A/N: No one told me that I uploaded some chapters twice. That must have been confusing to read... Anyway, here is the *correct* chapter.

Mush looked at Roselia with tears in his eyes.

"You've grown up so much." he said.

"You have too."

There was a pause before Mush spoke again. "So you and Spot are kind of together?" Mush asked teasing her.

"Oh, no- not exactly." Chase blushed. Ever since Spot introduced her to his newsies, they joked that there was something going on between the two of them. Secretly, Chase wished it was true. She remembered something from her first day as a newsie that she hadn't bothered telling Mush.

At the end of the day, Spot took Roselia to a pier. The pier was filled with newsies of all ages. Mostly older, muscular, tough-looking boys, but Rosie saw Spark and Story and a lot of girls from the lodging house too. There was a stack of crates at one side of the pier. But no one even went near it, even though there wasn't much space on the pier for everyone. Spot started climbing up.

"Come on." he said, leading her.

"What's all this?" Roselia gestured to everything, including the crates. Spot sat down on the top crate.

"All this is mine." he said. "I'm kind of the King." Roselia didn't have a chance to process this because Spot stood up and took out his cane. He banged it on the edge of the crate. Everyone looked up.

"Hey fellas!" he said. Some of the girls put their hands on their hips and glared at him. "And ladies. This is Chase." He swung his arm back to gesture to her. Roselia backed up to avoid being hit. "Yous all better be nice to her," She had to back up again. "She's new and she's not used to all this." Spot gestured to the pier. Roselia had to back up again. Unfortunately, she was close to the edge of the crates. Spot hit her right in the eye with the handle of his cane, so hard, she fell backward. She screamed.

Spot looked down. Chase was plummeting 10 feet down into the river. He had no idea if she could swim or not. Throwing down his cane, he dove in after her.

Roselia came up coughing and gasping for breath. Despite the unusually warm fall weather, the river was cold. Spot grabbed her arm and swam toward the ladder up to the pier. She splashed him, half kidding, it was an accident. And she climbed up the ladder. When they got to the top, one of the older boys offered her his jacket.

"Not a word." Spot said, daring someone to laugh.

Spot smiled again. For three years he'd seen Chase holding back tears about her past. She had become resigned to the fact that the Brooklyn newsies were all the family she had left. With the return of her brother, something was finally going right in her life. Compared to her, he'd been lucky.

Spark popped her head up from behind the crates.

"Are they gone?" she whispered to Spot.

"No not yet." Spot cocked his head. "Why are you hiding, again?"

Spark rolled her eyes "Do I have to explain it to you? Because. That's my answer."

Spot laughed.

Mush and Chase were emotionally exhausted. For a minute, they just sat there and stared at the river and the Brooklyn bridge, a view that Chase would never get bored of.

They turned when they heard laughter behind them. It was Spot and Spark. Chase and Mush turned back to each other, the same annoyed expression on both of their faces.

So Spot had time for Spark but he didn't have time for Chase. She looked back to Mush Chase cocked her head, a habit she'd picked up from hanging around Spot, Why did he care?

"You know Spark?" she asked him.

"Yes,"

"Oh," she said, realization showed in her eyes. "You like her, don't you?"

"No," he blushed. "I just wanna know what she's doin' here. I told her not to go back to Brooklyn again."

Chase raised an eyebrow. "Any particular reason you don't want her here?"

"It's- It's dangerous-"

"I've been doing fine here, thank you very much."

"Well-"

"Ha! So you do like her! Have you told her yet?"

"Not yet." Mush whispered, looking down.

"Looks like we're in the same spot." Chase laid her head on Mush's shoulder and looked out into the water again. It seemed like Spot would never feel the way she felt about him.

Spot followed Spark down to the pier again.

"So this is why you rushed off the other day without talking to the Manhattan newsgirls?" Mush said to Spark as she tried to sneak away. He was a bit irritated.

"I'm sorry, you were so protective, I didn't know what to tell you." Spark smiled apologetically.

"Hey, you didn't do anything wrong but it would've been nice if you told me." Mush said. "And we coulda avoided all this."

"I'm sorry." Spark said again. She wanted to hug Mush. He looked so disappointed. There was a long pause.

Chase stood up to join Mush and Spark.

"You wanna come to Manhattan?" he asked her.

"Yes! I miss it there. Plus, I think I have to thank someone for something." Mush looked at her, obviously she'd met Jack when he came here to talk to Spot.

Knowing that his sister was good friends with Spot Conlon made him seem less intimidating to Mush. He asked him if it would be ok to take his sister to Manhattan with him for a few hours.

"So, you ready to go?" Mush asked Chase.

"What time will yous be back?" Spot said, looking at Chase and not Mush.

"Sometime later." Mush said.

Spot turned to Chase. "Don't come back too late. I'd rather you stay in Manhattan with your brother than risk walking these streets in the middle of the night."

"I'll be fine." said Chase, she felt a blush coming on again, he cared!

Mush and Spot nodded to each other, as a silent agreement. They both wanted to keep her safe.

"Alright then. I'll be at the end of the bridge to walk ya home."

"So have you always been a newsie. I mean..." Chase said as they crossed the Brooklyn Bridge. It was weird having to look up to her brother. 8 years ago they were the same height.

"Yeah, Pulitzer sent you to that fancy school and I got put in the lodging house." Mush answered bitterly.

"That's not fair."

"Ha, well, I guess Mr. Pulitzer plays by his own rules."

Chase bit her lip angrily.

"He just sent you there, no money in your pocket?"

"He did give me a quarter to buy papes, but that was it. I probably woulda starved too, if it weren't for Mr. Kloppman and some a' the other boys to help me out."

"And- and you had to sell the headlines the next day?" tears welled up in Chase's eyes. She'd seen the newspapers that day. Her name and her parents' names were all over them. Mush put his arm around her.

"Yeah," he said, trying to stop his own tears from coming.

Mush opened the door to the lodging house for Chase.

"Hey, fellas." he said. Every single boy in the room stood up and took off their hats when they saw Chase. She blushed, covering her mouth with her hand to hide her smile. The Brooklyn boys were gentlemen, but she wasn't used to all this.

"On to the next girl, I see." Racetrack nudged Kid Blink. "Ha! That'll be two bucks."

"You said Spark would dump him after seeing him with another girl. Mush, where's Spark? I need to see this!" Blink said.

"Spark doesn't have a problem with Roselia because Roselia is my sister." Mush said.

The room went silent for a second and then the boys surrounded Chase, all talking at once, trying to have their chance with her. "Hey!" Mush said but no one could hear him. "HEY!" Still, no one heard.

"SHUT IT!" said Jack coming down the steps. Leave it to Jack to silence the room. "Give the lady some space." Mush punched him in the arm a few times, as a way to say "thank you".

"Hey, Chase." Jack smiled at her and winked. She parted the crowd of boys and hugged him.

"Thank you," she whispered, her tears soaking into his shirt.

"No problem." looking up, Chase saw that his eyes were sparkling with tears too. "Will yous all mind your own business!" he said when he saw all the other boys still standing there. He didn't have to say it twice.

"How could a gorgeous dame like you end up related to a guy like Mush?" Racetrack asked Chase flirtatiously.

Chase smiled at Racetrack's joke, her dimples showing.

"Technically, we're more distantly related." she said, "We're cousins but my parents died and his adopted me."

"Aha," Racetrack licked his hand and smoothed back his hair. "Well then, Roselia, is it? What do you think about horse racing?"

"Nice try, Race, but I think she's already got a guy back in Brooklyn." Mush punched him in the arm.

"Who is it?" Blink asked.

"Please tell me you're not passing me up for some pansy." Racetrack said dramatically.

Chase hesitated a second. But if her brother trusted these boys then so could she. It helped that Jack was sitting on the stairs, smiling at her encouragingly.

"Well," she smiled dreamily. "he's a newsie."

"Ok…" The boys really wanted to know.

"He's a leader. Some might even say he's the King."

Chase, Mush, and Jack all smiled at Racetrack and Blink's surprised expressions. For Mush, it was nice to know what was going on, to have the upper hand and not be the confused and surprised one. Racetrack looked like he was going to fall on the floor.

"Well we know he's not a pansy." Said Kid Blink.

"Your guy is Spot Conlon?!"

"He's not exactly mine yet though." Chase looked down sadly. Mush hugged her.

"Believe me, Rosie, I know how you feel." he said. Jack got up and stood next to Chase.

"Yeah, me too."

The boys stared at him and Chase giggled.

"What, yous think you're the only hopeless romantics here?"

"It's not that, we just haven't seen you with any specific girls recently." Said Racetrack.

"I got no one in particular at the moment." Jack said defensively, but Chase could see a little blush rising on his cheeks.

The boys, not wanting to start anything with Jack turned back to Chase.

"He better treat you right, or we'll 'talk to him'" Race said.

"What? Oh, yeah." Blink looked a little pale and nervous at the thought of even trying to attempt to soak Spot.

"Thanks boys." she smiled, trying to imagine what their fight would look like.

"It's getting late," said Mush to Chase. "We's should get goin'." He opened the door for her.

"Bye boys." she waved.

"Hey, Chase," said Jack.

"Yes?"

"Come back here tomorrow. I have something about the strike that you can help me with."

"Ok," Chase said excitedly. She finally could help with the strike. "See you tomorrow, then."

Spot was on the dock with Spark. He was laying down looking at the stars. Currently, there was silence. But it wasn't an awkward silence. And Spot like that. They had some time to think.

When he heard footsteps and voices approaching, Spot stood up. Living on the streets of Brooklyn as long as Spot had, he'd learned to be prepared for anything. He relaxed when he saw it was just Chase and Mush coming back from Manhattan.

"Did you have a good time with the Manhattan boys?" Spark asked, sitting up leisurely, not phased after getting startled.

"Yeah," said Chase.

"I hope you won't up and leave Brooklyn to live there." Spot said teasing her, even though he was joking, he really meant it.

"You know I wouldn't do that."

"Yeah," their eyes locked for a second, both of them smiling.

Mush looked at Spark, laughing a little.