Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jack and Sarah had kissed, once, after Jack turned the corner in Governor Roosevelt’s carriage. However, while most people, after kissing, will part and look at each other lovingly or at least with some form of passion or attraction, Jack Kelly and Sarah Jacobs, after parting from their admittedly very awkward kiss, looked at each other and started laughing. 

Obviously neither of them meant it. It was the sort of kiss that typically happens between two girls or two boys, accidentally kissing and then looking back at each other and remembering that there was no way in hell either of them would ever actually feel the feelings the kiss entailed, and laughing at the fact that they thought they could for a half-second enough to kiss. 

They laughed about it for a good thirty seconds, and then abruptly turned away from each other to look at literally anything else at all, Jack’s eyes landing on David and Sarah’s on Katherine, and the four of them headed out, Jack and David to sell papes, Katherine to tag along and interview them, and Sarah to follow for emotional support. 

By evening, Sarah was vaguely sure that Jack had forgotten about their kiss. However, noticing his look of embarrassment when they made eye contact at dinner (Esther had invited Katherine and Jack to stay for dinner), she understood that whatever the case may be, they definitely needed to talk about it. 

So, after dinner was over and everyone was sitting around at the table or on the couch, Sarah looked at Jack and said, “Can we talk? On the fire escape?” 

He looked like there was a gun pointed right between his eyes and, slowly nodding, followed her out. 

When they were outside, neither looked at each other or said anything until Jack took a remarkably deep breath and said, all at once, “Why’d you kiss me?” 

She turned to him and smiled, a laugh dancing just behind her lips. He returned the expression, though his eyes expressed a degree of worry. 

“I don’t know,” she said. “I mean, I can’t— well, I don’t— I don’t exactly know how to put this without thoroughly freaking you out, but I, well, I can’t really easily love you. Or well— I suppose I could, but at the moment, my affections are, um, otherwise devoted.” 

Jack’s face immediately melted into relief, and Sarah silently congratulated herself on her assumptions possibly being correct. “What do you— what do you mean?” he asked her, still unsure if he was in the clear. 

“ Katherine,” clarified Sarah, and that one word was all Jack needed to audibly relieved sigh. 

“Then you ain’t, like at all? For me?” 

Sarah shook her head. 

“Oh, thank God,” said Jack. He looked back at her, clearly realizing what his words could have come across as, and continued, “Not to say that there’s anything wrong with you, I mean you’re wonderful, I just— well—”

Sarah reached over and put her hand on his, smiling. “I know,” she said softly. “And David’s in love with you.” 

Jack, who’s face had relaxed into the comfortable contentment that one’s does when one realizes they aren’t alone, now shot up to utmost attention, ears turning bright pink. “He does?” he asked, staring directly at her. 

Sarah laughed. “Yeah. And he won’t shut up about you, either, so I think you should talk to him.” She smiled once more, and reentered the apartment, leaving Jack to stand on the fire escape alone with his thoughts. 

--- 

“Are you mad at me?” asked Sarah when she was back inside. She and Katherine were sitting on her bed, and David had gone to join Jack outside on the fire escape. She hoped they would work it out, mainly in self-preservation. 

“No,” said Katherine, quietly, looking at the floor with her arms tucked around her legs, turned away from Sarah. 

Sarah looked at her fingernails for a few more seconds, pondering what to say. Where did words go when she was around this woman? “Is it because I kissed Jack?” 

Katherine didn’t respond, and Sarah looked at her, though Katherine didn’t meet her eyes. She looked hurt, the face you make when you were expecting something bad would happen from prior experiences, but couldn’t help but hope, and then that hope was crushed. She was hiding, even now, and Sarah had never seen her hide before. At least not to her. 

“Katherine,” Sarah said, almost a whisper, and reached her hand out to trace along Katherine’s upper arm. 

“It’s fine,” said Katherine, pushing Sarah’s hand away and putting her knees down, but still looking at the floor beside the bed and not at Sarah. “You deserve to be with the one you love.” 

Sarah reached her hand down to Katherine’s and held her hand in hers. Katherine looked at her, eyes beginning to well up with tears. “Katherine,” said Sarah, “I am.”   

Katherine smiled, for the first time that day just for Sarah, and a single tear ran down her face. “I owe Denton twenty dollars,” she said, and leaned in to kiss Sarah. It seemed there were violins playing major arpeggios over a soft flute drone and viola tremolo in the background, barely a pianissimo, but there nonetheless. 

---

“So I guess you didn’t mean it,” David began when he entered the fire escape. 

“Dave,” Jack said, but didn't elaborate. 

“Everything,” David continued, “all of it. Everything you said to me, everything we did together, for the past two months, I mean. It’s stupid. I should’ve known.” 

“Dave,” Jack said again, hoping that the other boy would listen to him. 

David sighed. “I’m sorry,” he said, looking Jack in the eyes with an expression that made Jack want to cry. “I— I thought we were… I thought you meant something else. But I see that you don’t, now. I’m sorry.” 

Jack reached his hand out in a moment of split-second confidence, wanting more than anything to tell David everything, wanting to hold him to his chest and never let him go, wanting so many things that he knew for a minute he might never have, to cup David’s face. David jerked away, and Jack drew his hand back to himself. David returned his gaze to the railing. 

“No,” said Jack. “I mean, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t’ve— I didn’t— I mean, I did mean it. With you.” 

“Don’t lie to make me feel better, Jack,” said David, bitterly. 

“I’m not lying,” Jack said. “With Sarah it was… I didn’t mean it, with her. And I know she didn’t mean it, either. It was a mistake. I only ever wanted you.” 

“Did you?” asked David, quietly, and looked at him again. “Did you mean it?” 

Jack nodded. “More than anything.” 

David smiled, just a little bit, and rested his head on Jack’s shoulder. Jack brung his arm around David’s shoulders, and they just stood like that for a bit, leaning on the railing of the fourth floor fire escape, overlooking the nearly deserted street, only a few lamps lighting it. 

“You said Sarah—” David began, but stopped. 

“What?” 

“That she didn’t mean it either. I know, or at least I think I know, why, but I don’t know if she told you something different.” 

“What do you think it is?” asked Jack. 

“I think it’s Katherine.” 

“Yup.” 

“It’s Katherine?”

“Of course it’s Katherine. Who else would it be?” 

“Theodore Roosevelt.” 

Jack laughed. “Yes, your sister kissed me in an attempt to kill her feelings about the 36th governor of New York.” 

“Well, I mean, you never know.” 

“Nah,” Jack said, and looked over at David. “With you, I knew.” 

David smiled and turned to kiss him.

Chapter Text

Jack knew, logically, from the day he sold his first pape, that he wasn’t gonna be a newsie forever. No one wants to buy the newspaper from a thirty year old guy who looks like it’s his only job, and it really doesn’t pay well. Still, a part of him had always hoped that he would never have to leave. 

But then again, selling papes hadn’t been the same since the strike. He was practically a celebrity, everyone raving about the boy who had led the legendary strike against the evil Pulitzer, and while that was awesome for the first two weeks, it got old fast, and he had slowly started selling less and less and applying for more simple jobs, looking for alternate, more stable forms of employment. 

Eventually he had gotten a job— a quick one, though, that would only employ him for a few months during the autumn— to move crates carrying god knows what from one shipping dock to the other. Simple brunt work. He could do that. The workers, all hired for around eight weeks, seemed to be of the same lot as Jack— former newsies too old to be cute anymore, though Jack didn’t recognize them. There was a bunkhouse set up for those who needed it during the work; he didn’t like admitting it, but he did, and several others seemed to as well, so there was at least that. The conditions were workable, and it wasn’t like he was emotionally attached to the job. 

Still. There was something different about it, like there was when he moved from Brooklyn to Manhattan. But at least in Manhattan there were other Newsies, and all of them had been there, and they were friendly. They wanted to help people out. Here… not so much. There was nothing wrong with the guys he was working with, but they all just sort of kept to themselves. Maybe it was the more strictly defined labor that made them all focus on simply doing the task at hand for the sake of the money, not anything else. There was no community, Jack guessed, like there had been with the newsies. 

Jack knew that that wasn’t the only thing weighing on his mind, though. When he and David (and, to some extent, Katherine and Sarah) had become… whatever they were, so much had changed. Jack loved David, and he loved being with him, and wouldn’t trade it for the world, but so many things were different now, not necessarily even owing to him and David. Jack couldn’t so easily throw all of his belongings into a bag and catch the next train to Arizona anymore. He had family. Katherine and David and Sarah and Les and their parents, and all of the newsies, and suddenly Jack was tethered to New York way more than he ever would be of his own volition. He had always hated regularity. It felt constricting, like he couldn’t breathe. 

That was what was great about being a newsie. You made your own schedule, as long as you got there on time to get the papes in the morning, and you could go wherever, stop whenever, do anything you wanted so long as you made the day’s wage. But now, with the more structured work of the crate-moving, it was all top down, organized work over which Jack himself really had no say in. He hated it, but it was only for a few months. 

The best thing about the job was, however, that they finished at five sharp. No late evenings, no getting home in the early hours of the morning because you couldn’t quite sell enough that evening, just five in the afternoon. And Sundays off. The hours were definitely more manageable. 

With all of that extra space in the evening, Jack often went over to the Jacobs’s apartment for dinner. After the strike Esther and Mayer had declared him “always welcome there,” and seeing as most nights he didn’t have any better plans, he ate with them. 

Seeing David was the best part of the whole thing. There had been some complications with Mayer’s arm, and he wasn’t able to go back to the factory, so David had had to go to work again in the fall instead of school. David also couldn’t be a newsie anymore, not just because he was also getting too old for it, but because the Jacobs family wanted to send at least one of their children through as much school as possible, and were doing their best to make up for the lost income by having David get a higher-paying job. He seemed to be enjoying it. 

“How’s the new job going, mister factory man?” Jack asked him after his first day, giving him a playful punch in the shoulder. 

David laughed. “It’s good, it’s good,” he said. “It’s different, y’know? To being a newsie.” 

Jack nodded. 

“Fewer things to organize,” David continued. “Less stress. I still miss ‘em, though. All of them.” 

“Yeah,” Jack said. He had been working on the docks for about a week, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. However, he tried not to mention anything to David. Tonight was about him, not Jack, and Jack didn’t want to come off as selfish or immature. 

“You meet anyone?” asked Jack. 

“I mean, not really,” said David. “Everyone was pretty absorbed in their work. Besides, I was only there for a day. I’ll probably get around to talking more to them later. I met a couple, but I don’t really remember any of their names. I think there was a James? But don’t take my word for it.” 

“You’ll get to it,” said Jack. “Besides, once you start talking, they’ll all get to know just how good you are at it.” 

David smiled. “You still think so? Even now that the strikes over?” 

“I’ll always think so.” 

“Even if I go all demented and forget how words work?” 

Jack laughed. “Even if you go all demented and forget how words work. You was the most important thing helped us win that strike, y’know?” 

“I know. You tell me every day,” David replied sarcastically, though the lingering smile on his face betrayed his true feelings. 

“‘Cause it’s true,” said Jack, pulling David closer by his collar so he could kiss him. It was a short kiss, sweet, and Jack smiled into it despite his anxieties about the job. “’Sides, I love ya,” Jack continued after pulling back from the kiss. “What kind of a suitor would I be if I didn’t think you was smart?” 

“‘Suitor,’ eh?” asked David. “Now look who’s the wordsmith.” 

Jack smiled and draped an arm over David’s shoulder. David leaned his head on Jack’s shoulder, the way that he had done those weeks ago the day after the strike had ended and they had first kissed. Soon after they decided to head into the apartment from the fire escape (which had become their unofficial spot, as David and Sarah’s bedroom had become Sarah and Katherine’s). 

Les was asleep, and Esther was cleaning dishes and speaking in Polish to Mayer, who was re-slinging his arm. Jack was about to offer to help when Katherine left Sarah’s room, Sarah trailing behind her. Katherine seemed upset, and Sarah looked sad. 

“Katherine, please,” Sarah was saying, but Katherine didn’t seem to be listing to her. She turned abruptly, taking her coat from off the rack, and said to the room, “Thank you for having me over. I’ll be going now.” And before anyone could argue with her, Katherine was gone. 

Sarah stood at the door for a couple of seconds, looking dismayed, before heading back to the bedroom. Jack shared a concerned glance with David and decided to follow her. 

“What happened with Katherine?” asked Jack when he entered the room, sitting on the bed opposite the one Sarah was sitting on. 

“Nothing,” Sarah said. “At least, nothing that we hadn’t been leading up to the entire time.” 

“Is she still mad that you kissed me?” asked Jack. 

Sarah sighed. “That’s part of it. She’s mad because I told her that I still like boys.” 

“Oh,” said Jack. 

“I mean, I get why she’s mad,” Sarah said. “But it’s not like I’m currently seeing any boys. I’m not seeing anybody but her.” 

“Yeah,” said Jack. “And I mean, liking both don’t really change your feelings for her. It’s not like you only like boys. ’Sides, I mean, it’s not like every person in the world can only ever love a single other person. What about you liking boys and girls is really that different from her liking girls?” 

“But that’s the thing,” said Sarah, fidgeting with her collar. “I only really like boys— boys and her. But I don’t know how to say that without it sounding like she’s just an experiment, y’know?” 

“I get that.” 

“But, the thing is, with her it was stronger that with the boys from the past, it was different. And I really don’t want to lose her, but I also don’t want to hide from her.” She looked at Jack. “I love her, I think.”

Jack smiled. “Have you told her that?” 

“No,” said Sarah. “I’m afraid.” 

“You should tell her.” 

“Yeah,” said Sarah, smiling softly. “I suppose I should.”

Jack nodded. 

“What about you?” asked Sarah. “How’s my brother?” 

Jack smiled broadly. “He’s good, he’s good. He seems to be… really happy, with his job.” 

Sarah looked at him. “There’s more to that, on your end, isn’t there.” 

Jack looked away. “’Spose so,” he said. 

“Elaborate,” said Sarah. 

“I dunno,” said Jack. “With the new job it’s… different, from being a newsie.” 

“I get that.” 

“And with Dave, it’s like something clicked in his brain and everything makes sense, with the factory, and it’s just not bein’ like that for me, y’know?” 

“Yeah,” said Sarah. 

“And I dunno. I guess there was something about being a newsie that just… clicked differently, I guess. Less structured. Make your own schedule, do whatever you want, as long as you bring home the days pay.” Jack sighed and leaned back on his hands. “Something’s off on the docks. It feels… stifling.” 

“Vocab word,” said Sarah, smiling. “I get that. Being a newsie, I assume, there’s not all that many expectations, and you’re free to do whatever you want. At least I guess that’s how it is. I don’t know.” 

“Yeah,” said Jack. He looked up, right at Sarah. “Can I tell you something?” 

“Of course,” answered Sarah. “I’ve told you something. It only makes even.” 

“Yeah,” said Jack absentmindedly, before staring hard at his hands, trying his best to put the words in an understandable order. 

“I feel… trapped,” he begun. “I mean, all my life I’ve been running, y’know? From expectations and commitment and anything stickin’ me in one place. And that was what was great about being a newsie, nothing keeping you anywhere. And then suddenly the strike happened, and now I have to stay in Manhattan because I was the face of the strike, and with the new job, even though it’s supposed to be only a few months, I still feel stuck. Like where there used to be air there’s now almost set concrete.” 

Jack stopped here, but Sarah could see there was more that he hadn’t talked about. She nodded, thinking, before saying, “Is it us? Partly?” 

Jack looked at her. “What d’ya mean?” 

Sarah let out a breath and said, “Us. Me and David and Les and Katherine, and to a lesser extent Mama and Papa. That suddenly you’ve been sort of incorporated into our family dynamic without any say in it, so suddenly you have all of these people who are attached to you, and you can’t just pack your bags and leave anymore.” 

Jack thought. “That’s probably part of it,” he said. “I mean, before, Santa Fe was really just a dream, but there was something about it that seemed almost tangible, because I could really do it if I just had a few more dollars. But now, it’s like… I imagine it and all I can think is how much I would miss y’all, and y’all me. It just got so much further away.” 

“I get that,” Sarah said, working on unlacing her corset. “And I imagine it doesn’t help that David and Katherine seem to have it all figured out already.”

“Yeah. And I don’t know, he just seems so happy. I don’t wanna take that from him.” 

“He is,” said Sarah. “He really is.” 

Jack nodded and added quietly, “I just want him to be happy.” 

They sat in silence for a minute, a filled silence with their shared emotions, before Jack asked, “How is Katherine?” 

Sarah unhooked her corset. “She’s working at the World now,” she said. “Mostly secretarial work, but under a pseudonym she gets an article published every now and then. She swears she hates how demeaning it is, but I can see how her eyes light up whenever it happens.” 

“And how are you?” asked Jack. 

Sarah stopped and looked at him as if nobody had ever asked her that question. “Well… I’m doing.” 

“Are you?” 

Sarah sighed. “I don’t know. I have to stay home, until Papa gets better. So I get sorta sidelined, you know, between Les going to school and David with the new job, I’m just sort of there. And I…” she trailed off, looking out the window to the one street light. 

“What?” asked Jack. 

“I hate this apartment,” she said, and looked Jack right in the eyes. “I hate this city. I hate this floor, I hate having to run down three flights of stairs to go outside. I hate drying my laundry on the roof, I hate sharing a room with my brother at eighteen, I hate the fact that the only way to be outside is up on the roof or on the goddamn fire escape.” 

Sarah took a breath. “We used to live in a house, before we had Les. I was nine, I think, when we left, and David eight, because Mama was pregnant and Papa had to get a new job in the city, and we’ve been here ever since. It wasn’t a big house, and I don’t even think it was that far away. But it had windows and a private stairwell and we were the only people who lived there, and it had this lawn,” she said, looking at nothing in particular, clearly lost in memory. “I miss the space,” she added with finality. “I miss the sky. The real sky.” 

She looked at Jack, who had been just watching her. “And you want…” he began, “you want that again.” 

“Yeah,” Sarah said, sincerely. “Yeah, I do.” 

“Do you think we could do that?” Jack asked, the question having left his lips before he could properly process it. “I just meant— just that— I mean, like with me and Katherine and Dave. If we— if we got a house, if we could afford it, somewhere just outside the city with enough room to breathe, so we wouldn’t need to abruptly rip Dave and Katherine from their jobs in the city, but I think it could work, if we planned it right. That is— if you want to.” 

Sarah stared at him. 

“I’m sorry,” Jack began. “It’s a stupid idea, it’s—”

“I would love to,” Sarah said, interrupting him. “I mean, we would need to sort it out with David and Katherine— I need to sort a lot of things out with Katherine— but I think it’s a good idea. I want— I want that, yes.” 

“Okay,” said Jack. “Well, that’s uh— that’s great. Really it is.” 

They didn’t get much of a chance to explore that further, as Jack had lost track of time and needed to be heading out, but the promise was there.

Chapter Text

Katherine, after that, had stopped coming twice a week to dinner. Sarah felt horrible about it, like she had driven Katherine away by simply being herself, and angry at Katherine for making it so difficult to get to her and explain her feelings. She and Sarah had clicked so immediately upon meeting that after only knowing each other for a few months, the thought of a life without her seemed nearly impossible to Sarah. More than anything she wanted ot apologize, to explain, to tell Katherine how she really felt, but without the twice weekly dinners, she couldn’t find a way to do so, and that, Sarah knew, was exactly Katherine’s intentions. The woman was straightforward, and if she was hurt or angry at you, you would know. And Sarah did know. And it hurt her, more than anything. 

However, groceries still had to be bought, and Sarah needed to get her mind onto something else, so she went. With Mayer still at home, Sarah couldn’t go back to work, and with Les at school, almost all chores and household responsibilities were hers. 

It was just the biweekly shopping run, for what food they only needed bought once every other week (three or four nights a week Sarah would go out to get fresher meat and some other foods), nothing all that out of the ordinary about it. It had been a while since David had moved onto the new job, and a few weeks since… Katherine had left. It still hurt Sarah, more than anything, and she had to admit that, just a little bit, every time she left the apartment, she hoped just a little that Katherine would be outside and they could finally talk again. 

But that hope wasn’t very plausible. At least Sarah didn’t think it was until she was buying leeks and ran, quite literally, into Katherine. Or rather, Katherine ran into her. 

She was just counting out the money from her coin purse, when she felt someone misstep and end up jostling her, enough to startle her and make her lose count of the pennies. She turned and there was Katherine. 

“I’m so sorry, I wasn’t—” started Katherine, looking up at Sarah. “Sarah,” she said, when she saw who she had run into. 

“Katherine,” replied Sarah, trying not to seem too startled or too happy. 

“I was just out for a walk around the city, I didn’t expect to run into you here,” said Katherine, smiling a bit. Sarah could tell that there were some awkward feelings on Katherine’s side too. 

“Katherine,” Sarah said again, still processing. 

Katherine sighed and looked her in the eyes. “Sarah,” she said back. 

“I,” began Sarah, suddenly very nervous. “I’d wanted to talk, since we fought, but you weren’t there, and I couldn’t find you around, I just wanted to, well, I mean—” 

She was cut off by the grocer clearing his throat. “You ladies gonna pay for those leeks?” he asked. 

“Oh, yes, of course,” said Sarah, turning to him and rifling through her purse for a nickel, eventually finding one and handing it to him. He tipped a nonexistent hat to her, and she put the leeks into her basket, turning to walk to another stall for eggs. Katherine walked with her. 

“Anyway,” continued Sarah. “I just wanted to talk to you again, to sort of clear things up, you know? Because you’re just… so amazing, really, and I didn’t want you to think that I felt any less genuinely for you than I have anyone else.” 

 Katherine nodded, looking at her hands as she walked, seeming to have been moved by this a bit. “I… I get that. I really do. And I think that, when you first told me, I freaked out a bit, more than I should have, just because I’ve been in situations in the past where I think I’ve read all of the signs correctly, and that something is between me and a girl, but then she turns around and says she never meant any of it and calls me a freak. So I guess I just didn’t want that to happen again. I was afraid. I’m sorry.” 

“It’s alright,” Sarah said. “I get it. But I do want you. Romantically. Katherine, I…” she sighed, but smiled, “I love you. I wouldn’t have said it all those weeks ago if it weren’t true. And I definitely wouldn’t kiss you and then call you a freak. I wanted it as much as you did.” 

Katherine looked at her, smiling, with the tiniest hint of tears in her eyes. “Thank you,” she said, pushing some stray hairs behind her ear. “I feel the same. And, if it’s alright with you, I’d like to pick up where we left off.” 

“Katherine,” said Sarah, taking her hand, “of course I do.” 

Katherine smiled and laced their fingers together. 

---

Jack still came over for dinner pretty often, and with the addition of Katherine coming back, it was like they were a whole family again. Jack seemed to be doing a bit better with the new job, even though it was coming to a close in little over a few weeks, but David could tell that something about him was still off. 

“Are you alright?” he asked him one night when they were out on the fire escape. It was just beginning to get a too cold to be out there every night, but they still braved it together for the sake of tradition. 

“How’d’ya mean?” asked Jack, seemingly trying to hide something. 

“You seem… distant,” said David. “Like you’re here, but your head’s way far away.” 

Jack looked out onto the street. “Oh,” he said. “I guess.” 

“What is it?” David asked. “Is something wrong?” 

“Nah,” said Jack, putting his arms behind his head and leaning back, in a position that almost everyone would think was confidant, but David could see past that, and that he was still troubled. 

David looked around for a few seconds, wondering what he could say. “Is it Katherine?” he asked, just throwing things out there with the hope that Jack would tell him what had been bothering him, ever since the strike. 

“No, Dave, it isn’t,” said Jack, sounding tired more than anything. “It’s just— well…” he trailed off, thinking. “Sarah and I, we’ve been talking, for a few weeks, about life and stuff and we were… well we were thinking that we both still feel trapped here, y’know?” 

“Yeah,” said David. He knew he didn’t feel as trapped as Jack did, had said he did, but he still understood where those feelings came from. 

“Well, we were— we were just talking, and I thought, and she agreed on this, that it would be pretty neat if we, like the four of us, could, maybe, get our own place, somewhere. Not far, of course, but like a small house that would fit us, and have like a lawn and an actual roof or something. It was just— just an idea, but I figured I’d tell you, see what you think.” Jack looked the railing and fiddled with a loose thread on his shirt, not making eye contact with David. 

David nodded. “I mean, that is, really, possible, I think. I think it’s a good idea. And with you making, what, twelve bucks a week? And I’m at thirteen, right now, and Katherine I know isn’t pulling in the most steady of work, but when she does catch something it blows up, so we should have the money, all that’s left is finding a house, right?” 

Jack stared at him, amazement in his eyes. “Yeah,” he said. “I s’pose it is.” 

David looked back, smiling. “You alright?” 

“Y-yeah,” Jack said. He looked to David, smiling. “I guess it just never seemed that simple before.” 

David nodded, and leaned in to kiss him. “Has Sarah talked to Katherine about it? I know they only just made up, but they’re on the same page about practically everything.” 

“I dunno,” replied Jack. “We could always go in and ask them.” 

“Yeah,” said David, wrapping an arm around Jack’s shoulers, Jack letting his arm rest around David’s waist. “Let’s do that.” 

And they headed back into the apartment, Jack blowing softly onto his free hand to warm it up. Once they were back in the living/dining/cooking area, the two of them sat on the sofa. Katherine hadn’t left the table, and was talking animatedly to Sarah, Esther making the occasional comment in questionable English, both of whom were scrubbing at dishes. Mayer was sitting in another chair at the table, reading his book and once in a while making remarks to Esther in Polish. 

“Hey,” said Sarah when Jack and David walked in. “Finally come in to join the rest of society?” 

“Well, we thought the rest of you could use something nice to look at every once in a while,” replied Jack. Sarah laughed, setting her stack of plates back in the cupboard and leaving to join Katherine at the table. 

“Katherine was just telling me about this neat article she just had published,” she said. Katherine batted her arm affectionately. 

“It’s not really that neat,” she said. 

“No, really, it is,” Sarah insisted. “Did you know that one in five patients in most hospitals are mixed up at least once?” 

“It’s not that interesting,” repeated Katherine, though she was smiling when Sarah grabbed her hand and laced their fingers together. “Though, Sarah was telling me,” Katherine continued, looking Jack in the eye, “what you and she had been talking about. About getting a house and living in it, the four of us.” 

Jack nodded. “What do you, uh, what do you think? About it.” 

Katherine smiled again. “I’d love to.” 

David let out the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding and let his back rest against the back of the sofa, putting his arms up behind his head. Jack took the opportunity to move in closer, their legs touching. 

“That’s great,” David said. “That’s… that’s really great.” 

All four of them looked to each other, and smiled.

Chapter Text

Katherine had been flipping through housing ads in the local papers for a little over a week. So far, neither she nor David, who had also been looking, had really found anything. Their parameters were simple: two bedroom, a lawn, somewhere slightly outside of New York City but not too far, and with a reasonable commute. 

She was flipping through the house listings again, crossing off ones that didn’t fit, going back and forth between the pages, when she saw it. A house. 

It wasn’t perfect. The description told of slight leakage in the rain, and the stairs to the door didn’t look all that sturdy. But it had two bedrooms. And a lawn (Sarah had been very particular, when David and Katherine asked her what she needed in a house, about having a lawn), and a normal roof, and everything that they had wanted, really. 

She checked the time. It was around five; an hour until David got off and she could telephone to tell him about it. Rather than wait around for an hour, she quickly clipped the ad out of the newspaper and slipped it into her pocket. She tried to write the article she was currently working on, but kept drifting off, thinking about the house. After a bit, she decided to go for a walk. 

While on said walk, she ran into Jack. He saw her first. 

“Hey, Katherine!” he shouted to her from across the street. Looking up to see who had called her, she saw Jack, waving. She crossed the street to talk to him. 

“Hi,” she said when she got there. “What’re you up to right now?” 

“Just got off from work a few minutes ago. You?” 

“I’m just taking a walk. What are you doing recently, for work?” she asked, knowing that Jack floated around jobs a lot. 

He put his hands behind his head, breathing out as the two of them kept walking. “Right now? A bricklayer’s assistant, I think.” 

Katherine looked at him. “And what does a bricklayer’s assistant… do?” she asked, not wanting to sound offensive. 

“I hand him bricks,” Jack said, a half-smirk on his face. “Carry stuff. It manages to be more boring than my last job, somehow. But it pays good, and God knows it’s not forever.” 

Katherine nodded. They walked in silence for a minute or so, looking around at the streets and at each other, before Katherine remembered the reason she had taken this walk. 

“Oh!” she said, reaching her hand into her pocket. 

“Oh?” Jack asked. 

Katherine smiled, pulling out the piece of paper. “I forgot. I found this in the newspaper. I was thinking of checking it out, if everyone agrees.” She handed him the slip of paper. 

Jack studied it for a minute. “Really?” he asked her. 

“Yeah,” she replied, smiling. “Really. If Sarah and David think it’s alright. I’ll phone the number and check it out. With what we’re making now, I think we can afford it, because it’s for rent and not for sale.” 

Jack was grinning wider than Katherine could ever remember seeing him grin. “That’s… that’s great. That’s really great, Katherine. Really.” 

Katherine smiled. “Well, it all depends on David and Sarah.” 

---

David and Sarah had immediately agreed upon seeing the clipping. Sarah and Jack had gone on animatedly about the lawn for a while, while David had discussed what work needed to be done on it to make it really livable with Katherine and how much rent would take out of their monthly earnings. Before anyone really knew it, David and Katherine were on the phone with the owners, talking about prices and rent, and then, what seemed like a day or two later, the two of them were on the train to visit the house with Sarah (Jack had work that day that he couldn’t skip, but it was the day that worked the best for the other three). 

When they got there, a woman greeted them. “Well, hi!” she said earnestly. “You must be Katherine,” she said, addressing Sarah. 

“No,” said Sarah, and pointed at Katherine. “She is. I’m Sarah, David’s sister.”

“Oh,” said the woman, the wide smile not leaving her face, and she turned to David. She shook hands with David, then Katherine, then Sarah. “Well,” she said, “this is it!” 

They toured the house. There was a porch in front. One entered the living room first, with one bedroom on the side. Past that was the dining room, with another bedroom and the stairs to an attic also to the side. The kitchen was in the back, and there were closets in both of the bedrooms. The attic was small, but could clearly hold a lot of things. A lot of the rooms had some basic furniture, like armchairs, tables, and beds, but the house had clearly been cleared out recently. It didn’t have very many signs that there had once been people living in it: the walls were empty, the beds bare, and there were no cooking implements in the shelves. 

The last thing the woman (Lacy, she introduced herself as) showed them was the place where the roof leaked. She said it wasn’t that bad, but it could get worse. 

“Well, that’s the house,” she finished, leading them back out onto the porch. “I assume you two are married?” she said, looking to Katherine and David. 

Oh. 

Oh dear.

Katherine, Sarah, and David exchanged an anxious glance. Lacy’s smile didn’t give way. 

“Engaged,” Katherine blurted out, and David shot her a concerned look. “And… the fourth person we spoke of… Sarah’s fiancé,” she continued, and Sarah shot her an identical concerned look. 

“Mazel tov,” Lacy responded. “So will you be renting it? I’ll need to know by next week.” 

“We’ll… call you,” said Sarah. “Thank you very much. Have a nice day.” 

“You too,” Lacy replied, still smiling. 

Sarah, Katherine, and David all turned as quickly as they could. They walked quickly in silence until they were back on the train heading back into New York. 

“What the hell did you go telling her we were engaged for!” David whisper-shouted to Katherine the moment he waas positive Lacy had no way of hearing them. 

“What was I supposed to do!” Katherine whisper-shouted back. “She asked if we were married!”  

Sarah rested her head on Katherine’s shoulder. “I mean, I don’t think it’s a bad idea.” 

Katherine and David shot her confused looks. 

“Marrying, I mean,” she said. “Think about it. It’s suspicious if we’re four unmarried nineteen-year-olds living alone in a two-bedroom house just outside of New York. It makes sense for us to marry. I think.” 

“Maybe,” said David. “I don’t know. We would need to talk to Jack about it, though.” 

“Yeah,” responded Katherine. “And, I mean…” she glanced at David. “No offense, but you’re not really…” 

Sarah laughed. “I don’t think we would have to be really married. Not like that. Just in name.” 

Katherine looked at her. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s talk over it with Jack.” 

---

It was soon too cold for David and Jack to sit outside on the fire escape, so they had to talk in the living room. Sarah and Katherine were still in the bedroom, as that didn’t really get much colder, but their door was closed, and, David assumed, locked. 

“Dave?” asked Jack, pulling David out of his own mind. 

“Yeah?” 

“What’s up? You seem distracted,” Jack said. 

David looked at him, and then looked away. “Oh.” 

“Is something going on?” 

David sighed. How would Jack react to the news, if David told him right here? Would he run away again? Would he be so happy that David couldn’t voice his own concerns? Even though he hadn’t thought about it in months, David’s mind drifted back to the time Sarah and Jack had kissed. 

“I… Sarah and Katherine and I were talking, earlier.” 

“Oh God, not again,” said Jack, smiling. 

“And, well, the house is nice. It’s wonderful. Two bedrooms, living room, kitchen, hell, even a dining room. And an attic, and closets. Katherine and I were thinking of calling the woman back in a week or so, if all goes to plan, to say we’ll rent it.” 

“That’s great,” Jack said. “That’s really good, Dave.” 

David nodded. 

“Something else is up,” Jack said, looking at David. 

“Yeah,” replied David. “While we were there… the woman asked me and Katherine if we were married? And we said we were engaged, and then the three of us were talking about it on the train back, and Sarah said it wouldn’t be a bad idea. Getting married.” 

“Okay,” said Jack, leaning back and clearly processing the information. “Do you want to?” 

“I… I don’t know. Maybe? Katherine seemed kinda hesitant, but obviously if she’s on board and you and Sarah think it’s fine, then maybe we will.” 

“Okay,” Jack said again. “I’m definitely fine with that, if she is and Sarah agrees.” 

“I think she does,” David said. “But that’s not really… I mean, then, do you want to marry Sarah? Or would you be okay with it?” 

Jack thought for a second. “I think so, yeah,” he said eventually. “If she wants to. But…” he continued, seeing David’s half-worried, half-happy expression, “I wouldn’t be involved with her, Dave. Not like that.” 

“Really?” asked David, still not quite sure. 

“Of course,” Jack responded. “No one but you.” 

David smiled and kissed him. “You should go ask Sarah, then.” 

Jack smiled back. “Not right now. I think she and Katherine are a bit busy.” He gestured to the door, and David laughed. 

“You’re right.”