A/N – First off, sorry it took me so long to get this posted. I was originally going to post it on Tuesday, but I quickly decided against that. Maddie just wasn't really in character at all throughout the chapter. The way I portrayed her just wasn't working for me so I had to rewrite the chapter... three times. The first time I wrote it I was channeling one of my characters from a different story, and the second time just didn't feel right. This was the chapter that I finally agreed upon. Now, you all must remember that it's been two years, so obviously, she's going to be just a tad bit different then she used to be. And that's how I made it.

I know most of you have so many questions about the two year gap. Well, if I could have, I would have made it even longer just because of a reason that will make its appearance hopefully within the next few chapters. I hope you'll understand when it does appear. If not, ask me again in five chapters.

As for Misty, several of you asked about her and the talk between Spot and Maddie in the last chapter. Well, you need to remember that they have no entire clue what happened to Misty. They don't know if she's dead oralive. Madeline believes she's alive and will eventually see her little sister again.

Ok, this is the last thing I really wanted to talk about. I really love Gabriel Damon and how he portrayed Spot in Newsies, but seeing as in my story he's gotten older, I've been picturing someone else as being the King of Brooklyn. If you want to keep the image of the Spot you all know and love as the one in Mumble, then do so. But if you're at all curious, tell me and I'll put a picture of the guy I've been picturing up on my profile.

Now this is really the last thing. I want to see if any of you can guess what job Maddie has. There are a few hints at the end of the chapter.

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Chapter Two – The usual morning rituals

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I was awake long before I should have been. After Spot fell back asleep relatively easily, my eyes were wide open for about another half an hour before I grew tired of keeping them apart. I was awake again not even forty-five minutes later. So, for the next hour, I watched the man beside me as he slept.

Blitz thought it was creepy for me to watch Spot during the night. I didn't. I loved watching him sleep. Every day he grew more and more solemn, but as soon as his head hit the pillow and his eyes closed, he reverted back to being child-like. He looked so innocent that it was hard to imagine him as being the tough nineteen-year-old newsie leader he was supposed to be every day. It made the nights more bearable if I could just watch him for ten minutes.

I rolled onto my back and sighed at the bottom of the bunk above me. I needed to be getting up soon. Ever since Pete started waking up later and later every day, the morning ritual had been pushed onto my shoulders since I was the only one that was usually awake before he came up. The older he got, the harder it was for him to go about maintaining the building. Already several of the things he did daily were now done by the older boys of the Lodging House.

Doc expected that his uncle would be passing on within the next year. Nobody can live forever, but it was still sad to even begin to think about the kind and happy gentleman being gone from our lives.

Spot turned onto his side towards me and his forehead instinctively moved onto my shoulder and against my neck. I ran my fingers through his shaggy hair, mentally making a note to give him a haircut within the next week. My eyes drifted across the bottom of the bunk above us to the wall I was up against. I immediately smiled.

Nailed to the panels of the wall from the end of the bed to the head were the pictures I had drawn. Many were of the newsboys of the Brooklyn house, there were several of Spot, and more then enough of the newsies in Manhattan. My eyes scanned over them, pausing to stare at more then one for a moment longer then the others. I tilted my head against the top of Spot's at the sight of my mother's smiling face beaming down at me.

I don't know how he had done it, but Spot had managed to salvage several of the pictures that had been torn from their rightful place in my sketchbook. Mainly the ones of my parents and little sister were put back together. Albeit they were slightly off in being lined up right and there were gaps between some of the faces; they were perfect.

Kissing the top of Spot's head, I gently nudged him away from me and sat up. I lifted a leg across his waist and as soon as the toes of my right foot touched the floor, I put all my weight on it and lifted myself from the bed. I really should have been the one sleeping on the outer edge of the mattress since I was always the first one up, but Spot wasn't comfortable with that idea. I was stuck between him and the wall whenever we went to bed. He felt I was safer that way. I couldn't agree more, actually.

I steadied myself on the bunk across from ours and turned to gaze down at Spot for a moment. His face was marred in a frown due to the cool draft racing against his skin from me leaving. I leaned down and pulled the blanket up from around his waist to his shoulders. I quickly kissed his forehead and smoothed my fingers over his cheeks. His features relaxed. He would only get about five more minutes of sleep before the noise finally woke him. Every morning I'd try to give him a few minutes more since he was up with me throughout the night.

Blitz shifted on the bunk above where Spot was asleep. He turned completely over onto his stomach and his hand fell over the edge of the bed and was left dangling. I lightly touched the skin on the back of his hand and one of his fingers twitched. I repeated the motion a few more times before the gleam of his open eyes stared at me through the darkness.

"I'se swear ta all dat is holy, Maddie, if ya don't stop dat, ya gettin pushed inta da East Side Rivah."

I smiled back at him sweetly. "Time to get up, Blitz. Be quick before I wake everyone else up and you have to scramble for a sink."

He glared at me while flinging the blanket away from his body and swinging his legs to hang them off the bed. He jumped to the floor beside me and yawned loudly.

"Would you please start wearing a shirt to bed," I flicked the bare skin of his shoulder as he shuffled past me. "Fall's coming soon and it's bound to get colder in here within the next few weeks. We don't need you getting sick."

I could tell Blitz had rolled his eyes just by the way the muscles in his back shrugged upwards slightly. "And don't roll your eyes at me, it's not very becoming of you."

The eighteen year old looked incredulously over his shoulder at me. "'ow do you'se even do dat?"

I waited for him to quickly sidestep a bed post before answering, "Start wearing a shirt to bed more often and it won't happen as much. Your body likes to give you away."

He gave me another funny look and just as I was about to warn him to watch where he was going, he ran into one of the bunks. The boy sleeping on the top bed jerked awake. He peered through the darkness, listening as Blitz cursed out loud while rubbing at his chest.

"Did you'se run inta da bunk 'gain?"

Blitz sneered at the other dark haired boy. "Shut ya face, Jolly. I'se don't need ta 'ear ya loud mouth dis mornin'."

Jolly raised an eyebrow in my direction. I lifted my shoulders before strategically placing my bare feet in certain places to ensure that I didn't trip on anything. Blitz growled in annoyance and started once again for the door to the hall. I trailed along after him, hearing the sound of Jolly's feet as they landed on the floor behind us.

Blitz almost bashed his shoulder against the door-less frame, but I managed to push him out of the way and into the hall. He stumbled along in the darkness towards the washroom. I shook my head and searched for the switch on the nearest wall. As soon as my fingers touched the cool surface, I flipped the small object that would turn the lights to the bunk room on.

The only other teenager awake in the room was just finishing pulling his pants up over his hips when the area lit up. His dark eyes squinted in the brightness and he momentarily held a hand over his face. I barely even blinked against the light as I gazed around the bunk room.

Amongst the rows of sleeping boys, clothes, old stacks of newspapers, and other assorted items littered the floor. I kicked aside a few stray papers, picked up a brown cap, and rolled a couple marbles on the palm of my hand. It desperately needed a serious case of cleaning, but I had no time to do so until the weekend. It was only Tuesday.

Jolly struggled to pull one of his boots on as I passed by him to reach the end of the row his top bed rested on. He grinned at me as I pulled to a stop at the bunk on the opposite side of the wall to where Spot was still fast asleep. I took a deep breath before everything went into chaos.

For a year I had been waking the boys up so they could get to work before the papers came out. I learned many different things in that time period. Blitz was not a morning person, Tully couldn't sleep without his old patched up blanket, Hawk spent at least a half an hour in front of the mirror to make himself look good, Cricket was harder to wake up then anybody else, Beetle was nowhere near coherent unless he got a full night's sleep, and Dodger liked to sleep in the nude.

That last one nearly traumatized me when I found that little tidbit out a week after living in the Brooklyn Lodging House. He'd grown comfortable enough with me being there all the time that he went against Spot's wishes to put clothes on when going to bed. I got over it. Eventually. Now every day I witnessed half naked boys walking around throughout the day and didn't bat an eyelash. I mean, they were decent enough that it wasn't scandal and my gaze never lasted longer then it needed to on them. I'd spent enough time around them that they became my family so it never really mattered as much as it did in the beginning.

I pulled my mind away from the thought of family and went down the first row of newsboys. I snatched Tully's blanket from under his chin and his eyes immediately snapped open. He groaned and curled up on his side. I folded his blanket up, laid it over my forearm, and then leaned down to the bunk beneath his and shook Hawk's shoulder. He blearily opened one eye.

"No," the fifteen year old whined. "Can't I'se sleep fa jus' a liddle while longah?"

I shook my head and pulled his blanket away and towards the foot of his bed. "No, you know how long it takes you to get ready in the mornings. Maybe if you would spend just a little bit less time in front of the mirror then maybe I'd wake you last."

Hawk punched at his pillow. "Damn me'se fa needin my 'air ta be perfect."

I grinned at him and flung Tully's blanket onto the younger boy's bed. I walked right by Dodger, his head lifted for a second before laying back down as soon as he saw me. His eyes closed tightly and I slapped at his blanket covered foot.

"You know the drill, Dodge."

The light haired young man sighed and made to swing his legs over the edge of his bed. I quickly turned to the mattress opposite his and my eyes landed on Cricket. The top of his rust colored head was the only thing I could see of him since his entire body was covered up with his own blanket and a spare sheet.

I paused to roll the sleeves of my shirt up before ripping the covers from his bed. He continued to sleep. Some of the other boys around me started waking up on their own, the bright lights letting them know it was time to get up. Most of them tried to help me out by waking their neighbors so I wouldn't have to.

A rustling of clothing behind me made me turn. Dodger pulled his suspenders up over his now covered shoulders and he stepped up beside me. "Think we'se should jus' push 'im off?"

I frowned. "I don't think so, Dodge. Wouldn't that hurt him?"

Dodger stared down at his friend for a moment. He shot forward and roughly punched the sleeping boy in the arm. Cricket did nothing but mumble something under his breath and wipe at the drool leaking from between his lips.

"Well, dat didn't work."

"Obviously. I can't believe I'm about to do this, but," I took a hesitant step forward. "Thank goodness he doesn't sleep on the top bunk."

I reached down, and with Dodger's help, we shoved Cricket out of his bed. The boy landed in a heap on the floor. I kneeled down on his bed and looked over the edge of his mattress to see his open hazel eyes looking up at my green ones.

"Wha'?"

I grinned down at him. "Time to get ready to sell some papers, Cricket."

Now that he was up, I continued on down the line of still sleeping newsies. A few instantly woke without trouble, more then two hid their heads under their pillows, and at least one fought with me the whole way to the washroom. I could still hear Benedict's huffs from down the hall as I moved to Beetle's side.

I tilted my head and studied his sleeping form. The scar beneath his left eye was pale against his tanned skin, his brown hair messy against his pillow, and his burly form almost too big for his bed. I smiled at him and gently prodded at his shoulder.

"Wake up."

Beetle's lids flickered open and light blue eyes blinked up at me.

"Sleep well?"

The young man scratched at his cheek. Someone nudged against my back. I turned my head to see Driver stretching as he squeezed between Jolly's body and mine.

"Mornin, Mads."

"Good morning. Hey, would you please make sure Nickel gets up. Last time Miller decided to let him have a few more minutes of sleep and completely forgot about him. He was late and I'm never trusting Miller to wake him up ever again. You know Nick has been having trouble with his leg lately."

Driver frowned and glanced over his shoulder at the mention of the teenager. "Yeah, I'se gots it. No problem."

I nodded at him and looked back to Beetle. The large boy widened his eyes as he sat up.

"And you, since you're wide awake, are responsible for getting Zibby ready thing morning."

Beetle cringed. "Do I'se 'ave ta?"

"Yes, you do. It's your turn. Don't act like it's a horrible pain to do it. I'm the one who takes care of him during the day, I need someone to at least get him ready in the mornings."

I walked away before he could get another word in. I dodged through dressing newsies and made my way to where Spot was finishing pulling his boots on. The sound of Cricket hitting the floor had probably woke him. The second I turned up in front of him he stood up and reached for me. My arms circled his waist and his stormy eyes closed as he breathed in my scent. He waited a moment or two before leaning backwards and kissing the tip of my nose. His lips brushed across my cheeks as he kissed each of my eyelids and then my forehead.

Every morning when he was finished getting ready for the long day ahead of him he would do this. It was his ritual to get him through the rest of his day.

"Did you'se get any more sleep aftah I'se knocked back out?"

"A little," he brushed a strand of hair away from my face as I mumbled this.

"Don't worry 'bout it, maybe you'se will gets more tanight."

We both knew I wouldn't.

"Maybe."

Spot loosened his hold on me and gestured with one hand towards his body. "Do I'se look presentable enough ta go outside?"

I scrutinized his clothes, nodding in approval. I bit my lip though, as I cast a look at his face. Although I loved the look of the stubble across his jaw, it made him appear older then he actually was. And in the business of selling newspapers, that wasn't a good thing.

I rubbed the back of my hand across the right side of his face. He swore loudly and skittered around me and towards the door to the hall.

"Thanks, Mads, almost fergot."

Twenty minutes later and the sun was slowly starting to rise.

"You're all going to be late if you don't leave now!" I called out from the doorway to the washroom. The chatter grew louder as they started to file past me and down the stairs. They all said their usual goodbyes and I replied in kind.

"Stubbs'll be back at some point taday. Be on da lookout fa 'im."

I jumped at Miller's declaration from beside me. I stiffly acknowledged his words and he moved to help Nickel down the stairs. Spot exited the bathroom and kissed my forehead.

"Please be careful today, Spot."

"Ya know I'se will. I'se 'ave you'se ta come 'ome ta, don't I'se?"

I nodded against his lips and he leaned back. Grinning at me, he gave me one last kiss before following his boys down the stairs and out the door.

"Maddie!" A high pitched voice shrieked from behind me.

I turned just as a small body flung itself against my legs. I struggled to keep my pants up as the tiny being grasped for a hand hold so they wouldn't fall backwards. I peered down at the half dressed little boy as he hugged my legs. Beetle rushed down the hall towards me with a dark fabric in his hands.

"Liddle bastard got away from me'se."

I sighed softly and took the shirt from his hold. "Better get going, Beetle. You're late enough as it is."

Beetle swore loudly and took off down the stairs. The small boy below giggled. I waited for the door to slam shut before I reached down and pulled the dark shirt over the kid's head.

"Zibby, you really know how to frustrate a person, don't you?"

The four-year-old just smiled at me innocently and rocked back on his heels as his hands went through the arm holes of his shirt.

After finishing getting him dressed, I picked him up and rested him on my hip. "Well, you ready to go listen to old people droll on about their problems, list off their symptoms, and shed their clothes for an exam?"

Zibby stuck his tongue out and hurriedly shook his head.

I grinned and kissed his cheek. "Good, cause neither am I."