Chapter 25: The New Kid

A/N: New laptop cord means updates! Yay. :-D Haha introducing one of my fav. Characters ever in this chapter, please R&R.

Warning: Contains clumsiness, drunk twelve year olds, and visitors.

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Nancy looked about the tavern for potential customers, nobody looked too interested in her tonight. Nobody looked too interested in anything, it was a miserable night out. The rain was pounding furiously on the windows and the roof of the tavern while the wind howled ferociously outside the door. She was seriously considering going straight back to Fagin's, the only customers tonight were the very scum of the London underworld. They were people that were so miserably unwholesome that even Fagin would sneer at them. She did her best to readjust her dress to cover herself a bit better and grabbed a pitcher of beer. Nancy would act as a bar maid tonight, all the girls at the tavern did that when they weren't in the mood for regular business. It was no surprise to her that she was not alone in her decision not to take on customers tonight.

She was pouring out different drinks to all the customers when she noticed there was someone new in the tavern. He was young, ages too young for her to consider, but he didn't seem to be quite so bad as the rest of them. He was probably Dodger's age, with a scruffy shirt and jacket above his trousers. Those alone were entirely too small on him and reached only to his knees. Indeed it seemed for all the Dodger favored over-sized clothes this boy was decked out in garments far too undersized to fit him. He was a rough little thing with hair that was a color between orange and red in curls topping his freckle covered face. Taking interest in the small boy brave enough to drink among the worst of London's villains, she moved over to refill a mug he'd already emptied twice in the time it took her to notice him.

"Fond of the drink are we?" she asked smiling as she filled his mug to the top again. The boy smiled and hiccuped in response. She shook her head slightly, even at fifteen it did not take a rocket scientist to figure out he was drunker then all get out. Scooping up her skirts with a smile she moved across the room to other customers leaving the strange young boy to his drink. Every once in a while his laugh erupted across the room, he was a very jolly young thing indeed. It made her evening brighter watching the drunk child converse with strangers and laugh as if he hadn't a care in the world. It was just after midnight when the little drunk staggered out the door and into the pounding rain. She smiled after him as she filled her last cup of the evening. Fagin would be mad she hadn't worked tonight but she didn't care. Quietly Nancy pulled her tattered shawl around her head to shield herself from the rain and hurried through the rain towards Fagin's. She was going home.

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Nancy was batting her eyes across the room at a somewhat regular customer of hers when she noticed that strange little boy get his glass refilled for the umpteenth time that evening. It was like he was a bottomless pit when it came to the drink, she had rarely seen him without a glass at his lips. Unless of course, you counted the times when those lips were being used for laughter. He'd been coming in earlier then she every night for the last two weeks and had still been there when she returned to the tavern to get her things after a night on the job. Still, it seemed, he never was without money to pay for his drink, and he never had trouble getting to wherever it was he was going. These thoughts were interrupted by an arm wrapping around her waist. She stuck her chin up indignantly at whoever thought they had the right to do such a thing but decided not to throw away a customer.

"You know," she said with a small smile "that kind of thing costs money."

"Don't be ridiculous Nance, you know I don't 'ave a cent on me. I'd never leave the place sober." Nancy whipped around in shock and found herself face to chest with none other then Bill Sikes himself.

"Bill!" she cried jubilantly. Instantly she wrapped her friend in a hug and could already feel the intense smile seared onto her features. Finally she pulled out of the hug and craned her neck ever so slightly to look up at him. "What're you doing 'ere?"

"Thought I'd come by and visit you on your....well while you were working," he said awkwardly. The pair of them sat down and Nancy handed him a bottle of gin on the house.

"How've you been?" she asked him with a smile. It was if seeing her old friend had completely yanked her from the robotic shell she placed herself in to get through her job. That's what she had to do, because if she tried to think about what she was doing it was enough to make her sick. Still seeing Bill melted all that away, and suddenly she was her old self back when she used to pick pockets, suddenly she was happy.

"Good, good I s'pose." Nancy quirked an eyebrow at her friend, he was acting strange around her. Stuttering and looking down while attempting to stifle a blush creeping up in his burly cheeks. Ignoring this, and dismissing it simply as perhaps a bit too much ale, she kept a conversation going with him. Still, the whole time she was overwhelmingly aware of his strange behavior. Then again, whenever she was near him he was all she was aware of to begin with. Which means she didn't notice the jolly young customer she dealt with on an almost daily basis exit the tavern. She did not notice just how late it was getting. Indeed she and Bill were completely wrapped up in each other until Nancy was startled out of their conversation by a bell chiming two in the distance.

"Has it really gotten that late?" she asked in shock "I'm sorry Bill, I really ought to be off. Fagin'll want me out with Dodge tomorrow since I didn't work hardly at all tonight." And she said hardly because there had been a customer before Bill came to visit, but she wasn't about to remind him of who and what she was. Especially not when she didn't want to remember herself. As Nancy got up to leave Bill rose to his own feet.

"I'll walk you back Nance, no idea what kind of people are out at this time of night." She smiled as the pair of them walked out of the tavern.

"Heaven forbid, I might run into a pick pocket or even," she pretended to gasp "a housebreaker." Bill laughed at her morbid sense of humor as the pair of them walked out into the night. It had just started raining again outside, a drizzle just cold enough to be annoying but it could not dampen their fantastic mood. However, Nancy tripping on something just outside the tavern's doorway and falling flat on her face managed to stunt her laughter quickly.

"You alright Nance?" Bill asked. He clamped a hand around her arm and helped her up out of the muddy street.

"I'm fine I tripped over..." she trailed off when she noticed what exactly it was she had tripped over. There sat the little drunk that was in the tavern every night, and he was far worse off then usual this evening. His little cheeks were flushed and he looked as though he could get sick at any moment. Rain was falling on his matted red curls and helping cool someone who was so obviously feeling overly hot. Quietly, Nancy extended one long delicate finger in warning for Bill to wait a moment while she knelt down next to the boy. "Hey," she said quietly. "Can you 'ear me?" The child gave a quiet groan in response. "What's your name?" she asked quietly. It would be a lie to say she hadn't been drunk before, she knew what kind of pain he was in.

"Charley," he grumbled sleepily. Nancy stood up and faced Bill with an expression laden with compassion.

"We can't jus' leave 'im 'ere Bill," she said. Bill groaned and rolled his eyes as he picked the little drunkard up off the sidewalk. Quietly they walked together back to Fagin's, the newest member of the gang in tow.