Shades of Grey

Chapter 8-Cards of Sorrow, Cards of Pain

Racetrack was still thinking when he was led into the common area an hour later.  He'd eaten the breakfast they had given him without a word, all the time trying to figure out what he could do to get his life back to normal.  He had been starting to forget who he had been before he had gotten to this institution, until Nurse Snyder had inadvertently reminded him.  He had friends at home, who were the best group of friends that anyone could ever ask for.  They may have made some mistakes in their time, and Jack's betrayal did still hurt him, but they were brothers.  And then there was Spot.  Spot loved him, in his own strange and screwed up way.  He may not always be capable of showing it, but he did love him.  He'd proved it so many times over.

But would Spot love the person he was turning into?  He knew how fascinated Spot was with the idea of his poker face, and the way he was able to hide what he was thinking.  It had always given Spot so much pleasure to get some sort of reaction out of Racetrack, to crack his poker face.

Spot was the only one who could get that sort of a reaction out of him.  He was the only one who could get behind the carefully perfected mask that Racetrack had crafted over the years.  But now, in less than a week, the nurse had managed to break him.  Something was very wrong, and he needed to fix it, and soon.

"Anthony!" Amy exclaimed as he was led into the common area.  "You're okay!"

"It's Racetrack," he told her flatly.  "Get used to it."

He was mildly surprised by the amount of smiles that had broken out on the faces of the other inmates.  Most of them seemed to have looked up to Amy the way that he had looked up to Jack, as a leader, not just a friend.  But as she no longer fought, they probably felt the same sort of betrayal that he had felt when Jack had turned scab.  Even if, from what he had seen, Amy had a better reason that Jack had.

He glanced around the room.  It was set up as some sort of game room, but there really wasn't much in there.  There was a stack of boxes and a few tables.  Not much else.

Racetrack wandered over to the couches in one corner of the room where everyone else was sitting and plopped down a couch between Amy and Multi.

            "Hey Sugah," Multi purred.  "Come here so Candy can make you all better."  He grabbed Race and forced him onto his lap.  Race stared, totally shocked.  Admittedly, he liked boys, but this was unexpected.  And he definitely wasn't interested in Multi, or Candy, or whatever he was calling himself now.

            "Get off me, Multi," Race snapped, moving out of his embrace.  "Not interested."

            "Now really, Sugah, I can make you interested."  Multi got up, and began to dance in front of him, gyrating suggestively.  Some of the others in the room, notably Shot and Dreamer, started cheering.  And when Multi started to remove his shirt, everyone was paying attention.

            "Oh, cut it out," Amy said crossly.  "Candy, give Multi his body back."

            "It's my body, Sugah.  I'm not releasing it."

            "I'll call Nurse Snyder."

            Candy/Multi sat down, and pouted, and everyone glared at Amy.

            Amy sighed.  "Seriously, the doctor seems to be cracking down on us lately.  There's two of us who have been silenced, and one in Iso in the last two weeks.  Do you really want to end up like that?  We're stuck here, and we're going to have to behave.  Like it or not."

            Most of the people in the room seemed to accept Amy's wisdom, but a few still looked upset.  Race couldn't stand it anymore.

            "You've gotta be kidding me," he said, looking utterly disgusted.  "You're just going to give up? Not fight?"

            "They almost killed you," Amy pointed out.

            Race ignored her, and looked at Glimmer.  "I thought you said you was a goddess.  Why don't you magic us outta here or something?"

            Glimmer shook her head.  "That is not for me to do, mortal.  I have a purpose here, and it is not to remove you from this space."

            Racetrack sighed.  "You know that what they're doing here is wrong.  You know that we need to get out of here, before they put all of us in that Iso thing."

            "We can't beat them, Tony," Amy told him.  "We've lost."

            Race shook his head stubbornly.  "We can win.  All of us, if we work together.  All it will take is us to start it, and the rest of the people here will follow."

            "And who's supposed to lead us?" Lauren asked.  "You?  You're just some nut who thinks he's a glorified paperboy."

            "Newsie."

            "Oh, whatever."

            Racetrack sighed.  He would have to do this another way.  Moving off the couch, he went to go look through the games that were piled in the corner, and grinned when he found a deck of cards among them.  Perfect.

            "So," he said wickedly, turning back to the group.  "Anyone know how to play poker?"

~*~

            It was nearly an hour before they were discovered.  They hadn't had anything of value to bet with, so they had played with monopoly money.  Race was winning easily, in fact, he hadn't even had to cheat.  Most of the others were entirely bankrupt, and only Tag, Harlem and Phoenix had enough left to finish betting this round.

            Not that it really mattered once the two idiot orderlies had walked in, to discover a game of poker.  The three who had been playing were quickly removed from the room, and taken straight to the doctor.

            Race heard Amy call "I told you so," to their retreating backs, and he was rather annoyed.  Although, it had been worth it.  Or at least he thought it had.  The look on the orderlies' faces had made it fairly clear that he had screwed up big time, and that he would pay for it.

            As they headed towards the doctor's office, Tag was shaking uncontrollably.  He was nervous enough normally around people in power, and now he was practically having a nervous breakdown.  Harlem didn't seem worried, in fact, she was claiming that they had nothing to fear, she had foreseen that the doctor would not punish them.  Phoenix seemed to be going through withdrawal, and just kept mumbling about how people needed to learn to abandon their hate.

            Racetrack, on the other hand, was a bit uneasy.  He knew the consequences that the doctor had threatened him with.  But he needed to do this.  He needed to prove that he was still himself.  That the hospital hadn't changed him… even though he knew it had.

            The walk to the doctor's office was longer than Race had remembered it.  Last time he had walked this way, it had been with a sense of unease.  He hadn't known what to expect, he hadn't known where he was or what to expect.  But now he'd seen what the Doctor could do, knew what he'd been threatened with.  The only thing that was enabling him to keep his head held high as he walked down the long corridor was the belief that he could get out of this.  He was a newsie, he'd been through worse.  Race briefly thought about his family, and then pushed the thought away.  That wasn't anywhere he was willing to go.

            The doors to the doctor's office opened, and the four of them were ushered inside.  The doctor was seated at his desk, and he looked furious.

            Tag's shaking grew worse, and he was hiding behind Race, or at least attempting to.

            "I don't think I even need to ask who was responsible for this… aberration.  Mr. Higgins, I had already warned you about your behavior.  I'd thought that you wanted to get better, not try to rebel."

            "Well, Doc, you never said that cards were off limits.  I was just having a bit of fun."

            "You were warned, Mr. Higgins-"

            "Racetrack."

            "Mr. Higgins," the Doctor continued, "that you must try to behave as an acceptable member of society.  That meant that you will stay away from socially unacceptable things like gambling.  And you were also warned about the amount of respect you were to show to your social superiors.  As punishment, you will be sent in for electro-shock therapy.  Perhaps we will be able to burn some sense into you."

            Tag let out a gasp from behind Race. "N-no," he stuttered.  "You c-can't.  He didn't mean any –"

            "Perhaps you would like to join him, Mr. Goldstein."  The Doctor's voice was cold.  "And to think, you were so close to being released."

            Tag let out a yelp, and took a step back.

            The Doctor glanced at the other two inmates.  "Anyone else going to try to stick up for Mr. Higgins?"

            Neither Harlem nor Phoenix spoke up.  They both glanced at the floor, refusing to meet either Race's or the Doctor's eyes.

            "You two will be confined to your cells for a week, and given limited rations."

            As the two were led away, Harlem glanced back, in apology.  Race met her eyes and nodded, it was okay.  She had no choice.  Phoenix stared straight ahead, and didn't look back as he left the room.

            "As for you two…" the Doctor pressed a button on his desk, and Nurse Snyder entered the room, flanked by two more orderlies.  "I hope you enjoy your therapy."

            The orderlies roughly grabbed Race, and began to push him through the doorway.

            "You'll pay for this Doc," Race swore.  "It'll take more than this to beat me."

            "Just keep talking, Mr. Higgins," Nurse Snyder said snidely.  "You're just digging yourself into an even deeper grave."

            The room he was led into looked, in Race's point of view to be some sort of torture chamber.  But he didn't have much of a chance to glance around before he was roughly shoved into a chair and strapped in. 

            "Enjoy your stay, Mr. Higgins.  When you're done, you will learn some respect."

            The Nurse flipped a switch, and Race began to hear screaming.  It took him a minute to realize that it was coming from himself.

~*~

Author's Note: It's done!  I live!  And it only took… two months to write.  And really, I'm not a fan of this chapter, but it will hopefully get better from here.  Although really, it was all Racetrack's fault. He heard me telling B I was going to give him shock treatment, and then refused to cooperate for the whole chapter.  Next chapter, we have the results of the shock treatment, and Tag reveals a secret.  Oh, and chapter title is a line from Rocky Horror, because I'm weird.

Disclaimer: I don't own newsies. Or the inmates.  I wish I did, because then I would have more than $5 in my wallet.

Thanks to B for the beta, and for putting up with my whining for the last two months.

Plug: Go read Learning to Lie by the ever awesome Signpost!

Shoutouts!

Thistle-Poor Race always seems to find himself in these sort of bad situations. I'm so mean to him.  As for the other newsies, you'll have to wait and see. *evil grin*

Nani-42 is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. And it's my favorite number. :D  And as for Race's newfound confidence… let's see how long it lasts…

Aura-Race always wants Spot. It just has to happen. Sorry I took so long!

S. Piazza-*blush*  Thanks. I try my best… and as for Race, you shouldn't feel sorry for him yet. It gets worse from here.

Rumor-Oh, its not them who wants to kill Race. It's just me having fun torturing him.  They just want to break him. *evil grin*

Dreamer-Good question about the meds. I'll let you know eventually. *MWAHAHAHA*

Repeat-The answer to your question will be coming… much later. Because I'm evil.

Sock-free – Yeah, I knew you'd get a kick out of that one. *adores*

Lizzie-Glad you liked, sister dear. It means a lot to know that.  But I'm not going to stop torturing Race anytime soon.

Shot Hunter-*grins* your OCs are so much fun to play with. :D  Thanks for letting me use them.

B-Drugging Race is definitely as much fun as beating Race up.  But I think shock treatment is more fun.

Glimmer-Oh, I'm not done with Glimmer yet. I have plans. *evil grin*

CiCi-That would be telling, now wouldn't it? You'll have to find out.