Author note: Yay, I copied and pasted all of my previous chapters of this, and the other story, to my computer! Yay!
I stood at Spot's side, my hands over my face, bending over. Spot held onto me, trying to calm me down.
We stood in the waiting room of the hospital.
"I'm sorry," he said through tears, "I am so sorry!"
"How can you let this happen?" I nearly screamed. "You knew she was supposed to be in school!"
"I…I…She…" Spot sighed and stared as the doctor entered the room.
"Mr. and Mrs. Conlon," he said. I looked up and bit my lip, not willing away my tears.
"Is she alright?" I asked nervously. Spot stared at the doctor, waiting for an answer.
"Well, she had a pretty bad fall. Hit her head I believe." I coughed up more tears and pushed Spot's hands away from me.
"We jus' wanna know if she's gonna be okay."
"She's going to be okay," the doctor said.
"Oh thank God," I said as I clutched my face.
"But," the doctor said, holding up his hand, "I am sorry to say that your daughter will no longer be the same."
"What?" I asked confusedly.
"When your daughter hit her head, Ma'am, it messed up her brain slightly."
"What are youse sayin?" Spot asked.
"I am saying that your daughter is autistic."
I shot up from the bed, and clutched my chest. My heart was racing, and I could feel tears slipping down my cheeks. I quickly wiped them away as Spot shifted in the bed and spoke.
"Youse okay?" he asked. I didn't look back at him, but replied,
"Yeah, I'm fine." I laid back down beside Spot, but didn't face him. I still felt like crying, but I didn't. I felt Spot slip his arm over my waist.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing," I said flatly. I listened closely as rain beat upon the roof of the building. I stared blankly out the window across the room, watching little raindrops hit the glass and travel down slowly.
I blinked a few times, trying to get everything that I had just dreamed out of my head. For some reason, I couldn't drift off to sleep.
I turned over, facing Spot, and found him to still be awake.
"Are you selling today?" I asked, closing my eyes and scooting closer to him.
"Dunno," Spot said. Spot was tempted to say something else, but he kept quiet.
"What is it you need to say?" I asked without opening my eyes.
"Am I dat obvious?" Spot asked. I nodded against his chest. "We can talk 'bout it later," Spot said, shrugging it off.
"Okay," I said. Spot and I laid there for awhile, not sleeping or doing anything else…just laying there. Spot could probably sense that there was something wrong, and he knew that I didn't want to talk about it, so he just dropped it.
The rain never slowed down, it just sped up. I had gotten out of bed and quickly washed up, as did Spot. I walked into the kitchen and found Skip feeding Chance.
"Hey Skip," I said dully. Skip smiled,
"Mornin." I grabbed an apple out of the small basket on the table and lazily bit into it. Chance barked merrily, running around in circles in attempt to catch his tail.
I smiled which soon turned into a laugh as Chance growled at his annoyingly skillful tail. Chance barked up at me, a plea for half of my apple.
I shrugged my shoulders and gave him the rest, and watched him joyfully eat it. I patted his head and followed Skip out into the living room. Nobody seemed to want to sell in the rain today since most of the newsies were piled up into the living room. I grinned as I noticed Hart sitting beside poet, begging her to talk to him.
"Heya Sage," Poet greeted me as I walked over.
"Hey," I said. Hart gave a small wave to acknowledge my existence.
"Sage, can ya make Jessa here talk ta me?" Hart asked.
"Who is Jessa?" I asked confusedly.
"I am," Poet said. "And how he knows my name, I do not know." I laughed slightly and watched as Hart proceeded to get on his knees.
"Charming," I said as he clasped his hands together and begged Poet to talk to him.
"Go away," Poet told him.
"Oh come on Poet, Hart is a nice guy," I laughed.
"I am sure he is, but I got better things ta do den talk ta him," Poet said. I could tell that she was attracted to him, but she hid it with a slight sadness.
Let's see, Hart likes Poet, and Poet likes Hart…Ha, reminds me of Spot and I…except Spot didn't get on his knees and begged me to talk to him. I grinned,
"Get her some roses, Hart!" I suggested. Poet gave me an odd look as Hart got to his feet and looked around. He quickly pulled a flower out of one of the vases. It was a lily.
"Here, I couldn't buy any roses 'cause dey is expensive, so I bought youse dis instead."
"Um, you didn't buy that," Poet said. I laughed as I watched Poet take the lily and silently thanked Hart.
"See, you're the perfect couple!" I said. Poet grinned,
"We are not!"
"Yes we are!" Hart said. Poet sent him a playful glare,
"We aren't!" I glanced around the room as the two argued, and immediately grew angry when I noticed a certain whore hanging all over Spot. She had more cleavage showing than needed. She had a deadly amount of makeup drowning her face, and she wore a skirt so short, I was sure if she bent over you'd see something you didn't want to see. It looked as if she cut it up herself.
She laughed at Spot, even when he said nothing. Spot gave her an odd look, and furrowed his eyebrows, scooting his chair away from her. He and some of his boys were playing a game of poker.
I didn't really see a reason for playing poker in the morning. You were just going to lose your money, and then not have any money to use for lunch and such.
I watched carefully as Racer flipped her hair and batted her eyelashes at Spot.
"Uh, what's wrong with yer eyes? Maybe ya should get that checked," Spot said. Apparently the little talk I had with Jones earlier wasn't enough of a warning.
"I think ya should hit 'er," Poet suggested.
"Me too!" Hart said. I rolled my eyes and rose to my feet. Racer turned her head and saw me coming, and the grin on her face faded away.
"Jones," I said, crossing my arms over my chest. Racer glanced at Spot, and then looked at me.
"Yes?" she asked, looking me up and down like she was something.
"I'm not going to be like Scout when it comes to my property, so this is your last warning," I got closer to her, to make sure she heard me, "stay away from my man." Racer glared at me.
"Why? Youse don't deserve him anyway. Youse probably sleep around with every guy in dis place." Racer laughed at her own joke, and expected everyone else to laugh. She stopped laughing when she noticed that she was the only one doing so. All eyes were on us.
"That's easy for you to say," I said, "I am far from being a whore." Racer gasped,
"Did you jus' call me a whore?"
"Damn straight," I said.
"Oh yeah, well at least I didn't kill my sistah!" Fire flared in my eyes. Before anyone could stop me, I brought my fist up and used every ounce of energy I had. My fist hit her flat in the nose, and it made a grotesque cracking noise. Racer cried out in pain and clutched her nose, but I wasn't finished yet.
I lunged at her, and the two of us went rolling on the floor. I had to admit, she was a pretty good fighter, but then again she was a bit weak since she was losing to a small seventeen year old girl who was two inches shorter than her.
I continued to punch her, and hit her nose a couple of more times. I was tempted to break her neck, but I did succeed in making her bite her own tongue, causing blood to flood over her chin.
She took her long nails and dug them into my arms, and dragged her hand down. I didn't scream or wince in pain, instead I took hold of both sides of her cheeks, a wonderful technique Scout showed me, and concluded that I was going to break her neck.
But before I got the chance to show her the ultimate pain, I was dragged off of her, and struggled against a million pairs of strong arms.
Racer's makeup was smeared all over his face, making her look hideous than she already was. She was still lying on the floor, crying her eyes out.
I ignored the strong flowing blood seeping out of the four long nail marks going down my arm. I knew that they were deep, but my concern was on breaking the wench's neck.
"Sage, stop it," Spot said, holding onto my waist, fighting against my struggle to continue beating the foolish girl. I stopped at Spot's voice, and let the boys drag me away from Racer. I was pushed lightly into a chair, and watched as some of the other boys ran over to Racer.
Spot stood in front of my, wide eyed.
"Have youse lost yer damn mind?" he asked. I blinked a few times, satisfied with what I had done.
"No," I said bluntly. Spot shook his head and turned around to see if the girl was okay. I narrowed my eyes as they picked Racer up and carried her back to her room.
"You go Sage!" I heard someone scream. I grinned, but stopped when I caught Spot glaring at me.
"Youse coulda killed 'er," he said.
"Well I would've succeeded if you hadn't have interfered."
Spot made me sit there as he cleaned my rather deep wound on my arm. This time I did show sign of pain.
"Owe!" I said, pulling away as Spot dabbed at my wound with alcohol.
"Well its yer fault," Spot said, pulling my arm back over to him. He poured more alcohol onto the cloth and met my eyes. "Dis is going to sting," he said. I gritted my teeth together, and watched as Spot put the cloth to my wound, and suppressed my screaming.
I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth harder.
"Damn it, Spot!" I finally said. I forcefully pulled my arm away and closed my eyes tightly. Shit, this hurt.
"C'mon Sage, I gotta finish cleaning it." I allowed Spot to finish cleaning my wound, and tried my best not to scream. He then bandaged it tightly.
I traced my fingers over the bandage and cursed. Spot sighed,
"I swear dat youse is gonna end up like Scout. I can't believe ya did it."
"It isn't true, Spot," I said, shaking my head. "I never killed Sam…It was my father." Spot nodded,
"I know, it was wrong for her ta say dat." He leaned in and kissed my cheek. "Youse put up a good fight, though." I laughed slightly as Spot helped me to my feet. "C'mon, let's go eat."
I followed Spot to the front door and watched him open it. For some reason, I was tempted to close it.
Before we even got out of the door, a small puppy, who goes by the name Chance, sped by us and out the door, and out into the streets.
"Chance, no!" I said as I ran out after him. Spot followed suit, and I suddenly stopped as the accident before me broke my heart.
A speeding carriage raced down the street, and an ear piercing shriek caused my heart to stop completely. I watched as Chance got caught up in the wheel, and his body was pounded to pieces.
My eyes grew wide and my mouth hung open.
"Oh my God," I said.
Next Chapter: Sage is haunted by the image of Chance dying.
Harlem sends Spot a warning, causing him to keep a close eye out on Sage.
Author note: Well, there ya go. A funny/heartbreaking chapter. LONG LIVE SPOT AND SAGE…