Saying this is like having to eat spinach...or calamari...ugh. We don't own Newsies. What a distasteful thought.

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"We're going to get him out of the refuge tonight."

Erin stopped and stared at David, then continued walking, "That's good. Who all is coming?"

"Just me and Jack."

"Oh." She glanced at him, then added casually, "Not Skitts?"

"No, why?"

She paused, and brushed her hand across the cool brick building they were standing next to, then shrugged, "You know he was basically the leader of the newsies till Jack came?"

He frowned in puzzlement, "No…actually, I didn't know that." He gave her a curious look.

Erin sighed, and folding her skirt neatly under her, sat down on the edge of the sidewalk, and then patted the place next to her.

"You remember that question you asked a while back, about why I never came back to school?"

David thought for a moment, than nodded.

"You better sit down. It's a long story."

David sat, draping his arms over his knees, and looked at her, waiting for her to begin.

She frowned, and stared into the air, as if gathering her thoughts. She tugged on a piece of lose hair, then finally turned and faced David.

"I suppose for it to make any sense I would have to start at the very beginning. With his parents. They were…bad." She sighed, "Very bad. Especially for a young boy. They were both alcoholics, and when they were drunk they weren't very nice people. While his father would physically abuse him, his mother would torment his mind with poisonous and vile words, abuse of the worst kind, coming from someone that should have loved and protected him."

David blanched, shocked that such a horrible family could exist. He had been raised to think of the word family as a good thing. Not in this case.

Erin frowned, eyes shadowed with dark thoughts and memories, "His father died when he was eight, and his little sister, six. His older brother became his guardian, and he took after his parents." She looked at David quickly, "I mean the brother, not Skitts."

David nodded, waiting for her to go on.

"He wasn't so much an alcoholic, as abusive when things didn't go his way. And Skitts was a non-conformist. Skitts went to a local public school on his brother's insistence, though he hated it. And his little baby sister wanted to go very badly, yet their brother wouldn't let her, because he insisted that schooling wouldn't do a girl any good." David put a comforting arm around her, as her forehead wrinkled in anger at the thought that a girl would be denied schooling for such stupid reasons.

"One day it all came to a head. Skitts got into a big fight with his brother about it, and left the house to become a newsie." At David's shocked look she smiled and shook her head, "Oh no. He didn't abandon his sister. He checked up on her whenever he could, but had to do so secretly because his brother had disowned him and hated him. And without two children to care for, and an advanced position where he worked, he was able to send the girl to school. It all worked out pretty well, for a while."

"What happened?' David looked at her curiously.

"The brother came home early one day, and found Skitts talking to the sister. He flew into a rage, and beat him close to death. Only the sister's intervention kept him from it. Luckily, the brother had to leave again on business, and so the sister got some of Skitt's friends, Bumlets and Blink, to come and carry him back to the lodging house. After that, it was never the same. The girl was taken out of school for a few years, till when she turned fourteen, and her bother and she reached a compromise. The brother forbade her to visit or talk with Skitts if she wanted her schooling paid for. He even posted people to watch her."

David gave her an incredulous look.

"Yes. You even know some of them. The Delancey brothers. That strange war veteran who stands around Newsie Square in the morning, because he knows she's going to go by there."

Her voice suddenly picked up strength, "But from then on, she hated her brother fiercely. She vowed that as soon as she was done school, to get a job, and never see or talk to him again."

David was mystified, "How do you know all this?"

Erin drew her shawl around her a bit tighter, "Because I'm his sister."

David looked at her, mouth hanging open, temporarily stunned. Then they heard a shout from across the square. "Hey, Davey! We gotta go!" They turned to see Jack, with his cowboy hat on, and a rope slung over his shoulder, waving his arms like crazy across the square.

They both laughed, and then David helped her to her feet, looking at her regretfully, "Sorry...I wish I could walk you home..."

"Don't worry." She interrupted him. She smiled and squeezed his hand, "I can take care of myself just fine."

"If you insist..." he gave her a doubtful look, then she just laughed and gave him a light push. David grinned and walked over to Jack, waving good-bye as he went.

Erin turned and looked around the square, drawing her shawl closer in preparation for returning home, as it was getting late. Dusk was beginning to creep in, its dark claws closing around everything, transforming buildings from their formerly friendly appearance to the ghostly specters of night. She liked to call this the nothing-time, and it was the time of day that frightened her most. For everything was suspended between two times, almost as if between two worlds. Everything was the same washed-out color, and it was a time when it seemed like anything could happen.

Then she spotted someone. Her eyes widened as he came into view, walking around the corner of a building. He stopped and stared, a smile lighting his face. Then they both looked around, several times, to make sure no one was watching. David and Jack had already left while she had been standing there, thinking. Then with a suddenness that made her laugh, Skitts was springing across the square, and then throwing his arms around her, "Heya, sis."

She grinned and responded gaily, "Heya, Skitts. Long time since we got a chance to talk."

"Definitely." He pushed his hat back and grinned lazily at her, completely comfortable with his sister. Draping his arm around her he asked, "So how is it at home?"

"The usual" she responded in disgust. Then she looked at him slyly, "You and that Sage girl seem to be getting along rather well."

His smile broadened, and his eyes grew dreamy, "Yep. I'd have to say I'd agree with that."

"Fine." She laughed and pushed him. "Don't tell me."

He was about to push back when he remembered something. "Shit, I've got to go! I told Emilyanne I'd pick her up from the dress shop and walk her home." He gave her a guilty smile, and told her about how he had been picking Sage up for several nights now. Erin smiled inside. Skittery could say what he wanted, but something told her that for him, this girl was serious. She should know, after all, he was her brother.

Neither of them noticed the two people standing in the shadows. One was the slight shape of a girl, the other a hardened figure of a man. The man left, but the girl stayed on, watching them.

"Okay," Erin gave him a warm hug. "See you later, Skitts."