Author's Note
.｡｡*ﾟi hope you're staying safe and being kind to yourself! .｡｡*ﾟ
Love youuu 💗
𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒆𝒏𝒋𝒐𝒚
MANHATTAN, 1897
Jack watched Atlas slump against his bedframe. He recalled the wagon ride up to the hospital when he'd allowed Atlas to lean against him as he lost consciousness from the pain.
"Giuliano, look at me," Grim had said, trying to get the boy to open his eyes. "Come on, you're okay. Look at me."
"Ah, Grim, leave me be," Atlas had mumbled in an exhausted voice through closed eyes.
The others were silent. Lion was asleep, his head on Cards' shoulder. Doc was overwhelmed by the injury toll, not counting his own.
"How are you, Jack?" Doc asked.
Jack looked at his own fingers, dried blood caking around his nails, unsure of how it got there. "I'm just tired," he said.
That first night in the hospital was a restless one. The boys were given injections of this and that for a quicker ease into sleep, as reluctant as they were.
From the bed next to Jack, Calico was coughing consecutively. He opened his watery blue eyes as Dr. Fuller readjusted his pillow. "I..." Calico whispered, his eyes frantic, "I'm sorry, I don't know where I am."
Dr. Fuller took the boy's trembling hand and patted it. "You're safe, Hans," he replied. "You're at Bellevue Hospital."
"What about Snyder?" Cards asked. "He'll be looking for us."
"Don't worry about him," Dr. Fuller said, exchanging a look with a nurse. "The warden has quite a bit of explaining to do."
Jack felt sunlight streaming in through the window, casting a glow on the snow outside. He rolled over on his side and noticed Calico's bed was empty. The bed had been made with clean sheets, and it looked as though no one had slept in it at all. Jack's heart sank.
He propped himself on his elbows, staring at the empty bed, fearing the worst.
"Good afternoon," Dr. Fuller began as he entered, "I'm sure some much needed sleep was in order, yes?"
Muggs looked back at him and said nothing. The boy had a broken nose and two black eyes, the bruises shadowing his green irises and making him look sinister.
"Where is he?" Jack asked the doctor, keeping his eyes on Calico's bed.
Dr. Fuller followed Jack's vacant stare and nodded. "Oh, yes, Hans. We have decided to move him to our tubercular wing. He can receive better treatment there, and you boys will not catch it in turn."
Jack felt a wave of relief wash over him. He was still alive.
"Now," Dr. Fuller said, putting on his glasses, followed by a nurse with a notebook and pencil. "Would you at least mind telling me how the fire started in the Refuge?"
The boys shrugged, giving Dr. Fuller piercing looks.
Fuller raised his eyebrows but was not fazed in the slightest. "The papers are saying one of you started the fire," Fuller said after a beat. "But that's not true, is it?"
The boys were silent. Instead, they avoided eye contact with the doctor entirely. He looked at another boy and nodded. "It's Miles, right?"
Grim looked at the man from where he was slumped on the bed, his arms crossed.
"Miles, what started the fire?" Fuller asked. "It's best you tell me the truth before the trial starts, or you'll all be in a lot of trouble if the papers are allowed to convict you boys before you get a chance to speak in court."
Grim sighed. "I don't know."
"You don't know?" Fuller asked. "But it started in your dormitory. There must've been a cause."
Grim shrugged. "It may have had a source, but it may not have had a cause."
Fuller raised an eyebrow. "How did Warden Snyder manage it so none of you could escape?"
The boys were quiet for a few moments, none of them wanting to talk about it. "He ties our hands," Cards replied. "At night."
"How does he tie them?" Fuller asked.
All eighteen of the boys lifted their hands above their heads and crossed their wrists together against the metal frame to demonstrate. A chill ran down Fuller's spine and he looked away, clearing his throat.
"And then he locks the door," Lion added.
"Next thing we know, the room is on fire," Shakespeare finished.
Fuller stood there in stunned silence, and without any further comments, decided that was enough questions for the moment.
He and his team visited each boy. More than half had fresh black eyes, broken noses, and sore throats from both screaming for help and smoke inhalation.
When Fuller asked if there was anyone he could send for, a parent or a relative, all the boys came up empty. They didn't have anyone. Only each other.
From their previous records, Fuller was able to send for Superintendent Kloppman. At least two of the boys had reported living at his lodging house for a time: Jack and Alexei.
After Kloppman visited Jack, the old man contacted Medda, who told Sophie what had happened. At least, she told her as much as Kloppman knew. Sophie didn't waste any time in traveling up to Bellevue, not minding the fact that she hated hospitals. She arrived late into the night, around 10.
The large hospital was stone-silent amidst the harsh calls for nurses and the pelting of rain on the pavement outside. Dark and ominous, the main lobby at this hour had a rather haunting edge to it, and a familiar wave of anxiety washed over Sophie's mind. It gave her chills.
She could hear her heart beating over the beads of rain runoff that poured down from the roof. The large grandfather clock struck ten-thirty, and it seemed as though most of the patients on that floor were fast asleep in their cots, leaving her alone with her thoughts. Both Medda and Bella had offered to come with her for moral support, but this was something Sophie wanted to do alone.
Since the last time she'd visited Jack on the island, an awful thought had nagged at her mind. The thought of him dead. Dead before she could see him again. She knew Snyder didn't care if Jack was just a kid, didn't care if he had family at all. The warden wasn't above silencing anyone who would tell the truth about the place. And that realization was terrifying to say the least.
The storm outside wasn't letting up any time soon, as if signaling the worst was yet to come. What's more, the wind was building so fiercely that the side of the walls began to rattle a bit. A cold, damp breeze blew in every time someone came or went through the main entrance doors near the lobby, making Sophie bundle up tighter under her worn, blue shawl.
She'd managed to squeeze in a few hours of sleep the night before when Medda told her the news about Jack, though it wasn't anything she'd call peaceful. On top of that, she'd always been afraid of storms, and this one had come at the worst possible time.
The walls shook a little at the first clap of thunder, booming over the sleepy hospital. Sophie jumped, but the others waiting in the lobby didn't seem to react. They kept on reading or dozing off or quietly chatting, which was understandable, Sophie reasoned. At least they were inside, dry, and safe.
At another earth-shaking boom of thunder, she sat upright in the stiff chair, staring off wide-eyed into the dim lobby.
With the corridor hushed, she readjusted her shawl tighter and quietly got up from the chair, the immediately feeling her frozen feet in her boots, and headed for the staircase. Her thin cotton dress was hardly warm enough given the circumstances.
In the darkness of the ground floor, she tiptoed her way blindly to the room her brother was in with the others from his ward, near the opposite end of the hall. She peaked in and saw in the moonlight that he was sleeping in a bed at the very end toward the window. He was lying on his stomach, fast asleep in the sterile bed, in a pair of long white underwear and an undershirt. Sophie wondered how he'd managed to tangle his blanket around his ankles on a freezing night like this, but then again he always did seem cold-blooded. To others, anyway.
Sophie tentatively reached out and tapped him on the foot, flinching when he woke up with a start almost instantly. Like a dog on high alert. His eyes adjusted to the darkness and Sophie's shadowy outline before him. Sophie stood there next to his bed looking right at him, pulling the shawl around her shoulders tighter as lightening temporarily sent a flash through the room.
"Sophie?" Jack mumbled quietly, his voice thick with exhaustion and clouded in a haze as he moved to pull the blanket up to his waist. "Is that really you?"
The siblings locked eyes and stared at each other for a few beats. A million questions raced through Jack's mind. Was she alone? Was she okay?
He rubbed his bloodshot eyes and sat up. "How did you get here?"
"Walked," Sophie said in a shaky whisper, her unsteady breathing finding its way into her words. She sounded hesitant.
She could hear Jack sigh in the darkness as he looked at the rain coming down. "You'll catch your death," he said in a firm whisper. Sophie didn't move. She just stayed where she was, shivering, in disbelief at seeing her brother so benumbed.
Jack tugged at his blanket again and pushed himself up against the frame, moving his long legs so she could sit down on the other end of the bed from him.
The two didn't say anything for a few painful seconds, and it became evident to Jack that Sophie had been crying.
"What's wrong?" Jack continued in a grumble-like whisper, watching as a round of thunder made his sister wince. "I'm in a hospital, and you're the one crying..."
She looked like she wanted to argue with this, but she stifled it. Tears filled her eyes. Sophie was so worried just from looking at him, she didn't even know how to express her fears without sounding much younger, especially to him.
After another uncomfortable pause, Sophie mustered up some courage and met his gaze again. "I just... I missed you so much, and I was scared you wouldn't come back home," she whispered.
Jack broke eye contact and looked down at his hand, shaking his head.
"I just want to sleep in here with you, that's all. I don't want to be by myself anymore," she continued tearfully, her intense sobs resurfacing. "Please. Can I sleep next to you? I don't want to wait out there, and I don't want to walk all the way back to Medda's."
Jack's eyes flicked back to her, a mixture of concern and regret reflected in them. "You... you need to go back to Medda's," he said in an ambivalent, hoarse whisper.
Sophie stared at Jack, her anxiety rising. She didn't want to start a fight, not now. Jack gave her an impatient look, one she'd grown accustomed to from her older brother.
"No," Sophie whined, sounding like a much younger child. Her wide eyes flashed wide with panic and insecurity, her throat closing.
Jack widened his cold eyes, shrugging.
Sophie gathered herself. "Please, please," she begged softly, looking helpless and cornered. "Please, just let me stay with you. I've been walking for miles. I promise I'll leave before anyone wakes up, please." She stifled the oncoming deluge, the violent sobs threatening to spill over. Her eyes were crazed, her voice growing more urgent at the thought of Jack turning her away to suffer alone.
Jack's expression softened when he saw she was crying, though something about his demeanor remained distant. It was like something changed as he stared back at her.
Sophie's breathing was erratic, and she was biting her nails again, something she used to do when they were little. Unable to hold back, Sophie climbed across the bed to be near her brother. She looked up at him, her teeth chattering, her body trembling. Steady tears streamed down her face, and for the first time she noticed Jack looked a bit alarmed, like he didn't know what to do.
Jack shushed her gently, not in the way that she was used to him speaking, and he reluctantly brushed a tear off her cheek. "Shh, don't cry," he whispered, looking around the room to make sure no one was awake. He took her cold hands in his. "Okay, okay, fine. You can sleep in here. Just don't cry, please. Don't cry."
"Thank you, Jack," she stammered, nodding quickly as she wiped her tears, struggling to regain composure. "Thank you. I promise I won't cry."
There was a rustle in the hallway, a jingling of keys, and Sophie looked toward the noise. Jack immediately froze, like a frightened deer, his mind flooded with all kinds of fears.
He reached his hand out and placed it against her mouth, as if on instinct, to quiet her. Sophie let her head fall against his shoulder, feeling his heart race in panic.
"You're hurting me," she managed in a barely audible mumble, trying to catch her breath and hold back tears.
Jack let go of her as the stranger in the corridor passed by. As if realizing how forcefully he'd shushed her, Jack lightly stroked Sophie's still damp hair. "I'm sorry," he whispered, holding her close to him. At first, the hug was timid and unsure, as if he didn't want to hurt her any further. Like she would break if he squeezed too hard.
Then he hugged her a little tighter, like a shipwreck survivor clinging to a raft. Like she'd disappear at any moment. Meanwhile, Sophie's tears were unable to subside as he did so, something in her shaking loose from the outpouring of emotion.
When he finally let go of her, he sunk back, relaxing against the bed frame with a look of pained adoration on his face.
Sophie half-expected him to change his mind and kick her out. But instead, Jack slid over and patted the sliver of room next to him on the twin mattress.
As she dipped under the blanket, he rolled over on his side and pulled the tiny girl to him. With her back to his chest, Sophie opened her mouth to offer another apology. "I-"
"It's okay, Soph," Jack cut her off drowsily. "Just sleep, sweet girl. I've got ya."
She snuggled against him as he scratched up and down her arm soothingly. She felt his chin on top of her head, taking comfort in her older brother's scent. "Ain't you scared?" She whispered. "About Snyder? What if he sends me back to the Refuge with you?"
The last thing Sophie wanted to feel like was a baby. She wasn't weak. She was thirteen now, and she didn't want to be treated like toddler. But something about her brother's presence made her resort back.
"You're okay," Jack mumbled into her hair. "Snyder won't hurt ya. I won't let him."
The room was quiet as Sophie cried a bit harder, letting the tears flow without shame, desperately trying to muffle them into the pillow. Jack propped himself up on his elbows, staring down at his little sister as she quietly wept, a bit surprised Sophie was this upset. He hadn't seen her like this in a long time, and it was like their mother had died all over again.
"What?" He whispered. "What is it?"
Sophie shook her head. "What if he finds you? What if the doctor tells him where you are?"
"Dr. Fuller ain't gonna tell him nothing, you know that," Jack said, smoothing back the hair from Sophie's forehead. "No one here will. Besides, there's not much of a Refuge left after what happened."
"But he could still take you away, and he'll make you cry again, and I don't like it when you cry," Sophie rambled into the pillow. "And then he'll be mad at me because I told him not to hurt you anymore."
Jack looked down at her in confusion. He felt a pang of guilt hit him, pulling Sophie over gently so the teary-eyed girl was looking up at him. "Sophie, I'll be dead before he lays a hand on you. Ever."
"Is that a bet?" Sophie asked, shaken by her brother's grave tone.
"No," Jack said, tapping his sister on the nose. "That's a promise. I won't leave you again."
Sophie grew quiet for a moment. "That's what Dad said."
"Well, I ain't Dad."
Immediately, she felt safe again at those words. Sophie sniffled and closed her eyes, no longer cold and frightened, but altogether safe and at peace in her older brother's arms. Cocooned in the warmth of the only real family she had left and lulled by the steady rain outside, Sophie drifted off to sleep.
Jack, however, stared off into the darkness a little while longer, unable to sleep as easily. God, what he wouldn't give for a spoonful of liquid sleep.