Disclaimer from Ch. 1

Ok guys, I know I haven't written in forever, and I am sooooooo sorry. But all of a sudden I had kind of an inspirational burst, and I wrote two chapters in like 24 hours, and this second one is pretty long. So hopefully I wont drop off the face of the earth again, because we are getting to the really good romance stuff, where David might gasp make a move! Enjoy!

Oh God, here she was, running again. She couldn't breath, she needed more space. Up ahead she saw a bridge, one of the many that connected all the burrows of New York.

Lily ran right up to the edge of the bridge and caught herself on the railing. She took a deep breath of the sea air that was coming of the harbor. This is what she needed, the fresh air, the openness of the water and the sky. Following the river she stated walking towards the open sea and the docks.

There was a lot of activity around her, ships being loaded and unloaded, men sitting eating their lunches. She recognized many other Irish accents, but didn't make eye contact with anyone. She knew she should feel frightened, but she was just too stressed, and had too many things on her mind to worry about being afraid of the hundreds of other people in the city of New York. After finding a fairly deserted dock she climbed on top of a bunch of crates and faced the open water. She sat there letting the wind blow into her face and thinking about everything that had happened.

Spot scanned the docks, it had been ten years, but he knew if she could find the water she would be here. It was a little after midday so all the workers were starting their afternoon shifts. There were laughter and loud conversations all around him, if only he could find her.

As he got to the last few piers he saw a figure sitting on some crates, silhouetted against the blue sky. He let out a sigh of relief, it was Catie, and he knew it.

Without saying a word he climbed up next to her and stared out the water, mimicking her posture. They sat like that for a few minutes then she turned to him.

"How did you find me?"

"Some things never change, I remember how much you love the ocean, and dis is the closest thing we got here in New York."

"Oh," was all she said, then she proceeded to stare at the water some more.

Finally Spot couldn't take the silence anymore.

"Look, I'm sorry about yelling at you. You were right, I got no right to tell you what to do."

Catie turned to really look at him for the first time since he got there. He looked so sad, and there was a large purple bruise starting to form on his chin. She ran her hand gently over it, he flinched a little.

"Where did this come from?"

"Dave, he got pretty mad when you left. I tink he would have done much worse if de guys hadn't held him back."

She looked taken aback, "Wow, I don't think I have ever seen David physically threaten anyone."

"Well, believe me, dis was very physical, I thought he was going to kill me."

"Why would you think that?"

"Probably because he looked at me with this crazy look in his eyes, and said 'I'm going to kill you!'" Spot gave a hollow chuckle, "You got some friends."

"Yeah, I know."

"No, I mean it, they would do anything for you. Well, more than I have ever done for you." He hung his head and tried to ignore the extra water in his eyes. He hadn't cried for years, it was embarrassing to let someone see him being so weak.

"Morgan?"

"Yeah?"

"Morgan, would you promise me something."

He looked up into her face, she was crying too. "Of course, anything Catie, you know you only have to ask."

She took a deep breath and looked into his eyes, which were so much like hers. "Promise me that now that we have found each other again, you won't leave me again."

"Of course not . . . Now could you please tell me exactly what happened?"

"Well . . . ." She told him everything, and in a lot more detail then she had told anyone else. It took a long time to get it all out, by the end Spot was up and pacing in front of the crates they had been using as a seat.

"Catie, I am so sorry, I shouldda been there . . ."

"Don't be, there was nothing you could have done. He would have just hurt you too. The important thing is that we found each other again. And that he can't hurt us anymore."

"Yeah," Spot turned to look at the sun, which was by this point starting to sink in the west. "We should start getting back to the Jacobs's house; I promised Dave and Cowboy that I would have you back before dark."

"Ok," she stood up and he helped her down from the boxes. Cate linked her arm though his and they started walking back.

It was a good thing that Spot knew the city so well, because Cate really had no idea where they were. She was surprised that she had even found her way to the bay.

As they approached the building the Jacobs's apartment was in a small group of figures were standing on the front stairs.

"Lily!" came Les's voice, shortly followed by him running towards her. He threw his arms around her middle and hugged her tight.

"We were all so worried," said Sarah as she led the rest of the group up to Lily and Spot.

Lily was surprised by how many of them were there, she had expected Jack, David, and Sarah, but her closest Newsie friends were there too. They all hugged her in turn and told her how worried they had been, and how happy they were that she was ok.

David hung to the back, waiting for the others to finish their greetings. Then when everyone else had had their turn, it was just him facing her. Those beautiful, big blue eyes looking into his. It was almost as if she were trying to ask him something with just her eyes. He started walking towards her with the intension of hugging her just like everyone else, but before he knew it she was in his arms holding him so tightly, and he was cradling her against him.

He leaned over and started placing kisses in her hair and on her forehead, which then traveled down to her temples and cheeks. He wished he could kiss her for real, but not here, not now, in front of everyone. David was now sure that all he wanted to do was hold Cate in his arms and kiss her and make her feel safe. But now was not the time for that.

He pulled back a little without letting go of her waist, and looked down into her eyes. She seemed to be fighting back tears. He didn't know what to say, he wanted to make her feel better, to make her stop crying and tell her that everything would be ok, but he couldn't find the words. Instead he just settled for brushing the first few tears off her cheeks and letting her burry her face in his shirt.

Spot had suspected how much Catie meant to David, but to see it all was a little unnerving. And from her reactions it was clear she returned his feelings. He glanced around the group; everyone was looking a little uncomfortable at the intimate moment they were witnessing.

Clearing his throat to bring the groups attention to himself Spot decided to break the silence.

"See, whad I tell you Dave? I found her, and I bet you couldn't guess where."

David looked up from the top of Cate's head, where he had been staring at what he thought might have been a few little grey hairs. Then without letting her go, he reached out his right hand to shake Spots.

"Yeah, you did, thanks. How did you know where to look?"

"He found me at the docks," came a muffled voice from his chest.

"The docks?"

"She loves the ocean, at least she did when we was younga. So I figured it was de best place to look foist," Spot added, "it was lucky she was in de foist place I looked, because I got no odda idea of where to find her in dis city."

"Thank you for coming to find me Morgan," Cate said as she turned to face the rest of the group, and lean her back against David's chest so he wouldn't let go of her.

Lily said goodnight to all the others and let Sarah lead her upstairs to get food and plenty of sleep before her big day tomorrow. Personally she wasn't sure if she could take another "big day" after today, but she didn't say anything.

As the others trickled away back to the lodging house or wherever they planed on spending the evening Spot and David stood facing each other, Jack had gone upstairs with Lily and Sarah.

"Look . . ." David started, but Spot cut him off.

"Tanks for taken' such good care of her, she needs a family to look after her, and she found that with yours."

"I . . . we, really care about her. Thanks for bringing her home."

"Sure thing, I told you I would, didn't I"

"Yeah, well, I better be getting up stairs, we have dinner soon. Do you, wanna, you know, come up and have something to eat?"

"Nah, I got plans to meet Juls, you know, while I'm in dis part of de city."

"Ok, so I guess I'll see you tomorrow at the show?"

"Of course, now I got two goils to kick my ass if I don't show up."

David had turned to walk up the steps when he heard Spot call his name again, so he turned back around.

"Davie boy, I am de only family dat goil's got left, and so I have to say dis. If you hurt her, I'll kill you. We are all each odda got left, so don't mess with her."

David smiled at Spot, "I understand completely where you are coming from, and I promise that I will never willingly hurt Cate. Not while I still have breath in my body."

Spot smiled back, "Good, just wanted to make sure. Bye."

And with that both boys turned and walked off in their respective directions.

P.S. thanks to all those people who reviewed even though I wasn't updating, you guys are great.