"What the fuck is she doing here?"

The room was laced with tension and Niamh grimaced to herself at Polly's vicious words. Tommy, as expected, barely reacted and simply just eyed Polly with a cool indifference that only sought to aggravate her further.

"I called you all for this family meeting," he cleared his throat, smirking ever so slightly when he looked at Alfie, no doubt finding it as amusing as his former nemesis that they were now referring to one another in such a manner. "Because I have some news for you all, and that news is to do with Grace and I."

"Is it anything to do with that baby inside of her belly by any fucking chance?" Polly hissed, shaking her head in disgust as she eyed Grace's stomach which, despite her attempt at deceiving it with a loose fitting dress, was clearly rounded.

"Thomas and I are having a baby," Grace smirked, fluttering her eyelashes at Tommy demurely and placing a hand on his arm in such a way that it revealed the huge ring on her finger. "And we're getting married."

Silence radiated around the room, interspersed solely by the rhythmic thud of Ada's foot as she tapped it awkwardly up and down on the floor. Polly didn't even attempt to hide just what she thought of Grace's announcement, not even when Arthur stood up and politely kissed Grace on the cheek before hugging Tommy and offering his congratulations to the two of them.

"Oh sit the fuck down, Arthur," Polly spat, stubbing out her cigarette in the ashtray and running her hand over her face wearily. "You could have anyone you want, Thomas; anyone. Why her? She might have plied you with sweet words and come to bed eyes but I haven't forgotten that she's nothing but a copper's nark and she's not wanted in this family. I suppose now her husband's suicide makes sense. Although I'm wondering if really topped himself or if one of you two gave the man a helping hand. "

Niamh cast a side eyed glance to her husband who was watching the scene before him with complete fascination. He had heard about this Grace woman before; been mildly amused by the fact that Tommy Shelby had been played for a fool by an undercover agent, but he hadn't realised that she was back on the scene. And apparently neither had anyone else. Alfie had to admit to himself that for all he had been dreading this little trip to Small Heath, he was actually really rather enjoying the opportunity to watch the family dynamic and learn about who played what sort of role in the family.

"She is wanted," Tommy answered, his jaw clenched slightly as he inhaled deeply on his cigarette. "And she will be part of this family, Pol, whether you or anyone else likes it or not."

"Well I don't like it. Not one fucking bit," Polly glared at Tommy and then at Grace, who clearly enjoyed the reaction she was getting from the Shelby matriarch and could just about conceal the delight in her face. "It's bad enough we've got him..." she pointed at Alfie who offered no outward reaction aside from squeezing Niamh's thigh reassuringly when she opened her mouth to defend him. "...Sitting in on family meetings like he's one of us but now you want her to be part of it too. You really have lost your fucking mind. Then again, you're a man, and all men think with their cocks. Especially if there's a pretty whore willing to get on her knees and suck it for free."

"You're clearly in shock," Tommy murmured. "Which is why I'll let your obvious upset slide for the moment. But just so you know, Pol, I'm the head of this fucking family and what I say goes. Alright?"

Polly said nothing. The anger in her overwhelming the room like thick black tar and suffocating everyone inside of it. Walking slowly towards the happy couple, Polly came to a stop, her face twitching with rage, and everyone waited with baited breath for what was to come next. Without a word, she spat at Tommy's feet and then left.

"Anyone else got anything to say?" Tommy asked, his jaw clenched.

"Ada? John? Esme?"

They all shook their heads. It seemed that Polly had spoken for everyone.

"No? That's a new one then 'cause usually you've all got something to say about anything I do, haven't you? Niamh?" he quirked an eyebrow towards the youngest sister, and he saw Alfie tense up ready to defend his wife just as she had been ready to defend him only seconds ago if needed. "You know how it feels being married to someone the whole family fucking hates so what have you got to say about this?"

Everyone looked at her; everyone apart from Alfie who hadn't taken his eyes off of Tommy.

Niamh sighed and chewed on her lip; a nervous habit she'd had her entire life. Shelby family meetings could often get overheated and tense, but this felt… different. This reminded Niamh of the day Tommy had casually informed the family of the deal he had brokered between her and Alfie those few months ago. They had hated Alfie then, they still did. They were only polite to him for the sake of the peace pact they had brokered through marriage and because of the fact that Niamh was actually happy in that brokered peace pact. Alfie had done bad things to their family yet she still lov… cared for him a great deal. So who was she to tell Tommy he couldn't have happiness with Grace just because of the past? Just because she didn't like Grace for reasons other than the past, who was she to decide how Tommy should feel about her? She of all people knew that the heart wanted what it wanted. Glancing to the side she caught a glimpse of Alfie and she had to hold back a smile. She had what she wanted and Tommy deserved the same.

"If you're happy," she stood, walking quietly towards Tommy and Grace to kiss them both. "Then I'm happy too. Welcome to the family, Grace."

"You don't like her, do you?"

Niamh looked at Alfie and smirked. They were walking to Charlie's Yard. Alfie had wanted to take the car but his wife had begged him to walk and he couldn't say no to her. The evening was drawing in and the sun was beginning to set in the sky. The smell of shit and smoke lingered in the air but Niamh didn't seem to notice. Or maybe she did but she just didn't care. The path along the canal was muddy and their shoes squelched with every footstep.

"She's… well, she's not my first choice for Tommy that's for sure," she shrugged, gripping hold of Alfie's arm tighter when she almost slipped.

"'Cause she used to be a copper?"

"No because she's..." Niamh sighed, thinking for a moment. "I just don't like her, Alfie. The doe eyes and gentle speaking and the way she only has to look at Tommy and he would do anything for her."

"Well, you look at me and I do anythin' you want," Alfie chuckled. "Or have you forgotten about when we was out walkin' 'round the shops the other week and you had me buy up all them clothes in that shop with just a little smile and a flutter of those eyelashes."

"In my defence, Alfie, those clothes weren't for me," she scoffed. "They were clothes for the children's home because Karina said that she'd heard they were desperate for them."

"Oh fair enough," Alfie tutted. "Well what about when you begged me to go out after dinner the other day in the pissin' down rain to get you some of them chocolates what you like 'cause you just couldn't wait until the next day for them?"

"Fine," Niamh rolled her eyes, standing up on her tiptoes to kiss Alfie's bearded cheek. "I'm a terrible wife. However do you put up with me?"

"God only knows, eh? Sorta helps that you're beautiful and funny and have the biggest heart out of anyone I've ever met."

"Flattery will get you everywhere, Mr Solomons."

"I'll remember that then," he winked. "Now back to your brother and that woman of 'is. We were up to her doe eyes and gentle speaking. I mean just those two attributes alone obviously sound fuckin' awful."

"Shut up," Niamh pinched his arm through his thick coat. "Look, I don't expect you to understand something that I'm not fully sure I understand myself but I know I just don't like her and never really have. Not that it matters, does it? Tommy's gonna marry her and they're having a baby and there's nothing any of us can do about that."

"What about that aunt of yours? She seemed angry enough to do somethin' about it, no?"

"Nah," Niamh shook her head. "She knows as well as the rest of us that there'll be no changing Tommy's mind about Grace, and as much as she hates her deep down she wants Tommy to be happy. She'll just be a bitch to Grace for as long as Tommy lets her and then she'll just be a bitch about her to the rest of us."

"And lucky old me gets her bein' both a bitch to me and about me," Alfie grinned. "Won the jackpot there, eh?"

Niamh's face fell and he stopped to cup her face. Her cheek was cold in his palm and her nose was red but she looked so radiant and so beautiful that he was certain his heart stopped for a moment. Fucking hell, what was she doing to him? Alfie had once prided himself on viewing women as nothing more than a quick fuck to pass the time. Not all women of course; nah, only those that he could pay for it or those that had been with more men than he'd had hot dinners. In the past those dalliances had been more than satisfactory and he was always kind enough to take good care of them too. After all, he wasn't going to have it said that Alfie Solomons couldn't satisfy a woman in bed. Oh no, they'd be satisfied all right; multiple times in fact. But now as he looked at Niamh, the woman he had only married to fuck her brother over, he realised just how hollow his past flings had been. Those women might have been better experienced and more confident and knew exactly how to touch a man to make him go mad, but none of that could ever compare to holding a woman who he actually had feelings for. Nothing could compare to knowing that he was the only one who had ever touched her the way he was; the only one who traced every inch of her skin with his fingers and his mouth to bring her pleasure over and over again, and not just to save his reputation but because he actually wanted to; because he would choose her pleasure over his own every time without question. Nothing could compare to seeing the way she would smile at him over dinner or how she would laugh when Cyril jumped onto her lap while she was reading. Alfie thought about all those times in the past when he would mock Ollie for being such a soppy bastard, wondering just why the lad was always itching to get home to Karina or do anything she asked of him, but now he understood it. Whenever he was at the bakery, his mind would wander to Niamh; would wonder what she was doing and before he knew it he was on the phone asking her something ridiculous just so he could hear her voice. He was becoming everything he teased Ollie for and strangely he was alright with it. How had he never understood until now that love of a good woman doesn't make a man weak? It strengthens him in ways he could never understand.

"Niamh," he murmured, pressing his lips to hers briefly before pulling back to see something in her eyes that he knew was mirrored in his own. "I… Are we nearly fuckin' there yet?"

Niamh blinked back a strange sense of disappointment that she didn't really understand before forcing a smile onto her face.

"It's just through those gates," she took him by the arm again. "Come on."

Alfie cursed himself inside for being such a fucking coward. Honestly it was actually really rather pathetic but he couldn't take it back now. The moment had passed.

Luckily for him, Niamh quickly turned her attention back to their surroundings and while he hobbled slightly with his cane towards the yard with Niamh practically dragging him, he knew that he was going to tell her soon. He had to.

"Curly hates leaving the horses," she told him as she reached her hand around one of the stable doors to unlock it. She had already explained earlier in the day that her uncle Charlie and Curly were at Appleby horse fair for the next few days and so he would have to save meeting them for another day. He had of course pretended to look disappointed about that for her benefit. "Worries about them, he does when he can't take them with him. Oh hello, beautiful, I've missed you."

The horse she was so excited to see was a magnificent creature; shiny black hair and eyes as dark as night. Even Alfie, who knew nothing about horses could see that he was a beautiful creature. He remained where he was, preferring to admire it from a distance while his wife nuzzled against the giant beast as though it was nothing more than an oversized teddy bear.

"His name's Zeus," Niamh turned to look at him, her small hands wandering the length of the horse's body as she cooed to him in shelta. "Me and Tommy read it in a book once. He was the king of all of the Greek Gods or something like that, and although this boy isn't a god, he's most definitely a king, aren't you, hey? Come closer, Alf; come and stroke him."

"Nah, I'm alright here, love," he waved her off.

"Alfie," she pouted. "Please come over here and see him properly."

"Niamh, sweetheart, if I get any nearer to that thing I'll be sneezin' all over the place. It's the hay, you know; it sets me off somethin' rotten. In fact, I can already feel my throat gettin' all scratchy and-"

"Alfie," Niamh raised an eyebrow, and for a moment he was appalled at just how much she looked like Tommy. It was actually quite horrific. "Are you afraid of him?"

"Am I afraid of-? What a stupid bloody question," he huffed out a laugh but Niamh could see right through it.

"It's ok, Alfie," she grinned, coming towards him and patting his cheek playfully just to mock him further. "This boy is quite intimidating if you're not used to horses. I'm sure Curly can find a Shetland for you to start out with next time we visit if I ask him."

"Piss off," he scowled, reaching for her and dragging her to him so that he could kiss her. But the kiss was interrupted by Zeus' face coming in between them, his huge nose pushing Alfie's face away from Niamh's with an angry snort.

"He's not hurting me, you daft boy," Niamh stroked his face and hushed him, the horse's demeanour softening instantly although Alfie stepped back purely out of instinct before the thing could maim him. "But I do think that maybe me and you should go over here so that Alfie can pretend he's not scared of you."

Alfie scowled at Niamh as she led Zeus towards the back of the stable and she briefly stuck out her tongue at him with a smirk. She picked up a brush that was lying around and Alfie found himself entranced by the rhythmic strokes of her hand down the horse's coat and he thought about the story she had told him of brushing her mother's hair as a child.

Leaning against the doorway, he wasn't sure how much time passed but he was content to just watch Niamh, clearly in her element and so happy. Her nose would crinkle when she stopped brushing Zeus and he would turn to nip playfully at her hand in an attempt to get her to start again, and she would murmur quietly to him, every so often glancing at Alfie as though she was talking to the horse about him.

" I didn't even expect this to happen, you know ," she was speaking to the horse in a language that Alfie couldn't understand even one word of. " But I love him. Well at least I think I do. Do any of us know what love is when we first experience it? All I know is that when I'm with him I feel like I'm complete, which is almost bizarre because I didn't think any part of me was missing, if that makes sense? He looks like a grumpy old grizzly bear but he's not really. He's soft and he's kind and imagine it; that man over there standing by the door won't come any closer because, even though he would kill a man with his bare hands, he's terrified of you."

She giggled and leaned her head against the horse's nose, her shoulders shaking as she struggled to hold in her amusement.

"What you laughin' at?" Alfie frowned.

"You," she admitted with a snort, taking her bottom lip in between her teeth in an attempt to stop herself from laughing again. But she failed miserably. "I just can't help it. The fearsome Alfie Solomons is afraid of nothing apart from horses."

"I'm afraid of more than that, don't you worry," he muttered, unable to be annoyed with her for seeing through his attempts at hiding his fear.

"Like what?" she smirked, carrying on brushing Zeus. "Do you have a secret fear of needles? Or does the feeling of cotton wool give you the heebie jeebies?"

"Nah somethin' much worse than that."

There was something in his tone of voice that made Niamh look at him, and for a moment he swore she could see into his soul with those eyes of hers.

"Absolutely petrified of losin' you," he murmured before he even realised it. "Aint never loved anyone before, 'cept for me mum and that, but I love you, don't I?"

"You love me?" she breathed, the brush falling to the floor with a thud and her feet moving towards him.

"I love you," he nodded, his declaration more confident this time and smile gracing his face when she wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest. This wasn't anything like how he thought he'd tell her but it just felt so perfect anyway. "Fancy that, Alfie Solomons bein' in love with a fuckin' Shelby."

"I'm a Solomons now," she looked up at him with an adoring look that melted his heart. "And I love you too, Alfie."