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The policemen walked forward and picked Charley up. Dodger didn't move for his spot and he walked Charley being taken away from by the Trap, with a crowd of spectators following.
Dodger swallowed and recovered from his shock he moved quickly to the fastest way back to Fagin's place.
Dodger heavily climbed the old wooden stairs and knocked the on the old wooden door.
"Plummy and Slam," he called and the door opened to reveal the Jew himself.
"Dodger, back so soon," he stood aside for Dodger to enter, "What- Where's Charley?"
Dodger cringed inwardly…now he was going to get it, "I think we need to talk upstairs Fagin."
Fagin narrowed his eyes at the boy warily, "Then hurry an' move! What's happened?"
With that he grabbed and pushed the young pickpoketer up the stairs. They reached the landing and they entered the main room. Dodger turned to face Fagin, making sure he kept a good distance between them.
"Speak now or I'll throttle you boy!" howled Fagin in anger, "What's happened?!"
"Charley's been shot," replied Dodger. Keep to the facts, straight-out and simple.
Fagin, who clearly was no expecting something of such, looked at Dodger in disbelief, "Shot you say?" His voice was quiet but urgent and he took at step forward. Fagin might have been angry at the Dodger but he felt some of it weld away with shock and concern for Charley and their situation.
Dodger nodded, "Fagin there was nothing I could've gone. He was right next to me, we were running and then bang and I didn't realized what had happened before it was too late! We were caught on the job-!"
"Caught!" roared Fagin, his old eyes bulged and his angry returning to full, "Wot you mean caught?! Who caught ya? Who shot the boy?"
"I told you, I dunno, it happened so fast and the traps have got him now," he saw Fagin's eyes widen even more at this, "he's hurt and the trap said he's call a doctor for Charley and took him away!" explained Dodger
Fagin glared at the boy, furiously, "Are ye telling me the traps have got Charley after he's been shot and caught stealing!"
"Fagin is wasn't my fault," snapped Dodger
"No time for this. We need to be scarce" snarled Fagin, "You mind the house; I gotta sort out this mess."
With that he took hold of his cane and hat and hurried out of the house before Dodger could even ask what he was planning on doing. He decided it was best to do what Fagin said and mind the house, although he hated sitting around inside; completely useless.
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Four hours had passed. The Artful Dodger sat at the rectangular table, waiting and waiting and waiting some more. He had been waiting for four hours. But still there was no news. Nothing.
Dodger twirled his top hat in his hands. A habit of his when he was nervous, although nobody knew of it apart from for Fagin and Charley. He might as well have a worried face on freely while nobody was in the house. Once the occupants arrived he would have to keep a straight face, as if he didn't care that his partner had been shot and taken by the Traps.
He walked to one of the upstairs windows and the Great London Clock tower informed him it was fifteen past four. He walked back down the stairs again and resumed his waiting. Forever bloody waiting…
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"No Fagin," snapped Nancy, "I aren't going it. He's your responsibility! Go get him yourself!"
"Come now Nancy my dear-" began Fagin
"Don't you "Nancy my dear" me, I aren't doing it Fagin! I aren't!"
"But think of Charley! Once they realize who he is he'd be swin' before you or I can breathe another word! How could ya live with yourself Nance if ya knew ya had a chance of savin' the boy!" cried Fagin.
Nancy glared at her former teacher, "How can you live with yourself with knowin' he wouldn't have been in the situation if ya hadn't gotten him into this whole business in the first place!"
Fagin gave an irritated silent sigh and a lopsided expression as Nancy turned her back on him. This was going to be harder then he thought, "Come now Nance! Think of the Dodger! You won't want him to lose a friend like Charley now would you? Their as close as tooth and nail an' you don't wanna go breaking that up now do ya? It would hurt Dodger beyond anythin' knowing that his beloved Nancy refused to help try to get back his friend! He may not ever forgive ya Nance! You know how the boy's fond of ya!"
Fagin kept his line of sight, gazing at the edge of the table he was sitting at, as if it was the most fascinating thing he had ever seen. But he knew he had hit a nerve. Nancy had always had a soft spot for the Artful and knowing that he might be upset from her cause did not sit too comfortably with her.
"Oh, alright, you old hag!" snapped Nancy finally, "I'll do it!"
Fagin, knowing he had won once again, looked at the girl and gave her the old grin she knew so well, "Good girl Nance! We own ya one!"
"You owe me many," muttered Nancy under her breath, but not loud enough for Fagin to hear.
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Nancy stumbled in the police station with a flawless act and unemotional tears running down her cheeks. She collapsed to the floor in front of the door and moaned and grabbed lumps of her curly red hair, as if attempting to pull them out. To any police officer or passer she looked like a young women in complete and utter distress, but to anyone who knew of Fagin's little plan, she was a flawless actress.
"Miss!" called a kind looking police office, rushing towards the girl, "Are you hurt? Shall I call the doctor! It would be no trouble, he is here!"
Nancy gave a pained howled scream of distress and cried, "M-My brother! Oh my l-little b-brother! O-Oh p-please!"
A look of shock crossed the man's face and he called, "Gregory! Henry! Come here and help me!"
Two more policemen arrived and together they all pulled Nancy's crying and shaking body from the floor and sat her down on the one of bench's. Soon she had been made a cup of streaming tea and a blanket hung around her shoulders.
She had explained so heart brokenly to the officers that her little brother, her dear little Charley had been walking out in the morning with a friend to gather some food for his dying mother when there was some sort of chaos erupted and her little brother had been shot by someone. His friend, Barney, had come back in such a state saying that Charley had been shot and he look for dead and so then she, Annie, had come down here, asking anyone if they had seem where they had taken the injured boy. But nobody had helped her.
Her brother was all she had left in the world; both their father died merely months ago and their mother was on her death bed, the doctor believed she only had a few days to live. Nancy had to struggle to keep her brother feed. If she lost Charley as well she did not know what she would do!
"Yes young miss," said the policeman Henry, "there was a boy brought in before from being shot but there was evidence from an elderly lady that your brother was stealing from her with another boy-"
"No, no, no, no, no," screamed Nancy crying again, "C-Charley would never do that! He's such a g-good b-boy! Oh-Oh, please sirs, please let me see my dear little brother! Would you gentlemen be so kind?!"
"Oh course," said the first policemen, "Come this way miss."
He offered her his arm and Nancy placed a shaking hand on it and he helped her up. She watched with her down the hall and into a door, second to the left after a small flight of stairs. They entered a room where there were beds against the wall and on one of the beds in white sheets lay Charley Bates.
The distressed "sister" ran to Charley, giving a cry of relief and shock before crying again, "Oh, Charley, my blessed little brother! It's a miracle! You're alive! Oh bless the Lord!"
She turned to the policeman and jumped up and ran to him and planted sweet kisses on his face. The man turned bright red as Nancy called out in joy, "Oh bless you good sir! Oh, God bless ya!"
She hurried back to Charley's side and sat down next to him before looking at the policeman, "Please, sir, when may I take him home?"
"Er," said the policeman gruffly, "Young miss I explained before-oh now come now do not start crying again miss. It will only make the situation worse for yourself!"
At the policemen's words Nancy's face fell in distress and fresh tears of suffering welled in her eyes, "Please sir, oh please! It wasn't him! Oh this is such a terrible mistake!"
The policemen shifted his feet uncomfortably, "I-I suppose your brother could have been mistaken."
"Oh yes sir," said Nancy nodding her head so hard and fast her red curls bounced about her face, "Of course there must have been a mistake! Charley wouldn't hurt a fly! He's such a gentle boy!"
The policemen sighed and said, "Alright miss, I will see what I can do."
"Oh God bless ya sir!" cried Nancy in delight and relief, "You sir are truly kind and understanding! If there is anything you need, anything at all you can just ask of me!"
The policemen shook his head, "No miss, just wait here with the boy. The doctor should be back soon."
The policeman walked out and Nancy looked back at the boy lying on the bed and she was met by a pair of wide hazel eyes.
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Charley had started awake at a sudden cry of delight from a woman's voice. It took him a minute to realize where he was but received a slight shock when he found Nancy sitting next to him.
"Nancy?" he muttered, his voice groggy
"You Master Bates," the girl whispered to him, "Have given Fagin a right scare! I have just used the best of me self to get you out of here."
Charley had no idea what Nancy was talking about. He didn't remember anything except being out on the job this morning with Dodger. He moved to sit up but instantly pain shot across his shoulders and he fell back into the bed.
He bit the inside of his mouth so hard that it bleed to stop himself from making an noise and he winced slightly at the lighting strike of sudden pain.
"W-What's happened?" asked Charley through gritted teeth.
"You don't remember?" Nancy whispered. Charley shook his head and Nancy replied, "You with out with the Dodger this mornin' but you were caught and got yourself shot. The traps took ya to the station, here, and now here I am, saving ya from swin' cos Fagin asked me to!"
Charley head was sudden plagued by memories like he had just remember them after burying them deep inside his head.
The white handkerchief from the old lady.
The old lady making a scene, catching him and Dodger.
Running and the alleyways were just ahead
A sudden loud noise and then awful pain; stumbling and falling to the ground
The thick moister on his fingertips and palms and voices all around him blurred into one strange humming sound.
The blue sky above him and then Dodger's face in among countless of others and then it disappeared.
Charley gasped and completely forgetting the presence of Nancy next to him cried out, "He was there! The idiot risked coming back!"
"Shhh!" snapped Nancy, "Are you mad?! Shut that loud mouth of yours and stay there like a sick and sweet little boy!"
"I aren't little! I'm taller then Dodger-!" started Charley but was silenced at Nancy's look and the footsteps coming down the hall.
A respectable middle aged man appeared at the door. He had a kind face and a large sized belly. He smiled at Nancy and Charley and walked in there direction.
Properly eats twenty hot meal a day snarled Charley silently in his mind.
"How are we feeling lad?" he observed Charley, who looked up at him, "Are we feeling any better?"
"A little," said Charley quietly, making sure he sounded sick, "When will I be allowed to leave?"
"Oh," said the surgeon, his face dropping, "There is some controversy about that among the officers and magistrate."
Charley felt his stomach drop several inches at the words 'officer' and 'magistrate.'
"Please, sir I did nothing wrong!" Charley cried in desperation, "I swear on me life!"
"Well considering you almost did die that would not mean much!" said the doctor, turning his eyes on Nancy.
"And you are?" he asked her
"Annie," she replied, "and Charley's my little brother! Oh sir he did nothing wrong! It was a big misunderstanding! Our mother's on her death bed and-"
"Brother and sister you say?" said the doctor. He narrowed his eyes and they flicked between the two criminals, "why is it then you both do not share similar traits?"
Charley felt his stomach drop another several inches, now they were in trouble, but Nancy was ready for him.
"Because sir, we have different fathers but the same mother. Me father was in the army, a solider sir, but die of a disease. I not sure of what, mother never spoke of it, I'm not even sure she knew herself. She married another man a couple of years later and they had dear little Charley and now there both gone! All I have in the world is Charley!" again Nancy dissolved herself into tears.
Charley had seen Nancy perform and practice like this many times, having that she had still been part of Fagin's when he was younger, but he couldn't help but feel impressed every time. She could even make herself a job as an actress the girl could!
Doctor's eyes un-narrowed at Nancy's tears, "Oh come now young miss, I meant no harm. It's my job to ask questions."
Nancy's stopped cry a little and nodded raising her red and swollen eyes to the doctor, "Of course sir, I-it had been just so hard these last months."
Doctor nodded and retained his kind nature, "Well the boy will be free to go once they had re-interview the lady that he was supposedly stole from."
The colour drained from Nancy's face but she said nothing. It was Charley who spoke up, just having noticed a factor that disturbed him greatly.
"Sir," he said looking up at the doctor, "Excuse me sir, but where are me clothes?"
Indeed Charley Bates was not wearing his normal clothes, but a white night dress and this purely horrified him.
The doctor saw the look on his face and smiled, "Not to worry lad, they are here."
He patted to a pile on Charley left that he not noticed. The boy gave a sigh of relief. There were his clothes, well his trousers, shoes, hat and overcoat. But the only thing missing was his shirt.
"I will call back in a couple of hours," said the doctor, giving one more smile as he walked from the room.
Charley gave a whistle, "That was close, weren't it Nancy?"
No reply came and Charley turned his head to look at the girl, "Nance?"
Nancy sat there staring off into space, her face all drained of colour, her hands clutched to her skirt. Charley's brow creased at her state.
"Nancy you alright?" Charley asked
As if something had prodded her the girl jumped and turned her eyes on Charley, "We must leave! Now!"
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