July 24th 1918

Dear Tommy,

I'm not sure if you've received a letter from John yet, but he's returning home to us.

I don't know if he's written to you but he received a head injury and it was decided it was best to send him home. Don't worry, he's okay now, but it was touch and go for a while without him waking up.

I long for this war to be over. I can't stand the thought of you possibly getting hurt out there. I fear every day I'll receive a letter about your death from Arthur and I'm not prepared for that.

How will I ever explain to Thomas-J that his dad is never going to meet him?

I'm sorry, I'm being selfish.

You probably have a lot more to worry about than me and my silly visions of Thomas-J being broken-hearted.

I long to see you.

All my love,

Always and forever,

Romy xx

P.s. There is something I wish to tell you but I fear your reaction. Polly insisted I not tell you, but I can't fight with myself any longer with it. I've been —

There was a moment when Tommy's heart stopped at the mention of John and a head injury. He knew it was only due to a serious injury for someone to be sent home and here was his little brother being sent back.

There was something he agreed with and that was for this war to end.

He didn't want to be here anymore, digging tunnels, shooting young boys because it was life or death. He wanted to be home with his brothers drinking in the Garrison and returning home to his woman and his son.

He wished with everything he had that nothing would happen to him because he couldn't imagine what it would be like for Romy and Thomas-J if he never returned. His heart ached at the thought of never meeting the boy and wondered what pain he'd cause if he never got to meet him.

Tommy frowned as he re-read the end of the letter and paused, running his finger over the cut-off.

"You alright, Tom?" Arthur asked, shuffling closer to his brother as he caught his eyes.

"Hmm? Just a letter from Romy," Tommy replied noting the surprise on Arthur's face.

"She wrote?" It seemed Arthur hadn't expected it either. When was the last time Romy wrote to him? The end of February?

He'd been receiving letters from Ada and Polly since. According to Polly, Romy was busy at the hospital with all the soldiers being sent back and she was doing more hours now that she was almost finished in her nursing school.

While he was happy with the updates in Thomas-J's life and the photographs he'd been receiving he did miss hearing from Romy. There was a nagging feeling that had been bugging him since he received his first letter from Polly. Now that Romy had written to him and ended the letter by saying there was something she needed to tell him.

He had a feeling he knew why she wasn't writing to him or why she wasn't in the photographs anymore. He had a feeling, but he didn't want to admit it.

"It'll be alrigh', Tom," Arthur said, resting his hand on his shoulder. It also seemed Arthur had the same feeling as Tommy.

God did he wish he was wrong.

Things were changing.

While the war was coming to its end it also seemed that there was a build-up on the fighting.

I wasn't privy to everything that was happening during the war and I wasn't knowledgeable about Muggle history, so I couldn't be sure what was actually happening in the world at the moment.

Yes, we were still fighting but I wasn't sure if this was a climax ready to end the war or if it would all slowly come to a stop.

"Alright, love?"

I glanced up from the man I was treating and paused for a second before continuing with my stitching of his wound.

"What are you doing back?"

Alfie scoffed at my dismissal of him as he dropped down on the empty bed next to me, brushing off a speck of dust from his uniform.

"I'm here for you, love."

"What does that mean?" I asked, stopping my threading and peering up at him.

"Your Ministry lot got in contact."

"What? Why?"

"Yeah, not here, love," he said indicating the man I was still treating. I gave a nod and finished up stitching the man, giving him a soft smile as I got up and followed after Alfie as he left the tent and headed over to mine.

It still surprised me that he could walk right in without any confusion. I didn't know if it was his squib blood and the once magical presence within his bloodline or whether there was still magic lingering inside him.

"What's this about, Alfie?"

"Your Ministry lot, they got this man they're looking for, err, Albert Nott, he's urgh going around slaughtering Muggles and making it look like they've been injured by our war." That bastard. Why was it that all my problems came in the form of a Nott?

"And they've asked me to help you find him?"

"Well, you and Newt, yeah."

"Does Newt know about this?" Why was I finding it hard to believe all this? I was comfortable with the fact that I was being sent as a nurse to France but I wasn't too comfortable chasing a maniac around France because he was getting off on hurting Muggles because he was a self-centred prick.

"Of course," Alfie said, helping himself to one of the biscuits on my coffee table. "He went to school with him apparently. A right bastard according to Newton."

If Newt was calling this man a bastard then he must have been a piece of work. This was something I never understood about pureblood families and their vendetta against Muggleborns or Muggles.

Perhaps it was because of who my family was and the trails we faced in the past, but we never took into account what blood a person had, we just took them in and based our opinions on their personality and actions.

"Why did the Ministry ask for me?"

"Newt said it's cause you got yourself in their bad books."

"I told Polly and Ada about magic and they shouldn't have known because they're Muggles," I told him, shrugging as I rubbed my arms in awkwardness.

"That the, err, the family looking after your boy?"

"My family, yes," I said, making it final that the Shelby's were my family and not just some people I'd hooked into looking after Thomas-J.

"We're heading out first thing in the morning," he said, rising from the chair he'd settled in. "There are two platoons coming in at first light, new nurses, too. We'll slip out amongst the noise."

"Is this a classified mission? No one but us knows about it?"

I wasn't sure if I liked the thought of that. If it was classified I wouldn't be able to write to Polly to let her know I'd be moving. I also didn't like the fact that I' be receiving no news on Thomas-J or Tommy.

"Classified."

"I don't like this, Alfie!" I called after him as he left the tent without waiting for my reply.

Typical.

They were told they were moving but Tommy didn't know where it was they were heading. He hoped they weren't heading further into the belly of France, he'd heard stories about how things were getting worse the further inland, but they could have just been rumours.

They had walked for miles in the dark being led by a few lucky men in tanks and those that were injured in trucks. They'd been walking for over three hours and it finally seemed that they were coming upon their new camp as the sun was beginning to rise over his shoulder.

Tommy and Arthur took in the exhausted looks on the faces of the many soldiers already littered around camp as they came to a stop outside the tent serving food. They'd been told to get food upon arrival, Tommy couldn't remember the last time he had a proper meal.

"Oi, Tommy," Luke said, rising from the ground where he'd been eating. He had a frown on his face as he looked through the crowd of men. "Ain't that your girl?"

Tommy followed Luke's gaze and would have stumbled if he wasn't sitting down. Luke was right. That was Romy.

"What the fuck?" he said as he rose to his feet, dropping his tin of food without a thought. "Romy!" he shouted, pushing his way through the crowd and towards her. At the sound of his voice, her head turned in his direction, a frown furrowing between her brows. "Romy!"

This time at this call her eyes seemed to lock with his and in a simultaneous moment, both their eyes widened in shock.

Tommy had no clue what the fuck she was doing here, but he knew he had to get to her.

"Tommy?" She called, pushing her way through a group of men, waving them off when she stumbled.

He couldn't help but notice how short she was as she scrambled through the men, her red hair flying behind her like a flame. He was pleasantly surprised by the red hair. It had looked light in the photographs she sent and he was sure it was blonde. Had she told him before that she had red hair?

Had he forgotten that about her?

"Tommy?" she shouted, the panic in her voice shocking him from his thoughts.

A man, taller and thicker than her was grabbing hold of her arm, preventing her from reaching him. Anger bubbled in his stomach and he fought harder to reach her.

He felt overwhelmed by the crushing feeling in his chest as she turned to argue with the man, her hands gesturing to him as she shouted at him. It became clear to Tommy that she knew him and was becoming frustrated with every word coming from his mouth.

Ten more steps and she'd be standing in front of him.

As he took two more steps towards him, the man started to drag her away and complete fear made his limbs shake.

"Tommy," she muttered, grabbing at the necklace hanging around her neck and ripping it from her. She held it out to him and he rushed forward, his fingers brushing against hers as the cold metal passed over his calloused fingertips.

And then she was gone.

Lost in the sea of men, no longer in his line of sight.

He would have been certain she was a figment of his imagination if it hadn't been for the locket hanging from his fingertips. Fiddling with the clasp, Tommy smiled down at the photographs inside.

One was of Thomas-J alone while the other was of Romy holding the baby up to her face, pressing a kiss to his nose.

Clenching the locket in his hand, Tommy turned, surprised to see Arthur with a grimace in his face.

He didn't need to speak to his brother to know how sorry he felt for him.

"I cannot believe you!" I snapped, glaring at Alfie as we sat in the back of the moving truck.

Newt had been trying to keep the tension between us but that only ended up in the three of us squabbling like fighting siblings. An interesting sight if you were our driver.

"We've got a mission, love. I ain't gonna let you mess it all up 'cause you saw your loverboy out on the field."

"You could have let me speak to him, Alfie!"

"Yeah, and then have to deal with you as a blubbering mess? No thank you," he grumbled, scratching at his chin as he scared a look with Newt.

"What was that? Why are you two sharing looks?"

"It's nothing, Romy," Newt assured me, resting a hand on my shoulder as I turned to glare at him.

"It's obviously not nothing seeing as you both keep doing it. Is there something you need to tell me?" I was growing annoyed by the pretentious behaviour these two were showing.

"Err, see, well, err."

"Merlin's beard, Newt! You knew he was coming, didn't you?" I shouted, glaring fiercely at him as he moved away from me and joined Alfie on the other side of the truck. "That's why you wanted to leave so bloody early, isn't it?"

"Well Polly said we weren't supposed to tell him that you were here so I thought it best we leave before he got here," he argued weakly, looking to Alfie as if the man was going to support his reasoning.

"I just didn't want all the romance and tears, to be honest," he admitted, chuckling as I took off my shoe and threw it at him.

Yes. I really did throw my shoe at him. I couldn't think of anything else that would show my anger.

"I'm never going to forgive you for this," I told them both, taking another childish route and crossing my arms as I pouted.

"Yeah, well, I can live with that, love."