1901

Alex stepped down from the train and made her way out of the station ushering her brothers, sisters and kid along with her. She was finally free, she just hoped it wasn't too late. All her friends were grown and would have moved out from the lodging house but that was a good place to start so she flagged down a cab and instructed him to take them to Dune Street. Half an hour later they arrived. They all climbed out, paid and thanked the driver and stood staring up at the old building that she once called home, while she was in the cab it had started to rain and it was getting steadily heavier. The lights were on and noise was coming from the front room

"Nathan look after your brother and sisters while I am away ok, I will find a house and job so that I can look after you all. This is a safe place, this is where I grow up, don't mention my nickname though."

"Yes, Al. how long do you think you will be?"

"Not long, there is one guy you can trust completely, his name is Blink, he may have moved out by now but if not, he was my best friend, he is the only person you can mention my name to, ok."

"I'm going to miss you Ma." Joe started to cry, she was Alex's eldest at four followed by Emily who was the youngest at eight months. Nathan was seven and her youngest sister Sue was four.

"I'm going to miss you too, darling but remember I will always love you." She kissed them all on the head saying good bye to all individually. Alex took a deep breath and knocked on the door. A second later it was opened by a boy of about thirteen.

"Wat ya want. Oh sorry miss, wat can I do for ya?"

"I would like to pay for these three to stay a week. They are willing to be Newsies."

"er ok, come in."

" I used to live here , could I speak to Blink, if he's still here?" she stayed where she was while everything she had left, left her.

" sure, he's moved out but he's come for a visit, wats ya name?"

" doesn't matter, just tell him I've missed him" she said simply. The boy studied her for a minute then must have changed his mind as he turned and disappeared into the house. A minute later Blink appeared.

"Hey stranger." she said nervously.

"Alex?"

"Yer, it's me Patchy." Blink ran forward and wrapped his arms round her as best as he could with Emily in the way.

"I've missed you. Why don't you come in. who's this cutie?" his suggested as he started to lead her back towards the building.

" no, I cant face up to what the boys feel about me, they still hate me don't they."

"hates such a strong word." he muttered

" ok, they still don't like me," Blink slowly nodded

"why don't we go back to mine, its only in the next street. Your soaked and so's the baby."

"I don't mind, I spent most of my time here in the rain, I felt the safest in the rain don't you remember but I don't want Ems to get wet."

"yer I remember." Blink started walking towards the next street. "Come on" After a couple of minutes he lead her up a flight of stairs to a two bedroom flat.

" this is a nice place you've got here."

" We've got a job at the factory , our wage added together gets us by."

" Nice."

" Where have you been. I missed you" Alex looked down at her feet and thought over her answer.

"With Pa. he rapped me Blink." Tears appeared in her eyes. "I was with child but he beat it to death when it was a day old. I held her in my arms as she died of blood loss. I have two others who I love with all my heart. The three kids that came in as you came out were my eldest kid and our two half siblings."

" he did WHAT." Blink exclaimed. " How could he do dat ta ya, his own daughter." he was now shouting. "I'll kill him, Alex ya stayin wiv me and the guys, ok, I don't care if they say no its my flat too. I love you and I know ya would come back."

" You love me?" he walked towards her and wrapped her in his arms.

" I have always loved you, I just didn't realise it till you had left."

"I love ya too, and ya cant kill pa because he is already dead."

"Good, I'm never letting you out of my sight."

"I don't want to be out of your sight." she smiled up at him. " but I cant stay here, where would I sleep, where would Em sleep?"

Blink laughed "We shared a bed for six year, why cant we share a bed now? The kid can have my sock draw."

"Your sock draw sounds sensible for her to sleep. When we shared a bed you thought I was a boy and back then I hadn't been away from you for six years and the way I feel about you whoever shares your room wont get any sleep tonight."

" I'm sure Skitts can sleep on the sofa ." he grinned as he hugged her again and kissed her on the neck. " your shivering, You need to get out of those clothes or you'll get ill." he walked into one of the rooms and brought out a spare shirt and trousers. " Here put them on. I've taken the draw out and put it between two chairs so she is off the floor." he handed the clothes over and Alex went into one of the bedrooms. She laid Emily in the draw and made sure she was warm and dry, then got changed herself. While she was in there she heard the front door open and close.

"Where did you go? You missed seeing Skitts beat Race and Spot, cleaned them out." Jack shouted.

"Well done, Skitts, I left because an old friend turned up and she was wet and refused to go into the lodgin house."

"A girl hey. Who is it then, if she's an old friend then we should know her." Race said.

"No, you don't know her, but you have to be nice, she'll be staying here with her kid." Blink told them. Alex took a deep breath and went out into the living room. All eyes turned towards her.

"Hey" she said nervously. Race walked around her.

"I recognise you." he muttered, he stopped in front of her and examined her face. "A scar running from her nose to her chin" he muttered to himself. "Have we met before?"

"a couple of times. When you were all cute."

"But we still are cute." Race protested.

"We haven't met, I know that." The boy called Skittery said walking towards her.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Alex."

"Lovely to meet you, I am Skittery."

"Skitts, hands off she's mine." Blink muttered.

"Then you're a lucky man." Alex walked over to Blink and he wrapped his arm round her waist protectively.

"I know I am, its just a shame I let her go when she was here last."

"are you regretting that you pined after that Storm bitch?"

"she wasn't a bitch." Alex growled.

"you knew her?"

"yes, we were good friends, we were both madly in love with Blink which meant we could never be best friends."

"what happened to her?" Skittery asked

"her father took her back to a grimy old house in Wisconsin. He didn't treat her like his daughter; he raped her every night before he went to bed with his new wife. She got pregnant, she gave birth to three kids, by then she had six new siblings. Her step mother was addicted to drugs and alcohol so Storm looked after them all."

"What happened to her own kids?"

"one died in her mothers arms after being beaten to death by her father grandfather. She has two surviving kids now, one is four the other is eight months."
"That's disgusting!" Jack exclaimed.

"Thankfully he is dead now."

"Where is she now?"

"She is in Manhattan; she dropped her kid off at the lodging house along with their brother and sister until she can find a safe place for them to live."

"You mean Nathan, Sue and Joe?" Race asked.

"Don't blame them for what Storm did to you, they need support not hate for something their sister and mother did."

"Don't worry, they won't but how do you know all this?"

"I wrote to her, I was her only friend who stayed in contact, she forbade me from telling any of you." She lied squeezing Blink's hand.

"Ah I see." Skittery muttered.

"Now if you don't mind could we get off the subject of Storm? I'm gasping for a drink, you don't have a beer do you?"

"Of course we do darling." Skittery said as he walked into the small kitchen. "Anyone else want one?" he called

"Sure." Blink called back. "Alex sit down." He lead her towards an old beat up sofa.

"Alex, Blink said you had a kid?" Jack asked.

"Yer, her name is Emily, she's eight months."

"Where is she?"

"In Blinks room, I must apologise in advance Skittery, she doesn't sleep through the night so if you want a good night sleep I'm afraid you wont get it until we move out."

"Your not going to move out though, you're both staying with me."

"Yes sir." She teased. Her mum senses started to tingle just before she heard a faint whimper. "Sounds like she wants to meet you all." She jumped up and rushed into the bedroom. Picking up her grizzling daughter she wandered back into the living room cooing softly.