Author's Note: Hello all, thanks for reading! This will be the last update for about a week or so, because I am leaving tomorrow for camp. So please be patient, and read on!

RAE: Yes, yes, yes! You will be coming in sometime in the near future! So stop asking me! Lol ;-P.

MOTH: Ya sure you know what's coming up next?? ;-D

Bottlecap was not aware that Lashes was behind him until she cleared her throat to make it known. He turned around. "Hey, what's up? Nice speech ya gave today." He winked, referring to how she had talked to the boys when she and the girls had beaten them.

"Ummm." She started, rocking back and forth on her feet. "I… I want to go to New York, Bottlecap." She said looking up at his face and trying to read it. His face remained unreadable however, so she looked back down at her feet and continued to rock, biting her lip.

"New York huh?" He said finally. His face grew dark once Lashes had looked away. "Why?"

"You know why." She said, talking to her feet. "It's been two years Bottlecap." She looked up at him, and was startled to see that he looked sad, but continued. "Two years is a long time. And since he hasn't come back to get me, I want to go there."

"And let me guess, Singah and Inky want to go with ya too?" Hw knew them well enough after two years to know that where one went, they all went.

"Yes." She said at almost a whisper.

He sighed, it had been two years since the three girls had come to the Lodging House, and none had come since. Well, some had come and gone, but they were the only ones that kept to it when it got rough for a girl to be a newsie. "Well I'm sorry to see ya go."

Lashes was startled. "What?" She didn't know if she had just heard him right, but she thought he just said that she could go.

"I said that I'm sorry to see you go." He repeated louder. She knew for sure now that it was sadness that she saw on his face. Seeing the confusion and surprise on her face he said, "Well if you want to go, you have to go. This is something that you have to do, and I am not going to stop you." A look of sadness crept over Lashes face too. She had wanted to go and see her brother so badly, that she hadn't realized how much she would miss the people who she had become close to here.

"You better go and pack. I assume that you will be leaving right away?" He said after a long silence. She nodded, and turned around and was about halfway up the stairs when she turned around. "Bottlecap?" She asked.

"Yea Lashes?" He said, his back to her.

"Thank you." She said. By the time he turned around she was already in her room and closing the door. "You're welcome." He said softly.

~*~*~*~

"Mush!" Blink yelled running into the boys' bunkroom.

"What?" Mush yelled back, startled.

"We can go!"

"He said yes??"

"YES! We are gonna leave today, so start packing!" Blink said excitedly. Mush grinned. "Already done."

"What?" Blink was too occupied putting his things together to pay much attention to him. "Already packed." Blink stopped rummaging through the items he had dumped on his bed. "You already packed? But what if we didn't go?" Mush shrugged. "Then I woulda had to unpack." He threw a bag at Blink who opened it up. Sure enough, the stuff he needed was in there and packed. Looking up he said, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

~*~*~*~

"Thank you, Bret." Lashes said using Bottlecap's real name for the first time and throwing her arms around him. He returned the hug, speechless that she had used the name that he hadn't heard in years. He wasn't even sure how she knew it.

"Yea, thanks." Singah pause. "Bottlecap." She wouldn't dare use his real name. "Thanks!" Inky piped up.

"Alright you girls don't be getting too sappy one me." He said, acting like the tough leader again. "Why don't you get going? You'll want to travel some distance before night comes. And be careful, ya hear? I don't want you girls getting hurt. New York is a lot different that Philly."

Inky put her hands on her hips. "He doesn't think that the three of us can take care of ourselves." That was the sort of attitude that usually got them into trouble, Bottlecap groaned. "Please, don't do anything stupid!"

"Us? Stupid? Nah." Singah said with a confident air.

"C'mon! We gotta leave. Thanks again Bottlecap." Lashes said. "See ya round."

"Bye Bottle cap." Inky and Singah said before turning around and following Lashes out the door…

~*~*~*~

The girls had only brought one bag with all of their belongings in it to take turns holding. The bag was being held by Singah at the time, who wasn't very happy about it. "How long do I havta hold it for?"

"Until one of us does." Lashes replied. Singah shifted the bag on her back and kept going. All of a sudden someone stepped in front of them, blocking out the sun so that they couldn't see who it was at first. Once Lashes recognized the man, her pace paled and her knees nearly buckled. "D-d-d-ad." She stuttered.

The man reached out and grabbed her by the arm. "You're not getting away this time girl." He growled and started walking away, Lashes still in his grasp. There was nothing that Inky or Singah could do but watch.