I woke up once again unaware of where I was exactly. The events of the night before came crashing back down on me like a wave as I remembered Robert's vicious strength, falling off the boat, and being so cold I couldn't think. I had dried off and felt much warmer than I had the last time I was conscious, and my groggy eyes finally blinked and focused on my surroundings.

I was in a small wooden one room shack with a black old time stove sitting in the corner, happily burning coals. There was a small bed in the opposite corner, a threadbare rug, two rickety wooden chairs, and some dirty dishes sitting on the window sill. I was wrapped tightly in old quilts on the floor between the bed and the stove. And I was alone.

I began unwrapping myself from my comfy confines in order to search for signs of life when the door opened and a wave of sunlight and salty air filled the cabin. Thomas and John walked in looking accomplished, and John's face lit up to see me awake. "She arises from the dead!" he joked loudly to Thomas, who had a more concerned look on his face. Thomas walked over and knelt beside me, who still struggling to get the quilts off. "Are you feeling better?" he asked softly. "Yes," I smiled and then threw my arms around his neck in an awkward hug. "I'm so glad you're here, honestly," I said over his shoulder.

He held me back from himself and looked into my eyes, "what happened on the boat?" he asked, seriousness sweeping away his softer look. I paused, after all, Robert was supposedly his friend, I didn't know if he would believe me. "Thomas... I woke up and you were gone, and then I heard someone coming, and I was so relieved to see that it was Robert, but then he... um... well he..." "pushed you off the boat?" asked John from across the room. "How did you know?" I asked, confused. "Robert's a good egg, but he's got a past and will do anything to make it go away," explained Thomas. "Why do you work with him then?" I asked incredulously. "He's good at what we do, and he needs friends to bring him back to the right side of the tracks," replied Thomas.

The door swung open again and Henry made his way into the cabin. "Top of the morning, friends," he crowed to us. Thomas and I looked back in silence, "tough crowd," mumbled Henry and with a raise of his eyebrow, John followed Henry back out the door. "I'm sorry that you got mixed up in all of this, I was very worried about bringing you anywhere near my life, I just, I have a really hard past and it catches up with me just as often as Robert's does," Thomas explained.

"Why are you mixed up in all of this, Thomas?" I asked slowly. He looked offended for a few seconds, then softened, "my family really couldn't afford to live when I was growing up. I had four siblings, and my parents thought it'd be best if they got rid of the oldest kids as soon as we were sixteen, you know, find our own way.

Remorse filled Thomas' eyes as he continued, "my younger brother and I got the boot first, being the eldest and all, and we lived on the streets for about two or three months, foraging for food in garbage cans, trying to find work all day, and sleeping in the gutters at night. That's when Louis came in. We had fallen asleep outside one of the entrances to Louis' private clubs and some of his pinstripes had seen us and thought we looked like prime pinstripe material.

They clubbed us, blindfolded us, and took us into Louis' office where Louis gave us a heart to heart on what he would give us in return for our services as his private thugs. Of course we agreed. We had nowhere to go and Louis has a lot of money. The price for all of this, however, was having to steal, kidnap, and even assault people to get what Louis wanted. I hated it. My brother George, however, loved the thrill of being in power."

"Wait, George was one of the men in the room who left to torture you when I met Louis!" I exclaimed, cutting off Thomas' story. "That's my brother," Thomas sighed. He held up his injured arm, "he's real friendly sometimes." "So how did you meet Alice and the others?" I pondered. "Well, one night on a job, George and I were supposed to rob this jewelry store up on the hill. It was a two-man skilled job, George was the muscle, I was the key. We had made it into the interior of the shop when we noticed that all of the cases were already empty.

George charged into the back room of the shop to discover if the thieves were still around when I was tapped on the shoulder and turned around to see John just smiling at me with about thirty precious necklaces dripping from his hands and neck. He introduced himself and asked if I wanted to leave Louis' clutches, he recognized the pinstripes. I was so thankful for a way out I agreed and completely forgot about George. By the time my brother came back from the other room, Alice, Henry, and Robert had also arrived and took it upon themselves to take out my brother and get me out of there. My brother has resented my leaving ever since."

"So how long ago was that?" "About six years, I think," Thomas replied. "I'm really thankful to Alice and the others for helping me out, and we may steal, but we usually never intentionally hurt anyone unless we're attacked first. I'm not proud of what I do, or what I've done, but I am thankful to have a home and a family of sorts, and it's better than nothing." He went silent after that. "Thank you for sharing that with me," I said to break the silence. Thomas looked up, relief in his eyes, "Thank you for listening and not judging me," he replied.

The door once again opened and this time Alice appeared dressed once again in her every day clothes, "Alright sleepy heads, it's time to get cracking. Robert's run off to Louis with our prize, and I think it's about time we reminded Louis who is the boss around here, and it's not those pathetic pinstriped morons," she said with her usual dash of sass. Thomas looked back at me and smiled his big and happy smile, confident like he was back in England, "shall we?" he asked. I nodded, and put my hand in his, he helped me up, and pulled me into another hug, this time less awkward. "Thank you," he breathed into my hair, then pulled away and walked out the door, leaving Alice to help me get ready for what was to come.