Hello again to my fandom. I have a sad thing for you today.
A while back, it occured to me that we never see what happens right after the strike regarding the rest of the newsies, such as when they returned to the lodging house after being chased away by the police. And we only see Jack's reaction to Crutchie's capture, as it's only briefly mentioned by Katherine before King of New York.
Well, needless to say, that was not acceptable for me.
Enjoy!
-Marcelle
Davey is the first one to return to the lodging house that night.
He dashes into the building and slams the door behind him, his breathing heavy as he fights to steady himself and calm his shaking body. He doesn't know where any of the others are.
He doesn't know if they're safe, or even if they're alive. He barely can register his own injuries, his mind working frantically to regain control of his senses. The past hour barely resembles a blur in his memory, and he almost doubts if it even happened at all. But...no.
No, suddenly, everything comes flying back to him in a mad rush, an onslaught of reality that he can't take all at once. Because they've failed.
All of the planning, all of the rallying, all of the courage they gathered. It was for nothing. Just when Davey was starting to believe that he was actually going to make a difference, that he was going to change the circumstances for himself and for the boys, came the police, teaming up with the Delancies and Synder with no other intent but to put the newsies to shame. And what a job they've done of it.
He can remember seeing all of them scattering in a million different directions in a panic, the threat of the Refuge in the form of Synder finally seeming to scare them off. Davey could not even manage to keep track of Les during the madness, and now he realizes that his little brother is the source of the unbearable dread that's settling in his stomach. What could have happened to him during that chaos?
His reeling thoughts seem to plant him to the floor, and it takes a few moments for Davey to summon enough will to move again. He staggers to the other side of the room, sinking into the only comfortable chair in the room and dropping his head into his hands.
The logical option is to get up, to find the others, to help in any way he can. But logic had left him tonight, the sense and reason he usually keeps so closely gaurded has been stolen, and it's absence keeps him in his seat.
That, and the fact that he is in no condition to be helping anyone until he fixes his own mind first.
Davey does not know how long he sits there, still enough to rival death, before the door swings open again. His head snaps up at the sound, as though it has somehow temporarily brought him back to his senses, and the sight that meets his eyes somehow both terrifies and relaxes him at the same time.
Les is there, among the several battered and bloodied newsies that have stumbled through the door, panting just as Davey had. The sight of his little brother has fully awakened him, but he only has enough time to stand up before Les has his arms around Davey's waist, voluntarily hugging him for the first time in years.
Davey wishes he could savor this rare moment of brotherly affection as he returns the gesture, but it is for all the wrong reasons. Reasons that should have never exsisted. Tonight should have been so much different.
"Davey, we...we lost..." Les reports as he buries his head into his older brother's shirt, the bowler hat that he somehow managed to keep during the brawl now falling to the floor.
"I know, Les," Davey manages to respond, tightening his grip on the boy as though to make sure he was safe even there in the lodging house. But then, nowhere feels safe now, not after what has just happened.
"Where're the others?" one of the newsies speaks up-Buttons, Davey thinks, although he doesn't take his eyes off Les long enough to check.
"That, I don't know," Davey admits when he finally lifts his head to address the boys, almost wishing he hadn't. The lot of them are bruised and bleeding, but Davey can see past the outer wounds to what really stands out to him.
Their spirits have been broken much more than their bodies have. Their faith has failed them, and it is Davey's fault.
"Ya haven't seen any of 'em?" It's now Specs who asks the question, his glasses cracked but miraculously still intact as he stares through them, his eyes wide and noticably panicked, waiting for Davey's answer.
"No. No, I haven't. I just got here, I...I have no idea where they are," he admits after a moment, wishing he had different words to give them, wishing he had more reassurance to offer. Bur circumstance has run him dry, and he has nothing.
"But they gotta be out there somewhere! What if they're hurt or-or dead or-" Les hurriedly theorizes before earning a stern glare from Davey and cutting himself off. Or maybe he notices how one of his words has caused a collective tension among the newsies.
"No one's dead, Les, okay? But...yeah, they could be hurt. The police were pretty merciless tonight," Davey sighs, running a hand through his hair as he's seen Jack do countless times within the past two days alone. Jack...where has he gotten to?
"Then we gotta go find them. Now." Race decides for the group, turning on his heel and making to leave. Davey strides to beat him to the door, standing in front of it and blocking his path.
"No, you can't!" he declares loudly, the note of panic is his voice disappearing quickly as he takes a deep breath. "It's not safe out there yet, not with the police still out. The others are smart, they'll make it back. You just have to trust them."
"I'm not really in a trusting mood, Dave, y'know?" Race fires back, his anger seeming more directed at the situation than at Davey himself. Davey takes a silent headcount of the group, his concern very slightly lessened by the fact that they are only appearing to missing six newsies.
Finch, Albert, Jojo, Crutchie, Romeo, and Jack are still not among them, and Davey can see that the longer the rest of them debate what to do, the most frustrated they will become. And that will get them nowhere.
"Yes, I understand. You're worried, I get it-"
"No, ya don't get it, Davey! You'se been a newsie for, what, three days? I've known these guys my whole life, and I ain't gonna just sit around while some brianic kid tries ta tell me that he knows more about my own family than I do!" Race practically explodes, his worry for his brothers clearly flowing out of him in a quick outburst. Davey steps towards him, putting a hand on his shoulder in what he hopes is a consoling gesture.
"I'm not saying that, not at all. I'm just trying to help, Race. I really don't think it's a good idea for us to go and put ourselves in danger when our friends are already in enough trouble as it is," Davey works as much reason as he can into his voice, and it is miraculously seems to work on the other boy, whose features crumple in defeat.
"Yeah. Yeah, I guess you're right," Race has only just let the words out of his mouth before the door to the lodging house slams open again to reveal the arrival of three figures, each of them staggering under the weight of exhaustion.
"You do not want to be out there right now," Finch pants, hunched over with his hands on his knees. Jojo and Albert both lean against the wall, clearly too winded to contribute to the conversation.
Davey can practically feel relief surging through the newsies at the return of their friends, but he also senses the still lingering worry. Not all of them are back yet, and Davey knows none of the boys will rest until each bed in the lodging house is filled.
"Where're Jack and Crutchie?" Elmer doesn't wait another minute before asking the question the others surely must be thinking, and Davey sees the three exhausted newsies all exchange a glance that cannot possibly mean they have any good news to share.
"And Romeo?" Race adds to the inquiry, which doesn't surprise Davey at all. He's seen the close bond Race seems to share with the young romantic, and realizes in an instant that this must have been the majority of the reason for his earlier lashing out.
Race had wanted more than anything to find his little brother, much as Davey had himself. The revelation makes Davey feel as though he understands Race just a little more.
"We...we don't know. We didn't see them," Albert reports solemnly, his eyes downcast, as though meeting their gaze would somehow make the situation worse than it is. Jojo and Finch nod in assent, the confirmation weighing down the air above them with a now growing despair.
Where are their remaining friends? Have they been caught by the police? Or are they concealing themselves somewhere in the city, biding their time until the right moment to return?
The possibilities are overwhelming, and Davey hates it. He's used to a clear answer, a step-by-step process that leads to a single outcome. There are too many options now, and Davey isn't sure he can handle the uncertainty much longer.
Luckily, he doesn't have to, because it is then that the lodging house doors fly apart for the third time that night.
"Crutchie's in the Refuge!"
It is only Romeo that stands in the door threshold now, tears brimming in his eyes and his chest heaving with the effort of the saying the words. A beat of silence hangs in the air following the pronouncement, a moment in which Davey feels nothing but disbelief. He quite simply does not want to believe what Romeo is telling them.
He won't accept it, because it's impossible. Crutchie could not be in the Refuge. That boy is too innocent of such a place, too undeserving. Jack would never let that happen.
"What?" Race is the first one of them to break the still, unwilling air, his voice quiet with the same doubt that Davey feels himself. It is, he thinks, the first time he's ever heard Race speak in such a low tone. That's how he knows it must be true.
"I saw 'im bein' dragged away b-by Synder, and he was shoutin' for Jack and...and for us..." Romeo appears to be forcing the recollection out, his words rushed, his small sobs seeming to make it very difficult to even focus. "But I didn't help him, I didn't want ta get caught, too..."
He crosses the room, heading directly towards Race and briefly hugging him, reminding Davey for a moment of himself and Les. They are not so different from these boys after all.
"I shoulda helped 'im, Race..." Romeo murmurs, looking up at his older friend with such a contagious guilt in his eyes that it hurts to even look at him.
"Nah, Romeo, there's nothin' you coulda done. You woulda just been hauled there, too, and that wouldn't be doin' anyone a favor," Race replies, his tone still subdued as he puts both of his hands on the younger boy's shoulders.
Davey has been in the same position Race is in many a time, the role of consoling brother one he has mastered down to a science. But never has he dealt with a situation of such magnitude as this.
"What are we gonna do?" Romeo looks around the room now, his face still showing lingering traces of frantic panic, but it is more weary as he addresses the group. "Where's Jack?"
"That is the question, isn't it?" Davey finally sighs again. He's already tired of the mystery; the day has been too long and feels as though it cannot possibly get any longer. It has already contained too much tragedy to continue.
"What if he's gone?" Finch speaks up, looking as though something important has just dawned on him. "He's always talkin' about that Santa Fe place, 'ow he wants ta go there someday insteada hangin' around Manhattan. Maybe this was too much for him. Maybe he snapped."
"Jack wouldn't leave us now!" Les, of course, immediately jumps to the newsie leader's defense, before spinning his head around to Davey for confirmation. "Right, Davey?"
"I...I'm not sure, Les," Davey hesitates before requishing what is supposed to be an answer, but really offers nothing in the way of reassurance. He knows Jack Kelly has become a living, breathing hero for Les, throughly replacing Davey as his little brother's prime role model. And while it hurts more than anything to know that he has lost that status in Les's eyes, Davey still does not want to shatter his view of Jack.
Les considers their leader to be nothing less than a cowboy, a genuine wild spirit and upholder of all that is good. But in reality, neither of the Jacobs boys know Jack Kelly, really know him, and it is because of this that Davey is unsure of how far he can be pushed before he breaks. Perhaps this is the point of no return.
"Wherever he is, he'll be back if he knows about Crutchie. He wouldn't jus' leave any of us there, not afta what he's seen," Specs attempts to reason, and the rest of the newsies murmur their agreement around him.
Davey wants to press the matter, ask what exactly Jack has seen or knows about the Refuge, but manages to restrain his curiousity. Now is neither the time or the place.
"So we'll wait," he suggests, glancing around the room at the gathered newsboys. They are all hurt, their leader missing and their most hopeful brother taken from them.
They have nothing left to root for, but Davey wants more than anything to believe that they can pull through. He's seen them come together during the strike, when it seemed as though the odds were stacked against them. Now, the odds rise even higher, and the climb will be much tougher.
"We'll wait for Jack." Davey swears it to them, promises something that he really has no business promising, but he knows it is the only way. Tonight has wounded them all, and Davey hopes that time will prove to heal them.
If it doesn't, then all is lost. And Davey will not let that happen. The world must know.
Well, that was a first for me, I've never written from Davey's POV before...it was fun! Be sure to review, and prompts/suggestions always appreciated. Also, check out the new chapter of Walk Over Us!