Author's Note: Hey all. I'm still in the process of getting all my stories back up on here. This was written for the Newsies Pape Selling Competition (season 2!). If you enjoy writing newsies fanfiction, PM me for details - we're always looking for new people!
The prompt for this one was to write about a character who is trapped in the Refuge. This little scene is part of a much bigger story that I am working on, hence the two female OC's who are mentioned.
Spot shivered and pulled the blanket tighter around him. He ran his thumb over the fresh notches in the bed frame. If his count was right, he'd been in the Refuge for 68 days. He wondered if Charlotte was okay. Was she better now? Did she know where he was? Did she know why he hadn't come to see her?
He remembered how badly she'd shivered in his arms. How hot her skin was as he carried her up to the Jacobs' apartment. He should have taken her home as soon as he's heard her sniffle the first time. He should have dragged her back to Manhattan, kicking and screaming. He shouldn't have let her brush it off the way she did. Even when she'd started having trouble breathing, and would wake up in the middle of the night alternating between shivering and sweating.
By the time he realized something was really wrong, he knew he just needed to get her to someone who could give her the care she needed. He didn't care that the Jacobs' wanted him in jail for the rest of his life. He didn't care that David hated his guts, and probably hated Charlotte's now too.
For as much trouble as Spot consistently got in to, he had never actually been arrested, and had certainly never gotten put into the Refuge. He hated it. His smart mouth had gotten him in trouble on the first day. That had earned him a club to the back of the knees and several body shots before the guards let him be. He just stayed in his bunk after that. Unfortunately, the guards had destroyed his reputation within the jail, so no one was afraid of him in there.
He hated it in the refuge. Teddy Roosevelt may have visited last summer and demanded reforms, but that doesn't mean the city had the money or the manpower to enact those reforms. Snyder had just been replaced by another greedy son of a bitch who lined his pockets with the money the city sent to feed and clothe the boys.
To get his mind off his current situation, he turned his thoughts toward Charlotte. He hadn't realized how much he really cared about her until he got sick. In the beginning, she was just a fun way to spend an afternoon, like any of his other girls. Soon, he realized that he genuinely cared about her. She was not afraid to put him in his place, which, as much as Spot hated it in the moment, he appreciated. She was smarter than she let on, as if she didn't want him to think she was smart. Spot got the feeling she didn't have a lot of experience with boys. He knew that he had been her first kiss.
That kiss. That afternoon still brought a smile to his lips. It had been a record-setting hot day, and they had spent the Saturday swimming in the East River. He'd taken her hand and they swam a little ways away from his boys, under the dock where it was cooler. He could still remember what she felt like in his arms, shivering a little under the cool docks, despite the heat, her arms around his shoulders. Her lips had been soft against his, with the slightest taste of salt from the river. He remembered that moment every time he accidentally tasted river water.
The sound of his name snapped Spot out of his thoughts.
"Conlon? Yeah, he's here," said a voice across the room. Spot didn't even bother looking up. He was vaguely aware when someone came over to his bunk. "Spot, there's some girl on the fire escape wantin' to see you."
Spot glanced towards the window and saw Adelaide crouched on the fire escape, holding onto the bars.
"Aide?" he furrowed his brow. He hopped off his bunk and walked over to the window. "What are you doing' here?"
Adelaide looked him up and down. He could tell how bad he looked by her expression. "What happened in here?" she asked.
"Don't give me that look, Aide."
Adelaide blinked. "What look?"
"Pity."
"You look awful."
"You're not looking' so great yourself."
Adelaide rolled her eyes. "Very funny."
"How's Charlotte?" he asked.
"She's got pneumonia," said Adelaide. "She's at the Jacobs' house now. Her parents are coming back from Connecticut today."
Spot sighed. "I should be with her."
Adelaide winced slightly. "It's probably best you're not. David and his family are pretty angry with you. They seem to think you convinced her to run away to Brooklyn. One her parents get here, I'm pretty sure they will never let you see her again."
"This is bullshit," Spot muttered.
"Once she gets better, she'll tell them all the truth. She'll tell them she ran away to Brooklyn with you on her own free will. She'll tell them that you convinced her to go back and stay in school."
"Not like it will do any good."
Adelaide didn't say anything. She looked over his shoulder into the room, then off to the side.
Spot watched her and frowned. "What aren't you telling me?"
Adelaide hesitated before looking him in the eye. "They had a doctor come to give her a check up after you got arrested." She swallowed. "Spot, Char's pregnant."
Spot forgot how to breathe. He forgot how to think. He forgot where he was.
Pregnant. She was pregnant.
And Spot was stuck in the refuge.
And her parents will never, ever let him see her again.
He looked at Adelaide. "You gotta give her a message from me."
Adelaide gave him a pity-filled look. "I'll try. But she's asleep most of the time. Even when she's awake, she's not really, all there. She's got a bad fever, and that messes with her head."
"I don't care. Every time you see her, you tell her that I'm gonna get outta here and I'm gonna take care of her."
"Spot..."
"Tell her. Tell her every time you see her. And when she gets better, you keep tellin' her."
Adelaide sighed softly and nodded. "I will."
Spot nodded. He was glad that in a world that was dead set against him, he always had Adelaide in his corner.
"So how long did it get you?" Adelaide asked.
Spot shrugged. "I wasn't even listening. I don't care."
"You been in here, what, two months already? Probably another couple months."
"How're the boys?"
"They're fine. As hard as it is for you to believe, they can manage without you." She grinned and winked at him.
"Guess from here on out, they'll have to learn to live without me."
Adelaide's grin faded. "Spot, they're not gonna let you near her or the baby."
"I'd like to see them try."