Race
He's been avoiding this place ever since he got out; sometimes taking long arduous detours just so he doesn't have to get a glimpse at the decrepit building. Looking at it now, the old building looks exactly as he remembered it except somehow, perplexingly, a bit lighter? It's hard to explain exactly what's off about the building, but something is.
He's anxious. He knows it, Spot knows it; heck, everyone around him probably knows it. His cigar had long been fiddled with enough to crumble in to a pile at his feet. He looks down at the pile in annoyance, as if it was somehow the cigar's fault for falling apart. He'd swiped his first cigar from one of the older newsies not long after leaving this place and hadn't been without one since. He never smoked the things, just fiddled with them, but he can't help but feel the urge to light one up and smoke it now.
Race tries bouncing on the balls of his feet to expel his nervous energy. It's not working, why is it not working? If anything, the action is amping up his adrenaline even more. There's suddenly a firm hand on his shoulder keeping his feet solidly on the ground. He lets an annoyed growl bubble in his throat. Who on Earth thought it was a good idea to touch him right now?
"Stop it." Spot's voice growls from beside him. "You's just making yourself worse." Race glares at his friend. He knows Spot means well, but he's just not in the mood for this sort of thing right now.
A bell somewhere starts chiming twelve. Race tenses up and turns his attention back to the Refuge doors. It feels as if time has slowed down to taunt him. Each agonizingly loud chime appears to come slower than the next. Around the fifth chime, he vaguely notices Spot removing his hand from his shoulder to stuff it back in his pants pocket. The twelfth chime echoes around him and there's still no movement coming from the Refuge.
It feels almost like whiplash when the doors do open and the kids come streaming out. The seconds jump from crawling by to racing as fast as they can. The stream of kids starting and stopping in what feels like the same amount of time between two of the bell chimes. Race feels a bit sick, though whether it is from the fact that Jack still hasn't made an appearance or from the sudden time-jerking the universe dished out to him, he's not sure.
Race doesn't even recognize his feet carrying him forwards – closer to the front door – until he's standing in a huddle with Davey, Kath, Crutchie, and Spot. Katherine's saying something that sounds like she intends to go in there and he fumbles out, "You's can't go in there. I-I's go in and look. I knows where to look." If he could knock himself across the head, he would. Why would he say that? He certainly doesn't want to go in there, especially not alone. Katherine would be welcome company, but Jack-
"Don't you dare try and keep me from going in there Racetrack. I don't need your protection." Katherine spits out at him and he holds his hands up in defeat. "Aight, I gots it. You's comin' in with me," he concedes a little too willingly.
Spot's hand is on his shoulder again. "Eh, you's not going in alone Race. Davey and I'll go in with ya."
"Hey! Don't forget me; I'm coming in with yas." Crutchie pipes up and Race can't help but let out a weak smile. Crutchie's time in the Refuge certainly hadn't affected him the way he had worried it would have. He's glad; he doesn't think he could bear to see this kid's light snuffed out.
"Of course not. Can't forget Crutchie."
"So let's get going then," Katherine commands before turning and continuing her path through the Refuge door. Race could almost laugh at her eagerness, feigned or not, and follows the girl through the door he never wanted to pass through again.
They stand doing nothing in the main entry for a few moments. Spot's hand still hasn't left his shoulder and he vaguely wonders if his friend can feel the nervousness vibrating through him. He misses some sort of conversation that ends with the group splitting in two. He follows Spot up the stairs towards the boarding rooms. He knows Jack won't be there. Spot surely knows that too, but for some reason they check all the rooms. They're all empty, of course.
Loud banging suddenly interrupts his thoughts and his autonomous walking down the stairs and it nearly startles him into tripping. He luckily keeps his balance and emerges from his thoughts enough to force himself down the steps two at a time to race with Davey and Spot towards the source of the sound. It's Katherine. She's kicking on the door to the basement, getting frustrated over the fact it is locked. He quietly lets out, "That's the door to tha basement." He doesn't add that if Jack is locked in here anywhere then it's got to be there.
Spot kicks the door open and there's nothing. No Jack. Surely if Jack was down there, he would have already been at the door trying to get out, right? A lump catches in his throat as he involuntarily imagines what sort of shape Jack must be in if he's not right there at the door. No, he just needs to keep telling himself Jack will be fine. He will be. He has to be. He's Jack. Jack always makes it out fine.
He sees Davey struggling to light a candle he's found and holds his hand out expectantly. He selfishly wants to be the one to find Jack and in the basement that candle's going to give him the best shot. He just needs to know he's okay.
He's about to start walking towards the stairs – oh, the stairs, "Crutchie, uh, there's lot a stairs. And the candle don't do much for light…" he trails off. He's fallen down the stairs to the basement more than once; it wasn't always his fault, but that's not worth debating right now.
"I'll be fine Race," Crutchie reassures. Race wants to object, but honestly, he can feel his adrenaline start to wear out and fighting with Crutchie is not how he wants to spend it.
He and Spot take the lead and start to circle the perimeter of the room once they get down to the bottom. The shadows cast by the candle's flickering light keep making him jump as he imagines them as attackers jumping out from nowhere. Nearly finished with the perimeter of the room, Race struggles to tilt the candle towards the only hiding spot in the basement, which is the small gap under the stairs.
What he uncovers there makes him freeze in his tracks. It's Jack- no, no its not. It's what Jack looked like when they were locked in here together all those years ago. He fights back the urge to vomit and run out of the room and the reminder. He forces out, "Um, hi?"
The kid turns to look at him and now he can see that he's even younger than Jack was. Too young. The kid's got a bruise covering up half his face and is holding out a rusty nail as if it is some sort of defense against the two older boys in front of him. Race wants to vomit again when he thinks he recognizes dried blood on the nail. It's definitely coated too thick and colored too dark to be rust. Crutchie's saying something beside him and before he has time to wonder what it was, the kid is running out and trapping Crutchie in a hug.
Race dejectedly starts shuffling away from the happy moment and back towards and up the stairs. He feels on the brink of tears, but forces them away as best he can. The basement was the only place he figured Jack could be and the truth was he didn't know where else to possibly look. He watches as everyone streams out from the darkness of the basement. He catches a glimpse of Mouse, but can't bear to look at him any more past that. "There's only one more room I knows of, but I doubt he's in there." He risks one more glance down at where Mouse is hiding from view behind Crutchie's legs, "Why don't ya take 'im outside. It'll just be a minute."
"Just Snyder's office left?" Crutchie sadly questions. Race can only nod in response. There's no way Jack would be in there, but he needs to go and look for himself. Just to be sure. He watches at Crutchie and Mouse make their way towards the front door. Katherine follows them not long after.
Race turns and shuffles his way towards Snyder's office. He tries not to look at the plaque shining on the outside of the door. It seems too celebratory and why on earth anyone would celebrate doing this to kids was beyond his imagination. He puts out his hand to open the door but lets it hover there for a moment as he takes a deep breath. This was the last room he knew about in this building and he wasn't quite ready to shatter the tiny hope he had left that they would find Jack today.
He finally pushes the door open and walks inside to find Snyder's office depressingly empty. It looks exactly as he rememberz it, sans the portly Snyder sitting behind the desk. Lying open on the desk is the check in book and Race makes his way over to look through it. Flipping to the last couple of pages, he spots Crutchie's name childishly scrawled across one of the lines but doesn't find any sign of Jack's name.
"Race, what's in that room?" Davey interrupts his thoughts.
Race slowly turns to look at whatever Davey has found. "Just a closet, I thought. I's never seen a lock on it before though." He briskly walks over to fiddle with the lock. Snyder only locked things that were important. "You sees a key?"
He fiddles with the lock some more, seeing if he can pry it open somehow, but Davey ends up handing him the key before he makes any progress. He shoves the key in to the lock and twists it until he hears the satisfying click of the lock opening. Unable to wait any longer to find out what Snyder is hiding, he throws the door open.
Jack. Oh god, it's Jack and he's hurt. Hurt more than he's ever seen him, or at least more hurt than Jack has ever let himself appear. Race slowly stumbles in the room to kneel by his friend's side and reaches his hand out to shake his friend awake. But he can't do it. He can't. He doesn't want to see the terror in Jack's eyes if he accidentally startles him; doesn't want to accidentally cause him pain by touching an injury he can't see.
"Jack?" He asks, hoping he's able to wake him just with talking. "Jack?" He asks again a bit more forcefully.
"Race?" Jack finally replies. Race watches as his friends eyes-no eye, the other one is almost swollen shut- flutter open a couple of times.
Race feels himself relax a little now that Jack's talking. That's something positive, right? "Yeahs. Davey, Spot, and I here's to get you out. Katherine's waitin' outside with Crutchie."
Jack slowly lifts his head to lean it on the wall behind him. " 'S not safe." His friend takes another shallow breath. "You's got to go."
"Refuge's closed Jack. For good. We gaves your drawings to Katherine and she got 'em to the Governor. He's closed this place for good. So now we've come to get yous all out." He tries to get through to Jack.
He reaches forwards to start pulling his friend upright when he sees the cuffs locked painfully tight around Jack's wrists. Tears start streaming down his face and for once he doesn't try and stifle them. The cuffs just weren't fair and from the looks of it, they've been locked in place for a while now. Only Snyder was could be this evil.
He turns to Davey, "You's see any key for the cuffs out theres?" he asks, gesturing to Jack's hands. Race returns his attention to Jack, whose eyes are closed again and breathing remains unsteady and shallow. When a key is handed to him, he pulls Jack's hands as gently as he can from his lap and unlocks the cuffs. The skin underneath is a raw ring and dark bruises emanate out from it. He drops the cuffs and key behind with a satisfying clatter before turning his attention back to Jack, "Come on Jack, 's time to go."
Before he can ask for Davey's help, he's already on Jack's other side. The pair of them lifts Jack to his feet and Race winces when he hears Jack's breath hitch. He hadn't been meaning to cause Jack any more pain than he was obviously already in, but in the long run if a little pain meant getting him out of here faster, he's going to have to be okay with it. "Let's get out of here," he commands, ready to be free of this building.
They make slow progress towards the front of the Refuge. Normally, Race would have been annoyed with Davey's hovering behind them, but he can tell Jack's not completely steady on his feet right now so Davey's tailing provides a little comfort. He's not sure he'd be able to keep Jack from falling should he trip or lose his balance.
They finally make it to the front door and out in to the sunshine where Katherine, Crutchie and little Mouse are waiting for them. Race can feel Jack trying to straighten up beside him and he fights the urge to smack his friend across the head for wasting his energy on something so pointless right now. The only person he might be fooling is Mouse and why should Jack care what he thinks? Jack exchanges strange greetings and thank yous with Crutchie and Kath before Kath takes control of the situation and orders them to follow her.
Before he and Jack can start making their way down the front steps to join Kath and Crutchie, Spot comes up to Race and whispers, "I'm gonna go clear the place one more time. I'll stop by you's boarding house tonight to get an update," before heading back in to the darkness of the Refuge. Spot almost sounded worried? He's not sure he's ever heard that tone from the King of Brooklyn before.
With every step farther they take from the Refuge, Jack seems to be leaning more on him for support and his gait becomes more and more unbalanced. He'd for the most part dropped the 'stand up straight and pretend I'm fine' act, which is great cause he doesn't need to be wasting energy on that, but Race is still pretty sure Jack's hurting more than he's letting on.
Once they finally make it up in to Katherine's apartment, she declares she's calling for a doctor. If Race's being honest, he stops listening after that. Jack's starting to shake a little and he just wants to get him sitting somewhere so he can't fall, but before he can do that Davey is leading them farther back in to the apartment and in to a washroom. If it weren't for the situation, Race would have whistled at how fancy and modern the place is.
Davey exits the room again, mumbling something about clothes, and Race helps Jack slide down the wall in to a sitting position. Jack's still shaking though so he looks to the sink and finds a cup that he quickly fills with water and forces in to his friend's hands. He sighs with relief when Jack starts sipping at it without encouragement.
Davey returns with a pile of clothes, which Race recognizes as the clothes Jack only wears when he sneaks out to paint at Medda's. Jack's finished with the mug of water, so Race takes it from him to set it on the counter again. He can hear Davey starting to fiddle with the shower.
Race kneels on the floor in front of Jack. "Come on Jack. You's got to get clean so the doctor can look at ya."
"I's fine." Jack wheezes out. He must be really out of it if he thought that was anywhere close to convincing.
"Dammit Jack, no you're not." Davey's returned from fiddling with the shower to kneel beside the pair. "Stop pretending you are. It's okay to be hurt and let people help you. We want to help you. Katherine wants to help you. Stop being so damn stubborn."
Jack's non-swollen eye widens a bit at Davey's outburst and a small smile spreads on his face. Race has to admit he's surprised by Davey too.
"What?" Davey asks, bewildered.
"Didn't think ya had that in ya," Jack whispers back with a smile.
Davey's face falls in to an unbelieving smile, "Oh god, you're delirious." He stands up and walks a couple of feet away to talk to himself in the corner of the room.
"Come on Jack. Please. Let's get you clean so the doctor can look you over." Race insists as he reaches forwards to tug on the remains of Jack's once-blue button down.
Jack weakly tries to push Race's hand away. "Don't need a doctor." He weakly protests. If anything, he's just solidifying Race's assumption that the doctor is absolutely necessary.
"Yes you do Jack. I's never seen you like this." He pauses and ignores the glare Jack is sending his way. "Kath wants ya to see the doctor, so if you want do it for us, do it for her. She worked hard to get ya out ands been worried sick about ya." Another pause, "That girls yer ace Jack and you don't want ta lose her." Jack gives him one more glare, but doesn't object further.
Race pulls off his own shirt and rolls up the legs of his pants. Unlike Jack, he doesn't have a spare set of clothes sitting around at Kath's place to change in to if he gets soaked. He watches as Davey bashfully turns to corner and does the same. Normally, he'd call out the older boy on it but it's really not worth it right now.
When Race returns to Jack, he's already pulled off his button down and set it on the floor at his side. Race helps him pull off his undershirt and tries to ignore Jack's hisses of pain when he raises his arms up to pull it off. Even through the dirt and grime, Race can make out shadows of bruises littering his friend's torso.
Eventually he and Davey get Jack undressed and in the shower, where the water just mixes with Jack's accumulated dirt layer to create mud. It's a long process, but Jack eventually is free of the mud. The same can not be said for the shower, which remains spotted with mud piles.
Race is looking away and searching for a towel when from behind him he hears Davey, "Jack, what's this wrapped around your foot and why?"
"Nothin'. Just leave it." He can hear Jack insist, the pitch of his voice rising slightly. Race turns to find out what's got Jack so uptight all of a sudden.
When Davey reaches to pull at the cloth tied around Jack's foot, Jack weakly shifts his leg out of the way. Race throws the towel at Jack with, "I'm not against holdin' ya down if I need ta so Davey can look at ya Jack." Jack glares at him again, but doesn't move this time when Davey unties and peels off the cloth around Jack's foot.
Once the cloth is free, Jack winces out with a pained smirk, "How's it look?"
Race can't see Jack's foot from where he's standing, but Davey's face says all he needs to know. "Damn Jack. How were you walking on this?" Davey asks. Jack grimaces as he shrugs his shoulders and it's not lost on Davey. "Jack, you don't – you can't-" Davey keeps cutting himself off before eventually giving up, groaning, and fleeing from the washroom entirely.
"I think you finally broke Davey, Jackie," Race laughs as he returns to his friend's side. Jack sheepishly smiles back at him. "I thinks he was just trying to say you's got ta tell us when ya hurt though. That's what we're here for."
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