a purposeful past | s.s

Chapter Nineteen

Specs stepped forward. "What did you do?"

"A mistake," Amy repeated. "Were you not listening?"

Domino glowered. "It's a serious question, Amy. What happened?"

She was silent for a moment. "We... may have just sent Lane into a trap. Not on purpose, I swear! But she kept asking me about the Governor... and I may have said too much."

"Where is she now?" Specs asked.

"On her way to go confront the Governor."

Domino and Specs shared a look with each other. From what she knew, Roosevelt was a decent guy. He always seemed to be in favour of the newsies. And she'd been under the impression that Lane was working with him. What could he have possibly done to have made Lane that mad?

"I'm sorry," pleaded Amy, eyes filling with tears. "I'm so sorry, I never meant for any of this to happen. I just wanted to keep everyone safe."

Romeo, seeing that she was getting worked up, pulled her close to him, letting her cry on his shoulder. After a long moment, Specs turned her towards him and led her to the nearest seat so she'd listen to him.

"Yer not in trouble," he assured her, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Like ya said, ya did what ya thought was right. We'll make sure Lane stays outta trouble, alright?"

But Amy did not look reassured.

Specs sent a pleading look in Domino's direction, and she sighed, approaching them. "Look, Amy," she began, crouching down in front of her. "No one blames ya fa dis, got dat? Heck, even I probably woulda done tha same thing if I was in yer shoes. Yer human, Ames. We all are. We can't jus sit around 'n feel guilty fa every bad thing we've done. Go do somethin' wit dat guilt. Put it ta use, fa goodness sakes. It's tha only way yer ev-ah gonna be able ta forgive yer-self."

Amy looked up at her with puffy, teary eyes, sniffling and nodding. "Okay."

"You two, go get Finch," Specs ordered them, knowing there was hardly any more time to waste. She'd be lying if she said her heart hadn't swelled the slightest bit at the determination in his voice. "Get any of tha oth-ah old-ah newsies if ya can. Me 'n Domino'll go get Trek."

Domino's gaze snapped up. "We'll what?"

"He was tha lead-ah of tha trolley strike," Specs told her. "And tha closest thing ta a parental figure Lane's got. He's gotten us outta situations like dis before."

"How much trouble can a single person get into?" Domino muttered, truly wondering.

He didn't respond, ushering them all out the door. She supposed it was good one of them had their head screwed on right. But then she was hit with a thought. "Specs, I don't think dis is gonna work."

He turned to face her. "What'd'ya mean?"

"Trek was part 'a tha trolley strike."

He was silent for a few moments. "So?"

"Where d'ya think he works?" Domino demanded. Specs winced as it hit him. "If he's drivin' around, how's we s'posed ta find him?"

"Right," he muttered. "We'll jus have ta wait by, I guess."

She massaged her throbbing temples.

They made it to the trolley station where there was absolutely no sign of Trek, as she'd predicted.

"He's not jus gonna be able ta leave work," Specs said nervously, "is he?"

She shrugged. "If he really cares 'bout Lane dat much, I don't think he's gonna let dat stop him."