BEING OUT OF THE hospital was something that Florence was overly excited about, finally being able to sleep in one of her own beds, and even though it wasn't in her actual home, it was in her childhood home, and the room she used to share with Finn. Although, Florence was limited to certain movements, including walking, and it was the most annoyed the girl had ever felt about not being able to move around in the way she liked to; everyone in her family were patient with her, Finn always sticking by her side so she didn't have to be behind, but even so, Florence hated being this weak, it wasn't like her, and it was her nightmare — but then again, she should just be glad to be alive. Not having John around, felt strange.. Knowing that he was never coming back, felt even stranger; she missed her uncle tremendously, and now that most of her cousins had moved away with Esme, it was even more heartbreaking, a family split up just from a few gun men with guns over a stupid vendetta. Not only was John gone forever, but Michael was still in critical condition in the hospital, unable to even get out of bed, and it definitely made Florence feel lucky that nothing worse had happened to her.

John's funeral was today, and the young girl was dressed in her fanciest black dress with her black hat, looking into her mirror with a distant look on her face, hating how she was dressed in this clothing yet again. When her mother died, she didn't understand how it all happened, since it all went down so fast; Greta fell ill pretty quickly, no one in the family having a chance to even come to terms what was happening, and it broke Florence, never understanding why her mother was taken away so fast. Not only that, but her father had been taken away not long after that to the War, along with her two uncles, everything changed in just a few months, and it had changed the young Shelby girl, affecting how she acted from that moment on.. A few years ago, Freddy had passed, and that was the second funeral the girl had been to; needless to say, she didn't want to attend any more funerals, all of them reminding her of the one female she felt attached to, and now, she was going to have to attend yet another family members funeral within just a few years.

Florence knew that she couldn't avoid this day, no matter how much she wanted to, which is why she felt so sour as she pulled her mothers necklace around her neck, winding a little when she moved her arm too high, her stitches stretching slightly from the movement. The doctors had told her specifically not to do any heavy lifting or lift her arms up above her torso, but of course, she didn't want to listen; everything they told her not to do wasn't exactly things that would make her weaker in a lot of ways, the girl just didn't like to be told what to do, and she knew that she got that from her father.. A lot of people always told Florence that she took so much from her dad, and mostly her looks from her mother — everyone knew how lovely Greta was before she died, it was like people telling her that she was cold and closed off like Tommy. It wasn't that het father was a bad person, but he wasn't exactly a good person, either, and when people role her that she was more like her father, it didn't exactly make her the happiest of people. "You ready, Flo?" Finn called out from outside of the bedroom, having been waiting for his cousin to finish getting ready. The girl hated how she needed help getting around, but she knew that there was nothing she could do about it.

"Yes." Florence replied, wincing yet again as she pushed herself up into a standing position, hearing Finn open the door behind her, "You don't have to be my bodyguard all day, you know." She pointed out, as the boy held his arm out for his cousin to take, knowing that he had no other choice in the matter, since Tommy had given him the task of looking after Florence and making sure she didn't hurt herself with her stitches, and there was no way he was disobeying Tommy. Finn always observed from a distance, watching everyone, knowing a lot about everyone, and he knew how much Florence despised her father right now, but he also knew how hard Tommy was trying to keep the girl safe — everyone could say what they wanted about Tommy Shelby, and question a lot of the choices he had made, but he still loved his family with his whole heart.. He just had a hard time showing it.

Ever since John died, and Michael and Florence got shot, everyone had been on edge, and it was a horrible time for everyone. "Tommy asked me to look after you. That's what I'm doing." Finn answered, as Florence grabbed his arm, squeezing a little when he spoke up, the boy winced, "Not that I don't want to. It's nice to hang out again, after everything." He said, implying about the fact that Florence had been in prison so they couldn't hang out..

"Why does everyone always bow down to him? Everyone needs to get some bloody balls." Florence mumbled, it had always been that way, even when Tommy was younger, everyone always did what he told them, no questions asked, and it always bugged her to no end.. Finn didn't say anything back to the girl, knowing how she felt about Tommy bossing everyone around, but he was the boss, and always will be, so he always followed blindly by Tommy's side, no matter what he asked of them all — Florence rolled her eyes when Finn didn't reply, knowing that obviously none of the other Shelby's would talk ill upon their leader. The girl practically used Finn as a walking stick as they slowly walked down the stairs, until finally reaching the kitchen, where a few family members were already sat, but not all got her, as some were still arriving; Florence took a seat next to Ada, the woman taking the girls hand in her own instantly, as Florence quietly thanked Finn for helping her get here.

Seeing everyone wearing black was bringing back memories she didn't want to remember, Freddy's funeral, her mums funeral.. Her grandmothers funeral.. Everything felt like it was rushing back to her all in one go, and it was completely overwhelming; but she hid it well from everyone in the room, except Ada, who's hand she was gripping and squeezing like it was her lifeline. Ada had always been her rock, the woman had always treated the girl like her own daughter, and Florence could whole heartedly say that she wouldn't be the person she was today, if it wasn't for her aunt. Her thoughts were put on hold, however, after hearing footsteps approaching and seeing Tommy walking up to them all without any expression on his face, as usual; no one spoke a word as he walked in, all just watching and waiting for him to speak up.

"John is dead." Tommy finally spoke up, Florence's heart completely stopping at his words, "Esme's gone on the road with the Lees. She's taken the kids. Michael is badly wounded, they say it's sixty/forty in his favour." He continued, the guilt pooling up inside of Florence again that she had gotten away so easily from the Italians compared to John and Michael — but she had her father by her side, and she couldn't say the same for the other Shelby men.

Polly scoffed at her nephews words, as Florence couldn't even bring herself to look over at her aunt Pol, she hadn't spoken to the woman since before Michael's injuries, because she couldn't handle the fact that she had survived with just a few stitches, and her son was still fighting for his own life. "There's no number, there's no percentages. So the hand, the hand beneath him stops him falling. Spoke to someone.. My son will live." The woman explained, as most of the family looked up at Tommy with unease, as Florence looked down at her hand holding onto Ada's, not wanting to look up at her father and see the expression on his face.

"Michael, Florence and John were shot because we killed someone.." Tommy spoke up again, practically ignoring Polly's words. He saw the way his daughter stiffened at his words, and although he wanted to be the one to court his own daughter instead of Ada, he pushed his feelings aside. "Vincente Changretta. His son Luca has come to take revenge. Men from New York and Sicily here in Birmingham. These men will not leave our city until our family is dead. That's how it works, an eye for an eye. It's called vendetta." He explained, as Florence felt her hands grow clammy — she and Charlie were Tommy's children, and they had already tried to take Charlie before, Florence felt that she and her brother were on the frontline, here. It wasn't that she was discrediting the rest of her family, but if two people were going to be targeted, it was Tommy's own children, since he was the one that ultimately took Luca's fathers life.

"Yeah, well.. The bullets been written.. It says Luca." Arthur told the family, holding up the very bullet that was pulled out of John's body — Florence didn't know if the bullet she had been shot with, was the same, and had the man's name on, but she didn't even want to know. "When the time comes.. And it will come, me as the oldest brother, will put this bullet into his fucking head." He finished, placing the bullet down onto the table of everyone to see, Florence however, avoiding looking at it like it was the plague.

"There's been some bad blood between us." Tommy then announced, noticing how every single person in the room seemed right, everyone being incredibly uncomfortable being together again. Florence had wished for her family to be together again during the holidays, and she thought that everyone would he glad to be together — the girl was incredibly wrong about that, and also hated the fact that it took John dying for everyone to actually reunite. When Polly began to laugh at Tommy's words, everyone looked at her sadly, knowing that she was still suffering because of what had happened in the past, by the leader of the family himself; the man clearly did not care about the well-being of the Shelby's.. "Until this business is settled, we stay together. We stay here.. Small Heath, Bordesley, Hay Mille down to Greet. We know every face, every man is s soldier in this army. These men are professionals and they're good at what they do, so we're gonna need more than we have." He continued, going on to claim that he had sent a message to a man named Aberama Gold which didn't sit well for a few of the others.

"So, this is the plan, Tom?" Polly asked in mock, "This is the plan? Bullet with a name on it, help from a bunch of savages." She accused, being the only one to speak out about Tommy's stupid plans. Florence still didn't mutter a single word, agreeing with Polly; she didn't think that fighting fire with fire was the best idea, and she just felt that someone else was going to get hurt. Florence could tell that Polly's behaviour was affecting her father, with it being known knowledge that Polly was one of the only people to truly get through to the man — hearing that the coppers didn't give a fuck about the Shelby's however, scared the hell out of the teenage girl, because she didn't trust any man that her father hires..

"Today, as we all sit in this room. We have to agree to end this war behind us. Take a vote." Tommy continued, after explaining what was happening with the coppers and who the people were that he hired. Florence was never involved in any War within the family, she always spoke to both sides, even when she didn't want to, but for the sake of her family, she would end it all.

Tommy didn't waste any time in looking over at Florence, knowing that if she would agree with him first, that the others would eventually follow behind her, too. The girl looked up at her father to see him already looking down at her with his piercing blue eyes; she was thinking of disobeying him, but she also realised that it was about the two of them anymore, it was about their whole family. So, Florence sighed, before eventually speaking up. "Peace."

——

Placing a flower on the hut with John's body inside was completely heartbreaking to do, and Florence was having a hard time keeping her emotions inside, not letting her family see how hard it was for her to be here. Seeing guns everywhere was sending her heart into spirals, remembering the attack at her apartment and the fact that she had killed someone for the first time, the fact that the man she had killed was someone that could have had kids — her father had made sure that she didn't know who the man she murdered was, thinking that it would make her feel better, but it didn't anything but. Florence couldn't stop thinking about what she did, and although she didn't see the actual man die from her own fun, she knew what she did, and even if this man was the enemy trying to kill her, he was simply doing his job. Florence knew for a fact that this death was going to haunt her for the rest of her life.. "Flo?" Ada mumbled, having looked over at her niece to see the girl staring at a blinder a few yards away, her eyes locked onto the boys gun in his hands, "Florence.." The girls aunt repeated, when the teenager didn't even seem to notice that she was trying to get her attention.

After being tapped by Ada, Florence finally forced back onto the real world, looking over at her aunt to see a massively worried look at how she was completely zoning out at the sight of a gun. "Sorry. Just tired." The girl told Ada, giving the woman an unconvincing smile before linking her arm through Ada's as the older woman just had to let it go by this point, knowing that it was John's funeral, and she didn't want to upset Florence any more than she already was; it was a hard day for everyone.

The two Shelby's then slowly walked back towards the other family members, Florence keeping her arm linked through Ada's to stay upright, she had been offered a walking stick to help her walk, but she ultimately refused, again, not wanting to look weak in front of her family. Everyone was dead silent as Tommy stopped in front of them all and began his speech for the funeral, talking about the War, and everyone that was close to John before his dead; he told a story on when they were all in France, and Florence felt goosebumps all over her skin at the remembrance of how cold her father had returned after that horrid time. The hut was lit a short time after that, with Tommy, yet again, ignoring Polly's digs at him, whilst everyone continued to keep the peach throughout the family. As the flames emit, Florence felt awful that she was just glad the funeral would be over soon, because she just wanted her haunted thoughts to end.

Suddenly, a gun shot echoing throughout the whole field caused everyone to lower down to the ground to prevent getting shot, minus Tommy and Arthur, who clearly knew what was currently going down — Florence felt pain spread throughout her stomach when she dropped down to the ground, the gunshot sending flashes of images throughout her mind on when she had been shot, the pain of the wound feeling like it was happening all over again. The girl felt involuntary tears streaming down her face, unable to get off of the ground when Tommy announced that everything was okay, and the man he hired were taking care of it all, a lot of the family not liking how he was so calm after what had just happened. Florence didn't get up besides her fathers words, keeping her palms covering her ears as she closed her eyes, trying to push away the face of whom she murdered in cold blood. "Puts us out in the open on purpose." Polly spoke up, piecing Tommy's plan together quickly, "To use John's funeral fire as a fucking beacon. You set up a trap! Look at your daughter, Tom. Look at her!" The woman yelled, as everyone turned to look at Florence and Ada, the older woman trying to lift Florence off of the ground as she was having some sort of panic attack. Tommy swore he felt his heart break into two again when he saw his daughter crying; knowing that he was the reason for both incidences. The man began to walk towards her, when Polly stood in his way, giving him a death stare and shaking her head, "You've done enough to that poor girl." She said.

Ada loved her older brother, but she couldn't help but agree with Polly as her niece cried into her chest; it broke her own heart seeing Florence act like this, since the girl had always been so strong when it came to anything that happened within the family. To see her break, was heartbreaking, and she just wished she could do more for the teenager..
But they all knew, that this was now a broken family.