Disclaimer from chapter 1

The Newsies stood in silence for a few minutes, no one knowing what to say. David was the first one to come out of his stupor.

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" he yelled as he spun back around to face Spot, who was still staring open mouthed at the door. "She didn't want to tell you!"

David seized the front of Spot's shirt and lifted the smaller boy up so they were at eye level with each other. Spot was still too stunned to say anything, so he just looked blankly at David, who shook Spot once more and continued to yell at him.

"Why did you make her tell you? What is wrong with you?"

David's yelling seemed to snap the other boys out of their daze. Now Blink and Specs were trying to pull David off Spot, while Jack put his hands on Spot's shoulders. David threw the other boys off with a strength none of them knew he had then he pulled back and punched Spot right in the jaw.

This seemed to wake Spot up, because his eyes focused on David and he raised a hand to his now aching chin. Spot made a move to hit David back, but Jack grabbed both his arms and held him fast. By this point four of the other guys had been able to restrain David.

"I don't understand! What just happened?" came a small voice from the edge of the crowd. Dozens of faces turn to look at Les, who was standing in the booth, where David had left him when he had gotten up to see what all the commotion was about. Tears were starting to well up in his eyes, and his chin was starting to tremble. "What did she mean? Why did she yell and leave?"

The older boys all just looked at each other, none of them were sure what to say.

"Ummm," Jack started, "Well, Les, Lily and Spot are cousins, and they was talk'n about why she left her home."

"She was yelling about her dad," the others could see Les putting the pieces together in his head. "Was he the one who hurt her?"

Jack gave David, who by now had stopped struggling, a helpless look. He was no good at stuff like this, and he knew he shouldn't be the one to explain exactly what happened to Les. That was a job for his parents.

David was calmer now, but he was still angry, really angry, at Spot. But, he couldn't let Les stay here for this conversation. It wouldn't be good for him to hear what they were going to say, or to see what he was going to do to Spot.

"Race, take Les home for me, would ya," he said, fixing his eyes on the smaller boy.

"But I wanna know whats goin' on too," Race started.

"Its not like no one is going to tell you about it later, now please."

Race turned to Les, "Ok kid, I'll take you home."

"But I want to . . ."

"Les, go with Race", David interrupted. "I promise Jack and Lily and I will be home later."

"Ok," was all that Les could get out before Race pushed him out the door.

Once the door had closed behind Race and Les, David rounded on Spot, who by this point had gained back some of his composure, and had no intension of being hit again.

"Give me one reason that I shouldn't beat the life out of you", David said as he advanced on Spot once again.

"How was a supposed ta know?" asked Spot. "How was I supposed to know her fatha is a bigga ass than anyone thought?"

David stopped, he hated Spot for causing Cate pain, but he did have a point. Spot seemed genuinely concerned about her. He remembered the way she had described Morgan to him, the love he could hear voice. Having Spot as part of her life would mean a lot to Cate, he could tell.

"Look, Spot, whether or not Cate, I mean Lily, wants you in her life, that is up to her. I can't make her choices for her, and if I tried to she would probably kill me, but, if you ever, and mean ever hurt her I will kill you. The last thing that girl needs is another family member to hurt her of leave her." He started to walk out the door, "now if you don't mind, she hasn't ever been out in the city alone since we met her, and she has no idea how to find her way back. So I am going to go find her before she is scared to death."

"Wait a minute," said Spot. "Let me get her."

David gave a hollow little laugh, "like you would know where to find her, you guys haven't seen each other in ten years."

Spot walked right up to David with a challenging look in his eyes, "I know where she'll go, let me find her." David looked like he was going to snap back at him, but spot continued. "Look, let me do dis for her. Besides we need to talk, just me and her."

David looked to Jack for some support, but Jack just shrugged his shoulders.

"Ok," David conceded, "but just bring her back to our house before dark, like I said, shes never been alone in the city before."

Spot nodded then left. The only noise in the room was the sound of the little bell over the door which told them that Spot was gone.

David gave Jack a look that practically begged him to say none of that had just happened that they would find Lily safe in the apartment when they got home. And Jack wished he could tell David those things. But most of all he wished that Spot would find her before anything happened. He didn't know what he would do if she got hurt.