Gabby stood before her bed with her suitcase open on the blankets. After several weeks, she figured it would be best to embrace her new life and sort everything out. Her different outfits, which consisted of a few skirts, shirts, and dresses, were all bundled up within the compact space of her suitcase. Whenever she changed and washed her clothes, she simply stuffed them back into the square box on the floor. It was as if she needed to be going somewhere soon, but she wasn't going to move or go on vacation. She was simply having difficulty getting used to this whole idea of living on her own.

One by one Gabby laid the suitcase's contents onto the white bedspread. Although clearly wrinkled, she was proud of the clothes' cleanliness since she was new at this whole taking-care-of-yourself business. Sure she had helped out with chores at home, but it was mostly her mother that did all the laundry. The four skirts, each a different color, four button-down shirts, and two dresses were smoothed separately and placed into the small dresser in her bedroom. Luckily, Ace and a few of his non-newsie friends had been frequently running things from her old home to her new one. The dresser was a battle to convince Ace to retrieve, but he had agreed reluctantly. Ace had also brought other things to set up house: kitchen supplies, living room accessories, and any memorable item he could find. Fortunately they had saved these before they were thrown out.

Thinking about Ace's delivering things to her apartment made her think of Spot and how she didn't want Spot knowing of their friendship. Ace (actually named Alex) was the only child of Gabby's parents' best friends, so naturally Ace and Gabby grew up together. But she knew of Spot's hatred toward Ace. How was she to tell him? Hi Spot, this is my best friend, the newsie that you hate almost as much as Tyce. Nope; Gabby wasn't going to risk that.

Thinking of Spot, she remembered that he was going to stop by later in the afternoon. She skipped over to the mirror in the living room and looked into the reflection. Gabby ran her fingers through her brown hair and sorted out the tangles. Her face was pretty pale and drab. The rosy color in her cheeks had vanished. Her eyes were dark green and still didn't stand out quite as much, in her opinion. She hurried into her room, retrieved a small pack of makeup, and stood before the mirror once more. She took a bit of red and blended it into her cheeks and took some dark makeup to line her eyes with lightly. Usually she didn't wear makeup on ordinary days, but she suddenly felt the urge to today.

Just as Gabby was finished primping, a round of courteous knocks came to the door. She scooted over and opened it happily.

"'Aftanoon," Spot greeted with a simple tip of his hat.

"Hey!" Gabby swung open the door as she gave him a tight hug and he walked through. "How's everything going?"

"Oh, ya know…" Spot trailed off as he took his hat in his hands and spun it around his fingers, looking around her home with pleasant liking. "So this is home?"

"This is home."

"I like it," he nodded and turned to face her. "A lot."

"Thanks."

Spot stepped toward her so that they were but inches apart. His eyes looked down into hers as he smiled tenderly. His hands blindly found their way to Gabby's fingers that hung loosely at her sides, and he took hold of them. "And I like you. A lot."

"I like you too. A lot," she repeated through a smile. She rested the side of her head on his shoulder as their hands held each other at the sides. "Everything all right?"

Spot hesitated for a moment. "Is it that obvious?" He pulled away and intertwined his fingers with hers.

"I know you better than you think you do," whispered Gabby while looking up at him through the tops of her eyes and winked.

"Yeah, that's probably right." He took in a deep breath and looked around. "More problems with the boys. This time its Bolt, though."

"Well, let's talk about it." Gabby pulled him over to the couch and plopped him down.

"No, we always talk about my problems," he said, getting to his feet.

Gabby stood up. "It's fine!" She placed her hands on his shoulders and shoved him back onto the couch so that he sat beside her once more.

Spot's eyes widened at Gabby's roughness. "Okay…"

"Bolt is the best friend," Gabby recalled to herself. "What happened?"

"Basically, to sum it up, he doesn't trust me. None 'a the guys do now," he answered.

"Why not?"

"We got some news 'bout Tyce and they think I been runnin' my mouth." Spot shook his head slightly to himself. "Bullshit."

Gabby furrowed her eyebrows. "Running your mouth to whom? The other boys? Me?" she asked curiously.

Spot looked at her and nodded. "You. It's so stupid; don't worry about it. I told 'em I could trust you and you ain't a spy or nothin'," he laughed.

"Me a spy?" Gabby snorted. "That's funny. I've never even known about all this newsie stuff up until I met you. Do they not want me to see you, though?"

"I don't give a shit what they think."

A simple grin crossed Gabby's face. "That's good, I guess. What about Tyce? You said something about him."

Spot turned to her and smiled. "Nothin'. It ain't important. Let's not talk about that. I ain't in the mood to be all whiney."

Gabby laughed and leaned her head on Spot's shoulder, scooting closer while he wrapped his arm around her closely. "I never thought you were whiney," she told him.

"Then, ya're very patient," he joked. "I dunno how ya put up with all my problems."

"Oh, it's not bad. I told you I liked hearing about them. You lead an exciting life, Mr. Conlon."

"As do you."

Gabby laughed. "If you call living by yourself without anything to do 'exciting'."

"But you love spending time with me, right? That's the exciting part," he teased arrogantly.

Gabby sat up straight and crossed her arms over her chest in playful defiance. "Absolutely not!" she answered sarcastically. "You're not more exciting than I am."

Spot clutched his heart. "Aw, that hurts, Gabs…why ya gotta be so mean?" He looked up at her with puppy dog eyes. "I mean, that was harsh." He pouted his lips.

Gabby giggled against her will and held his chin in her hand. "You're so pathetic."

Quickly, Spot grabbed her arm and pulled her so that she faced him while lying across his lap. With a wink, he added, "you like it, though."

"Not true!" Gabby replied. "I can do better!" She got up so that she sat across his legs and put her arm around his shoulder.

"Ya can, can ya?" Spot asked daringly. "Like who? Ace?"

Gabby's nerves raked through her entire body as her cheeks heated up and she bit her tongue before saying anything. She needed a quick recovery before everything came spilling out.

"No, silly. Like my old ballet instructor," she saved as she hopped up and stood before him, standing on her tip toes.

Spot looked at her quizzically. "Ya used to do ballet?"

Gabby nodded. "You want to see me dance?" she asked.

Spot slowly smiled as he watched her adoringly. "I would love to see you dance."

Gabby proceeded to move her hands around gracefully while going into different positions, naming each one humorously and recalling what she knew from a while ago. Spot gazed at her as she twirled about slowly and danced around with incredible ease, giggling here and there and messing up plenty of times. How could Bolt as him to leave this? She was amazing and charming and lovable. She was the one constant thing in his life at the moment. She was all he needed as far as Bolt was concerned. This was where he wanted to be.

Gabby completely a successful spin on her toes when she ended up looking at him to the side. She beckoned him with her thin index finger. Spot raised his eyebrows.

"Come on, Brooklyn," she enticed.

Spot grinned and looked around, hesitant to get up. "Well, I certainly can't do that…" He rose from the couch.

"That's all right."

Gabby gently grabbed his arms and pulled him toward her. Spot had done this before; he was no amateur. He may not have been a ballerina but he knew how to slow dance. Without having to think, Spot placed one hand at the small of Gabby's back and the other linked itself with her fingers. They stared into one another's eyes as they glided slowly and ever so elegantly within their little dancing area. Spot let go of her back and twirled her around as she used his hand as a pivot.

Gabby locked her gaze right back to Spot's eyes which were now a lightened shade of deep blue. She moved in closer so that she just touched his chest with her own, her one arm curled around his shoulder. Try as she might, she couldn't bring herself away from those eyes. Those brilliant blue eyes that said so much about him; that held his deepest and most immortal secrets; that cast such an agonizingly wonderful spell upon her with their silver and cerulean hues. Gabby felt her knees weaken until Spot caught her from falling to the floor, breathing a laugh.

"So Brooklyn can dance," Gabby said quietly.

"As much as ya'd like to think so, ya haven't got me figured out completely," he smirked, yet in a devastatingly charming way.

"I guess not. It seems like Conlon's still got a few tricks up his sleeve."

The temptation to look away from those blues of his was greater than ever and Gabby was fighting hard. Spot pulled her close to him enough so that she was pressed against his stomach, chest, legs.

"You underestimated me," Spot stated in a hushed tone.

Gabby kept her breathing level as they ceased to sway back and forth, but merely stand there close and comfortably. "I think I did."

Spot twirled her one last time and dipped her over his knee, catching her with his hand upon her back. He stared into her sparkling green eyes for a moment and paused. It then hit him that he could do this for the rest of his life.

Gabby was gone in his eyes. She was lost within them completely and there was no escape, as much as she'd hoped there was. Spot curled up one corner of his lips and dove in to kiss her. At first Gabby was hesitant, but immediately threw caution to the wind as she placed her hand behind Spot's neck, losing herself to the moment.