Sorry for not updating for a while! I don't own Newsies.

Chapter Four

They weren't home. The sun was setting and they still weren't back. With short breaths, Jack was prancing around the kitchen. He jumped at every creek his floor made. Which was many. It was that time of the night. Why weren't his kids home?

Once the clock chimed midnight, he called the police. They told him they probably got lost. But Jack had shown both Laura and Levi all of New York. From Brooklyn to the Bronx. The trio should've been fine getting back home. Besides, they knew that they could ask any of the newsies for help. Jack had met the news ones. He trusted them.

It took seven calls for the police to finally show up. Jack practically shoved them inside. They introduced themselves as Officers Jones and McCall.

"They're gone!" Jack exclaimed, "My kids. Tell me why they'se gone."

"Please calm down, sir," said Jones, yawning.

He shook his head. "How could I? Already lost my wife-"

McCall's eyebrows sprang up. "Your wife is. . .?"

"Yes."

"They may have just run away. After losing a parent, we've found that children tend to run away."

Again, Jack shook his head. "They wouldn't. . . It's not like them. Trust me, I know my kids."

After a bit of a heated argument, the cops finally agreed to help him out. Jack found a photograph of the family. Before Katherine had died. He gave the cops their full names: Laura Katherine, Levi Jack, and Theodore David. They wrote down everything and promised to (a promise that Jack didn't exactly trust) find them. They left. Jack didn't know what to do with himself. It was too late to actually look for them.

What Jack did do was take a seat in front of the table. His hands shook. There had been too much going on. Laura and Levi had to grow up so much. Too much for just being kids. Jack had tried his hardest to secure them with a childhood he didn't have. Jack had failed. This had to mean that he had failed.

Thank goodness the Refuge had shut down. Otherwise, that was where they could've been.

Spot Conlon's daughter had run away after getting into a fight with him. She had been missing for nearly three years. What was her name again? Lulu? Louise? Lilly? Something like that. Jack hoped that his kids wouldn't be gone for that long. If this was what it was like for them to have gone missing for a few hours, he couldn't survive years of it.

Without putting much thought into it, Jack wrapped Winnie up and grabbed his jacket. They took off. He knew exactly where he was going.

The walk to Brooklyn wasn't that bad. Only a few blocks. Jack wasn't scared of that truf anymore. The apartment was in a brighter side of the city. Jack was able to get in and found the room with ease. He knocked on the door.

"What the h***, Kelly?" Spot hissed when he opened it, "Some people are trying to sleep here!"

Jack let himself inside. "No swearing in front of the kid. I'm just here because I have something I wanna discuss with you."

"Get it over with."

"Your daughter. . ."

Spot flinched. "Lou?"

"Yeah. I'm real sorry 'bout that. It's been a while, but if there's anything-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Spot made a motion with his hand to silence him. "I've been hearing the same thing for ages. I've got enough people I can ask for help."

Jack paused. "My kids, besides Winnie, they're missing, Spottie. I let them play 'Newsies' for a day, but they're gone. I don't know what else to do."

Spot didn't say anything. He stared at Jack with a look in his eye that told him that he had been very broken. Very. He adjusted his old on Winnie.

"We were looking fer her for so long. Anywhere we could think up, we looked. But we never found her. I miss her every day."

A little boy, two years older then Winnie hopped up into Spot's lap. He rolled his eyes. Spot made a failed attempt to carry him away. The little boy squirmed out of his arms.

"Your mother told you to go to bed, Roy."

"No!" Roy peeked into Winnie's blankets. "Who that?"

"My daughter," Jack piped up, "Winnie."

"She pretty."

Spot laughed. Jack glared at him. Extremely unamused. He was bitter about Laura taking a liking to boys. Even though, Winnie was still young, Jack still felt the same protectiveness over her.

"What?" Spot was still cracking up. "My son not good enough for ya daughter?"

"Yeah!" Roy crossed his arms. "Am I not good enough for Winnie?"

"Get out of my house, Kelly. Some people still need to get some sleep around here."

Once Jack got home, he put Winnie back in her cot. He sat there beside her for an hour or so. When he tried to go to sleep, his thought kept him alive. Too many thoughts.

Thanks for reading!