Disclaimer – I do not own Oliver Twist, or Oliver!

27th February - RIGHT! Appalling as my update rate is (once again, I am so sorry, you guys are all angels for waiting) I have managed to start a new chapter! (cue cheering). Lol. I'm ill with an ear infection and a blinding headache, so Im sorry if there are any interesting spellings :P.

15th May - Had English AS level today, so i was feeling generous and decided to finish this chapter :D (plus i've been wanting to get back on the ball with this story for ages but revision and work has had me locked up) I just ACTUALLY cried (the whole palava, like mascara lines down face, and looking like an upset raccoon) because i just finished the chapter, popped through to the kitchen... and my brother turned the PC off at the wall. So i'm now writing this for the second time today... trying to keep my motivation up! Anyway... I really really hope this is worth all the drama and that you guys enjoy this chapter :)

REVIEWERS – I really love you guys, i actually do. You're brilliant and you're what keeps me motivated :D Please continue to review (i know I don't deserve it) It lets me know you're enjoying it! Thank you ALL!

Oh! I know I say this a lot, but it's probably a good idea to put this on your Story Alert list, as my updates aren't exactly regular, no matter how hard I try :s. Cheers.

On with the show!

Chapter 7 – Out cold

Dodger stepped out of the pickpocket's house, Charlie and Ace by his side. He felt stronger... and yet at the same time he felt hopeless.

"Brixton lock-up?" Ace inquired, glancing at Dodger.

He nodded once, then paused,

"No... I know someone in Fiddler's Leap... maybe they could 'elp us find Emmy first"

Ace and Charlie made noises of assent, and turned to follow Dodger down the winding alleys that led to the infamous streets of Fiddler's Leap.

Emmy pressed her ear to the door, listening for the slightest sound of movement. There was none. Breathing heavily, she pushed harder and harder on the wood, but it would not budge.

"Damn..."

She stared at the door, unable to see anything in the dark, except for the slice of light that came through the handle side of the door, where there was a considerable gap between the door and the frame. Across this light, there was one stripe of darkness, the catch that held the door shut.

Emmy tried unsuccessfully to jam her fingers through the gap, but gave up quickly. She felt around on the floor, searching for anything thin and stiff enough to open the door. Then her hands brushed over the coarse bag that she had had over her head. It was worth a try.

Picking up the bag, she fed one, stiff corner through the gap, and gently moved the bag upwards, trying to flip the catch open. She felt it move, and for one bright moment, she thought she had done it.... but then the bag folded. Emmy swore under her breath and chose another corner on the bag, repeating the movement she had just done.

And again.

And again.

And the door eased open.

Emmy couldn't believe her luck, blinking furiously against the bright light, she squinted around the room. Her eyes fell on the slumped figure that lay across one of the chairs in the room. A room that she recognised.

Cautiously, she moved towards the figure, one hand outstretched...

Dodger was getting more and more worried. Every person he passed, even the smallest unknown pickpocket, was glaring at him. Swearing at him. He couldn't work out what he'd done wrong, why any of these people, who he had never met, should have anything against him.

"Wha's goin' on Dodge?" Ace muttered out of the corner of his mouth, while Charlie mouthed the same question with wide eyes.

"I don't 'ave any idea..." Dodger replied, quailing under the gaze of a particularly old woman, who stared at him piercingly for a second, then hurried away.

"What the 'ell do they think you've done?" Ace pondered aloud, earning a glare from Dodger. As if he needed anything else to worry about.

Mama slipped, and almost fell, as she rushed down the alley, her breath coming in short bursts. Wisps of silver hair were working their way free from her tight bun, getting in her black eyes and mouth.

But all this was worth it. She had reached her destination. Pushing the door open, she wheezed,

"Matthew? MATTHEW!"

"What?" a gruff voice answered her from behind a pile of crates

"'E's back, Matthew, 'e's back"

Dodger's back slammed against a wall, the hand at his throat holding him there. The owner of the hand couldn't have been much older that Dodger himself.

"'Ow could you?" he growled at Dodger, "'Ow could you? When for years we've trusted you..."

Dodger tried to speak, his voice little more than a squeak,

"What've I done?"

The man snorted, sneering,

"Don't you deny what you've done you little weasel"

Ace tugged at one of the man's arms in an attempt to get him to release Dodger, then decided to try a different tactic,

"What's he done? Eh? We'll 'elp you sort 'im out!"

The man looked at Ace in surprise,

"D'you not know?"

Ace shook his head.

"Alrigh' I'll tell you. It all started a few weeks ago...

A figure in a top hat, with a bow at his throat, stood on the street corner, his face obscured by the shadow of the hat. But everyone knows that figure. The Artful Dodger. He'd been around for years, stealing and pick pocketing, but then, who didn't thieve in this area?

He was ignored as he stood there, quiet, unmoving, watching the children that played in the centre of the tiny, filthy square. Alone? Strange... maybe him and his lady friend had had an argument? Maybe that's why he was so quiet.

As the shadows lengthened, he did not move.

And then, as the moon appeared, he was gone. So were three children. Never to return.

...So now? Will you 'elp me give 'im what 'e deserves?" the man asked, still pinning Dodger to the wall. He didn't seem to notice that Dodger was slack jawed with shock. "'E's done other things too, but that was the worst. Takin' children... he just slips in, then slips away..."

Ace was the first to recover from the shock,

"When was this?" he asked, his voice shaking slightly

"Near three days ago"

"But that's the day you went to Brixton lock-up wi' Nancy and Emmy!" Ace blurted out to Dodger, he turned back to the man "Mister, there's no way that that man was the real Dodger, you can ask Nancy, or Emmy, or the men at the Gaol, or... Oliver Twist"

The man stared at Ace,

"Not the real Artful Dodger? Why the 'ell would someone... pretend to be 'im?"

"Hexactly the reason that we are standin' 'ere" Ace replied quickly, "'Cause 'e is hextremely... conspicuous. I'n'e? You can spot 'im a mile off. Like you said before... you couldn' even see 'o the man was that day when the kids were taken... you just saw 'is 'at, and 'is clothes..."

Dodger was slowly turning purple, but managed to get out a wheezy,

"'E's right"

"What?" the man said, loosening his grip a little

Dodger reached up to massage his neck,

"I said, 'e's right. Ace is right. I was at Brixton that day. An' 'e's right about the clothes as well"

The man stared at Dodger, then Ace, then back to Dodger. His hand fell from Dodger's throat.

"I believe you... I just want to... 'oever took our kids..."

Ace looked uncomfortable and patted the man on the arm,

"I'm sorry, but we 'ave to go"

The man nodded, his head bowed, as a woman came bustling over,

"John, wha's 'appenin'? You!!" she lunged at Dodger, John caught her arm,

"Lis, it wasn't 'im..." slowly, the couple walked away, the three boys watching their retreating backs.

Dodger's face was dark with anger,

"I don't know 'o is actually doin' all this... but..." he turned and stormed down an alley, his two friends following. Fiddler's Leap was close now. Very close.

Emmy took a tentative step forwards, keeping her hand out in front of her.

Another step. She blinked furious, willing her clouded eyes to clear.

She observed the prostrate form on the floor. He was lying on his front, his torso resting on the remains of a broken chair,. The shattered pieces of the other chair that had obviously not made it through his rage lay around the boy.

She was close enough to touch his foot with hers.

But she wouldn't. Not yet.

Chamberson looked up sharply, his grey eyes cold,

"You sure?"

Mama tried to compose herself, her breath rasping in her throat, she spoke again in her rough voice

"Of course I'm sure boy, you questionin' me?"

He strode over, towering over her wizened frame, saying nothing. She looked into his eyes, her beetle eyes narrowing,

"Wha'ever you've done, you'd better not 'ave blackened my name-"

He spoke, and the sarcasm in the words that he spat stung like venom,

"I 'aven't given your name a second thought"

Mama shrank back, she couldn't help it, but she kept her black eyes on his grey ones as he backed out of the rented room and ran down the street.

A long breath wheezed out as she leant against the grime stained wall.

Of one thing she was certain.

She no longer knew her grandson.

Dodger slowed abruptly as he reached the end of the alleyway. He glanced casually at the passing faces. None he recognised.

Charlie and Ace peered out of the alley, over his shoulders. Dodger felt a little like he had an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other...

Ace snickered in his ear. If a snicker could be nervous, this one was,

"Gawd it is rough 'ere innit?"

Charlie shuddered

"Don't Ace... Let's jus' find Emmy and get 'ome"

"Shu'up!" Dodger snapped at them. He looked down the street again.

There.

The door.

He strode out onto the street, dragging Ace and Charlie with him,

"C'mon!"

Emmy had her hand on his shoulder.

She sucked a deep breath in through her teeth.. and pushed him over.

Her eyes widened,

"Ginger!?"

Dodger didn't know what he had been expecting when he burst into the main room in Ginger's house.

He had knocked on the door twice, wondering where his acquaintance was, and why he wasn't answering the door. Growing impatient and worried, he had kicked the door open and stepped into the dark corridor.

Creeping down towards the main room his breathing had quickened, although he wasn't sure why. Something was telling him that all was not well.

Charlie and Ace had followed him like silent shadows. Well, almost silent.

"I still think we should've come in through the window..."

"Sha'it Charlie!"

Dodger held up one finger and they fell quiet. Grasping the door handle he threw it open, and gaped at what he saw.

Ginger's unconscious form was splayed across the floor, a wide bruise running across his youthful face, and dried blood on his forehead.

But that wasn't the thing that made him gasp. He started forward.

Emmy.

She was flat against the flat wall, her dark curls limp around her face. A large dark bruise marked her left temple, and blood glistened wetly on her cheeks. Her bottom lip was mangled and bloody, and her muscles were trembling with tension. A whisper escaped her lips,

"Dodge"

She launched herself off the wall and ran into his arms, shuddering and mumbling,

"Thank God you came.."

Dodger's chest was hurting just looking at the wounds on her face so he closed his eyes and kissed her lips quickly. He pulled away, very aware of Ace and Charlie staring at her,

"What 'appened?"

"Well it was 'im weren't it? That man 'o was 'ere, the one we saw just before we left..."

Dodger glowered,

"Yeah, it was 'im"

Emmy continued, biting her lip again,

"He knocked me out" she absent mindedly touched her bruise, "and put a bag over my 'ead. When I woke up, I 'eard 'em 'avin' a hargument in 'ere... The big man, the one 'o took me.. 'e must've knocked Ginger out with a chair..."

They all glanced at Ginger's prone figure.

Ace's eyebrows suddenly flew together, and his eyes darted around the room, finally resting on a moth-eaten top hat, lying in the corner... where it had fallen from Ginger's head.

"Dodge" he said sharply, his eyes flicking between Ginger and the hat, "You and this worm... you match"

Dodger stared at Ginger, and suddenly saw what Ace had noticed. They did match. From the top hats and the grubby white bows under their chins, to the tail coats, even down to the battered buckled boots.

"Takin' children...." he questioned, not entirely sure who he was asking.

Ace shrugged,

"Ow come on Dodge... This can't be a coincidence... Emmy bein' kidnapped, 'im knowin' the kidnapper, and 'im dressed hexactly like you... it must 'ave been 'im."

Dodger sighed,

"'E 'as got a lot to be sorry for.."

Chamberson barrelled through the wrecked front door and into the main room of the house.

Where he found two broken chairs and an open door.

Oh that girl and her Dodger would pay.

To be continued....

SO!

What did you think?

Please please please review and tell me your opinions, or just scream and shout about something (i don't mind, i'm sociable lol).

But yeah, it would be great to know what you think of the story.

Hopefully i actually will have another chapter up fairly soon, as i'm on 'study' leave, so I've got some free time :D.

Much love,

Blackfishy

xxx

PS – Once again can i just say HOW SORRY I REALLY AM about how long this has taken, it's truly awful, and i feel really bad.... Thank you so much for sticking with this story :)