So we will move away from January 1st at some point I think, but for now it's the same day. Maybe late evening.

Do all these titles sound alike? I should work on that...

Enjoy! :)

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Spot rereads the message he's going to send to Dutchy through Instagram twice, thrice, more times. As he overanalyzes the text, Race is explaining to David that yes, they will be able to find Jack; but since Dutchy has seen Jack in the modern world, they technically only need to find Dutchy right now, and then they can find the others.

Spot stares at them, huffs, rolls his eyes.

Race glances at him out of the corner of his eye. "Hey, don't think I didn't catch that. You know, I've been able to-"

"Read you since 1899," Spot finishes for him. "Yadayadayada--I know, sweetheart. It's just..." he makes a vague gesture. "All this going in circles is getting on my nerves."

"Okay, we'll stop," Race agrees gently. The longer he looks at Spot's furrowed brow and pursed lips, the more Race's face shows his palpable fondness for his husband. 

"Heard anything from Dutchy yet?" Race gently changes the topic.

"Here." Spot shoves his phone in Race's face. "Is this okay to send?"

Race reads over it aloud. "'Hi there, Ivan! I remember when you went by 'Dutchy.' I'm Spot. I have Race, David, Crutchy, and Boots with me. We would love to meet up with you, as well as Specs, Bumlets, Pie-Eater, and Jack if you know of their whereabouts. When and where would be a good spot to meet you?' Yeah, that sounds good."

Spot takes a deep breath. "Okay." He hits send.

And so they lean in, apprehensive.

Surprisingly, Dutchy call within a few minutes.

Spot hits the accept call button frantically and thrusts his phone in his ear. "Hello? Dutchy?"

"I don't believe it!" Dutchy exclaims. "It really is you!"

Spot lets out a laugh of relief. He moves the phone away from his ear and puts Dutchy on speaker.

"HI DUTCHYYY!" Race,  Crutchy, and Boots exclaim at once. David just smiles at them, chuckles, shaking his head, amused.

"I don't believe it!" Dutchy exclaims again, this time for all to hear. "I never thought I would hear your voices again!"

"It's good to hear you again, Dutchy," Race says.

"And you too, Race," Dutchy responds heartily. "Where have you all been? How long have you been here?"

"I've been here since 2013 with Race," Spot answers.

"1988," David adds. That's less complicated than his ten year time jump.

"Uhhh, today," Boots chimes in. "Crutchy a little longer than that."

"So what have you been up to?" Spot asks.

"By the way we watched Roundhouse," Race adds. "Very entertaining."

Dutchy laughs. "Thirty years. I can't believe it's been that long. I've moved on from acting, I'm a director now! What about you guys?"

"Race and I run a cat café," Spot answers.

"We're here right now!" Race interrupts. "We can send you the address if you want to stop by!"

"Oh yeah, totally!" Dutchy responds.

"If you still keep in contact with the others, it would be nice to see them again too," Spot adds tentatively.

A moment of silence. "Well...I've kept in contact with some better than others. Some...I haven't seen in twenty, nearly thirty years."

They all glance at each other, concern in their eyes. Some of them bite their lips, contemplating, trying to figure out how to respond.

"It's okay if you don't know where everyone is," Spot responds at last. "Just...keep in touch with the ones you can, and we can work on trying to find the others later, okay? I'll send you the address now."

A pause. "Okay. It was nice hearing your voice again, Spot. All of you. I'll be over as soon as I can."

"We can't wait to see you again!" Race adds.

"Me neither. See you all soon! Goodbye!"

"Goodbye!" they all exclaim into the phone.

Spot hangs up, and sends Dutchy the address immediately. He leans back in his chair and crosses his arms. "And now we wait."

The door opens.

It's Dutchy.

Thirty years older than when they last saw him, but it's still him.

"Dutchy!!" they all exclaim.

Crutchy and Boots rush over to him to hug him.

"I never thought I'd see you again!" Dutchy exclaims. "Never in a hundred years! And I guess it has been more than a hundred years, hasn't it?"

They all pause, sent deep into thought by what Dutchy just said.

Because it's true. The last time they saw each other was 1899. Now it's 2024. It has been nearly 125 years. Sure, they didn't live through those 125 years. But still.

And, for the first time in years for a lot of them, they think of how surreal this situation is.

Not wanting to dwell on it much, Spot asks, "So, where are the others?"

Dutchy doesn't need clarification on who. "Oh, I see them every now and then. Pie-Eater and Specs are both out of town, working on their own projects. I told them I was meeting you guys today, and they said they'll try to come as soon as they can."

There's a pause. Dutchy bites his lip.

They understand this isn't good. They all stay there, tense, apprehensive.

Race is the one to break the silence. He prods gently, tentatively. "And Bumlets?"

Dutchy looks down. "He...passed away in 1996. Lymphoma."

Boots gasps. "No!"

Crutchy and Race both put their hands over their mouths. David and Spot sit there in disbelief.

"He fought until the very end," Dutchy murmurs, sadness in his eyes. "He wanted to see the new millennium so bad. He wanted to see if we'd go through another time travel adventure." He chuckles a little at that memory, before becoming sad again. "He thought that maybe we'd go to 2100. Or go back to 1900. He wanted to see everyone again. He missed the newsies."

Race puts a hand on Dutchy's. "He knew that we loved him, didn't he?"

Dutchy looks up at Race, a small smile of appreciation creeping on his face. "Yeah. I think so."

"I hope he knows that we would have done anything to see him again," David says.

Dutchy looks at David. "I think he did."

Crutchy and Boots hug Dutchy again, silently. Dutchy holds them tighter.

"Alright," Dutchy says after they break apart, wiping a tear from an eye. "Let's talk about something else, shall we? How are all of you? What have you been up to since I last saw you?"

Boots and Crutchy tell Dutchy of their past 24 hours. Race and Spot recount their adventure in 2011, and David tells Dutchy of how he wound up in 1978, then 1988. Dutchy agrees that it was strange that that happened to him, and that it probably happened for some reason.

David can't take it anymore. He has to ask. "And Jack? Have you seen him much?"

"Not really," Dutchy answers honestly. "After the show ended, he went back to Seattle-"

"Seattle?" Race interrupts, confused.

"I thought you were going to say Santa Fe," Spot adds, also confused, echoing Race's thoughts. 

Race looks at Spot. "Right?!" Spot nods and makes a little affirmative mhm sound.

Crutchy smiles at them, amused. It may have been over a decade, but they are just like he remembers.

David is losing his patience. "So. Seattle."

"...Why Seattle again?" Race has to ask.

Dutchy waves a hand at him dismissively. "Long story. Anyways, he went back to Seattle, he called maybe a few times, but I haven't heard from him since 2000 or 2001 I think."

They let that sink in. David gets in his head, starts doing some mental calculations.

Boots yawns. Race notices. He looks out the window. "It's getting late."

"I think it's time we turn in for the day," Spot suggests. "We can continue this tomorrow."

No one disagrees.

David's averting his eyes, deep in thought.

Race notices. "What's on your mind, Dave?"

David purses his lips, then sighs. "I think I want to search for Jack." 

Race raises his eyebrows. "You're goin' to Seattle?"

David looks up at Race. "I have to try, you know? You don't have to come with me. I'm assuming most people stayed in New York anyway. I'll go to Seattle, and I won't stop looking until I either learn he went to Santa Fe or back to New York or until I find him. Okay?"

Race thinks. Then he puts his hand on David's shoulder. "Okay. I support you in this endeavor."

David smiles. 

His heart beats faster, excited.

Finally. I can see Jack for the first time since 1899.

I'll find you, Jack.

We survived a strike in an era that wanted to keep us apart.

Do you really think time travel could keep you from me? Now that I have a clue of where you might be?

I'm coming for you, Jack Kelly.

And I won't stop until I find you.

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AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

ASHFDASGKLASDHGJKDJALKSHDF;LSA

"I will find you. I will always find you." So in some contexts that might seem creepy, but I'm a Once Upon a Time fan so I find that phrase very romantic haha.

So why didn't David search earlier, you might ask? Well. He didn't know when or where Jack was. Now he has a clue. Now he can search instead of wandering Earth aimlessly for someone who might not exist in that time.

I think most of the reason why I procrastinated finishing this chapter is that I didn't know if I wanted to keep Bumlets alive. Dominic Lucero died in 1996 of lymphoma. And like...that totally could have happened to Bumlets. And I don't know, I guess a part of me didn't feel like pretending nothing happened in 1996. Like...it didn't feel right writing Bumlets into the present when I can't write Dominic Lucero into the present, if that makes sense? So...yeah, that was my executive decision. No I don't quite like it either.

It would be really nice to have a plan for upcoming chapters...

Eh, I'll figure it out. :)

I hope....

Please, no homophobia or transphobia, profanities directed at other users, hate etc in the comments at all times.

Best,

~Your Beloved Author (who had their last academic classes of high school today)