Chapter Seven

Read 'Em And Weep

A/N: Thank you, thrice over, to Stardust, Ealasaid Una, and arosequartz. Seriously, reviews wake me up on my phone's email alert, so if I read one half-asleep, it makes me say, Tony-the-Tiger style, 'THIS IS GONNA BE A GRR-EAT DAY!' :P

'Boys…?'

The contrast in sound could not have been more stark: the newsies were hushed as soon as the gray-suited man stepped into the lobby. Racetrack and Streets noticed the change and, still in each other's arms, looked his way. None of the girls had their hats on.

'I…' said Denton hoarsely, before clearing his throat. 'When you weren't over at Tibby's, I thought I'd find you all here. Looks like I was right…and then some.'

'Denton, we can explain,' said Jack.

'Yes, please. Do,' he said. From the office, Kloppman finally pushed Snoddy out of the way and stopped at the edge of his desk. Ace gulped, slowly descending the stairs.

'D'you remember me, sir?' she said. Denton frowned at her with shadows of recognition across his features. 'I'm Ace. David introduced me to ya in the public library a while back.'

'So you are…' remarked Denton.

'As you can see,' continued Ace, trying to send reassuring glances towards her friends. 'Dave an' I omitted a few details. These newsgirls are my dearest friends. We sell papes under male identities an' have recently taken up lodgings here, until the cold winter's over. I'm…sorry if this offends you.'

She stated all of this in calm formality, forcing herself to keep eye contact with the news reporter. He held his hat in his hands and looked mildly dizzy.

'Ya wanna sit down, Denton?' said Specs, offering his chair. He accepted.

'Thanks. So…you dress as newsboys in public like the rest of them?' he clarified, gesturing to the Manhattan newsies. Ace nodded.

'And no one else is aware of it?'

'Just a handful of the leaders from other boroughs,' said Ace. 'But aside from them, not a soul. And,' she added with stern eyes. 'You understand, we'd like for it to stay that way.'

'Yes, yes,' said Denton, still bewitched by disbelief. Streets and Racetrack stood a little apart, their faces steeped in embarrassment.

'I'm sorry we lied to you,' said David, joining Ace at her side. 'Are you angry?'

'Not angry,' said Denton. 'So much as shocked. Now…normally one can give way to the other, but I'd like to give you the benefit of the doubt.'

He regarded Ace with a mixture of fascination and puzzlement.

'Why would you choose to live like this? If a member of the public, or worse - a police officer, found out about you, they wouldn't hesitate to prosecute.'

'Wait, can they do that?' said Jack, descending the stairs.

'I've never risked findin' out,' said Ace soberly. 'But I always presumed they can, yes.'

'As far as I'm aware,' said Denton, 'the State of New York has no explicit statutes against a person dressing in the clothes opposite to their gender, but you could easily be charged with identity fraud, or something along similar lines. You girls have chosen an incredibly dangerous path.'

'With all due respect, Denton,' said Ace. 'Any alternative lifestyles don't bear thinkin' about whatsoever, at least not for me.'

'Or me,' said Darlin.

'What they said,' nodded Rich.

Skates spoke up from Crutchy's side:

'If we didn't disguise ourselves, our families would've tracked us down months ago.'

'So you're all runaways?'

'Yes sir.'

'What are you running from?'

'I don't think we'd be comfortable discussin' that with, if you'll allow me, a complete stranger.'

'It's alright, Ace,' said David. 'Denton's one of the most trustworthy people we know.'

The reporter gave a small appreciative smile.

'Be that as it may,' said Ace, still expressionless. 'We prefer to keep our pasts in the past. All you need to know is that we're here, tryin' to make a living like anybody else, and, well…'

She looked around at the rest of the room. Her brown eyes thawed out of their icy stare. '…These guys are quickly becomin' the best family we've ever had the fortune to find.'

Jack broke out into a grin and interlaced his fingers with hers. Denton raised his eyebrows.

'Oh, I see…' He glanced at Racetrack and Streets. 'And I take it you two have only just got together?'

'How on earth did ya guess?' said Rich with a sly chuckle.

'Call it a reporter's intuition,' replied Denton, winking at the new couple.

The tension in the lobby quickly melted away: Ace introduced Denton to the other Riverside girls, and the boys re-grouped themselves in a circle around the hearth for a much-needed catch-up.

The next morning brought no fresh snow, but the streets were still dusted with white powder from the last few days. The air was cold, but lively with the newsies' chatter, the dark dawn sky just beginning to cast light over the city.

As the newsies waited in their usual line for collection, Skittery nodded over at the gates.

'Hey, look who it is.'

'Who?' said Crutchy.

'The wanderin' mother.'

'Dear me,' sighed Crutchy, craning his neck to see over the heads of the other newsies. 'All dese months later an' she still ain't found her son.'

'Sorry, excuse me,' mumbled the woman, wrapped in her frayed shawls and skirts. Despite having seen their faces many times before, she lightly rested a cold hand on the shoulders of every other newsboy, searching for the face she clung to desperately in her memory.

'No,' she sighed. 'No…you're not him…no…'

'Man,' muttered Racetrack in between puffs of his cigarette. 'She just don't give up.'

He, Skittery and Crutchy shuffled forward as the line moved on. Ace paused before she laid down her fifty cents.

'In two minds about payin' me, kid?' said Wiesel.

'Just wanna test ya on somethin',' she said coolly, perching an elbow on the counter. 'What's my name?'

The clerk opened his mouth, closed it, and resorted to flicking back through his records.

'Fine, if ya care so damn much,' he said, taking eighty papers from Oscar and sliding them over. 'Here are yer papes, Ace.'

'At last, all is right with the world.'

Skates laughed as she stepped up next.

'Mornin'.'

'Patrick…darling,' groaned the mother as she wandered further into the distribution square. She really shouldn't have been there, but even Wiesel wasn't about to turn a grieving woman away - she'd leave in her own time.

'Well?' he asked Skates impatiently. 'How many d'ya want?'

The newsie didn't answer him - instead, she slowly put a question to Crutchy over her shoulder:

'…What did she just say?'

'Patrick?'

The woman stopped in her tracks and stared open-mouthed up the wooden ramp, as if caught in a strange dream. The newsies watched as an emotion crossed her face that they had never seen before: recognition.

'Oh…oh, Patrick! Oh my sweet Patrick, I've found you!'

Everything came to a standstill when she hurried to the front desk and threw her arms around Skates.

'Mother,' gasped Skates, her body locked into place. She and Ace shared looks of raw panic.

'It's a miracle!' cried the woman, hugging her child tightly. 'Time and again I have searched these streets for you, and everything seemed hopeless. But I could never give up, and now I've found you.'

'Skates…' breathed Crutchy, voicing his incredulity on behalf of everyone else present. 'Skates is Patrick?'

'Oh, when I found your note,' said the woman breathlessly, ignoring Skates' horrified face and gripping her by the arms. 'I fell apart. But then I saw your brother's missing clothes, and…I knew then that I could only look for you as Patrick. But thank Heaven, you don't have to pretend anymore, dear.'

'Ma, no -'

Skates's mother took hold of her cap and, before anyone could stop her, swept it off her daughter's head. Gasps and muttered profanities from the newsies, the ones who had been kept in the dark about the girls' identities, rose into the winter sky as Skates's long honey-colored hair fell down her back in a plait.

'What the hell is this…' growled Oscar from behind the front desk. Skates looked to her right with fearful eyes.

'This newsie's a goil!' exclaimed Morris, as if clarification was needed. Overcome with disgust, his brother turned to Ace, still close by, and threw out an arm. Before she could react, he'd knocked the hat off her head too. The Delanceys quickly managed to infer what was going on.

'It's all of 'em,' yelled Oscar. 'The new guys, they're all goils!'

Blink, Race and Mush instinctively tried to shield Darlin', Streets and Madison from outraged glares, but it was futile. Ace looked at Jack feverishly, before shouting the first, most appropriate course of action that came to mind:

'Scram!'

Adrenaline fired into Skates as she ducked out of her mother's grip and sprinted close after her leader down the ramp. Ace put up her elbows and pushed through the crowd of stunned newsboys as quickly as possible. She looked anxiously over her shoulder to see the other girls doing the same - Rich actually swung to the gates on one of the hanging ropes.

'Stop 'em!' yelled Wiesel. 'Stop those girls!'

'Come back!' cried Skates's mother, distraught. 'Officer, that's my daughter! Make her come back!'

Ace and Skates saw that she'd got the attention of the, not one, but four, cops across the street.

'Split up, go!' commanded Ace. In pairs, the eight of them took off in different directions. The Manhattan newsies ran out into the street just as they sped away.

'This ain't happenin'…' said Blink, visibly distressed. Jack couldn't find anything useful to say.

'Boys!'

Their heads turned as Denton hurried over from around the corner, notebook and pencil to hand.

'What's all this commotion?'

'It's just like ya said, Denton,' grimaced Boots. 'The goils've been found out, an' now Weasel's got the bulls after 'em.'

'Step aside please,' ordered a fifth officer who had appeared almost out of nowhere. 'We need to clear a space for the wagon when it arrives.'

'The wagon?' repeated Jack, alarmed.

'Officer, this is all a misunderstanding,' said Denton quickly. 'If you want to avoid chaos I suggest you call off any pursuit.'

'Oh do you now?' he said, putting out an arm as a barrier. 'Sir, I'll ask you again to stand aside. If it's a misunderstanding, then that can be dealt with later, but for now, we have a job to do.'

Denton clenched his jaw at this failed negotiation attempt.

Frames and Darlin' didn't get very far. As soon as their chasing cop sounded his shrill whistle and called for them to be stopped, two members of the public - a businessman and a street sweeper - obeyed the instruction and nabbed them by the shoulders.

'Alright, alright, we give!' shouted Frames hastily, looking at Darlin', equally terrified. 'If we try to resist it'll only be worse.'

While they were marched back to the gates of The World, Madison and Vi tore down Church Street, no longer caring that their caps had long since flown off their heads.

'Which way?' panted Vi as they approached a fork in the grid.

'Don't kn - '

Madison was cut off when her heel slipped on a large patch of black ice in the road that hadn't been salted away. Vi rushed to help her up, but that only resulted in her own fall, giving the police enough time to catch up and secure their arms in a vice-like grip.

In just two minutes, a sizeable crowd of onlookers had gathered outside the gates, shocked and transfixed by this early morning scandal. Rich and Streets knew they had to get away from the main roads immediately, and so whirled into the first alleyway they saw. As soon as they began racing down it, however, they knew that luck was unquestionably not on their side that day, because it led to a dead-end.

'You two ain't goin' nowhere,' said one of the two cops who followed them into the alley. Streets and Rich put up their hands, furious and afraid in equal parts.

'Where are we goin'?' yelled Skates. She and Ace held each other loosely by the arm to make sure they didn't get separated.

'Anywhere outta sight - there!' She tugged Skates behind a stationary wagon and jumped through the open door of a tenement building. Wasting no time to look back at their pursuers, Ace and Skates pounded up flight after flight of stairs.

'Sleeper!' called out Ace as she scissor-kicked up and over an ambiguously unconscious down-and-out sprawled across a step. Skates did the same.

'Keep going…' panted Ace, her legs burning. 'Keep…climbin'.'

At last they reached the final set of stairs, the ones that led to the roof. Ace threw herself into the door, which to her couldn't open fast enough. Bitter December air struck their faces the second they ran onto the exposed rooftop. It was clear they had nowhere else to go, but Skates still ran right to the edge of the building, perhaps kidding herself that she might leap over to the next one with enough momentum.

The gap wasn't large enough. Skates didn't realize this until the very last millisecond, when her feet skidded against the ledge that looked out onto the streets below. A scream rang up from the road as Skates wobbled, swayed, and slipped off the roof.

'Nyah!' gasped Ace, who all but threw herself to the edge, catching her best friend by the arm. 'Oh…'

She felt her balance and stability leave her as soon as she looked down: they were four storeys off the ground, and there was Skates, hanging onto Ace's arm with both hands.

'Hold on hun,' winced Ace. She pushed hard against the edge just to stop herself from going over too. Skates stared up at her in blank fear, legs kicking at nothing.

'Don't let go, oh God…'

'I won't, I won't,' said Ace, praying that she could hold to that. She tried pulling Skates up, but only managed an inch before her muscles threatened to give way. Her arm felt like it was being put through a printing press.

'Skates,' she gasped through the increasing pain. 'We're gonna get through this.'

'Okay,' said Skates, close to tears.

'I mean it, we will, all of us.'

'Yeah…Ace, behind you!'

Two hands yanked the girl's shoulders, ripping her hand out of Skates's grasp. Ace's voice spiked as she screeched:

'Skates NO!'

There was no time to intervene, even from the perspective of the pedestrians who watched, aghast, as the newsgirl fell from the building, arms paralysed by the sudden, unfamiliar sensation of weightlessness.

A grocer's awning broke her fall. Skates crashed onto its tough material and, stunned, tumbled down to the sidewalk. Her back hit the ground first, then her legs, and finally her head. Capless, it took enough force to make the world around her turn the color and consistency of ink. Skates made a feeble attempt to raise her head off the ground, but quickly she was pulled unwillingly into a non-space, and let it fall back onto the snow-covered cement, eyes closed.

One minute later, Ace was hustled around the corner, back in the direction of The World. She saw two other cops lean over Skates, and felt something inside her snap.

'Damn you!' she shouted, trying to slow her cop down by putting her feet flat against the ground. 'Damn all a' youse! What have you done?!'

The back of her throat burned as much as her eyes. Questions blurred her vision: how badly was Skates hurt? Was she going to be okay? What was going to happen to the girls? Where were they taking her? Where was her hat?

'Ace!'

She blinked away salt and made the streets ahead sharpen. When she caught sight of Jack, struggling to be seen behind a human chain of bulls, a piece of her heart felt a happiness at odds with all that had happened in the last few minutes.

'Jack,' she called back. She saw a wagon nearby, saw the bars on its windows, saw Rich and Madison being walked into it. Ace knew this nightmare too well, but put her feelings about it in a box and let herself just look into Jack's eyes.

'Did they hurt ya? Are you alright?'

'I'm fine,' she said, straining her voice. 'But - but -'

'Skates?' said Crutchy in a small voice. He and the rest of the boys watched in horror as two cops dragged the newsie by forward her arms, scuffing the toes of her shoes, as her head hung limply over the frosted road.

'What the hell happened?' shouted Race, creased with worry.

'She jumped off a roof,' said one of the officers. Ace glared back at him with manic anger in her eyes.

'No, she didn't jump, you let her fall, you scum!'

'That's enough!' barked the cop behind her as he snapped handcuffs around her wrists. 'In the wagon - get!'

'Don't touch me,' hissed Ace, viciously shrugging him off. Jack looked ready to spit venom.

'Why I oughta -'

But before he could release the punch he had ready in his fist, Ace took him by surprise:

'Don't be an idiot, Jack!' she shouted. 'They could get you for assault...please.'

The despondent way she said 'please' made Jack drop his arm instantly. He didn't break their shared gaze until she'd disappeared into the wagon.

As the door was closed up and bolted, Jack and the newsies rushed to the wagon's side.

'Ace,' said Jack, clutching its bars as she looked down at him from behind the bars. 'Ace, we'll get you out, just wait.'

'Yeah,' she said with a sad smile. 'Yeah, we'll make it out.'

'In no time.'

'In no time.'

'I promise.'

'I believe ya.'

'I love ya.'

'I lov - '

The horsewhip cracked; the wheels turned; the wagon vanished around a corner. Jack and the boys stood in the middle of the road, too mired in shock to do anything but let icy winds weave around them.

A/N: Sorry about the downer... :( If you'd like to figuratively cry about it (or tell me how I could have done it better), then please review. Until Monday, fellow newsies...