Post-Strike AU peeps.  I apologize for the terrible chapter title. The OCs that are not mine in this story are, Falcon with Musical_Theater_Nerd, Katie with BeckyMerari1808, and Pups with 23gatkins.

Elley Kelly jumps out of her bed. It had started raining last night and hadn't really stopped since then. Elley is beyond frustrated. She is all ready to sell her papers but, the rain causes her to slam her head into her pillow in frustration. Elley hears her brother come in and she ventures out into the lobby of the Lodging House to see Jack and Crutchie soaking wet.

"Well look what the cat dragged in," Race shouts loudly waking up the whole Lodging House. Patches, the kitten walks up to Race, rubs against his leg, and lets out a small meow. Race picks up Patches and gives her some good morning pets. Elley peeks back into the area where she had come from to see the other four girls all still sleeping. She carefully steps over her friends and hurries up into one of the washroom stalls to change into her clothes for the day. Mush is just clambering out of bed and Elley's eyes flick to his strong abdominal muscles. The smallest trace of a smile appears on her face at seeing him shirtless. Mush is ignorant of her staring and walks over to her.

"Good morning, Elley Kelly," Mush says, enjoying the way her name rolls off of his tongue.

"Morning, Mush Myers," she responds and the two pull apart so they can finish getting ready. She slips into a stall to change.She finishes and reemerges. Being very careful to keep her feminine looks hidden, Elley hurries into the washroom and carefully starts to tie up her hair. Jack walks over next to his younger sister and says,

"Good morning, Elley. Sleep okay?"

"Yeah. I'm not ready for my first day on the job though."

"Ahhh. Don't worry about it. Being a Newsie runs in your blood. You'll be an expert before you know it." Jack gently socks her in the shoulder and walks his way through the washroom, swapping jokes with different Newsies as he goes. Elley finishes up with her hair and plops her hat on her head. She follows the rest of the boys down the stairs and sees the rest of the girls starting to get ready for the day. Jack is waiting down at the bottom of the stairs just for his younger sister. Davey and Les are there as well, standing next to Jack.

"Morning, Elley!" Les chirps excitedly and surprises Elley by running over to her and throwing his small arms around her waist. Elley looks to Jack and Jack just nods at her encouragingly. She shyly leans down and hugs Les back.

"Good morning, Les. You ready to sell some newspapers?" she asks and Les shakes his head.

"I'm ready to sell some papes!!" he exclaims. The other Newsies in the room all begin to laugh and Elley chuckles lightly.

Jack steps out of the Lodging House and leads the way to the Distribution Center through something that has become a very slight mist. Mush comes up behind Elley.

"It's your first day sellin papes, huh?" Mush asks. Elley nods her head quickly.

"I'se a little nervous," she says. Mush gently slings an arm over her shoulder and Elley stiffens just in the slightest. People don't typically touch her and when they do, it usually means she is going to get hurt. Somehow, Elley knows that Mush isn't touching her to hurt her. To be quite honest, she sort of enjoys his kind and gentle hand against her shoulder. Mush just wants to help her and Elley is thankful for his friendship. The two of them are walking down the street when suddenly, Mush gets side hugged by a girl so fast that Elley almost falls over. Mush grabs her hand and pulls her to her feet before she completely lands on her rear while greeting the other girl at the same time. Elley glares at the other girl and continues holding Mush's hand long after she has stood up. The other girl chatters on with Mush when suddenly, her eyes flick to Mush and Elley's joined hands. 

"Am I interrupting something here?" she asks quickly and Mush's facial expression changes entirely when he sees Elley still holding his hand.

"Elley!" he gasps and Elley quickly lets go of his hand, pretending she hadn't noticed when indeed she had. She barely knows this girl and she already doesn't like her. Jack looks back at the commotion and raises an eyebrow.

"What's going on?" he asks. Elley hurries away from Mush and runs up to Jack, Davey, and Race.

"Mush and his girl is what happened. Basically, I'm being ignored," Elley says. Race clucks his tongue and shakes his head.

"Which is such a shame. He's missing out on one beautiful Kelly," Race says which causes Flavi to cross her arms and let out a huff. 

"Nothing against you, beautiful Flavs," Race says and Flavi smiles shyly. Her cheeks turn a bright red. Kid Blink gently slings his arm over Elley's shoulders. Jack shoots him the tiniest glare.

"Elley, I'll help ya sell papes and then maybe we can watch what happens," he starts and Elley starts to smile a little bit. He isn't Mush, but he is Mush's best friend. Maybe he is just as fun as Mush is.

"Maybe. I think Mush wanted to show me some of this part of the city though," she says with a grin.

"Come on, Elley. Will ya at least go selling with me some time?" Kid Blink asks. Elley thinks for a second and then nods.

"Sure, I'll go selling with you sometime. Just not this time," she says and she then spits into her hand. Blink does the same and the two shake on it. Jack gently starts steering Elley forward.

"Come on, El. Someone's gotta teach you how to sell," he says and Jack shoots a mischievous glance at Davey, "Davey, you wanna teach Elley how to sell papes? I'll be right here too." Davey shrugs.

"I guess it won't hurt," he says and Les tugs on Jack's sleeve.

"Can I show Elley how to sell?" he asks innocently and both Davey and Jack shake their heads.

"Les, we need you and your face to sell papes for us," Jack replies with a smile. The group approaches the Distribution Center.

"His face looks way better than someone's face who lives in a trash can," Crutchie sasses loud enough for the Delancey brothers to hear. Katie hurries over to Oscar to distract him to keep him from hurting anybody.

"Don't worry about them. They're just joking," she says quickly and Oscar calms down but, not before shooting the group of Newsies a nasty glare. Katie and Oscar continue to talk.

"Watch out for them," Falcon whispers to Elley, "They'se bad news. Katie can keep em calm but, when she ain't around. There ain't much stoppin em from being dirty."

"I know. Mush saved me from them," Elley replies, casting a glance back at the Newsie and his girlfriend.

"It just makes me sick to watch him moon over her. She's nice but, she ain't that nice," Pups says softly. Flavi and Falcon trail off to go get in line with Race to get their papers.

"El!" Jack calls to his younger sister and Elley hurries up to next to her brother.

"You wanna talk later? We'll listen," Pups says. Despite the fact that she is younger by a couple of years, Pups is fiercely loyal. She gets in line behind Elley. Elley nervously fidgets with her hand. Jack pulls her up next to him.

"I'se will pay until you'se doing well enough to make a decent amount of money to handle your own finances," he says and Elley smiles at him.

"Deal," she says and Jack pays for their papes. Both Oscar and Morris are eyeing Elley from behind the counter of the Distribution Center counter. Elley nods at them. Jack pats her back and sends her down the ramp to where Race and Flavi are having a fight.

"Race, you DO NOT have to pay for my papes. I can do it myself!" Flavi exclaims. Race rolls his eyes and grabs Flavi's hand.

"I'se paying for your papes, Flavi," Race says and he slaps a couple of coins down on the counter, "We'll take 150." Flavi lets out a defeated sigh and Race smirks at her. The two join Elley on the ramp.

"Tough luck, Flavi," Elley says to the other girl and Race grabs Flavi's wrist.

"Come on! We'se gonna miss the races!!" he shouts loudly. Flavi follows him out of the Distribution Center and the two run down the street in a hurry. Elley watches them run off. They seem so happy together. She wants something like that with one of the Newsies. Not necessarily in a romantic sense but, she yearns for another Newsie friend that is not Jack. The Newsies stand around in the mist and Elley stands with her brother. Davey and Les finally coming down after Davey has made sure that everyone has enough money to buy papes with. Jack nudges Elley and nods his head towards the street indicating that they are about to leave when a voice of one of the Newsies calls out,

"Hey, Jack!" Jack turns around and walks over to Mush. The two have a slightly hushed conversation in which Elley notices Jack using lots of large hand motions. This can't be good. After awhile both Mush and Jack separate and Elley asks Jack,

"What did he want?" Jack shrugs off her question.

"It's nothing. He was just looking for a new place to sell," he replies. Elley looks to Davey who simply shrugs. The quartet walks out of the Distribution Center and into the much quieter than normal streets of New York City. Once the group arrives at Jack's selling place, Jack and Davey start to teach Elley how to twist the headlines.

"All you gotta do is find a headline and jazz it up a bit," Jack says. He finds a boring headline and points to it. Elley nods her head quickly.

"Business Meeting Leads To Interesting Decisions," she reads and Davey nods.

"That headline sounds good enough to me," he says but Jack stops him.

"We'se is not using that headline. It's so boring, you wouldn't think the business big wigs tried to write it themselves," Jack says, "You gotta make it more exciting if you'se gonna sell it."

"Like an assassination happened at this meeting?" Elley asks and Davey claps his hands over Les' ears.

"Keep it to a Les level, Kelly!! Keep it to a Les level!!" Davey cries out and Les swats Davey's hands away.

"Which Kelly are ya talking to?" Elley asks in a witty tone, "There are two of us. You just said Kelly so, only one of us should keep it to a Les level. I think Jacky should since ladies go first in this day and age. He should put my interests above his own."

"That's not very humble. Les, don't ever try to carry morals like the Kellys do," Davey says tiredly.

"We'se has reasonably good morals!" Jack exclaims and Elley nods her head in agreement.

"In some areas more so than others," Davey responds, "Now Elley, it is okay to actually hawk the headline for what is actually on there. You don't always have to and I quote 'Jazz it up'. Some headlines are interesting enough just the way that they are written." Elley ignores Davey's talk and snatches a paper right out of her pape bag. She yells out,

"Extra! Extra! Business Meeting Transforms Into A Wild Assassination. Three Men Dead, More Injured!! Get your papes here!!" Jack starts clapping as three relatively young rich looking men come up and buy a paper from her. One of them winks at Elley.

"You're one gorgeous Newsie, sweetheart. We'll keep it a secret that you're a girl. That way we can have some special bonding time," The boy says and Elley smiles a little bit.

"I'se just here to sell papes," she says and the guy sighs,

"Well, if you ever want to try your hand at a different social life, I's e lives just north of here in a nice neighborhood." Elley nods her thanks and the three guys walk away.

"Be careful of them, El. They might mean a different kind of 'special bonding time' than you're thinking of," Jack says. Elley glares at her older brother.

"I'se not that innocent, Jacky. There's all kinds of horror stories from the factories," she replies and Jack puts his hands up in surrender.

"Alright alright! You'se wins," Jack says quickly. Elley smiles and continues her hand at hawking the headlines. She finds an interesting one about some underpaid workers. Davey points to it and grins,

"You could actually sell that one as it is! It would be very interesting to the upper-class society who maybe don't know about how the other half lives. Try it!" Elley starts hawking the headline as best as she can. When people blatantly walk by her, Les pulls on her sleeve and stops her.

"You gotta go for more of a heartbreaking act with the real headlines," he says and he walks up to a very fancily dressed lady, "Please, Your Royal Highness. I'm a poor orphan who doesn't know the first thing between a fine lady of society and a queen. Will you please help me?" The woman looks nervously at him.

"Oh, you poor thing. Of course! How may I help?" she asks and Les starts telling her about the underpaid workers and the woman gives him a whole dollar. Les acts genuinely surprised and Elley stares in shock.

"I'se taught him how to do that," Jack whispers in Elley's ear. Elley rolls her eyes as Les runs back over. He holds his reward up triumphantly.

"See, Elley? You gotta try since you're such a pretty girl. Some people won't resist buying a paper from your pretty face!" Les says excitedly and Davey pulls him aside.

"Les! Don't say things like that! You're not even ten years old! How have you decided on what a pretty face looks like?" Davey asks hurriedly.

"I'm not as innocent as you think I am. Besides, Elley has a very pretty face compared to yours," Les says. Both of the Kelly siblings start to chuckle at the deep shade of scarlet Davey's face starts to turn.

"I'se gonna go find a different spot to sell," Elley says quickly, suspecting that things are about to escalate quickly.

"El, no. You'se are not going anywhere," Jack demands but, Elley walks away with little to no regard of his protests.

"I'se will be fine, Jack. It ain't like I'se going to Brooklyn or anything," Elley calls out as if everything is completely right with the world. Jack watches his younger sister's retreating form. Elley wanders down the street and sneaks into an old alleyway. She just wanders around aimlessly not really paying attention to where she is going. Elley just wants to explore for another good spot to sell papes. Suddenly, a large hand grabs the back of her shirt and slams her against the wall before she has anytime to react.

"Kelly! We meet again!" A man's voice shouts and Elley opens her eyes to see her former boss standing before her.

"What do you want with me? I thought we settled our issues. I left and you probably hired some innocent young girl with a death wish to replace me," Elley reasons and her boss slams her back again.

"Yes, but little snitches like you tell other people about working in the factories and how terrible it is," Her former boss snarls and Elley rolls her eyes.

"That's no reason to come after me. I'se one person. I can't tell everyone in New York," she says trying to be the voice of reason in this money driven mad man's mind.

"Yes, but you're getting into the newspaper business and I don't want the whole world to know about my methods," Her former boss says. Elley rolls her eyes.

"Why are you so worried about it? Nobody got out during the Newsies strike," she says and she notices that she is by some kind of harbor. If only she could jump in the water, she is pretty sure Ol' Roger can't swim very well. Elley gets ready to throw a punch but, Roger grabs her wrist and twists it hard. So hard that Elley thinks she may have heard a snap. She goes after him with her other wrist but he grabs that one too. Elley grits her teeth trying not to cry out in pain.

"Now, you feel my pain when you talk about underaged workers," Roger growls and Elley lets out a small gasp.

"How did you know about that?" Elley asks as she struggles to fight him off of her. Three teenage boys appear from the shadows of the alleyway. Elley lets out a small gasp as she recognizes them.

"Well well well. If it isn't little Miss Kelly," The one who had flirted with her earlier says. Elley struggles even harder against Roger.

"This is ridiculous!" Elley says as one of the boys pulls some rope from his pocket. One of the other two pull a large weight out of their pockets. All three of them are wearing gloves, every one of them except for Roger.

"Move your hands to where we can see them, Kelly," Roger snarls and Elley puts her hands outwards as best as she can. One of the boys ties them tightly together causing Elley to grunt in pain.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did that hurt, sweetheart? Maybe it'll teach ya not to run away from big brother quite so often. Leaving him all alone with no one to protect him," Flirty boy mocks and Elley glares at him.

"Jack will kick you clear to Queens and don't think he won't," she threatens and another one of the boys ties her ankles together.

"It's too bad. You really were a pretty thing but, no one gets in the way of the family business," The flirty boy croons menacingly, "It's going to be too bad that we have to kill you." Elley starts to make as much noise as she can. One of the boys clamps a gloved hand over her mouth and yells at one of the other ones,

"Where's the handkerchief?" Both of them shrug and Elley struggles against the boy's hand. Suddenly, she hears a familiar voice say,

"What's going on here?" Elley's heart fills with hope. She sees the strong familiar body of Mush Myers walking over to the boys. Elley bites the boy's hand over her mouth and Mush's eyes go wide when he sees the situation.

"Elley! Don't worry, I'll get you out of this," he says and the four villains laugh.

"I don't think you will. You being a Newsie and us being richer citizens put us above you," Roger snaps and Elley desperately tries to move to hurt him. Roger kicks her and Elley crumples over. Mush moves toward Roger.

"Nobody hurts her like that!" he snarls and quickly starts to pummel Roger with punches. Elley tries to move away from the fight until one of the boys scoops her up. He starts walking over to the harbor dock.

"I can't swim like this!" Elley shrieks and the boy chuckles,

"That's the most obvious thing I've heard someone say all day!" Elley struggles in her binds. She tries to fall out of his hands or wiggle so much that he has to drop her onto the dock. Elley struggles and the boy's grasp just seems to squeeze tighter and tighter.

"Why? You don't have to do this. You said you felt sorry that you were having to kill me!" Elley protests but, the boy merely holds her out over the water.

"So long, sweetheart!" he calls out and drops her in. Elley holds her breath and struggles as she starts to fall down to the bottom quickly. The world starts to darken and she feels that her lungs are about to burst.

Mush on the other hand waists no time in starting a fight. He starts beating up on the younger two first. Fortunately, they aren't very good at fighting. Mush throws a punch and the stronger of the two boys struggles to block it. He tries to punch Mush hard and he hits Mush right along his jawline. Mush feels the pain spider web across the side of his face. He throws the two boys against the wall and punches them until they are both holding various body parts because they hurt. Roger goes to club Mush over the head but, Mush dodges it and throws a couple of punches of his own. Mush darts away and manages to tackle Roger to the ground. Fists fly between the two as they fight and Mush punches Roger square in the nose causing him to bleed and his nose to make a loud crack. Roger sits up holding his nose but, cackles and points in the direction of the water. A large splash sounds off the harbor and one of the three boys is standing there with an evil smirk on his face. Mush acts quickly. He runs over to the boy and tackles him to the deck.

"Why did you throw her in there?" he yells in between punches. The boy starts to fight back and Mush fights right along with him. The other two boys run out to help their friend but, Mush merely shoves them all into each other. He quickly tosses his cap, top, socks, and shoes off before diving in the water after Elley.

Elley is quickly starting to run out of air. It is a large struggle to stay awake and she can barely keep her eyes open. Suddenly, she feels a strong pair of arms wrap around her body and pull her to the surface. Mush pulls the two of them up to the surface and Elley takes a breath of fresh air. 

"Thank you," she gasps out just before coughing up a bunch of water. Mush puts his strong arms around her waist and pulls her up onto the dock. He swims under the water and starts to untie her ankles from the weight. Thankfully, the knot wasn't too complicated or tight for Mush to figure out. Elley tries pulling at her wrists and only winces in pain. Mush jumps up next to her and gently starts to move the knot free. Elley winces as he fiddles with the rope.

"Did they'se break your wrists?" he asks and Elley nods, fighting tears. The three boys and Roger are now nowhere to be seen.

"I have a feeling that's not the last time we'se will see them," Elley says as she leans her head against Mush's strong shoulder. Mush gently slings a strong arm around Elley's shoulder. Her eyes flick to his now exposed stomach muscles. Mush is very strong. He catches her looking at him and shoots her a look.

"What are youse lookin at?" he asks innocently and Elley moves her eyes back up to Mush's.

"Hmm, oh! Nothing," she says playfully and Mush raises an eyebrow, "I'se was just admiring my rescuer is all." Mush rolls his eyes and whispers in her ear,

"It comes with being a Newsie." Elley shoots him a look and Mush shrugs, "I'se not the only strong one around, Elley. We should probably get ya back to Jack because he ain't gonna be too happy with me and you being together. Alone." Elley snuggles more into Mush and rolls her eyes.

"Seems normal for us to get into some kind of trouble," she says as Mush gently rubs his bare arm across her wet shirt in attempt to warm her. The two of them gently stand up and Mush keeps his arm wrapped around her shoulders.

"Still got papes to sell?" Mush asks as he starts putting his clothes back on. Elley nods, but frowns when she sees that they are all wet. Mush looks in her bag and notices how wet they are.

"Guess Jack and I are gonna be struggling to make ends meet tonight," she groans and Mush shakes his head.

"Jack's the best Newsie we have. I think you'se good for tonight. Don't worry and you can try again tomorrow," he says.  Elley smiles as the two of them walk back to the Lodging House. Mush keeps his arm around her protectively the whole way back. The duo walks into the Lodging House to see Jack, Davey, Les, Mush's girlfriend, Race, Flavi, and the rest of the Newsies looking extremely worried.

"Where have you been?" Jack asks and he takes a peek inside Flavi's paper bag to see a bunch of wet newspapers.

"Out and about. I got into some trouble with my former boss and Mush saved me from him and his goons. It's no big deal, Jack, really!" Elley tries to explain and Jack rolls his eyes.

"When are ya gonna stop getting into trouble?" he asks as he rubs his hands over his face. Elley grins mischievously at her older brother.

"Never," she says. Looking directly at Mush's girlfriend, Elley says, "Now, let's get you all cleaned up, Mush. That was a wonderful fight you fought to save me from drowning." The other girl's face starts to turn red and the other four girls quickly hurry to distract her. Mush and Elley race up the stairs together. Jack follows closely behind along with Kid Blink.

"You almost drowned?" Jack asks loudly and Elley sighs.

"Yes, I did. But, I'm still here, aren't I?" she replies. Jack rolls his eyes and turns to Kid Blink and Mush who are talking about the fight.

"El, from now on, I think I want ya ta sell with one of these two," Jack says, "Ya can't seem to stay around with me, but Mush has been saving ya from all kinds of trouble since the moment you got here and Blink would like to get to know you a little bit better. Ya can still sell with me but, why don't you try selling with some of the other boys? It's obvious that we get each other into trouble in one way or another." Elley nods her head in agreement. Jack leaves to go talk to some of the other boys. The minute he's gone, Elley throws her arms around Blink and Mush.

"Thank you both so much!" Elley says and both boys hug her back. Mush shoots Blink a small look and Blink backs off a little bit.

"As much as I want the credit, I think Mush here really was the one who handled it all," Blink says. He pats Mush on the back before leaving the washroom.

"So, youse wants to sell wid me?" Mush asks once it's just the two of them.

"I do," Elley responds. Mush smiles at her.

"Can I call youse Ells? I know Jack calls ya El. Can Ells be my little nickname for ya?" he asks and Elley grins at him.

"I think we can make that arrangement happen," she responds as she starts fiddling with her hair.

"Can ya also stop getting into so much trouble? I can't guarantee that I'se gonna be able to save ya every time from some disaster. Neither can Jack or Blink," Mush pleads. Elley winds a loose strand of her hair around her index finger.

"No guarantees, but I'se will try to do it so that we can actually sell some papes," Elley says.

"Thanks, Ells," Mush responds and the two finish cleaning up and wander downstairs where Elley recounts her first day of selling papers. It is going to be a fine life carrying the banner for sure.

AN:/ Hey all! I finally finished this one!!! I hope you enjoyed it!! Now, we can finally see some development in Mush and Elley's friendship. More updates will be coming soon for other books and such. I really like reading comments so, please don't be shy in commenting. I had fun writing this one. It was a little hard but, it was fun. Elley is a pretty easy character to write for because she's got some spunk but at the same time, she gets along pretty well with everybody. We'll see more of that as she continues to make appearances in the oneshots. Thanks so much for reading, commenting, and voting!! It matters a lot to me and I really enjoy seeing all of the reactions to what I write. I hope I wrote the younger Kelly sibling well!! See you around soon, friends!!

-Aisling