AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yeah!!!! No more writer's block for me! Hurray!!!
Sparks Kelly: Thanks so much again for reviewing! Just as you asked...yeah someone is going to die. It's really sad yeah, but if someone didn't die, then the story couldn't continue. Anyhoo...it also was great talkin to ya the other day! Dancer's rock!
So yeah...I really REALLY would like to know what you all think about my story!!! Please review so I know what to do or what not to do in future stories! Hope you all in enjoy!
Luv ya all!
Lissie/Hope/readallaboutitgoil
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Jack, Blink, Racetrack, or Mush (too bad though...) but I do own Hope and Ice. ENJOY! (and PLEASE REVIEW!)
"So…I guess what I'm tryin to say is…Hope…will you marry me?"
Hope threw her arms around Jack and cried. "Of course! Of course I will!" She firmly connected her lips to Jack's and Jack took the ring out of the box.
"I will always love ya Hope. Until my dying day, and after" Jack said with a shaky voice, and he slipped the ring onto Hope's finger.
Hope looked at her hand and admired the beauty of the ring. "Promise me though Jack…."she said. "That you're dying day won't be for a long time. Promise me you'll always be with me. Promise me." Hope wrapped her arms around Jack and he pulled her into a tight embrace.
"I promise ya Hope…I promise ya…."
Hope had her head resting on Jack's shoulder and she was crying quiet tears of joy. She had never been more happy in her life and she never thought she could be happier. She looked up at Jack's face and placed a soft, gentle kiss on his lips. "Thank you" she said. "Thank you for making me so happy Jack."
"Anything for you, doll" he said as he returned her kiss. "How's about we keep this on the low though for a little while. You know…until we're sure about things."
Hope looked at Jack confused. "Why is it a secret? People already know we're together why would this be so strange?"
Jack looked into Hope's eyes. She could sense the fear in his eyes, and it hurt her deeply. "Jack…"she quietly started. "If you're not ready for this then I don't mind…"
"No! That's not it!" he cut her off. "I just don't want certain people to know, for your sake and mine."
Hope felt the tears welling up inside her eyes again, but this time they were not of joy. They were filled with pain and confusion. "Jack…I don't understand" she said. "I want people to know about our love, and I don't feel it's right to keep a secret like this from our friends."
Jack didn't know what to say. He wanted to tell everyone as much as Hope did. He couldn't be more proud that we was going to marry Hope, but he still had to remember what had been discussed the night before. The terrible truth about his so-called friend Ice. Jack didn't want Ice to know about the engagement. He wanted Ice long gone before the truth about everything came out. He could only imagine what would happen if Ice found out.
Jack took Hope's tear streaked face into his hands and said. "As soon as Ice is gone, the truth can come out. You can tell Pullitzer himself to write a whole article on the front page if you want about us being engaged…but just wait until Ice is gone. I don't know…I just have a bad feeling that's he'd do something drastic if he found out. I don't know why…I just do. So for us Hope? Can you keep a secret of love for us?"
Hope decided it was best to just go with what Jack was saying. She trusted him and he trusted her. She knew in her heart that Jack was only doing what was best for the both of them. She hugged him tight and kissed him once more.
Jack hated to do this to Hope, but he knew of a way to make it up to her. "Hey…how's about you and me go see Medda tonight at the Irving Hall? You can call it a "secret" secret engagement celebration. Just the two of us. Whadda ya say?" Jack held Hope's hands in his waiting for an answer.
Hope stared at Jack's hands holding hers. She hated the thought of their love being a secret, but she simply said "Ok…I trust you Jack on your decision. What time should I be ready?"
"Seven o'clock" he said with a boyish grin.
"Ok…seven it is then" Hope said with a fake smile. She watched Jack smile at her as he walked out the door. Hope couldn't help it, but she had a terrible feeling…
Hope had just finished cleaning herself up for her outing with Jack that night. She put on a beautiful violet dress with a wide crème ribbon around the waist. She had a couple of violet clips in her long and wavy chestnut brown hair. The violet of the clips matched the violet of the dress. To finish everything off Hope slid a simple pearl necklace around her neck. It laid softly on top of the dress. The pearls had been her great-grandmother's who passed them down to her grandmother, and then her mother, and now they had finally found their way to her.
Hope walked over to the end of the bed and put on her black button up shoes. Once she was done, she walked slowly over to the large mirror. She looked herself up and down a few times making sure she looked perfect for Jack. She glanced down again at her ring…her simple yet gorgeous ring. She looked at herself in the mirror again, thinking about the ring on her finger. She felt complete with it on, like it had been missing for a long time. She felt happy and content, and yet…something was wrong. Why was she so nervous? She shook her head trying to forget about the bad feelings. "Get a grip Hope. You and Jack are finally engaged. Your life is going to be perfect from now on" and with that she grabbed her purse and walked out the door to meet Jack.
"Hahaha…oh Hope. You and Jack should really think about what you're saying…even when you're not in public. Someone could be just sittin right outside your window listening to everything…everything about certain little secret engagements. I give you two my blessings…not that it makes a difference" a cold voice said right outside of Jack and Hope's bedroom window.
Hope walked down the hall and she saw Jack waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. His facial expressions looked as though it was the first time he saw her. Hope let out a small laugh as she held out her hand when she reached the bottom of the stairs. "Hello Mr. Kelly. Are you ready to escort me to our secret outing?"
Jack took her hand and kissed it softly. He stood up straight and tried to act as proper as he could. "Why yes Mrs. Kelly. Right this way." He held out his arm for Hope to take, and she let out another small laugh and took his arm gratefully. "I must say Mrs. Kelly you look ravishing tonight!"
Hope gave Jack a smile and said "Don't look so bad yourself Jack."
Jack leaned forward and kissed Hope softly, unaware of the eyes looking in through the window at them.
"We better get going or we'll miss the show!" Jack said with a smile. Jack opened the door for Hope and they both walked down the street towards Irving Hall.
Hope and Jack walked out of Irving Hall with smiles on their faces. "We should have more secret celebrations more often Jack! Tonight was wonderful" she said as she held Jack's hand. The show had consisted of a special pre-ordered dinner by Jack and a wonderful performance by Medda. Her usual "High Times, Hard Times" song had been a favorite by the audience.
Jack nodded in agreement with a smile on his face. The more they walked the more their conversations began to fade, and Hope noticed how Jack's expression had gone from happy to extremely serious. It was unbelievably cold outside and the snow began softly falling.
"Jack…Jack what's wrong?"
Jack shook his head. "N…nothing. I just feel like someone is following us or something bad is gonna happen. Do you?"
Hope look startled. She had felt that same way right before they had left the Lodging House, but it had been completely forgotten with all the fun they had had at Irving Hall.
"Don't worry about it Jack. I'm sure we're fine" although she felt just as unsure as Jack did.
Jack stopped walking and held tightly onto Hope's hand. He pulled her close to him until their faces were mere inches away from each other. Hope closed the space between them with a kiss. They no longer could feel the cold of the winter weather that surrounded them. Jack broke the kiss for air and held onto Hope's face. Her eye's looked just like big stars in a midnight sky.
"I will love you Hope, until my dying day and after."
Hope couldn't be happier that Jack loved her so much but she became upset when he talked about his dying day. "Jack I love you so much too, but can't you just say that to me? Don't talk about your dying day. It's not going to be for a long LONG time. Ok Jack?"
"Ok…ok…No more "dying day" talk. I promise."
"Thank you Jack" Hope said and she wrapped her arms around Jack's neck to hold him close to her.
They began walking down the street again, when they heard soft footsteps closely behind them. Jack turned his head around to see who it was, but surprisingly no one was there. Jack just shrugged it off and continued walking with Hope. They were almost to the Lodging House when someone ripped Hope from his hands, and ran down the street with her. Jack whipped around to see where the dark figure was going and he chased after them. He found Hope pushed up against a wall in a dark cold alley with the dark figure holding her neck. "Hey Jacky-Boy" the dark figure said. "I guess you've finally figured out the real me. Ice…I guess you could say me name does speak for me heart." Ice pushed Hope to the ground and began slowly walking towards Jack. "Oh yeah…how rude of me Cowboy! I almost forgot to say congrats to you and your future Mrs. Too bad I won't be able to attend, because guess what? There ain't gonna be no wedding."
"What the hell ya talkin about Ice?" Jack angrily asked. His hands began forming fists and his temper began to rise.
Ice leaned against the cold brick wall. "Well it's quite funny Cowboy. I loved your little "until my dying day" shit that you keep telling Hope here. Ha! Who would eva think that that day would be today?"
Jack just stared at Ice. What was he planning to do. He now had no idea what he was capable of doing. He had no idea how cruel he had been to Hope, and now Ice was going to kill him, but he couldn't leave Hope there.
"Ice…"Jack said with a shaky voice. "You can have whateva you want. You can have the whole reign of Manhattan if that's what you want, but just don't hurt Hope. Please just give me Hope and we'll leave you alone, and you'll leave us alone!"
"Hmmm…I don't think I can do that Jack. You see, that would be the easy thing to do. Just take the reign of the Manhattan newsies and let you and Hope go on your merry little way and get married and live happily eva afta…but I can't do that. I gotta make sure you don't share who I really am with the public. Gotta make sure you won't go straight to the bulls after I let ya go. So yes Jack, I'll take that reign, but you won't be here to see me take it, and you won't be here to see me take your only Hope." Ice reached down to the ground and tightly grabbed ahold of Hope's wrist. "Anything you wanna say to Hope before…"
"Ice…you lay another finger on Hope, and I swear to…"
"Oooo Jacky-boy. I don't think ya wanna be swearing ta God right before I send ya to him. So see ya Cowboy!"
Jack heard a shot and he was thrown to the cold snow covered ground. He saw Ice and another dark figure run down the street and Jack chased after them as far as he could. They disappeared into another dark alley, and Jack just turned around to go find Hope.
"Hope…"Jack started. "Hope are you alr…"
Jack couldn't believe what he was seeing. There was Hope, and there was him. Jack saw the whole front of his shirt and one of Hope's sleeved was covered in Jack's blood.
"Nooooo…"Hope sobbed. "Come on Jack. Come on! You promised me, Jack!" She stopped talking for a minute to take a breath between sobs. "Please!!!" she yelled. "Please…somebody help us!!" Jack looked outside of the alley and he saw Blink, Mush, and Racetrack running down the streets.
"Come on" Blink said. "I think I heard it come from down here."
The three boys reached the alley to discover Jack's lifeless body in Hope's arm.
"Oh my God! Jack!" Mush yelled, and the boys ran towards him and Hope.
Jack stood in the middle of the alley. "You guys! Come on! I'm right here! What's goin…" All three of the boys easily ran through him, as if he wasn't even there. Jack shook with fear. He ran towards Hope and tried to hold her hand, but his hand just went right through hers. "Come on Hope! You guys! What's going on?!"
"Jack! Jack, come on man! Wake up!" Blink yelled.
"Come on Jack! Don't do this!" Racetrack cried.
"Jack…"Hope whimpered. "Come on Jack! Please…please wake up Jack! You promised me! You promised me Jack! Come on…Jack please!!"
Mush wrapped his arms around Hope and held her close. Racetrack and Blink quickly picked up Jack and rushed him to the nearest hospital. They knew they didn't have much of a chance, but they couldn't just give up on Jack.
Jack stood in the alley and watched all of them rushing down the street. Mush holding onto Hope, and Blink and Racetrack carrying him.
Jack just stared in disbelief. What was going on? How could he be there and here? Why had he been shot? Who had shot him? Without a second thought Jack ran down the street following Hope, Mush, Blink, and Racetrack to the hospital.
P.S. Please Review!