Devil | A Solomons

FIFTY - DEVIL

- EIGHT YEARS LATER -

"Fuck me," Alfie seethed, wincing as he slammed the empty shot glass down on the kitchen table, "How many years down the line are we now? And your fuckin' vodka still burns like the fiery pits of hell."

Irina chuckled, pouring back another shot of vodka with ease, swallowing as if it was merely water before giving her husband a sweet smile.

"You should be used to that," she replied, sipping her glass of white wine.

Alfie shook his head, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt before washing up the plates the two of them had just finished eating off.

It was late on a Friday evening and Alfie had been working in Birmingham that day, arriving home just as Irina finished serving up their dinner.

Alfie had joined forces with Thomas and the Peaky Blinders, in one way or another, anyway. He didn't officially walk around with a blade in his cap, or even wear a cap, but they viewed one another as partners, regardless of the dress code.

Their latest venture had brought Thomas and the others down to London a lot more often than they had been before, which had thrown Irina and Tommy into each other's company for over half of the week most of the time.

They didn't mind, though. The bridges of their past weren't burned, rather still standing strong, only they chose to walk across them differently to the way they once had.

The birth of Alfie and Irina's second child, a son, was what officially changed everything. There had been a period of time where Irina and Tommy didn't speak, Irina feeling like perhaps Tommy was struggling with their past and being around each other so much had caused him to lose his sense of stability.

She never truly found out the reason, though it just so happened that when Irina's waters broke three weeks early, it was Tommy Shelby that found her barely able to stand in her kitchen while Alfie was halfway across London.

Thomas rushed Irina to the hospital, reassuring her that everything would be just fine, despite the mother's panics about the early delivery of her baby.

Luckily, and thanks to Tommy's multiple phone calls to the office he was visiting that afternoon, Alfie finally arrived just in time to see the birth of his son.

"I have a son," Alfie smiled with tears streaming down his cheeks, grabbing Tommy by the shoulders and hugging him tightly.

"Congratulations, Alfie."

"Thank you," he said, holding his friend at arm's length and nodding at him, "Thank you for helping her. Lord knows what would've happened if you hadn't have found her when you did."

Tommy looked Alfie in the eye, feeling a warmth in his heart as he saw the raw emotion in his friend's face. The two of them had been through so much together, and also so much against each other, though ultimately, it was one woman that had kept their friendship strong.

"Don't mention it, Alfie. I didn't have to think twice."

Elijah Thomas Solomons had grown into a healthy four year old, who was the spitting image of his father but with his mother's deep brown eyes.