The Name's Crutchie

Chapter 4: Jack Kelly - Mother Hen

The afternoon passed too quickly. The rest of the boys were out for quite a while, there had been some difficult headlines and they were glad for a reason to celebrate. As soon as Jack heard the door slam open he basically flew from Crutchie's bed, settling on the one beside it. Flattening his hair and making sure everything looked normal and there was nothing suspicious. A smirk tugged on the side of Crutchie's lips, amused by Jack's paranoid actions.

"You look like you've seen a ghost, Kelly" Crutchie teased as the colour slowly returned to Jack's face. Jack pulled a face as Mush and Blink walked into the room, followed by the rest of the newsies. There was a chorus of greetings as everyone settled down into their usual spots. Jack glanced around the room.

"Where's Race?" Jack asked, although he already knew the answer.

"Brooklyn" Skittery replied. Jack just nodded and lay down on his bed, pulling his hat over his eyes.

"Wait." Jack sat up glancing around the room. "Where's Specs." It was weird for the boy to be late. The rest of the boys looked around realising that Specs wasn't with them.

"Uh, we haven't seen him." Buttons admitted avoiding Jack's eyes.

"Yeah, we thought he was here or something. " Added Elmer. Jack gave them all a withering glare.

"Are you telling me that no one has seen him since he finished sellin'?" Jack snapped. The boys looked around at each other, no one wanting to tell Jack that. Crutchie moved over to Jack's side, trying not to wince at the pain.

"Well, we saw him. Did he say where he was going?" Crutchie asked, desperately wishing he could hold Jack and tell him it was going to be all right.

"He said he was going to Jacobi's" Crutchie could see Jack slowly spinning out, thinking of all the things that could've gone wrong.

"Hey, Jack. C'mon nothing that bad could've happened to him. Crutchie placed a gentle hand on his shoulder but Jack shrugged it off and stood up, facing away from the rest of the boys giving Crutchie a warning look. Any sort of touching was off limits in front of the Newsies even though Crutchie used to do it all the time before they were together but now Jack was just so damn paranoid that they would get caught. Running his fingers through his hair Jack went through all the different places Specs could be, nothing made any sense. Someone tapped his back and he spun around. It was Romeo.

"Jack, if ya want I could go lookin' for him. He probably just wants a bit of space it won't do any good to send out a huge search party." Romeo was one of the smaller newsies height wise but he could hold his own. Jack thought about it for a second and nodded.

"Yeah, that would be good Romeo. But if he's in trouble come back here and get me. We don't need anymore broken bones." Romeo nodded in agreement and walked out the door. Jack sat back down on his bed, with his head in his hands. Crutchie couldn't stand it anymore, shuffling closer to Jack.

"I'm kinda sick of being cooped up in here. Do you think we could go up to the roof?" Crutchie asked, hoping that would be able to clear Jack's head. Jack nodded and they made their way up to the roof. It was slowly getting colder and there was a nip in the air. Jack and Crutchie lay on the old mattress, under the blanket they had brought up. Jack propped himself up on his elbow and started playing with Crutchie's hair absentmindedly twirling his fingers through the boys soft locks. Crutchie turned to look at him with the sweetest smile that made Jack melt. Leaning down Jack pressed his lips against Crutchie's feeling the heat rising from the boy's face, obviously blushing. Crutchie wrapped his arms around Jack's neck, pulling Jack closer. Jack smiled into the kiss; Crutchie was adorable when he took charge. Jack, feeling mischievous wrapped an arm around Crutchie's waist and pulled him against himself. The smaller boy let out an indignant squeak, muffled by Jack's lips on his own. Jack pulled away from the kiss, arm still around Crutchie. He gazed at him adoringly.

"You're beautiful, ya know that?" Jack murmured, nuzzling Crutchie's neck. Crutchie squirmed slightly, Jack's hair tickling his neck.

"Yeah, right." He scoffed. Jack was taken aback, propping himself up on his elbow. He stared into Crutchie's eyes hoping to see that he was joking.

"Crutch, c'mon, you're gorgeous." Jack beseeched, unable to understand how Crutchie couldn't see that. Crutchie backed away slightly.

"There's nothing beautiful about me, okay. Just a bum leg and a face no one could love." Crutchie avoided Jacks looks of bewilderment.

"Hey... hey!" Crutchie looked at him. "You are absolutely stunning, I don't care that you got a bum leg, and as for your face," Jack's fingers ghosted over Crutchie's freckles, making him shiver. "I love it, and I love you." Jack kissed Crutchie's forehead pulling him into a tight embrace, Crutchie's head resting on his chest. " And don't you ever forget that." Crutchie snuggled into Jack, glad for the warmth.

"I love you too, Jack." Crutchie mumbled into Jack's chest. Jack smiled and looked at him, pressing a soft kiss into his hair.

"I know." Crutchie was soon asleep, lying peacefully on Jack but Jack couldn't sleep. Specs had been missing for quite a while and Romeo wasn't yet back. Jack's head was spinning trying to work out what had happened when he heard footsteps on the pavestones below. Slipping out of Crutchie's reach making sure he didn't wake the poor boy up he needed to sleep, the pale moonlight made the bruises on his face look even worse. Walking to the edge of the roof Jack looked down and saw the outline of two figures, the taller one leaning on the other.

"Romeo?" Jack called out in a hushed tone. His heart filled with hope. The shadow looked up.

"Hey Jack," Jack breathed a sigh of relief. Jack heard a slurred 'heeey' from the boy next to Romeo who sounded a lot like Specs.

"Is everything good?" Jack asked hoping that he wouldn't be needed to go and tend to more injuries.

"Yeah, everything's fine. Go back to sleep." Romeo replied, Jack grunted thanks and turned back around crawling back into the bed, if it could be called that. Crutchie rolled over, wrapping his arms around Jack again.

"Is Specs alright?" Crutchie muttered, still half asleep. Jack stroked his hair trying to lull him back to sleep.

"Yeah, he'll be fine." Jack reassured him. "Now, you gotta get some sleep." Crutchie cuddled up against Jack.

"Can you sing the song?" Crutchie asked softly. Jack smiled down at him.

"Of course. Santa Fe?"

"Yeah," Crutchie closed his eyes and muttered sleepily. "That one." Jack hugged Crutchie tight and started singing, his voice soft.

"Close your eyes...

Come with me,

Where it's clean and green and pretty.

And they went and made a city outta clay."

Crutchie was soon asleep and Jack was finally peaceful, he looked up into the night and for once he wasn't wondering if he would ever get to Santa Fe. Just as long as he had Crutchie everything was going to be all right.

"Why, the minute that ya get there,

Folks'll walk right up and say,

Welcome home, son, welcome home to Santa Fe"

Maybe this was his Santa Fe.

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I'm not dead!! Sorry for being inactive! So I hope you guys enjoy this chapter stay tuned for the next chapter where we find out about what happened with Specs. Enjoyyyyyyyyyy. 

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