a striking pair | f.c

Chapter Twelve

"Hey, Jack?"

Jack turned around in surprise to see Finch leaning on the ladder to the fire escape, eyes narrowing in concern and confusion. "Finch? What's goin' on? Is everythin' alright?"

Finch hesitated for a moment, but he pushed himself to talk, because he could tell every second he stayed silent drove Jack more and more mad with worry. "What'd'ya do when ya found out that Katherine was Pulitz-ah's daughter?"

Jack stayed silent for a while, gazing at the boy suspiciously. "Any reason in particular?"

Finch shrugged, elbows digging into the metal of the ladder.

"C'mon up," Jack sighed. "I can't talk ta ya from down there."

So Finch hauled himself up, and leaned against the railing of the rooftop, his bandaged hand curling around it awkwardly. "I can see why ya like it so much up here. I can see... everythin'."

Jack chuckled, facing him with his head tilted. "Ya done yet?"

Finch scowled at him playfully. "Yeah. Ise done. Tell me yer secrets, O wise one."

"I was mad," Jack recalled. "And I felt betrayed. But I think I was mostly in shock. I mean, at first, I thought she was feedin' stuff about the strike to her faddah. Obviously, that wasn't true, and I was just bein' dramatic, but that's how it felt."

"Ya forgave her though," Finch pointed out, "right?"

"Yeah, yeah," Jack turned towards the setting sun. "I forgave her. After the rally, she came up n' knocked some sense into me. Dat was when I realized I loved her."

"How'd ya know ya could trust her again?"

"I didn't," Jack answered truthfully, a ghost of a smile on his face. "But she managed ta convince me. When ya love someone, ya trust 'em no matter what."

"What if ya didn't love her?" Finch questioned. "Would things have gone differently?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "But what I do know, is dat I wouldn't have cared nearly as much if I didn't. Maybe dat's why I got so angry."

Finch thought about that. Lane had really hurt him when he found out she was a Delancey. And he knew that she wasn't anything like those brats, but he couldn't help but feel lied to.

She ain't a scab, he tried to tell himself. She's their family, not their clone.

"Ya never told us how ya found out," Finch pointed out. "That Katherine was Pulitz-ah's, I mean."

Jack sighed. "It was when I went to tell Pulitz-ah 'bout the strike. Ya remember dat, right?"

Finch nodded slowly.

"Yeah, well, Joe wasn't tha only Pulitz-ah in that room." He huffed. "Aft-ah dat whole thing, Pulitz-ah told me he'd have you all locked up in tha Refuge if I didn't speak against tha strike."

"Ya think she's da reason ya spoke against it?" Finch asked. "'Cause you was mad at her?"

"Nah," Jack snorted. "I cared too much about all 'a ya ta let ya get thrown in tha Refuge. But ya know dat."