Chapter Content Warning: canon-typical content.

My Responsibility

1919

Polly waited until after the morning rush had subsided. There had been an opportunity to speak with Tommy then, just as the morning betting was wrapping up, but his telling her to 'let it go' earlier that morning left a bitter taste in her mouth. So, Polly did just that, and she let it go a bit longer, waiting until after Tommy returned from his afternoon meeting across town. She hadn't led with the topic, allowing Tommy to settle in and pour himself a drink. She allowed him to set the cadence for their discussion, choose the order of business. She assumed they would end up on the topic naturally, that of the Shelby sisters, and Polly could decide what to do when that happened.

Polly had been considering speaking with her nephew from the moment she first knew their little Clara was lying about her whereabouts. It had occupied a distinct, yet a small, portion of her mind from the very first time the girl slipped out of the house in a dress much too nice for a Saturday morning playing around the neighborhood. Clara claimed she was heading down the lane to visit with Jeremiah and Isiah Jesus, flashing one of the hardcover books that had been glued to her hands since unwrapping them on her birthday. But after looking after no less than four older Shelby children before the twins, Polly knew better.

"Isiah and I are reading this morning. I'll be home after lunch," Clara had said, waving cheerfully to her aunt as she went through the door leaving little room for discussion.

A day later, when Tommy had slammed his hand down hard on the counter after Polly informed him of Ada's impromptu wedding, Clara had quietly slipped out of her chair and made her way out of her brother's path. Polly had watched as the girl headed up the stairs without a word to Tommy. She had considered stopping Clara right then, sitting them all down and telling Tommy just to get it all out of the way. She hadn't though.

Polly had pondered it yet again a few days later when she caught Clara washing some clothes that Polly knew belonged to Ada, a purple cardigan and a few of Ada's preferred dresses. She watched as Clara made up a basket of food, the items stacked on top of those very same freshly washed clothes.

"I'm off for reading and a picnic with Isiah," Clara had said.

But here Polly was, nearly two weeks later, and she was still questioning whether it was best to let her nephew in on the newest bit of what Polly wholeheartedly termed as women's business. Despite Tommy's drunken assertion of evenings past that it was time for Clara to learn the way of things, he hadn't followed through or made any further statements on the girl's behavior.

Since Clara had become relatively civil towards her brother and seemingly compliant in general, he had given a small allowance of freedom to them all. Focused on other things, business things, Tommy allowed his Aunt to handle the twins and Ada on her own for the time being. She reverted to sharing the outcomes with him essentially as an afterthought, a small courtesy only provided as it was needed. Until late, Tommy had no need of knowing the specifics of what the twins were up to day to day or Ada's whereabouts, settling for just knowing when there was an issue that required his attention.

The struggle between him and the girls had brought out a certain controlling quality in Tommy though. For the first time since coming home, Tommy wanted to know it all, the betting business, the family business, the women's business. Polly didn't quite understand how he had room to hold it all, but that was what her nephew was good at, holding everything, and thinking he did it all on his own.

"If it concerns those girls, Pol, I need to know," Tommy had said.

"You need to focus on the business. If there's something you need to know, you'll know," Polly had said.

She was grateful for whatever had brought on the slight reprieve in his needing to know everything. Polly generally believed that anything involving her nieces was the purest definition of women's business, the very type of thing that she preferred to take care of herself and keep from the boys if at all possible. She preferred to spare the girls the unfiltered response of their brothers' passion, even if their intentions were often nobly founded on things like protection and love. They were also founded on misguided ideas about the roles of women and a general measure of stupidity.

And while Polly wasn't one to nurture the growing defiance that got her niece into unnecessary fights at school, she discreetly endorsed the rebellion that had the girls sticking together and the cleverness Clara was developing by being compliant towards her brother while blatantly going behind his back. Most importantly, Polly thought it important to maintain Ada's connection to the family, and Clara's continued visitation had been the only apparent avenue in achieving it.

Beyond the girls sticking together, it was the muted sense of calm in the home that Polly openly welcomed after everything they had been through. The semblance of a ceasefire between Tommy and Clara made Polly question if it was necessary to tell him anything at all. She trusted Ada and Freddie to look after Clara and she knew the girl was being relatively cautious about the entire affair, taking safe routes and meeting up with Ada along the way, always making it home before dark.

Of course, in a way, Polly had always known the time for something like this would come. For eleven years, she had watched a bit in awe of the way that Tommy effortlessly influenced his youngest sister to abide by his every whim and the ease with which Clara could do the same to him. With each of them having their clear, definitive opinions and stubborn streaks, Pol couldn't understand how they had made it this far without much fight.

Clara had always had a distinct sense of right and wrong, typically straying to the side of what was correct and good. She was an inexplicable moral devotee in a house of general devilment. Polly supposed it was all the reading and the way she was favored by her siblings, shielded from all that was bad or cruel in the world. And while that often meant that Clara followed the rules, it also meant that at times a certain dignified and pretentious sense of fight came out of her when she believed something was in the wrong. It meant she refused what she didn't agree with and argued against those who she believed to be taking the incorrect path. But Tommy and Clara had always seemed to possess an unspoken, unwavering talent of coming to the same conclusion, their understandings on the way of things quickly converging even if they started out in vastly different places.

Polly had never known her niece to continuously shout or dispute or battle with Tommy, the older brother that the girl placed on far too high a pedestal. Their fights had always been quickly resolved by one or both of them shifting to accommodate the other. But after the event at the pictures, the two had shouted and debated and fought for days on end before Tommy finally lost his patience. That evening had been the start of a near-silence between Clara and Tommy as well as the reparation of Clara's relationship with her Aunt Polly.

Even though it was initially only due to a bout of the silent treatment between Clara and Tommy, something resembling peace had finally settled over the home. Polly knew that Tommy hadn't forgotten, and neither had Clara, but they were adjusting to this new normal and had gone about occupying themselves with things other than each other. It seemed to be working.

Tommy had tried with the girl that morning, testing out the camaraderie that had once been inherent to their relationship. Polly doubted he would extend the same playfulness to his sister if she told him what she had been up to.

Still, mad as they might be with one another, Polly knew that the two of them had a hard time not caring for one another. She hadn't missed that Tommy continued to push Clara's door open each night, allowing the light of the hallway to spill into the room just long enough for him to confirm that she was resting soundly in her bed. And though Clara never came down the stairs until after Tommy left the dining room table each morning, she would sit there for hours with the shop door propped open just enough that she could easily see Tommy working in his office if she decided to look up from her book.

Polly didn't want to disrupt whatever was going on between them, whatever slovenly restitutions were taking place. She knew the silence and the hurt and the anger between them wouldn't last forever. Both her niece and nephew would adjust to a new way of relating and understanding one another eventually.

It had taken Clara eleven years to find out that her Tommy wasn't always good or right and it had taken Tommy eleven years to find out that his Clara wouldn't always be prepared to accept things without question. It had been devastating for both to finally realize the other wasn't their perfect mirror, but Polly felt confident they would find a way to move forward.

Ordinarily, Polly would simply handle this type of thing quietly without finding the need to inform Tommy. He still didn't know about Finn finding John's gun or countless other trivial pieces of family business she kept from him to keep peace in the home. Polly had been running the family far longer than Tommy, long before the boys had gone to war, and long before their mother had passed. She had even helped to raise Tommy though she had been little more than a child herself at the time. Despite all of that, recently Polly's authority didn't feel so absolute when it came to Clara.

They had finished discussing any relevant updates with the shop and Tommy lingered, smoking a cigarette in its entirety in silence before finally bridging the topic of Ada and Freddie. Polly once again took a moment to consider his involvement in this particular bit of family business.

It was something of a rare moment these days, Polly and Tommy sitting together comfortably at the family table. Tommy had been analogous to a blur since the night of the shouting match with his sister, in and out of the family home as if staying there for more than a few moments at a time would cause undue harm. He seemed to live in his office and the Garrison, barely resting in the house for more than a few hours at night.

"Your sister has been to see them," Polly finally offered, maintaining eye contact with her nephew, unsurprised with his visceral response.

Tommy stood up and pressed his palms flat into the table as he leaned across the table towards his aunt. "She what?"

Polly crossed her arms over her chest, staring back at him. "Clara was the only guest in attendance at that wedding and she has visited them since. Three or four times, I believe."

Polly's tone was light. She didn't want to pass much judgment on what Clara had been up to, just deliver the message. After all, Polly generally approved of what the girls were doing. "And before you get angry with her—"

"You care to explain to me why my sister has been out wandering the streets, going to Communist safe houses, and you're just now coming to me about it?"

Tommy stared at his aunt though she seemed relatively unphased. When his demeanor alone didn't elicit a response, Tommy redirected his line of inquiry. "Where is she now?"

Polly leaned back in her chair, thankful that Clara wasn't home. "Thomas, sit down."

"Polly, you tell me where the fuck my sister is."

"She's visiting with Ada," Polly said.

It was nearly all that Polly knew in regards to Clara's exact location. Polly had followed Clara the third time she headed out after offering a feeble excuse for where she would be going. From that excursion, Polly had learned the neighborhood Ada and Freddie were staying in. She couldn't be sure which building, or which apartment, but Polly knew they weren't far and they were well hidden. She felt confident she could find out the other needed details soon enough.

"Where Pol?"

Polly shrugged and Tommy paced back and forth across the room unsure of who he was most displeased with. He would be happy to offer a telling-off to any one of the Shelby women. He certainly had enough rage to have a go-around with each of them at least twice.

Polly had lied to him. Clara had lied to him. The Jesus boy was lying to him, too. Tommy pushed a hand through his hair.

"Thomas, sit down," Polly repeated.

Tommy finally relented, slipping into a chair, his jaw was involuntarily clenching as a vein throbbed in his neck. "What the fuck are you thinking, Pol?"

Polly sat up straighter, leaning across the table. "I'm thinking that Clara is the only person in this family Ada has been willing to talk to and that's better than nothing."

Tommy lit a cigarette and leaned back in his chair as he considered it. He liked the idea of someone having contact with Ada, but he wasn't fond of that person being Clara. He would have preferred for it to be Polly wandering around the city visiting with communists.

Tommy took a long puff of the cigarette, allowing the smoke to fill his lungs as he took a moment to reset. Had he really been so distracted with the gun business that he hadn't noticed his sister regularly slipping out of the house so often by herself?

Tommy hadn't been thinking about Clara's absences much. She had been quiet and polite. He thought she was just feeling contrite and assumed she had simply been giving him a wide berth. He figured that his sister was spending her time up in her bedroom, occupying herself with books and writing and sulking. A handful of times he had seen Clara doing those very same three things at the dining room table while he sat in his office.

"Well, where are they staying then?" he asked.

"As I told you before, they're at a safe house, Tommy."

"There's nothing safe about the two of them staying here in Birmingham or about you sending Clara into that mess. Freddie and Ada need to leave town and they need to do it soon."

"I'm taking care of it," Polly offered.

"How? By sending a girl into the streets to conduct business she shouldn't be conducting? She's still a child, Pol."

"I haven't sent your sister anywhere. It seems those girls take after their brothers and like to do exactly as they damn please with little regard for consequences."

Polly gave Tommy room to argue against her point but he didn't take the bait. "And are you telling me that Clara is any more of a child than Finn? Because you have a child out there at the races with a blade bigger than his arm and—"

"You know what, Pol, you're right. They're my sisters, my responsibility. I want Freddie Thorne out of Birmingham and I want our Clara at home where she belongs. And if you can't make both of those things happen, I will. And I don't care whether you or either of those girls approves of the way it's done."

"You leave your sisters to me and don't you worry about it."

"Polly, you fix this, and you fix it today or I'll fix it myself," Tommy said before storming out the front door towards the Garrison.