Author's Note: Hey all!! Sorry if it takes a little longer for me to update for a while. I just got home from a wonderful 2-week vacation in Maui! Lol, so I haven't exactly been able to write for 2 weeks. And, I have camp coming up pretty soon, and lots of stuff to do in between! So I will try my best to update as soon and fast as I can! Thanks for being patient!! :-) So read on!!

~*~*~2 years later~*~*~

Kid Blink collapsed on his bed that day after a long day of selling papers. Mush, who had the bunk next to him, copied him.

"Why ya so tired Blink? We didn' work dat hard taday!"

"I jus haven't been sleepin dat well lately." He responded, his voice muffled through his pillow.

Mush sighed. "Are yous havin those dreams again? The ones dat you had when ya first got here?"

"Yes." He reluctantly admitted. "I don know what I am gonna do! I am nevah gonna get any sleep the way I'm goin! Don even know why I try. I jus lay there for hours, thinking, and when I do sleep, I have dreams…" He wouldn't have admitted this to any one but Mush, who was his best friend. Mush had made him feel welcome when he came to the Manhattan Lodging House, looking for a job and a place to stay. He had even offered him the bunk next to his. That had been the worst time that he could remember, coming to New York.

"What are your dreams bout?" Mush asked, curious. He had asked Blink this before, but he had never told him, and didn't figure that he would now.

"Home."

"Home, I can even have dreams bout home, cause dis is da only one I'se evah had. What is it bout your home dats got ya all in sleepless wreck?"

It took a moment for Blink to answer, he didn't know if he wanted to. Nobody here knew about his past and he had liked it that way. But now he decided that it was time to let someone see into his past.

~*~*~

"Lashes c'mon!! We have got to get to the DO before the guys get there!" Singah yelled up the stairs at her.

"I'm coming! I just have to find my - a ha! My hat! Coming!!" She yelled back, running down the stairs and pinning her hair under her hat, nearly bowling Singah and Lashes over in the process.

Inky ran to the door and held it open. "They already left a few minutes ago Lashes!" They had made it a bit of a 'friendly' competition to get to the DO first everyday, before the boys.

"Hold on! They don't have the shortcut we found! They go the direct route! And they are probably walking because they will expect us to still be back here!" Lashes said, running out the door and turning into the nearest alley with Singah and Inky in tow. She continued to lead them through a series of alleys and side streets, and finally came out a block down from the DO. Lashes could see that the guys weren't there already, so she kept running until she had climbed up the DO stairs, which she promptly sat on trying to catch her breath. Singah and Inky did the same.

Inky giggled. "We made it in time that we can even catch our breath before they get here!"

Lashes grinned. "Told you we wouldn't be late!"

"Can't wait to see the look on their face when they get here and see us with our papes!" Singah laughed along with them.

The moment they figured that they had sufficiently caught their breath, they got out their money and went to get the papes from Splat. "Sixty papes each please." Lashes said with a smile, putting down the combined money for the tree of them.

"Are you sure only sixty?" He asked.

"We're sure!" Inky replied. He tried to get them to buy more everyday. "If we wanted to sell more we would."

"And could." Singah added.

"Alright then, there's your papes." He handed the papers through the iron-barred window. "See ya tomorrow."

"Thanx." They all said at the same time. They went to the edge of the platform and sat down with their papers in their laps, waiting. None too soon, the guys turned the corner and came into view, Bottlecap leading the group. Nearing the gate, their mouths dropped.

"Ahh, the wait was well worth the look on their faces!" Singah whispered, trying to keep a straight face.

"Well, well, well. Look who lost again. Tsk tsk, we would think that you would have beat us by now." Lashes teased, looking at Inky and Singah in turn. "Guess not." She added with a grin.

"Close your mouths and stop catching flies!" Bottlecap warned them. "We got some papes to sell!" He finished, leading the boys up the stairs. With nobody looking, he gave them a quick smile. He thought that the look on the boys' faces when they lost was always a good one, even if he too lost.

"We'll be off then." Lashes said loudly, hopping off the platform.

"Yea, want to get to selling before too many newsies are out there." Inky chimed in. They walked casually out the gate before the boys had even started buying their papers. Once out of site they started laughing.

"That was great!" Singah said between peals of laughter. Gathering their wits, they stopped laughing and started selling.

~*~*~

"Before I came to Manhattan, I was livin in Philly with my sistah and dad. My dad was real mean, and violent too. He beat my mom, she died cause a it. When dat happened, he started to beat me an my sistah. Pretty soon, I got tired of it. I didn't want to stay there, and I didn want my sistah there either. So one night when my dad was passed out from drinkin too much, I took my sistah and left. I took her to da Philly Lodgin House, and left her there. I went to here. But before I left, I promised her dat I would come back for her when I had da money. Dat was just bout two years ago now."

Mush was silent. "Is dat what you'se been havin dreams bout then? Yer dad?" He asked.

"No, it's not so much my dad, as it is my sistah. I promised her dat I would come back! And it's been two years. Two!! She probably is thinkin that I won't come back for her anymore." He sighed. "I don know what I am gonna do bout my dreams."

"Well, have ya saved enough money?" Mush asked.

"By now I am thinkin I musta."

"Then dere is only one thing ta do." He said with a grin. When Blink looked at him blankly, he said. "Isn't it obvious??? You have ta go to Philly!"

Author's Note: This time it was not my fault that it took so long to update! Lol. Because I have actually been writing, just that as everyone knows, fanfiction, has not been working lately . . .