"Bailey! Bailey are you shot?" I asked pleadingly, praying she wasn't though her eyes were closed and she looked pale.
She opened her eyes "No…" she sounded in pain though. "I think id grazed me leg or sumthin."
"Can ye walk?" I asked urgently as a shot barely missed me, I could feel the whoosh of air go past my arm. Angel was now down next to me.
"Oh god, oh god" She was saying "I've gotta get help."
I was just hoping maybe somebody had heard the shots and our screams.
Suddenly I heard a too familiar voice. "One down, two to go." Who else was it but Shadow. "I've got some mora ammo fer dis useful gun hea," he chuckled "I rememba de las time I used dis…" he indicated the gun by turning it to catch the gleam on the side. He walked closer the the three of us huddled on the ground.
I held Bailey's hand as she bit her lip to keep from letting out any noise. I saw in the next to no light that though the bullet had only grazed her leg, her shin was bleeding pretty heavily.
I saw Shadow had moved even closer to us, about ten feet away.
"Now I've caught ye all alone. Its been tough wid all dese damn kids round hea…Poa defenseless goils. Eh, to bad fer ye, none a ye little boys te protect ye. Yer all alone now." He chuckled.
"Poa, defenseless goils my ass!" Bailey said through gritted teeth.
I thought I saw something moving quickly in the dark behind Shadow but before I could distinguish what it was the something tackled Shadow and they both went tumbling forward. Another shot rang out and Angel let out a scream. I got quickly to my feet trying to figure out what had just happened. I looked towards the ground where Shadow was fighting someone. It was Jack. I could tell only because his hat had fallen from its customary spot hanging around its neck. I crouched next to Bailey who looked like she might pass out.
"Bai, can you get up?" I asked her quickly. I didn't know what else to do but get away. Jack was behind me still grappling with Shadow.
"If ye help me…I think I can." She answered me and sat up slowly.
"C'mon Ang help me" I said to Angel who immediately took one of Bailey's arms as I the other. We lifted her up and she stood as well as she could on one foot. I could then see how much her leg had bled onto the ground.
"Shit!" I said wondering why the hell I hadn't bandaged it sooner.
"Jack!" Bailey had just realized who our rescuer was.
I looked at them both of them didn't look too good.
"What should I do?" I thought to myself. I didn't want to leave Jack all by himself with Shadow but Bailey needed to be fixed up so she didn't loose too much blood.
I then heard the sound of horses approaching at a gallop.
"Ids de bulls!" Angel said. "We gotta get outa hea, dey'll wanna know whudds goin on."
"I knew someone had te hea all dose shots." I said.
"Jack!" Bailey shouted again, "ids de bulls we gotta get outta hea!"
Jack had obviously heard her and gave Shadow a good punch right in the nose then sprang to his feet and coming to us. "Lets go!" he said and so we all turned and Jack picked Bailey up and we all started away at a quickly.
"He'll get ye! Its comin soon!" came a shout from behind us. It was Razor who I hadn't seen since he had helped me be kidnapped.
I was about to shout back wanting to tell him to go stick his head up his ing hole, but Jack stopped me. "Cmon deyres not time fer dat now." I nodded and we ran back to the lodging house.
We got into the relieving warm light of the lodging house entrance. I saw tears staining Bailey's cheeks. She tried to wipe them away but still she was biting her lip in pain.
Race looked up when we came inside and seeing us breathless at the door with Jack holding Bailey with her bleeding leg and Jack looking a little banged up himself he ran to us. "Whudd de hell happened?" he exclaimed.
"Shadow" I managed to get out through the gasping of my breath. Race held me up by putting his arm underneath mine.
"WHUDD!" he exploded. "Are ye all ok? Bailey! Whudd happened?" he asked quickly seeing Baileys bleeding leg.
"Doodles can explain" Jack said panting. "I gotta get her leg cleaned up." And Jack went to take care of Bailey.
Angel had sunk to the floor gasping for breath too and leaned against the wall.
"Ye ok?" I panted to Angel and she nodded though still looking a little shocked by what had just happened.
"I'm fine" she said, "just a little winded."
And that was when Spot banged into the lodging house.
"Whudd de hell is goin on? Where's Angel?"
"Umm…Spot…I'm down hea." Angel said looking up at him.
Spot almost jumped and looked down. He pretended like he wasn't embarrassed at his not seeing her right next to him and went on. "Whudds goin on? I heard shots all de way from Tibby's and I knew Jack had decided to follow ye goils back te de lodgin house den I heard shots and by de time I got dere de bulls had come an gone."
Angel stuck out her hand to him and he pulled her up. "Well go ahead Doodles" she said to me, why she was having me explain, I didn't know and decieded it didn't matter either way.
"So we were walkin hea…" I began and I told them how Shadow had came out at us from an alley and he had a gun (I convieniently left out the part of me tripping a falling right before that). How he shot at us and hit Bailey and what he said.
"That's when Jack tackled im" Angel said helping me out. Then she said how they fought while we tried to figure out what the hell to do. "an den we hoird de Bulls comin so we ran fer it."
"Razor showed up at de end too." I said and I felt Race's arms tense at the sound of his name.
"Whudd was he doin hea?" he said.
"He's one a Shadow's goons dats all." Spot said with contempt. "Dey've prolly hoid rumors bout de rally…" he trailed off.
"Whudd de ye mean…?" Angel asked "wouldn't dey wanna stay far away from dis rally as possible? If dey came to it deyre defiantly gonna get inte a fight with someone."
"Yea dat'd be me." Race said his hands balled into fists.
"Ang," Spot said kissing her. "Ye know dats prolly gonna be de end of dis."
"Whudds gonna be de end of whudd?" Angel asked.
I was pretty sure I knew what he was talking about, there was gonna be a fight at the rally. And not just any fight but it would probably end up being a full out rumble type of fight.
"We've gotta fight te end dis whole thing fer Doodles…and fer us." Spot said, full of determination.
"Dis is all me fault." I said not meeting any of their eyes. "if I hadn't eva come hea den none of ye whudd be put in dis position an none a dese odda newsies eidda. If anyone gets hoit at de rally I don know how I'd fergive meself."
"Yer wrong." Spot contradicted me. "Ids not as if all dese newsies whuddent a come jus fer ye. But dey're alsa gonna be fighten fer demselves."
"Ye've gotta undastand whudd he's sayin." Race said, "cause he's right…fer once." He said the last part and slapped Spot's Cheek.
"Ye watch yerself," Spot said pretending to be angry. "Ona dese days yer gonna find yerself in a spot ye can't fight yerself outta…" he paused… "Like Dis!" and he grabbed Race into a headlock.
Me and Angel laughed at them as they grappled with each other neither really caught or free.
"Well I'm tired." I said "I'm goin te bed now. Race ye can come when yer not so busy."
Angel laughed, "Yea I'm goin too. Enough guns and runnin an weirdness for one night fer me!"
We began walking up the stairs and had reached the second floor landing when she stopped me.
"Wait a second…" she said with a thoughtful look in her eye. "Didn't ye wanna tell me an Bailey sumthin? Wasn't dat why ye came te Tibby's in de foist place?" then all of a sudden she hit me upside the head. "Ye dumbass! Ye walked te Tibby's in de dark all by yerself! Ids a good thing Shadow didn't catch up wid ye den!"
I didn't know whether to laugh at her or look ashamed at my stupidity which I hadn't realized until just then. "Wow Ang…you sound like my mom! I'm jus lucky I guess." I told her with a grin.
She rolled her eyes, "I worry bout ye ye know? Someones gotta be yer mom sometimes." She smiled and shook her head at me. "If we don watch ye close ye could get yerself inte some trouble."
"Yea…dats why I'm lucky te have ye guys!" I laughed.
"Oh yea!"Angel said suddenly. "Whudd was it ye were gonna tell us?"
I thought about the dream. It probably wasn't odd that I'd had the dream, nightmare, twice in a row. It probably was nothing and I didn't feel like making a whole lot of worry out of a whole lot of nothing. I told myself that I'd just see if it continued. I felt a shiver go down my spine when I thought of it though.
"Uhh…id was nuthin." I told her. "jus nuthin…"
Right then there was a sound like two elephants charging up the stairs. It wasn't. I was however, Race and Spot. They ran towards us and Race picked me up, throwing me over his shoulders and Spot did the same to Angel. Me and Angel were both laughing hysterically, my dream, though Angel didn't know it was a dream, forgotten.
"Now dat we have oua goils whudd should we do wid dem?" Race asked Spot in his most serious but-I'm-really-joking voice.
"Lets take dem te bed an have oua way wid dem!" Spot said back in a very enthusiastic tone.
"Horny little ones ain't ye?" I said still laughing as all the blood had rushed to my head.
Spot and Race looked at each other shrugged their shoulders and said "Yep" at the same exact time.
"Classic," I said still laughing my ass off.
"Off te bed den!" Angel shouted.
"Dats me goil!" Spot said.
"Night den ye two." I called to them as they went to a door a little ways down the hall. "Don have too much fun!"
Race, with me still slung over his shoulder, pushed open the door to our room and shut the door behind us.
He then threw me onto the bed and started kissing me. We paused and came up for air after a few minutes.
"Dea me, I'm de luckiest guy in de woild." He whispered in my ear. I smiled, "An I'm de luckiest goil."