𝙿𝙴𝙽𝙼𝙰𝙽𝚂𝙷𝙸𝙿 - 𝚃. 𝚂𝙷𝙴𝙻𝙱𝚈

21

Sanity is just a concept, designed by those who want to decree what is normal and what is abnormal. Sanity is an operating system accepted by the masses as within normal parameters. But some people are different, their sanity is wavering or perhaps even none existent. You'll never know how sane or not a person is until they do something that confirms it for you and once they do everything changes. The innocence, the naivety dies. Sometimes it is a quick ending for them, other times it's a slow dwindling death you do not notice until you can't find enjoyment in the simplistic things anymore. That lapse in your sanity no matter how small can collapse everything you strived to build. It can ruin your life for years and sometimes you don't really recover. You can lose people close to you, even the people you love.

Juliet had John's coat around her shoulders as the man rubbed soothing circles on her back. They were sat in the Snug, the door doing little to muffle the pained screams of Tommy Shelby as they attempt to dig the bullet from his body.

Juliet's hands were clamped over her ears but the screams were still echoing in her mind, a haunting melody she could not escape. Once the screams stop, John gently removes Juliet's hands from her ears as he hands her a lit cigarette.

She inhaled that grey stench, the odour that foretold of tar-infested lungs and her future deathbed. There was something rotten in her eyes as she took each drag as if she perversely lured on that morbid end that would inevitably come as it did for everyone no matter how hard they tried to fight it.

There was a coldness in her that not even the hottest of fires could warm back up. That was because the weapon had taken a part of her soul with it every time she lethally used it. It was part of the natural order of things and the gun, something made of the matter of this universe, had to obey it as much as we did.

The rest of the Blinders filter into the Snug and John switches places with Tommy.

"Jules?"

"I'm okay," The woman whispers and Tommy nods, despite his complete lack of belief in her words.

"What are we going to do with Danny?" Arthur asks.

"Now we can bury him properly, in the grave we dug for him," John says as they all hold drinks in their hands.

"Yeah. It's high on a hill. He'll like that," Tommy says. "To Danny Whizz-Bang. May we all die twice"

"To Danny Whizz-Bang," John echoes.

"Danny Whizz-Bang," Scudboat echoes.

"Danny Whizz-Bang,"

Juliet takes the bottle and takes a large mouthful. She doesn't even wince at the burning in her throat as the alcohol slides its way down.

"Come on. The day is ours. Let's celebrate,"

The Garrison was full of cheering and Juliet had even perked up, the aura in the room was contagious.

Arthur and Juliet were behind the bar pouring drinks and drinking not much less than what they were serving.

"You're a good'un, Jules," Arthur says, wrapping his arm around the woman who grins at him.

"A toast!" John shouts. "To Shelby, Limited!"

"To Shelby, Limited!" Juliet echoes with a wide smile on her face.

Juliet's eyes lock with Tommy's cerulean blue ones. The colours despite being so contrasting, meld together perfectly as Tommy walks over to her.

"May I have this dance?" Tommy asks and Juliet nods as music begins playing loudly from a gramophone.

The music was upbeat, the beat contagious as everyone finds a partner and begins to dance. Tommy spins the beautiful woman that he was lucky enough to have in his arms before dipping her down. When he pulls her back up, their chests collide and their eyes lock together again.

Tommy leans down and presses a kiss to the lips of the imaginative in front of him as cheers and jeers fill the pub.

"Someday I will throw this gun in the canal," Tommy says.

"Why not now?" Juliet asks.

"Because I need to make sure that you and everyone I love are safe first," Tommy says.

"Am I not in that category?" Juliet teases and Tommy offers her a smile.

"I love you, Juliet," Tommy says.

"And I love you," The woman says. "All of you. The good and bad"

"Oh, Arthur!" Juliet calls. "If you check behind the bar, you will find a bottle of champagne"

"One she bought?" Tommy asks and Juliet nods.

"But I'd say today was cause enough for celebration, wouldn't you?"

"Of course, it is," Tommy says. "I have the world's most beautiful woman on my arm and my enemy is dead."

Tommy turns to his family, his brothers who were slumped across each other in a booth and his aunt who had a smile on her face as she looks at Tommy's warm smile.

"Today was a good day," Tommy says. "All of Kimber's men were busy here. So the Lee boys took all the pitches at the Worcester races. Couldn't have gone better if we planned it. The Shelby Brothers, Limited, are now the third-largest legal racetrack operation in the country"

"Cheers" Arthur and John slur drunkenly.

"Only the Sabinis and the Solomons are bigger than us, boys," Tommy says. "And all my family is here to celebrate"

The cork pops as Tommy raises the bottle in the air.

"To Shelby Brothers, Limited!"

"Shelby!" Arthur slurs and Juliet laughs quietly as she slides in between the two brothers who each throw an arm around her shoulder.

"How my ugly mug of a brother pulled you, I'll never know," John slurs.

"Well Tommy got both the brains and the looks," Juliet teases. "So what does that leave you two with?"

"Big cocks!" Arthur shouts.

"Nope," Juliet says.

"Well fuck," Arthur sighs. "Nice personality?"

"I'll give you that one," Juliet says.