Chapter 30: Her Bill
A/N: Okay so a short but fluffy chapter of the Bill/Nancy variety. Hopefully everybody enjoyed, and thanks to all my fantastic reviewers. This one is for Musical Twin; I can't reply to your reviews, but I do appreciate the fact that you take the time to leave such wonderful praise. :-D
Warning: Contains fluff and the idea of Nancy spending the night at Bill's place.
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Nancy laughed inwardly at the face on her favorite housebreaker this fine evening. He seemed overly nervous, although over what, she wasn't entirely sure. Bill kept stammering and looking down and fidgeting uncomfortably. She couldn't be too sure, because of the smoky atmosphere in which they were seated, but she thought that he was blushing ever so slightly under his beard. Nancy wondered what on earth was up with him, getting jitters talking to her. As if they hadn't been talking every night for the past month! She patted absentmindedly at the comb he had given her the night previous and smiled. Nancy wasn't entirely sure what the housebreaker was talking about currently and quite frankly she didn't much care.
It was only as the bells rang across London that Nancy realized just how late it had gotten. She looked up at Bill curiously as he took another drink of his gin, not a care in the world. It was ringing eleven thirty.
"Bill?" she said curiously. He looked up with a smile and she quirked her eyebrow curiously. "Aren't you goin' out on the job tonight?"
"Not exactly Nance," he said. Nancy sighed confused, he wasn't meeting her gaze, as if he was really nervous about something. It was the same way he'd been acting all evening. "I'm sort of...expecting company."
"Toby around?" she asked curiously.
"No, not...exactly." Nancy looked at him confused and he sighed heavily, trying to get his point across. "I'm expecting...a friend." The confused look did not seem inclined to leave Nancy's face as she stared at Bill.
"Which friend?" she asked incredulously. Her head was quickly deciphering anybody it could be. She wondered if maybe Morice or Marshall had dropped into their part of town without her knowing, it would be fantastic to see them again.
"Nance," he said with a heavy sigh. "I can't pay you or nothin'...I mean, I don't want to 'ave to pay you. But...if you maybe...wanted to...go back to my place, I-" Bill cut himself off there but Nancy's heart was stammering violently in her chest. He was asking her to do what she did nightly, except out of affection instead of for money. Was he really saying what she thought he was saying, that he loved her? She stared at him vacantly for a moment and then she wrapped her mind around her emotions. This was Bill, her Bill. The same man that as a child she had sat up all night waiting for. The same one that had finally welcomed her to the gang. He was the friend that had been there through everything, her rock. He was Bill...her Bill. And he wanted her to come with him, wanted her to. She nodded, a smile on her rose colored lips.
"Absolutely."
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As the moon shown down on a sleeping London, two figures roamed an otherwise deserted alley. It was a housebreaker and a prostitute, raised in turmoil and amongst villains, laughing together as if they hadn't a care in the world, and relishing being in each others company.