"You really think he went after the gang? That's so dangerous." Angie gasped.

"Mitts liked a little danger." Amy smiled a little sadly.

"Mitts was good. Prolly tha best boird I eva had." Spot sighed and leaned back in his chair."

"He could get anyone to tell him anything."

* * *

Mitts liked it on the roof. It was peaceful and quiet up here compared to down on the floor of the warehouse. He was beginning to wonder if he should make the change permanent. Sure, sometimes it rained, he would have to figure out some kind of shelter for when that happened, but man, the view and the air were worth it.

He heard as opposed to saw her coming up the stairs. He knew it was her because it was so late. Hardly any of the boys came up here. Occasionally Spot did, to see him, but mostly they left him well alone when he was on the roof. Also, the stairs creaked terribly and anyone that came up them, he heard coming from all the way at the bottom of them. Mitts and Meg alone, had gotten into the habit of putting their feet far to one side of each stair. This way they only let out low sighs instead of loud pops. The sighs coming up the steps could only be one person.

"Where ya been? I was about to open one alone. It's hard woik ya know. Makin' sure the river don't move."

She smiled as she crossed the roof and sat down in her usual place by his feet. It was funny really, she sat there so often that Mitts did not use that area on the hammock anymore. Even when she wasn't there, he simply kept off it subconsciously.

He popped open a bottle casually and handed it to her, then reached out for the bottle they hadn't finished the night before. Tonight she laid back across his legs and stared up into the night sky. It was blue-black specked with brilliant white diamonds. The moon hung low in the sky, paled and shadowed. They both laid there, stretched out beneath the it. Content with each others company, the stillness of the sky and the sound of the waves as it crashed against the retaining walls.

"Mitts?"

He froze solid, the bottle halfway to his mouth. Her voice sounded disused and rough, but soft and melodious at the same time. It sent a tiny shiver up his back. He wasn't sure if it was because she had spoken or because she had said his name.

"I want to do something. Sitting around this place with nothing to do makes me fidgety." She had a slight accent to her words, but she spoke fluidly.

Mitts tilted his head to the side slightly so he could see her face.

"Well, what'cha got in mind? New York neva sleeps ya know."

She frowned slightly and shook her head, her almond eyes pulling together a little as her eyebrows met.

"I keep thinking, Koji is gone and I want to do something about it."

He pondered the meaning of her words. Do what?

"I've been lookin' into it, Meg." Mitts assured her. "But listen, tha men dat hit ya home, dey were members a dis gang called tha Five Points Gang. Dey're dangerous men."

She was quiet for a time, still staring up at the sky.

"I don't want the whole gang. Just one man. The man who killed my brother."

Mitts knew it was his turn to shut up and listen. He pulled out a rather bent cigarette from his pocket and lit it with a match. Breathing it in, he watched the smoke curl lazily up into the air.

"They came for Luis, I think." She said. "There were loud voices coming from down the stairs. One of them took one look at me and Koji and I guess they wanted us too. Said they didn't like immigrants that took their jobs and ruined their America. "

Mitts raised an eyebrow but didn't speak. He had heard of this so-called racial discrimination. People got off the boats everyday and poured into New York. There were people in the city that didn't like the immigrants. As far as Mitts was concerned they had all been immigrants at one time or another. His parents, themselves, had been Scottish.

"They tied him to a chair and beat him. There were at least five of them. And I heard Luis and Joshua shouting and there was a loud pop and crash and then I didn't hear them anymore."

Mitts sighed smoke and watched her carefully. There was no emotion in her voice, no tears in her eyes. Only a far off look and a tiny frown on her face. He marveled at the way she could speak about the deaths of people close to her so soon after it had happened. It was a bit detached, really. As if she either couldn't own up to the feelings, or was so far past them, they were like a distant memory.

"And one of them, he grabbed me by the neck and threw me down on the bed. He-"

Her voice finally broke. She was human after all. He had the urge to hold her, hug her close to him, or maybe just touch her, but he didn't move. He knew that anything he did might make her stop talking and he knew she needed to talk. She had gotten herself back under control now. Her voice was once again cold and steady.

"He made Koji watch. He had this long silver dagger and he said if I struggled he'd kill us both and throw us from the Brooklyn Bridge."

Mitts balked. Her words had just given him so much information he didn't know where to start. Before his brain could even begin to process it all, she spoke again.

"And Koji shouted and struggled and the man took his dagger and put it straight through his chest."

Meg stood up and walked right to the end of the roof. Mitts sat up in the hammock and watched her. She raised her bottle and took a giant measure, swallowing several times before she brought the bottle back down.

"And then someone yelled for 'Monk' and the man left. And I don't really remember much after that. I remember untying Koji and then you showed up."

Mitts nodded. He had entered the room to find her draped across the his body. There had been no help possible for him, Mitts had known that in an instant. Still, she had fought him a little as he had tried to pry her off him.

"I thought you were one of them." She said and hung her head and then turned to face him. "I was scared of you at first. But then you asked me-"

"Are youse alright?" Mitts finished for her. He remembered.

"And I think I thought you were Koji that night. It's all kind of fuzzy. He always protected me, ever since we were little."

Mitts nodded. He didn't mind. That was what he had wanted that night, was to make her feel safe. Regardless of who she thought he was, he had done that.

"It just makes me mad to think Koji is gone and that man is out there somewhere." She said suddenly.

He looked up at her, surprised. She sounded angry. Her voice trembled and she had made a swift slashing motion with her arm through the air. He didn't blame her for feeling that way, he just hadn't seen her angry yet.

"I wanna do something about it!" She said, her voice breaking again.

"Hey. We'll do something about it, I swear. But youse gotta let me do the woirk for now. I don't wanna see youse get hoirt." Mitts said.

She stared at him for a moment and then sat back down in her usual spot.

"I wanna help."

"Youse will. Youse should." He said soothingly and he stretched back out on the hammock.

There was another long silence as they stared up at the sky again, back to being content with just being there.

"Mitts?"

His back gave that same involuntary shiver and he knew, now, why it did.

"You're a lot like Koji." Her face cracked a wide smile. "But different too."

"How so?"

She did not answer him, but took another long swig from her bottle.