- Chapter 21 - The Forgotten Mother and the Forgotten Brother -
Warnings: mentions of hospitals and illness, and slight concern
Third Person POV

David was sat on the couch, watching Les with Lucky, when someone sat down next to him.

"Hey, Davey," Tommy boy greeted with a smile.

David looked at him, tilting his head. "Why does everyone keep calling me that?" he asked.

Tommy boy frowned a bit. "I'm sorry. I can call you "David", if you want?" he offered.

David noticed his frown. He quickly shook his head. "No, no, you can call me that," he told him. "I'm just wondering. No one ever called me that before I met you all," he explained.

Tommy boy nodded understandingly. "They really like nicknames." He laughed lightly as he looked around at his brothers.

David looked at him. "Don't I know that," he mumbled.

Tommy boy chuckled. "I swear we all approved of our nicknames," he promised him.

David nodded. "Yeah, I just can't imagine ever going up to someone and suggesting a nickname like "Crutchie", you know?"

Tommy boy nodded, chuckling. "It is a bit weird, but we're weird, so it's fun," he said.

David nodded again.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and it felt like everything erupted into chaos.

David's eyes went wide, and he quickly got overwhelmed with the amount of yelling and Newsies jumping up.

Tommy boy was covering his ears. He looked at David, smiling slightly. "They always get this chaotic when Medda and Kenny come visit," he informed him. "The knock on the door was them."

David didn't get a chance to respond when the door opened and almost everyone in the room chorused a "Hi, Medda. Hi, Kenny". David blinked.

Kenny put the box he had previously been carrying down. They looked up and grinned. "Manhattan brothers!"

"Kenny!"

Elmer and JoJo rushed over to them, knocking them over in a hug. Kenny let out a yelp.

"Boys!" Medda chuckled. "Be careful with them! He just got back from the hospital," she informed them.

Elmer and JoJo quickly got up and helped Kenny up. "Sorry, Kenny," they chorused.

Kenny smiled brightly. "It's okay!" he assured them. "My leg just hurts a bit though... but that's normal!"

Almost instantly, everyone seemed to get worried.

"Sit!" Elmer and JoJo quickly pushed them so he was sitting down on the couch.

Kenny yelped. "I'm sitting!" they exclaimed, their hands up as if they were surrendering. "Calm down! I'm okay! It's normal," he assured them.

Jack chuckled.

Hearing the voice she knew so well, Medda looked at him. She smiled. "Jack Kelly, come over here and give me a hug," she told him, opening her arms.

Jack smiled and pushed off of the wall. "I was going to hug you soon," he assured her as he walked over to her. "I just didn't want to take away the other's time with you."

Medda chuckled. "You're so sweet." She hugged him.

Race grinned and jumped up, pumping his fist into the air. "I was right!"

Jack looked at him. "Don't forget the other part of the bet," he told him.

Medda looked up. She smiled. "Racetrack, sweetheart, you haven't given me a hug either," she pointed out.

Race snapped his fingers in fake defeat. "I should've known that was going to happen." He chuckled a bit as he walked over to Medda and joined the hug.

Jack chuckled, pulling away. "Now you can't tease me about her calling me sweet," he told him.

Race shrugged a bit. "I still can," he responded, his voice a bit muffled by Medda's shirt. "It would just be a bit hypocritical of me."

David blinked. "Wow... I didn't know he knew what that word meant," he commented.

Specs nodded in agreement. "Neither did I," he said, "but I shouldn't be surprised at this point because he does pick stuff up easily and he's pretty book smart."

Race looked at him, a bit offended. "Am not."

Specs sighed deeply. "I'm complimenting you, Racer," he reminded him.

Race shook his head. "Not accepted!" he exclaimed, twirling off. "I disagreee!"

Crutchie looked up. "Do we need a self love talk, Racetrack?" he questioned knowingly.

Race's eyes widened and he poked his head back into the room. "No!"

Crutchie shook his head. "I'll take that as a "yes"."

Kenny watched them. "I miss self love talks," they said. "You all need to visit more," he told them, pointing at all of them.

"You only miss them because they weren't aimed at you," Finch grumbled, sinking into the couch.

Kenny grinned. "Yep! I know my self-worth! And you all should too!" they told them, their hands on their hips.

Medda chuckled. "My sweet boy." She pressed a soft kiss to Kenny's forehead, before walking past him and over to David. "Jack, you didn't tell me that you got a new boy."

Jack pursed his lips. "Oh..." he scratched his head as he tried to act confused, "uh... I guess my bird didn't make it to the theater, huh?"

Medda shot him a look, but couldn't help her lips curling up into an amused smile. She turned back to David. "Hello, my name is Medda Larkin," she introduced herself. "I take care of Kenny, and the rest of these boys, but Kenny is the only one who lives with me. Most of these boys consider me their mother." She chuckled a bit.

David shook her hand. "I'm David, David Jacobs," he introduced himself. "My brother, Les, he's here somewhere," he informed her.

Race walked back into the room, his cigar in his mouth. "He's running around upstairs with Lucky," he informed them, before walking back out another door.

David nodded.

Medda smiled. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, David," she said. "How old is your brother?"

David sighed softly. "Almost ten, yet he acts like both a toddler and a wise old man from my stories at the same time," he muttered, rubbing his eyes.

Medda chuckled. "Kids tend to be that way sometimes," she responded.

David nodded.

Medda looked around the room. "Well, welcome to the family, David," she said with a warm smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, and if you need help settling in, let me know," she told him.

David watched her, a bit shocked by her kindness. She reminded him of his mother. He swallowed hard and nodded. "Thank you," he mumbled.

Medda looked back at him, the look in her eyes almost as if she knew what he was feeling. She turned back to the other boys. "Alright! We brought food for you all, so someone should go put it away," she told them with a chuckle.

The boys in the room nodded, and two of them grabbed the boxes to go bring them to the kitchen.

Henry and Specs followed them to help put stuff away and make sure it went in the correct places.

Medda chuckled. "I missed you boys," she said, mainly to herself.

Most of the boys in the room heard her. They smiled. "We missed you too, Medda," they responded in a semi-together, but not extremely in unison, way.

Medda smiled.

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Fun fact: the earliest recorded use of "they" as a gender neutral personal pronoun was in the 14th century in a French poem called William the Werewolf. There was a brief attempt to use one gender neutral pronoun in the 1880s called "thon", but it didn't become popular.