Now, the climax of the strike. Javid is strong. Enjoy! :)

Now that Jack has been in this room before, he feels more confident as he walks in.

He tosses the paper onto Pulitzer's desk. "Extra, extra, Joe. Read all about it."

Pulitzer stands with his back turned to them, smoking, subdued. "I promised you if you defied me, boy, I would break you. I'll keep that promise." He turns around. "Now, I gave you a chance to be free. Anyone who doesn't act in their own self interest is a fool."

David comes first. Always.

"Then what does that make you?"

That would be David speaking.

Pulitzer is surprised by that. "What?"

Slowly, Jack smiles. "Oh yeah, this is my pal, Davey." He slings an arm over him. "The Walkin' Mouth." he says it as fondly as possible. Then he stands back, wanting to see what happens next.

"Everyday, ever since the strike, you're losing thousands of dollars," David continues. Throughout it all, Jack's smile grows and grows. "You're circulation has been down 70%. All of this, just to beat us out of one miniscule tenth of a cent. Why?"

This is the one who has Jack's emotions all up in a twist. Oh yeah, my emotions picked the right person.

"It ain't about the money, Dave," Jack realizes. "If Joe gives in to nobodies like us, that means that we have the power. And you can't have that happen, no matter what it costs, now can you, Joe?"

"I sent for the police," is all Pulitzer says in response. "They should be here by now."

"I'm not going back to jail, Joe," Jack tells him firmly. "Not now. Not ever." Then he tugs on David protectively. "And Davey? He ain't going to the Refuge. Never ever. Ya hear? You ain't ever taking him." He means it. He'll keep David out of the Refuge if it's the last thing he does.

And suddenly, David realizes something as  Pulitzer watches Jack speak. The pair have been over this subject before. But there was only one place where that could have happened.

And suddenly, a lot more is making sense now.

So that is why Jack didn't escape that night.

Jack moves on. "But don't just take my word for it." He opens up the window. "Take theirs."

"Close that window-" Pulitzer moves to reprimand him. But once he steps outside on the little balcony, he's caught off guard by all the people there.

So many people, gazing up at Pulitzer and Jack, making as much ruckus as they can.

"STRIKE! STRIKE! STRIKE! STRIKE! STRIKE!"

Jack smiles. That's his crowd of angry strikers.

"CLOSE THAT WINDOW!" Pulitzer shouts.

"Now, you listen to me-" Jack says.

"No, you listen to me!"

"No, YOU listen to ME for once!" Jack shouts back.

Pulitzer is still covering his ears. "Shut the window and shut up!"

"There's a lot of people out there, Joe," Jack tells him. "And they ain't just going to go away. Putting them in jail ain't gonna silence them. Nothing is going to silence them. Now, they're going to be listened to. They've got voices now. That is the power of the press, Joe. So thanks for teaching me about it."

Pulitzer sits down, and looks at the paper placed on his desk. "I ordered a printing ban on all strike matters." He looks at Jack. "Whose press did you use?" No answer. "Whose?"

Jack swallows. "Well, we only used the best, Joe." He leans in. "So, once again ... thank you."

He moves back, and goes to stand next to David, as he watches the meaning of his words dawn on Pulitzer. He can't help feeling satisfied.

Jack leans on the desk again. "Now, it's been really fun talking to you and all, Joe, really, it has been. But as you saw, there's a lot of people out there. Now, I can't go back out there until I can say that you agreed to our terms."

"And what terms exactly are those?" Pulitzer asks coldly.

"Lower the prices of papes," David answers. "Give us our rights. All of us."

That's my Walkin' Mouth right there.

"So whaddaya say, Joe?" Jack asks. "Do we have a deal? Can you lower the price of that miserable paper of yours?"

"You know very well I can't do that," Pulitzer answers in a quiet but deadly voice.

"You know, Joe? I suggest a compromise," Jack says.

Pulitzer raises his eyebrows. "A compromise."

"When both parties agree on something that works for both of them," David puts in.

Of course, the other two know that. 

"What if," Jack proposes, "you buy back the papers we don't sell?"

"That's ridiculous."

"Do you know how many newsies will go into the evening, go into the night, to keep selling papers?" Jack fires back. "So they don't have to eat their papers? No, of course you wouldn't know. I bet you've never had to eat paper before. Now, I never had a formal education, but I am pretty sure that eatin' paper frequently ain't good for ya. So what if you can't lower the prices? Let us be able to sell our papes back full price to you. If you do that, all of us will return to work for you. No extra bribing needed. You get your extra tenth of a cent, we get a guarantee that we don't have to absorb the loss of a bad headline. So what do you say?"

Pultizer thinks about it.

"It's a compromise we can all live with," Jack adds in a persuasive tone.

He can see it all go through Pulitzer's eyes.

And then Jack can tell that he made it through.

He smiles. 

The newsies have officially gotten what they wanted. Not that they know that yet.

Jack and David walk out of the room in comfortable silence. Then, part way down the stairs, David starts talking.

"You did it, Jack."

"No." Jack takes David's hand. "We did it."

"Yeah, I guess we did."

A pause.

"I'm really glad I had you in there with me, Davey. I couldn't have done that alone."

David squeezes Jack's hand. "Of course. And guess what? We won. The strike is over."

"Yeah." They reach the door to the outside world. "Ready to tell everyone the good news?"

David nods.

Together, they open the door.

Wow that's a lot of door opening and closing in the past two chapters haha.

Alright, I'm not gonna keep you here too long!

I liked how in Livesies they show how Jack and Pulitzer made the compromise of selling back papers. Because that's how it actually went in 1899. The newsies didn't get the prices lowered down. But they no longer had to eat what they didn't sell, because they would sell back those papers to the World. So I incorporated 92sies and Livesies here.

Jack adores David and his Walking-Mouth-ness and no one can tell me otherwise.

Next two chapters are going to be fun! :)

Please, no homophobia, profanities, hate etc in the comment section at all times.

Best,

~Your Beloved Author (who is in that weird place of being sleep deprived but also sleeping in until 11:00 am)