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Chapter Text

Jack couldn’t help but feel angry as the Delancey brothers led him away. Betrayed and defeated as well, but mostly just angry.

Angry at Pulitzer for doing this to them, to him. Angry at the mayor for caring more about votes than the wellbeing of the children of New York. Angry at the Delanceys for revelling in his misery. Angry at Katherine for betraying his trust like that. But mostly angry at himself for landing himself in this hopeless situation.

Behind him he heard footsteps trailing after them but those soon faded as they reached the door to the cellar. The Delanceys pushed him in front of them; making him go down the stairs. A few steps before he reached the floor of the cellar he felt a shove between his shoulder blades, causing him to stumble.

Almost falling to the ground, he managed to grab the nearest thing and keep himself upright. Morris laughed at him, clearly enjoying the power he had over the Manhattan newsie. “Now, we’ve been given discretion to handle you as we see fit.”

Jack quickly stood upright, not feeling safe at all in the company of two people that hated his guts. Even though Jack wasn’t normally scared around the brothers, normally he could potentially flee and had a bunch of other newsies to back him up. Now he was contained in a small cellar, with nowhere else to go, outnumbered two to one.

The only thing between them was a table-like-structure. The brothers exchanged a grin and slowly started walking towards him, both pulling out their brass knuckles and putting them on. Now nervous, Jack inched back further into the corner of the room, looking towards the door to see if maybe Pulitzer would have pity on him. Only to discover that instead of Pulitzer no other than Snyder was slowly making his way down the stairs.

Both Delanceys were only a few meters away from him. In a desperate attempt to avoid the inevitable, he decided that it couldn’t hurt to at least try and make a run for it. Having been frozen till now the Delanceys didn’t expect their victim to suddenly come charging at them. So when Jack suddenly ran directly towards Oscar Delancey he wasn’t able to stop the newsie before he was shoved to the ground.

Jack ran straight for the stairs and, when his path was blocked by the Spyder, kicked the older man hard in the balls. This caused the warden to double over from the pain, Jack grabbing the chance to move past the warden. He knew the Delanceys couldn’t be far behind him. Jack was halfway up the stairs when he felt someone grab the back of his collar and yank him backwards. He scrambled to grab the railing of the stairs but was already falling.

He hit the ground with so much force that all the air was forced out of his body and he could hear a loud crack when the back of his head made contact with the floor. The only sound that he could hear was the ringing in his ears while he tried to desperately force air into his lungs.  Everything was blurry, he didn’t know if it was the effect of his brain not being able to focus or just tears clouding his vision. He blinked a few times to try and get his eyes to focus on the ceiling. He was greeted by Snyder sneering down at him.

“Ayeh, Jackie boy, seems that was quite a smack you made there.” Jack just glared at the man and he was pretty sure a sound left his mouth. He had meant for it to sound like a growl but it just came out like a whimper.

Finally being able to get a sufficient amount of air into his lungs, Jack tried to move to sit up. That action was immediately stopped when Snyder raised his foot and kicked Jack hard in the stomach. Jack curled up to protect his stomach but he felt two hands grab his collar and pull him upright. He found himself face to face with Snyder, who snarled at him: “I think it’s time for you to learn a lesson, boy.”

Jack tried to bat the man’s hands away but his movements were still sluggish because of the hit to the back of the head. Snyder just laughed at him before slapping him across the face. He turned to the Delancey brothers who were standing beside them, “Well, get him ready. I want to make sure he learns his lesson this time.” Snyder stepped back as the Delanceys jumped towards him like a predator would do to their prey.

Before Jack could really understand what they were doing they had already pulled his grey vest of and thrown it somewhere in to room. Jack pulled at the hands that were trying to pull of his shirt but for that he only got another slap across the face. The ringing in his ears was back, Jack tried shaking his head to get rid of it but it just earned him another slap.

He felt himself being pulled to his feet and tried to get his eyes to finally focus properly. They did just that, just in time to see Morris pull the tarp of what he could now see was an old printing press. He felt himself being bent across the press one of the Delancey, he couldn’t figure out which one, pulled his hands in front of him, giving  him absolutely no room to move. The position made him feel very vulnerable and exposed, having no way to cover himself up. 

He felt a hand grab his chin and pull it up so he was once again face to face with Snyder. “Now you’ll finally get what you deserve, boy.” he grinned at Jack. To Jack’s horror Snyder trailed his fingers over Jacks face, stroking every inch of skin he could reach. Fear spreading through his veins Jack tried to pul his face away, but his attemts were weak after the blow to his head and Snyder was not letting him go.  “What a shame, that you have to be such a troublemaker. You are such a beautiful boy.” Form the corner of his eye Jack saw the Delanceys exchange looks, even they seemed weirded out by Snyders words.

Snyder let go of his face and walked to stand behind him. “Get that shirt off of him!” At those words Jack tried to struggle, knowing what it meant if that final layer of clothing was removed. Oscar’s grip, he had by now figured out that that was the Delancey holding his hands down, didn’t lessen his grip for even a second. He felt someone, probably Oscar, tug at the striped shirt he was still wearing before he heard the ripping of fabric and the shirt was removed for his body.

Jack shuddered at the sudden cold that seemed to hit him now that the top  half of his body was completely naked. He heard a soft gasp coming from what must have been one of the Delanceys as his back was shown to the world. Jack laid his forehead down on the table and closed his eyes. He knew his entire body, and especially his back, were covered in all kinds of scars. Long scars across the whith of his back form the many beatings with the whip or belt, cirucular marks that spread over his upper body but mosty his arms from the sigarets that had been pressed out on his skin, dents in his back from hits from the cane or the buckle of the belt and many more. 

He jumped and tried to flinch away when a finger touched his back, tracing the stars. That must have been Snyders hand, admiring his own handywork. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Almost like art.” Jack sighed in relieve when the finger stopped tracing his scars. “But it’s time for the lesson now.”

Jack heard the familiar sound of the undoing of a belt. He took a deep breath and braced himself for what he knew would come. The sound of the belt swinging through the air was the only real warning he got before the belt hit the skin of his back hard. Jack bit his lip to try and avoid letting out any sound that would reveal how much the hit hurt and give Snyder the satisfaction he was after, but he couldn’t stop the soft groan form leaving his mouth at the searing pain that shot up his back.

As far as he could tell this first hit hadn’t broken any skin yet but he knew it wouldn’t be long before there would be blood. The feeling of being whipped again was oddly nostalgic. Snyder did this all the time at the Refuge; from the moment he had entered the Refuge Snyder had had it out for him specifically.

Of course, the Refuge wasn’t fun for the other children there as well, but the belt or whip was not a regular occurrence. Most of the time it was just a few kicks of some hit with a cane. Jack would never admit it out loud but just the thought of the Refuge caused him a intense amount of fear. The feeling of the belt, the whip and Snyders hands on his body. He thought the latter may actually be the worst and the warden seemed to know that, always trying to touch Jack.

More hits landed on his back; his body trying to flinch away but having nowhere to go. Every hit made it more difficult to stay quiet. He knew that by now the belt would have broken his skin and it would not be long before he would start bleeding harder. He tried to pull his hands out of Oscar’s grip, but the Delancey wouldn’t budge.

With the next hit he couldn’t help but let out a whimper. “Ah, I knew you couldn’t keep quiet forever, boy.” Snyder laughed behind him. Clearly spurred on by the whimper, Snyder only increased the force behind the hits of the belt. Jack could feel tears well up in his eyes which he tried to hide them by pressing his forehead into the woold underneath him.

It was all too much. The belt, Snyders touches, Katherine’s betrayal and the hopeless feeling that welt up in him at the situation he had found himself in.

Blood was by now trailing down his sides. He had no idea how long Snyder had been hitting him but it seemed like an eternity. It seemed like Snyder realized the same as he momentarily stopped the whipping to look at his watch.

“I’ll have to leave you now, boys. Some things to do in the Refuge. “ Snyder put the belt down on the press, next to Jack’s face, and Jack could see his own blood staining the belt. He felt even more dizzy at the amount of blood, like he hadn’t realized that that blood was supposed to be in his body.

“You two escort Mister Kelly outside in about an hour so he can get to the rally in time.” The Delanceys mumbled what sounded like a confirmation. Jack blinked to try and get the fuzzy feeling out of his head. When he opened his eyes again he was met with the sight of Snyder’s face right in front of his.

“Remember, boy, if you don’t shut down the strike at the rally, I will throw all you little friends in the Refuge. You got that? I'll give them all the little lesson you just had.” Snyder didn’t even wait for a response and just shoved Jack’s face into the table again. “See you later, Jackie.” Snyder laughed as he finally made his way up the stairs and out of the room.

For a moment Jack allowed himself to feel relieved. Even though his back was definitely not looking good it also wasn’t that bad. He would need to bind and clean the wounds but he doubted they would need stitches. Which meant he wouldn’t need to go to Medda for help. He would be fine and make it to the rally, even if he didn’t know what he was supposed to tell the newsies. He knew it would destroy their chances at ever successfully completing the strike but was it really worth having all those boy thrown into the Refuge.

He was thrown back into the present when he saw Morris pick up the belt Snyder had left on the press. “You know, Kelly? I never thought we would get the privilege of having you in this position. So before we send you on your way we might as well have a little fun right, Jack?”

Jack felt  his breathing speed up as cold sweat broke out on his neck at Morris’ words. He knew for once that their was no getting out of this situation and even his wittiness wouldn’t save him now.

“And Kelly? I’s a lot stronger then Snyder.” Morris grinned at him before moving to stand behind him. When the time belt hit his skin this time he couldn’t even stop the sounds coming out of his mouth. Tears were building up in his eyes but he refused to let them fall. He wouldn't cry in front of them, he couldn't show them how much they got to him. 

While Morris definitely wasn’t as experienced with the belt as Snyder he was fitter, stronger and more energetic. The hits that rained down on his back got worse with every new one. Now that his whole back was almost covered in bleeding welts the hits came down on open wounds which made the pain almost unbearable.

His vision got blurry again, he didn’t know if it was form blood loss, pain or the hits he had gotten to the head. The only thing that seemed to exist right now was the endless circle of pain.

After what seemed like hours the hits stopped. He knew by now his back had probably been torn to shreds and was a bloody mess. The tiredness made it difficult to listen to what the Delancey’s were talking about.

Jack was pulled from his thoughts by a blinding pain on his right shoulder. Like someone had turned the volume back on, every sound suddenly came flooding back to him.

“You with us, Kelly?” Morris said after pulling a cigar from between his lips. It took a moment of Jack just staring at the Delancey for him to figure out that the pain in his shoulder was  probably from Morris pushing the cigar onto his skin.

After another moment he realized Oscar  was no longer holding Jack down. On impulse Jack threw himself backwards and landed right on top of his bloody back. A agonized scream tore from his throat as he tried to roll onto his stomach immediately.

“What ‘s you doin’, Kelly?” Oscar grinned at the hurt newsie. “You havin’ some trouble?” Before Jack had fully processed the situation Oscar stomped hard on his left hand with the heel of his foot. Jack let at a pained scream at the sudden agony in his hand.

A very brief moment of relief came when he realized that it had at least been his left hand which meant it wouldn’t affect his painting.

Oscar and Morris both grabbed one of his shoulders, with Morris pressing down hard on the burn mark on Jack’s shoulder. Jack  felt like all the strength had left his body so he just hung limply between the Delancey’s as they managed to drag him up the stairs.

They dragged him through a few hallways and managed to not run into anybody. When they reached a black door at the end of a hallway, both the Delancey’s sighed in relief. Probably because that managed to keep their handy work hidden.

Jack didn’t think Pulitzer would care but there were enough in this building that cared enough for a juicy story.

When Morris pushed the door open Jack looked right into a small alley, that led to a much bigger and busier road. It probably was a backdoor, which meant the ally was void of people.

“Time to get yours self to the rally, cowboy.”

With that he felt a hard push between his shoulder blades, right against one of the many bleeding wounds, that caused him to tumble to the ground. He tried to push one of his feet under his body but instead of catching himself he felt his ankle bent a weird way while still landing on the street.

He heard the door shut behind him but not before he felt something land next to his left arm. . He looked up to see it was his clothes, the blue shirt and grey vest, that were still intact. He reached his arm to grab them but when he tried to close his hand around the material he felt an enormous amount of pain coming from his left hand.

He still managed to pull the clothes towards him. When they were right in front of his face he frowned. The clothes seemed wet. Now that he thought about it, his arm seemed wet too. Slowly, it dawned on him that the water was coming from the sky. He didn’t understand why the water was there, it made him feel cold. Maybe the clothes would keep him dry?

He managed, after several painful and failed attempts, to get the shirt and vest on while still laying on his stomach, although he couldn’t muster the strength to try and button them up. Sadly, the clothes didn’t keep him dry at all.

He tried to push himself up but he found that he didn’t have the strength. With a sigh he laid his head back on the ground. The pain in his back, foot and hand was terrible, but not worse the sudden fatigue that seemed to overtake him.

Maybe he could just rest for a bit and then get up. That seemed like a good idea. He would sleep a little and after that he would go to the rally. He closed his eyes not at all bothered anymore by the water raining down on him.

Chapter Text

There were a lot of different thoughts running through David’s head right now. On one hand he felt so very relieved, not only had Brooklyn come to the rally, with them came newsies from all over New York. The feeling that they might actually win with this strike was surprising and reassuring at the same time.

On the other hand he felt like everything would go down hill from here. He might have shaken hands with Spot Conlon a few seconds ago but he knew he wasn’t who Spot had come to listen too. Even though Spot and Race had a close relationship, the other younger newsie wasn’t either. No, Spot Conlon was here to listen to Jack Kelly, just like most of the other newsies in here.

When David and Jack had gone to Brooklyn just a day ago he had observed the relationship the two leaders had. Not only was there a certain respect between the two, there was also something else. Almost some sort of bond. Spot had even seemed somewhat concerned about Jack. Not just about the strike or the Manhattan newsies in general, Spot had been concerned about Jack himself.

Not enough to help them, but he was concerned.

However, that was not important right now. He would get through with this till Jack arrived. At least that was the plan till Finch asked that one question.

“Hey, Davey? Where’s Jack?” The question caused a lot of newsies to start to whisper to each other. It couldn’t have passed them by that the famous Manhattan leader was not there. To David’s horror the whispering transitioned into the newsies chanting Jack’s name.

“JACK! JACK! JACK!”

Feeling unsure of what to do he looked at Medda questioningly, hoping she would tell him Jack had suddenly appeared. She gave him a sad smile and gave his shoulder a squeeze. Medda had know Jack for a very long time and must feel somewhat concerned because of the newsies absence as well.

“Sorry, kid. No sign of him yet. Looks like you doin’ a solo.” This only caused him to get even more nervous.

“I can’t.” Maybe Spot could lead the rally. Or Race. He was Jack’s right hand man after all.

His thoughts were interrupted by another squeeze on his shoulder. Medda gave him another smile. “Yes, you can.”

David pushed down his nerves and took a deep breath. He could do this. Just till Jack would come. Because Jack would come, he had too. It wouldn’t make sense if he didn’t come, it had seemed like David and Katherine had successfully convinced Jack earlier that day.

Now that he thought about that, it was also a little weird that Katherine wasn’t here as well. The young reporter had become quite popular with the newsies after getting their story in the paper and surely wouldn’t want to miss this big moment.

David took a deep breath, “Alright.”.  Medda gave his shoulder a last squeeze before letting go.

“JACK! JACK! JACK!”

David moved to stand on the centre of the stage and raised his hands in the air to try and get the newsies to quiet down. “Newsies of New York!” Surprisingly the rest of the newsies seemed to quiet down at that.

Everybody’s eyes were on him. They were listening to what he had to say.

“Look at what we’ve done. We’ve got newsies for every pape and every neighbourhood here tonight. Tonight you’re makin’ history. Tonight, we declare that we are just as much a part of the newspaper as any reporter or editor. We are done being treated like kids. From now on, they will treat us as equals. Alright?”

The newsies around him clapped and screamed at his words, showing their support. Feeling quite pleased with himself David allowed himself to smile. They were really changing things.

His attention shifted away from the other newsies, however, when he saw a familiar figure come to stand beside the other Manhattan newsies.

“Katherine!” He ran towards her. “Newsies, the great Katherine Plumer is here. Our very own star reporter.” A roar of cheers came from the other newsies. The girl was looking around the room, searching for someone.

“David is Jack, here? He is supposed to be here.” The other newsies quieted the second they heard the leaders name, wanting to know more about his were abouts.

“Yeah, I don’t really know where he is. I really thought he would be there after the talk we had this morning.” David replied. Now that David really looked at Katherine he noticed she seemed very nervous. “Have you seen him since?”

Katherine was trying to avoid making eye contact with the other newsies while wringing her hands nervously. “I believe he went to the Word yesterday's afternoon. To invite Pulitzer to the rally, so he could state his case and he would listen to us.”

Behind David Race let out a chuckle, “That sounds like Jack, alright.” Other newsies nodded in agreement. Spot Conlon stepped forward, now frowning. “That great, but that doesn’t explain why he ain’t here.”

Katherine looked up nervously at the other newsies again which gave David the feeling she knew something she wasn’t telling them. “So, do you know when Jack will be here?”

“I thought he would be here by now. I don’t get it. After what they told him?” David didn’t really know if Katherine was talking to them or just to herself but she obviously knew more about the whole Jack situation.

“Wait, who do you mean by ‘they’?” Race said while taking a step towards Katherine.

“Uhmm, well. Pulitzer and Snyder of course. They offered him a deal.” David frowned at that. A deal? Jack wouldn’t sell them out, right? He pulled at Katherine’s hand, making her look at him. “What deal, Katherine?”

She once again looked at the newsies around her, seemingly searching for some kind of reassurance. “Uhm, well, P-Pulitzer offered Jack a lot of money if he would manage to shut down the strike at the rally, tonight.”

Cries of outrage filled the theatre. Most of them coming from the newsies outside of Manhattan.

“HE SOLD US OUT!”

“THAT TRAITOR.”

“I TOLD YOU HE WOULD RUN!”  

“THAT COWARD!”

“QUIET!!!”

At Spot Conlon’s yell all the other newsies shut up. Spot turned to Katherine after that prompting her to continue.

“W-well and is he wouldn’t P-Pulitzer told J-Jack he would arrest all the newsies at the rally and throw them in the Refuge.” At those words a shock wave seemed to spread among the newsies. The Refuge caused fear among all children in New York.

“Well, well, young lady. That was a excellent summary.” All the head in the room snapped towards the left side of the stage. There, in all his glory, stood Snyder. At the sight of the man that almost all of the newsies in New York feared, all the children in the room tried to collectively scramble away.

“And as Mister Kelly is not here, I am afraid I will have to ask you lot to come with me.” Snyder smiled at the newsies. “I must say I thought Mister Kelly cared about you more.”

Putting on a brave face, David stepped forward. “And how are you planning to take all of us with you? Cuz I ain’t comin’ willingly.” Snyder just laughed at him. “Oh, don’t you worry about that ‘cause in a few minutes there will be more police here than you sell papers in a day.”

David felt panic spread through his body. They couldn’t go to the Refuge. Some of these newsies were still so young. Les couldn’t go to the Refuge.

“I am sorry, Mister Snyder. But that won’t be happening today.” Medda said while stepping in front of David, shielding him from Snyders gaze. “Because this is my theatre and these boys aren’t doing anything illegal.

Snyder shifted his gaze to Medda. “Well, Miss Medda. I am afraid I have the mayors permission. Considering this rally is led and organised by an escaped convict, he thought it best for these children to spend a month or two in the Refuge. So they can learn to be better.” Snyder smiled at the singer, obviously thinking he had the upper hand.

“As I am sure you are aware, Mister Snyder. This rally is being led and organised by Mister Jacobs, Mister Conlon, Mister Higgins and myself. None of us are escaped convicts. I am sure it is just a little mistake, but it means you have no right to be here.”

Snyder frowned at that. “Well, as I am sure you know, it is Mister Kelly that…” The man trailed of now also realizing his mistake.

“Oh, I know. But as you said earlier. Mister Kelly is not here. So you’ll have to go. Because while these children may not have or be able to afford a lawyer, that does not apply to me. And I will not hesitate to use that privilege, starting with how you have apparently lied to the mayor himself. Given that I am sure that is not something you would want, Mister, I suggest you get the hell out of my theatre!”

Anger filled Snyder’s face. He, however, did seem to realize his defeat and turned around to leave. When he was had reached the door he turned around one last time. “I will get you for this woman. I know you help Kelly and I will make sure you’ll lose more than you could ever imagine.” He spat at Medda, before tuning to Katherine with a mean smile on his face. “I will also be sure to tell you father about you involvement in this, Miss Pulitzer. “ With that he slammed the door shut behind him.

Stunned silence filled the room before cheers collectively erupted from the newsies. Chanting filled the theatre.

“Medda! Medda! Medda!”

David however could only stare at Katherine. It seemed like he was the only one who seemed to come to the conclusion he had come to. Snyder last words echoed in his head. David made short eye contact with Race who had also been looking at Katherine, just as shocked as he was.

“You’re a Pulitzer?!” Katherine turned to David, a uneasy expression on her face. The newsies stopped chanting Medda’s name and turned too look at David who was now standing in front of Katherine.

David felt an enormous amount of anger well up in him. Even tough Katherine hadn’t answered his question yet he was sure he knew the truth. It would explain a lot. He couldn’t believe she had done this to them. He bawled his hands into fists and tried to control his anger before he would do something he’d regret.

Katherine seemed to be trying to decipher what the newsies around her were thinking. Most likely thinking about what their reaction would be to what she would say in a few seconds. 

Most of the newsies in the room were slowly coming to the same realisation David and Race had already come to. Others still seemed confused and were looking at fellow newsies, trying to figure out what they were thinking.

“Uhm, I am a Pulitzer. I am Pulitzer’s daughter. Katherine Pulitzer.”

For a second nothing happened, quiet filled the room. Then Race’s voice filled the theatre, “You filthy liar. How could you?” Race stalked towards Katherine raising his fist into the air. For a second David thought that Race would actually hit her but Race just screamed and stomped on the floor. “I should da known you was no good.” He spat in Katherine’s face.

The other newsies were also looking at the young reporter with distain. Not one of them was thinking of hitting her, it would go against their morals, but that didn’t stop them from angrily whispering all kinds of curse words to each other.

David gently laid his hand on Race’s shoulder, who was still standing in front of Katherine, and pulled the younger newsie backwards. When Race was once again standing with the other newsies and didn’t look like he could hit Katherine any second David turned back to Katherine.

“So that’s why you knew about tha deal? You were there?” Katherine just nodded, obviously shaken up after Race’s reaction. “You are gonna tell us exactly what happened in da with Pulitzer.”

“Uhm, I was in the office with my father and his associates and the mayor. They convinced the mayor to let Snyder break up and intervene at the rally cuz Jack was a escaped convict. And then Jack showed up. Snyder and the two younger men that are always with Wiesel hid and my father made me sit in a chair with my back to the rest of the room so I couldn’t intervene.” Katherine rushed to get the words out, like giving them the information faster would get her back in their good graces.

“And you didn’t just stand up and warn him?” Race hissed at her. “Was you tied up?” Katherine shook her head at that, “N-no, I wasn’t-t. I-I don’t know, I’m s-sorry.” Nervous she took a few steps back, trying to create more space between her and Race who had come to stand beside David. Race made to say more but David gestured for him to stay quiet.

“My father revealed our relationship and then he offered Jack the deal. After that those two young men and Snyder took him to the cellar. That’s the last time I say him. So it wouldn’t make sense for him to not be here, he would never abandon you. So something must be wrong. You have to come with me to the World so we can find and free him, because they have to have imprisoned him.”

“Maybe he just took the money and ran.” Sounded from the back of the theatre, most likely one of the Queens newsies. More than a few newsies stared nodding at that, finding the suggestion probable.

“Shut ya mouth!” Spot Conlon stepped forward, immediately shutting every newsie up. “I knows Jack and he wouldn’t abandon ya like that. He has more honour than a lot of the lot of you. Ya don’t know hell about what he has gone through.” Spot stopped when he was face to face with Katherine. “But I don’t know ya.” He said, pressing his index finger into Katherine’s shoulder. “So maybe ya is just tryin’ to make us leave the theatre and get us arrested. Tryin’ to help ya daddy a bit.”

Katherine was obviously intimidated by the Brooklyn newsie, she looked to him for help but for some reason David really didn’t feel the need to intervene. When it was clear he wasn’t gonna help her Katherine looked pleadingly at Medda, who just looked away. Medda was a very compassioned woman who would never shy away from the chance to help someone, everyone knew that. Everyone also knew she cared about Jack greatly, maybe more than about anybody else. So when you hurt Jack Kelly you would face Medda Larkin’s wrath.

“Maybe you even hurt Jack yourself. Ya used the trust he had in ya and helped those rats capture him. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit.” Spot looked at Katherine with distain but did take a step back. “And ya act of the friendly reporter has shown me ya can lie just fine. So don’t blame me for not trustin’ the word of a Pulitzer.” With that Spot turned around and moved to stand besides Race, who still looked like he could blow up any minute.

David took a step forward and Katherine turned to him, a somewhat hopeful expression on her face. “I think it’s best ya go now, Katherine. You are really not wanted here anymore.” The hope vanished from her face the moment he said those words. She still seemed reluctant to leave so David gave her one last push.

“You know, Katherine? I would personally never hit a girl, but I know there is a lot of newsies  here that don’t have that problem. Especially after what you have done to Jack. So I suggest you leave, because I will not hold any accountable for what they do if ya don’t.”

Fear spread across Katherine’s face and she quickly turned around, finally leaving the theatre.

David turned  to the other newsies, making sure his voice was loud enough so Katherine would still hear before she left the theatre. “From now on we trust only newsies!”

David was walking across the dark streets of Manhattan, hands shoved in his pockets. Romeo and Albert trailing behind him.

After Katherine had left the official rally had ended quickly. Now that one of the only non-newsies that had been on their side turned out to be a traitor the needed to rethink a lot. So most of the newsies had been send on their way with just the order to continue the strike but not to do anything drastic before they could come up with a new plan.

A lot of Brooklyn and Manhattan newsies were still at the theatre. Spot and Race, because he was Jack’s second in command, leading a smaller meeting about what they would do next. David was missing out on all of this, in favour of going to the Refuge with Romeo and Albert.

David, of course, knew that a new plan was really important but he also couldn’t shake the thought that maybe Jack would just be at the Refuge. Even if he wasn’t Crutchie or another boy in the Refuge might be able to tell him more.

David had only know Jack for half a week at best and already felt closer to the newsie than he did to almost every person he knew. He cared deeply about Jack already and sometimes merely the thought of him caused David’s heart to flutter. Of course, David did know what this meant and he really didn’t have anything against maybe liking his friend more than he should a friend but he also felt like the biggest asshole for thinking about that when Jack could be in grave danger.

Slipping into the Refuge was easy and even the climb up to the window wasn’t difficult. Romeo was and Albert were both watching every possible way Snyder or any other officer from the Refuge could enter.

The room contained a lot of bunkbeds with multiple children in them. Some of  them were already sleeping but most were still wide awake. He spotted Crutchie fairly quickly and a little bit of tapping later he managed to catch Crutchie’s attention.

The younger newsies smiled at the seeing David’s face. Crutchie managed to get of the bed with the help of two of the boys that he was sharing the bed with and helped him get to the window. Crutchie grabbed the bars in front of the window to keep himself upright and smiled up at David.

“Heya, Dave. What’s you doin’ here?” David gave Crutchie a smile. “Hey Crutch, good to see you. It seems your leg is better?” Crutchie’s stopped smiling but did nod at that. “Well, ma walkin’ is better then when Jack was here but I still can’t walk on ma own.”

Crutchie tried to look over David’s shoulder, searching for someone. “Are any of the fellaws there?” Crutchie said, a hopeful expression on his face.

“’m afraid not, Crutchie. Albert and Romeo are down there, watching my back.” Crutchie just nodded. “Hey, Crutch, ya didn’t see Jack around here right?”

Crutchie shook his head, seeming confused. “No, he was only here once. But ma leg was bad so I could not come to the window then.” David’s frown deepened. “No, I mean if you have seem him inside here. Like captured. Of heard them talk about him?”

Crutchie shook his head again. “Not at all. Jack’s hurt?” David tried to give the younger newsie a reassuring smile. “We can’t find him. We think Snyder did something’. But we ain’t sure.”

Crutchie was clearly worried but tried not to let is show. “Alright, be careful then. The strike still going?” David nodded again before hearing some noise coming from the courtyard.

“Alright Crutch, I have to go. Keep an eye out for Jack. And you’self of course. We’ll get ya out of here, don’t you worry.” With those words David began to shuffled away from the window. The longer he stayed up here the bigger the chance someone spotted him.

He was almost back down when he passed a window with a lot of light coming from behind it. Trying to be quiet he was almost passed it before he heard Snyder’s voice.

“I don’t care that it’s difficult, you better figure it out.” There was a short pause before Snyder spoke again, implying that the warden was on the phone. “Listen to me, Wiesel. This situation can turn out very badly for us. I already got that woman form the theatre on my tail I don’t need to get in trouble with Pulitzer or, even worse, the mayor.”

David held his breath not wanting to miss a word of what was being said between Wiesel and Snyder. Maybe it was about Jack.

“Listen here, it was you boys that I left him with. Maybe Kelly fled like a coward, but I don’t think so. I have know the bastard since he was 5 years old and he would not abandon his friends like that. So that makes it likely that your boys are responsible for his absence at the rally.”

The next silence was longer. David thought he could almost hear Wiesel’s angry voice on the other side of the line.

“No, it wouldn’t have been that. I just taught him a little lesson, I have seen him take much worse. He was barely bleeding when I left him.”

David couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped his mouth, immediately slamming his hand over his mouth too stop further noise from escaping. It seemed Snyder had already heard and footsteps came closer to the window.

David scrambled towards the fire escape he had used to get up here. If Snyder saw him before he was on the ground he would be in a lot of trouble. It seemed luck was on his side because it wasn’t before his feet touched the ground that he heard Snyder’s voice echo around the courtyard.

“GUARDS! STOP THAT BOY! GET HIM! NOW, NOW, NOW!”

The moment David was on the ground he broke out into a sprint. He was quicky joined by Albert and Romeo. They were already through the gates of the Refuge before any of the guards had even spotted them.

When they were a fair distance away David felt a hand stop him. Both Romeo and Albert were panting. “What happened there, Dave? Did ya learn somethin’?”

For a second David could just nod his head, still trying to get his breath.

“We need to get back to the theatre now. They had Jack and Snyder hurt him. It seems the Delanceys got their hands on him. Even Snyder doesn’t know where Jack is now.”

Chapter Text

When Jack woke up the first thing he felt was the cold. It was seeping into his bones and spreading the more he became aware of his surroundings. It was like a painful heavy blanket that was trying to pull him back to sleep. Struggling to stay awake, Jack fought to open his eyes, which he did with great effort. He really couldn’t see much out of his left eye, which seemed to be swollen shut and his right eye had some difficulty adjusting to the darkness.

Everything in his head seemed fuzzy and his head hurt badly. Not just his head tough, also the rest of his body. He wanted to roll onto his back because laying on his exposed stomach was very uncomfortable. However the second his back touched the ground a terrible pain spread through him.  Het bit his lip hard to prevent a cry of pain from escaping his mouth.

He laid back down on his stomach, now realising he was lying on some street. The ground underneath him consisted of cobblestones, so he wasn’t in a main road.

It was quite dark but he could make out walls on either side of him. When he looked in front of him he could see the alley he was laying in continued for probably a hundred meters before it crossed with a busier road.

Jack suspected it had to be either late in the evening, or maybe even past midnight. He could see some people and waggons move on the street ahead, but it was as quiet as it could be during a night in Manhattan.

He frowned as he tried to remember what had happened. He went to 'the World' and had been offered the deal by Pulitzer. After that things became a little fuzzy but he thought that they had taken him to a basement of sorts. Then Snyder had hit him with the belt, that was a memory that was clear as could be. He never seemed to be able to forget Snyder’s words and touches.

Thinking made his head hurt but he felt like he had to concentrate on what had happened. He felt like there was something important he was missing. He believed at some point Snyder had left and there had been the Delancey’s. He thought they had hurt him but he couldn’t be sure.

And Katherine. He believed Katherine had been there. He frowned again. That couldn’t be right. Katherine wouldn’t hurt him, right? She wouldn’t have. On the other hand, she was Pulitzer’s daughter after all. Maybe she just used him. He felt frustrated with himself, if his head would just stop hurting so much he might remember.

They had been talking to him. Taunting him, he believed. About the rally?

Suddenly he felt himself become more awake. The rally, he had to go to the rally or Snyder would arrest all the other newsies. He couldn’t let that happen to his brothers.

Jack took a deep breath to prepare himself for the pain that would undoubtedly come. Slowly tried to push himself up with his right elbow. He let out a whimper as the movement made  the skin on his back pull at his open wounds.

Taking another breath he pushed his left elbow underneath him as well. Now that he could make out a little bit of his left hand he frowned.  There were dark colours on his hand that spread from his wrist to the bottom halfs of his fingers. Had he gotten paint on his hand? Why had the rain not washed it of? He pushed on the coloured spots with his other hand and nearly cried out in pain. So it wasn't paint but most likely some nasty bruises. Luckily, the skin hadn’t broken so at least there wouldn’t be more blood.

He hesitated for a moment knowing the next movement would hurt. He inhaled deeply through his nose and out through his mouth before moving form leaning on his elbows to being on all fours. The moment he shifted to put some weight on his left arm he cried out in pain. He quickly leaned back to move to just sitting on his knees; cradling his left hand against his chest.  

He couldn’t stop another whimper. His back and left hand were on fire and his head was starting to bother him more. The headache hadn’t gone away and now he also felt dizzy and nauseous.

Everything in his body screamed at him to lay back down, just the getting to his knees had exhausted him deeply. Wanting to give himself some rest he moved to sit back on his heels which soon proved to be a bad idea, because he seemed to have forgotten he had hurt his right ankle as well.

Jack felt tears well up in his eyes. He was tired and his whole body seemed to hurt. He wasn’t even sure he could get up. All he wanted to do was lay down and cry. To make matters even worse it was still raining and he suspected that he had been laying here for some time so he would probably get a cold in the next few days.

Jack wanted to scream in frustration. Why did this happen to him?

‘Because this is what you deserve, Jackie boy. You just had to mess up again.’ Snyder’s voice filled his head, causing Jack to press his hands to his ears, ignoring how the action hurt his hand. ‘Why can’t you do anything right, boy? Why do you go causing trouble with the strike? You know it’s your fault your friends got hurt, right? That the crip got arrested?’

“No!” Jack mumbled. “Go away.” He felt tears roll down his cheeks as he tried to get Snyder’s voice out of his head.

‘You are useless, Jackie. Just give up. You can’t do this!’ Instead of bringing him down like always, this time Snyder’s words seemed to give Jack energy. He could do this, he wouldn’t let Snyder’s words dictate what he could and couldn’t do.

Jack reached to the side of a house on his right, so he would have something to lean on. Slowly he tried to push himself up. He used his left leg first, knowing there wasn’t anything wrong with that one. He didn’t know how bad he had hurt his right leg, he only knew he had landed on it the wrong way.

Carefully Jack put some weight on his right leg. He was surprised to learn it didn’t hurt too bad. He would have too make sure he didn’t put too much weight on it for to long but it certainly wasn’t broken. Daring to be a little optimistic, he suspected it would probably be fine in a few days.

A little bit of hope welled up in him. Maybe getting to the theatre wouldn’t be too bad.

His sense of optimism quickly disappeared, however, when he actually took a step forward. The feeling of nausea and dizziness doubled tenfold as Jack grabbed onto the wall for dear life trying to keep upright.

Okay, maybe getting to the theatre wouldn’t be easy, but Jack would manage. For the newsies, his brothers. He didn’t want to think about any of the newsies going to the Refuge.

Racetrack had always copied Jack’s behaviour, including his big mouth and disregard of authority. Jack knew this would make the other newsie a favourite with Snyder and Jack couldn’t let another one of his brothers get hurt.

So many of the Manhattan newsies were still so young and they would all be at the rally tonight. Newsies like Dash and Cobb, for example, who were just 8 years old. Jack had been 5 when he had first gone to the Refuge and it had traumatised him for life. He couldn’t let that happen to the littles, he was supposed to protect them.

And then there were Les and Davey. Sweet and smart Davey who hadn’t even been part of the newsies for longer then a week. They didn’t deserve to go to the Refuge for the shit Jack had pulled them into. They had just wanted to earn some money for their family and now they were part of some stupid strike. They shouldn’t have to suffer for his actions.

New strength filled Jack body. He would get to that rally and protect his family.

He had managed to reach the end of the ally and looked onto the bigger street. Jack almost let out a relieved sigh as he realized that he was only a few hundred meters away from the theatre. Looking behind him for the first time, Jack realised he was at the back of ‘the World’.  The Delanceys hadn’t even bothered to escorted him away form the building.

Jack looked into the street again frowning as he realized that this wouldn’t be as easy as he had thought. This street was a lot wider with bars and shops on either side of the street, meaning he wouldn’t be able to use the walls for support. He really didn’t need a cop on his back if someone were to think he was breaking in.

Luckily, there weren’t to many people in the streets, which was a relieve. He looked down at himself, noting his unbuttoned shirt and vest. With his hand he wouldn’t be able to get it buttoned up without his hand hurting. If he were to leave it like this, however, he would look a lot more vulnerable and could potentially make himself a target.

Resigning himself to the thought of more pain he raised his hands to at least try and button up his shirt. He would leave his vest open, considering it would be tight and probably only aggravate his injuries, like the wounds on his back. After he managed to button half of the buttons on his shirt he dropped his hands again.

Deciding he couldn’t postpone this any longer he slowly started moving into the street. He tried to keep his head down so he wouldn’t make anybody think he was looking for trouble.

He managed to stay upright but with every step he took he felt himself get more and more dizzy. He was aware he was swaying a bit, probably giving of the impression that he was drunk. The people in the street didn’t get near him making it not to difficult to walk through the streets.

He had managed to walk about two thirds of the journey before his luck ran out.

Jack was swaying so much at this point and he felt like he could puke any minute. He had his arms wrapped around his waist and was still staring at the ground. He felt himself bump into someone before he had even noticed there were people near him at all. He felt himself stumble and barely managed to catch himself in time.

He moved to continue walking, thinking the person he had bumped into had just let it slide, when he felt a hard push to his back. The force of the push was too big to stop himself form falling forward.

He would probably blame it on the amount of times he had hit his head but his hands didn’t come up in time to catch himself. To make it even worse, he had been walking along the curb and instead of just faceplanting into the street his left shoulder hit the curb hard, before he rolled onto his back. He let out a scream of agony as he felt his left shoulder pop out of its socket and screamed even louder when he rolled onto the wounds on his back.

Jack blinked to get the tears of pain out of his eyes. He looked up and saw at least four blurry figures standing over him. They were wearing hats and seemed to be about his age, causing him to deduct they were probably newsies. The relief that had come at that realization quickly ebbed away after he had blinked again and he saw that they were wearing red shirts with stripes and had slingshots hanging from their waits.

They were from Brooklyn. Well, shit.

Jack had relatively good relations with the newsies from Brooklyn. He was very close with Spot Conlon. He and Spot had grown up together and he had even lived with Spot when the other newsie had begun to climb ranks among the Brooklyn newsies.

Jack had been a malnourished and small child when he had met the other. Traumatised from his time in the Refuge and life on the streets. Spot had taken him under his wing and taught him everything he needed to know. Spot was only a few years older them him but took to Jack like they were brothers. Jack liked to think they really were. When Jack had gone to Manhattan Spot hadn’t wanted to let him go. The older newsie had been so protective of Jack and probably would have liked to never let the younger newsie out of his sight.

Still, Jack had gone to Manhattan but Spot’s protectiveness hadn’t gone away. Even when Jack became the leader of the newsies in Manhattan. Of course, Jack had also introduced to what was another one of Spot’s favourite Manhattan newsies, Racer, which only earned him more love.

Jack tried to go to Brooklyn regularly to see Spot which made him well known with the other newsies in Brooklyn. He wasn’t just the leader of the Manhattan newsies to them, he was also close with their own leader. That certainly didn’t mean everyone liked him, though.

Jack got along with most of Spot’s friends and there were a few littles in Brooklyn that admired him. But his big mouth got him in trouble with others more than once and Jack knew all too well that some of the Brooklyn newsies had a bad temper. There was a reason Brooklyn was considered dangerous.

And the newsies standing over him certainly looked dangerous.

“Watch were ya goin’, ya drunk.” One of the newsies came closer to him. Jack felt two hands grab his collar and pull him upright. He was now face to face with a very angry redhaired newsies while trying to stop the pained whimpers from leaving his mouth. The newsies pulled him to the side of the street and pushed him up against the wall, causing a pained groan to leave Jack’s mouth.

“Oh,shut ya whinin’.” The boy slapped Jack across the head. “Oh wait, I sees. You is a newsie. One of Kelly’s, ain’t ya?” Jack frowned confused. They didn’t recognise him? He did have one of his eyes swollen shut while still having some bruises from the strike. He also seemed to remember that he was slapped around the head quite a bit by Snyder. His face probably didn’t look like it did normally.

“Were ya too drunk to get yar ass to the rally? Kelly didn’t show up either? The coward.” Yeah, maybe it was a good thing they did not recognise him.

“You know? I really don’t like when people get theirs filth on me body and clothes.” The redhead gave him a dangerous smirk. Jack looked at the other newsies but didn’t recognise at first glance. There were about eight of them. When he took a better look he saw there were also some little’s standing behind the older newsies, probably about ten years old.

They must have come from the rally, which meant he was too late. But it also meant Snyder hadn’t arrested everyone there. Maybe just those from Manhattan?

Suddenly, he made eye contact with one of the little’s. Jack knew that one, he was called Pebble. When Jack and Race had gone to Brooklyn a few months ago Race had told the story of Jack’s great escape from the Refuge and Pebble had immediately thought  Jack was the coolest person alive. Every time Jack had gone to Brooklyn after that the boy had been following him around. He reminded Jack a little bit of Les.

Judging from the expression on Pebble’s face he boy had recognised him as well. Pebble’s mouth was hanging open and his eyes are wide in shock. He keeps staring at Jack for a while, most likely shocked by Jack’s appearance before turning around and running off. Hopefully to get Jack help.

His attention is pulled back towards the newsie holding him up when he feels a slap across his face. “Watcha looking at, hé? You is in for a soakin’ now. Though it does seem someone already got ya first.” The other newsies started laughing, finding Jack’s misery amusing. Jack felt fear whell up in him, his body wouldn’t be able to take a beating right now.

“’m Ja’ ‘lly.” Frustrated Jack tried again. “’m Ja’k ‘y.” The words didn’t seem to come out of his mouth right, his speech slurred.

“Man, he’s real drunk. Ya know ya could get in trouble for that, right?” For people that were about to beat him up they sure seemed to care a whole lot about him not getting in trouble. He supposed the way he was hanging in the newsies grasp, almost limp, while slurring his words and barely having be able to walk a few minutes before did give a impression he was drunk.

“ I kn’ Sp’t Co’on.” Jack was willing to pull out all the stops to get these guys to leave him alone. He had to go to the theatre in case rally wasn’t over yet. He had to protect his boys and warn them about Pulitzer. If only he could get the words out right, they may understand him. One of the newsies, he had short blonde hair, not holding him up crabbed his chin; making Jack face him.

“Ya know Spot Conlon. Ya really expect me ta believe ya.” The newsie laughed before spitting in Jack face. “Everybody says that when they is in yar situation. Ya piece of filth don’t know Spot Conlon.” He gave Jack a shove on his left, and still dislocated, shoulder; making Jack let out another whimper.

Jack moved to bring his hand up to wipe the spit from his cheek but the blonde newsie grabbed his hand before it could reach his face. Jack let out a loud scream of pain but the blonde newsie was just looking at his hand in shock. It wasn’t until now that Jack realised he had raised his injured hand.

The hand was different shades of purple and the bones in it didn’t look quite right. This was the first time Jack could really see his own hand clearly and the sight of it caused the nausea he had been feeling to flare back up. Before any of the other newsies knew what was happening Jack pushed himself forward and puked all over the street and the redhaired newsies’ shoes.

The redhead let out a discussed sound before letting go of him. Jack only barely managed to catch himself without causing himself more pain, managing to lower himself onto the ground. He was shaking from pain and exhaustion. He felt like he was going to die in this moment.

Screaming in anger the redhaired newsie slapped him across the face again making Jack’s head whip to the side and even slowly tilting to the right, which made him fall onto his side. His head felt like it was going to explode after they had hit him so many times. Some weird part of his brain informed him that it wasn’t even that bad because at least he wasn’t lying in his own vomit. He couldn’t stop the hysterical laugh that left his lips.

The redhaired newsie came towards him again raising his hand like he was going to hit him again. “Listen up you little punk! I am going to soak ya so bad you won’t be able to move from here for a week.”

Jack closed his eyes, resigning himself to the beating. He was just so tired and really didn't want to struggle anymore. Jack was expecting the blow any second when a familiar voice rang out through the street.

“STOP WHAT YA DOIN’!”

Jack opened his eyes again, for a moment thinking he was hallucinating. He couldn’t really see anything past the back of the feet of the Brooklyn newsies, who had all turned around to look at the approaching figure.  

Jack curled up into the tightest ball he could manage, pressing arms in front of his face. He just felt tired and scared. The logical part of his brain told him that if the voice belonged to the person he thought it belonged to it would mean help. The frightened part of his brain, however, told him that maybe the new person would just join in with the others, maybe he also thought Jack deserved this.

“GET OUT OF TA WAY YA FOOLS!”

Most of the newsies scrambled out of the way as the figure made his way toward them, but both the blonde and redhaired newsie stayed where they were. “This is nothin’ important, boss. Just a little business to take care of. Nothin’ ya need to worry about.” Jack could hear the new person take a deep breath before saying, “I did not ask ya what you think about this, I just tolds ya to move out of me way!”

Jack peeked through his arms and could see the new person wasn’t alone. There were to pairs of feet behind him, on bigger person and one small one. Pebble. Pebble had gotten him help.

"IF YA DON'T MOVE RIGHT NOW, I'LL PUT MY FIST DOWN YAR THROAT."

His two assaulters finally moved out of the way and Jack immediately heard the new person crouch down in front of him. A hand landed on his hair and started running soothing circles through it, like he had always done to Jack since they were young.

Jack let out a sob-like sound of relieve. He had come to help him, soon this would all be over. He became aware that his body was trembling and that he was most likely bleeding all over the place. Still he couldn’t help but mumble the name of his rescuer. 

"Spot."

Chapter Text

Spot had been sitting on stage in the theatre for a while now. The walking mouth had gone of about 30 minutes ago, to the Refuge, to see if Jack was there. Spot didn’t really know the mouth that well but he had two of Jack with him, Albert and someone who’s name started with an R, so Spot was sure the newbie would be fine. Unfortunately, he was still here thinking about the best way to continue the strike for what seemed like forever.

Spot personally thought Mouth and Race done a great job in Jack’s absence. Even now Race was leading this meeting very well and most of the decisions they had made were satisfactory. Spot had the same difficulties with apposing Race as he always had with Jack, the conflict of backing up someone he cared about or picking what was best for his own newsies. However, this time most of the newsies seemed to be on the same page. They would have to halt the big actions for a while before coming up with a way to spread a message to other working childeren around the city in a safe way.

Spot just couldn’t help his thoughts form drifting towards Jack. He and Jack were brothers in every way that mattered and the absence of the younger leader bothered him a lot. The words of the Pulitzer girl were still active in his head. She had thought Jack might have gotten hurt and that he was being held captive. He might not trust that girl ever again but the idea itself didn’t sound too absurd.

The conversation between Race and a newsie from the Bronx was interrupted when the side door of the theatre slammed open. A little came running onto the stage avoiding the other newsies sitting in a circle to make his way to Spot. The boy stopped in front of him and Spot recognised him as Pebble, the one that was completely obsessed with Jack. Sometimes it bothered Spot how much some of his newsies admired Jack but he was also amused by the bashful smile that would make it onto Jack’s face whenever the little’s looked at him with that much admiration. Them admirering Jack didn't make them any less of a Brooklyn newsie; Spot knew he had their loyalty.

At this moment, however, the boy looked far from his usual excited. He had tears running down his face and looked completely dishevelled. Spot thought Pebble had been part of the group of newsies that he had sent home not too long ago. So what was the boy doing here?

The little needed a moment to catch his breath before grabbing Spot’s wrist too pull him along. “You gotta come. They is hurtin’ him. There was blood, so much.”

Ah, so this was what this was about. It wasn’t that rare for a little to get a little upset after they witnessed their first soaking. The boy was probably not used to violence and the blood had frightened him more then it would an older newsie. Spot almost felt relieved that the situation was likely not that serious.

However, the distress on the little’s face was enough to make him get up. He could probably solve this little brawl in a few seconds and it would make a nice break from the endless ideas about the strike. “Excuse me, fellas. I is back in just a moment.” Spot said nodding to the other newsies. They would understand, fights were not rare and they all had to deal with them sometimes. Behind him he heard the conversation start up again like the brief interuption had never happened. 

Pebble kept tugging on his sleeve, obviously wanting Spot to make haste. They were about to exit the theatre when Spot heard footsteps behind him. He looked behind him to see one of Jack’s newsies running up to him. The boy was dark-skinned and tall with a pair of glasses sitting on his nose. Spot wouldn’t for the life of him be able to remember the newsies’ name.

“I thought I could come with. If it is as bad as the kid says, I could help. I know some doctor stuff. Besides it was gettin' too stuffy in there.” The boy came to walk beside Spot. He was one of the older newsies and didn’t seem to fear Spot as much as some of the other newsies did, but Spot supposed it wasn’t that surprising considering he was one of Jack’s.

“I’s called Specs.” Spot just nodded at that, not bothering to tell the other newsie his name. Cause what kind of newsie didn’t know Spot Conlon?

Pebble pulled them to the end of the main road before rounding a corner. This road was a little smaller, not having as many shops of bars there. The street was still properly lit by all the street lanterns in front of the houses, so they had no trouble seeing. About 200 metres away from them, in front of a closed fabric store, was a group of Brooklyn newsies.

Spot frowned. He had thought it was one of his newsies that was being soaked but apparently his newsies were doing the soaking. He supposed they could still be soaking another newsie, though, so he would break it up anyway. When he was only a few meters away he called out.

“STOP WHAT YA DOIN’!”

All the newsies turned around to look at him. He saw that there were a few little’s with the group, some couldn’t be older then nine. Spot didn’t like that at all. He knew a newsies would witness violence a lot younger than other children but that didn’t mean he wanted his newsies to willingly introduce the little’s to violence.

When he got closer he could see someone lying on the ground behind his newsies, curled into a ball. He could see a newsie cap lying a few feet away, so the victim was most likely a newsie. He felt himself getting frustrated, this infighting was not what they needed right now. Pulitzer and his dogs were already dangerous enough, they needed to band together.

“GET OUT OF TA WAY YA FOOLS!”

Most of the newsies scrambled away at the sight of him. Two kept standing in front of their victim, however, only seeming annoyed at the interruption. Spot recognised them, they hadn’t given him much trouble before but he knew they liked to bully others.

“This is nothin’ important, boss. Just a little business to take care of. Nothin’ ya need to worry about.” Spot had finally reached them and took a quick look at the newsie on the ground. The sight caused a wave of shock to go through him.

The newsie was trembling while still in a curled up ball, his arms around his head to protect his face. One of the newsies' hands was a deep purple colour, pretty close to black, and the bones in it jutted out far more than was normal. But that wasn’t what had caused the shock.

Spot would recognise that bright blue shirt anywhere. It was a bolder colour then most newsies dared to wear because it made a lot more recognisable. Only the newsies for Brooklyn wore brighter colours, and only ever red. Besides this particular colour had long since been claimed by the famous Manhattan leader. A hopeful part of Spot reasoned that maybe Jack had just lent his shirt to some other newsie but deep down he knew that wasn’t the case.

“I did not ask ya what you think about this, I just tolds ya to move out of me way!” The newsies held his glare for about 10 seconds before looking away. With a final glance at their victim the newsies moved out of the way, not going farther then a few meters.

Spot heard Specs let out a “Oh Lord” in shock as he recognised the newsie on the ground as well. With a few steps he had reached Jack immediately crouching down. Jack was shaking, Spot didn’t know if it was in pain, exhaustion, cold, fear or maybe even all of the above. Carefully he put his hand in the youngers hair, trying to calm his brother by running soothing circles through it like he had done so often.

Jack had a sound that sounded a lot like a sob but at the same time leaned into the touch. From this angle Spot could see some nasty looking bruises on Jack’s face and it didn’t reassure him at all that Jack hadn’t uncurled at his arrival.

“Spot.”

The sound of his name, that honestly sounded more like a whine, broke his heart. Spot looked behind him to see Specs still standing in the same spot. The newsie seemed frozen in place, most likely shocked by the state his leader was in. Pebble was standing a little bit behind Specs keeping his eyes on the ground. The two bullies were the only ones still here besides them and Spot wanted them gone now. He didn’t want them to see Jack so vulnerable. He gave the two the fiercest glare he could manage and they finally seemed to get the message that they really should leave.  

Once they were out of sight he turned back to Jack. He really didn’t know the extent of his injuries but it didn’t look good. Spot had a good idea of who had caused this and they would pay, but right now Jack was his priority.

Gently he tried to get Jack to lower his arms, so Spot could get a proper look at his face, which he succeeded in after a few gentle touches. Carefully, he tugged Jack’s chin up so he could see his entire face and what he saw filled him with anger. Jack’s face was almost entirely covered in bruises tough some could be from when he had been beaten by the goons a few days ago.

Jack’s right eye was swollen shut completely and when Spot felt around his head he found that there was a bloody spot on the back of Jack’s head that was still bleeding steadily. Luckily, he did seem to still have all of his teeth and his nose looked fine as well.

Suddenly, he felt something soft being pressed into his hands. Spot looked up to see Specs coming to kneel beside him, the boy had finally sprung into action. “Ya need to press that to the back of his head. But be careful, a wound like that will hurt him lots.” Spot nodded and tried to be as careful as possible with pressing the cap to the back of Jack’s hat. Jack would probably nag him about the fact that his hat would be ruined later; the thought almost bringing a smile to his face.

“He’ll most likely have a concussion with a head wound like that and the fact that he threw up makes it more likely.” Specs said while waving in the direction of the pool of vomit that was only a few meters away.

Jack shaking suddenly became worse and it was only now that Spot noticed that the younger was completely soaked. He must have been out in the rain for some time.

“Put his head in yar lap. It will calm him down. I hope.” Spot immediately complied, gently scooping Jack’s head into his lap. Jack pressed his face into Spot’s stomach right away, desperately wanting either warmth of comfort. Spot just kept running his fingers through Jack’s hair.

“I think his shoulder is dislocated and something in his left hand is definitely broken.” Specs said while slowly looking over Jack body. “His right ankle also seems a bit swollen but it isn’t something we have to worry about, I think.”

Specs looked around them before turning to Spot. “After we are done checkin’ him over we need to get him to the theatre. He’ll probably get a fever anyway but this weather will only make everything worse.”

Spot just nodded. “I can carry ‘im. He ain’t gonna be able to walk there.” Spot moved to lay Jack on his back so he could pick him up but the moment Jack’s back touched the ground the newsie let out a scream. He quickly turned Jack back to his original position and noticed that it wasn’t just water soaking the back of Jack’s shirt.

Carefully Spot touched Jacks back, even the light touch making Jack whimper, and when he looked at his hand he saw it had come back red. He looked at Specs, eyes wide, for once not knowing what to do. “Right, let’s go we can’t waste more time.” Specs gestured for him to pick Jack up after standing up himself.

Trying to be as gentle as possible Spot put one arm underneath Jack’s knees. The other one hovered around Jack’s shoulder for a second. If the injuries on Jack’s back were what he thought they were, he wouldn’t be able to pick Jack up without hurting the younger. And there was also the matter of Jack’s left shoulder, Spot didn’t know if he could carry Jack without jostling and putting pressure on it.

“Can you carry him on your back?” Spot looked up at Spec’s question. “Yeah, I can. But won’t I hurts his shoulder more?” Spec’s nodded while having a troubled frown on his face. “It will, but not as much as carryin’ ‘im in yar arms would.”

Spot sat Jack up against the wall, Specs holding him so the wounds on his back wouldn't touch the wall. Taking a deep breath, Spot turned around and crouched down, putting Jack’s arms around his neck. He grabbed Jack’s elbow, careful to avoid the injured hand, and braced himself for the pain this would inevitably cause Jack.

“I’m sorry, Jackie. It will only hurt a second.” He murmured softly, finding it only fair to give Jack a small warning for what was about to come. After giving a nod to Specs Spot pulled hard on Jack’s arms while standing up, hoisting Jack further up his back.

The scream of pain that came out of Jack’s mouth made Spot flinch, the sound for unsettelingly different from the tough and unbeateble leader Jack presented himself as. He hated the thought of causing Jack any kind of pain. The moment he was standing with Jack on his back he let go of the youngers arms, letting them hang around his neck, and putting his hands underneath Jack’s knees.

Spot stood upright and felt Jack bury his face in his shoulder. He saw Pebble run forward to pick up Jack’s hat that was now laying on the ground; the young boy desperate to help in any way.

Quickly, Spot began to make his way to the theatre, Specs and Pebble walking behind him. Jack let out a soft whimper at every step Spot took but the longer they walked the quieter Jack got. When Jack felt silent completely Spot threw a panicked glance at Specs.

“He’s passed out. We need to hurry.” Specs grabbed Pebble’s wrist and pulled the young boy towards him. “Go and run to the theatre! Make sure we can lay him down somewhere where he’ll be comfortable.” Pebble nodded and dashed of at that.

"Oh and get Medda!" Spot yelled after him, not sure if the younger had heard him. 

They were only a few hundred meters away from the theatre, were there were people that could give Jack the proper care they needed. Spot was able to carry Jack without much difficulty, being fairly strong even if he wasn’t very tall.

When they reached the back door of the theatre Specs ran forward to hold it open for him. When he reached the balcony he quickly moved down the stairs so he was in the room behind the stage. He saw  a table with a soft looking blanket on top of it in the middle of the room, surrounded by backdrops and other props and costumes. He tought he could hear the other newsies still talking through the wall, the meeting likely still going. 

Spot stopped in front of the table, knowing he couldn’t lay Jack on the table without his back touching the table for a few seconds. He turned around, carefully lowering Jack down on his back, Specs quickly stepping in to turn him on his right side. After grabbing a cushion from a nearby chair and laying it underneath Jack's head, Specs gently laid Jack onto his stomach. 

Spot turned around when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs and was greeted by the sight of Pebble pulling a bewildered looking Medda along, a young man following the pair. The woman visibly paled the moment she saw Jack laying on the table.

“Oh my Lord.” She made a frantic gesture towards the young man. “Quick! Help him.” The man moved forward but stopped when Spot moved to stand in front of Jack protectively. He didn’t know this man and he really didn’t want him to get close to his brother when he was so vulnerable.

“Spot, move! Mister Charles, here, is a doctor. He can help Jack.” Medda said. Spot glared at the doctor for a few more seconds before moving to crouch down by Jack’s head, running his hands through the youngers hair again.

“He has a head injury, swollen ankle, dislocated shoulder and what I thinks is a broken hand. We think." Specs hesitated for a moment. "He also has wounds on his back but we weren’t able to look at those yet. He passed out on the way here.” The doctor, who was now standing over Jack, just gave the newsie a nod. 

“We’ll need to take his shirt and vest of to see the damage.” The doctor looked at Spot expectingly, apparently not wanting to undress the patient himself. Spot moved forward and gently tried to ease Jack out of his vest. Spot knew it would most likely cause Jack less pain if he just asked Medda for some sissors to cut the clothes off of Jack but as a newsie they already had so very little. He really didn't want to take one of Jack's few possesions away form him.

With the vest mostely of, he hadn't removed Jack's left arm from the vest yet because of his injured shoulder, it became very clear that Jack’s back was a bloody mess, the back of the shirt was a dark red. Mentally preparing himself he managed to get Jack’s right arm out of the shirt and uncovered the injured back. He heard Medda let out of loud gasp and saw Specs turn away while looking very pale. Jack’s back was covert in vertical wounds, most of them still bleeding. Spot suspected the whipping must have been done with a belt judging form the dark blue, almost black, bruises that were visible on Jack’s back, most likely caused by the buckle of the belt.The welts went all the way from Jack’s neck to Jack’s waistline.

Moving to Jack’s other side he pulled the shirt off of Jack without hurting his left arm more than he had to. A pained expression what now on Jack’s face but his eyes were still closed and he seemed to still be sleeping.

With his task done Spot dropped Jack’s clothes on a nearby stool before moving back to stand by Jack’s head. His hands resumed their earlier task in Jack’s hair while he watched the doctor’s actions intently.

The man seemed to scan Jack’s body, looking at all the different injuries. Spot felt a presence come to stand beside him and looked to see Medda take a hold of Jack’s uninjured hand, rubbing circles on it as well.

“I’ll have to set his shoulder first. It will cause him a lot of pain but it has to be done. It will only hurt him more if I take care of his back first.” The doctor said like this was something he saw every day. Considering they lived in New York City, Spot reasoned that maybe it was.

“I’ll set his shoulder, naturally, but I need one of you to hold him down and one of you to stay by his head to calm him down when he wakes up. He will most likely not know where he is.” Spot’s head shot up in shock at the doctor’s words. “W-WAIT! Wake up?!”

The doctor just looked back at him, not at all faced by Spot’s reaction. “Yes, he will most definitely wake up from the pain. Setting a shoulder hurts a lot, altough it shouldn't bother him for much longer once it is back in it's socket.” Spot wasn’t comforted by the doctor’s words at all and judging from the expression on Medda’s face, neither was she.

Still, with a look at him Medda moved towards the doctor a bit and put her hands on Jack’s right shoulder and just beneath his neck, not wanting to touch Jack's left shoulder. She was extremely careful to try and avoid the wounds there. Spot guessed that left him to be the one to calm Jack down, he just kept carding his hands through Jack’s hair.

The doctor gave Medda a nod, who pushed Jack into the table, before grabbing Jack’s left arm. Spot looked down at Jack, he really didn’t want to see the doctor pop Jack’s shoulder back into it's socket. He made a startled sound, however, when he found glazed over eyes staring back at him in confusion. Looking back at the doctor he opened his mouth to tell him to wait.

“Wait, he’s awa-“

Before he could finish his sentence the doctor had already taken Jack’s arm and pulled it down towards the ground. A sound that seemed to be the combination of a pop and a crack echoed through the room when Jack's left shoulder popped back into it's socked. Anything Spot would have wanted to say after that was lost when Jack did the only logical thing in this situation.

He screamed.

Chapter Text

David pushed open the door to the theatre, Albert and Romeo following him. All of them were panting, desperately trying to catch their breath, but not willing to stop to actually take a breather. They quickly walked down the stairs and into the room behind the stage.

David stopped, causing the newsies behind him to bump into him, frowning at the room for a second. Before the other two boys could comment about his sudden stop he turned around to look at them. “Why is there a kid down here? And why is he layin’ a blanket over a table?” Albert and Romeo came to stand beside him so they could look into the room as well.

There was indeed a child laying a soft looking blanket over a wooden table, that was situated in the middle of the room. The boy seemed to be about ten years old and had a mob of ginger hair on top of his head.  Before any of them could ask something the boy ran past them and went up the stairs.

For a second they just stood there, completely bewildered, before David just shook his head and started walking to the door that would lead them to the theatre. Behind him David heard Romeo let out a fond “Kids” followed by a chuckle from Albert. The three of them reached the door and found themselves backstage, before walking onto the actual stage.

There were still some newsies sitting on stage, but there were significantly less than when they had left. David noticed that almost all of them were Manhattan newsies with a few from Brooklyn being the odd ones out. Spot Conlon’s absence probably being the most noticeable one out of all of them.

The moment the newsies on stage noticed them the conversation died down, the attention shifting towards them. Race immediately jumped to his feet, quickly walking towards David. “Did ya find something, Davey?”

Most of the other newsies had stood up as well, giving David their undivided attention. “Where is Spot Conlon?” David asked not really sure what to think of the absence of the Brooklyn leader. He really didn’t know Conlon outside of the one time he and Jack had gone to Brooklyn and he didn’t know what to think of the guy.

Race glared at him, obviously not pleased at having his question ignored, and opened his mouth to say something but interrupted before he could. “He had to stop a fight, David. Specs went with him. Did you find out more about Jack?” Les ran towards him quickly grabbing his hand and squeezing it insistingly.

David nodded and gave his younger brother a smile before finally turning to speak to the other newsies. “We went to the Refuge and we saw Crutchie.” Some of the Manhattan newsies started to murmur at that, concerned about their friend. “Crutchie is doin’ a lot better but he hasn’t seen or heard about Jack.” The expressions that followed were a mix of relieve, for Crutchie, and concern, for Jack.

“I managed to overhear a conversation Snyder was having on the phone, with Wiesel, and he doesn’t know were Jack is. He thinks the Delancey’s did something to him.” This replaced relieve on the faces of the newsies with concern but also anger.

“Of couse, it’s them Delancey’s. They always makin’ us life difficult. They would love to hurt Jack.” growled Finch, almost spitting at the name. “Or maybe it was Wiesel, the rat.” Race said, anger taking over. “He hates Jack enough to do that.” The room was overtaken by speculations of everybody that could possibly have been the cause of Jack's absence.

“Maybe it was Katherine.” It was barely above a whisper but everyone still seemed to hear it. A deadly silence too over the room everybody looking at Boots who had been the one to say the words. Race quickly stepped forward to break the silence. “Nah, kid. Don’t think like that, she wouldn’t.” The words didn’t seem reassure anyone, not even Race himself.

“Uhmm.” Albert said awkwardly. “Speakin’ of kids. You aware there is a child in ta theatre. Just runnin’ around?” Race looked back at Albert, confused. “What do ya mean? Ya know Medda don’t like that so we told all the newsies they can’t go back there.”

“Yeah, we know. But when we came in here there was this kid runnin’ around. Les’ age.” David continued. “He was wearin’ red so that means he’s Brooklyn right?” This time David turned towards the Brooklyn newsies still present, hoping they could give them an answer. “Almost all of ‘em were send back to Brooklyn by Spot not to long ago. ‘Specially the littles ‘cause it was late. It can’t be one of them.” One of the Brooklyn newsies answered, looking just as confused as the other newsies.

Before any of them could say more on the topic they were interrupted by a loud, pained scream coming from the back room. For a second they all just stood there completely shocked by the sudden scream when they hadn’t been expecting it. David made eye contact with Race for a second before both of them were running towards back stage and through the door. Behind him David could hear other newsies running after them but he didn’t let himself look behind him to see who they were. The first thing he noticed when he entered the back room was that there was a lot of shouting going on.

“HOLD HIM DOWN! HOLD HIM DOWN! DON’T LET HIM GO!”

There was a man in pretty nice clothes standing in front of a table with someone on it, who was making frantic gestures at the other people in the room. At the same time he was also almost being pulled off of his feet by collar by a very angry looking Spot Conlon.

“YOU STAY AWAY FROM HIM! IF YOU TAKE ONE MORE STEP FORWARD I’LL PUT MA FIST IN YAR MOUTH! I TOLD YA TO WAIT AND YA DIDN’T!”

David quickly walked closer to the group, Race walking beside him. He could see Medda standing by the head of the table, she was looked very upset. Her hands were on the person on the table but she was looking at Spot and the other man.

“EVERYBODY CALM DOWN! THIS IS NOT HELPING!”

The last person that was shouting was non other than Specs. The newsie was standing next to Medda but wasn’t talking to the other people in the room like her, he was shouting at the person on the table.

“JACK, CALM DOWN! PLEASE CALM DOWN, JACK! YOU’LL HURT YOURSELF IF YA DON’T!”

The startling realisation that the person on the table was indeed Jack brought David to a halt. Jack was lying on the table on his back with Medda holding down his shoulders and Specs his waist. David could see there were bloody wounds all over his back but they didn’t seem to stop Jack at all.

The boy was twisting around on the table, desperately trying to get free of Medda’s and Specs’ hold on him. His head was whipping from side to side and there was a panicked look in his eyes. He didn’t seem to be aware of his surroundings if the glazed over look in his eyes was any indication.

David moved forward, he wanted to help but didn’t really know what to do. The closer he got the more hurt Jack seemed to be, blood was streaming from his back onto the table in big amounts. He raised his hands but ended up just having them hover over Jack, not wanting to hurt the other further.

“EVERYBODY SHUT THE HELL UP AND GET AWAY FROM HIM!”

David, as well as everybody else in the room, froze and he slowly backed away a few steps before turning to look at Race. The younger quickly stepped towards the table were Medda and Specs were still holding Jack down. “Let him go ya are only scarin’ him. He is gonna panic!” Both Medda and Specs seemed to hesitate for a second before letting go of Jack.

The second Jack was free to move he rolled over and off of the table. David flinched at the scream that left Jack’s lip when he caught himself with his hands, which David now realized one of did not look too good.

Jack curled up into a ball, raising his arms to cover his head. From the corner of his eye David could see Spot Conlon take a step forward but Race quickly gestured for him to stop. The silence in the room was so deafening it almost seemed like no one was even breathing.

Race slowly walked towards were Jack was laying curled up on the floor and crouched down beside him. “Heya, Jack. I need ya to calm down far me, okay? You is safe, we is at the theatre.” Jack didn’t move at Race’s words but he did seem to whisper something back to Race, who frowned at their leader.

“Yeah, I know you is Jack Kelly. It is me, Racer. I ain’t gonna hurt ya ever.” Everybody in the room seemed to hold their breath as Jack slowly lowered his arms from his face, revealing the bruises there. David felt himself get nauseous at the endless injuries that seemed to cover Jack’s body. Carefully, he took a step closer to the duo on the ground, trying to see more.

“Rac’r?” Jack’s speech was slightly slurred and his voice sounded a bit hoarse, but David felt an intense amount of relieve at hearing Jack speak.

“Yeah, it is me Jack. And Spot is here. And Davey. And Medda.” Race said carefully reaching out to lay his hands on top of Jack’s shoulders. Jack seemed to relax a little before panic spread on his face again.

An’ Kathe’ine?” David felt a unsettling feeling grow in his chest. Katherine could cause Jack so much fear because he was concerned or….

“No, Katherine is not here.” Race tried to reassure Jack but it didn’t seem to calm Jack down at all. “S’e was ‘ith Pul’tzer. T’ey g’nna come to the rall’. You ‘ave to go.” Anger now welled up in David. So Katherine was working against them?

“Jack, the rally is done. They ain’t taking us ‘cause Medda send the Spider away. He ain’t hurtin’ us.” Jack slowly sat up at Race’s words and leaned his head against Race’s shoulder, clearly exhausted. Race seemed to hesitate for a moment, seemingly debating whether they should let Jack rest of ask more questions before settling on the latter.

“Can ya tell us what happened, Jack? Maybe it helps us?” Jack tried to bury his head deeper into Race’s shoulder before he started talking again. “I were at tha World, cuz I thought it only fair to invite Pulitzer. ‘nd Katherine was there and she is Pultizer’s daughter. And then the Delancey’s and Snyder hurts me. There was the Brooklyn newsies also, they hurt me. P-Pebble got help.” Jack tried to get all the information out as fast as possible but seemed frustrated with the fact that his mouth wasn’t really cooperating. He frowned a bit. “I can’t remember, it’s hard.”

Behind him he heard someone let out a curse. He turned around to see Spot Conlon moving towards the exit of the theatre. “Hey, where are ya goin’?” David yelled after the Brooklyn leader. Was he seriously leaving right now?

“Where ya think ‘m  goin’, mouth? Imma bust the Delancey’s faces in. And when I am done with that I do the same to your little traitor reporter. That ‘ll get the message across to Pulitzer that he don’t mess with us newsies.” David walked towards Spot at that.

“You won’t be doin’ that. It is late and will only cause you more trouble. We don’t need that.” Spot walked towards him, getting up in his face. “Oh, yeah? ‘Cause to me it looks like you were just too damn stupid to see that your friend was actually workin’ against us. ‘his is all your fault. Ain’t ya supposed to be smart?“ Spot now also turned towards the rest of the newsies in the room.

“Actually, I is wonderin’ why the hell he even went to ‘the World’ alone? Don’t ya care about him?” This caused some of the Manhattan newsies to shout in outrage at Spot’s words. David felt himself get angry as well at the implication that they were responsible for Jack’s injuries. “Watcha mean with that, hmm? Weren’t it yar newsies that hurt him even more? How ya think you can imply we is responsible?”

David saw the remaining Brooklyn newsies come to stand beside Spot, ready to back up their leader. He could see from the corner of his eye that most of the Manhattan newsies were backing him up too. Deep down David knew that a fight would not help them in any way but the anger was just clouding his mind. “Ya is tryin’ to act like your Jack Kelly but you’ll never even be close. Ya is just a schooled, vain, spoiled boy playin’ games. Well guess what? It ain’t for us. We is real newsies and we’ll solve this the newsie way. With a good soakin’.”

David felt another bout of anger shoot through him. He knew he wasn’t like the other newsies with his folks and a roof over his head. But he had put a lot on the line for this strike, so how dare this arrogant hotshot newsie imply that this was just a game to him. David clenched his fists in anger, the urge to punch the other getting stronger by the minute. Before he actually could, however, a voice interrupted him.

“Damn it, stop foolin’ around. And help me get him back on the table. His back is bleedin’ a lot.” Race who was still sitting with Jack had the injured newsie leaning heavily leaning on his shoulder. David could hear Jack panting from where they were standing.

Even though everyone in the  room had heard what Race had said none of them seemed to be willing to move and actually help. None of them wanting to give even an inch to the newsies standing opposite of them.

“This is pathetic!” David heard someone behind him say and from the corner of his eye he saw Albert move to the pair on the ground the help Race, and now also Specs who had also gone to help hoist Jack back onto the table.

“This is enough of this! All of you need to leave this room.” Medda said while moving to stand between the Brooklyn and Manhattan newsies. “You will all go back to the theatre and stay there for the night. I don’t feel well about lettin’ the lot of you leave right now. With Snyder, Pulitzer and whatever drama you all have going on out there.”

Spot opened his mouth to protest but Medda didn’t let him. “No, I won’t have it. I’ll get you all some blankets and some water. I’ll allow three of you to stay here with Jack beside me and Mister Charles while Jack gets treated. He’ll need you.” Medda’s tone left no room for more arguments and honestly the idea of sleeping in the theatre wasn’t too bad. Their would be food and it would be warm. For most newsies this was great. David just hoped his parents wouldn't worry  to much.

“’right, but I stay here, Mouth.” Spot spat in his face before walking towards where Jack was laying on the table again, looking much paler then before.

The remaining Brooklyn newsies walked back towards the stage. The idea of blankets and food quite appealing. David looked back at the other Manhattan newsies. He knew one on them should stay in the room. He had known Jack for less then a week after all. These newsies were Jack’s family. He wasn’t even close to that. But he still didn’t want to give up the place that easily.

Specs locked eyes with David for a moment before grabbing the hand of the young kid they had seen earlier, David understood by now  that his was the kid that had gotten Jack help, and also leaving the room. Les following them. One by one they slowly left the room until there was just the doctor, Medda, Race, Spot, Romeo and of course Jack.

It was clear to all of them that Race wasn’t leaving this room, so it was either him of Romeo that would have to leave. For a second it seemed like Romeo wasn’t going to let up before he gave David a pat on the shoulder. “Please, keep us informed, Davey. We wanna know.” After that he followed the rest of the newsie out of the room.

Slowly David made his way to the table were the doctor had laid out his tools, which included a needle and threat. The doctor was talking  to Medda, seemingly ignoring the children in the room. “I’ll have to clean them first and after that I’ll sew them up. It will make the chance of an infection smaller. It will hurt  a lot, I’m afraid. I don’t have any anaesthetics with me.”

David could hear Jack let out a fearful whimper and Race trying to reassure him. The doctor handed Race, who was kneeling by Jack’s head a strip of leather. “Make him bite down on this.” Race gently managed to coach Jack’s mouth open enough for him to put the strip inside.  “Come, Jack. Bite down for me.”

David saw the doctor grab some clear liquid and put it on a cloth before gesturing to Spot and David to come closer. “You two will hold him still, one by the shoulders and one by the hips. He probably won’t struggle too much because he is exhausted but if he doesn’t move the process will be a lot quicker.”

Spot moved to hold down Jack’s shoulders, leaving David to take Jack’s hips. He carefully positioned his hands underneath the wounds, pressing Jack down into the table. The doctor looked at them once more before he grabbed the cloth again and moved to clean the first wound.

David startled awake the second he felt a hand grab his shoulder. He could feel his head pounding and his body practically begging him to go back to sleep. He tried to blink the blurriness from his eyes and was met by Les’ face.

“David you have to come now. They is going out.” Les was now pulling at his shoulder, trying to get him to stand up. David now realized that the stage, were he had been sleeping, was almost entirely empty. Only a few newsies were still getting ready but most were long gone.

David quickly got to his feet as the memories of a few hours earlier came rushing back to him. He didn’t think he would ever be able to forget the pained sounds Jack had let out as they cleaned and stitched up his back.

He jumped when he felt someone tug at his sleeve. He looked down to see it was the boy that they had seen running around backstage last night, before they had discovered Jack there. The boy was looking at the ground but did tug insistingly at David’s sleeve. David saw Les open his mouth to tell the young boy off for the action but he didn’t get the chance.

“Is you Davey?” The young boy didn’t sound afraid but he still wouldn’t look at him. “Yes, that is me. Can I help you? Pebble, right?” Pebble nodded and finally looked up at him. David felt something soft being pressed into one of his hands. He looked down to see it was a grey newsie cap. Jack’s newsie cap, he realised. There was dried blood on one side of the cap but besides that it was fine. He just couldn’t help but feel happy that at least some parts of Jack were spared. Even if it’s just a stupid cap.

That happiness is quickly erased, however, at Pebble’s next words. “There is also a real pretty lady outside. She demands to talk to you. She has hair like fire.” David feels anger well up in him. How dare she show up here after what she did?

He quickly makes his way to the backdoor of the theatre; completely ignoring the other newsies he comes across. He hears a few call out to him but he doesn’t look to see if they move to follow him. When he opens the door he is greeted by the sight of Katherine and two young, nicely dressed, men.

Katherine looks very nervous but there is also something determined in the way she looks up at him when he opens the door. Underneath her arm she is carrying some kind of cylinder with papers sticking out of it. The men standing behind her look way to rich to be in a place like this but he doesn’t see any of the usual disgust on their faces when they see him.

David hears the door open behind him but he doesn’t turn around to see who has followed him. “What are you doing here, Katherine? I think I was very clear last night. You should be happy Spot Conlon isn’t here because you wouldn’t be safe if he was.”

Katherine did seem slightly uneasy at the comment, Conlon must have scared her quite a bit to cause such a reaction. David honestly didn’t know if Conlon was still at the theatre or not. “Yeah, Davey is right. So what’s ya doin’ here?” Race said; David concluded from the direction of his voice that Race must be standing behind him and was looking over his shoulder.

“This is important. I know you don’t trust me right now but what I need to tell you is important. I have a way to end the strike.” David couldn’t help the bout of curiosity that welled up in him at the statement. The strike was still a problem they didn’t have a solution to, but he wasn’t sure he could trust Katherine ever again. He didn’t move to stop her though, interested in what her plan was.

“I was writing again and I couldn’t help but look at what I had written down about the strike. What Jack said on that second day of the strike, about the working kids of New York, made the strike about more than just the newsies. It became relevant to all forms of child labour in the city. We should use that.”

David couldn’t help but think it was a pretty good idea. If they could manage to shut down all forms of child labour, even just for a day, Pulitzer, Hearst and any other newspaper owners would budge in no time. Not to mention it might be a way to address other kinds of problems when in comes to child labour in the city. Still their was one major problem in his mind.

“For most other people this could work, but not for Pulitzer. He has too much to loose if he lowers the prices back down. He won’t do it because he is afraid to lose the support and respect of the other papes.”

Katherine just nodded excitedly at him. “ Yeah, I know. But that is why me and Miss Medda will be going to visit Roosevelt. She know the governor right? So she can take me. I will tell him everything about the strike and also about the Refuge. I have some drawings here that will hopefully convince him of the seriousness of the situation. Once he sees the situation in person he will have to do something. And with Jack’s drawin----”  

“You went through Jack’s stuff?!” David was startled for a moment by Race’s outraged question. The younger newsie pushed past him. “How dare  you? That is highly personal and you haves no right! How can you feel so entitled?” David could hear the anger in Race’s voice. In any other situation David would have laughed at Race using a word like entitled, but he  couldn’t help but be angry on Jack’s part as well.

“I am sorry, I just saw them laying there and got curi--. OH MY LORD RACE, IS THAT BLOOD?!” A horrified expression spread across Katherine’s face. Now that David turned to look at Race he saw that there was indeed blood on different spots on Race’s shirt. The younger wasn’t wearing his usual vest and looked very tired. After the doctor had stitched up all of Jack’s wounds Race had offered to clean Jack up. David had just gone to get some sleep and hadn’t seen the other newsie till now.

Race looked down at himself, seeming to just now realize what he looked like. “Yeah, it is. You know who’s? Jack’s!” Katherine let out a horrified gasp at that but Race didn’t stop talking. “I spends the ‘hole evenin’ tryin’ to help my brother who was soaked so bad he can’t even walk and in so much pain he can’t talk.”

Race took another step forward, his face now only a few inches from Katherine’s. The two men behind her seemed torn between stepping up to help her or keep a safe distance. “And you knows what I has been thinkin’ about? One of the first things he said was yours name. Not ‘cause he wants to see you but ‘cause he’s scared. Why is he scared of ya, Katherine?”

The tension was high. All the newsies on the stairs, about seven, seemed ready to pounce while Katherine seemed unwilling  to back down even tough the situation was obviously scaring her.

David felt a gentle hand move him to the side. Medda walked past him and put a hand on Race’s shoulder, causing the newsie to look at her. “I know you is angry, Race. But maybe there is more to the story than we know.” Medda looked at Katherine with a calculating expression on her face.

“Maybe we should discuss this inside.”

Chapter Text

For a second it seems Race was not going to let up but with a final squeeze to the shoulder the newsie gave in. He turned around and pushed past David, who was still staring at Katherine. He felt conflicted about the whole situation. On one hand, he just couldn’t believe that she could ever really hurt Jack but on the other hand she had lied to them before.

Katherine hesitantly took a step forward, seemingly testing if they would really let her in. With a sigh David turned around as well and entering the theatre again. The stopped in the backstage room again. Jack was not there at the moment but the table, that was now shoved away against the wall, was still there with the bloody blanket on top of it. David turned around just fast enough to see Katherine’s gaze linger on it.

“So who is this?” David asked while gesturing to the men that were still standing behind Katherine. Katherine seemed confused for a moment before apparently realising that they didn’t know her two companions.

David didn’t like the look of the pair at all. They could be dangerous and potentially sell them out like Katherine had done. Or maybe they were with Katherine in a other way; a thought that made David have mixed feelings. Anger for Jack because David was sure there was something between the two of them; they would be perfect together. At the same time also a sense of relieve because if Katherine was with one of these men she wouldn’t be with Jack. David really didn’t want to think about the reason he didn’t want Jack and Katherine to be a couple.

David was pulled back to reality when one of the men, the one dressed in a light beige suit, stepped forward. “Hello gentleman,” he turned to Medda, “and you of course Miss. My name is Darcy.” Before Darcy could say more Katherine interrupted him. “Darcy knows just about everything there is about printing. His father also owns ‘the Trib’.”

David felt his own mouth fall open and from the corner of  his eye he could see he wasn’t the only shocked one. Even Race who had still been glaring at Katherine couldn’t hide his shock. Katherine pointed to the other man, this one was wearing a suit as well but instead of beige it was a light grey with stripes.

“And this is Bill. He is an expert when it comes to typesetting any kind of article or paper.”  Albert let out a disbelieving laugh  as he stammered. “Bill? So I suppose you is the son of William Randolph Hearst, right?” Bill just gave Albert a kind smile, seeming completely unfazed, as he gave the group a nod in greeting. “Yeah. And proud to be a part of your revolution.” Albert turned to Romeo slowly as he softly muttered, “Ain’t that somethin’?”

Race turned to Katherine, back to glaring at her again. “So these is some rich people. How does that help us? What is they gonna do? Print a pape or somethin’?” Katherine’s face lit up at that, happy at the fact that Race did seem to be giving her a chance. “Well, we have a plan. I may or may not have written a paper that calls on all the workin’ kids in New York to gather at ‘the World’. We'll shut the city down completely if we can manage to get all forms of child labour to stop for a while. And with the help of the Governor you guys will not only win the strike but it will also bring attention to the situations of other workin’ kids in New York.” Katherine said, almost exactly voicing what David had thought about earlier.

“Mmmh, smart indeed. But you forget one thing Katherine, Pulitzer has a ban out on the strike, so nobody will print it. And unless you have a printing press up in ya room we don’t really have access to one.” Race’s words made Katherine’s excited expression disappear.

However, David, while he really didn't want to admit it, did think this was a good plan and this might be the only solution to their problems. “Not so fast, there has got to be one printing press in New York City that Pulitzer does not control!” Katherine nodded that, seeming relieved that he was backing her up.

“I think that’s true, Davey.”

David, and everyone else in the room, turned around to look behind them as fast as he could at  the sound of the familiar voice.

Jack looked very pale and there was already sweat gathering on his forehead. The newsie was slowly coming down the stairs, heavily leaning on one Spot Conlon who was almost carrying Jack entirely. The swelling on his face had gone down enough that Jack could see from both eyes now, but the bruising on his face was still very dark and prominent. His left hand was wrapped tightly in gauze and bandages.

David could also see the bandages peek out from underneath Jack’s shirt which wasn’t buttoned up as high as usual. Jack was wearing his own shirt but without the usual vest, so when he turned slightly David could see that the back was almost completely stained by dark red blood. Les immediately rushed over with a chair for Jack to sit down in. Spot helped him sit down and quickly put a cushion between Jack and the back of the chair. Jack still let out a soft whimper when he sat down and leaned back but he did seem relieved to not be standing anymore.

Th moment Jack sat down the room seemed to come back to life as almost every Manhattan newsie rushed towards their leader. Race was the first one there and immediately stared reprimanding. “What do you think you is doin’ out of bed. I just put ya down an hour ago!”

Jack just gave all of them a soft smile, far from his usual tough and cocky persona. “I had to come down here to see ma boys ‘f course.” He raised his hand to ruffle Les’ hair but David could see even that small action exhausted the newsie.

“Won’t ya come over here, Davey.” Jack’s words successfully snapped David out of his frozen state and he quickly walked to where Jack was sitting. David didn’t miss how Race’s hands were laying on top of Jack’s shoulders, probably to make sure the other wouldn’t keel over. Jack was leaning his head against Race’s right arm and tilted it up slightly as David stopped in front of him.

“Spot, told me ya have somethin’ of mine.” For a second David had no idea what Jack was talking about, having been way too focused on the others sudden appearance. When the realisation came David quickly reached into his pocket to pull out the grey cap and gently place it on Jack’s head. Before he could step away he felt Jack grip his wrist weakly. “Thank you.” The way Jack was looking at him, with so much gratitude, let David know that he wasn’t just thanking him for the cap. David just smiled back and muttered a soft, “No problem.”

All the newsie seemed kind of hesitant to touch Jack after he had been, and still kind of was, so vulnerable. For a minute Jack just asked a few questions and gave a few pats on the other newsies’ backs, not daring to raise his arm above his shoulder. David could see that, even though Jack fought to hide it like a champ, the other was obviously in a lot of pain. It hadn’t even been more than four hours since the doctor had finished sewing up Jack’s back and if what Race had said was true Jack hadn’t even slept a whole hour. Still an easy and comfortable (almost) silence filled the room as Jack continued to make conversation with the newsies, especially the younger ones. David could even hear Jack ask a Little about a loose tooth which the Little then proudly pulled out of one of his pockets and offered to Jack.

There had been a tension amongst them that had seemed to disappear now that Jack was back. Even Race, who hadn’t dared to let his guard down as long as he was stepping in for Jack, seemed almost completely relaxed now. At least till their peaceful atmosphere was broken.

“So, you said something about a printing press?” It was one of Katherine’s companions, the one with the beige suit. Darcy? Or was this one Bill? David had honestly already forgotten. The man seemed nervous but also impatient at the same time.

Jack coughed awkwardly. “Y-Yeah. Uhm, there is a printin’ press we could use. There is just one small problem. It is in the cellar of ‘the World’.” David saw Jack glance at the other newsie nervously before continuing. “It is in an abandoned part of the buildin’. But I don’t know how we could ever get in.”

By the dark look in Jack’s eyes David could tell there was more to the story, but he could ask about that later.

“Oh, we needn’t worry about that. I think I know a way. We would just need to do it at night.” Katherine said while offering Jack a small smile, which he didn’t return. “Now is not the time for secrets, Pulitzer. I won’t send ma boys in there if I ain’t sure it’s safe.” Spot Conlon said as he stepped in front of Katherine, who immediately took a step back.

“I-I am going to ask the janitor. He doesn’t like my father and has been asking me about the strike form the beginning. He is with us a hundred percent.” She managed to stutter out before taking another step away back.

David did feel a little bad now. He knew Katherine had messed up by not telling her about her father earlier but he also knew she couldn’t help who she was related to. Of course, he couldn’t be completely sure yet but David was almost certain that she wasn’t involved with how Jack got hurt, either. He just couldn't believe she would ever do something like that.

“That sound like a good plan to me. It’s almost fool proof.” He said as he stepped forward. Katherine gave him a grateful and relieved smile.

David saw Jack and Spot Conlon exchange glances. They were having a silent conversation in a way you only could if you had known each other for years. He could see the Brooklyn leader give Jack a nod before Jack glanced over at Race who gave a small nod as well.

“Alright, we’ll do it tonight.”

And with those words from Jack, they finally had a real plan.

“I still think this is a very bad idea.” David said as he glared at the duo beside him. The other newsies had gone back to the lodging house and would meet them at the back door of ‘the World’. He was now slowly making his way form the theatre to that very building with Race and a still very injured Jack, who absolutely refused to stay at the theatre.

“Don’t ya worry, Davey. I slept almost the ‘hole day. I ain’t missin’ this ev’r. That’s ma boys out there.” Jack was able to walk a little bit himself but Race had to support him for the most part. Medda, David and the doctor had all told Jack that it was a bad idea for him to come with them but Jack had been as stubborn as ever.

So here they were, making their way to ‘the World’ in  the middle of the night. Davey shivered, not really from the cold and more from the nervousness. He had no idea how this would go.

Not to far in the distance David could see the shape of the building of ‘the World’. They made their way to the back of the building and reached a small alley, where they were greeted with the sight of newsies form all over New York City.

They immediately parted when they saw the three of them, whispering softly as they walked by. There had obviously been rumours about what had happened to THE Jack Kelly but nobody had known for certain. Now that he was here, heavily leaning on another newsie with his face beaten almost completely blue, the seriousness of the ordeal seemed to sink in.

They reached the door where they were greeted by Katherine, Elmer, Romeo, Bill, Darcy, Spot Conlon and Les. Spot Conlon almost immediately stepped forward to trade places with Race as he took over supporting Jack. David saw Jack look at the door almost scared and could swear he heard him say something along the lines of “Back again”. 

Katherine took one of the big keys out and unlocked the door with a click. Once inside they entered a dark hallway. It was completely silent except for the sounds of  their footsteps and the occasional whimper Jack let out.

A few hallways down they reached a door that led to what must be the cellar. David could hear Jack inhale sharply in what he guessed had to be fear. He turned around and tried to give Jack reassuring smile only to see that Jack was as white as a sheet, eyes wide as he looked down the stairs.

Slowly the group began to move down the stairs and into the cellar. The room was mostly empty, the only noticeable thing was the big, old printing press in the middle of it. Katherine walked to the side of the room as she lit a few of the lamps.

The sight that greeted them made David instantly feel nauseous. The wooden, table-like part of the printing press was covered in dark red stains, which David guessed had to be dried blood. Jack’s blood. He could also see some on the floor beneath the press and now that he looked there was also some on the stairs. Then there was the bloody belt lying on the table and it didn’t take a genius to make the connection between Jack’s wounds and the accessory. David noticed he wasn’t the only one that was shocked as almost every one in the room seemed deeply unsettled.

“So?” Jack was the one to break the silence. He didn’t seem affected by the sight but also made a point not to look at the press. He had asked the question to Darcy who seemed to not know what to say for a moment before stepping forward and examining the press.

“A little grease, and she’ll be good as gold.” With a relieved smile David stepped forward, they could set the rest of the plan in motion now. “Alright, here’s how it’ll work. As we print the papes, Race, you’ll let the fellaws in, and they’ll spread ‘em to every workin’ kid in New York. After that…” David trailed of.

“After that it’s up to them.” Jack said firmly. He was standing on his own now even though he was holding on to one of the metal beams to stay upright. He pressed the keys into Race’s hands before giving the younger an encouraging push against the shoulder, so he would go outside and get the others.

While all of the others got to work David carefully made his way over to Jack. The newsie was leaning heavily against the wall, looking totally exhausted already. “Maybe you sit down for a minute, Jack.”

Jack looked at him defiantly and for a second David thought there would be some sort of snarky remark, but Jack just let himself slide down the beam to sit on the ground. David sat down beside him, it would probably take a little while for the first papes to be ready and there wasn’t really anything he could do right now.

He flinched when he suddenly felt something come to rest against his shoulder. He looked to the side and discovered it was Jack who had laid his head on David’s shoulder. The newsie had closed his eyes but David didn’t think he was actually sleeping. He gave a soft smile as he looked at the other, Jack looked so peaceful like this.It was something David hadn’t had the privilege to see before now.

David could see the exact moment Jack fell asleep. Something in his face relaxed and his mouth fell open a little bit. Even though Jack’s face was still covered in bruises David was able to forget about the strike for a minute.

David considered himself to be pretty smart but he just couldn't understand the way he felt right now. The way his heart hammered in his chest when Jack tried to bury his face in his shoulder. Or the way he could feel himself blush whenever Jack called him Davey, something he didn’t do when it was one of the other newsies.

“He doesn’t let his guard down like this often.” David startled a little but luckily didn’t wake Jack up at the sudden sound coming from above him. He looked up to see Spot Conlon standing in front of him, arms crossed over his chest.

David just nodded, not really sure how to respond to that. “When I first saw you, Mouth, at the rally,  I thought you were some hotshot, spoiled rich kid.” David knew that, Conlon had even told him so to his face. “And I still thinks that’s true, but I also think you does care.”

David realized what this was now, a peace offering. “Jack is their leader and Race can step in any time for ‘im.” For a moment the other seemed to hesitate, like he wasn’t sure if he should say what he wanted to say. “But you was important too.”

For a second David didn’t know what to say. This wasn’t just a peace offering, it was an apology. He looked up at Conlon and gave him a smile “So are you.”

The other let out a chuckle. “Of course, I am, Mouth, no revolution without Brooklyn.” He moved to walk away but David quickly spoke up.

“David. My name is David.”

The Brooklyn leader turned around for a second before offering him a smile before spitting in his hand and extending it towards him. “Spot Conlon.”

With a smile David spat in his hand as well before shaking hands with the other. In just that small interaction Spot Conlon, leader of newsies in Brooklyn, had become just Spot.

David was just still sitting on the ground. About 30 minutes had passed and the first papes were almost done. Beside him Jack suddenly startled awake, eyes immediately wide open. For a second it looked like he was about to panic before his eyes landed on David.

“Sleep well, Jack?” Jack just nodded before glancing down to David’s shoulder, where his head had been laying a few seconds ago. “’m sorry. Didn’t mean to sleep on ya.” He mumbled to David while trying to rub the sleep for his eyes. David just smiled, thinking Jack looked absolutely adorable right now.

“Is they almost done?” Jack asked after he had glanced at where papers were going into the printing press. “Yeah, they almost finished getting’ everythin’ ready for the printin’.” David said as he nodded.

Jack let out a whine before startling David by burying his head back into David’s shoulder. David couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped at the sight of the fearless Jack Kelly whining like a child.

“Don’t laugh, Davey. Ma head hurts like hell.” David’s laugh immediately stopped as he recalled the doctor saying something about a serious head injury. He hadn’t thought about it because Jack really hadn’t show any discomfort until now.

“Wait here, I’ll get you some water.” David stood up and made it way towards a small table near the stairs with a few cups of water on top of it. When Katherine had come down with a few cups of water for everyone that was working on the press David had heard Spot ask her to make sure there would be one left for Jack once he woke up.

David grabbed the only cup that still had some water in it and made his way back to Jack. The other newsie had pushed himself to his feet, with the help of Les, and was slowly walking to the centre of the room. David pushed the cup into Jack’s hands which he took eagerly.

Les looked up at the both of them, suddenly seeming nervous. “Do you think it’ll work? The plan?” Jack smiled down at the younger with a kind smile as he reached out the ruffle Les’ hair. “Of course, kid. We ain’t come this far to lose.”

“LET’S GO, BOYS!”

The shout had come form down the hallway and the only warning they got for the huge amount of newsies approaching was Race yelling something along the lines of, “Here they come”.

Suddenly newsies after newsie was rushing down the stairs gathering across the room and the story above the cellar from which they could still see the printing process. At some point Bill had the first printed pape in his hand which he passed to the closest newsie.

The paper was passed around till is reached Katherine who read it out loud. “In the words of union leader Jack Kelly.” After which she pointed at Jack with a smile, causing the newsies to start to clap and cheer. David could see a light blush reach Jack’s face as he tried to quiet the newsies down. Once it was mostly silent again Katherine continued. “We will work with you, we will even work for you, but we will be paid and treated as valuable members of your organization.”

This caused another round of cheers from the newsies present before Katherine handed the paper of to Spot who was standing close to her. The Brooklyn had been glaring at her the entire time she had been talking, he clearly hadn’t forgiven her.

Katherine turned to Jack, and thereby also to David who was still standing beside him, and offered him a kind smile. “Riveting stuff, huh?” Jack seemed a little nervous and as far as David knew the two of them hadn’t had the chance to talk yet.

David quickly stepped forward and made a gesture with his hand towards the door. “Hey, you should get goin’. You got a very important man to see.” He could see Katherine’s face fall as her attempt at talking to Jack failed. She still offered the two of them a smile. “Well, keep your fingers crossed, okay?” She said before turning around and making her way out of the cellar.

David turned  back to Jack who gave him a grateful smile. “Thanks, Davey.” Jack said before making his way to where the others were working on printing as many papes as.

It wasn’t long before there were quite a few papes lying on the ground beside the printing press. Darcy had apparently decided that he had printed enough of them because he and a few newsies had started to push the press to the side of the room.

He, Jack and Race made their way over to the stacks of papes in the middle of the room. Both he and Race looked at Jack for permission, which he gave with a nod, before they started throwing the papes to the newsies that were standing the closest to them.

The papes made their way up the chain to all the other newsies, all making sure that everyone had a fair share.

One by one the newsies left the building, going to spread the papes through New York. David helped Jack out of ‘the World’ and led him to the square in front of it. It was still mostly dark but in less then a hour the streets would be bustling with life.

They were joined by a few other newsies who didn’t have any papes to sell, including Les, Race and Specs. Les looked up at the older newsies impatiently. “So what do we do now?” David smiled down at his younger brother.

“Now we wait.”

Chapter Text

Spot had gone to direct his newsies to were they needed to go to spread their pape, before he returned to the square in front of ‘the World’. He felt like he could fall over any minute and absolutely didn’t have the energy to go and deliver papes through New York City. With the whole stitching up Jack he had probably gotten about 4 hours of sleep.

When he reached the square he was greeted by the sight of a few newsies sitting against the foot of a statue. The moment Race spotted him he stood up and walked towards him. Even tough they normally didn’t show much affection in public, he couldn’t help himself. He was tired and just wanted to hold the one he loved for a second.

Race seemed to understand him, like he always did, and just let him wrap his arms around his waist as he hugged him back. For a few seconds they just stood there together before Spot managed to pull away again.

He looked at the sitting newsies again and spotted Jack leaning against the statue with his side. The newsie looked totally exhausted and seemed barely able to keep his eyes open. Spot looked back at Race questioningly. “How’s he doin’?”

Race looked back at Jack as well with a sigh. “He’s not good. He shouldn’t be here, but ya know Jack.” Spot just smiled at Race’s agitation. “Yeah, I do. Stubborn as always.”

With a final squeeze he let go of Race and made his way over to were Jack was sitting beside David in the sun. Jack looked up as he came closer. “Heya, Jackie. How’s that head of yours doin’?” Jack gave him a small smile but Spot could see he was in pain.

“Ma head hurts like hell but it’s ma back that’s the worst. Don’t think I could stand up if I tried.” Spot smiled at him compassionately. “Wy don’t we get ya into the shadow, hmm?” Jack just nodded and Spot carefully pulled the younger upright, almost carrying him completely. He slowly made his way to the side of the square, where there was a tree planted that caused quite a big amount of shadow directly beneath it. They ware about a hundred metres removed from where the others were sitting against the statue.

It was probably because there weren’t a lot of newsies around that Jack allowed Spot to carry him like that because he would never let the rest of the newsies see him like this. He carefully lowered Jack back to the ground in the shadow, letting him lean against one of the trees there.

He went to push the hair out of his face but suddenly realized he wasn’t wearing his cap. He looked around to see if he had dropped it before realizing it had probably fallen of when he hugged Race or something like that.

He looked down at Jack who still looked like he could fall asleep any second now but was desperately trying to stay awake. If he would go get his cap it would only be a minute and it was not like anything would happen. Right? Even if, David was looking in Jack’s direction too so it would be fine.

“I gotta get ma cap, Jack, but I won’t even be a second.” Jack looked up at him with a small smile. “T’is fine Spot. ‘m fine now.” And while Spot certainly disagreed with that he just gave Jack a nod before quickly running towards the statue were he and Race had stood not too long before.

Jack’s head hurt like hell. It was like someone was constantly hitting his head with a hammer. The moment Spot set him down in the shadow a sigh of relieve left his lips, being out of the sun really helped.

Spot looked down at him. “I gotta get ma cap, Jack, but I won’t even be a second.” Jack knew that if Spot didn’t go get it, someone else would probably take it within minutes. That was justhow it was on the streets. “T’is fine Spot. ‘m fine now.” He said while waving Spot away.

He really didn’t feel fine but he could sit here on his own for a minute. He really needed to get his act together before his boys would think he was weak.

Jack looked at were the other newsies were sitting and smiled at the sight of Race holding Spot’s cap just out of his reach. The shorter newsie throwing all sorts of curses at the taller one, as he tried to reach for his cap over and over again. Anyone else would already have had a life-changing soaking but Race could get away with these things.

He was just about to lay his head back down against the tree when someone grabbed his shoulder hard and a thumb was pressed hard into space where one of his wounds was. He was sure he would have let out a scream if another hand hadn’t covered his mouth.

“Well, hey there Cowboy. See you ain’t doin’ so hot, hè?” Jack froze at the sound of Morris Delancey’s voice, fear overtaking him. He tried to twist to get out of the grip Morris had on him but it was futile. Normally, he could match the Delanceys in strength but he was just so exhausted.  

From the corner of his eye he could see Oscar Delancey standing there, a sinister smile on his face. “Ya got us in some trouble, Kelly. Just ‘cause ya couldn’t get yourself to that rally on time.” Jack shook his had while clawing at the hand in front of his mouth with his right hand.

For a second the Delanceys said nothing before he felt a hand land on his back and push. Hard. Jack let out a muffled scream into the hand in front of his mouth as  fire spread through his back. He tried to twist out of Morris’ again and this time he was successful.

Jack felt himself fall forward but caught himself with his elbows, part of a scream leaving his lips. He tried to crawl away but he felt someone grab his ankle and was pulled backwards. With a sudden wave of courage, or maybe it was fear, he flipped himself onto his back, ignoring how the action send waves of agony across his back,  and kicked Oscar, who had been dragging him across the street, hard in the crotch.

Oscar doubled over in pain and Jack raised his foot again, this time kicking the Delancey in the face. Blood sprayed from Oscar’s nose at the sickening crack that followed the contact. Oscar let himself fall to the ground as he groaned in pain.

“Go to hell, you bastard.”

With an outraged yell Morris ran towards him, managing to grab Jack by the collar of his shirt and pulling him upright. Not having enough strength in his legs to support himself after what he had just done, Jack just hung from Morris' grip. “You is fucking scum, Kelly.” In response Jack just spat right in Morris’ face.

“Oh, you is gonna regret that.” Morris said as his face became red with anger. With his last bit of energy he had, Jack stomped the heel of his foot down hard on top of Morris’ toes. Mirroring what Oscar had done to his hand in the cellar.

With a shout of pain Morris let go of Jack, causing him to slump to the ground, the side of his face making harsh contact with the street. Morris came towards him once more, hands moving up to grab Jack again.

But before he could reach Jack he was tackled to the ground by a red blur. Jack just let his forehead fall to the ground in exhaustion, letting his eyes fall closed, all the adrenaline from before leaving him.

Suddenly, there were hands feeling all over him. Seemingly, checking him for injuries, like he didn’t have enough of those.

“Jack. Jack. Open your eyes.”

He tried to turn his head away, not wanting to open his eyes in the next few hours. “Jack, look at me damnit!” At the insistent feeling of hands on him he opened his eyes with at bit of difficulty. He was met with Davey’s face right in front of his.

He looked to were Morris had been standing a second ago to see Spot wailing on his face. There was blood on Spot’s fists that hadn’t been there before and Morris didn’t seem to be moving at all. Oscar was still in the same spot where he had landed after Jack had kicked him, still clutching his nose.

Race seemed to finally have pulled Spot away from Morris, who’s face was completely covered in blood. The sight of the two laying on the ground, both injured, gave Jack some twisted sense of satisfaction.

Suddenly, he felt the pressing urge to stand up, he didn’t want to feel so vulnerable after what just happened. He tried to get upright but found that his legs still didn’t want to support him. Davey quickly stepped forward and let Jack lean on him.  With a bit of difficulty and a lot of help from Davey Jack finally managed to get back on his feet.

Davey started to guide him away from where the Delancey’s were laying on the ground but Jack stopped him by taking a step in the direction of the beat-up brothers.

He stopped when he was standing over them, so very different form how the situation had been not even a minute ago. Morris seemed to be out cold but Oscar looked up at Jack with terrified eyes.

“Ya still stink, Oscar. So ya better get out of here now or it won’t just be ya nose that’s brok’n.” Jack growled out even he couldn’t even stand on his own.

Oscar quickly scrambled away from them, running to his brother to try and get out of here, all the while he was still bleeding form his nose.

As the Delancey’s disappeared from their sight Jack let out a sigh of relief. He only had a moment before the newsies around him started cheering. Almost everyone that had been in the square before, which was not too many newsies, was now standing around him.

Racer walked up to him with a wide grin on his face. “My, my cowboy! No one beats THE Jack Kelly. Yours is beaten half to death and ya still won.” The newsies cheered even harder at that.

Even though, his whole body ached Jack couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face. For the first time since Crutchie had been taken to the Refuge he felt a sense of victory. Maybe they could actually do this.

Spot was looking at the builing of ‘the World’ before looking back to the now huge amounts of newsies sitting behind him. All of their papes had been spread through the city and if the plan worked children should be coming any minute now.

Jack was sitting beside him looking worse with every hour that passed. Spot couldn’t stop the guilt that spread through him. He had been the one to leave Jack alone, which caused him to be attacked. Now the younger was so shaken up he didn’t allow himself any sort of rest for even a second.

Spot was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of voices. Not just normal, talking voices. No. Singing voices.

“When you got a million voices singin’. Who can hear a lousy whistle blow?”

Spot looked up, startled by the sudden noise. He quickly rose to his feet, to see hundreds, maybe even thousands, of children enter the square from all kinds of directions. All waving their pape above their heads.

"And the World will know!"

The newsies couldn’t help but cheer on the top of their lungs. They had actually come.

Spot knew Pulitzer had to be panicking inside of his office right now.

Next to him, Jack managed to get to his feet. He looked at Spot with a slight smile. David and Race had walked towards them as well. David looked at the building of ‘the World’ in front of them.

“Guess, now comes part two. “ The rest of them just nodded. Race would stay outside with all the kids while the three of them would go and talk to Pulitzer.

After having taken a deep breath to calm himself, Jack took a careful step forward. David stepped forward so that Jack could lean on him but Jack was having none of that.

Careful but determined Jack took another step forward. All of the children parted so they could make their way towards the building. The cheering had not stopped but everyone’s attention was on them.

When they had managed to reach to big wooden doors of ‘the World’, Jack looked back at them for a second before pushing them open and walking inside. As soon as the doors closed again behind them, silence washed over them.

Even though they were here for important business, Spot couldn’t help looking around himself a little bit amazed. He had never been in a building as fancy as this one. Huge carpets on the ground and paintings hanging on the walls.

Spot gaze was directed towards the middle of the hallway again when a middle aged man in suit came rushing towards them. “What do you think you’re doin’? You can’t be in here!” Spot just gave the man a smile. “Don’t ya worry ya head about that. Pulitzer will want to see us.”

The man did apparently not see it that way as he tried to block their way by standing in front of them. At the same time he also seemed to not want to touch them, which led to him just walking backwards in front of them as they made their way to Pulitzer’s office.

When they reached the doors to Pulitzer’s office, they could hear the sound of loud voices coming from inside. The man in the suit was still standing in front of them like he was going to stop them, but Spot patience had run out. He stepped forward and gave the man a hard shove to the right as he pushed open the doors. Behind him he could hear the man yell after him.

“You can’t just barge in here!”

Spot ran forward and slammed their pape down onto Pulitzer’s desk, who for a second seemed like he didn’t know what to say.

“Mornin’, gents!” Jack almost sounded like their was nothing wrong. When Spot turned around to look at him Jack was walking with his usual swagger and that infuriating smile on his face.

While Pulitzer certainly looked surprised at Jack’s appearance the main emotion on his face was anger. “You’re behind this.” He growled at the Manhattan leader.

Jack just smirked back at the man. “Yeah, Joe. Oh, and thank you for your lesson on the powers of the press.” Jack backed away from  the man a bit and carefully lowering  himself in on of the fancy seats in the room. Jack couldn’t manage to keep the wince of his face as his back touched the chair but immediately covered that moment of weakness with his usual bravado as he slung his left leg over the arm of the chair.

The man that had been talking to with Pulitzer before the three of them came in rushed towards Pulitzer, their pape in hand. “Did you read this, boss?” The man looked down at the pape again. “These kids put out a pretty good paper. Very convincing.”

Pulitzer looked at the paper through his glasses for a second before taking them off again. “No doubt written by my daughter.”

“Oh, I would sign her before somebody else grabs her.” Spot could hear Jack say from behind him.

Pulitzer stood up in anger, slamming his fist down onto the table, before looking the man and woman beside him. “I demand to know who defied my ban on printing strike material!”

Spot couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face as he turned to look at David who was trying to hide his smile as well. Jack raised his hands in defence as he feigned innocence. “Oh. No, we’re your loyal employees. Oh, we would never take our business elsewhere.”

Spot watched with glee as realization seemed to dawn on the man standing beside Pulitzer. “That old printing press in the cellar.” Spot could have sworn that the woman next to Pulitzer was at least a little impressed with them as she let out an amazed “Oh”.

Spot looked at Jack to see the younger grinning widely at Pulitzer. The man walked out from behind his desk as he made his way towards Jack. “I made you the offer of a lifetime.”  Spot quickly stepped in front of Jack, he wasn’t letting the man that had hurt Jack so badly before anywhere near the younger. “Anyone who does not act in his own self-interest is a fool.”

The man stopped in his tracks, however, when he was interrupted by a loud voice. “What does that make you!” Pulitzer looked up in surprise at the sudden interruption. David had his hands bawled into fists before takling a step towards Pulitzer.

“This all began because you wanted to sell more papers. But now your circulation is down 70%. Why didn’t you just come talk to us?”

Spot felt a light pull on his sleeve and looked over to see Jack trying to push himself up again. He quickly grabbed Jack’s arm and pulled the other upright. Jack gave him a grateful little smile before stepping forward and dragging the room’s attention back to himself.

“Oh, ‘cause guys like Joe don’t talk to nobodies like us. But even he can’t keep ignorin’ us now.” For a second a silence fell over the room before the sound of voices singing filled their ears.

Slowly everybody in the room moved towards the balcony so they could look out the windows. Spot saw the confusion and shock appear on the faces of the three adults in the room at the sight of all the children that were gathered on the square.

Even Spot couldn’t stop an amazed laugh from leaving his lips, the sight was just incredible.

“Have a look out there, Mr. Pulitzer. I case you ain’t figured it out, we got you surrounded.” The three newsies waved down at the square, to which almost every child waved back. Spot could see his own newsies, a few of Jack’s, Racer, there were just so many.

Spot could see the slight desperation that had made his way onto Pulitzer’s face. The man had been driven into a corner. Jack seemed to see it as well, though it didn’t stop him from rubbing it in a little more.

“New York is closed for business. Paralyzed. You can’t get a paper or a shoe shine.” The younger let out a soft chuckle. You can’t send a message, ride an elevator or cross the Brooklyn Bridge. Hell, you can’t even get out of your own office. It’s time you people realize how important we children is and that we ain’t here just to be walked all over.” Jack met Pulitzer’s gaze head on, not backing down slightly.

“So, what is your next move?”

Before Pulitzer could give Jack an answer they were interrupted again by the same guy that had tried to keep them from Pulitzer’s office before.

“Mr. Pulitzer, the mayor is here along with your daughter! And, oh, you won’t believe who else.”

The mayor entered the room first but quickly stepped aside to let in a man in a brown coat.

“Good moring, Mr. Pulitzer. I think you know the governor. “

Chapter Text

A look of disbelieve spread across Pulitzer’s face. Jack could feel a combination of shock and relieve well up in himself as well. The governor had actually come.

“Governor Roosevelt?”

The governor just shook his head at Pulitzer. “Joseph, Joseph, Joseph. What have you done now?” Pulitzer seemed to regain his composure and quickly stepped forward to explain the situation.

“I’m certain when you hear my explanation, you’ll know exactly….” The governor didn’t even let Pulitzer finish his sentence. “Oh, thanks to Miss Medda Larkin bringing your daughter to my office, I already have a thorough grasp of the situation.”

Roosevelt turned around to take a cylinder from Katherine’s hands. Jack had a pretty good idea of what was in there and could only hope his drawings had in any way helped to get the seriousness of the situation across to the governor.

“Graphic illustrations included.” With a few big steps the governor was face to face with Pulitzer. “'Bully’ is the expression I usually employ to show approval. But in your case, I simply mean bully.” The governor shoved the cylinder into Pulitzers hands before turning to him and Davey.

“And is this the boy of whom you spoke?” the governor asked while pointing at Jack. Katherine gave a confirming nod and Medda gave him a reassuring smile. Jack shot Davey panicked look as the governor walked towards him.

“How are you, son? I’m told we once shared a carriage ride!” said the governor before raising his hand and slapping Jack hard on the back twice. Jack, who was totally unprepared for the harsh contact the hand made with his back, couldn’t stop a loud groan from leaving his lips as he felt his legs gave out underneath him, and he fell to his knees.

Jack felt some kind of liquid make his way down his back as pure agony spread through his back like fire, every wound there hurting. He felt hands carefully grab his shoulders to keep him upright. He could hear the surprised governor ask what was wrong with him though he couldn’t get his eyes to focus on anything.

“This governor, is the handy work of this very office here.” Medda’s voice was filled with anger. “This man over there ordered the man who we talked about earlier to do this kind of harm to the boy.”

Jack could finally get his eyes to focus on who was right in front of him and was not surprised to see it was Davey. The pain was slowly fading but left an enormous amount of exhaustion in its wake.

“That is absurd. I would never harm a child in any way. I just had him spend the night in the cellar down here. He is just exaggerating.”

“Oh!” Jack had known Medda long enough to know that she had to be seething right now, just by the tone of her voice. “You would never harm a child in any way, but you did order those goons to beat up children who till that moment hadn’t even been violent. You let Mister Snyder beat up a boy who already has a injured leg with his own crutch. And you let that same man beat my Jack here so bad that when he finally managed to get to the theatre, there was more blood on the outside than on the inside of his body!”

“Well, he looked perfectly fine just now. I think you are overestimating the seriousness of the situation.” Pulitzer said more to Medda than the governor, with just as much venom in his voice as Medda had had seconds before.

“You think what?! That I am exaggerating! Just you wait!” Suddenly, Medda was standing right in front  of him. She gave him a kind smile before laying one of her hands gently on top of his shoulder.

“Jack, baby, I need you to take of that shirt for me.” Her voice was gentle yet her words caused Jack only fear. He quickly shook his head and couldn’t stop the whimper that left his lips at the thought of the likes of Pulitzer seeing him at his most vulnerable.

Medda bend forwards so her head was closer to Jack’s. “I know it is scary, baby, but if the governor sees them this won’t happen again to you or the other kids. I will be here the entire time.” Jack looked around the room once more before he gave a shaky nod.

Slowly Davey reached his hands to the buttons of Jack’s grey vest, keeping his gaze on Jack’s face the entire time. When Jack did show any signs of protest Davey quickly undid the buttons and carefully slid the vest off of Jack’s shoulders.

With gentle hands Davey carefully pulled Jack to his feet and Spot was there within a second for Jack to hold onto. Davey pulled the blue shirt over his head in a swift move, leaving Jack with just the white bandages to cover his upper body.

Jack desperately wanted to wrap his arms around his body so he could shield himself from all the eyes in the room. Davey positioned Jack’s arm so it wasn’t in the way and began to unwrap the bandages.

With every inch of skin that was revealed Jack could feel shock consume the room more. He knew that his back was full of wounds from the belt that were stitched together with thick, black thread. He was sure it wasn’t the prettiest sight. The front of his upper body didn’t look to good as well, black and blue bruises covering almost his entire torso with some other scrapes and the dark spot were the cigar had been pressed out.

When all of bandages were off, hands turned him around so that the governor could see his back. “This is what Mister Pulitzer and Snyder do to children that don’t do exactly what they want. I know Jack hasn’t been the easiest kid but he is a good kid that has been the subject of this kind of violence since he was five years old.”

For a minute the room was just filled with silence before Spot couldn’t contain himself anymore. “Alright, you has seen him. Can he cover up now? Ya is lookin’ at him like he is a famous paintin’ or somethin’.” That seemed to shake the room out of their shocked states.

“Of course. Please do.” The governor seemed as shocked as he was uncomfortable with the situation. Spot and Davey immediately began to re-wrap the bandages around his torso and before he knew it he was almost entirely dressed again.

“I think you realize the seriousness of the situation, governor.” The governor just nodded at Medda’s words.

“I assure you governor. I didn’t know this happened. I would never order someone to do something like that.” The governor took a step towards Pulitzer.

“Rest assured that not just you but everybody that works in this office will be investigated.” The governor looked Pulitzer up and down, once more. “Well, Joe, don’t just stand there, letting those children sing. Endlessly. Give ‘em the good news.”

Pulitzer seemed to still not know what to say but managed to stutter out something. “What good news?” The governor fixed him with a stern glare. “That you’ve come to your senses and rolled back prices. Unless, of course, you want to invite a full Senate investigation into your employment practices beside the charges of child abuse you are already facing.”

Pulitzer’s face filled with anger again. “You wouldn’t dare.” The governor just walked towards Pulitzer with a smile on his face. “After the pressure you wielded to keep me from office, I’d do it with a smile.”

The governor stopped once he was standing beside Pulitzer. “Come along, Joseph, there’s only one think worse than a hard heart. And that’s a soft head.”

The governor gave nod towards the open window that looked out onto the square. “And think of the happiness you’ll bring those children.” When Pulitzer’s expression and stance didn’t change even slightly at that the governor looked in Katherine’s direction.

“He doesn’t do happiness, does he?”

Pulitzer didn’t let up on the eye contact he had with the governor. “Mr. Kelly, if I may speak to you. Alone!”

Jack felt fear spread through his body at the suggestion alone. Spot stepped in front of him with a glare on his face. “No way. Jack is not bein’ alone with this man.” Pulitzer just glared back at the younger newsie. “I won’t talk with anyone about your pay, unless it is with Mr. Kelly.”

Pushing down the fear that was threatening to consume his entire body, Jack looked at Spot and tried to give the other newsie a smile. “This fine, Spot. You can go.”

Slowly everybody left the room, Spot lingering by the door for a second. When the woman, that worked for Pulitzer as well, walked past him she stopped for a second and applauded a few times before leaving as well.

The last to leave the room was the governor, who came to a stop beside him as well. “Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground. You can do this.” The governor raised his hand to pet him on the back again but stopped, probably realizing that wasn’t such a good idea in Jack’s current state, and instead held out his hand for Jack to shake. With a few quick steps it was just him and Pulitzer.

“I cannot put the price back where it one was. I’m sorry. I can’t.” Jack felt the urge to roll his eyes at that but managed to contain himself. Breathing in and out, he took a step towards Pulitzer. The man was standing behind his desk again. “There are other considerations…”

“Oh, I get it. I get it. You need to save face in front of all these other folks.” Jack interrupted the other man. “I’m young. I ain’t stupid.”

Relieve spread across Pulitzer’s face. “Thank you for understanding…” Jack turned back to Pulitzer and interrupted the older man. “But I got constituents with a legitimate gripe.” Normally he would probably have said it a lot louder than he did now to get his point across, but he just felt so tired.

Pulitzer retorted immediately. “What if I reduced the raise by half?” Jack just looked at the man waiting for the other to elaborate. “And get the others to do the same. It’s a compromise we can all live with!” The last sentence he said a bit louder, insinuating that he wouldn’t go lower that what he had just said.

Jack knew this was a great deal. Pulitzer was as stubborn as they came and would resist them to the very end. The fact that he was willing to give the this was a lot for the man. Still, Jack couldn’t help but not feel satisfied at the offer. He looked Pulitzer in the eyes again and raised his finger to point at the man to get the importance of what he was about to say across to the other.

“But you eat our losses. Hmmm? From now on, any pape we can’t sell, you buy back. Full price.” Pulitzer immediately retorted at that, quickly walking around his desk towards Jack. “That was never on the table! What’s to stop the newsies from taking hundreds of papers they cannot sell? My cost would explode!”

Jack had the urge to roll his eyes at that. Did this man know anything about the way newsies worked? “Oh, no newsie’s gonna break his back haulin’ around papes he can’t sell. But if he can take a few extra with no risk, oh, he might sell them and they you circulation will begin to grow.” Jack gestured with his hands.

Pulitzer seemed to be in deep thought at the idea. The idea of any kind of profit appealing to the man’s desire for money. Jack couldn’t help but mock the other a little bit. “It’s a compromise we can all live with!”

For a moment they both just stood there, saying nothing. Pulitzer seemed to seriously be considering his idea. The longer Jack had to stand here tough, the more his back started to hurt. Even the, by now familiar, throbbing in his head had returned. He was sure that if Pulitzer didn’t make up his mind soon he would keel over. Taking a deep breath, he tried to centre himself. He had to focus on this deal, for his boys.

“That’s not a bad head you’ve got on your shoulders.” Jack looked to Pulitzer in shock. Out of everything a compliment hadn’t been what he expected at all. Pulitzer kept looking at him, like he was trying to figure something out. Jack was about to say something but Pulitzer didn’t give him the chance to.

“We might not get along you and I. You have been bothering me enormously these last few days.” Oh, so now the man was insulting him. Great. Jack felt irritation well up in him. “But I want you to know that I never meant for that to happen to you. I know I wasn’t in any way good to you, but I do mean it when I say that I could never order anyone to hurt a child like that. Even if I don’t like that child.”

For a minute Jack didn’t know what to say. On one hand, the man was a huge hypocrite. Saying he didn’t want to hurt children after what had happened with the goons a few days ago. On the other hand, this was probably the only apology he would ever get from Pulitzer in his life. And he could see that the man really hadn’t meant for this to happen. So even if he didn’t want to he felt a light smile come to his face as he gave the man a simple nod in acceptance.

Slowly, he held up his hand before spitting in it and extending it towards Pulitzer. The older man looked down at Jack’s hand before looking up at Jack’s face. “That’s disgusting.”

Jack didn’t budge. “Well, that’s just the price of doing business.”

Pulitzer looked down at his hand once more before reluctantly spitting into his own hand and shaking his with Jack’s.

They had actually done it.

David could help but be concerned, they all were.  Spot was pacing across the hallway and Medda had a nervous look in her eyes as well. They were right outside Pulitzer’s office but couldn’t pick up what was happening inside.

Suddenly the door swung open and Pulitzer walked out. Jack was walking out the room as well but had a bit of a harder time due to his injuries. David immediately rushed forward to support Jack.

Spot rushed forward as well, looking at the younger expectantly. Jack gave them a soft smile, that told them more than words could. They made their way out of the building and were met by the crowd that seemed even bigger than before.

Spot quickly made his way to the other newsies but David stayed with Jack. Partly because he was convinced that Jack could collapse any minute. Pulitzer and the governor stayed in front of the crowd with them but the others that had been in Pulitzer’s office stepped aside.

Jack looked at David before turning back to the crowd. “Newsies of New York City.” All eyes were fixed on Jack, full of anticipation. “We won!”

The sound of cheering and laughter filled the square, as children hugged and jumped up and down in happiness. David couldn’t help but embrace Jack as well, being careful not to touch the wounds on his back.

When he let go of the other newsie Jack gave him one of the brightest smiles he had ever seen. David couldn’t help but get that weird fluttering feeling in his stomach again as he looked at the happiness on Jack’s face.

When the crowd had calmed down a little bit Jack stepped forward again. “And now I would like to introduce my very own personal pal, Governor Theodore Roosevelt himself!”  Jack turned to the governor and shook hands with him again. As the governor started to talk David helped Jack make his way back to the other newsies, who looked absolutely amazed at the sight of the real governor in front of them.

“Each generation must, at the height of its power, step aside and invite the young to share the day. You have laid claim to our world and I believe the future, in your hands, will be bright and prosperous.”

The newsies in the square could only clap at the huge compliment in amazement. “Jack, your drawings brought another matter to bear.” David didn’t miss the adorable blush that made it’s way to Jack’s cheeks as the governor mentioned his drawings. “Officers! If you please.”

Everyone turned around to see a small carriage make its way through the mass of people. As it reached the front of ‘the World’ they were slowly able to make out the person sitting next to the driver. Race was the first person to recognise him.

“Hey, Jack, look. It’s Crutchie!”

The newsie got of the carriage and made his way to the newsies with a smile on his face. “Hiya, fellas! You miss me?” Every Manhattan newsie cheered at that in confirmation. “Oh! And look what I got for youse, a gift. Straight from the Refuge. Bring him in fellas!” 

Every newsie tried to look behind the carriage to see who Crutchie was referring to. David felt Jack’s grip on his arm tighten as the man appeared.

“Oh, its Snyder the Spider!”

Snyder was being escorted by two police officers as he struggle to try and kick at some of the newsies. “Oh he ain’t lookin’ so tough no more!” Most of the newsies were laughing at Snyder’s state but David couldn’t help but notice that Jack just seemed to be nervous because of the man’s presence.

“Jack, with those drawings, you’ve made an eloquent argument for shutting down the Refuge. Be assured that Mr. Snyder’s abuses, against you, the newsies and every child that was ever in his care, will be fully investigated.”

David felt his heart break a little as he saw the absolute relieve that appeared on Jack’s face at the governor’s words. David didn’t know all of what Jack had gone through at the Refuge but if the last few days were any indication he knew that this would hopefully bring Jack, and all of the newsies, some kind of peace.

Snyder’s face contorted in anger at the governor’s words. “I will get you for this one day, Kelly! I will get you!” David felt Jack flinch beside him and a few of the Manhattan newsies stepped between Jack and Snyder protectively.

The governor just shook his head at Snyder’s words. “Officers, take him away!”

Crutchie stepped forward with a sly smile on his face, taking of his hat as he addressed the governor. “Oh. Please, Your Highness, may I do the honours?” The governor gestured with his hand for Crutchie to go ahead, who stepped towards Snyder.

“You have got to be joking.” Crutchie accepted a pair of handcuffs from one of the police officers. “Oh, yeah, and you’ll be laughin’ all the way to the pen, little man. So long, sucker!” All the newsie exclaimed as Crutchie used his crutch to hit Snyder on the behind, before the police officers took the man away.

As soon as Snyder was out of sight Jack slowly made his way towards Crutchie, the other newsies parting for him, and embraced the younger. “You had me worried ‘bout ya, Jack. Davey came and told me ya were missin’.”

Jack, seeming, reluctantly let go of the younger newsie. “Ah, Crutch, I’s all good now.” A few of other newsies scoffed at that and Davey walked towards the pair as well. “Don’t you believe him, Crutchie. He’s not good at all but he will be.” A few newsie yelled in agreement at that.

“I can’t help thinking, if one of you drawings convinced the governor to shut down the Refuge, what might a daily political cartoon do to expose the dealings in our own government; back rooms?” A look of surprise appeared on the governor’s face, obviously not having expected this turn of events. “What do you say, Teddy? Care to let this young man’s artistry shine a lantern behind your closed doors?”

Jack seemed taken back by the sudden offer but slowly stepped away from the other newsies. “Don’t sweat it, Gov. I mean, with the strike settled, I should be hittin’ the road.”

David felt a sudden burst of anxiety build up inside of him. Jack couldn’t actually leave. Before the other got too far, which really wouldn’t happen quickly with the injuries he had, he quickly caught up with him.

“Don’t you ever get tired of singing the same old tune? What’s Santa Fe got that New York ain’t? Tarantulas?” Jack stopped to look at him with a gaze so intense that David felt like the other could see his deepest desires. That same fluttering feeling came up inside of him again. His gaze flicked down to Jack’s lips for a second before he quickly pulled it away. He couldn’t think about Jack, another boy, like that.

“Better yet, what’s New York got that Santa Fe ain’t?” Katherine came to stand next to him but Jack didn’t really look at her, his gaze still fixed on David. “New York’s got us and we’re family.” Crutchie laid a gentle hand on top of Jack’s shoulder.

Jack gave Crutchie a loving smile. “Yeah, ya right Crutch, couldn’t ever leave ya boys behind.” Race ran up to Jack as well, giving the older newsie a short hug. “Right, Cowboy, we couldn’t be without ya.”

Jack turned to were Pulitzer was still standing, now looking a bit impatient. “If the offer still stands, Mister Pulitzer. I would gladly take it.” Pulitzer just gave Jack a curt nod before looking at the rest of the newsie in irritation.

“Did I not hear something about the strike being settled?” Slowly the newsies began to make their way to the distribution centre of ‘the World’. “Papes for the newsies. Line up, boys. These papes ain’t gonna sell themselves.” Wiesel’s voice rang across the square.

Medda who had taken to governor’s arm slowly made her way to the carriage they must have arrived in. “Come along, Governor. And show me that backseat I’ve been hearing, so much about.” She gave Jack a quick ruffle over the head as she passed them.

Jack threw his arm across Race’s shoulder and the pair of them began to slowly make their way to the distribution centre as well. Katherine looked at them with a slightly sad expression before turning towards David and giving the boy a small smile. She gave Crutchie a nod and turned to go into ‘the World’ building.

As David made to follow Jack and Race towards the distribution centre but felt an arm wrap around his shoulders. When he turned to look at who it was he was surprised to be met with none other than the leader of Brooklyn.

“Ya, know what David? We live in a world full of people who think they knows what’s normal.” David just gave the other newsie a confused look, not understanding were this was coming from.

“They thinks that us kids should behave and do what adults say. That we shouldn’t have a say.” Spot tilted his head in the direction Katherine had took of too. “They thinks there can’t be a female reporter, ‘cause they ain’t used to it.”

Slowly, it began to dawn on David what they other was getting at. “And they thinks that they know the way love works. But ya know, David, they don’t. ‘Cause there ain’t a certain way that’s true. So why should we let those things cause how we live.”

Spot looked at him for a few seconds before giving him a hard pat on the back. “Anyway, David, hope I see yours again sometime.” With that the older newsie just ran forward, tapping Race on the shoulder to pull him away, leaving Jack to stand on his own for a second.

Still uncertain David looked around and met Crutchie’s eyes, who just smiled at him encouragingly. David took in just who was surrounding them. It was mostly newsies, most of the other children slowly filtering out of the square, and Wiesel and the Delancey’s, who didn’t look to hot with their bruised up faces. He was surrounded by almost only people he trusted.

With a sudden wave of courage, David pushed past the other newsies to make his way to Jack. He was aware that the action got him the attention of more than a few newsies. He tapped Jack lightly on the shoulder, causing the other newsie to turn around.  

An adorable smile appeared on Jack’s face as he saw who it was that had come up to him. He was about to say something but David didn’t give him the chance.

He grabbed Jack by the front of his vest and pulled the other up against him as he pressed his lips against Jack’s. For a second Jack didn’t respond and David thought he just made a terrible mistake, before he felt two hands settle on his shoulders as Jack kissed him back.

He was vaguely aware of the sound of cheering around them. He could swear he heard Race yell something along the lines of: “Go get him, Cowboy!”

When he finally pulled away to look at Jack he was met with that bright smile again. Jack had a prominent blush on his cheeks but David suspected he was in the same state.

“You are amazing, ya know that Davey?” Jack asked him, still smiling up at him. David let his hands fall down to let them settle on Jack’s hips as he pulled him closer once more.

“I could say the same ‘bout you, Jack Kelly.” Jack rolled his eyes at that, tough his smile didn’t disappear for even a second. “Oh, shut up, Davey.”

Davey let out a chuckle. “Oh, gladly.” He said before leaning in to kiss Jack once more.