Papes and Pens

Chapter 3

"Maybe you should stop by camp? I know the boys all want to see you. We haven't gotten t see you since the strike ended and I think some of the kids may be in withdraw. Sound like a good idea?" Crutchie asks one day when Katherine finds him on the streets selling the daily news on her walk from work back to her apartment.

"Sounds great!" Katherine smiles, knowing that going to their camp will buy her more time with Jack. They haven't had any time alone together since the night he barged into their house and there's a lot they still need to talk about. Especially their pasts. "First I have to put my writing things away and then I'll be over."

"Will ya need someone ta escort ya?" Crutchie questions, always reminding Katherine how much of a gentleman he is. So much for being tortured in the orphanage.

"No, I'll be fine. I've lived in New York City my whole life! I know my way around these allies." Katherine says chuckling to herself. When she was little she used to run around the streets pretending she was on secret missions to fund breaking news and write about it in her journals. She has always been a journalist at heart.

"If ya say so!" Crutchie says, crutching off back towards the lodge.

While walking back to her apartment, Katherine thinks about what her days will be like these next couple of weeks. Her job has just started to pick up at the Sun, and she knows that soon her father will be asking for her to work at The World so he can keep an eye on her. She knows he hasn't trusted her since the strike started.

Ever since the strike has ended, things have been a bit intense. The Delancies are still out there and are still mad as ever them. Katherine and the boys tried to overturn their source of income! As she makes her way into the alley, she can sense something is wrong. Something about the air seems to be off, like someone is holding their breath. Before she can think another word, she hear someone jump out from the shadows and gag her. She tries her best to kick and scream as her hands are getting tied around her back to injure whoever is attacking her, but before she can, someone kicks her head and knocks her out.

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With his imagination getting the best of him, Jack decides to follow the stains. With every step he takes, the stains seem to look newer and newer- like someone had got beaten up recently. As he turns the corner, he sees a pair of feet slacked with blood. As he inches closer to the person, he takes in the injuries. Scrapes and bruises trailed their way up the person's arms and legs, burns from ropes on their wrists. Bruises in the shape of fingers around their neck. When he looked at the face, he couldn't believe his eyes. He knew that nose. Those freckles. Katherine.

The next few minutes were a blur. Jack picked up Katherine as gently as possible and ran her to Jacob's Deli which was only a couple hundred feet away.

"Help! Anyone here a doctor? Or know of one?" He says, lying Katherine down on a table.

With a knife from one of the kitchens Jack starts to cut away at Katherine's skirts to see how badly she's injured. Thankfully the bruises end at her waste and start back up again at her thighs, so she still has her dignity left. He listens to her heart, still beating, but quietly. Jack covers her up just enough to keep her decent while Jacob comes to his side with a bucket of water and starts cleaning her off.

"Who would ever do something as cruel as this to a pretty gal like her?" He says, slowly wiping the blood off her arms.

"I thinks it's because she wrote the articles. In the papes. Ya know about the "children's crusade." She helped save my life, and now I must save hers." Jack says, grabbing a clean rag for himself.