Second Chance Addison

At this point in time, Chance had known Nevada for most of her life. Despite that, she had always been more of a mystery than her brother.

Whatever had happened to her in the six short years before he met the Flynn siblings remained largely unknown.

Koty wouldn't tell him much and neither would Nev. He just knew that whatever had transpired resulted in them being permanently estranged from the rest of their family.

Chance first met the pair about twelve years ago after a scrawny redheaded boy had literally bumped into him.

An hour or so later, Chance realized his wallet was missing. He scolded himself and just assumed that he had dropped it somewhere.

About a week later, he saw the same redheaded kid a few blocks away. He had bumped into another man and tried do the same thing. The kid's new target was a little wiser than Chance and grabbed his arm to keep him from running away.

Instead of leaving the kid at the mercy of the other stranger, Chance tried to help him downplay the situation.

He acted like Koty was his runaway younger brother. Of course the stranger didn't believe it for a second since the two looked nothing alike.

But Chance was able to squeeze a pathetic excuse of an apology out of the kid. The angry man just huffed, took his wallet back, and stormed off.

Then, the ungrateful little thief actually had the nerve to lash out at poor softhearted Chance.

"How am I supposed to eat tonight? How am I gonna feed my sister? Huh?" Koty looked like he was ready to punch him.

"How would you feed her if you got locked up?" Chance felt wronged. Not only did the kid steal from him, now he was made that he had helped him.

"I would have gotten away! You think this is my first time getting caught!?"

"I can give you a job."

"No you can't. This garbage country has labor laws for that."

"I never said it had to be fully legal."

"Why should I trust you?" As far as Koty was concerned, all a.d.u.l.ts were full of lies and good for nothing.

"Well logically, you shouldn't. Don't you know your not supposed to talk to strangers?"

The kid looked at him like he was nuts. "Mister, what the hell are you talking about?"

"Whoa, who taught you to talk like that?" Maybe Chance had led a sheltered existence, but cursing shouldn't come so naturally until at least high school.

"Learned it all on my own. I know much more than that. I just try not to use to certain words too often. I don't want to slip up in front of my sister and say f-"

"Okay!" Chance quickly cut him off. "I see your point."

"But anyway, can you really pay me?"

"Can you agree to give up your kleptomaniac ways?"

"Probably." Koty shrugged and gave Chance a suspicious once over. "Wait, you're not some kind of pervert are you? Cause I ain't agreeing to that kind of sh-"

"Language! And no! I could just use a runner of sorts. I'll send you on simple errands like to the post office or the grocery store."

"Oh, I'll think about it." Young Koty was still suspicious of this random guy. Why would he want to help him? No one was that nice.

"If you decide to take the job, I'll come by this way again tomorrow around the same time."

Koty really did come back the next day. He wasn't alone either. With him stood a tiny freckled girl with the same red hair and green eyes as him.

When Chance walked over to them, she hid behind her older brother. She would peak out from under his arm from time to time so she could get a look at the man who said he'd help them.

"I guess you're willing to work for me?"

"Only if Nev says it's okay."

"I take it this is Nev?" Chance asked, glancing down at the trembling girl.

"Her name is Nevada. I'm Dakota." He nodded and offered their names.

"Nice to meet you. You can call me Chance." He squatted down so he was closer to Nevada's eye level. "What do you think? Can Dakota work for me?"

She stared at him for a minute before tugging on Koty's sleeve. He bent down so she could whisper something in his ear.

"She says it's fine."

Over the course of the next few weeks, Chance helped them settle into a decent foster home and enrolled them both in school. Of course he really did give Koty some work to do.

The pay was reasonable and Koty rarely complained about running errands. Sadly, as he got older, he got a little sidetracked and started to hang out with some twisted people and started smoking.

Two years later it had escalated. He was fighting on the streets and had stopped running errands. Although he never said it outright, it was because he could make more money on the street.

Another two years after that, he turned sixteen and dropped out of high school and rarely appeared around Chance.

As a matter of fact, before he magically appeared in his apartment, Chance hadn't seen Koty in person for five and a half years.

Around the same time that Koty dropped out, Nevada started her tinkering and the two of them left the foster home.

Chance let them use his name to buy a small row house in the outskirts of the city and transferred it to Koty when he turned eighteen.

As for Nevada, she played with and fixed all sorts of things to her heart's content. Thankfully, even if she did end up working with a local racing gang, Nevada stayed in school.

Sometimes, it was hard to believe that she was that same tiny quiet girl from twelve years ago.