It was their day off, and Penny and Elise were so excited. They sat in Elise's room, relishing in the quiet of the lodging house now that everyone had gone off to sell the day's papers.

"So, how was dinner with Crutchy's family last night?"

Elise smiled as she lounged on her bed. "Wonderful. His family is wonderful. Everything is wonderful."

"What happened?"

"Um... we ate dinner?"

Penny rolled her eyes. "I'm aware of that, you dolt. What I mean is why on Earth are you glowing?"

"I'm not glowing." Elise was glowing.

"Something happened with Crutchy, didn't it?"

Elise just smirked and turned her head away.

"Oh, you are terrible," Penny said, throwing a pillow at her cousin.

"I didn't say anything!" Elise giggled.

They had no time to react when they heard the noise coming from the fire escape.

Skittery sleepwalked through the streets of Manhattan. Working two jobs was really a horrible idea. He hadn't slept more than a couple hours in the past three days, and his arms and legs were tired and sore from lifting and walking and lifting and walking. It's all he did lately.

Though he'd taken far fewer newspapers than he usually did, the bundle felt like it weighed two thousand pounds in his arms. If only he could just sell them all and be done with it.

He lazily called out the headline as it was, attracting no more than the usual handful of businessmen who bought papers from him on a daily basis.

I'm gonna be so glad when I'm done with this shit, Skittery thought bitterly. He kicked at a rock and then called out a more creative headline, anxious to go back to the lodging house, to a bed and a few hours' rest.

"Skittery! Hey, Skittery!" A familiar, cheerful voice called from his back.

"Oh, Jesus," Skittery muttered as he turned around. Sure enough, there was Crutchy, hobbling toward him at full speed.

"Heya, Skittery," Crutchy grinned, earning a nod in reply. "How come you look so down and out?"

"Tired," Skittery mumbled. "Ain't slept in days."

"Oh, well. I was just gonna ask you if ya wanted to go out ta Brooklyn with me, seein' as I'm headin' out there to see Elise. It's her day off. But if you're tired, I guess you'll just want to go home and go to sleep."

Brooklyn. Brooklyn meant Penny. Penny was better than sleep and coffee combined. If he could see her, hold her for a little while, everything would be better, even if he never slept a wink for the rest of his life. "No, I'll go with ya."

And they were on their way. It was the longest walk of Skittery's life, being that he was so thoroughly exhausted and very anxious to see Penny. He felt like it took months to get from Manhattan to Brooklyn.

When they finally arrived at the lodging house, they didn't bother to tell the caretaker they were there. He was busy anyway, napping behind the front counter. They just headed up the stairs to Elise's room.

About halfway up the stairs, they heard Killian crying. Knowing Elise, they figured she'd quiet him in a matter of seconds. But the baby kept crying, and they couldn't hear Elise's maternal murmurs.

Skittery leaped up the last few steps, pushing at the partly-open door. The room looked like a battlefield: clothing and furniture was strewn everywhere, with Elise's bed on the floor, on its side.

In the middle of the room, Killian's dresser-drawer crib was overturned, with the baby lying on his stomach, screaming.

Elise and Penny were nowhere to be found.