Time Truly Divides || Newsies Time Travel AU

Epilogue

Jack smiled at Davey as he carried the small box containing a sketchbook, some pencils and colours and the phone Medda had bought for him the week before up the stairs.

"Thanks for helping me, but I could've done it myself," Jack said, trying to take the box from Davey.

"Not a chance, Jackie. You just got your cast taken off. I'm carrying it for you."

Jack opened his mouth to try and argue but a look from Race shut him up.

"You shouldn't argue. David's not going to let his Jackie do anything to hurt himself," Race teased. Jack brought his hand back and Race ducked away immediately. "Sorry."

"Why're you even here?" Jack asked Race. "We're moving a box. One. That's it."

"Someone's gotta keep an eye on you two. Make sure you don't get up to anything." Race wiggled his eyebrows at Jack, earning him eye rolls from both boys.

Jack shoved Race in the direction of his own room and away from Jack's. Davey watched them with an amused smile on his face.

A moment later, Crutchie stuck his head out his bedroom door and frowned. "Racer, leave them alone. Don't you have math homework."

Race groaned before sulking off to his room, dragging his feet as he had to leave.

Jack smirked at Davey and linked their arms, going into his room at long last. Davey placed the box down on the bed while Jack shut the door.

"How's it feel to be back in your room?" Davey asked, wrapping his arms around Jack's waist.

"I think I was in the other room longer than this one," Jack pointed out. It had taken a while, between new casts, crutches and boots, to finally get back to his own room. "But, y'know, we've never kissed in this room."

"What're you suggesting?"

Jack took Davey's hand and led him over to the bed. "I dunno. But we've got some free time."

Davey leaned down and kissed Jack, grinning as Jack stood on his toes to chase his lips when he pulled away.

"Miss Larkin's gonna be mad if she catches us."

"She won't care. And she always knocks."

Jack kissed Davey, smiling as Davey placed a hand on his hip. They stayed there, just kissing for a while, eventually they moved so they were sitting on the bed. When a knock came on the door, Jack rolled his eyes.

"Go away, Race," he shouted. "You have homework you should be doing."

"It's me, darling. Can I come in?"

Davey climbed off of Jack's lap and ran his fingers through his hair. "You okay?" he asked Jack quietly. Jack nodded slightly. "Don't worry, you know she's cool with us, if she asks you can just say we were messing around."

Honestly, he was freaking out but Jack was freaking out more so the least he could do was pretend he was fine.

Jack nodded and took a deep breath before shouting, "Yeah, Medda. Come in."

The door opened slowly and Medda stuck her head around, smiling at Jack and Davey.

"Hey, boys. Jack, hon, can I talk with you for a moment?"

Jack glanced at Davey. "Yeah, sure."

Davey rubbed his hand down Jack's arm as he left, doing his best to offer some sort of reassurance.

"What's up, Medda?"

"I got a call from your social worker," she started. Jack's heart stopped. "It's all okay, she received a call from the prison your dad's in a while ago. She's been in contact with them lately too."

He scanned Medda's face, trying to get any sort of a hint from her expression. It was painfully blank.

"Is it good or bad?"

"They wanted to know if you still wanted to visit him due to the... circumstances that made you miss the last visit. I told her I'd talk to you."

"Can I visit him?" Jack asked. "Like, soon?"

He rubbed his hand against the back of his neck and stared at Medda as he waited for an answer. In his mind, it felt like hours to him waiting for the answer. In reality, it was no more than a few seconds.

"I don't know if it'll be soon soon but hopefully soon," Medda explained. "But if you want to visit him, we can go through the procedure to get you a slot to visit."

"Really?"

Medda smiled. "Really."

Jack grinned broadly as he rocked back on forth on his heels for a moment before jumping forwards and hugging Medda tightly. "Thank you," he said repeatedly. "Thank you, Mama."

"Of course, baby." Medda reciprocated the hug and pressed a gentle kiss to Jack's forehead. Jack probably wouldn't admit it to anyone but himself but he liked the way she just folded her arms around him and made everything feel safe. Like nobody could ever hurt him if Medda was holding him close.

"Oh, honey, what's wrong?" she asked, pulling away and placing a hand on Jack's cheek.

Jack hadn't even realised that he'd started crying. "I don't know. I- I'm really happy," he admitted. "I'm sorry."

Medda shushed him and pulled Jack back into the hug. "Don't be sorry, baby. You never have to be sorry for your emotions."

Jack didn't try to force himself to stop crying or pretend he was okay. He just let Medda hold him as he cried into her shoulder.

In that moment Jack realised that he wasn't okay. After years of pretending to be okay and acting strong when he was about to break down.

For once in his life, he could not be okay. And he was still loved either way.

~~~
941 words

So this book is finished, hurray. I'm probably not going to post a book for a while, I'm planning on adding some to ao3 so I'll mostly be editing and whatnot. I do have some books that have a couple chapters so I'm going to work on them and see if I can start posting them soon enough.

But, anyways. Hope you enjoyed the book.