A/N: I'm leaving tomorrow and won't be back until Wednesday night, so this will be the last update until probably Thursday. Enjoy!
Adelaide woke up the next morning in her and Ralph's bed in the tenement basement. She frowned, unsure how she got back there after the night before. She sat up and stretched. She ran her hands over her face, trying to remember the night before. It all came back in brief flashes. The opium den. The bed. Ralphie's whispers in her ear. The light feeling of the drug taking effect. Adelaide closed her eyes and put her hands over her face when she remembered the other things she did - willingly.
On the other hand, the few hours in that den with Ralphie were the most content she'd been in a while. She was able to relax and forget all of her problems. If not for the shame she was feeling at that moment, she would have asked Ralphie when they could go again.
"Aide?" she heard Snipeshooter's voice on the other side of the sheet.
"Yeah, come on in, Snipes."
Snipeshooter pulled part of the sheet back and looked in. "You okay?"
"Um. Yeah, I think so. When, um…when did I get back last night?"
"Ralphie brought you back around midnight," he said. "You were out…he had you slung over his shoulder."
Adelaide closed her eyes and looked down. "Were all the boys here?"
Snipeshooter nodded. "Yeah."
"Did he brag?"
Snipeshooter swallowed and nodded. "Yeah."
Adelaide sighed. Snipeshooter walked over and sat on the edge of her mattress. Adelaide looked up at him and held out her arm. Snipeshooter leaned against her and rested his head on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Aide."
Adelaide rested her cheek against his head. "It's not your fault."
Snipeshooter was quiet for a few moments. "I'm sorry I was always so rotten."
"We were both pretty rotten back then."
"I didn't always hate you."
"Really?"
Snipeshooter nodded. "When you and Tumbler first came around, I really liked you. I mean, not a lot of girls hang around our lot, and you were a lot nicer than some of the ones that did. So I tried to hang out with Tumbler so I could hang out with you. But then we got in trouble a few times and you decided that I was bad news. So after I kept getting Tumbler in trouble, I decided to just go with it. If you were gonna get mad at me anyway, why even care if what I do gets me in trouble?"
Snipeshooter kept his eyes down. He heard Adelaide sniff and lifted his head, looking at her. She was wiping her eyes.
"Why are you crying?"
"Because all you wanted was a big sister and I was horrible to you," she said. "It's my fault you did those things."
"Well...don't give yourself all the credit," Snipeshooter smirked.
Adelaide chuckled and kissed the top of his head.
"Can you forgive me?" she asked.
"Done. Can you forgive me?"
Adelaide smiled softly. "Done."
"When was the last time you bled?" Ralphie asked as he sat down to dinner that night.
Adelaide looked at him, wide-eyed. She felt her cheeks burn, hoping none of the other newsies were listening. "Ralphie…"
"When?"
Adelaide opened her mouth to respond, but nothing came out. She was trying to remember.
"And you've been getting sick in the mornings for almost two months now."
Before her mother disappeared, Adelaide had been old enough to receive The Talk from her mother, so she knew what the signs meant.
"Oh god," she whispered.
Ralphie nodded. "That's what I thought too."
Adelaide felt lightheaded.
They spent the rest of dinner in silence as Adelaide processed everything. Knowing that Ralphie's baby was growing inside her made her feel sick. She did little more than push her food around her plate.
"Don't worry about it," said Ralphie. "We'll take care of it."
"Okay," said Adelaide softly. She felt a little better not having to be the only one to worry about it. Ralphie may be rotten, but he was going to take care of her and the baby. She thought of Skittery. What would this mean for them? Would he take her back if she had another man's baby? Probably not. Skittery deserved a girl who wasn't ruined like she was. Which meant that Adelaide was stuck in Brooklyn. She wouldn't be going back to Manhattan. But at least Ralphie was going to take care of it all…
