AUTHOR'S Note: I don't own the newsies. Please leave reviews.

Only one of the boys looked familiar to Spot and the other was a complete stranger. Skittery quickly pushed the other boy away from him. The kid fell to the ground.

"What the hell, Skittery?" The strange boy called out.

"Get away from me!" Skittery yelled back. The boy got up and shoved Skittery back and then he turned off into the opposite direction.

"Listen, Spot, I can explain what that was," Skittery started to tell Spot.

"I know what I saw Skittery," Spot was laughing.

"Yeah, well you better not tell anyone," Skittery warned Spot. At this Spot got serious. His eyes became tiny slits and he moved towards Skittery.

"What are you gonna do about it?" Skittery started to back away and Spot delivered a sound punch to his jaw. Skittery fell to the ground and grunted. He held onto his jaw and looked up at Spot in fear. "You better leave Race alone from now on or there will be more where that came from. And I want you to pay him back all the money he gave you starting tomorrow. I hope you're rested up because you are gonna be working hard," Spot said to him. His eyes were piercing. Skittery tried to mumle in agreement as he held onto his now swelling jaw. Spot went to turn away and go back inside.

"Spot, wait, you won't tell anyone will you?"

"Not, if you play your cards right."

Race was putting on his vest the next morning when someone slammed down some money onto his bunk. He looked up to see Skittery.

"What's this?" Race asked.

"I'm paying you back what you paid me," Skittery replied. He seemed annoyed and Race noticed there was a large bruise on the side of his face.

"Why are you paying me back? And what happened to your face?" Race's face was brimming with excitement.

"Never mind, just don't worry about it you don't have to pay me anymore." Skittery ignored the question about his face and walked away.

Race was ecstatic; he figured Jack had had something to do with it so he went to find him to thank him. He was in the wash room, most of the other newsies were either still sleeping or already leaving.

"Hey, Jack. I just wanted to thank you for talking to Skittery for me," Race said. Jack had been washing his face and he looked up for a moment in the mirror.

"What are you talking about Race? I didn't talk to Skittery," Jack answered him sounding confused. Then he bent back over and splashed water on his face.

"Well, then how come Skittery has a big bruise on his face and why did he start paying me back?" Race asked, perplexed.

"Well, I didn't tell him. I did talk to Spot though," Jack offered.

"You talked to Spot? Why did you do that?"

"Well, I saw how much Skittery was bothering you so I figured maybe Spot could help you out?"

"What did he say?"

"He said he couldn't help you why? Did Skittery say something to you?"

After Race had finished selling he decided to head over to Brooklyn to figure out if Spot had anything to do with Skittery's sudden and complete change in attitude. He was a little weary at first about going to see Spot but his fear was overpowered by his curiosity.

As he walked across the Brooklyn bridge, the memories of the last time he was there flooded back to him. He thought of the fun him and Spot had over the years and he thought about the strike and all everybody had been through. He wished he could take back what he had done but at the same time he felt an overwhelming sense of freedom and relief. He knew he was different and now some of his friends knew and that was half the battle.

He was surprised when he showed up at the docks and Spot wasn't there. A couple of his newsies, after a short interrogation, informed Race that he may be at the lodging house, but he wasn't there either. Race went up and into his room and sat down on his bed. After waiting for a few minutes Race grew tired and decided to rest his eyes. He laid down on the bed and fell asleep.

"Race?"

Race opened his eyes to the sound of his name. he didn't know where he was at first but quickly remembered when he saw Spot closing the door and turning around to see him.

"What are you doing here?" Spot asked.

Race was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Hey, where have you been all day? I was waiting for you."

"I went to Manhattan to talk to you."

"Me? Why?"

Race had never seen Spot look this way before. "I wanted to apologize to you," Spot said, his voice was suddenly quieter. Race couldn't believe his ears.

"What? You are apologizing to me?"

"Yeah, I am sorry for hitting you the other day." Spot looked up at Race and their eyes met. Race could see the human in Spot for the first time.

"It's okay, but I came here to talk to you about something."

"What's the matter?"

"