Courage

Chapter 13

AN: I watched Newsies in theaters again and that means inspiration to bring pain upon you all so enjoy

In the hour it took for Crutchie to wake up, Jack refused to leave his side and simply sat next to him on the floor, despite that fact that he looked exhausted himself. He sat there for what felt to him like an agonizingly long time until finally his brother stirred, groaning and forcing his eyes open.

"Jack?"

The boy in question jolted to alertness. "Hey."

Crutchie tried to push himself up, wincing as he did so, and Jack helped him into a sitting position, though he ended up leaning on Jack's shoulder.

"What happened?"

Jack's expression darkened. "Snyder beat the hell outta you, that's what. Knocked you out."

Crutchie grimaced. "That explains it. Sorry." He wasn't quite sure what he was apologizing for. "Everything hurts."

His brother nodded. "Don't know what all's wrong, but I can tell there's a lot. He got you pretty bad with the belt, and I wouldn't be surprised if he did something to your ribs with all that kicking."

"My leg hurts too, more than normal."

Jack looked over him, obviously feeling guilty. "I shoulda fought harder, made him do something to me instead of just going after you."

Crutchie shook his head. "He'd have stopped you and then just hit me that much harder. It ain't your fault."

"This is all my fault." Before the younger boy could disagree, Jack continued. "Let's get you back to the bunk, huh? More comfortable than the floor. Hey, Davey!"

Davey, who was sitting on the floor next to the beds looked over, relief showing on his face when he saw Crutchie awake.

"Help me get him over there?" Jack asked, and he nodded. He gently shifted Les, who was asleep for once, off of his lap, and stood up, making his way over to the boys on the floor.

"Good to see you awake, Crutchie." He remarked, and the boy grinned up at him. If the smile was fake, no one could tell.

It was painful for all three of them, but they managed to get Crutchie on his feet, supported by Jack and Davey on either side. He tried to walk a few steps on his own, but didn't work to well, so the two other boys ended up half carrying and half-dragging him over to the bed and sitting him down on it.

After he'd gotten somewhat settled, Davey looked had him. "Do you mind if I look at your back? It looks pretty bad, I wanna see if there's anything I can do for it."

Crutchie nodded and gestured for him to go ahead, so he went around behind him and carefully lifted up the bottom of his shirt. Crutchie winced as the shirt was peeled off - the blood had dried it to his skin - and Jack sat down next to him, holding Crutchie's hand, who was grateful he didn't have to ask him to do that.

After a moment Davey inhaled sharply, and the two other boys instantly tensed.

"That noise don't sound too reassuring, Dave." Jack said in a worried tone.

"It's... I guess I'm just not used to looking at stuff like this. But it looks bad."

"Bad like how?" Crutchie was fighting to keep his voice steady.

"There's lots of blood around the wounds, I can't see them clearly. But they're open wounds, they could get infected..." He glanced at Jack. "But we've all got some of those at this point."

"So, what we just leave it?" Jack asked, but not in a way that was accusatory, just curious.

"Unless you think someone who works here'd let us have clean water and a rag to clean it off with." Jack scoffed at the mere thought of that, and Davey nodded. "Then yeah, I guess we've just gotta leave it."

Crutchie felt his shirt drop back down, and he glanced out the window. "It's already dark." He looked at Jack, who seemed as though he could fall asleep any minute - all his worrying had tired him out, Crutchie guessed. "We could all use some rest."

Jack nodded wearily, and Davey put a gentle hand on each of their shoulders before standing up. "We'll get out of here soon." He went around to pick up Les, who hadn't stirred after his older brother had set him on the floor, and picked him up, climbing the ladder up to the top bunk.

Jack helped Crutchie get situated laying down on his side before settling in next to him. Jack fell asleep within moments, but Crutchie couldn't seem to shut his mind off. He thought about the events of the day, how cruel Snyder had been. He felt trapped. He wanting nothing more than to get out of this place, and he couldn't imagine how Jack had survived it three times already.

He snuggled in closer to Jack and listen to his deep, even breathing, and closed his eyes. If he worked hard enough, he could shut this place out, at least for a few minutes. He could pretend that they weren't in the Refuge, they were on the rooftop, and everything was okay. Everything was okay.