We went and grabbed the coffee and returned to the reading room. I was about to ask Grandpa to continue when Simon spoke up.

(A/N: Oh, I should have mentioned this in the first chapter but I forgot. Each of the boys personality wise after one of the grandparents. John=Jack, Simon=Spot, Kyle=Kid Blink and Mark=Mush.)

"I know it's not really my business, but where is Mrs. Kelly and Mrs. Conlon? Shouldn't they be helping with the story?"

I looked to Grandpa and saw a pang of sorrow hit him. Speaking of Grandma always hurt him and it was hard for him to speak for a while after so I spoke up.

"Grandma died last year. Old age got to her."

"Ice is actually out with our daughter. She'll be back in about an hour."

We nodded and soon all of us sat there in silence. Some of us respecting the dead, others, mainly the adults, remembering the old times and saying prayers for Grandma. Grandpa wiped a tear from his eye and started the story up again.

~*~*Back~*~* Jack's POV

I memorized the information Spot told us about the mysterious Dodger and soon we all finished up our breakfasts.

"Did Ice mention any places that she would hide out in?"

Spot shook his head.

"All Ice said was that with her name being Dodger, normally she doesn't get hit. When she does though, she'll go into hiding."

Thinking for a minute, I decided that maybe we should split up to look around for her.

"I'll take the bars." I said.

"I'll go to the other Lodging Houses." Spot said.

Kid Blink and Mush said that they would go around Brooklyn and Manhattan and see if anyone had seen her. Spot paid Melanie and soon we split up in different directions.

After going to Benny's Pub and Slick's Eatery, I headed for O'Reilly's Bar. They had the strongest whiskey you ever drank and that area of town normally had the Irish folk in there starting around 7 o'clock.

Pushing open the door, the room had a musty smell to it. A mix of cigar smokes and spilt drinks. I noticed O'Reilly standing behind the bar cleaning out one of the many shot glasses.

"Hey Jack. How's the factory work going? Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

I laughed, nodded and sat down on one of the stools.

"The work's good and ya I should be sleeping, but I'm helping out a friend. Listen, I was wondering if you've seen a person about 5'6", pretty dirty looking and has a shiner?"

O'Reilly looked at me for a minute then nodded.

"Ya came in about 10 minutes ago. Asked for the hardest liquor I had and the entire bottle. Normally I don't serve people this early in the morning, but something about they way they talked and looked, caused me to give in. Do you know the person?"

"Ice Monroe does. She doesn't want her friend to get hurt so we figured we'd look for her. When did she leave?"

"If I'd know they were a she, I wouldn't have given her the whole bottle. She hasn't left. She's in the private party room. Asked me if she could sleep in there for awhile."

I smiled in thanks and headed for the room. I knew where that was since we had many parties since the strike in that room. Normally it was the leaders of the boroughs. Kid Blink, Mush and I went for Les since he wasn't old enough yet to attend.

I pushed open the door to see nothing at first but soon saw a figure against the far wall. My guess is that it's Dodger. She was curled up into a ball, with the bottle of liquor still clutched in her hand. Quietly stepping up to her, I crouched down to see that she had finished off the entire bottle. I have never seen a girl do that before. I started to pull the bottle out of her hand when sooner than you could say, "Carryin' the Banner", she had my arm behind my back and a knife to my throat.

"Who are ya! Who sent ya! Answer now or I'll slit your throat!"

Pain wielded up my arm and I let the bottle drop to the floor and rolled out in front of me.

"My name is Jack Kelly. I'm a factory worker. An old friend sent me."

She pushed me away and jumped up, still holding the knife out in case I attacked.

"Better name which person sent ya, or you'll be sorry."

I looked around to see if there was something that I could use to protect myself in case she did lunge at me; there was nothing.

"Ice sent me."

I saw past the smudges on her face and the shiner around her eye that her eyes were turning a shade of green; emerald green to be exact.

"I don't know any Ice. Now tell me the truth or I'll make you wish you stayed home today."

I racked my brain trying to remember either Ice's old Newsie name or her first name. Then it hit me. Dodger was acting like a renegade, a rebel.

"Savannah "Renegade" Monroe sent me."

I saw her eyes soften up and her knife arm slowly lower.

"Ren's here?"

I nodded. Soon her arm was at her side and she dropped the knife. I didn't want to take any chances of having a knife on me again so as quick as I could I kicked the knife to the opposite side of the room. Dodger didn't flinch at all. She just looked at me like I wasn't even there. Coming towards her, I saw that her eyes looked slightly glazed over, as if she was remembering something. When I stood right before her, she finally came back to reality and it was back to the same way it was before. Her eyes hardened up and she took a quick look for her knife. Catching sight of it, she pushed me away from herself and in a flash; she was over to its place to grab it.

Clutching it in her hand, I could see her knuckles turning white. Tears were slowly going down her cheek. One stroke of her sleeve brushed them from her face.

"Liar! Renegade is not here. She did not send you. She's dead!"

Why would Dodger think that Ice was dead?

"No she's not. She lives in the Brooklyn Lodging House for Newsboys."

Not sure if I was telling the truth or not, I offered to help her.

"I'll take you to her. She's always there."

"Fine. Show me the way, NOW!"

~*~*The Present~*~*

"Grandma actually put a knife to you!"

Grandpa laughed. Mr. Blink, Spot and Mush did the same until Mr. Blink spoke up.

"She pulled that famous knife on all of us. Even her best friend."

"Why?" all of us asked.

"I'll get to that. Her reason for all the caution comes in later. Now, where was I?"

~*~*Back to Flashback~*~*

I walked out of the room with Dodger right behind me. She had put the knife away but I knew that if I caused her any trouble, she'd bring it back out in a flash. We walked down the streets and I noticed some people give me odd looks for having a scruffy person following behind me. I dismissed the looks from being used to them. Dodger did the same. I caught sight of her every now and then. She looked straight ahead and with the hat down low, no one could tell what gender she was.

Soon we came to the bridge and I saw that Kid Blink was standing there talking with Snipeshooter. He saw me coming along and with a quick gesture, I pointed behind me to Dodger. Kid nodded and waited till we were halfway across the bridge before following us. Soon we arrived at the Lodging House. It was about 10 o'clock so by now Ice would be doing the main room cleaning.

'I hope she's in for a surprise.' I think to myself.

"You wait out here. If the person you say is Renegade is not the Renegade I know, then at least you'll have a slight chance of running before I cause you dire pain."

A steely glare was in her eyes and she entered the building. I know she told me to stay outside but I couldn't help but to not listen. Kid Blink soon caught up with me; with Spot and Mush at his sides as well. Spot looked to me.

"So where is she?"

I pointed to the building.

"In there. She doesn't believe that the Ice we know is the Renegade she knows. For some reason, Dodger thinks her friend is dead."

We all looked at one another, not sure of what to do. Soon we heard a crash come from inside and all of us went on gut instincts and ran into the building. There before us was Ice against the wall and Dodger with her knife out and ready.

"You! You lied, cheated me out of a friend. You are no friend of mine!"

She lunged at Ice but Ice quickly moved to behind the couch.

"Dodger calm down. Please. I did it for your safety."

"My safety? Ha! Yeah right. You did it for your own purposes. I nearly got killed trying to save you. I was laid up in bed for two months with a broken ankle, 4 broken ribs and a concussion. After that I didn't talk to anyone. I turned into something I promised I never would, my mother. I turned to the drink all cause of YOU! My life has never been the same. Everyone feared me and only bothered me if they needed fighting power, not advice."

I could see Dodger's anger rise so much, that red came through the dirt on her face.

"I had to make them think I was dead. If I hadn't, they would have killed you for sure after me. I told you to run."

"Friends don't leave one another. All thanks to you. Remember the saying we used to say after every fight? Lose one friend. Lose all friends. Lose yourself. We made a pact to say we would never lose each other as friends. You fell down on your side of the pact."

By now, Ice was slowly trying to get over to us by way of the wall. Dodger wasn't going to have that. With a swift move, she threw the knife, catching Ice's sleeve. Complete fear entered Ice's face. Dodger walked up to Ice.

"Just be lucky that I missed the bone."

She pulled the knife from Ice's shirt and Ice fell to the floor in shock. Us guys came out of our trance and I guess it was telekinesis because we all went for the girls. Dodger whipped around with the knife blade outwards.

"Stand back and you guys won't get hurt." Looking to Ice. "Seeing that you're actually alive to these guys under a different name, a name I know not of, then you are definitely dead to me."

With that, she slipped the knife into her pocket and started for the doors and disappeared into the mass of people wandering around.

~*~*The present~*~*

I sat there jaw wide open. I had never heard this part of the story. Grandpa always told me, he had met Grandma in Manhattan, they dated, the event that happened and then they got married. Never this kind of thing.

"I can't believe Grandma actually did that sort of thing." Grandpa nodded.

"Believe it. She wielded that knife of hers with ease. Ice had hurt your Grandma really badly when they were younger and I think part of her never forgave Ice. Oh, she eventually got over giving her hard glares, but I knew she was still mad, whenever she came back home after spending an afternoon with Ice. She'd lock herself in her study and wouldn't come out until the next morning."

Mr. Spot added something.

"You're skipping ahead Jacky-boy. I bet these boys are wondering when you two actually hooked up."

Kyle, Mark, Simon and I nodded; waiting to hear more.

~*~*~*~*~*~Author's Note*~*~*~*~*~*~

Thanks to all who have reviewed the story. I've been really stumped on how to go about this, but a muse hit me hard and now the writing juices are flowing. This should last me about a week or so until I run out. Hopefully I have another chapter up soon of any of my stories. Well Austa to all my readers. Cardboard cutouts of your favorite Newsie every day.