Spot finished praying, he felt the effort futile. Though, he also thought it couldn't help especially if there was a god up there watching and listening to everyone. Spot wished he could hide up on the rainy roof all night. He thought about it, but knew that would send a bad message. Spot stood up, cracking his back and heading back inside. He crept down the fire escape, and opened the window to the room that he and Reader shared. He paused as he realized that the doctor and nurses were missing and Reader was lying on the bed. Quietly he crept towards where Reader lay, she looked so pale but saw the rhythmic rising and falling of her chest and breathed a sigh of relief. He sat down on the floor next to her bed, relieved she was still breathing. While he was sitting he surveyed the damage around him, bloody rags, her clothes which had been torn to shreds to get at whatever had been broken, a water basin that had been turn a reddish color from her blood. It looked like a battle had raged in here and it made his stomach sick. He got onto his knees to face Reader. He wanted to study his little fighter more closely, he pulled back the thin white sheet that covered her and saw bruises over most of her lower abdomen and stitches in various places. It pained him physically to see this, so he replaced the sheet and turned to her face. Her face which was almost unharmed in the incident. He studied her, she looked so peaceful, but he knew the pain she was in. Gently, for fear he may break her, he placed a kiss on her brow and whispered, "Youse keep fightin." With that Spot stood up and left the room.

For the first time that evening Spot faced his boys, well some of them. Not many knew Reader very well. She kept to herself, unless there were orphans to tend to. To the boys that had been orphaned Reader was the Wendy to their lost boys. A lot of newsboys were runaways and some were orphans, the ones that were orphaned Reader spent the most time with. She understood what it was to lose everything, she was there for every single one of them, and on that night they were there for her. They sat in vigil outside her door, waiting for news. When they saw Spot they looked at him expectantly but he just shrugged, he didn't have any information for them. Hesitantly Ash, Spot's second, approached him.

"Ya Ash?" Spot asked expectantly. He knew that Ash would have some information regarding what had happened with the Doctor and nurses.

"Doctah said he did everything he could tonight." Ash said plainly, which didn't help Spot any.

"All he could meaning…..?" Spot prodded.

"O ya, he said he didn't believe dere was any internal bleeding, which in his words was a complete miracle. He think dat maybe Readah hit her head real hard, if dat's da case he said sometimes people wake up a few days latah all fine and dandy and…sometimes dey don't wake up at all." Ash said, it hurt his heart to say those words.

Spot's shoulders sagged and for the first time he felt tears brimming at his eyes, though he blinked them away before anyone could catch him. He still had to be strong. Spot composed himself and looked Ash in the eyes, "Den we wait til she's bettah."

"Ya, dat's all we can do. Da doctah is gonna check on her tomorrow."

"Thank's Ash." Spot said placing a hand on his shoulder, "Alright boys, I know Readah would be so touched to see youse guys outside her door," Spot began, "But youse guys also need your rest. PLEASE go to sleep. I promise if anything changes I will let you know." Spot said as authoritatively as he could manage at the moment. He couldn't let his boys see him fall apart, even though he was just a second from losing it. Once all his boys have left Spot said goodnight to Ash and went into the room he shared with Reader.

Once inside he was pleased to see that Reader was still breathing, as long as that was happening he still had hope. Slowly Spot pealed out of his wet clothes and into some dry ones and lay on his bed. Spot closed his eyes and focused in on the sound of the rain hitting the window, his thoughts slowly drifted off to another rainy night a few months ago.

Spot had been sound asleep, dreaming about some girl he had seen earlier that day, when a thunderclap awoke him. Sleepily Spot rubbed his eyes and stretched, mid stretch he noticed Reader was strangely absent. Normally seeing her bed absent wouldn't have caused him any worry at all, but she had been acting strange in the last few weeks so he felt like investigating. He opened the bedroom door just in time to hear the front door of the warehouse open and shut, startled he ran to the window to see Reader just as she was throwing a hat over her long black hair. Spot followed suit, running through the sleeping quarters, down the stairs as fast as he could.

Once Spot got down to the street he snuck after her, not wanting to be seen just yet. It was pouring rain so he figured whatever the reason it had better be damned important. He crept along the streets until he followed her into an abandoned warehouse. He had no idea what she was doing, but it upset him greatly, nothing good ever happened in abandoned warehouses. He peered through the grime of the window and saw a man standing in the middle with a candle at his feet. He watched as Reader approached him slowly, hesitantly almost. He watched the strange man walk towards her, bring her close to him and kiss her. His blood was boiling, blindly he charged in there and tackled the man that held her. All three of them went flying.

"SPOT!" Reader shouted furiously. She ran to pull him off the man he was pummeling. Spot stepped away from him, and began pacing-the only way he knew how to keep calm. Spot looked at saw Reader was hovering over the man, "Mush," he heard her whisper, "are you okay?" Spot cocked his head at that sentence, it was then that he saw Mush's cutoff shorts and curly hair.

"MUSH? MUSH? Youse should KNOW better than to come for something of Brooklyn's!" Spot shouted. Mush sat there quiet, knowing that he was in deep with Brooklyn, hell he knew he was going to be in deep with Jack. Spot wasn't someone anyone would want to cross.

"Shit, Spot I wasn't thinking." Was all Mush could say before running out of the warehouse.

"Ise better not see youse around for awhile!" Spot called after him.

Reader just stood glaring at Spot, she was the only person he knew that dared cross him.

"Ise belong to Brooklyn Spot? Is that what I am? Property?" Reader spat out at him.

"Ya Readah youse are. Youse are my responsibility; therefore, you are Brooklyn's, because I am Brooklyn."

Reader stood there disgusted, "SPOT with that attitude how am I supposed to have a relationship with anyone? Youse have been chasin off every boy that has come near me since we met. Why? Am Ise not allowed to be happy? Youse have a constant stream of women but one person takes an interest and youse tackle him!"

Spot ignored her question and closed the gap between them. He stopped when his feet were touching the tips of hers. Reader stepped back clearly uncomfortable with the space, but he closed it again. This time wrapping his arm around her waist to bring her closer to him. He could feel her breath on his face as she looked at him confused. He brought his hand up to her chin and started closing the gap between them with his mouth. He stopped when their mouths were almost an inch a part. He could almost feel his mouth on hers when she started laughing.

"What?" Spot asked frustrated.

"Youse expect me to believe da reason you act that way is because youse have feelings for me." Reader brought her hands up to his chest, "Youse must think I'm real stupid Conlon." Reader broke their embrace and left the warehouse without another word.

Spot stood their simply dumbfounded. If she only knew. He thought.

A thunderclap, much like the one months before brought him back to the present. Spot turned his head towards Readers bed and saw, thankfully that she was still breathing. With a sigh he closed his eyes, hoping that he would get some sleep after this long, horrible day.

A/N Thank you all so much for the reviews! Please keep them coming and don't hesitate to suggest anything!

Bless your hearts

Nevada!