A/N – HEY! Two chapters up in one day1 I know, you must be pretty shocked considering on how long it usually takes me. xo

It really late now, or maybe it was just early in the morning. Talia couldn't tell. Her nerves were too tense for her to be tired, not to mention she still had no idea as to what was going on. Grandma, or better known as Speranza, was walking full steam ahead of Talia and Riccio. For such a small and old woman, she moved with amazing speed. It was as if someone who could walk fast and speak English had taken over Speranza's body!

"So tell me again," Speranza said gruffly, "how many people are stuck in this orphanage?"

"I told you," Talia responded, "only Bo is actually in the orphanage. He's the little boy who's been taken by the cops."

"But who are the other two you told me about… uh, bumble bee and the other one or something."

"Do you mean Hornet and Prosper?" asked Riccio.

Speranza shrugged. "Sure."

"They're not in the orphanage." Talia felt like was a broken record player, forced to repeat herself over and over again, "They're just there to try and get Bo out, only I don't think they know how to. That's why I came to get you."

Quick as a whip, Speranza asked, "And what makes you think I know how to get them out?"

In all honesty, Talia didn't know. At the time when she and Riccio were in the park, she had decided that what she needed was an adult. Talia was fed up with the amount of freedom she had from lack of adults. What she wanted was some guidelines and a pair of arms to fall into when she was running away from cops, but it was hard to do that when you just lived with a bunch of kids.

Because that's what we are, Talia suddenly realized, a bunch of kids with no guidance or direction. What had she thinking, speaking so rudely to her parents on the phone, not even bothering to get to know her grandma a little better. In truth, Talia wasn't ready to truly take care of herself properly, neither was any of the thieves. A shiver went down Talia's spine as she thought about thieves living a full day with no adult supervision when she just wanted to give up after a few weeks. The thieves she had met truly were amazing.

"We just needed someone older than us to tell us it was going to be okay," Talia finally said, her voice low. Speranza turned her head around to glance at Talia while keeping the same brisk pace. Her expression softened and the corners of her thin lips turned up into a gentle smile. It was exactly that kind of look that Talia needed to know they were going to be okay.

"Can I ask a question?" Riccio spoke after some time, "Talia, how come you told us that Speranza didn't speak English when she clearly does?"

Talia laughed. "Know one told me she spoke English! Even my parents said she only spoke Italian! Honestly Speranza, what was up with all of that?"

Turning her head around once again, a familiar smirk spread across Speranza's face. As she did, Riccio let out a tiny gasp as he realized that it was the same infamous smirk Talia wore on her own face. That small, cheeky, knowing smile must have been passed down from her grandma.

"This has been a plan your parents and I had planned since your birth." Speranza explained to Talia and Riccio, "When it was clear that I was going to live in Venice for the rest of my life, the three of often talked about you visiting me when you were just a bun in the oven. The idea formed when we were wondering how you were going to experience Venice the way your father when he lived here, and he said he truly discovered the city when he just wandered it by himself. From that, this plan shaped into this idea. It sounds silly, but the three of us couldn't wait for you to come and experience it."

"I don't get it though," Talia said, "why did you have to pretend you didn't speak English?"

Speranza chuckled. "I guess to give you independence."

"But how did you know I wasn't about to go drink my face off, get addicted to drugs and get knocked up a bunch of Italians?" cried Talia, still not understanding.

"I raised your father correctly and we all knew he was going to raise you correctly. You come from a smart family, Talia, you're not stupid. We knew the second you were born that you would be okay in Venice by yourself. Although this situation you've gotten yourself into is something of itself. Joining a band of thieves was never one of the risks we thought you might face while being here."

"It's not her fault though!" Riccio said defensively, "Everything was going fine until some cop had to come and mess things up."

"Well if you are supposed to be thieves," pointed out Speranza, "should you not be used to having cops involved in your life? A real thief would know exactly what to do if one of their buddies got caught by a cop."

"But a real real cop doesn't get caught by thieves," Riccio added quickly.

"Then what does that say about you?" Speranza said sharply with a wicked grin on her face.

"Speranza!" cried Talia, shocked at how cruel she was being to such the tiny boy. How could such a small, stout woman who spoke English as her second language have so much wit in her?

Nonetheless, Riccio didn't let it get to him. Crossing his arms, he lifted his nose in the air and sounded sure of himself as he spoke. "We are real thieves who never get caught by cops, but there's a first for everything."

Glancing over her shoulder at the red-haired boy, Speranza smiled fondly at Riccio as she let out a chuckle. Riccio grinned back, beaming that he had had the last word. Then in an instant, Speranza came to a hault. It was so unexpected that Talia couldn't stop herself in time and walked right into the back of her grandma.

"Ooh, sorry!" she said quickly, the Speranza ignored her. There was an eerie silence as Talia followed Riccio and Speranza's eyes to the building in front of them. As Riccio nervously slipped his hand into Talia's, she figured that they had finally made it to the orphanage.

"See, you get your very own room for the night. How do you like that?"

Bo stared up blankly at the woman who ran the orphanage. She had said her name was Rosa, but when she asked for Bo's name he had given no response. He had decided that he wasn't going to say a word to anyone who ran such a prison as this. Rosa's may have been sweet, but couldn't she realize that this was the last place that Bo wanted to be?

"Now I've laid out some pajamas for you," Rosa began again when Bo refused to speak, "do you need anything else? Water? Maybe a little bit of food? You are quite a tiny one aren't you?"

Bo said nothing.

Rosa rolled her eyes in irritation. She was a rather plump woman with a square head and narrow eyes. Her hair was up in rollers and she looked as if she just wanted to go back to bed, which was where she had been before the cops had woken her up. Too tired to be nice any longer, she began to leave the room.

"Well," her voice was harder sounding now, "here's your room. I'll be waking you up in the morning for breakfast. We're having porridge. Does that sound good?"

Bo said nothihg once again, so Rosa let out a sigh before closing the bedroom door. This was followed by the turn of a lock. Bo's blood ran cold when he suddenly realized he had been locked in. Unsure of what to do, he slowly gazed around the room. It was simple with a bed and a set of drawers and a small painting on the wall. There were lights too, but Rosa had turned them off. It was the kind of room that Bo had dreamed of, but now that he was here, he wanted nothing to do with it.

Shoulders shaking, the frail boy took a few steps across the hardwood floors. He was so light that he didn't make a sound as he approached the window on the other side of the room. Glancing out into the night, Bo didn't see much. He was four stories high and had hoped to see someone familiar standing outside the window, waiting for him, but all he could see was the vines that had crept up the brick wall from the ground.

Bo stared at the ground for a long time, a strange sensation filling his body. Never had he longed to feel the Earth beneath his feet instead of the wood floor as he had in this place.

The feeling continued to grow.

Things had changed when Hornet returned that one day, holding the newspaper in her hands. The thieves suddenly weren't as close as they had used to be. After reading of Mosca's death, Bo hadn't understood why Mosca had decided to jump, but the sudden distance between everyone had made Bo too scared to ask. So he never did.

The feeling grew still

But maybe this was the answer. The longer Bo stood the window, the more he longed to be out of this place and the more that something grew inside of him. Maybe this was what Mosca had been feeling every day he spent in the orphanage, every day he spent waiting for someone to show up for him. But no one did show up for him, so maybe the feeling just continued to grow until he couldn't ignore it, so he left the orphanage the only way he could. And maybe flying through the air was the most amazing feeling Mosca had ever experienced, and even though heknew what was going to happen in the end, he was relieved because he wouldn't have to spend another moment in this godforsaken prison. Maybe that was why he had done it, because he wanted to be free again. Maybe…

And the feeling inside of Bo grew, until he felt so light that he couldn't even tell that he was standing anymore. Bo took a breath, and then with hesitation, he opened the window.