Rose worked hard to concentrate on the board meeting in Michael's hospital room. She sat a little away from the table, staying quiet as she'd been told to, taking the minutes. There were three items on the agenda, all of which had to do with Polly rejoining the company as senior treasurer. Polly was back to her usual acerbic self and didn't miss a thing. She eyed Rose a few times and knew something was amiss with her – more so than usual – but she didn't say anything. The meeting ended before too long and was quickly followed by what Tommy called the "real business." Rose put done her pad of paper and pen, knowing the contents of this meeting couldn't be documented.

Tommy was frustrated that Arthur wasn't there - and worried. He didn't like it when family members didn't appear when they were supposed to, especially in the middle of a vendetta. He decided they'd wait. Cigarettes were lit, legs were crossed, eyes were rolled and Tommy gestured with his head that he wanted to talk to Ada on the other side of the room. Ada stood up and joined him there where they stood in a huddle talking quietly. Ada turned and looked at her sister and Rose knew who her babysitter would be. She pursed her lips and looked away but realised it could have been a lot worse. Ada would be good company at least, unlike Finn or Isiah. Michael leant towards her.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Rose…"

She scowled at him. "I don't want to talk about it, Michael."

"Of course you don't, but until you do, it'll eat away at you. And the pills won't keep it at bay forever."

She stood up abruptly and walked away from him, glad he couldn't follow her. She stood looking out of the window with her arms folded around her. A few seconds later, Polly joined her.

"You saw her again, didn't you?"

"No"

Polly raised her eyes to the ceiling. "Why do you kids insist on lying to me? I always know when you are."

Rose rubbed her forehead, her headache was worse. "Tommy says it's the pills."

"He's right. You don't have second sight."

Rose felt aggrieved, though she didn't know why. Polly continued.

"But that fact that they're making you see your mother means something. What did she say?"

"Aunt Pol…"

"Tell me."

"Nothing much. She told me that John was with her, that he wasn't hurt. Then she offered me an apple. She had a basket of apples."

Rose didn't tell her that she'd heard Alfie's words coming out of her mother's mouth. Polly frowned.

"Apples? Apples mean temptation." She turned and looked at Rose. "What's tempting you, Rose?"

Rose had had enough of being examined and analysed. "I'm being tempted to leave this room and get away from everyone trying to fix me! Leave me alone, Aunt Pol."

She pushed past Polly and, with no other options, went and sat down next to Lizzie, who looked at her in surprise.

"Can I have a cigarette please, Lizzie?"

Still surprised, Lizzie handed her a cigarette and lit it for her. Rose reached over to her briefcase and pulled out the work she'd done with Michael.

"Will you look over my work, Lizzie? Make sure I've done it properly."

Even more surprised, Lizzie opened Rose's files and spent the next twenty minutes appraising Rose's work. Rose listened closely and took note of Lizzie's comments. She found that what had started as something to keep her family off her back, became time spent doing something which distracted her and gave her a sense of achievement. She also took on a begrudging admiration for Lizzie and her skills.

After an hour of waiting, Tommy called them together, still annoyed that Arthur was absent but not willing to wait any longer. And that was when Rose found out about the plan to hire Aberama Gold to assassinate Luca Changretta instead of letting Arthur do it. She knew Arthur wouldn't like it but she was glad nonetheless. Arthur didn't need another life on his conscience. At the end of the meeting, Polly insisted on knowing who had visited Michael – she could smell the perfume. Tommy had run out of patience by this stage and told her outright that the woman who raised Michael had visited him, as was her right. That went down about as well as everyone imagined it would and Polly stormed out of the room. Tommy raised his face to the heavens as he held onto the last of his patience. He looked down at Rose.

"Rose, I want you to…"

"I know. I have to go with Ada."

"Yes, and do everything she tells you."

Ada muttered, "That'll be the day."

Rose rolled her eyes.

Tommy pointed at his youngest sister. "Oi, look at me. I mean it."

"Ok, I heard you. I'll stay with Ada."

He called after them as they left the room. "And do what she tells you!"

Ada opened the door of the house she was staying in on Watery Lane and stepped inside with Rose following her. Karl was with Charlie and Billy and all three were being looked after by a hired nanny, a wife of one of Tommy's most trusted men. Ada put her bag down, hung her coat up and took of her hat, then turned to Rose.

"Right, I don't like this anymore that you do but Tommy says I have to search you."

Rose's mouth dropped open. Ada sighed.

"Give me your bag, Rose."

"No"

"Rose, don't make this any more difficult than it already is. You need to come off the pills and Tommy's decided that that starts now."

"No!"

"They're dangerous, Rose, you know they are."

"They help me. The doctor wouldn't have prescribed them for me if I didn't need them."

"The doctor prescribed them for you because Tommy paid him to."

Rose was beginning to panic. If Ada found the pills in the lining of her coat, she'd lose them. She clutched her bag to her chest and glared at Ada.

"I don't have them on me."

"Well, you would say that wouldn't you? Just let me look, Rose. Or do I need to call Isiah in to help?"

Ada reached out to take the bag but Rose held on. They glared at each other for a few seconds until Rose gave in and let go. She was beginning to feel light headed. She would have had another pill by now and everything was getting too hard. Her emotions were heightened, her nerves were raw, every muscle was tense and she was on high alert. Her head was pounding.

Ada looked through Rose's bag and found nothing. She looked at her sister and noted the colour seemed to have drained from her face. She felt sorry for her but agreed with Tommy that she needed to stop taking the medication.

"Right, let me check your coat pockets."

Rose began to sweat and knew she had to hold it together. Ada reached into one and then the other of her pockets.

"You've got a hole in this one, Rose. You should sew it up, things could fall through."

"Yeah, I will."

"Why are you wearing this old thing anyway. I sent you that lovely green coat from London, you should wear that."

"Unlike you and Aunt Pol, Ada, I don't feel the need to walk around Small Heath wearing fancy clothes and pretending I'm posh."

"We are posh now, Rose. We have money, we have power."

"We only have those things because we stole them off someone else."

"The business is changing now, you know it is."

"Do you think Tommy is changing?"

"Yes, I really do."

"As soon as this vendetta is over, everyone will go back to what they were doing and Tommy will go into business with whoever is offering the most, legitimate or not."

"I don't think so, Rose. I think he's regretting the last year. He's back with us, protecting us."

"Don't you think it's a bit late?"

"Maybe, but better late than never, eh? Come on, then, take your coat off."

Rose looked at her sharply. "You're going to frisk me?"

"Tommy said to make sure you had nothing on you, so yeah, I need to frisk you."

Rose was angry. "You can tell Tommy…"

"Don't be a baby, Rose. Just put your arms out."

Still glaring at her, Rose reluctantly took her coat off and stretched her arms out, just wanting this to be over. Ada quickly searched her, feeling for a pill bottle, almost as embarrassed as Rose was. As Ada quickly ran her hands over her body, Rose was gripped by a sudden rise in panic. She was assailed by a vivid memory and felt it like a punch to her stomach. Fear filled every inch of her and she pushed Ada's hands away, backing into the wall, her chest rising and falling quickly as she struggled to breath. Ada watched her, horrified.

"Rose? What's the matter?"

Rose's hand flew to her chest. She couldn't breathe. She felt like she was going to pass out. Ada put her arm round her and managed to get her to the sofa where she sat down next to her. She was beginning to put two and two together. She grabbed Rose's hands.

"Rose, look at me, Breathe ok? Breath with me. Look at me, you need to slow your breathing down. Rose!"

Rose made herself look at Ada and slowly allowed her to guide her to a state where her breathing slowed, her heart stopped racing and she felt slightly calmer. Once she could see Rose was better, Ada fetched a glass of water and made her drink it. Then she took the glass, put in on the table and took hold of Rose's hand.

"Are you alright now?"

Rose nodded and answered in a shaky voice.

"I think so."

"You're safe now, Rose. It's in the past."

Rose pulled her hand away and stood up. "I need to go and get Fred from the yard."

Ada stood up too. "Rose…"

"Please Ada. I need to go and get him. Are we finished here?"

Sighing, Ada nodded and Rose moved quickly to the door. She grabbed her coat and bag, pulled open the front door and stepped out. Ada followed her.

"Rose, you need to be careful. You're not doing well."

Pulling her coat on, Rose turned to Ada. "That because my own sister just frisked me like a common criminal."

"Rose!"

But Rose was already walking quickly away. She felt awful – nauseous, dizzy, her head still pounding. She was headed towards number six but quickly became aware of someone walking close behind her. She spun round and saw Isiah eying her warily.

"What are you doing, Isiah?"

"Tommy told me…"

At this Rose groaned and carried on walking. "What did you do to get stuck being my babysitter?"

"Tommy don't trust nobody else to keep you in line."

She wheeled round again. "Keep me in line?"

Isiah shrugged. "Yeah, well, that's what he said."

Rose closed her eyes. She didn't feel well enough to push against this as she usually would. She turned and carried on to number six. As she reached it, Isiah nipped round her and stood in front of the door.

"Sorry, Rose. You're not allowed in till Tommy's home."

Rose clenched her teeth. This was getting ridiculous.

"You can't stop me from going into my own home."

"Yeah, I can."

Rose knew why. Tommy didn't want her to get at her pills before he did. But she needed to get those precious few that were still in the bottle so she could keep them close to her too.

"Isiah, I just need to go in and get something. I'll be two minutes."

"No can do, sorry. What do you need? I'll get it for you."

She scowled at him and turned round, heading towards the yard. She knew it would be useless to try and argue with him. Isiah was one of Tommy's most loyal men and because he'd grown up with her, didn't feel in the least bit intimidated by or in awe of her. He was practically another brother.

Arriving at the yard, Rose was exhausted. It had been a long day and she was mentally drained. Fred bounded over to greet her when she walked in and she caught him in her arms as he jumped up. She grunted as he did, he was getting a bit big to be carried now, but she was so glad to see him. She buried her face in his fur and held him tight. He loved her unconditionally and was just happy whenever he was with her. She didn't know how she'd cope without him.

Curly followed him over and smiled at Rose.

"He was very good, Rosie, no trouble at all. And I fed him too. Is that alright?"

"Yes, of course, Curly. Thank you for taking care of him."

"Oh, it was no trouble. No trouble."

Rose put Fred down and gave Curly's hand a squeeze. He beamed at her. She looked round for Charlie who was still working on his boat engine.

"Uncle Charlie, can I use your outhouse?"

"Course you can, girl, if you've the stomach for it. Don't know when Curly last cleaned it."

"Last week," Curly helpfully supplied.

Rose then turned to Isiah. "You want to come with me? Hand me the paper?"

Isiah wasn't amused. He lit a cigarette and wandered away. Ada had checked that Rose had no pills on her, so as far as he was concerned she could do what she wanted. Tommy had told him to make sure she didn't go home till later and didn't somehow get any more pills from anyone.

Shutting the door of the outhouse behind her, Rose wrinkled her nose at the smell. But she wasn't there to use the toilet. Putting a hand in her coat pocket, she used the other hand to bring up the hem. She hadn't thought through how to get her pills out of the coat so there was quite a bit of fumbling. In the end she managed to get one up through the hole and into her hand. She put it quickly in her mouth and swallowed it. Leaning against the door, she was impatient for it to take effect. And gradually it did. The familiar welcome haziness descended in her brain, her muscles relaxed, her heart rate slowed and her feelings numbed. She breathed a deep sigh of relief. She was more convinced than ever that she wouldn't be able to cope without them.

Returning to the courtyard, she joined Charlie at the fire. He had a mug of tea and the biscuit tin ready. She accepted them gratefully and sat down. Charlie sat next to her.

"How was your first day at work, Rosie?"

She shrugged. "It was fine."

"Listen, Rose, I told Tommy about the money."

"I know, Uncle Charlie. Don't worry about it."

"I just felt I had to."

"It's fine, really."

She pulled her feet up onto the chair and put her arms around her knees. Closing her eyes, she just sat, allowing the drugs in her body to carry her a distance away. She wondered if Tommy would find her pill bottle. She hoped he wouldn't, but Tommy always got what he wanted.

Tommy was searching for a couple of things at that moment in time - his older brother being one of them. He was relieved to see him in his office and then shocked to hear that he'd been almost killed by two Italians. He wasn't surprised to hear he'd killed them both. Arthur was a force to be reckoned with. That the factory had been breached was of great concern to him. He would deal with that later tonight but first he had to find the other thing he was hunting for. Heading up to Rose's room, he vehemently hoped the pill bottle was in there. He didn't have time to hunt through the rest of the house.

Tommy's search of Rose's room was as thorough as everything else he set his mind to. He went through every inch of it and it wasn't too long before he found what he was looking for. As impressed as he was with her hiding place, he wasn't happy see the bottle was two-thirds empty. She'd only had it a day or so. There was no way she could have taken that many – that meant she had hidden some elsewhere. Which is exactly what he would have done if someone was after his stash. It was clever and yet it was nonetheless frustrating.

He was waiting for her at the kitchen table when she came home not long afterwards. Isiah led the way, wanting to make sure Tommy was there. Tommy had a job for him before he left.

"Isiah, bring Devlin here. He'll be at home, or on his way to the station. Put the word out."

"Yes, Tommy."

Isiah left and Tommy turned his attention to his sister. He didn't ask her to sit down, leaving her instead standing before him. As she watched, he reached into his pocket, pulled out the bottle of pills and placed it on the table in front of him. Rose glanced at it, then back at him. She wasn't really surprised. Tommy regarded her, trying to read her expression. He couldn't, so he asked a question.

"Where are the rest of them?"

She was quick with the lie. It seemed to come naturally these days.

"That's all I have."

"You only got it the other day."

"It wasn't full when I got it. The person I got it from said they couldn't get a full one."

He raised his eyebrows. "You paid fifteen pounds for less than half a bottle of pills."

Anger flashed in her eyes. "That's right. What option did I have, Tommy? You wouldn't let me have another prescription."

He leaned forward in frustration and picked up the bottle. "All these drugs do is to numb you, Rose. They knock you out or dope you up so that you don't have to think about what the problem really is."

Her eyes narrowed. "Like the opium did for you?"

"Yes, like the opium did for me."

"And the whiskey still does? And the business? And the…"

"Enough, Rose! This conversation is about you, stop deflecting. You're an addict – you steal from me, you run around in the middle of the night to buy these, you lie and deceive and push people away. I've seen how this ends, Rose, and it's not with you riding off happily into the sunset. You're fourteen years old! You should be out with your friends, going shopping, enjoying yourself."

Rose felt every one of his words as a knife in her heart. Hearing herself described like that made her realise that she was indeed an addict. Her legs buckled.

"May I sit down, please, Tommy?"

He looked at her drawn face and saw how drained she was. He pointed at the chair next to her and she sat down on it. She put her arms on the table and clasped her hands in front of her. Tommy spoke gently.

"Mouse, I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you last year. I'm sorry that I didn't take the time to see how you were struggling. I'm sorry that you had to be in pain all on your own. I should have helped you."

Rose felt her eyes fill with tears. She had thought that she didn't need an apology from him, that it would be too late anyway, but hearing him acknowledge how he'd hurt her and how sorry he was did actually mean a lot to her. But she was hesitant.

"But why, Tommy? Why couldn't you have stayed? Was it me?"

"Is that what you think? That I stayed away because of you?"

A tear fell down her cheek. She nodded. Tommy was mortified. It hadn't even crossed his mind that she blamed herself for his absence last year.

"No, absolutely not, Mouse. There is nothing you could do to push me away."

"They why?" She needed answers

Tommy paused. He didn't like to talk about his feelings any more than she did. But he owed her an explanation. He cleared his throat.

"I thought the family was better off without me. What had happened to everyone was my fault." He lowered his eyes. "What happened to you was my fault. I had no idea how bad it would get when I went into business with the Russians. Everyone came out damaged. That was on me. It still is. And … and I knew I wouldn't change. I couldn't, not since France..."

He paused. He was touching on issues he couldn't talk about. He lit a cigarette and sat back. Rose sniffed and swiped a tear off her cheek. She was beginning to understand.

"I never blamed you for what happened. How could you know? But I needed you afterwards. You were there for a bit when I was ill, but then you were gone again. And all I could think was that it was because you could see how damaged I was. That maybe you blamed me for what happened, that I'd not fought hard enough or…"

She couldn't find the words to finish. She was scratching at her thumb again. Tommy's eyes were shining with tears. He too was beginning to understand. They sat for a moment, each struggling with their emotions. Tommy cleared his throat again.

"I can't change what's already happened. I wish I could. But I can change what's happening now. I am here for you. I know you find that hard to believe and that's ok. I'll prove it to you. And the first thing that I'll do to prove it is to get you off these pills. Will you let me help you?"

She had pulled off the scab on her thumb now and it was bleeding slightly. She couldn't answer. She was terrified of what would happen if she came off the pills. She had a question.

"Do you think people can change?"

"I think you can change. This doesn't have to be who you are."

"Maybe it is. Polly says we're cursed, us Gypsies. Maybe we're destined to fail."

"I don't believe that."

"Then can you change?"

He looked at her. He didn't have an answer to that one. She was his reflection, he'd always known that. A smaller, lovelier version of himself. But what if that meant that she was destined to make his mistakes, to carry the pain that he carried, to hurt others like he did. He frowned. He hated that thought. But what did that mean for himself? He looked at the blood on her thumb and thought about Polly's belief that their blood was cursed. It was too much for him to work out. He reached into his pocket, brought out his handkerchief and once again took her hand gently to tend to her wound. She felt the tenderness and the warmth of her brother's hands and knew he loved her. She loved him too. But was it enough to bring her back from where she'd fallen?

The door of the shop opened and Isiah and a couple of Peaky men entered, with Niall Devlin, Tommy's factory foreman. Tommy looked over and nodded at his office where Isiah led the little group. He stood up.

"I have to go and deal with this, Rose. I'm going to ask one of the men to take you over to Ada's. I want you to stay there until I can be sure there are no more pills in this house."

"There aren't, Tommy. I swear. I don't want to stay at Ada's, I want to sleep in my own bed."

Tommy shook his head. "I'm sorry, Mouse. That's how it is until I can trust you again."

She stood up and took a step towards him. "You can trust me, Tommy."

"Then tell me where the rest of the pills are."

Her eyes filled with tears again. "I can't cope without them, Tommy. If you take them, it'll be… I won't…"

He put his hand on her cheek and looked her in the eye. "I will help you, Mouse, with all of it. You can do it, you can. You're stronger than you know. Tell me where the pills are and we can start right now."

Rose wanted so badly to tell him, to let him take care of it all, to let him fix her. But she was too scared. She took a step back, away from his hand, away from him. He sighed. She whispered.

"I'm sorry, Tommy."

He nodded and turned away.

Five minutes later, Rose found herself accompanied across the road to Ada's house where she would be reluctantly staying the night. Ada wanted to talk but Rose asked to go to bed; she really didn't have the energy for a long conversation with her sister. Closing the door of the bedroom, Rose sat on the bed and put her face in her hands. Fred jumped up next to her and put his head on her lap. There was so much going on in her head. She knew that Tommy wouldn't stop until she was off the pills; he was like a dog with a bone when he'd set his mind to something. She knew the pills weren't good for her. She knew she was an addict because she knew she couldn't live without them. Should she trust Tommy now? Should she let him help her?

There was someone she kept thinking about whom she knew she could trust to help her. Someone who understood her better than anyone else. Someone she suddenly wanted to talk more than anything. And so it was that Rose began to plan how on earth she would be able to get to London whilst she was in the middle of a vendetta in Small Heath, Birmingham.