A/N: Wow, two chapters in three hours. I have NO life. Well, its not completelymy fault. Stupid surgery. I'm not allowed to do much more than post stories, read and watch Newsies. Oh no. Boo hoo for me. I'm actually watching Newsies right now.
Blink: Speaking of Newsies, don't you have something to say.
Me: Um, I love them with my heart and soul?
Race: (entering) Thanks toots, but not quite.
Me: OMG! Its Race! Where did you come from? (Hugs Race)
Race: Easy dere sweetheart! I'm your Race muse. I finally got out of the closet you tied us all up in. Now tell the nice people your disclaimer.
Me: (pouting) Fine. I don't own Newsies. If I did, I would be hugging the real newsies right now.
Race: Hey! I'm as real as your gonna get honey.
Blink: Can I have a hug?
Me: Oh, all right. While I hug Blink, you guys enjoy the chapter.

"Mom, will she be alright?"

"When did this happen?"

"Shouldn't she be awake by now?"

"What happened to her Dave?"

"I don't know, I just don't know."

I heard voices, just above my head. They were familiar, but I couldn't quite place them. I wanted to see the faces that went with the voices. I just knew if I could see the faces, I could place the voices. I tried to open my eyes, but they felt like they were glued shut. After several long minutes of struggle, I was rewarded with a blinding flash of light and an excited exclamation of "Hey, look! I think she's coming to!" Someone must have realized it was too bright for me, because when I opened my eyes for the second time, the room was dark. I looked at the people surrounding my bed, but couldn't place any of them. Their faces were all covered in shadows. Then I saw him.

I went cold. The color drained from my face, and I began to shake. Suddenly, I couldn't see any of the other people. It was just he and I, just like it always was. "Please," I begged, my voice barley a whisper, "Please Pa, don't hurt me again." He reached out to me, to hurt me. I wasn't surprised. He never listened to me when he was drunk. Even though I was weak from my last beating, even though I knew it was stupid, I punched him. He stood up abruptly and left. This surprised me. Maybe I had been mistaken, maybe that wasn't Pa. Pa would have stayed, and just hit me harder. He might have used an empty beer bottle, if I hit him really hard, like I just did. But he hadn't. He had left.

"Lucky?" a small voice asked, sounding scared. Les. I remembered the name that went with the voice. I remembered everything that had happened last night. "Lucky, why dija punch Davey? If you wanted him to leave, you coulda just asked." Les said, sounding sad. I sighed. "Sorry Les," I said, "I thought that Davey was someone else. A bad guy." "Like the Delancy brothers?" Les asked. "Worse than the Delancys." I answered wearily. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jack talking to Sarah. "Mama, Les, come with me. Let's go check on David." Sarah said. The three of them left quietly, leaving Jack and me alone.

I finally got a good look at him. He was tall, broad shouldered, and had a red handkerchief tied around his neck. His hair was long, but was slicked back so that it didn't block his oval face. He had a triangle chin that squared out at the end, but only a little bit. His nose was fairly average, and his lips were full and looked like they wanted to smile, but were pulled into a frown. I wondered about his eyes. Would I be surprised, like I was with David? When I met his eyes I got the warm brown I expected. His eyes were serious, gone was the happy twinkle I had seen earlier that day.

He met my gaze and said one word, "Why?" I replied as coolly as possible, "I thought he was someone else." "Who?" Jack asked as gently as possible. "My Pa." I whispered, my voice quivering. "He beat you?" Jack asked. I nodded because I didn't trust my voice. I sat up so that I could see Jack better. "He beat you bad?" Jack asked. I couldn't describe what my Pa had done to me, so I showed Jack. I sighed and rolled up my sleeves. Jack swore when he saw the scars that laced my arms. "That man used you as a knife sharpener!" Jack exclaimed. "No, he just used beer bottles. The glass has a tendency to break you know." I said, trying to joke around. It didn't work. "Beer bottles! Where is he? I'm gonna soak 'im so hard…" Jack paced around, muttering to himself.

As soon as his back was turned I tried to stand up. The key word here- tried. Jack caught me before I fell, and said, "What do you want? I can get it for you, if you promise not to do that again." He had a funny look in his eyes, like he couldn't decide if he wanted to laugh at me, or yell at me. "Well, I do wanna leave, or at least get outta bed…" I trailed off as Jack glared at me. I sighed. This wasn't going to be easy, convincing Jack to let me go. I knew that, for now, I wasn't going anywhere, so I said, "Water." Jack looked confused. "What?" he asked. "Water. You know, a clear liquid you drink? I would like some water. Oh, and a chance to talk to David alone. I need to apologize." I said. "That I can do." Jack said as he left.

Less than five minutes later, David walked in, carrying a glass of water. "Thanks" I said as he handed me the glass. He looked as if he wanted to leave, but I said, "Please wait." I motioned for him to sit down, and he did. He sat down at the edge of the bed, as far away from me as he possibly could be. "Despite my first impression, I don't bite." I said, joking only a little, "Come closer, I wanna talk to you." He moved the tiniest bit closer. I said "Closer. How am I supposed to talk to you if I can barely see you?" Again, I was only halfway kidding. The curtains were still pulled, and it was dark in this room. Finally, he came and sat next to me.

"Listen…" He began, but I cut him off. "No. I need to tell you something." I paused to take a sip of water, then started talking once more, "When I came to, the room was really bright. Someone pulled the shade so I could see." "That was Sar…" he started, but again I cut him off, saying, "The first thing that I saw and really registered was, well, now I know that it was you. But then, I didn't think it was you." "Who…?" he started to ask, but I held up my hand, signaling him to stop interrupting me. "I saw my Pa, and I was terrified. I had just run away. I have tried to run away before. Every time, my Pa caught me, and every time he beat me harder than usual." David gave me a questioning look, but didn't interrupt. "Sometimes he would beat me so hard I would black out. He looks the tiniest bit like you, when your face is in the shadows, and my brain isn't working right. When you reached out to touch me, I saw my Pa reaching out to hit me. I got scared. I reacted." David nodded, and I continued my story. "When Les asked why I punched you, everything that happened last night came rushing to me. I felt so guilty. You were just trying to be a good friend and I hurt you. Not just physically," I said, eyeing the bruise that was beginning to form on his chin, "but emotionally too. I'm so sorry. Can you forgive me?" I finally finished my story. I searched David's blue eyes with my gray ones, but the storm of emotions in his eyes made it hard to tell how he was feeling.

"I'll forgive you." He said slowly. "I sense an if coming." I said with a smile. He smiled briefly, and then said "If you let me see what your Pa did to you. I wanna, no, I need to know what scared you so bad when you thought I was him." I nodded, and with a sigh turned held my arms out to David. For the second time today, I rolled up my sleeves. For the second time today, a boy swore when he saw the scars that laced my arms. David ran a finger along the longest, most prominent scar, asking "What did he do to you?" I just pulled down my shirt and shook my head. I couldn't tell him. Not now, and maybe not ever.

David understood when he saw my too bright eyes and the single tear quivering on my nose. He wiped the tear from my nose, and gathered me into a warm hug. I relaxed, and for the first time since I had run away I felt safe, and I wasn't scared. I drifted off into a natural sleep in David's arms. He kept holding me through out the night, keeping me safe from all the bad things that haunted my dreams.

--

I woke up early the next morning, and felt someone's arms holding me tight. I looked over and saw David. I smiled before wriggling out of his embrace. As I walked to the kitchen I realized something. For the first time in five years I had slept all through the night, without a single nightmare. I walked into the kitchen and saw Sarah cooking breakfast. "How can I help?" I asked. Sarah jumped a little bit, saying, "You startled me!" she thought for a moment, then asked, "Can you cook eggs?" I smiled and said "I can make just about anything you want me to. I did a lot of cooking, especially the last five years." "Eggs it is." Sarah said as she handed me a pan and a carton of eggs.

While I scrambled the eggs, Sarah set the table. I noticed that there were only five places set. She saw my curious glance at the table, and answered my unasked question, saying "Papa is looking for a new job, and Jack went back to the Lodging House." "Jack is a newsie?" I asked. I didn't think that anything could surprise me after last night, but that did. "Yes he is. David and Les are newsies too." Sarah replied, slightly confused. I went back to scrambling the eggs, but now I scrambled with a smile. I had found my chance to find Mush.

A/N: These seem so much longer on Word! Geeze, I need to type more.
Blink: Yay! I gotta hug! (hears noise and looks in other room) Um, Bibbi?
Me: Yes?
Blink: Um, not to be a snitch or anything, but Race is lettin the rest of us outta da closet you tied us up in.
Me: Shoot! No one is supossed to you guys are in there. RACE! (runs to go tie the newsies up again)
Blink: Well, I'm sure that she'll be back to normal eventually. Read and review, and maybe she won't tie all of us up again.
Me: (Yelling from other room) Yes! Read and Review. And sorry for being so weird! Maybe I'll be better tomorrow.