Tommy and Lucille

The relief Lucille felt upon seeing his face was indescribable. His scratches had scabbed over, the bruises that littered his jaw and temples beginning to lighten from the thunderous purple they'd been the last time she'd seen him. His eyes were free of the redness, and finally, Tommy looked somewhat contempt, as if the things he'd said were going right were in fact going right.

Lucille placed a hand to his cheek, running a finger below his eye and across to his lips, pulling him in for a long missed kiss. The manyness of the hours they'd missed in only a few weeks had sunk in, letting the short sweetness of passion be shared for a moment.

"You found the papers?" Tommy asked as she pulled away, a light smile on his lips.

"Yes," she said, standing and moving toward the drawer across the room, pulling the key from where it was hidden beneath her clothes. "Look what I managed to get my hands on."

She unlocked it, pulling a single piece of paper out and handing it to him.

"There was no document in the public archives. I had to contact the agency that took him," Lucille said. He looked down at the address that was scribbled across the top.

"And they gave it to you?"

She smirked lightly, leaning in as he wrapped a hand around her waist. "Men are always more inclined to trust a woman's voice."

Tommy grinned and placed a kiss on her head. "We go to him soon."

"What the bloody hell is going on?" Polly exclaimed as she entered the betting den.

Her face had fallen into a pit of shock, her lips parting and dark eyebrows raising. She examined every face in the room, as if she was seeing them for the first time again, and, in theory, it almost as if she was. Birthdays brought outlooks the equivalent of tinted glasses, obscuring sights with blushes of colour, and Polly had never seen such a yellow scene- all of them, even Tommy, for heaven's sake, were smiling back at her as if God had blessed her to be a saint herself.

"When did you get back?"

"I didn't want to miss your birthday Pol," he said with a smile.

Lucille hurried to her side, warming her cold hands between her arm by tucking in her elbow comfortingly. "Happy Birthday, Pol."

Polly looked bewildered, her eyes still wide, hand loosely falling to pat Lucille's in thanks. "How did you know it was my birthday? Nobody ever knows," she said.

"It's different this year," Tommy said as he turned to his brothers, waving them over with a motion of his hand and a nod of his head. "John, Finn, bring the car around."

"Where we going?"

"To unwrap your birthday present."

Polly was swiftly swooped away by John and Arthur, an arm being taken by each, their long legs taking her quickly out of the betting den's door and to the car on the road outside. Tommy dropped behind, taking up Lucille's left. He was still smiling when she looked up, letting her eyebrow slant in a questioning stare.

"Don't worry, you'll get yours tonight," he said, keeping his face neutral except for the smile.

"On what occasion?"

"Success," he said as if it was the most obvious answer.

"As good as anything."

The gift in question did not come with a large silver bow nor a lovingly scribbled out card. In fact, there was no addressing at all, no wrapping and no box to hand it over in. As the car pulled up onto a quiet, pleasant-looking street, Polly didn't let her mind exaggerate. Even as the boys led her and Lucille up a pretty pathway lined with her favourite blue hydrangeas, she didn't get excited.

"Good morning!" Arthur barked out a screech, ignoring the silence that blanketed the street as John shoved him forward.

The inside of the house was dark, the windows covered by a thin, billowing curtain, letting only a slither of light stain the thick carpets. Through the hallway and into the sitting room, Polly stopped by the fireplace, gazing around the room at the tiny, expensive detailing that decorated the walls, floors and seats that were dotted around.

"You said you were gonna buy Ada a house."

"Yep, that's right, I did," Tommy said in confirmation.

"And Lucille and little Adds," Polly added.

Tommy sighed, pushing his hands into his pockets. "Thank you, Pol."

Polly turned quickly, her head tilting upwards so she could see beneath her smart hat. "She didn't know?" Tommy shook his head as if Lucille's surprised look wasn't answer enough. "Sorry."

Lucille easily took up his side, nudging into him to gain his attention. Tommy sighed again, but it was not without a smile.

"You bought us a house," she said, more in a statement than a question.

Tommy smirked, glancing down at her through lowered eyes. "Can't have my girls stuck in Watery Lane with the likes of these," he said, nodding to his three brothers, who pushed about in the corner of the room, looking somewhat out of place.  "But I had a bit of cash left over."

"This is ours?" Polly said, still looking around.

"No, Polly, this is yours," Tommy said.

"Because you deserve it," John said, and a round of nods backed him up.

"What would I do with all these rooms."

"Well, you could relax for one. Come here on weekends. It had a garden, eh. You love gardens. You can grow roses, Pol," Tommy said, following her around to the settee. "I don't know. Have a piano. Invite people round and you can have a sing-song, eh."

"God help the bloody neighbours."

"Fuck the neighbours!" Arthur shouted.

"Welcome home, Pol," John said.

There was a moment of silence again, spreading dangerously through the room as Polly was lost to her thoughts. John and Arthur shared a worried look. Tommy intercepted them.

"Arthur, why don't you take the boys outside," he said, nodding his head to the door.

Already knowing what Tommy would undoubtedly say, Lucille followed the boys out to the car that waited at the bottom of the path way. John stopped by her side.

"What's that about in there?"

She remembered what Tommy had said- this was their secret. "He's just trying to cheer her up. She hasn't been herself, you know that."

Before he could argue, Lucille hurried forward to the car, slipping her hand into the back seat where her bag sat tucked beneath the floor. She pulled out the folded document, hiding it beneath her arm as she slipped around John, avoiding his eyes with a twirl. Lucille entered the house again in the middle of their conversation.

"Told you what?"

"Told me what it is that would make you happy," Tommy said.

He looked up as Lucille stood in the door way and noticed the document in her hand. He shook his head sharply, and turned back to Polly.

"I've spoken to our contacts in the police. They have contacts in the council and they have contacts with people who keep the parish records, who Lucille was able to talk to. Records of adoptions and confidential forced removals," he continued. "Pol, I'm going to find your son and daughter, and I'm going to bring them home. That's what this house is for. So you can bring your family where they belong."

Polly's head snapped up to him in a fright, her eyes weak and glossy. Lucille tucked the paper beneath her waistline and sat beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder as she sat completely still.

"What?"

"We're moving up Pol," Tommy said.

The house, much like Polly's new one, was far from the ancient antique on Watery Lane that had most likely seen more years than all of their ages combined. Here the walls were a clean, red brick, free of the tarnishing of black smoke and thick smog, and blessed with a quietness the family could only have imagined.

Lucille let her hands trail against the smooth, patterned wallpaper of the hallway as she made her way into the house, leaving Adds with her hand tucked safely in her father's fingers.

It felt so familiar, somehow. As she walked through to the kitchen, it was almost like she knew exactly where each room lay. An arched window sat directly above the sink basin, the shutters pushed up, letting a thin veil of golden light fall through against the cool, tile flooring. On the sill sat a fresh bunch of lavender stalks, perfectly long and branched like those that used to stand on the bench in her father's kitchen. The living room too felt familiarly french in all of the right ways, with velvet tall chairs, a strong emerald green, and wide, plant-surrounded windows.

Lucille turned, taking Tommy by two hands. "All of this, for us?"

He nodded, taking his attention from the room and placing it onto her. "You like it?"

"Like it?" she exclaimed. "I love it. It's perfect. The perfect blend of the farmhouse and Watery Lane, don't you think?"

"That's exactly why I picked it."

Lucille hurried over to her daughter, picking her up and bouncing her in her arms. Though Adds was older now, it was a habit she could not break. "Isn't it perfect, Adds? This is our new home."

"My room?" Adds called out, reaching for her father.

Tommy caught her in his arms, swinging her into balance. "Let's go see if we can find it."

♡︎