My Newsies Oneshots

Storm

Rain catapulted from the sky and penetrated the ground; thunder rippled through the air and lightening sliced the sky like a sharp blade. Inside the lodging house, the younger boys were crying from fright and the older boys were running around trying to find enough blankets to keep everyone warm. Specs and Finch were trying to put buckets under the leaks in the roof but to no avail. Davey was heating up some soup for everyone while Race was telling some really bad jokes to take everyone's mind off the storm.

"Jack, dere's no more blankets left and we's can't stop da leaks from flooding the floors." An exasperated Romeo was trying to tell Jack.

"Well, what do you expect me to do?! It's not like I'm a magician!" He was running out of ideas now. At that moment, there was a faint knock at the door. "Wait, did yous here that?"

"No, look are you gonna help or not?"

"Listen, there it was again. Just...just give me a minute, I'll be right back."

Jack wondered over to the front door. He jumped as a loud roar of thunder bellowed in the sky. He completely froze when he opened the door and saw what was standing on the other side of the door. There stood Katherine: soaking wet, bruised and bleeding. Tears were streaming down her face and she was panting heavily. Trickles of blood dripped down the side of her face from a large gash on her forehead. Her right eye was purple and swollen. Her whole body shook in the bitterness of the winter night. Jack couldn't even form any words, he just grabbed Katherine and enveloped her in a tight hug. She broke into body racking sobs and trembled even more. His head swirled with a million and one things that could have happened to her. Without saying a word he led her into the living room and sat sat her down on the couch, all the newsies stopped in their tracks and just starred, they too couldn't form any words. Jack slowly kneeled in front of where she sat and brought her face up to look at her.

"Ace... what happened?" He looked her dead in the eye while speaking in an extremely solemn tone.

"D-delanceys" her small voice quivered as she spoke.

"Those sons of bitches." Davey shocked everyone as he spoke up. Nobody else could move, nor say anything. Jack's whole body shook with anger and rage as Katherine buried her head in hands and began to sob again. Race placed a comforting arm around her as Specs wrapped a blanket around her shuddering frame. Once again, Jack gently lifted her face so she was looking at him.

"What did dey's do?" His voice a little more harsher this time.

Katherine starred helplessly at him as she tried to put the events ,that will now haunt her, into words. Jack's eyes were cold and hard, the way they are when he is extremely furious; he was doing his best not to burst into a rage of anger. She looked around the room as all the boys were intently listening to her, all showing her amounts of compassion that she thought weren't even humanly possible. She inhaled a deep breath and looked down at her trembling hands as she began to speak.

"I-I was on my way home from work as the rain started. Stupidly, I decided to take the route through the alleys as it would be quicker. As the rain got heavier, I began to run; unfortunately, skirts and running do not mix well and I tripped over. As I stumbled to my feet, Oscar was stood at the end of the alley. I-I went to turn around but M..Morris was there and he knocked me back to the ground. Then, t..they-they started saying horrible things about me and you guys. They were kicking me and I tried to stand up for myself b-but...th...they..."

Jack squeezed her hand reassuringly, urging her to carry on. Katherine gathered herself and began speaking again;

"They were beating me up and kept shouting things in my face, I couldn't get up...I've never felt so defenceless." Her voice broke at the last part and she frantically tried to wipe away her tears.

"Did dey's just leave you in the alleyway?" Race inquired.

"Yeah, they just ran away laughing."

The whole room erupted into a cacophony of noise as all the boys shouted in anger, threatening to kill the Delanceys for what they did.

"Quiet!" Davey's voice boomed above the noise, "Nobody is killing anyone, we will deal with the Delanceys later, right now we need to make sure Katherine is okay." All the boys shut up and turned back to look at Katherine.

"How did you get back here?" Davey came and knelt down next to Jack, his voice was now a lot calmer.

She shook her head in confusion, it was all a blur to her,"I must've been lying there for about 20-30 minutes. I couldn't move, I didn't understand what had just happened. I managed to get to my feet and decided it would be quicker to come back here than go to my apartment."

Everybody was quiet, they were all taking in what she was saying.

"Look Kath, we need to get you cleaned up; Jack, you stay here with her. Albert, go get a bowl of clean water and a cloth so we can clean up the cut. Romeo, try and find some ice to put on her eye. Elmer, go see if there is any dry clothes that she has left here that she can change into." Davey ordered, "Would you like a clean blanket?"

"N-no, this one's fine" Katherine still hadn't stopped shivering.

Davey cleared all the other boys out of the room so that only Jack and Katherine were in there now. Jack had been silent while Katherine had explained what had happened, he was now knelt on the floor shaking his head in complete disbelief.

"Jack, what's wrong?" Katherine's soft voice asked him. Jack had to chuckle at this, she had just been through something terrible yet she was more concerned about him.

"I-it's just that...I don't know how dey's could do that to you: if they do it to me, I get that; but not you."

"They're two very cold hearted people"

"Ace, do I have your permission to go an punch them?"

She gave a light hearted chuckle, "For this once, yes. But, just don't leave me just yet" she reached out her arms and clung to him tightly.

"Never" he softly spoke. The pair stayed there for a while until Jack pulled away. He cupped her small face in his large hands and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips, "Has anyone ever told you that yous is beautiful? I don't care what those horrible bastards said cos yous is mine and only mine."

"I love you too Cowboy." She tried to let the horrendous images of the night's events flush out of her memory. She was glad that she would always have Jack and the boys there to help her when she needed it the most.

...
Thank you so much for 200+ reads! Sorry I haven't updated in a little while but I've just been extremely busy and haven't had time to write. Hope you're enjoying the stories so far, let me know if you want me to include any other characters in my oneshots!