Chapter 16: Chance Encounter

A/N: Okay you guys, sorry for lack of update. Our track meet last night wasn't over with until 11:30 p.m.! Can you say yikes. Anyways, I'm particularly fond of this chapter so I hope you enjoy. Please R&R, I'll update more on Monday.

Warning: Contains hilarity. :-)

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Nancy listened with a pleasant air to the scuffing of her boots on the cobbled streets of London. It was a good day, lots of people were out and about, great for business! Of course, business hadn't been going to good for Nancy since she'd gotten older. It was hard to be adorable and distracting at age fifteen, so she'd had to rely on pick pocketing skills alone to earn her keep. Of course, Miss Nancy had grown to be very distracting as the years had worn on, she just didn't realize it.

Though her dress, deep green as of late, was in enough tatters to reveal in several spots her purple underskirts, it clung quite nicely to her figure. And it didn't take a rocket scientist to deduce that she did indeed have a figure. Her auburn curls were still wild and matted but they were much longer now, hanging to the middle of her back and framing her face quite nicely. Her features had changed little other then that she'd thinned out from the round cheeked child she used to be. So she was indeed distracting, just not in a way that helped her pick a pocket.

Quietly, she walked up to the book stand in an innocent enough manner and began leafing through the pages of this book or that. Lots of rich gentlemen tended to hang about the book stand, it was the easiest way to snatch whatever valuables their pockets might hold. Point with one hand to a book and inquire as to whether or not they'd read it, pick a wallet out of their pocket with the other. Of course, that entailed going in blind, which wasn't always the easiest for Nancy to pull off. She managed though, not nearly as much as she used to pick in her younger days, but she definitely managed.

"Oh!" She cried, her tone laced with admiring as she used one delicate hand to stroke the cover of a book she'd never seen before. "I did so enjoy this book, have you read it?" she asked to the gentleman standing next to her.

"Can't say as I have, is it good?" The man was not terribly unkind looking, but he definitely had a firm air about him. He wouldn't be the kind to buy a load of rubbish, so she'd have to be careful not to get caught. She doubted stories about a starving little brother would save her from trouble with this man.

"Oh yes it's the most enchanting story about this boy who goes through the most awful time because his mother...oh but I shouldn't ruin it for you, see for yourself." She was trying to keep her face looking friendly while her mind absolutely contorted on concentration. Pinching up the fabric of the pocket wasn't the trick, using only one hand to snatch the wallet out of it while keeping one hand in his sight was.

"Perhaps I will," he said picking up the book. "Thank you for the suggestion."

"Anytime," she said smiling. She nodded curtly and turned to walk away, tucking the wallet in her pocket as soon as she was out of sight. Silently, she wondered how long it would take him to notice it had been she that had picked his pocket. But then again, the words she had told an old friend long ago were still true, you couldn't have her face and be suspected of much. Nancy decided to make her rounds about the town, swiping the occasional pocket handkerchief here, stopping to ask the time and managing to steal the watch off the man before he had it re-pocketed there. She was in such a delightful mood that business was going this well that she hardly noticed the person in her path, whom she happened to bump into full force.

"Oof!" she exclaimed rather ungracefully as she fell straight back onto her bottom, at the same time as the figure was demanding

"Oi! Watch it!"

"I'm terribly sorry," Nancy exclaimed. It was a young boy before her, twelve at the most, and looking mischievous enough to beat all. He finally looked up at her and, taking in the obvious beauty of the young lady before him, instantly forgot his well thought out string of curses he had intended to send his attackers direction.

"Oh tha's alrigh'" he said dusting himself off as he rose to his feet. Quickly he offered a hand to the young lady who only too gratefully took it and got herself up.

"I really am sorry about that," Nancy said cordially. No use drawing unecessary attention to yourself, she thought. Just calmly excuse yourself before people start taking notice of....look at that...what is that silk...really nice handkerchief...I wonder if...

"The fault's all mine m'lady," he replied. He acted quite the little gentleman, and appeared it too. His clothes seemed a bit too big for him and he wore a large navy blue waist coat over his shirt and trousers. He was a snub nosed little thing, with dirt smudging up his face, and his brown eyes were nothing if not plain. Still, he seemed to think very highly of himself.

"If you'll excuse my rudeness I was really just about to be off, I'm in a terrible hurry," Nancy continued. Which she wasn't, but she had to get away from him, or at least sweep past him.

"Oh yes...yes...of course," the boy said smiling. Nancy swept right past him with a little curtsy, snatching the handkerchief from his pocket as she did. She wondered if she was so ridiculous that she had now resorted to stealing from children. But that had been a nice handkerchief, it truly had, so it was no skin off her nose what-so-ever. Bill would laugh when he heard about this one.

Bill...boy was he all that was on her mind these days. That is, when she wasn't worrying about the traps, or where her next meal might come from, or that she was getting too old to get away with picking pockets anymore. Bill came back to visit the flat often. Well, visit wasn't precisely the right word. It was more like showing up and demanding his money from Fagin, who all too quickly obliged. If Bill had seemed huge to Nancy when she was little, he was even more frightening now. Still, he was not unkind to her ever, in fact, he remained one of her dearest, if not most easily irritable, friends. She knew, if she didn't get on Bill's nerves then his temper would be good for the day. It had been a while since Nancy had seen him riled up over much of anything. Absentmindedly she thought of how he sometimes brought her gifts, like on her last birthday. He'd given her a lovely choker made of a thick black velvet cord with a green emerald in the center. Stolen, she was sure, but gorgeous all the same. With a faint smile Nancy reached up to where the choker should have been resting on her neck...and touched only her bare pale flesh.

Someone had stolen it! Someone had somehow managed to steal it right off her neck! She thought back through the day quickly, she'd had it at the book stand, and when she'd been going through town she'd seen her reflection in a window. It had still been on then. Of course, that had been right before she bumped into that boy...

The boy. She wasn't sure how but somewhere along their brief exchange he must've snatched it off her. Her necklace, a necklace that Bill had given her. Anger pulsed through every nerve in Nancy's body as she turned sharply on her heel and sprinted back towards where she'd seen him last. He'd been a very unique character, shouldn't be too hard to spot in a crowd, especially when-

"OUCH!" She complained rather loudly as she collided with somebody for she second time that day. She scuttled to her feet at the same time as the other victim of her hustle and was astonished to see it was the same boy as earlier.

"YOU LITTLE THIEF!" They both snarled at the same time. "Me? Yes you! You're the one who stole my....would you stop that!" Both of them stood there near a not so crowded shop fuming at each other and clearly annoyed that they were voicing the same thoughts. In the back of her mind Nancy was registering how ridiculous they must've looked, but she couldn't help but keep her attention focused first and fore mostly on the thief before her.

"Please," she said quietly "that was a gift from a dear friend. Jus' give it back to me."

"So long as you hand over my pocket 'andkerchief. You 'ave no idea 'ow long it took me to swipe tha'. Was off a flippin' Lord somethin-or-other wot was in town the one day. Finest pickings I ever earned." A little smile was threatening Nancy's scowl as she received this news, that was impressive, very impressive indeed.

"Here," she said, fighting to keep her expression stern. The boy took the handkerchief from her and handed her her choker back out of one of his pockets. They stood there awkwardly for a moment, and then the boy gave a sharp little nod and turned to leave. Nancy stared after him in wonder...he had picked a Lord's pocket....he had picked her pocket. No, more impressive then that, he'd snatched a choker right off her neck! She may not have been bringing back the best of pickings lately, but if she brought back a boy that could pick pockets like that.... "Hey wait a moment!" The boy stopped and turned back to face her.

"Wot?"

"What's um...what's your name kid?"

"Why so you can turn about an' turn me into the traps?" His expression was joking and Nancy knew he wasn't serious about his words. He walked back towards her and leaned at the entrance to the alley next to them.

"No...I um...I 'ave a proposition for you," she said smiling. The boy scratched at his brown hair and scrunched up his little snub nose in a very amusing manner.

"Wot...kind of an offer?"

"Where ya live at?"

"Where I can," he replied steadily.

"An...you um...you pick pockets often do you?" The boy shrugged nonchalantly and suddenly took a sudden interest in his shoes.

"S'how I make my living." She grinned at this news, this was turning out to be her day after all.

"Listen...we...my friends and I that is, we all do the same thing, pickin' pockets ya know? But we all got a nice place to live and a roof over our 'ead." The young boy quirked his eyebrow and crossed one ankle over the other.

"An' 'ow's that?"

"We live with a um...respectable old gentleman, wot gives us lodgings for nothing. 'E really don't ask for much in exchange for room an' board, cept' what we pick every day. If you want...I mean...you could come an' live with us, Mr. Fagin'd be glad to 'ave ya."

"Tha's really 'is name," the boy said skeptically "Mr. Fagin?"

"Swear on m'life," she said smiling. He seemed to think for only a second before a smile spread across the boy's face. His smile was fantastic, Nancy had never seen anything like it.

"Alrigh', you got yourself a deal." She smiled and shook the hand the child had extended towards her. They headed off, Nancy leading the way when she looked over her shoulder towards him.

"I'm Nancy by the way," she said with a small smile.

"An' I'm Jack Dawkins," he said with that devastating smile of his "pleased to meet you."