A/N: Pffft the holidays never stopped me! ….well here I am. On Easter. Publishing yet another chapter. I love this story can't you tell? Where are all the reviews to prove that I am writing good stuff. Hello? Is this good enough for you? I hope so. Please tell me we've been around. Thanks. Okay. Onwards through probably severe pain.

It had been a while since he'd managed to escape his work to come there, but when he did, he was enveloped in hugs and tears. To start from the beginning of his visit: things really began when his mother turned to him and suggested he get out of the house. Unaware of everything that had gone on in the past week, he agreed to it and left without his brother following him. It was better that way, he decided.

Out into the bright, snowy city streets he came, trundling through what was the cause of a very long snowstorm. People weren't really active currently and he noticed truly how quiet it was the closer he got to Newsies Square. Not a single scream of headline was heard, no jokes, and no sign of any boys leaning on one another. Sure it had snowed, but he didn't think it was bad enough to drive them all inside. Most of the time they refused to even stay inside because snow meant they'd get to fight each other. But maybe a sickness was spreading about. He hoped not, that wasn't going to be good, if he came home and had to explain why he had a high fever at 2 in the morning after being out here all day.

Approaching the lodging house itself, he took in how quiet it was. It felt sort of like they'd all actually died. Where was everyone?

It took a few minutes to gain the courage to knock on the door at all. He really didn't want to be faced with some man who told him that they were all locked up in the hospital, many dead, some barely alive. When he did knock, it felt like it took ages for everyone to answer. For a few minutes he just gazed around, watching the snow fall from the roofs. The sun wasn't out and it wasn't hot, but snow just seemed to fall and then create drifts in the city. Finally the door opened to reveal a tired looking boy. Race. They stood for a few minutes, while he looked Race over, staring at the miserable boy. Something had happened and he needed to know what.

"Er…come in." Race finally said, opening the door a little further so he could enter. Nodding, he walked in, and heard the door close quickly behind him.

Inside the actual sleeping quarters off the side of the hallway, he saw that every newsie was seated either on a bed or the floor, playing cards or simply sitting with a forgotten cigar hanging out of their mouths. And all looked just as miserable and tired as Race did. A few in the corner were talking in hushed voices, and he walked over to see Crutchie, Spot, and Romeo, stare up at him. They seemed to be just as surprised as Race had been.

"Take a seat. We got a bit a 'splaining to do." Race himself walked over and sat down, putting his chin in his hands and watching them all.

"What is this all about?" Asking them crossly, he watched their faces for any signs of emotion.

"Ya gotta be kidding me, no one told ya? Do ya even read the paper?" Romeo was staring at him dead on like he was the stupidest person in the world, then the younger boy sighed. "It started a few weeks 'go. Months, 'ctually. Ya know how Katherine was…sick an' all?"

"No…" He drew in a sharp breath, looking at all of them.

"Yes." Crutchie nodded, his dark head bobbing up and down with defeat.

"She … she died. Jack…he ain't…he didn'….there ain't much to say 'bout it….he wasn't Jack. For days. An' then one day, he just … leaves." Racetrack finished.

"He left? He just…left?" He stared at them even harder now, anger boiling in the pit of his stomach. "Did he even know what he was doing?"

"Not a damn clue. An' that's 'cause it ain't Jack who left. That … that ain't Jack wherever he is now. It ain't." Spot shook his head, and the others nodded. "Ya shoulda seen what he done. Kicked Crutchie here in the bad leg when he tried ta talk some sense ta him."

"He did not. How… No. You're right. That wasn't Jack at all. That was some bastard."

"Ya got that right." Crutchie nodded, and he just now noticed that he was the worst looking at all of them, which didn't surprise him as much as it might've given any other time.

"And you don't know where he went?" All shook their heads. "Great."

Race looked at him dead on. "We think it musta been somewhere south. Ain't no Santa Fe, but south."

"I do believe that's probably better of a theory than any other. But…how…how's it going here?" He was dying to know, he was worried for all of them.

"We gonna make it. But we's also gonna get Jack back heah again 'cause he isn't himself, and who knows what'll happen if he's out in the public." Crutchie said quietly.

There were a few moments of silence as he took this all in and they waited for any response. They'd always viewed him as the one with the brains for this type of stuff, but now he just wanted them to the be the ones to take care of it all since they seemed to know best. He knew Jack very well, but he didn't want Jack to have to face trouble and he wasn't sure how to get the guy back in where he belonged. If he wasn't himself, it meant he was more dangerous. Especially if he'd gone and kicked Crutchie, who everyone knew was his closest friend and always would be, in the bad leg. That meant something was definitely not right.

Maybe a mental institution would be able to help, but he was betting that friends would help more so than anyone else. A counselor wouldn't be able to talk sense into Jack. But then again, if they'd in fact all tried before…

"We are gonna do this ourselves, ya gotta be aware of dat." Conlon stuck in, making sure he was aware of this point. "We are the only ones who gotta do this. You ain't even know that much 'bout Jack Kelly ta the point where ya could talk sense into him."

"I'm gonna end up doin' it again. Get him inta a room with others where he ain't able to do nothing. But first, we gotta get him back. We didn't consider you in on this at all, I think we forgot you were out there, but now you might jus' be our only option to gettin' him back." The black haired cripple was looking at him again, with those brown eyes that you just wanted to trust. He nodded slowly.

"I'll do anything I can. But it's going to take trying to track him down, and we don't even know where he went."

"Ticket master at the station was da most reliable source." Race held up a paper, with a glimmer in his eye.

Taking the paper, he read it. All the details seemed to be in order and neat. Printed from who knows where, of course, but it read as follows.

Ticket bought by: Jack Kelly

Ticket to: Washington, D.C.

Description of young man made by ticket seller-he stopped reading after that, not needing a full explanation on what Jack Kelly looked like, and looked up at them again.

"You asked all of this at the station? So how do you expect us to find him in D.C.?" He eyed them all carefully.

"We's gonna send a letter to the most obvious job spot he gonna get. A newspaper like The World. An' trust me, there ain't too many ta choose from so we'll get 'im down soon enough." Romeo said, nodding.

"And how do you expect to send a letter to him? This handwriting on this paper was bad enough."

"My friend, that's where you come in." Spot grinned.

Davey looked around at them all for a moment in no small amount of astonishment, then sighed. Of course this would be the reason he would get pulled into it. He was still trying to get the facts all straight in his brain: Jack had left because Katherine was dead and now was in Washington, D.C., and making all of the newsies suffer back at home. It was a lot to process, and he would need time with it. But instead of giving up right then and there like he'd wanted to, Davey turned to look at each of them. Crutchie, with a small amount of hope still in his eyes, Romeo with the hope of a fool, Race, who was acting as a leader no doubt, and Spot, with that sternness he'd come to know the boy with. Who was he kidding? There was no way he was going to be able to get away from this one.

"Alright. I'm in."

A/N: Well that was chapter seven, I hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading, and seriously I hate begging for reviews but um hi is this good enough quality writing or are we all just super picky (because sometimes I get like that too I get it but um hi) ….?-a.k.a. PLEASE review, review, review!