"Ya know..............?" Tommy asked, as he looked at (Y/n), who was reluctantly still sitting on the bed; though not in it, as Tommy had told her to be.

"Of course, I know. I've been told the fuckin thing could kill me any day; but so could anything else, Tommy. Yet here I still am all these years later; and I ain't gonna let this little bit of kraut shrapnel take me down........." (Y/n) replied, as she did her best to get up from the bed. The former corporal letting out an exasperated sigh, as Tommy stopped her.

"Tommy, I'm not made of glass, I ain't gonna break if ya let me up. I'm made of a bit tougher stuff; you of all people should know that. I didn't come to Birmingham to find you so that you could cluck around me like a mother hen. I came here because................" (Y/n) suddenly stopping and shifting in the bed; it feeling that she had somehow already said too much.

"It doesn't matter why.............I just don't need to be mothered............." The former corporal added, her eyes cast down to her hands in her lap.

The reason that she had come to Birmingham...........(Y/n) had said that it was because there weren't too many jobs for old soldiers where she had been; that, and she was sick of trying to come up with stories to explain away her injuries. But Tommy had never believed that. And now that she had brought it up..........

"Why did ya come ta Birmingham?" Tommy asked, as reached for one of her hands. Her palm fitting perfectly into his, as he squeezed her hand slightly.

"I told you. I couldn't get a job. The idea of working in a pool of typists, or behind the perfume counter at some shop, just didn't appeal. I wasn't made for any of that. And just like men, employers are looking for more in their ladies than the knowledge of how to fill and get sandbags on a parapet without getting your head shot off; how to best keep you kit clean and which rat to bet on during the weekly rodent races........." (Y/n) replied. Her words coming out a little harsher than she had meant them to.

She didn't like speaking to Tommy in that way. He had done so much for her. He has earned her respect and loyalty during the war, and that still stood now. But she couldn't tell him the truth. She was nothing special; just a woman that had been crazy enough to pretend that she was a man, so that she could go to war. Whereas he............he was Tommy fuckin Shelby. The man that had been able to drown out all the horrors, as they sat together. The man that had saved her more times than he could know. (Y/n) finding a tear slowly making its way down her cheek.

"(Y/n)......." Tommy said, as he placed his hand under her chin and turned her head to look at him.

"Why did ya really come ta Birmingham..........?"

"You would laugh at me if I told you. You might even send me away. So, can't we just leave it as it is?" The female soldier enquired, hoping that Tommy wouldn't push any further. But this was Tommy, and she knew that her answer was not good enough. She knew that he wouldn't leave, he wouldn't let her up, until she had confessed everything; no matter how humiliated she might feel after. (Y/n) swallowing heavily, as she saw the look in his eyes.

"I............I came here because I couldn't forget you. I couldn't forget all the little, simple things that we had shared in that hell; and I couldn't forget that kiss. Even when I didn't know whether you were alive or dead, you were still there in my mind. The memories of how you liked your tea stronger in the morning, than you did the rest of the day. How you would want to be left alone until you'd finished your first cigarette. And how you could surprisingly make peas soup and horse meat taste like the best food in the world. So, when I heard the Shelby name, I knew I had to come. I had to come and see if it was you; and even if you didn't remember me, even if you didn't want to see me. Even if the kiss we shared before we went over the top meant nothing to you, just the thought that maybe, just maybe, I would be able to get some time with you again, was all the impetus I needed to get on the train. I cared about the others, all the boys and men that I spent all those long years with. But not one of them..........not a single one could make me feel the way that you made me feel, Thomas Shelby; and no man has been able to compete with your memory since then. So, now you know. Now you know I came because of some foolish notion, that the care you showed me, was something more than a feeling that you needed to protect a woman. That I wanted to know whether the kiss we shared, meant as much to you, as it did to me............" The former corporal explained. Her eyes falling to her lap, even though Tommy still had a gentle hold on her chin. (Y/n) just wishing that he would laugh, that he would tell her to leave, so that she could learn to deal with, and get passed, the pain. Sure, that the idea of Tommy feeling nothing for her, was worse than any pain that she had experienced during or after the war. Yet instead of laughing, instead of shouting or throwing her out, all Tommy did was lean in. Her eyes growing wide, as she felt his lips on hers. Her body being slowly, carefully being push down onto the mattress.