Hi everyone, thank you for reading! I just did two songs this chapter. I'm kind of laying out the dynamics of the Shelby family, and as much as I want to keep it modern, I don't want to overload it! Any support is appreciated, thank you again! xx

The Union Forever - White Stripes

Heartbroken, In Disrepair - Dan Auerbach

Grace and Ada laid on the couch across from each other, their legs intertwined under the gray cashmere blanket, waiting for the boys to come in from their smoke so everyone could get this meeting over with. Grace sipped her wine, mindlessly looking at the ceiling, thinking about the work ahead of her this week.

"Why did you ever post this picture of us you bitch, look at my double chin." Ada groaned and pushed Grace's arm with her pedicured toes.

"Oh stop, you don't even have one, we looked so good that day!" Grace looked at her own Instagram post on Ada's phone, having been thrusted in her face. The two girls had drunken smiles plastered on their faces, champagne in hand, sitting on the stairs of Michael, Isiah, & Finn's flat, looking at each other and not at the camera. John's wife Meghan sat behind them, hand covering her laughing mouth, face buried in Ada's shoulder. Grace for the life of her couldn't remember what had been so funny. Sisterhood, she thought. "We look so cute. That's the night Michael died at predrinks, remember?" The girls dissolved into laughter from their memories while some of the boys trickled back in from Grace and Tommy's stone veranda, still fighting obnoxiously loud about the Arsenal vs. Manchester City match.

"Where'd Tommy go?" Finn asked, emerging from the kitchen, flicking a piece of food across the room towards Ada's face. The youngest Shelby had impeccable aim. Slapping the crumbs out of her orbit, Ada pointed backwards towards the heavy double doors to Tommy's office, still shut.

Falling backwards onto a couch, Isiah yelled towards Tommy's office doors, "Oi, Tom can we get this going already? I have an exam tomorrow and shit."

"No one cares about your exam." Arthur said jokingly, cuffing Isiah on the ear as he lurched towards the brass bar cart that rested in front of Tommy and Grace's fireplace. "Whiskeys, everyone?"

"Fuck off, what do you know about uni, Arthur?"

"Not shit, and I turned out just fine."

John's booming laughter bounced off the walls as his strong frame sauntered through the porch door, Meghan trailing behind him, who settled in on top of Ada and Grace's legs, giggling.

"Yeah whatever you say Arthur. Somebody change this fuckin' song, it sucks."

"Christ, here we go again," groaned Michael from his spot on the floor. "On this episode of amateur hour: Meghan only likes the White Stripes' new music."

Everyone in the room collectively started laughing and swearing as they started defending their stances on the matter. The "which White Stripes album is better" debate was never-ending and came up at least once a week, an unfortunate Shelby-family-fixture.

While the room dissolved into musical war, John crouched down behind Grace on the couch so he was close to her ear and no one else could hear their exchange.

"So do you want to go see what his fuckin' brooding is about or should I?" The signature flick of John's toothpick against his teeth emphasized the impatience in his voice.

Grace laughed softly and rolled her eyes. "I'll do it."

John nodded silently and walked back over to his seat as Grace approached Tommy's office doors, after untangling herself from the two Shelby females on her leather couch. Knocking softly, she looked out the window into the heavy night as she waited for him to answer.

"Babe, it's me."

"It's open." His velvet voice was deepened by the dark oak door and Grace could already hear the stress in it. As she pressed the door open, Tommy's scent filled her lungs and she sighed it back out in unconscious relief.

Arthur's voice yelled after her through the doorway, "Oi if you two are gonna start fuckin', at least make it quick." Grace flipped off the boys with a slight smile before shutting the door, muting their laughter.

Tommy's office was her favorite room in their house, other than her closet. Doubling as a library, the scent of books swam into the scent of Thomas, which was what Grace imagined heaven smelled like. Not that she would ever find out.

Pictures of the family filled any book-less spaces on his mahogany shelves. Grace and Ada kissing the face of Tommy's best horse after he won at Epsom, the brothers with Aunt Pol when they were little, Tommy sitting in Parliament, a 10-year-old-Finn being spun around on Grace's shoulders, back before Tommy and Grace were even officially together. Grace smiled briefly at the one large painting that hung on the far wall, a nature scene with an additional blood red stain right down the middle. The brothers had now entitled it "The Great Painting Fight of 2015". Grace and Tommy had, well, disagreed, on how to decorate the living room. The fight had come to end with Grace throwing red wine on the painting and calling Tommy a passive aggressive ass-

"Gracie."

Grace snapped out of her memories and back into the matter at hand, her eyes flicking to Tommy's chiseled face, which was showing stress that no one else but Grace would have been able to see.

"Sorry. Reminiscing. Should we get this over with?"

Tommy blinked at her slowly from where he sat in his dark brown leather chair. He was so unbelievably handsome, and even after all these years Grace still swooned like a little girl when he looked at her like that.

Beckoning to her with his hand, he cleared his throat before murmuring to her.

"Come here."

Happy to oblige, Grace approached him with a bounce before settling onto his lap. Tommy wrapped his arms around her, the cold glass of his whiskey tumbler settling into her side. Pressing his forehead to her collarbone, they breathed each other in in silence for a few moments. Grace aimlessly rubbed the back of his head, his short hair like velvet. Dan Auerbach lyrics flowed out of his iPhone on the corner of his desk, filling the silence.

"It'll be fine, Tom."

"They're not gonna be happy."

"They will be when they see what the Americans can do for us."

"Yeah, but the American corporations are nasty business and they know it. I don't need them getting rebellious and shit with me before the Derby this weekend."

Grace grimaced knowingly at the thought of nasty business returning to their lives again. She glanced down and fiddled with her rose-gold bracelets, saying nothing. Grace's kidnapping hung over them both still, 3 years later. The memories gave her the chills, the smell of the warehouse she had been in fogged her brain. Sweat, blood, acid, metal. The traumatic anxiety gripped her as it crept in, her breath hitched slightly. Already knowing what she was thinking, Tommy set his whiskey on his heavy wooden desk before putting his hands on both sides of her face, cupping it. Wide blue eyes filled with pain met her own, and she was instantly reminded that it wasn't just her that had gone through her kidnapping, but Tommy too.

"Hey. We're safe, Gracie. Nothing's going to happen; not to you, not to me, not to anyone. It's nasty economic business. Not nasty illegal business. Things are different now. That's it. You're safe." He shook his head at her slowly, his nose brushing hers. "The worst thing we have to worry about in America is one of the boys getting involved with a Kardashian sister. Alright?"

Grace laughed and grasped his hands, their foreheads touching. "Bet: 100 pounds if it does happen it's gonna be with Arthur."

"I'll have to keep him extra busy with work when we go to Los Angeles, then."

"No way, this is a bet now." Tommy laughed at that and Grace pressed her lips to his smile, leaning them back in his office chair.

Pounding on the door interrupted their intensifying kissing, followed by an annoyed Scudboat, his massive frame filling the doorway.

"Are you two done yet? It's like fuckin' 8:30."

"Yeah, Isiah's gotta go, he has a spelling bee tomorrow." Yelled Michael from the living room. A loud thump and laughter followed as someone was shoved into a piece of furniture.

Tommy snorted and stood, picking Grace up with him and setting her on her feet. "Alright, alright. We're coming. Someone FaceTime Pol in New York, she should be done with the meetings by now. Better be." He muttered the last statement to himself in annoyance.

Grace watched Thomas as he shuffled his papers briefly before downing his whiskey in one shot, thinking she could watch him do that forever. Feeling her stare, he winked at her flirtily before pressing one more kiss to her lips as he confidently stepped past her.

"Don't worry, Gracie. You and me, remember? You and me."

"Me and you." Grace nodded, and followed him out of the room to her awaiting family.