A/N-Well, here I am again, with yet another new story. Don't worry; this one is going to be a short one. It's an idea that I've had for a while and I finally decided I would publish it. As always: DISCLAIMER-Newsies does not belong to me, it belongs to Disney. Any characters that were not in the movie belong to me, although I don't intend for there to be many original characters. Also, the plot belongs to me.I hope you enjoy it, and don't forget to review!

AFTER

Chapter One

It was a common misconception, after the strike, that the Newsies just took their fearless leader right back, even after he had sold out. That story, however, is a myth, a falsity, a LIE. How could you can expect, that after watching the boy they had followed so doubtlessly (well for the most part) turn into a scab, a bunch of poor teenage boys to forgive and forget an act like that? If you had any sense, you wouldn't be able to do so. So, don't listen to anything anyone else tells you. This here is the TRUE story about what REALLY happened after the strike.

David Jacobs sat on his bed, flipping a penny in his hand. Slap, heads, slap, heads, slap tails, slap heads. His blue eyes focused on this side of the coin, consumed with what he had just discovered. Was it actually possible for someone to flip sides like the coin? Going from heads, to tails, and then back again without a change? The newsie tore his eyes away from the money, turning his attention to his older sister. She was leaning on the windowsill, gazing out into the city, her brown hair pulled back with a ribbon. As she looked at the sun, her shoulders began to shake from silent tears. A sigh escaped her lips, and was echoed by her brother. They were both thinking about the same thing, the same person, the same situation.

"Do you believe that he actually was going to leave?" she asked out of the blue, her voice that of someone who had been crying, not turning to face David. "I mean, he told me that he had nothing to stay for, that he had nothing going for him. Was he telling the truth?"

"He told me the same thing" David replied coldly. "He picked money over us Sarah."

"But he came back" she retorted, finally turning to face him, her eyes red from tears.

"Jack never came back" David spit. "I don't know who came back. Maybe it was Francis Sullivan. But whoever it was, it wasn't Jack Kelly."

"David…" Sarah said softly.

"And look where we are now?" David continued, ignoring his sister. "What did the strike get us? Better working conditions? No. Better wages? No. Sure, now we don't have to eat what we don't sell, but it's not like they lowered the price. All we got was the ability to sell back what we didn't sell, and a brainwashed leader."

"Brainwashed?"

"Not even brainwashed. More like corrupted. In fact, I bet he was corrupted the entire time. He never actually cared about us. I mean, obviously he was doing it for money, he sure proved that to me" David raked his hand through his brown curly hair, getting more and more enraged as he continued.

"Do the others notice?" Sarah asked cautiously, looking at her brother in a concerned way for she had never seen him like this.

"I know Spot notices. Spot notices everything."

"But what about Mush? Kid Blink, Race, Skittery, Specs, Dutchy, Swiffty, and everyone else? They know Jack better than you do. Can't they tell he's changed? Don't they realize that he was more than willing to sell out?"

"I don't know, no one's really said anything about it. Things have changed. People have changed. The lodging house seems so quiet recently; no one knows what to say. You'd think that they'd talk about the strike, because it was a big thing and it only ended last week. But no one wants to talk about it. It's old news already" David sighed again. "I can't stand seeing Jack anymore. Every time I see him, I see him in that awful suit, him telling me I don't understand. Well I understand now. I understand that he really doesn't care about these people he calls his friends."

"What are you going to do about it?" Sarah asked gently, trying to calm her brother down because he was getting pretty worked up over the subject.

"Well, have you talked to him since it ended?"

"No" she looked down at her feet, almost in shame. "I just can't seem to face him now. I feel like such an idiot, thinking that I was someone worth staying for."

"You are worth staying for" David said firmly, looking over at his sister. "Don't let anyone make you think otherwise, especially Jack. We all know now he's perfectly capable of deceiving those closest to him. But I know what I'm going to do about it. I'm going to free Manhattan of him. We don't need him. He left us, how can he except to be welcomed back with open arms. No, that's not going to happen. Actually, I'm going to go to the lodging house right now and have a talk with the boys. We have to fix this."

"Don't do anything stupid" Sarah told him, watching him shove his brown newsies cap over his hair.

"The stupidest thing I've done was trusting him. That's not going to happen again!" With that last comment, David went storming from the apartment, leaving Sarah consumed in her thoughts, trying to figure out just what was going to happen now.

Racetrack Higgins loved the solitude that he achieved when he was on the roof. The sounds of New York City would drift up to him, reminding him that he wasn't completely alone, but he was alone enough. Plus, he didn't have to deal with the silence in the Lodging House, the silence of New York City was so much more comforting then the awkwardness inside. He flicked a few ashes from his cigar to the roof, staring out into the distance, at the building tops that surrounded him. This was his home. These people who walked the streets were the people he dealt with everyday. And those people who slept on the streets were the ones who understood him. Just like he thought everyone in the Lodging House understood him, and he understood them. Well, that's what he thought. Now, he wasn't so sure of that anymore. Not since the strike had ended, not since Jack had gone scab on them. Jack. Now there was someone Race thought he really understood, someone who he felt a strong connection with. But now, any connection anyone had had with Jack had disintegrated into a mere memory of happier times. One might think the boys would be happy now; after all, they had defeated one of the most powerful men in New York.

"But there are casualties" Race muttered to himself with his distinct New York accent. "There are always casualties."

"You alright there Race?" a voice from behind him asked. Race turned to see Kid Blink standing at the top of the fire escape, looking at Race in a concerned way.

"Just thinkin'" Race replied, throwing the bud of his cigar to the roof and stomping it out.

"Yeah. I've been thinkin' too" Blink replied, walking towards his friend. "We been thinkin' bout the same thing?"

"You thinkin' bout Jack?"

"Yeah."

"Then we've been thinkin' bout the same thing."

"Yeah" Blink took a seat on the edge of the roof, staring down into the alley that separated the lodging house from the building next to it. "He ain't Jack no more" he said, enticed in the stray cat who was digging through the trash beneath him.

"No, he ain't" Race replied, taking a seat next to his friend.

"Were we wrong, you think, to just welcome him back?" Blink asked as the cat jumped into a metal trash can, a large clattering ensuing. "I mean, he became a scab. He was willing to just leave us for all that money Pulitzer offered him."

"Would you have?" Race asked in reply, voicing a thought that he'd been toying with for a while now. "It was a lot of money."

"But we're his friends Race! We're all he's got."

"Maybe he don't want us no more" the Italian boy shrugged, pulling a fresh cigar out of his pocket. "Bein' a newsie ain't no big deal. But Pulitzer gave him money, and a chance for a new beginning. That's a big deal."

"Sure, that don't sound bad. But…" Blink trailed off into thought, as he processed what Race had been saying. "I wouldn't" he finally said after a minute of thought. "I couldn't do it. You guys are all I've got. I'd finish what I'd started. And I would never take the cowards way out."

"Money does strange things to people Kid" Race said, taking a puff of the cigar. "It makes people act funny, do things they didn't think they'd do."

"So you think it was ok of him to take the money? That it was ok to desert us when we depended on him?" Blink asked incredulously.

"I never said that" Race shot back sharply. "I wouldn't have done it. And of course I think it was wrong. I'm just trying to figure out why he did do it. I'm trying to see from his point of view. We all knew Jack wanted to get away. And suddenly, with this offer from old man Joe, Jack had the opportunity right in front of him. So he took it."

"But he came back" Blink pointed out. "Twice."

"Well, I guess the lesson learned here is that Jack is actually very weak. He can't seem to stick to his plans. He can't turn scab, and he can't leave the city" Race said, introducing a few facts that Blink hadn't considered.

"He must've felt guilty" Blink reasoned. "Maybe he didn't want to leave us behind."

"Who're you kiddin' Blink? Jack would've left if he had the strength. I don't think he cares about nobody but himself. He's just a selfish asshole, that's all he is."

"Well if he wants to leave so bad, and he can't do it himself…" Blink thought out loud. "Then maybe we should help the poor guy out."

"You mean, help him leave?" Race clarified, catching on to Blink's idea.

"Yeah" Blink replied slyly, a smirk crossing his face. "We can be good friends, and help him out a lil."

"Mind if I join you fellas?" a voice asked from behind. Race and Blink turned their heads around to see David standing above them. "Snitch said I'd find you two up here."

"We were just talkin'" Race said innocently.

"And thinkin'" Blink added.

"Well, I've been doing some thinking also" David said, sitting down to join the boys. "About Jack."

"Us too" Blink replied, happy to hear that David was being haunted by the same memories they were.

"I thought you two might understand my worries" David said with a shrug, looking out into the almost cloudless sky. "That you might understand where I'm coming from."

"What're your worries?" Race asked, dropping his finished cigar to the alley bellow them.

"That Jack's a danger to us all now. That he shouldn't just be able to waltz back into the borough, and expect to be welcomed back warmly."

"Well, funny you should say that" Blink said, looking over at David. "Cause Race and me were just discussing how weak Jack is. And how if he really wants to leave, then we should help him, because he obviously can't do it himself. He's tried at least twice during the strike, and countless times before you knew him."

"You took the words right out of my mouth Blink" David said with a grin.

"So, we gonna help him leave?" Race asked, putting the question into the open.

"Yeah…" David said with a nod, grin still upon his lips. "We're gonna help him."