Whoo! Welcome back everyone! Please read and review! I apologize about how it is seemingly SHORT.

Stormy's eyes fluttered open, light flooding into her vision, causing her to shut her eyes. The bright white hurt her from having not seen light in what
seemed like years.

She heard two voices that stopped the minute her eyes had shut tightly and she felt the light being withdrawn from the room she was in. Slowly, she
opened her eyes to see Lucks and Spot sitting on empty crates.

"Hey." She let out in a raspy whisper.

"Shhh." Spot cooed as he approached. He bent down and sat on his knees. His eyes were a light blue, filled with caring and adoration. His hand was
curled up in a soft ball and brushed her cheek. Stormy let her eyes close for a moment before opening them and staring at Spot's face.

His sweet, handsome face was etched stress from everything that had happened. Puffy purple bags hung under his eyes. Stormy smiled as best as
she could, given the situation and pulled her arm from her side.

She felt weak, almost too weak to be moving her arms and couldn't think of why she did feel like this.

She opened her mouth to speak but she was cut off by Spot placing a sweet, innocent, tender kiss on her lips. She smiled and took his face in her hand
which felt as heavy as a bag of big rocks. She ran her thumb back and forth across his jaw bone and part of his cheek.

"I love you." She said, it was filled with meaning.

"I love you too." He whispered it, his soft breath blowing on her face, sending sweet shivers up her spine.

Lucks stood, watching this scene and smiled weakly. She knew her two friends were meant for each other...it had been obvious since the three had met.

Race entered the doorway and saw that Stormy was awake. He smiled happily and brightened up. "How she doin?" He asked in a whisper towards Lucks,
taking her in his arms.

"So far pretty good, she just woke up."

Race nodded and sighed.

"How long have I been out?" Stormy asked weakly.

"Almost a day." Spot choked out. Hope, happiness, and a sensation he had
never felt before bubbled over him, though he would never let on to this.

Stormy coughed and closed her eyes tightly in pain. Her throat was hurting and her free hand flew up to it. Spot stopped her by grabbing her hand.

"No..." He said, shaking his head.

She sighed.

"I can't lay here like this. What are my parents going to do?" Reality slapped her in the face harshly, making her realize that she actually did
have a life and parents unlike some of the Newsies who lived at the Lodging House.

"It's all taken care of." Spot said.

"Yeah but-"

"Just shush." He said, and it was an order.

Stormy nodded, not at all affected by his words. She closed her eyes, not feeling one bit drowsy.

"What happened?" She asked finally.

Lucks and Race exchanged nervous glances, but Spot stared solely at Stormy.

"Apparently, dat guy was 'a no good. He was a rat sen' by a gang leadah over in da Bronx. I ruffed up some o' dah leadah's bois the othah day and so he
gave the order to kill you off. See, that guy had been with me for a while. I didn' know he was with Smalls...that's the gang leadah's name." He started
to say more but he noticed Stormy was stuck on one thing.

"He was going to kill me?"

Spot was silent for a second. "Yeah...He was...Lucky for me that Lucks was with ya and had da sense to scream. You know how loud she can be, well this
time it came in handy."

Stormy smiled weakly.

There was a knock at the door that Race had closed upon his entrance and Race opened it. "uh, Boss, dere's someone down stairs who wants tah see
you?"

Spot sighed and waved his hand as though to tell the boy to leave.

"Buttahfly, I'll be back in a few minutes, okay?" He asked softly.

Stormy nodded slowly and watched his get up and leave. She could tell his footsteps changed as soon as he closed the door. They were the usual
confident, brisk, wide-stride foot steps the Leader of Brooklyn usually held unless angry.

Spot walked down the stairs, a gruff expression on his face. He stopped when he saw Flick and furrowed his brows. Flick hardly ever came to Spot unless
he needed help or it was poker night.

"What's up Flick?" Spot asked, nodding his head towards the door. There were some Newsies still in the main room and Spot didn't want a conversation that
didn't need to be overheard, overheard.

Stormy sighed and slowly sat up, ignoring the protests she got from Lucks and Race.

"Yeah, so what happened during the day I've been out of it?" She asked, ignoring the pain and the concerned looks she got from the couple near her.

"Not much, Spot was worrying his head off, Jack came by, Lucks had to go take care of Queens, I had to sell papes, the world continued going on
without you. Some people visited, but most just asked us questions.

Stormy sat up straighter, balancing her back against the wall, only hearing the first part.

"Really?"

"Yes, Stormy, the world went on without you for a day." Race replied, chuckling a little.

"Huh? No, not that. The Spot thing." She said, obviously playing this over and over again in her head.

"Yeah, he was really worried about ya, Storms." Race supplied, leaning against the door that was now closed.

Lucks finally spoke from her silent spot next to Race.

"It was weird Stormy; no one has ever seen him this upset over someone for a long, long time."

Stormy felt a smile spread onto her lips and she realized that they were surprisingly chapped.

"Can I.get some water?" She asked a weak smile now on her face.

"Yeah shore." Race said and left to get a cup of water from downstairs.

"Stormy, I know you and Spot have always been really close, but no one, NO ONE, has ever made Spot Conlon cry."

"WHAT!" She spat out, it just slipped like word vomit. She knew that no one had ever made him cry but she didn't think that...no, this had to be impossible.

"Yeah, don't tell ANYONE you heard it from me, but when it was just me and him in here last night, he was crying. Silently, but he was. No one has ever
seen Spot cry, ever. It was weird Storms, it was really weird." Lucks spoke fast and in a hushed tone.

She seemed paranoid that someone might be on the other side of the door listening in and she'd get in trouble if she revealed what she knew.

"Wow." That was all Stormy seemed able to say. She knew that she and Spot had been best friends for years, but Spot Conlon never really cared about
people so much as to send them a Get Well card. Which, he had also never done.

"Stormy.I think you may have actually done the impossible."

"What's that?" She asked, closing her eyes lightly. Being laid down for an entire day had sent all the blood elsewhere and it was now rushing to her
head, making her slightly lightheaded.

"You." She started but paused, then started again. "You may be the one and only that is going to chance Sean Conlon's life."

"Oh shut up." Stormy denied, though a small smile was on her face.

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"N-" Lucks shut her mouth when both Race and Spot came in, Race with a glass of water, Spot with a face that was unreadable.

"Here ya go." Race said, handing Stormy the water. Even with her eyes closed she could tell where his hand was.

Her hand grasped the glass and she brought it to her lips with experted grace.

Spot stood numbly by the door. His face and stature were both unreadable. He didn't like instances like this. They bothered him, especially with other people being there. Instances like these made him uncomfortable.

Spot cleared his throat and blinked. "Uh, hey guys, can I have some time alone with Storms?" He asked, finally speaking up.

"Yeah sure." Race said and shrugged, slipping an arm around Lucks.

"Course!" Lucks replied happily and secretly winked at Stormy before leaving with Race, closing the door behind them.

Stormy's eyes fleeted from the departing pair to Spot to her feet. She had never had to deal with this kind of situation before. Well that's a given because she and Spot had never dated. She didn't know what to do.

Suddenly she felt helpless and scared like a deer caught in the headlights of a huge van.

"Who was there?" She knew this was pathetic but hoped that Spot would see through it.

"Flick. Juss wanted tah see what was goin on."

"Ohh." She replied, nodding slightly.

"You had us all scared, Storms." He said suddenly, averting his gaze to the window.

Stormy was silent, now really knowing what to say.

"I know." She finally said, after a few moment's silence.

"Hey Storms, I know you'll probably be wanting to go home... but you can't. Not right now..." Spot turned to face her, his hard expressions softening. "We have to let all of this blow over...let your neck heal. It might be a few weeks."

Before he had a chance to say another sentence, Stormy's natural instinct set in.

"What about my parents?"

"We took care of that last night. I had Lucks call and tell your parents that the two of you were going to a two week long summer camp."

"My parents bought that?"

"It took us a few minutes but after reassuring them that you were in the rest room and had asked Lucks to call and tell them because you were ill and both of you were leaving in a few minutes for the station-"

"Okay, okay. They bought it after you got done explaining." She cut him off, not really needing to hear it.

"Yeah, pretty much."

Stormy nodded. "Sounds good to me."

"So, we have you for two weeks."

"More like YOU have me for two weeks."

And with that comment, Spot's cockiness was back.

OMG! It's like...over. Well not the story, but the chapter!

What did you think? Reviews...would be nice! Very nice, indeed!

I have to admit that I had a lot of trouble with this chapter. It took me almost a week to finished it because I ran into writer's block a few times. As you can tell I had four and five written a head of time and I also had six partially written but yes...Well it's finished now!

Suggestions are GREAT as well.

Much love to my lovely readers!