April 27th, 1894

Niner appreciated routine. He had his moments of excitement for sure, but as much as the other boys loved to pester him for tales of his adventures, and as much as Blue loved to tease him about that time he fell off a roof (not his proudest moment), those events were few and far between when it came to the long long time that he'd been a Newsie. The "Cat on his Ninth life" much rather preferred and enjoyed the normalcy of his day to day going-ons. He woke at dawn to enjoy the sunrise, and after rousing the boys from their slumbers, supervised their walk to get breakfast at the church and down to the circulation gate. He couldn't control the weather (sunny today, much to his delight), or the headline (meh), or Wiesel's mood on a particular day (nasty, though he couldn't conceive why), the routine was the same.

As he shouldered his papers and set out on his route (uptown a mile, over six blocks, then circling back to the lodging house again), he scanned the crowd for buyers. Any man in a suit who wasn't already carrying a paper was a good bet, as were any ladies in particularly large hats. The papers moved quickly as he made his way along the busy street, greeting the occasional regular or kid with a smile and a nod. Everything part of the routine.

Everything except the skinny kid pushing his way through the crowd. He couldn't be older than Crutchie, maybe 10 or 11 at most. The soot staining his face and clothes marked him as a chimney boy. He clutched a bag of apples for dear life as he sprinted past Niner.

"Hey! Hey, you ok kiddo?!" He called after the boy. The kid glanced over his shoulder before rushing off again. When Niner looked up again, he saw a man with a billy club chasing after him. Without a second thought, he threw his arm into the air and stepped out into the sidewalk, right in way of the man.

"Extra! Extra" The man collided with Niner, sending both tumbling to the ground.

"Get out of my way!" the man growled. He picked himself off the ground, shoving Niner down as he did so, but by the time he'd scrambled to his feet, the younger boy was gone, lost in the crowd.

"Hey! Mister!" Niner scrambled to his feet and grabbed the man's elbow and pulled a pape out of his bag as he spun around, searching for his target. He needed cover, and a way to distract the man, so he improvised, "You must of really been in a hurry to buy this morning's copy of the World!"

The man whipped around, nearly smacking Niner in the face. He jumped out of the way of the man's fist. Must not have much a sense of humor. He roared in Niner's face. "You let him get away!"

"Who?" Niner gave him a dumb smile.

"A thief. He stole a bag of apples and I nearly had him before you interfered."

Niner raised his hands in surrender. "Hey hey, I didn't do nothing. I dunno who you're talkin' about neither," he half lied. The part about not knowing the kid was true at least. Jack would approve of such a smooth fabrication, at least. A small crowd was forming around the two, curious to see the cause and outcome of all the shouting.

"The- The thief!" the man spluttered.

"Look, I just know that you ran into me, so the least you can buy a copy while I've got ya here," Niner argued, shaking the folded paper at the man.

A new voice interrupted their argument, as an officer bore down on the pair. "What's going on here?"

Niner opened his mouth to defend himself, but the other man cut him off. "This boy interfered with my chase. I'd nearly caught a thief, and he tripped me."

"No-"

"What did the thief look like? And why were you chasing him?" questioned the officer.

"My name's John Nake. I work for Mr. Snyder, the head of the Refuge – it's a children's home not far from here. The thief was a street kid that got out the back gate, and I caught him stealing apples when I finally caught up to him. I was trying to get to him, to take him back, but this- "he gestured furiously at Niner – "whelp got in the way."

"Hey! I was just walkin-"Niner's sentence was cut off by the officer's hand clamping around his wrist and pulling him forward for inspection as he realized that protesting would only land him in more hot water.

"I suggest that he comes with me," Nake said, "We know how to discipline such upstarts."

The officer nodded and started pulling Niner along the street as he walked beside Nake, towards the Refuge. "I know the type and I've worked with Mr. Snyder in the past. We'll get him straightened out – a week's stay ought to be good for him. And we'll find your other culprit too. He can't be far."

A week?! Niner dug his feet in and tried to twist his hand out of his grasp, but to no avail. The club smashed against his shins, and he had no choice but to follow along with a new limp and a sullen scowl. They couldn't just drag him off like this! What about a trial?! Or a fair say? A chance to tell his side of the story? Blue and Jack would be able to handle the lodging house in his absence, but they'd be worried when he didn't return, and he had no way of getting a message to them. Every Newsie knew the Refuge – either they'd been there themselves, or they knew someone who did. Niner's last run-in with one of Snyder's goons had been years ago, and it seemed their memory of him was every bit as in-tact as his memories of the wretched place. He'd managed to escape them before, but now his luck had run out. He only hoped that it rubbed off on the apple boy.

Jack was the first to notice that Niner was late. Though it wasn't out of the ordinary for him to be one of the last of the Newsies to return to the lodging house for the night, he would rarely stay out so many hours after dark, and he was starting to worry that something was wrong. Crutchie suggested that he go looking for him, and Blue quickly shot that plan down in favor of starting a search himself instead. As the oldest next to Niner and tied with Jack, and (allegedly) the most responsible, he would be the one tasked with any "after respectable-person hours" searching. With the usual assistance that Blue provided momentarily absent, the task of putting the rest of the Newsies to sleep fell to the last of Niner's lieutenants. Despite the relative chaos that resulted from the infectious curiosity about where their captain had disappeared to, it didn't take long for Jack to get the rest of the boys to bed. Crutchie went to his bunk quietly, without the usual jovial chatter of the evening and banter with Jack, but he couldn't fall asleep and watched as Jack sat awake, drawing, waiting for Blue to return.

He came back several hours later, without Niner, and without news. With the promise that they'd search more tomorrow, and thanking Jack for his part in keeping order for the night, they settled in for an uneasy night.

The next morning followed their routine as closely as Jack and the others could manage. Even so, without their captain's calm and steadying presence no less than three arguments broke out over the silliest of cases by the time they'd reached the circulation floor, each silenced by a stony glare from Jack and a sharp word from Blue to knock it off. The boys lined up to get their day's wares silently and set out on their way.

Crutchie walked alongside Jack, searching for some optimistic thing to say but he knew what was weighing on his friend's mind. There could be hundreds of reasons why Niner hadn't returned last night: maybe he'd just walked too far and wasn't able to return before nightfall, so he found somewhere to sleep for the night. Maybe he'd been distracted by an old friend. He could be hurt or been jumped by a mugger. Or, as Jack feared, he could be in the Refuge.

Crutchie had only heard secondhand stories of the place and its horrors. Mrs. Lemay hearing from a friend how unkind the headmaster was at a meeting; Jack's story of nearly being caught, but the escape from Snyder being harrowing enough to leave a lasting memory; Niner's own vague but empathetic warnings to steer clear of the area. And though he wanted to tell Jack that it'd be ok and that he would be back soon, he knew that could all be empty words when faced with the bleak reality. And so Crutchie contented himself to pointing out what he could find some joy in – the birds returned for the spring perched on the balconies of the buildings, the nice weather, the papers moving quickly, a flower growing between the cobblestones. And so, they continued for the morning, in an odd sense that they had to hurry up and wait.

It was mid-afternoon when another strange Newsie hurried up to them. Jack nodded cordially at him out of respect for his selling spot and started to move on but the boy only picked up his pace to catch up with them.

"Are yous World Newsies?"

"Yeah," Jack turned around to address him and Crutchie gave him a friendly smile. "Why?"

"I'm Keys. I sell for the Sun. Your leader's a kid called Niner, right? Tall, brown hair, broken nose?"

"Yeah, that's right! You seen 'im?" Crutchie asked eagerly.

"He went missing yesterday without a word. It ain't like him," Jack explained.

"Course he's missing! Snyder hauled 'im off yesterday morning!"

Jack went white and his voice dropped to nearly a whisper. "Snyder got him, huh?"

"I saw the whole thing. He stepped in for a skinny kid making off with a bag of apples. The kid got away. He didn't. I woulda done something, but I was stuck in the back of the crowd and had to climb the lamp post to get a good view of the whole hullaballoo," Keys explained. "This ain't my normal spot. I've been looking for one of your World boys to let you know. The Spider won't do ya that service."

"No. No, he won't," Jack answered.

"Thank you!" Crutchie interrupted. "We was worried sick."

"Don't mention it," Keys turned to leave – the more time they spent chattering, the less time they were selling papers after all – but he spun back around on his heel to add a thought. "I don't know Niner personally, but I know he's a good guy. I hope he gets out soon."

Jack smiled now. "Thanks for the news. It ain't good news, but it's more than we had a minute ago."

Keys returned the smile and spit in his hand for a shake. "I hope your headline's better.

April 28th, 1893

A jangle of keys, the clank of the lock, and the door to the bunkroom slammed open. Niner didn't move from his place on a top bunk, laying flat and straight on his back to make room for the other boys sharing the bed and using his arm as a pillow, but he did peek out from under his hat to see what was going on. The goon that'd dragged him in the day before came in, pulling a small kid after him that was kicking and screaming at the top of their lungs. He threw them to the ground and kicked them once for good measure, before escaping back into the hallway and slamming the door shut before the kid could escape. The lock clanked shut, the muffled sound of keys jangled in his pocket, and once again, the room descended into the previous quiet, save for the kid pulling himself into a safe corner.

No-one moved to help them up and after several minutes passed, Niner sighed, swung his legs over the edge of his bed, and dropped down to the floor. He could feel the eyes of the others on the back of his neck as he crossed over to the kid and knelt next to them.

"You ok kiddo?"

The boy sniffed and scrubbed at his eyes as he looked up at Niner. "Take one look around where you are, and ask me that again."

"oooh, smart guy, huh? You got a name?"

The boy scowled at Niner's comment before begrudgingly answering his question. "You can call me Finch."

Niner smiled and stuck out his hand. "Shame to meet ya here, but it's nice to make your acquaintance. I'm Niner."

"What're you in for?"

"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and stepped in the wrong person's way to let the right person get away. Long story. You?"

Finch's stomach growled. "I likes livin' chancy," He declared, "I thought I could get away, but I guess I was wrong about that. Thanks for trying though."

Niner squinted at Finch through the dim dusty light of evening, recognition dawning on him. "Guess I shoulda said "shame to meet ya again" shouldn't I?" He sighed. "I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you musta been real hungry to risk stealin' those apples. Please at least tell me you were able to eat some of them before you got caught."

Finch gave Niner a look of surprise and gratitude, before smiling as he realized that the older boy truly trusted him. "You bet'cha."

a/n: Hello I'm back! This is the first chapter in a longer story within the episodic nature of these time skips, as it takes place two years after the events of the last chapter when Crutchie joined the Newsies. I'll be using italicized dates at the top of the sections to portray the passage of time so you can keep an eye on those to know where we are in this mini-arc, and when we move onto the next time-lapse. I hope that makes sense and I hope you liked this chapter :) Thank you for reading!