As she suspected, Katherine did have fabric at her apartment. However, if Elizabeth wanted to be in the room and assist Katherine with her writing, there was not going to be a sewing machine available. Given the choice, Elizabeth prefered to have company while working rather than the ease of a sewing machine.

So, there Elizabeth was, sitting on Katherine's bed that evening. A needle and thread were in one hand and the fabric was being held together by the other. At least this time, she would have enough light to truly see what she was doing. She had only gone up one side of one leg, but she was pretty sure these were going to look a whole lot better.

Katherine was lucky. Since she had a job, she had somehow managed to convince her parents to allow her to get an apartment away from them. It was located close to The Sun, where she worked, so it was much more efficient for Katherine than her old place with her family. The twins were jealous of her, though. Since they were a little younger and had stricter parents, they were definitely not going to be allowed to live on their own just yet, at least until their birthday this fall when they turned eighteen. So, when they needed to get away from their father, they fled to Katherine's apartment to relax.

Rebecca hadn't returned from Brooklyn yet, but the girls weren't worried. Rebecca knew to come back to the apartment after she finished up in the other borough, and Katherine was hoping she had something interesting to share, though she doubted it. The young reporter stared at the paper she had fed into her typewriter, trying to figure out something to write, yet nothing came to mind. She stood up, sat back down, then got back up and paced around her room, hoping the constant motion would work to stimulate some ideas.

When she managed to sit down and calm herself down again, she mumbled to herself, "You heard the man. 'Write it good.' Write it good or it's back to wheezing your way through the flower show. Eh, no pressure. Let's go." Then, her fingers floated on the keys, and she managed to type out a headline.

From the other side of the room, Elizabeth held in a small laugh at Katherine's conversation with herself. Katherine normally didn't talk to herself like this unless she was trying to focus, but sometimes the conversation just distracted the writer further, which Elizabeth always found amusing. She continued her work, her eyes mostly trained on the work in front of her, though she glanced over in Katherine's direction every once in a while to check on her progress.

But then, Katherine tugged the paper out of the typewriter and crumpled it up, throwing it in the trashcan. Elizabeth's head shot up as she heard her friend exclaim, "Come on, Katherine! Those boys are counting on you! Oh, you poor boys..."

Elizabeth set aside the pants and looked at her friend, tilting her head slightly. "Penny for your thoughts?"

Katherine sighed and turned around to look at her friend. "I don't know what to write, or the right way to write it," she explained, gesturing to the paper in the trashcan beside her desk.

Elizabeth smiled at her friend and declared, "I bet you'll figure something out. Think about what you know and work with that. So, what do you know?"

Katherine glanced back at the paper, then looked over at the young woman. "Well," she started, "I know what the story is, and it's so good that it could practically write itself. But I still have no clue what I'm doing, Eliza. The words just...they aren't coming out right." She strolled over to the bed and flopped down beside Elizabeth, then rested a hand on her forehead in an attempt to calm herself down. "Am I insane for wanting to give this a try?"

Elizabeth set aside her work and turned her body to face Katherine, ready to help. "You're not insane. You just have high aspirations. Come on, this is what you've been waiting for, Kath. I know you can write this, and it'll be fantastic."

Katherine didn't respond immediately. When she did, though, she inquired, "How do you manage to have so much faith in other people? I've never understood how you can be so naturally supportive."

"Well," Elizabeth began, "I don't know. I've never really thought about it. Maybe I just like helping support other people's dreams. Who really knows?"

Before Katherine could comment on that idea, something happened outside of her window, by the fire escape. The metal rocked back and forth and the two girls immediately sat up straight, wary of whatever could be happening on the other side of the window.

They had nothing to worry about. In the window appeared a lanky girl with messy dark hair, whose green eyes scanned the bright room until they landed on Elizabeth and Katherine. That was when the girl grinned and waved at them, knocking on the window.

Elizabeth laughed and got up, going to the window to let in her twin. "Why am I not surprised that you took the most difficult route to get up here?" she asked as she opened the window up.

Rebecca shrugged and replied, "If I didn't, I wouldn't be myself anymore." She crawled through the window and smiled at Katherine. "Hey. So, what did I miss?"

"Oh, it's just that our friend Katherine, the wonderful reporter, is struggling with her story," Elizabeth replied and sat back down on the bed.

Rebecca's eyes widened as she leaned against the wall. "Katherine Pulitzer struggling with writing? Well, this is certainly strange," she mused. "So what has she got so far?"

"Well," Elizabeth began as she gestured to the trashcan, "you can see for yourself. She threw her draft away."

Rebecca nodded and strolled over to the trash, then carefully picked up the crumpled paper from the top of the pile. She read it out loud to the room. "'With all eyes fixed on the trolley strike, there's another battle brewing in the city'. This is good, Kath. So just keep going."

"It's harder than it looks, you know..." Katherine murmured as she fell back on the bed like before.

"I get that," Rebecca mumbled with a slight shrug. "Anyway, what else do you know about this story? Anything that a normal person might not be able to see?"

Katherine sat there for a second, her hand resting on her forehead again. Then, she shot up, practically leaping across her room to get to her typewriter. As the twins laughed at this a bit, she sat down at her typewriter, positioning her hands to start typing. "There are thousands of children out there in just New York, and they're invisible, living in horrible conditions. That's it!" she exclaimed excitedly.

Rebecca grinned and walked up behind her, resting her arms on the back of Katherine's desk chair as she commented, "There's the writer we know. Put that into your article, weave that into the story, and there won't be a person in this city who will be able to put your story down."

Katherine heard this and grinned, immediately starting to type rapidly. Her fingers flew across the typewriter keys, pressing the letters into the ribbon to create the words she hoped would capture the people's attention. From behind her, Rebecca read the words with a smile on her face, already certain that this would be a success. She read the words off to Elizabeth, who had taken her place on Katherine's bed again to work on her sewing. "'A modern day David is poised to take on the rich and powerful Goliath with the swagger of one twice his age. Armed with nothing more than a few nuggets of truth, Jack Kelly stands ready to face the behemoth, Pulitzer.'"

Elizabeth grinned at the words she heard, her eyes trained on the fabric in front of her. "I just knew you should use that comparison. It sounds perfect," she admitted as she finished sewing a leg together.

Rebecca nodded in response, then added, "Now, that is how you turn a boy into a legend." She patted her friend on the shoulder and stepped back to join her sister on the bed. "Although, you're writing some pretty complimentary stuff about a young man you don't seem to like."

"That's how you get people invested," Katherine explained, turning around to face the girls. "Picture a handsome, heroically charismatic..." she began, then stopped herself and changed her tune to a more critical one as she said, "plain spoken, know nothing, skirt-chasing, cocky little son of a..."

Elizabeth's eyes were wide and she held a hand up to stop her friend from continuing. "Alright, that's enough. We see how you feel about him," she told her.

"In his defense," Rebecca cut in, "he was actually pretty modest in Brooklyn, letting Davey take the lead with trying to convince Spot Conlon. Maybe there really is more to him than what meets the eye."

"So, he's a flirt, egomaniac, whatever you want to call him. The fact is, he's also the face of the strike, so you're going to have to learn to deal with him," Elizabeth declared.

Katherine sighed, knowing that was correct and it would definitely need to be the case. But, she couldn't keep herself from mumbling, "What a face..." As soon as she realized what she said, she immediately turned back to her typewriter, hoping the girls hadn't heard.

Thankfully, they hadn't. Elizabeth kept speaking, picking up the needle as she said, "Face it, Katherine. Jack could be the one to save us all."

"Well," Rebecca started, "not without our help."

"Obviously," Elizabeth replied, then continued to stitch the pants together. "Kath, just think about what you know. There must be something you can use."

Katherine's fingers ran across the keys of her typewriter, trying to come up with something. "Someone once said power tends to corrupt, and absolute power...corrupts absolutely!"

Rebecca grinned at Katherine, then commented, "That's genius, Kath!"

"Keep writing that, and you'll have the perfect article. I know you will," Elizabeth told her friend supportively, then looked at her sister. "Do you mind standing so I can make sure I hemmed this to the right height?"

Rebecca did as her sister requested, standing on her sister's side of the bed so Elizabeth could test out her work. Elizabeth measured, stitched, and cut the fabric into the right shape, working at a rapid pace to get these done correctly and efficiently. After all, this time she had light and experience, so these would actually turn out much nicer this time.

As Elizabeth stitched, Katherine was finally figuring out what to type. She suddenly had the words she needed, and she was punching the keys quicker than ever before. The words had finally filled her mind, and she knew absolutely everything that she needed to say. Within ten minutes, she had her whole article typed up just the way she wanted. All it would need was the picture from the next morning, and she could bring it to The Sun to be published. She pulled the paper from the machine and set it proudly on the table, then got up. "Finished! Front page story, here I come!"

Rebecca sat down on the bed again, as she was no longer needed for her sister to finish her work. As she sat down, she smiled over at her friend and declared, "I'm proud of you, Kath. I would bet money, if I could, that you'll be moved up to some great position at the newspaper after they read this article."

With a laugh, Katherine pointed out, "You haven't even read it yet, Becky."

"You know how I hate that name. Why must you do this to me?" Rebecca mumbled, then shot a fake glare at her friend while she flopped down in the same manner as Katherine had earlier.

"Because it's much more fun that way, and you didn't stop Darcy from calling you it earlier today. But still. You haven't even read it."

"That's something that can easily be fixed. Here, bring it over, and Rebecca can read it while I finish sewing this together. How about that?" Elizabeth suggested with a smile as she pulled her needle through the brown fabric.

"Works for me," Rebecca replied and got up, quickly retrieved the sheet from her friend, then returned to the bed. She started to read out loud, reciting each word of Katherine's eloquent article. Katherine sat back proudly, listening to her lines with a smile on her face. Elizabeth was hanging on every word she heard, stopping her work so she could give the article her undivided attention. The action was worth it. Katherine's piece was brilliant. There was no way it wouldn't convince at least some people to join the cause.

Elizabeth, with wide eyes, turned to look at her friend as the last word rang out in the small bedroom. "Kath," she started, "this is fantastic. I just know that this will work. The newsies will love what you wrote."

"You really think so?" Katherine inquired, practically beaming at the praise.

"I know so." Elizabeth smiled and returned to her work. "Trust me. You'll make everybody sympathetic to the cause, and the prices will be lowered back to normal in no time." Then, her eyes widened as a thought occurred to her. "Oh! I forgot to tell you both something," she commented. "So, I know that you always write with that byline of yours, Katherine. So, I thought that if we get questioned about who we are, Rebecca, we should tell everyone that our last name is Hughes. It'll keep our identities a secret as well, so no judgment will be dealt our way, like you with Plumber, Kath."

Rebecca grinned at her sister. "Not bad, Eliza. I think that's a great idea."

"Speaking of our identities, should I call your brother and ask him to come walk you back to your place? That is, if the pants are done," Katherine commented.

Elizabeth held up the completed pair of pants, grinning at her friends as she commented, "They're finished, so I think it's probably best. I still can't believe you managed to get an apartment with a telephone."

"You know my father. If I'm not in his house, doing what he wishes, he wants to have some way to keep track of me. So, he helped me get into this place," Katherine admitted with a sigh. It wasn't the best apartment in the city, of course, but an apartment with a telephone was hard to find at the time. "You know, if you can convince your father to let you move out, you're more than welcome to move in with me."

"Do you have enough space?" Elizabeth asked, a little surprised by the offer.

"We'd be able to figure something out," Katherine mused as she went over to the telephone.

"Maybe after all this is over, we could be roommates after all," Rebecca mused, getting up. "Thanks for everything, Kath."

"No problem. Let me call, and then I'll see you both in the morning." And with that, Katherine dialed their home's number and waited patiently, then said, "Hello, sir. I have your daughters here at my apartment. Do you want to send your son over to walk them home? It's probably not the best idea for me to walk them home, you know." After a pause, she finished, "Great. Thank you. Have a good night." Once she hung up, she turned back to the twins. "Well, your brother will be here in about ten minutes. But for now, let's just..."

"Be ourselves, without the world judging us?" Rebecca suggested as she offered the other two girls a knowing look.

With a grin, Katherine nodded and sat down on the bed beside Elizabeth. While she patted the empty space beside her to prompt Rebecca to sit down, she replied, "That sounds like a brilliant idea."

And for the next ten minutes, they were simply themselves, with nothing there to stop them from expressing themselves the way they wanted to.