The morphine had finally done the trick. A comfortable numbness settled over his body, something akin to peace along with the sensation as if he were floating.

"Is he awake?" a hushed voice said close by. Alfie's ears perked. He knew who that was and thankfully, it wasn't Thomas Shelby or the weasel from earlier. It was a woman.

"He's been in and out. He had visitors this morning and he's been sleeping since," the nurse said. "I can check now."

"I'm up," Alfie growled. He cracked an eye open and saw her, dressed in conservative dark clothes with her hair pinned back, which made her features look sharp and stern. Alfie didn't care. Ada was the most welcome sight he'd seen since his hospitalization, even more welcome than the nurse with the syringe filled with morphine.

"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes." His words slurred as he tried to move his lips.

Damn morphine. Making me look like a slobbering idiot.

She smiled, her face softening and looking less severe, but the smile looked sad. She reached for his hand, sliding hers into his, which lay limp against the bed covers. She sat down in a chair by the bed, still holding his hand.

"I'm so sorry this happened to you."

He was sorry she'd been there that night, witnessing him getting blood everywhere, ruining her clothes and her night out.

"Nothing anyone can do now."

"Yes there is," she said, squeezing his hand and looking straight into his swollen and battered face. "You can get better."

"Can't get any worse than I already am," Alfie said as nonchalantly as he could. He didn't want any pity or her worrying. " He changed subjects. "How's the little chap?"

"He's at school. She hesitated before saying, "He's fine."

Must've scared the little lad to death seeing his mother coming home late covered in blood. Hopefully she'd had time to change out of that bloodstained dress and tell the chap a story before bed. There was a pause.

"It's been… difficult for him," she said, clearing her throat. "His father passed and he's terrified of being alone… I felt awful, leaving him. He was with a sitter of course, but it was selfish of me."

"It was selfish of me to keep you from going home," he said, not liking the guilt on her face.

He wished he had a mother growing up who gave a damn about leaving her half dozen boys home alone for days on end doing the lord only knew what. His old man was more of the motherly type, but he had a business to run and he couldn't be home all the time. In the early days of building his career, he couldn't afford a sitter and if he could, he wouldn't trust one. The woman could be a plant, an enemy spy. Old man Solomons was as paranoid as they came. He'd get his most trusted men to hang around the house, which at the time was a ramshackle structure, and watch the boys running like hooligans around the house. Alfie learned a lot from those cigar smoking, drinking, rough talking men who swapped stories and played cards at the worm eaten kitchen table. He had stopped the childish games with his younger brothers and sat down to listen and learn as the oldest member of the Solomons clan. Those were the early days.

Alfie couldn't say he felt nostalgic right then and there. Especially since most of his brothers' lives had been short lived, ended in ruin if they lived to adulthood, or carried on in miserable poverty and squalor in some forgotten part of the country, thanks to dear old mum and dad. He was the lucky one, getting his foot in the door to the family business, gaining popularity with the men, and getting his old man's signature on the will signing his now established empire over to his oldest son.

"Those bastards are going to pay for what they did to you," Ada was saying, drawing him back into the present. "The police will catch them and they'll hang." Thankfully she didn't press him for details about that night. He had a vague recollection that he'd told her he didn't know who his attackers were. There was nothing on that front for her to ask.

He saw the sudden fury blazing in her eyes. He found it refreshing, but he had a hunch Shelby would get to the Scott long before law enforcement started sniffing around. Besides, no self respecting officer of the law would go out on a limb to aid the mobster, Alfie Solomons.

"That's a nice thought," he said, studying her face. She was watching him intently. Alfie couldn't quite interpret what her expression was.

"It's going to happen," she said, determination in her voice. "They will pay and you will get better." She gripped his hand in her own tightly for one final squeeze. He assumed that she was about to leave because he saw the nurse hovering in the doorway again with a tray of some godawful excuse for food and a cup of pills. Ada had seen her too.

"You're going to get through this." She slid her hand out of his own and kissed him quickly on the cheek, so quickly that Alfie was too surprised to process it immediately. She turned hurriedly away from him.

"Next time, I'll bring Karl around after school," she said, almost flippantly, but Alfie saw her face turn a slight shade of pink.

"I'm looking forward to it," he said, as she adjusted her purse on her arm. She glanced quickly at him and he saw a shy smile flicker across her face as it turned a more noticeable shade of pink. Alfie pretended he hadn't noticed, and tried his best not to smile.

"I'll be seeing you then, alright. Promise?" He couldn't help smiling then, even though the pain was creeping up on him again.

"I promise. Goodbye Alfie." She turned and walked quickly out of the room, leaving Alfie in much better spirits than he thought was possible.