The dresses were back, but the green-eyed twin was not happy about it. While her father and sister went to the doctor's office that morning, her mother had confiscated Rebecca's favorite clothing and forced her to return to the green dresses she hated.

Almost every time she put them on, she felt like she was a china doll, a prize that her parents liked to show off because of the fact that she was a twin. Her parents often had gatherings at their home, and at those gatherings, she and Elizabeth were pretty much forced to dress in their similar-looking dresses from a young age. Whenever the guests talked to her, it was more like they were talking at her. She was a museum artifact to them, not even human. It was the reason she and Elizabeth befriended Katherine and Darcy so easily. They were the children of rich newspapermen as well. If anybody were to understand, they would. Of course, they didn't have the same situation, but at least they could listen to Rebecca's ranting.

When she was with the newsies, though, those things never even came to mind. At the party, when everyone was relaxing and being themselves, every one of them could just as easily have acted just like the people at her parents' parties and treated the twins like novelty guests, or they could have ignored them entirely. Katherine, at least, would have been relatively exempt from this due to her budding relationship with Jack. But they had no real reason to keep the twins around after everything was over. But those ideas never even came to the newsies' minds. They were a part of the group now, and that meant a lot to both girls.

It meant a lot to Rebecca in particular. During times like this, when her sister was gone and Katherine, Darcy, and Bill were all working at their respective papers, she still had the opportunity to go on the street and find someone to talk to. After all, there were newsies everywhere, hawking headlines and trying to make a living.

So, while Elizabeth and her father were taking care of the former's injuries that Sunday, Rebecca chose to avoid her mother's judgemental gaze and leave the house. She grabbed some coins off her dresser, threw them in a purse, and left the building, already on the lookout for one or more of her newfound friends.

As she rounded a corner and headed towards the square, she spotted some newsies who were selling copies of The Sun across the street. She flashed a smile at them, since she thought she might have seen one of them at the rally, then continued to stroll down the sidewalk.

She happened to find Davey outside a barbershop, holding up a paper and calling out some stories. Surprisingly, he was alone out there. Les was nowhere to be seen.

Rebecca crossed the road and walked up to him just as he was handing an older man a paper. "Thank you, sir," Davey told the man as he tucked the coin into his pocket. As the man walked away, he noticed Rebecca standing there and a smile formed on his lips. After they exchanged some greetings, he commented, "I didn't expect to see you today, to be honest. I thought you'd be spending quality time with your sister."

The young woman shrugged. "Well," she started, "my father took her to a doctor this morning to get her arm taken care of, so unless I wanted to stay at home under the judgmental eye of my mother, I had to go somewhere. Anyway, how's business today? Good headline?"

Davey shrugged. "Better than before. They stopped running the trolley strike as the main story, which makes it a bit easier. If they ran that again, I'd really need to rely on Jack's suggestions, and I don't wanna need that."

"Wait, don't you normally sell with Jack?"

He nodded. "Yeah, but he needed to go talk to Pulitzer about what this cartoonist job would mean and how he'd make things work with sellin' at the same time. He said he'd meet up with me tomorrow and we'd get back to sellin' like before. Today I don't have to split profits though, that whole sixty-forty thing that he started with. More money for my family and all."

She nodded in understanding and offered him a smile. "Speaking of family," Rebecca began, "where is your brother?"

His response was accompanied by a frown. "We got to the distribution center today and Les said he wasn't feeling very well. So, Race offered to walk him home as soon as he paid for his stack of papers, so I let him go and came down here to sell."

Rebecca crossed her arms and tilted her head slightly. "You let your brother walk home with Race?"

"Yeah, I mean, he offered..." Davey trailed off as the words actually hit him. He had really agreed to that? "Oh great." He immediately was regretting making a decision like that so early in the morning. He hadn't really thought it through since it was so early in the morning and he was so tired from the party the night before.

Rebecca reached out and touched him on the shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. How many papers do you have left? We can go check on him at the house, and make sure Race did what he promised."

Davey searched through his bag of papers and pulled out a single one. "Just this one. Then I'm done," he replied, holding it up.

Rebecca fished in her purse and pulled out a penny. She snatched the paper out of his grip and pressed the coin into his hand. "There. Now you're sold out and can look for your brother without anything to worry about," she told him. With a grin, she turned on her heel and started towards where she thought his home was.

Davey looked down at the coin and then back up at her. "You're something, Becca," he commented, the nickname just slipping out of his mouth.

Rebecca heard that and spun around, looking at him curiously. "What did you call me?"

Davey started to get flustered. "Uh, I just...Becca. I called you Becca. But if you don't want me to, I'm sorry," he started.

She shook her head and smiled. "No, it's fine. I like that a lot, actually. Now, let's get out of here." With that, she grabbed him by the hand and ran off in the direction of their homes, all but dragging him with her.

When they arrived at Davey's home, he led her inside quietly, in case his injured father or his brother were trying to rest, if the latter was actually there in the first place. "If he's here, he'd be in bed, hopefully. I'll be right back," Davey told Rebecca before he headed into the back of the house.

As Davey retreated, Rebecca tried to get a read on the house. She really liked the place, if she was going to be honest. Aside from her bedroom, her house felt like a museum. Davey's house felt like an actual home. There wasn't much to the house itself, in terms of clutter and artifacts like she had. Most of what the Jacobs family owned was what they needed to survive, such as coal and food. However, they did have a few items that were a little more fun, such as a half-read library book lying on the table and some old toy train that must have belonged to Les once upon a time. The addition of those little things helped to make the house feel much more homey than any other house she'd been in before, except maybe the lodging house.

While she waited, she heard a door open, but it wasn't the one that Davey had gone into. She spotted a man coming into the hall, limping across the floor to go and sit on the couch. He stopped when he noticed the well-dressed woman standing in the entryway. Even without the knowledge she had about his injury, Rebecca could tell it was Mr. Jacobs. The man looked like an older version of Davey, right down to the analytical look on his face. She hadn't known much about his injury, just that it was bad enough that Davey and Les had to quit school to support the family, but looking at the man, she could see that he might be home resting for quite a while. His leg looked twisted out of place, and he had a few scars and bruises that were healing all across the visible parts of his body.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Mr. Jacobs asked, which shattered the silence.

Before she could respond, Davey came back through the door, looking distraught. "He's not here," he informed Rebecca. That was when he saw his father. "Oh, Dad, this is Rebecca. We met during the strike," he introduced. "Becca, this is my father."

"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Jacobs," the young woman stated as she walked over and held her hand out to shake.

"You as well," Mr. Jacobs replied as he shook her hand. A look of understanding crossed his face as he finally understood who she was. "David here has talked a lot about you, you know."

That comment certainly made Rebecca curious. "He's talked about me, huh?"

Davey clearly didn't want this conversation to continue. "Sorry, Dad, but we really need to go," he said before leading Rebecca to the door, chewing on his lip in the process. He quickly opened the door and held it for his friend, which allowed her to say a quick goodbye before they left the house. As soon as she came outside, he closed it behind her and shifted his weight from side to side, not quite looking at her.

As soon as they were out on the steps, Rebecca changed the conversation back to the real problem. "Okay, so where do we look now?" she asked, tucking a loose strand of dark hair behind her ear.

"I, uh, I'm trying to remember where Race sells. If he didn't bring Les back home, he's probably with him." Then, a look of exasperation crossed the young man's face. "If he finished selling and took my little brother to go gamblin' somewhere, I swear..."

Rebecca offered him a reassuring smile. "We'll find him," she assured Davey as she reached out to him again. "Let's see if we can find one of the other newsies on the street. Maybe someone can tell us where Race may have gone with your brother." And with that, she walked with him back out onto the street.

*****

They ran into Crutchie while he was walking to the Hearst house to hear Elizabeth continue reading. Thankfully, he was able to tell them Race's favorite selling spot, Sheepshead Races, and they were able to find both Race and Les in the midst of the action. Apparently, Les had asked Race to show him the kinds of things that Davey wouldn't allow him near, and Race thought that showing him Sheepshead was the best place to start. This led to the nine-year-old being exposed to gambling, drinking, smoking, and almost everything else that Davey had tried to keep him from. At least the people at Sheepshead were willing to buy papers, because by the time Davey and Rebecca arrived, their paper bags were almost empty. Maybe they earned a little bit more due to some drunk gamblers giving the kids more than a penny per paper.

Either way, Davey was relieved to find his brother. After lecturing Race and Les about how worried he had been, he and Rebecca escorted Les home. Nobody really said anything all the way back to the house, and by the time they all made it back, it was almost dinnertime. Les was sent back to his room after giving Davey his earnings, which left Rebecca and Davey alone in the entry hall.

They kept the silence going for a little while, unsure of what to say. Then, they spoke simultaneously, breaking the silence. Rebecca offered to leave if he wanted some time with his brother, while Davey invited her to stay and talk for a little while. The former immediately rescinded her statement and complied, and the two made their way to the fire escape to have some potential privacy and not to disturb Mr. Jacobs, who they perceived to be napping due to the sound of snoring coming from behind a closed door.

Davey leaned against the railing as Rebecca took a seat on one of the stairs. They were clearly both a little exhausted due to the activity the day had brought them. Davey was clearly beating himself up over what had happened with his brother that day and his own mistake, which honestly wasn't that bad, while Rebecca was just trying to figure out what to say next. Her sister was always best at pleasant conversation.

She decided to just change the subject altogether. If she tried, she'd just find herself having another stumble as she was reaching for the right thing to say. Her mind doubled back to the library book she saw earlier that day. "So, that book on the table, is that yours?"

He peered back into the house and noticed the book. Though he couldn't actually read the title, he knew that was where he left his book the night before. "Yeah, that would be mine," he answered as he moved back to where he had been before. "It's a history book. I'm trying to keep up with my studies. That way when my dad is better, Les and I can go back to school and not be that far behind."

"Oh, so you are going to go back to school at some point?"

"Of course," Davey replied. "My parents want me to finish my education at least. After that, it's up to me what I do." He took off his hat and started to play with it a little bit, his eyes trained on the fabric as he talked. "I'm not sure they'd have enough money for me to go to college or something, though, after Dad's accident, so I'd probably have to find something else."

Rebecca nodded in understanding. "Well, what would you want to do, if you could do anything?" she inquired.

"Anything, huh?" He had to think about a response to that one. "I don't know, honestly. Mom thinks I'd be a good lawyer," he admitted, "but law school might be out of the question. Really, I'd just want to do something that would provide my family with whatever they needed, and most of what they wanted, you know?"

A smile formed on her lips. "That makes sense. Your wife and kids someday, they'll be some lucky people," she commented kindly.

Davey's cheeks started to show a hint of pink at those words. "I, well, thanks," he managed to say as he offered a smile in return. "What about you? What's your plan? You don't seem like the type that would want to sit around and do nothing all day."

She smiled at that. "You're not wrong." As she placed her chin in the palm of her hand, she declared, "I'd like to be the first female president." After the two of them laughed a bit, she shook her head. "Nah, that's just wishful thinking. Realistically, I'd like to be more than just a housewife or somebody's trophy. Maybe I won't be President, but I'd like to be able to do something, like help with getting women the right to vote."

"Well, that doesn't surprise me at all," he commented, which earned another laugh from the young woman. "Honestly, you're probably one of the most independent people I know."

"I try." She stood up and leaned against the railing beside him, looking out at the little she could see of the city. The sun was starting to set now, and things were starting to slow down as people started to return home. New York was the city that never slept, but this was the time of day where it was as close as it would ever be. "I just want to find my place in this big mess of a city, you know?"

Davey nodded and turned around so he was looking in the same direction. "You'll find a place, Becca," he stated softly. "It may take some time for you to find that place, but you will."

Rebecca tore her eyes from the cityscape and looked up at the tall newsie by her side. "And you'll find your place too," she assured him.

Silence overtook the two of them for a while. They just stood there, looking at each other, trying to figure out just what was happening. But, before Davey could ask, Rebecca looked out at the sky again and cursed under her breath. "I'm so sorry, but I think I'm late for dinner," she said.

"Oh, that's alright. Let me..." he started, even though she was already through the window by then, "...walk you home..." With a sigh, he went back inside his own house, wondering if he had maybe said the wrong thing.

*****

A/N Hey, so in case you didn't hear, this chapter no longer has an updating schedule due to homework and other conflicts. Until further notice, the story will be updated whenever I have a long enough chapter to post. I'm sorry, but there are some things I need to focus on before my writing, and I've got a brand new Newsies book up right now that's inspiring me. I'll try and post when I can. Thanks for reading!