So. I'm back. 

Things here aren't looking so hot in this story.

Yes, things get worse ... but things are also on their way to getting better.

Enjoy! :)

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Jack made a mistake.

A horrible, horrible mistake.

And he can't do anything to fix it.

He wakes up this morning in a basement.

No Kloppman to shout at everyone to get up.

No newsies moving around sleepily as they start their morning routine.

He is completely and utterly alone.

He went to sleep last night feeling awful, and he's not feeling any better now.

And to add on to all that, he has to carry the banner in the worst way possible: working for Pulitzer. As a scab.

The idea of getting out of this basement and starting the day just got less appealing.

But he has to.

Because he's not allowed to not get up for the day.

Because the world--and The World--won't let him not get up and go sell papes.

And so, slowly, he stands up and heads upstairs to the circulation center.

His fine clothes of fine fabric are suffocating.

Just like this whole situation.

But he just has to get through it.

And once he does, he's out of here. He can finally, finally get to Santa Fe.

Not yet, though.

"Did ya have a nice beauty sleep, Cowboy?" Weasel sneers as he gets 100 papes for Jack.

Jack doesn't answer.

The Delanceys come up next to him. The more he ignores them, the better.

But they won't let him ignore them.

"You know this don't mean we're exactly on the same side, right Cowboy?" Oscar jeers in his ear. 

"If you think we're on the same side, you're dreamin'," Jack mutters, turning to walk away.

Oscar's next words stop him in his tracks. "Why don't ya come with us? We're gonna fix your pal David. Fix him so he can't walk-"

"SHUT UP." Before Jack knows what's happening, he's suddenly all up in Oscar's face.

"Hey! Hey!" Weasel yells. "Lift one finger, Cowboy, and it's right back to the Refuge."

Jack doesn't make a move, nostrils flaring. And, because he has no choice, he eases off and walks away.

He sighs to himself when it's just him and his thoughts again. He tries to forget yesterday. But it will forever be in his mind, haunting him for eternity. The hatred on everyone's faces. Everyone he's ever cared about.

The look on David's face.

And now Jack can't stop thinking about him.

The thing is, he knows that their love was doomed from the start.

They were never meant to last forever.

Nothing lasts forever. Not childhood, not being a newsie, not who's your friend or who's your lover. The only thing that will last forever is this city, with the rich on top and the poor with no way to rise up or to get a fair share, trapping everyone in these lives that they've been born into.

The only other thing that lasts forever is Santa Fe. Santa Fe, the far off place, where everything is better. Sure, it seems to be forever unobtainable, but Jack will make it. Someday.

And then he can forget everything about his first seventeen years of life and finally be free forever.

If only.

And so, with nothing else he can do, he keeps on selling newspapers.

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David didn't want to wake up this morning.

Yet the sun doesn't care about anyone's sorrows, and shines on everything brightly, signaling the start of a new day, a fresh start.

Optimist.

David procrastinates on actually getting up and leaving this bedroom. He goes through his things, finding things he didn't even remember he had, sorting it all, trying to clear his head and give himself something to do.

He can move on.

He's done it before.

This one feels more painful though.

He has to move on, though.

So he shuts down all thoughts of Jack.

He stands up, and gets ready for the day.

He's made up his mind now. He won't look back. He'll only keep moving forward.

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Jack forgot how lonely selling can be sometimes, even as interaction is how he's making his living.

Especially without any other newsies to run into.

Usually, newsies have their own selling spots, or sell together at their own spot. But it's not always that fixed, though. People move around. Sell together. Make friendly competition for who could sell more.

It was only a week ago when this was normal, but it feels like a lifetime ago. He misses it.

He used to give Boots tips on how younger newsies sell better.

He used to smile as he would see Skittery and Tumbler selling papers together.

He used to grin as he watched Blink and Mush sell together, filled with such a good feeling seeing them so happy together.

He used to defend Crutchy if there were any people on the street being mean to him.

He used to make bets with Race over who could sell more papers the fastest.

If anything, it would be even more odd not to see any of the newsies when out selling papers. Every interaction would end with a smile or a smirk as well as feeling brighter.

But all the newsies are on strike, so there's not a single newsie around selling papes.

Except him.

Even if his friends were out selling papers today, he figures they would still stay clear of him.

And that saddens him more than anything else.

Suddenly, he hears someone yelling in the distance, obviously very distressed.

It's Sarah.

And if Sarah is in distress, then that means that Les might be too, and possibly maybe-

David.

Jack doesn't even think.

He drops all his papers.

It doesn't matter what David thinks of him.

Jack's not letting David, or anyone in his family, get hurt.

He sprints over to where he hears Sarah's yells, running faster than he knew he could.

I should have soaked the Delanceys when I had the chance.

Sure enough, in the back of an alleyway, that's what he sees.

He sees Sarah hugging Les protectively, as the Delanceys beat up David.

No.

Suddenly, all the anger that's been manifesting in Jack reaches the surface.

And so he throws himself into the fight.

Morris is about to punch David with brass knuckles. Jack's not going to let that happen.

He spins Morris around, and punches him in the stomach and then the face. Morris, stunned, drops to the ground.

And then there's Oscar.

Jack breaks Oscar's grip of David, shoving David aside, hoping to prevent him from further injury.

Jack grips Oscar's shoulders. There are so many things that the Delanceys have done that Jack is mad about. "Remember Crutchy?" He head butts Oscar, hard, making both of them stumble backward. Oscar had it worse though.

Oscar and Morris begin scrambling away. 

"Just wait, Cowboy!" Oscar shouts as they run away. "You'll be back in the Refuge by suppertime!"

Yeah, I figured. 

But this? This is not a mistake.

So Jack will suffer the consequences of his actions. As long as he's succeeded in protect those he cares about most.

"Run!" Les gets up on his feet and shouts after the Delanceys. "Yeah, that's right! You hear me? RUN!"

Everyone is breathing hard.

Jack helps Sarah up. "You okay?"

She hugs him briefly. "Yeah."

He turns back to David. David, who is on the ground, winded. It's obvious Jack didn't get here soon enough to prevent all the things the Delanceys did to him.

David, who is too breathless to say anything, glaring at Jack as hard as he can.

Jack knows he's probably the last person David wants to see right now.

Still, slowly, gently, he lowers a hand to David. If David takes his hand, that's totally his choice.

David hesitates. It looks like he's going to turn away, but then thinks better of it and takes Jack's hand, letting Jack help him up. 

"You okay?" Jack murmurs softly, his other hand hovering over David's face, checking for any serious injuries.

David shrugs away from Jack, too stubborn to stop glaring, or keep the bitterness out of his voice. "Couldn't stay away, now could ya?"

Jack should have expected that. He takes it graciously. "I guess I couldn't." It's the truth.

David lets out a dry, breathy laugh. "You just had to, didn't you." Not a question.

"Well, I knew I had to step in," Jack answers honestly. "Because if anything bad happened to you, or your family ... I don't know what I would do with myself."

That's a better answer than David was expecting. He doesn't have anything in response.

And so they stand there, not speaking, just being there.

Sarah pulls Denton's article out of her pocket. She knew she should hold on to it. "You need to read this." She hands it to Jack.

He skims it quickly, eyes widening as he reads it. If they publish this ...

"There's still a chance," Sarah says. "For the strike, for everyone."

Would everyone accept me back?

"You think this could work?" Jack asks. "You think we can turn things around and win the strike?"

She nods.

"Thought you were a scab," David puts in, his tone saying everything about what he thinks of Jack.

"Yeah, I was, but I guess I can't be something I ain't," Jack returns. He turns back to Sarah. "So we got talk to Denton about printin' this, is that what you're saying?"

"I think it could work," she says.

Jack smiles. "That's good enough for me."

She offers a smile in return.

Jack turns back to David. "Alright, Davey."

"No," David interjects immediately before Jack can actually get to his point. Not Davey.

Jack didn't need to hear David's thought aloud to get what he meant.

Jack sighs. "Alright then, David." He continues. "So I know what I think about this, and what Sarah thinks about this..."

"I say it's a good idea!" Les chirps.

Jack chuckles. "I know what Les thinks about this..." He swallows. "So what do you think about this?"

David pauses. "You still actually want to hear my opinion?"

Jack nods. "'Course. I mean, where can the strike go if the strike leader ain't on board with the plan?"

That has David taken aback. "Strike ... leader? "

"Hey, if you don't like the idea of bein' a single leader, we can talk about sharin' the title again," Jack replies, his charisma coming back into his words, while still being totally honest and authentic, "but yeah, I think I gave up the rights to bein' the leader when I scabbed. So yeah, it's all on you. And we can't go through with this unless you decide this is a good idea."

The beginning of a smile tugs at David's lips.

He thinks about it.

He sees Jack looking at him earnestly, and the way he looks at him, like he wants to make things right, but also knowing that David needs space...

He's changed.

He wants to make things right. Once and for all. David can see that.

And so he lets the smile come. "Sure. Let's go."

"There is one more thing, however," Sarah stops them before they can keep going.

"What's that?" David asks.

"I know you two have met before this week," she says.

David and Jack both stop. Who told her?

"I figured it out myself," she continues. "It's obvious you guys have a history. Now, I don't know exactly what happened, but there is one thing I know: on the way to Denton's place, you will talk it all out."

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So Sarah is the only one who knows that they need to get it together, and is the only one who will make them get it together.

I love the way I wrote Sarah in this story.

Once again I am surprised by the amount of words haha.

Usually I don't like just posting a single chapter, but I'm writing a chapter later tonight, so either tonight or tomorrow there will be a chapter to accompany this one.

The thing about Jack scabbing ... you can tell that he doesn't want to do this. That he's trapped. A lot of people lack sympathy for him here, because yeah, it was his choice, but it wasn't much of a choice. He was caught in a lose-lose situation. And he was not happy about it. And then the Delanceys taunt him, and threaten David, and that strikes a nerve, but he can't do anything, or else it all comes crashing down.

Because there are times where you aren't allowed to not do something, like people won't let you not be able to do it.

I don't know how much sense that makes, but that's my take on things.

Also I just need to say I love how in the movie Jack's always just there when David needs him. Jack never misses an opportunity to swoop in and be a white knight in shining armor, whether David appreciates it or not.

...Okay, in general I just really love the trope of Person A always knowing when Person B is in trouble, and somehow miraculously always saves the day haha.

So. They're on their way to reconciling, once and for all.

I can't wait.

Please, no homophobia or profanities, hate etc in the comment section.

Best,

~Your Beloved Author (who loves finding the diversity in the face of adversity)