Outside of the deli, Katherine went off with Jack to interview the leader of the strike, leaving the twins surrounded by a group of newsies. Mind you, the group was smaller, as many of the boys had run off to various boroughs to try and convince them to join the cause. But, there was still a smaller group of boys who were still there, having been more of them than neighborhoods that were actually accessible.

Before Jack had left with Katherine, he had called over to Davey, the boy in the white shirt. "Hey Dave! Meet at the lodgin' house when yous done with whatever your family wants ya to do. Then we can head off to Brooklyn."

Davey nodded, standing beside his little brother as he heard Jack's order. "Alright, I'll be there," he told him, though he didn't look like he was excited about it.

Then, Rebecca called to the two of them, surprising most of the remaining people. "Wait! I'm going to Brooklyn too!" she declared.

That was when Jack and Davey both froze and turned around. "You want to go to Brooklyn?" Davey asked.

"Yeah, why not? I didn't get to do my rebellious plan this morning, so why don't I defy my father anyway by going to Brooklyn without him knowing?" Rebecca replied.

"Yous sure you wanna do this? Brooklyn's not the best place for a girl," Jack offered, then realized what he said and who was around him. Immediately, he had glares resting on him from both Katherine and Rebecca, and Elizabeth was looking at him with a questioning look.

"You wanna say that again? Because I don't care. I'm coming along, you're not stopping me. Besides, maybe I can get some good information on this for your story," Rebecca mused, looking back at Katherine for her approval when she said her last sentence.

"If I told you no, you wouldn't listen to me anyway, so go ahead," Katherine mused, unable to suppress a small smile. "Besides, if any of us can handle Brooklyn, it would be you. Find yourself a notebook so you can jot things down for me if anything happens, okay? Then come to my place once you're done."

"Consider it done," Rebecca replied with a grin.

Davey nodded in her direction, then looked down at the ten year-old beside him. "C'mon, Les, the folks are waiting," he directed, and the pair started down the street.

Rebecca hesitated for a second, then shot a look at her sister. "I'll see you at home later, okay?" she called. Before she could even get a response, she was off on the sidewalk in the other direction towards home, wanting to get the notebook as quickly as possible so they could be off to Brooklyn. Yes, she lived close to Brooklyn, and could have gone at any time, but she'd never really felt the need to go until all these things had happened. Besides, it would be way too much fun to go against her father's wishes.

She made it home fairly quickly and plowed through the door, almost knocking over Bill, who was coming out the door. "Rebecca, there you are! I-," he began, but was cut off by the young girl's rushed response.

"Sorry, Bill, I gotta go!" Rebecca called down to him, running straight up the stairs past him, her hair falling out of its updo as she rushed past.

"Wait!" Bill tried to stop her, but he knew it was of no use. There would be no stopping Rebecca whenever she was like this, running fast and on a mission. He sighed, then called after her, "I'll talk to you at dinner, then?"

"Maybe! I might be at Katherine's for dinner," Rebecca called back, thinking it would be a good idea to cover her tracks with some excuse, in case she didn't make it home from Brooklyn in time.

Bill nodded, accepting this answer before he exited the house and turned the corner, heading out to call on Darcy.

After grabbing her notebook and pen from her room, Rebecca was out the door and heading in the opposite direction of Bill, back towards the square. She avoided the calls after her from her mother, probably reprimanding her for yelling in the house with Bill or allowing herself to look as disheveled as she did (which, in all honesty, wasn't all that disheveled at all).

She was hoping that Jack would be done with that interview with Katherine, and Davey would be back by the time she got there, so they could get out to Brooklyn. Dodging people on the street, she wove through the masses and made her way back to the lodging house, where she could hear tons of boys making noise inside. None of them were Jack or Davey, so she sat on the step outside and waited, listening to the noises and laughter that were coming through the windows.

It was about fifteen minutes later when Davey came back, surprisingly with Les by his side. He walked over to where Rebecca was sitting and asked politely if he could join her. Once this action was approved, he took a seat and took off his cap for a minute, Les sitting down on Davey's other side.

The three were silent for a minute, unsure of what exactly to say to one another. Then, at the same time, Davey and Rebecca both began to speak. "So-," they started, then stopped and looked at each other. "Sorry," they both said at the same time, causing them both to start to laugh a little. "You can go."

"You two are so awkward," Les declared, causing the two older kids to laugh a bit more at his comment.

Davey finally managed to get a normal conversation going. "So, if you're coming to Brooklyn with us, it'd be nice to know your name," he explained.

"Right, that would be a good thing for you all to know, wouldn't it?" Rebecca mused, smiling a bit. "I'm Rebecca. The girl who was in blue, that's my sister, Elizabeth. And our friend the reporter, her name is Katherine," she explained.

"Ah. Well, it's nice to meet you, Rebecca," Davey said politely, flashing a smile at her.

"Yeah, nice to meet you. You seem really nice," Les commented.

Rebecca felt a smile form on her lips as she looked over at Les. "Well, thank you. The same to both of you." Then, she turned her gaze to the older boy. "I heard the newsies call you Davey. Do you normally go by that?" Rebecca inquired.

"Well, they kind of just called me that when Les introduced us, and I guess it stuck," Davey replied with a small shrug, gesturing to the little boy at his side when his name was mentioned.

"I said David. Nobody listens," Les mused, resting his chin in his hand.

His actions earned a small laugh from Rebecca before she spoke again. "How long have you two been selling papers?"

"Two days," Davey replied, running a hand through his dark hair before putting his cap back on.

"And you're part of a strike like this on your second day? Wow. We all had some bad luck on joining the workforce, huh?" Rebecca laughed softly, smoothing out her dress as she stood up, seeing Jack starting to come back towards them.

"Wait, what do you mean?" Davey tried to ask, but Jack was there by now and taking the attention.

"Alright, you three, let's get to Brooklyn," Jack declared, and as soon as everyone was on their feet, they were off.

*****

The walk to Brooklyn wasn't horrible. It was no more exercise than the girls normally did when they ran around in the morning for fun. It was just a bit longer than normal. But, it wasn't boring. The whole way to Brooklyn, Rebecca had the chance to get to know Jack, Les, and Davey, which she appreciated. After all, if she was going to be a part of this, thanks to Katherine, she wanted to know who exactly she was dealing with.

From what she had learned, she found out that Jack was a very determined leader, if not just a flirt. She couldn't get past that thanks to their first meeting the day before, but at least she could tell that he had a bit more behind him than just skirt-chasing. He also was incredibly charismatic, and could probably convince anybody to join his cause. If only Katherine saw that. The endeavor would become a whole lot easier.

Les was the epitome of a cute kid. He originally said he was seven, which Jack praised him for, but Davey quickly corrected him and explained that he actually was almost ten. Les was sweet, and curious, just like a little kid should be. He asked a lot of questions about Brooklyn, which Jack managed to answer, and that satisfied the kid for about thirty seconds before another question would escape his lips. Elizabeth would love him.

Davey, however, had something about him. He seemed to be quite intelligent, and also quite kind. She hadn't gotten much of a chance to discuss anything with him before Jack returned, but he seemed to be the kind of person she could find herself getting along with. He would probably end up being the kind of person Elizabeth was, keeping her in line when she started doing something wrong or inappropriate. Then again, she also attempted to get Elizabeth to take some more risks, so maybe she'd end up getting Davey to be more rebellious. Other than being a part of the strike, he didn't seem like much of a rebel or rulebreaker.

Davey did manage to ask the question he had planned on asking before Jack came over, though. "So, were you going to go to work for the first time today or something, Rebecca?" he asked her.

"Yeah. I had Elizabeth make me a pair of pants yesterday night, and I was going to come out and be a newsie, see what it's like and all, but then you guys went on strike, and Father wouldn't let me out of the house in the pants so he burned them," Rebecca said, with the least amount of emotion possible in her voice. She said all of this so calmly, like she didn't care.

The three boys looked at her with surprise in their eyes. "Your old man burned a pair of pants ya sista had made?" Jack asked her, surprised to say the least.

"Yeah. I might look for some extra fabric at home and try to make a new pair, so," Rebecca replied with a shrug, completely calm about it as they crossed the Brooklyn Bridge. Jack and Davey shared looks in response to this, but they shrugged it off as well.

Les did question it, however. "Why would your dad be so mean about a pair of pants?"

"Because according to him, women shouldn't wear pants, or do a lot of the things men can do. I wanted to prove him wrong, but it looks like that will have to wait another day," Rebecca explained. Then, everybody fell silent as they reached the other side of the bridge.

As soon as they stepped off the bridge on the Brooklyn side, two large boys were right in their path, arms crossed. "Alright, move along, fellas, we gots to talk to Spot Conlon," Jack declared, attempting to walk right between them.

"Who says?" One of the large men asked, glaring down at Jack as he spoke.

"I says, that's who," Jack responded. "Spot's gonna want to hear about this, so you betta let us through, ya hear?"

The two guards shared a look, then turned back to the quartet with a matching grin. "Sure. We'll take ya to Spot," the other one replied, and before they knew it, they were being led off to the Brooklyn newsie base.

"I don't like these guys. They're a bit scary," Les whispered to Rebecca, who nodded.

They were brought down to the docks, where a group of twenty or so of the Brooklyn newsies were hanging out, doing whatever it was that they did during their downtime. Any one of them looked like they could tear off one of the Manhattan kids' heads without batting an eye. So much for this being easy. Rebecca finally understood why a lot of those other newsies had been scared of the borough, and they hadn't even met Spot Conlon yet.

On top of some crates sat a young man, wearing a dark red shirt, suspenders, and a cap similar to Jack and Davey's. His eyes landed on Jack almost immediately, hardly noticing any of the others. "Well, if it ain't Jack be nimble, Jack be quick," he called as he jumped down to the ground to talk with them.

"Spot," Jack greeted curtly, watching as the two other Brooklyn newsies seemed to fade into the rest of the group.

"So, I's been hearin' that Hattan's newsies is playin' like they's goin' on strike. Harlem, Queens, all over is talkin' 'bout it." Spot got right to the point, taking no detours whatsoever.

"We're not playing. We're going on strike," Davey declared, making his presence known.

Spot's gaze turned from Jack to Davey. "Oh yeah?" he asked, then glanced back at Jack. "Who's this?"

"The brains a all this. If yous got half a one, you'll listen to what he's got ta say," Jack replied, crossing his arms.

"Yeah! Listen to him! My brother's got all the answers!" Les cheered, then scampered behind Davey's leg slightly when he saw a newsie shift as if he were getting up to confront them. Of course, none of them did. If they were to, they would wait for the permission of the King of Brooklyn, after all.

"Wow, Jack. Didn't think you'd be so modest," Rebecca commented, looking at him with a small smirk on her face.

"Dere's a lot ya don't know about me," Jack replied, giving a nod in her direction.

"And who's this goil here?" Spot inquired, standing in front of Rebecca with an eyebrow raised as he looked at her.

"'This girl' is Rebecca, and I'd very much prefer it if you focused on the task that's really at hand," she responded, standing up straighter with each word. Her eyes met Davey's, and with a single look, she prompted him to start speaking.

Davey, thankfully, understood what that look meant, and started to speak. "We may have started the strike, but we know we can't do it alone. So, we're talking to newsies all around the city." He paused, and Spot just gestured to him to keep going, an annoyed look in his eyes. "But, we know that you're the key. You're the, well, the King of Brooklyn. If you were on our side, we'd be unstoppable."

Les spoke up again, looking at Spot with hope in his eyes. "You gotta join us, you just gotta!" he pleaded.

Spot hesitated for a minute, thinking about this. "Here's the thing. I don't know if yous is gonna actually do this, or yous gonna fold when the bulls come afta ya. So, how yous gonna prove that you're gonna do this?"

"We ain't gonna fold, Spot. We gonna bring this right up to Pulitzer and Hearst and they's gonna see that they need us. We'll do this as long as it takes, ya hear?" Jack declared.

"Hey, I honestly have no reason to believe these guys. I hardly know them. I met most of these guys today, actually. But I can see that these boys are driven, and they will do whatever it takes. So, think on that, okay?" Rebecca supplied, stepping up to add her own two cents.

"Prove it to me, and then we'll be with ya. That's my offer. Ya hear that?" Spot told them. "Now, scram, or I'll have my boys escort ya home in a worse state."

There was no arguing with that. Before any of the quartet could respond, the two guards from the bridge ushered them off of the docks, away from the Brooklyn contingent. "Go on, scram!" One of them yelled as they pushed them back to the bridge, then left them alone to walk back across to where they belonged.