he had to do was make sure Freddie knew Chapman had been lifted as soon as Campbell did the deed. He'd have no choice but to run. He'd either have to take Ada with him, if she wanted to go, the two of them going somewhere safer - God fucking willing - or he'd leave her and she'd have to come home. Either way, it was an improvement in Ada being in the rat hole Freddie was keeping her in, and in her condition.

"I'd say our little truce is proving quite productive for both of us, Inspector," Tommy said, reaching into his pocket for a light to spark up a cigarette as he spoke, the business done, just time for a friendly reminder of what was expected - "I get information. And protection. And you… You get Bolsheviks."

He walked off to the side, expecting the Inspector to make tracks back out the front. He was wrong.

"But on a more pressing matter," the Inspector spoke, walking to retrieve a chair from by the workbench, twirling it to face Tommy where he stood, setting it down and settling into it as he spoke, "I'm afraid that Mr Churchill is becoming impatient. And I fear that - if you don't give back those stolen weapons soon, I will be replaced."

Tommy scoffed and rolled his eyes, not willing to look bothered.

"It would be the finish for me, that's for sure," Campbell went on.

Was he trying to appeal to Tommy's sympathies, he wondered? That seemed unlikely, surely? This was a deal, they had cut it, they both knew the terms.

"When my business with Kimber is done, the guns will be returned, that was the deal," Tommy reminded him.

"And I'm in your hands, completely," Campbell said, spreading his own wide, offering them up.

He was probably trying to look like he was providing some kind of image of humility, looking instead like a bowler hat-ed perversion of the images of Jesus spreading his arms open to the sinners that decorated the church. Tommy didn't like it, he didn't like it one bit.

"You hold all the cards," Campbell went on.

Overdoing a bit, now. This was going to be a bait and switch of sorts, Tommy realised.

"But -"

There it was. The switch. The but, to all the offerings he'd been doing.

"I hope to God, that my dismissal doesn't come before your decision to hand back those guns," the Inspector went on, "And I say this for your sake because, if I were to be fired, and if were your fault," a smile turned the moustache up as the Inspector sat back in his chair, lounging, turning his face full up to Tommy's as he told him, "I would do things that would shame the devil."

It was the sort of threat that Tommy might have laughed at coming from anyone else. But having come to the conclusion that Campbell might have been having Finn watched, the idea that that line had been crossed - he tensed at the words. There was no honour, nor code, for this man.

When he had visited the Lees, when he'd first been granted his audience with the Queen - she'd asked him to put his hand on the bible. His kin held that sacred, so sacred a man wouldn't dare put his hand on it and lie. They cared for their spirits, for their immortal souls where he came from.

If he had been dealing with someone of his own kind - no civilians, no women, no children. Those would be the rules. So understood they didn't need to be spoken. Didn't matter if you were Italian, Irish, Black Country, Brummy, Glaswegian or wherever the fuck you had sprung from - the rules were there.

The man sitting before him - by his own mouth, he was willing to shame the devil. So the bible held no threat. And he'd gone for Finn. Tommy's mind whirred. There was only one thing he could think of in that moment - and that was Grace. She was the only thing he could think of that Campbell might back down over, if her safety was threatened. But if he involved her - his heart beat wildly - the chances of Campbell involving Rosie in turn heightened. If he got to know of her.

The man was chuckling as Tommy's mind raced, even as he kept his own face still and impassive, watching Campbell as he went on, "My fury is a thing to behold. My last day in power for example -" he stood up, approaching Tommy, attempting to intimidate him as he laid out- "I would see to it that you and your scum brothers have your heads stoved in with mallets and spades."

He and his brothers could take care of themselves, he wasn't frightened by that. Except then the image of Arthur in the kitchen at Watery Lane - broken and bloody as he had been after the beating Campbell had overseen on their first encounter - flashed into his mind. But they hadn't known then, that they needed to be on the lookout. They'd know better now, Tommy told himself.

"And your sister too," Campbell went on, "That baby inside of her would be of no consequence to me."

Tommy's stomach turned. There was no line here. Even a convicted woman, they wouldn't execute with a baby inside her. They'd wait til she had delivered. That had always been the way. Children were pure of the sins of their parents, that was what everyone thought - everyone would honour that life. Everyone except Campbell. Suddenly, the idea of Freddie leaving and taking Ada and the fucking baby away from Birmingham altogether became the more appealing of the two options he had considered.

As if to emphasise it, Campbell went on, "The only one to be spared would be your little brother Finn."

So the baby was of no consequence, but he'd spare Finn?

"He would however be lifted as juvenile, and dumped in that part of the adult prison, where men have the most appetite for boys like him."

Tommy feared he actually might be sick. That was what Campbell had been trying to do, he was suddenly sure of it. Having had a record already, anything new would be something Campbell could instantly have Finn up for. That had been the point of watching him, of lifting him and the other kids off the railway. It was about creating the history - about raising the name with the council, to have it on record, so that if Campbell lifted him again - he could skirt around the reform and dump him, as he'd just said, in the adult prison. Where he knew what would happen.

"That would be a dark day indeed, Mr Shelby," the man went on, looking pleased with himself, his eyes as close to sparkling as Tommy had ever seen them, "If my dismissal comes before your decision. You understand?"

Tommy didn't answer. But Campbell didn't seem to have expected him to.

He barely paused before he added, "And know this - the clock is ticking," then he made to walk away.

It flashed across Tommy's mind then just how easily he could stop the Inspector walking. A night like this, no one would be about, no one would see, no one would know. His gun was out and cocked in seconds.

And the Inspector stopped, paused, waited to see if Tommy would pull the trigger - then walked on.

Because he hadn't pulled it. Something had stopped him just in time.

Some small bit of hope.

Rosie and Lily hadn't been mentioned. He didn't know about them.

A replacement - either from Campbell being fired, or from him meeting his end - there was every chance they'd come straight for him, because Campbell had told Grace. The special interest she showed in him was proof of that, even if Rosie hadn't seen them at the museum together - seen how they were.

There was every chance a replacement might not be able to be bargained with at all. And Tommy wanted the bargain. Wanted the blind eye he was being shown. Their eighth race was this week, he was expecting movement from Kimber soon. Then the business might come to the end as it had been planned to.

If not - he had a chip the inspector didn't know he had.

Ada. His unborn niece or nephew. Finn. They were on the line here. And even if no one went after Lily or Rosie, if anything happened to him, they'd be affected.

But he had Grace. And he didn't give a fuck what he had to do to that woman to scare Campbell enough into co-operating. And he might be the fucking gangster of the two, but it was Campbell who had taken them where they were going.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The door was still locked when he got back, and he logically knew there had been no disturbance, but it didn't stop him rushing up the stairs, going to Finn's room and opening the door, checking the kid was still there. He went to the bed and perched himself on the side of it, his hand going to Finn's sleeping head, resting on his short hair for a minute, listening to the kid's steady, unconcerned breathing.

He wasn't surprised when the door creaked a little and Rosie came to rest in the opening. They stayed in their positions, her silent eyes on him, his moving back to Finn, resting there for a moment, unsaid things passing between them. She knew he'd been threatened without him having to say it.

Eventually he stood and went to the fire, chucking some extra coal on.

"Thought I told you to try and get some sleep," he growled as he knelt before the flames.

She didn't say anything, just stayed silently watching him as he eventually straightened up and left the room, one last look at his baby brother before he passed by Rosie's sentinel figure to go to the room she had just come from, perform the same routine on Lily as he had just done with Finn.

"What happened?"

"He didn't mention you - or Lily," he told her, his eyes on the bab asleep with her arms curled around one of her bears, the other having fallen to the floor.

He retrieved it and lifted the cover to tuck it back in by her.

"He mentioned Finn though."

It wasn't a question. She was simply stating what she'd gathered already.

"You're soaked, Tommy, get off the bed and give me your coat," she sighed, slipping into mother mode, reaching out a hand for the coat.

He stood up and obediently handed it to her.

"Jacket too, it'll have gone through."

He retrieved his cigarettes and lighter, putting them on her nightstand, then passed it over and sat back down on the bed, his hand going back to Lily's sleeping body, his eyes staying trained on Rosie as she laid his coat and jacket out in front of the fire to dry, touched by the way she looked after him, wondering, as he often did, how he'd got so god damn lucky as to find her. So perfectly domestic in ways that suited him. Happy to order a man's death too, when it suited her.

She felt his gaze and met it over her shoulder, straightened up slowly and came over to stand before him. Her fingers went to his collar, nimbly detaching it from his shirt with the closeness only a woman who washed those shirts and collars could have and he looked up at her, a wide eyed and reverant child looking to this woman for guidance. His heart thudded as her hands caressed gently around his neck.

"And the rest Tommy," she murmured, as she put the collar down on the nightstand by the cigarettes.

He raised a questioning eyebrow.

"You need some sleep. I need some sleep."

And neither of them would get it apart.

Still, he forced himself to ask, "You sure?"

She nodded and he returned it, before standing and keeping her gaze as he unclipped his watch and placed it on the growing pile, then unbuttoned his waistcoat and shrugged it off. She got into the bed, climbing across the bottom, where Lily's feet didn't reach, and settling herself in the corner against the wall.

He put his sleeve garters on the stand too, then unlaced his boots, kicking them off, yanking off his socks and suspenders too, then straightening up and turning to face her as he slid his braces off his shoulders and unbuttoned his trousers. The flickering and occasional splutter of the fire and the drum of the rain on the roof and the windows seemed to make their silence even more charged as she watched him disrobe, their eye contact only lost for a moment as he pulled his shirt over his head, finding he couldn't be bothered undoing more than a few buttons, taking his undershirt off in the same movement.

He stepped out and stood still for a moment, clad in just his shorts, letting her eyes take in his chest, his tattoos, before he made the journey she had done - across the foot of the bed and up, settling himself in next to the redhead, the baby on his other side.

He made the pillow dip a little as he reached across her blonde head to retrieve his cigarettes and lighter and dip again as he put the latter back. It was slight, but enough movement to disturb her, and she shifted in her sleep, turning her head to blink up at him, taking in the sight of him lying next to her and inhaling on his cigarette, Rosie having already curled herself around him, her unruly head on his shoulder. What Lily couldn't see, beneath the covers, was Rosie's left leg curled around his, her icy bare feet resting on his legs.

"Daddy?" Lily mumbled, sleep still holding her enough that she hadn't quite come to full realisation yet.

"C'mere," he murmured, keeping his cigarette in his mouth as he put an arm around her and pulled her close to him, "There y'are, that's my girl - back to sleep, eh?"

She nodded and smiled, shimmying a little as she nestled in on his other side, her eyes obediently closing.

He let out a long exhale of smoke and took in his position - in between the woman he loved and a little girl who called him Daddy in her dreams, a little girl he'd do anything to protect.

He wouldn't have crossed the line first. But some grace somewhere had permitted him to be able to have this. And he didn't give two fucks what he had to do to Grace to keep it.

Thanks so much for reading! Just a little note - I'm super busy at the pointy end of my university work atm, so updates will continue to be a little sparse for the next few months, but I am very much planning to see this through so please don't worry that I've abandoned you, I absolutely haven't and I have no plans to do so!