And here we are. This is supposed to be a short and sweet chapter, but knowing me...we'll just have to see what happens haha. Enjoy! :)

"Sta-Stargazer?"

No response.

"Stargazer?"

Spot crawls over to his cousin and sinks down lower. "Theodore?"

That seems to strike something in Stargazer. He lifts his head up a little, but lowers it again. He's still muttering to himself. If they would listen closer, they would hear him repeating the phrase "That little house we'll move in to when we're 21." His back is hunched, his knees brought up to his chin, his arms wrapped around himself. 

Race knows that sitting position all too well.

Stargazer is lost inside his own mind.

But what prompted this deep void of getting lost inside of one's own mind?

Even Race never went this far.

But he's still had plenty of experience going there.

He's torn. What should he do? Should he give Spot and Stargazer some space? Or should he try and help? He doesn't know what to do, so he stands there silently, feeling absolutely helpless.

"Could you maybe get Ray to come here please?" Race whispers to Jim Barlow. "Tell him it's important."

The older man nods and walks out down the hall that they came in through.

Race turns back to Spot and Stargazer.

Spot has his hands on his cousin. "Theo? It's me. Sean. I'm your cousin. Remember me?"

Spot never imagined meeting up with his cousin in this way. He came up with many scenarios of what might happen, yes, but not a single one he imagined ended up like this.

Stargazer still is unresponsive. Just continuing his soft muttering (of his one phrase over and over again) and avoiding eye contact.

Spot just wants to know what's going through his cousin's mind.

Stargazer isn't just lost in his mind.

He's trapped inside it.

He's too deep in, too far away from the surface to be able to call out.

Race can see that. He knows that he has to do something.

He sits down next to Spot.

"Why is he like this?" Spot turns to Race, looking like he's about to start crying. "What did they do to him?"

Race doesn't answer. He looks right at Stargazer. "Mister Stargazer? I'm Racetrack. I know your cousin. And I know what it's like to be trapped inside your mind like this."

"Know what it's like."

Both Race and Spot sit up. A response. Weak and whispery, but still a response.

Then Spot has an idea. "You would take me on the rooftops, remember? We would see the stars together."

"See the stars."

Spot smiles. "Yep. That's my cousin in there."

"Glad it's working." Race has seen this before. He's been this before. True, he's never had mental shut downs as severe as this. But he knows the feeling of repeating words when he has none of his own to say. If they give him enough words, that might bring him back.

So he continues. "Do you remember your life ten years ago? You must've been twenty back then." That means you're thirty-ish now... "And you were the leader of the Brooklyn newsies."

"Leader of Brooklyn."

Spot and Race exchange hopeful glances. It seems to be working. Stargazer's eyes aren't as hazy as they were when they found him. But he still has a long way to go.

"I'm here now, Theo," Spot tells him. "We're going to help you, okay? We're going to help you."

"Help."

Then, Race thinks of something. "Do you remember Ray?"

"Ray."

The word drops like a stone.

That's it.

"Ray," Stargazer repeats. "Ray." His eyes clear up more. "Ray."

Then, he repeats the phrase he's been muttering all this time louder. "That'll little house in Brooklyn we'll move in to when we're 21." That, and the name Ray.

It's bringing him back. Slowly but surely.

It's like feeding the fire. They gave the flames enough to feed on, and now they're growing on their own.

Suddenly, Ray and Jim Barlow come back, Jim Barlow lingering back.

"What is it?" Ray asks. "I heard it was important-" Race and Spot move aside, exposing the man with his back against the wall.

That's when Ray's eyes land on Stargazer and the whole world disappears.

That's when Stargazer's eyes land on Ray and the whole world comes rushing back.

"Theo?!"

"RAY!"

Stargazer springs up. Spot and Race with him. He's been sitting for some time. He's really unbalanced. Spot and Race are there to support him.

Stargazer is back.

"Oh, Theo!" Ray cries. He was standing on the opposite side of the room, and before any of them know what's happening, Ray is closing the distance between him and his one true love.

Now that Stargazer is standing again, Race and Spot back away.

There's no stopping the two.

Stargazer and Ray both close the gap in between them and kiss passionately.

It's been ten years.

It's been ten years since they've seen each other.

Spot and Race watch from the sides as Ray and Stargazer hug and kiss and put their hands everywhere. It's so, so sweet.

Normally, Race would want to look away before it got heated. But this? This is the sweetest and single most powerful thing that he's ever seen in his life. So he smiles as he continues watching.

Spot can't stop smiling. He's never seen his cousin this happy, ever. He's so glad that Stargazer can have a moment like this. 

I wish I have someone to love me like they love each other some day.

He looks behind the two lovers at Race. He smiles even more.

Finally, Stargazer and Ray stop kissing, foreheads pressed together. They break apart slightly so they can look at each other's eyes.

Ray gets to see Stargazer's pretty electric blue eyes.

And Stargazer gets to see Ray's pretty brown eyes.

"Ten years," Ray says. "It's been ten years, Theo."

"...That house in Brooklyn we'll move in to when we're 21?"

Ray smiles. "You remembered!" Sure, it was worded weird in this context, but it's one of the last things Stargazer said to Ray years ago. It's music to his ears to hear it again.

"Of course I remembered!" Stargazer exclaims. Finally, something that doesn't reflect his shut down. He's grounded. He's here. He's back. "And you're birthday is June 6th. You turned 31. But I'm still 30. We can't move into that house when we're 21 anymore."

"No, maybe not quite exactly," Ray chuckles. "I'm still older and taller than you."

"It's not MY fault you're six feet tall!"

"No, but it IS your fault that you're only five foot nine inches tall."

"HEY!"

They all burst out laughing.

They're insanely happy. They haven't felt like this in a really long time.

"But...what happened?" Ray asks. "I was told that you died."

Stargazer looks down. "I didn't make it. I didn't make it back. They caught me."

"That's all over now," Spot assures him. "You'll never have to worry about Them ever again."

"How?"

"Long story," Race puts in quickly.

"Hey." Ray turns Stargazer's head back to face him by putting his finger underneath his chin. "I'm listening."

"I've been here for ten years," Stargazer continues, voice cracking with emotion. "And They did whatever They could to me. Until I wasn't me anymore. The only thing I had to hold on to was you." He looks at Spot. "You too."

Spot glows.

Stargazer turns back to face Ray. "I am so, so glad that you came for me." He throws his arms around Ray's neck and hugs him tight. "I didn't know if I was ever going to see you again."

Ray fully wraps his arms around Stargazer. "I'm not letting you go, Theodore 'Stargazer' Conlon. Never ever. I missed you so much."

"I missed you too."

"And I love you, so, so much."

"I love you too."

They kiss again. It's not too long, but it is still everything they need.

Now, Ray turns to Race and Spot. "Now, who is ready to get out of here?"

"ME!" Race, Spot, and Stargazer exclaim at once.

"Alright then," Ray says with a smile. "Let's head home."

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

MY HEART

THAT WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUTE

I HOPED YOU ALL LOVED THAT

THAT WAS SO WHOLESOME

I've been waiting to write this for a really long time. I'm so glad that we got here.

I'm going to be honest here: for a good long while, Ray and Stargazer were never supposed to come back. I thought that since they weren't around for the strike, they would just stay gone, and only live in the newsies' memories. But then I realized I did exactly what I said I was not going to do. I made a promise to myself a few years ago that when I would write stories, I would write for a better world. Not necessarily sappy cliché happy endings, but endings that go right along with the ideas of Imagine by John Lennon (gosh I love that song so much). At the time, I didn't think I was talking about Newsies fanfiction haha, but hey, it all worked out in the end. So I wanna say thank you to those who said that they loved Stargazer and Ray and helped indirectly encourage me to keep them alive for this very moment. We need more happy couples than sad angst. I'm so glad that I followed through and wrote Ray and Stargazer back into the story, creating a better world for them all.

So people say that empathy is accepting another person's perspective as their truth, and being able to (at least try to) look at it from their perspective. They never talked about hyper empathy. For me, hyper empathy is like ... seeing a person and instantly connecting with their perspective. Not analyzing it, or sympathetically listening, but already in their perspective experiencing those emotions right alongside them. I'll give you an example. If you plan on watching Marvel, this contains some minor spoilers. In Iron Man 3, Tony Stark (who is a lot like me: bi, Italian, ADHD) has panic attacks. And I could relate to that. So while people describe empathy as taking another person's perspective as your own and recognizing that it's their truth I was already far gone passed that because when he had a panic attack it was happening right now and I've been there before and how can I not accept this as their truth when it's my truth and I would get a lot of emotions. I talked about Iron Man 3 earlier, didn't I? Well, I'm talking about it again. When any other character from other places starts having a panic attack, I'm right there feeling all of those wild emotions with them. That's what I wanted with Race. He's had mental shut downs before. Like I have. He knows what Stargazer was going through. Well, we could only have empathize so much, since Stargazer got tortured into his mental state while Race and I just get sensory overload and shut down. But I still really wanted Race's hyper empathy up and running and him being like I've been here before. I can help. And I'm so glad how it all turned out.

So what did you all think of it? I can't wait for the next chapter! Our two worlds will reunite: Ray, Spot, Race, and Stargazer; and Jack, Kid Blink, Mush, Crutchy; and everyone else. That's going to be something! Hope you stick around for it! Thank you for reading this far! :)

Best,

~Your Beloved Author (who was listening to the song World Alone by Lorde and the lyrics "got a million bad habits to break" played, followed by "not sleeping is one" and they thought of how this is 1:00 am and were like "hey wait a second-")