She ends up in an alley for the night. It's in Brooklyn, but away from where the people she knows live. The ground is freezing cold even if the air is not, so she takes out Steve's coat, grateful that her mammy forgot to store it in the attic for the summer, and wraps herself in it. It's not that big, actually her size, but it covers her enough that she doesn't feel that cold. She thanks God that at least it's summer. The brick building at her back is grounding, unmoving despite the mess in her head that threatens to make her dizzy.

She sleeps with one eye open, if she can call it slepp, jumping at every sound there is in fear that someone would try to rob her. She can't allow that, because that would mean losing the last things she has, the only things she owns.

Half the night is spend trying to think herself back in her mother's arms, trying to picture what would have happened had Cosimo Fiorello not died. She would have two other siblings, and Keenan would be her Irish/Catholic twin, either way the irony would not be lost, and he'd have her father's smile and her mother's hair, he would like to hang out with James and annoy her about Steve and her gigantic crush on him, her father and him would have been watching from the window as they kissed and then he and Keenan would have given Steve the shovel talk after wishing him a happy birthday, and afterwards, when she's already told him a thousand times to leave Steve alone, please, dad, you've known him for years, he would have welcome him to the family and warned him about closed doors because that's the kind of man she's been told he was but has no way of knowing for sure.

But she knows she would have met Steve either way, she knows. Maybe at Mass, maybe at some Irish dance her mammy would have dragged her to, some way, they would have met, because she can't think of a world where she doesn't have him there after losing everything.

At sunrise, when she can't try to sleep anymore, she doesn't have much to do. She doesn't have anything to do, really. She's out of school for the summer, but she's obviously not going back, she can't. She has to get a job and find a place to stay, that's her one priority. Food could actually wait for the day.

But she can't bring herself to get up. She stays where she is, looking at a puddle a few feet away from her and looking out of the corner of her eye at her suitcases. Her stomach clenches painfully, she hasn't eaten since yesterday's breakfast, but she ignores it.

No one goes into the alley, one of the reasons she chose it. It's a dead end, with some trash cans that haven't been used in a while. She's hiding behind them, grateful that there is no smell, when she hears someone calling a name.

It takes her a few moments to realize they're calling her name.

She doesn't answer. Doesn't even move, hoping they'll just keep walking. She doesn't want them to see her, she doesn't want them to know.

But her feet can be seen from the street and she doesn't hide them quick enough.

"Lucy?! Lucy!" she hears the person, hears their footsteps and then sees them kneel down in front of her "We've been looking for hours now! Why are you in an alley? Why didn't you come home with us?"

Annie Barnes, she recognizes.

Despite being the same age, Lucia and she were never close. Anna had her own group of friends she liked to go out with, and Lucia was never more than her big brother's friend, an occasional visitor in their home, always accompanied by Steve. Anna was probably closer to Steve than she was to her because he was always around, with or without Lucy and, honestly, the only reason Lucia ever called her Annie was because she absolutely hated being called Anna.

Too serious, she told her the first time they ever talked.

Five years it took her to realize that the girl didn't have any more friends than Bucky and Stevie. She didn't have to realize it, not with the little time she spent with the girl, but, really, she should have. And there and then, with her sitting in front of her in a dirty alley, with purple bags under her eyes, her red hair falling from a half assed up do and empty eyes, an orphan at sixteen, Annie Barnes wonders how on Earth she never noticed how lonely Lucy Fiorello was.

"C'mon, up! You're coming with me" she grabs her by the arm and pulls her up. Lucy doesn't argue, picking up all of her things and refusing to let Annie carry any of them. She's silent all the way to their three-bedroom apartment, where Becky doesn't hesitate to run towards her.

"Lucy!" she cries, running towards her with open arms. She drops her suitcases and opens her arms to the girl, catching and lifting her to put her on her hip.

"Hello, Becky" she says, pushing James' boots away so they don't hit the kid.

"I haven't seen you in a while. Do you want to see my new toy? It was my birthday!" she can see Winnie in the door to the kitchen, arms crossed as she talks to Annie, stealing one look at her and uncrossing her arms. Annie seems to be talking about going to find the boys, asking her mother if she knows where they are searching.

"I remember. I sent you a present with your brother, remember?" she asks Becky, putting her down and placing Bucky's boots by the suitcases near the door. Her mammy had insisted, saying they could give children toys now. Not like when you were young, she had whispered, caressing her cheek, blame so clear in her eyes Lucy had wanted to cry.

"It was a doll! I named her Nancy" Becky's smile is huge, looking at her with big brown eyes that shine like the sun, so proud of the name of her doll.

And Lucy has to close her eyes, take a deep breath and calm herself before she can nod to the girl.

Becky grabs her hand, pulling her along before she has a chance of saying anything else.

The biggest room in the apartment has two beds, a big one on one side where she knows Winnie and Arthur sleep and a smaller one where Becky sleeps. There is a corner, beside Becky's bed, where a chest half full of toys rests. Most of them seem to be old, passed down to the youngest of the family.

She knows there are two other rooms, a really small one where James sleeps and barely fits, and not actually a room as much as a space divided by a curtain from the slightly bigger one where the two other girls sleep, sharing a bed.

She's not sure how long it has been, but her ass is starting to go numb by the time Annie comes back with the boys. The first one to enter the room is Steve, who runs towards her as she rises, drowning her in a hug.

"I was so worried" he whispers into her hair, one arm around her waist and a hand behind her head. She hugs him as tight as she dares, burying her head on his shoulder and trying to melt into him "Don't do that again, please"

"What were you thinking?!" comes James' voice, startling her away from Steve.

"Becky, love, why don't you go ask Annie what does she want us to play next?" she asks the girl, who takes one look at her brother and goes away. She's not sure where Izzy is, but hopefully she's out and doesn't have to hear them.

"Bucky" Steve warns him, not letting her waist go.

"No, Steve. I want to know what she was thinking when she thought that going away in the middle of the night was okay!" James asks, closing the door behind him so Becky doesn't actually come back with an answer.

"What? That's not-I…" she whispers, frowning. That didn't even make sense, she had left in the evening, not in the night. It wasn't even dark when she left, really.

"We called William in the morning, alright? We wanted to see if you were okay today, after the call from yesterday. He told us you ran away last night, why did you do that?" James' runs a hand through his hair, possibly thinking of all the dangers that the streets meant for a young woman in the middle of the night.

"I…I didn't" she answers, looking at Steve, begging with her eyes for him to believe her. It's a silent way of talking that they have. Believe me, her eyes say.

"What do you mean?" he asks, looking at her too. He lied to us, his eyes say, tell me please he didn't do it.

"He told me to leave" she explains, turning towards James "You think I would have just left Keenan like that? Think a little, James! He's all the family I have left"

And she's not one that would have just spat words like that, but the fact that James actually thought she's ran away when her little brother was not even four days old drives her mad.

"Then why did he lie?"

"Oh, yes, of course he'd tell you he'd just kicked his dead wife's daughter the day before!" and she wants to control herself, but really, James is an idiot.

"You're staying with us" James says, like it's final.

"I can't-" she starts, feeling Steve's arm drop from her waist. Blindly, she searches for his hand and holds on.

"You will. We'll manage, some way" James starts pacing, continuing before she can interrupt him "You're not going out there, not when we can have you here, okay? You can go to Annie's school-"

"I'm not living here like a leech-" she starts to protest, because she's not. She had a year of that experience under her belt and she was done with the dirty feeling she got whenever William looked at her, she was.

"Then you get a job. But you have a home here, Lucy. You do"

James' eyes are really blue, open and honest and a little desperate, and she wonders if this boy knows when to stop giving.

Her lower lips trembles as she nods.

The day after, Sarah Rogers looks at her in the eyes and tells her working in a hospital is no easy task. She's a sweet, kind woman, but she is no liar and Lucia knows that really well.

So she squares her shoulders and tells her she believes her.


This one is kinda lame, but I had a bitch of a writer's block, so sorry. I want to thank everyone that has favorited, followed and reviewed! I'm amazed, really. I didn't expect so much in so few chapters. If you have ideas, leave them in a review! Anyway, next chapter closes 1936, and we know what happens then so, yeah...bad year for everyone.