Several things happened in the weeks that followed. Rachel began to take lessons in being a lady from a respectable elderly matron friend of Alex's. Rachel and Alex also began to understand each other and the bond they shared, finding that each new dawn brought them closer together. Rachel however staunchly refused to leave the property, spending time out in the small garden behind the townhouse but never venturing past the front door. Alex didn't question her, seeming to understand that she needed time to adjust before venturing back into the world she had grown up in. Davey and Sarah came often to visit Rachel, bringing news of the newsboys with them. After seven or so such visits, Jack arrived at the door, his hands wringing his already well-worn cowboy hat. Her father had been ready to turn him off until Rachel had walked by, nose in a book of manners and Jack had called out "Wren!"

"Jack?" Rachel gasped, jerking back as though slapped.

"Wren, tell this chump I'm ya friend and ta get outta mah way," Jack had fumed.

"Alex, this is one of my friends from…" she couldn't finish the sentence and she didn't need to. Alex gave Jack an unhappy look but opened the door so that the dusty newsie could come into the parlor. Rachel made Jack comfortable on one of the couches, asking Cookie to make a cup of coffee and one of tea as well as some of the biscuits from breakfast. Jack had eaten three biscuits and downed two cups of piping hot black coffee while Rachel smiled into her teacup. Jack had obviously not changed much.

"Wren?" Jack said nervously, causing Rachel to look up askance. "Rachel, I…I need t'ask ya somethin'."

"Jack, you know you can ask me anything. If I can help in anyway…"

"It's Blink." Rachel felt her heart stop and she had to set her clattering teacup down before her shaking hands dropped the delicate china.

"What about Blink?" she choked out, eyes locked on her hands clasped in her lap.

"Well, we, that is, me an'tother boys, we'se worried bout him. We think," Jack paused and she heard him adjust his bandana nervously. "We think he maybe he's gettin' mixed in wit da wrong crowd, if'n youse know what we mean."

"I'm sorry Jack," Rachel admitted. "I don't think I follow you."

"Maybe I'se shoulda esplained some otha stuff too." Jack sighed. He stood and pulled another chair close to Rachel's, taking her cold hand in his warm one. Both shook terribly though for several different reasons. "Dere's dis new group'a boys runnin' round da streets. They call themselves da East Side Foxes. Buncha pushovers we thought at first. They never fought when we called'em out."

"They're newsies?" Rachel asked incredulously.

"Nah, not really. Not at all. They're bullies, out to push 'round dem dats weaka den dem. Well, what they really is, is a group'a pushas, ya know, drug dealas and stuff. They do all sortsa bad stuff Rache. And we thinks dat Blink, dat he made nice with'em an now he don't know his head from his ass."

Rachel caught her own startled gasp in her hand. Blink, her Blink was caught up in drugs and a real honest to God gang? It couldn't possibly be her Blink, not the smiling happy-go-lucky jerk who did everything to irk her and make her smile in one breath. Rachel met Jack's somber hazel eyes and knew it wasn't a trick, it wasn't even some horrible joke. It was serious and Blink was in trouble.

"What am I supposed to do about it Jack?"

"Talk to'im. This all started right afta ya left," Jack whispered gently.

"Right after I?" Rachel asked blankly. She turned, unable to meet Jack's gaze suddenly. This was her fault, her fault that Jack now had to come and beg for her help to solve a problem she had started. She set a hand to her temple, rubbing at the headache building slowly but inevitably. "I'll have to see what I can do Jack. I don't know how much I'll accomplish, but I'll try."

Jack leaned over and kissed her cheek. "That's all I've eva asked of ya kiddo."

With that the subject was dropped and conversation was yanked onto a more mundane track until lunch at which Jack had to force himself up and out of the door, saying he'd been away from the lodging house too long. Rachel stood and saw him to the door, letting herself be swept into a fierce hug before Jack departed, leaving her with yet another whispered plea, "Please help Blink. He needs ya."

Rachel asked to be excused from lunch and went up to her room, pulling out the box she'd saved from the lodging house. She sat atop her bed, setting the box across her knees and began to pull out the contents: a few scraps of papers, headlines, a few old toys, a cap, and at the very bottom was the articles paper-clipped together about the newsie strike. And beneath the clip outs was a worn and discolored eye-patch. She picked up the patch and began running the ties through her fingers thoughtfully, letting her mind wander back along the well-worn paths of memory.

Rachel was crying, sniveling in fact, quite pathetically, trying to wipe her tears away but only succeeding in smudging her dirt-covered face even worse. She heard voices and looked up, realizing that they were addressing her. A group of boys only a year or a few older than she looked down at her in curiosity. One of them wore a beat-up cowboy hat and the others all seemed dressed similarly to him except for the cowboy hat. Several of the boys held newspapers in their hands.

"Whatcha bawlin' fa?" asked a dark-haired boy with wide brown eyes and olive skin.

"I'm lost and hungry," Rachel replied in a soft voice.

"Here den," said another boy, this one with black hair wild and unkempt set over bright green eyes and a thin face as he handed her a roll. While it had obviously seen better conditions, it was still warm and tasty as it settled in her stomach, restoring some of her strength and her spirits.

"Feel betta now?" asked a kind-looking boy with dark blonde hair and sky blue eyes. He reminded Rachel of the angels she'd always seen painted inside the church and the nunnery.

"Yeah, thanks. I'm Audrey Rachel," she said proudly, shoving out her hand to the cowboy.

"Aw-audree Rachel?" scoffed the angel-boy. "Well, Aw-aw-au…Rachel, that's a awful big name for a runt like you."

"Huh?" Rachel had never thought her name was big.

"Ya look more like a sparrow, a wren or something," the boy continued. "That's what ya are, you're a wren!"

"Fine if I'm Wren, who're you?" Rachel had demanded.

The cherub had smiled, "I'm Kid."

Rachel felt tears well up in her eyes. That had been long before Blink had lost his left eye. They'd only been children then, tossed to the curb by Fate and thrown together by some strange whim of Fortune. It was hard to believe that her Blink had turned into such a cold person as they grew up. He hadn't actually, at least until that last month, when things had been coming together for her had things seemed to fall apart between the two of them.

She couldn't just leave him to destroy his life in a fit of misguided revenge, she decided at last. She gently placed the patch and the other mementos back into the box and lovingly settled it under her bed again. She looked out the window and saw that it was still early afternoon. Surely she could track down Blink in the next few hours or at least get started.

Rachel jogged steadily down the street, knowing that the daylight was waning and that she only had a few more hours to get anything done today. It was the third day of investigating. So far she'd come up with nothing on the so-called East Side Foxes. Oh, everyone knew about them and who they were and what they were about but no one really knew how to find them. Ready to scream in frustration, Rachel was headed home to sort what she had managed to learn that day. She turned a corner and was forced to pull up short as a broad chest came within a few inches of her nose. She blinked rapidly in confusion, not understanding what was happening until she was tossed against a wall and fell to the ground, her papers scattering. She was inside an alley now. She stood, glaring around at the shadows, trying to pinpoint where her assailant was. She backed against a wall knowing at least then they couldn't get at her from behind.

"Whatever you want, I'll get it for you, just let me get home, please!" she asked to the air.

"Don't want nothin'," came a dull-voiced reply as a hulking behemoth waded out of the shadows. Greasy hair shone sickly in the fading sunlight. "Nothin' but youse goil."

Rachel drew back into the wall, trying to press herself through it into the building, against all hope. "Don't do this, please! I just want to go home, I have important business to take care of."

Another boy stepped out of the shadows, scooping up several pages of her report so far and scanning them with lifeless eyes. "Youse been snoopin' round bout da East Side Foxes. What? All dat hard woirk and now youse don't even wanna talk ta us?"

"You? You're the Foxes?" Rachel blanched, her heart racing wildly.

"Who'd youse think it was, stupid goil!" lashed out a skinny, snake-like boy, his open hand catching her cheek and sending her flying.

Rachel landed with a crash and a thud, seeing stars as she tried to focus on the leering faces above her. "Why is youse so in'trested in da Foxes, goil?"

"A friend. I'm trying to help a friend," Rachel managed to spit out.

"Is dat so?" laughed the second boy, revealing his yellow teeth. He tossed the papers down at her. "I suggests dat ya not come afta us no more. We ain't right company fa a lady like youse."

The boys left, leaving Rachel feeling drained and shaken. She managed to get herself to her knees before tears began leaking out of the corners of her eyes. She began picking up her papers with shaking hands. A page floated before her eyes. It was the one on which she'd listed all of Blink's old favorite hangouts cross referenced with places where the Foxes had shown up. She reached out for the page numbly.

"What're ya doin' here Wren?" Rachel tore her gaze from the paper and stared up into the last face she'd expected to see.

"Blink?" Rachel breathed. "I've been looking all over for you!" She threw herself at him and blinked back hurt tears as he pushed her away.

"Ya shouldna come afta da Foxes Wren. Dey ain't fa peoples like youse."

"People like me?" Rachel flustered. "I remember when you and I were the same people. How can you act this way?"

"Easy," Blink said as he stood. "Don't come lookin' fa us again."

"Blink, you're not really one of them are you?" The boy who had once been Blink turned and set his icy gaze upon her. "But Blink, you're better than that!"

"And how would you know that?" he asked her harshly.

"Because I know you!" Rachel cried angrily. "And you know me Blink, whether you want to remember it or not!"

"Why're ya here Wren?" Blink asked her in a defeated voice.

"Jack came and saw me. He told me what you'd gotten yourself into. He and the others are worried about you," Rachel stormed, tossing her papers into her bag.

"What bout you?" Blink looked up at her sadly.

"What do you mean?" Rachel tossed back at him, pulling up defensively.

"Were ya worried bout me too?" Rachel recognized the look in Blink's eye, the defeat and the impotent anger.

"Yes, Noah. I was worried too," she said sadly, lowering her chocolate gaze from his sapphire.

She heard him walk back towards her. "Why did ya leave?"

Rachel cringed to hear the hurt and anger in his voice. "I wanted to know who my family was Blink. You of all people should know how important stuff like that is to me. I was handed part of my dream. I wasn't abandoning any of you. I could never do that. I just couldn't let this pass me by. It was my only chance."

Blink gazed at her unhappily. "I guess I can't say I don't know what you're talkin' bouts as often as I let ya yap inta my ears about that very same thing."

Silence stretched as dark shadows grew around them, spanning the distance between them.

"Blink, I miss you," Rachel whispered at last. "I miss talking to you and seeing you. I miss the way you protected me and the way you brushed my hair for me when I was upset."

Blink turned away, hiding his face in the shadows. "I miss youse too. But this is what ya wanted isinit? Ain't it a little too late to go changin' ya mind now?"

"Change my mind?" Rachel echoed blankly as Blink disappeared into the shadows. Rachel shook her head in confusion. "What am I missin'?" she wondered aloud. "Wait Blink, when will I see you again?"

"I'll meet you in the park tomorrow at two," his voice drifted back at her.

Rachel smiled triumphantly, clutching her papers to her chest. With a lighter step, she made her way home.