This is going to be like a modern AU, and this is how Crutchie and Race get their newsie names.
The teachers told us to do free writing so this is what I did.
TW for lots of pain and injuries.
"TONY! GIVE MY STUFFED TOY BACK!" Charlie yelled. "NOT A CHANCE!" yelled the little 8 year old boy over his shoulder. Charlie sighed, stood up and started chasing his little brother. Sometimes he didn't know why he tried to convince his foster mom, Medda, to adopt Tony, but all the good memories he had was worth it.
Tony ran down the stairs as fast as he could, holding Charlie's grey-blue stuffed elephant above his head. The toy was very lumpy after a whole decade of it being squeezed tightly every single night.
Unfortunately, Jack, the oldest brother was stomping up the stairs, phone in hand. When Tony passed him on the steps, Jack nearly lost his balance on the small wooden stairway. Turning to a fleeing little brown-haired boy literally flying down the stairs to tell him off, Jack didn't see Charlie out of control and descending the steps.
Oh shoot. Charlie thought as he saw Jack's extended foot. He braced himself as his foot tripped over Jack's new sneakers.
Jack withdrew his foot too late. Charlie went sliding down the stairs, the socks on his feet not helping slow him. Charlie screamed. Tony stopped in his tracks and looked around, his cheerful expression quickly replaced by a complex one of fear, guilt, and sadness.
Charlie screamed again as he landed one last time on his right leg. He could hear snaps. The pain was at a point where he couldn't feel anything.
He passed out.
Medda Larkin was at her theatre, Irving Hall, rehearsing with the Bowery Brigade when she got a phone call. She saw it was Jack calling. This was interesting, as he would normally text or just wait until she got home. Medda pressed the answer button on the screen, and held the phone up to her ear. "MOM! MOM!" The voice of Tony shouted through the tiny speakers in the phone. "Yes, darling? What's wrong?" She asked, holding the phone much further away from her ear. "ISTOLECHARLIE'STOYANDRANDOWNTHESTAIRSWITHITANDJACKAXWIDENTALLYTIRPPEDCHARLIEANDNOWHE'SPASSEDOUTONTHEGROUNDANDIDON'TKNOWWHWATTODO-"
"Slow down, Tony. Remember what I said? When you are panicking, slow down."
Medda could hear Tony take a deep breath through the phone, and Jack murmuring something a lot further away.
"I stowle Charlie's toy and ran down the stawirs with it and Jack axwidentally twripped Charlie and he passed out on the gwond and I dunno what to do!"
~Timeskip of about half an hour~
Jack could have not been so relieved when Tony ran from his position at the window shouting "JACKIE THE AMBUWANCE IS HERE!"
He had been trying to confort Charlie, and didn't know what to do at all. The operator asked Jack to describe the breaks in the injured leg, but Jack almost didn't want to look at it. It had broken in about four different places, each break making the leg twist at such an angle it was unnatural. The one small miracle was that Charlie had stayed unconscious the entire time, meaning that he wouldn't have to feel the agony that he could probably still feel. It was something horrible that any ten-year old would have to feel.
Jack also always felt like the older brother, being 11. He wasn't quite sure that his brother would ever be able to walk properly again. It would mean that Charlie needed a lot more help than before. He also couldn't rely on Medda or Tony, since Medda had to work long hours at the theatre, and Tony was too young and careless to help.
How he hated being the older brother sometimes.
Charlie started to wake up. He wished he didn't want to, because the pain from his leg was just agony. He wanted to scream, and let it all out, but all that came was a whimper. He noticed that he was in somebody's arms, and that somebody started quietly singing lullabies to him. Jack. Charlie buried his head into Jack's chest, closing his eyes once again. He drifted in and out of consciousness, until a loud, screeching wail of what sounded like an ambulance woke him.
Emilia was a paramedic. She had treated hundreds of patients in her career, but never expected to hear of an injury as severe as this on such a small child. She also didn't expect a little brown eyed young boy to come running up to the ambulance. "Are you the doctor? Charlie just woke up again." Emilia's eyebrows scrunched up slightly as she tried to understand what the boy was saying. Bending down to his eye level, she said in a comforting voice; "What's your name?"
"Tony."
"And is Charlie who I am treating today, Tony?" The little boy nodded. Emilia motioned for him to come inside, with her colleagues who were carrying a stretcher inside.
The injury had sounded bad on the phone, according to the operator, but this injury took it to the next level. Emilia realised something in shock, and she sighed before telling the three siblings sitting together, "I'm sorry, but you'll never be able to walk on that foot again."
It had been a few weeks. Charlie was getting used to walking and moving around with his crutch. Tony had gotten a new nickname for him, which was Crutchie. Charlie didn't exactly like it at first, but it had suited him very well. In return, Charlie gave Tony a nickname as well: Race because god damn that kid was fast.
Jack was... well just plain old Jack who loved art.
And while we're here, I'd like to introduce my friend who just joined, TylerHa11 . His name is Tyler but please, PLEASE call him Bunsen. Or Bestie Bunsen.
(FYI he's also vertically challenged and going to kill me for saying that at school tomorrow)
