Newsies One-Shots

Chapter 92 - Jack and Crutchie

How Jack and Crutchie Became Brothers
Ship - Jack and Crutchie (brotherly)
Era - Modern
Triggers - Abuse, injuries, death, hospitals and shouting.

Jack was frozen with fear as the doors of the closet that was his personal Hell opened. As much as he wished it was someone else who opened them, he was met with the sight of Snyder.

"Sullivan, get out."

Jack scrambled up and tried his best to stand up straight, he couldn't let Snyder think he was weak.

"I've got another boy joining you today and I expect you to be on your best behaviour. Try pull anything and you'll regret it."

Jack nodded and stood frozen, unsure of what he was supposed to do.

"I want this house cleaned from top to bottom," Snyder started ordering. "If there's a speck of dust, you'll regret it, and I expect you to cover up all those injuries. I know you have anger issues but we wouldn't want them to get the wrong idea, would we?

"We wouldn't want to do something we might regret."

Jack wondered why Snyder thought he would regret so much. He was only nine, the only thing he regretted was not cheating on his spelling test.

"Yes, Mr. Snyder," Jack mumbled. "I'll start cleaning now."

"Good." Snyder walked past Jack and sat down on the couch. "I expect the apartment to be spotless."

Jack started cleaning and cleaning. The living room/kitchen took the longest. Snyder seemed to lack the capability to get rid of beer bottles or old take away containers.

By the time Snyder told him to stop cleaning and to get changed into something more 'presentable', it had been three hours and Jack was exhausted.

Another twenty minutes later, Jack was standing by the apartment door in a shirt that hadn't fit him since he was seven and shoes that had holes in the soles.

As they waited for the boy to arrive, Jack felt the exhaustion of the cleaning catching up on him and he yawned. That earned him a slap to the back of the head.

"Don't yawn. It makes it look like I don't care for you. And we both know that's a lie, don't we?"

"Yes, Mr. Snyder."

Jack waited for the boy and his social worker to arrive, trying to plan out a scenario to throw Snyder under the bus and be moved to a new home.

Of course he didn't want to move foster home, that was never fun, he just wanted to be out of Snyder's care.

"Mr. Snyder, it's great to see you." Jack looked at the boy's social worker cautiously. "This is Charlie, he's your new placement."

Jack looked over at Charlie and immediately felt a sense of protectiveness for the boy.

Snyder shook the social worker's hand before putting a hand on Jack's back. "This is Francis. You two will be sharing a room."

Jack waved slightly at Charlie.

"Will you show him the room?" Snyder asked Jack in a sickeningly fake tone.