Once they had worked out the two robbers were not going to look for them in the park, Kevin and Megan had both decided to go off in search of their Uncle Rob's home…and praying desperately he was not only in New York, but he would put them up, and hopefully find a way of dealing with the unholy mess they'd both gotten themselves into.

But Kevin would glance with worry at his elder sister; gone was the cheerful Megan from earlier, and he felt pure guilt because he knew it was largely his own fault, his own stupid fault, for it.

And he knew she was right.

Megan hadn't wanted to steal their dad's credit card and go off on a spending spree.

Not at first, anyway, she had wanted to at least reveal to the authorities or find a way of contacting their parents over in Florida…but Kevin knew his sister better than she expected or imagined.

He knew only too well that she needed only a small amount of persuasion to go along with his plan to have a vacation without their family. Kevin knew the McCallister family travel tradition, while fun in places, was a drain on not only their parents, who had to foot the bill continually - something his other siblings knew only too well as it was an open secret Uncle Frank was a cheapskate who cared more for saving money, and he proved that by forcing himself and his family upon his brother, whether he was wanted or not - but was also a drain on his siblings, too.

Not only did Linnie, Megan, Rob, and even Buzz have to put up with the annoying habits of each other, at least they were used to them, but with the habits of the others, it was only inevitable before fights broke out. Kevin's own fights were with Fuller and his sister, Brooke, were bad enough considering they were similar in age but very understandable, but Megan's fights with Tracey and Sondra were much worse.

Kevin wanted his big sister back, but he was going out of his way not to say anything and make things worse than they were. They didn't have many plans and even Kevin's own ability to draw a plan out of a magician's top hat was drawing a blank.

Megan had made it clear to them they were not going to spend Christmas on the streets, in fact, she had nearly screamed it into his face; if Uncle Rob was not here, they would find a police precinct, tell the officers there who they were, and what happened, and pray they weren't going to be charged.

"How do I know him?" Megan asked suddenly.

Kevin jumped at the sound of her voice. They had been walking down the streets in silence - that was one of the reasons why he wanted her to speak; it would take his mind off of the nightmare of walking down the dark streets of New York; just because he had gotten over his old stupid fear of the basement at home, that was nothing compared to the real fear he had of violent criminals in New York - for what seemed like hours.

"What?"

"The small burglar. Harry. How do I know him? Like, I know his picture was in the newspapers and on TV, but I know I've seen his face before," Megan said thoughtfully, all the while looking at her little brother for answers, given he knew them better than she.

Hoping this meant she was speaking to him again, Kevin answered her question with one of his own. "Do you remember, around this time last year, a cop came to the house to ask about the security arrangements of the house?" He asked, thinking it made a degree of sense she was asking.

Megan blinked at the question. "A cop….," she whispered, biting her lip in thought; she cast her mind back to the day and night before they left for Paris before that disaster which was Mum discovering they had left Kevin behind by mistake because they'd slept in….

But then she remembered, a dumpy-looking cop standing in the hall at home, while everyone rushed around at the last minute, hoping to get the packing all done.

And then her eyes widened, and she saw Harry's face underneath the cop's peaked cap.

"He was the cop?" Megan breathed.

"Pretending to be a cop," Kevin corrected her. "He was at the house asking those questions to learn more about the security. I think he did the same to the other houses in the neighbourhood, too; who's going to say no to a cop?"

Megan gazed down sympathetically and more than a little bit guiltily at her little brother. While she was still impressed by the scale of how far Kevin had changed, matured and grown in the past year since that horrible Christmas, she still wished the whole mess hadn't happened.

Leaving him at home.

Forgetting to wake him up.

Not bothering to make sure they were all together.

All the while, their mother had been worrying herself sick, jumping from one airport to the next, desperate to return to Kevin.

And all the time, he had been trying to stop two criminals from robbing their home.

"I saw him again a couple of days later," Kevin went on, "I was out for a walk when their van nearly ran me down - don't worry!" He added with a quick yell when Megan yelped in horror. "They stopped, but when I saw his face, I knew I'd seen it - and his gold tooth - before. It took only a few minutes for me to join the dots….but then I realised they were following me in their van; I only managed to get away from them because I ran, and hid in that Jesus thing outside the church."

Kevin made a face as he remembered the rest of that night. "Later that night, they drove through the neighbourhood, and they passed our house."

Megan licked her lips. "What happened?"

"Nothing. I used dummies and Buzz's basketball cut-out to fake a party, playing music all night to keep them away, and make it look like the rest of the family had gotten back from Paris," Kevin replied before he sighed. "But it didn't work for long. I don't know when they realised I was on my own, but it happened the next day, and they came up with a plan to defend the house. I rigged those traps and I had fun dealing with them until they were arrested in the Murphy's house."

Hearing this made Megan wish her brother had come with them. She would have preferred a flooded house which would have taken months to repair and renovate than imagine the kind of things Kevin had needed to do.

But at the same time…

Perhaps it was a godsend Kevin had spent those few days growing up while they were gone after that argument caused by Buzz's spiteful need to get on Kevin's back. Learning he could only depend on himself had given her brother a great deal of maturity, and she liked it.

"I still can't understand why they did that. They were just giving the police a trail to track," Megan shook her head.

Kevin had spent more time than he or Megan would have wanted with those two, so he had better insights into their personalities. "I think it was just Marv, Megan; he's capable, but not that bright."

Megan realised he was right, especially after remembering how he had boasted about what they planned to do about Duncan's Toy Chest. She frowned and wondered if they were going to pull it off, and what would happen next. She shrugged her shoulders, and while she did feel bad for the old storekeeper, was it their problem?

And then she realised it was. But she didn't understand why.

-8-

"Is this it?" Megan asked, a sense of foreboding chilling her worse than the winter air.

They were both standing outside of a Brownstone. The home their uncle and aunt lived in, or had lived in, given how it didn't seem to have any signs of life, and the builder's chute outside didn't give the sense anyone had lived here recently, was dark and gloomy.

"This is it, it's the right house number, the right address," Kevin checked and showed her the address. The house number was the same as in the address book. "They might be asleep," he said hopefully, but he didn't sound sure. He walked up the steps. Without anything better to do, and scared herself, Megan followed him.

Kevin prised open the letter box. "Hello?! Uncle Rob! Aunt Georgette! Anybody home?!"

Megan knelt next to him, peering around as best she could.

There was little ambient light inside the entrance hall inside the house, which only made the foreboding she felt even worse. From what she could see, there were no Christmas decorations, and there were no lights. But what she could see didn't give her hope; from what she could tell, the house looked stripped of all signs that made a house a home. As far as she could tell nobody had lived here in years.

"Is there anyone inside?" Megan called, after tapping Kevin on the shoulder to let him know she was going to call herself. "Hello?"

Silence.

But that didn't mean the house couldn't have someone inside.

"Hello! Anybody home? It's me, your favourite nephew, Kevin! Uncle Rob! Aunt Georgette!" Kevin yelled out.

"Kevin, give it up," Megan sighed. "They don't live here anymore - why the place is still in their name, I dunno - but we've got no choice now."

Kevin sighed, looking up at her sadly. "I know. We have to see the police. Let's just hope they help."

-8-

A chilly wind was blowing through the city. But the chill both Kevin and Megan felt was not down to the weather. The two McCallisters were terrified out of their wits as they walked down the streets of New York, once more. If they needed any proof they had been sheltered all their lives, they had it just walking through New York at night; Megan had heard cities were like jungles, especially at night. The city was a vastly different, and highly terrifying place, late at night.

Megan, like most girls her age, loved spending time out, and partying with friends, so she was no stranger to late nights out in the city, but this was out of her comfort zone.

It was like the worst scum of the city had been waiting at night, like vampires or werewolves.

Megan kept a firm watch over her brother while holding onto him, once more wishing she had taken self-defence classes - if they got out of this mess, she would be sure to research the best ones she could find; she felt so hopeless, and it was not a feeling she liked - keeping watch on everyone they passed.

Fortunately, some people were just content to let them pass through the gauntlet, but more than once she was creeped out by the leers she received.

Megan knew she was beautiful, but until now she had never felt herself wishing she was someone nobody would look at twice.

The leers she got, were from people who made her skin crawl, and Megan knew if they got out of this, she knew this would give her nightmares, for the rest of her natural life.

As they passed a man (or a woman; it was hard to tell their gender) speaking to themselves, while shaking their head, Megan pulled Kevin out of their path a little. She stiffened when they were passing by a man in a tatty hooded coat standing over a bench, who was slowly lifting his head as he saw they were there.

Megan was only just able to swallow her fear of what he might do.

But Kevin was so spooked, that he almost tripped up over another man, who was hunkered down in front of a tree.

The man, old, dirty, and almost toothless, cackled, "Watch it, kid!"

"C'mon, Kev," Megan hissed over his insane cackles, her desperation to find a cop giving her the strength to drag him away. Kevin was more than happy to come with her.

Fortunately, they were coming to the end of the street…. But there were two women dressed provocatively, smoking. Nose wrinkling at the obnoxious stench, Megan stiffened and she noticed Kevin. Why the hell was he even looking at them? Didn't he know that was a sure way of attracting danger?

The two women were prostitutes.

"Hey, cutie, you look lost and look like you could do with a little extra cash; with those looks and that body, you could be like us!" One leered at her.

Megan gasped in incensed offence, wondering why they'd say that.

Meanwhile, the second prostitute leered down at Kevin.

"You looking for someone to read you a bedtime story?" The second one purred.

Megan growled protectively, and she dragged her brother away from them both to the sidewalk. "Taxi!" She yelled at a passing cab.

She and Kevin both got inside the cab with relief.

"Boy, It's scary out there," Kevin gasped.

Megan nodded, but before she could even form a reply, the taxi driver turned in his seat, exposing a face out of a horror movie.

"Ain't much better in here, kids," the driver's voice was like a cement mixer.

Megan recoiled and opened the door, and shoved/pulled/pushed Kevin out. "OUT!" She snapped.

-8-

Megan and Kevin ran through the park, making enough noise with their exhausted bodies to wake the dead. "What is it with this damn city?" She bent over her waist, panting when they came to a dead stop.

"I dunno, but I don't ever want to take a vacation like this again," Kevin whispered.

Megan agreed with him, "At this point, I never want to go on another vacation ever again! I could kill that slimy concierge for this!"

"Yeah," Kevin scowled at the mention of the hotel, and he looked around. "C'mon, there's some rocks there, we can sit down and rest a bit, and then push on."

"Good idea," Megan went with him and they learned against the rocky wall. Kevin opened up his backpack and took out some of the sweets and cookies he'd taken from the fridge from their old Plaza hotel suite. He passed her a few of them, which she took gratefully. They had barely eaten or drunk anything for hours, and they were famished.

Knowing they had to conserve their supply, Megan ate her biscuit slowly and carefully, and she made sure Kevin did as well; the cookies were not as filling as something like soup, pasta, or a pizza, but it would do until they found a police station or an officer on patrol. As they ate, they were soon swarmed with pigeons. Their coos were strangely relaxing, even if Megan was surprised by their sudden presence. Kevin, being Kevin, held out his hand with some powdered cookies in his hands. They eagerly swarmed around him and gorged themselves.

"Where did you come from?" Kevin asked himself wonderingly. "I don't have enough for everybody. How hungry are you guys? You guys ate all my food."

But then he stopped and paused when he noticed a small group of pigeons rising slowly, and he grabbed Megan's hand in fear as the pigeon lady he had been scared of due to his silly prejudices appeared right in front of him.

Kevin screamed in utter fright - Megan could sort of understand his fears now since the woman just appeared like that and in the dim lighting - but she was unsure of what to do. And then Kevin tried to move, only to realise he couldn't, his foot was stuck. "My foot's stuck!" He yelled.

Megan quickly got down to her knees and tried to wrench Kevin's foot out, but his panicky struggles nearly made him kick her in the face. "Hold still!"

To Kevin's shock, the woman bent down and effortlessly pulled his foot loose. Kevin was surprised, but in typical unthinking fashion, he turned and ran off… but he stopped and turned.

Megan hadn't moved. The older McCallister child was standing near the woman. "I'm sorry about my brother; he has this stupid habit of not bothering to look under the skin."

Now he knew the woman wasn't going to hurt him, Kevin came back, a little sheepishly. "Look, I'm sorry I screamed in your face," he said, "You were trying to help me, right? I'm Kevin McCallister."

"I'm Megan," Megan smiled.

"Your birds are real nice. I've seen you before. You had pigeons all over you. At first, you look scary, that's why I ran from you a few days ago, but when I think about it, it's not so bad," Kevin went on rambling. It was a habit he had when he wanted to make amends and make people see things from his perspective. "They must like you to be all over you. If I'm bothering you, I can leave. Am I bothering you?"

"No," the woman replied.

Megan smiled back, the older woman's voice was smooth, flowing.

Kevin smiled back in turn. "Good. I'm not a pain in the butt?" He asked.

Megan raised a brow, couldn't her brother see that was a crass way of asking a question? But the woman didn't seem that bothered about it.

"No."

"He's not that bad," Megan added and the woman sent her a smile back.

"Will the pigeons come back on their own or do you call them?" Kevin asked curiously.

The woman smiled and he walked over to where Kevin was, and curious herself, Megan followed.

"Give me your hand," the pigeon lady instructed, and despite any lingering fears he might've had, Kevin did as he was told, but the pigeon lady gently took the boy's hand and tipped some grain into his palm. "They can hear it."

Getting the message, Kevin threw the grain into the air and it landed on the ground. It sounded to Kevin and Megan like snowflakes landing and the sound amplified so you could catch it, but the pigeons suddenly flew all around and started to gorge themselves. Seeing them eating their meal of grain made Megan envious since she hadn't eaten a proper meal for hours. The fact she envied birds was funny.

"This is great!" Kevin's voice was filled with awe before he smiled up at the pigeon lady, his fear gone. "It's pretty cold out. I'd sure like a cup of hot chocolate. How about you? My treat. I'd hate to spend Christmas Eve in such a park. Can we go someplace warm?" He asked.

As the trio walked off, the pigeon lady said, "Yes. I know a place."

"Oh?" Megan asked the older woman curiously, wondering what she had in mind. "Where?"

"You'll see," the pigeon lady sent her a genuine warm smile, not unlike Mr Duncans. Sure, the hotel staff had smiled, but they were fake.

-8-

When the pigeon lady had said she knew a place, the Carnegie Hall was the last place on the list, but then again Megan knew nothing of the woman. Megan was more interested in rock and pop, but listening to the concert below, and seeing the orchestra playing 'O, Come All Ye Faithful' was wonderful.

After they had left the park, the trio had walked all the way to the Carnegie Hall. When they had gotten here, the lady had led them through a backdoor - Megan wondered how she had managed to find this place, and she wondered if she had just stumbled across an open door that was long forgotten by the proprietors and she had just walked in whenever she wanted to listen to some music or just look for a place to think; she struck Megan as the intellectual, thoughtful type, although how she had become homeless, she didn't know.

Kevin eventually turned away and looked around the dusty, disused storeroom which contained old crates covered with blankets, and old musical instruments like an old harp that still worked, "Nice music. This place is great," he said with awe.

"I've heard the world's great music from here," the pigeon lady said before she listed off, "Ella Fitzgerald. Count Masie. Frank Sinatra. Luciano Pavarotti."

Megan gaped in awe. If they weren't here, she would not have believed it, but she could picture people like Sinatra and Pavarotti performing here.

"Do you bring your friends here?"

The Pigeon lady hesitated, "I haven't got many friends," she admitted.

Kevin flinched, positive he had just opened the door to a sensitive topic. "Sorry."

But the pigeon lady took it with a pinch of salt. "I'm like the birds I care for," she said, although Megan wondered if she was this open, considering she seemed to be used to her solitude. "People pass me in the street. They see me but they try to ignore me. They prefer I wasn't in their city."

Megan frowned, recalling how she and Kevin had first wandered into Central Park on their first day in New York. Everyone had gone out of their way to ignore the woman's presence. Was that just a sign of how wrong society was? But then again she was not that good herself, she remembered walking through the streets only an hour ago, and how she and Kevin had been spooked and frightened out of their wits.

"Yeah. It's like that with my family," Kevin replied thoughtfully, whether or not he had realised his own mistakes and prejudices or this was the catalyst, Megan didn't know. "I'm like the pigeon of the house...just because I'm the youngest."

Megan scowled at him, but she had to admit he had a point.

Quietly she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and hugged him to her chest.

The pigeon lady nodded, although she smiled at Megan for what she'd just done, "Everyone fights for position," she said wisely. "Everyone wants to be seen...and heard."

Megan stared sharply at her, wondering if this woman had gone through something similar when she was at their ages because she had just described only too well what life was like in the McCallister family.

One of the worst traits of their family was how their uncles and aunts tended to have more than a dozen kids. They were like rabbits, having so many children at a time. That wasn't a bad thing, but when you were being pressured into doing extremely well at school, it was like the parents were constantly trying to condition the kids to fight long and hard, to build a new business empire or at least hook themselves a well-paying job.

The acquisition of wealth was an important part of the McCallister's lifestyle. While Buzz didn't care about such things, Megan was different because she wanted to do extremely well at college, and maybe university; Linnie and Jeff hadn't reached that stage yet, but they were getting there.

But what she didn't like was how her parents, and she guessed her aunt and uncles were included as well, repeatedly forced their children into competition with each other, and it was likely going to happen again and again. Oh, there was no question Kate and Peter loved her and Kevin, but they were so busy and torn between their kids, and it would likely be passed down to their grandkids as well.

What Kevin said next showed Megan she would need to sit down and have a talk with her brother at some point about this. "I guess so. I'm seen and heard pretty much," his face scrunched a little in thought. "But I get sent to my room a lot too."

"It was the same with me when I was growing up, Kev," Megan sat down next to him, "besides, at times you do deserve it."

"Not when I'm being pranked."

"Maybe not, but sometimes you do push a bit too hard," Megan said gently, looking down at her hands. "I hate seeing you like this," she admitted, "I wish in our family we could just…get along all the time, but I doubt it will happen." She turned to the pigeon lady. "We only decided to stay in New York because our vacation plans went terribly wrong."

"Oh, how? I'm sorry, it's not my business-," the pigeon lady said, but Megan smiled at her.

"No, it's okay. We made a mistake with our flight, and we found ourselves in New York by accident, we decided to stay as it was only us, and there would be less hassle, but things went wrong," Megan scowled at the reminder of the hotel fiasco. "Our hotel discovered we had….misused our father's credit card, and we ran out of there. But what about you?" She asked the pigeon lady curiously.

"I wasn't always like this."

Megan wasn't surprised by the admission. "What happened?"

"What were you like before?"

The pigeon lady smiled in remembrance. "Oh, I had a job. I had a home. – I had a family."

Megan frowned, "That sounds like you had a great life, but what happened?"

"It wasn't completely great, my dear. I had a husband, but I didn't have any children, but I wanted them. But the man I loved fell out of love with me," the pigeon lady looked meaningfully at Megan, who cottoned on quickly and she felt her heartache.

"He ditched you because you only wanted family?" Megan hissed.

"Yes," the pigeon lady admitted in a heartbroken whisper, while Megan gently rested her hand on her own wrinkled hand. The teenager was given a kind, thankful smile. "That broke my heart. When the chance to be loved came along again...I ran away from it. I stopped trusting people."

Megan tried to put things into the pigeon lady's perspective.

She was scared. She had just had her heart broken and she didn't want it to ever happen again. Was it any wonder she ran away?

"And you found yourself on the streets?" She whispered.

The pigeon lady nodded sadly but was used to the fact.

"I'm sorry," it was inadequate, but Megan couldn't think of anything better to say.

The pigeon lady just smiled back, but Megan couldn't muster the effort to return the smile, she knew it would look fake. It was obvious the woman had accepted it.

Of course, Kevin didn't see it, or the fact the woman might have come to accept her future. "No offence, but that seems like sort of a dumb thing to do?"

"KEVIN!" Megan glared at him, making him shake at her sudden shout, but he held his ground. "What, I'm just trying to help!" He protested.

"No, Megan, it's alright. And to answer your question, I was afraid of getting my heart broken again. Sometimes you can trust a person...and then, when things are down, they forget about you."

"Maybe they're just too busy. Maybe they don't forget about you, but they forget to remember you. People don't mean to forget. My grandfather says...if my head wasn't screwed on, I'd leave it on the school bus."

"I think I remember him saying that," Megan commented, "but this is different." She turned to the pigeon lady. "Have your family ever tried to get in touch?"

"A few times, yes, but I haven't fallen in love again; when my husband lost his love for me and it broke my heart into little pieces, I was scared it could happen again. That's why I haven't tried it, and why I live on the streets, but I'm not hopeless like many others likely think I am. I'm just afraid if I do trust someone, I'll get my heart broken."

"I understand," Kevin replied softly with his voice and face filled with sympathy. "I had a nice pair of Rollerblades-."

"Oh, for crying out loud, Kevin," Megan rolled her eyes in exasperation. "We're talking about love, not something like rollerblades."

"I know, but I'm only using an analogy," Kevin glared back at her before turning to their hostess who was following a bit bemusedly. "I was afraid to wreck them... ...so I kept them in a box. Do you know what happened?"

"Er, no."

"I outgrew them. I never wore them outside. Only in my room a few times."

"I think I know where you're going with this," the pigeon lady replied, "but a person's heart and feelings are very different than skates."

"They're kind of the same thing. If you won't use your heart, who cares if it gets broken? If you just keep it to yourself, maybe it'll be like my Rollerblades. When you do decide to try it, it won't be any good. You should take a chance. You've got nothing to lose."

The pigeon lady lifted a brow as she saw Kevin's argument, "Little truth in there somewhere."

"Yeah, I think so too," Megan whispered as she gazed at Kevin with wonder. She had never seen him, never mind heard him, like this.

Kevin smiled, "I think so. Your heart might still be broken, but it isn't gone. If it was gone, you wouldn't be so nice."

"Thank you," the pigeon lady looked down, touched. "Do you know it's been...a couple of years since I've talked to anybody?" She said thoughtfully.

Megan frowned. The more she knew of this woman, the more upset she was she had ignored the issues of other people.

"That's okay. You're good at it," Kevin told her.

"Definitely; for someone who hasn't had a conversation in a long time, you're really good at it," Megan added.

Kevin seemed to be determined to prove to the pigeon lady she was still worthy of love, "You're not boring. You don't mumble or spit. You should do it more often. Just wear an outfit with no pigeon poop on it," Kevin added with a cheeky smile.

Megan snorted a little.

But the pigeon lady couldn't help herself, she laughed her head off for a moment.

"I have been working very hard at keeping people away," she said.

Kevin bit his lip. "I always think I'll have a lot of fun if I'm alone…," he confessed. "...but when I'm alone, it's not fun. I don't care how much people bug me...I'd rather be with someone than alone."

Megan remembered the childish tantrums Kevin had thrown over the years, remembering how he had ranted, raved, and acted, yelling how he wanted to be left alone. She remembered only too well the nightmare from last year and before this whole mess started.

But…..

At the same time, she remembered how pleased Kevin was last year when they'd returned from Paris. He'd been over the moon, delighted they were home. Truth be told, Megan had been scared, like their mother and father had been, about what could've happened. Looking back...Megan wished she could have stayed with her mother, at least then she would have been closer to getting home. But fortunately, he had survived those few days. Kevin had needed to learn how to look after himself, for the first time ever, because he had no choice and there was nobody else there to help him.

Granted, she didn't like the fact he had assumed responsibility for defending their home, because the cops were useless.

The pigeon lady frowned, "So what are you two doing alone on Christmas Eve? Did you get into trouble?"

"You could say that," Megan said dryly.

"Yeah," Kevin looked down.

"You did something wrong?" There was no judgement in her voice.

"A lot of things."

"To cut a long story short, Kevin and I were supposed to be going, with our family, to Miami. But something went wrong. We followed a man wearing the same kind of coat as our father," Megan decided to give the woman an account of what happened.

The pigeon lady flinched. "Ah, and let me guess, you followed him?"

Megan flinched again, this time remembering the mad rush that was a repeat from the year before. God, she had thought she needed to keep jogging to keep in shape, but it had nothing on running through the airport terminal. "We were in a rush; our alarm clocks failed to go off. But in reality, if there's one family who turns a simple thing as getting ready for a flight into a chaotic mess, it's ours. We were going with our cousins, and our aunt and uncle, and they added more more problems than we needed."

Kevin grimaced.

"Did you know that a good deed erases a bad deed?"

Kevin turned to Megan, "It's late. I don't know if I'll have enough time to do enough good deeds to erase all my bad ones."

The pigeon lady smiled, "It's Christmas Eve. Good deeds count extra tonight."

"They do?"

"Of course they do. Think of an important thing you can do for others...and go do it. Just follow the star in your heart," the pigeon lady said.

Megan blinked, wondering if they could follow this advice. Or even if they needed it; by now, she was positive her parents had been told where they were after using the credit card, which was one reason she had not said anything much about them using it. They could even be in the city right now. But she knew if they went to a police station, they could meet them soon.

"Okay. It's getting pretty late," Kevin said, nodding. "We'd better get going. If we don't see you, I hope everything turns out okay," Kevin said as he got ready, and Megan did the same thing.

"Thank you. Tell the birds I said goodbye."

"I will."

"Me too," Megan smiled.

"Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas."

If you need somebody to trust, it can be me," Kevin added. "I won't forget to remember you."

Megan smiled at him, impressed with his maturity. She turned with a smile to the pigeon lady, but she wasn't surprised by the expression there on her face.

But while the pigeon lady was openly charmed, she was still too guarded. "Don't make promises you can't keep."

Megan was unsurprised by the woman's attitude; after being heartbroken in the past, was it any wonder she had lost her trust for others? Especially if she had been living on the streets of a city like New York? She turned to Kevin, "Could you wait for me, just for a few minutes, Kevin?" She asked. "I need to speak with her for a moment."

"Sure," Kevin replied.

Once he was out of sight, Megan turned to the pigeon lady. "I don't suppose you could point us in the direction of the nearest police station, could you please? The sooner we get back with our family, the better."

The pigeon lady was more than happy to give her the directions. "What happened anyway?"

Megan told her about the disaster with the overzealous concierge. "If I'd had my way, we would have stayed, and talked with them, but Kevin ran off. He's still a kid. He might be amazing at times, but he's still young and doesn't realise not every problem can be solved by running away like that."

"I can understand why, though."

"Me too. I had planned on calling our parents, anyway. They took it out of my hands," Megan shrugged. "But by doing this, we will hopefully be back with our parents soon, and no offence, but we're not used to being on the streets."

"I'm not offended, Megan; I've been on the streets long enough to know how dangerous they are. That's one reason I keep to myself."

Megan smiled, but it soon faded. "Listen, I'm sorry if you think Kevin was being a bit..intrusive. But he does mean well."

"Don't worry about it, my dear. It's been a long time since anyone has ever spoken like that, in any case, I am only grateful someone is compassionate to try to help me, but I've accepted the possibility I will die alone," the pigeon lady smiled with a wave of her hand like the whole thing didn't matter. "But…I don't follow with his advice; it's been years since I spoke to my family the last time, and they never understood my feelings. It might already be too late to rebuild bridges. Still, I might try."

Megan smiled back. "Kevin would be happy with that."

"He's a good boy, you and your parents should be proud for having someone so wise in your family."

"To be honest, that was the first time I ever saw him like that," Megan confessed with a sad smile. "This isn't the first time Kevin's been on his own," she went on sadly, "we made the same mistake we did last year, only we left him behind at home."

"What?"

Megan nodded, sharing the older woman's horror. "He was left in Chicago for a few days before Christmas Day. But he changed, becoming more mature, more thoughtful, capable of doing things. It's funny; you hear things about parents having favourites, it's not like that for us. We're just too busy, especially when our aunt and uncle come with their brood."

"Do you normally go travelling around Christmas?"

"Yes. It has become a family tradition, but I doubt it will last for long," Megan wasn't sure what her parents had planned, but if she had her way, they would either just stay at home, just for themselves without Frank, Leslie, Rod, Brooke, Fuller, and Tracey and Sondra. While she liked her cousins, she would not want to do something like this again. This trip to New York had been exhausting and the lead-up to it had been a nightmare.

"That's probably for the best, Megan," the pigeon lady said feeling more than free enough to voice her opinion, since Kevin did it, she had every right. "But maybe your parents have worked that out for themselves."

"I hope so. Don't get me wrong, I like travelling, but being here…with Kevin…. it's just… different. Being on the streets has made me see just how sheltered we are."

"Or protected. Every parent worth the name would want to protect their child," the pigeon lady told her.

Megan bit her lip, she could hear the pain in the older woman's voice, the bitter sadness. She wasn't envious of Kate or Peter, but Megan imagined, at one time, she would have been. "I think you would have made a wonderful mother. It's just a shame you weren't given the chance," she commented. "I think you would have been an amazing mother."

"Thank you, so much for that, Megan." The pigeon lady looked down. "I always wanted to be a parent. I always wanted to see my baby grow to a toddler, and then go to school, see their plays, and then see them grow into an adult. But my husband didn't want it. I never understood why he married me in the first place if he didn't want a family."

Megan bit her lip even harder. She wondered why this woman hadn't simply had the one child and left her husband, and then made a new life for herself and her child.

"What about you, Megan?" The pigeon lady asked. "What do you plan to do with your life?"

"Go to college, maybe university," Megan was a bit shy of telling this woman about her plans, and flaunting her wealth. "But I do want to travel because I love it; I love seeing new places, meeting new people," she went on, "maybe take a few jobs in other countries, and learn something meaningful from there. But I would like to get married, but…..I don't want to make the same mistakes my parents, my uncles and my grandparents made. I don't think I could have too many kids and make the same mistakes that caused Kevin so much grief. But even if I don't get married, I would still have a kid."

She wasn't sure what made her even say that, but what worried her was how the pigeon lady would react; she looked like the sort of woman who frowned on single parents, but fortunately, the pigeon lady looked like she didn't care. She looked down like she wanted to murder herself.

"I wish I'd done that," she replied honestly, "just walked away from my husband, and gotten myself pregnant. If I had done that….so many things could have been different. Don't make the same mistakes I made, Megan," the pigeon lady looked pleadingly at Megan, and the teenager had a horrifying thought the woman believed she would end up, maybe not like her, but in a similar situation.

-8-

Author's Note - I hope you enjoyed the interaction between Megan and the pigeon lady; I'm planning on giving her a big role in the house of pain scenes, although she will be stunned, horrified by Kevin's actions. Watchmojo host Rebecca commented on how savage he was in the second movie, but his elder sister is going to see it first hand.