Disclaimer: As always, I do not own the newsies. I do own Joanna, Dodger, Lightning, and all other original characters.

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The boys from Brooklyn and Manhattan searched for Joanna all day and well into the night. Spot posted his "boids" in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx. But they had no luck finding Joanna or Jonathon Sullivan. Eventually they all gathered in Brooklyn on the docks.

Spot called Sparrow to the front of the group to talk with him and Jack. "We didn't find her," he stated simply, speaking for all of the boids. Jack dropped onto a nearby crate and held his head in his hands.

"The only places we ain't looked yet are Harlem and Queens," Spot recapped more to himself than anyone else. "Dodger, you take Brooklyn and half of da boids and go to Harlem. Me and Jack'll take the other boids and Manhattan and look in Queens. Let's go." The boys started out in the direction of their assigned boroughs but were stopped when they saw Lightning, the leader of Queens, come running onto the docks. "Lightnin', what are ya doin' here? You just left two days ago."

"I know," said Lightning, panting for breath. "But I gotta tell ya something. Ya know that kid Jo ya had hanging around ya while I was heah?" Spot nodded, afraid of where Lightning was going with this. "I saw him in Queens. Only it wasn't a him, it was a her. And she was being carried by that guy ya showed me da picture of. She looked like she was knocked out or somethin. I sent some ah me boys ta watch her."

Jack blanched as Lightning's words sunk in. Spot's ice blue eyes lit up with fire and he addressed the newsies with a new, short, and to the point order. "We'se is goin' ta Queens."

******

"What the hell do you think you were doing running of like that?" Jonathon demanded of Joanna, who was lying on the floor, her hands trying to protect her face and head from the punches and kicks her step-father was throwing at her. "Well, don't worry; you're never going to leave this house again as long as I have something to do with it. Welcome home." And with a final kick to her stomach, Jonathon left the room and locked the door behind him.

When she was sure he was gone, Joanna sat up and looked at all of the places her body hurt. Her lip was bleeding and her eye was swelling into a blue/black/purple bruise. Her chest, stomach, and legs were also bruised and sore, but worst of all was her right arm. When she had first awakened at home again, she had tried to get out. Jonathon grabbed her arm and tried to hit her over the head with the beer bottle he was drinking from. She had blocked it with her arm, but now she couldn't stop the heavy bleeding and she was getting light-headed.

She gave up trying to think about escape, and about Spot and Jack. It was all together too painful. So she just wrapped her bleeding arm in a piece of fabric she tore off of her skirt as tightly as she could, and let herself fall into darkness.

******

"Ok, lets go in," said Jack, ready to plunge straight into the house he hadn't seen in ten years. If Spot hadn't held him back, he would have.

"We gotta have a plan foist Jack. If we just go on in, we could get inta even more trouble and what good would dat do Jo?" Dodger reasoned. Jack nodded his head and all of the newsies looked expectantly at Spot. Spot didn't look at any of them but instead looked at the house as he talked.

"No matter what we do, her faddah's gonna keep lookin' for her. The only way we can get 'er back for good is ta kill him or get him put away forever. And I'm all for a good soakin' but I ain't never killed nobody and I'se ain't gonna start now." Lightning's jaw dropped when he realized what Spot was saying. He wanted to go to the bulls.

"But Spot, if you so much as step foot in any bull's office in New York, yer gonna get sent to da Refuge."

"I know dat Lightnin'. But what odder choice so we got? Anyone of us here'll be thrown in da Refuge if dey go in ta da station and I'm not sendin' any of me newsies in dere. So dat leaves me."

"And me," said Jack, standing next to Spot. All of the newsies looked at him now and Spot shook his head at Jack.

"No way Jacky-boy. Jo's gonna need ya when she gets out and I ain't about ta let ya get thrown back in dat place." They were starting to argue about it when Davey stepped up from the crowd.

"I think I know someone who can get Joanna out and not get thrown into the Refuge." That caused Spot and Jack to freeze and stare at Davey. "Sarah will do it. She likes Jo and she wasn't involved in the strike so the police don't know her. She'll do it."

"Do ya really t'ink she'll do it Davey?" Race asked, excitement mounting among all of the newsies.

"Of course. I'll go ask her right now. Jack, do you want to come with me?" Jack jumped at the chance to see his girl so he and Davey headed for Manhattan to talk to Sarah.

Brooklyn and Manhattan's newsies started back to the lodging houses but Spot decided he was going to stay in Queens. He walked around the streets of the borough for awhile and found himself in front of Joanna's house once again about 2 hours later.

He climbed up the fire escape, looking in the windows he passed to see if he could find Joanna and tell her what was being planned. He found her in a bedroom on the second floor. She was lying on a bed, apparently asleep.

"Joanna!" he whispered, trying to gently wake her. Deciding to take a chance for her, he climbed into the room and silently made his way over to her bed. Gently he kissed her eyelids and as he did they fluttered open, flustered and confused for a minute before she realized who was sitting on the end of her bed.

"Spot!" she whispered, throwing her arms around his neck. He held her tightly, not wanting to ever let her go. But he knew that eventually he would have to and so he did, though he still held her hands in his. "Spot, what are you doing here?" Joanna asked him now, concern flooding her face as she considered what could happen if her step-father found Spot there.

"I had ta tell you somet'in'. We'se is gonna get you out of here tomorrow or da next day. Do ya t'ink you can hang in dere dat long?" He squeezed her hands as she processed what he had just told her.

"I t'ink I can but how are ya gonna get me outta here. Jonathon'll keep comin' after me."

"We t'ought of dat. We're gonna go to da bulls. What Jonathon's doin' to ya is against da law and dey gotta know. Dey can help ya." But Joanna wasn't exactly comforted.

"But none of de boy's can go near da bulls, not even you. You'd all get thrown in da Refuge."

"We t'ought of dat too. Davey and Jack are askin' Sarah if she'll do it. She can say she's your best friend and came ta see you and heard your step-dad beatin' you." This time Joanna smiled, confidant that this horrible ordeal was almost over. Just then, the couple heard footsteps coming p the stairs, the rhythm telling them that Jonathon had come home drunker than before. Both Spot and Joanna knew that he was headed for her room.

As Spot made his way to the window, he looked back at Joanna and the look on her face made him stop dead in his tracks. It was a look of pain, fear, and misery. He couldn't leave her here for what was soon to come.

He crossed to the bed again and grabbed Joanna's hand. "Come on Jo, I ain't leavin' you here wit' him like dis." He started to pull her but she wouldn't budge.

"No Spot, I gotta stay. I'll be ok, just go before he finds you. Please." When Joanna began to plead with him, Spot knew that no matter what she couldn't stay here. He saw the fear and pain in her eyes and his heart almost burst with the love he felt for her.

And at that moment, though his body was still fighting with Joanna to get her to move, his mind had frozen on a thought. He loved her. He truly loved her. She wasn't just another of his girls and she wasn't just a one-night stand. She was the person Spot wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

As he made this realization, he started to smile...and then there was darkness.

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