Once again, it was late by the time Rita got home. Despite Willow's apparent dislike for her, Rita was still all that her sister had and it was hard to leave with the vulnerable dog urging her to stay. Willow just wouldn't give up, but neither would she trust Rita enough to join her as she went back to the barge. It was a wrench to walk away, but Rita reminded herself that Willow wasn't the only person who needed her, and by no means would she let her family down. She quietly came down the stairs; it seemed everyone was asleep.

"Been with your baby sis all this time?" Dodger asked with a yawn. He had not yet gone into a deep sleep and was easily woken by the sound of Rita on the stairs.

Rita sat down beside Dodger's bed, pleased to have some friendlier company. She sighed heavily as she started, "Yeah, it's been pretty rough. She's made it clear that she hates me, but still she wants me with her all the time. I'm not sure if she's just really lonely or if she's tryin' to punish me."

"Weird girl," he said, "I didn't get the impression she was much keen on me either. Must be somethin' wrong with her."

"Oh, she definitely doesn't think much of you."

"Guess I'll have to try harder to win her over," Dodger grinned slyly.

"Don't you even think about it! The last thing I need is you winding her up. She's off limits. There must be some women left in the city for you to come on to who aren't my sister." Rita growled, not prepared to take any of Dodger's nonsense.

Dodger readjusted himself, trying to get comfortable. "S'ppose it's not worth my trouble anyhow. Sure, she's easy on the eyes, but if I'm into that sort of thing I've got you right here. Kinda similar looking but with a sense of humour."

Rita shook her head and made to go to bed. It was clear that Dodger wasn't going to be much help.

"Hey, Rita," he called after her, and nipped at her tail, "You are okay, right?"

She turned around, noticing a concerned look on his face. "I'm fine. Or I will be. I just thought I'd gotten over all this, moved on." She lay down and pulled her blanket haphazardly over herself.

"You don't think Storm would want to help? Take the pressure off a bit." Dodger suggested. Rita's father had spent a great deal of time with her when she was younger, and still maintained occasional friendly contact. It seemed a fair assumption that he would be equally interested in another of his daughters.

Rita shook her head. "I'm sure he would, but I've not seen him in months. He could be anywhere. And I wouldn't bet on Willow being receptive either." She yawned, which brought on Dodger doing the same.

Dodger laid his head down on a cushion, ready to call it a night. "Don't let her get to you, okay?" he said sleepily.

"Thanks, honey. I'll try."


Willow huddled in the back of her cage, shaking with fear. There were dogs either side of her, scratching at their cage doors, whining, howling. The voices of countless strangers as they pleaded for their freedom crashed over her, and it was all too much. She cried, and cried, until she could barely squeeze out another tear. Her worst nightmare had come true, and all she could do was to wait to be given the needle that would finally liberate her from her heartache.

For several days she did very little, too frightened to try and interact with any of the other dogs, too glum to eat more than a few bites of food each day. From what she had overheard, many of the dogs held up hope of being adopted. Willow knew better than to put faith in such a dream; the whole reason she was in that awful place was that no one wanted to take her home. She just lay there and tried to escape in her thoughts. She thought of her mother- the loving presence that had surrounded her from the very beginning, trying to protect her from the inevitable. Her mother had at least tried to stop her from being taken away. It should have been more, though. Even maternal love was apparently not enough to bring Chloe to betray her human masters. Never would she risk being disposed of herself, even if it meant her own pup would be met with that fate. Willow thought of Rita. She felt a cold resentment as she imagined her sister living a carefree life with her street dog friends. Rita had never invited her to join them, to have a chance of a future, even if it did mean falling in with the wrong crowd. It had to be better than this.

A couple stood by her cage door, talking animatedly to one another. Willow tried to block out the chatter; she had enough to wallow in without being the source of amusement for humans. But then they opened the door. Willow's head shot up as the thought she'd not allowed in came rushing to her. Could she really get adopted? Was that what these people wanted? The woman crouched down and held out her hand. Willow was unsure of the situation, but approached all the same, sniffing at the woman's hand. Both the humans were smiling. Willow felt her heart leap… this looked promising. She could scarcely believe it.

"Do you think she's the one?" the man asked.

"She's the one," came the reply.

Thinking back to her puppyhood was painful for Willow, but as she was still loathe to interact with other dogs in the hangout, there was little else to do to pass the time. If only her old friend, Flash, were here; really she was the only true friend that Willow ever had. But poor old Flash had almost certainly been torn apart by those savage dogs. The thought discouraged the lonely hound further from making contact with the street dogs that surrounded her. Considering how much she'd once longed to leave her old yard, Willow was disappointed that the grass really did not seem to be greener on the other side at all. She was still hungry, she'd lost her only friend, and was now relying on someone she resented. She was beginning to think that maybe she shouldn't have left at all. It was morning, and Willow was expecting Rita to be around to see her anytime. Her sister may not have been her first choice for an ally, but at least she knew what she was doing. Willow left the warehouse to get some fresh air before she met up with Rita.

Rita swallowed her nerves as she approached the old warehouse. Her previous encounter with her sister had not exactly gone smoothly, and she was hoping that things would go better. It was still hard to believe that Willow was even there at all, and it was a lot for Rita to get her head around after believing her to be dead for so long. She spotted Willow a short distance away and called out to her. "Morning, Will! You ready to get goin'?"

Willow smiled falsely. If Rita was at least trying to help, then she would try and keep things friendly. "I'm ready. The sooner I can learn to take care of myself properly, the better."

It had already been established the previous day that Willow would be keeping as much of a distance between herself and humans as was possible, which could be a challenge in a city teeming with people. Rita took Willow around quiet alleys, showing her the best routes to take and the most reliable places to find food. She didn't even bother trying to show her sister the fine art of pick pocketing, Willow had already made her views on thievery quite clear when she saw what Rita's 'work' involved. Going through trash to look for scraps would be Willow's best bet. The sky was an ominous grey, and Rita was eager to feed Willow up at least a little bit before the rain came. Unfortunately, Willow was every bit as uncooperative as she'd been the day before.

"All right, how about I show you how to catch rats? You should be able to find plenty of them, and not have to get so close to humans." Rita suggested, after they'd been through yet another disappointing bag of rubbish. If Willow was kept occupied, it would free her up to try and find some good loot for Fagin- the situation back home was only getting worse, and Rita knew that she needed to find a way to help out and take care of her sister. The timing of Willow's appearance certainly hadn't been ideal.

"I caught a few rats that wandered into the old yard," Willow said proudly, "You show me where to look and I'll get hunting."

"With enough practice, you'll probably be able to take out birds as well. Those fat pigeons don't move so fast, should be easy enough," Rita grinned, feeling that she'd hit the solution to her sister's food problem. "As for finding them; if you're quiet enough, you can find them in just about every alley. They like the damp, so you'll find plenty round the docks. An easy meal if you're not wanting to stray too far from the warehouse. If you stick around these parts for a while, I'll come back for you a while later, make sure you're doing all right."

"What? So you're free to indulge in your favourite criminal pastime?" Willow sneered. She felt a couple of drops of rain on her muzzle.

Rita didn't rise to her sister's taunt. She was proud, but she wouldn't allow herself to be drawn into another argument. "Unfortunately, Fagin won't eat rats, so I'm just gonna have to help him out the way I'm good at. If you don't have any more complaints, I'll leave you to it."

Willow turned to go down the nearest alleyway, taking care with each footstep. She'd not considered rats as a source of food until that point; she'd seen surprisingly few of them since getting loose, and when she had, she'd been more concerned with making sure she got to any scraps of food before they did. She felt silly now, it wasn't as if she'd never caught a rat before. It was really raining now. Willow ignored the steady fall of raindrops and focused on a scratching behind a trashcan. She approached quietly, listening intently. The rat hadn't heard her, probably her footsteps were drowned out by the rain against the metal bin. This was too easy. With one quick movement, she knocked the bin aside and took the rodent in her jaws. It was over before the poor rat knew what had hit it.

A short way away, Rita was not enjoying the same luck. The rain was getting heavier, and the humans who had not ducked indoors somewhere for cover were hurrying around, their possessions held close for protection from the wet. It was hardly ideal conditions for stealing. After a while, she grew frustrated and gave up. There was nothing for it but to go back to searching through trash, which never brought quite the same results. Dripping wet, Rita ran back the way she'd come, hoping to find Willow. It took only a few minutes to run into her, the scruffy hound was huddled under the edge of a roof, a partly eaten rat at her feet.

"Bad day for stealing?" Willow smirked. She felt a great satisfaction in knowing she'd achieved more than her sister, it showed just how pointless an exercise it was to put all your energy into helping out some stupid human.

Rita shook herself as she reached the slightly drier area in which Willow was waiting. "Just gonna have to wait until this clears up a bit." She avoided eye contact with her sister, who was obviously still wanting to get a rise out of her, and stared out into the rain. Bad weather or not, she'd have to find something to bring back. With six mouths to feed, any rough patches they went through were felt by all. Fagin would always buy dog food before he'd feed himself, and he was getting into a poor state as a result. Rita couldn't allow herself to let him down. Willow might mock, but what did she know? She didn't understand how it felt to have the ones she cared about depending on her, all she did was demand more for herself. Rita shivered, the wet getting to her.

"I hate the rain," Willow said as she joined Rita in looking out at the downpour, "There was hardly any shelter in the old yard. Flash and me used to get soaked."

"I'm sorry you lost your friend, you must really miss her." Rita murmured. Flash had only been mentioned very briefly, it seemed something that Willow didn't enjoy talking about. It was small wonder Willow seemed desperate for love now, even if it was only coming from the person she'd least like to have to take it from. Rita felt a great pity for her sister rise up in her. Her poor little Willow…

Willow looked down, determined not to cry. "She was all I had. We were so happy to escape, but now I'm wondering if we should've just stayed put. It was terrible back there, you wouldn't believe it," she shook her head, "But we had each other. Now, it's just me. Just me and a world I'm not made for."

"I know it's hard, really I do. The learning curve's gonna be a steep one, it always is. But if you give it some time things won't look so bad. It's all up to you now- you've got most of your life ahead of you, and you've got the freedom to do what you want with it. I'll help you as much as I can, but unfortunately the really tough part is down to you." Rita wanted to snuggle close to her little sister, to comfort her. The protective feelings she'd felt for Willow when they were little were still there, finally rekindled after all this time. But every time she made to move closer, Willow would flinch and lean away.

Willow wondered what kind of a future she could possibly have. A part of her wanted to mend the bond she'd once had with Rita, but it seemed pretty pointless when it would always be trumped by Rita's loyalty to her human and that stupid, arrogant mutt. Maybe she would be better off alone. Relying on only herself to get by, she'd have little to fear from humans or other dogs- she was fast enough to keep out of harm's way. It would just be the loneliness… the thing that she truly couldn't stand. Willow knew that it was all hopeless. She looked down at the rat. Perhaps she would feel better if she made an effort with Rita. It didn't mean she'd have to accept any of her good for nothing friends. She nudged the rat towards her sister. "If you're hungry, you can take some of this."

Rita was surprised, and smiled. "Thanks, but I'll find something later. You need to take care of yourself right now."

In spite of everything, Willow felt a little better. She had enough to deal with without fighting with the only person who she had to rely on. It wasn't ideal, but it was something. Maybe they could move forward. Just perhaps in baby steps.