A conclusion was quickly reached, fluorescent lights suck. Waking up with your head throbbing, chest screaming in pain and your retinas being seared by excessive light was not fun. Kid Blink (Holy shit people, did you actually think I would kill him? What's wrong with you, you should all know that my poor pathetic sappy heart could never stand the death of a newsie. I'm allergic to angst for Christ's sake, something like that would send me to an early grave. I'm not built for sad. And where would the story go with my sexy ass little love interest gone? Down the tubes that's where. You can't make a good romantic humor by killing one of the main characters. I am completely ashamed of all of you I know most of you hate me now for that scare but meah! It was fun for me. Anyway, after my ranting interlude I think I had better just restart the story, for flow purposes and all.)

A conclusion was quickly reached, fluorescent lights suck. Waking up with your head throbbing, chest screaming in pain and your retinas being seared by excessive light was not fun. Kid Blink (^_^) groaned and slid back on the hospital bed so he could prop himself up with the pillows. It was harder than it should have been. He was expecting a little bit of trouble, being only half conscience and in an extreme amount of barely drugged off pain, but having Dorry balled up on his legs asleep and Bit next to the bed with her head pillowed on his arm added a whole new element of difficulty to the task. He managed to get himself up with out waking either of them, but someone on the floor on the other side of the bed stirred and groaned.

Mush slowly pulled himself to his feet with a grin, "'s about time ya woke up. Three days a listenin' to yous snore is enough."

"Ey, I needed ta catch up on me beauty sleep."

"In dat case, I can wait t'ree more days, ya ain't done yet."

Blink laughed hoarsely and for the first time in a very long while it didn't turn into uncontrollable hacking, "Hey! I's gettin' bettah finally."

"Well yea, dat's why yous been sleepin' for t'ree days, ya were gettin pneumonia. It's not like you were shot or nuthin'."

Blink looked at him in confusion as his brain quickly went over the facts, "What? No, no I hoid da gun go off, an' I shoa as hell felt it....... Are ya shoa?"

"Yea I's shoa. You only got hit wit da kickback, da guy dat caught da bullet's splattehed half way down da street. If ya don't believe me check dis out." Mush pulled the blanket back and exposed Blink's chest (I'm sorry but I have to say that again, and exposed Blink's chest. Mmmmmmmm that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and back to the story ^_^ heehee).

The whole left side was stained a royal purple, that faded to brown, grey and then vomity yellow as it expanded. Just looking at it hurt. He shut his eyes for a minute, remembering that night. Most of it stood vividly in his mind, but a few things weren't clear to him. Mainly why had he attacked a man with a gun to help a girl he didn't even like. At least he didn't think he liked her.

Finally the evil fluorescence of the lights bleeding through his eyelids became impossible to ignore and reopened his eyes. The feeling that someone should be there and wasn't suddenly struck him so hard that he couldn't breath for a second.

"Mush, where's..." He had no idea who he wanted. He had the strangest feeling that someone important needed to be there, that he needed to make sure they were alright, but no name came to mind.

Mush saw the hopeless look on his face and tried to help, "Don't worry, nobody's in da Refuge. Da paddy wagon cracked a wheel an' da whole thing tipped ovah. Da side broke an' everyone got out witout more den a coupla bruises an' scrapes. Marble's heah somewheah or anuddah. She's givin' da doctors a hard time 'cause dey won't let 'er go yet. Spot's been hangin' around and Jack's alroidy back at woik. I ain't hoid nuthin' 'bout dat scab Skylar. If 'e got out he ain't heah."

The look on Blink's face hadn't faded but Mush just smiled, "Racetrack didn't forgit 'bout ya eidah. He wouldn't leave aftah visitin' hours an' dey kicked 'im out. He ain't allowed ta come back until yous outta heah."

Blink chuckled, "So wheah is da trouble makah?"

The smile dropped from Mush's face and he nervously shuffled his feet and muttered, "Um.. He's in Joisey."

"What!? Why?"

"He went' ta find Pips and bring 'er back." The name sent a pang through Blink's heart and it was suddenly hard to breath again. Everything seemed like it was coming from far away and part of him seemed to detach to watch indifferently from that distant place.

"Why did she go? She, she didn't have to her husband is dead, ya said it yaself, he's dead! There is no reason for, NO!" He suddenly realized that his voice had quickly risen to a yell and he was fighting against Mush to get to his feet.

He came back to himself enough to stop and let his body fall back to the bed. His friend was talking quickly to calm him down but he couldn't hear anything because Dorry was awake and crying loudly. Bit sprang up and grabbed her little brother, but he wouldn't stop sobbing. The girl started to get desperate and her eyes were on the verge of overflowing. A nurse came running in, shouting to know what was happening and Mush tried to explain at an equal volume.

To Blink everything still sounded faint and distant, but as the panic around him grew reality came a few more steps closer. He held up a hand to silence Mush then reached out and took Dorry from his sister, stopping her tears instantly. The tearful little boy clutched him and buried his face in Blink's unharmed shoulder.

He held the child quietly and stroked his hair until he calmed down. The motions seemed familiar, not because he had done it before, but because he had seen Pips do it a million times. Whenever the boy was hurt or woke up from a nightmare she was there for him. Thinking of her brought another wave of emotions he barely understood, but it was getting harder and harder to think.

The nurse was at his side talking quickly with something half hidden in her palm but he couldn't quite follow what she was saying. There was something weird happening to him, but he was suddenly too tired to care. The sedative from the syringe quickly took effect and he was out like a light.

* * *

Pips sat quietly in a large leather office chair behind an even larger mahogany desk. She was back home. The house seemed much larger than she had remembered, but it still had that same oppressive silence. She sighed and looked down at all of the papers spread out in front of her. None of it made any sense, but one thing was becoming painfully clear, she was in trouble. She had known that her father was broke and had married her off for the money. But it had come as a complete shock that her husband had also been broke and had only accepted the marriage when he had heard of her father's supposed riches and weakening health.

Now they were both dead (damn you Swed and Jinx, damn you to hell for guessing!), one from a heart attack and one from gunshot, and she was left with nothing but their debts. It was hard enough to see the man you were married to get splattered down a street, and then have your friend come and tell you that you father had died and you going to miss the funeral, but to come home to a pack of bloodthirsty lawyers saying you had two lifetimes of debt to pay was just a little bit too much.

Pips buried her face in her arms and would have cried if she thought it would help anything. She would probably have to sell everything both men and herself had owned just to begin to cover the costs. There was no way she could do it on her own. There was a soft click as someone came into the study. She peeked over her arms the stood up so abruptly her chair flew back and bounced off the wall. There in front of her, smiling he goofy lopsided grin with his shaggy hair covering his eyes was Luke.

She gaped at him, too shocked to speak, or blink, or move. He laughed and crossed the room in four long strides, cutting around the desk and grabbing her up in a giant bear hug. She slowly returned to her senses and wrapped her arms around him. He leaned back enough to look at her face. She looked pale and tired and tears had stared to stream down her cheeks.

He pulled her back to him gently and let her cry herself out. She didn't make any sound, but he could feel her body shaking with tears. She finally stopped and stepped back from him, wiping furiously at her eyes. Luke pulled the chair back up for her and directed her to sit then plopped himself onto the edge of the desk and pulled the chair, Pips and all, up to him.

She looked up at him and he smiled again, "Bet you didn't expect the see me again, well I promised you would, and I keep my promises. So how are you?"

She thought about it for a minute then sighed, "Bad."

"Bad!? Well that won't do at all. What can I do to make it good?"

"Oh I don't know. You could start with making God only know how much debt go away, then chase off a pack of rabid lawyers, figure out how to get rid of all of the possessions of two men who left no wills and possibly get me back to my friends, that would be a big help. And if you could manage this and save a little bit more than the clothes on my back, that would be greatly appreciated."

Luke looked at her with his head cocked to the side and a small smile playing across his lips, "Right, consider it done."

She stared at him and gave one of those 'I wish I could be irritated with you, by my God, you're cute' laughs, "Luke, it's not that easy. How could you possibly pull that off?"

"Well, my dad's a lawyer, and a damn good one at that, and now that he's better he needs a case. We read all about you in the paper and he jumped at the opportunity to help you. He's already talking with that pack of rabid lawyers and sorting this out. He thinks he can pay off the debts with all of the junk you where left with and save you some besides. Not much mind you, but some. And the friends part, well that's the easiest one. I'm already here,"

"An' so am I." Racetrack was standing in the doorway with a grin on his face. Pips shot for her chair again, but this time Luke caught it before it ricocheted off of the wall. She was across the room and in Race's arms in an instant. He held her for a minute laughing at her excitement, then he held her back at arms length and took a good look at her, "So I take it yous glad ta see me?"

She didn't answer, just threw her arms back around him, "Yea, I's gonna take dat as a yes. You almost ready ta come home, cause I don't wanna stay in dis stuffy ol' place an' I ain't leaving witout ya."

"Oh, but Race, no, I can't. There's so much I still need to do here, so much to be put in order. I don't even know where to start. This is going to take a long time. And New York, home, it..." She looked at him with fear in her eyes.

Race gently took her hand and smiled reassuringly, "Dere's nuthin' dere to be afraid of. Ya husband is dead Pips, we both saw 'im git shot, and me an' Mush went to da funeral, we saw 'im put in da ground. He can't do nuthin' to ya anymore. Jist come home, we're all dere ta watch out for ya. Yous safe wit da newsies."

"And I'm taking care of things here," She turned and looked at Luke, "Consider this my way of paying you back for all you've done for me. I'll make sure everything is taken care of. I've already gotten jobs for the household staff. Your friend Lucy will be working for my family now and once we get all of this sorted, we're going to come visit you. You really have no reason to stay."

"An' dere are plenty a reasons for ya to come." Race took both of her hands in his, suppressing a knowing smirk, and made her look at him, "Can't ya t'ink of a single person ya might wanna check on?"

Pips know the answer, but couldn't bring her self to say it, she just looked at him and blinked.



(Heeheehee, did you all see my pun at the end, huh huh? Didya, didya? Sorry I'm a tad juvenile today. Well that wait wasn't so bad. This is your last chance to guess my huge missing detail, it is the one thing I didn't think I'd get away with and I guess I did. I am truely dissappointed in all of you. I'll point it out later so nobody's brain explodes from the effort.)

(Also, in honor of my scary stalker friendship, I want to ask everyone to e-mail princessred and wish her a happy birthday. You know you love her for her youthful exuberance and constant supply of reviews. Just do it alright? HAPPY 16 JINX!!!!!!!)