Kira wiggled her toes on the soft carpet of Medda's bedroom, her feet no longer numb from the frozen balcony. Next to her on the bed was the duffle bag Martin - Denton - brought her. She'd taken out her favorite sweats and her prescription bottles but they sat next to her on the bed, untouched, as she stared out the window.
Spot's icy eyes had been sharp on her as Agent Martin revealed his own secret to her on the balcony.
She understood she hadn't known Agent Martin, and never expected to despite their ongoing partnership for the past two years. Anything and everything outside the investigation had been kept close to the vest. But this?
How could so many people share the same secret?
She hadn't responded when they'd come inside from the balcony, her head swimming with more tales and impossibilities from the nineteenth century. She didn't need to say anything; they left swiftly without a word and closed the door behind them.
She changed slowly, in a daze. Her favorite sweats were her only comfort, holding her body in a warmth that smelled like the Brooklyn house. She remembered when they used to smell like salty air and beach bonfires, her parents house... She ran her fingers over the lettering across the chest of the sweatshirt as she'd done a thousand times before; her mother's dance academy.
I have someone downstairs -
Her hand stopped, her fingers becoming rigid. Remembering, thinking -
Joselyn...Elizabeth.
She closed her eyes, willing the migraine to stay away.
How in the hell can any of this be possible?
Why didn't she tell me about her? About either of them?
This whole time...they both knew... and kept it from me.
Why?
She gripped the duvet on the bed, the medicine bottles rattling softly as they touched her hand.
She looked down at them, considering her options.
I could scream at her.
I could ask her what happened.
I could punch her.
I could -
There was a knock at the door. Now what -
"...Kira? I brought you an espresso. And a shot of courage, if you need it."
Her coldness stopped midthought, taken off guard. She swallowed. "Sure."
Medda came in and closed the door behind her with her foot, carrying two coffee mugs.
Kira studied her as she approached: even dressed in a big wool sweater, leggings, and fuzzy socks, Medda was confident and elegant despite the past 48 hours. Or was it 72? She didn't know anymore.
Medda offered the coffee mugs, and Kira folded her legs under her on the bed as she took them, still unsure.
"Thank you," Kira said, trying to sound sincere. One mug was water. The other, espresso. She was confused until she smelled the bourbon. She took a sip, and it comforted her like her sweats.
"Thank you," she breathed. She drained the espresso bourbon and set the empty mug on the floor, holding the water mug tightly. She eyed the pill bottles next to her apprehensively.
Medda looked out the balcony window. Kira didn't even know what time it was.
"It's a bit tense down there," Medda said matter-of-factly.
Kira strained her ears, waiting to hear loud voices, or things breaking...but she couldn't hear anything.
Medda turned, smirking a little over her shoulder. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking for an excuse to escape it for a moment."
Kira was caught up in the mischievous glint in her bright eyes. She could see why she - her mother - had loved this woman, so strong and supportive...
She dropped her eyes to her hands wrapped around the water mug, fighting the rising panic, anger, and sadness inside her.
"What do I do?" she blurted.
When Medda didn't reply, Kira looked up at her again, knowing her face would betray her fear.
But Medda's face held no pity—just reason and understanding.
Kira realized she felt safe with her.
Just like her mother...Ira.
She shook her head, her resolve threatening to break again, just as she had put it back together. "I've never felt so lost."
Medda went to her and sat beside her on the bed. Kira's body leaned toward her, the pill bottles rattling again as they rolled closer to her.
Medda didn't force any closeness; her hand simply, easily, went to Kira's hair and stroked through the soft tresses, so gently that Kira would've fallen asleep sitting up. She wanted to so badly, to escape to a dreamless sleep. She closed her eyes and focused on Medda's gentle fingers. She imagined this was how she comforted new dancers and actors on Broadway, understudies before they went to curtain call, young assistant directors.
Medda's voice was barely above a whisper. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry we did this to you."
Kira shook her head as fresh tears escaped through her lashes. She never knew she could cry so much, her throat and cheeks raw.
"Like you had a choice."
Medda laughed once. "I wish. I'd much rather be a boring Broadway Producer."
Kira smiled a little. Thinking about when they'd been backstage with her, how much her staff adored her. How Jack had -
Medda's soft voice broke the memory. "We did have a choice, though."
Kira opened her eyes and looked at her. Medda smiled at her sadly, her fingers drawing down Kira's face once before dropping her hand.
"We could've left you alone. We could've stayed away. We could've kept our baggage to ourselves."
Kira searched Medda's face, thinking about her words...where would she be, right now, if she'd never met any of them?
If she'd never laughed with the guys in their apartment on her birthday, or in the pub.
If she'd never felt the infuriating fluttering butterflies at the Halloween party when they came over the first time.
If she'd never seen him in the club...
Jack.
If she'd never felt his fingers, his lips, his warm skin, craving more.
If she'd never heard the sound of his laugh, the sound of his voice as he talked about his life with the guys. Never seen his smile and the glint in his eyes, or felt how easy it was to be near him, how difficult it was to stay away. The desire to know him, all of him. The way his eyes bore through her when he got angry with her for risking her life. The passionate tempest he called forth in her, disrupting everything.
What if they had met...under different circumstances? In another life, far from this one?
Or was this the only way it could happen? The only way they could be...
The pull she felt, like the pull of the tide...it felt inevitable.
Reason told her to fight it. Protect herself. Self-preserve. It's bullshit - it was all bullshit.
But it was never me he wanted.
She could do nothing with the pain, couldn't leave it like any breakup before. It sat within her like a weight, a boulder dragging her deeper, dragging her through the pain all over again. The look on his face when she told him.
The stories in Medda's eyes, the same ones that had broken Kira's heart when she had woken hours ago, had broken Medda's heart first.
Kira inhaled, her chest tightening. "You loved her a lot, didn't you?"
Medda's face fell for a moment, her eyes turning glassy as she looked at her tenderly.
What does she see when she looks at me?
Medda gave her a tearful smile. "Yes...as I do you."
Kira bit her lip, hesitating. Afraid to say it aloud. "And...were you disappointed? That I'm not -"
Kira froze as Medda reached for her and wrapped her arms around her. She smelled soft, like roses.
Kira shut her eyes tightly.
"You'll never know - how happy I am to know you," Medda said thickly. "You. Just you. She dreamt of you, even then."
Kira slowly hugged her back, exhaling in Medda's embrace.
After a long moment, Medda leaned back, wiped the tears from Kira's cheeks, and took her face gently in her hands. Kira met her gaze again, feeling like a child.
"No one is disappointed, darling," Medda said tenderly. "No one."
They both knew who she meant. But Kira couldn't believe it.
"But -"
"No one."
Kira huffed a sigh.
Medda smirked. "He doesn't exactly make it easy, does he?"
Kira smiled at her, surprised, and Medda smiled back. But Kira's faded.
"You know him as well as any of them," she said quietly, almost pleading. "How can I...how can we -" She shook her head, feeling frustrated again. And frustrated at Spot's voice in her head.
Medda's business side came out. "What do you want? Really want?"
Kira bit her lip.
"Jack is different in this life," Medda mused. "Calmer...a little."
They laughed and Medda leaned forward, forcing Kira to meet her eyes. "But you're about to be bombarded. Forget the crazy that's happened in the last few hours; you know what's waiting for you when you leave here. Here, in this time."
Kira steeled herself, remembering the newsreels and who sat behind bars.
"You sought justice," Medda's eyes flared, a look of certainty and pride on her face. "You rang a bell that can't be unrung. You can't lose sight of that now...but you can accept the support that's offered."
The mischievous glint returned. "Whatever that looks like...you should lean into it."
Kira smiled a little, grasping her meaning. Her cheeks warmed a little and she turned away, sighing noisily again as she fell back on the bed.
Medda laughed and stood, taking the empty coffee mugs.
Kira sat up on her elbows, eyeing the pill bottles again. One for migraines, one for blood sugar, one for... "But how can I face her?"
Medda watched her for a moment. They'd almost forgotten about the others downstairs, waiting.
"...the biggest struggle I have, with my memories and with...coping - is remembering who I was. There are many ways I'm the same and many ways I'm not."
Kira looked up at her, seeing Medda's gaze far away even as she looked at her. How could someone so young look so wise?
Medda's voice lowered. "I'm sure it was the same for Vivian. And for Joselyn."
Kira felt a dark expression cross her face. But as Medda's words sank in, a calmness took its place.
Kira sat up as Medda knelt in front of her, her voice soft and urgent as she looked into Kira's eyes. "The woman I was and the woman I am led me here, somehow. Every decision, every action, and every inaction. I can hold both women and realize I've been given a wonderful, horrible, strange gift. It was actually Jack who helped me see that."
Kira didn't notice she had leaned forward, drawn to Medda's words.
Medda's subtle smile was knowing. "I've been given a second chance. Not to get it 'right', but to do better. And maybe, just maybe...Joselyn realized the same."
She reached out and tucked Kira's hair behind her ear. "Do what you know. Follow your gut. Get the answers you need. But listen to your heart, too."
Kira looked out the windows. "I don't know what I need, or what any of us need... But I do know you saved us." She stood and met Medda's eyes again. "Thank you for letting us hide here."
Medda touched her cheek and stood. "Hiding and regrouping are two different things, darling. And you are not one to hide. So take all the time you -"
There was a loud thud, a thunderous clamor from outside that shook the door and windows. Medda shouted and reached for Kira, shielding her from the door to the balcony as Denton burst through the bedroom door with his 9mm raised, his training kicking in before recognizing the face that rose on the other side of the window.
Kira, her hands gripping Medda's shoulders, warmed as the balcony door slid open and Jack's dark figure stepped through. His face was flushed, his black jacket and skull cap camouflaging him with the night, and his expression was deadly. His eyes avoided Kira.
Denton huffed an irritated sigh as he holstered his gun. "Jesus, Jack."
Jack's chest heaved as he caught his breath. "Three news vans jus' parked on the curb, Denton. Your men are slacking - gah! Damn it, Medda, it's me!"
Medda hit him on the back again, snatching the skull cap off his head. "I know it's you! What were you thinking jumping down from the roof - you could've killed yourself!"
He was undeterred, sidestepping around her to head for the door where Mush and Spot appeared, ready to fight.
"What tha hell -" Mush looked at Kira before following Jack.
"Ya jumped from tha roof?" Spot asked incredulously as he followed on Denton's heels. "What are ya, mad?"
"It was fast'ah than the elevator - Denton's guys've had it tied up for over an hour-"
Medda took Kira's hand and followed them down the stairs -
As Jack crossed to the couches for the TV remote, Kira became immovable at the bottom of the stairs, her hand crushing Medda's.
Standing at the wall of windows in an orange jumpsuit next to an armed agent was Jazzi...Joselyn.
With her back to the room and a cold expression on her tired face, she stared out the window at the glinting city, cold dark clouds solidly blocking out the rising sun. She stood poised as if she were still wearing her evening gown.
In the window's reflection, Joselyn's eyes flickered to Spot's glaring face as he passed behind her to stand beside Jack. Her cold eyes scanned the bruises and cuts on his face with indifference.
Kira looked away from her, seeing Jade, Claudia, and Kiki standing between the couches like a firing squad, their eyes nailed to Joselyn's back.
Denton spoke quietly to the agent beside Joselyn before retreating to the safety of the kitchen where the guys were gathered. He shared a long glance with Medda as the agent crossed to the door, boarded the elevator, and disappeared.
Medda squeezed Kira's hand and whispered to her, "Breathe. Follow your gut, get your answers, and leave the past where it belongs."
Kira felt cold and alone once Medda left her side and joined Denton. Her friends looked at her with assessing gazes before returning their glares to Joselyn.
Jack didn't pay any of them a spec of attention as he bumped the volume on the TV, still on the same news channel as before. All heads, except Joselyn's, turned to the screen.
"Reports say Kira Knight, also known by the alias Tiffany Wingham, was spotted outside Ellington Place at Central Park Friday evening with two unidentified men at the same time of the FBI's arrest of Roger and Phillip Wilks, the focal points of Knight's disturbing and groundbreaking performance at New York University's Winter Showcase. Her current whereabouts are unknown and the FBI requests privacy and security for Knight at this time -"
Racetrack crossed quickly to the window with Specs on his heels.
"Wonder if they got footage of Cowboy playin' Spiderman," Racetrack said humorlessly as two more news vans pulled up on the sidewalk far below.
"'Privacy an' security' my ass," Specs muttered, his breath fogging up the window.
They turned at Kiki's gasp. Kira's face reddened.
Black and white footage from a security camera at Ellington Place showed Spot and Jack leaving by a side entrance, Kira's body limp in Jack's protective arms. Jack turned, his profile strong and undeniable.
Kira looked at Jack, his shoulders tensing as his hand tightened around the remote.
"Fuck," Spot said tightly.
"You cannot leave this building," Jack muttered to him.
"I go where you go," Spot answered without hesitation.
Kira swallowed as Joselyn's dark, vicious laugh fogged the glass. She turned to smile coldly at Jack. "Still can't help yourself, can you?"
Jack's head turned, glaring at her.
"'No good deed', right?" she smirked and tilted her head to the side as she considered him. "But you've never been good at those. Not really."
Kira was frozen in place as Jack slowly approached the woman at the window. Claudia reached for him, whispering something, but he ignored her. He stopped inches from Joselyn's defiant face.
"You're going to tell her the truth now," he murmured. Kira could barely hear his husky voice.
Joselyn's eyes flickered to Kira over his shoulder, and for a moment they softened before returning their glare to his face.
"Tell her."
She laughed again in Jack's brooding flushed face, his dark eyes boring into her. The years of hatred she'd seen on his face in the penthouse were clear once again.
She looked at Kira again and resented the heartbreak on her face.
"Or else you will?" Joselyn said bitterly. Surely he could hear her heart pounding away in her chest. Full of fear.
The guys shifted where they stood in the kitchen.
Jack's breathing was measured. "You owe her the truth. And she deserves to hear it from you."
Joselyn's eyes faltered, seeing something in Jack's expression. She suddenly felt cornered, more trapped than before. Surely he couldn't mean... couldn't know -
"'The truth'?" she repeated with a cruel smirk. A last-ditch effort to delay what she knew was now the inevitable. This ignorant boy - this street rat - was about to ruin her world. Again.
"And which truth might that be? That you've been chasing a ghost through time in vain? Or that it wasn't enough to ruin her life but the selfish need to ruin her daughter's too?"
Kira moved toward them. "Enough!"
Jack turned away, hiding his face from Kira. His shoulders were taught, his neck red.
Joselyn couldn't look at Kira. Her eyes instead found Claudia.
Straight-backed and rigid, Joselyn faced the group of young women, ignoring the guys' glares. And Kira's.
She'd known those blue eyes since Kira had been born. She'd never seen them so dark toward her before. So...loathing.
At last, Joselyn lifted her chin but her eyes were downcast, still trying to find a way out. "How much do you know."
"Plenty," Claudia answered curtly. "...Elizabeth."
Joselyn's facade cracked at the name. Her eyes darted between their cold expressions before turning on the guys, on Spot.
"How fucking dare you -"
"They didn't have to tell us anything," Kiki said carefully.
Joselyn's eyes slid back to Claudia. Claudia stared back coolly.
Of course. The 'witch' cracked the case. She knew she had skills but not on a level she considered threatening.
"You don't understand. Whatever you think you saw -"
"She saw the truth," Spot said.
"Stay out of this," Joselyn spat sharply at him. "You know nothing -"
"It's because of the guys that Kira is here, alive," Jade said evenly. "No thanks to you."
Joselyn ignored them. Her hands balled into tight fists at her sides as she looked at the face that broke her heart. "Kira -"
Kira crossed her arms as if in protection.
Joselyn tried, and failed, to stay calm, to ignore the assholes, and to not sound like an older sister.
"You knew I had a plan -"
"A plan none of us knew about," Claudia said tightly.
"A plan none of us were a part of," Kiki said darkly.
Joselyn shot her a look before finally looking at Kira, her eyes imploring. "Can we speak alone. Please."
"What happened?" Kira asked, her voice detached.
Joselyn clenched her jaw, trying to read Kira's face, to find any glint of the love she used to see in her eyes. She'd done so many things since they came to New York - so many horrible things. She wished in vain that they'd never left California.
She took a steadying breath, "Kira, when I brought you to Phillip -"
"No."
Kira crossed to her, stopping far enough away to keep her distance...but close enough that she could smell Joselyn's perfume. She used to love the smell.
"What happened with Ira?" she asked evenly.
Joselyn blanched, her eyes wide in shock and anger.
She stared at Kira for a long, long time. Seeing Vivian in her. No one else in the room moved, and Joselyn fought the urge to look at the Assistant Director. She felt panic rising, the fear and sadness she kept in check -
She didn't know how much Kira knew.
The horrible memories she tried to keep at bay.
Joselyn realized she was shaking.
Enraged tears shimmered in Kira's bright eyes. "You risked all our lives in that horrible penthouse, and God knows how many others'. All because of decisions made ages ago. Tell me what you and Mom knew. Tell me what you both kept from me."
The room was still as death.
As she stared at her, her beloved Kira, Joselyn's fists slowly released. She looked at each face in the room, the resentment there. Deserved.
Except for the red-haired woman next to a petite blonde...and Agent Martin. They looked at her with...understanding.
They knew. They all knew. Except Kira.
She closed her eyes.
She'd been angry for so long. What would happen if she just...
Let go?
Vivian...what should I do?
She lowered her head and closed her eyes. Defeated.
She dropped the voice and toned she taught herself to use, the accent she forced herself to learn, the fortress she built in her mind to keep the nightmares away.
"...my name was Elizabeth Meriam Pulitzer. I was born in 1884 into New York's high society."
Her voice was raw, slow, hesitant, and changed. An accent of another time, one she fought to leave behind. She looked up, forcing herself to meet Kira's eyes. But instead, she found the red-haired woman.
"I was given everything - anything I ever wanted without lifting a finger. Inflation and poverty were beneath me. My only duty was to be well-bred and well-behaved. I succeeded and was rewarded with a betrothal to the wealthiest bachelor in New York City...Garrison Rockefeller."
Her throat tightened, remembering.
"It was a short engagement...and rather unbearable. He was..." She was surprised even now to feel the envy she'd felt long ago through her memories. "'Infatuated' isn't the right word. He was obsessed...with a prostitute."
The red-haired woman lowered her chin, encouraging her.
Joselyn tried to swallow her shame. "I only knew her name because he -" She dropped her gaze, suddenly aware of their eyes on her. "I was eager to please my future husband, so I did whatever he wanted... he made me dress like her. He called me 'Talia'."
She begrudgingly looked at Kira. Her eyes were glinting on Joselyn's face in bitter sadness.
"It was excruciating. I was so young, so naive, so horrified. And then he was arrested for Illegal Possession and Distribution of Drugs linked to murder. His family, and mine, disowned him. Everything crumbled around me. And I thought...if I got rid of her, everything would be righted. We'd have our titles, we'd have our names, and he would treat me better. He would want me. But I never knew - what he did to her."
She closed her eyes, unable to look at any of them.
"I found out who she was, where she lived. She had tried to recreate her life but," her voice caught, remembering the coldness of her emotions, the irrational thoughts she once harbored. "In my eyes, she'd never be more than a street rat. Worthless. And in my way."
She opened her eyes and looked at Jack. A cold single tear traced down her cheek as she glared at his back, still turned to them.
"I watched her... and waited until she was finally alone, always surrounded by those life-wrecking Newsies."
She looked at each of the guys, half expecting to see their faces smudged with dirt, their clothes tattered. How she had hated them.
"They went on strike against my uncle's newspaper in 1899...and they just couldn't let things lie. Never learned their place."
She lowered her head. "In taking what mattered most to them, I took back my life for one cold moment." Her mouth twisted in resentment. "In the end, she still pled for them. For you."
Her mouth dried at the memory, speaking her nightmare aloud.
She shook her head. "I can still hear her voice, in my dreams."
Jack was as immovable as stone.
"What did you do," Kira asked evenly.
Joselyn's hatred dried up as she looked back to her best friend, her sister. Vivian's daughter. "I shot and killed her at the docks not far from her home."
Kira stared at her, unblinking. Joselyn knew she confirmed whatever Claudia had told her.
"Her eyes...so blue. They were the last thing I saw before I turned the pistol on myself. Because I realized what I'd done wouldn't change anything."
Joselyn looked at Medda and took a deep shaky breath.
"Little did I know those eyes would haunt me in this life too."
Her breath felt shallow and her chest tightened as the hate and anger she'd felt in 1901 bloomed into something different...
"Joselyn Riker, born 1989 in Los Angeles. My mother was Vivian Volkov's 's best friend."
Mush glanced at Claudia. Through their cold anger, he could see the pain on the girls' faces.
"They danced together. But while Vivian soared to fame, my mother succumbed to the demons of Hollywood. Vivian tried to help her, but she died from addiction. Overdosed in front of me. I was five years old when Vivian adopted -"
She turned away, suddenly overcome. She put the back of her hand to her mouth, closing her eyes tightly to gather herself. She refused to unravel in front of them.
She inhaled sharply, staring at the news vans on the sidewalk below. "She and Erik treated me as their own. And when she became pregnant, we were so happy and excited. They called me 'big sis'. You called me Josie - the only one allowed to." She didn't turn, she knew Kira wasn't smiling. "It wasn't until I was fifteen and you were ten... that I realized who I was. Who I had been."
Joselyn shook her head, unable to stop the tears from flowing down her cheeks. "One cruel Thursday morning in June, I took one look at Vivian and started screaming. I was hysterical, inconsolable, confused."
Kira's brow furrowed, remembering. "Dad took me on a diving trip."
Joselyn turned back to her, her heartbreak breaking through her facade as her jaw tightened, almost bitter. "She knew. The whole time, she knew who I was. And forgave me."
Kiki covered her mouth. Tears streamed down the girls' faces.
Joselyn looked at Medda, seeing the same heartbreak in her eyes.
"I never understood why - I never understood how she could. But she did. She helped me to understand. She spent hours with me, and told me what she wanted to do in this life. Together...we decided to make a difference.
"Hollywood, the entertainment industry, was, and is, teeming with trafficking and - just pure evil. We did all we could, saved as many as we could, intercepted a lot of assholes. And she was fearless. No hesitation when it came to helping and giving. I love - I loved her."
She turned away from them again, wiping the tears away bitterly. "And when you started helping her with the school and putting two and two together about what we had been doing in secret...when she got sick." Her voice cracked. "She knew where you would want to go, who you would target. We argued about it so many times. She made me promise never to leave you, to protect you."
She looked at Kira through the glass reflection. "And I intend to keep it. But, as usual, you made things..." she smirked a little, "...complicated."
Kira scoffed "I made things complicated?"
Joselyn wheeled on her. "I tried to keep you from New York City. Vivian and I knew who was here. But you just had to go after the biggest fish in the industry. Had to contact the FBI." She shot a look at Denton. She scoffed, "and to make things even worse, they showed up."
She glared at the lot of them, the Newsies. Her dark gaze slid to back to Jack's figure, her voice dropping. "I knew who you were the moment I saw you at the club. Horrified that you would mistake her for her mother...which you did."
Jack's head turned slowly.
"And horrified that you would put her into even more danger when Phillip saw you, too. Just couldn't stay away, like a lost dog, desperate to shit on everything and ruin her life -"
"It was never about me!" Kira shouted, stepping up to Joselyn so quickly that Joselyn's back met the cold window behind her. Joselyn's eyes were wide on Kira.
"This whole time, everything we've done, has been to make a difference - to save lives! It's what mom did, she gave her life trying to save others from the same fate! And you gave them what they wanted!"
Joselyn bucked back, pushing off the window. "'Save lives', Kira? Who's life did you save when you called them out in front of the whole goddamned city? Certainly not yours - nor the lives already entangled in their web."
"Shut up!" Kira screamed, a sob escaping her lips.
"You have no fucking idea what you've done, who you've killed by such recklessness - they can pretty much kiss Cage goodbye."
"Shut your fuckin' mouth," Racetrack muttered as he took a step forward. Kiki held him back.
"What did you think would happen, Kira? That this would all get tied up in a pretty bow and all the evil would stop - that she'd come back?"
Kira's hand snapped forward, slapping Joselyn's head back.
Kira's breath heaved as Joselyn held the back of her hand to her cheek. Joselyn looked at her tired tear-streaked face.
"She trusted you!" Kira shouted, her voice filling the penthouse. "I trusted you! And you still went back to him!"
"You didn't have a chance in hell unless I did," Joselyn said darkly. "Just ask Martin."
"I don't have to because I know now what you've really been after. Admit it - you wanted what was taken from you! This whole time, you've been lying to us!"
"Is that what they've been telling you?" Joselyn shouted, her eyes jumping from Kira to Claudia, Kiki, and Jade. She glared at the guys - the newsies. "I should've known you've been lying to her this whole time -"
"They've been telling us the truth," Claudia shouted back.
Joselyn shook her head, "just goes to show how in over your heads you all have been. Not knowing what I had to do -" She shook her head, looking at Kira with pity. "What I tried to spare you from. Vivian knew."
Kira's face hardened.
Joselyn turned back to Jack. "Even in this life...she still wished she could comfort the poor newsies, to tell them what had happened. None of you deserved her."
Jack reached down, pulling a banker's box from under the record collection below Medda's player.
"We know what happened," he said as he slid the box to her feet. He met her eyes evenly. "Do you?"
Her jaw tightened as Kiki and Jade stepped forward, pulling newspaper clippings from the box.
"Oh my god -" Jade breathed, looking at Spot over her shoulder. The clipping from the day their picture was put in the paper clutched in her hand.
Kira, curious, peered over Kiki's shoulder.
"'April 16, 1901, Francis Sullivan, newsboy and leader of the Newsie Strike of 1899, was incarcerated for the murder of Elizabeth Rockefeller, wife of Garrison Rockefeller, and niece to Joseph Pulitzer. Sullivan also goes by the alias… Jack Kelly." Kiki looked up at Racetrack before looking at Joselyn's blank face.
Joselyn's eyes darted to Jack. She hadn't known...
Jack turned away. "Enough of this - we need a plan for now, Denton."
But Denton's ear was bent to his phone. He hung up and met Jack's glare.
"It'll have to wait. You need to come with me to the hospital. Now."