Courage

Chapter 12

AN: Oh boy this was a fun chapter to write

"Let me guess, he didn't listen to a word you said?"

Race was speaking to Katherine, who had just entered the Lodging House about a half hour after he meeting with Pulitzer.

Katherine shook her head, still aggravated. "He refuses to let the boys out of the Refuge and he won't back down on the strike."

"I coulda told you that." Albert remarked, and Katherine gave him a look.

"He's my father, I had to try." She fell silent for a moment, thinking. "I don't know what to do now."

"We could try printing out those papes again." Elmer suggested.

A few of the boys perked up at that, and Katherine hated shooting them down, but they had to be realistic. "With what printing press?"

The discouraged look returned to their faces, and they fell silent. At this point, most of them just wanted the strike to be over one way or another, but one of them wished for that enough to suggest giving up. This was too important to give up.

"What if one of us went to talk to Pulitzer?"

Everyone turned to stare at Specs, who had made this suggestion. He showed no signs of embarrassment for saying such an outlandish thing.

"I just got back from talking to him, he wouldn't budge." Katherine pointed out.

Specs shook his head. "Your his daughter, and no offense, but you're not a newsie. One or two of us should go, talk to him about what we want, maybe he'd listen."

"I don't know..."

"I think it's a good idea." Race put in. "It ain't gonna hurt, anyway."

Katherine thought about that. He had a point, her father couldn't do much more to the newsies that he hadn't already done.

"It's worth a try." She agreed. "Just not today. Let him cool off a little first."

It wasn't much a plan, but it was something.

oOo

Davey and Les had been in The Refuge for almost a week, Jack for about three days, and Crutchie had lost count, and all four of them were struggling. Snyder seemed to enjoy their presence more than any of the other boys that were there, and he had no hesitations when it came to hurting them.

The times that they weren't with Snyder were, quite frankly, almost unbearably uneventful, but they lived in fear that he would come and take them with him once again. And he always did.

This particular time, all four of them were sitting on the bottom of their bunk, not saying anything, simply just being. Unsurprisingly, this was interrupted by the man they all hated seeing entering the room. Every boy in the room froze when he came in, not wanting to give him any reason to give them an extra beating.

But Snyder came towards their bunk, as they'd come to expect. What they didn't expect, however, is that he motioned for two of them to stand up.

"Kelly. I want you and your crippled friend."

Jack was arguably the most injured of them so far, despite having only gone with Snyder once, but he was still determined to protect Crutchie at all costs. So he grit his teeth and shook his head.

"No. I'll go with you but you leave him alone."

"Jack, I'll be fine." Crutchie protested. He knew what his brother was doing, and he did not approve.

Jack just shook his head. Snyder raised an eyebrow and gestured towards Les. Davey pulled his younger brother close to him.

"Would you rather I take the little one?"

They could all see the conflict in Jack's eyes. "No."

"I'm fine, Jack." Crutchie stood, slowly, but firmly.

The older boy didn't react for a moment, but eventually he clenched his jaw and stood as well.

"Fine."

Snyder let the two boys out, and as usual, Davey and Les could do nothing but look on as it happened.

oOo

It seemed to take an agonizingly long time for them to return, but when they finally did, it was in no way a relief. The Jacobs' brothers had stayed on the bunk (what else could they do?) as they waited for them, and they were startled back into alertness by Jack and Crutchie being shoved back into the room. But something was wrong.

Crutchie wasn't moving, and Jack, who didn't seem to have acquired any more injuries, was frantic. He knelt on the floor next to his friend and shook him desperately.

"Crutchie. Crutchie wake up, c'mon please, Crutchie -"

Davey instantly stood up, turning to his brother and telling him to stay put before hurrying over to the two boys. He'd never seen Jack so upset, and it was worrying.

"Jack." He gently pushed his friend away from the boy on the floor. "Don't jostle him, it might hurt him more. What happened?"

Jack was trying to force back tears. "Crutchie, he... Snyder didn't hurt me, that ain't what he wanted, but he... he made me watch and he hurt Crutchie and now he won't wake up."

Davey inspected Crutchie and he could see blood soaking through the back of his shirt. He was filled with a sense of dread.

"Is he still breathing?"

"I don't... I dunno." Jack was in some sort of state of shock, and wasn't going to be of much help.

Davey gently pressed his fingers against the side of the unconscious boy's neck and breathed a sigh of relief when he felt a strong pulse.

"Okay. He's okay."

""He's okay?"

"For now, yeah. I wouldn't try to move him 'til he wakes up, though."

"But he's okay?"

"Yeah, Jack."

"Thank God."

Jack was trying to calm himself down, but it was clearly taking some effort. Davey stayed quiet as he tried to steady his breathing, and thought about how evil Snyder must be to hurt Crutchie so badly while he forced Jack to watch.

"Jack?" That was Les, who hadn't stayed by the bunk.

The older boy turned to look at him, trying to seem strong, but it wasn't really working.

Les's gaze drifted to Crutchie, and then back to Jack. "Is everything okay?"

Jack almost wanted to laugh - nothing was okay - but he didn't.

"Yeah, kid. Everything's fine."