Courage

Chapter 10

AN: Two chapters in one hour is something I never do but wow this one was fun to write so here you guys go.

Katherine was livid as she stormed into The World and marched straight up to her father's office, not caring whether or not he was busy. She knew that if anyone could change his mind without blackmailing or forcing him, it was her, and the sooner she could do it, the better.

She pushed open the doors to his office, ignoring the protests of Hannah, and walked right in. As it turned out, he was in a meeting with someone (a man that Katherine had never seen before), but she payed no mind to that, looking at her father with determination.

"Katherine!" Pulitzer's tone was sharp and reprimanding.

"I need to speak with you."

"Yes, well, as you can very well see, I am in the middle of a meeting. You may wait outside and I will see you when I'm done."

She didn't back down. "I need to speak with you now."

The man who was in the meeting was beginning to look uncomfortable, and he spoke up. "I can come back tomorrow, Mr. Pulitzer, it isn't an urgent matter."

Pulitzer looked back and forth between the man and his daughter for a moment before sighing. "Very well. Speak with my secretary outside before you leave, she'll set something else up."

The man nodded, and Pulitzer glared at Katherine. "I hope you're happy. That was a potential investor that you just chased off."

"I wouldn't say I'm happy." Katherine sat down in the chair that the man had vacated. "You don't really need any more investors, after all. Anyway, that isn't why I'm here."

"By all means, tell me why you decided to barge in here and rudely interrupt me work."

Katherine thought that sometimes her father forgot that she had grown up with him, and that certain tones that he enjoyed using with clients had no effect on her anymore.

"Release Jack, Crutchie, and David and Les Jacobs from the Refuge immediately."

He didn't even falter. "I can't do that, they were all taken in on justifiable charges."

She raised an eyebrow. "Such as?"

"Assaulting police officers, just for the two brothers and the crippled boy. As for your friend Jack Kelly, multiple counts of thievery, loitering, and escaping legal custody."

Katherine scoffed. "You really think that Les Jacobs, a nine year old boy, assaulted a police officer?"

"Eyewitnesses have confirmed it."

"I was an eyewitness and he didn't assault anyone but those horrible Delancey's who can hardly be called police officers."

Pulitzer dismissed that with a wave of his hand. "Nevertheless, I cannot release them until they have completed their sentences. Is that all you wished to talk to me about?"

He spoke as though he didn't care at all, and Katherine was suddenly found herself disgusted that this man was her father, the same man that had raised her to always fight for those who had less than them, because her father himself had once been a poor immigrant with nothing to call his own. She glared at him.

"No. I'm not done. What's it going to take for you to order their release?"

"I believe I've  made it very clear to the other newsboys. If they disband their little union and end this strike, then there's a high chance that I will have mercy on their friends."

"That can't be legal." Katherine accused but her father shook his head.

"Trust me, my dear, you can ask any lawyer in town, everything I'm doing is perfectly legal."

"Maybe so, but it isn't moral."

"I don't have to be moral anymore Katherine, I can do whatever I want."

She stood up sharply from her seat. "This shouldn't be what you want! Why do you want to bring unnecessary hardship to these boys, father? Nothing you want should be worth that."

Pulitzer stood as well, standing taller than her. "I cannot back down, Katherine, my entire reputation is at stake. Without that, I have nothing, and if I have nothing, you have nothing."

"Maybe I wouldn't have anything material. But even then, I would still have so much more good and love in my life than you ever could."

Katherine turned and stormed out of the office, slamming the door shut behind her.