#venor fic seires

[evita-shelby]

Chase

part 2 for Vēnor and a conclusion for the Look Both Ways one shot

Lucy Winters belongs to @mischievouslittlecreature

taglist: @justrainandcoffee @mischievouslittlecreature @zablife @thegreatdragonfruta @wonderlanddreamer @kmc1989

cw: mentions of past murder, trauma, suicide attempt, mentions of a suicide, complicated feelings

Tommy hadn’t meant to hurt both women like this.

And yet, Lucy left him anyway, making him wonder if this was fate. It was a coin toss that had first led him to Eva's door after all.

As much as he still loves and yearns for Lucy, her departure had felt like a sign that perhaps he needed to try again with Eva and be the husband she needed the first time around.

He had done the impossible to make Eva reconsider, he had delayed the hearings, bribed the judge to force her to wait until Charlie was born and then nearly two years after that fateful day, Tommy could only watch her shut the door on him forever.

He loves Eva, even as she rages and rejects his every attempt at reconciliation, he loves her enough to give her his word that it will remain only the two of them if she’d only give him another chance to prove it. He used to be loyal to Greta once upon a time, he could be loyal to Eva if she only let him.

“You say that now, but the moment Lucy returns I would lose you again.” She had said and as always proved he’d find no better advisor than Eva Shelby, the witch had a space in his life that not even Polly or Lucy could fill. “The three of us would be miserable, I would be your bitter wife who hates the two of you, you would hate me for keeping you from her and she would hate me for the woman I would become because of you.”

She has never lied to him and wouldn’t do so now. Eva wanted out and he owed her that.

And yet, he refused to accede to her terms once again. He hated being alone and it didn’t help when everyone seemed to agree he should take his errant wife back and remind her that those who marry a Shelby die a Shelby. To them it was less about feelings and more about the reputation they’d lost because both Eva and Lucy left him.

His family had mixed feelings about Lucy, especially Polly who loathed Lucy and blamed her for the whole debacle with Grace and now, his failed marriage. Polly felt the direction he was taking in his life needed a woman who could make blue bloods eat from her palm, a woman who knew the future as well as she knew herself and most importantly, not Lucy.

“But you will always want Lucy, and I will never be enough for you. I need a husband who has no space for anyone else in his heart nor his bed.” There had been a note of resentment there.

The women had been warm to each other, friendlier than Lizzie had been with Lucy by a mile, but Eva could not love Lucy like Grace claimed she did. Eva had then admitted she never had the intention of sharing him when she said yes and whatever cordial feelings the women had would not survive Eva’s feelings of inadequacy and need for a man to be entirely hers.

“I can’t let you go.” Not you too.

Perhaps if Lucy had never left it would be easier to let Eva leave, but because his red demon was gone too, he knew he’d die without his witch.

Then there was her choice in men.

Tommy knows what he is, what he does and the number of people he has killed whether they deserved to die or not. He had never killed a woman, never would if God doesn’t hate him enough to force his hand.

Brilliant Chang had seduced his wife just as he had seduced the countless of women he had then discarded like yesterday’s garbage. Eva loved playing with fire, believed that because she is as otherworldly as Tommy is, she would remain unburnt.

She was fucking him; the Chinaman had let him know he’d taken her to his bed even if Eva moved with as little presence as a ghost. Chang had given him an olive branch in the form of a steady supply to the Eden after showing him its weaknesses, but Tommy Shelby will never trust that man especially with his wife and son.

Eva may not forgive him for this, but she’s left him no choice.

Taking the letters Grace had sent with her address in London ---because ,somehow, she’d known Eva had left him--- he asked to see her. And just like he’d known it, Grace readily takes up the offer to comfort him and believe she is woman enough to replace his darling witch.

Tommy could’ve taken May, or Lizzie or any woman he desired, but no other woman awoke Eva’s wrath like the blonde woman on his arm.

He doesn’t intend on fucking her, he can fuck without feelings, but Tommy knew he’d lose Eva forever if he even thought about doing it.

They loathed each other, knew they would be enemies because even when he and Lucy took her to bed, it was Eva who he desired as much as he desired Lucy.

Eva simply hated Grace because she lacked empathy for those not of her class and represented everything Eva loathed. Hated her even more when she set the police on Freddie for the crime of being a Jewish Communist and then for cashing in the bounty on Eva’s head by telling Campbell about it.

“You are perfect tonight.” He tells the woman on his arm who has no idea he is merely using her like she used him.

The Barmaid he and Lucy fell for was an illusion, Eva and Lucy were the real thing. Like comparing a light bulb to the sun.

Billy’s notoriety had taken a strange turn after she gave him every question he’d be asked at the trial.

Freda Kempton had been a loose end threatening to destroy his empire, Brilliant went from becoming the cruel lover who killed her to the friend who had tried to help her only for her to become the scorned woman intent on framing him for her suicide.

A cruel thing to do to the poor girl, but the dead have no notion of what goes on after anyways. Besides, she had been about to rat out Billy and, as horrid this business is, too many people were at stake.

But the man survived to see another day and his reputation survived just enough to keep him in Regent Street and change the way he runs things. He won’t do any of the recruiting personally anymore, now the more charming and good-looking soldiers in his triad would be doing that for him. As far as the world will know, Brilliant Chang really is a businessman who had been the victim of a poor mad girl in love with him.

His infamy had allowed Eva to weasel an invitation to a party in Charlie Chaplin’s honor out of her not quite distant cousin, Wag Macdonald.

The dress had been in the style of Shanghai, a cheongsam, that didn’t follow the modern fashions enough to hug her figure and make the women here die of envy. Black satin with gold embroidery and piping to match her simple yet costly jewelry.

“It looks better on the floor.” Brilliant comments as they steal the show from the man of the hour.

Eva has rather liked this.

The freedom to do as she pleases with a man who excites her and has no desire for anyone else. The thrill of the hunt and best of all, knowing Tommy’s yet to ruin this for her.

“Soon, we do not have to stay long, just enough to---” Eva cannot finish her words before she sees them.

Tommy with the blonde bitch on his arm.

Eva knows him like the back of her hand, knows that he is doing this to cause such a scene it will kill any desire Brilliant could have for her. Tommy wants to push her into letting her loathing of Grace appear like jealousy towards him and ruin her relationship with Billy with her own hands.

But Eva will be damned if she let him win like this.

“Mr. Shelby, at long last we finally meet.” Brilliant towers over her former husband being just a whisker away from being six feet tall.

Eva would say this was intentional, as it had been with her previous lovers, but she had never seen the man upright until that day he left his private room to join her. That his height allowed him to prick Tommy’s jealousy even more was a pleasant surprise.

Once upon a time, Eva had viewed her being the same height as Tommy as another sign they were soulmates and equals, but now it served as a weapon to hurt him for continuing to hurt her.

“I am not fond of meeting those my wife—” Tommy begins only to be corrected by the two women.

“Ex-wife.” One said it as a reminder it was over for good, the other trying to be seen as something else beyond an ornament on his arm.

He hadn’t needed to finish the sentence to let Billy know he thinks he will be anything more than a flash in the pan and have Grace piece together why Tommy would seek her out.

“Brilliant Chang.” Billy ignored the jab and introduced himself to the two of them.

“The murderer?” the blonde asks with interest and Billy winces at being known as only that.

“Acquitted.” Eva answers cutting their talk short. Tommy wanted her to cause a scene, for her to be the one driven to madness and yet she would not give him that.

“He wants a scene; I will not give him the pleasure.” The witch tells the man beside her who smiles agreeing with her strategy.

“Shall we enjoy ourselves at his expense, sweetheart?” Billy asks, leaning close enough for her to feel his breath at the shell of her ear.

“Great minds think alike.” Eva moved slightly and kissed her date knowing it’s killing Tommy to see her be happy with Brilliant Chang of all people.

Fuck him. Fuck Tommy and his blasted possessiveness.

She is an adult woman who has killed more people than Tommy, Lucy and Brilliant have combined, Eva knows what she’s doing and has the fucking foresight to know Billy would not hurt her. Hell, he hasn’t even fucked other women since they began seeing each other –which could not even be said about Tommy.

The witch should just tell him where Lucy is and make him her problem.

The redhead had found her aunt and mother through some Lees, this time with them would allow her to heal in a better environment. It would allow her to choose Tommy knowing she is free to have opinions and desires that do not always align with Tommy’s.

Lucy had been in such a state when Eva found her, ready to pull the trigger because Polly mistakenly blamed the Red Demon for ‘ruining’ their marriage. It had taken a lot of effort from the witch to explain that the fault was Eva’s for not thinking things through and focusing on her survival instead of the fact that their arrangement would destroy her.

Tommy and Lucy could love others and have no issue with that. Eva could only see it as not being enough just as she was not enough for Diosdado, who fucked any woman that looked his way, and Antonia, who loved Francisco and the safety of a husband more than risking it all with Eva in Paris.

Eva needed a man ---while she loved both men and women, she had to agree with Toña that the security a husband provided was vital for living in this time--- who is satisfied with just her, someone who can give her his heart and soul as wholeheartedly as the witch does.

And now that she has found him, Tommy is hellbent on ruining that.

When his initial strategy does not work, he corners her in the lavatory while some investors hang on to Billy’s words about taking a risk with his import business.

“Do not fuck her, she is here for fertility treatments and a reason to leave her husband for you.” Eva doesn’t look up knowing she’ll want to break the mirror the way she’d want to make his and Grace’s heads explode with her mind.

“Don’t fuck him, I do not want to be the one they call to claim you at the morgue.” Tommy makes his argument as clear as he did when he confronted her in the parlor of her house.

“I have killed more people than you and him combined, I am more like him than you think.” The dark-haired woman reminded her former lover and husband of her past. She abhors the idea of taking another life after all the killing she did in the war and what she did to Leopoldo Carranza.

Leopoldo who loved her and believed her to be true. She had made him believe he was Haemon to her Antigone and his father the cruel King Creon, so when his father quietly ordered her assassination mere days before her escape, the young man killed himself from the horror of it all.

He was the last life Eva took and would ever take.

“You did not do that on purpose. Billy Chang---”

“Eats and drinks everything he buys for me to prove he has no ill intentions, agrees to keep away from Charlie to assure you he won’t harm him and no longer seduces chorus girls to deal his cocaine for him.” the witch assures the devil, she is in safe hands with the lady-killer waiting for her outside.

“Could be an act for all you know, it was how he got his victim.” The gangster points out as if Eva didn’t know better.

“Freda was going to turn him in, and his uncles demanded he silence her. Billy didn’t know Campbell expected him to do exactly that so he could have something on him.” Brilliant could’ve explained it himself, but Tommy wouldn’t have let him get a word in. “You’re not the only one he’s come after, apparently.”

“Noted, but it still doesn’t make it better. I could make you happy if you let me.” His pained looks used to weaken her defenses enough to let him try and change her mind. They no longer held the same power over her as it did then.

They finally get to the part where its not a matter of safety but the heart.

“You are only saying this because you don’t have Lucy.” The witch finally deigns to look at him though the glass. “She still loves you, she is just finding out who is as an individual, you know. The Lovells are exactly who she needed to do that, being her kin and all.”

He had no idea who she was traveling with, he knew her mother was a Lovell, but he had never been able to track them down. Always too late and never knowing where they’d be going next.

And then when Charlie was born, he stopped looking for her because if Lucy wanted to be found, the red demon would’ve let it happen already.

“Do you think she’ll come back with me?” Tommy Shelby asked knowing everything that leaves Eva’s lips is nothing but the truth.

“Eventually, women fall too easily into your arms, your next wife should be allowed all the time she needs to look both ways before she jumps.” The witch smiled and turned to face him knowing this is the last time he will ever try to stop her from seeking her own happiness.

Hopefully Tommy will take the hint and make an honest woman out Lucy instead of unintentionally making another woman as miserable as Eva was with them.

“You know what she thinks about marriage, but you have never lied to me and if you say Lucy will be the next Mrs. Shelby, then it will happen come hell or high water.” Tommy Shelby’s sorrows melt away as her words sink in. He fears he is too fucked up too love ---as if Eva and Lucy couldn’t give him a run for his money--- a very real fear all three share strangely enough.

But Eva has always known the sun always rises again and just like she told them, it has.

At long last, their chapters in each other’s life come to an end. Eva returns to Brilliant and enjoy the rest of the night while Tommy leaves to find the fairgrounds Lucy will be at tomorrow morning and hope she will choose to share her life with him after looking both ways.