So life went on.

Days bled into weeks, weeks bled into months, and soon, it became six of them since Rose had seen Ida.

But some things were still the same.

Will and Rose were still going strong, and Ned was more happy for them than disdainful. Harriet and Mathias, too. Sheila and Rose were still at odds and so was Vince with the boys, but that was never going to change.

But none of that really mattered.

Rose missed Ida more and more everyday.

Yes, she loved Will, and Ned, and Harriet, and all the other boys but... it wasn't the same.

They weren't a mother.

𑁍𑁍𑁍

After an assembly about how most would be leaving the hospital soon (six months), Rose and Sheila went back to the kitchens. They had been put back on kitchen duty because of Ida's leave (or firing), and now were there almost everyday.

So Rose was in the kitchen, sitting at the table alone, blindly peeling potatoes.

"Rose!"

Her name made her ears quirk up, and she looked round, seeing Nurse Winterson.

She ran up to her and she whispered hurriedly. "Ida came to the back gate."

"Ida? What- when?" Rose asked. "You saw her?"

"She couldn't say," Winterson explained. "She asked me to give you this."

She gave her a small bit of paper, which no doubt had a letter scrawled on it.

"Keep it hidden," Winterson warned as Rose took it eagerly.

"Thank you," Rose told her as she walked off, running into the pantry to read it.

There were tears in her eyes as she opened it, and she knew she would cry, even just reading it.

Dear Rose,

I want you to know that I'm safe and well. I've been living in the workhouse, and even though it's really hard, I made a promise to myself. Every time I hear the church bells over the noise of the city, or catch a glimpse of the busy river, I think of you.

But thanks to the kindness of the gatekeeper's wife, I hope to move on from here. Wherever I am, wherever I go, I want you to know that I'll always think of you.

I'll never stop loving you, Rose.

Your dear mother,

Ida-

"Ida?"

Sheila's voice made Rose jump up and snatch the letter to her chest.

"Don't you dare snitch!" She snapped.

Sheila scoffed. "You know, just because you have a little sweetheart now, doesn't mean you're protected from everything."

Rose walked past her, purposefully slamming their shoulders together as she did.

She ran up the steps and out the kitchen, still clutching the letter.

She had to get out. Ida was thinking of her, and she was moving on, so-

"Rose!"

The girls were taking their laundry out, and so Harriet had caught sight of her and ran after her.

Once they were safe round the corner, Rose said. "Nurse Winterson gave me a letter from Ida! I need to go and find her! Say goodbye to Ned and- and Will for me. I'll miss you and- I will see you again."

Harriet nodded, hugging her tightly. "Go."

Rose tore across the yard. She knew that the gatekeeper would be opening the gates to a delivery any second, and she had to slip out then-

"Argh!"

"Urgh!"

Rose yelped as she crashed headlong into something, or rather, someone, and got up, dusting herself off before getting ready to go agai-

"Rose?!"

It was Will.

Oh no.

"Will," Rose said.

"Where are you going?" Was his next question.

Rose shook her head. "Listen, Will, I got this letter from Ida, Winterson smuggled it in, and I have to go after h-"

"I'm coming with you," Will said immediately.

"No, you can't!" Rose shouted. "We- Will, we'll probably never come back here!"

"And that's fine, because I'll be with you!" Will fought back.

A clanging sound behind Rose made her turn, seeing the gatekeeper open the gates.

She sighed, turning back to the boy in front of her. The boy she loved. "Will..."

Will took her hand, interlocking their fingers and squeezing gently. "Come on, Rose. Let's go find Ida."

So it was that when Rose slipped out round the side of the delivery cart, Will was with her, still with a firm hold on her hand.

They ran as fast as they could.

And not before long, Rose was glad he came with her.

Neither noticed they had dropped the letter on the way out.

𑁍𑁍𑁍

"Excuse me? Do you know where the workhouse is-?"

"Go away, go away!"

Rose and Will wandered along the streets of London, asking everyone in sight if they knew where the workhouse was.

"Urgh! No one will tell us where it is!" Rose growled after a particularly rude woman had turned them down.

Will sighed. "Come on, let's go and look over there."

They headed down an alley where a girl was shouting about selling matches and asked a guy carrying a sandbag on his shoulders, who pointed them in her direction.

"Thank you!" Rose grinned, grabbing Will's hand and running, carreening straight into the girl with the matches.

"OI! Watch where you're going!" She yelled at Rose.

"I'm sorry!" Rose yelled, pulling Will along as they ran.

"Sorry?! That's tuppence you owe me!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Oi, get back here before I come looking!"

Rose rolled her eyes as she and Will took off, Will saying. "How is it you're faster than me? I've been doing drill for my whole life in the hospital!"

"I'm just fast," Rose smirked. "Come on, slow coach!"

Will chuckled warmly. "I'm coming!"

𑁍𑁍𑁍

Not before long, they got to a workhouse, and grinned at each other before running up and knocking on the gatekeeper's doors.

He opened them and Rose said. "Excuse me, um, I'm here to see my mother, her name's Ida Battersea?"

"Let's see," the gatekeeper said, checking his list. "We've no one of that name here."

"What?" Rose frowned. "This is the workhouse, isn't it?"

"Yeah, and it's one of about a hundred in this fair city," chuckled the gatekeeper.

"So how do we find her?" Rose protested.

"With plenty of time, money for a carriage and a good pair of boots," the gatekeeper grinned, closing his doors.

"No, but-!" Rose started before they did.

Will sighed beside her.

"What do we do now?" Rose sighed.

He didn't have an answer to that.

𑁍𑁍𑁍

They ended up sitting against the wall in the alley, Rose's head on Will's shoulder, legs pressed together.

Rose's bonnet was off in her hands, and that was pivotal to what happened next.

The plop of a penny landing in the bonnet made both Rose and Will look up.

All at once, a few ladies came over to put even more pennies in the hat.

"Here you are," one of them said. "Get yourselves something to eat, loves."

Will and Rose gasped and looked at each other in unison.

"They think we're begging," Will grinned.

Rose smirked right back at him. "So why not indulge them?"

𑁍𑁍𑁍

Not before long, the two were hurrying up to people on the streets, asking for them to spare a penny, just a penny for them.

But soon, a whistle resounded through the air.

"It's the police! Run for it!"

Rose didn't know whether begging was allowed or not, but she wasn't sticking around to find out. She saw Will across the street and ran towards him, but one of the boys who had shouted shoved her forward.

"What are you doing? Run!"

They led Rose through an alley into a smaller tunnel, then surrounded her.

About five boys in the same ragged clothing stood, blocking her way out the tunnel at either end.

Oh, why had she been so stupid-?

"Good day's begging, then?" One of the boys asked.

"I wasn't begging, I was looking for my mother!" Rose snapped.

"Hand it over, then!" Another of the boys grinned.

"Forget it, it's mine!" Rose yelled.

"Not for long-!" One of the boys dived at the bonnet but Rose dodged.

"Oh, you little-"

"OI! Get away from her!"

Rose's body flooded with relief at the sound of Will's voice, but upon turning round, she saw he wasn't alone. He was with the girl who had been selling matches earlier, and now had a bucketful of flowers on her arm.

"Up to your old tricks again, are ya?" She snapped at the boys. "Well, move. This is my patch and you lot give it a bad name!"

"Says who-?"

"Says ME!" She bellowed. "Now get gone before I fetch my father!"

But before 'getting gone', they snatched Rose's money out her hands.

"NO, THAT'S MY MONEY-"

She tried to chase them, but it was futile.

She turned back to the girl, who was standing beside Will, and said. "That was all the money we had, and I can't pay you back."

The girl scoffed. "I just saved you from Mr Grace's gang and that's the thanks I get?"

"They were from Mr Grace's?" Will asked before Rose could.

"Yeah," the girl shrugged. "And this is their stomping ground. It's not yours, though, is it?"

Will sighed and the girl held out her hand to Rose. "The name's Sissy by the way."

"I'm Rose, this is Will," Rose said, shaking it before Will did the same.

"So what you doing here, then, Rose, Will?" Sissy asked them.

"We're trying to find my mother but we don't know where to look," Rose explained, as she, Will and Sissy started to walk away from the tunnel. Sissy sighed.

"Well, what you need is someone who knows their Westminster from their Wapping..."

𑁍𑁍𑁍

Sissy seemed like she could be trusted, and so Rose and Will let her lead them to her small flat.

"It's not much," she warned the two as she set about unlocking the dirty, slightly faded door. "But it's home."

The flat inside was one room, with mattresses laid out on the ground, dirty washing hung up on a line in the corner, and a small kitchen in the opposite one.

Sissy sighed. "Good, my father's not back yet. Come on, you two."

So Rose and Will walked into the flat with her.

Inside, Sissy got out a box of matches and lit one, spreading the flame to a candle and spreading thar flame to a few more.

The light revealed more about the room, including a small girl, lying on one of the mattresses.

"Sissy?" She asked weakly.

"It's alright now, Lil," Sissy said comfortingly to this girl, who Rose guessed was her sister. "I'm back. And I've brought a couple friends. This is Rose and Will."

Lil, who had rosy cheeks and dark, unwashed hair, smiled slightly at the two.

"Light the candles, will you, you two?" Sissy said, as she filled a cup of water for Lil.

Rose took lighting candles as an opportunity to look around the small flat, smiling as her eyes landed on Will's. His face was also smiling as he grabbed her hand, gently squeezing it.

They were safe.

At least, for now.