AN: The characters are Dickens of course and the story is mostly orientated on his novel and real history with influence of the one or other musical/movie like Oliver! and the BBC Miniseries of 1985.

Please note that my first language is not English. And thank you very much to my friend Pearl for beta reading.

.

.

Kin of Jackdaw – The beginning

The first thing he felt when coming into this world was coldness brushing against his naked skin and two hands, equally cold, holding him. He kicked his little legs in protest and cried loud, after all, what kind of greeting was this towards a fine boy like him?

"This is a loud one!" he heard someone exclaim. "I wonder where he gets such energy from? He is rather a smallish and weak looking baby, isn´t he?"

Another voice, that he liked from the beginning, answered on his behalf, as he himself of course did not know yet, how to speak like grown ups, which is no shame, considering he was only just born.

"´E´s a survivor Lucy! I know ´e is. Please show ´im to me."

The cold hands carried him to the warm voice and laid him down in her equally warm arms. Instantly he felt safe and comforted there and stopped his protest. He yawned and looked up into a beautiful face that, framed in thick black hair, was looking down at him with soft grey eyes and a gentle smile around the lips. He fell in love at once and wished he could stare into these loving eyes forever. Little he knew then, that these eyes would soon dim, leaving him alone in a world that knew no mercy if you happened to be someone dressed in rags and crawling in dirt.

"Don´t get your hopes up to high Elli" the cold hands said and then asked what the little fellow's name would be.

"John" Elli answered. "Like me dear brother, who would´ve been a great man, if ´e would ´ave ´ad the chance to grow up. ´E was so intelligent. I´m sure ´e would ´ave invented somethin´ and become famous. Get Daisy for me please, will you Lucy?"

Lucy left the dark little room, that had nothing inside, but some straw on the ground, an old mattress, that Elli lay on and the two blankets, that covered her. In the only other small room that the family Dawkins lived in sat a girl, around six years old, on a broken wooden chair. She stared anxiously at the door to the enjoining room, waiting impatiently. After all one did not become a big sister every day. Well to be honest, she had been a big sister before, but she had been only three years of age that time herself and could not remember very well the birth of her little sister Lilly. Actually, she couldn't remember Lilly very well since she had only been her big sister for a few weeks. But this time it would be different. She would be the best big sister her new sister or brother could have and help keep her or him alive.

Finally the door opened and old Lucy, who helped many of London's more unfortunate women give birth to their babies, stuck her head out and called Daisy to come to greet her little brother.

Daisy was up in an instant and ran into the room, stopping abruptly just inside the door and tip toeing the rest of the way when she saw the sleeping little bundle in her mother´s arms. She kissed her mother and then also planted a gentle kiss on her new brother´s head, before sitting down and just looking at him. So this was her brother, for whom she had waited forever so long. Finally he was there and she found him the most beautiful baby she had ever seen. He had a small rosy face and a funny little nose that he wrinkled up in his sleep, so that he had a rather cheeky look about him. And on his head he already had some dark hair that was as soft as the feathers on the birds in the cages in the market.

"Me little brother" Daisy whispered. "I´ll always take care of ya." She looked up to see the smiling eyes of her mother resting on her and smiled back before cuddling herself down at her mother's side and closing her eyes. Daisy needed a little sleep herself, after all the excitement of becoming a big sister.

The time passed and against all odds the weak baby boy managed to do what his mother had wished him to do: he survived. There always was too little to eat, so he did not grew very strong, but the love his mother and sister bestowed upon him was enough to keep him blooming nonetheless.

His father was not known. Though sometimes Elli looked at him and tried to remember if he bore any resemblance to one of the many men that she went to bed with during work, but she couldn´t be sure. The boy seemed to have his looks mainly from her. He had black, thick hair and very bright blue-grey eyes that had a mischievous look to them. They were always twinkling with mirth and an intelligence unusual to see in such a young face. The only other that had his expression, that Ellie had known, was her dear brother John, so she was very pleased to have picked his name for her son. However, John Dawkins was not often referred to by his given name. Elli and Daisy mostly just called him "Jack".

The little family lived their poor, hard but nonetheless happy life till the summer following Jack's second birthday, when everything started to change. The reason for this change even had a name. His name was Eric and Elli had fallen head over heals for him, though neither Daisy, nor Jack understood why. Eric was a loud, drunken and violent moron, in Daisy's eyes, and she hated having him move in with them. He was good looking alright and he did tell her mother nice things now and then and brought in some food too. But he liked grabbing Daisy's bum when her mother wasn´t looking and he also enjoyed pushing Jack around and making fun of him, just because he was so small. Jack was terribly scared of him and mostly tried to stay hidden behind his sister´s skirts when Eric was near.

Daisy tried to tell her mother about it but she didn´t seem to want to hear. This was very new to Daisy, because her mother had always had listened to her before, but now she just laughed and asked, if Daisy was a little jealous. She said they should be happy to have found Eric, because it was not easy to find a man who would accept two children that weren´t his and love them like his own. While she said this her eyes looked happier than Daisy had ever seen them before, so she vowed to herself that she would try to like Eric and not mind his "playful" little touches so much anymore. If her mother was happy, she didn´t want to destroy it.

TBC