I don't own Newsies.
The boys all sat around Button's bed. Someone had tucked the sheets in and put his trumpet on the pillow. All the boys had tears running down their faces, death being the one thing that brought everybody's walls down. The silence in the room was almost unbearable.
"Boys," Jack's voice was rough. "I…" Jack had intended to say something comforting but even he was at a loss for words. The boys all turned their attention back to their silent vigil.
Finch wrapped his arms around his chest attempting to get even a small amount of comfort before the grief overtook him completely. His brother was gone and nothing could bring him home. He looked up when he felt a hand rest on his shoulder.
"Hey, buddy. Maybe you should get some sleep. In fact, I think we should all try to sleep a little," Jack said, addressing all the boys. Most of them hadn't gotten very much sleep at all the last few days and he knew for a fact that Finch had been up for 48 hours straight. A few of the boys nodded and started to move around.
"Wait!" Finch almost yelled. "We can't let him go without a melody." The newsies exchanged confused looks as Finch took a deep breath and grabbed the trumpet. Buttons had only taught him one song, and he wasn't very good at it, but he had to at least try. Finch pursed his lips and pressed down the outer buttons on the trumpet. He started blowing and listened as the melody played out. Fresh tears rolled down his face as he held out the last note as long as he could. When Finch turned around, all the boys were standing with their caps in their hands. They all knew Taps was the song Buttons would play at night to say goodbye to the sun. They all knew that it had a different meaning this time. This time, it was a final farewell to their brother.
I am literally so sorry. I know that this was not even long enough to be a story but I saw my old trumpet and the whole story hit me like a headlight. If you didn't catch on, Buttons is called buttons because of the buttons that you press down on to play the trumpet. I'm going to go post some warm fuzzies to make everything better for people and really more for me. Video will be any video that picks you back up. Song is Taps for no reason in particular. It is 1:08 AM MST so goodnight, good morning, and good everything in between.