Disclaimer: Hello, all. As usual, I do not own any of the fine newsies, however I do own Norah, Margaret, Jane, and all the other characters not from the movie.

"Well why don' ya talk ta her if ya think she's pretty," Mush suggested.

"Don't –," I heard Skittery say quickly. My heart raced as I looked over at him, holding my breath. I hoped to God he didn't put the pieces together.

"Why not?" Blink said, his eyebrows furrowing.

"'Cause." Blink looked at Mush with a suspicious frown.

"'Cause why?" Race asked.

"Jist 'cause!" Everyone could tell Skittery was getting upset, and suddenly Race spoke up.

"Hey, ain't 'dat –"

Skittery nodded. "Yeah."

The girls, probably hearing the commotion, suddenly looked over at the boys.

"James?" Jane asked, walking over to the table. Shit! Shit this is not good!

"James Clark?" Everyone turned to look at Skittery, grinning widely. No answer.

"Do you remember me? I'm Norah's friend –"

"Yeah I know who ya are. Whaddaya want?" He asked not in a rude tone, but sounding troubled.

"We were just wondering if you've seen Norah," Margaret cut in quickly.

Skittery's eyes opened wider, as they flashed from Margaret to Jane, probably hoping that it was a joke.

"I ain't seen her for two yeahs," Skittery answered, stabbing the draw in his drink up and down in his glass.

"If she isn't with James, where could she be?" Jane said, whispering in Margaret's ear with a worried look on her face, and a tear slid down her cheek. Skittery looked up at them and sighed.

"Sorry. I ain't seen her."

Jane's face wrinkled with anger. "You didn't even love her, did you? Do you even care about her?"

Skittery all of the sudden stood up angrily. "Yeah I fucking loved her and I still do!" The restaurant suddenly became silent.

Slowly, Blink stood up and removed his hat. "Have ya met my friend Nathaniel?"

At this point, my heart stopped. I thought for sure I was going to get thrown out of the lodging house and half the newsboys in New York would be chasing me with their wooden swords.

"No, no we haven't," Jane smiled politely at Blink, then turned to me. Her expression dropped and her eyes nearly bugged out of her head.

"Introduce yourself, kid," Blink nudged me in the rib.

"Nathaniel," I mustered up in my boyish voice.

"Jane and Margaret," Margaret said, looking flabbergasted.

"We uh – we must get back to work," Jane said, breaking her gaze at me.

"May I escort ya?" I asked, my eyes pleading her not to say anything to Skittery.

"Yes you may," Margaret replied quickly, grabbing Jane by the arm and leaving the restaurant quickly. As soon as the door closed and we were out of view, Margaret grabbed me by the arm with a grip I never knew she had.

"Norah, what in the hell do you think you're doing?" She demanded, her hands on her hips. I had never seen them this angry.

"Mrs. Collins has been on a war path trying to track you down. What are we supposed to do?" Jane exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air in frustration.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, trying to find any sort of reasonable explanation for why I would act like this.

I shrugged. "I love him."

"Well don't you think you're going about it in the wrong way?" Margaret asked. "I mean, quitting your job and running away, pretending to be a boy? What happens when he finds out that you have breasts, for God's sake!"

"Jesus, he already knows Ihave breasts!" I yelled.

"He thinks you're a boy!" Jane said, matching my tone. We were all silent for a moment while we all looked at each other.

"I know you don't understand why I'm doing this, and I can't even begin to explain it," I said in a much quieter voice, "but I need to get him back. He's miserable, and so am I."

"But getting back together with him once you've lied to him isn't going to make you any happier," Jane informed me.

I thought for a while before answering this, but I actually came up with something.

"I've already gave up everything I had; my job, my family, a nice place to live…. and if he doesn't love me, then I've risked and lost everything for the man I love. But if I don't do this, I'll regret it for the rest of my life."

Jane looked at Margaret with a sympathetic look, then quickly rushed forward to hug me.

"Then do what you have to do," she whispered in my ear, signaling at Margaret.

Margaret gave me a small smile and patted my shoulder. "Just please take a bath."

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We were the last to arrive at Spot's in Brooklyn, and the part had already started. Jack and Spot shook hands, while he, Blink and Mush joined in on the poker game. Race took me around to meet the regulars at the poker games, including Spot. After Race got me a drink and a cigarette, I stood against the wall looking for Skittery – and suddenly when I looked in front of me, there he was; leaning against the wall across from me. Specs and Dutchy had already had a few drinks and stumbled about behind the poker table, blocking my view of Skittery, and I saw a blonde in a bright yellow dress pass behind them.

My stomach dropped to the ground. Skittery's arm was slung around the girl's shoulder, his drink in the other. I looked at her for what seemed like 10 minutes, trying to decide if she was pretty. Well – she may have been if I was seeing her actual face behind all that cakey makeup. She must have said something funny, because he smiled. He smiled. As my eyes dropped to my drink, I saw a tear roll down and it fell right in the center of my cup.

I wiped the tear from my eye, neither leaving the room crying hysterically nor handling the situation well. I went back and forth from the bar, each time stumbling a bit more until I nearly fell to the ground. I opened my eyes and through my hazy eyes I saw a doorway to the staircase. It must have taken me a while to get up the staircase, but I finally found a bathroom which was vacant.

I sat on the edge of the bathtub, finally letting myself cry as much as I wanted, but I tried to hush myself as much as I could to prevent anyone from knowing it was me. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on any black spot behind my eyelids, but I felt like I was on a rollercoaster, and waves of nausea surged throughout my entire body. Before I could even begin to thin, I stripped off my clothes and got into the bath, the cold water not chilling me nearly as much as it would had I been sober. I closed my eyes and dunk my head into the water, staying down as long as I could to get some sort of clarity out of the whole situation. I had never seen Skittery with another girl.

I came up from the water, my long hair dripping with freezing water as the door swung open, and a drunken Spot came stumbling in. My hands flew to my breasts as I tried desperately to cover myself up. He said nothing for a matter of seconds, then closed the door behind him, blinking at me.

"Do you mind?" I said, my speech noticeably slurred.

"You…. you'se a goil… but I thought you was – " He exclaimed, examining me closely.

"Yes, I'm a girl, very well spotted," I said, rolling my eyes and shivering. He scrunched his eyes shut and opened them, blinking to reveal his diluted pupils.

"Heah," he said, opening the closet and pulling out a towel. He held it out in full size in front of me, motioning for me to get out. Too drunk to refuse, I stepped out and let Spot wrap the towel around me, as he rubbed me with it to get me dry. The whole time my hands held onto the towel tightly, and my eyes were stuck to the floor.

"You're turnin' purple," he said quietly, rubbing my arms up and down quickly. Slowly I moved my gaze up to his face, meeting his clear blue eyes.

"He doesn't love me," I whispered, still slurring, but searching for some answer in his face.

"Who doesn't?" He asked, handing me my underclothes, but I dropped them to the floor.

"Skittery."

"Well, I don't blame 'im. I mean you're goin' around in guy's clothes," Spot laughed.

"But he doesn't know I'm..." I tried as hard as I could to get the words out so he would understand me. "I pretended to be a newsie and he doesn't know…"

Suddenly as I was about to start crying, Spot put a finger up to my lips, and he held it there for a while. With no warning, he took a small step towards me and pressed his lips against mine, and I felt a drop in my stomach.

And somehow, I ended up in his bed.