Chapter Thirty Nine

Campbell stared at the note in his hand unsure what it meant. How had he lost if he had the guns back? Did Shelby merely want him to leave and he could do so now because he had what he had come for? Or did he have something else up his sleeve? Campbell looked around suddenly nervous. That business at the betting house had left him shaken up.

When the phone on his desk rang it caused him to jump about a foot in the air. He clutched at his heart and then shook his head for his silliness. Campbell crossed the room and answered, "Hello?"

"Inspector Campbell, it's Churchill."

A cold chill went down his spine. "Yes, Mr. Churchill. What can I do for you?"

"You can pack up and leave Small Heath immediately is what you can do. Somehow a reporter was present during your little incident this morning and wrote a damn front page article about it in today's paper! Guns or no guns, you are leaving Birmingham and you will leave on the next available train as soon as we get off this phone, you bumbling idiot!"

Campbell felt himself turn ghost white. Shelby had tipped them off. He had been not just one step ahead of him, but a whole handful of steps ahead! Campbell suppressed his rage and spoke carefully, "Mt. Churchill, I must express that I do have all but one of the guns in my custody as we speak. I just now had them to brought here to the station."

"While that is very reassuring to here, my ordered are the same. You have brought great shame and humiliation upon the BSA and it had become a matter to the Crown. Leave. Now." Campbell heard the line go dead.

Campbell's hands shook as he placed the phone back in its hanger. He stood still for a moment trying to breathe then tore out of the office. He looked to the nearest desk to him to see an officer reading a paper and he stormed over. Ripping the paper from the perplexed officer's hands, Campbell held up the front page to his face and read the headline: 'BSA makes humiliating mistake'.

He saw red. He felt his face turn purple and his mustache bristle. He could almost feel smoke pouring from his ears and he yelled out in frustration, his fists clenched in the air.

Checkmate indeed.

x x x

Claire pursed her lips to try and keep from smiling at Tommy's bossy behavior with the nurses and doctors as they came in and out of her room to attend to her injuries. She wasn't laughing at him, she told herself.

Tommy shooed the nurse who was cleaning her knuckles and took the rag in his own hands before sitting in front of her.

Well, maybe she was, but she couldn't help it. He was being an overprotective ninny and it was cracking her up. He never worried about anything and here he was fussing over her. There was a wrinkle in between his brows she had never seen before like this and she knew it was from stress over her wellbeing. Because he loved her and wasn't ashamed of showing it to everyone. He didn't care that he was so obviously vulnerable and she knew that she had her Tommy back. And that was making her smile, too.

He gingerly lifted her hand to his face and he inspected the cuts and bruising, brushing the wet rag ever so lightly against them, attempting to clean up the dried blood and dirt. He was concentrating so hard his mouth had gone slack and it was opened up, forming a small 'O' as he worked.

She reached up her other hand and cupped his cheek. He stopped and looked up at her. "I love you," she said, her voice strong and full of emotion.

He leaned into her hand, allowing her to caress his face and for once, his eyes were not cold as ice. They were hot, like blue fire. They were making her feel like they were alone in a candlelit room instead of a hospital and she suddenly felt achy.

He blinked once and, his voice just as strong, said "I love you, too."

Claire's heart about burst from happiness. She may be bloody and beaten at the moment, but all she wanted to do was take her man to bed. It was unseemly to think of in such terms and unlike her to behave as such, but it was how she felt.

Tommy had used to make her weak at the knees when she was a girl, but she was a woman now and she didn't feel weak anymore at the sight of him. Instead she felt passion, she felt like pushing him up against a wall, testing her boundaries. She really felt like testing Tommy's ability to keep control, to break that icy exterior and unleash the virile man within. She knew he was there. She had glimpsed him when his head had been between her thighs. Claire felt herself blush.

One corner of Tommy's mouth perked up in a crooked grin. She knew he could tell what she was thinking about.

He looked back down and continued to clean her knuckles. He flipped over to look at her palms and saw the burn there. The crooked grin faded quickly.

Claire offered a quick explanation. "He put his cigarette out on my hand."

Tommy nodded his head solemnly and began to clean that as well. Soon he stood up and began to dab at the cut on her face with a new portion of the rag that hadn't been dirtied yet.

Claire put her hand over his. "I'm okay, love. Really, I'm just happy you're safe."

Tommy leaned down and brushed his lips against her temple, sliding down until he was by her ear and whispered, "Are you well enough to…?" He let his question trail off.

Claire stifled a giggle and blushed again. In lieu of answering him, she trailed her fingertips up the back of his thigh and leaned in to place a kiss on his stomach, casting her eyes upward to look at him from under her lashes. Tommy stared down and chuckled to himself.

He closed the distance between them quickly and brushed his lips against hers once, twice before kissing her in the most romantic moment they had ever shared. It wasn't conventional, but it was theirs's.

x x x

It was only an hour later when Tommy led her upstairs in her home. The brothers had cleared out in the prospect of having to watch Tommy bring their sister to her room to thoroughly ravage her and he was grateful because he planned on ravaging her until she couldn't keep her eyes open.

They kissed, their tongues massaging the other's, as he closed the bedroom door behind him. He felt somewhat nostalgic in the back of his mind about them lying where they had all those years ago the first time they had been together. His fingers fumbled with the buttons on her dress before dragging it up off her body. Claire hastily removed her stockings while Tommy pulled his suspenders down, vest already disposed of on the floor.

They tore at each other's clothes until their hands touched bare skin. Tommy hauled Claire's leg up to wrap around his hip as he increased the friction between them. He almost allowed himself to take her up against the wall, but he wanted to see her lying under him and decided he would show her the pleasure of interesting places and positions later.

Tommy placed Claire's hands on his ribs, silently asking her to run her hands over him so he could feel her everywhere. He kissed her neck and shuddered with anticipation at the sounds she made. Her little gasps and moans made his skin feel that electrifying hum again.

He backed her up against the bed and lay her down on it. The end of his control was near and for the first time in his life, he let himself go to that animalistic part of him. He tested to see if Claire would like it by roughly grabbing her thighs and splaying them open, her skin like silk under his hands. Her mouth popped open in surprise, but she quickly tossed her head back and moaned louder when he circled his hips against her. The undoubting look of bliss on her face sent him over the edge and he rubbed against her until she was slick and he slipped inside her inviting wet heat. He held himself still for a moment as he stared into her eyes, letting her know that he was a man possessed on loving her fully and completely.

She reached up a hand to grab his hair at the back of his head and rocked her hips against his, taking him deeper into her. He thrust back, each time more frenzied, each time deeper, to the point where she didn't know where she ended and he began. They were one of the same soul and they had finally found each other again.

Thomas called her name out as she spasmed around him and he knew nothing had ever felt this good in all of history and time.

Tommy would reach for again and again in the night and Claire did as well. She had collapsed on top of him finally and they fell asleep, but they continued to make love in their dreams. Hell bent on sating a lust that had lasted for 15 years, they were just getting started.

But he still had one matter to attend to and it was currently locked in a cell where he had tried to take away his Elsie from him.

No, he hadn't forgotten. But this was far more enjoyable and important to him at the moment. Tommy had quickly learned in life to not spurn any happiness life brings you and he was grabbing it with both hands.

…

A/N: Felt like I needed a bit more Tommy and Claire lovin'. God knows they deserve it. Haha! I'm just going to keep writing until I feel it comes to a natural stopping point and top it off with an epilogue. Sound good? Good ;)