God rest ye merry Gentlemen (or ladies, whichever)! We are back to spread joy and cheer through out this site! We're in a Christmassy mood, could ya tell? Sorry for the spelling errors in the last chapter, we were having problems with the computer. Fear not though, for we are having our good friend, Coli Chibi (Katrinka: aka alpha nerd. Nori: Katrinka, don't be rude. Katrinka: What?! He enjoys the title!) proof read for us. With three people working on it, not even we could mess it up! (Katrinka: Are we taking bets on that? Nori: Are you kidding? We'd go broke!) NO MORE COMMENTARY! On with the story!

Ch. 3

Tessa stretched and sighed contentedly. Sunday, the day of rest. BANG!!!

"Gosh darn it!" Supposedly. The noises came from the other side of the little apartment above Tibbys restaurant, which her uncle now shared. She reluctantly opened her eyes and saw the coat rack that had formally been standing to the left side of the room now lying on the floor. Her uncle Jacob or Old man Tibby (as he was called) put down the large box he had been struggling to move. Then bent to pick up the fallen coat rack.

Tess beat him to it, "Interesting wake up call" she said still sounding a little groggy.

Jacob smiled "It got you up didn't it sleepy head?"

Tessa growled at him briefly then she smelt breakfast and decided that her energy would be better spent getting ready for the day. First on the agenda? A balanced breakfast of pancakes and bacon drowned in syrup. After breakfast Tibby gave Tessa some errands to run and went back to moving boxes.

Scowling and grumbling Tessa wandered out in to the dirty streets of Manhattan.

Tessa didn't like the city, it was crowded and loud and, for the most part, smelly. It wasn't anything like the forests and mountain that she had enjoyed as a child. In the forests you were as free as a bird; all the concrete reminded her of a cage.

Through out the morning Tessa walked from store to store buying her uncle's supplies. Some of the cashiers gave her odd looks but as long as she paid cash they ignored the obvious wildness of her appearance. At about noon Tessa hadn't finished even half of the errands and she was getting frustrated. This wasn't her style; if she wanted food, she would kill something, end of story. Now she had to haggle with big fat guys who were missing teeth and didn't understand the meaning of the words "do not touch me", until after a few punches.

Tessa was about to turn around and go back to Tibby's when she heard a young boy shouting: "Go away, and leave me alone!"

Tessa could put up with a lot of things but bullies were not one of them. Turning and running quickly to where she had heard the shout she came to an alley, where a man with a black bowlers hat stood fighting to get a little boys earnings. Tessa didn't stop to think, grabbing the closest weapon, a loose piece of board, and jumped at the man, screaming a high unnatural battle cry. She need not have bothered with the weapon; as soon as he heard the noise the bowler hat man dropped the boy and ran.

Tessa dropped her board and knelt down by the child.

"Are you alright?" She asked, calmly.

"Yeah," he said, shaking his head a little. "What the heck kind of noise was that?"

Tessa was already checking him for broken bones. Once satisfied that he was in one piece she stopped and studied the child for a moment, after a minute she recognized him as one of the young boys who came in with Greenhorn.

"Well," she said after a while. "It's an Indian war cry, intended to scare the spit out of your attacker."

"You think you could teach me that?" He asked, excitedly.

"Yeah…um, maybe later. How did you get yourself in to that kind of trouble?" She said, with a slight smile.

"Oh, that was Oscar Delancey, he just wanted my pape money," he said with a shrug it was clear that this happened a lot.

"Well, where I come from people could get shot for a thing like that," she said with distain.

"Well I'd like to go to where you're from but I'm here and here it's a part of life."

Tessa blinked and then said: "Where do you belong, I'll walk you home so you don't get jumped again."

"Really?" He said, in an excited way.

"If you don't mind finishing up my errands with me."

He looked at the ground thoughtfully then, with a face as serious as Sunday said: "I'll muddle through."

Tessa chuckled and ruffled the boy's hair.

"Your name is Tumbler, right?" She said as he fixed his hat.

"Yup." (A/N: Gracefully put, no?)

"Well, are you ready to muddle?" She said, smiling.

"Yes ma'am," he said, smiling with admiration.

With Tumblers help Tessa managed to finish her errands by four in the afternoon. As they walked towards the lodging house Tumbler began to skip around her the way Jack (cough Greenhorn cough) described as Indian-ish and tried to imitate Tessa's shrill shrieks. She shook her head as he danced around and made the noise correctly. Then the gray sky that had been holding all day broke open and started to rain cats and dogs.

"I thought you were only kidding," Tumbler shouted over the rain.

Without answering Tessa grabbed his arm and ran under the closest covering that she could find, an awning. In between dragging Tumbler and wiping the rain out of her eyes she bumped into a tall and of course wet, someone. She was about to apologize when she noticed that it was Jack Kelly, of all people.

"Watch where you're going, Greenhorn," she ground out. (A/N: she's wet, cold and hungry she's allowed to be snappy)

"A pleasant afternoon to you too, Ms. O'Keefe," he grumbled back. (A/N: He's cold and hungry too) "Fine weather we're havin', huh?"

"Jack!" Tumbler squealed, jumping out from behind Tessa, still holding her shopping bags.

"What are you doin' with my newsie?" Jack asked, starting to sound slightly miffed.

Tessa was about to start explaining when Tumbler jumped in with the condensed version of the days events.

(A/N: as Tumbler explains he jumps back and forth, motioning with his hands)

"Well you see," he stated out. "I finished selling my papes early so I was walking home, then Oscar jumped me and I started to yell 'Help me!' and then Tessa comes runnin' in sceamin' like this," Tumble made an example that sounded like a strangled cat, while Jack covered his ears and Tessa pinched the bridge of her nose. "Then Oscar ran away and Tessa and me go shoppin', I was a gentleman and carried the bags, see?" He said holding up the bags, proudly. "Then we started to walk to the lodging house, dancing' like Indians and," he took a deep breath then said in a lower voice: "You better be careful Jack, I don't think she was joking when she said she would strike you with lightning."

Jack looked from Tessa to Tumbler a couple of times before he grabbed Tessa's shoulders and asked her seriously: "What did you do to my newsie?"

"Nothing besides save him from this Delancey guy and teach him a war cry…er sort of." She said this all in monotone and with a straight face but Jack could tell that she was laughing.

"Come on," said Tumbler, as the rain died down. "Let's get to the Lodging House."

Jack sighed and grabbed each of his companions by the arm, leading them home.

When Jack had settled Tumble in the lodging house eating dinner with the others, he came up behind Tessa, who had been walking out of the building. Before she knew that he was there, he had taken a few of the bags off her hands.

"This isn't necessary," she said in a defiant voice.

"It's almost dark, it's wet, you're a girl who doesn't know her way around and you're in the middle of Manhattan. The only way it could be worse is if you were in Brooklyn, trust me it's necessary."

She glared at him suspiciously for a moment.

"Besides that, you've taken my place as Tumblers favorite person and if something happens to you he'll never forgive me."

Tessa rolled her eyes and gave in saying: "I'd like to point out that neither one of us is his favorite person, he still likes Skittery best. I simply took your place as his second favorite person."

Jack muttered something under his breath as Tessa smirked at him.

They had after a short time made it to Tibby's. Tessa let herself and Jack in, calling up the steps to her uncle as Jack put the bags on the counter. After Tibby gave them each something to eat, Jack started to head out.

What possessed her to do what she did Tessa would never know but for some reason she called out to him as he walked down the street: "Get home safe, Greenhorn."

Jack smiled back and called: "I will, Tessie."

When Tessa got to her room it came over her like a thunder clap.

"He called me Tessie," she said out loud to herself. All of the sudden she felt ridiculously happy for no real reason. She sighed and pulled the covers her head.

"Tomorrow is going to be a long day," she murmured, before dropping off to sleep.

We have nothing smart to say to get you to review be cause it is THREE IN THE FLIPPIN' MORNING!!!!! You see what we do for you people?