A vintage's touch: His worst fear

"If anyone tries to touch you, I will make sure they don't have a way to touch you again."

His words were not mere threats. Tommy hated the thought of someone else touching /his/ Mary. He couldn't bear the thought of them lusting after his girl, trying to corner her and perhaps more... or worse. Part of it was due to his possessive nature, but another part of it was genuine concern for her safety. Mary had already known violence. She's been hurt in the past and Tommy had already failed her once, with Lizzie. He couldn't allow any other failure. 

Mary was an easy target for his enemies and dickheads alike. She was gorgeous, brown skinned and affiliated to the Peaky Blinders. Of course, she would be a target, and with all of his wits and carefully crafted plans, Tommy had not anticipated Mary to be annoyed at a bar with Ada AND to have one of the Grace Institute donor try to take advantage of her. She fought back and managed to hurt the man and run away but that should never happen again. 

It was not up to debate. She was going to have peaky boys with her 24/7 when they weren't together. How could he look himself in the face if he wasn't able to protect her?  How could he look her in the face, knowing she trusted him, knowing how much she loved him and respected him, if he couldn't deliver on his promise? It would help him feel less restless if he knew she wasn't on her own and he would be able to focus on his business and the job he wanted to do without worrying about her well-being. Still, sometimes, he thought of Polly's words about him. What if his biggest fear was that Mary found someone who could love her the way she deserved to be? what then? could he let her go? could he, really?

-TBC-