Chapter 1: In The Alley
Disclaimer: First I'd like to give credit to an amazing author on here where I got the name for one of the boys in this story. All rightful credit goes to Ash Light for the name "Ace", but it was so amazingly cunning I borrowed it. She's an amazing author people, check out her stories!! ...I'm only saying this on this chapter and after that forget it, because by now you should know, I own nothing!
A/N: Alright a fic that I wrote to pass the time between school and rehearsals before track started. Basically telling Nancy's story, from her childhood in the gang to her dying day. Some of these chapters may get a little intense, I'm not sure yet, I'll warn you if it'll be worse then the others. All characters based on 1968 version of Oliver! (except the boys on Fagin's gang, never paid much attention to them so they all got their own names and descriptions). So without further ado, I present to you Nancy's story. R&R
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Fagin went walking as inconspicuously as he could through the back streets of London. His hands were jammed deep into the pockets of his dark green waistcoat. He was whistling a stich of "pick a pocket or two" as he continued to let his boots tread the dirty streets. He was on his way back to his gang of boys. Small but humble, the thieves held a distinct place in his heart. Each one in their own gentle way had become like his family. Especially Bill Sikes, that boy was a right down genius. Fagin told all the boys he'd never seen a sharper lad, but with Bill he meant it. Fagin gently kicked a pebble before him, listening to it's echo clinking down the alley.
"You've got to pick a pocket or two boys..." he sang gently to himself.
"Talkin' to me?" Fagin stopped dead in his tracks and looked down to see who had addressed him. It was a girl who couldn't be more then six. She had her knees tucked up to her chin so Fagin could see her dull black stockings, hole ridden and well worn. Her tangled auburn locks framed her dirty face as she slid her wrist rather ungracefully below her running nose. She blinked her stunning crystal blue eyes at him twice in her waiting for a reply. The young girl's dress was wine red and twice as tattered and dirty as the rest of her.
"No my dear, no. Just singing an old song, one of my favorites as it so happens," said the merry old gentlemen. The girl's head shot up from the place where it was resting on her scuffed up knees.
"I like songs," she said smiling. "Would you teach it to me?" Fagin was about to tell her no when a thought crossed his mind and he smiled a smile full of gold fillings and rotted teeth.
"You'd like...to learn that song my dear?" he said eying the girl greedily. They'd never had a girl in the gang before, and someone that adorable would most certainly be able to pick a pocket without suspicion. She'd be grand for business. The girl was nodding vigorously in response to his question. "Are your um....parents about then my dear?" The girl shook her head and sniffled slightly.
"Got no parents." Her voice was sweet but raspy, like the crunch of a foot on new-fallen snow.
"Lodgings?" Fagin inquired. Again the girl shook her head in the negative. "Money?"
"Not a shilling to me name," she said with a small shrug. Fagin's eyes glistened happily at this news.
"Would you like to have some money, and a place to stay my dear?" The girl eyed him suspiciously for a moment, not quite sure how to receive the old gentlemen. "We'd sing fun songs like that one all the time," he added. The girl sat there and stared at him blankly for a good long while. Finally after mulling it over for what seemed like hours to Fagin the girl nodded her tiny head.
"Alright," she snuffed.
"Excellent! My dear, excellent! The boys will be happy to see you I'm sure, you'll be plenty welcome back at the flat. Come along then my dear." Fagin extended a hand, clad in a black fingerless glove to help her up. Gratefully she stood and laced her small fingers in his.
"Where do you live sir?" she asked curiously as they walked on. Fagin scratched his scraggly beard roughly before smiling at her.
"Where the bow street can't catch us my dear. Where the bow street can't catch us." It was very quiet between the two of them for a while before Fagin came upon a rather odd realization. "Do you have a name my dear?"
"Nancy," she said quietly.
"Just Nancy?" he inquired curiously as they approached the bridge outside Fagin's old flat. The girl shrugged gently and nodded.
"Just Nancy. Never knew me folks, ran away from the orphanage soon as I could use me legs good and proper." Fagin looked at the girl in a state of awe before he nodded somewhat absently.
"Yes I suppose you did my dear, I suppose you did." The old gentlemen opened the door quietly before allowing the girl to proceed him and entering his home himself. "Plummy and Slam!" he called gruffly.
"What?" the girl asked confused. The old gentleman merely smiled at her as they entered.
"A password my dear, remember that will you?" The girl nodded. When they reached the top of the stairs Nancy was greeted by the sight of six boys all gathered around a table with cards in their hands. One had a pipe clampt between his teeth and two had glasses in front of them. The rest were too absorbed in the game to be doing much else. They were dressed in rags and caked in dirt but being in not much of a better state Nancy decided to hold her tongue. The first boy to look up from the game wasn't a boy at all. He was pushing on eighteen now and his tall stocky figure was accented by strong muscles bulging everywhere. He wore a long black trench coat over heavily soiled pants and shirt. A kerchief was tied around his neck and a hat was placed gingerly atop his head.
"What the 'ell is that Fagin?" were the first words Nancy heard Bill Sikes speak.
"What is what my dear?" Fagin said as he moved about the flat.
"Don't be a damned fool! That! The thing in the skirt." Nancy's being shivered as she listened to his voice, it rumbled like thunder across the whole flat.
"Mind your language now Bill, there's a lady present." Now all the boys had turned to stare at her and Nancy felt herself becoming red beneath the dirt.
"A what?" one of the boys cried.
"'ave you lost your bloomin' 'ead?" came the shout of the next. Several cries of protest in the like followed before Fagin silenced them all with a loud shout.
"This is Nancy boys. And you will make her feel welcome or I'll box your ears you hear me?" Bill stood to his feet but Fagin merely glared at him in return. "Yes Bill even you! Now come say hello! The lot of ya!" Bill clenched his fists and in pure defiance he sat back down to his game.
"What fer? She can 'ear me from over there can't she?" Nancy nodded dumbly as she stared at the boys. Sikes chuckled. "Well then 'ello there Miss Nancy, apparently you're welcome to our 'ome."