Chapter 4

Slingshot entered the lodging house to see a crowd of newsies discussing where Race could be. All kinds of theories were heard as Sling walked through the room searching for someone she knew. She looked around and thought she spotted Poison's chin length blonde hair in a corner talking to someone who looked concerned.

"Are you sure it won't hurt Dragonfly?"

Poison sighed, "Yes Moods, I'm sure." Everyone kept asking her the same question, if she was sure that the compound Acid has given Dragonfly was safe. She had better be sure to be in the business she was in; otherwise she didn't belong in the poison business.

"I'm going to go check on her," Poison said getting irritated and wanting to get away from everyone that kept asking her about Dragonfly. She started up the steps when she felt her bag tugged on slightly. She turned around to face the newsie standing behind me.

"What's rollin' Sling?" she asked, "come on we can talk as I check in on D-fly."

"What's wrong with Dragonfly?" Sling asked Poison curiously.

"She needed to sleep, Race is missing and she refused to go to bed. So, Acid made her drink a compound which I made, to make her go to sleep." Poison replied absently, stepping into the room and seeing Dragonfly asleep in a chair. She smiled slightly and took a blanket off a bed to cover Dragonfly up with.

"Race isn't missing, he's at my lodging house. He doesn't look so good, I thought I should get Jack and Dragonfly, but maybe you can do something for him," Slingshot asked a little hopefully.

"I can try to help and I'll go get Spot who can then get Jack," she said, sliding out of the room and down the stairs. She looked around for Spot's red suspenders and spotted them.

"Spot!" she said loudly over the noise in the room. He turned around to see who had called him and then moved closer to her to hear. He still wasn't sure what to think about the situation between Poison and him. After Hades and Acid had hit him upside the head for what he'd said made him think that maybe, just maybe, he wasn't in the right on this one. Spot shook his head slightly as he followed behind Poison to a quieter corner of the room. Now was not the time to be thinking about that. He needed to be planning on how to divide up what was left of New York to look for Race. Race was always good about coming back, so if he was missing there were only a few reasons for it and none of them were good.

When they got to a quieter section of the room Poison told him what Slingshot had told her.

"Race is at the Manhattan Newsgirl Lodging House. Slingshot just came and told me. She's up in Dragonfly's room. Sling made a comment about him not looking so good so I'm going to start over there with my stuff. Can you find Jack and bring him? He'll probably want to be there."

Spot nodded, "I'll let the others know Race has been found and that they can go back to their lodging houses."

"That's a good idea but make sure no one wakes up Dragonfly or that masses of people come to see him, I want to find out what's wrong with him first," Poison said before turning and sliding through the crowd and out into the night air.

~*~

Spot sighed and made a face, he hated being messenger boy. He was the leader of Brooklyn for cripes sake…but Poison was the one who had the most chance of figuring out what was wrong with Race. He looked around for Jack and spotted him near the window talking to a newsie he didn't know. Must be new he thought as he headed over.

"Hey Jacky boy, I got some information for yous."

Jack followed him away from overhearing ears.

"Your boy Race is at the goils lodging house in Manhattan, you gotta tell the othas here that he's been found and they can go home. Poison says not ta wake Dragonfly or ta let da newsies know where Race is. When yous done that, I'll meet you there." Jack nodded with relief without really realizing that he would be stuck with telling the group the news. When he did he swallowed hard. There were a * lot * more newsie's here then he was used to. He looked around and spotted Davey, good he could pass the duty on to someone else.

~*~

Poison shifted her bag to a more comfortable position and walked into the lodging house. Spin looked up at Poison who had just entered the room.

"Chesapeake just went upstairs to see if she could do anything for Race or Silk," she said.

Poison nodded her head in thanks and started towards the stairs, halfway up Spin went bye muttering. Poison raised her eyebrow over that but continued up the stairs looking till she found the room with Race and Silk in it. She knocked on the open door and leaned against its frame. Sling had been right Race didn't look good at all.

Silk looked up angrily saying,

"I told you I can hand-Oh, hey Poison,"

Poison was amused, "They been bothering you?"

"Yes," Silk said. In that one word spoke volumes, they had been annoying her.

"So…what's wrong with him?"

Silk looked at Race sitting on the bed with his head in his hands and then looked back at Poison.

"It's kind of a long story," she said.

"I've got time, Spot and Jack are coming too. Sling got us."

Silk looked worried then began, "Well you see it all started…."

~*~

Spot had not escaped as easily as he had hoped. Jacky boy had gotten him to help in telling the group. He scowled and kicked a rock watching it spin across the street and bounce off the curb. The newsies had asked so many questions Spot wondered if they had them stored somewhere to pull out when he needed to get someplace. At least he had gotten out faster then Jacky-boy. Spot grinned at that thought, last he'd seen of him was Jack looking exasperated surrounded by noisy newsies.

Spot looked up at the sign double-checking that his memory was correct in the placement of the girls lodging house. He walked inside and saw Chesapeake muttering about being ungrateful and Spin looking slightly amused with Chesapeake's reaction. They both kept glancing at the stairwell looking as if they expected someone to emerge at any moment.

"I'da thought you two would be up there," Spot commented.

"We tried," Chesapeake said crankily, "we got kicked out first by Silk, then by Poison. She said to send * you * up though."

Spot smirked slightly, they were certainly put out. He headed up the stairs and knocked on the door that was partially closed. He heard someone rustling inside. Poison opened the door looking like she was going to bite someone's head off. She grabbed Spot's arm and pulled him inside.

"Good you're here, you can help," Poison said. Spot blinked, no one was treating him like the leader tonight. He just kept getting ordered to do this or that. It was a very odd feeling, one he hadn't experienced in years. He decided it was just concern over Race that made people forget their respect for him.

"What do you need me to do?" he asked finally.

"Find a towel and get it wet with cold water, as cold as you can get it," she said before turning back to the cup that she was dumping powders into. Spot shook his head wondering how she knew what was what when they all looked the same to him. He just hoped she knew what she was doing.

"Pass me the matches will ya Silk?" she asked absentmindedly, concentrating on getting the combination of powders correct.

Silk passed the matches over and Poison lit one holding the cup wrapped in a piece of material. She swirled the powder around as it began to slowly melt. Spot came back with the towels and Silk took them from him going over to Race. She said something to him and he lay down with a noise that sounded like a moan. Then she placed the towel on parts of his body before going back over to Poison. Spot just kind of stood there not sure of what to do.

"When Jack gets here, keep him out till I come down. I don't care how you do it," Poison said looking up at him. Spot was surprised, he would have thought Race would want Jack up here with him, lending him his support. Spot nodded and headed down the stairs, he sighed, he was beginning to feel like a rich lady's lap dog, doing what he was told when. He wasn't even sure he knew why he was doing as he was told without comment…Maybe because I've never actually seen Poison working to * help * someone…or maybe I'm just to dumbfounded over Race being sick to care. He seems so sick…Spot hoped that Race would make it, too many people got sick and never got better.

He reached downstairs just as Jack was coming in the door.

"So where is he?" Jack asked.

"He's upstairs but we're not allowed up there, Poison and Silk are doing something that's supposed to help him," Spot said shrugging a little, "Poison said she'd come get us when we're allowed up there, the rooms are too small to have too many people up there."

Jack glared at Spot annoyed, even though he knew it wasn't his fault that he wasn't allowed up to see his friend Race. Jack debated for a sec then headed for the stairs. Spot sighed and stuck his walking stick out so Jack would fall. With a loud thud Jack fell on his face. Chesapeake looked slightly bemused while Spin was covering her mouth to keep from laughing. Jack rolled over and glared up at Spot.

"I told ya we couldn't go up there. I got orders ta not let anyone up there," Spot said leaning on his walking stick trying not to smirk too much. He held out his hand to help pull Jack up and Jack took it to pull himself up. When he was standing he brushed the dirt off his clothes before trying once again to go towards the stairs.

"Do I have ta hog-tie yous? I will you know," Spot said getting in front of Jack. Jack was getting irritated at being kept away from his friend. Just as he pulled back his fist to punch Spot a wrist clamped down around his wrist.

"I didn't think you two would come to blows over Race. I mean he's cute yeah, but I didn't think he was you two's type," Poison said smirking a little. The comment earned her a glare from both of them. Spin un-able to hold back her laughter began laughing so hard she fell off the couch. The glares moved from Poison to Spin.

"Oh, come on you two, and no brawling in the room, there's too little room as it is," she said letting go of Jack's wrist and heading up the stairs followed closely by Jack and Spot.

Jack went through the door hurriedly and just as Spot was about to enter the room too Poison stopped him,

"We need to talk," she said.

Spot scowled at her. She sure had odd timing to want to talk.

"What about Race?"

"He'll be fine in the morning," she told him heading towards the stairs that led to the roof. When they reached the roof Poison sat down on the edge of the room swinging her legs over the side looking at the people hurrying to and fro under the lamplight.

"Well?" Spot asked impatiently.

Poison looked at him then back to the people on the sidewalk before speaking,

"We're never going to resolve our problems unless we talk."

"Does it have to be now?" he asked still not sitting down.

"Sit down already, and yes, it'll give Jack some time with his friend. He's got some explaining to do."

Spot sat muttering about being Poison's lapdog. Poison heard the comment and snorted.

"My lapdog wouldn't bite people."

Spot just glared at her.

Poison rolled her eyes, "You take things way to seriously at times. I just don't know how we're going to stay together if you can't approve of my namesake and part time job," she said shaking her head. She would miss him…but…not enough to loose the income.

"I've done some thinking…partly due to hitting hit by both Acid * and * Hades, maybe I judged too hastily…it * has * been awhile since I've been just a normal newsie. My pride got in the way."

Poison nodded waiting for him to continue.

"Now can we go inside?" He asked, "I want to find out what's up with Race."

Poison raised her eyebrow, "That's it? No apology? I mean I'm sorry I risked our relationship over my poisons but…you're not even going to apologize for judging me too quickly?"

"I'm sorry," Spot said, "Really I am," he added at Poison's skeptical look. Poison sighed,

"I accept your apology. We'll just have to see where the road leads us for now," she said getting up. Secretly she knew, she'd always come back to Spot. He was the one she dreamed of at night, who made her complete. But * he * didn't need to know that. He didn't need his ego swelled even more.