Disclaimer: Disney owns Newsies and all the wonderful characters from the movie.

Nine.
It's Been a Long Night.

Francesca was moving faster than Ellie had ever seen her move. Ellie had to make sure to put some distance between them, even though Francesca didn't seem at all concerned with her surroundings, not bothering to look back or around once. Unwise, Ellie thought, shivering. She was being paranoid, she knew, but she couldn't help it; Ellie kept feeling as though someone were following or watching her. Even though she was the one who was doing the following. She wrapped her arms around her body, pulling her shawl closer. Considering the speed at which Francesca was walking, she seemed to know exactly where she was going. But where?

Ellie lost sight of Francesca several times in the darkness, and every time she did, panic rose inside her; she just hoped she herself wouldn't get lost trailing the Richardson's daughter. Dimly, she realized that that would be impossible. Why? she asked herself abruptly. Because you know these streets, her mind answered. And then the flickering candle light of uncertainty became a flame of understanding. Ellie knew exactly where Francesca was going: she was heading for the park. The same park that Ellie went to many times before. The park where she had first met Mort and chased away those bullies. She knew these streets very well.

The park wasn't far, but it seemed to take an eternity this time around. The wait was making her anxiety rise to a screaming pitch. She shouldn't be out at this time of night. She shouldn't be part of Francesca's foolishness—it would only bring her more problems, something she couldn't afford so soon considering the trouble she already caused tonight. She would, as Agnes had said on many occasions, get kicked out of the house for sure. "And then what'll you do?" Agnes had asked her years ago. "You'll have nowhere to go, no one to turn to. You're going to be on your own and it's a frightening world out there."

Ellie shook her head to clear those thoughts. Now wasn't the time to think on how frightening the world was, not when it was so dark and quiet and oddly chilly…

She stopped.

And then she ducked behind a cluster of barrels and crates. She hadn't realized that she was at the park until she saw them sitting on the bench. Them, Ellie registered immediately, her eyes opening so wide that tears formed at the rims. She managed to snap out of her shock, blinking rapidly as she called back her senses. Sneaking a peak above the crate, Ellie saw the familiar park, a lining of trees fencing around it. It really was more of a square considering its size, but it was just one of those community things when a name just stuck: this one was casually referred to as the "Sitting Park." True to its name, several benches were scattered around the small plot of land, and on one, there was Francesca - sitting next to a boy around her own age. A lamppost by the bench illuminated the scene, and the summer fireflies danced around them.

Francesca had come out to meet a boy. And it wasn't difficult, then, to put together the rest of the puzzle: Francesca's off behavior, her refusal to marry Adam Lewis, her questions about love. It was all because of this mysterious boy. Ellie sank back down to the ground. She wasn't near enough to be certain, but he didn't seem like one of the rich boys the Richardsons sought so fanatically. His clothes and shoes were covered in a layer of sandy dust, and his hair was uncombed. There was a sort of carelessness in his pose that the stiff wealthy society didn't commonly exude.

Ellie had planned to dissuade Francesca from running away and drag her back to the house if necessary. But she hadn't expected this. To intrude on such an intimate moment, which Ellie uncomfortably realized she was already doing, would be awkward, to say the least. After a few minutes of internal debate, Ellie decided to give up. There was no way on earth she would walk up to those two, shamefully reveal herself as a spy, and force them apart. It just wasn't her place. She wasn't Francesca's mother, after all.

She took several more seconds to let the decision sink in. When the opportune moment came to make a quiet escape, Ellie shifted her balance to her feet, still crouched behind the shadows of the barrels.

It was at that instant when the silent night was interrupted by a thunder of pounding feet upon cobblestone. Stunned by the sounds, Ellie fell back onto her rear with a sharp gasp. She searched frantically around her to locate where the sounds had come from. But there were only empty streets in front of her. She almost didn't want to look back over the crates, half-knowing that the footsteps must have stopped there.

Of all nights to make all of the wrong decisions, Ellie thought, chastising herself. Moving her weight to her knees, she slowly poked her head out several discreet inches. Upon seeing the sight before her, Ellie's fingers tightened on the edges of the crate as tension gripped her body.

A group of seven or eight people surrounded Francesca and the boy at the bench. Francesca was clutching onto the boy's right arm in fear. The boy himself stood rigid, angry, his furious gaze fixed on one figure among the group. Tracing his stare, Ellie focused on the person, too; he stood by the lamppost, arms crossed, his face hidden by an oversized cap. Ellie didn't realize her mistake until the figure spoke.

"How nice of ya to visit Queens again." The voice was hoarse and laced with roughness, but it was feminine. The figure was a girl. The people surrounding the pair were all girls. "I thought I told ya never to set foot on this part of Queens again," she said coldly. All pleasantries were gone now. Even Ellie, at her distance, felt the air chill a few degrees.

"You don't own this place, Blade," the boy said, trying to filter the anger from his voice.

The girl he had called Blade - obviously the leader of the group—stiffened and took a threatening stride forward. She scrutinized Francesca with a contemptuous sneer. "This is it?" Francesca inched back. "This why ya came? You risked comin' here… for this?" She laughed.

The boy's jaw tightened. "Leave her out of this."

"Leave her out? She's the reason we're here, ain't she? She's the reason ya turned your back on me, ain't she? Ya two-timin' bastard," she spat.

"I never –"

"You're a liar. Everythin' ya ever said were lies. I shoulda known betta than to trust your sort, but I know betta now. You betrayed me." She removed something from her shirt pocket. "No one betrays me." She snapped her fingers, and suddenly all the girls were wielding clubs and small knives.

Francesca moved in front of the boy. "Don't you dare lay a finger on him," she said, and she sounded remarkably like her mother. But it wasn't enough to deter the gang of girls. They advanced, the circle becoming dangerously smaller and smaller as they moved towards Francesca. The boy protectively pulled her in towards him.

Ellie rose to her feet without thinking. Tentatively, her nerves taut, she began towards the group in the park, crossing the street. She didn't know what she was going to do or say as the dull hum of her rapid heartbeat reverberated in her ears. She just knew she had to do something—Francesca was about to get herself killed! So Ellie walked. She forced her feet to march onwards, despite the bubble of panicked hysteria that was rising inside her. Then upon feeling the dry grass beneath the thin soles of her shoes, a strange rush of adrenaline came over her. Her mind was still drawing complete blanks, but her body was ready to jump at the slightest movement. Maybe she could charge in and pull the two out before any of those girls could even comprehend what was happening, she thought hazily, panic whiting out all logic and reasoning. It wasn't until the last moments, as she got closer to the group, that she threw all good judgment out and decided her best chance was in creating mass confusion and distraction.

Somewhere in the dim recesses of her mind, she imagined the people she feared most—Mrs. and Mr. Richardson—and the people who never backed down from any challenge – Agnes and Glenna. If she was going to have a shot at getting Francesca out, she would have to channel their audacity and their strength. I've done this before, Ellie thought, trying to give herself confidence. I can do this. So without another second's thought - because if she did think for another second, she surely would have turned and ran - Ellie reproachfully exclaimed, "Francesca!" and stomped towards the gang.

Heads turned at her intrusion. Pushing away the sudden urge to turn and run, Ellie squeezed between two girls and stopped in front of a shocked Francesca and the puzzled boy. "Do you have your head on straight?" she scolded loudly, pulling off an Agnes. "What is this? Who is this? Do you know what time it is? Nevermind," she babbled in a one-sided conversation, flailing her arms around as though she'd taken leave of her senses. She clasped Francesca's hand in her own and was just about to pull her out of the circle when the leader of the gang stopped her.

"Who are you?" Blade asked in a clipped tone.

Ellie stopped dead in her tracks. This girl's bodyguard, she thought inanely.

"What?"

Ellie bit her lip and grimaced, realizing she had just verbalized her thoughts. "Nothing," she said quickly.

"You're nothin'?" she said, impatience apparent in her tone.

"Yes," Ellie agreed hastily, only vaguely realizing she wasn't making any sense. She met the leader's glare head-on, and inevitably cringed back slightly, feeling the full blast of the unmistakable presence of a superior. This Blade emanated power and control and elicited fear from those around her. Blade only had a few insignificant inches over her, but Ellie felt incredibly small.

Blade wasn't in any mood for games tonight. "Is this another girl of yours?" she asked furiously, her question directed at the boy.

With the leader momentarily distracted, Ellie snuck a few steps out from the center of the circle, pulling Francesca with her. "Have you lost your mind?" Francesca hissed, though she allowed herself to be pulled. Ellie in turn sent her a look of equal meaning. Was Francesca seriously questioning Ellie's sanity right now, when the two were caught in a life or death situation?

The two made to move out from the watch of the surrounding girls, but as they did, the circle moved with them; Ellie's intentions, unhappily, were much too obvious and any escape route seemed, at the moment, impossible.

"Just how," Blade began chillingly, "did ya think of gettin' your friends out?" The leader's light blue eyes bore into Ellie.

Ellie swallowed. "Didn't think that far yet," she mumbled feebly.

"What'd you say?"

Ellie's mind was so blank she couldn't even muster a semblance of a response. "Uh... that is..."

Blade sighed. "I've had enough of this," she said almost resignedly. Then swiftly, she held a knife beneath Ellie's jaw. The movement was so rapid that Ellie didn't even have the chance to react. She had, however, stopped breathing. Blade stared at her, her head inclined to the side in a strange animal-like way. "Ya made a mistake tryin' to play the hero."

Despite the frantic desperation she felt, Ellie's next words came out unwaveringly. Her gaze shifted to the side as she pretended to hear something. "They must be coming," she managed to say, though it came out as a whisper.

The knife under her chin pressed deeper into her skin. "Who?" Blade said, daring her to speak.

"The cops." Blade's nostrils flared in impatience at her terse response. Ellie tried to focus on making her mouth move rather than on the sharp glinting object pushed ominously against her. "The…" She took a breath. "The whole police squad should be on their way."

Right then, Blade's gaze left the circle and searched the streets beyond the park. Now was their chance. Ellie pushed Blade back with the strength of both arms. The boy was inherently quick in his movements, grabbing Francesca and shoving past the circle of stunned girls. Ellie followed immediately after and the three raced out of the park, taking to the streets. They hadn't had much of a head start and the gang was now ferociously at their heels. The boy led the way, hauling Francesca by her elbow while Ellie tried to keep up with his long strides. He made a sharp turn into a narrow street, then another, and yet another, this time into a cramped alleyway.

The three doubled over, trying to catch their breath. They sat crouched in that dank, grimy alley for several minutes without exchanging a single word. Tears of shock and relief filled Francesca's eyes. She dabbed at them stiffly before finally turning to Ellie. "You followed me," she accused. "You had absolutely no right."

Perhaps it was because she had been working on her feet all week, perhaps it was because she didn't get enough sleep, or because so much had happened in the past couple of hours. Whatever the reason was, Ellie finally erupted in anger. "You've always been so ungrateful!" she whispered fiercely, aware still that they were hiding from Blade and her gang and that raising her voice would be foolish. Her words, though hushed, tumbled out rapidly and intensely: "Do you know how many times I've risked my neck for you? Every time you do something stupid, I get in trouble. Has it ever crossed your mind that I don't want to be here? I don't want to be sitting in this – this dirty alley, and, and, hiding from those vicious girls! Why do you always do this? I don't know, I give up trying to figure you out. I am - am putting my foot down now and this is the absolute last time I ever help you," she huffed. Despite letting go of the pent up emotions, the rant didn't have quite the calming effect Ellie would have liked. She took a deep breath, trying to cool herself down.

Francesca sulked for a few moments. "Why did you follow me, then?" she asked lamely, staring at the ground.

Ellie sighed – her rant, though hushed, seemed to have robbed her of any energy she had. "I thought you were trying to run away," she explained.

"I wasn't running away."

"I know that now," Ellie replied curtly. Then, feeling a bit remorseful for her outburst and snappish reply, she said by way of apology, "It's been a long night." She wiped back the cold sweat from her forehead and leaned her head against the brick building, exhausted.

The boy, who had been keeping a look out, turned back and whispered to Ellie, "Where're the bulls?"

"The what?"

"The bulls—you said the police squad was comin'."

"Oh," Ellie said, recalling hazily what she had said to distract Blade. "I lied."

The boy nodded in approval. "Good one." He poked his head back out again, but this time his lookout didn't last long. "They're comin' this way," he said, his voice strained. He grasped Francesca's hand protectively and proceeded to murmur words of comfort.

Ellie looked away, but not fast enough to miss the look of sheer terror in Francesca's eyes change into one of utter adoration. She really likes him, Ellie realized. Then something about the scene she was trying to ignore—but sensed from the corner of her eye, anyway—prompted an idea. As soon as Ellie realized the consequences of that idea, she tried to push it away. But then she made the mistake of taking a brief glance at Francesca who, after being held at knifepoint, was desperately trying to hold herself together.

If they were caught by Blade, and who knew what would happen to them if they were, it was Francesca who would suffer the most. She was a famous Richardson. She had a mother and a father. She had wealth, a future, and respect. If she got hurt or worse—Ellie dared not think on how much worse—there were hundreds of people who would care. And now Francesca had love. Ellie, in comparison, didn't have much to lose. She had no qualms about who she was. She was just a servant girl: easily replaceable and not nearly as valuable.

Goodness, she was incredibly tired all of a sudden. She waited hopefully for someone to come up with another plan and when none came, Ellie covered her face with her hands, as she couldn't believe what she was about to do even as she made the decision.

With a resolute sigh, she said, "I'll go."

Author's Note: Thanks to stress for your feedback of the last chapter!