Pete ended up staying at the Jacobs for longer than a couple days. The whole family fell in love with him and days slowly turned into weeks and pretty soon it had been a couple of months and Pete was a healthy, round baby with a belly laugh that made everyone around him smile, whether they wanted to or not.
Jack still looked on Pete as his baby and came to the house at least once a day and brought some money with him on Saturdays. Mr. Jacobs protested this at first, but, realizing that Jack really wanted to be part of Petey's life, took the money every week. Often, when Jack came over, it was in the evening, after he finished selling his papers. Cold, dirty, and weary, he would hold Pete for hours, the two of them more often than not dozing off together. Petey loved Jack. He would coo and laugh when Jack played with him, and, on the one month anniversary of Jack finding him, Petey said his first word - Jack. This pleased Jack immensely, and soon he was teaching Petey all kinds of words. He got some grief from the other newsies, but just shrugged it off.
This way of things continued, as I said, for a couple of months. But then one night, as the Jacobs family and Jack sat around the table, there was a knock on the door.
Expecting it to be one of the newsies, Mr. Jacob rose and opened the door. What he didn't expect was to see a bedraggled young lady and ragged older gentleman standing there. The young woman didn't wait to be asked in, but stepped through the door of her own accord and the older man followed her.
The family sat speechless in surprise, staring at the young lady who stood looking around the cozy room as if searching for something. She was tall, for a girl and was beautiful, with medium dark skin and clear brown eyes. Her hair, falling into her eyes, was brown as well and David thought her quite pretty. He looked over at Jack to see what he thought, but was surprised to see Jack sitting with his mouth open, looking at the girl in consternation and dismay.
"Clare?" Jack asked, finally coming to his senses and standing. The girl focused in on him, and, after a moment's disbelief, shrieked, "Jackie!" and running over to him, threw her arms around him. Jack stood for a second in surprise, then pushed the girl away.
Not disturbed in the least by Jack's reaction, Clare grabbed his hand and hung on to it. "Oh my goodness! Imagine meeting you here! It's been a long time Jackie! Have you missed me?"
By this time, the Jacobs family had recovered their senses and began to react to the rather bizarre situation. Sarah's face, as well as her father's, was stormy, while David and Les and their mother were really confused.
Jack extricated his hand from the girl's grip and, seeming to regain his composure, said, "Whatcha doing on this side of town?"
"I came for my baby." Clare replied, looking around the room again. Petey, asleep in the bedroom, was not in sight.
"Your baby?" Demanded Sarah, rising to her feet and sending a dagger glance at Jack, who looked as confused as she did.
"Sarah, honestly, I don't know-I don't-I-I"
Clare interrupted him. "Oh, so your friends don't know about me, eh Jackie?" She moved over to Sarah and extended her hand. "I'm Clare, Jack's girlfriend of three years." She said coyly, turning to flutter her eyelashes at Jack over her shoulder.
Ignoring Clare's outstretched hand, Sarah looked at Jack. She started to say something, but no words came and, shaking her head, she spun on her heel and went to the bedroom.
"What's going on here, Jack?" Asked Mr. Jacob.
Jack, with a confused, miserable look on his face, opened his mouth and-
"What do you mean, what's going on here?" Clare interrupted again. "Jack and I are together. I don't know what he told you all, but you probably shouldn't believe it. All of Jack's closest friends" (Here she cast a disdainful look at the door through which Sarah had disappeared) "know that Jack Kelly is the biggest liar in New York."
"Now hold on a second, Clare." Jack had finally recovered his tongue, and now, casting a defiant, desperate look around the room at the Jacob family, he stepped forward and continued. "I'm not like that any more. I don't lie anymore. Well, usually anyways. And you and I haven't been together for almost a year now."
"Yeah, I know Jackie. It's been awhile. See, Jack and I grew up together in Brooklyn." Clare turned to the Jacobs, her eyes blazing. "We been sweet on each other since we were seven. We went everywhere together, did everything together. We both came from bum families. When his momma died, I was there for 'im, and when his daddy was thrown in jail, I was standing next to 'im. Two days after that, he left. No goodbye, no anything. I guess you could say I went down the wide path after that. See, I depended on you as much as you did on me." Clare was standing directly in front of Jack now, tears filling her eyes. "When you left, I didn't have much to live for so….well, there's the baby ain't there?"
Jack stood stock still, as stunned as the Jacobs were at the girl's outburst. Clare wiped her eyes and, straightening up, seemed to get a hold on herself. Casting a wicked grin in Jack's direction, she continued. "And the baby, well, that's why I'm here. He's mine. I thought you might enjoy seeing me Jackie, but, obviously, you still don't care. In fact, I wonder if you ever did, no matter what you told me. Like I said -the biggest liar in New York.I was giving you a chance, but..." She shrugged. "I'll stick with the plan and just take the kid and go."
