Chapter 42: Mistakes Happen

A/N: Only two chapters left after this! I could've gone straight to the one I have planned out after this one but I would've felt as though it had ended too soon. So I threw in this little filler bit. It goes on a week after the previous chapter. Thanks so much to my reviewers! I'm only four away from 100 and that floors me. You guys are the bomb dot com!!! THANK YOU!! And now on with the chapter.

Warning: Contains a sad reflection of life as she knew it.

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Mistakes happen. Of this much Nancy was sure. The fact that Bill had shoved her down repeatedly, had been mistakes. The time he had hit her, it was an accident. No matter what they said, mistakes happened. To err is only human after all. So Nancy was not at all surprised when the man she had put up on a golden pedestal had let her down a time or two. Through thick and thin it seemed, the spunky red head was capable of seeing through the pain and the shouts. The anger and the hurt. Through it all she looked deep down into the man everyone seemed so fond of calling monster, and witnessed the boy she'd always known.

When Nancy looked at Bill it wasn't the hits she saw but a man who had defended her from many a hit growing up in the gang. She saw not a man hell bent on destroying her happy home but one that had found her a home to begin with. It had been he that had finally welcomed her to the gang. She saw somebody who had comforted her when she'd been down and out about everything, including very trivial things like a new boy beating her at cards. Bill had been the one to not find her repulsive or shameful in her new job. He'd been the one to see her as beautiful and courageous. He'd brought her gifts, including a hair comb that was now long gone with all her other finery, they couldn't afford much. Which was why Bill was getting ready to go out on the job.

A job, Nancy remembered, that had both thrilled and terrified her when Bill had first decided to institute it as his occupation. From the moment she had heard Fagin suggest it to the second Bill had returned home, Nancy had been nothing but worried sick for Bill. Even as a young child she'd had some sort of inclination towards him. She'd done anything and everything she could to impress him, but she did this best without even trying. Nancy impressed Bill in little ways, staying up all night worrying about him, waking him up with glee the next morning. As a matter of fact, anything and everything Nancy did impressed Bill.

In likeness, there were moments when Bill seemed to effortlessly impress Nancy. The muscles on him that could knock her flat had once seemed very impressive to her. The fact that he could housebreak, still thrilled and terrified her to no end. She was more impressed however, when his tough facade was a long time gone. She was impressed in the moments when he acted tenderly towards her. Roses by the bedside, a comb and whispered promises in a smoky tavern, a welcome to the gang. The times when he would coddle her after a nightmare or after the loss of a friend. Times when he was mourning himself and still found it in his heart to push his own pain aside and comfort her. She could've been in the clink long ago but he'd been there to save her the first time she'd gotten caught.

What on earth could've been more logical then for the two of them to fall in love? While Nancy had never heard Bill actually say 'I Love You', she knew he surely must. The way he looked at her and worried for her. Even if it sometimes resulted in violence she knew it was all out of love. As for she herself, she told Bill very often that she loved him. They may have lived a poor life, but for Nancy, it was a fine one indeed.

So what if everyone told her it was a mistake? That one day his violence would be too much for her. She didn't care if their relationship was a mistake, if her way of life was a mistake, or if she continually endured hits and kicks she deemed as mistakes.

As Bill left to go on the job that night Nancy was sure of one thing. If everything between the two of them was a mistake, she was glad mistakes happened.