Sorry guys for the REALLY long wait and the switching POV's
Mentions of the Refuge and su!c!de and violence and injuries
Also a lot of stressing and injures
And I still think that Race is the second in command of the Manhattan Newsies.
Crutchie could only helplessly watch as the Delancey brothers dragged an unconscious and bleeding Jack away to the Refuge, with Snyder and the bulls following behind. He choked back a sob. Crutchie remembered the first time Jack got sent to the Refuge. Even though he'd made it back after a week or so, the short time spent there was much more than enough. If the former leader of the Manhattan Newsies, Quaver, hadn't come up to the rooftop of the Lower Manhattan Newises Lodging House to get some fresh air, Jack would have become a pancake on the streets of Manhattan. Crutchie got away from there as fast as possible, heading straight for the Lodging House. He couldn't stop the tears coming down his face, and his knees were starting to fail at the task of holding him up.
The Lodging House may have provided some sense of security, but the energy in there was really, really low.
Specs was rushing around, treating injuries while the others tried their best to not strain their injuries further or fidget with the bandages.
Albert came up to Crutchie. "Jack?" He asked, his voice faltering. Crutchie slowly shook his head, aware that everyone was staring at him, even Les. Albert's eyes turned hard. "THIS WOULD NOT HAVE FREAKING HAPPENED AT ALL IF SPOT CONLON HAD MOVED HIS FREAKING BUTT AND DECIDED TO COME HELP US!" Crutchie was taken aback by Albert's sudden outburst before trying to gesture to the younger or more innocent newsies. Albert was too angry to care, and was about to shout again when Race came up and hugged him from behind. Albert sank into his boyfriend's embrace, feeling the aftermath of his actions.
"What do we do now?" Race asked from behind Albert. "Now that Jack's in the Refuge, are the other boroughs even going to consider joining us?"
"No!" Crutchie shouted. "We can't just give up, now!" Davey walked over and placed his hand on Crutchie's shoulder. "I agree. We can't back down now."
All the other newsies had expressions of nervousness or anxiety on their faces. "Fine," Davey said. "If we need Jack, we'll break him out of the refuge. But I need your support on this. We need to break Jack out of the Refuge, we need to ask Ms Medda for the use of her theatre as somewhere we can hold a rally, and convince the other boroughs to rejoin the strike and to come to the rally."
It was like that couple of sentences changed something in the newsies. They sat up straighter, their eyes not so hollow and miserable. They were ready to continue on the strike.
And that was how Race, Specs, Jojo, Tommy Boy and a couple of others went off on a long walk to try and persuade the other boroughs to join the strike again and come to the rally that night at Irving Hall whilst the remaining newsies proceeded to think of a plan to break Jack out of the Refuge.
Davey had never known that he was this reckless. Sure, suggesting a strike and actually going along with it was not him, but suggesting to break his boyfriend out of jail (JAIL!) was completely absurd. But he'd already suggested it, so he might as well go along with it. Jack had planned a jailbreak by himself, didn't he?
Race was... not sure what he was feeling. He needed to get his mind around things. How did it all go downhill so fast? He didn't know, and he definitely would not have a clue how the HECK life worked. It wasn't treating him well anyways. Race saw a man walking in front of him. He was well dressed, and looked slightly familiar. Race frowned and slipped into the alleyway. It was better to be safe than sorry, since it was sunset and he was still about two hours away from Brooklyn.
