Bitty's Secret

Chapter 4

Dredge Up the Past

Disclaimer: I own nothing, Disney has the honor, although, that interesting story I was talking about? Well, my 11 yr old cuz figured this one out...one of our great great great so on uncles made boots for teddy Roosevelt, who appears in the movie, presumably wearing a pair of said boots, so our great* uncles boots were once in the presence of newsies, so we have this whacked out connection to them...ahhh, I love it when the young uns follow in the great steps of Liz's Logic...

A/N: I had to get my self reacquainted with my story (cause I posted it almost an entire year ago) but after reading it thru a few times, I remember exactly where I was going and stuff, so you are lucky my memory holds every once in a while...

Also, I realize that up to this point, the story has been mostly dialogue, and this was so you could get an idea of what the characters are about. This chapter is purely bits of memories from the past to reveal a little bit more of what itty is about. From this ch on, I am hoping the story will be a little different, b/c I am going to try to integrate more memories of Bitty's and more action, but also because I did write this a year ago, and I am hoping my writing style has evolved a bit since then...happy reading!

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Bitty refused to tell Jack and the others what was wrong. It was a little silly, but in a world where she had little else, she had to hold on to some things, and telling Jack, Spot and Race that she still had flashes of a darker time was not something that rated her list of fun things to do. She could hardly believe herself some of the events that led up to where she was today, and after they all headed upstairs to catch some shut eye before selling tomorrow, the flashbacks were all she could think of...

**As her mother packed up their bags, Lydia cried. "But Momma, why do we have to go? I love Santa Fe, I don't want to live in a city."

"Now, dearie, you'll understand when you're older," she replied. More to herself than anything else, she added, "Oh, to be young and carefree...but someone has to worry about the money." Raising her voice again so it was clear she was addressing her daughter, she exclaimed, "Now Lydia, this is going to be hard on all three of us, but you know your father will have a better chance at work if we leave this place..." She trailed off, hardly believing her own words. But someone had to be optimistic for her family, and Lydia was too young to know the difference. A girl of seven shouldn't have to deal with the worries of a parent, anyway...**

It was all Bitty could do to control her sobs and keep quiet, so as not to wake anybody up. She had few memories of her mother, and even less of her father, because he was working so often when they were in Santa Fe. When she did have the occasionally flashback about her parents, it was always accompanied by one of her most painful memories, the first of a long onslaught of horrible events...

**The last thing Lydia could remember was that she was standing on the train platform in New York City. She could do nothing but look up, and exclaim, "Look at all those buildings! Where did the sky go?" Her and her mother were standing on the platform, waiting for her father to come back with directions on where exactly it was that they were supposed to be going. Just as she heard her poppa calling her name, she heard a dreadful noise. He came running over to where Lydia and her mother were standing, waving his arms around and yelling at them. Lydia's memory of that moment ended an instant after he reached them, but she remembered that she thought her father looked rather silly jumping around like a scared toad...

When she woke up, she was in a dark room with a few scattered beds around, and a woman bustling about the room, looking busy. When the older lady finally noticed she was awake, Lydia asked, "Where am I?"

"Well, child, you would probably prefer to call it an orphanage, although others have used harsher terms."

Lydia looked confused. There must have been some mistake! "No, ma'am, I just came here from Santa Fe with my parents, my poppa is going to get a job..." She trailed off as she saw a mix of emotions cross the stern looking woman's face.

"I'm sorry, but all I know is that after that dreadful train wreck, they brought you here."

As realization hit Lydia, what must have happened, what had to have happened, she went blank...**

Bitty sat straight up in bed with the sheer horror of the memories that were now racing through her mind. After she had found out that her parents died, she became an introverted shadow of a girl that stayed complacently in the "orphanage" that indeed could be called by harsher names. She shuddered at the thought that she had almost embraced the life that the man called Mr. Schneider, out of "respect," had set up for his prisoners, because it required little of her.

It was a few of years later, when she was almost ten that an intriguing young man was sent to the "orphanage." This boy, called Cowboy by those who knew him, was a few years older than her, and seemed to carry around a force field into which he could invite anybody. Bitty smiled at her first memories of Jack, an angry, defiant, but caring individual, who would stand up to the greatest of foes for someone he cared about. Jack immediately recognized the timidness that resided in Lydia, and took her as his adopted sister of sorts. Their relationship was one of true caring and loyalty, and strengthened every day until one day, Jack left. It wasn't sudden; he had been planning to get out of the jail that had been set up for homeless, jobless, parentless creature like them. He had done so before, and would do so again, as that was probably not the last time that Schneider would catch him. But Lydia, or Bits, as he affectionately called her, was detrimental to his practiced plan. He couldn't, or at least felt he couldn't possibly leave her there, but she insisted. Bitty was wistful as she remembered that in the end, it had probably been the right decision.

So, a year after he left, Lydia really started thinking about where she'd go if she managed to escape. Not in the three years that she had been there had she ever pondered escape, but before Jack left, he had spoken to her...

**"Bits, you'se got tah get out a heah. You'se should jus come wit me."

Lydia shook her head. "Jack, you'se know what I tol yah, I don't care. I'll be outta heah one day, but you'se know it'll just be worse foah bot of us if we'se get's caught."

Jack shook his head wistfully. Lydia knew that inwardly, if the situation weren't so grave, he would be laughing, as he usually did, about her loss of "proper English." She wasn't surprised, she hadn't spoken for nearly two years before she had met Jack, and she had spent that time surrounded by children who spoke with a distinctive accent. Naturally, she picked up on it.

"Jack, you'se gotta get outta heah. You'se don't belong..."

Jack sighed, and began to brush his hair out of hi eyes, as he often did when he was frustrated. "Bits, one day, you'se will get out a heah too. When you'se do, you'se'll know wheah to find me, trus me.**

He had left a few days after. And Bitty a little less than a year after that...

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A/N: Yeah, I write a lot of them. But it's okay. So, updates will be forth coming, trust me. Cause I have a laptop now...:evil grin: