Warnings: Mentions of kidnapping, abuse, among other things
Third Person POV
In Queens

Race woke up to his head pounding, and it didn't take long for him to figure out why.

In about five seconds, all of the memories from the day before flooded Race's head.

He had been kidnapped.

That explains why his head hurt that bad, they used chloroform.

Where the heck did Newsies get chloroform? Like seriously? That's a lot of effort for little old me. Should I feel concerned or proud?

His head was pounding.

This was the reason he hadn't dared to open his eyes yet, for fear that it would make the headache worse.

He could fear ropes tied to both of his wrists.

They weren't tied together, but there were ropes tied to them.

The ropes weren't too tight, but he definitely couldn't untie them, especially not with his headache.

The only thing that confused him; his hands felt free to move around.

Sure, they had ropes tied to them, but he didn't know if the other side of the ropes was tied to anything.

Confused, Race squints his eyes open, trying to look.

Through the blurriness of his vision and his pounding headache, he saw ropes tied to his hands, which he already knew, but they were connected to a (metal) pipe on the wall.

Fun.

Race was also on a bed, and completely unable to move.

He could hear roughhousing from somewhere else in the same building so he had to have been in the Queens Lodging House.

That was basically the only logical answer, but it was also the one that Race feared the most.

My brothers are crazy, and the leaders of Queens, the craziest, well, second craziest borough?

What mess did Manhattan and Brooklyn, more specifically did I, get myself into this time?

In Manhattan

"Race sacrificed himself for us." Albert states. "They knocked us out, or tried for me. While I was still trying to stay awake, I saw Bullet pour chloroform on a cloth, and cover Race's nose and mouth. He was out within a few minutes, after pleading with his brothers. I passed out as they took him away." He explains.

He and JoJo had just woken up.

Specs had treated their injuries as well.

"What are we supposed to do?" Spot questions.

He felt confused. He felt concerned and he felt conflicted like most of the Newsies, but probably more than most of them.

"There's an easy answer to that question," Davey starts, as everyone in the room turns to him. "We save him." He states.

"No duh, Dave." Ike mutters, rolling his eyes.

Davey shrugs, mumbling a 'sorry'.

Mike rubs his twin's back, trying to calm him down. "No need for the sarcasm right now, it isn't helping." He whispers.

Ike just shrugs.

"How are we supposed to help him?" Specs asks, looking around the Newsies in the room.

Nobody answers; they truly didn't know.

They hadn't dealt with this before.

"We go save him?" Mush suggests, more in a questioning tone as he didn't sound so sure.

Specs smacks Mush with his hat. "I know that dummy, but how?" He exclaims.

Blink pulls Mush against him, his arms wrapped around him. "Don't hit my boyfriend!" He exclaims.

Some of the boys laugh weakly.

Romeo looks confused. "When the papes have you two been together?" He asks.

Blink and Mush look at him like he's stupid.

"Since forever." Mush answers, using a tone that it's obvious.

Romeo rolls his eyes. I hadn't known that, jeez.

"I have a plan." Jack finally speaks up, causing everyone to go silent and look at him. "While most of us distract his brothers and the other Queens Newsies, Albert, JoJo, Mush, and Buttons sneak in and save Race." He tells them.

"That's a good plan," Spot starts slowly. "But when do we do it?" He asks.

He wanted to get to Race as soon as he could.

"We can't just go in now." Knobs speaks up. "We're unprepared. We'll be crushed!" He tells them.

"I want to save him though." Spot states, crossing his arms.

"We all want to, but we can't rush into this." Jack responds. "Knobs is right. "Not everyone is as strong as Brooklyn." He reminds Spot.

Spot rolls his eyes, nodding reluctantly.

He still looked annoyed.

"We're gonna save you, Race." Spot whispers, looking up at the ceiling. "I promise on my life I will." He states, closing his eyes.

"That was dramatic." Boots comments, his voice barely a mumble.

Spot ignores him.

We will.

With Race

Race's head was killing him.

His head was pounding; chloroform definitely had side effects and they were horrible.

He hated that he couldn't move.

He hated that he wasn't with his family.

He hated being babied and feeling weak.

He needed Jack.

He needed Spot.

He needed his brothers.

Race wanted to leave.

Leave and get to Spot.

To have Spot hold him again, and take away all of the pain.

To have Jack sing the lullaby that he sang when the boys needed it.

Race was pulled out of his thoughts by something warm being put on his head.

It was warm and wet.

It dawned on him a few minutes later that it was a cloth.

The next thing he felt was someone moving him and two people sitting with him.

His head was in one of their laps and they were playing with his hair as well as gently moving the cloth on his head every few moments.

He heard voices, but he couldn't make out what they were saying.

Race's eyes were closed and he couldn't really open them.

He tried a little, but his head was killing him.

He didn't bother trying again, since he wanted the pain to stop and it wouldn't if he kept trying that.

The only good thing was that the cloth was working a little to take away the pain.

After a few minutes, Race decided to ignore his head, which didn't work horribly well, and open his eyes.

Everything was blurry still and he could barely see.

He had also been right about the fact that opening his eyes wouldn't help his headache.

He could barely make out his brother, Carson, smiling and playing with his hair.

He figured out that his head was in Carson's lap, which makes sense since he had always been the smallest one and he was the youngest.

He was always shorter and smaller than his two siblings.

Race was confused. My brothers just kidnapped me, and Spot as well, why are they being so nice to me?

Carson notices Race's open eyes. "He's awake." He whispers, smiling at Race.

Race only got more confused.

Caleb rubs circles into the palm of Race's hand. "Hey, Anthony." He greets softly.

Race could feel his oldest brother's eyes looking over him, taking in everything that's changed.

He didn't blame him. If he could see well, he would've studied everything that had changed about his brothers in the last eight years.

Race looked a lot like them.

The only difference was still the eye colors.

The twins always dressed in green.

It was what their mom would have them wear and she would have Race wear blue.

It made the twins smile to see that it stuck with Race.

A cough escapes Race's lips. "Carson?" He whispers, his voice raspy. "Caleb?"

A certain emotion filled his brothers' eyes, but he couldn't tell what it was.

"He knows your names." Haste points out.

Haste had been standing with Rock and Spade, watching the twins with their brother.

He had to admit, it was a little cute and he knew how much they cared about Race.

Haste... I must be dreaming.

This can't be real.

I want Spot.

Race feels tears run down his face.

The twins frown.

He's crying...

Bullet wipes the tears off of Race's face, but Race kept crying.

He couldn't help it.

He felt overwhelmed.

Caleb began quietly humming a song.

It was a lullaby that their mother used to sing to them.

He knew Anthony liked it, even if it was short.

('Star Light, Star Bright' is the name of the lullaby.)

Star light, star bright,
The first star I see tonight;

I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.

When Caleb finished, Race had stopped crying for the most part.

He felt a little nostalgic.

He had to admit, they were good brothers at points like this. He didn't realize they remembered this.

Carson plays with Race's hair. "We missed you." He whispers, trying to comfort his brother.

"Yeah, they spent every moment they could looking for you." Rock tells Race.

Race's head was spinning.

Race felt confused and that didn't help with the dizziness.

He hadn't known that they looked for him.

I thought they hated me, and that they did look for me. I guess I was wrong, they apparently did, but they just kidnapped me, and Spot earlier, for goodness sake. How am I supposed to trust them?

Race felt torn. I love my brothers, but they're not the kids they used to be.

I'm not who I used to be.

I want to go back to Jack and Spot.

If anything, Jack felt like his brother, as well as the rest of the Manhattan Newsies.

Everything was hurting for Race, but the warm cloth and his brother playing with his curly, dirty blonde hair made it feel better.

Just knowing that he was with his brothers again made him feel better, but not too much better.

Like, they had just kidnapped him.

He was not just going to forget that and forgive them.

Race knew his hands were tied, but thankfully they weren't tied to the point where it hurt.

Race also knew he couldn't leave as he was too weak, so he put his hand in Caleb's and tried to squeeze his hand.

He was weak, but he succeeded a bit.

Carson and Caleb both saw this and they smiled at each other.

Anthony was their brother and he knew it, even if he didn't want to admit it.

Race asleep a few minutes later. He had been really tired and his brothers playing with his hair helped calm him down.

The three boys fell asleep like that, and the Queens Newsies thought it was the cutest thing.

They all knew about how much Race/Anthony meant to the twins, and now he was back with his brothers.

1760 Words