NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Work has kicked me in the head the past few days. Today was a blessing in disguise, and I'll explain why at the end of this chapter.

BTW, this chapter was written on my ipod touch!:)

Chapter Six

Hey, Anna?"

Anna turned her head. "Yeah, Chase?"

"Can I tell you something?"

"Sure," Anna nodded, making sure Chase had her undivided attention. The kids were walking downtown, across a bridge where homeless people were gathered around fires blazing in trash cans. Phil and Tempest brought up the rear, hanging back a respectful distance, so that Chase and Anna could talk.

Chase couldn't stop the blush that crept up his neck and across his cheeks. "I, uh, didn't really know you until tonight. I mean, um, I knew you were pretty…" Chase realized he was babbling and tried to recover. "I...I mean you are pretty!"

Anna chuckled, slightly distracted. "Thanks." A pause, and then she pointed. "Look over there. Is that your dad's building?"

"Uh, yeah. You're more than just that, though. You're kinda smart too."

Anna nodded, deep in thought. "I think we should turn ourselves in." Up ahead, Phil caught a glimpse of something interesting and ran off. Tempest ran up to walk between her brother and the babysitter. Anna put a protective hand on the little girl's shoulders.

Chase realized that his crush was trying to change the subject. "Wait, listen to me…the point is I…" He tried to find the right words to express his thought and finally decided to get to his point. "…the point is I, uh…I don't know what the hell you're doing with Mike Mizanin. Okay?"

Anna's jaw fell. "What?"

"Anna, I mean it. The guy's a total loser. Phil knows it. I know it-"

"Chase, it's none of your business."

"Um, there's nothing personal Anna. I…I just think you should give other guys a chance."

"Like who?"

"Well, like uh…"

Tempest grinned. "Don't say it. Don't say it!" she warned, before her brother pushed her aside.

Chase's voice was a squeak. "Like me."

Tempest snorted. "Oh no, he said it!" she managed before she and Anna busted up laughing.

Chase looked genuinely offended. "What's so funny?

Anna waited until she was able to catch her breath; she was laughing that hard. "Well, it's just that…you're a kid, Chase."

Chase fired back. "And you're just a girl in love with an assclown."

Anna, realizing that she'd rubbed Chase the wrong way, tried to take back what she'd just said. "Hey look I'm sorry, I didn't mean it."

Chase hung his head, genuinely hurt. "Never mind. Forget it."

Tempest's little voice broke the tension. "Anna, look where Phil is," she said, pointing to a streetlight.

Anna and the Irvine-Hardys glanced over and Anna sighed in disgust. Phil was talking to a hooker.

~~~BABY~~~

The hooker was well-dressed in a short skirt, boots, and a warm and fashionable coat. Her makeup was nicely applied, and her hair was neatly styled. Her voice was a purr as she traced a manicured hand up and down Phil's arm. "Y'know, I'd really like to get to know you, if you have enough time."

Phil smirked at the well-heeled call girl. "I have tons of time."

"Phil!"

Phil sighed as Anna and the others ran over to where he was. "What are you guys doing? I'm trying to get a date here. You're cramping my style."

Anna frowned. "She's too old for you."

"And you're not?" the hooker fired back.

"Well," Anna explained. "I'm his babysitter."

"How old are you?"

"I'm seventeen."

"So am I," grinned the hooker, as everyone stared at her in shock.

Anna was incredulous. "You're seventeen?" The hooker nodded, proudly. "What are you doing on the streets?"

"Ran away from home. My stepmom drove me crazy. I wanted to spike her Diet Pepsi with Visine."

Anna chuckled. "My best friend AJ wanted to do that to her...stepmom..." Suddenly, she remembered why she and the kids were out here in the first place. "AJ! We forgot about AJ! Come on..."

The kids ran off, with Phil bringing up the rear. "Bye! I'll call you!" At least he got a phone number, so it wasn't a total loss.

~~~BABY~~~

Meanwhile, Back at the Bus Station...

"Oh Anna, why aren't you here?" whined AJ, as she tried to feel her way along. She was seriously nearsighted without her glasses, and after the homeless woman stole her glasses, everything was a big blur.

Slowly, she made her way over to a Pepsi machine and saw a small furry animal curled up just beside it. She couldn't make out any details, but the way it was curled up all tiny and fuzzy tugged at her heartstrings. "Oh. It's a kitten," she sighed, dropping to her knees. "Here kitty, kitty. Here kitty, kitty." She reached down and picked the small creature up. "Hi. What's the matter, you got lost?"

"Drop it."

AJ jumped to her feet, cradling the fuzzy animal. "What?"

Two janitors, big and burly, stood in front of AJ. The first one, Bubba Ray, pointed at the bundle in AJ's arms. "Put the animal down."

"Why?"

The second janitor, D-Von, shook his head at the nearsighted teen. "We're gonna kill it."

AJ gasped and cradled the little animal against her chest. "What?! You monsters! Why would you want to kill a poor defenseless little kitten?"

"Kitten?" D-Von turned to his partner. "Kitten?" the janitors glanced down at AJ and busted up laughing.

"This ain't no kitten, kid!" Bubba Ray explained.

D-Von finished the sentence. "It's a jumbo size sewer rat!"

AJ looked down at the rat in her arms and screamed bloody murder. Tossing the filthy vermin down on the floor, she staggered towards the nearest restroom to wash up.

Lucky for AJ, it wasn't the Men's room.

~~~BABY~~~

"C'mon, Chase!" Phil exclaimed, as he struggled to keep up with the others as they rushed down the sidewalk. "You wouldn't believe what Tanya would do for twenty bucks."

Chase glared at his best friend. "Phil, I don't care-" he began, as a familiar sound came up behind the kids. He glanced over his shoulder and gasped. "Guys! It's them! Phil! Pick it up!"

"I'm trying!"

Tempest squeaked as Anna took her by the hand and took off running. "It is them!"

"Run!" Anna shouted, her tone of voice leaving no room for argument. "Come on guys! Run!" She pointed straight ahead. "There's a subway station over there. We can board a train and get away. MOVE!"

The kids ran like their hair was on fire, the Town Car right behind them. They passed a group of kids engaged in some acapella rapping and scurried up a flight of stairs to the subway platform.

Chase vaulted the gates first, followed by Anna, who handed Tempest to him before she climbed over. Phil was last, and the kids made it to a train and flopped into their seats just before the doors closed and the train rolled away.

The token man yelled after the departing kids just as Stevie, Dreamer, and R-Truth arrived on the platform. Angrily, he reached over and grabbed Dreamer's sleeve.

"Hey, who's gonna pay for those kids? Somebody better pay for those kids or I'm calling the cops."

Stevie gave Dreamer a poisonous glare. "Deal with it." Sighing, Dreamer pulled out his wallet and went to settle the tab. While Dreamer was occupied, Stevie turned to his driver.

"I want you tell me all about those kids. Where you found them. Where they came from."

R-Truth shrugged. "Well, how am I supposed to…I don't know anything, you know?"

"You know something. Yeah, you do, don't you?"

R-Truth sighed. "They, uh, they gotta get their car."

A dark smirk crossed Stevie's lips. "We'll get to it first."

~~~BABY~~~

On The Subway Train...

Anna pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. "What do those guys want?"

Phil shrugged. "Maybe they wanna give us a ride home. Ya think?"

Anna was too frazzled to think of a snappy comeback and ruffled Tempest's hair. "Temper, honey, I think you should lay down and get some sleep."

Tempest shook her head. "I'm not tired."

"Well pretend that you're tired."

"Then can I pretend to sleep?"

Anna sighed. "Yeah whatever."

Suddenly, the relative quiet on the train was shattered as the door at the end of the train compartment banged open and a bunch of gang members, all dressed in black, spilled in. The kids looked over at the gang member and the gang members just glared right back. Before anyone could say anything, the door at the other end banged open and a rival gang, this one dressed in red, climbed aboard.

Tempest smirked. "Cool threads."

Cautiously, Anna said, "We'll get off at the next stop-"

The leader of the black-clothed gang snarled. "Don't you even think about getting off this train."

"The only people getting off this train are gonna be doing it in body bags," hissed his red garbed counterpart.

"This is our train!"

"Yeah? Well your train is rolling in our turf."

"So what?" The black dressed gang leader wouldn't back down.

"So as soon as we cross Devereaux street you and your girls here is dead meat," the red garbed gangster snarled, gesturing to the black clad gangster's posse. The rival gang made sounds of fake fear.

"Oh, well we'll go right now."

Phil's voice was matter of fact. "Chase,They're gonna kill each other."

Chase shuddered. "And kill us doing it."

The red dressed leader pulled out a vicious looking weapon that Anna recognized as a butterfly knife. "There goes Jefferson."

The black clad leader pulled out and opened up a switchblade knife. "And here goes Jackson."

A smirk crossed the red gang leader's lips."Here comes Devereaux."

The rival gangs advanced toward each other like wolves on a deer-

"STOP!" In a move that was brave, foolish, or both, Anna jumped up and held up her hands stopping the fight before it had a chance to start. "Uh, excuse me. I couldn't help but notice that you two groups of people are about to start killing each other, and I was wondering if you could please hold off until we could get off the train."

Red glared at the babysitter. "Sit down bitch!"

Black snarled, "Yeah, bitch, sit down!"

Phil turned to his buddy in shock. "Chase, are you gonna let him get away with that?"

"Hell, no!" Chase stood up. "Hey! Wait a minute!"

Phil shuddered. "Dude, I was kidding."

Chase didn't hear him. He threw Red a look that could freeze a volcano. "That was really rude. Take it back. Apologize."

"Chase!" Anna barked. "Stay out of this!"

"No, Anna! He called you a bitch."

"Chase, shut up!"

Red snorted. "Hey, listen to the bitch, Chase."

Foolishly, Chase got right into Red's face. "Watch your mouth. You…big city assclown!" Both gangs busted up laughing. Tempest looked on, stifling her giggles. Phil looked on silently.

Red shook his head. "You just can't keep your foot outta your mouth, can you boy?" Chase glanced down, realizing that he was in way over his head. "Well, let me help..."

With those words, Red hurled his knife right into Chase's foot. Chase yelped. "Don't fuck with the Lords of Hell!"

"Whoa!" Tempest looked on. She didn't like seeing her big brother hurt, but this was kinda fun.

Anna had seen enough. Angrily, she reached down, pulled the knife out of Chase's foot and held it up. "Oh, yeah? Well...Don't fuck with the babysitter!"

Red held up his hands. "All right, baby, chill out. Get off the train. Take the kids and split, okay?"

Holding the knife up, Anna and the kids wove their way down the aisle, as they made their way to the door and the train pulled into the next station.

~~~BABY~~~

At the subway station, Anna dropped the knife and caught up to Chase, who staggered along in obvious pain. Phil had draped one of his arms over Chase's shoulders to support him. Tempest tagged along like an eager puppy. "You okay?"

Chase shook his head. "I don't know. I can't feel anything."

"Don't touch it!" Phil warned him. "It could get infected. Jesus. He could get anything. Tetanus. Lock Jaw. Rabies. Scabies. Emphysema-"

"Well then don't let him walk on it," Anna told him. "Come on, pick him up." She picked up one of Chase's legs. Phil had his head supported on his shoulder, and Tempest picked up the other leg.

Phil looked like a lost little boy. "Anna! What are we gonna do with him?"

Tempest looked up at a big sign on the station wall and gazed at everyone in humorous disbelief. "Guys, can't you read?" She jerked her thumb towards the big blue sign with white letters. "Take him to the hospital!"

Anna, Phil, and Chase would have all facepalmed if they were able.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: My car conked out on me today, which allowed me to play hooky today and crank this chapter out. Let's hope the kids have better luck in the next chapter.

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